Have I talked about politics before? I'm sure I have

Sorry for yet another Rant but there’s another thing that’s been bothering me lately, the American Election. I highlight that word because it doesn’t feel very American does it?

What I mean by this is that even though we the British have no say in it and won’t be affected by it too much, if at all, you cannot escape from it. I suppose internet sites have an excuse, especially if they are American sites. Though the Internet is Worldwide not American so I’m not a fan of being told to vote Obama/McCain when I A) Wouldn’t vote for either, B) Can’t vote for either anyway.

So let me make this very clear if you didn’t already get the tone of this post.

I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK WHO WINS THIS ELECTION

But I guess I must be the only British person who feels this way as even our own media is covering it more than OUR elections. New and Opinion polls get the same amount of coverage as some degenerate loser almost snogging another degenerate loser in “The Big Brother house” (Which sadly is a lot, we the British seem to like Degenerate losers appearing in low cost shows with premium rate phone lines for voting for your “favourite”).

Ok I’m judging this on Tabloid response though I’m sure the more respected Newspapers are showing the same if not more coverage of this American Campaign.

And then there’s TV. The number of news reports and documentaries around this Election, even on British owned channels, is astonishing. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start getting campaign speeches and adverts telling us to vote for candidates in an election we can’t even vote in.

And Politics have become a joke now anyways. The reason people don’t vote is because it doesn’t matter, we’re fucked either way. Neither candidate makes a clear case on why we should vote for them because they’re too busy slagging off the other candidate.

Most comments and propaganda is against the other applicant rather than pro themselves. They focus on what the other has done wrong rather than what they can do right.

I know we’re fucked under Brown, but we’d be fucked under Cameron too and we’d be fucked under anyone else. I vote to keep the Status Quo, if I vote at all.

I just want to make it clear that this isn’t an attack on America, it’s an attack on Politics and Elections. But while it’s expected to have a lot of coverage for a British Election, I don’t expect this much for an American one. It even seems more than for a British one.

A New Brand of overreaction

Now I’m not the biggest fan of Russell Brand but this mass hysteria over a phone message prank is a bit too much. Admittedly the prank was in bad taste and wasn’t funny at all but that still doesn’t account for the over the top reaction that’s gone on lately.

If you didn’t know I’ll go over my interpretation but before that let me just say welcome back, how was mars?

Basically Russell Brand, and co-host Jonathan Ross, left rude messages on an old man’s answering machine. They old man is Andrew Sachs, who played Manuel in the classic British comedy Fawlty Towers. The messages were about him sleeping with his granddaughter, well that’s the clean version anyway.

Like I said, Joke in poor taste, nothing more. 2 complaints were raised shortly afterwards and that was the end of it.

Well until The Daily Mail reported on it, calling it disgusting. Then all hell broke loose. Remember the Daily Mail? It’s a scumbag tabloid that has a history of over-reacting to nothing. Like many gamers their ignorant “Ban these evil games” ‘article’ struck a nerve with me and I’ve hated the ‘newspaper’ ever since.

Unfortunately there are morons that take this shit seriously. What was only 2 complaints soon escalated into thousands of complaints, so much so an “official investigation” is to be carried out. In the meantime Brand and Ross are suspended from the BBC’s broadcast.

Ross, Brand and the BBC have all made formal apologies, which Mr Sachs has already accepted and, by the tone of his interview, couldn’t care less about the whole thing. Brand has also quit the BBC and Jonathan Ross’ future is in doubt.

Yet people still want their heads and probably won’t be happy until they are publicly hanged. Gordon Brown has even used this as a distraction from our countries recent financial difficulties and it seems all of Britain’s hate is aimed at Brand and Ross.

Absolutely Ridiculous over-reaction from people who hate Brand and Ross way before the incident and want to see them suffer. Lots seem to be jumping on the bandwagon and spreading hate like there’s no tomorrow.

It was just a Joke, a bad one, but a Joke nether the less. The innocent parties couldn’t care less, they even got some publicity out of it, and the offenders have been punished (perhaps a little too much).

