Gamertell

Advertisements for the videogame Stranglehold have been officially banned from television as of January 16, 2008 by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being too violent.

According to the ASA Adjudications posted on January 16, 2008, the issues the ASA had with the game were the promotion of “glorified” violence and the danger of impressionable children watching during the time frame it aired. The concern over time was an issue because the commercial aired before 7:30 p.m., a time when young children are most likely still watching television.

According to the ruling, both Picture Production Company (PPC) and Clearcast had made the necessary changes to the commercial for it to meet ASA standards. PPC told ASA that it removed the bullet flying scenes and ensured no character was struck by a bullet in the commercial. Clearcast claimed it thought the violence was unrealistic enough to meet the standards for advertisement.

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Midway just released its lineup of games that will be on display at E3 2007 starting tomorrow (July 11, 2007) through the end of the week.

The biggest is Unreal Tournament 3, expected to be released for PC Fall 2007. The strangest is Ultimate Mortal Kombat for the DS.

Other new games include Stranglehold, BlackSite: Area 51 and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, based on a Cartoon network series.

Click through for descriptions of the games on display at E3 2007…

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The news is flying all over the net - Midway has finally confirmed that the upcoming collector’s edition of John Woo’s Stranglehold for the PS3 will also contain the full-length 1992 film, Hard Boiled as bonus content. Here’s some great news for you Woo fans out there, and a nice surprise for gamers who spend nearly equal amounts of time perusing game’s extra features. Not so surprising though, is that there is a small catch. While gamers are used to seeing heftier price tags on games labeled “collector’s edition”, I’m not so sure that non-Woo fans will be willing to accept the (forecasted) $10 hike in order to get Hard Boiled.

Since gamers may be torn in making such a decision, I thought I would point out a few items of interest that could help. First of all, there is no word yet on whether the movie will be accompanied by other bonus content that would certainly help justify the expected $69.95 price tag. Another consideration is that, since the game and the movie will be stored on a single Blue-Ray disc, no certainty can be claimed on whether or not the movie will play on standard Blue-Ray DVD players. Matt Leone of 1up.com argues that, with Woo’s Hard Boiled being released on High-Def DVD, Blue-Ray compatibility becomes an even greater concern.

Matt also makes mention that the Xbox 360 will also benefit from a collector’s edition of Stranglehold, yet it is unknown if the 360 version will also contain the movie bonus. My gut instinct says it will not (360 HD-DVD requires a separate drive, which would mean 2 discs), but nothing is confirmed as of this date.

Stranglehold is scheduled for an August 2007 release on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Read [1up] Hard Boiled [IMDb] Updates [Midway]

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