News

Upon the Entertainment Software Rating Board's further inspection of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it was discovered that both a half nude female skin (a possible third party modification only within the PC version's art files) as well as excessive blood and gore were initially overlooked in developer Bethesda's ratings application for the RPG. As a result, the ESRB has raised the game's former rating of Teen (13+) to Mature (17+).

A Parental Advisory has also been issued by the ESRB in order to alert parents of the steeper rating.

An unexpected move reminiscent of the fiasco involving the infamous "hot coffee" scene unearthed in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (coincidentally published by Take-Two Interactive, the co-publisher of Oblivion), Bethesda has responded by insisting that the game contains no nudity on its own and points out that the company has no control over what amendments are made to its content once those copies have left store shelves. However, they are currently in the process of devising a way in which to prevent modders from manipulating the game's art archives. Additionally, a patch halting entry to those files will soon be released for the PC version of the game.

In regards to explicit violence, Bethesda stands behind their original ratings submission: "Bethesda advised the ESRB during the ratings process that violence and blood effects were 'frequent' in the game - checking the box on the form that is the maximum warning. We further advised that the game contained occasional torture, vulgar acts, and gore." Despite any conflicting statements from the two, Bethesda has chosen not to contest the ESRB's assessment and plans to work fully in response to the Board's decision. As such, both Bethesda and Take-Two Interactive will shortly begin working on replacing the rating representation with "M" stickers on Oblivion packaging within warehouses and retail stores.

Along with the rating itself, the content information located on Oblivion boxes/cases - Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Language, and Use of Alcohol - will be altered in that an extra "Nudity" warning shall be added to the PC version. Until then, a few retailers including Circuit City have pulled the RPG entirely while awaiting fully converted copies.

Sources: Gamasutra
RPGFan - Bethesda's Reaction

The official name of Nintendo's latest video game console has finally been announced. After months of speculation and some hope that they might just stick with "Revolution", the new third generation console will be...

Wii.

No, that's not a typo. It's pronounced like "we", and, to quote R51, "I wish it were on nintendo.co.jp so I could hope they wouldn't give it a stupid name for the US." It's unique, it's easy to remember, it's...spelled with two i's.

The flash is pretty good, though.

Source: Nintendo

Square-Enix, kindly throwing fans who are keenly awaiting the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy III yet another bone, have unleashed a veritable miscellany of screenshots and concept art, as well as battle info and interviews (albeit in Japanese) packaged altogether in the humble form of brand new, piping hot scans. Among the screens featured are cinematic and gameplay stills which appear to push the handheld's graphical capabilities to the utmost limit, feasibly suggesting that the elongated amount of the title's time in development has been proficiently spent. But as such, future launch dates remain unconfirmed.

On a related note, additional information and content can now be viewed at the newly accessible Final Fantasy III DS official website.

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2006 takes place in Los Angeles roughly two weeks from now. E3 is essentially a medium through which the world's largest video game companies can parade their upcoming releases and current projects, and is generally regarded as the biggest video games convention/exposition in the world. Square-Enix recently announced their lineup of games confirmed to be present at their booth on the show floor. And the games are... (thanks to rpgfan.com for the list)

The list format is [Game, system, release date (playable or unconfirmed playabiliy)]

Dawn of Mana (Seiken Densetsu IV), PlayStation 2, TBA
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, PlayStation 2, Summer 2006 (playable)
Final Fantasy XII, PlayStation 2, Fall 2006 (playable)
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, PlayStation 2, Fall 2006 (playable)
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, PlayStation Portable, TBA 2006 (playable)
Final Fantasy XI Treasures of Aht Urhgan, PlayStation 2/PC/Xbox 360, Currently Available (playable)
Final Fantasy V Advance and Final Fantasy VI Advance, GameBoy Advance, TBA 2006
Children of Mana (Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana), DS, TBA 2006 (playable)
Final Fantasy III, DS, TBA 2006 (playable)
Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, cellphones, TBA (playable)
Final Fantasy I, cellphones, TBA (playable)

So that's what we'll be seeing in two weeks. This seems to be an especially exciting E3 for fans of Valkyrie Profile, the Seiken Densetsu series, and oldschool Final Fantasy games (which includes all of us). Let the hype begin.

Source: RPGFan

Sony has announced that the retail price of the PS2 will drop from $149.99 to $129.99, only weeks after they adjusted the price of their PSP handheld and around a year and a half after the release of the PS2's slim model.

The PS2 is still the undisputed market leader in console sales, having sold more than double the amount of XBoxes and Gamecubes combined to date. Also, despite the upcoming release of the PS3, Sony will continue producing PS2 games well into the holiday season later this year. This is a stark contrast to Microsoft's strategy, which essentially abandoned the XBox immediately after the release of the XBox 360; Microsoft even raised the recommended price of the XBox by manditorily packaging new XBox units with Forza Motorsport after the release of the 360.

What this tells us is that Sony hasn't given up on their money machine just yet. It would appear that Sony is trying to gradually slow the production of new PS2 games to an eventual stop some time after the PS3's launch (rather than take Microsoft's more abrupt approach), and decreasing the price of the PS2 in order to increase sales enough to maintain the PS2's status as a valuable cash cow. We can only wait and see how the PS2's story ends, but right now it seems liike it is going to stubbornly cling to life for awhile longer.

Source: Joystiq

In news that pleased pretty much everyone planning to buy Heroes of Might and Magic V, game publisher Ubisoft has made the decision to drop StarForce from all upcoming releases.

StarForce, a security program intended to protect game software from piracy, has been widely criticized for the security risks it poses to a system on which it installs. Since StarForce installs automatically with no notice to the user and since there is no clear procedure for removing it from a machine, the problems caused by the program are difficult to diagnose and repair. Among other things, the software can lead to optical drive slow-down and eventual malfunction.

Sources:
ExtremeTech

Boycott Starforce

Wait...you mean there's a company out there that's more interested in not alienating all of its consumers than in squeezing a few piddling cents more out of a product with copy protection that doesn't work anyway?

With the growing trend in companies aggressively defending their intellectual property with means that may be inconvenient or even harmful to consumers, this is definitely a step in the right direction. I'm already at a point where I refuse to purchase copy-protected CDs (sorry, Rachael Yamagata) because of the hassle involved. Computer software that contains the moral equivalent of malware (albeit under a different guise) completely takes the cake. Without this change, I wouldn't be purchasing HoMM5 at all. Hopefully, other companies will follow suit and realize that harassing consumers this way is going to hurt their business far more than piracy ever could.