1. Wii...Is Satoru Iwata gonna have to choke a--
2. MOD...Insurgency tackles the war in Iraq 
3. 360...Guitar Chief or Drums of War?
4. CAP...busted in PopCap's butt? You decide 
5. BAD...day = low score? MTV investigates
6. RND...It's real in the field, iPhone edition

1. EGO...trip: Manhunt 2; Lucasarts; WiiWare
2. STH...It's like we're in their heads
3. FPS...New mouse-like add-on for PS3 shooters
   
4. OOH...Penny Arcade takes on Three Speech 
5. RND...Would you vote for this man?

In Round 2 of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo--which is also being posted on his blog MTV News: Multiplayer--things got a little testy. Totilo got in a dig about our failure to grapple with the morally dubious range of actions Manhunt 2 asks its players to undertake. That pushed us to examine the first principles of games, and question whether the problems that many have with videogames are perhaps more fundamental than a little bit of the old ultra-violence. Thankfully, no blood was shed over this disagreement.

Today, in the Final Round of our debate, Totilo comes out swinging, disputing our assertion that activities, and therefore videogames, can't be profound. He also gives Manhunt 2 a thumbs up for its Wii controls before raising the question of whether gestural gaming will make this pastime seem more natural to others--or more bizarre. For our part, we drop a series of thermonuclear thought bombs on everything from how the two Manhunts could be improved to the role of choices and consequences in games. Some excerpts:

Stephen Totilo: But I say, thank goodness they made Manhunt 2 for the Wii, because it provides a new way to think about where games are going. Let me quickly establish that I think the Wii controls in Manhunt 2 are quite effective. They don't force you to imitate exactly what Daniel Lamb does on-screen, but the spirit of the player's and Daniel's actions are the same. A sharp move from one is a sharp move from the other. A powerful swing from me is a powerful swing from whichever hand Daniel is holding his axe. You pointed out that the Wii was not your console of choice and that the reliance on gesture controls made the game feel unnatural But I've played a bunch of Wii games and feel comfortable with the system. As a result, I felt my moves were in sync with the game. Without meditation, I can say I, at times, felt one with it. When Manhunt 2 asks the player to trigger the game's signature stealth kills it slows down the passage of time in the game. This gives players time to do the right move and not worry that what's happening on screen is passing them by. Then, once the gesture is properly done, the action reverts to normal speed and the animations of the stealth kills reach their gruesome climax. In other words, the game finds a way to both ask you to take the time to focus on your own physical actions and then restore your attention to what's happening in the game without missing a beat. The system is smooth.

N'Gai Croal: We'll have to agree to disagree about the added immersiveness of the Wii controller when it comes to Manhunt 2. "They don't force you to imitate exactly what Daniel Lamb does on-screen, but the spirit of the player's and Daniel's actions are the same," you wrote. That's true, but I found myself intently focused on the icons in the upper left corner of the screen so that I could match the Simon Says-like mini-game, rather than the execution kills themselves. And even though that wasn't enough "alleviation or distancing" for the British Board of Film Classification, it was too much for me. I wish that Rockstar had taken a page from the Wii version of Electronic Arts' The Godfather and given me a set of gestural controls that mapped onto real life movements, then let me handle each execution in a free-form, improvised manner. As I said in my last entry, they might have gotten a Seniors Only rating for my version, but why just use the Wii's controls as little more than button presses with the added sensation of gesture without the accompanying freedom that gestures allow? I guess open killing went a bit too far for even the masters of the open world game.

Click on the link below to read the Final Round in its entirety. 

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime

When we got on the phone Tuesday afternoon with Nintendo of America president Reginald Fils-Aime to talk about the company's upcoming WiiWare initiative--downloadable games, from giant publishers and indie developers alike, made specifically for the Wii and sold through the Wii Shop Channel, we kicked things off by asking him where the idea for WiiWare originated. "The vision for WiiWare started back during the development of the Wii itself," said Fils-Aime, citing the statements of his boss, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata. "A couple of GDCs [Game Developers Conferences] ago, Mr. Iwata hinted at downloadable content; that we wanted to help young, promising developers overcome the limitations of small budgets and team sizes to bring their games to the Wii."

