Author: Sharkey

As a followup to yesterday’s video from Fox News slamming Mass Effect, I thought I’d mention EA’s response to Fox detailing the inaccuracies and blatant lies that were spread during the report.

Your headline above the televised story read: “New videogame shows full digital nudity and sex.”
Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots – a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows. It’s also worth noting that the game requires players to develop complex relationships before characters can become intimate and players can chose to avoid the love scenes altogether.

FNC voice-over reporter says: “You’ll see full digital nudity and the ability for players to engage in graphic sex.”
Fact: Sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time.

…This isn’t a legal threat; it’s an appeal to your sense of fairness. We’re asking FNC to correct the record on Mass Effect.

Nice one EA, that’s definitely going to earn some respect over at Fox. I can see it now.

*Scene – Interior – Fox News Mailroom*

Fox News Rep: “Let’s see, right winger fan mail, left winger hate mail, bills, bills… WHOA! Heavens to BETSY! An inaccuracy in a Fox News report?!? Sweet Jesus in a birchbark canoe, we can’t mislead the public, this is serious business! I’d better file this in the urgent pile, right away!”
Fox News Rep: *puts letter in shredder*

EA might as well call the fucking Better Business Bureau while they’re wasting their breath.

Meanwhile, the Internets are taking a more direct approach and attacking Cooper Lawrence, the condescending bitch who kept running her mouth about a game she’d never played and quite obviously didn’t comprehend. Her book on Amazon is currently suffering a plague of 1-star reviews and scathing commentary. Amazon has apparently caught on to the gag, and is now eliminating the ability to give the book a 1-star rating. I’m guessing that they’ll attack her website or Myspace page next, provided no new pariahs decide to throw their hat into the ring. Lord knows the internets are a fickle bunch, and easily distracted.

Nice legs on that ill-informed twat though.

Ho-lee shit.

Never let it be said that being a chubby undersexed Asian guy was all bad. Sure, it probably sucks for him, but look at what we get in return. His work is already inspiring other awesome projects, like these Minority Reportesque gloves. Hopefully some enterprising developers are watching, and learning. None of this tech is exactly new or revolutionary, but it’s awesome to see how easy it would be to implement for the Wii. Now all we need is a Miyamoto-designed game to go with it.

The latest Zero Punctuation is online, and this time Ben tears into “The Witcher.” Normally I’d just link to the page, but it seems to be loading like ass, unlike the video. So here you go, sweet embedded goodness.

Also, if you are a 360 owner don’t forget to cash in on your free download of Undertow. You’ve got until Sunday.

Speaking of the 360, I spent a fair amount of time cruising around Paradise City in Burnout Paradise with Bongweasel last night. The game is occasionally fun, and ridiculously gorgeous, but it’s amazing how much they fucked up a good formula. This whole open-world scenario may be great in theory, but in practice it is incredibly tedious. After your first race loss leaves you halfway across the map from your original starting point, and you realize that you must now haul your mangled car all the way back there just to get another crack at it, you’ll curse the fuckwits who decided to implement this concept. And why are there no fucking laps anymore? If you’re not going to give me the option of restarting a race, you could at least use laps so that I wind up back where I started. I don’t know when “annoying the user” became a hip new game developer meme, but believe me guys, it needs to go the way of Uwe Boll’s financial backing, post haste.

And finally, there’s nothing like combining my lust for gaming and my lust for baked goods. Check out this ridiculously awesome Katamari cake, and these Mario and Pac-Man cupcakes. The latter two were baked by a lil’ Australian chick, and I’m very happy to say that she is not particularly attractive. Not that she’s ugly, but definitely not hot, and that is a Harry Knowles sized relief. That would just be too fucking much for me, a hot slice of pie baking me nerd-centric cake goods would just completely screw up my expectations for the female of the species. It’s kind of like how Bolt is always saying that the first girl who blew him was a fellatio champ, whereas every subsequent mouth has brought the tragic taste of disappointment. It’d be like that, but with enough weight to inspire crippling depression and eventual self-imposed celibacy.

Actually, that last line sounds like most nerds that I’ve met over the years.

I’m not sure whether I should be offended or amused by this Fox News piece on the “gratuitous sex scenes” in Mass Effect. At the moment I’m a fair mix of both, with a dash of confusion. It just amazes me how often these news outlets will hire just about anyone to comment on controversies such as this, and not allow the one person on camera who has actually played the game to throw his two cents in. Sorry darlin’, we don’t have time for your rebuttal because we need to cut to a panel of (hilariously) uninformed “experts” who lament that in these modern times, we actually have to monitor what our kids are given access to.

That’s OK though, because the trailer for Off-Road Velociraptor Safari should perk us all right the fuck up. Does anyone else really miss the Carmageddon series right about now?

I’m so very happy that I picked up an R4 for my Nintendo DS. Not only do I get to test out all of the potentially shitty games before I waste any money on them, I also get to enjoy the fruits of the homebrew community’s massive labors. For instance, the latest innovation to hit the dual screen, Colors! (their exclamation point, not mine.)

Colors! is a painting app for the DS, but with the amazingly fantastic addition of pressure sensitivity, which affects the opacity and brush size as you sketch along. Bongweasel gave it a shot this morning and informed me that it is a must-have for anyone with the ability to play it. You get the basic Photoshop-style tools, and the awesome ability to repeat the actual drawing process as a short movie. The images are 512×384, which isn’t huge but definitely big enough to keep me sketching. They’re even working on adding DS-to-DS cooperative painting capability, which would be kind of neat if I knew anybody who could draw with a DS. Maybe if you set it up over wifi (which I’ve always been too lazy to do) it could be a nifty feature.

I’m going to load this up as soon as I get home, as I’ll need something to distract myself on the flight to Portland for my friend’s wedding. Have a look-see at the gallery, there are some fairly impressive sketches in there considering the medium. And if you’re interested in how they accomplished the pressure sensetivity, head on over to this thread and try to wrap your brain around what they have to say.

I’m currently looking forward to loading a bunch of homebrew apps onto my DS, as I was profoundly oblivious towards the subject prior to today. I mean I knew that they’d successfully ported the SCUMM engine and a lot of other emulators onto it, but how about Warcraft Tower Defense, DSQuake, and a whole slew of other possibilities? I’m particularly interested in seeing how reading comics and books works on the DS, as that could really make my bathroom breaks at work a lot more entertaining.

If any of you have suggestions, comment away. I’ll be posting a full rundown of my thoughts on anything I try out this weekend.