People have been saying we are forced to pay for the BBC, whether we watch it or not, so they have a responsibility to make sure all broadcasts are decent and in no way obscene. Hello this is television. South Park has gotten away with much worse and that’s in its 12th season! (Isn’t it? I don’t really follow it).

If you want to complain about money being wasted by the BBC there are much better targets then these two. Ross is responsible for one of BBC1’s rare highlights, targeting him like this is even more disgusting than the prank itself. The BBC may have a very good website but the TV shows it broadcasts today are pretty pathetic. They have an over reliance on Dance/Talent shows, Documentaries very few care about and an admittedly brilliant Kid’s Drama. It’s lost most of it’s Live Football and it’s only good comedy pales in comparison to previous British classics (and no I don’t mean Little Britain or Catherine Tate).

Mind you it’s not all bad. Top Gear and bringing Heroes over here makes up for it a little. Also My Family can be quite good sometimes and I did like Jekyll even though that was short-lived. (hmm perhaps I’m being a little too harsh on the BBC then).

But enough about the BBC. This whole incident has proven three things. One, our government and media will use anything to distract us from real issues, Two, too many people turn into Angry Mobs and jump on the bandwagon way too easily and three The Daily Mail is the biggest shit-stirrer in existence and spreads nothing but hate.

In my opinion all those who raised complaints after the Daily Mail story should hang their heads in shame and send an apology to Ross, Brand and the BBC. The Hysteria caused by this has been far more damaging than a rude message left on an answering machine.

And before you say it, no your job isn’t the same as theirs so don’t compare them. Their job involves broadcasting to thousands if not millions, with everyone highly critical of their mistakes (this is beyond highly critical though). If you entertain thousands are you not entitled to thousands of pounds? This make their salary a non-issue too.

Note, I hate it when this is done to footballers too. I really don’t like those that say footballers get paid far too much. Considering the number they entertain, sometimes twice a week, they are entitled to large salaries.

I’ll conclude this rant with a link to Brand’s Apology. I may not be a fan but he’s right on the money with this hilarious comeback at the Daily Mail.

Link

Summer of Sonic

The following is a copy and paste of my entry on the TGN Blog. Enjoy.

Remember the nineties? When Gaming really started to take off and icons were born. When online gaming was only a dream and we didn't need achievements to enjoy our games. There are so many things that happened during this decade; the birth of the Playstation, the golden age of the SNES and Mega Drive, analogue sticks and 3D gaming started to become commonplace.

The age was defined by the mascots as in June 1991 Sega answered Nintendo by creating a much loved character to counter Mario. A new mascot designed to be the anti-Mario. Someone fresh, new, exciting and would take the gaming world by storm. In 1991 Sega created Sonic the Hedgehog.

Now this isn't yet another discussion on how the games have been seemingly getting worse and worse, or how the game series does not work in 3D. That has been done to death. You see despite Sonic's clear decline in quality the fan community is still as strong as ever.

Thousands still have faith in the 'blue blur' and that faith was rewarded in the first ever Sonic-only convention, Summer of Sonic . Masterminded by The Sonic Stadium's Dreadknux, it was intended to be a free for all, small gathering of Sonic fans to celebrate the hedgehog's 17th birthday.

Held a little later than the official date of Sonic's birthday (23rd June), on 9th August 2008, in Dragon's Hall Community Centre in the heart of London, a tiny non air conditioned room was packed with hundreds of Sonic fans. Two of these fans are TGN regulars, Siriku who was helping out as staff and myself. So here's my account of the day:

I gave myself plenty of time to find the place, checking out of my hotel an hour or so earlier than the estimated start time. I arrived 30 minutes before it was due to start and found only one person (two if you include his dad) queuing to get in. I wanted to experience everything, planning to be there from start to finish.

The queue started to get big near the planned start time of 10am. It took a little longer for the event to get started, at around 10:30am the doors opened. As soon as the first person walked through the large double doors the music started as the Sonic 1 title theme blasted out of the speakers.

The first thing anyone noticed, I'm sure, was how small the room was. Dreadknux had seriously underestimated the support this event got. The website alone had enough confirmations to pass the safety limit for the building and you couldn't help but wonder how everyone was going to fit.

