Continuing Comic Booked’s coverage of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Brown v. EMA, I thought it appropriate to take a look back on the case and its seven year journey to the Supreme Court.

As you may already know, at issue in Brown v. EMA was a California law that would have penalized retailers for selling violent games to minors. This represented a second legislative attack on the industry by California State Senator Leland Yee, who many in the gaming community have compared to former attorney Jack Thompson, given his persistence in pursuing such regulation. The bill in question was basically a toned down version of similar one that Yee drafted in 2004. The law, a pair of bills dubbed AB 1792 and AB 1793, passed and was signed by then-Governor Schwarzeneggar in October of 2005.

First and foremost, this law would have banned the sale of violent video games to the sale of anyone under eighteen, despite the fact that the ESRB’s M rating designates a game as appropriate for ages seventeen and up. In addition to this, it required clear labeling beyond the ESRB system (which, given the nature and placement of ESRB ratings and content descriptors, would have been redundant to say the least) and imposed a fine of up to $1000 for violations. Yee attempted to justify all of this by defining violent video games with a variation of the Miller obscenity test, although, as noted in the Court’s opinion, the legal definition of obscenity (and thus, the Miller test) applies strictly to sexual material, rather than violence.

As was the case with the numerous similar laws that were introduced across the country in the past decade, the California law was almost immediately challenged by the industry, with the EMA (known, at the time, as the VDSA) filing suit less some ten days after Schwarzeneggar signed it into law. Although it was set to go into effect in January 2006, a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement was granted by Judge Ronald Whyte of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.  The case remained in court until August 2007, when Whyte ruled in favor of the industry, holding that not only did the law violate the First Amendment, but also that there was not sufficient proof that video games either differed sufficiently from other media or had a causal link to violent behavior.

Now, since you clicked on an article about a Supreme Court case, you already know that California appealed this ruling, setting them apart from other states (which simply accepted that their anti-video game laws were unconstitutional following the initial ruling), with Schwarzeneggar vowing to “vigorously defend this law,” (a stance that many in the gaming community viewed as hypocritical, given that he came to fame as the star of countless ultra-violent action movies). This appeal took the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Unsurprisingly, the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court’s ruling, further holding that the California law was subject to strict scrutiny (the most stringent standard of judicial review concerning federal law, under which a law must be “justified by a compelling government interest and [be] narrowly drawn to serve that interest”), thus dismissing a key argument in California’s defense. That argument was California’s insistence that it should be held to a variable obscenity standard established in Ginsberg v. New York (a 1968 obscenity case dealing with sexually explicit material, in which the Supreme Court ruled that material not necessarily considered obscene could still be harmful to minors). In rejecting this argument, the Ninth Circuit also noted that the Supreme Court had been careful to place significant limits on the variable obscenity standard, so that it applied only to sexual material. True to his word, Schwazeneggar subsequently appealed this ruling as well, petitioning for certiorari in May 2009.

As you may recall, it was a rather big deal when the Supreme Court granted decided to hear the case, and not just because of the implications of the ruling. Indeed, to many it was shocking that the Court even bothered with the case given the dozen or so unanimous rulings that had been handed down in lower courts across the country that the California law and others like it were in violation of the First Amendment. Whether it’s true or not, I like to think of this as the Court’s attempt at settling the issue, or at the very least setting a definitive legal precedent in the matter. In any event, the game industry and several affiliated groups followed this announcement with a seldom seen display of cohesion, as petitions and amicus briefs flowed from groups as diverse as the ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association), the Electronic Freedom Foundation, Microsoft, the ACLU, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, even the MPAA and the Future of Music Coalition.

Reading the arguments at the time, I remember enjoying myself as  Zackery Morazzini (the attorney representing California) was grilled by none other than Justice Scalia. While Morazzini offered many of the same tired arguments against media violence (which I’m sure we’ve all heard a thousand times before), Scalia seemed to poke holes in his arguments at every turn, though he was hardly the only Justice to do so, with Ginsburg at one point directly asking what made video games so special, a point the Chief Justice reiterated as Morazzini feebly attempted to dodge the question. Morazzini’s argument tended to follow this pattern throughout, with him raising feeble arguments and the Justices asking pointed (and at times obvious) questions. Indeed, Scalia even raised a number of points that he would later revisit in his opinion (including comparisons with the famously gruesome Grimm’s Fairy Tales). That’s not to say things were one-sided. Indeed, the Justices (particularly Justice Breyer, who ultimately dissented) also turned a critical eye toward the arguments of the EMA, as presented by Paul Smith. However, Smith’s argument seemed better constructed, and Smith himself better prepared for the Justice’s questioning that his counterpart. Indeed, he phrase “I don’t know,” seemed to be something of a mantra for Mr. Morazzini, whereas Mr. Smith responded far more readily and presented his case in, I feel, a far more persuasive manner.

