Bayrunner.com BLOG

Tonight’s big Xbox 360-themed Cirque du Soleil performance will be co-hosted by iCarly’s Jennette McCurdy and MTV’s Sway Calloway. More »

This has been bothering me for some time: More »

I work with Gravity Bear and I can tell you that, for us, Achievements are important and we wouldn’t give them away like candy. I understand you’re asking a larger question and it’s not specifically about Battle Punks or Gravity Bear. But I just wanted to comment to make sure it’s clear that it doesn’t apply to our game in particular.

Our team has been making games for a long time (Diablo 2 and many others). What was shown in this demo was strictly that… a demo. We ported a tiny subset of our full game to the Windows Phone 7 in order to show that the device could run a 3D game, connected to XBox Live and Facebook. When thinking about the demo, you have to figure that Microsoft has maybe a minute or two to show each game in a press interview, and we all wanted to show off the fact that you could earn some Achievements. So, we made the demo such that a couple Achievements could get unlocked easily and quickly, in order to illustrate the point in a brief press interview. The fact that games on Windows Phone 7 are fully connected to Xbox Live and can unlock Achievements is pretty awesome, I think, and it’s also a pretty huge advantage for Microsoft vs other mobile phones.

Unlocking Achievements as easily as we showed in the demo, however, is not indicative of what a full release will be like, at least for us.

Hope this reply is helpful!

Anyway, if you want to check out Battle Punks and get a sense for what kind of game it is, feel free to check it out on Facebook now: [apps.facebook.com] Fair warning: it’s a very casual, social game and the gameplay is 100% asynchronous, so it’s not going to be your cup of tea if you’re only looking for hardcore play. But hopefully you can appreciate the fact that while most Facebook games are extremely simple and fairly junky, we’re trying to kick up the quality a bit. What you see in live beta today is just the beginning for what we plan to do with Battle Punks in the future, and we’re developing the game live with player feedback, which is pretty fun compared to the old way of making games! More »

I actually reviewed the original for a publication a while ago and slammed it. It wasn’t just my opinion, in a sense, as I was worried I was being harsh so I got some friends and family to play it and they didn’t like it either.

A few months later, I was hit with a pretty serious case of depression and anxiety attacks that forced me to basically take some time out from everything to get better. Not actually being able to stand conventional video games, and seeing as I still had my review copy lying around, I decided to give Endless Ocean another try.

Suddenly, it just clicked. Maybe it was the state of mind I was in, but I just appreciated the relaxing nature of the game. The lack of pressure combined with the soothing voice of Hayley Westenra just clicked with me. It was a great way to remove that stress I was feeling at the time.

I’m all better now, but with a renewed perspective on life I really look forward to this game. The only concern I have now is the music. Perhaps a bit of expansion on this? Otherwise, thanks for the review, Stephen.

Ron (can I call you Ron? You can call me Dan. Nice to meet you!) as a gamer and a parent myself, I have to agree with you that violence in video games is glorified, but it also glorified in movies, comic books, and animation. Then again, sex is also glorified in these businesses. It is a business though, and glorified violence and glorified sex sells. Movies with crazy special effects like Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar… They sell. Or glorified martial arts movies these days with people flying around. Glorified entertainment of any kind is a seller, it is what captivates the audience.

I do agree with studies that link kids playing violent video games to the very same kids acting out. Me and mom aren’t together, and she lets the kids (8 and 9), play Gears of War. My son (8) has this belief that to resolve things in life, you just “kill” the opposition. Honestly, that scares me, and with good reason these days. When he’s with me almost every weekend, I don’t allow him to play violent games. I do speak up and explain “killing” is NOT how you resolve things. He was suspended from riding the bus twice back to back for beating kids up on the bus recently. First time was in direct control of the response. I grounded him for a day after talking to him about it. The day he got back on the bus, he did it again. Mom in control this time grounded him for a week. Hopefully he got the point about what is acceptable in games and what is acceptable in real life.

However, where pornography is concerned (and I honestly have no interest in videos, I find them more humorous and silly), I can’t say I’d rather they were watching porn. Granted, you did say “sex”, not “porn” in the above. Which porn and sex while very much related, are also very different things. Porn doesn’t go out if it’s way to point out to practice safe sex, the risks involved from STDs, pregnancy, to a video being uploaded to the internet, or pictures to a cellphone.

