WonderCon 2012: Day 2 recap

I'm sorry it took me over a week to get Day 2's recap up everyone (or anyone?); I caught my first cold of the year thanks to WonderCon...it's what happens when you shake so many hands. But without further ado, here is the recap along with the link to Day 2's Flickr album.

Enjoy!

Dead Island trailer: are developers putting kids in harm's way on purpose?

Image courtesy of Wikimedia/Deep Silver

Last week the cinematic trailer (probably one of the BEST game trailers I've seen in a long while) for Dead Island made its way on the Internet and into the hearts of zombie aficionados everywhere. I admit, I decided to ignore the news about this forthcoming game mainly because I'm over the zombie apocalypse and we've already decided that if zombie warfare were to happen, you definitely want to team up with me. But after reading this little opinion piece from CNN titled, Why I can't get behind 'Dead Island', I was intrigued. Writer Omar L. Gallaga sums it up by stating that game developers are taking quite a few liberties in putting young children in the face of danger for the good of the game's story.

"...I'm getting uncomfortable with how comfortable game developers have become with putting children in peril and, often, allowing them to be gruesomely killed."

I went to IGN.com to check out the Dead Island trailer and knew it was pretty serious business when they asked me to punch in my birth date to make sure that I was over 18 (something any 10 year old can easily bypass). The trailer itself is amazing; the quality of the rendering is up there, the music serves as a melancholic dischord to the chaos that ensues, and the story is told in reverse and in slow motion. You can view the trailer at the end of the entry, but please take into consideration that the content is graphic and should not be viewed by/with children under 18.

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage - the XBL demo



Scene from Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage; image courtesy of
Amazon

 If it weren't for @JoystiqXbox for blasting the PSA about the forthcoming Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage demo on Xbox Live, I wouldn't have even known that this button-mashing game was going to be released just right before the holidays.

After waiting for the game to download for about 45 minutes (1.31 GB file AND I completely forgot that nothing will DL if you're watching Netflix - my bad) and about 45 minutes worth of gameplay on Legend mode (story mode based on the manga), I've reached the following conclusion:

I royally suck at this game.

Game Laws, Schmame Laws

Thanks to @fragdolls for posting this on Twitter earlier today:

The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled earlier today that a Calif. law restricting minors from renting and/or purchasing violent and/or mature content video games as unconstitutional, as it violates Constitution's right to free speech.

So, HA! To those irresponsible parents out there who believe that violent video games = violent attacks from their own spawn!

Read more about it here.

Gears of War 2

For you Gear-heads out there, Gears of War 2 made an appearance at a Microsoft press event held in San Francisco over the weekend. While the game's 2006 success and eminent sequel have been highly anticipated, some are thinking that perhaps the game is a wee bit...oh, violent. Some have even gone as far as question whether Microsoft has gone too far??

To give you a quick synopsis, the game takes place approximately six months after the end of the first Gears, and "humanity faces a new and more deadly threat from its Locust enemies." There's a deeper plot and more realistic visuals in the sequel, but what really raised some eyebrows was the gory reverse groin-split scene. What? Apparently, "Gears 2 adds a reverse attack that actually slices an enemy in half -- from the groin upwards." Yikes.

Without a doubt, regular gamers on Xbox 360 Live will appreciate the new effects and enhanced graphics, and Microsoft can already foresee the success of the game. Gears of War 2 is slated to be released in November and will probably be flying off the shelves by the time the holidays hit. Go here to read more about the game and press event.

Video games don't kill people - people kill people

Finally! No need to worry about your kid (or boyfriend) going on a ballistic shooting rampage in a corporation owned by Italian mob bosses. According to this Yahoo! Games article, a couple Harvard Med School brainies have found in a two-year study that kids/pre-teens/teens who have a "casual relationship" with violent video games will unlikely act out because of what they've seen or experienced in their games. The research has even been penned into a book aptly titled, Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. The authors suggest that parents should take a look at the bigger picture and find out what other factors are buggin' their kids out (e.g., they're being bullied at school, bad grades, or even obsessive gaming habits).

In other words, stop placing the blame on the games--that's bad parenting.