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Games Entertainment

Top 20 Gaming Lows of 2004 434

Posted by michael from the dnf dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Gamepro has posted a story about the gaming lows in 2004 -- a fair roundup of all the junk that's happened this past year. Those poor smugglers..."
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Top 20 Gaming Lows of 2004 More

Top 20 Gaming Lows of 2004

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  • From the article, here's #13:

    13) Legislators Move to Restrict Sales of Mature Games--And Fail
    Politicians raise a rhetorical maelstrom for the opulence of violence in video games, but ultimately leaves a barely discernable ripple in the industry. Targeting games such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Manhunt, legislators from Florida and California sought to more strictly enforce sales of violent games to minors--some even suggested making it a third-degree felony for allowing minors to obtain a copy of

    • Indeed. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:31PM (#11235531) Homepage
      In particular I don't really think I'd call the end of Acclaim a low. They were one of the worst publishers out there, they didn't seem to be good for anything except creating gaming "low points", and they were pretty much just dead weight on the industry. Red Star may be suffering as a result but overall I think I'd say the industry is better off without them; in particular I'd say that what happened to Acclaim isn't nearly as bad of a thing for gaming as the things Acclaim did this year before they died (for example what happened to Black Isle, which is at #17 on this list...)

      But, I think the point of this list wasn't so much "bad things in gaming" as "embarrasing news items in gaming". And Acclaim's Infinium-like final flameout was nothing if not embarrasing.

      • Re:Indeed. (Score:3, Funny)

        by acidrain69 ( 632468 )
        I was halfway through your first paragraph, wondering what Rod Stewart had to do with gaming, when I realized my eyes are playing tricks on me. I misread "red star".

        Bizarre.

        • Re:Indeed. (Score:2, Insightful)

          by mcc ( 14761 )
          wondering what Rod Stewart had to do with gaming

          Well... "Young Turks" is one of the songs in the in-game soundtrack of GTA: San Andreas..

    • Re:Not all of them are lows (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jeffkjo1 ( 663413 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:39PM (#11235562) Homepage
      That's not a low. There's no reason for legislation, or for having the ESRB and the retailers act as surrogate parents.

      The last time I went to walmart, I bought a video game that was rated M (One of those repacked Midway arcade series things... god knows why it was rated M, the whole screen consists of about 200 pixels.) Anyway, the Wal-Mart cashier carded me. I gave him a funny look and he said he had to make sure I was at least 18. Apparently Wal-Mart has decided that they are going to act as a surrogate parent to video game buyers.
      • That's not that strange with Walmart. They try to perpetuate their "family friendly" reputation. They don't sell any music with the parental advisory on it (all the cds are the "clean" version). They also card like crazy on movies and games (I haven't looked 17 for quite a few years, and I still get carded).

        I find the whole thing rather annoying. This is why I tend to shop elsewhere.
        • That's not strange in general. Gamestop and EB both do that, more or less depending on who's working that day and how strict their district manager is. Granted that sometimes they'll just ask you how old you are instead of demanding to see ID, figuring kids under 18 won't know enough to say they're older. Or something.

          The basic idea, far as I understand it anyway, is that it doesn't piss off the majority of the customers and it makes a few (say, some of the nearby parents) feel better about the store.

      • Re:Not all of them are lows (Score:5, Informative)

        by MilenCent ( 219397 ) <johnwh@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @09:02PM (#11235810) Homepage
        It was rated M because it contains two Mortal Kombat arcade titles, along with NARC. These were the games that kicked off this whole violence in games uproar -- wasn't it a Genesis copy of Mortal Kombat that Leiberman shook in the middle of Congress back in the 90's?

      • Re:Not all of them are lows (Score:5, Insightful)

        by parliboy ( 233658 ) <parliboy@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Sunday January 02, 2005 @12:44AM (#11236504) Homepage
        Good.

        There's a reason that theatrical releases don't get as much parental grief as they could: they're perceived as making strides to police themselves. Video games have to give the same vibe, or we're going to have more legislation every year.

        This isn't just about freedom, but about maturation on the industry. Despite the fact that's it's a multi-billion dollar business, it still has a stigma that should accompany something much smaller and seedier. Industry-enforced policing tells people that it really is an industry.

        So if it means that a 12-year-old has to have daddy buy "Kill Mail Murder Destroy Deluxe 5" for him, it's a tradeoff I can accept.
    • I would say the attempt at legislation and kids trying to blame games was the low part. I doubt they're calling the failure of legislation a low...

    • While a felony is excessive (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:55PM (#11235615)
      I don't think it's a bad thing to require retailers to enforce ratings. Some already do so voluntairly (I was carded to buy Halo, much to my amusement since I was at least 5 years older than the guy selling it to me). Parents should, of course, be allowed to buy their kids any game they want. However I don't see a problem with requiring retailers to ensure that the kid themselves isn't buying the game without their parents' permission.

      This is perhaps not a real problem for console games, since they are on the TV and you can watch your kids playing them, but what about handheld games? The portables are getting very powerful and realistic (I think I may have to get myself a DS), and you can't very well be hovering over your kids' shoulders all the time, it defeats the point.

      So say you get your 13 year old kid a handheld, and a selection of fun games who's content you find appropriate. However, some day when he has free time, he slips over to a game shop near his school and picks up a rated M game who's content you do not find appropriate. He swaps the label for something else, and you are none to the wiser.

