The political action committee of perennial political candidate and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche (pictured right) has written a piece condemning Wired.com writer Clive Thompson for his Games Without Frontiers column, calling him a “degenerate writer” and “disgruntled family man.”
A choice snippet of the reality-impaired report:
In his enraged screed, titled, “Suicide Makes Sick Sense After Playing Halo 3,” Thompson wrote, “I used to find it hard to fully imagine the mindset of a terrorist. That is, until I played Halo 3 online, where I found myself adopting — with great success — terrorist tactics. Including a form of suicide bombing.”
As Thompson points out in his blog, collision detection, the piece is inaccurate beyond parody, using out-of-context quotes, twisting words and getting quotes wrong in an absurd effort to suggest that his columns on Halo and Super Columbine Massacre RPG conclude that videogames encourage teenagers to commit suicide. The report even subtly alters the column’s headline, changing a couple of key words to totally distort its meaning. (The actual headline is “Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in Halo 3.”)
LaRouche PAC put the piece together to further its unsubstantiated claims that videogames were the cause of the Virginia Tech shootings, and that the absence of games from the federal government’s report on the shootings constitutes a cover-up.
At the time, LaRouche PAC cited the website “Gammer Life,” which we are reasonably sure is us, as an arm of “the videogame lobby” complicit in the “cover-up.”
Thompson, for his part, takes the lunacy in stride. “This is the best thing I’ve read in, like, seven years or something,” he writes on his blog. “And who knows? Given that just yesterday I blogged about the aesthetic pleasure of dying in Halo 3, maybe they’re right!”
Terrorism Comes To The West [LaRouche PAC, via Collision Detection]
See also:
- LaRouche Camp: Report on VA Shootings a ‘Cover-Up’
- Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in Halo 3
- I, Columbine Killer
Mega64 had three fantastic skits shown throughout the IGF awards show. And what better way to start off the night by having Dan Paladin, Mr. Castle Crashers, start the show. Well, it seemed like a good idea until he decided to go crazy.
Hit the jump for behind the scenes video of Dan Paladin’s video and two more skits shown during the IGF awards show.
Just when you thought Nintendo scarves had been played out, along comes this. Knitted by the delightful Etsy merchant and Nintendo fangirl Tanya (Beatboxtaun), it’s got Mike Tyson on one side looking like he’s had his fill of babies for the day, while on the other, Little Mac is looking a little worse for wear. Beautiful! Such beauty comes at a price, however: at 72-inches long and one-of-a-kind, you’ll be throwing down $175 for the privilege of wearing it around your scrawny neck, so impulse-shoppers might want to avoid hitting the link below if they haven’t paid their month’s rent yet.
Mike Tysons Punch-Out Scarf - DIY [BeatboxTaun @ Etsy]
From hollywoodreporter.com:
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Netflix refused to comment Monday on persistent speculation it would soon announce a deal with Microsoft to offer downloadable feature films via Xbox Live.
“Netflix intends to be on many devices that get the Internet to the TV,” A Netflix spokesman said Monday.
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Full Story: hollywoodreporter.com
From hollywoodreporter.com:
[QUOTE]
Netflix refused to comment Monday on persistent speculation it would soon announce a deal with Microsoft to offer downloadable feature films via Xbox Live.
“Netflix intends to be on many devices that get the Internet to the TV,” A Netflix spokesman said Monday.
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Full Story: hollywoodreporter.com
Here’s our video wrapup of all things Game Developers Conference, plus the rest of the videos we took live during the craziness of last week.
Check out the video at right for a glimpse of Guitar Rising, one of the coolest things I saw on the show floor: A PC game that uses a real guitar for its gameplay. It starts off simple, but even when you’re just plucking a few strings over the course of a song, you’re really learning guitar: How the instrument feels in your hands, how to hold down the strings to change the pitch.
Below, we’ve embedded the rest of our video content from GDC — a wrapup of the Microsoft keynote announcements, plus interviews with the creators of Too Human, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Ninja Gaiden II.
Props to producer Annaliza Savage, editor Michael Lennon, and cameraman Rob Darcy.
Interview With Ninja Gaiden II’s Tomonobu Itagaki:
Microsoft’s Keynote, The Big News:
Interview With Masahiro Sakurai of Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
Interview With Denis Dyack and preview of Too Human:
An RPG in my PS3? As unlikely as it sounds, it looks like Sega has decided to give it a shot, much to the pleasure of the RPG-starved owners of the console. The title will be released in Japan as Valkyria of the Battlefield: Gallian Chronicles and promises a “fresh new take” on the traditional RPG. While I believe that about as much as I believe Phil Harrison left Sony without frustrations, I have to admit it looks awfully pretty at the very least.
Per the press release, here’s a blurb on story:
Valkyria Chronicles is set in a fictitious continent reminiscent of 1930s Europe - divided in two and ruled by the Empire and the Federation. The Empire has set its sights on invading a small neutral country called Gallia, which is situated in the middle of the two great empires. The game follows a hero named Welkin and his fellow soldiers of the Federation’s 7th Platoon as they engage in a series of epic battles.
Now, I have to say it: while I love the era and location they chose, why does EVERY RPG have to have an epic political storyline featuring the clash of multiple nations? I just feel like while it can be a good story for what it is, that developers aren’t thinking far enough outside the box on this one. Political intrigue isn’t the only source of epic, people. I’m just saying.
A quick warning to RPG gamers getting warmed up over this, however — the game is described as “a combination of strategy elements of tactical role-playing games with real-time action sequences,” so if you are not into tactics be aware that it sounds like the game will contain quite a bit of that. The battle mechanic is called “BLiTZ” and allows the player to move around in real time, a feature I loved from Final Fantasy XII, so that sounds like a positive.
Even though I’d love to see a radically different RPG hit the scene, I’m just happy the genre is finally making an apperance on the PS3. It’s great to have a megapowerful console sitting on your shelf, but until the games come out that you most enjoy, you can’t really get 100 percent out of it, you know?
While the majority of the Japanese Wii line-up looks to be targeted at families who wear nothing but sterile white cotton, the marketing for Metroid Prime 3 Corruption skews a bit differently overseas. That image of a lonesome gamer transfixed by the blue glow of a monitor in a darkened room, the very thing Nintendo was rejecting? Apparently, it’s kosher again and precisely the kind of thing that appeals to women looking for something to play between bouts of Wii Play. We’ll see if attractive, whispy Japanese women and fashionable Japanese men take the FPS plunge when the Wii Metroid ships in Japan next week. I’m expecting a debut somewhere in the teens.
From dbtechno.com:
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Bloomberg is reporting that a Microsoft spokesman has told them that the price point of the external HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 will drop to $49.99.
The reports state that the price cut of the external HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 will go into effect as of tomorrow.
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If you still get those 6 free HD movies (offer is valid till February 28 2008 afaik), that’s a pretty good offer I guess, even if the format is dead.
For those who already bought a HD DVD player or addon, Amazon.com
*Update* Microsoft’s PR Blog confirms that not just the US will get the price drop. It should drop in most regions to $49.99/€49.99 (and equivalent local currencies).
They also confirm that the 5 free movie deal is still valid for 4 more days (US only). King Kong is also still included (North America only), so that brings us to a total of 6 free HD movies in the US.
The following GDC 2008 video shows some really cool gameplay from Star Wars: Force Unleashed.