Would this mean a price cut for development kits, we inquired? Or would there be a new set of tools and libraries--easier to use, but less fully-featured--aimed at the indie and hobbyist game developer? No. "First, the development tools and SDKs [software development kits] that enable developers to participate are already available," he replied, referring to the standard tools that Nintendo sells to its licensees. "We enable the marketplace where consumers can buy these games using Wii Points. Developers and publishers bring their ideas for games and marketing to entertain and entice consumers." As for a price cut, Fils-Aime insisted that Wii dev kits are already plenty cheap. "All our SDKs and dev tools are already--I don't want to call them inexpensive--they're darn near free to developers. This is unlike our competitors, where you have to spend a lot of money building high-res assets to be competitive. So in that sense, there's almost no cost to developers; the tools are already available at rock-bottom prices. We're providing the venue and light of day for games that might not have gotten attention otherwise."

Given Nintendo's well known control-freak tendencies--the developer of a DS music game told us that Nintendo wouldn't allow gamers' compositions to be transferred to PCs so that they could be shared with friends--we were taken aback when Fils-Aime informed us that his company's oversight of WiiWare titles would be minimal. "Nintendo will not do any screening of ideas," he said. "The games have to pass our bug checking process, but that's the only screening that we're doing." We couldn't let that line of inquiry go just then, not with the controversy over the Adults Only-rated Manhunt 2 still brewing like a cup of cappuccino. Was he saying that WiiWare would be the Wild West of videogames, where anything goes? No, he answered; the Entertainment Software Rating Board still has a role to play. "The developer is responsible for getting an ESRB rating for their game, just as with our current publisher agreements. We don't allow AO-rated games on our systems."

1. RED...vs. Blu wraps after 100th episode
2. CRY...for the E3 of old with Gamecock
3. RED...rings of death for Xbox 360 keep growing
4. RND...We say, wait for version 3.0

Patience is a virtue, a wise man once said, and nowhere is this more true than the circumstances surrounding the story we're about to bring you right now. A month or so before the March Game Developers Conference, Nintendo's PR agency approached us about a hush-hush new content initiative that the company had been cooking up, and wanted to know whether or not we'd be interested in being the first to get the lowdown. We were. But GDC came and went without any more information. From then on, we'd check in with Nintendo from time to time, but no new information was forthcoming, not even about when new information might be forthcoming. So we began to despair. But on Monday, the folks at Golin Harris PR reached out to us again to inform us that the time was now, that the offer was still on the table, and that Nintendo of America president Reginald Fils-Aime would be available to speak with us Tuesday afternoon. We spoke with him, and here's what we learned.

On Wednesday morning, Nintendo will officially announce to the general public its plans for WiiWare, downloadable games for the wildly popular Wii videogame console. Unlike the vintage games already being offered for legacy systems (i.e. Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16) through the Virtual Console, these games will be built specifically for the Wii and sold via the Wii Shop Channel for Wii Points currency, much like the Xbox 360- and Playstation 3-specific games being sold on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.

What's more interesting is that Nintendo isn't only seeking WiiWare from established publishers and developers like Ubisoft and Sega. At a Nintendo developer's conference earlier this week, the company informed attendees that it was seeking from indie developers as well. Shorter, original, more creative games from small teams with big ideas; these are the buzzwords that you'll be hearing from Nintendo when its Wednesday announcement goes wide. Fils-Aime told us that while Nintendo, as the retailer, would itself determine the appropriate pricing for each game on a per-title bases, the games themselves would not be vetted by Nintendo. Instead, Nintendo would only check the games for bugs and compatibility, with developers and publishers responsible for securing an E for Everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10 or older, T for Teen or M for Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board--Adults Only titles like Manhunt 2 aren't welcome. Look for the first WiiWare titles from Nintendo and third-parties to become available next year. And check back shortly with Level Up for more details on our conversation with Fils-Aime.

1. BAN...Pressure group lauds AO-rating for Manhunt 2
2. HUH...Old trailers pulled at ESRB's request
3. WAH...Shadowrun producer defends game's price
4. HMM...The importance of being ethical
5. RND...Are you on the cover of Wired?

 

In Part I of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo--which is also being posted on his blog MTV News: Multiplayer--Totilo explained how we got the opportunity to play the first six levels of controversial Adults Only-rated Manhunt 2, then plunged into a swift, graphic recap of the opener. (This included a disturbing crackling sound coming from his Wii remote; whether it was a bug or a feature wasn't clear, but it made him feel even more like the game's protagonist, asylum inmate Danny Lamb.) The Level Up staff, meanwhile, reminisced about how our film school education helped make us sanguine about extreme subject matter, before concluding with a full-throated defense of why a ban on the game--whether de jure, as in the U.K. and Ireland; or de facto, as in the U.S.--demonstrates a complete lack of respect for the ability of adults to determine how they would like to be entertained.

