SIX DAYS IN FALLUJAH ON FOX NEWS

And the debate goes on. Atomic Games president Peter Tamte, a retired USMC Captain and a mother who lost her son in the battle of Fallujah, all come together for a quick debate on the game and the controversy surrounding it. Any publisher have the balls to pick this one up? It’s two-thirds of the way done. C’mon… Any takers? Anyone? Bueller?

Usually, I am a fan of Foxnews. I do feel they are fair and balanced most of the time and some of the anchors I find more entertaining than anything. But this woman anchor rubs me the wrong way. She seems to want to encourage the guests to get angry or at least to show more emotion over the drama behind this game and fortunately, none of them would have anything to do with it.

It seems the one person that should have been the most outspoken critic of this debate, the mother who lost her son, has a level head and plenty of common sense because she sees how the argument can be debated both ways. In one way, she doesn’t want the game to dishonor her son. She doesn’t want to see her son, or a game character playing the role of her son, to be killed in the game. That’s unexceptable for a variety of reasons. But if her son is not included in the game, she feels it might dishonor him that way as well so.. what to do, what to do? Like the mother, Tracy Miller said, “it’s complicated”. That may be an understatement.

I wish they kept discussing this longer than they did, but maybe G4 or another network can pick up this debate where Fox left off because obviously, the specific details of the game were not touched on in this brief but interesting interview. There is still so much more to discuss and I hope to see more debates like this in the near future.

Thanks to GamePolitics.com for bringing this to my attention and Kotaku for posting the video.

GAME INDUSTRY: HUMPDAY HAPPENINGS

Wow! Lots of news out today. I couldn’t even fit it all under the headlines so I’ll make this post about some of the more exciting news, happenings and rumors going around the the internet best known as, a series of tubes. Or something like that.

First up, 1UP.com has some new PSP details they believe are for the new PSP model, now known as “PSP Go!”. This of course, was leaked “on accident”. Oh yea, I’m sure. First it was PSP 4000, now we have an even catchier name to compete with the iPhone and DS. The name doesn’t really matter, what matters is the improvments to the overall design to the PSP and the new features added to help sway people like me who don’t own a PSP yet, to finally make that leap and get down and dirty on some PSP Resistance: Retribution. A game my buddy worked on, which I talk about in this interview.

Here is a screenshot of what the new PSP might look like. All we know right now really is the screen will, or at least should be, bigger and better. More clear and most likely, a slide out screen to give more room for controls and give you some better visuals with an enlarged screen. It may even arrive on our doorsteps this fall. If you’re like me, you’ll start saving money to buy it right now. Check it out!

The next bit of news I’d love to share is this new Lost Planet 2 trailer. If you look closely, the absolutely immense boss battles Capcom is so known for, is on full display. However, I can’t help but notice similarities to a certain boss battle in Gears of War 2. What came first? Chicken or the egg? Y’know what I mean? It’s probably just coincidence that it looks similar there coming out of the water but Capcom made sure to surpass any EPIC boss battle conceived in the world of Gears. For a while, it looks like Lost Planet 2 is just more of the same. Big dude comes out, you start shooting all the glowing parts on his body, he chases you and all you can do is continue to run around in a circle to get the best angle on the son of a bitch. It’s tough to do, and sometimes these huge boss battles wear me out! But in the end, I thought it was pretty cool how you have to grapple on top of this beast and finish him off. My only concern is, what the hell is inside these things to make them explode like that?

Finally, some sad news, or good news depending on your viewpoint on military and political issues in video games, Konami has announced it has dropped Six Days in Fallujah. Atomic Games is now looking for a new publisher to pick this up. They’re still working on it and as most devs I’m sure feel when they start creating a new game experience only to have the money men swipe the game from under their feet, that does not make them want to stop making the game. It encourages them to keep pushing forward, especially when the developers honestly believe in what they are creating. So good luck to them and I hope to see some type of version of Six Days in Fallujah somewhere down the road. It might be a sensitive topic right now because the war is still ongoing, but there are so many stories to tell. And I think that’s all they want to do is to share one of those stories with us. So I say let ’em do it. We still live in a free country right? Right!?

Here is what Atomic had to say:

“We were informed on Thursday night that Konami had decided to pull out of Six Days in Fallujah. This caught us by surprise. Development of the game had been progressing very well and on schedule. We would very much like the opportunity to complete the game.”