Video Games

Check out this awesome Games Radar article on some of the Easter Eggs in Halo 3, including but not limited to:

• Super Mario Scream
• Overturning the gigantic vehicle
• A real easter egg
• A red vs blue scene
• Marathon and Myth easter eggs
• Reserved multiplayer names

With the new replay feature in Halo3 people are starting to take awesome slow motion demos of this stuff!

The folks over at Kotaku recently caught a whiff of the latest Xbox 360 rumor, and it’s all about concerned parents.  The rumor apparently is that “the bi-annual Xbox 360 firmware update set to hit this fall will bring with it a number of interesting updates, chief among them a new Parental Timer.”  This timer will allow users to set a password-protected timer on the use of their Xbox 360.

This is clearly a move on Microsoft’s part to please parents who feel like they’ve lost control of their child(ren) to the seemingly addictive Xbox.  I think this is a great idea, and one of the most responsible things Microsoft has done with their Xbox consoles; not only does it give parents the freedom to set limits on their child’s gaming habits, but it also allows them to allocate that time with ease.

In his letter to Bill Gates, Microsoft is only again abused by anti-game activist Jack Thompson’s latest barrage of threats, threats that stem from an over-zealous confusion of moral value and necessity of legal action.  The game that’s pissing Mr. Thompson this time is Halo 3 for the Xbox 360, a game that he calls “hyperviolent.”  Furthermore, he erroneously alleges that the original Halo was the source of inspiration for Lee Boyd Malvo, the DC Beltway sniper, and that Halo allowed Malvo to become “remarkably efficient” in his killing.  However, JT couldn’t leave his letter as a mere judgment of Halo 3’s content, so he decided to threaten Gates with legal action if it didn’t prevent the sale of it to minors.  Here’s Jack Thompson’s letter in full to Microsoft’s Chairman Bill Gates:

Bill Gates
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington

Re: Halo 3

Dear Mr. Gates:

As you know, the Federal Trade Commission has repeatedly found that games rated “Mature” by the video game industry-captured Entertainment Software Rating Board are routinely sold to kids under the age of 17 despite the age rating. The most recent failure rate of the ratings on “Mature” games, according to the FTC, is 42%. The entire rating system is a fraud, and “broken,” the latter description aptly provided by Senator Hillary Clinton.

As you also know, Lee Boyd Malvo trained on Microsoft’s Halo to further enable him to become the remarkably efficient “DC Beltway Sniper.” That was reported by NBC News at the time and was noted in Malvo’s criminal trial.

You appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes II and rather revealing and usefully noted that “the cool thing about these games is that they transport you to a world you think is real.” Precisely. Capcom has recently disclosed to investors that your video game industry’s violent games, sold to children, pose a real hazard to the health of the industry. Right on.

The hyperviolent Microsoft Xbox 360 game Halo 3 is scheduled by your company for commercial release in September of this year. The Beta version that was released last week shows us all just how violent the game is and how inappropriate it is for play by anyone under 17, as the “Mature” rating it will surely receive indicates.

Here’s the deal, Mr. Gates: Either Microsoft undertakes dramatic, real steps, through its marketing, wholesale, and retail operations to assure that Halo 3 is not sold, via the Internet and in stores, directly to anyone under 17, or I shall proceed to make sure that Microsoft is held to that standard by appropriate legal means. I have done that before successfully as to Best Buy, and I shall do so again as to Microsoft and all retailers of Halo 3.

Regards, Jack Thompson

I wonder what will come of Mr. Thompson’s latest endeavors.  Will he successfully sue Microsoft for perceived crimes of passivity?  How will he be able to prove Microsoft culpable for the legal violations of retailers who sell its games?  We’ll keep you posted.

There’s a new hot version of the xBox 360 coming out! The new xBox 360 Elite Edition is essentially the same , but sold in limited quantities and all black finish. It will cost $479 with 120GB hard disk and HDMI. There is also speculation that the cooler-running Elite editions are made with 65nm chips.

That’s right.  Electronic Gaming Monthly has confirmed that Valve’s upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the Half Life 2 bundle have been renamed Half Life 2: Orange!  Joystiq quips: “Valve has come up with an entire world of alien life forms, postmodern physics and government conspiracies and the best title they could come up with is a color? We guess it’s better than Half-Life 2: Head Crab-tacular Edition.”  HL2:O will include the original Half Life 2 game, along with Episodes One and Two, Portal, and Team Fortress.