And of course, we now know how that ended. If you missed it, you can see my coverage of Justice Scalia’s opinion here. I would also highly recommend reading the oral arguments. While I did my best to sum them up, it is, to say the least, difficult to do them justice in the space and time available. If you’re interested, you can find a transcript here.

Be sure to stay tuned to Comic Booked!

 

Tags: Brown v. EMA, California, censorship, comic booked, first amendment, free speech, History, Jack Thompson, Leland Yee, Nick C, opinion, oral arguments, protected speech, Schwarzeneggar v. EMA, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Video Games

About the Author

Written by Nick C

Just a geek from Philly. From comics to video games, you name it and I’ve probably spent way too much time and money on it. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/brown-v-ema-from-the-beginning/

Earlier today (June 27^th), the US Supreme Court announced its historic ruling in the case of Brown v. EMA (formerly Schwarzeneggar v.  EMA). Thanks to this ruling, as of now, video games are officially protected speech, with the weight and precedent of a Supreme Court ruling to back it up. While perhaps not “historic” in the same sense as the likes of Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board or Roe v. Wade, it is nonetheless a landmark in the history of gaming.

Today’s ruling was, I must admit, a genuine surprise to me. Not only did the Supreme Court solidify the standing of video games as protected speech, they did so with a 7-2 majority! In all honesty, while there was little doubt in my mind that the Court would uphold the District Court and Ninth Circuit rulings, I expected the vote to be far closer, perhaps even 5-4. Regardless, this represents the culmination of a decade of litigation regarding the subject of violent video games, much of it spearheaded by Jack Thompson, a since-disbarred attorney infamous in gaming circles for his erratic behavior and wild assertions. Of course, with nearly a dozen lower court cases unanimously rejecting laws like California’s, if anything it is more of a relief than a surprise to see SCOTUS rule in the industry’s favor.

Particularly gratifying to politically savvy gamers is the fact that the Court’s opinion (authored by Justice Scalia) in many respects echoes arguments gamers have been espousing for years. Including a number of statements regarding the unconstitutional nature of these laws, the fact that video games are not the first medium to suffer this scrutiny (a list that includes films, comic books, and the so-called penny dreadful of the nineteenth century) and the fact that even California acknowledged that it could not demonstrate a direct causal link between violent video games and violent behavior. More than gratifying, this is vindicating for the games-as-art crowd, of which I firmly count myself as a member (if you disagree, go play something like Ico or Bioshock, and then we’ll talk). While not, strictly speaking, a formal declaration of artiness, the fact that the highest court in the land has placed games in the same category as the works of William Shakespeare

Key to understanding the ruling (from a legal standpoint) is the following quote from Scalia’s opinion: “As in Stevens, California has tried to make violent-speech regulation look like obscenity regulation by appending a saving clause to the latter. That does not suffice. Our cases have been clear that the obscenity exception to the First Amendment does not cover whatever a legislature finds shocking, but only depictions of ‘sexual conduct.’” To elaborate, the case Scalia is referring to is United States v. Stevens, which went before the Court last year. At issue in Stevens was a statute that criminalized the commercial production, sale or possession of depictions of animal cruelty. Ultimately, the Court struck down the statute, noting (as Scalia does when drawing the comparison in his opinion) that “There was no American tradition of forbidding the depiction of animal cruelty – though States have long had laws against committing it.” Like Brown, Stevens was a case that sought to categorize a particular depiction of violence as unprotected speech, justifying it on the grounds of obscenity. However, in the legal sense, the term “obscenity” applies strictly to sexual material – particularly pornography. And as… distasteful as animal abuse (or, to some parties, Grand Theft Auto) may be, it is certainly not pornography.

And so another in the long line of anti-gaming laws has been struck down in court. But this time, it was in the Supreme Court of the United States, setting a precedent that will endure for decades to come, or at least until some new medium comes along for the fear mongers to target. So gamers everywhere, rejoice! The war may not yet be over, but the day is ours, and an unquestionably major battle has been won. Now pat yourselves on the back and pick up a controller, I know I’m going to. But first, I want to leave you with some highlights from the Court’s opinion.

• The Free Speech Clause exists principally to protect discourse on public matters, but we have long recognized that it is difficult to distinguish politics from entertainment, and dangerous to try.
• Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world). That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.
• And whatever the challenges of applying the Constitution to ever-advancing technology, “the basic principles of freedom of speech and the press, like the First Amendment’s command, do not vary” when a new and different medium for communication appears.
• No doubt a State possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm, but that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.
• Such laws do not enforce parental authority over children’s speech and religion, they impose governmental authority…
• California’s argument would fare better if there was a longstanding tradition in this country of restricting children’s access to depictions of violence, but there is none.
• California relies primarily on the research of Dr. Craig Anderson and a few other research psychologists whose studies purport to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children. These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason: They do not prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively (which would at least be a beginning).
• Not all of the children who are forbidden to purchase violent video games on their own have parents who care whether they purchase violent video games.
• California’s effort to regulate violent video games is the latest episode in a long series of failed attempts to censor violent entertainment for minors.
• Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply.

