Utah has a bill in play H.B. 353 regarding video game sales and ratings and such.
In an attempt to bring game selling under state control, they are introducing an amendment that says, in effect: If you promise to follow the ESRB guidelines and then you don’t, you are in violation of the truth in advertising law and can be fined 2000 bucks.
So, what this will almost certainly do is encourage Gamestop and such to just not promise ANYTHING.
Further, the rule is entirely unnecessary.  Voluntary compliance with ESRB has been amazingly sucessful nationwide and Utah has one of the best rates:
Utah’s Games Bill is dangerously wrong | Games | Game Room | Macworld

“… according to a recent audit, Utah video game retailers enforce their store policies regarding the sale of M-rated games an impressive 94 percent of the time — without any laws or requirements that they do so. That level of compliance took many years to achieve, and speaks to the strong commitment of video game retailers to do the right thing.”

So, because of some unfounded fears and pandering for votes, or just out of a complete lack of knowledge and wisdom, they may very well just make things worse.
Well done, Utah! You deserve your Mormons!

Non-compatible stools were first designed by the Inquisition

Two more things about MGS

1. No game I have ever played has talked so much about smoking.  Further, no game I have ever played has ever had its ‘wait’ screens give advice on how to appropriately dispose of cigarettes

2. This game could easily win the “Most Use Of Camel Toe” award, hands down

Phenomenal game.  Wish I had played one level harder, though.

A few items:

1. The game pays huge tribute to the people who have played the previous ‘chapters’.  While you don’t need to know the story before playing this game, it really will help.  Luckily, you can download the Metal Gear Solid database for free.  Here’s a summary of the history.

Not only does the storyline get more interesting with that information, well, you’ll see in my next points.

2. The game is, in fact, one long treatise on the horrors of war.  It has a great deal to say on the subject (hence the sometimes longwinded cutscenes)

3. The story is also to conclusion of Snake’s life.  Everything from his past is coming together one last time.  This shows up in numerous half-seen flashbacks and such (which, as noted in #1, are more interesting the more you know)

4. I think that, more than anything, this is a story of a man who has dedicated his life to being a soldier, a creature of war, and who is now trying to clean up the nightmares he himself helped create.  It is a story of the price paid for a life with a gun.

5. Snake gets the living tar beaten out of him like no one I’ve ever seen.

I am returned!

Anyhow, a few things spring to mind before I actually start letting myself be informed about the world again (yes, I admit it, living in a box is very nice).

1. The two most under-rated bands of the 80s: Oingo Boingo, Missing Persons

2. If you hate your PC now, switch to a Mac and then try using the PC again.  You know no such hate.

3. Marvel Studios should just close their doors and give it up if they don’t bring Favreau back for Iron Man II.  Current rumor is that there’s a lot of penny pinching going on.  Favreau made them a blockbuster.  Don’t get me wrong, Downey was great, but it was Favreau’s film.  Unfortunately, there’s a class of moron that gets to make decisions about movies who really thinks that anyone can make a flick, and that the actors only matter because the public sees them.  Marvel has made mistakes before when letting money people make decisions (see Spider-Man 3…the money guys demanded Venom), and this could really kick them in the nuts.  No matter how much it costs to keep Favreau, its gotta be cheaper than making a bomb.

4. Metal Gear Solid 4 rocks.

So, obviously this never came to pass, but its amazingly cool to read the emails and such.

And I am particularly fond of these two design points:

1. Shall we try to present multiple viewpoints in this version of the story? In the original version(s), the group of travellers became separated while visiting Magrathea, and again later on, with the story following either Arthur’s or Zaphod’s viewpoint. I have in mind a scheme to narrate the story in the third person, rather than the second, provided that the parser can handle declarative sentences, rather than (or in addition to) imperative ones. Example: “>ARTHUR SEARCHES FOR A GOOD CUP OF TEA. He fails to find any, but he does turn up the spork that he thought he’d lost.”

2. If there are multiple viewpoints, how does one change viewpoint? Provisional answer: with the “verb” MEANWHILE. Example: “>MEANWHILE, ON THE HEART OF GOLD. Zaphod is still trying to persuade the computer to unlock the sauna. Ford is chatting up Trillian.” Now the story begins to sound more like traditional fiction, with an omniscient viewpoint. What happens to the scene that one leaves when switching to a new viewpoint — does it go on by itself? Answer: perhaps it doesn’t matter. If one returns to the old scene to find that time has passed, one can use time travel to return to the scene as it was left.

 

Well, I can’t actually tell you what this says (yesterday, gamespot wasn’t blocked for some reason, today it is again) but it looks like an Afro Samurai game is coming!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this cartoon and I think its a great setting/concept for a game.

There’s no way this can work well.
1. some of those buttons don’t look like you could easily reach them quickly
2. “and places the right analog stick at the base of the controller — you play the game by moving the analog stick against your leg” yeahright

Ben Heck refines his one-handed Xbox 360 controller – Engadget

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is being listed at EBWorld etc. as shipping 4/01/08.

This is a horrible, horrible lie, as best I can tell. Its going to be sometime this summer, I believe (though I can’t check at the moment thanks to the needlessly restrictive firewall here at work and the serious EM interference that prevents my iPhone from doing much other than email).

This is simply a cruel, inhuman tease.

Damn you.

I went out to blockbuster a week ago to rent Devil May Cry 4 and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

I haven’t been interested in DMC since the first one. The second was just bad, and the third was way too hard. I also got very tired of how ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’ Dante was in his youth. The older, more brooding Dante is far more interesting and far less annoying.

Alas…

DMC4 is banging its head against the wall trying the same crap again. Did we really need his sword to make a motorcycle sound? Seriously…

The bar may have simply been set too high, though. After God Of War I and II, how can Capcom compete? I played for an hour, realized I couldn’t possibly care less about hitting the next demon, and popped the game out. Yay not blowing 60 bucks.

Uncharted, however, is a completely different cup of tea. This game had me in less than 5 minutes. Characters, writing, dialog, action. What more could you want? The only problem is that it may be very short. According to the game, I’m about 80% of the way done after just a couple days. Its unclear to me if there’s a lot of exploring to do that I missed out on so I’ll have to look into that for my second time through.

On the plus side, 7 days until Mass Effect: Bring Down The Sky is here in a week!

And for those who missed this… DOG AND GOAT!!!!