      All this is easily prevented, as with R movies, by simply not allowing kids to buy the game. If you decide it is appropriate for your kids, you can buy it for them, while your neighbour might decide it is not appropriate for their kid and not.

      I don't see any real problem, it's no more inconvienet than being carded to buy tobacco or alcohol. It helps ensure that parents are the ones who decide what is appropriate for their kids and when.

      It's a nice ideal to say "Well parents should always know what their kids are doing" but that's just not how it works. You cannot watch your kids 24 hours a day. Even if you could, you wouldn't want to because an important part of development is feeling a sense of control and independence. If you are hovering over their shoulder all the time, that won't happen.

      • Re:While a felony is excessive (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        While this may all work the overly religious parents I have would never let me buy anything that wasn't E rated. Then I turned 17, told them to mind their own buisness and now happily rent M rated games and R rated films (ex: Matrix, Doom, ect.). Sometimes our parents do too much regulating. Now certain games and films I wouldn't rent, but I am old enough I think to knwo what I like and dislike. There comes a time where parents have to let their kids make decisions on their own. We can't have our hand

        • No, overzealous parents don't help (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @09:51PM (#11235993)
          However, that's their right. You can fight to change that, but at this point so long as your parents provide for your welfare and don't abuse you, they have the right to control your life in pretty much any way they wish.

          Also, for many parents, there's a happy medium between total restriction and no restriction. As an example one of my coworkers, who is the father of two boys around 12 years old, asked about UT 2004. He was thinking of getting it for his kids, but wanted to check it out first. I let him borrow my copy and he tried it. He decided that it was acceptable, but with the parental controls engaged turning down the gore level. GTA, on the other hand, he finds unacceptable (though fun).

          However the shooters are a new thing for them, he didn't used to let his kids play them, he just feels they've grown up enough that it's ok now. In a couple years, he'll allow for more gore and probably most M rated games.

          But that's a decision for him to make, and restricting the sale of M games helps. An M rating doesn't mean he won't let his kids play it, it means he needs to evaluate it first, then make a decision. A T rating means that it's probably fine as is since it limits the amount of violence and such allowed.

          You can't fix stupid parents, but the ratings can help responsible parents do their job easier.
      • There's a difference there. Cigarettes and alcohol will kill you. Games are just entertainment.

        And if you're kid's smart enough to be sneaking around like that, then chances are good they're old enough to play the game. A little gratuitous violence and sexuality never hurt anyone.
      • And if I want to buy a game with my parents' permission and neither of them cam come to buy the game for me?


        It's a nice ideal to say "Well parents should always know what their kids are doing" but that's just not how it works

        It's a nice ideal to say "By censoring out any information which I think will make my children not think things that I want them to, I will make them better people". But that isn't how things work in real life, IMO.
      • I would disagree with your logic by virtue of the fact that twelve year olds are not able to drop by their local game store and pay $50 for a game. For children it is almost always the case that the parents buy the games themselves; thus avoiding the problem.

      • Re:While a felony is excessive (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @09:09PM (#11235838)
        You cannot watch your kids 24 hours a day. Even if you could, you wouldn't want to because an important part of development is feeling a sense of control and independence.

        And having the stores act as mommies is going to make kids feel in control and independent?

    • Re:Not all of them are lows (Score:5, Interesting)

      by utlemming ( 654269 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:56PM (#11235620) Homepage
      Humm...I find it painfully interesting that the legistlatures of states would try to enforce age restrictions on "M" rated games when fifteen year olds are freely walking into violent PG-13 and R rated movies. As it turns out the Gaming Industry was praised for the standards on how they rate video games, while the MPAA washes back and forth and allows some movies which should be R to be PG-13. At least with the Gaming Industry an M rating will be given with even the hint that it should be M rated, while the movie industry will tweak with a movie to take content out to sqeek it down to PG-13. So in my mind, I would like to see legislatures take on the MPAA and tighten the ratings before they get into games. Movies reach a larger audience than games do. If Government is going to get into legislating morals and games, then they should make it so minors can't get into R rated movies, rent them or buy them. I am tired of different standards being placed on different forms of media than others. The MPAA, RIAA and the Gaming Industry ought to get togther and develop a media neutral content rating system. That way a parent can reliably compare games to movies to music to print to whatever form the diffenet medias take. And if you compare M to the MPAA ratings, it turns out that M comes out to be the equivalent of a PG-13 rating. While Adults Only (AO) is closer to the mid-range R to NC-17.
      • Movies reach a larger audience than games do.

        But in most cases, you only see the movie once. Games you see over and over for days, weeks or months on end. The effect is stronger, and lasts longer. That's not to say the movie ratings system may not need tweeking, but it does explain why the games people are sricter.

    • I wholly agree that the government shouldn't be doing the parenting. HOWEVER, there are many other factors in play here. What about the time when you are your parenting are simply out of the picture? It happens, and unless you live on the moon there's little that you can do about the influence of societal acceptance of a violent gaming paradigm.

      And indeed, there is societal accpetance. Every day, I have the thrill of watching Channel One news at school, and as such see a pretty fair amount of exactly wha

    • Parents need help not more worries (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'm sick of BS like this. Once upon a time it took a village to raise a child. Now it takes two parents to protect themselves from the village. Ok, when I'm a parent I'd like to think I'll be involved. But to have to defend my kid from:

      Fast food
      Junk food
      Violence and sex on TV
      Children of slacking parents
      Violence and sex in Video games
      Violence and sex on the internet
      advertising advertising advertising for all sorts of useless sh*t, etc.