Everyone received a goody bag with a T-shirt, a couple of SEGA branded pens, a SEGA sticker, a SEGA branded neck strap and a SEGA key ring, as well as getting their hand stamped with the SEGA logo.

To the right was a Wii with Sonic 3 on the go. Next to that was the Guinness World Record table where you could try for the fastest time on Emerald Hill zone Act 1. Beyond that was a Wii pod with Sonic and the Secret Rings available to play, and a DS pod with Sonic Chronicles ready to play. Next to that on the far wall was a glass cabinet holding all sorts of cool rare merchandise. Left of that was the comics stand with numerous Archie and Fleetway comics available to read.

To the left on the far wall was a collection of websites printed out, showing various creations from the Sonic fan community. In front of that in the far left corner was the art corner where attendees were encouraged to draw anything they liked for the art contest. Finally next to that was the main stage where more or less everything happened.

After a couple of games of Sonic 3 and an attempt at the Emerald Hill record, I made my way over to Sonic Chronicles. First off all, if you're expecting a Sonic game, DON'T. It is nothing like traditional Sonic. It's about as fast as any other JRPG, maybe just a little faster than Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The over world controls very much like Phantom Hourglass being more or less entirely stylus controlled. Monsters are in plain sight so no random encounters thank god. Sections like giant loops are done by simply tapping a button.

Combat is fairly simple, again all stylus controlled. Special moves all have an Elite Beat Agents quality to them, as you tap and slide your stylus across the screen for added effect. This goes for defence as well as offence. Sometimes the enemy will run and you'll have to chase them, taking you for an on-rails running section, where you tap the screen to jump over boxes.

It was a bit confusing on where to go, but I found the first boss (I think) and defeated him fairly easily as his attacks were deadly but often missed. I left it for someone else at this point and, while I found it enjoyable, I don't think the short play I had of it was enough to give judgement. It just feels like a pretty solid traditional-style JRPG to me.

It didn't take long to look at everything available and by the time I got through everything, the room was starting to get really full. I had played Sonic Chronicles, did the Emerald Hill challenge (31 secs) and won a few rounds of Sonic 3. But this wasn't what Summer of Sonic was all about.

Sonic himself made his appearance just before midday. He's bigger in real life you know, as he was always portrayed as being pretty short compared to your average human being. What's going on SEGA?

Anyway, up until the performance from the three music talents and the appearance of Nigel Kitching (man behind the Fleetway Sonic the Comic), the rest of the event was filled with competitions, from the art contest to the quiz, each one with a Nintendo DS as the prize.

But you don't want to know about that. You want to know about the performances from Lee Brotherton, T J Davis and Richard Jacques don't you? This was definitely the highlight of the event. First up was the music master himself Richard Jacques performing an incredible Sonic 1 medley, followed by some Sonic 3D Blast tracks and ending with an insane Outrun medley.

If that wasn't enough, T J Davis joined Richard on stage to perform, "Can you feel the Sunshine?", and, "Diamond in the Sky", from Sonic R.

Lee Brotherton (also known as Bentley Jones) came on as T J Davis left and performed the song he was notorious for (by his own admission), "Dreams of an Absolution" (Silver's theme from Sonic 2006 if you didn't know). He didn't perform the version from the game, or the awesome LB vs JS Remix however, he played the version from his album - confirmed to appear sometime within the next few months - so look out for it!

Lee also played a track that would become the theme of Summer of Sonic. Another version of "His World" called "Blue World Prelude". This is available to download from the Summer of Sonic website, and - like all the tracks performed on the day - is absolutely awesome.

Such an awesome performance deserved an awesome finale and we weren't disappointed. A track that took everyone by surprise. All three performed "Dreams Dreams", the ending theme to cult classic NiGHTS into Dreams. Yes we know it's not Sonic but we couldn't care less. Besides Sonic gave birth to Sonic Team so technically anything Sonic Team should be allowed.

There are videos on Youtube; MP3's freely available if you look hard enough. Basically you owe it to your ears to listen to these tracks and see the performance. If only to see Richard's awesome "To sound this good takes AGES" T-shirt.

