Button Masher

For those with an Xbox 360, you may or may not know of Microsoft's XNA developer kit, which allows anybody with the time and talent to make games for Xbox Live Arcade.  Announced at GDC 08, effective immediately, you can now download the XNA Community Launcher, which let's you download free demos of the games made by these talented people.  Among them is the Dishwasher, a game that plays similar to Devil May Cry in 2D.

More on the Dishwasher can be found at my previous post here.

The ignorant woman who started the "Mass Effect is interactive pornography targeted to 15 year olds" rumor, Cooper Lawrence, wrote a book that was released on January 1st.  Less than a month old, her book has nearly 400 negative reviews on Amazon.  My advice to her, don't insult an entire community of sexually frustrated internet savvy nerds with a lot of spare time on their hands.

I actually contributed, being a lover of video games, and I hope you will write a negative review of your own.  If you have any reservations about being "mean" to her, then I think this person's review summed it up best.

"I have not read the book, but if the author can talk about subjects she has no insight into whatsoever, then I can certainly give my 2-cents about a book that I have no insight into. The only thing I do know about the author is that she is a complete hack, and I would not trust her opinion on anything."

Isn't it great that you can find her novel under the tags: ignorant, hypocrite, garbage, and terrible?

Check out this video.  It is based on the fact that Super Mario Bros. 2 was a LIE.  This is like having someone tell a 6-year old that Santa doesn't exist.

The reason I present this video is because I have actually played so much Tetris that a huge error popped out at me.  I noticed it on the first viewing.  Try to find it yourself.

If you still can't find it, it's at 1:10.  If that doesn't help, then you should really play a lot more Tetris.  This is still a great video and there's a lot more like this, by the same people, over at their website.

I'll take these guys' opinion over anyone elses.

While looking a bit more into the controversy of violence in video games, I stumbled upon an old game released in 2004 by Traffic Games called JFK Reloaded.  Traffic Games is no more, as JFK Reloaded stirred a lot more controversy than the independent studio could handle.

JFK: Reloaded (2004)

The game was intended to be a simulation of the events of JFK's assassination, hoping to give people a better understanding of the incident.  From an outwardly appearance though, it just seems like a game where you can try to kill JFK yourself.  Does this game try to educate people on a major historical event, or does it try to train people into becoming assassins?

JFK: Reloaded (2004)

You can download JFK: Reloaded here and come up with your own conclusion.  Personally, I think if a game or anything for that matter can generate discussion, then it is doing society a service, and not a disservice. 

I think this is neat.