While Take-Two Chairman, Strauss Zelnick, may be the king of Men’s Fitness right now, there’s one place where he’s not so revered at the moment: Jim Cramer’s Mad Money. If you’ve ever flipped over to CNBC, odds are you’ve seen Cramer bring a wild amount of drama to the unlikely topic of stock trading. Part of the spectacle of the show extends to a “Wall of Shame” for businessmen who somehow cause their stocks to dwindle in the market, which found a new member recently in Zelnick (via GamePolitics). Cramer cited Take-Two’s rejection of EA’s $25.74 buyout offer as the reason for this, stating:

[EA's offer was] an offer no sane man can refuse. But Strauss Zelnick, Take-two’s chairman did just that…Welcome to the Wall of Shame, Strauss Zelnick. You managed to take a sure thing, a $25 stock and turn it into a $13 one [note: now around $12, as of this morning]. That takes talent.

Zelnick was added along with two CEOs from other companies whose stock suffered a similar fate, whom Cramer described as “The New Marx Brothers AKA The Destroyers of Capitalism As You Know It” (via CNBC). Aw, don’t feel too bad, Strauss. As long as your company keeps making great games, we’re still with you. But you have to do us one favor: no more Manhunt games. Ever.

Games industry consultant Vincent Scheurer has called out supposed video game industry advocates that haven’t spoken out enough against bans and censorship. At the Develop conference in Brighton he warned the industry to expect more bans in the UK based on the stated reasons behind the Manhunt 2 ban, including the level of realism, the lack of a puzzle element and the lack of humour.

“The costs of the Manhunt 2 ban to RockStar were massive – an independent developer would be out of business,” he explained. “It makes the business of making games that much harder.”

“Call of Duty and BioShock could be banned under that criteria… The next game to be banned could be BioShock 2, and then where would we be?” he said.

Scheurer slammed the games media, publishers and developers for not taking a stand on bans and censorship. He spoke specifically against the ELSPA for supporting the Manhunt 2 ban.

“While we fail to fight back we will continue to be blamed for all of societies ills… In my view Tiga was the only association to step up… Tiga realised, where the other’s didn’t, that this was about more than Manhunt 2,” he added.

The same criticism has been leveled at the ESA, and in my opinion it’s totally warranted. It’s not surprising that members have expressed their displeasure by leaving in droves.

via GamesIndustry.biz

The ESRB has rated more than 15,000 games since being formed back in 1994, and only 23 have managed to obtain a rating of Adults Only. AO is of course the only rating higher than Mature, meaning the content it contains is deemed appropriate only for those 18 years and older, compared with the 17 years old you have to be to purchase an M-rated game. There’s obviously a lot of maturity that goes on in that extra year. Or something.

But the more important factor with regards to AO ratings, as we learned during the Manhunt 2 fiasco, is that none of the three platform holders – Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony – will allow a game carrying an AO rating onto their systems. Many retailers will also refuse to even stock the game, meaning the PC and online sales are essentially what developers seeking to develop an AO-rated game are looking at.

So just what 23 games managed to obtain the infamous rating? I think most people can name Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, thank to Hot Coffee, but what were the other 22? What They Play has gone through the trouble of compiling a list with all of the offenders and descriptions of what they are and why they got slapped with the AO rating.

I could get up on a soapbox and talk about Hostel and R-rated movies, but I’ll spare you the trouble of reading me poke holes in the “logic” behind that stuff.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath
Developer: EA LA
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Price: $29.99
Platform: PC, Xbox 360 (June 2008)
Category: Real-Time Strategy
ESRB Rating: T for Teen (Animated Blood, Mild Language, Violence)
Release Date: March 24, 2008

Command and Conquer or get the hell out of my way! The Tiberium wars may be over and the mysterious Kane returned but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a story left to tell. Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, the first expansion to last years popular C&C 3, does something not many expansions attempt – it fills in backstory and expands continuity for the Command & Conquer universe while attempting to hint at things to come.

I’ve always been a fan of C&C, way back to the days when it was a game based on Frank Herbert’s Dune series. (Yeah I’m that old.. Dune 2 was groundbreaking I recommend every fan of RTS games try and find a DosBox playable copy!) The series is all about fast build and rushing. There is a balls to the wall pace that many games of its ilk have tried to replicate with varied success, but aside from a few missteps along the road to C&C 3 the series is a perennial favorite.

