Australian Left 4 Dead 2 will not feature any graphical depictions of violence image
It appears that the Australian censorship debacle surrounding the release of Left 4 Dead 2 has come to an end.
Despite vowing to fight the decision not to release the game in Australia due to a loophole in the age classification process, the company seems to have come to a compromise with the Australian Classification Review Board.
The cooperative Zombie fps will indeed be released in Australia with a RC (refused classification) certification. This means that Australian fans will be able to experience the sequel without the violence. The game will not contain any scenes depicting decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of bodies.
YOURemgn reports that this is the board’s final decision. Apparently, there was insufficient delineation between the game’s zombie and human figures.
"A three-member panel of the Classification Review Board (the Review Board) has unanimously determined that the computer game “Left 4 Dead 2? is classified RC (Refused Classification)."
“Left 4 Dead 2 [can] not be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification. The computer game contains a level of violence which is high in impact, prolonged, repeated frequently and realistic within the context of the game.”
This arguably removes one of the most important features from the game – gratuitous violence. Nonetheless Australian fans should be happy to know that the game has not been banned entirely.
Please Note This Deal Has Been Archived - This offer is probably no longer available - it remains purely for historical purposes, and to store user comments and ratings!
Here are the latest computer games offer from Borders:
New Super Mario Bros. Wii is one of those games that will leave you disappointed after the first level, slightly happy after the first world, and then you'll be stuck with a huge grin on your face after blasting through the game with three friends. This is a magical game, made even more impressive by how rote it may seem at first. Keep playing, however, and you'll see just how much this title offers.
One of the more impressive feats the game pulls off is offering level design that is perfectly fine to play with a single player, but also benefits from having multiple people on the screen at once. If you're a loner, this is still some of the best 2D platforming you can find on the market. If you have three friends who you love/hate... be prepared for something altogether different. Title New Super Mario Bros. Wii Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Price $49.99 Shop.Ars Platform Wii
This is classic Mario in every sense of the word; you'll find enemies and situations from almost all the past games, and since you can play the game with two buttons, anyone can pick up a a controller and participate. The one addition to the controls is the ability to pick up players and items by holding a button and shaking the Wiimote, and this is much less annoying than it sounds. Giving the Wiimote a quick shake will also cause your character to do a spin-jump, which flings projectiles to both sides of your character if you have a fire or ice flower. In some sections you'll be asked to tilt to the Wiimote left or right to move a platform or to control a spotlight, but the gimmick is never overused.
The additions to the core gameplay are slight, but add an extra layer of complexity to the proceedings. The propeller suit allows you to fly to great heights and then gently return to Earth. The penguin suit gives you the ability to freeze enemies and to slide along levels on your belly. It also allows you to swim with ease. The new flower also gives you the ability to freeze baddies, and the blocks of ice that result from your ice blasts can be used as stepping stones, picked up and thrown, or simply walked past. Are you already angry?
All this may sound like incremental improvements, but each new gameplay tweak is used to great effect in the levels themselves. You'll find spinning platforms, tricky jumps, and a myriad of secondary challenges in each level. You'll be looking for the three big coins, you'll be able to find multiple exits in some stages, you'll be asked to collect eight strategically placed red coins before the time runs out... each level features an incredible amount of replay value. newmario.jpg
And playing with four people may seem cumbersome at first, but it may actually be easier because of how the game is set up. As long as someone has lives left, play continues, and when someone does die they float back on the screen until someone pops their bubble and brings them back into active participation. At any point you can hit the A button and enter a floating bubble, allowing more talented players to finish a tricky section before bringing you back into play. You can jump on each other's heads to grab hard-to-reach coins and items.
It takes some getting used to, and the running commentary of grievances from the other players is one of the biggest draws of the game. You can hit a block and take every mushroom, for instance. If you get mad at someone you can pick them up and throw them at a piranha plant. The game allows you to slide along walls and jump off them—just like New Super Mario Bros. on the DS—which can lead to some amazing saves and near-death experiences. The constant interaction with the other players and the friction between the times when you help others and accidentally hinder their progress provides many, many laughs.
