Most readers would know about Australia’s absence of a R18+ rating for video games, which has resulted in a few titles being refused classification, at the expense of Australia’s mature gamers. There have been a few arguments put forward to support R18+, one of which is the inclusion of parental controls on gaming consoles to restrict access of mature titles to minors.

A Newspoll study, commissioned by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA), found that 74% of parents didn’t know about the parental locks on their children’s games consoles. 22% of parents believed that their children could circumvent such protection, despite SA Attorney-General Michael Atkinson’s claim that it’s “laughable to suggest that they couldn’t find ways around parental locks if R18+ games were in the home.”

To be completely honest, I don’t think I’ve stumbled across the parental access controls on my Xbox 360 or my PS3. They’re probably hidden somewhere deep in the bowels of the System Settings menu, several button presses and slow methodical menu scrolls away.

Granted, I haven’t been actively looking for them, but that’s the point - if parental controls are hidden away, chances are they’ll be overlooked. When doing the initial set up my Xbox 360 and PS3, there wasn’t any mention of setting up parental controls. In fact, I spent most of the time setting up my accounts for XBL and PSN. Hmm.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all up for active parenting. I believe parents should know what their kids are up to in their formative years, especially in a heavily interconnected and media-saturated society like this. However, keeping parents informed on what tools they can use and helping them make decisions can only be a good thing, and saying that these tools can be circumvented is dismissive.

Parents need help to help their kids. Perhaps our representatives should be looking at ways of educating consumers rather than sheltering them.

I enjoy good games. I also enjoy good cinema.

Up until recently, I was under the impression that cinema and games were like ice cream and pizza - good on their own, but not so great when mixed together. (Then again, I’ve never had a pizza milkshake.) Case in point: those god awful movie tie-ins. It’s beyond the cheap money making ploy they’re meant to be; they descend into the fiery brine of poor design and uninspired gameplay.

Examples, you say? Terminator: Salvation, Iron Man, Jumper, Watchmen, Fantastic Four, Eragon. (Okay, most of those movies were terrible to begin with, but I stand by my point.)

On the flip side, there are also a few games that are truly cinematic. Call of Duty 1 immediately comes to mind - storming Stalingrad, sneaking through the countryside under cover of darkness, the relentless bark of an MG42…it sucks you in and captivates you. Half Life 2 was also a step in the right direction, but there were still times where the immersion fell flat. Boss fights in particular ruined things for me, because it was such a break in the game’s flow. It was like something triggered in my brain to say, “Okay, brace yourself for some pain until you find a weak spot to exploit.” Who knows, maybe good gameplay and good cinematic values weren’t meant to go hand in hand.

I despaired, languishing in self pity, and then I played Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

The balance was impeccable, the gameplay was superb, and the voice acting was believable. It had all the hallmarks of a great game - excellent art direction, enjoyable set pieces, an accessible control scheme, and an easy-to-swallow plot that could be plucked from a silver screen. It sucked me in. I was captivated.

I’ve yet to play Uncharted 2, but I have the feeling that it’s going to be very much the same. I’ve also got a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, and I’ve been told that it’s “a movie with a game attached”, so it’s most likely relevant to my interests there.

They’re not the only games on my mind, though. After watching the preview for Heavy Rain and reading Gamasutra’s feature on “interactive storytelling”, I’m incredibly keen on this. I’m hoping it’ll be like Condemned…but without the supernatural powers.

I understand the appeal of catering to the mainstream market when it comes to storytelling, but to be frank, not all of us appreciated the Halo plot.

It’s good to get back into writing again.

This piece has gone through an edit or two - the original review rambled on at just under 2,000 words. This one is a lot leaner, although I still think it’s a bit too long. For a game of this scope, though, it’s easy to get carried away.

Hope you enjoy the read.

In addition to my earlier post - I came across a blog post by a Mr. Evan Stubbs where he talks about changes to games reviewing methodology.

It’s a good, concise read that I found myself nodding in agreement with. Worth a look if you’re into the games review scene.

The unthinkable has happened - I now have a PS3.

I wasn’t a big PS3 fan from the get go. My original rationale was that the exclusives were more interesting on the 360 (and they still are, to be honest); I preferred the controller on the 360; and the games / hardware were all cheaper on the Microsoft side of things. Plus, the original PS3 consoles were giant, monolithic, obsidian hunks of fingerprint-loving gloss plastic. It was 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Spiderman.

Then the Slim came out. Sure, a lot of the original features were cut and, all things considered, it’s a more gimped version than its predecessors, but it was cheaper and ran quieter. Plus, having tried out my mate’s PS3 for a while, I realised that there were actually exclusives worth playing on it.

Rather than being an incredibly narrow-minded fanboy, I snapped up a rather good deal for a brand spanking new PS3 (if I do say so myself) and a couple of pre-owned titles.

So far, I’m enjoying it a lot.

The whole package is very slick and well presented. It’s typically Sony - a lot of gloss, glam and perceived “prestige” of owning one of their pieces of tech. It’s like a Bentley, or something. Makes you feel like you’re using a status symbol.

The controller is going to wreck havoc on my thumbs, but it’s not all bad. Maybe it’s just because it’s a fresh controller, but the motions feel a lot smoother than the 360 controller. It’s not as rough and ready. It’s like I only need to use a minimal amount of force to move the analogue stick or press the buttons. Maybe it’s just me.

I’m undecided on the menu system on the PS3. It’s not the best layout. It’s basically a map of icons, but you’re zoomed in so you can’t see the overall picture. You’re practically forced to go through each and every single option to see what’s available - and it’s all in text.
The 360 tries to segregate them into separate topics with lots of pretty pictures (even if they’re not entirely contextual), but it still hides a lot of options and forces you to hunt for things in the same manner. I guess proficiency grows as you become more experienced.

I also felt that signing up on PSN is a bit more involved…as if to say, “You purchased a PS3 - you’re no layman. You can fill out these webforms in triplicate because you love the bureaucracy, don’t you? You’re fiending for the red-tape, aren’t you, you junkie?”

I’m also treating the Playstation button like the Xbox button, which it isn’t. I miss having everything available at the press of a button.

All that aside, the actual gaming is great. I’m finally getting into Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Killzone 2 (yeah, I know I’m behind), and working my way up my list. Somehow I’m going to need to balance this out with Assassin’s Creed 2 on the 360 and the new Steam titles I bought over the 5-day weekend.

In conclusion - if you’re a gamer with refined tastes and a penchant for the classy, then this is pretty much the way to go.

Yep, I’m getting back into reviews. This is what happens when you approach the end of the year.

I’ll be revising the verdict system again and getting rid of the numbered scores, so it’ll back to the good ol’ days. It was interesting while it lasted, but I find myself disagreeing with my scores after I re-read the reviews. (I’ve also found that my writing style needs a lot more work.) So yeah, they’ll be removed from future write-ups.

Anyway, reviews for Borderlands and Assassin’s Creed 2 are incoming, so watch this space.

I’ve done some terrible things in games. I’ve killed squads of police officers in GTA4, and killed hookers for their money after soliciting services from them. I tortured criminals in The Punisher. I beat people to death with a fire axe in Condemned.

That’s all relatively tame, though, compared to “No Russian” in Modern Warfare 2.

Warning: spoiler alert.
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