Having now finished Modern Warfare 2 and experienced the controversial level that’s causing a bit of furore, I thought I’d reflect on the encounter and try and put that into words.

I’ve been playing video games for many, many years. I started out on the Apple II, ZX-81 and Spectrum, pixelated goodness with very little in the way of realistic visual representations. Over the last decade or so, that’s changed quite considerably. The digital images have become far more visceral, and although we’ve not yet reached photo-realism in mainstream gaming, it’s a massive leap as to my first real violent video game experience I remember: Death Wish 3 on the humble Speccy.

At the time it courted its own controversy. The game allowed the destruction of digital people with a variety of weapons, including a rocket launcher that would blow the backs off anyone it hit, leaving them there twitching away. There was no blood just a mess of black pixels. It didn’t turn me into a terrorist or vigilante, but could that have been the start of some kind of desensitisation?

If you’ve not played Modern Warfare 2 and are planning to, you might want to stop reading now as spoilers are ahead, because now I’m turning attention to the level that’s had Keith Vaz and various other public figures in such a tizzy.

When you start MW2 the game explains one of the levels may upset you and that it can be skipped if you might take offence to it. The level name is “No Russian” and entails you as an undercover CIA agent in a terrorist cell, walking through a crowded airport mowing down civilians and police officers with automatic fire.

I didn’t skip it, I did kill civilians and it turns out your cover was compromised and you get shot in the head at the end of the scene. I wasn’t particularly offended. The biggest issue I had with the level is by being able to skip it, the reason for war, and the story arc of the game, doesn't make that much sense.

I got to thinking, why is this causing such a fuss – what’s the difference between shooting a digital representation of a person in civilian clothing or shooting a person in a uniform? It’s not real, no-one actually died and you’re not going to go to hell (or whatever place of eternal damnation your religious preference places you). Is it because it was the player that was controlling the action? If it was a cut scene, after which the brave allied soldier rolls in and kills the bad guys, would it be more acceptable in some quarters?

I can separate what is real from what is fantasy – but that then presents a problem. Where do we draw the line with what is represented in videogames? Would it be acceptable to portray rape for example (such a game exists from Japan called Rapelay) or sodomy, and if not, then why not? What makes violence more acceptable than sexual assault? It’s still fantasy, it’s still not real.

I don’t have the answers, but it makes me wonder why I felt no emotional revulsion to the images presented to my eyes when trudging through that level. I can’t say that I enjoyed it in a "great I get to shoot civvies now" way, and I wasn’t sitting there with wild eyes and a manic grin as I put a third round in to a cowering young woman. Yet in some ways it didn’t go far enough; you don’t actually have to shoot anyone, but there are no consequences from your fellow cell “comrades” for this. Infinity Ward didn’t make it a light-hearted fun affair with a civilian kill count ticking up in the corner, like some poor TV game show, and were trying to put across the fact that terrorism is bad, m’kay?

Ultimately it’s down to our own moral compass as to what we find suitable for our delectation, but it means that publishers and developers tread a fine line between controversy and acceptability – a difficult prospect when there are so many different points-of-view out there.

I seem to say this every month: the time has flown by, where did October go?

Plenty seems to have happened through the Monster Month of October, with some major releases going on, and your favourite evil empire gimping honest hard working people’s memory cards.

I started the month participating in the Console Monster gamer score challenge. I never really expected to progress in to the finals, but some of the scores gained through the first round where insurmountable. Either my Kung Fu has weakened since I started gaming many years ago, or else people are spending 24/7 sat in front of their televisions waggling joypads, hammering buttons and gaining weight and spots by ordering take-away pizza to avoid too much pause time.

Have you heard of outside people?

Not that I’m bitter or anything. At least I managed to gain a mildly respectable 1400 odd points, and continue my quest to at least rid myself of all my gaming ducks. And I think I got away with the fact my team was Strange Hopefuls In Theory ;)

My main gaming priority this month has been Forza 3. I’ve long been a big fan of the series, and since Forza 1 came out on the original Xbox, I think it’s made inroads to take the crown from GT as the de facto driving simulator, which seems to have been stagnating since Gran Turismo 2 on PlayStation One. With Forza 3, Turn Ten has taken what’s great in previous outings and turtle waxed it good.

It’s not without its niggles of course, and on the official forums there’s huge list of reported bugs. I’m sure Turn Ten are already aware of many of them. In Software Development bugs tend to get prioritised according to severity; in the rush to get something out the door, those low on the list are often left to fester, not because programmers can’t be bothered to fix them, but simply because there isn’t enough time. Hopefully things will be patched up in the future.

