TheMightyEthan

I'm not sure, tbh. My gut reaction says no, they can't actually do that, but I don't know of any thing that would specifically bar them from doing it. As far as using studies that have been performed before, my understanding is that what's being proposed is more of a meta-review of existing data, rather than going out and actually collecting new data, so it would be using the existing studies. As for censoring games and government rating systems and whatnot, those have been fairly conclusively established to be in violation of the first amendment. The only think I could really see happening would be the courts changing their approach to obscenity. Currently obscenity rules only apply to sexual content, not violence, and I could see the court saying that in certain contexts violence can be considered obscene and thus susceptible to regulation by the government. However, even if they say that, in order to qualify as legal obscene content must meet all three of the following criteria: the average person, using contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual [or violent] conduct specifically defined by the law whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value It's that third one that's the killer. Almost anything has literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. About the only things that qualify under obscenity rules is actual porn, that is just about sex (with sometimes lipservice paid to a plot). So even if they expanded the definition of obscenity to include violence, I don't think it would be any more detrimental to games than the current version has been to movies or books. Also, something a lot of people don't understand is that in the US movie ratings are not government enforced, and legally cannot be (except porn under the obscenity test above). There's no law that says a theater can't let unaccompanied minors into R-rated films, or that a store can't sell the same movie to kids, it's just a lot of places voluntarily restrict themselves through company policies.

Yeah, it would actually make a lot more sense to release it with only the Japanese VO, and then charge extra for localized audio.

Texas is giving tax breaks to any companies that are fined by the federal government for not providing contraceptive coverage as mandated by Obamacare. The tax breaks are up to either the amount of the fine, or the total state tax liability of the company, whichever is lower.

I wonder if PS+'s free games aren't going to hurt Sony in the long run. Now that I'm used to it, I fairly frequently see a game and think "Nah, I won't buy that, I'll just wait until it's free on PS+ in 6 months or a year". PSASBR and LBP Karting come to mind.

Beyond my normal dislike of always-on DRM, there's the fact that EA has shown a willingness to turn off servers for games that are just a couple years old. I can't buy this game which requires their servers to be online when I have 0 trust that they'll still be on in 5 years.

There's a teensy tiny little x on the top right of all those segments on the right of the forum (only shows up when you mouse over it), and if you accidentally click that it removes that section from your view of the forum, so you might have done that to status updates. As far as turning it back on... idk.

It was $2.50 on Amazon, and while I'd played it I'd never actually paid for it, so I figured I might as well now...

From that Amazon deal.

I just finished Splinter Cell Conviction for the second time (the coverage of Blacklist made me want to play it again). I'd forgotten how goddamn short it is. I think next I'm going to play Killzone 3 with the Move and gun mount.

Where'd you get it from? Why are they asking you not to use the vouchers?

I have intentionally not watched the cinematic cause I'm waiting to see it when the game comes out so it can have the proper mood effect.

I've got a Beta key for anyone who wants it too. First to PM me gets it. Spork got it.

I've played all three Saints Rows, and 3 was the only one I liked at all, and I liked it a LOT. I like it at least as much as GTAIV (which I also loved, contrary to popular opinion), and perhaps more. I agree with you that the mechanics of SR1 and 2 made them a drag, but SR3 was great. And the complete ridiculousness of everything in the entire game contributed to it. If they tone it down much it would just hurt the game, imho.

Whatevs, I love Starcraft. Super stoked.

That's hardly surprising, the book is like 20 illustrated pages. Hard to make a full-length movie out of that.

I disagree. The way to fight a juggernaut like GTA is not to try to make your game more like it. He compares it to Battlefield and CoD, but AFAIK Battlefield hasn't killed CoD yet. If you lose the ridiculousness then it becomes indistinguishable from GTA at a casual glance, and people will stick with GTA.

I went ahead and preordered the SimCity, with the thought that it gets me access to the Beta and I can always cancel the preorder.

The robot seems more designed for fast food places like McDonald's anyway, not the kind of places that would put a toothpick in the burger.

I think it's fairly universal among Nintendo games, at least so far. What I'm worried about is that they might focus too much on trying to create games that use both the tablet and the TV as an integral part of the experience, thereby making it impossible to play on just the tablet. If I can't play Wind Waker HD on the tablet alone I'm going to be seriously disappointed.

Sorry, that wasn't directed at you. Should have made that clearer. What you said just made me remember how many people acted like there was no environmental message in the book, it was completely shoehorned into the movie.

Ground Control is good too, though I'm not sure if it would hold up today.

And Army of Two: Devil's Cartel, which I hadn't even heard of until this deal.