Yeah, I fully agree sex is natural and wonderful, and there’s alot of hipocracy in how it’s viewed in society. However, to say mainstream media runs from it? What decade are we talking about? TV commecials about viagra, cialis, enzyte, etc all over the TV. Hell, I was watching TV one night, and no joke, saw a commerical on a major TV station for a vibrator for women. As far back as I remember, late night TV had commecials for 800 and 900 numbers for phone sex. Since when in recent history do we shy away from it? Heck, we had a TV series call “Sex and The City.”

Worse than porn though, Japanese animated porn… Hentai. I have a massive collection of hentai actually. People complaining here that porn depicts this all screwed up needs to sit down and watch some hentai. Some of the most disturbing things I’ve seen are in hentai. I’ve never seen porn on HBO, or Cinemax that portrayed girls being raped in the worst ways imaginable then they end up liking the guy that did it, and help him rape other girls. You’ll see that in plenty of hentai though! I’ll leave it at that though, as there are crazy people out there who are trying to ban hentai and hentai games from being imported from Japan, and blame games like Rapelay on violent crimes. Riiiight. It’s always the games (never the parents in control of what their kids do).

In the end, it’s about the context in which that which is being viewed is portrayed. A simple love/sex scene in a movie I do believe is far less harmless in comparison to say, Modern Warfare 2.

If we’re talking about say… Two famous movies for their content.. Natural Born Killers vs Showgirls… I might honestly go with Showgirls. Both movies have a purpose, and executes them quite well in ways. However, I’d say Showgirls is the lesser of the evils because it doesn’t follow a path of “this is acceptable and this is OK.” Infact, I would almost see it as “here’s why you don’t wanna grow up to be a stripper or a Vegas dancer!” Still, they will see neither, and I don’t own either one. If it was say Friday The 13th vs a movie with you, Ron… It’s Friday The 13th.

However, as people do note, violence is in our human nature… As far as as history records, there has always been sex, and there has always been violence. It’s almost as if we cannot have one without the other.

Here we are, apparently civilized, and still in Iraq (I don’t understand)… Still in Afghanistan (I fully understand). Kids get out of high school, join the military, a few months later they are grunts on the frontlines, ready to kill and be killed. Some enjoy the bloodshed, some don’t. Military orders that are given that knowingly result in civilian deaths. We try to deny it happens though. We get involved in proxy wars that have gone in for centuries, and in so many cases for what? We then turn these wars into Friday night entertainment by making a movie about it, or a mini series about it. I mention this because I saw Black Hawk Down was on TV last night. Great movie imo, but I also force myself to remember such events really did happen. George Romero recently made a movie about how people are fascinated by violence, and compelled to look at it, document it, etc. Violence is natural, it is just repressed because it is not acceptable by civilized society and laws.

So Ron, I mostly agree with you, but it also comes down to the context of the content being viewed, and the maturity level of those viewing it. And in either case of sex or violence, should parents for whatever reason allow their kids to view it in ANY context, it should be without question the responsibility of the parent to explain what acceptable and not acceptable in the real world. As for kids getting into the stuff without parents knowing, then those parents need to take more precautions and steps to ensure they can’t do that. Most parents I think are too lazy to give a damn.

Ron, if you’re still reading, thanks for taking the time to read one of my excessive internet posts! I have written far more than I intended. I do have to say though, I was recently talking about you. In particular about how we live in a world where if you drop your pants and whip it out, you get paid. If I did that, people would run away screaming, and I’d be arrested. Seriously… I don’t get it!

~ Dan

Somme people really love tower defense games…

Somme people really love tower defense games…

2000: Recently transplanted from the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. I mange to juggle my full-time job as a police reporter with the Palm Beach Post and writing occasional pieces for the feature’s section of the paper about the real value of virtual real estate, and internet addiction.

After much though, I decide to put my Playstation aside and invest in a Playstation 2 because it has a DVD player. It is the height of cool. While I play a bit of console games, my favorites are almost entirely PC titles like Half-Life: Counter Strike and Diable II.

I also land a side job with a company that want’s to allow people to interact in a virtual world while reading my stories. Jester.com doesn’t last.

2001: Sick of life in Florida, and desperately wanting to stay married to my new wife, I hunt down a job in Denver, Colorado as a police reporter. I also start freelancing for Geek.com as this thing called a blogger.

I’m intrigued by Bungie’s Halo, but not enough to get an Xbox. Grand Theft Auto III blows my mind. But I spend most of my time playing PC titles, like Max Payne and Black & White, usually between late night checks on our newborn son, Tristan.

2002: My wife buys me an Xbox for Christmas, something I only become interested in when Xbox Live is announced. I am deeply disappointed with the initial experience, but I see the potential.

I write my first gaming piece for the Rocky. It’s about Xbox Live and runs in the business section. I still spend my nights covering crime in Denver.

