Siren

Rumors have been swirling since the findmakarov.com countdown appeared. Fans of the shooter wondered if this was sign that their beloved franchise was going to be announcing Modern Warfare 3. Those rumors can be put to rest now, because the countdown is over and the reveal is a live action film made by a viral advertising company out of Canada who wanted to show Activision that their profitable series could be made into a movie. What do you think? via and Joystiq Click here to view the article

Late February Australia struck down another video game from being sold in their country due to the violence in the game. This time it was NetherRealm's and Warner Bros's bloody good fighting game, Mortal Kombat. The reason for the ban involved a series staple, the fatalities. The Australian Classification Board which refused to rate the game said, "......The game includes over 60 fatalities (some of which are noted above) which contain explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitation, disembowelment and other brutal forms of slaughter. Despite the exaggerated conceptual nature of the fatalities and their context within a fighting game set in a fantasy realm, impact is heightened by the use of graphics which are realistically rendered and very detailed." The ban should come as no surprise considering that Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 had to be remade after their appeal was lost. The blood and body parts were removed in order to jive with Australia's rating system. While all of this news may seem depressing for fans of the series in Australia, the good news is that Warner Bros. is fighting back by appealing the classification boards rating and the statement below is proof that they are working to get the issue resolved. "After careful consideration Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Australia have decided to appeal to the Australian Classification Review Board against the RC (Refused Classification) decision given to Mortal Kombat. After reviewing both the game play and the Board's original decision WBIE Australia believe the violence in the game is on par with numerous other titles readily available for sale in the Australian market. As such the company wants to exhaust all options to make the game available to Mortal Kombat fans in this country. An identical version of the game will be submitted for appeal." (IGN AU) Whether or not Warner Bros. will be successful in their appeal remains to be seen, but unfortunately appeals usually do not work with Australia and game ratings. via IGN AU and Game Podunk Click here to view the article

Rocky Donadio, an ex-soldier from Fort Sill has been found guilty in the brutal beating of his 8 year old girlfriend's son. The beating took place in April 2009, after the 8 year old deleted Donadio's GTA IV game save. The beating was so severe that the child's intestines burst and he had to spend 5 months in the hospital recovering. According to KSWO, when the child was able to speak to police about the incident he told them that Donadio "had stomped on his stomach because he had erased an X-Box game." When the incident occurred, the boy's mother and Donadio told police that he fell out of his bed. When police discovered the severity of the boys injuries, they pressed the couple and found out the horrible story. The jury has sentenced Donadio to 75 years in prison. via KSWO Click here to view the article