Stay tuned to Comic Booked for more coverage of this momentous ruling, and if you want to read the full opinion (including Justice Alito’s concurrence and Justice Thomas’s dissent) here.

 

 

Tags: Brown v. EMA, California, censorship, comic booked, first amendment, free speech, Jack Thompson, Leland Yee, Nick C, opinion, protected speech, Schwarzeneggar v. EMA, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Video Games

About the Author

Written by Nick C

Just a geek from Philly. From comics to video games, you name it and I’ve probably spent way too much time and money on it. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/scotus-deems-video-games-protected-speech/

Earlier this year at Wonder Con 2011 Cousin Matt and I had the opportunity to each experience the upcoming Captain America: Super Solider video game in our own ways. Cousin Matt by getting a first hand experience of playing it, and myself through an awesome interview correspondence with the fantastic Christos Gage in the time that followed. Below is my interview, complete with official screen caps courtesy by the fine folks at SEGA, as well as Cousin Matt’s own first hand re-telling of the game complete with pictures taken live from the event. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Image is the property of Captain America: Super Soldier

 

Image is the property of Captain America: Super Soldier

 

***

N – Hello again, Chris. It was so nice meeting you at Wonder Con this weekend, and thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

C - Pleasure to meet you as well! I’m glad to have the chance to chat.

C- I’d have to say bringing the villains in. Giving voice to Baron Strucker’s arrogance and condescension… introducing the idea of a World War II era Madame Hydra… and convincing everyone that Iron Cross, a fairly obscure antagonist from the 1970′s INVADERS comic, would make for an awesome boss fight!

 

 

Image is the property of Captain America: Super Soldier

 

 

Image is the property of Captain America: Super Soldier

 

C- Not really…he’s just cool. A walking tank! What’s cooler than that?

C- It is tough to choose. I enjoyed writing the sadistic Madame Hydra, and I am told she steals the show, so I can’t wait to see her in action!

 

 

Image is the property of Captain America: Super Soldier

 

 

Image is the property of Captain America: Super Soldier

 

C- No, I’ve only played what you saw at Wondercon. I’m getting really good at those 17 minutes, though!

N- Hahaha!! I bet!! Ah, that is awesome. Mm, well, final question then. What does Captain America mean to you, as a human, a creator, and a fan?

C- Captain America, to me, represents the ideals behind America. Not a political party or administration, but the dreams of freedom, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He represents the best we can be, not just physically but in terms of who we are. And as a fan, he means thirty years of awesome stories, firing my imagination and
inspiring me to go after the best job I could ever have!

***

 

 

Image is the property of Captian America: Super Soldier

 

Image is the property of Captian America: Super Soldier

 

Well there you have it, a fantastic interview that I enjoyed immensely and waited on anxious pins and needles to share with your all.

 

Now, for Cousin Matt’s take on it…

 

***

Hey to you all again, this is Cousin Matt bringing you the summary of the game Captain America: Super Soldier, coming out July 19th 2011.  

I kind of wish that I wasn’t really in front of a bunch of viewers when I played it at WonderCon, not because I was a little shy  and get nervous easily even if I am pretty much like that.  When I arrived there, I watched as a little boy was kicking serious butt against a whole group of Nazi’s.

When I started to play, I felt like my seven year old self still trying to figure out how to press what button did what, even with the guy showing me how to use the controls was telling me what to do.   Still, I was a quick leaner and could knock the teeth out of the villains quicker than you can say “CAPTAI…” and get promptly knocked out.

The game itself is incredible, though.  When I played it I had a similar feeling to Grand Theft Auto IV.  This of course meant the character was just a bit on the slow side, but beyond that, the way the main guy attacked was a bit like our dear friend Niko Bellic, plus a few more action moves like  Batman from Arkham Asylum.  The fights are very fluent and you can change to different targets quickly, and even throw the shield at a man who is just a second away from firing his gun at you.  You can even go into a quick cinematic event during a fight that will show Cap laying the ‘smack down’ on the opponent, and it isn’t a quick time event like most would believe it to be.

There is also a quick minigame that will unlock a door for you while you play it, which is pretty much connecting the letters and numbers together.  The children behind me giggled when I tried to cross the words together but missed constantly.

My favorite part of the game was a situation that I myself made, and showed me that I was going to be very willing to play the game when it came out.  You see, my favorite, FAVORITE game is Saints Row 2, the one game that I constantly play over and over again.  Why?  Because I always find something new to play.  From watching some random civilian fall off the tallest building, to smacking myself across the city by exploding the car that I was standing upon.  It’s all due to the openness of the game.

