The GameShadow Blog

This one’s not going to seal up until 2009 when the BBFC actually takes over and the shit does or doesn’t hit the fan.

Earlier this year, the Byron report recommended the BBFC take control of all game rating in the UK for titles aimed at the over 12s, where up until now the BBFC had had a lesser involvement. This has lead to all sorts of industry outcry in defence of the popular and voluntary Pan European Game Information board (PEGI).

The industry is concerned the BBFC involvement will mean UK delays and additional costs, while the BBFC swears it is capable of upping its staff and seeing things through.

The latest couple of developments have involved the BBFC taking an outright swipe at PEGI (where so far they had always played the ‘we want to work together’ card), claiming it was unprofessional and slow.

“The trouble is that it is not clear who PEGI is,” David Cooke told The Times. “Administration is handled by the Dutch film regulator, who subcontracts to a couple of blokes [the Video Standards Council] in Borehamwood.” He also pointed out that the BBFC turn around time is around 25% faster than PEGI’s, and that having an independent board in each country helps to reflect that country’s cultural sensibilities.

Fair point, David, but when your cultural sensibilities mean we can’t play Manhunt 2, I’d rather stick with the Dutchies. No, we haven’t forgotten about that one.

More recently, Nintendo, Sega, Ubisoft and EA all banded together under ELSPA to attempt to drive a nail through the BBFC’s plans by declaring their official support for PEGI in an industry wide press release.

“Keith Ramsdale, Vice President and General Manager of EA UK, Ireland and Nordics, said: ‘The Government’s proposed changes will create extra administration and cause delays in getting hit games into the hands of British consumers. Only PEGI is built to address the fast changing nature of the games industry and is best placed to deliver the needed protection for minors.’”

I don’t for a second think that there isn’t more going on behind the scenes than the players are letting on. It’s all politics, smoke and mirrors.

I’m not pro-BBFC for obvious reasons, but I am for a legally enforceable and reliable ratings service, and there’s no concrete evidence to suggest the BBFC can’t pull that out of the hat.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Tam Fry, exec of the National Obesity Forum in the UK, has lashed out at Nintendo for branding perfectly healthy children as fat in Wii Fit.

The game uses the (obviously inappropriate and archaic) Body Mass Index system for calculating physical health. It compares your height and weight, and lets you know if you’re over or under weight for your bracket. The idea is that it works for ‘average’ built people, but clearly anyone else is knackered - if you’re a stocky guy you’ll be told you’re obese, while a skinny guy could nurse a 2 stone pot belly and still be in the healthy range.

These problems are exaggerated in children, who are clearly still growing into their natural body shapes, and results in Wii Fit informing ’solidly built’ girls that they are fat. The article goes on to talk to a father of a healthy young girl who’s been scarred (presumably by the gizmo’s slander, rather than physicaly).

Now, clearly interactive entertainment gets a lot of flak in the media, mostly for no good reason, but the nice thing about this story is that it seems perfectly fair. A game that’s targeted at the family clearly shouldn’t be acting in this way - what’s more, it’s perfectly understandable that a ten year old girl could be quite distressed by the scenario.

Finally - a game targeted at children that can legitimately be criticised for emotionally scarring them. Finally - proof that the wrong games are being researched and censored in the wrong ways.

All that time buggering about with Manhunt - ironic it’s Nintendo’s family fun that’s doing the real damage in the gaming industry.

Hardly shocking - but I’m for once going to remain non-cynical on this one. I may even be slightly positive about it.

Yes, plainly EA has identified Nintendo’s inventive and astounding success with Wii Fit and the Balance Board, and has a case of the Me-Toos. It wouldn’t be EA if it hadn’t. However, as well received as Wii Fit has been, there have been complaints and weaknesses, especially in the Western market, and it seems to me EA may well be the company to put that right.

“We also need to make sure we’re delivering something that’s truly exercise. I’ll call [Wii Fit] more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It’s more about holistic fitness.” The wise words of Peter Moore, ex Xbox boss, current EA Sports President.

It seems to me that if there’s something EA’s good at, it’s producing mass marketable games that get ever so slightly better with each iteration - and that’s not something that seems to conflict with the concept of a fitness game, nor is it something Nintendo is likely to manage itself.

The game will release on the as yet unused EA Freestyle label, and it’ll be a great test of EA’s true development metal, and new innovation-friendly stance.

According to the People, Her Majesty is a fan of Nintendo’s new console. Prince William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton bought him the console for Christmas, and now can’t get her away from it. The People says she saw William playing ten-pin bowling, begged to have a go and “by all accounts was a natural.”

Will we be seeing “By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen” emblazoned over Wii Fitness?

I’m a big fan of decent writing in games. So much so that I’ve adored some stinkers for making me laugh (Armed and Dangerous), and hated some fantastic titles for their disappointing narratives (Bioshlock).

I’ve recently been playing Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk on DS. They’re both elements of the prestigious recent movement towards reinventing the adventure genre for the 21st Century. Phoenix Wright is a surreal lawyer ‘em up with manga roots, while Hotel Dusk is what would happen if you took the storyboarding from Max Payne and made a game about it. And set it in a hotel.

The DS is perfectly suited to this new, leaner more enticing style of adventure, and Hotel Dusk is one of the most visually arresting games I think I’ve ever seen, on any platform. My problem is, I’m not sure they’re really games.