      Give a break. Or rather, give me a hand. Get the fast food out of t

      • Re:Parents need help not more worries (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Once upon a time it took a village to raise a child.

        No, it didn't.

        Fast food

        It was in schools before. The difference was we made students workout at least 1 period out of the school day and we DID NOT have this "everyone is equal" mentality. There are winners and losers, period. Get it out of peoples minds that "everyone's a winner" and you'll start to see things turn back.

        Junk food

        Same as above.

        Violence and sex on TV

        Might be a little more now, but with hundreds of channels, I still have no
    • Need For Speed 2 was the biggest low fo the year.

      You ALWAYS have a huge 4 inch logo for cingular on your screen and there are billboard ads everywhere. Fricken nightmare.

    • "That's not a low. There's no reason for legislation, or for having the ESRB and the retailers act as surrogate parents."

      Since you seem to feel that a parent should have a right to keep their kids from buying certain games (or CDs or movies or whatever the medium of the day is), I'm curious as to how you expect them to go about that. Are parents supposed to keep their kids chained up so they can never go anywhere near a store that sells violent video games? Are they supposed to monitor and watch their k

  • Lame List (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Average_Joe_Sixpack ( 534373 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:10PM (#11235452)
    Doom 3 should be the #1 gaming low of the year. What a disappointment.

    • Re:Lame List (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Fallingcow ( 213461 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:21PM (#11235489) Homepage
      The parent poster will probably get modded troll or flamebait, but he's right.

      At first I thought that my expectations for it had just been too high, or that my tastes in gaming had begun to change... but now that HL2 is out, I can be sure that neither of these things were true, and Doom 3 was, in fact, just a crappy game. Ravenholm was one of my favorite parts of HL2, and that kind of atmosphere was what I expected throughout Doom 3. It didn't deliver.

      HL2's Steam system being on this list while Doom's craptasticness is omitted is unjust.

      • Re:Lame List (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Col. Bloodnok ( 825749 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:56PM (#11235619)
        Part of Doom 3's problem was that it had to meet some huge expectations. Doom 1 was *such* a ground breaking game, but Doom 3 failed to deliver the expected 'raising of the bar' in any of the areas that people were looking for: graphics (technically good, but not exactly stunning, considering the horsepower required), gameplay (pretty dull), characters (what characters?), weapons (fairly crap). level design (polished, but too samey and waay too dark).

        I know when I'm playing a good FPS; I only get that 'I'm starting to get bored' feeling after the 3rd or 4th day (usually on the second go through). I played Doom 3 through once - I started again on 'hard' and I just lost interest half way through.

        The other problem with the perception of Doom 3 is that the two decent FPSs which came before and after (FarCry and HL2) are just *way* better. If you took Doom 3 and sent it back in a time machine to 2002, perhaps it would have been that ground breaking smash-hit that people were expecting.

        I'm certainly looking forward to games by Ravensoft et al. based on the Doom 3 engine.
      • I personally think its the other way around. HL2 was too overhyped and to me at least, didn't show that much of an improvement over HL1. If you seriously expected a Ravenholm type atmosphere in Doom 3, you need a head check.

      • Re:Lame List (Score:3, Insightful)

        by MP3Chuck ( 652277 )
        HL2 didn't entirely live up to its hype either, though ... I remember when it was first shown in summer 2003. The combine soldiers kicked down a door that had a table jammed behind it, and they claimed that it wasn't scripted. When the game was leaked, it turns out it was scripted [techspot.com]. When they demonstrated NPC's helping Gordon, they said that they "act independantly" and not just follow you blindly. I don't know about you, but I found myself bumping into them (and not being able to get around them) quite

  • I'm not entirely sure that's true... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Icarus1919 ( 802533 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:10PM (#11235456)
    I think it is a low, because while I'm not in favor of legislating morality, I think this will actually give video games a hand up. Rather than people saying "Oh how dare the video game companies make games such as this that children can play!" once this legislation is in place, no one will be able to blame the game companies anymore. It will become "How dare the parents of these children buy (insert game) for them and allow them to play it!" Which should have been that already, but isn't.

    And when children blame their misdeeds on the video game, the parents will be blamed and not the industry.

    • Re:I'm not entirely sure that's true... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Maleclypse ( 255382 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:15PM (#11235467)
      I am afraid that no matter what legislation is in place people will always be looking to place blame on others. Specifically corporations that sell mainly to youth who are considered impressionable.

    • However, the problem with legislation is that

      a) Legislation can alost always been too broadly interpreted or loopholes in the wording can have unintended consequences

      and b) It's really NOT the place of the state to dictate what is and is not the appropriate way for a parent to raise his/her child. I'm sure that legislation would prevent kids from playing a lot of games that I think they shouldn't be playing, but that is not my choice or anyone else's choice to make. Only the parent should be making t
      • Noone is stopping parents from making that choice. All the proposed legislation does is prevent stores from selling adult rated (self-rated by the industry, btw) directly to children. Parents can buy their children whatever porn games they want to if they think that is the appropriate way to raise their children. The point is just to make sure parents know what their children are being exposed to. I'm not saying children shouldn't be allowed to play any adult games, I grew up on adult rated games like Poli

  • How is this a low? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Darthmalt ( 775250 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:14PM (#11235463)
    "Nokia Admits Taco-Shaped Handheld Not Selling" whoopdeedoo the n gage hasnt done well since it was released.

    every page had at least one thin that was politically motivated. "video games make kids fat" " Legislators Move to Restrict Sales of Mature Games--And Fail" "Video Games--The New Terrorist Device of Choice" etc. I think someone had an axe to grind
    • "Nokia Admits Taco-Shaped Handheld Not Selling"

      and you repost that on Slashdot? you're a troll magnet baby...
    • Yeah, but they were twenty different axes. I couldn't sense any overriding agenda here.