Sure, Captain America:  Super Soldier is linear, but it was a quick fight that lead me to find that there was an opening for interesting things to happen. While my helper was going to let me try the non-quick time event knock-out, I suddenly smashed my arm into a face of a random Nazi.  The strike hit the poor guard so hard that he flew into the air, his head slamming into the top of the doorway behind him..and he spun in the air before landing in a heap on the ground before me.

 

 

Yeah, the guy next to me laughed pretty hard.  

I could say I have other stories about the game itself, but it was only a taste of the game.  Plus I felt really bad when I felt a tug on my jeans and saw a very, very tiny five-six year old boy wanted to play after me, giving me the look like I was truly hogging all the fun.  I felt bad, I really did.  When I finished to a point, I restarted the game for the boy and handed it to him, chuckling when another boy twice his size yelled that it was his turn..Blah, let the little tyke get his turn first, I say.

So anyway, I highly recommend the game, and if there is further information, be ready to see yet another article with my name on it to tell you much needed info.  Besides, between you and me, I really am curious to see what Arnim Zola will look like in the game, mostly because he always looked ridiculous to me!

 

 

 

Captain America: Super Solider hits stores everywhere on July 19th, 2011. So if you’re a fan of Cap, Marvel, or just awesome Video Games, feel free to pick it up and press start. – N

 

Tags: Captain America, captain america super soldier, Christos Gage, Comics, Cousin Matt, news, Nicole Sixx, SEGA, wonder con, wonder con 2011

About the Author

Written by Nicole Sixx

I’m a writer who loves to entertain and be entertained. My motto for life is the geekier the better!

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/captain-america-super-soldier-interview-and-review/

Yes, I know, this week’s Gamer Pulse is late. You can blame that on the heavy stream of non gaming-related articles I published this week. The next edition of Gamer Pulse will arrive on Friday, July 1st, so, we’ll be back on track by then. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what happened in the gaming industry this week, shall we?

 

- Valve’s beloved Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play last week. Yes, that’s right, free-to-play. Forever. For the uninitiated, TF2 is a first-person-shooter title that allows players to assume control of different character classes and engage in all-out battle royales. Since its release a few years ago, the game has enjoyed massive popularity. The decision to make the game free-to-play has been met with much praise and has catapulted the game into the coveted most-played position on the Steam service. The conversion to free-to-play also brought a new title update and an animated “Meet the Medic” video (the latest entry in a series of hilarious videos meant to introduce players to the TF2 character classes). If you’d like to get in on the fun, then head over to the Steam store (either in your browser or Steam client) and install the game. The guys over at reddit have set up a forum specifically for introducing new players to the various intricacies of TF2. If you’re a new player, then definitely check that out to avoid some unnecessary humiliation as you take your first steps in a new gaming world!

- Sad news for fans of the long-running Star Wars Galaxies MMO: Sony announced that the game will shut down at the end of the year after a six-year run. While it’s not particularly surprising that the game is being brought to a close, especially given the impending release of The Old Republic, it’s always sad to see such a long-standing title go dark. Hats off to Sony for keeping the game running this long.

- Remember L.A. Noire? Of course you do. Well, Rockstar announced that the critically-acclaimed detective game will be arriving on PC this fall (in both physical and digital form). The move came after some gamers feared that a PC version of L.A. Noire would be neglected, just like Rockstar’s previous release, Red Dead Redemption. Comic Booked shined the spotlight on L.A. Noire back when it was released – Robb Orr gave our official review of the game and I put it head-to-head against last year’s investigation drama, Heavy Rain. Check both out for more information about the title. We’ll give you a concrete release date as soon as one is officially announced.

- News broke late last week about the arrival of micro-transactions on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Under a new set of guidelines, developers would be allowed to release free-to-play games with an option to charge for additional content. (items, levels, characters, etc.) This is definitely an interesting approach to delivering new content to gamers. It puts a lot of risk on the developer (who has to pay fees to have the game accepted onto the Marketplace). No official word on when we can expect the first wave of free-to-play titles, but, as always, stay tuned to Comic Booked as we’ll be keeping track of this new, exciting feature.

- Dying to get a sneak peek at Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception? Who isn’t, really? Well, for you PlayStation Plus subscribers, this should be a very fun week! Sony announced that, on June 28th, all Plus subscribers will be able to access the multiplayer beta for one of this year’s most anticipated titles. No word on how long this beta runs for, so be sure to get on it as fast as possible. Access to the beta was announced as part of a series of upcoming Plus perks for subscribers. You can check out the full list of goodies, which includes demo access, free downloadable content, and other exclusives, on the official PlayStation Blog.

