Virtua Fighter 5 is out, one of the most notable titles in Sony's opening salvo of spring releases.  While the game looks phenomenal, it's hard to reccommend any game on visuals alone.  Does Sega's latest fighter stand up to its previous high standards?  And if so, is it worth buying for the PS3, or even the 360?

Hey all,
we're done with GDC and have a podcast (shorty) from tuesday going up tommorow along with some general impressions and in-depth commentary of the event this weekend.   I was only able to attend for two days, and have been busting my hump catching up on work for the rest of the week, so sorry if this is a bit late

In the meantime, heres the video of me being kinda a jerk at the Microsoft Blogger Breakfast.    I tried my hardest to ask tough questions, and I think that this was a huge improvement for me personally (from a journalistic "being an asshat" standpoint) over last year.   What do you think?

I'm the guy in the knit cap.

Video: GDC 2007 Microsoft Blogger Breakfast

Morning All,
Andy here at early-o'clock preparing to leave for our first day of GDC.   Edie and Kevin will be attending the next four days of the event (assuming there are things worth spending four days seeing) and so we'll be tossing up stories as we deem the relevent.   Today we're mostly booked seeing upcoming games on the PC and XBox360 since (as usual) Microsoft is the only of the console manufacturers who bothered returning our many phone calls.

On the agenda for today, we're attending talks, demos and hands-ons re:

Bioware: Mass Effect
Hironobu Sakaguchi: Blue Dragon
Peter Molyneux: Fable 2 (we assume)
Turn 10- Forza 2
Funcom - Age of Conan
XBLA and Casual Games
XNA Team
MSGS: Halo 2 for Vista

Additionally, I'll be sneaking in to a round-table discussion on next-gen RPG's.

Beyond that, we had hoped to gather some of the press and industry luminaries at the event for a podcast giving impressions on the events of the day, but unless we can convince someone to give us a couple of chairs (From what I'm told, a commodity more valuable than gold pressed latinum
Should we fail, we may retreat to a restaurant and bust our proverbial move  in the grand ol' style of Roscoe's Chicken an' Waffles.    Engineer Kev is with us for the day, so fear not chappies - the quality will be uber.   Joining us on tonights cast will be (potentially others) the infamous Joe from SPOnG, who was previously on episode 14 of GAL.   Thats right.  The one that never aired.

So buck up brave reader - And if there are any spots ya'll want us to stop by this week to give you some personalized reporting, hit me up at andy@gamerandy.com

Weird headline, but it seems that Sony has learned a few things from the Bush Administration about how to handle the press: If you don't like what it's doing, shut it down.

As you probably know from multiple reports, GDC founder Jamil Moledina let forth recently that PS3 owners will be "very happy" after hearing Phil Harrison's next week's conference keynote address.

This started a huge amount of crazy speculation. And why woudn't it? It was tantalizing. It was juicy. What, oh what, could make owners of the most expensive and generally underwhelming console ever made "very happy," short of sending each owner an extra-large pizza and a life's supply of beer?

We all want the PS3 to reach its full potenitality, and this sure sounded like Sony was finally going to pay off on the promises that its new console would rock our worlds!

Kotaku joined in the spec-u-thon, but being a large news site, it had enough mojo to get deeper and find more people to dish a little dirt on what exactly this great news will be. And they got wind of a a "rumor" from an anoymous source that it would be "PlayStation Home," a new graphical interface system.

As a responsible news site, Kotaku contacted Sony to comment on the rumor. That's what you do when you get a rumor. You ask for comment and expect that, at the very least, you get a "no comment."

But Kotaku got more than that. It got war.

In an email to Kotaku, David Karakker, senior director of Sony's corporate communications, wrote that Sony is "very disappointed that after trying to work with you as closely as possible and provide you and your team with access and information, you chose to report on this rumor. ... I can't defend outlets that can't work cooperatively with us."

