Hot Game 2009

For more than two decades, the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 has captivated countless fans with relentless miniature figurine battles waged between hyper-religious superhuman space fascists, space Orks, space Elves and savage, genetically engineered insect-things that are also from space.

The transition to the real-time strategy genre on the PC went fairly well, but the onset of sequel-itis has left the original Dawn of War looking a bit tired. Fortunately, Relic Entertainment is bringing players back to the basics with Dawn of War II — namely, control of small, elite squads embroiled in close-quarters combat, with a number of traditional RPG mechanics rolled in. Dawn of War’s gleefully excessive brutality and visual flair have been revamped, adding tantalizing levels of detail to the act of vigorously throttling enemy units before hurling them through the air like a large, wet sack. There will also be bits of traditional base-building and resource gathering on the multiplayer side of things, but confess: We’re all really in it for jetpacks and chainsaw-swords.

Fact: Sucker Punch makes excellent action games — the Sly Cooper series was a great addition to Sony’s PlayStation 2 lineup. Fact: Grand Theft Auto plus superpowers can equal an amazing experience — I don’t think I need to remind anyone of Crackdown. Buy playstation with products with payday advance service

Sucker Punch is billing Infamous as the ultimate superhero simulator, a game that lets you choose your path, saving the city or wreaking destruction. I’m really interested to see how the story plays out and how the open world environment is used — is it just window dressing for your destructive amusement, or will you really feel like the most powerful being in a living, breathing world? We know so little about howInfamous will play, but as it is likely to be Sony’s marquee title for 2009, I imagine we will be hearing a lot about it.

The G4 award for most controversial video game of the month goes to Six Days in Fallujah. This documentary-style combat game for the PS3, 360 and PC is being developed by Atomic Games and released by Konami. It’s set in the Iraq war, and aims to give players as realistic a view of 2004′s Battle of Fallujah as possible. Atomic says it will not editorialize. But despite the game’s just-the-truth attitude (and the fact that all that’s been released so far is a concept, a title and some screenshots) just theidea of a realistic Iraq war game has angered a number of peace activists and military veterans

.

Tim Collins, a former colonel of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, told Britain’s Daily Mail, “It’s much too soon to start making video games about a war that’s still going on, and an extremely flippant response to one of the most important events in modern history. It’s particularly insensitive given what happened in Fallujah, and I will certainly oppose the release of this game.”

On the other side of the idealogical coin, Tansy Hoskins of Stop The War Coalition, had this to say about Six Days:

“To make a game out of a war crime and to capitalize on the death and injury of thousands is sick… The massacre in Fallujah should be remembered with shame and horror not glamorized and glossed over for entertainment.”

These are some strong opinions, but I doubt that the people who are most outraged by Six Days are gamers. To get the true scoop of the rank and file of the U.S. military, I contacted some gamers in the armed forces and asked them what they thought about Six Days.

Sgt. Casey J. McGeorge served three tours (36 months) in Iraq, and told me, “As a combat veteran and as a gamer, I have no problem whatsoever with the game…As long as it’s made as realistically as possibly, I believe that this could be a good thing for both combat veterans and for the war in general.”

While former Army Sgt. Kevin Smith worries that the game could be used by anti-war activists to further their agenda, he said, “Let it be made, and hopefully it will bolster support for military veterans by giving civilians insight into what this war was actually like for them.”

Marine Corps. Gunnery Sergeant John Mundy thinks the game might actually help Marines train. “I know Marines would use this as a tool to not only give each other knowledge on the battle itself, but also have another tool to get the Marines thinking about Rules of Engagement and such so that they can play the game together and maybe learn a thing or two.”

As for how civilian gamers will like a realistic depiction of war, Smith points out that real combat is not a game of Call of Duty 4. “You can’t just lob a frag down the street or launch a RPG at a couple of guys if you have to reload,” Smith said. “There are restrictions on what types of weapons you can use and when. Depending on what the Rules of Engagement were for the Marines in Fallujah, and if Atomic Games has consequences for violating them, I think some gamers might find it a little frustrating.”

Gunnery Sgt Mundy sees potential problems with the “humanity factor” that multiplayer would bring toSix Days if the feature ends up in the game.  ”You will have your group of idiots that try to be the terrorists and kill Americans and shout obscenities through the TV, damning American military personnel,” Mundy said. ”But hey, those individuals can make fools of themselves all because of the protection that we military people give them each day.”

Both McGeorge and Smith brought up a point that both the makers of the game and its detractors failed to mention: Perhaps playing a game that depicts war realistically will lead civilians toward a greater understanding of what military people go through during battle.

“It can be extremely difficult for the average person to understand why a person who returns from a combat zone may seem so jumpy and alert all the time,” McGeorge said. “The first time in the game they get too close to a car and are blown up; the first time they are killed in the game without knowing what is really going on, they might be able to get a small understanding of what we have had to go through on a regular basis.”