You can run through the levels quickly, you can stop and find every hidden secret and item. You can try to play the game without losing any lives, or you can see how many times you can kill the other players. You can play this game in a few different ways depending on your play style, and the levels reward thought and practice. There are surprises, secrets, new ideas, and anachronisms spread throughout the entire experience. Everyone is invited
This is a game designed to be played with your wife or husband, with your sons or daughters, with your mother or your father. If you die enough times in a level you'll be able to activate the "Super Guide" which plays the level for you, allowing you to see what comes next. You can also join in the action at any point in the computer's playthrough of the level if you're stuck at a single point. If you think this option is cheap, the solution is simple: don't use it.
If you run out of lives you can simply continue, although the game does keep track of how many of these you use. In my time with the game we began to keep tabs on who was dying and how many times; using the most continues became somewhat of a sick badge of pride.
You can also spend coins to unlock videos that show you secrets or show off incredible runs through the levels. There is a competitive mode to see who can collect the most coins in select levels. Extra lives are easy to find, but also easy to cut through during tricky sections of the game.
It's not easy to describe the pleasures of the game without handing you a controller and inviting you over, but rest assured: the old magic is still there. The levels are delightful, and you'll find many things in unexpected places. This is a title that blurs the line between casual and hardcore players very successfully, to the point where each may feel like the target audience. It's not perfect
Still, not having online play in the game is a missed opportunity, especially considering how fun multiplayer is and the challenges of getting four players together in one place if your friends are scattered over a large area. This game is amazing as it stands, but with full voice chat and online support it would have been even better.
I also expect to see many fan-made videos of players mastering a level and showing off their prowess. Even with three other players of varying skill levels playing with me, we routinely were impressed by what the other players were doing and a nice move or quick save was always rewarded by some applause or appreciative whistles. Being able to record and share those videos would have added a large community-based aspect to the game. Creating a Channel for speed runs or other moments captured in games would have been great, but as it stands you'll see many videos made by pointing a camera at a screen.
super_mario_wii_3_ars.jpg
This is also an incredibly conservative game. Nintendo added a few very well-designed suits and gimmicks to the gameplay, but overall this is the same Mario gameplay you know and love, with all-new levels. It's fun seeing the many references to past games, and the multiplayer is innovative, but this doesn't really push the world of Mario very hard or in very many new directions.
A new 2D Mario game is always big news, and while comments on our stories about the game may be filled with people who take great pains to explain how they just don't get it... this is going to be a huge game. It will satisfy hardcore fans of the series, it will introduce new fans to a classical style of play, and you'll be surprised by how much you can do in the levels with a little practice and skill. Watching a new player and an experienced gamer playing the game is eye-opening; there is actual technique and art to using the items and bouncing off enemies to get just a little higher. The levels may seem perfectly linear, but once you get good you'll realize each one is nothing less than a complete playground to explore and to test your skills.
Your first impression may be that this is another safe release in an established series, but once you've given a few hours to playing with friends, and have seen the happy chaos that results, you'll realize that playing it safe may have been a good bet. It's not most graphically impressive game out there, but the level design is impeccable and the surprises will keep you smiling. Expect this to hit the top of the sales charts and stay there for a long, long time.
DUNKIN DONUTS CENTER — The Friars start this season 3-0 with a sweep of the World Vision Tournament. The Friars fend off a late push by the Mercer Bears to win 79-77. After the game, Coach Davis, once again commented on the poor shot selection and 3-point shooting, but complimented his young team’s resiliency and ability to respond to tough situations.
