Reacharound

Yes. Yes. Call of Duty: Black Ops will feature a zombie mode, and, what a surprise, a lot of gamers are pleased as undead punch at the prospect of once again being able to lay waste to hordes of military-grade zombies. But as reader thesecks reminds us, it’s important to not let prejudices interfere with your walking-dead slaying:

Equal opportunity zombie slaying is the American way. I don't mind what nationality the zombies happen to be as long as I get to kill them.

Kind of brings a tear to your eye socket, doesn't it?

Naughty Dog is releasing a Game of the Year edition of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves next month, and as with all GOTY editions, it’s loaded with extra content and costs less than the standalone game. I’ve actually been thinking about this topic for a while now, and based on reader StrongestSaiyan’s comments, I’m clearly not the only one who finds this trend just a tad frustrating:

I hate seeing a GOTY and knowing that basically the only benefit I get for having bought a game on the first day is that I've had it for a year. I bought most of that stuff listed too, and yet the GOTY comes out for $10 less than what I payed for my copy, and then all that DLC gets thrown in. Sure, it's great that there will be more copies of Uncharted 2 sold, but what do I get for plunking down money for that stuff?

What say you?

This week's Reacharound comments were explosive. Whether it was readers talking about exploding PlayStation 3 controllers, or the explosive action in Halo: Reach, Medal of Honor and Bioshock: Infinite.

The week started with a compliment directed at me. Aerindel_Prime's comment on my article about how terrible I am at Halo: Reach.

Aerindel_Prime post:

This may be the finest article I have ever read on G4.

Thanks! But it's not just the compliment that earned the coveted Reacharound. Prime also gives some very constructive advice about upping my game:

Here is my advice, play the campaign, stop skipping through the cutscenes. Get into the mindset of being a cyber soldier in power armor. Read a couple of books, really try to roleplay being an elite badass. Don't just think of it as a game. And stop looking at your freaking K/D score for awhile.

Solid advice. Thanks!

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The recent flap over Medal of Honor's inclusion of The Taliban has struck a nerve with gamers, mainly because it highlights the difference in perception between those who understand gaming and those who do not. Many non-gamers seem to feel that the inclusion of real events in a game, in and of itself, trivializes those events. EA is giving away access to a beta to prove how patriotic and not insulting their game is, which inspired reader MikeJamesSays to give the gamers' opposite perspective:

I think people need to understand when playing the Taliban, it opens your eyes to what our forces have to go through from the other end. Like many have said, a video game is not about to sway one's allegiance/feelings on patriotism. Censorship is a backfiring maneuver, simply because it angers many citizens and rallies many to pick the game up.

Good or bad attention, hardcore gamers won't let it sway their experiences.
 

Earlier today I brought you the greatest gaming story of the year. Maybe the century: Sony says some fake PlayStation 3 controllers out there can explode. Amazing. User Blue_Vortex totally understands my excitement. He/she posted:

Well it does do everything.

I couldn't have said it better myself. PlayStation 3: The console that does everything. EVEN BLOW UP.

Today's reacharound is awarded to commenter randomamber, and is in response to the hair-raisingly awesome Bioshock: Infinite video that was unleashed on an unsuspecting world this week.

I am not a fan of hyperbole. I believe it is an indicator of extremism and to paraphrase Ferris Bueller I don't condone "isms". However, in all of my 45 years living and my 35 years of gaming have I ever felt as I do about the idea of this game. Key to this is not just the fact that everything about the game looks mindshatteringly awesome but that the developers have said and shown so much AT LEAST ONE FULL YEAR (and perhaps as long as TWO) before it's scheduled release. This is beyond cruel. It is bordering on inhumane (see how hyperbole works) to expect us to wait that long. I have decided to leave my profession, go into game design and seek a job from Irrational Games if for no other reason than to interact with this game before madness takes me.

And keep in mind, randomamber is not a fan of hyperbole!

Today's Reacharound proves that flattery will get you everything... or at least a reacharound. In the true spirit of the word, I'm spotlighting Aerindel_Prime's comment on my article about how terrible I am at Halo: Reach.

Aerindel_Prime post:

This may be the finest article I have ever read on G4.

Thanks! But it's not just the compliment that earned the coveted Reacharound. Prime also gives some very constructive advice about upping my game:

Here is my advice, play the campaign, stop skipping through the cutscenes. Get into the mindset of being a cyber soldier in power armor. Read a couple of books, really try to roleplay being an elite badass. Don't just think of it as a game. And stop looking at your freaking K/D score for awhile.

Solid advice. Thanks!

2K detailed a new downloadable chapter for Mafia II, marking the third batch of DLC to come out since the game released last month, and prompting some to suspect whether the content was originally meant to ship with the game but was cut for some reason. Nub Salad has an interesting theory about what could be behind 2K’s decision to roll out so much DLC so close to the game’s release:

3 batches of DLC in a month? Sounds like they had a bunch of stuff done for the release of the game, but decided to hold it back, charge full price for minimal content, and then charge for what should have been part of the game. You can't really blame the game maker for this. They're just trying to make back the money they are losing to companies like gamestop that make tons of money off games they didn't make. It's unfortunate that the customer pays the price for the fight between the companies that make the product and the companies that sell it.

