The Select and Start News Report: 07.02.07
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 07.02.2007
The Manhunt 2 Saga continues, video game addiction could be a mental disorder, and a new GTA4 trailer
Welcome to the Select and Start News Report, free of dramatic chipmunks, gophers, and other various rodents.
Big News
"MANHUNT 2 TAME COMPARED TO SAW", SAYS TAKE-TWO CHAIRMAN [credit: GameSpot]
The Manhunt 2 Saga continues...sort of. The last we heard from Take-Two, chairman Strauss Zelnick called the game "a fine piece of art." Zelnick went into more details with the New York Times, saying that the game is animation rather than photo-realistic, making it look pretty tame compared to R rated horror movies such as Saw or Hostel.
I actually sort of agree with Zelnick. I've fainted a couple times from scenes in the first two Saw movies (believe me, being faint is a really bad feeling), but never fainted from video game violence. Then again, I've never actually seen footage of Manhunt 2 like everyone else and part of the AO rating is because of the senseless killing in the game. But in the end, do we REALLY care about missing out on Manhunt 2?
VIDEO GAME ADDICTION NOT A MENTAL DISORDER [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily, GameSpot]
The topic of video game addiction has been talked about a lot over the past year. Recently there was talk from the American Medical Association (AMA) of labeling an addiction to video games as a mental disorder like alcoholism and placing it in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) "American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders" in their 2012 update. Doctors from the annual AMA meeting, however, has now said that they will not be classifying video game addiction as a mental disorder.
"There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn't get to have the word addiction attached to it," said Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
Video game addicition as a mental disorder? With cases of people playing MMORPG's way too much to the point that they have physical disorders or even die, that's not as crazy as it sounds. Also, depending on what game your playing for hours on end, you probably could have a mental disorder. For example: Playing Maple Story for hours on end means there is something seriously wrong with you. Either that or you don't realize how much Maple Story sucks.
NEW GRAND THEFT AUTO 4 TRAILER [credit: GameTrailers]
Check out the new trailer for GTA4:
Tidbit News
-Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS was the #1 selling game of the week in Japan with over 300,000 copies sold. #2 was Itadaki Street DS by Square-Enix with about 149,000. [credit: Gamasutra]
-The San Diego County District has arrested game pirate Frederick Brown. Thousands of pirated discs and mod chips were seixed from his home and he will be facing 10 counts of felony-level offenses, including grand theft, computer crime and trafficking counterfeit marks. [credit: GameDaily]
-The ESRB is starting to enforce their policies on game trailers. Recently they have deemed the trailers of D3Publisher's Dark Sector as inappropiate for download or viewing, despite the trailer having an age gate. 2K Games were also given notice for trailers of their latest game The Darkness. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]
-The gaming store juggernaut GameStop has just openned it's 1000th international store. Over the past 30 days they have openned stores in countries including Canada, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Despite that however, there are still about only 30 of them in the UK, which is a big deal according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter who says the UK has room for over 1000 of these stores and it sets back GameStop's growth plans by at least two years. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]
-Nintendo has squashed the rumor that they were creating a hard drive for the Wii with a resounding "No." [credit: CVG]
-Capcom has announced that it is interested in acquiring several western businesses to increase their global reach. Changes to Capcom's structure come from the strong western sales of Lost Planet and Dead Rising. They also estimate that Devil May Cry 4 will sell 1.8 million units within the coming financial year. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]
-Nichole Kidman will front the European advertising campaign for "More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain?" The game launches across Europe for the DS June 29th and in North America August 20th. [credit: Gamasutra]
-With E3 beind downsized, PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) is getting tripled in size with a move to Seattle's Washington State Convention & Trade Center. PAX is set to take place August 24-26, with three-day passes available for $45 in advance. [credit: GameSpot]
Games causing controversy in the UK
Mind Quiz - This PSP brain game is getting recalled for calling players a "spastic" if they scored low after a woman who had a son and has a father with cerebral palsy. "Spastic" is considered highly offensive in the UK.[credit: GameSpot]
Burnout: Dominator - The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has instructed Electronic Arts not to reuse an advertising poster for this game, claiming that it encourages dangerous driving and anti-social behavior. [credit: Gamasutra]
Things involving David Jaffe
He's NOT leaving Sony - A lot of sources were reporting that Jaffe was leaving SCEA to form his own studio. That turned out to be false as he's still with Sony, but he's still making his own studio with Scott Campbell based out of Utah. He isn't moving there though. [credit: GamePro, GameDaily]
He's a Code Monkey - Jaffe will be a guest voice for the new G4 cartoon Code Monkeys. I still have no hope for this show. [credit: Gamasutra]
The Other Crap
OMG FEEDBACK?
