Fallout 3 out now

Fallout 3 has now been released for Australian gamers, and you should be able to grab a copy from your favourite local games retailer.  You should be able to play the price matching game with some of the retailers if they are still trying to flog the normal PC version for $100 and get it for around $80 (JB Hi-Fi are selling it for this currently in the city store).

Censoring censorship

Yep, thats right.  The South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has killed off any further discussion of the R18+ for games debate.  For those unaware of the situation, for changes to censorship to take place, there must be a unanimous decision made by all of the State Attorney Generals.

The Standing Committee of Attorney-Generals (or SCAG for short) on Censorship met earlier this year and agreed on the development of a discussion paper that would pave the way for a period of public consultation and submissions on the issue of an R18+ rating for games.  Currently without an R18+ rating for games in Australia, this means that any game which contains content that the Australian Classification Board deems to exceed the highest rating of MA15+ is refused classification, meaning that the game cannot be legally sold or imported into the country.

Web site Refused Classification has a list of games that have been refused classification over the years, including pretty much every game from the Grand Theft Auto series, games such as the original Fable RPG and even this year Fallout 3 which is due out tomorrow initially was refused classification.  Quite a few games have had modifications made specifically for the Australian market to be able to reduce the objectional content and receive an MA15+ rating. 

As just mentioned, the most notable example of this happening in 2008 was Fallout 3, which was refused classification on its first submission.  As it turned out, the changes that were made for the Australian market for Fallout 3 are now the final release of the game that all players worldwide are getting.

Robert Hill reporting for The Age has posted on his blog today that Michael Atkinson has now withdrawn his support for the discussion paper and consequent public consultation process.  Due to the requirement of censorship changes being unanimous, this has effectively stopped the discussion of this in its tracks, or for at least as long as Michael Atkinson is filling the role of Attorney-General for South Australia.

A lot of the debate and reasoning in being against an R18+ rating from Michael Atkinson has been based around his belief that this would somehow mean that children would suddenly have access to a raft of adult content of an interactive nature through games.  Of course this reasoning doesn’t address that if children could somehow access R18+ game content, that this in turn would mean they would be able to access the full spectrum of other R18+ material that is available in the form of sexually explicit and/or highly graphically violent movies that are released all the time for example.

I mean we do have laws in this country governing the sale and availability of content already that restricts access to MA15+ and R18+ content in the mediums that currently have those classifications.  So is it being suggested that games would be different? 

As outlined in the Interactive Australia 2009 report released just a couple of days ago as we reported on, the average age of a gamer in Australia is now 30 (which is certainly not a child), and the vast majority (i.e. 91%) of those surveyed believed that Australia should have an R18+ classification for games.

I think Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw summed it up rather well in his recent article on the censorship debate for News.com.au, and I encourage everyone have a read of his thoughts on the issue.  Games are both an interactive experience and an art form, particularly in relation to his discussion of the usage of horror elements in a game and the experience that that offers.

But it really doesn’t seem to matter what anyone else thinks, because all it has taken is just 1 person – Michael Atkinson – to silence the issue entirely.  The discussion paper that had been circulated to the ministers approximately a month ago now won’t see the light of day, all because of the minority views and opinions of just 1 person.

Effectively censoring the debate on censorship, how ironic.

Call of Duty: World at War beta

Activision have released the beta for Call of Duty: World at War for PC today, and we’ve got it here ready for you to download.

The beta weighs in at 846Mb and we’ve got it mirrored for you right here.  To play the beta, you need to register with Activision by registering at the following URL – http://www.callofduty.com/beta/ – to receive a free beta key.

11 million is a large number

Blizzard have just announced that their money printing machine game (World of Warcraft) has reached 11 million subscribers.

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access.

Of course this may grow some more once the next expansion hits, which lands on our shores on the 14th of November.

Left 4 Dead demo early for pre-orders

Valve have announced details about the anticipated demo for Left 4 Dead.  First, you’ll have to pre-order the game before its release (and you’ll save 10% through Steam) and once the 6th of November arrives, Valve will give you early access to the demo.