      In fact, they said nary a word about Nintendo, and I rather expected them to be up there somewhere. They may even deserve a spot up there somewhere, for all their gaming quality, it's been a tough year for them in console sales.
  • the lowest point in gaming happened when the 50th release of the same wargame genre which has even crappier gameplay than the predicessors that it tried to copy off of. And yes I am talking about shellshocked nam 67 or whatever the hell it was. Oh and dont forget about [insert random wwII refrence], man that game sucked compared to call of duty. All these should teach game producers to at least pass a test run with a retarded monkey before giving us the game, but every day a new war era game is released.

  • They forgot to list... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jaidon ( 843279 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:22PM (#11235498)
    ...nVidia graphics cards for requiring more and more (insane amounts of) power to operate with each new model. The newest of these cards require a 480 watt power supply and spare hard drive power dongle to boot.

    What's next? An ADDITIONAL PC required to process graphics for the main system? No wonder why I prefer console gaming!!

    • Re:They forgot to list... (Score:4, Informative)

      by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <tomstdenis@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:32PM (#11235535) Homepage
      Um, you don't notice this trend? My 5200FX [which runs doom3/ut2k4/etc decently, sure not 300FPS but it's still good enough] doesn't even have a fan

      For the curious it's the MSI brand of 5200 with 128MB of ram and 8x AGP interface. It has a massive [but short so it doesn't hit neighbouring cards] heatsink and that's it. The thing gets a bit warm during play but that's about it.

      I'm sure the same calibre GPU two years ago would have required a fan + more power. I'm sure 2 years from now the 6800FX will be a "moderate" card by the newer standards.

      So if you don't need excessive GPU power right now get a 5200FX series card. They're good bang for buck. I mean for 100$ [cdn] I got

      1. nvidia GPU [e.g. works in linux with good 3d in x86_64 mode]
      2. 128MB of DDR 400 memory
      3. AGP 8x interface [sounds impressive]
      4. Capable DX and GL support
      5. Card that can play modern games, specially UT2k4
      6. Drives a 1280x1024 LCD monitor at 75Hz ;-)

      Tom
      • I'm sure the same calibre GPU two years ago would have required a fan + more power. I'm sure 2 years from now the 6800FX will be a "moderate" card by the newer standards.

        You're spot on. I just replaced my son's GF3 Ti200 with an on-sale GF FX 5700LE. While the 5700LE does need a fan, it doesn't need the molex connector like my 5600 Ultra that I purchased a year and a half ago. (The two cards are approximately equal in performance.)
    • The ATI requires nearly the same. The reason for the second molex connector is stability. Under most conditions you can get away without it, however the AGP power is not always completely clean and if the molex is putting out a smaller amount, there can still be issues.

      X-bit Labs did tests to show this. These tests [xbitlabs.com] show there is not a difference that is significant in power consumption throughout, although the new XT cards are improving with their heat loss and power consumption.
    • yeah the problem is that 480 power "requirement" is a myth. When nvidia initially released this number they were way on the conservative side. Many websites have done tests with a 350 watt power supply and it was fine. Nvidia has also come out and said 350 watts is the true minimum.


      Go back to playing FPS with controllers. ;p

    • Its an added power requirement because it renders better. I could render your console graphics with a geforce2mx400. PC ports of games always look so much better (assuming they had good enough textures to scale). I'd much rather play tony hawk at 1024x768 with full antialiasing and all that fun stuff than NTSC resolution on a tv.

      And don't get me started on load times. a PS2 takes about as long to load a map of an average game as doom3 takes to load >512megs of a single map. You can't even compare them

  • They Forgot... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Draconix ( 653959 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:26PM (#11235516)
    2)Fileplanet World of Warcraft final stress test fiasco.
    Fileplanet offered a subscription-only WoW final stress test download that was by no means wait-free, as many users had to wait an excess of 24 hours to be able to download, and once they were able to download, it was a ripping-fast average rate of 3k/s.

    1)Gamespy/Fileplanet still exists.
  • Alongside SCO and Microsoft, geeks now have found a new giant to shake their digital fists at.

    Now, don't get me wrong, they are all "evil" but I have not found a place other than slashdot where I hear people argue on how much SCO or EA "suck" but geeks are found everywhere (or almost). In conclusion, the author is then a member of slashdot, isnt' that right COWBOY!

  • Number 1? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ewanrg ( 446949 ) *
    I'm a little surprised that EA was considered the number 1 "bad thing" for the 2004 market. Yes, they treat their employees poorly - though I don't think they have a lock on that market.

    And yes, they have a lock on the NFL, but there are other types of football and a lot of other sports.

    Personally I think that long term some of the legislative efforts are going to be much worse for the industry than the few poor judgements made by EA.

    ---

    Opinions here [blogspot.com] too. Read at your own risk :-)

    • The legislative efforts are going nowhere. Meanwhile, EA is swallowing lots of formerly good companies and seriously stifling innovation in the industry. When was the last time EA released anything worthwhile? Early nineties?