Today, in Round 2, the conversation gets more pointed. Totilo accuses us of failing to adequately describe the content of Manhunt 2 in our defense of adults' right to play it, and goes on to wonder why more videogame aficionados aren't willing to interrogate the violent nature of many of the games that they play. We return fire with an assertion that what troubles many about violent games--and blinds many gamers, developers and publishers to what should trouble them about the medium--is inextricably linked with the very definition of what games are. Some excerpts:

Stephen Totilo: I respect defense of games as speech. But I think for too long those who write and talk about video games--and I'm thinking primarily of reviewers--have ignored the effects of ultra-violence on games and the nature of that violence as it relates to the quality of what we play. I'm not talking about anything that would affect how games are rated. The people who rate games seem primarily concerned with how the interactivity of games possibly teaches or at least desensitizes gamers to real violence. What about how gamers have been desensitized to violence in games? It seems to me that the very thing that makes a game a game--its interactivity--encourages game makers to fill their creations with an inordinate amount of one of the most reliably engaging things there is to do with the press of a controller button: squashing enemies in Super Mario, shooting them in Call of Duty, commiting an act of virtual violence. As a result, gamers' entertainment is soaked in far more blood than other forms of entertainment. Is it a wonder games get such a bad rap?

N'Gai Croal: You're right to wonder why more of us aren't freaking out over our chosen form of entertainment--and by extension, more of the developers who create these videogames and the publishers who distribute them--but isn't the answer by now self-evident? We can't. The very fabric of videogames--their repetitive action, reaction and interaction--is the original sin for which censorious organizations like the BBFC, the IFCO, and, ultimately, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, would have us either a) repent, then go forth and sin no more; or b) confine our blasphemy to acceptable form and content. But as film critic Pauline Kael once wrote, "Art is the greatest game, the supreme entertainment, because you discover the game as you play it. There is only one rule, as we learned in 'Orphee': Astonish us! In all art we look and listen for what we have not experienced quite that way before. We want to see, to feel, to understand, to respond a new way. Why should pedants be allowed to spoil the game?"

Click on the link below to read Round 2 in its entirety.

Slideshow

Manhunt 2 Wii box art...

Sometimes, you've just got to roll with the punches.

Gratified by the growing, passionate and influential audience attracted by our first Vs. Mode exchange on God of War II, MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo and the staff of Level Up began to loosely plan out future discussions/debates. Last month, we wrestled with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. We had always intended to tackle Rockstar's brutal stealth-horror game Manhunt 2 upon its release, because the Level Up crew very much enjoyed the first title--if "enjoyed" is indeed the right word--and we were curious to see what the company had planned for the franchise. But you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.

So last week, when all hell broke loose--first with the banning of Manhunt 2 in the U.K., followed by the Adults Only rating here in the U.S., the banning of the title in Ireland, and Take-Two's decision to "temporarily suspend plans to distribute Manhunt 2 for the Wii or PlayStation platforms while it reviews its options with regard to the recent decisions made by the British Board of Film Classification and Entertainment Software Rating Board--we began to despair. But we persevered, Rockstar accommodated us, and we got to play the first third or so of Manhunt 2 on Friday afternoon, with the opportunity to play as many additional missions as we can get through on Monday June 25th, so that we can debate and discuss the game for this week's Vs. Mode. Here are some excerpts:

Stephen Totilo: The first level of Manhunt 2 is the only one that matches the description most reporters--including myself--have used to explain the game: it has the player controlling Daniel Lamb, escaping an insane asylum where something has gone horribly wrong, the helpful voice of a guy names Leo accompanying him with each step. We'll talk more about this level later, I'm sure, but rest easy knowing I experienced its highs and lows. I got Daniel urinated on by one angry inmate still behind bars. I discovered another who had hung himself. I performed my first stealth kill--with a syringe--and watched Daniel vomit because of his quick-passing guilt. I learned to sneak around and figured out how to get past some characters without killing them. I learned the motion controls and swiped the Wii's movement-sensitive remote sharply one way then another to knock a man's head off with an axe. I made my escape. I played the part of a crazy man.

N'Gai Croal: The second reason I was so taken with [the original] Manhunt is because of what you mentioned in your opener: the man who has rescued you from execution and brought you to the abandoned town of Carcer City, where you must kill or be killed, all for his amusement. And as you point out, he gives you orders through your earpiece. He tells you where to go. He tells you what to do. He tells you what minimum level of violence he'll accept in the surveillance camera-meets-snuff film killings that you must commit for his pleasure before he will open the doors or gates that will let you proceed to the next area. He sounds awfully familiar, doesn't he? His name? The Designer--I mean, the Director. Yes, at the heart of Manhunt is a brilliantly twisted joke. Rockstar grabs the translucent veil of mildly disreputable innocuousness in which most action titles cloak themselves, tears it open and exposes the sinister truth that lies just beneath the surface: in an awful lot of videogames, the developer and the publisher are asking you to virtually kill an awful lot of virtual enemies, over and over and over again. Manhunt is just more honest about this than most, and cleverly, brutally so to boot.