For the people who don’t pre-order, well don’t worry, you’ll get to see the demo before the game’s release as well, but you’ll have to wait until the 11th of November to get your taste of zombie slaying goodness.  So far Valve are saying that they’ve had 95% more pre-orders for Left 4 Dead through Steam than the Orange Box (which gave you the TF2 beta early access), so it sounds like its shaping up to be a popular one (I mean who doesn’t want to splatter zombies?).

Interactive Australia 2009

The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (say that one 5 times fast) or the IEAA for short, has released its 2009 version of its report into the state of the gaming demographic in Australia.

Since the previous one in 2007, the average age of the Australian gamer has increased from 28 to 30 (which to me suggests that the same people are playing games 2 years later, who would’ve thought).  There are a number of other points raised, including the following:

- 88% of households have a gaming device of some type (console, PC or handheld)
- 43% of the gaming devices are console gaming systems, followed closely by PCs on 39%
- 46% of gamers are female (its estimated that this will be roughly even by 2012)
- 3% of gamers don’t play games with others (either in the same room, or over the internet)

And the one fact out of the publication that someone needs to shove down the South Australian Attorney General’s throat:

– 91% of Australian adults think that games should have an R18+ classification

The full report can be read at the following link on the IEAA’s web site (warning pdf) here.

The mad month of November in gaming

Well November is shaping up to be a pretty mad month of gaming, with pretty much every big game title being released next month.  Of course this is timed to co-incide with all of the Christmas consumer spending splurge that will start to get advertised to death soon.

So with that in mind, what games are you looking forward to coming out?  I’ve comprised a little bit of a list of some of the major titles coming out next month for you to salivate over.

Call of Duty: World at War

Otherwise known as Call of Duty 5, its the franchise that is still going strong (and they are already working on a 6th iteration).  Apparently the gaming community still isn’t over World War II games as yet, and World at War is here to have another go at beating this theme to death once more, but I doubt this will be the last one we see.

Release date:  12th of November on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PC and DS
Official web site:  http://www.callofduty.com/

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

The latest instalment in the long running Command & Conquer series is due out in November.  It has never really been a ground breaking series of games in the RTS genre (IMHO), but it has stuck true to providing easy to play, fun, no nonsense real time strategy game play.

This one I’m probably going to fence sit for a little bit at first, but I will probably end up picking this up.

Release date:  6th of November on PC, 13th of November for Xbox 360
Official web site:  http://www.ea.com/redalert/

Fallout 3

Well, due out on the 31st of October, but it might as well be November only being one day short.  Post-apolayptic game Fallout 3 from Bethesda will be coming out in the next couple of days and as mentioned earlier can be purchased from Steam.  I’m sure a lot of Fallout fans will have high expectations of this title (given the last one was released 8 years ago), so hopefully this first go at the franchise by Bethesda doesn’t disappoint.

Release date:  31st of October for PC and Xbox 360
Official web site:  http://fallout.bethsoft.com/

Gears of War 2

Epic Games’ second outing of this franchise and this time as an Xbox 360 exclusive, the game has you reprising your role as Marcus Fenix in humanity’s battle against the locusts.  Promising a much stronger dose of storyline this time than the original game, it will also bring with it some new multiplayer elements, including the co-operative horde mode.

Personally I suck at fps games on console (how the hell do you aim? ), but I’m very tempted by this one as the multiplayer modes do look fairly interesting.

Release date:  7th of November on Xbox 360
Official web site:  http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/

Guitar Hero: World Tour

The first complete band version of Guitar Hero comes out the 12th of November for the aspiring rockers out there.  This of course brings with it the ability to play guitar, drums, and sing.  You can check out the full track listing to be included in this release in our previous article here.