-  Miyamoto sat down for an interview this week to elaborate some more on the upcoming Wii U. The most important thing to take away from it is how Nintendo says their next console will fair compared to the current generation of systems from competitors Sony and Microsoft. Miyamoto said:

We’re very sensitive, of course, to trying to do all of this at an appropriate price. So I don’t know that we would be able to sit here and say that it’s going to necessarily dramatically outperform the systems that are out now. It’s part of the balance that we strike in terms of trying to find entertainment that is new and unique.

Finally, I need to end Gamer Pulse on a correction. As Dan Amrich pointed out to me on twitter, I described Call of Duty: Elite as a “pay-to-play service” in last week’s Gamer Pulse, which is incorrect. Call of Duty: Elite, to quote Dan,

“… will [feature] a premium membership level for people who want it, but Elite is free, [multiplayer] is free.”

You can find out more about the upcoming Call of Duty: Elite service on Dan’s blog and here on Comic Booked. Apologies for the misnomer, folks.

That’ll do it for Gamer Pulse this week. We’ll be back on Friday with more of the latest news from the gaming industry. In the meantime, check out what some of our other staff have been talking about in the video games industry: an introduction to Red Faction: Armageddon and tons of information about the Captain America video game tie-in. Until then, stay tuned to Comic Booked, and, as always, thanks for reading!

 

Tags: Call of Duty: Elite, comic booked, Dan Amrich, Gamer Pulse, Kyle Black, L.A. Noire, Star Wars Galaxies, Team Fortress 2, TF2, The Old Republic, Uncharted 3 Beta, Valve, XBLA, XBOX Live Marketplace

About the Author

Written by Kyle Black

Kyle Black has been a gamer his whole life. Recently, he has decided to merge his love of gaming with his love of writing. The resulting product: a gig here on Comic Booked writing about, what else, video games!

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/gamer-pulse-team-fortress-2-for-everybody/

 

Tags: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Batman, Catwoman, Comic Books, Comics, Damian Wayne, DC, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Joker, Robin, Rocksteady, Tim Drake, Video Games

 

About the Author

Written by Jordamus Prime

Born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia, Jordan DesJardins is what many would call a “Geek”. An avid collector of both comic books and action figures, Jordan can often be seen at comic conventions or scouring the city for the latest Transformers to hit the shelves. Contact Jordan at jordamusprime@comicbooked.com

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/robin-playable-in-batman-arkham-city/

This last week Sucker Punch released inFamous 2, the sequel to the shockingly good (pun intended) first game.  The first inFamous game was a PS3 exclusive (as is this sequel) that generated praise from fans and critics, won an IGN award for “best story,” and even spawned a DC comic that bridges the gap between the two games!  At the 2010 Emerald City Comicon I had the chance to talk extensively with game and comic writer, William Harms (super nice guy), and I have eagerly been awaiting this sequel ever since.  I loved the first game; but could lightning strike twice?  Would inFamous 2 live up to expectations?  The answer, for this reviewer, is a resounding YES!

Premise

The story in the first game has protagonist, Cole McGrath, receiving superhuman powers as the result of a disaster in his hometown of Empire City.  Cole gains the ability to channel and manipulate electricity, kind of like a kick-ass version of that 90’s movie “Powder,” but not as albino.  Cole can throw various electrical attacks from his hands, as well as drain electricity from cars and the power-grid to recharge his abilities and heal himself.  From there he navigates an open-world sandbox city to discover new powers and restore order and electricity to the city through good or evil actions.  Maps, the HUD, and way-points make navigation simple.  The mission choices and actions you make in the game influence a “Karma Meter” that determines what powers will become available to Cole, how the citizens will react to him, and even how he and the city will start to look.  Choose the good path and an evil mission will be locked out until you replay the game, and vice versa.  Carefully take enemies down and try not to harm citizens or destroy everything?  Make the people love you or rule by fear?  Have them cheer your name or run in terror?  This is a fun premise that does superhero or villain better than most comic-based games.  Didn’t play the first game?  No sweat, inFamous 2 will have you up to speed right from the beginning with a motion-comic cut-scene that easily initiates new players to the events that have transpired.  You can also play the first game for FREE as part of Sony’s “Welcome back customer appreciation promo.”

Story

inFamous 2 starts out with a big set-piece battle with a huge new enemy referred to as “The Beast.”  Cole mixes it up with this new baddy, only to find himself not powerful enough to emerge victorious.  A character from the first game, an NSA agent named Lucy Kuo, informs Cole of a Dr. Wolfe, that lives down the coast in the city of New Marais (a fiction surrogate for New Orleans) that may hold the key to making Cole powerful enough to defeat this new enemy.  With that Cole, Kuo, and friend Zeke set off on their quest.  New Marais is a beautiful city with problems.  It is under control by a radical fundamentalist militia run by a leader named Bertrand, and under siege by Conduit monsters.  Looks like Cole will have his work cut out for him.  New and old characters will emerge to tempt Cole to take good or evil paths.  Will Cole become powerful enough before The Beast makes its way down the eastern seaboard to New Marais?