Like a phoenix, the Fail of the Week Award is rising out of the ashes to bring to you another fail-rific recap of all things fail in the gaming industry. This week's contenders are the "countless sequels, prequels, special editions, we want your money" Activision and the "we love to do reports on things we know absolutely nothing about like video games" Fox News. Let's stand the competition side by side and get the full details in this week's Fail of the Week showdown. Activision Fail After announcing that the Guitar Hero franchise is done along with True Crime, Activision was slapped in the face by analysts who said they did it all themselves. You can't blame analysts for saying that considering the amount of Guitar Hero games that was released since the original debuted in 2005. Seriously Activision, do we really need different Guitar Hero's and expansions for a guitar game? Get real. All we needed is one great Guitar Hero game that is supported by even better DLC and then maybe a second Guitar Hero that introduces new features. Moving on to one of the biggest series in video game history, Call of Duty. Activision announced this week that another studio will be making Call of Duty content bringing the number of studios working on Call of Duty up to five. Beachhead is the latest addition and will responsible for developing digital content that one analyst Michael Pachter is almost certain that Beachhead will be charging for a pay to play online Call of Duty game. He is even estimating that there will also be charges for weapons used in the game. If Activision makes good on those claims, it sounds like gamers will have another EA on their hands charging for every little penny that they can squeeze out of eager gamer's pockets. Fox News Fail Fox News decided to do another amazing and ground breaking study claiming that gamers who purchase and play Epic Games and People Can Fly's Bulletstorm, that they will go on a raping rampage and rape everything in sight. According to Dr. Jerry Weichman, a clinical psychologist at the Hoag Neurosciences Institute in Southern California, claims that playing Bulletstorm will cause "significant damage" when speaking about how this game will effect younger gamers. “Violent video games like Bulletstorm have the potential to send the message that violence and insults with sexual innuendos are the way to handle disputes and problems.” To continue this knowledge filled study, another psychiatrist and book author, Carole Lieberman states that the increase of rapes is because of these video games.“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games.” Fox News further goes on to pick apart the ESRB rating of "M" and how Bulletstorm's definition of the "M" rating is still to graphic. "To be fair, the online-only ESRB warning for Bulletstorm does spell out the objectionable content -- and even that is too graphic to reproduce entirely...." From this "study" are we as gamers to assume that every violence filled game we play will have us turning into sexual "hump everything in sight" humans that want to shoot aliens and make magic orbs fly out of our hands as we navigate through town in a drunken stupor? And the winner is...... Fox News for their ridiculous "insight" into the world of violent video games. We get it Fox News, you hate video games that will make soccer moms scream and stuffy business type dads say, "my precious child cannot see this!". What Fox Nails fails to realize is that game developers and publishers are not responsible for what content younger children and teenagers see and play. They are not the parents of todays youth and cannot be held responsible for little Johnny getting a peek of video game breasts and hearing "f*** you", the same as the stores that sell these video games to minors. Can the employee at the cash register give all of the information to the parents standing in line with Johnny to try to let them know that the game they are about to purchase is violent, bloody, and graphic really be held responsible when the parent who is to busy texting on their cell phone or does not know anything about the game says, "we'll take it"? What more do you want developers and publishers who abide by the ESRB ratings and store employees who can only sell "M" rated games to adults or with parents permission to do Fox News? Fox News, because of your fail worthy "study" you have received the Fail of the Week Award. Now excuse me, I must go do pleasurable things to the tree in my backyard, because your study is making me do so. Click here to view the article

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Kyle Orland. Kyle writes for popular gaming website like Gamasutra and Joystiq. Kyle thought it was necessary to write a help book about the hugely successful Zynga social game, Farmville. Speaking with Ars Technica, Orland describes why he feels that the world needs a "Farmville for Dummies" book. According to Orland, people who play Farmville do not play many video games and therefore need a book detailing how to a play a game that already practically changes your diapers, puts a bottle in your mouth, and teaches you how eat. "Sure, Farmville isn't a particularly difficult game—it practically holds your hand in telling you how to play, and there's a limited amount of strategy to playing, "Some of the sections of the game—especially the farmer's market and some aspects of animal tending—require multiple, time-lapsed steps to complete successfully, and the game only gives one screen of text-heavy explanation for how to go about them." Okay, moving on to actually doing things in Farmville such as growing your crops and items attained by leveling up. "The book also gives a lot of details and reference that might not be apparent to a casual player, "For instance, we outline a few somewhat-seedy methods for leveling up quickly by doing a few repetitive tasks over and over, lay out what items are unlocked at what levels, and suggest the most time- and cost-effective crops for different points in the game." Seriously Kyle Orland? You could not do anything better with your time then writing a book about Farmville for people who might not understand a rather simple and no brain game? Thank you Kyle Orland for reminding us all why Dumbass of the Day exists. via Ars Technica Click here to view the article

Halo: Reach's new map pack will be delivered to you sometime this March for 800 Microsoft points. The "Defiant Map Pack" will feature 3 new maps and an added 150 gamerscore points. Condemned can hold 6-12 players and is in a space station above Reach. Unearthed is firefight map on a mine and refinery on Reach. Highlands takes place on a wooded training preserve on Reach. 8-16 players can take on Highlands. via Major Nelson Click here to view the article

Analyst Michael Pachter says that, "I'm certain to my core," when it comes to whether or not Activision will start charging gamers to play Call of Duty online when it comes to the newly announced project that is being taken on Beachhead. According to G4TV, Pachter said that Project Beachhead will be charging for the mulitplayer and that there might also be charges for weapons or $1.00 each or a monthly subscription to access all of them. If this turns out to be true, it will interesting to see which console's sales will go up and if fans will revolt or will fall in line and pay to play. via G4TV Click here to view the article