And since then, according to Kotaku and reports in Joystiq, Sony has essentially frozen out Kotaku. Not just in this matter, but in all matters of news. It won't return Kotaku's phone calls. It won't offer any input or contact with one of the largest and most viewed gaming-news sites in the world.

Apparently, in Sonyworld (tm), "work cooperatively" means "take what we give you, print it, and don't ask questions."

Why is this reminicent of the Bush Adminstration? Because this most recent presidential adminstration has been charged with exactly the same thing for years. Reporters who are doing their job -- reporting news -- but not doing it in exactly the way that the admistration prefers pretty much get nothing from the Press Office. You lose access, and especially in the White House Press Corps, access is your lifeblood.

In fact, it's a pretty good way to control bad press. But it's also a really good way to make whatever entity you are -- be it the White House or an electronics company -- look pretty slimey. The press will distrust the hell out of you and resent the hell out of you, and that only makes the public who reads their articles distrust you, too.

There's been a growing culture of mistrust of and retaliation against those whose jobs it is to give you, the consumer, as much information as possible.

Maybe it's because my wife is a reporter, but since when did reporters who don't regurgitate press releases become the enemy? Since when is it a crime to actually research and try to get a "scoop," and then take the professional, responsible step to follow up to get the true and accurate story? And, worse yet, doesn't Sony's actions send a message to any gaming writer who gets a little dish on the company to not follow through and do the responsible thing: Give the subject a chance to comment?

What does an action like this say to me about Sony? They're not to be trusted. Do you see Steve Jobs freezing out the San Francisco Chronicle or New York Times because they -- accurately -- speculated that the big annoucment at this year's MacWorld was the iPhone?

No. Why? Because it only brought more excitement to the annoucement. When you leak "big news" information, you expect someone is actually going to try to figure out what the big news is.

If you don't want reporters asking questions, then keep your damn mouth shut.

Why is Sony being such dickheads? Because Sony likes complete and utter control. Rather than just offer a "no comment" and move on, Sony decided to retaliate against Kotaku for doing its job.

And what does it say about Sony? It says that it will only work with people who tow the party line and make no waves. So, pretty much, everything Sony says and anything Sony allows to be printed can be considered bullshit. Because if they won't talk to reporters who are being responsible and doing their jobs, then you have to ask yourself what kind of ass-kissing brown-nose do you have to be to get Sony to talk to you.

But beyond that, it also shows how amazing stupid Sony's public-relations department is. Much excitement churned when "big news" was rumored to be coming out at Phil's keynote. Now, that fun has been killed, or at least tinged with a edge of distaste. And suspicion.

Sony, how can we trust that your big, great, new feature is any good when you pretty much kill off anyone who commits the grevious crime of speculating and trying to confirm a "rumor."

So, nice job, Sony. You managed to take something I for one was looking forward to at this year's GDC and fuck it up.

You might want to consider the pizza/beer idea, because short of that, your big news won't be as earth-shattering now as it could have been if you hadn't been such assholes.

I don't normally post release dates for games.  Frankly, they're not usually announcements worthy of our time 'round these parts, but Bioshock is one of those games that has me absolutely falling all over myself with anticipation.  

Am I hyped?   Yeah.

This is why I've been lurking their community site over at CultOfRapture, where today the community manager flat out announced that Bioshock will be street legal on August 21st.    A little later than I hoped, but I won't complain -   Hey Irrational!  How bout letting us indie media in for a sneak peek?!

From the post:

BIOSHOCK STREET DATE IS AUGUST 21
February 28, 2007

The headline says it all: BioShock's street date is August 21st. That's a Tuesday, for all you who might be planning your "sick" days in advance.

Let the countdown begin!

Hey all!

To everyone out there who wrote in or messaged us on XBL about our mention on 1up yours, thanks :) We heard.

And as some of you have heard, Edie and I attended the Shadowrun Press Event in SF - we played a nearer-to-final build than had been shown previously with all the bells and whistles, did we enjoy it?   Did edie get pw0ned or did she perhaps become the p0wnz3r?