wcwjojo comments on my TNA Rant
I'm sure someone else has sent you this, but you missed the point on the "Match of Champions". All the belts are up for grabs. I can't recall WWE doing this, but even if WWE did at some point, this is being promoted as a "First for TNA" not necessarily a first for professional wrestling. It's also the first time all the belts have been up for grabs in one match at a PPV main event. So really there's a lot of firsts for this match.
PROGESS GAMING: THE FF12 SAGA
So I just got my first Esper who I like to refer to as "Ifrit wannabe" (aka Belias) and became a huge help in beating Vossler for me. So now that I got that mission done, I'll probably be training and sidequesting for a little bit before heading into the next Saga/Chapter of this story. Also, is it me or is this game ripping off Star Wars in a lot of ways? Evil empire, princess leading a rebellion, Balthair having the same sort of attitude as Han Solo...think about it!
WEEKLY SMASH BROS. ROUNDUP
-Wario's Special moves. Because nothing says "Awesome" like using a motorcycle that can possibly be picked up and thrown by other players if you're not careful. More details were also given about the Wario Waft, aka his nuclear fart.
-Names. Remember those name tags you can assign to characters? That feature comes back, only this time you can also save the button configurations to each individual name. That is genius!
-Banana Peel. One of the most annoying weapons in Mario Kart now to be one of the most annoying weapons in Smash Bros. If I see a Blue Shell I'm going to flip out.
-Zelda's profile. Shiek is also back too. I still think she sucks.
-The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Medley. This will most likely be Zelda's stage music.
Always good to learn about new details.
SCREWED
E3 is going to start on July 10th. Where am I going to be? On freaking vacation! With my limited dial-up access, I will likely not be covering much on this years event. It's kind of funny seeing how last year while I was on vacation, the news broke out that E3 was completely changing. It's like I'm never meant to cover E3 ever.
NATHAN'S HOT DOG EATING CONTEST
This Wednesday I'll be heading to Coney Island for the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. A lot of people would assume Takeru Kobayashi would win it again, but I've heard he may not participate at all because of a jaw ailment he has. That and his record of eating the most hot dogs was beaten by Joey "Jaws" Chestnut last month and he'll be in the contest as well. Should be a good time and unless my camcorder fucks up, I'll be sure to upload a video of the event.
GAMING CALENDAR
July 9th - The DirecTV Championship Gaming Series begins
For those with DirecTV, tune to channel 101 for the beginning of the official series. For those who don't have it, be sure to read the Select and Start News Report for the recaps.
July 29th - First airdate of the 2007 WSVG on CBS Sports
July 30th - Mario Strikers Charged to be released
August 20th - Metroid Prime 3 to be released
August 24th - Blue Dragon to be released
At least that's what Microsoft says. Hooray for another big time summer game release!
September 25th - Halo 3 release date?
October 9th - Half-Life 2: Episode 2 "orange box" to be released
October 16th - Grand Theft Auto IV to be released
August 19th, November 17th, and December 15th - Airdates for the 2007 Season of WSVG on CBS Sports
March 1st, 2008 - Metal Gear Solid 4 to be released