      It's depressing to think that Origin, Maxis, Bullfrog and Westwood were all swallowed into the vile pool of slime that is EA, never to release a decent game again. Argh!!

    • It's not just that EA has made poor judgements that negatively impact the game industry.

      It's that EA is allowed to exist at all in its current form, really. It's a monopoly which regularly behaves in a predatory manner - fully exercising the business model set forth by Bill Gates and company.

      Small game companies get bought out, or simply can't compete against the megolithic monster that is EA. When a small game company has the option of make a good game, or advertise, and they decide to make a good game -

  • No mention of the Ultima Online low-downs? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lordsilence ( 682367 ) * on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:31PM (#11235528) Homepage
    Heh... just thinking of Ultima Online could make up for a whole book of low-downs.

    Everything from the release of Age of Shadows (turning UO into a item-based PVP game and trying to make it a gigantic Diablo 2 clone) to the release of 7th anniversary edition (yet another expansion-pack for UO which wasn't worth the money).
    Oh, and did I mention that EA is the one holding the lashes?

  • Gaming Low #21 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SnAzBaZ ( 572456 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:32PM (#11235533) Homepage
    #21) Completing HL2 :(
    • Hear, hear. The game was pretty good until the ending, but it seems like the phone rang or something when they were writting that part. A crying shame.

  • The N-Gage entry is invalid for this year (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Fricka ( 583769 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:32PM (#11235538) Homepage Journal
    The entire entry on the N-Gage basically complains about features on the previous model of N-Gage, in other words, it's old news. The only thing it mentions about the new N-gage (which did come out this year) is that it is more "bearable" (a positive note) and that a certain ad campaign isn't running any more. That hardly qualifies as a low for this year in my opinion.

    To complicate matters, I happen to think the N-Gage QD is quite a nifty device -- aside from being a cell phone it runs symbian software, has bluetooth (and can act as a remote control to my laptop). Also, it doesn't suffer from the drawbacks mentioned in the article (it isn't side talking, you *can* hot swap games and memory cards easily, etc).

    On the gaming side of things, Sega just realeased a MMOG for the N-Gage called Pocket Kingdom which is a great game and a news maker in that it is the first true MMOG for a portable handheld. The campaign for that game has been running pretty strongly so it quite compensates for the ending of the other campaign mentioned in the article. Perhaps the author just didn't notice it since they have shifted more to online advertising than offline ads? Either way, again, the end of an particular ad campaign is hardly qualification for a "Lowest" point of the year.

  • Sierra! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Staplerh ( 806722 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:44PM (#11235575) Homepage
    Geez.. I felt that the item concerning Sierra on-line's shut down was the 'top' gaming low. From TFA:

    While technically still existing for the sake of retaining the brand, Vivendi Universal shut down cut its Seattle-based staff of 350--ending a long legacy of PC gaming. One of the most respected in the 80's and into the 90's, the company created games such as Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, and Aces Over Europe (from now defunct flight sim studio Dynamix). In not-so-consoling news, Leisure Suit Larry still lives on as a series of mini-games.

    Heck, the loss of Space Quest alone is the saddest thing I've ever heard. Now.. those were games. Thank goodness for abandonware - even though I'm sure this Vivendi Universal company owns the rights, I'll still be downloading Space Quest games.

  • The death of the mid-sized developer. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by muntumbomoklik ( 806936 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:46PM (#11235583)
    That's gotta be one of the bigger stories over, well, the past two years or so: EA and Vivendi constantly 'consolidating' development studios as they eat them up and shut them down. The industry is turning into an arena of untouchable behemoths and tiny indy groups who can't hope for decent sales, but can hope to get rich by being bought out and shut down by the large corporations. That's a bigger scandal than EA's bad work policies, is their constant takeovers of mid-size developers only to drive them out of business. RIP Westwood, Origin, Acclaim, Sierra, Maxis.....

  • Stupid and Wrong (Score:3, Informative)

    by Erik Fish ( 106896 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:50PM (#11235593) Journal
    Deus Ex: Invisible War was (by far) the biggest thing that went wrong in 2004. The only reason it didn't make this list was because GamePro (and most of the other critics) gave it ridiculously positive reviews.

    All the "video games are bad" items torn from the pages of mainstream newspapers should never have made it to this list. When damn near everyone plays or has a friend who plays video games the journalists and politicians behind these stories are pissing in the wind (and most of them know it).
    • I'm not sure it was the biggest, but it definitely should have been on the list. The original Deus Ex is one of my favorite games ever. I've played it through many, many times. I couldn't even finish the sequel once before moving on to something else. Gah.

  • Support Steam (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eraser.cpp ( 711313 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @07:50PM (#11235596) Homepage
    Bashing steam is so popular that it's difficult to find an article that is actually objective. Cutting out the publisher only makes sense. Most of the purchase money goes into their hands, and it seems unjustified. Most games today no longer contain pretty manuals, maps, or even jewel CD cases. The percentage valve actually makes off each retail purchase is surprisingly low. Broadband users, whose number and capabilities are always rising, are able to obtain games in a manner more conveniant by using Steam. Furthermore their games are kept up to date easily and they should theoretically be cheaper (due to a contract with VU this was not so for HL2). I'm not trying to say there haven't been difficulties in the Steam system thus far, but that's to be expected in the first years of such an ambitious idea. Support the idea of Steam.

