Gamertell

Owners of Culpa Innata, a PC adventure game from Strategy First, will be pleased to hear that Strategy First has released a patch which fixes a bug that makes the game crash. While the bug is referred to as “rare” on the updated website, the company does admit that the bug will occur regularly on computers with certain versions of DirectX, graphic cards, and graphic card drivers.

Patch 1.02 fixes this bug along with a few minor logic bugs. The 5.37mb patch can be downloaded for free at the Strategy First site and can be immediately installed without any fear that it will damage game saves.

Culpa Innata is a futuristic action game for PCs. The world is evidentially divided into the World Union and Russia. In it Phoenix Wallis, a Senior Peace and Security officer, must find find out who killed a World Union citizen in Russia, if the accidental death of a scientist in a border town between the World Union and Russia was an accident, and if the two cases are related. It features 40 in-game locations, 50 interactive characters, point and click gameplay, and various conversation options and extra activities. Culpa Innata can only be played on PCs running Windows 2000, XP, or Vista that have 3.5gb hard drive space, a DVD player, and DirectX 9.0c. It costs $29.99 and can be purchased in stores or downloaded directly from the site.

I can’t understand how companies can release games that they know are faulty. The game came out October 23, 2007. Perhaps Strategy First should have waited a few weeks and released a game which didn’t have a major bug that would render it unplayable for certain users. Potential buyers might want to wait this game out. In a few months it might be at Target or Walmart for $10.

Read [Gameplay Monthly] Site [Strategy First]

With all the recent controversy surrounding video game titles including Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt, parents have begun to worry about the kinds of games their kids play. Most parents rarely spend time playing with their kids in order to find out what those games are really about and the ESRB ratings only provide brief hints about the themes in the game or its target audience.

Gaming news websites can provide more details about a game but they are generally aimed at describing its technical features like textures, frame rates and physics engines or how the artificial intelligence responds to certain situation. These details can be very meaningful for hardcore gamers but for most parents they could as well be written in other language and offer little clue as to whether a game is adequate for their children.

In response to this, two game industry veterans have launched a site dedicated to offering reviews not for gamers but for their parents. John Davidson, former editor in chief of two gaming magazines and Ira Becker, a former colleague from Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc., have launched WhatTheyPlay.com.

The site offers objective and clear explanations about games and their contents, detailing which parts of a game contain offensive or explicit language or images, like a chainsaw death on Gears of War or sexually suggestive ones, like the lifelike animations of female characters in Dead or Alive. Although the site maintains a neutral approach in their reviews parents are also encouraged to provide their own for a more subjective angle.

This could provide a lot of help for parents in deciding what kind of games their children can play. Sometimes the generational gap makes it hard for parents to understand gaming terms and what they entail and this may lead to confusion or unwanted surprises. Providing unbiased information about the content of games is important and can help in decreasing the tensions surrounding the Mature or Adults Only genres. People should be entitled to enjoy different kinds of games provided they can understand the subjects they deal with and just because they may not be appropriate for kids, games containing adult oriented subjects should not be simply crucified.

Parents are responsible for their children and for orienting them in their education and being informed about the activities their kids engage in is an important step in this process. Games should provide fun and education and with a little time and counseling by families they are sure to achieve both goals and help in a child’s development.

Read [LA Times] Site [What They Play]

Weta Workshop, a film production company which also specializes in high-end, intricate and highly realistic artifacts and replicas, has been helping to produce a live action Halo 3 short film. The first released and teased at E3 this week, is titled “Arms Race.”

The live action project was put together by Bungie Studios, director Neill Blomkamp, WETA Workshop and Origami Digital, LLC.

Click through to watch the video…

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Spoof Flash games may be a dime a dozen but this one came out pretty dern fast.

The Game Show Network (GSN) has released a The Prison Life: Paris, a Flash based game where you stamp license plates. It’s stupid-simple, but still kinda fun in a dumb sorta way. Check it out… Is it me or is does that look like Rosie O’Donnell as the prison guard to the right?

Site [Game Show Network] Via [Gaming Today] Also Read [ActressArchive]