So you want a new console. The government economic stimulus check sits forlornly in your checking account, waiting to be spent, and you’ve been eyeing that XBOX 360 at Best Buy for the past six weeks, feverishly anticipating it sitting next to your TV. Naturally, because you don’t want to fall prey to the inevitable XBOX crash that just about everyone you know has had, necessitating a lengthy servicing out of your hands, you want to pick up an XBOX Elite. Oh, and because you assume that you’re not just going to be playing by your lonesome (forever), you’d like to pick up another matching wireless controller and charging pack.

XBOX 360 Elite: $449.99
Play & Charge Kit: $19.99
Wireless Controller: $49.99
Sub Total: 519.97
6% Sales Tax (unless you live in my old home-state of NH):$31.20
Total: $551.17

Thus, if you plan on using the entirety of that $600 check, you’re all set—but you haven’t even bought a game yet. But maybe you’re like me and you’re splitting the cost with someone else. Maybe you took advantage of the Best Buy special last week where you could buy a new XBOX 360 console with GTA IV and get a $50 giftcard in return. Maybe you even happened to have $200 worth of gift certificates waiting to be spent that you could use for the aforementioned purposes as well. Yes—can you tell I bought one last week?
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Everyone knows that games and politics don’t mix. Politicians hate gamers, gamers hate politicians, and it’s an endlessly cyclic and mutual hatred. To the politicians, video games promote obscene sexuality and high violence. Meanwhile, according to gamers, politicians just need to get with the times.

To me, a political science college major and a gamer, both sides need to learn to get along–the sooner, the better. Somewhere along the line it became commonplace to ignore Washington if you had a controller in your hands, and somehow that has to change.

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What does it take to be truly innovative? These days, especially with the advent of the Nintendo Wii, emphasis is placed so much on going forward and making waves in the gaming industry that perfectly fun games are criticized for not being innovative enough.

On the other hand, games that are touted as such sort of, well, disappoint. The Wii is oh-so innovative in that it promotes the Wii remote for titles that use gun play, swords, or even sports mechanics. Truly, Wii Sports is great fun for people of all ages, and now we have Mario Kart Wii integrating an actual steering wheel into gameplay (not that it hasn’t been done before), but are they really great games?

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It’s true you know. Video Games will bring around the end of civilization as we know it. We’ll either be addicts, virtual-junkies, slavering over our screens and snarling at the rest of the human race - or we’ll be nicking cars and driving over random pedestrians.

Ever since Death Race came to the attention of the press, back in 1976, games have been blamed for everything - from theft to assault, from swearing to murder. Games have responded to criticism by becoming bloodier, more sexual, and allegedly racist, homophobic, and sexist.

1. Death Race

The first video game to stir-up major protest. The object of the game was to run down ‘gremlins’, that resembled people. Sadly, the ‘gremlins’ looked like people, and the working title of the game had been Pedestrian. The media went into overdrive, discussing the psychological impact of games and eventually the game was banned - though not before protestors supposedly dragged the consoles out to burn in parking lots.

Later on, we got Carmaggedon (The Carpocalypse). Instead of gremlins, they were zombies. Times, they are (not) a-changin’.
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I likes my women hard to get, with strong arms, a pretty face, and good cooking skills! Knowing how to raise livestock is a must. I spend most of my day out there in the fields, plowin’. Yeah. It’s a tough life. Especially with hurricanes and blizzards on the horizon, ready and willing to knock my houses and barns over. Did I mention my crops? They’re amazing. I mean, honestly, if you make a pie with one of my apples, you will likely fall out of your chair in ecstasy. My produce is just that good.

I bet I sound insane, don’t I? Don’t get me wrong, I am. But in this case I’m referring to my overwhelming love of the Harvest Moon series. I can pick up a Harvest Moon game and not move from that same spot for days. There’s just something so addictive about it. At first, I was ashamed of my love of the series. It stemmed from the experience I had when I first bought the n64 version of the game at a Gamestop. I plunked the box down on the counter, excited at the prospect of trying a new game. The guy working the counter looked down at it with some sort of disdain, then back up at me.

“Ew, that game sucks. It’s a girl game.”

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This week, there’s one game licking at the edges of every player’s conversation, flying off the shelves and dominating entertainment news as a source of infinite controversy. Grand Theft Auto IV, the newest in the family of Rockstar’s questionable line-up arrived on shelves this past Tuesday much to the glee of fervently waiting gamers. GTA is well known to many, including non-gamers, for the flak GTA III drew for ultra-violence against the police and innocents, strong language, nudity, drug & alcohol use and adult situations (that often included prostitutes or strip clubs).

Despite the game already being rated M for “Mature”, conservative groups all over the country continue to demonize the franchise for capitalizing off of filth and allegedly encouraging deviant, delinquent behavior in children. While gamers expected to hear the predictable off-kilter spin from the ever-splenic Jack Thompson (who, naturally, has been demanding that lawmakers indict Take-Two for “providing pornographic material to minors” and planting “viruses” in this country’s youth), the generally well-respected group MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) has also come down hard on GTAIV. After formally requesting Rockstar halt distribution, it became clear that their issue stems from the fact that drunk driving is allowable in game. It is pertinent, however, to note that the player can choose to decide whether or not the character will drive home, hail a cab or walk it off. That right there is what makes the game interesting to me—choice.

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