    • Re:Support Steam (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Man in Spandex ( 775950 ) <prsn DOT kev AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:11PM (#11235670)
      the goal that Valve are trying to reach with Steam is all good. I'd just like to see a few features implemented such as cd-key transfering. If that's not possible, then maybe something to enable us to run 2 or more steam accounts at the same time. That way, I wouldn't be switching logins to play HL1 or HL2 back n forth. Their faq does state that the current feature of cd-key transfering is in the works so that's good I guess. Currently, only way of doing this is to pay $10 to Valve and ship your retail copy (if any) and tell them where to transfer the key. They are just being greedy.

      By keeping automatically Steam up to date, it makes pirates go nuts to have to update their distributions of games so hopefully systems like this will discourage pirates since it keeps them working nonstop. It is a fact that not long ago Valve has banned another 30 000 accounts from trying to use an invalid/cracked key and with those first 20 000 banned, it shows that Valve are commmitted to fight back against cheapskates.

    • Re:Support Steam (Score:3, Informative)

      by aluminumcube ( 542280 )
      Yea, I've got to say, Steam makes a lot of sense to me.

      I just bought my first PC for work (having been an avid Mac user for 15+ years) and decided, while I was at it, to get some nice games to go with it. The HL franchise never registered with me, having been a Mac user, but I downloaded Steam one night and made a total impulse buy of the Silver HL2 package about a week before HL2 was released.

      For me, Steam worked out slicker then dog snot. I paid like $60 and got all sorts of good content at that price;

    • Re:Support Steam (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Bulln-Bulln ( 659072 ) <bulln-bulln@netscape.net> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @09:04PM (#11235816)
      Hell no! Steam makes it impossible to sell HL2 once you completed it. This alone is a good reason to hate Steam.
      And that's not the only reason for me to hate it, but it's the most important.

  • Game mags going is no loss. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by upsidedown_duck ( 788782 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:19PM (#11235693)

    With sites like GameFaqs, spending money on a gaming magazine is a true waste. Even strategy guides are a waste with all the detailed enthousiast faqs out there for free. Plus, the free faqs are actually honest. This is no longer the days of Nintendo Power.

  • What about the Sam and Max fiasco? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Black Art ( 3335 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:30PM (#11235715)
    They forgot about Lucas Arts canceling the long awaited Sam and Max game. The original almost always gets listed as one of the best games of all time and one of the more fondly remembered games produced by Lucas Arts.

    But Lucas Arts sales people canceled it because the only thing they know how to market is yet another Star Wars title.

    Is Lucas Arts planning on producing any title in the near future that is not a rehash of the Star Wars franchise?

    I expect "JarJar's Big Adventure" or "Jedi of Gor" and day now...

  • Unique??!!??!!!??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by macz ( 797860 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:31PM (#11235718)
    In the article:
    3) Video Game Mags Up in Smoke

    Last year had the fall of Ziff Davis' GameNow--this year saw the fall of GMR, XBN, and our very own Gamestar magazine. Not to mention layoffs seen in countless publications this year. A year where many unique magazines have met their untimely end--may they rest in peace.[emphasis mine]

    I feel for these people, but I can't honestly tell the difference between one mag and another. The only difference I can see is the platform they focus on... other than that they contain 90% advertising.

    With that many ad's, how can they possibly lose money?

    Oh wait... someone has to want to SEE the CONTENT of the magazine, to be willing to put up with the ad's

    I think that the gaming magazine market may be having a "correction" that is entirely appropriate given the vacuous wasteland that is their subject matter. When all you produce are reviews, throw out the occasional spoiler, and every once and awhile interview a meaningful industry player asking stupid questions like "was coming up with the sequel to Daikatana III difficult?" it is extremely easy to see how this is happening.

    I think many of these rags are the product of an industry that is so brimful of cash, that any leaky bucket of a publication was able to sop up some of the spill. Once the novelty of the magazine settled down into predictable pablum, the reader voted with their wallet, and saved the ridiculous newstand price for these mags (I mean who subscribed?) for purchasing more games that they read reviews of for free online.

    As soon as these magazines lost the ability to hide behind the "We're in start-up mode and just building our readership" excuse, they dried up and blew away.

    Please learn from your mistakes Gaming mag industry... please surprise me with the originality of your content, the accuracy of your acumen, the ... FUCK IT, JUST COMP ME A SUBSCRIP.

  • Sour grapes? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by deanj ( 519759 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:41PM (#11235747)
    This guy sounds like he was putting his own personal "lows" into this, rather than looking at it more objectively.

    Smugglers in SWG a low?

    EQ2 dead? OK, EQ2 might not be everyone's favorite, but ripping on EQ2 while praising WoW is just fanboy talk.

    • Re:Sour grapes? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by miu ( 626917 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:47PM (#11235767) Homepage Journal
      Smugglers in SWG a low?

      The way smuggler players were treated typified the entire SWG experience. SOE basically took a guaranteed hit and flushed it down the toilet by ignoring what players wanted and focusing on what marketing decided would pull in new players.

      So yeah I agree that SWG as a whole was really one of the lows of 2004.

    • Re:Sour grapes? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by @madeus ( 24818 ) <slashdot_24818@mac.com> on Sunday January 02, 2005 @02:17AM (#11236915)
      EQ2 dead? OK, EQ2 might not be everyone's favorite, but ripping on EQ2 while praising WoW is just fanboy talk.

      I don't think it's fan boy talk at all, I think to suggest that it is, is in itself much closer to 'fanboy talk' of the EQ2 variety. EQ2 has been widley fairly reguarded as a flop because people have full knowledged of how SOE run their titles and after SWG in particular customers were very shy of them.