Release date:  12th of November on PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360
Official web site:  http://www.guitarhero.com/au/

James Bond: Quantum of Solace

The latest James Bond game based on the movie includes the actual voice acting of the actors from the actual movie.  So for once, a game based on a movie might share a lot closer ties to the movie it is being based on.  To be honest, I’m yet to be impressed by any game adaptation of a movie yet, but I am willing to be surprised.

Release date:  19th of November on PS2, PS3, Wii, PC, Xbox 360 and DS
Official web site:  http://007thevideogame.com/

Left 4 Dead

Valve’s upcoming Zombie shooter Left 4 Dead is out really soon as well.  Still awaiting the date for the demo to be coming out, but we don’t have much longer to wait until the actual game is released anyway.

Of course being a Zombie shooter, you’ll be gunning down those zombies who are only after one thing (BRAAAIIINNSSS!!!!).  Personally I’m looking forward to this one and I really should get around to pre-ordering it.

Release date:  18th of November on PC and Xbox 360
Official web site:  http://www.l4d.com/

Rock Band

Well, its only about 12 months late to release in Australia.  With World Tour game coming out only a few days later, is anyone going to bother with Rock Band?  Its basically the same thing as World Tour with guitar, drums and singing as well, but the game is now 12 months old, which means a lot of improvements are likely to be found over this one in newer games.

The only people I can see buying this one are those who are after particular songs that only Rock Band has.  Of course whilst the rest of the world is getting Rock Band 2, we’re only just getting Rock Band.

Release date:  7th of November on PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360
Official web site:  http://www.rockband.com/

World of Warcraft:  Wrath of the Lich King

Well this one doesn’t need to do anything to convince me to purchase it.  Yep, I’m one of the 11+ million subscribers that Blizzard has for its MMORPG genre dominating, money printing machine that is World of Warcraft.  The latest expansion brings with it another 10 level increase to the level cap, the introduction of the Northrend continent and a huge host of new features, quests, instances etc.

For anyone who has played through Warcraft 3 and its expansion Frozen Throne, this expansion will see you meeting Arthas – the Lich King himself as the penultimate boss of the expansion.

Release date:  14th of November on PC
Official web site:  http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/

Anyway, those are some of the big titles that will be coming out next month.  So many games, not enough time to play them all.

So what are you going to be buying or hoping ends up wrapped underneath your Christmas tree?

Fallout 3 on Steam

With Fallout 3′s release imminent, Valve has posted news that it will also be available for purchase via Steam for PC gamers.  Fallout 3 is due out on the 31st of October for both PC and Xbox 360.

You can purchase Fallout 3 from Steam here, but unlike the L4D pre-orders, there isn’t any discount for doing so.

Far Cry 2 – not widescreen, but cropped

Far Cry 2 which is out in the US, but yet to grace our shores as yet, has been discovered to be doing a "Bioshock" with its usage of widescreen resolutions.

Gaming web site widescreengamingforum has noticed that when playing Far Cry 2 in widescreen mode, rather than get extra screen real estate in 16:9, you’re actually getting a 4:3 image cropped into a widescreen factor.  Given that a lot of PC gamers these days are using widescreen monitors (our own Google Analytics stats for 3FL also show quite a lot of widescreen owners), its rather poor that a game would come out and give you _less_ screen estate when you own a bigger monitor.

Hopefully Ubisoft emulate the Bioshock incident by releasing a patch that resolves this issue.

Via:  Kotaku

Alan Wake – cinematic trailer

Alan Wake, is a new game from Remedy (the guys that made the Max Payne series) that is pitching itself as a psychological thriller game.  Of course to show off this concept, a cinematic trailer has been released that serves to tease you a little with a very teen horror/thriller movie style to it.

I definitely recommend grabbing the trailer and giving it a look.  We’ve got it mirrored locally for you here (155Mb).  Rather creepy vibe to the whole thing and from the blurb on the official web site about the game, its definitely setting itself up as a rather interesting game.  For me, if its shaping up to be as good a single player game as Max Payne was, then I’ll be getting this one for sure.