Read the full article

Politicians have always been known to flip flop, try to pass foul laws, bow down to underhanded special interest groups, commit adultery with hookers, interns and Marilyn Monroe, and a whole host of other unscrupulous shenanigans since time began. However, with the success of the gaming industry causing a complete change in the world’s lifestyle and choices, comes new fuel for politicians to add to the ever growing firestorm of outcry over violence in video games.

GamePolitics has been tracking “the nexus of politics and video games” for over the past three years, and I must say they have done a bang up job of it. Today, while perusing their site, I came across a nice little poll they are conducting on who is the Biggest Political Hypocrite. The five listed below are the ones I pulled from their site, and GP felt that these five were the ones that stood out more than others of their ilk.

• Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D): Mayor Menino led a 2006 movement to have ads for GTA: Vice City Stories removed from public transportation and got the local transit agency to commit to never again carrying an ad for an M-rated game. Now he is at the center of a legislative proposal that would equate violent games with pornography. In between attacks on video games, Menino hopes to lure game developers to set up shop in Boston.

• California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R): The man who signed California’s 2005 video game into law, and ordered the state to appeal a 2007 ruling by a U.S. District Court judge that the law was unconstitutional, is himself the star of many a violent movie. What’s more, he appears in character in several violent games based on the Terminator films.

• Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D): Gov. Sebelius threw her support behind an unsuccessful 2006 attempt to legislate video games. Earlier this year it was revealed that Gov. Sebelius’ son John created a Grand Theft Auto-like board game called Don’t Drop the Soap and marketed it from the taxpayer-funded Governor’s residence.

• New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D): During his 2006 election campaign Spitzer railed against video game content, saying, “Nothing under New York State law prohibits a fourteen-year old from walking into a video store and buying… a game like ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ which rewards a player for stealing cars and beating people up. Children can even simulate having sex with a prostitute…” As everyone now knows, it was the “sex with a prostitute” part that brought Spitzer himself down in 2008.

• British Labour MP Keith Vaz: Vaz got into the video game violence debate in 2004 when a 14-year-old constituent, Stefan Pakeerah, was brutally murdered. Vaz alleged that the controversial Rockstar title Manhunt inspired the crime. A Scotland Yard investigation, however, established no such link. Vaz would go on to criticize Rockstar’s Bully and Manhunt 2 games. While he has attacked the make-believe crime of video games, Vaz, as documented by the BBC, carries significant real-world ethical baggage.

As of this post, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has the lead with 686/1508 votes. You yourself can vote by clicking through the link below. Oh, and for those who did not “get” the photo caption above, it is a Futurama reference.

Thanks: GamePolitics.com

That company that hasn’t quite been taken over – yet – released their financial results for Q1 2008 this week. Take-Two posted a net loss of $38 million, which is an increase of 77% over the 21.5 million loss they suffered in the same period last year. The amount can likely be attributed to a decrease in revenue from the previous year, from $277.3 million to $240.4 million, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

There were no major releases for the company during the period.

“We are pleased with Take-Two’s stronger than expected top and bottom line results for the first quarter,” said chairman Strauss Zelnick.

“Our performance benefited from a diverse range of hit titles in the first quarter, and we are eagerly awaiting the release of Grand Theft Auto IV in the second quarter.

“We believe that our extraordinary creative assets and improving operational efficiency will be sources of significant value for shareholders as the interactive entertainment industry moves further into the current growth cycle.”

Following these announcements, Zelnick revealed that the Grand Theft Auto has sold 66 million units to date and said Rockstar is working on “at least one major sequel” which will release in 2009. As for what that might be, we don’t know. I shudder to think that Rockstar would be churning out another GTA title in the space of roughly a year. And I’m not quite sure if Manhunt 3 would really be considered a “major sequel.”

A huge collective “meh” has made its way through the gaming community in the UK today. News of Manhunt 2 finally being released with an “18″ rating even after the BBFC’s refusal to give the game any sort of UK classification. Now, thanks to the High Court’s ruling allowing the release with said rating, the BBFC has now decided against vetoing the release and will wait until it hits the public before pursuing any further action.

I suppose if the game was not so crappy I would be thrilled for gamers in the UK dying to get their hands on it, but considering the fact that it was nothing but a big fat steaming pile of disappointment, I feel sorry for them instead. Its one thing to be waiting patiently for a controversial game if it is worth the wait, but when its quite the opposite, it all just becomes rather anticlimactic.