By now time was against us. We still had the raffle, the Q&A with the three music talents and a special live showing of The Sonic Show. All to fit into an hour and unfortunately a lot had to be cut, including the Q&A. Attendees could still get things signed and I personally managed to get Several Wills (Sonic 2006 vocal track CD) signed by Lee Brotherton, and my copy of Sonic R signed by both TJ Davis and Richard Jacques.

All that was left was the raffle where a truck load of prizes were being given away. I'm not kidding - check out the Sonic City Blog. Everything there was broken down into theme packs.

I won one of the cameo packs which contained a Phantasy Star Universe strategy guide, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: 'team Mario' T-shirt (which sadly I already own, but managed to give away), Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg for the PC (which I own for the Gamecube), Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for the PS2 (which I own for the Wii), and the apparently rare NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Official Soundtrack (which again I already own). (I don't mean to sound ungrateful, a win is a win after all, and everything was free).

As 5pm approached (the agreed end time) the event was finished with the presentation of the cake (which was amazing! There are pictures on the website if you want to see for youself), and oddly a rendition of the DK Rap. There's a story there somewhere, something to do with a karaoke competition and a forfeit.

As I got on the train home I had time to reflect on the last seven hours and couldn't help but admire the organisers for all their hard work. What had started as a mini meet-up between Sonic fans suddenly exploded into such a big event, but they seemed to handle it effectively and ended up being very successful.

At the end of the day though it wasn't the games or the comics that made Summer of Sonic such a fantastic event, nor was it the challenges, prizes, or even the music performance. It was the atmosphere. Let's face it, the Sonic fan community is one of the most bitchiest communities out there, and with our hero's fall from grace being so apparent, spirits are at fairly low down. However, after Summer of Sonic I don't think there was a single attendee that didn't have a smile on their face.

If games do only one thing right, it's that they unite people, and I believe Summer of Sonic to be a prime example of that. I'm sure they're doing another next year - hopefully bigger and better. Who knows? Maybe there may even by a Winter of Tails in honour of the young fox's sweet sixteenth in November, though I'm sure the organisers have pulled off enough miracles for one year.

Competition Time!

So if you were paying attention then you will know I have a spare copy of the NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Soundtrack (the full thing, not the sampler). It wouldn't feel right to sell it, so to make things interesting here is the first TGN Blog Competition. Designed to get you all checking out my work, the sites I want to promote and Summer of Sonic itself.

The prize is a copy of the NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Soundtrack, still sealed.
For a chance of winning just answer the five questions below correctly. Send your screen name and answers to Master.hunter.joz@googlemail.com. All the correct answers will be entered in the prize draw. No runners-up prizes sadly (unless someone wants to donate some). Competition ends Friday 19th September 2008.

1. SOS: Richard Jacques, T J Davis and Lee Brotherton all performed at Summer of Sonic. Which Song did they all perform together?

2. TGN: One of the two communities I represented at Summer of Sonic is obviously TGN where I am a forum regular. What is my custom title on the forums?

3. RadioSEGA: I was also representing RadioSEGA. Who created RadioSEGA? (Real name please, first and surname)

4. MH: Bit of shameless self promotion here. What do my latest DeviantART submission (not the desktop screenshot the one before it) and my last updated fanfic on fanfiction.net have in common? (Wrong answers: Sonic, Based on games, Me)

5. NiGHTS: Finally as this is for an OST of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, what are the names of the two new 'visitors'?

More Terms and Conditions. There's no need to give me your address unless you win. The winner will be E-mailed to get further details. I will only use your details purely for this contest. Anyone can enter, whether you're a TGN member or not, including TGN admins (I am the only one who knows the answers and I will not be showing any bias). If you're under 18 it would be a good idea to discuss this with a parent or guardian before you submit personal information.

Metal Gear Solid 4

The PS3 is a very unlucky console. Most of its best games appear on the 360 too, which has the advantage of a superior online service and achievements. So it’s about time that the PS3 does get an exclusive, a good reason to buy the console besides the excellent blu-ray and DVD playback.

Let’s hope the PS3 follows the same pattern as the PS2, as that too has a lack of quality exclusives until a special title arrived, a Metal Gear Solid title.