As loyal readers know, the staff of Level Up is fond of film parallels, and this controversy certainly warrants another one. Is Manhunt 2 the new "Bonnie and Clyde," the new "A Clockwork Orange," the new "Last Tango In Paris," with Level Up and Totilo serving as the modern-day Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, valiantly defending it from the Bosley Crowther-type bluenoses who Just Don't Get It? Or is it just the new "I Spit on Your Grave," the new "Deep Throat," the new "Hostel: Part II," with us blindly playing the roles of apologists, sycophants and fanboys?

We critique.

You decide.

Welcome. Click on the link below to read Round 1 in its entirety.

1. EGO...trip: Level Up staff on Bonus Round, NeoGAF
2. HMM...A closer look at race and videogames
3. WOW...Is game design pathological?
4. PS3...gets an IR solution for Harmony remote fans
5. SXY...The future of Western dating games, examined
6. RND...Cheney and Schrodinger's cat

When Sega sent out its press release this morning announcing that acclaimed Canadian developer BioWare would be making a role-playing game based on Sonic the Hedgehog for the Nintendo DS, we, like many others, were taken aback. Not by the fact that a Japanese publisher was teaming up with a Western developer; after all, Sega has been the most aggressive of the major Japanese companies in signing up such studios as Monolith Productions (Condemned), Pseudo Interactive (Full Auto), Bizarre Creations (The Club) and Silicon Knights (for an as yet unnamed title) among others, in addition to acquiring Sports Interactive (Championship Manager), Creative Assembly (Medieval II: Total War) and Secret Level (America's Army: Rise of a Soldier.) Nor was it because BioWare, whose heritage lies in computer games and, more recently, console titles, would embrace a portable device, because the company did reveal its plans to get into the handheld space last fall.

No, the head scratching stemmed from this: why would BioWare, one of the world's best developers, voluntarily get involved with a franchise as troubled as Sonic the Hedgehog? To ponder it further only led from head-scratching to head-shaking when we thought of the numerous other franchises that Sega fans would much rather see in the hands of the good doctors/founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk--like Panzer Dragoon, Skies of Arcadia, Golden Axe, Shenmue, heck, even Jet Set Radio--than the increasingly problematic blue furball. Given that Muzyka and Zeschuk are two of the most thoughtful and deliberate game creators that we've met, we asked ourselves again: why?

1. UGH...Manhunt 2 delayed; gamers plead for release 
2. GAF...Analyst Michael Pachter vs. NeoGAF: fight?
3. NPR...All Things Considered on gaming literacy
4. RND...Thoughts on the AFI's 100 best movies list

1. ARG...to promote Halo 3 ensnares student
2. Wii...Blogger rebuts casual game critique
3. GET...by, with a little help, from their friends
4. CAC...David Jaffe opines on Playstation.blog
5. $$$...D3 purchases Vicious Cycle
6. RND...The TV ad that scared Fox and CBS

 

Yesterday, the Entertainment Software Rating Board announced that Manhunt 2, the brutal survival horror game from Rockstar Games, would receive an Adults Only rating. (This followed the British Board of Film Classification refusing to grant the game a rating in the U.K., effectively banning it; the game has since also been banned in Ireland.) On its Web site, the ESRB describes the rating as follows:

Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

By comparison, a Mature-rated game is explained in the following manner:

Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

For publishers, this rating is considered a kiss of death, because many major retailers like Wal-Mart refuse to stock AO-rated games. It's especially problematic for console game publishers, because platform holders like Nintendo and Sony do not allow AO-rated games to be published on their machines. We reached out to Nintendo and Sony for comment; here's what they emailed back:

Sony Computer Entertainment America: Currently it's SCE's policy not to allow the playback of AO-rated content on our systems.

Nintendo of America: Games made for Nintendo systems enjoy a broad variety of styles, genres and ratings. These are some of the reasons our Wii and Nintendo DS systems appeal to such a broad range of people. But as with books, television and movies, different content is meant for different audiences. That's why the ESRB provides ratings to help consumers understand the content of a game before they purchase it. As stated on Nintendo.com, Nintendo does not allow any AO-rated content on its systems.