Tune in this week to find out!

To download you can use one of the links below with your favorite podcast/blogcast tool.

What is it about parents' media watchdog groups?

They seem to see porn around every corner. And you know what, it only makes them look crazy -- which sucks because if anything, they should be a calm voice of reason and education for parents overwhelmed by emergent technology.

But they know as well as the Mitchell Brothers did that smut sells -- even if you're the ones who purportedly are trying to stop it.

Recently, a parents' website, PornTalk.com, sent out this missive to its readers warning them of the pus-covered, seeping disease that they could be inadvertenly letting into their homes by purchasing a Nintendo Wii:

Alright parents now listen up. We wanted to let you know that Nintendo's Wii Gaming Console can access pornography. This highly popular and very fun gaming console is one of the hottest items out there and is a blast to play. But because the device is a Wi-Fi (wireless internet) console able to access the internet, this means that you can surf the net pretty easily.

Gawd. This just makes me sick. Not because PornTalk isn't providing a necessary educational service to parents too busy to read the Nintendo's users manual. It actually is.

In fact, something that neither Kotaku nor Gizmodo (who broke this item) mentioned in their predictably snotty reports was that the post actually provides very good information for the parental owner of a new Wii. It goes into detail about parental controls the Wii offers and it shows how you can set up the system so that it cannot recieve or send messages -- both handy tools for a parent who's worried about the evils of the world coming to give their little angels herpes and sell their organs.

But of course, this couldn't be written starting with something like, "Wow. Nintendo has done a great job of providing us concerned parents a way to block inappropriate websites and keep pedophiles from contacting our kids. Hooray for Nintendo!"

Nope. That wouldn't sell eyes, now would it?

Of couse, they felt the need to grab their hair, put on their best Macauley Culken face and scream, "OH MY GOD, PEOPLE!!! YOU COULD ... concievably... GET PORN ON YOUR WII!!!!!!!!!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!! SAVE THE CHILDREN!! GOOD LORD, THIS IS AMERICA!!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!"

Of course, followed much later with handy details on how Nintendo has parental controls.

I'm sorry, but in an age when digital gaming entertainment is already suffered many slings and arrows from technological Ludites who are more interested in getting their names in the news than actually working to protect children (rhymes with "hack"), the last thing parents need is one more hysterical voice added to the chorus.

Especially a hysterical voice that obviously has done a little research and knows that the potential danger has already been taken care of.

So boo on you, you uptight, fear-mongering freaks at PornTalk. If you're going to offer desperately needed information to protect children, you have an obligation not to incite unnecessary parental panic in order to get a few hits. Stop using porn and fear as your selling tool. It makes you no better than the pornographers you supposedly are trying to stop.

Gimme a D and a Y!

What's that spell? Actually, what's that MIS-spell? Indie!

While GamerAndy is currently working out who we will meet and when at the upcoming GDC, I've been soaking in as much information as I possibly can about the stuff that won't be covered by Everybody and His Kid Brother -- or EHKB (tm).

Of course, the epitome of EHBK media, Joystiq, finds what I was looking for and probably one of the most intriguing inclusions to GDC this year: GameTap's Indies Program.

In an effort to break out the next greatest game developer while launching a new subscription service, GameTap will spotlight three new titles by independent developers at GDC. One will recieve $10,000 and a 5-year contract with GameTap to distribute the game and the other two snag $5,000 each.

I for one am really interested in what exactly these games are and will certainly be giving them a long, hard look. Indy gaming has been long promised from the industry, and we thought that XBLA was the answer. But alas, those tacit promises and potentialities have yet to be realized.

And I guess I'm not surprised. I mean, did we really think that an industry that's enjoyed a virtual monopoly on a multibilliondollar market for oh so many years was REALLY going to open its arms all wide and friendly to a bunch of lean, independent companies who can do what they do better, faster and cheaper?

So, we'll see what GameTap's new program has to offer? I'm skeptical, but not without hope.