Activision sure doesn't waste time. They may have nailed the coffin shut for Guitar Hero and True Crime, however Activision confirmed that Family Guy and Spiderman will both be getting games sometime this year. Comfirmed today by Activision's Eric Hirshberg was this little piece of news and that they will also be adding another Cabela's hunting game to the mix as well as games for the final Transformers movie, Transformers 3 and X-Men: First Class. According to Hirshberg, “These are all strong franchises with passionate niche audiences that can achieve repeatable and profitable success.” Tell that to Guitar Hero Mr. Hirshberg. via Games Radar Click here to view the article

Lionhead Studios is reaching out to Fable fans for their input to help decide the fate of Albion with a survey. The quick survey asks which features like british humor, customizing your character, being a hero, co-op, and more you prefer over the others. You rank each of them from 13 being the highest to 1 being the lowest. Hopefully Lionhead will take the time to read the surveys, because with how Fable III turned out, they will need all the help they can get for the next one. via Games Radar Click here to view the article

Ever since Activision's announcement of giving Guitar Hero the boot, analysts have not been afraid to let some harsh words fly towards Activision. Speaking to Gamasutra, M2 Research senior analyst Billy Pidgeon said that Activision, "pretty much driven the franchise into the ground with title after title after title." There is no denying that statement. Countless numbers of Guitar Hero games have been released quicker than two rabbits can go at it during a single night session since the first Guitar Hero released in 2005. According to Eric Handler of MKM Partners, the market for these games just isn't there anymore. "It had a great run, but it also had a steep fall and the customer demand just isn't there, "That money can be spent on something that has better returns. I don't disagree with the decision." For the final slap in the face, Handler goes on further to say that gamers prefer Call of Duty and World of Warcraft instead of games that aren't going to be popular. "Mid-level titles are just getting killed in the marketplace," "Would you rather spend an extra $10 or $20 million on something that's not going to be a hit or on a Call of Duty or World of Warcraft?" Hopefully Activision can learn from their mistakes with release after release of Guitar Hero, but unfortunately with five different studios now working on the Call of Duty brand, Activision is setting Call of Duty up to suffer the same fate as Guitar Hero. via Gamasutra Click here to view the article

This Dumbass of the Day is an unnamed teenager from Maryland pretending to be a student from Berkeley Heights High School in New Jersey. This dumbass thought it would okay to play a prank on the other teen and threaten to shoot students at Berkeley Heights High School after gaining the other teen's login details. During a Madden NFL online third party transaction from a website not associated with Microsoft or EA, the not so funny prankster was able to gain the Berkeley teen's XBL account information. The dumbass logged into the account and sent almost 100 messages out to students at Berkeley Heights threatening to bring a gun to school the following day and would be shooting fellow students. Parents who saw the messages quickly alerted authorities who traced the messages back to the Berkeley Heights student who denied sending the messages. Police were able to get to the bottom of the story by using Prosecuter's High Tech Unit and help from Microsoft. That is when they discovered that the Berkeley student's information was being used by someone else from Maryland. The unnamed dumbass was located, arrested, and charged. We are now awaiting an earth shattering report from Fox News about how Madden NFL made this Maryland teenager be a dumbass. via County of Union NJ and MSNBC Click here to view the article

Steam announced that PC Gamers who preorder Homefront through them will receive a free copy of Metro2033. Gamers will also get a day one unlock for the Air Assault Drone for use in multiplayer. Homefront is set to release March 15th, 2011. via Steam Community Click here to view the article

Five studios are now responsible for Activision's Call of Duty franchise. Newly added Beachhead joins Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, and Raven. Beachhead will be concentrating on digital content for the long running successful series. Looks like Activision wants total and complete domination in the world of Call of Duty. via IGN Click here to view the article

[caption id=" align="alignright" width="391" caption="via Eurogamer][/caption] Eurogamer is reporting that the Channel 4 News Team recently caught a glimpse of what appears to be an unannounced Halo 5 game along with an icon for Project Gotham Racing during a recent demonstration by Microsoft's Jonathon Cluts of hidden Kinect technology. During the demo, Cluts is showing how he can change walls in a futuristic house. He passes by icons and chooses Grandma's Room. Clearly on either side are icons for "Project Gotham Racing" and "Inside Halo 5". This all could have been a marketing scheme cooked up by Microsoft or maybe there actually is a Halo Kinect title in the works. via Eurogamer Click here to view the article