As confirmed by these statements, Manhunt 2--which was planned for the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation Portable, and, in what was a surprise at the time of the announcement, the Wii--cannot be shipped for any of its intended systems unless Rockstar either a) successfully appeals the AO rating and convinces the ESRB to change it to an M rating, or b) changes the content of the game, re-submits it to the ESRB and gets a M rating. Stay tuned.

Game journalist Doug Perry and his daughter Genevieve

Eight years into our coverage of the videogame industry, as the cumulative string conferences, demonstrations and parties blur together, it's often impossible to remember precisely when we met any one of our peers. So we'll just say that we've known former IGN Xbox editor Douglass C. Perry--currently working on an undisclosed new venture--for some time, and that the work that he and his colleagues did at IGN was invaluable in our development from videogame novices to, well, whatever we are nowadays.

In one of Perry's last pieces for IGN--a preview of the co-op mode in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2--we were taken with his interjections about the challenge of playing the game with his infant daughter on his lap. With this aspect of real life often going unmentioned in videogame writing, we emailed Perry to compliment him on doing so, whereupon we found out that his asides about his little girl had polarized IGN readers; some were gratified by the mentions, others detested them on the grounds that it interfered with their quest for more info about the game. Intrigued, we asked Perry to pen a essay specifically about the travails of the gamer dad. Here's what he wrote back:

I'd finished Guitar Hero II twice, once on easy and the second time on medium difficulty, when I realized I was on a serious rhythm run. Sometimes with Guitar Hero, you just get like that. One day you suck, the next, you're ripping everything to shreds. So I started my next run on Hard. I nailed three songs in a row and was onto my fourth. I wasn't thinking. I was doing; letting the fingers flow across the buttons, breathing slowly, adding tremolo extensions to everything. Then I heard that new sound; that piercing, familiar noise of my seven-month-old baby beginning to cry.

Should I quit or keep playing?

Playing Guitar Hero is different than other games. It's a sonic experience. When fighting the Kingpin in Spider-Man 3, for example, you don't need utter silence and complete concentration to hit the right keys at precision moments. No, with Kingpin, you must simply counter his every attack and hope the game doesn't freeze mid-move. With Guitar Hero, when someone comes in the room and asks a question, slightly distracting you from the upcoming licks, you may miss a note or two. When two people in the room start talking, or worse, start talking to you, keeping that razor-edge concentration becomes even more difficult. But when your daughter shrieks because she's tired or hungry, things accelerate. Two things happen. First, a jolt runs through your body: Child in danger! Rescue! Quick! The second reaction is less immediate. This voice says, "Wait! What kind of cry was that? Was that an 'I'm tired' cry? An 'I'm just rolling over' cry? Or an, "I'm hungry!' call?"

1. ARE...games like early movies or punk rock?
2. BOO...Manhunt 2 gets dreaded AO rating
3. PS3...operating system coders speak
4. RND...Arabic not required for Baghdad embassy? 

Kathy Vrabeck, president of EA Casual

It was just this February when Electronic Arts announced that its former president, John Riccitiello, would be returning to the company as CEO after a two-and-a-half year absence. Yesterday, Riccitiello officially put his stamp on EA with the unveiling of the company's reorganization into four divisions, topped by the four following label presidents:

• EA Games: to be headed by current executive vice president and general manager of North American publishing Frank Gibeau. This includes such franchises as Spore, Battlefield, Burnout and Medal of Honor.
• EA Sports: to be supervised by executive vice president of legal and business affairs Joel Linzner until a permanent candidate can be found. This includes such licensed sports titles as Madden NFL, NBA Live and NHL.
• EA Sims: to be directed by the current chief of EA's Sims studio, Nancy Smith. This includes The Sims, SimCity and MySims, among other properties.
• EA Casual: to be captained by Kathy Vrabeck, former president of publishing for Activision. This includes EA Mobile and Pogo.

We spoke with Vrabeck shortly after her appointment was announced, but before yesterday's reorganization was unveiled. Here's what she had to say about her fledgling EA Casual division.

First of all, congratulations on your new job.

Thank you. I'm excited about it.

How did conversations with you and EA begin about a) your coming onboard with EA, and then b) you heading up EA Casual?

As you know, I left Activision over a year ago. About a year ago, in June, I started doing a little bit of consulting for EA in their mobile group. So, you know, from that time I started getting to know the EA folks a little better and just getting to know their businesses, but we really didn't have any firm discussions about me joining the company until John Riccitiello came back. I had gotten to know John over the last year or two in his role at Elevation Partners. Although we both had similar backgrounds, we had not met during our videogame days. I spent a lot of time talking with him at Elevation about how you think about videogame companies. And when he came back in and he started meeting with folks at EA and thinking about how he would attack some of the growth parts of the business he called me, we had lunch, and we started talking about his thoughts on EA and whether there was a role for me to play.