“A lot of soldiers have had a hard time readjusting when they return from war, and this has caused an extremely high suicide rate,” Smith said. ”I really hope that this title receives positive press and encourages more empathy towards veterans after gamers have ‘experienced’ what they have gone through. On a side note, I really hope this game includes co-op!”

Gunnery Sergeant Mundy summed up the feelings of the three military men we spoke to with this simple statement: “If someone doesn’t agree with the game, they can spend their money elsewhere.”

Insomniac‘s sci-fi FPS Resistance: Fall of Man may have missed out on a couple of hard-fought nominations at last night’s BAFTA awards, but it can finally go to sleep at night with a clear conscience. The Church of England — after a long and tempestuous relationship — has at last deigned to publicly forgive Sony for turning the in-game representation of Manchester Cathedral into a digital

bloodbath.

The BBC reports the Very Reverend Rogers Govender, Dean of Manchester Cathedral, waited until Resistance had failed to clinch any BAFTA awards before issuing the benediction.

“I think some important lessons have been learnt,” spoke the Reverend. “So we do forgive Sony for what they have done, even though they still believe they have done nothing wrong. In an industry that is breaking new frontiers, it is important that long held traditions of film and television are maintained,” he said. “These traditions include having courtesy, respecting the dignity of your subject, and admitting when mistakes have been made. In so many ways Sony have failed to live up to these standards by disrespecting people of faith and the victims of gun crime here in Manchester.”

You might recall that Resistance (and Sony) drew harsh criticism from the Church of England after the company incorporated an extremely lifelike model of the real-world-and-currently-active cathedral into their level design. he Church, as it turns out, objects strongly to the irreverent use of holy ground as a staging place for virtual battles. Back in July, lawyers representing the Church actually went as far as sending a letter to Sony, demanding the company make a formal apology and pull the game from store shelves in the UK.

A few days later the Church upped the ante, requesting that Sony contribute a “substantial donation” to its coffers, to be used in furthering the church’s efforts at “resisting the culture of gun crime and other forms of violence in our society.”

For its part, Sony never openly acknowledged there is anything wrong with Machester Cathedral’s appearance in Resistence. The game remains on shelves in its original state, and the company never did get around to knuckling under to the Church’s legal threats or paying anybody for the privilege — though they have openly acknowledged the seriousness of the Church’s critique on multiple occasions.

Judging from the Reverend’s comments, it seems the Church may not have given up all hope on getting a formal apology out of Sony. Absolution, as the Reverend would no doubt remind us, requires both the act of confession and a sense of genuine repentance — neither of which seem forthcoming anytime soon.

Did you feel that the ending wasn’t satisfying? Did you find yourself becoming bored at higher levels? Here are your answers.

Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout 3, is an amazing game to be sure, garnering near universal praise and game of the year honors from such outlets as Gamasutra and IGN. Just like every other game out there, however, it’s by no means perfect and for fans of the series, Bethesda has a lot of questions to answer. The most common of which being, “What was up with that ending?” MTV’s Patrick Klepek took three of these common grievances and laid them out to Fallout 3 executive producer Todd Howard.

Criticism the first is an odd one, being that when judged as a first-person shooter, Fallout 3 comes up short. Howard’s response is curt and to the point: “Agreed.” I hadn’t heard of this one myself, as comparing Fallout 3 to Halo would be like comparing Grand Theft Auto IV to Gran Turismo. Just because you get to race cars in the two games, it doesn’t mean that they should be held to the same standards.

The second criticism is one that a lot of players feel quite strongly about, which is that the ending isn’t very satisfying and, when compared to previous Fallout titles, it doesn’t quite stack up. “Based on the feedback I’ve seen, most people are pissed off that it ends, not the ‘ending’ itself,” levels Howard. “That’s another thing we’re changing in ["Broken Steel," the third piece of downloadable content due in March]. We really underestimated how many people would want to keep playing, so that’s probably the last time we’ll do something like that.”

For those unaware, completing Fallout 3 renders your current game essentially useless as you can no longer continuing playing with that character unless you made sure to hold on to a previous save. Reversing this decision via downloadable content opens up a whole other can of worms, specifically for PlayStation 3 owners. While Xbox 360 players have downloadable content to look forward to and PC users can easily modify their game to go around the ending, PlayStation 3 fans are essentially boned with neither option being made available to them. To be fair, its not as though these gamers weren’t given proper warning, as word came as early as July 2008 that Fallout 3 DLC would not be made available for the PlayStation 3 edition of the game.

The final criticism is that V.A.T.S, the auto-targeting system found within the game, is boring once your accuracy rating makes for easy head shots later in the game. Howard responds, “Depends on what you find entertaining. I like to blow people’s heads off, so, well, it never got old for me.”