Regardless of how you feel about the actual game, it was sad to hear that Realtime Worlds’ crime-centric MMO APB is shutting down. And while it isn’t terribly surprising given the company’s bankruptcy, it’s still unfortunate. And not just for the talent folks at Realtime Worlds either, but for those people who bought the game and now have nothing but a desktop icon and a new a new APB coaster to show for it. What’s to be done about this rather odd predicament? Reader JustTheBeginning has a suggestion.

I think a refund is in order, heck I was just on steam and APB was on the first page of advertisement! Would suck if you just bought the game a few days ago.

Sound reasonable to you?
 

Video games will soon have their day in court, the Supreme Court in fact, and numerous organizations and individuals, such as comic book icon Stan Lee, are throwing their support behind our beloved medium. And, as reader AngryElectron points out, video games deserve to be protected like other art forms for numerous reasons, especially for what they have taught us about our world:

I'm not really a "joiner" but I promise to vote against any political candidate who proposes censorship of any stripe. It's up to the gaming community to vote with our wallets on what content we'll allow in a game. Video games taught me more about American values than I ever learned in a civics class. For example, when bad guys bust in and start something, you melee their ass, pick up their weapons and smoke all their buddies. That's AMERICAN! Also, I learned the word "penultimate" from a racing game, and my English professor didn't know that word at all.

The upcoming Liars and Cheats pack for Red Dead Redemption introduces quite a bit of new content (thanks in no small part to the fact that it also includes the Free Roam pack), but there are always people who find something to complain about when it comes to DLC. Reader Aqua_Everblue founds a lot of these complaints a bit misguided this time around, and had this to say about it:

I like how people are whining like little children about paying ten dollars for a DLC pack that's actually WORTH something, especially since you can see lines where people weren't paying attention to the fact that it DOES add to Free Roam, it DOES give you another gun, and that it DOES deliver what they've been pissing and moaning about NOT getting all this time...

We have the “casual vs. hardcore” gamer debate pretty much every week, and thanks to a study released today that showed 17 percent of “casual” gamers consider themselves addicted, we’re having it again. Reader AngryElectron gave his own personal spin on the issue, and offered up some sage-like advice about the most important distinction between hardcore and casual games:

Seriously, my wife has no idea what's going on around her because she's constantly playing head-to-head Tetris on FB. Yet I'm the bad guy for playing MW2 for hours, which I contend instills real-world skills (like if there's a zombie apocalypse, for example). Casual gamers are TOTALLY WORSE because they refuse to admit they're gamers at all.

Well, it’s the end of the week, and that means it’s time to look back at the past week’s worth of stellar reader insight, compliments of our stellar readers (That’s you!).

Monday brought us news that Microsoft is upping the cost of Xbox Live Gold memberships by $10 a year. Reader DreamingDarklyRobin avoided the PSN vs. XBL debate, and took the real issue head on:

Wait Microsoft, you mean to tell me that I can pay EVEN MORE money to be called gay?

Tuesday, we found out that the Jimmy’s Vendetta DLC for Mafia II will arrive on September 7. This caused some to cry foul on 2K’s part for releasing such a large chunk of content so close to the game’s release (i.e. “It should have been on the disc!”), but nhhs18 believes Mafia II’s design lends itself perfectly to just this kind of expansion.

I'm excited for it. I think what they are doing is great. Mafia 2 had one of the best story lines I have ever experienced in a game and it would'nt have been that interesting with random side missions that take me off track from the main story. Paying for things isn't fun, but getting more out of a game is, especially with such a beautifully constructed open world like Empire Bay.

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The reaction to news that Dead Space 2 will feature multiplayer has been expectedly mixed. But as reader TeroLost pointed out, there’s no reason to think that multiplayer couldn’t work in the Dead Space universe. It would just need to know its place:

As far as a Necromorph VS. Soldier competitive multiplayer experience....it could be fun, but I agree that holding the expectation of 'terrifying gameplay' would be very difficult, nigh impossible, for such a mode. That being said--breaking from the traditional flavor of DeadSpace for a completely separated competitive multiplayer mode wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Players would know to have different expectations--and I think that kind of mode could be fun.

We here at G4 have delivered our verdict on Sony’s soon-to-be-released PlayStation Move motion controller, and the consensus was that while the tech works for the most part, the selection of launch titles just isn’t that impressive. But we’re hopeful about the Move’s future, because we’re gamers and we want as many cool games to play as possible. Reader allpointsw shares our sentiment but adds a few compelling tidbits to the mix as well, saying:

Well, here's hoping that the Move allows gets some good game support in the relative near future. I prefer keyboard and mouse over analog stick but if this technology allows for an enjoyable gaming experience for someone who has little time to spend perfecting the thumb controller then I'll be more than happy to jump over into the console market. However, this will more than likely be supported by very few quality games. The game companies will stay with the tried and true and, like many, will not venture outside of the safe and normal.