games

I was deeply saddened to find out that Gary Gygax passed away today, after struggling with health issues for several years. Gary Gygax co-created the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, and thereby invented the entire role-playing game genre. Like any good geek, I grew up playing role-playing games during my teens. Even though we did not actually play that much D&D in particular, all the RPGs we played were directly descended from it, and none of them would exist without Gary Gygax....

Apparently the Japanese version of the Nintendo Wii ships with an insane Safety Guide. Who would have thought that it is not a good idea to stick four leaf clovers into the Wii? Of course, the community was quick to respond with a spoof: Wii Safety: The Missing Pages

Last week, I was finally able to get a hold of a Nintendo Wii. Somehow the Wii resonated with me since details about it were first announced (and when it was still codenamed “Revolution”), and for the past few months I’ve been eager to try it out first hand. Traditionally, I’m a PC gamer, and the types of games that I tend to enjoy most are RPGs and first person shooters....

Yesterday the ESRB re-rated Oblivion M for Mature. Bethesda’s response to the re-rating followed shortly afterwards. Apparently the re-rating was mainly triggered by a user created modification that allows players to play with topless versions of female characters (Hot Coffee anyone?). In addition, the ESRB accused Bethesda of improperly disclosing the excessive amounts of blood and gore that go beyond a Teen rating. Personally, I don’t agree with the new rating....

Joystiq posted an excellent roundup of 31 upcoming MMO games. Themes include everything from the standard fantasy and sci-fi fare to wild west, robot, zombie, sex, pirate, and post-apocalyptic themed worlds. Similarly, many of the titles are pretty traditional MMORPG games, but some provide an emphasis on strategy, FPS gameplay, chat and casual gameplay, or other variations. The games that sound most interesting to me are: