The new Hitman Absolution trailer

That’s right, I’m jumping on the band wagon and offering my two cents on this. Before I start I’ve never played a Hitman game so I can’t comment on the franchise overall, this is just my view on the trailer and nothing else.  This is my personal view on sex and violence in video games, and I neither condone nor disagree with it.

Now, I think I’ve had a bit of a rant about violence and sex in games before. For me, I don’t care how much there is of either. I’m a 22 year old female, I’m big enough and ugly enough to witness highly sexualised imagery, and highly violent imagery. Put me in front of a Hostel or Saw film and I’ll sit on the edge of my seat with glee and the occasional ‘Ew! Gross!’ as I witness someones eye removed with a flame torch. It doesn’t bother me. It bothers me even less in games because I know that it’s all CG imagery. Show some boob, show someone having their arm hacked off, I really don’t care.

The problem with this new Hitman trailer is that it apparently portrays violence towards women, and even goes as far to sexualise it. If you haven’t seen the trailer, it features the man himself, and a sudden crew of murderous nuns. Now to me that just sounds silly; and it is. A bunch of nuns walking up to a motel room with an RPG, stripping down into bondage gear and shooting the place up. That’s just downright ridiculous on so many levels. Yes it’s tacky, yes it’s really not the done thing, but do you know what? Maybe Square Enix wanted the public to react the way they have. Creating a load of hype, even if it is bad hype, just before E3? Well that doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me. As soon as the media catches a whiff of this then it’s going to be all over the news, giving it free advertisement, and who doesn’t like free advertisement?

While I don’t necesarily agree with the fact that Square Enix have decided to go down this rather shocking route, I don’t agree with all the criticism it’s getting. Yeah, so it’s not like the rest of the Hitman series, but it’s certainly going to stick in your head now. In fact, when it comes out and you see it in your local store you’re probably going to think ‘Hey, wasn’t this the game that had those nuns in the trailer?’ and you’re probably going to end up buying it.

Casual crotch shot…

Games like DoA have the most ridiculously large boobs in the whole of the gaming world, complete with anti gravity mechanics. It’s not as graphic as the trailer, but there are still scantily clad women kicking each other in on your screen, and they are not shy about advertising it. Also, take Bayonetta. That is one ridiculous game. I mean, her hair is her outfit, and she strips down at any occasion possible to beat up some monster with her hair, while she stands naked the entire time. In the GTA games you can pick up a prostitute, have sex with her, bludgeon her to death, dump her body and loot her. None of the above is socially acceptable in the real world, but in the game world it doesn’t really matter.

Yeah, that’s not provocative at all…

Of course young children should not be exposed to this trailer, especially since this is an 18 rated game, and I assume the trailer is rated 18 as well. The problem is, you cannot guarantee that a child isn’t going to see this. Even with proper parental controls in place it’s so easy to type in a false date of birth and off you go, Hitman Absolution emblazoned across your computer screen. Unfortunately this is what we get in the modern era. No doubt a load of parents are going to kick off about how evil video games are now, and we’re just going to have another massive video game controversy on our hands which isn’t good, but that’s the only problem I see here.

I’ve been informed that apparently the trailer shows very little of what the franchise is actually about. I highly doubt that the game is going to focus on a group of insane gun toting nuns, so yes, its stupid for Square Enix to push this trailer. Yes it’s violent, and yes it’s very sexist. Yes, they could have tackled it a little more maturely, but come on people, it’s only a video game. If you want to see the trailer I’m sure it’s on YouTube, I won’t be posting it on here.

What does everyone else think of the trailer?

What I’m excited about at E3 2012

E3 is just under two weeks away, and I still need to book my train ticket to go home and actually watch all the conferences. I’m going to endeavor to do an update about every conference on here, but they may not be up on the day as all the conferences are far too late for my British body to handle.

Anyway, these are the games that I am most excited about at the moment;

Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

 

 

 

 

 

The original Borderlands is a brilliant game full of gore, humour and amazing guns. It’s hard to think how on earth Bethesda are going to improve upon this, but all I know is that I’m really looking forward to it. This might have to be one of those games where a purchase of the collectors edition is essential. It doesn’t matter that I have nowhere to put it, I just want that Borderlands chest.

Persona 4 Arena (Xbox 360, PS3)

 

 

 

 

 

Anything Persona related I am instantly interested in. I would much rather have Persona 5, but that’s an entirely different story. Persona 4 Golden is also coming out, but that’s coming to PSVita and I have no desire to get one, nor the finances.

Resident Evil 6 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve never really been a Resident Evil fan until RE4 on the PS2 was recommended to me by a friend. RE5 was excellent if not a little clunky in the beginning, so I’ve got high expectations for RE6.