      In a building full of developers and IT workers from 20-35 only one has taken up EQ2 to my knowledge. People have never the less intentionally avoided EQ2 because they are fully aware of what to expect from an SOE title and by and large it's not something people equate with 'fun' (or competant mangement, witness SWG, PS). As we are a European office we don't have WoW here yet (a few weeks to go), but all the MMO players here are itching to play it again after having had such a great time in the open (and closed) beta.

      Sony On Line grind-a-thons simply have little appeal in the wider market; as the take up of the more traditional gaming experience found in WoW has shown, which is unique centered around allowing players to solo any quest if they wish, not worry to much about money or skill and just concentrate on fun things like exporing, gaining new abilities (at a fairly rapid pace I might add) and learning about the game world. As a consequense of course it fails the hardcore players somewhat (due to the relative ease of levelling and the aquisition of items), though the genuine diversity of classes and races should provide a significant amount of longevity. The vast majority of people prefer games to be fun-centric with many rewards and the oppertunity to explore new environments, they don't want to play some crazy 3D fantasy equivolent of a hardcore Japanese shoot-em-up.

      Of course some people find hardcore games provide 'a different form of entertainment', other people find them an exercise in frustration (I fall into the latter and get quite pissed off if a game is not entertaining or if I'm frustaded by an inadequte design). While the division is much smaller in the PA reading community (for example), the majority of gamers - both dedicated and casual - are in the same camp as me to a large extent.

      I don't think this is an indication that people want easier games, indeed I don't think that has anything to do with it, though I mention this as it's often cited. The truth is people just want better games that don't fall back of doing repetative tasks (or illogical puzzles, or pixel perfect jumping puzzles, or big reverse-engineering puzzles where you try to workout how the game mechanics are implimented in order to get the most out of the game, rather than concentrating on just playing it in an abstract manner) as a way of demonstrating your commitment or ability.

      I have a friend who plays L2, _a lot_. He has a Jedi in SWG. He really likes to level, to challange the game mechanics and 'beat' the game. In each an every game he evaluates it and uses all his reasources to reverse engineer the game mechanics to work out what weapon used on what monters at what level will allow you to level fastest or produce the most 'wins' in PvP, down to the (what can be surprisingly complex) math routines underneath. I think that L2 caters to players like him brilliantly and is a testament to NC Soft (as is CoH I would add, which caters to a totally differnt segment of players). That L2 has have very little take off in the west is hardly surprising though, it's just no the sort of experience most people are looking for in an entertainment title.

      The same is true of EQ2. The wider world is simply much more impressed with WoW, no surprise it was Penny Arcade's game of the year. As comptent a follow up as it is and as good as it's parts are, I think EQ2 is a contender for anyone's game of the year as the crucial gratifying gameplay factor just isn't there.

      We'll have a better idea by the spring/summer about how the EQ2 style of MMO is going to do agains

  • Just desserts for SOE (Score:3, Insightful)

    by miu ( 626917 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:43PM (#11235753) Homepage Journal
    It is wrong of me to gloat, but I am thrilled that EQ2 looks to be a dud - maybe ignoring and insulting your customers really isn't a good move. It really looked to many SWG players as though their game was being ignored for the sake of the "next big thing". SWG had a great number of innovations, excellent ideas and a setting that guaranteed them fans, but for some reason development seemed to flail around and never focused on the bug fixes or polishing that are essential to long term success.

  • What about JFK Reloaded? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Meneudo ( 661337 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @08:44PM (#11235758)
    In my opinion this [jfkreloaded.com] is the lowest the Gaming Industry has sunk to.

    A game in which you re-enact the killing of JFK for yourself? And have the option of shooting civilians?

    While other games may have assassination and killing people, but usually there is some decent end you achieve. This, on the other hand, is pure garbage, the game that legislators will be looking to when trying to 'tone-down' video games.

    • Re:What about JFK Reloaded? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gad_zuki! ( 70830 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @09:34PM (#11235939)
      > but usually there is some decent end you achieve

      Decent end? In GTA? Or a host of other games? Especially those war games that are so popular. Killing nobody conscripts is suddenly okay but a pretty president from a wealthy and powerful family is hands off? Lets not get too "patriotic" here, comrade.

      Its a game, get over it.

      To me, this was a height of free expression and if Joe and Jane Sixpack don't like it, they can somehow force themselves not to buy it.

  • Number 8 Rules (Score:5, Funny)

    by Roofus ( 15591 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @09:29PM (#11235919) Homepage
    8) Nokia Admits Taco-Shaped Handheld Not Selling

    No shit, who would want a handheld shaped like an overweight computer geek who runs a website with a stupid name?

  • Half-Life 2 Collectors Edition Inspired (Score:4, Informative)

    by FauxReal ( 653820 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @10:17PM (#11236063)
    Half-Life 2 Cookie Edition [itn.liu.se].

  • #1 should have been Steam!!! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anita Coney ( 648748 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @10:30PM (#11236098) Homepage
    Why is it that everyone complains about DRM, but when Valve released Steam, no one complained? People bitched about Palladium, but when Steam came out, everyone bent over like a lifer in the shower.

    Right now Steam exerts as much control over your computer as any Trojan, except we pay for the privilege. Steam tells you want to do, when you can do it, how you can do it, and can pull the plug for ANY reason. Right now Valve has pulled accounts for those who allegedly run warez versions of its game. But what's stopping it from branching out?

