Gamertell

In Iowa, a 32-year-old man may spend 20 years in prison for possession of Japanese manga and will face penalties under the PROTECT Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1466A). Christopher Handley is still in big trouble because of the manga he purchased from Japan in May 2006 that the government claimed was obscene and depicted minors engaged in sexual acts.

Luckily for Handley, he no longer has to face the court system alone as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has decided to provide their expertise as a consultant to the defense and provide funds for use to support in obtaining…

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Media Molecule announced today (September 19, 2008) that LittleBigPlanet has officially gone gold which means the game is complete and is in the process of packaging. The game will come out on October 21, 2008, in North America and Latin America with a European release coming later in the week. Media Molecule was kind enough to give out goodies to those who MORE »

Adults Only-rated games have been despised by major retailers and console manufacturers. But there is a very distant possibility of console manufacturers giving the green signal to AO-rated games if they see any merit in the argument that AO-rated games are a form of free speech. Adam Thierer, director of The Progress & Freedom Foundation and a proponent of free speech, has addressed the possibility of AO games appearing on consoles on his blog.

Thierer feels that AO games should be accommodated into the mainstream but disagrees with a suggestion that…

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Without a doubt 2007 was the best year in gaming history, and Bioware’s Mass Effect, which redefined the way we think about RPG and story telling in games would go on to sell more than 1.6 million units. Only three months after the Xbox 360 game was released, Bioware and Microsoft have announced the first set of Mass Effect downloadable content.

The package, called “Bring Down the Sky,“ is set to be released on…

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A lot of industry watchers were skeptical when Sony opted for the proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD) as the PSP’s exclusive media storage format. And, as it later turned out, there doubts were not unfounded as Sony’s choice of format didn’t really go down well with the gamers for various reasons. However, a major factor for UMD’s notoriety was Sony’s inability to provide enough games and media for the PSP.  But the company is certainly rectifying its follies by making more content available, and now popular MTV programming will be available on the UMD.

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One can’t think of Unreal Tournament without the myriad of user-created maps and its definitive online experience, but Playstation gamers have always been deprived of user-created UT maps. However, that has all changed with the release (December 11, 2007) of Unreal Tournament III on the PS3, the latest version of the game which runs on the all new Unreal Engine 3.

According to a CVG post, the first snippet of user-created content for the PS3 UTIII is a user created map named DM-Shrine. It is a small deathmatch map – nowhere to hide – and supports two to six players. It is available for download on FileFront. The download is accompanied by elaborate instructions for making it work with the PS3 version of UTIII.

The new version of the game offers gamers the chance to create and share new game content for the first time on a console, just like PC gamers have been able to do with successive Unreal PC games. Tweaking UTIII will hopefully provide a wholesome ad long lasting gaming experience for console gamers.

Read [CVG]

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The Presidential candidates are debating nearly every relevant issue these days. Videogaming has found prominence as a political issue in recent times - sadly enough – so, it would be nice to know the candidates’ positions on the issue. Common Sense Media tried to sample the opinions of the candidates about videogames but only three of them showed enough interest to take the survey. One of the frontrunners in the Presidential race, Sen. Hillary Clinton (Democrat), was interested in participating in the survey but could not furnish a response in time. According to gamepolitics, CSM has finally received her reply.

She doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of violent videogames, or games with “corrupting content”, and has vowed to shield children from such content if she becomes president. One can expect more stringent game regulations if she occupies the Oval office. Historically, Clinton has stood up for tougher video game regulation and she introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act a couple of years ago. This bill had provisions for fines being imposed on on-site store mangers, if they sold inappropriate games to children.

In her response, Clinton also talked about the ills of violent and sexually explicit game content and, specially, the fears parents have about losing control over their children as a result of such content.

Read [Game Politics]

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Harmonix and MTV Games have announced the first batch of downloadable content for their highly anticipated upcoming game Rock Band. Beginning on November 20, 2007 fans will be able to download song packs by Metallica, The Police and Queens of the Stone Age, each pack containing three songs.

Each pack has a suggested retail value of $5.49 or $1.99 per individual track (440 Microsoft Points for a pack or 160 per track for the Xbox 360). Additionally individual tracks from Foreigner, Wolfmother and The Runaways, among others, will be also available for $1.99 each (160 Microsoft Points).

Here are the packs and individual songs scheduled for release next week: Metallica Pack: “Ride the Lightning” “Blackened” “And Justice for All” The Police Pack: “Can’t Stand Losing You” “Synchronicity II” “Roxanne” Queens of the Stone Age Pack: “3’s and 7’s” “Little Sister” “Sick Sick Sick” Individual songs: asterisk denotes a cover song “Fortunate Son” - as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival * “Juke Box Hero” - as made famous by Foreigner * “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” - as made famous by T-Rex * “My Sharona” - as made famous by The Knack * “Cherry Bomb” - as made famous by The Runaways * Joker & The Thief - Wolfmother The developers have announced weekly updates with new packs and individual song coming every week. If they can maintain the game fresh with an updated playlist they will surely have a hit in their hands. I could go on playing Guitar Hero forever if they kept on coming up with new songs. Rock Band is slated for release on November 20, 2007 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii and on December 18, 2007 for the PS2. 

Read [OC ModShop] Also Read [Gamespot]

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