And so we come to Metal Gear Solid 4. The final instalment of the Solid Snake saga. Now I’m not one for Soldier games but MGS has always been different, offering a level of silliness that is always welcome. MGS4 is no different. I was sceptical of the open areas with much fewer hiding spaces that was originally announced but my fears were dumbfounded.

I will never doubt Kojima again, MGS4 is awesome. However the title does have some very noticeable flaws.

Mainly the cut scenes. 90 minutes cut scenes have been quoted by some, which is a bit of an exaggeration. There are some that come near 50 minutes, but they are more combinations of cut scenes rather than individual ones. All are pause-able and most have the option to save in-between them which eases the pain. There are also first person views and flashbacks that offer some very limited interactivity with the scenes, so it’s not entirely just watching.

Because the cut scenes are long the game seems long but really it isn’t. All cut scenes are skip-able, but you’ll find if you do that there isn’t much game left. Perhaps this is a good thing as the MGS games are usually intended to be played through multiple times. Like Dead Rising, replaying a short game multiple times works better than a long game.

Also why is it, in games, when you need to follow someone, that person moves so slowly that you’re practically brought to a halt for most of the sequence? Unfortunately one of those parts features in the middle of the game.

I started with the negative’s first as despite the very nice visuals, decent soundtrack and good voice acting you expect from a MGS title, all the best bits are spoilers. So it makes praising the game very hard. If I was to give it a score based on my first play through I’d probably rate it a strong 7, weak 8 out of ten.

I’m going to list the parts I really enjoyed now and the reasons why the game is so awesome, which are all spoilers, so you can stop reading now if you don’t want the game spoilt. Let me just say it is a quality title, a must own, but not one which will be topping your top ten of all time anytime soon.

# ! # ! # ~~~ WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD ~~~ # ! # ! #

ACT 1 – The moment you get the drum was pretty funny. I like how you can check the inside of the drum as Snake, fearing the worst considering someone was trying to take a shit in it.

Also Drebin and the Monkey were awesome additions to the already impressive roster of characters. Some of the interactions between the monkey and the other characters were real highlights of the frequent visits throughout the game.

ACT 2 – Awesome Boss Battles have always been a staple of the Metal Gear Solid Series and 4 is no exception. In Act 2 you face your first BB (Beauty and the Beast) battle which is definitely one of the many highlights in the game. Laughing Octopus isn’t too hard to beat but the way she uses the environment to her advantage is inspired.

I really like how the BB’s were given both a demonic male voice and a delicate female voice emphasising the beauty being consumed by the beast. Good to see that the male voice is the same throughout the BB’s giving the Evil in the game a little unification. Also nice to see a return to the MGS bosses, Octopus, Raven, Wolf, Mantis and Liquid. The whole MGS repeating itself might be getting a little old for some people but this is explained at the end of the game (why the events in MGS seem to repeat).

ACT 3 – I hated this act personally but it started linking all the games together in a way that makes sense.

ACT 4 – My favourite act as it contained the best moments. It’s a return to shadow moses with the game frequently referring to the classic masterpiece. The codec conversation with Otacon as you enter the blast furnace made me laugh out loud with the whole disk swapping thing.

Then there’s the quick dream Snake has where you play the first little part of the original MGS in the old top down style. Good to see just how far the game has come over the last ten years.

Finally the battle between REX and RAY was a long time coming. Getting control of a Metal Gear and destroying the so called superior model was an absolute dream, and no doubt what every fan wanted.

ACT 5 – In this one you fight Screaming Mantis, which was the second best boss fight after the metal gear one. Purely because of the link to the Psycho Mantis fight in the first MGS. Changing the controller doesn’t work and I guarantee you will do that before you get told it doesn’t work.

Then after you beat the BB you have a cool scene with Psycho Mantis who tries to do the things he did in the first game. It’s as if the PS3 was made for MGS4, as opposed to the other way around, as he can’t “read your mind” as there’s no memory cards and he can’t move your pad because of the lack of Rumble.

Work, and why life sucks.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. With me working and obsessively playing videogames I haven’t had change to do anything like draw, write, or update the site. It’s a lot of hard work to make a site your own, even when you use a place like Blogger and takes a lot of commitment.