What stays the same?

This sequel does not stray very far from the things that made the first game great.  The controls are nearly the same, with the addition of L2 being able to activate the radar pulse.  The controls will instantly come back to you if you played the first game, and fit like a glove.  Cole retains a few of his abilities from the first game, and thankfully the power of electro-gliding is one of them.  This power makes it fun to navigate the city.  Make impossible jumps from a rooftop to a power-line with ease.  In this game, as in the first one, you can climb any and all buildings and structures and falling will only bruise your ego.  It really is a blast.  Though many of Cole’s powers from the first game are stripped away (it would have been nice to retain the ability to charge up by grinding power-lines), you will quickly gain new ones by finding blast shards and gaining experience points that can be used to purchase new abilities.  inFamous 2 has an excellent balance between exploration and action.  There are so many side missions and things to do, you never lack for new tasks.

What’s new?

In many ways inFamous 2 adheres closely to the first game, but there are a few noticeable improvements.  The graphics in this installment are leaps ahead of the previous game. The character animations, city, and backdrops are beautiful and vibrant.  There are breath-taking gulf sunsets and atmospheric moonlit nights. The city looks lived in, with rich and poor districts, paint peeling on structures, animated Times Square-like signage, swamps, flooded neighborhoods, industrial zones, and so much more. Characters move in a move flourished and fluid manner.

The character of Cole was redesigned a bit superhero-like early in the game’s development, but fans were not happy with the new look.  As a result, he was redesigned yet again with a more tattooed messenger type of look.  New skins aren’t the only change you may notice.  A new actor, Eric Laden (Left 4 Dead 2, Generation Kill) was brought in voice Cole since this game would require more motion capture.  I must admit, the new voice is not as good.  Laden comes off too throaty and gritty.  Cole’s lines feel contrived and almost seem like a parody of Batman.  Less may have been more in this case.  The motion capture performance turned in by Laden does look good, however.

New weapons and abilities are sprinkled throughout inFamous 2.  Melee fighting is now done with a two-pronged weapon designed by Zeke and called “The AMP.”  New powers and electric bolts are introduced, my favorite of which is “The Bolt Stream,” Think of it like the machine-gun of electrical charges.  After unlocking this ability, I wondered how I ever lived without it.  There is no shortage of innovative and fun ways to disbatch with enemies.

Probably the biggest addition to inFamous 2 is the user-generated content.  That’s right, players now have the ability to create missions to share online, or play missions others have created.  UGC missions appear as green cones in the game, and can be sorted by different filters.  While not as extensive as say, LittleBigPlanet content, this new feature is a welcome addition and makes a very re-playable game even more so.

Summary

Some people have complained about the camera in infamous 2.  I personally had few problems with the camera, even in tight melee situations.  Lose track of an enemy combatant and they may flank you.  The HUD makes this less of an issue, so take such complaints with a grain of salt.   I did have instances where my melee attacks would miss my intended target if I wasn’t lined up just right.  I did have a couple of times that Cole became stuck in the environment, but nothing to excess.  Other complaints have been about how the screen fades to black and white as you take damage and near death.  Again, this method is employed in many games at this point, and wasn’t a problem for me.  Another complaint I have heard is that the moral choices are too black and white (or red and blue in this case) obvious.  There is some truth to this.  It would be nice to have some choices that weren’t so obvious and inhabited the moral “gray” area.  In one mission I dumped oil all over like I was BP, set it on fire without considering the citizens below, and still received a heroic rating on the mission.  I think this game missed a great opportunity to import your moral choices from the first game into this installment.  The first half of the game has an excellent story, but does seem to become a little muddled in the second act.  The ending has a nice twist that I won’t spoil for you here.  In the end these complaints are small.  This game is excellent, and most importantly, REALLY FUN TO PLAY!  If you own a PS3, you would be remiss not to play such an excellent exclusive title.  I rate inFamous 2, 9 out of 10 and happily look forward to replaying it!

Tags: Game, inFamous, inFamous 2, Review, Robb Orr, Sucker-Punch, videogames, William Harms

About the Author

Written by Robb Orr

Robb Orr is a comic bibliophile and game aficionado from the “Emerald City” of Seattle, WA. He hopes to win enough favor to gain pet status after the upcoming and inevitable monkey apocalypse comes to fruition.

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/ride-the-lightning-an-infamous-2-review/

In the wake of E3, controversy struck the gaming industry. But it isn’t all bad news in this week’s Gamer Pulse – the Metal Gear Solid franchise, and its developer, Kojima Productions, are expanding their horizons in a big way. Duke Nukem Forever was finally unleashed upon the world as well. The most important thing to take out of this week is the return of the old “evil” EA, the publishing house that devoured beloved companies such as Maxis.