DmC (Xbox 360, PS3)

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a long time since there was a Devil May Cry game, and I remember blogging about DmC when it was first announced at TGS. It looks amazing, and I’m reserving judgement on the whole prequel thing as it looks as though it’s gonna be a pretty good stand alone game. It’s got to be better than DMC4 at any rate.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve always been a Tekken fan from a young age. I recently bought Tekken Hybrid just so I could play Tekken Tag Tournament 2 again (and of course for the cheesy film that comes with it). As long as Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has Tekken Bowl in it again, then I’ll be a very happy bunny.

Dead or Alive 5 (Xbox 360, PS3)

 

 

 

 

 

If you don’t love Dead or Alive, there is perhaps something wrong with you. I’m rubbish at the DoA games, as they really are not very easy for a self confessed button basher like myself, but I still enjoy them. I like to play them just so I can see the ridiculous anti gravity that happens on the women in the game. If they make their breasts any bigger and any more jiggly, I’m going to start thinking that they’re actually based off a lava lamp design.

Metro Last Light (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, WiiU)

 

 

 

 

 

I liked Metro 2033. It wasn’t a great game, and it was unnecessarily difficult at times, but it was still good fun. Hopefully they will have learnt from their mistakes in the first game and we should be delivered an improved shooter with a bit of a deeper story for us to get engrossed in.

List information taken from IGN.com.

Ramblings of a Gaming Girl reaches 10,000 hits!

I’ve been so busy with the man coming to stay, and then relatives coming the day after that I never got chance to update when I reached 10,000 hits! I’m over the moon that I’ve had so many people look at my (sometimes silly) ramblings on the gaming world. Lets raise a glass to the next 10,000 hits

On a more gaming related theme, I’ve been quite busy recently on the Xbox. I’ve managed to procure some intermittent internet connection and have been updating my games and downloading the on disc DLC I was never able to do before. Today I also sorted out my PSN account as it was tied to a dead email address. I was going to sign in and download Legend of Dragoon, but it appears that the May 1st release date has not happened? Someone please correct me if I am wrong. There appear to be some good games on the PSP available to download as well (RPGs, of course) so that’s charging at the moment. The sun is shining and everyone is outside, but I’m inside on my consoles having a great day. Before anyone criticises me for staying inside, I’m pale with red hair, so the sunshine is my worst enemy.

Since procuring this unknown internet connection, I downloaded a little Xbox Arcade game called Trouble Witches NEO. It’s a great little game, and it was only 400MSP. It’s a little repetitive at times, but it is a port of a Japanese arcade bullet shooter. It’s very similar to Deathsmiles, but it’s nowhere near as overly complicated or full of lag. Most of all it’s just a cute little game to pass the time with if you’re a fan of anything Japanese or anime related. It’s got a cute little shop where you can buy power ups from, and loads of different modes so it really is excellent value for money.

On a side as well, I went to the National Media Museum in Bradford one of the days the man came to stay, and we had a great time. They’ve got a Games Lounge with all the retro classics, including some up to date games for people to go and have a little play with. The older games such as Pacman, Frogger and Donkey Kong were 20p to play which I thought was a bargain. The other, bigger arcade machines with games such as Street Fighter and a bigger version of Pacman were 50p a go, still a bargain.

There was a big section all about the internet, and the progression of internet technology since, I think, the 1970s. If you live in Yorkshire, or if you’re planning a holiday to the North and are interested in everything media related, then please visit. It’s free to enter, it’s got a cinema on the side, and you can easily kill an entire day there. There are also sections on Kodak, television, radio and film. It’s all interactive so you’re not just wandering around a museum that you can’t touch anything in.

For the rest of my pictures from the Museum please go to my Flickr to find them, and feel free to leave a comment.

I still don’t like motion control

There. I said it. I don’t like motion control. Never really have, and perhaps never really will. I posted an article about this a couple of years ago. Back then I was skeptical, but now I just downright don’t like it.

What has prompted this sudden outburst I hear you say? Well, I finally got around to playing The Legend of Zelda; Skyward Sword the other day, and as beautiful as it looks, and as fun as it is to run around as Link again, I couldn’t help but feel as though some of the magic was lost when I had to start waving around the Wiimote. The frustration of waving my arms around distracted from the beautiful music, the stunning animation and the essence of what Zelda is actually about.

I don’t know, it’s frustrating for me. I want these games to be good, but I just don’t see that people really want to flail their arms around like a raving lunatic and pretend to be Link, or a Jedi Knight. The reviews on Star Wars Kinect have hardly been glowing, lets be honest. Motion control is still a bit of a gimmick for me. I don’t own the Kinect, nor do I want to. I have it back home, and it’s completely unused. I have played with the PSMove a few times and it just doesn’t do anything for me at all.

