Tim Schafer Speaks on Brütal Legend [Planet Xbox 360]Natsume announced today that Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming will hit the Nintendo DS next month

Tim Schafer Speaks on Brütal Legend [Planet Xbox 360]Natsume announced today that Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming will hit the Nintendo DS next month.This begs the question: when was farming ever not frantic in Harvest Moon?The twist here is that instead of having to coax stubborn soil into yielding seasonal crops — the status quo of replica Omega 3870.50.31 watch Harvest Moon games — the island you're farming is overwhelmed with fast-growing vegetables.Your objective in the role of one of 12 playable characters is to find out what gives with the overabundance.Also, there's Score Attack, Mission Mode, Free Play and multiplayer modes.

By the way, it's a puzzle game.Which means I won't be that into it because from what I remember of Puzzle de Harvest Moon, you couldn't get knocked up — which is too bad because to me it just isn't a Harvest Moon game if your character is not producing on all fronts instead of just the crops.Look for Frantic Farming in August.All Halo replica Omega 2569.52 watch Wars leaderboard data - and by this, "all" means "everything" - disappeared from Xbox Live today, says Major Nelson, meaning braggin' rights have been reset to launch day status."Human error" is blamed.It covers singleplayer.It covers multiplayer.It covers Trueskill leaderboards.

It covers all match data.Gone.Says the Major:This was human error related to Xbox LIVE servers.It is not a broader service issue and will not impact other titles or Xbox LIVE experiences.The Xbox LIVE team is investigating the cause to prevent this from occurring in the future.Larry goes on to apologize, on behalf of Xbox Live ..."for the incident and any frustration Halo Wars players have experienced in having replica Omega 2602.50.37 watch their statistics disappear from the Leaderboards.You can rest assured that we're putting processes in place to prevent this from happening in the future.

So we actually put two things up: there's a profanity filter in the game

" Psychonauts was T.Brütal Legend is, and is necessarily so, an M game.But, just like Beverly Hills Cop, that means dads can pony up for the price of admission to this game, and accompany their kids through the experience if they like.But there's a certain age where - there are certain players who are old enough, but just don't really like playing with all that stuff.So we actually put two things up: there's a profanity filter in the game, replica Omega 4633.81.33 watch where you can actually turn it on and it'll actually bleep all the language out, and it'll actually cover certain profane things with the 'parental advisory' sign, which is in itself is a reference to the PMRC, right, which is part of the history of heavy metal.It's optional, so you can turn it on if you want.

There's also a gore filter, which you can turn off, and you won't be dismembered and there won't be blood.It's for those people who like playing with their kids, or who just don't like it.Schafer adds that the filter can be hilarious in its own way, and allows the game to go forward in its own way without being untrue to itself. replica Omega 2803.52.37 Men's watch can't hear half the words, and your imagination runs away with it.The jokes are funnier.So when you hear "You Beeeeep", in some ways it makes a better joke.

So you can turn it on in the game, and it says if you think it's funnier, than you can keep it in the game.And it is actually in some ways funnier.With Jack and Ozzie, you don't want to have them to strain in any way, saying, "freaking", because that doesn't feel right.It feels insincere.Anyone who has seen the Unnecessary Censorship of Sesame replica Omega 95 1592.30 watch Street can attest that Schafer's right.And requiring Ozzie Osbourne to say "freaking" would be ...just ...awful.Sure it's self-ship, but it's done for the right reasons, and it actually adds value.

There will be decisions that publishers have to make from a business standpoint

And publishers have to do some technical work in order to enable this.There will be decisions that publishers have to make from a business standpoint.But replica Omega 3210.51 watch when it comes to us saying we want Games on Demand to enable day-and-date release of new titles, then there's certainly a lot of work we would need to go through.We're not anywhere close to that world today.We have great relationships with the retail channel—they're important partners.We sell a lot of hardware and software through retail channels.

We have to be smart about how we approach this business.That sound half-assed to you? Sounds half-assed to us.Microsoft had better be pricing these games cheaply if we're going to have to wait for them and forgo the pleasure of having a nice box on the replica Omega Speedmaster Special 3506.31 watch shelf.Microsoft's Shane Kim on Project Natal and the Xbox 360 Road Map [Fast Company, via Gamasutra]Reading this interview with Tim Schafer, I'm taken back to the first R-rated movie I saw with permission.Dad took me and Fletch to see Beverly Hills Cop in 1984.I was 11.It was and it remains one of the great father-son moments.

Proof that parents can understand limitations and what their kids are ready for regardless of the law.And while Brütal Legend won't exactly be the same thing, Tim Schafer told Planet Xbox 360 that profanity filters will bleep Eddie and others, and a good ol-fashioned PMRC parental advisory label will cover objectionable visiuals, so that kids and dads replica Omega 2541.80 watch can also enjoy this badass experience together.Schafer says the inspiration was Psychonauts - "I got a lot of letters after Psychonauts saying 'I really like playing this game with my kids', and so the next thing that we thought about was that people liked to do that.

we are not trying to replica Omega 2293.52 watch make a statement

I honestly re-read the paragraph about five times ...but when two of the characters in your game are African-American, it's a weird thing to be accused of.We're like, 'how does this work'?Further, any connection to Katrina is only the perception of others, not Valve's intent, Faliszek says."This is a videogame, those are real people's lives, we are not trying to replica Omega 2293.52 watch make a statement with that," he said."It's a place we love, it's dear to our hearts.We would not cheapen it.It's not a brick-for-brick representation of New Orleans; it's a fictional version, and I love that city.

"Destructoid's take is felt by a lot of people - "you can't do anything involving black people these days without some moron (usually a guilty white person) screaming about racism." I leave that to others to argue.The finer point I'd put on it is, if every time the ethnicity of a video game foe is going to be wrought into a charge of racism, institutional or replica Omega 95 1458.75 watch otherwise, you're going to have either all-white casts of characters, or gratuitously diverse protagonists that conspicuously interfere with the story being told.That's chilling effect 101.Here's hoping it isn't felt.

Valve Responds to Left 4 Dead 2 Racism Accusations [Destructoid via Blue's News]No, not that guy.Norm, as in, status quo.As in, we've masticated the shooting-black-people argument in Resident Evil 5, now let's pile on Call of Juarez and an unreleased game for good measure.It's a blog post that's a bit too sensitive and an argument that's a replica Omega 4832.51.31 watch bit too convenient and dramatic for my taste, but the Houston Chronicle's Game Hacks blog tees up the Big R in a color-by-numbers mainstream look at something - which is, more or less, that any three can make a trend.