Thursday, January 26, 2012

Opinion: Killing Kids in Games?

If you play RPG's you've likely come across games like Fallout 3, Skyrim and Fable. One thing these games all have in common, well, they have quite a few things in common, but a major thing is the inability to kill children.


Killiable Kids Mod for Fallout (PC)



"Leo, why would you want to kill children?" You may be asking.

Well, it's not that I WANT to kill kids, it's just that I should be ABLE to kill kids. Think about it for a second. You're placing kids in an M rated game, which contain a numerous amounts of things, including, but not limited to:

- Murder
- Assassination of real life individuals
- Theft
- Assault on both citizens and peace officers
- Terrorist plots
- Drug use
- Smuggling of illegal items (drugs, outlawed items)

So why restrict the ability to kill (or even harm for that matter) kids? Any sane individual will know that it's just a game, and won't go grab a knife and start stabbing lil' Timmy down the street.

"Well Leo, I agree, and I actually think games that are M rated, and have kids in them, should allow them to be killed, but you know SOMEONE will complain."  You say. Yes, this is true.

Who are those people? This is the most ironic piece, parents of underage kids who bought the game to occupy their kids. This is an example of crappy parenting, if you're gonna buy your 12 yr old an M rated game, you automatically lose the right to complain about what's in it, that's what the god damn, fucking, bitch rating label is for, so you can't complain to congress about something when you are the one who bought it for someone who shouldn't be using it.

This is equivalent to someone buying peanuts at a store for a snack at home, having someone allergic eat them, and then the buyer suing the grocer. Makes no fuckin' sense and you should be bitch slapped.... YOU are the one responsible, YOU are the one to blame, stop being a stuck up piece of shit and take responsibility for YOUR actions....

Now, back on topic. I'm not saying we should be able to decapitate kids, like you can do to enemies on Skyrim, Fallout and Fable, but you should be able to kill them at the very least, even if that means turning of the blood (for the kids, blood should still come from "normal" enemies). No special kills, nothing like that, just plain normal, good ol' fashioned family killing.

In all the above mentioned games, you can attack the kids, and in doing so, a bounty will be placed on you (or people try to kill you in Fallout's case), so they are treated as normal NPC's.... with immunity to death....bullshit....

The opinion(s) in this article is that of the writer, not necessarily that of the owners of Blogspot or Google.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Dungeon Defenders (XBLA)

Been awhile since I've written something, figured I'd write something real quick like. DD is a Tower Defense style game with several maps, and as you progress, becomes incredibly difficult at later levels.




Story

The story in this game is not very well explained but I'll try to sum it up as best as I can. Basically, you are the offspring of a legendary hero/heroine who goes to venture in a far away land, while they are away, chaos ensues and you must kill a horde of beasts before they are able to destroy a crystal that houses an evil spirit.


Graphics

The graphics are cartoony (think Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker). The graphics are well done, and the effects are pretty nice too. Multiple enemies appear on screen at once (upwards of several dozen thousands at a time) and still manage to work (although you will see lag).


Controls

The controls are very simplistic. Jumping, attacking, alternate attack and several shortcuts that can be enabled with the D-Pad. Holding one of the bumpers will bring up the menu which allows you to build defenses, repair, upgrade or sell said defenses and recover health, or activate special skills.


Voice/Music/Sound

Characters don't really talk (except a death scream or something), and the music and sound tend to block out other players who are talking (but you can lower the volume of those if you desire). Music changes slightly going into different areas, but for the most part, stays the same. There's nothing really spectacular in this dept.


Other

One thing that will benefit players is the ability to switch to their other characters while playing, if you decide your Squire (Warrior) is needed, you can switch to him in-between waves, this allows for elaborate defenses as each class has their own defenses.

A negative is the fact that mana is used for EVERYTHING. Wanna upgrade a tower, need mana. Wanna upgrade a weapon or armor piece? Need mana. Wanna buy something? Need mana. This will cause you to be low on mana often.

Pets add another tactic to the game, pets add stats, and sometimes, abilities to your hero. They are expensive to buy, but if you don't wanna buy them, you can earn them, but this is incredibly difficult as well.

There are also Challenges, which have you under unique conditions. No towers, moving core, only certain enemies, etc.


Overall

This is a fun and challenging game for Tower Defense fans, but if you're an occasional TD player, you'll likely have many hardships while playing.

8.0/10.0

Pros

- Challenging
- Plenty of weapon/armor/pet customizations
- Fun online play

Cons

- Maybe too difficult
- Not many towers for each class
- Needs more levels