I am going to try, most likely in vain, to use mere mortal words to describe Nintendo’s E3 press conference today.

Ahem.

It was freakin’ awesome.

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I watched the live stream of Microsoft’s E3 press conference while I was at work today. I felt it was a productive use of my time. Here’s what I thought.

They opened up with a new Call of Duty game, Black Ops. This one is by Treyarch, who are the guys who DIDN’T make Modern Warfare. The first 10 minutes or so of Microsoft’s conference was one of the developers playing the game. He didn’t talk about it, he didn’t narrate, it wasn’t a cutscene… he just played. It was super boring. I was working on reports while that was going on, so all I got was the audio. It sounded just like the other ones.

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Lately, the blog has been a lot of stupid bullshit about me driving listening to F-Zero music and playing Rescue Rangers on the NES. While I am a big proponent of stupid bullshit, I also have a serious side. It’s not big, but it’s there (that’s what she said). So today, I want to talk about the issue concerning the legality of selling violent games to kids that is on its way to the US Supreme Court.

What is currently happening is that the Supreme Court has decided to hear both sides of the case in regards to a proposed California law, written by State Senator Leland Yee and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. The law was challenged by industry representatives, and deemed unconstitutional.

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So the inaugural PAX East has come and gone. They say PAX is an experience unlike any other, and it certainly was. Here’s my rundown of our weekend.

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Alright Lunar fans, I’ve been promising a surprise for you all for a while now, so I think it’s time I came clean! I, and the rest of PK Bloggin’! are excited to say that Jessica Chavez of XSEED Games was kind enough to make time for us to do an interview, and even provide some great exclusive Lunar: Silver Star Harmony screenshots just for us! (I’ve never conducted an interview before, how exciting!) Even if you aren’t a Lunar fan, please enjoy it, since there’s a lot of great information here about the localizing process, and being part of the game industry in general.

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Christina and I have been spending a lot of time (now that we have free time) with Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. I bought it a while ago and never really got into it, but since the sequel came out I decided to give it another shot, and I’m really glad I did. Not only am I greatly enjoying the game, it’s also actually got me thinking a lot about how video games can function as a medium for storytelling.

BioWare is famous for their branching dialogue system they’ve used in their games, beginning with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the original Xbox and PC. Your character never spoke, but there were pauses in conversations when you’d choose what your character would say next. Several complete sentences were presented, you’d choose one, and the conversation would continue based on how you responded. I loved KotOR, and while I didn’t realize it at the time, I was experiencing the first step towards defining video games as a unique method of telling a story.

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Matt Casamassina is a giant douche. I’ve thought so for quite some time, as his air of unwarranted pompousness and unbridled sense of self-worth have affected me like a bite into a wormy apple. His superpower as of late seems to be completely missing the point, like an unskilled archer or perhaps Tim Buckley.

Matt Cashanabahooha, who is the editor for IGN’s Wii channel, has recently penned a column entitled “Nintendo is Lazy and You Don’t Care.” In said column, Cabananarama chides Nintendo on multiple occasions for “seem(ing) content to cut corners and cash in.” He says “we all praise Nintendo for returning gameplay and not graphical pop to the forefront. Since their conception, games have been designed to be fun first and everything else second” and then nitpicks about the graphics in Wii Sports. The man is a grade-A toolbox, and I’m here to set things straight.

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Why is it that American game companies always feel like they need to appeal to the lowest common denominator? I don’t mean this in regards to things like not localizing the old Final Fantasy games because they “weren’t accessible to the average gamer”, I mean taking gorgeous boxart and taking a CG dump all over it.

We’ve seen it a lot in the past, and the latest victim is the upcoming PlayStation 3 suspense/mystery game Heavy Rain. The PAL version of the game, released in Europe and Australia, according to Kotaku features this boxart:

It’s subtle, yet strong. The game is about trying to track down a serial killer known as the “Origami Killer” so the paper crane with the dab of blood with the dark, rainy background is almost poetic in its symbolism. That image alone conveys the atmosphere and tone of the game quite well, and is on par with some of the best “teaser” movie posters I’ve ever seen.

So what happens when the game comes to America? Sony Computer Entertainment America needs to remind everyone that, yes, this game has humans in it.

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I got my first article request a couple of days ago from my old buddy Jeff. He sent me a link to a YouTube video about an upcoming game called Wiiwaa and said it warranted comment by me. Well, I’m a man of the people, and I’m going to give the people what they want.

Here’s the link to the video, so go watch it and then come back. I’ll wait.

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