Dear game developers; just give me a good game, with a good story, good characters and kickass gameplay. That’s all I want. I don’t want to shout FUS-ROH-DAH at my Xbox, that just makes me feel a little bit silly. I just don’t understand this latest generation of console additions. I’m hoping that E3 won’t be as Kinect-centric as it was last year. I am also hoping that Microsoft don’t do what the rumours are stating; release a console that doesn’t require discs. I’ve seen several posts about this across the internet with one valid argument against it; not everyone’s internet is not capable of downloading mammoth games. For a start off, I don’t even have wireless internet in this house so that means that this Xbox would be useless to me.

This brings me back to that classic saying; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Gaming was never broken, so please stop trying to add fancy little gadgets to it. Gaming is not a swiss army knife that you just add ridiculous things to. That just makes it bulky and ugly. Just let me have my controller. I play games to wind down. The last thing I want to do is start waving a controller around, and get frustrated because the motion sensor keeps ballsing up and not detecting me.

Moving on from my rant, I am hopefully starting a second blog. I won’t be abandoning this one, don’t worry! I want to start a second blog so I can make note of all the weird and wonderful things that happen to me when on public transport. If you follow me on Twitter then you will know that I spend a lot of time on public transport, and a lot of the time I come across some bizarre people. My tales of woe make my family laugh, so hopefully I can make the internet laugh as well!

Those who read my previous post will remember that I was waiting patiently for Pocket Academy 2 to pop up in English on the Android store. Well, the very second I hit the publish button, I did my daily Kairosoft search and BAM, the original Pocket Academy was there and ripe for the taking. Needless to say I bought it instantly and played it for about 5 hours (entirely ignoring the man, and everyone else around me…), and I have just finished it for a second time. It’s magical, that’s all I have to say. I need more Kairosoft, MORE!

And on a very final note, I have my only and last exam on Thursday which I think if I revise for any more my head might pop. The Saturday after my exam the man is coming to stay, so I will be away from the Internets until he has gone on the 17th. Hopefully I will be back with an update next weekend!

Early start to summer

Yesterday was my very last seminar class, and the end of my first year at uni. It seems terrifying that I started in the middle of September last year, and now in the middle of April I am finished, bar an exam next month. I’ve learnt a lot, but also been left quite frustrated by people telling me I need to think outside the box and branch out a bit more. My passion is in video games. I am good at writing about them because of that passion. But we shall see what the next year holds.

Onto the gaming. This month has been a bit of a slow one gaming wise for me, but I’ve played a couple of good ones. I seem to keep getting lucky with my purchases.

Cafeteria Nipponica

I bet everyone on here is sick of me talking about my love and adoration for all things Kairosoft, but until they hand in the towel and stop developing games then I’m not going to stop.

I never thought that as an Android user I would ever really get decent games on my phone. When I first got my Samsung Galaxy S I was amused by the little games I could get for it, but none of them really had the ‘WOW’ factor that the majority of iPhone games do. Now I have 9 Kairosoft games on my phone, a couple of really good quality EA games such as Dead Space, with some space for some of the simpler games.

I’m rambling now though. This is meant to be about Cafe Nipponica, the latest translated Kairosoft game for Android users. I’ll admit it straight away, I was addicted to Cafe World and Restaurant Story on Facebook a couple of years back. My love for simulation and building things got the better of me. Cafe Nipponica has partially rekindled this love. It’s not the best Kairosoft game by any means, as it can be fiendishly difficult to actually achieve anything for quite a while, but it’s good fun nonetheless, and there is definitely some replay value in it. I’m just waiting now for the Japanese version of Pocket Academy 2 that’s lurking on the Android store to be translated *rubs hands together*.

Singularity

I bought this game as a reward to myself after I had finished a test last Wednesday. I rung my Dad up, and asked him to recommend me a game I would like, that had plot, and that I hadn’t played. I’m quite picky when it comes to my games sometimes, so that was quite a difficult one to answer, but he replied with Singularity. I was sold on the fact that it was a little bit like Bioshock. When it started to play it, it was VERY Bioshock, but stands well on its own.

I was wow’ed by the first few hours, until I got stuck and the game refused to give me a gun or any ammo for the hoard of enemies that were running towards me. There are only so many times you can die before you realise it is utterly hopeless. So I started it all over again. I thought this would have put me off, but it didn’t. I plowed through it, realising that I had left all my weapons in the weapon locker (blond moment, I know).

If you want a short, but enjoyable supernatural FPS then give Singularity a bash. I picked it up for £10 pre-owned and it was certainly worth it.

I’ve also been feeling retro. I brought my PS2 with me when I moved and a select few JRPGs. I decided to have another bash at Legaia 2; Duel Saga, a brilliant little JRPG from 2002. Clunky movements and cheesy voice acting abound, and it’s still as brilliant as it was the first time I played it. I may flit in between that and the Persona games as I really think to finish Persona 3 FES, and Persona 4 at some point.