To catch up on all the drama surrounding the UK vs Manhunt 2 debacle, check out our previous posts.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

You’ll remember the BBFC (the British Board of Film Classification) as the group that has been fighting to keep Manhunt 2 out of the UK – I can’t even begin to remember the number of times we covered the back-and-forth between the BBFC and Rockstar.

Speaking to a Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee this week, Microsoft’s head of corporate affairs in the UK, Matt Lambert, explained that he believes that the rating system of Pan European Game Information – PEGI – is superior to the BBFC’s.

“If there’s going to be one ratings system, it should be PEGI,” he said. “With PEGI, they think very carefully about age appropriacy…but the BBFC is set up to rate films, and it takes that approach for games when a different approach is required.

“PEGI breaks it down to a different level. If there’s bad language it will give you a specific symbol, if there’s gambling there’s another symbol, and some games will have a whole raft of symbols on the back. It’s a different depth, it’s more sensible, and it also has a European aspect to it.”

Responding to this, the chairman said that the BBFC would argue the opposite, and that PEGI’s method is inferior to their own. To which, Lambert said, “I’m not saying that’s wrong, and I apologise if I gave the impression that that’s not what they do – though they would say that they are the best.

“But I do believe that the BBFC’s thinking clearly comes from the world of film [and not games], that’s definitely true.”

According to GamesIndustry.biz, the CMS Select Committee was meeting to look at the impact of violence in videogames and on the Internet. Lambert was one of several industry experts called to speak with the committee.

Not being from the UK, or Europe for that matter, I’m not overly familiar with either rating system. If your geographical location is more appropriate, share your thoughts in the comments.

LucasArts confirmed LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures back in July during Comic-Con and soon enough a YouTube video popped up on the web, but details were still a bit sketchy. Now details on what to expect in the game have come to light, apparently they were hidden in a wooden crate in some undisclosed government warehouse guarded by the NSA with shoot to kill orders.

The game will feature all three of Indy’s adventures and get the full Lego treatment we have come to love and respect. Each movie parody will have its own chapter, along with 18 levels and many familiar incidents from the movies will be included. One such memorable incident from The Lost Ark will be the face-melting moment when the Ark of the Covenant was opened and Major Toht’s face slid from his skull. Of course, in the game this shocking moment will undoubtedly be toned down and be more hilarious than gruesome. This isn’t a Manhunt game, after all.

One thing that will be different about LEGO Indiana Jones, unlike Star Wars, is that when ammo is used there will be a limit to it – so be sure to save as much as you can. Other tools/weapons at Indy’s disposal will be his whip (of course) which he will use as a weapon and a life saving device, and a spade will also be a key item as digging will not only yield weapons but bonuses as well – he is an archaeologist after all.

Remember how much Indy hated snakes? That funny bit of shtick will be prevalent throughout the game and his fear of them leaves him incapacitated and another character be it AI or player driven will have to help him out. This phobia mechanic will not just be used on Indy; other characters will have their fair share of them too. Pulling levels to open doors, building platforms to reach them and then destroying the environment is something else you can expect and the game will be even more open to exploration than the Star Wars series.

To give us a hint on how funny the game is, a scene was described which features Indy in the map room holding the Staff of Ra. Unlike the movie, when he shoves the staff into the map hole it will either catch the room on fire, or blind our hero. Too keep this sort of lighthearted feel, Traveller’s Tales has removed the Nazis and all references to them from the game and has instead replaced them with an “anonymous, genocidal, occultist, trench coat-wearing master-race”.

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is expected to be released in June. The gaming magazine Edge will have a full preview of the game in its current issue, so I am sure it will not be long before we have some screens ourselves. Therefore this gives you even more of a reason to check back with us often.

Thanks: CVG

I know it, you know it, and of course even Rockstar knows it. When Grand Theft Auto IV is released, the media’s going to be all over that one to report on the horrors of violent video games and how they corrupt young children (conveniently neglecting the fact that it’s rated “M” and marketed towards adults, who now comprise the majority of the gaming population). Founder of Rockstar Games, Dan Houser, recently stated his thoughts for the coming media backlash:

“I expect it because we’ve had so much of it in the past,” Houser said at a recent game demonstration in North America…”I wish people would treat video games the same as other media,” he said. “They seem to not want to do that for reasons that I don’t understand. It’s a convenient enemy for people.”

On the plus side, any media coverage good or bad is bound to spike up game sales. Look at Manhunt 2…actually, on second thought, don’t.

Via CVG