- For those jaded by Activision’s management of the Call of Duty franchie, DICE’s upcoming Battlefield 3 has become something of a messiah. Industry analysts are putting a lot of faith in Battlefield 3 as being the first serious challenger to Call of Duty‘s prevalence in the FPS universe. EA made an announcement this week that sent the Battlefield 3 community into crisis mode. The “Physical Warfare Pack” was announced earlier in the week. This downloadable content would give players who pre-ordered the game several critical upgrades out-of-the-box: day-one access to one of the best shotguns in the game, an exclusive light machine gun, armor-piercing shotgun rounds, and a flash suppressor accessory for snipers, described as “the essential weapon mod for teamplay Recons at the front.” The initial announcement of this pack also mentioned that it would be exclusive to players who had pre-ordered the game, an announcement that sent gamers into a fury, with gamers across different gaming websites organizing letter-writing campaigns and boycotts of the product. Not long after, a “clarification” was posted on the official Battlefield 3 blog, stating that the Physical Warfare pack would be made available, for free, to all users sometime after the game was released. The gaming community has since quelled its rage. An expansion, similar to the Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam, called Back to Karkand, was also announced.

- In other EA news, Crysis 2 mysteriously vanished from Valve’s digital content distribution service, Steam, this week. The gaming community pointed the finger at EA, assuming that the title was removed from Steam to draw customers to EA’s new distribution service, Origin; however, the company retaliated, claiming that Valve was responsible for the title’s disappearance, citing a possible violation of Steam regulations. While we’ve yet to receive final clarification on this mystery, it’s important to remember, as we announced in Gamer Pulse a few weeks back, that Bioware’s upcoming Star Wars MMORPG, The Old Republic, will be able digitally exclusively through Origin. Another anticipated EA product, Battlefield 3, has yet to appear for pre-order on Steam as well. We will update you with further developments on this possible EA withdrawal from Steam as they become clearer.

- Duke Nukem Forever has finally arrived in gamers’ hands and, for the most part, reviewers have been unimpressed by the title. The PC version of the title currently sits at an underwhelming 44.89% on Game Rankings, a metacritic service that aggregates reviews from a variety of different outlets. The Redner Group, a PR firm responsible (well, formerly responsible) for handling review copies of Duke Nukem Forever and, assumedly, other 2K Games titles, took to Twitter to announce their disappointment with DNF‘s treatment by reviewers, saying:

TheRednerGroup: #AlwaysBetonDuke too many went too far with their reviews…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.

2K Games, justifiably furious, responded to the outburst, saying:

2KGames: 2K Games does not endorse or condone the comments made by @TheRednerGroup and confirm they no longer represent our products.

If you own a PR firm and are looking for new clients, 2K Games is probably in need of a new outlet for handling their titles.

- Remember that pay-to-play Call of Duty: Elite service we announced a few weeks back? An Activision representative gave an update on the current number of registrants for the beta testing phase of the service – Dan Amrich happily reported that over 2 million users have already volunteered to participate in beta testing for Call of Duty: Elite. In other words, Activision’s latest money-grabbing scheme will probably be a success when the service officially launches.

- Let’s end the week on a good note, yes? For those of you who rank among the devotees of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, and Kojima Productions in general, some great things are happening. Recently, HD ports of Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker were announced for the PS3. Some gamers felt a bit bummed over the exclusion of the original Metal Gear Solid title. Kojima Productions offered a bit of solace this week, stating that a MGS HD would require more attention than its PS2 counterparts because of the “low polygon count” in the original game. Basically, if Kojima Productions wants to update the classic PS1 title, they’ll need to do a bit more than just update graphics – it would be a full-blown remake (perhaps an opportunity to launch the new Fox Engine, developed by Kojima Productions?). Kojima also announced that all future Metal Gear Solid titles on Sony consoles will feature cross-platform compatibility thanks to the studio’s new cloud storage system.

That’ll do it for Gamer Pulse this week. Wizard World Philadelphia is this week, so I, along with some of the other staff, will be scouring the convention hall for reportable goodies for all of you. In the meantime, check out Robb Orr’s INFAMOUS 2 review (spoiler alert: he really liked it). As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned to Comic Booked!

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Tags: battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Elite, EA, inFamous 2, Kojima, Kyle Black, Metal Gear Solid HD, Metal Gear Solid Remake, Modern Warfare 3, Robb Orr

About the Author

Written by Kyle Black

Kyle Black has been a gamer his whole life. Recently, he has decided to merge his love of gaming with his love of writing. The resulting product: a gig here on Comic Booked writing about, what else, video games!

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/gamer-pulse-the-eampire-strikes-back/

It’s been awhile since I wrote anything about a game, though I will admit that there are a few I played and others I narrowly dodged like the plague.   The dodgy ones are the ones I won’t tell you about.