Metroid Prime renews my interest in Nintendo and the GameCube.

2003: The feature’s section of the Rocky Mountain News takes over my monthly gaming stories. I write one lengthy piece a month about broader game-related topics during the day. At night I cover crime, fires, serial killers and riots.

My interest in PC gaming begins to wane as I find more and more console games for my PS2, GameCube and Xbox that I like. I end up playing Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox, not the PC.

2004: Continuing my freelance feature job with the Rocky I find I end up having lots of story material left over after writing my story. One night on a whim, I create a website for posting the excess. I call it RedAssedBaboon. It’s my first blog, and I kind of enjoy doing it during the day.

I come home after a day spent driving from Texas to Colorado and immediately start playing Half-Life 2 on my computer. I play until I get viciously sick from the combination of fluid movement and amazing graphics. Halo 2 proves to me that first-person shooters, which I’ve only ever played on PC, can be not just fun, but functional on a console.

In November I get an email about running a site I’ve never heard of and can’t pronounce. It’s called Kotaku, and after accepting the job (which I did during the day, while working as a cop reporter at night) I keep forgetting how to spell the name of the site and keep bugging my mentor, Gizmodo’s Joel Johnson, for the site’s name.

2005: God of War, Resident Evil 4, Shadow of the Colossus, this was a fantastic year for gaming. It was also the first year I attended E3.

In February, I land my first big scoop as a video game writer: Detailing the Xbox 360 before any unveiling or mention of the new console hit. Only 2,000 people read the story.

2006: After noticing that I was being quoted in the likes of the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Australian, the publisher of the Rocky Mountain News calls me into his office.

He want’s to know why I’m not writing about video games for them full time. My first story as a full-time feature’s writer for the Rocky was a look at Uwe Boll and the movies everyone loves to hate.

I spend almost all of my gaming time now on consoles, playing Twilight Princess, devouring Gears of War, loving Okami. I like the idea of Company of Heroes, but spend almost no time playing it.

It’s nearly midnight, two days after Valentine’s. I’m up late playing through Star Wars: Empire at War for a review. In the middle of an online match the phone rings. It’s my mom, she’s sobbing. My 18-year-old niece’s body has been discovered. She was murdered by her boyfriend.

I spend the next hour trying to contact my brother to tell him his daughter is dead.

The next day I go to an interview with Net Devil, shell-shocked.

In October, I punch a wall while working on my computer, breaking my hand.

2007: After a bit more than a year working as a full-time feature’s writer for the Rocky, earning my own page dedicated to video games, the publisher calls me back into his office. They tell me they’re moving nearly a half-dozen people from feature’s to news spots. They want me back as a police reporter.

I decide to quit and move to Kotaku full time.

It is a fantastic year for games with Super Mario Galaxy, BioShock, Halo 3, Uncharted, The Orange Box and Modern Warfare all sucking up inordinate amounts of my time. Trish often sits with Tristan and I as we play Super Mario Galaxy together.

I am so moved by the story behind BioShock and it’s amazing exploration of objectivism that I launch Kotaku’s first “critique”.

2008: I Spend nearly a week of my life locked up in a hotel room with Mike McWhertor playing Grand Theft Auto IV and then write about the experience for the Rocky Mountain News.

Tristan gets a taste for game development playing LittleBigPlanet and asks me to email a handful of developers for advice.

I buy a copy of Fallout 3 for my brother. He loves it. I knew he would. My dad, now 70, buys himself a PS3 after being exposed to Grand Theft Auto IV while visiting. He later buys himself Metal Gear Solid 4 and beats it.

2009: Uncharted 2 delights. Modern Warfare 2 campaign disappoints. Street Fighter IV is amazing. Demon’s Souls surprises.

Finally manage to snag Totilo after stalking him for years.

I spend the last month of the year in Australia. I watch no television and only play a handful of games for review and judging. I spend way too much of my time traveling around the country playing games on my iPhone.

2000: Recently transplanted from the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. I mange to juggle my full-time job as a police reporter with the Palm Beach Post and writing occasional pieces for the feature’s section of the paper about the real value of virtual real estate, and internet addiction.

After much though, I decide to put my Playstation aside and invest in a Playstation 2 because it has a DVD player. It is the height of cool. While I play a bit of console games, my favorites are almost entirely PC titles like Half-Life: Counter Strike and Diable II.

I also land a side job with a company that want’s to allow people to interact in a virtual world while reading my stories. Jester.com doesn’t last.