Yes you did indeed read that correctly. This Dumbass of the Day hails from Sony's camp and is the fictional PR man that Sony made up for commercials and gave "Kevin Butler" his own Twitter account. Unfortunately for whoever is running the Twitter account, they might be at the unemployment line today. Tweeted back as a reply to what was assumed to be a Battleship joke was the hack code for the now fixed "jailbreak hack". Sony has been trying to keep the details of this hack a secret for an ongoing court battle as they attempt to locate all of the hackers that have used this code. The tweet has since been deleted and it looks like Sony will need to create a new face for PR, as the fictional Kevin Butler has just sunk his own battleship. via engadget Click here to view the article

A video has been uploaded by Youtube user kick755 that shows him playing Dead Space 2 with Kinect and a Wii remote in his right hand. In the video, Isaac Clarke responds what seems to be perfectly to kick755's movements, mirroring him exactly. If this video is legit, it does help to prove that games that are not sports or recreation types can respond well to Kinect. via KinectHacks Click here to view the article

Fans of Master Chief prepare to get your pants wet with sheer excitement. A remake of the game that put Halo on the path to taking over the world is officially being remade for the Xbox 360 and will be releasing on November 15, 2011 which happens to be exactly ten years since the release of the original. Saber Interactive who is responsible for Time Shift, is taking over the reigns of the remake. Halo CE will be getting a full visual overhaul supporting 1080p and 3D televisions as well as new art assets will be added. It has also been announced that Halo CE will not be a product of the Reach engine. No other major details have been released since the announcement. via Joystiq Click here to view the article

Hailing from the UK, we have Dawn Matthews and her 11 year old son Brendan Jordan. Brendan Jordan recently went on a spending spree and spent a total of $1,743.49 on XBL all while using his mother's credit card. His mother, 37 year old Dawn Matthews is blaming Microsoft despite the little fact that she provided information to her son's account. Matthews, who's son claimed he did not know that the charges were going to his mother's bank account had the following to say regarding her son's expenses. "When I put my card details in 18 months ago I thought it was just for his membership to play online with his friends. I work two jobs just to look after my family and pay the bills so I cannot afford all these extortionate charges. A thousand pounds isn't that much to people like Bill Gates, but for a single mum it is a lot of money that I don't have." Microsoft has responded by saying, "With over 30M Xbox LIVE members across the world customer complaints of this nature are extremely rare. Microsoft's goal is to provide parents and caregivers with tools and resources to manage their children's gaming and entertainment experiences so that they can play in ways that are safer, healthy and more balanced. To accomplish this, we've built-in parental controls in every Xbox 360, work closely with retailers and recently launched the Play Smart, Play Safe website as an online resource for families. It should also be noted that LIVE accounts registered for children's use have online activity automatically defaulted to off, these can be enabled by the parent should they wish in the Family Settings section." Acording to the mother, Jordan, the 11 year old big spender told his mother that when he found out about the charges that occurred over a time period of six months, he did not want his Xbox anymore. "Brendan is 11 and knows his times tables but it was only when I explained to him that he realised how much money he had spent. When I showed him he burst into tears. He unplugged the Xbox and said he didn't want it anymore. I haven't punished him because he feels bad enough and I know he won't do it again. It is ridiculous to allow someone of his age to make payments without any checks being done. When he is in gaming mode he can't be thinking about the money. You can't put all that responsibility on a young boy. It is impossible to monitor everything your children do. These companies should take some responsibility. They take advantage of vulnerable people." Next time before you sign up your child for an Xbox Live account, fully read and understand the parental controls before placing blame on the easiest target. This is not a case of "Microsoft you suck, you are to blame for everything going wrong in my life", this is a case of parent stupidity and dumbassery. For that very reason, you Dawn Matthews are receiving the Dumbass of the Day. via Daily Mail Click here to view the article