Twinseeds is another example of a well intentioned site that I ended up abandoning due to the amount of work involved. I absolutely loved doing it but it was too much for one man alone.

This site is a lot easier to update I just need to find time. With the way things are going I maybe getting more time than I want.

You see I’m losing the “Job” I’ve been doing brilliantly for the last two years in September. Sad fact is the organisation needs to downsize and the be “open and fair” everyone had to be interviewed.

I’ve used quotations for those words as it’s not really a “Job” it’s a contract. I do the work on a temporary contract and they just don’t extend the contract when they need to get rid of me. Means no Redundancy pay, which sucks. “Open and Fair” means your hard work counts for nothing and maintaining you job comes down to an on the day interview. I joined as an agency worker, which meant no interview, As initially they needed a lot of staff. But to get a proper job with this organisation you need to have been in competition with the general public for it (Hence Open) with everyone having an equal change (Fair).

To me this is ridiculous, the best who were here should have been kept on. There must be some Jinx over me with interviews as I haven’t had a successful one yet. The first this year (to Keep this job) was strange. You see I gave good examples but I missed out because I took longer to answer their questions. Didn’t help that I knew more than they did about the job and was asked irrelevant questions.

But I digress, what is done is done. I didn’t intend to stay there long and it was only really a Job to me not a career. I’m 25, still live with my parents, single and basically heading nowhere. For a while now I have been pursuing a career in Maths Teaching. I looked at what I’d be good at, I have strong maths skills (that need practice I admit, not done anything serious in ages) and I genuinely like helping people.

Seriously I think there’s something wrong we me that I like helping others so much.

So to me that seems like good enough reasons to pursue maths teaching.

Now this is going to sound really stupid but despite the shortages getting into teaching is very, very. very, very, unbelievably difficult to get started in. The website is no help as it is all gobble-de-gook. After getting some advice from connexions I went for the GTTR route, slightly annoyed that it meant going back into full time education. I found that the bursaries however made this more appealing.

So I applied to my local university and here’s where I got knocked backwards. Getting in took a massive amount of work and was incredibly hard. Ok the University of Cumbria is quite well respected for teaching but it’s hardly Cambridge. Considering the shortages I thought this would be a breeze. WRONG! It’s no wonder there’s a shortage of maths teachers they aren’t exactly bending over backwards to recruit them. Financially maybe but that’s all.

So I underestimated them. And once again the Jinx of interviews keeps my perfect strikeout record continuing. Fair enough I didn’t do so well and know of some areas that I could definitely work on.

However I recently got hit sideways by the feedback (Yes one of the very few times I actually got something back). They said I need to think about my reasons for wanting to become a teacher! Great, now I’m questioning why I want to be a teacher and I feel lost and scared that I’m heading nowhere and back to square one.

I’m going to see about career’s advice, but it just seems like I’m still getting nowhere.

What this means however is I may have more time to make updates to everything. So I guess there’s a small silver lining.

So enough depressing talk. My Job may be nearing it’s completion but there are times where you have nothing to do (hence the ability to create this post). Normally in this time I play about with Excel to advance my knowledge.

Here are a couple of things I’ve done is Excel.

If you got the Heroes season 1 boxset you may be familiar with this Mind Reader. Some people who have tried this occasionally get hashes instead of letters in the grid. Try increasing your resolution though it may be down to your version of Excel. If anyone can confirm why it would do this I would be grateful.

Try and work out how it works. Try the maths on paper if you think I’m using formulae. If you can’t work it out it’s explained Here. This shows how it works, not only as an excel spreadsheet but in general (so it shows how the Heroes one works too)

And here is a little game I made up using random numbers and conditional formatting. I could probably do better if I used macros (at the moment the “mines” move about with every move)

I also made my own spreadsheet for recording my games collection, but it’s half finished.

All of these were made in resolution 1152 x 900, one up from the standard 1024 x 768. You made need to change the resolution to get the best results.

In case anyone was wondering

No I'm not dead and I haven't lost interest in this blog.

