After unboxing and playing the Christian-themed "Guitar Hero" spin-off "Guitar Praise," I got Tom Bean, CEO of Christian game makers Digital Praise, on the phone yesterday to chat about it.

During our conversation, he told me about how the company takes popular styles of games and infuses them with more positive and encouraging content; the company has also made a Christian-based, "DDR"-style game called "Dance Praise."

With that in mind, I asked Bean if he ever considered making a Christian version of "Grand Theft Auto" -- you know, without the "grand theft auto" parts.

Here's what he had to say: Read more...

If you're like me, you play morality-filled games as a generally good person the first time around. The second time, you experiment being the bad guy.

Stephen Totilo asked "Fallout 3" producer Todd Howard if he'd solved what Totilo called the "Han Solo Problem," where it's seldom as fun to play as a mix of nice guy and bad guy, since games tend to only reward only extreme behavior.

Howard claimed "Fallout 3" hadn't completely solved it, but "Fable II" designer Peter Molyneux told me last week it will be fun to play as a character with mixed morality in "Fable II" because it's difficult to be truly good or evil.

His team may have solved the "Han Solo problem." Read more...

Video games often discourage players from living interesting, unpredictable virtual lives. Play a game that allows you to be good or evil, violent or peaceful, and seldom will you find that a mixed approach is rewarded. Special powers are given to players who direct their character to behavioral extremes.

Morality-coded video games like "Fable" or "Knights of the Old Republic" encourage you to be a Luke Skywalker or an Emperor. They seldom dole out a specific reward if you choose the Han Solo path instead. But isn't the morally mixed path the most interesting one? Isn't it the most life-like? Or even the path most of us walk in real life, being nice to some people and not so nice to others?

This is what I confronted "Fallout 3" executive producer Todd Howard with in the middle of an interview about his team's upcoming game: "Can we take a middle path, and will you, unlike most developers, reward us for it?"

Howard told me just how far they've come in addressing that issue: Read more...

How many times have you been linked to a video of someone pulling off a crazy maneuver in "Grand Theft Auto" or countless other games?

We've seen what the power of video capture has done to games like "Halo 3" and "Ninja Gaiden II." Gamers love. It makes perfect sense for both games of skill and sandbox adventures. People are already doing it on their own -- why not enable them?

That feature isn't currently in "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames," but Pandemic Studios is well aware of their fan's desires. A producer at Pandemic told me "Mercenaries 2" is too far into development to incorporate such a feature, but a hypothetical sequel could.

"It's definitely on our radar," the company told me.

What other games do you wish allowed you to record your actions?

In March, I faced a daunting dilemma.

I wondered whether or not I should lend my early copy of "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" to a nine year-old for his birthday party.

Now I face another tough choice: Should I go to an early screening of the Iron Man movie tonight or should I stay home and play "GTA IV"?

Last month, an analyst claimed that the release of "GTA IV" on April 29 may affect the ticket sales for the Iron Man movie, which is out in theaters on May 2. At first I scoffed at the idea, but now I'm not so sure.

For some, it might be a no-brainer: "GTA IV" is the most anticipated game release of the year. Duh. But I've heard so much hype and read so many previews, impressions, reviews and whathaveyou, that maybe I should take a step back and see the blockbuster flick first. After all, the window for getting "GTA IV" early and playing it before everyone else has passed now. But there's still time to see the Iron Man movie before wide release and brag about it... if it doesn't suck.

Also, the movie is about two hours long, and obviously "GTA IV" is much longer than that. It's possible I could try to do both. But is Iron Man worth the two hours playtime I'll miss from "GTA IV"?

Dear readers, make up my mind for me and tell me what I should do by 2pm EST. My social life and nerd cred rests in your comments...

[UPDATE 4/29, 11:04am - Two things just came for me in the mail. "GTA IV" and the two passes to see Iron Man tonight. Why are they taunting me?]

[UPDATE 4/29, 3:05pm - My decision... Thanks to everyone who commented. After careful consideration, I decided to go home and play "GTA IV." As much as I'd love to see Iron Man, I'd be thinking about the game the whole time anyway. In fact, I am going to fake being sick right now so I can go home and play. But shhh! Don't tell Totilo.]

Two weeks ago, a storm hit this blog.

We interviewed Newsweek reporter N'Gai Croal for a series about black professionals involved with video games, and we selected his comments on the "Resident Evil 5" trailer for a standalone post.

We knew the post would be contentious. Last summer I had written about my own uneasiness with the trailer and the response to that piece had been spirited.

Croal talked to our writer Tracey John about racial imagery in the trailer. He made a cogent if not airtight argument. The line that drew the most reaction was the one that suggested his gut reflex to first seeing the trailer: "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game."