On a final note, and something that has gotten me very hot under the collar: Microsoft’s repugnant decision to remove 3rd party memory support from the Xbox360. In Major Nelson’s podcast on Sunday 25th October, it was claimed this has been done to stop game save hacking. Now, if this was only possible on the Datel devices, they might have a valid point ... but it isn’t. The same feats are as easily possible using official Microsoft’s products, so the argument holds very little water. Of course, Microsoft is able to profit greatly by this action because:

a) The memory cards / HDDs have massive mark-up compared to cost
b) Only Microsoft make memory cards that will work
c) You can’t easily get by without having a memory device / HDD

Something I’m sure the bean counters are fully aware of. The only people this is going to hurt are hard working, honest consumers who’ve been supporting the company, and may not even be aware that their profile and saved games are simply going to disappear when the dashboard update goes live next month. Those people who would do evil will merely switch to other methods and laugh at Microsoft for what is a stupid, pointless and anti-consumer move.

Shame on you Microsoft!

Until next month, remember to buy multi-format releases on alternative platforms! Ciao!

Having had the next Xbox360 dashboard for a few days, it’s time to write down my experiences with it, and ask just who these new features are aimed at. I can’t quite work it out.

The update, as you may well already be aware, introduces to the Xbox360 the delights (or horrors if you’re in that camp) of social networking, giving gamers access to Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM and the new and improved Zune store where movies can be streamed in full HD.

Yet rather than integrate these features in to the dashboard and make them available via the guide button, they sit as stand-alone apps that can only be used in isolation, making them less appealing. Twitter in particular really suffers because of this, and only being able to see around five or six tweets to a screen makes navigation a lengthy prospect.

Bizarrely it would seem that the Xbox360 is bad at mathematics, seemingly unable to tell you how many of the limited 140 characters you’ve got left for your tweet. Don’t get me started on how painful the process of entering an update is on the virtual keyboard. If you are going to make use of this, then you’re going to need an alternative method of input. Perhaps Microsoft will ban the use of USB keyboards to boost the sale of their chatpad? Somehow I doubt we’re going to see a deluge of tweets showing “Updated from Xbox Live” anytime soon.

Facebook integration has been done rather well, but again the stand alone nature of it dulls the shine somewhat. The browsing of your friend’s photo is well presented, making good use of the Xbox360’s slideshow feature and makes far better use of screen real estate than Twitter.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of all is Last.FM. The streaming works well, giving good clean sound and a choice of different “Stations” – but because it’s a stand-alone app, there’s no way to browse the dashboard and do other stuff with it playing in the background. I was really hoping it would be useable as a custom sound track, but no. This lack of integration makes it, yes you’ve guessed it, far less appealing to use.

So who is this update aimed at? Surely not the serious gamer who’s real interest is simply to kill and maim other players in online mortal combat. The casual gamer? Possibly, but how many of them have their machine hooked up to the web to receive this update? The Facebook and Twitter fan? Not really, and won’t they be far more likely to be updating via their phone or laptop?

The new features are mostly just a curiosity, and I suspect it will be a case of use once or twice then wonder what all the fuss was about, before returning for some more Halo 3 ODST firefight.

Overall though, this update takes away far more than it brings in. If you have an “Unauthorized” third party memory card, after accepting this update it will no longer work. On Major Nelson’s podcast it was claimed that this is due to game save hacking. However, given that the official cards (which offer less space at five times the cost) and HDD (seriously over a £1 per gigabyte?) can be used in exactly the same way, this holds very little water. This move punishes genuine customers who may be blissfully unaware their memory card is about to stop working, whilst those that would do evil will continue to do so, just via alternative methods.

Microsoft’s only consideration seems to be their bottom line, and yes I’ll accept that as a business it’s there to make money, but it’s making me, as a big XBox360 fan (253 games and counting), seriously question the support I’m giving them – and I don’t even own a Datel Max Memory device.

This is a step too far particularly given the alternatives are over priced. Due to this, I will be carefully considering which platform I purchase multi-format releases on in the future, and this is unlikely to be the Xbox360. Already I’ve switched pre-orders for three games, and went for Operation Flashpoint 2 on the PC.

Are you listening Microsoft? This is costing you sales!

Vroom vroom. Sat here in my hands is my PSP-3000 and a copy of Gran Turismo, which I got on UMD for £18. Cheaper than the PSN store price, though admittedly not as cheap as free, the price early adopters are paying for purchasing the PSPgo. Of course these people have already paid well over the odds for what is essentially a cut-down bit of hardware, and they will be trapped into paying more for the privilege of downloadable only content, content which they later won’t be able to trade in, lend to their mates or sell on eBay. However, I digress, this is not an anti PSPgo rant, it’s about the latest game from Polyphony Digital.

The game starts with a very nice intro, as GT games tend to do, from there plonking the player in to the main menu and generally leaving him to his own devices. GT PSP has no career mode, all progression made in the game is down to the player deciding what he wants to do.

Starting with a nice wad of 100K credits to spend, I hit the first speed bump in the road; car dealerships. Being an MX-5 owner, I thought it would be nice to see what the “Real Driving Simulator” would make of my little motor. There are a number of different models of this car in the game, but could I buy one? Simply, no. Car dealerships rotate around, providing access to just four of them in each game day. Seeing the dealership desired is down to pot luck and the only way to change what’s available is to go do a race or challenge, very frustrating, and I still haven’t seen the Mazda dealer.