2001: Sick of life in Florida, and desperately wanting to stay married to my new wife, I hunt down a job in Denver, Colorado as a police reporter. I also start freelancing for Geek.com as this thing called a blogger.

I’m intrigued by Bungie’s Halo, but not enough to get an Xbox. Grand Theft Auto III blows my mind. But I spend most of my time playing PC titles, like Max Payne and Black & White, usually between late night checks on our newborn son, Tristan.

2002: My wife buys me an Xbox for Christmas, something I only become interested in when Xbox Live is announced. I am deeply disappointed with the initial experience, but I see the potential.

I write my first gaming piece for the Rocky. It’s about Xbox Live and runs in the business section. I still spend my nights covering crime in Denver.

Metroid Prime renews my interest in Nintendo and the GameCube.

2003: The feature’s section of the Rocky Mountain News takes over my monthly gaming stories. I write one lengthy piece a month about broader game-related topics during the day. At night I cover crime, fires, serial killers and riots.

My interest in PC gaming begins to wane as I find more and more console games for my PS2, GameCube and Xbox that I like. I end up playing Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox, not the PC.

2004: Continuing my freelance feature job with the Rocky I find I end up having lots of story material left over after writing my story. One night on a whim, I create a website for posting the excess. I call it RedAssedBaboon. It’s my first blog, and I kind of enjoy doing it during the day.

I come home after a day spent driving from Texas to Colorado and immediately start playing Half-Life 2 on my computer. I play until I get viciously sick from the combination of fluid movement and amazing graphics. Halo 2 proves to me that first-person shooters, which I’ve only ever played on PC, can be not just fun, but functional on a console.

In November I get an email about running a site I’ve never heard of and can’t pronounce. It’s called Kotaku, and after accepting the job (which I did during the day, while working as a cop reporter at night) I keep forgetting how to spell the name of the site and keep bugging my mentor, Gizmodo’s Joel Johnson, for the site’s name.

2005: God of War, Resident Evil 4, Shadow of the Colossus, this was a fantastic year for gaming. It was also the first year I attended E3.

In February, I land my first big scoop as a video game writer: Detailing the Xbox 360 before any unveiling or mention of the new console hit. Only 2,000 people read the story.

2006: After noticing that I was being quoted in the likes of the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Australian, the publisher of the Rocky Mountain News calls me into his office.

He want’s to know why I’m not writing about video games for them full time. My first story as a full-time feature’s writer for the Rocky was a look at Uwe Boll and the movies everyone loves to hate.

I spend almost all of my gaming time now on consoles, playing Twilight Princess, devouring Gears of War, loving Okami. I like the idea of Company of Heroes, but spend almost no time playing it.

It’s nearly midnight, two days after Valentine’s. I’m up late playing through Star Wars: Empire at War for a review. In the middle of an online match the phone rings. It’s my mom, she’s sobbing. My 18-year-old niece’s body has been discovered. She was murdered by her boyfriend.

I spend the next hour trying to contact my brother to tell him his daughter is dead.

The next day I go to an interview with Net Devil, shell-shocked.

In October, I punch a wall while working on my computer, breaking my hand.

2007: After a bit more than a year working as a full-time feature’s writer for the Rocky, earning my own page dedicated to video games, the publisher calls me back into his office. They tell me they’re moving nearly a half-dozen people from feature’s to news spots. They want me back as a police reporter.

I decide to quit and move to Kotaku full time.

It is a fantastic year for games with Super Mario Galaxy, BioShock, Halo 3, Uncharted, The Orange Box and Modern Warfare all sucking up inordinate amounts of my time. Trish often sits with Tristan and I as we play Super Mario Galaxy together.

I am so moved by the story behind BioShock and it’s amazing exploration of objectivism that I launch Kotaku’s first “critique”.

2008: I Spend nearly a week of my life locked up in a hotel room with Mike McWhertor playing Grand Theft Auto IV and then write about the experience for the Rocky Mountain News.

Tristan gets a taste for game development playing LittleBigPlanet and asks me to email a handful of developers for advice.

I buy a copy of Fallout 3 for my brother. He loves it. I knew he would. My dad, now 70, buys himself a PS3 after being exposed to Grand Theft Auto IV while visiting. He later buys himself Metal Gear Solid 4 and beats it.

2009: Uncharted 2 delights. Modern Warfare 2 campaign disappoints. Street Fighter IV is amazing. Demon’s Souls surprises.

Finally manage to snag Totilo after stalking him for years.

I spend the last month of the year in Australia. I watch no television and only play a handful of games for review and judging. I spend way too much of my time traveling around the country playing games on my iPhone.