First Half
The Friars came out with great energy and intensity on offensive, quickly taking the lead and never relinquishing it. They were up 5 points 2 minutes into the game and continued to build upon their lead, extending it to 16 with about 5 minutes left in the half. Marshon Brooks continued his great offensive play to start the season with 21 points just in the first half. Although his shot selection is still questionable at times, his athletic ability and great shooting often bails him out. Sharaud Curry continues to struggle shooting the ball, but continues to provide excellent senior guidance for the young team.
Second Half
The Friars came out very lethargic in the second half, often taking premature jumpers instead of relying on ball movement to create open shots. The Bears also came out a little rusty on offense, but began to click with about 10 minutes left in the game. The Bears cut the deficit down to 1 points with great defense and very efficient offense that got to the rim way to easily. However, in the end, Curry proved his worth by making all his free throw shots to close out the game and bring home a victory.
Although its hard to criticize a team thats started 3-0, there are many glaring flaws on this young team. Once again, the Friars had difficulty shooting the 3. They often took too many contested shots with at least 20 seconds left on the shot clock. For them to have success in the Big East, their going to have to begin calling for more picks to try and create open shots. Too often there are 4 Friars who stand on the perimeter waiting for their turn to take a difficult shot. Instead, the Friars should allow Curry and Brooks to drive and attempt to break down defenses to kick it out for open shots. If they don’t clean up their offense, this is going to be a long year at the Dunk.
Lena-Winslow (10-1) has never been beyond the third round in the football playoffs.
East Dubuque (10-1) has once, but the Warriors are only making their third voyage into the postseason in school history.
Today at 1 p.m. at East Dubuque, one program adds another story to their school’s history.
The matchup pits a pair of teams that know exactly what to expect from the other.
"They’re a pretty well-balanced team with a great group of skill kids," Lena-Winslow coach Ric Arand said of the Warriors. "They run it well, they throw it well, everything they do is pretty solid.
"On offense and defense at the line of scrimmage, they’re small like us, but quick like us too."
All season the Warriors have caused havoc in the NUIC-Upstate with their 3-5 defense.
While East Dubuque’s defense has led the Warriors all season, the Panthers won’t be facing a style they’re unfamiliar with.
"We’ve seen it probably four or five times, I’m guessing at least four, so it won’t be a surprise to us," Arand said. "They do play it a little bit different than some teams, but we’ve seen about everything you can throw at us."
The Warriors use their quick, aggressive defense to stop running games inside before teams can get to the perimeter or pick up big yardage.
"They run that 3-5, which we’ve faced a lot this year, West Carroll, E/PC and to a degree, Rockridge," Le-Win’s Fritz Werhane said. "But they have their linebackers so close, it’s like a 5-3.
"At this point in the season, we know what we want to do, we just have to read it at the line and talk to each other."
When the Panthers have the ball, it’s no mystery what they like to do as backs Trey Griffin and Zach Edmund are keys for Lena-Winslow, a team that prides itself on the ground game.
"We have to mix things up, this is no different than any other week," Arand said. "We’re used to seeing eight-nine guys in the box, and to us it’s a challenge.
"We have to be able to run effectively, but also be able to throw it when we have to."
Throwing the ball is exactly what the Warriors have done well all season, especially of late as quarterback Chance Oster (78-142 for 1172 yards) has shown he can make big plays with his arm.
"He’s very good, he has pinpoint accuracy," Arand said. "He throws as well as anyone we’ve seen this year and maybe even in a couple of years."
East Dubuque doesn’t just rely on the pass as running back Mike Hoppman (912 yards) leads the team on the ground.
"I’d say he’s a lot like (Tommy) Bowers from Dakota," Arand said. "Bowers is a little smaller, but they’re both punishing runners that are athletes and can get out and motor too."
For East Dubuque, the Warriors are wary of what the Panthers can do against the run.
Both teams have strong defenses that don’t give up many points, so field position, special teams and the smaller aspects of the game will be important.
"To us, special teams is one of three phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams that you have to be strong at to win," Arand said. "For us, we can’t have mistakes on special teams, if we do then we’re in trouble."