I sort of jumped at the casual opportunity for a couple of reasons. One, I think the world of John. I think that he's going to come back into EA and really propel it forward. I think he's going to be doing a lot that will make the whole industry think about how they run their businesses. So I'm excited to work with John. I did spend a fair amount of time looking at what I might want to do next after I left Activision, and had pretty much decided that I would likely not work in games because I wanted to do something that was a little bit different than what I had done. I actually looked at many opportunities outside of gaming and what attracted me to this is that it's enough rooted in what I know, but it's really the next big thing in gaming. It's where I personally think the growth is going to be. It's really fun. It's the kind of games that I relate to a little bit more. So for all those reasons, I was excited about taking the job.

How are you defining casual games? What's going to be coming under your bailiwick?

1. BOO...U.K. clears Hostel Part II, rejects Manhunt 2
2. RUM...ble: Microsoft sues Immersion re: Sony
3. BLU...Blockbuster chooses Blu-Ray over HD-DVD
4. WOW...Rock Band bundle for just $199? Sold!
5. RND...Meet the NBA draft's online mavens 

1. RED...Todd, Just Admit It; 360 flaws nothing shocking
2. RUM...ble back in PS3 "sevenaxis" controller?
3. END...Orson Scott Card on writing for games
4. ART...NeoGAF forum artist reveals process
5. NYT...on gold farmers; professional gaming prodigies
6. RND...Barack Obama's number one fan

Namco Bandai's Beautiful Katamari

In hindsight, we should have seen it coming. First, Namco Bandai announced that Ridge Racer 6 as an Xbox 360-exclusive launch title for 2005. We didn't think too much of it, because even though Ridge Racer games had been closely associated with the debuts of various Sony machines (PS1, PS2 and PSP, for example) the Playstation 3 wasn't due in stores for another year. For that reason, it made perfect business sense that Namco would seek to hoover up some of Microsoft's co-marketing dollars in exchange for the bragging rights Microsoft would derive from having a Ridge Racer game debut on the 360. So when Ridge Racer 7 was announced exclusively for the Playstation 3's launch, it served to confirm our belief that Namco had only engaged in a mercenary flirtation with Microsoft, only to return to the warm embrace of its first love, Sony. After all, how could Xbox 360's anemic performance in Japan sway local developers to turn their attention away from the hometown console?

1. GOD...versus Sony, backed by lame duck Blair
2. HMM...Real-life tragedy. Worthy game. Possible?
3. OSX...The best-laid plans of Macs and men... 
4. RND...Coverage of this blog only feeds our ego 

SCEA director of development Seth Luisi (right) and his son Tazu

Coming off of the comic book-inspired stealth gaming bliss that was Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, we were initially unmoved by the relative austerity of the original SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals. But after dabbling with the multiplayer ahead of the PlayStation 2 game's August 2002 release, we gave the single-player story mode another shot, and found ourselves drawn in by the terse voice command system the game employs to to let players give orders to their squadmates; the tense, die-and-restart-from-the-beginning mission structure that forced us to carefully pick our way through each level; the terrific feel of the varied weapons that composed SOCOM's modern day arsenal. Even after the third and fourth games' emphasis on vehicles over close-quarters combat dimmed our interest, our ears nevertheless perk up when news from the SOCOM universe. At an event last month in San Diego, we got to chatting with Seth Luisi, director of development for Sony Computer Entertainment America and a 13-year veteran of the company who's been in charge of the Zipper Interactive-developed SOCOM franchise since its inception. In our extensive Q&A, we discussed why SOCOM fans prefer the second installment of the four console games that were released to date; the series' forthcoming Playstation 3 debut, SOCOM: Confrontation; and how new developer Slant 6 came to be involved with the series.

For the most part, fans of the SOCOM franchise are pretty vocal about their preference for SOCOM II. What do you think it is about that game specifically that they love so much?

Well, SOCOM II had these really nice, intimate experiences where there's a little more density in the environment, a little more interaction, more strategies you can use and a more closed or confined environment. SOCOM 3, in adding vehicles, the environments obviously had to grow, so we lost a little of that. We tried to come back to that a little bit with SOCOM: Combined Assault but we had a tight development schedule on that one; we could only take it so far. So in many ways with the new title we're trying to go back to that, and actually going above and beyond that and really focusing on the environments to make sure that they're even more dense and intricate than previously.