Gareth Gath who suffers from cerebral palsy made a request to Visceral Games to add customizable controls to the PC version of Dead Space 2. Gath who has to play Dead Space 2 using a mouse with his chin is upset that he cannot assign the "walk forward" command to a mouse button. After his story made it through the internet, Dead Space 2 players started a petition to get his request heard and Visceral Games has indeed heard the request and are actively working on a patch to add customizable controls to the game. According to Joystiq, Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis said that the team is "passionate about getting this fixed and are hard at work on it." "Dead Space 2 PC Players, The Dead Space 2 team is aware of the issue that disabled players are having with Dead Space 2 PC. In fact a number of folks on our team are so passionate about getting this fix done that they are currently working hard to allow players to re-map key bindings to the mouse which should help disabled players enjoy the game. I'd like to say I'm very proud of the people on the Dead Space 2 team for coming in today and jumping on the fix first thing. Working with such a talented and compassionate group of people is incredible and makes me proud to be a part of the Dead Space 2 team, Visceral Games, and Electronic Arts. In addition to the key binding fix the patch will include other fixes for PC players. Thank you for taking up the cause for our disabled players and letting us know about this problem. Once the patch is fully tested we will announce a release date." The petition that gained the attention of Visceral Games, gained over 20,000 signatures before it was done. via Joystiq Click here to view the article

In some unexciting news today, an official announcement was made by MTV that stated that MTV Games is done making video games after Harmonix was bought by Harmonix in December of 2010. A rep stated to GameSpot stated that "MTV Games has ceased its publishing operations but has not been completely dissolved," and only a small crew remains in New York for the time being. With that earth shattering announcement, we can now all get back to work. via GameSpot Click here to view the article

Xbox Live Arcade is throwing a party and you are invited! The Xbox Live Arcade House Party begins on February 16th with the release of the prequel to Contra: Hard Corps, Hard Corps: Uprising and ends on March 16th with Full House Poker that is replacing fan favorite, 1 vs. 100. Other games being released during this XBLA shindig are: February 16 Hard Corps: Uprising, 1200 Microsoft Points February 23 Bejeweled Blitz, 800 Microsoft Points March 2, Beyond Good & Evil HD, 800 Microsoft Points March 9 Torchlight, 1200 Microsoft Points March 16 Full House Poker, 800 Microsoft Points via Major Nelson Click here to view the article

Screenshots have been revealed by EA and Visceral Games for the upcoming DLC, "Severed" for Dead Space 2. The DLC will be available for the PS3 and 360. No news on if PC users will get it. via GamesRadar Click here to view the article

[caption id=" align="alignleft" width="194" caption="Image via The Source][/caption] Batman fans who are eagerly waiting to get their hands on Batman: Arkham City will be able to read about the events that transpired between the video games, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. The six part miniseries picks up one year after Batman: Arkham Asylum ended. Readers will find the Warden turned Mayer, Quincy Sharp shutting down the deranged Asylum and building a city to house the lunatics of Gotham. The issues will be on a comic book stand near you beginning May with issues 1 and 2 being released during in the same month. via The Source Click here to view the article

KyozoKicks who makes video game themed shoes, is holding an auction over at ebay where 100% of the proceeds will go to one of the greatest charity's known to man, Child's Play Charity. The colorful shoes feature custom designed LittleBigPlanet images and are all hand painted. The size 9.5 men's shoes are currently sitting pretty at $305 with five days left to bid. via MediaMolecule Click here to view the article

During the Conan O 'Brien fiasco, Microsoft made an attempt to get the late night comedian to do shows for Xbox Live, however Executive Producer Jeff Ross revealed that Microsoft really did not show any plans for what they planned to do with Conan and instead signed with TBS. "A lot of the conversations were 'well, it's a show, but it's not a show and there are no breaks, but maybe there are breaks and it's not 60 minutes, it's this' and nobody really knew what it was," Ross told Morris. "So it was really going to be a leap of faith to jump in with these guys and figure something out which we didn't know. Plus there were 100 people of jobs and that didn't bode well for that." Despite rejecting Microsoft's proposal, Ross said that he is amazed by what the technology titan is trying to do. "You meet with these guys and they show you all this stuff that they're developing and it's mind blowing, "I think it's coming and it's big. It's just that we weren't in a position at that point to figure out what it was." There have been rumblings for months now that Microsoft wants to add a television/cable service and they have been in talks to do so with companies trying to get this service started. Gamasutra hinted that it's possible to see the launch of some kind of cable service this holiday season. via Gamasutra Click here to view the article