* St. Mary's rolls past San Diego State 80-58 * Saint Peter's beats Monmouth 58-34 in 6 am start * Alabama A&M defeats Oakwood 86-81 * Recap: U-C-L-A vs. Cal State Fullerton * Recap: Hawaii vs. Northern Colorado * Recap: T-C-U vs. CS-Northridge * Recap: Arizona State vs. Texas State * Recap: Charlotte vs. Elon * Recap: Pacific vs. San Diego * Recap: St Marys-CA vs. San Diego St * Recap: Washington St vs. Eastern Wash * Savannah State beats Cent. Conn. State 53-45 * Jones' 22 paces USF past Virginia 66-49 * Mississippi defeats Alabama State 90-53 * Stony Brook defeats Mount St. Mary 87-53 * No. 5 Villanova routs Big Five rival Penn * Richmond routs Virginia Military Institute 103-59 * Charlotte beats Elon 75-61 in NIT Season Tip-Off * Troy defeats William Carey 104-88 * Miami crushes Nova Southeastern 108-58
The 24th-ranked Clemson Tigers have won 26 straight games in the month of November and they should have no trouble continuing that run against the Presbyterian Blue Hose tonight at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Under head coach Oliver Purnell, Clemson has enjoyed several fast starts to a season and it hasn't dropped a game in the month of November since 2004. The Tigers are also coming off three straight 20-win campaigns and enter this season with lofty expectations. Clemson, which earned a ranking in the preseason poll for the first time since 1997, returns a wide variety of talent from last year's 23-win club, giving it the opportunity for another successful campaign.
As for PC, it went 12-17 overall and 9-9 in the Big South in 2008-09 under the direction of head coach Gregg Nibert. The Blue Hose are in their third year of the NCAA Division I transition process and won't be eligible for the postseason until the 2011-12 season. With that said, coach Nibert and his staff decided to redshirt the team's top three players, so they would be around for the 2011-12 campaign, leaving PC with one of the youngest and least experienced squads around.
PC and Clemson are meeting for the 74th time, with the Tigers holding a 54-18-1 edge in the rivalry, including five straight wins.
As mentioned early, PC decided to redshirt its top three performers from a year ago, leaving gaping holes to be filled. Juniors Al'Lonzo Coleman, Josh Johnson and Pierre Miller combined for nearly 33 ppg in 2008-09, but they have been redshirted to benefit the program in the long run. Kevin Davis, a sophomore that saw limited time a year ago, will now be asked to take on a starting role in the backcourt after averaging just 4.6 minutes per game a year ago. A pair of freshman in Khalid Mutakabbir and Travis Smith will also be counted on to produce immediately at the perimeter. In the frontcourt, Chase Holmes will assume a starting role after a solid rookie campaign in which he averaged 7.8 ppg. Walt Allen sat out last season and is looking to make an impact in his return, and freshman Jake Troyli will see plenty of time in the frontcourt as well.
The Tigers lost three productive starters from a year ago, but the cupboard is by no means empty. Trevor Booker is one of several talents that will help overcome the team's losses and the 6-7, 240-pound forward is a double-double threat every night. Last season, Booker led the team in both scoring (15.3 ppg) and rebounding (9.7 rpg), while also providing a presence on defense, recording 47 steals and 63 blocks. Joining him in the front will be David Potter and Jerai Grant. The 6-6 Potter provided 4.9 ppg and energy off the bench last season, while the 6-8 Grant is a good athlete that netted 4.7 ppg a year ago. At the perimeter, Demontez Stitt returns to his starting role and he chipped in 8.7 ppg, while running the offense, with 3.8 apg. Tanner Smith averaged 3.6 ppg and showed potential as a freshman last season and he will assume a larger role this time around.