There was one surprise for me though. One night while I was watching…something,  a commercial came on about a new game that looked like it rocked.  It was blasting hardcore music while guys were shooting left and right, and a guy that looked a little like Quan Chi with a Mad Max style of outfit kept showing up and showing off an evil grin.

So what was this game, I wondered, as the commercial took up nearly thirty seconds of my time, not even suggesting a hint of what it could be.

Then…it came…

Red Faction: Armageddon.

What?

Now, the creators of the Red Faction series had created another series that I am truly devoted to, the Saints Row Series.  During the wait time when I suddenly found myself drooling over Saints Row 2 for the umpteenth time, I figured I‘d check out other Volitiongames.  The biggest game from them?  Red Faction.  So I rented RF: Guerrilla to try it out and it felt a little like Saints Row in space, yet it had a few things that I couldn’t really get into.  The cars were great but I had to climb terrain that apparently was too steep for my heaps called vehicles to go up. The color scheme made everything hard to see. Plus I quit after the eighth time I stupidly had a building land on my head when I walked under it.  Still, it was a good enough game to where I gave it merit and made me love Volition all the more, yet it wasn’t for me.

Seeing this Red Faction Armageddon commercial and bumping into it a few times during its release date, I figured I’d try it, y’know, just because.  I was really surprised by how interesting this game was.

Okay, before you continue to read, let me warn you that I will be spoiling a little bit of the game’s beginning, so be warned.  I will not be spoiling the end though, just a few things on why they call it Armageddon.

You play as Darius Mason, an equally clean-shaven grandson of Alec (the guy you play in Guerilla).  You are sent on a mission to defend the Terraformer, the device that made Mars’ surface inhabitable, against a group of terrorists led by the Quan Chi guy named Adam Hale.  He tricks you with a very old comical trick and destroys the Terraformer. You find out that people survived the sudden climate change by digging underground. Ten years later, Darius is still roughing it out with his people, trying to survive and glad that Adam Hale is dead.

No surprise, you find that Adam is alive and had tricked you again; getting you to open a vessel and releasing an unspeakable alien horror that threatens to destroy the rest of humanity on Mars.

Huh?  Aliens on Mars?  Who would have thought.

You set out at first to defend the colony against the alien Horde while once more fighting the terrorists that Hale sends at you.  You can already tell that throughout the game you will quickly learn one thing:  Adam Hale is a Dick, especially with all he’s done to you from the get go.

You have an array of weapons, and surprisingly, a good number to choose from the beginning.  Within the first three missions you should have at least 10 weapons to choose from  (which sucks a bit because you really only have four open weapon slots) as well as your great Hammer that you can destroy anything with.  Each weapon has its own specialty, and you can find entertainment with each of them (though I will tell you that I could not figure out the damned magnet gun for the life of me).  You can also upgrade various abilities by collecting salvage, which is laying everywhere after you demolish buildings.  You can also fix things as well  by just holding a button; so you can destroy everything to collect salvage, then magically return it all back to it’s former glory (and no, you can’t destroy and keep collecting infinite salvage from it, sadly. I tried).

There are only a few things that I have issues with in the game, though nothing that some of you pros can’t handle.  For once thing, when you play on the normal difficulty setting, some of the areas can be a little foreboding. I died several times during one level because I was apparently too slow to kill twenty mid-sized warriors and the spawning pods that they are created from.  Too many times I found myself walking into a little crook and cranny to suck my thumb until my health is restored, and even then there’s a 20% chance that the mid-sized warriors will snipe you, or destroy the terrain above you, thus killing you.  I know, there are times when you just want to be surrounded by baddies and show how studly you are by smearing them across the walls. Then there are times where you scream at the screen for how stupid the situation is, especially when you can’t backtrack and fire at the enemy so they don’t get behind you!  Yeah, as you can tell, this happened to me a few times. It doesn’t help when the AI is smart enough to try to get behind you with four guys, so you’re taking fire from every location!

Besides that, the game itself was interesting, although  you should be warned that you probably won’t see the world itself and be stuck in small caverns throughout most of the game.  I’m kind of glad the walls aren’t destructible, since I might have had the entire cavern fall on me when I stupidly hit it with the hammer or force-attacked it.  I will recommend it to Red-Faction Fans as well as any that aren’t interested in the Faction series, mostly because it’s different from the rest of the series, as you won’t be fighting ENF anymore, (that or I didn’t get far enough).   Considering the situation though, it will be mostly Darius Mason as Thor, with his mighty hammer of Mjölnir, versus Adam Hale as Loki and his terrorist group.  If you think of them as this, well, you might enjoy it.  Plus I can tell what’s happening, compared to Lost Planet 2 when I couldn’t tell the difference from vegetation and the alien eating at my eyeballs.

Tags: Red Faction, Red Faction: Armageddon, Review, Video Games, Volition

About the Author

Written by Cousin Matt

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Article source: http://www.comicbooked.com/cousin-matts-intro-to-red-faction-armageddon/