In response, some agreed. Some called him a racist. Some said he was ignoring the legitimate conventions of zombie horror. One person encouraged him to shut up, go to Africa and start overthrowing dictators. And some people produced an old chestnut: "It's just a video game."

"It's just a video game."

Really?

I don't think that's a valid response in 2008.

Not if you care about video games.

Read more...

At long last I've transcribed my GDC interview with Peter Molyneux, head of Lionhead Studios and chief architect of the Xbox 360 fall exclusive "Fable 2."

I teased a video excerpt earlier this week. Now you can read my conversation with him about:

• What people ask him about at GDC.
• What the most ambitious element of "Fable 2" is.
• How you can steal his wife in his game.
• How to punish your "Fable 2" family with an apple pie.
• Why you might want to live in a town called Bloodstone.
• What lessoned he learned not to repeat from "BioShock."
• How he left me completely perplexed at the end of our interview.

And more! Read on. It's Molyneux, so, you will be both informed and entertained...

Read more...

We don't normally review games here at Multiplayer, but this time we made an exception.

On Friday, I dealt with a moral dilemma: should I lend my early copy of "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" to a co-worker, whose nine year-old was having a Saturday night birthday/slumber party? Or should I take it home for myself and finally enjoy the game we've all been waiting years for?

While there were many comments arguing for both options (as well as a few inventive ones, like replacing the "Brawl" disc with the "Melee" one), I decided to lend the game to my co-worker for his kid. The only condition? I wanted photographic proof (see above) that they played the game, as well as a brief review from said birthday boy.

Here it is...

The review:

"This game is awesome because you get to play as cool characters and the arenas rock. My favorite part has so far been fighting the hand. I love the graphics and the fact that you can pause, zoom and take photos of the screens. There are a lot of characters, it's great fun. You can play for a long time without getting bored."

From my co-worker:

"Thank you so much. I am officially the coolest dad. They all called their friends to tell them that they were playing the game a day earlier."

You might have noticed that we got "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" a little bit early.

But I honestly haven't been able to play it much, because resident fanatic Jason Cipriano has been playing it. For research, of course.

Now that it's Friday, I will finally have a chance to take it home and enjoy it over the weekend. Cip will be dutifully waiting in line with all the other fans Saturday night until the midnight release at his local GameStop.

However, there's just one problem, which came up only moments ago...

An older co-worker of mine came into our office and asked if he could borrow the game. His nine year-old son is celebrating his birthday on Saturday night with a sleepover with several of his friends, and they'd love to play the multiplayer fighting game together.

B-b-b-but I want to play it.

What should I do? Should I be selfish and tell him "no"? Or should I let the kids enjoy it first? Maybe I should just give in and buy another copy?

Let me know what you think before 5pm EST, which is when I'll decide what to do.

[UPDATE March 7, 5:15pm]

Thanks to everyone that commented with their thoughts. After careful consideration, I decided to let my co-worker borrow the game over the weekend. I haven't decided if I should buy the game again or not; I may just play something else, like "Lost Odyssey." Either way, at least I'll know that I've made one nine year-old and his friends very happy...

[UPDATE March 10, 12:45pm] 

After spending the weekend with it, the nine year-old gave us his review.

Move over "BioShock." The 2007 video game that has moral quandaries that are twisting my gut is "Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn."

[Warning: SPOILERS ABOUT "Radiant Dawn" THROUGHOUT THIS POST]

If you've got a Wii and at least 20 hours of life to spare, I recommend playing "Radiant Dawn" yourself. You too may experience a series of ethical dilemmas that make killing Little Sisters -- or frying companion cubes -- seem no more tortured than a coin flip.

"Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn," like previous games in the series, is basically glorified chess -- if only chess pieces had little lives as fantasy characters and got stronger every time you played a new game with the same pieces. Oh, and if the pieces transformed into cooler pieces if you used them a lot. In the old "Fire Emblem" games, the pieces/units/characters would die and stay dead for the rest of the game if you put them in a bad spot. In October I both praised that death feature and expressed my concern that the removal of it from the Wii sequel's default play mode would undermine the emotional impact of the new game.

So I was coasting through the new "Fire Emblem" on Wii using the game's new save system, keeping all of my characters alive, lamenting the loss of the old death feature. This new game was a no-consequence breeze.

Then something happened that shocked me. And I realized that the "Fire Emblem" designers are still pros at emotionally manipulating their customers.

Let's put it this way:

Has any game ever required you to fight to the death against the very characters you just spent several hours leveling up?

Spoilers ensue, but, really, I highly recommend you read on, experience the game yourself, or both.

Read more...