    What if Valve gets bought out by Sony, for example, and Sony decides to crack down on MP3 and Divx files?

    What if Valve decides to charge a monthly access to Steam?

    What if Valve goes out of business or its servers get shut down?

    And here's the important one: What if Steam makes mistakes and people who validly paid for the game gets screwed out of ALL of their Valve games?! Does Valve really think it has created the first perfect system in all of humanity?! From their press releases it sure sounds that way.

    With Steam buyers of Half-Life 2 have given up any resale rights. They have given up any right to play the game off line. And despite the fact that the game is validated every time you play it, you're still stuck using the CD when you play. Oh, and by the way, if you have any other Valve games you lost the same rights on those too because Steam will conveniently convert them to its draconian DRM, free of charge.

    And where is the advantage to the user?! If Steam eliminated all piracy of Half-Life 2, why isn't it cheaper?!

    The bad news is that because Half-Life 2 is such a success, Steam will be the future of PC gaming. So it's only a matter of time before ALL games are sold this way. But the really bad news is because people are accepting this Palladium-lite in droves, it's only a matter of time before ALL software is sold this way!

    • Re:#1 should have been Steam!!! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Man in Spandex ( 775950 ) <prsn DOT kev AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @11:17PM (#11236240)
      Steam tells you want to do
      Play games

      when you can do it
      When you're logged in with your games fully updated which is done automatically from servers faster than waiting lets say, in-line at fileplanet or searching for a mirror on google or filemirrors.

      how you can do it
      You can play offline if you save your login info in your pc. Otherwise, configure it as you want like HL1 (before Steam) via user-specific configs or use whatever tool to launch games. It's not any different.

      and can pull the plug for ANY reason
      That's right. If you hack and are caught, you're banned. If you're cd-key is spreaded among people, then your account is banned. Otherwise, its one account to have as long as Steam is online.

      What if Valve gets bought out by Sony, for example, and Sony decides to crack down on MP3 and Divx files?
      Valve made two games until now. Half-Life and Half-Life 2. That and several mods that they bought the rights or ported such as Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat. They are on top of their game and the last thing they'd do is let this company be acquired by a giant. Won't happend unless Valve screws up somewhere.

      What if Valve decides to charge a monthly access to Steam?
      Do you have a chain around your neck saying that you are owned by them? If they somehow decide that fees should be payed to use Steam for whatever reason, people aren't stupid, they will leave and so would I.

      What if Valve goes out of business or its servers get shut down?
      Steam servers going offline is the only thing that worries me. Without those servers, our copies would be useless but I guess a company that wouldn't want to lose loyal fans would release some kind of patch so we could play even at that worst possible scenario.

      What if Steam makes mistakes and people who validly paid for the game gets screwed out of ALL of their Valve games?! Does Valve really think it has created the first perfect system in all of humanity
      It could happend. If that happends, then nothing's stopping you from taking action against them. You have rights as a consumer and federal laws say so from Canada, US, UK, Germany, and many others. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

      It's far from a perfect system but until now, it's doing the job that it's suppose to do. A lot of europeen customers got screwed because their dvd drive couldn't read their media. Valve ignored for a long time (I was going nuts too) but they eventually gave in and now theres no cd-check. They don't completely ignore us.

      With Steam buyers of Half-Life 2 have given up any resale rights. They have given up any right to play the game off line. And despite the fact that the game is validated every time you play it, you're still stuck using the CD when you play.
      Ignorant. Read my last statement. Valve did remove the cd-check. The file "Source Shared Securom.gcf" is no longer downloaded by Steam.

      And where is the advantage to the user?! If Steam eliminated all piracy of Half-Life 2, why isn't it cheaper?!
      I don't understand that logic. So if a product can be pirated, then it has to be more expensif? Damn dude! Lets Raise the price of Windows up to $5000 USD!

      That's it that's all.

  • "I was carded buying a game" and other whines (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nicksthings ( 678040 ) on Sunday January 02, 2005 @04:02AM (#11237280)
    I'm surprised to see what a burden it is for some people to actually have to pull out their ID to show it to a cashier before purchasing an M rated game.

    Listen, I work video game retail and my company requires that myself and all of my employees verify that a purchaser is 17 years or older before buying an M rated game. In many cases, it's certainly not necessary, but if you're carding one person, you should probably, as a rule, card everyone. I've seen 16 year olds who look like they're 29 and 29 year olds who look like they're 16.

    "But I have a full beard!" Congratulations - I knew this girl in middle school who was rocking some chin hair for awhile. All of the kids used to send her to get pork rinds, Hustler and cigarettes from the local Exxon. Now I'm an overweight, porn addicted chain smoker.

    If someone asks to see your ID and you're insulted or inconvenienced, talk to your doctor about changing your meds. We're not playing surrogate parent, we're just trying to enforce the ESRBs ratings here. I have had some of my employees NOT card teenagers when purchasing an M rated game and there have been instances where the parent came back wondering why we sold them Mortal Theft Autohunt: Streets of LA. This isn't a particularly good situation to be in for a company (or a store manager who has to calm an irate parent), so it's a good practice to have.

    And trust me, I for one think that there are indeed many children not "of age" who are "mature" enough to play Manhunt or Halo 2. But it's not my job to decide that and there's certainly no harm in erring on the side of caution. Hell, you're going into your wallet anyhow; your ID is already right there, man!

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