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« Review: The Playboy of the Western World at New York City Center CrASH » Omar S. Detroit
Detroit’s Alex Omar Smith is a techno producer better known as Omar S, or maybe just Omar S. Detroit; maybe it’s just better to put that city’s name as the surname and subsume his last name as a middle initial. That seems to be what Detroit does to people in techno, cf. Robert Hood’s “Detroit: One Circle” etc.
Omar’s output is almost exclusively released through his own FXHE record label, which has launched the careers of other people you probably haven’t heard of such as Marcellus Pittman and Luke Hess, as well as releasing some Omar S/Shadow Ray jams under the name Oasis Collaborating. It’s all a kind of weird techno, it’s not minimal, it’s not clean or teutonic; in fact, there isn’t much that overlaps with the FXHE stuff. Some of the Oasis tracks are analogue space jams, and there is a bit of crossover with Theo Parrish soulful techno. Maybe it’s as if Omar spent a long time playing computer games and listening to Soul Music, but without muting the computer game – that’s certainly a sound evoked by Strider’s World.
Omar also produced two EPs of what he calls hip-hop under the banner “Sidetraxx”. If you care to track any of that down, you’ll find again that it defies expectation, and fits nowhere within any conventional interpretation of the term hip-hop. Here is a man working out of his own head.
I should mention that Omar runs FXHE personally, and that the label has an express commitment to producing records at a low price. Within the US EPs are $6 and LPs $11, CDs are mostly released on CD-R. Consequently, the artwork is minimal, but an instantly identifiable aesthetic of computer game screen grabs, Word-Art, and photoshop filters has followed necessarily. Much of the FXHE catalogue was recently re-pressed and is available directly from Omar in the US, and from Clone and Hardwax in Europe, among others. If you don’t buy vinyl, he has a CD out under the Fabric DJ mix series, where in a characteristically single-minded move, he used only his own songs. That CD is a good showcase including “The Maker” a bizarre vocal jam about God, and “Day”, a meditation on what sonic loops can do to your mind and body.
Another recent Omar tidbit is his input in remastering the “Red Lightbulb Theory” by Leron Carson for Theo Parrish’s Sound Signature label, which was produced in 1987 when Leron was 15 years old. The ultra low-fi proto-acid hypno jams there contained are carried along on a stream of ferric tape distortion and bass frequencies pushed into the red. Listening to something like “Red Lightbulb…” it is possible to situate Omar S not among a lineage of style, but rather as one of a few disconnected points in musical history, people producing electronic codes for deciphering. He DJs at London’s East Village club on Saturday, October 17. This entry was written by Jack Brennan, posted on October 15, 2009 at 7:57 pm, filed under Music and tagged FXHE, Luke Hess, Marcellus Pittman, Oasis Collaborating, Omar S. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
Rated “T” For Teen. Contains blood, language, suggestive themes, violence.
With their latest game, Naughty Dog Inc. manages to offer a true sense of adventure, the kind normally found only in books. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves delivers breath-taking locales of such rich detail as to be poetically descriptive. The dynamic soundtrack, composed to touch upon the music of many cultures, has a beautiful way of always hinting at what is to come, and the voice-acting, so pitch-perfect, gives you the feeling that you’re always inside the character’s heads no matter what is going on. While other games try to keep you ever-distracted and always under stress, Uncharted 2 has the pace of a confident storyteller, giving you the time to take it all in, while still keeping your heart pounding with urgency. The result is the kind of trip where, once you reach the end you’ll want to immediately head back to the beginning to start all over again.
As story-tellers, Naughty Dog sure do love their clichés. Nathan Drake is still a straight-from-the-mold rascal-thief. Good-looking, his boyish love of artifacts and risk-taking brings him company from suave criminal types destined to resent his good heart and sexy tomboys equally destined to resent his lack of commitment. All that matters for him is the chase of an artifact, this time tied to the exploits of Marco Polo, and it takes him through the jungles of Borneo and the mountain temples of Tibet.