But just like my DeviantArt and My Fanfiction I have not found time to update it.

I did want to do a games of 2007 feature but again no time.

In fact this post will be short as I have no time again.

Work and Gaming get in the way.

Oh for the Record my top three games of 2007 were...

3. Mass Effect
2. BioShock

and in first place, the game people forget about because it came out so early that year (in Europe anyway), the Brilliant Okami

Eventually I'll get back to updating this site. I want to get rid of that Flash banner for a nice static one. Oh and now I have a Widescreen monitor I've noticed how messed up the alignment is.

Manhunt

Before I begin let me just say I'm not dead I just find that I don't have the time to do arts/fics anymore. I'm working full time and at the times I would normally do stuff I'm just too tired. This blog post will probably be a one off for a while.

Also before I begin let me just say that today (well it's past midnight so techincally yesterday) was Sonic's birthday and between SonicARTS, RadioSEGA, Fanfiction.net and DeviantART I have found only ONE mention of this. Yes I know I haven't done anything either though I did spend today playing SONIC the Hedgehog (360 - All downloadable content) and the only music being Sonic music.

Anyway onto the main point. Manhunt. The keen Gamer will know that the sequel Manhunt 2 has been refused a rating by the BBFC, essentially banning the title from appearing in the UK. Similarly in America it's been given the AO rating meaning Nintendo and Sony will not allow it on their consoles.

This game must be something in terms of violence then. Well you'd think. In America it might be the overspill from GTA's Hot Coffee controversy or it could be following the UK (the BBFC did this first).

Now you see here's where it gets controversal. Let's look at Manhunt first. If you didn't know there was some controversy surrounding this title. Here is a copy and paste from Wikipedia.

The controversy surrounding the game stems from the extremely graphic manner in which the player kills enemies. Almost all of the game's special "stealthy" executions result in large amounts of blood. The manner in which the player kills enemies can be extremely grotesque at times (ie: decapitation, suffocation using a plastic bag, jamming a crowbar into an enemy's skull), both visually and audibly, as enemies will also groan and scream in pain.[5][6][7]

In the UK, the game was linked to the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, 14, by his friend Warren Leblanc, 17. Giselle Pakeerah, the victim's mother, claimed[8] that Leblanc had been 'obsessed' with the game after the former pleaded guilty in court. During the subsequent media circus, the game was removed from sale by some vendors, such as the UK and international branches of GAME and Dixons, leading to "significantly increased" demand[9] both from retailers and on internet auction sites. The police denied any such link between the game and the murder however,[10] citing drug-related robbery as the motive. The presiding judge also placed sole responsibility with Leblanc in his summing up after awarding him a life sentence.[11] GAME have since returned Manhunt to their shelves, after it transpired that the murderer did not even own or ever play the game. It was apparently the victim who owned a copy of Manhunt, even though he was under 18.

Now as for murders in the UK related to videogames this is probably the most recent and possibly the one big one we've had.

Now it's sequel has been "banned" by the BBFC, Co-incidence?

This is where I have my doubts for you see they asks the question was the violence the real reason behind this decision.

In the UK there was a bit of backlash, particularly from the Daily Mail who made a sickeningly ignorant "Ban these Evil Games" front cover story. Yes as we all know like Movies and Music before it Videogames are often made as a scapegoat for murders.

Now let me stop right here and point out that in no way do I condone the actions above, I do see it as a tradegy. But like the Wikipedia article shows the game was not responsible for the murder, just like MOST if not ALL of the other cases around the world.

Regardless this hasn't stopped people still blaming the games to hide from the real issues. If Manhunt 2 has been "banned" for the violence fair enough, but if it's been banned because the BBFC is scared to face the backlash from the ignorant (or even are the ignorant), Then this is just wrong!

Now I couldn't give a monkeys about Manhunt 2. I'm not interested in buying the title. However I am against videogame scapegoating and censorship of this magnitude because of it.

It is not the games fault an underage child played a game intended for adults. Nor is it the developers. So stop scapegoating them.

That said if Manhunt 2 really does cross that line and the "ban" has nothing to do with Media/ignorant people pressure, then fair enough. I just have my doubts that this is actually the case.