by JoeWillBeatJohn

I've always been a fan of Adam Sessler, all the way back to the original TechTV days (a few of you remember, I'm sure), and despite the persona of the ridiculous jester he puts on these days for G4's X-Play, he remains of the more candid and uniquely insightful voices in gaming journalism. And quite frankly, he nails it on the head with this one.

We've all been subjected the overly audible idiocy of some prepubescent ignoramus once or twice on Xbox Live, and I'm pretty sure those of with a shred of human decency are as sick of it as Sessler is.

This is J. Peace.

[G4.com - Sessler's Soapbox]

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.605890&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Kliknite na sliku ispod i pogledajte sami. (neće vas ugrist) ?

Tonight at 8pm EST you can see the rest of the interview on X-Play.

Spotted at the BethBlog.

You need to watch this. Preview video here.

But today I was perusing comments made in reaction to my recent Haze review on X-Play. One genius decided that my review was tainted; that I'm totally biased against the PlayStation 3. His "proof?" At one point in the review, I mention the game made me so frustrated I wanted to fling my expensive DualShock 3 controller through the nearest window (or something along those lines). This person says that my calling the controller "expensive" proves my anti-PlayStation bias, as the controller is similarly priced (and apparently LIGHTER) than an Xbox 360 controller.

Honestly, how can you even argue with logic like that?

Bethesda (utvikleren bak spillene) holder nå på med sin nyeste utgivelse, Fallout 3. For dem som ikke kjenner Fallout-serien, så foregår det i en post-apokalyptisk verden hvor man finner mutanter og andre styggedommer i tillegg til de onde, vil-ta-over-verden grupperingene. Nevnte utvikler ser ut til å ta mange av konseptene sine fra TES over til Fallout, noe som skaper en salig kombinasjon; en åpen, postapokalyptisk verden hvor du kan utforske alle kriker og kroker av bomba byer i ruiner, samt øde sletter/ørken med zombier og alt mulig moro.

In this world of figures such as the infamous Jack Thomson and a myriad of Politicians ready at a moment's notice to tar and feather any part of the gaming industry they can get their hands on, the incessant mewling of "concerned parents" and certain companies (cough-taketwo-cough) gleefully drawing scandal and controversy into their bosoms the video game industry is under a near constant public scrutiny. With a plethora of pseudo-studies claiming that video games cause mass homicidal psychosis in everyone exposed to them there is no shortage of ammunition that these political mudslingers and ambulance chasers can lob in the direction of anything connected to a joystick.

Thankfully amidst the sludgy haze of the dozens of studies claiming video games are shaped by the devil in the very bowls of hell and shipped directly from central 7th circle onto retailer shelves throughout the world there is some hope. A recent examination of the effects of video games on by Drs. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson (co-founders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media) entitled Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do dispels many of the unreasonable fears about that have been fostered by the likes of Jack Thompson and makes some pretty surprising revelations about the effects of games on young children along the way. The following is an interview by Adam Sessler with the two authors who give a brief synopsis of the prevailing message of the book.

Anyway, not much in my South Dakota news sources caught my eye.  One of the things that did involved a twine robber.  Who needs the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota, when South Dakota might have the biggest twine snatcher from Minnesota?

Also, my old hometown of Veblen is having an election.  If you want a window into press coverage of an election in a town of about 300, it's worth reading the questionnaires the candidates filled out.

My blog focus is getting a bit single minded.  I wanted this to be a blog I'd update more often, but it's becoming almost like my MySpace blog.  I'm only updating it once a week.  I'm still waiting for my Farmington visitor's guide to follow up on my Farmington blog, and I've been so into my cliffhanger theater project.  Also, I've been making decent progress on another project, and while I don't have a shortage of words to input, I seem to be mismanaging my time. 

I will work to correct this. 

Otherwise, things in my neck of the woods are wood-like.  Kate is feeling a bit better, but the one-two punch of the flu and morning sickness is really making being Kate miserable (on top of being married to me no less).  This weekend we did sneak out to Caboodle Cafe in Lynd.  They're closing after next week for the summer, so if you don't make it out before then, pencil them in for the fall.  I'm not sure what it is about the place, but I really enjoy going.  It probably has to do with the great food and friendly atmosphere, but those sound so cliched, even if accurate.