That's one of the things we really want to play up--we want you to always be careful when you're going around a corner, because you may run into five guys coming at you the other way. We want you to really look at the environment and have to learn it to know all the different paths and different intricate ways that you can navigate the environment, so that you can find your own special routes and routes at different ways through it; so that you can really use the environment a lot more than we had in previously games. Because we kind of want the environment to be more of a part of the game in this one.

So no vehicles then in SOCOM: Confrontation?

Not initially, yeah.

Not initially?

Not initially. We're going to focus on really getting that on-foot game play to where we want it to be.

SOCOM: Confrontation--is that title meant to reflect this new direction, this refocus on the intimate combat that people liked so much about SOCOM II?

Definitely. But it also reflects the fact that it's an online-only title, so it's all about getting online and getting into different confrontations. Doesn't quite flow off the tongue but...

How much did Sony and Incognito's decision to make Warhawk a multiplayer-only title influence the direction of SOCOM: Confrontation?

1. ARG...Is Bungie up to its old tricks again?
2. USA...American McGee's Shacknews Q&A
3. UMM...Sounds like wishful thinking to us
4. NOT...welcome: women in Nihilum WoW guild
5. RND...O.J. Simpson, Tony Blair critique media
   

Eric Atkins, Hushed Casket: Bungie still hasn't figured out that Halo gamers don't want to spawn with an underpowered weapon. Despite its changes the Assault Rifle is still an underpowered weapon. Just like Halo 2 we spawn and then everyone races to the better weapons. This is where I could go into a gripe about the lack of return of the Halo 1 pistol, but I've finally accepted that it's not going to happen. It's my perception that hardcore gamers want a dominating weapon like the H1 pistol where as casual gamers don't. Bungie is marketing Halo 3 to casual gamers. They outnumber us. Fair enough. I don't like it, but I suppose you do what lines your pockets.

Brian Crecente, Kotaku: This should be the game that shows off why you want an HDMI-out Elite Xbox 360 and so far it doesn't. I'd also love for them to tweak their matchmaking, a personal pet peeve of me. I hate that I can literally bring a book with me to the couch and make use of it when I play Halo 3 online. Finally, I want a satisfying end to a storyline that has had its ups and downs over the franchise's history.

Matt McClard, Halo Anyone?: The introduction of new weapons like the Spartan Laser and Spike Grenades were welcome additions to an already great group of weapons. The new equipment took some getting used to, but in the end proved to be very useful, but not too useful. I am very pleased that Bungie has been tweaking old game types like King of the Hill and Territories. The new way the hill is highlighted adds some interesting game play and the way Territories seems to demand a little more finesse and team work is great. By far the best revision is giving you a decent weapon (Assault Rifle) from the start. All in all I would have to say that I was very pleased with the Halo 3 Beta.

For the full set of responses, click on the link below.

1. FIN...ally: SCEA launches its very own blog
2. HEH...Newsweek mention prompts giddy responses
3. CON...vergence at Ubisoft Montreal, explained
4. JOB...What you need to know to produce games
5. ID5...id software demonstrates its new tech on a Mac
6. RND...David Chase discusses "Sopranos" finale

The Halo 3 multiplayer beta came to a conclusion a just short while ago. We've already shared our opinions on the experience in our most recent Vs. Mode exchange, but we were curious to know what our peers made of it. So we reached out to a smattering of them with an email questionnaire, and they kindly sent us their answers over the past week. Today, we're posting the responses of mainstream media writers from outlets ranging from USA Today to Electronic Gaming Monthly; tomorrow, bloggers and pro gamers take their turn in the spotlight. Some excerpts:

Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Electronic Gaming Monthly: I played all three of these maps long before the beta was even announced, so the seeing the same stages again was a bit of a disappointment for me personally. But that said, I've spent more time on this beta than I do with most other games I'm playing for fun, so it must be doing something right. For a game that's still a few months away, it runs awfully smoothly and relatively problem-free, so that's very impressive.

Dean Takahashi, San Jose Mercury News: They didn't screw anything up. That's a plus. They added new weapons and game play experiences. That's good. The fixed some problems like too much dual-wielding. But it falls a little short on compelling new material. It's an improvement on an existing game in a known universe with known enemies. What's new here so far? I suspect that a lot of the new and moving material will be in the single-player game. That's what I'm have high expectations for.

Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine: I've gotten spoiled by the pacing in Gears--it's much more deliberate and focuses a lot on teamplay. Halo is this crazy cocktail of insanity that usually ends up in a looping bloodbath. There's nothing wrong with either and there were definitely times when I was adjusting to the pacing of Gears' MP when I thought to myself, "I could've done that in Halo! Why can't I do this in Gears?!" But in the end--I think they're too different. Though I do think that Gears' co-op structure was absolutely peerless--I really want to have that same co-op experience in Halo 3's campaign.