For the most part, all you do is click through reams of text, interact with the odd object or solve a puzzle, then click some more. They’re films with clicking. Old style adventures were hardly gameplay heavy, but at least the puzzling was meaty and substantial - here it’s been necessarily reduced to get with the times. It doesn’t help that there’s no fast forward on the text due to the (admittedly effective) way in which the text scrolls in time with the way it would be spoken by the character, to make up for lack of voice acting.

It seems to me that until we lose joypad entirely, shooting things in games has just about reached its pinnacle. Realism in driving games is fast approaching a similar level of perfection. Story, on the other hand, really hasn’t moved since the very first dialogue tree. What I’ve been playing recently isn’t interactive story, it’s just plain old story, in a vaguely interactive environment.

But that’s cool. That’s exciting. That means there’s more to be discovered, more to be achieved.

It means that if story is what gets you going, then the next stage in the evolution of gaming could well change your world.

Merry Christmas to all those countries that worship the eternal god, consumerism. Hello to everyone else.

Yes, the Christmas rush is well and truly over. All the games that were going to get rushed into production in time for the big day are already sitting under Christmas trees, and all the releases that didn’t quite make it have got another month of so’s respite.

Christmases and birthdays tend to pass by unnoticed these days, but this year I made a brief foray back to my childhood, by treating myself to a shiny white DS Lite. Well, I bought myself a DS Lite, wrapped it up and gave it to my nan to give to me on the big day, at which point she forgot what it was she was giving me, and had no further clue once it was unwrapped.

Regardless, it was a pleasant return to the time when unwrapping games and consoles on Christmas day is an exciting and magical time. What’s more, I actually got some time to play the thing, because the kids in the house had gotten bored of their own DSs two years ago when they were first released.

Compared to PC, there’s naturally not a whole load of must-have games on any of the consoles this Christmas, but the DS has nonetheless seen the bulk of my play time this boxing day. Despite my jaded, cynical perspective, the touch screen control is actually remarkably intuitive - compared to the hardcore requirements of the keyboard and mouse, the DS actually lets me enjoy games again.

I’m a PC gamer, but it’s the ‘gamer’ aspect of that that’s important - computers are just the best means to an end, and that hasn’t changed. However, there’s some truly essential and eye-opening experiences to be had on DS that could never be translated to PC, and, as the vaguely available and affordable Nintendo console this Christmas, the DS really shouldn’t be missed.

It’s the January sales already, so treat yourself to a DS today. There’s a new year’s resolution for you.

Call it opportunist, call it cynical exploitation, call it downright cheeky or just call it a good marketing idea - we’ve just discovered that The Carphone Warehouse have managed to get hold of some Nintendo Wiis (which as most gamers are aware are currently harder to get hold of than a decent English football manager) and they’re offering them out to new customers. The (not entirely unreasonable) condition - you have to buy a contract phone too…

Check it out here…

Are you sick to death of playing games on your PC? Of course you not, after all you’re not insane or anything? Are you?

Having said that, maybe like a guilty schoolboy outside an adult bookstore, you’ve been recently tempted by one of the other spanky looking game machines winking suggestively at you from the shelves? Shame on you, Gameshadow can’t possibly condone such outrageous behavior outright. After all the PC is god.

But just in case… why not check out the current “competition” in this all-new Gameshadow feature, looking at the best and the worst of the console crop, just so you know what’s going on obviously. I mean, where’s the harm in that?

There’s an ongoing media battle between those who insist gaming is destroying our fragile and mislead youth, and those who champion gaming as a legitimate form of entertainment, no more to blame for the hoodies and knife-crime generation than Schwarzenegger or Irvine Welsh. For every five… ten… twenty bad examples (GTA, Manhunt, Bully…) well, for every one Rockstar, there’s occasionally a game trying to change that perception (in addition to making a few quid).

That game, here, is Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training. A study running at St Columba’s Primary in Dundee for the last ten weeks has concluded that, given 15 mins play time every day, children display a ‘dramatic enhancement’ in mathematical ability and general discipline.

This result is rather reassuring – Brain Training essentially offers a series of mathematical, visual and logical thinking puzzles. If doing an extra 15 mins maths everyday didn’t improve mathematical ability, the education system might find itself in a bit of hot water.

Of course, gaming is not the only possible cause of renegade children, and, regardless of the benefits / repercussions of a gaming childhood, perhaps we’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Recent announcements from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have shown the differing costs of launching a console:

Microsoft’s shares rose more than 10% yesterday after their quarterly results announcement showed strong results in the Vista and Office divisions, while sales of Halo 3 pushed the consumer division, which includes the Xbox 360, into profit.

Nintendo announced it has trebled its first-half profit driven by the success of the Wii and the DS and is now the third most valuable company in Japan after car-maker Toyota and financial services giant Mitsubishi UFJ. It surpassed Sony in market value earlier this year.

Sony, in contrast, admitted that PlayStation 3 sales targets of 11 million units might not be met, and that it had lost $848 million in the games unit in Q3 07. They expect to break even in the next six months and make a profit next year.

All of which is tough for Sony. Alongside troubles in its television unit, Sony’s games units is holding it back, with all of the issues of an expensive unit lacking must-have software going into the Christmas season. Nintendo, with a low-priced, low-spec machine, is currently trouncing its opposition and Microsoft is, perhaps surprisingly, emerging into a strong second place.

It’s too early to write Sony off, but amongst all of their corporate woes, turning around the games unit must be a really high priority.