I've been hankerin' to watch The Empire Strikes Back for some weird reason.  I have no idea why.  I think that tonight I might make it a late night and fire up the DVD player.  First off, I need to get a week's worth of X-Play off the DVR.  That will be quick, as I only watch the reviews and the news segments.  I can usually get a half hour episode watched in about six minutes.

I came close to actually putting a picture of myself as my default image.  How close?  You'll never know.

I think I captured the water tower's good side in the one I ended up using.

Yesterday, however, Massively.com reported that Wired.com reported that X-Play (G4's really terrible show about video games, formerly semi-entertaining video game review show, which was formerly an entertaining video game review show) reported that Age of Conan had topped the PC sales charts for March, apparently on pre-orders alone. Also, new reports have come in claiming that the game does not, in fact, suck anymore. More as this develops...

Well, now that that's out of the way, I looked more at The Battle for Wesnoth this morning (it's the freeware tactical game I talked about yesterday). It's not quite what I had hoped. It's tactical, sure, but it's just not the kind of thing I'm used to, and I'm not really up broadening my horizons, at the moment.

The game got a lot easier once I bothered to figure out the rules and controls. But, you essentially get unlimited units, and they can only level up a small amount so, in the later battles, both sides were simply sending wave after wave of soldiers at each other. They'd die, we'd buy more, they'd die. And, with the time limit, the only "tactics" seem to be to send a few guys to blindly rush their commander, while the rest of the soldiers protect yours.

Yeah, the rules change up a bit later on, but... Well, it's just kind of stupid. Then again, you could argue that leveling my team in Disgaea up into the thousands (multiple times) is no better, but I never really thought twice about that. And, hell, Wesnoth may even be more realistic, but I like what I like. And I just don't like the idea of people having an apparently unlimited reserve of soldiers (yeah, you need gold, but it's not terribly difficult to get) and I really don't like having to rush.

I think I'd rather just have a small army that I care about. Granted, players wouldn't be able to create their own campaigns this way (or at least not as easily), but that might be for the best. I mean, having twenty generic fantasy campaigns to play through, and starting from scratch each time, is just about as exciting as it sounds. And, aside from that, it's just really simplistic, and the game doesn't offer nearly as much flexibility as I would have expected from a game like this.

The game's not terrible, and the online component does add a lot, but I still have to say that it's one of the worst tactical games I've played. And I've played Dofus (which isn't actually a tactical game, but just a French Flash game where the  PvE battles take place on a grid) and Onimusha Tactics. So... yeah.

Bottom line, on a scale of 0-5 X-Play scores a 0.5

Mass Effect
Assasins Creed
Bioshock
COD4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Super Mario Galaxy

I keep wondering why in the world anybody in their right mind would include Assasins Creed as a contender.  Orange Box is better, Zack & Wiki's better, Uncharted, Portal, and the list goes on.

via: Kotaku

Most Original Game
* Assassin's Creed
* Portal
* Overlord
* Crackdown
* Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Best Gameplay Innovation
* Assassin's Creed (free-running/climbing)
* Mass Effect (conversation system)
* Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (online level-up system)
* Halo 3 (Forge/Replays/Screenshots)
* Crackdown (Advanced Co-op features)

Best Multiplayer Game
* World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
* Team Fortress 2
* Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
* Halo 3
* Rock Band

Best Action/Adventure Game
* Super Mario Galaxy
* Assassin's Creed
* Crackdown
* God of War II
* Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Sports Game
* MLB PowerPros
* NCAA Football 2K8
* Forza Motorsport 2
* DiRT
* Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

Best Shooter
* BioShock
* Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
* Halo 3
* Half-Life 2: Episode 2
* Team Fortress 2

Best Role Playing Game
* Mass Effect
* Final Fantasy VI Advance
* The Witcher
* Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
* Titan Quest: Immortal Throne