The inevitable twists and turns deliver a revolving door of partners for Drake, including both new friends as well as old, and while they watch him juggle with his life in pursuit of the next clue, they banter back and forth with him using Joss Whedon-like quips in an effort to try to smile in the face of danger. There’s no effort to be starkly original here, quite the opposite, the game embraces formula and genre familiarity and has so much sheer fun with it, that it works.
As before, the game is a mix of stealth, shoot-outs, and climbing puzzles. You climb into odd positions within the beginning of a level to perform slick take-down maneuvers on the initial guards, then jump in for an intense shoot-out with the remaining guards, and when the dust settles, try to work out the levers and hidden ledges needed to unlock the next item or clue. The stealth delivers satisfying tricks that are mixed right into the cover system used for combat. Slip up to a wall corner or behind a crate and then grab a guard as he passes by. The shoot-outs deliver a healthy variety of enemy types, level designs, and weapon combinations, including the use of riot shields that you can use as walking cover with a pistol in hand. I love the melee combat controls which make it easy to quickly get into fisticuffs with a bad guy, but also counter and perform cool finishing moves.
The climbing puzzles are a bit weak. I found it difficult to always understand the “rules” of what is climbable and what is not, and even when I did see the pieces, the puzzle itself rarely offered a challenge. Instead, the game often ties these moments with drama, forcing Drake to climb for his life while the world falls apart around him.
The real big change from the first game is the inclusion of more players. While I often think of games in this genre as solo adventures, you can have two friends take over as Drake’s partners for the levels that are more combat-focused. Despite this change, the solo mode still plays as normal, with the computer A.I. doing an excellent job of controlling the partner characters, keeping them out of your way and making them useful in a fight.
As it turns out the combat system really is strong enough to support an online multiplayer mode where the game’s epic-sized maps make ideal arenas for those looking to play deathmatches of team-based conflicts where players can climb and cover through intricate structures and collect points for ranks. It works, although it’s still not the kind of game you turn to for a multiplayer experience and to be honest, the solo adventure is so strong, you’re better off just starting it over again.
At the end of the adventure, however, it’s not the technical aspects of the gameplay that will stay with you, it’s the staggering moments. There’s one where you awaken within a village and find yourself being guided through it as the residents go through the tasks of their lives and it’s the language they speak to you, the detail of all their belongings and homes, it’s just presented far more powerfully than needed. There are many throw-away views like this, one comes when you are working your way through bombed out buildings in the city and just as you move between floors there’s a jaw-dropping view of the city sprawl, the intricate garden of rooftops and plumes of damage in the backdrop.
Video games are designed to make you feel as if your senses are heightened, often through excitement and excesses, but the rare games, like Uncharted 2 which would be just as fun with the gameplay turned off, manage to also achieve that effect with passive beauty too.
It seems there is no low to which evil publisher Activision will not sink. Still licking its lips after raising the UK RRP of Modern Warfare 2, Activision has now turned its eyes upon America, singling out PC gamers and deeming that they do not yet pay too much money for computer games. Henceforth, the normal PC game RRP of $50 is being replaced, and Modern Warfare 2 shall cost $60, just like a console game.
One of the major benefits of being an honest PC gamer is the fact that games cost less. Both in the UK and US, one can expect a PC game to cost $10/£10 less than the PS3 or Xbox 360 version. Not so this time. Both GameStop and Amazon have the PC version listed for $60, meaning that Activision is yet again charging extra cash for a game, simply because it feels it can get away with it.
The Call of Duty series has seen plenty of piracy on PC, and I have no idea how Activision thinks this will help the situation. I expect more pirates to rip the game off now, and feel even more justified in doing so. A publisher really shouldn't be justifying piracy, but these rather opportunistic and scummy price hikes garner no sympathy whatsoever.
If anybody involved with the game complains about piracy on the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, I won't be feeling sorry for them. The idea of videogames and consoles raising prices instead of dropping them over time is becoming a very disturbing trend.