For the full set of print and magazine media responses, click on the link below.

1. DOA...creator says rivals can't top his next title
2. SOV...iet-era arcade games, on display
3. BYE...With Halo 3 beta over, whither Crackdown?
4. RND..."Sopranos" creator whacks viewers--love it!

1. P2P...post on Wii elicits strong reactions
2. EGO...trip: being randomly name-checked
3. UGH...the seamy underbelly of pre-orders
4. Wii...itis? So says a prominent medical journal
5. NEW...Sim City developer; fanboys freak out
6. HMM...A designer carefully plumbs EA's soul
7. UMM...PS3's European viral campaign
8. BOO...Industry in crisis? Or not, say skeptics
9. HAX...0rs: play iTunes library on your Wii
10. RND...The best, the brightest, the Ivy League

Gearheads of War's Tyler Bleszinski with his daughter Maya

One of the guilty pleasures of having a blog is when a Google Alert arrives in our inbox, pointing out that somewhere, someone is a) reading our blog and even better b) taking the time to write about it. All PR is good PR, as far as the staff of Level Up is concerned (that's a capital "G" after the apostrophe, by the way) but even more compelling than good PR is the opportunity to become e-quainted with other talented and compelling bloggers.

We made the acquaintance of SportsBlogNation president Tyler Bleszinski--yes, he's also the older brother, by three years, of Gears of War designer Cliff "Cliffyb" Bleszinski--after reading an eminently fair assessment that he'd written on his own blog Gearheads of War about our critique of the dialogue in Gears of War. Since then, we've emailed from time to time on subjects various and sundry. During one such exchange, prompted by our inaugural Monday Morning Quarterback post about the April sales charts, Bleszinski voiced his concern about the impact that the Wii--more specifically, the tidal wave of casual game-oriented newcomers that Nintendo's hit console was ushering into the market--would have on hardcore gamers like himself. Intrigued, we asked Bleszinski to tackle the following question, "Why do you feel threatened by the prospect of a dominant Wii?" Here is his reply.

My brother Cliff and I have been into games long before he ever created Gears of War. He and I played through the original Zelda together and I remember having tournaments with him where we'd play the original Nintendo Ice Hockey game. I liked to stack my team with the fat guys because they had a booming shot that could score from anywhere and were really good at checking. Cliff went the skinny guy route and tried to skate circles around me.

But the times, they are a-changing. If Nintendo has its way, young males will no longer be the dominant segment of the console audience--and this transition appears to be happening faster than I expected. The other day I was in Target looking to pick up some games when I saw an older woman--very likely a grandmother--waiting for the clerk's attention. She wanted him to get her a couple of games from inside the locked glass cabinet. When he asked her which ones, she stated Cooking Mama and Wii Play.

1. PAX...The case of Penny Arcade v. Jack Thompson
2. Wii...Upcoming Manhunt 2 has Florida A.G. shook
3. GH?...A guitar-based platformer? Take a look.
4. RND...We were interns once, and young 

1. PCs...Valve surveys Steam users' machines
2. Sim...City Societies, aka SimCity 5, confirmed
3. GOD...of War combat designer leaves Sony
4. HMM...Games in libraries? Discuss.
5. ZR0...The Guitar Zeroes release their code
6. RND...Matt Drudge gets it wrong on Hillary

1. GH3...Neversoft tries to fill Harmonix's shoes
2. XBL...CMT + Logo = Brokeback 360?
3. PSP...could handle an MMO, says developer
4. ITS...a wonderful life without the Wii? Nah.
5. RND...Step into the tenth dimension 

1. ARG...Perplex City on hold, key creatives bounce
2. YAY...Onimusha movie to star Takeshi Kaneshiro
3. HMM...Are Xbox 360's Achievements good or evil?
   
4. SPK...Needed: a better language for videogames
5. RND...Can the CDC halt the spread of Beyonceitis?
   

Halo 3 character model

Note: This email exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo ran on N'Gai Croal's Level Up, in three separate installments, from May 29th-31st 2007. We now present it here in its entirety, under a single permalink, for easier printing, emailing and archival purposes.

1. GOW...Ex-journalist to novelize Gears of War
2. Wii...continues to garner positive press
3. 300...game concepts in 300 days? Our fave
4. Who...'s Who of game studios around the world
5. GGW...Pillowfight gives itself a hand
6. RND...A very close analysis of Engadget