Best New Character
* Weighted Companion Cube (Portal)
* Saren (Mass Effect)
* Andrew Ryan (BioShock)
* GLaDOS (Portal)
* King Bohan (Heavenly Sword)

Best Art Direction
* BioShock
* Assassin's Creed
* Super Mario Galaxy
* Mass Effect
* Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Best Animation
* Assassin's Creed
* Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
* Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
* Heavenly Sword
* Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Writing/Story
* BioShock
* Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
* The Simpsons Game
* Mass Effect
* Portal

Best Original Soundtrack
* Mass Effect
* Portal
* BioShock
* Super Mario Galaxy
* Halo 3

Best Sound Design
* Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
* Assassin's Creed
* Halo 3
* BioShock
* Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Downloadable Content
* The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (XBL)
* Pac-Man Championship Edition (XBLA)
* Super Stardust HD (PSN)
* Carcassonne (XBLA)
* Crackdown Download Packs (XBL)

Best Strategy Game
* World In Conflict
* Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
* Supreme Commander
* Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar
* Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

It took me until my birthday (October) to get a DS and only about ten minutes to fall head over heels with Nintendogs. I played that every chance I got - even during classes - until Mario Kart DS came out. While my Game Cube collected dust, my DS was almost never off. And then, in January, I bought Animal Crossing: Wild World. My obsession with Nintendogs was nothing compared to AXing. I either played or thought about playing all day. I named my town, Lyra and I had a cute little purple squirrel named Static that I became freakishly attached to (he's never allowed to move out, and still remains a resident over a year and a half later). Of course, I got other games, but none of them stayed in my DS for long or grabbed my attention and dedication like AXing did.

When The 24 Game came out on the PS2 early in 2006, I began to think about getting that console. I was still blissfully unaware of the console wars and that the PS2 had the largest library of games, so I hesitated and second-guessed getting one until the summer, having both graduated and moved cross-country and in need of something to waste my time with. Ironically, though I bought the 24 game when I purchased my PS2, I still have yet to play it. Guitar Hero and Kingdom Hearts took up most of my summer of 06. And then in the fall, Okami - a game I'd been waiting for ever since Morgan Webb mentioned it on X-Play the previous spring - came out. Never has a game captivated me the way Okami did (not even AXing) and I firmly believe it is the most gorgeous and innovative game ever created.

And since I mentioned X-Play, I should also probably credit that show with transforming me from casual gamer to, well, just gamer. Morgan Webb is something of a gaming mentor to me and it's refreshing that arguably the most well-known girl gamer doesn't fit into the ridiculously annoying, airheaded and sexualized stereotype that most girl gamers seem to have embraced. Even though I am a girl, I do not like to call myself a "girl gamer" because of the horrible stereotype of girls that play games just to get guys or think they're the shit because they play Halo. (I'm not saying that every girl gamer does this, but there's no denying that this stereotype does exist).

But back to games, I got a DS Lite for my 22nd birthday and a Wii for Christmas last year. My AXing phase has since died down and I've gotten quite good at Band Brothers and Elite Beat Agents (music games hold a special place in my heart). Of the Wii titles out now, I absolutely adore Elebits, Super Paper Mario and - of course - Wii Sports. And there are tons of games that I'm looking forward to as well. It seems as though I have a predisposition to adore anything that Nintendo puts out more than anyone else, and I'm not sure why that is.

I'm currently considering getting either a PS3 or a XBox 360, though I may end up with both. On the one hand, I'm sure Kingdom Hearts 3 will be out on the PS3 and I really want to play Little Big Planet and Lair. On the other hand, 360 has Viva Pinata. For me, it's not about Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Microsoft, but rather, which console has the best games. I'm not really a fangirl of anything, because even though I love Nintendo most of all, I readily will acknowledge their faults and shortcomings in the gaming world. I guess we'll just see what happens and which company and/or game developer forces me to justify plunking down $400+ first.

So that's my story. If you've made it this far, you really deserve a prize. Sorry I can't give you any achievement points. I would if I could.