Sunday Supplement – 16th October

Comic courtesy of Fat Gamers.

Violent Videogame links

This week I spied a news story that shocks, scares and frightens normal, right thinking members of society. It centres on academic research that apparently ‘proves’ videogames are linked to violence. It comes from The Metro, the free London daily from Associated Newspapers, and the publishing company responsible for the Daily Mail.

I quote: “A LINK between gory video games and violent behaviour has now been proved, according to one group of scientists.

Playing violent games triggers the same brain patterns as aggressive thoughts and actions, they found.

While the games have long been blamed for violent outbursts and copycat attacks, there has been no firm research to confirm it.

But a ‘brain-mapping technique’ has helped US researchers discover a link which suggests games do cause the same brain activity as real-life aggression.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging – which shows when more blood flows to certain parts of the brain – a group of men were studied while playing violent game titles such as Grand Theft Auto. Eleven of the 13 volunteers showed effects which were believed to be caused by virtual violence.

‘On a neurobiological level, we have shown the link exists,’ said Reni Weber, a professor of communication at Michigan State University. ‘It is important we continue to explore this causal relationship we have shown in this research,’ he added.”

Right, so eleven men showed the same brain activity as real-life aggression after playing violent videogames. Well that’s a no-brainer if ever I heard one. Of course you’re going to be a little pumped up after a particularly daring drive-by shooting in GTA: SA, or an eye-popping finishing move in Mortal Kombat. It’s just the same as leaving the cinema after watching Fight Club and feeling as if you can take on every drunken lout on Streatham High Road.

The trick is (and don’t tell Associated Newspapers this) to resist these violent urges and not hurt people. What a revelation.

Spielberg joins EA

“Having watched the game industry grow from a niche into a major creative force in entertainment, I have a great deal of respect for EA’s understanding of the interactive format.“

That’s a quote from Steven Spielberg, who has joined EA’s Los Angeles studio to executive produce three new games, the first of which, according to EA’s Neil Young, is a next-generation game that will “appeal to a broad audience,” or in other terms “make a bucket load of money.”

It’s an amazing coup for EA. To have Spielberg’s name at the front of a game adds a level of credibility and kudos few can match. But is there any substance to the move?

This is what Neil Young said: “Being able to draw from Steven Spielberg’s experience in crafting incredible stories and combine that with our view of interactivity means you will have richer fiction, deeper characters and better sense of immersion.“

What does that actually mean? Richer fiction? Does that mean his game will be more expensive? Deeper characters? Err, let’s leave that one shall we? A better sense of immersion? Who knows what wonderment and amazement Mr Spielberg’s influence on LA studio will produce?

The truth: it’s all fluff. We might see an amazing new IP burst on the scene and force the hardcore gaming public to re-evaluate their perception of EA altogether, but the likelihood is it will be a safe bet. And the other two games will be safe bets too.

It highlights a curious phenomenon in the games industry today. Famous names are deemed worthy enough to sell games. Officially their influence will be invaluable to the end product, and, of course, they’ve played and enjoyed games for years. But it’s a bit like David Beckham going to Real Madrid: style over substance.

Xbox Live Arcade: the face of things to come?

This week Microsoft announced details of their Xbox Live Arcade service for the Xbox 360, which is essentially a casual gamer’s dream. You pay for classics like Midway’s Gauntlet and download them to the 360 hard drive. Simple, fast, classic magic. The big question is will casual gamers get a 360 just for Live Arcade? Will hardcore gamers pay for games that might be cheaper to run on an emulator (albeit illegally)?

On the face of it, the big issue here is price, but the premise of Live Arcade is a fantastic one. There are many in the industry who believe we’ve reached saturation point for the traditional shooting, sports, adventure games. They believe all the people who would play videogames of this type are playing them.

So the next step is to attract an audience that might not be interested in Generic First-person-shooter 5: Revenge of the Cursor. Microsoft’s answer is to offer cheap, downloadable games that offer quick-fire instant reward. It’s an interesting time – will anyone buy a 360 just for Xbox Live Arcade? Doubtful. Will typical gamers be tempted by the service? Maybe. Will Sony and Nintendo watch like hawks before offering a similar service? Bet your life on it.

Please please please please please… and so on and so forth

Why has there been no official European release date for the animated CGI movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children? This week Square-Enix announced that more than 700,000 units have been sold on DVD and UMD since its release on September 14th, which is fantastic for an animated movie that didn’t even receive a proper cinema release.

If I hold any sway over anyone in the games industry: make this happen in good old Blighty. We love our fantasy, final or otherwise. Either that or thousands of fans who are dying to get their hands on this movie will just rip it off on the Internet, and no-one wants that. Make it happen Square-Enix – your fans are waiting.

This week on Pro-G

Once again we’ve had plenty of articles on the site this week. If you’ve been away, here’s a rundown of what you missed.

Reviews

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (PS2 and Xbox)

Conflict: Global Storm (PC, PS2 and Xbox)

Black & White 2 (PC)

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Winter Assault (PC)

World War II Tank Commander (PC)

Nintendogs (DS)

This week’s new releases

If you’re a fan of superheroes you’re in luck this week as there are two particularly good releases to satisfy you. Ultimate Spiderman and X-Men Legends II can be picked up on almost every format out there, and each should provide plenty of superhero action. Ultimate Spiderman is an action-packed cel-shaded adventure, but if multiplayer gaming is more your thing then the online and offline cooperative play in X-Men Legends II might be right up your street.

Serious Sam 2 should please fans of the original (but we’d recommend the PC version over the pretty rough Xbox version, if you have a high-spec machine) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit will go down well with kids who’ve just seen the film at the cinema. The one to avoid this week is EA’s Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. EA has been on a role recently, but Marvel Nemesis misses the mark by some way.

• Blitzkrieg 2 (PC)
• Bratz Rock Angelz (PS2, Cube, Xbox, GBA)
• DRIV3R (GBA)
• Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (PS2, Xbox, Cube)
• Serious Sam 2 (PC, Xbox)
• SpyToy (PS2)
• Taito Legends (PC, PS2, Xbox)
• Ultimate Spider-Man (PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC, DS, GBA)
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (PS2, Xbox)
• X-Men Legends II Rise of Apocalypse (PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC, PSP)

Next week on Pro-G

It should be a great week, with reviews for Serious Sam 2, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, FIFA Manager 06, Kingdom Under Fire Heroes, Football Manager 2006, Ultimate Spiderman and more.