One of the writers for Modern Warfare 2 defends the airport massacre scene in the game. He is wrong. The scene is indefensible.

I really love Modern Warfare 2, it is one of the best games I have played in years, and I highly recommend it. But the scene in which your character, as an undercover CIA agent with a Russian terrorist walks into a hotel and massacres hundreds of people, is simply a gratuituous shock scene. The level doesn’t make sense within the story, because even with some of the shady things CIA agents are required to do, mowing down people in broad daylight at an airport isn’t one of them.

It may seem silly in a game that’s major selling point is its graphic violence, but this scene feels tacked on and disconnected from the rest of the game. The relative free range you are given in the rest of the game dissolves in this scene, and it essentially works like one of those scenes in Saw: Wow, that was shocking. What’s next.

It’s pure marketing schtick and a blight on an otherwise beyond excellent game. Just dumb.

I noticed a LOT of these are from Playstation 2.

Modern Warfare 2

I don’t usually like stealth video games (I generally prefer to barge in and get things done – that’s why my death to kill ratio on Call Of Duty is so horrible) but I LOVE Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I think this post makes a good case for why

And who has the most fun in a Batman game? There are few experiences as thrilling or rewarding as becoming the caped predator, quietly observing from the shadows and slowly turning unbeatable, well-armed odds into one whimpering, paranoid sod. You don’t want The Joker’s minions to see you, but in Batman’s unique approach to stealth, you want them to know you’re there. It’s no wonder Batman’s so keen on freaking people out — it’s fun!

When you hear the bad guys quaking in fear about Batman, and you think OMG I AM THE BATMAN WHICH THEY FEAR, it is such a fun feeling. Best game I’ve played in a long time. Almost makes up for all the crappy Superman games I’ve bought over the years.

Almost.

I’ve seen this concept knocked about for a few years and I still wonder why you would want a Halo movie. I concede that I’ve only played Halo 3, but while I loved the game and think its among the best I’ve ever played, I found the story quite stupid. It’s written like a middle school scifi fan would write it, inscrutable and filled with self-important twaddle.

Would I like an Alien-style movie with Master Chief type armored guys blowing stuff up? Sure. But not Halo: The Movie.

(via)

This June will have been 15 years since I graduated from high school.

The first time I saw Mortal Kombat was in the video arcade at the Swap Shop Flea Market in Fort Lauderdale. I distinctly remember because I heard the machine yell “get over here” and this was in an era where games were just starting to seriously switch over to digitized voice and music from the beeps and pings of the Pong years. A ton of kids were crowded around the machine and instantly you became aware of two things this game had that others didn’t: 1) It had video images of real people, which was huge and 2) It had blood. Buckets of it. One punch would unleash a geyser of the red stuff.

So of course it was like manna to a teenaged boy. The game cost a whopping $0.50 to play, but it was soooooo worth it.

And now they don’t even know what an arcade is. Lord.

Although I confess if you had given me my own apartment and unlimited funds back in 1988 I probably would have built a Nintendo room. (via)

RELATED: An Apple IIe emulator for the Wii. God, why?

This is what all the noise is about? Oh sure, the game looks cool and I understand the appeal about being able to customize things, but the game is basically a Mario-style platform game. The skin is really nice thanks to the Playstation’s engine, but I don’t see how a game like that competes with things like Call Of Duty, Halo, and Gears of War. And if you are aiming for a mainstream, family experience, doesn’t the Wii show that you don’t need top notch graphics to appeal to this demographic?

Its sort of rare when a piece of technology acts almost exactly as advertised. As someone who had been in the Windows world for about 15 years I think I’m mighty skeptical. I remember lining up for Windows ‘95 and then realizing that while better than Windows 3.1, better is a term of art rather than a hard and fast law. When I switched to being mostly Mac-based in the last couple years, I’ve seen tech work closer to how its been touted, ditto for the iPhone and iPod.

But this is Microsoft here, and while the XBox is – in my opinion – the best next generation system out there, it hasn’t been flawless (I have had two red rings of death). And I really wish I could play Blu-Ray on it somehow. But the recent rollout of the new dashboard (and I could do without the cutesy Mii-knockoffs) has been pretty slick and the streaming both from my desktop and via the Netflix service has been awesome. It’s actually easier to navigate than the Comcast On-Demand system in my horribly noisy cable box. The only big drawback I see is that I have to go to my computer and log in to Netflix to add video to the queue. I don’t see why they couldn’t build a way to flip through Netflix via the XBox.

But it’s still a pretty sweet feature. It’s no Gears Of War 2, but then…