Now clearly a game with cars in it is going to feature a lot of racing, so going to the track is inevitable, but why not to let me buy the car I want, especially when there are so many to collect? The original game had 180 cars, the PSP version has around 800 which is mightily impressive; it’s going to take a lot of time to get all of them. I’ve no idea how many polygons make up a Ferrari or Lamborghini in the game, and frankly I don’t really care, this is as close as I’ll ever get to owning one, and whilst they’ll never challenge GT5 for looks, it’s striking all the same.

I’ve often thought that Polyphony Digital gave way more time to the cars and tracks, leaving anything to do with game design as a secondary consideration, and this is just such an example. That and the fact that menus don’t cycle end-to-end, meaning more button presses in some areas - though the back button ("o") can sometimes be used as a work around. This particular “feature” drives me nuts in any game.

In the end I opted to go for a Honda NSX, a car that’s sadly now out of production, and stuck it on the High Speed Ring. Choice of tracks in GT PSP is rather splendid, with plenty of old favourites to pick from (like the Ice Arena) which do look smart, if a little jaggy, on the PSP’s crisp screen. Races take about 20-30 seconds to load off the UMD (you can install game data to the memory card which substantially improves load times), and place the player at the back of the pack. Defaulting to the bumper view, ahead of you are your three opponents and the starting lights ready to turn green. Racing increases in difficulty the more you win, climbing from class D upwards. Opponents at this level drive like blind Lada owners, and the only way to lose these initial races is by going backwards. Things get steadily more challenging later so these early stages allow some breathing space to gain cash to spend on new metal.

The handling of the motors I found works well enough using the d-pad and face buttons never over-egging the input; the original GT didn’t have a dual shock pad to work with, so past experience has filtered through here. Rear wheel cars over-steer as expected, and front wheel drive cars tend to under-steer. So, everything behaves as it should and gives a solid feeling of actually being on a track.

GT is a series that’s barely changed over the years, and it’s why games like Forza have managed, at least in my opinion, to take the mantel away from what use to be the king of racers. GT PSP sadly fails to break this mould. It runs solidly enough and there’s even a cockpit view, but lack of damage means it’s easy to wall ride, and with little penalty for hitting barriers it means that the racing is far from the “Real Driving Simulator” the game has always claimed it is.

It’s a case of another GT game and more of the same. I can’t help but feel if this had been a launch game as many people expected it to be, that it would have shifted far more PSP units at the time. To do this now as an incentive to get people to adopt the PSPgo doesn’t really excite me the same way, particularly considering the lock-ins and pricing.

Given the limitations of the platform, Polyphony Digital have managed to cram in a lot of stuff in to the PSP version of the game, there’s certainly a lot of cars and tracks to race on, and thankfully there’s no need to do those bloody licence tests again. It still feels like you’re treading water just to get through it all, but at least in Gran Turismo land there are no speed cameras.

I honestly can’t see myself collecting all 800 cars; I suspect boredom will have set in long before that – instead I’ll skulk back to Soul Calibur Broken Destiny and the ever enticing Disgaea, which some may say also is a repetitive grind feast. I say if it makes you happy, then gorge yourself.

The end of September swings into view, it won’t be long now before the clocks go back and it starts getting dark at 5 O’clock. Still, by time we’ve reached those long gloomy evenings, at least we’ll have a few potential AAA titles to keeps us company.

Having tried out the Forza 3 demo, and being a big fan of the previous game, I’m waiting for this tarmac hugging racer with baited breath. The demo has shown how much hard work Turn 10 have been putting in to get the game playing just right, and although the “hundred plus” tracks touted are really closer to twenty odd with numerous variations, I think it’ll be a scorcher of a game.

Other than rinsing the Forza demo, I’ve been putting a lot of time into Defense Grid, which has to be one of the best tower defense I’ve played this side of Plants vs. Zombies (also heading to XBLA). The idea, like most TDS games, is to place different weapons in nominal places around a map in order to destroy an ever marching army of enemies. Defense Grid provides lots of game mode variations, like Grinder where the player has to scrap through 99 waves of aliens, that it’s bound in replayability. You must check out the demo if you haven’t tried it yet.   

Earlier in the month I took stock of the games I had in my profile, deleting a number of early arcade titles that I only ever looked at as a trial version. After getting rid of these it became apparent that I had a lot of titles in my list with a zero GamerScore, meaning I’d played them little more than booting them up to the title screen. I made a pledge to get at least one achievement in each of these, and I’ve been making some good progress. I’ve boosted my points from 18,714 to 19,629, knocking off a number of titles with a duck – still a fair way to go until that goal is completed though.

October looks to be an exciting (and expensive) gaming month. Along with Forza 3 comes Operation Flashpoint 2, Tekken 6, DJ Hero, Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend. That last title could be interesting given its mixture of different genres in its gameplay, or it could be an abject failure – we’ll find out next month.

Until then, I’ll keep working on the GamerScore – and if you’ve missed it, make sure to enter our gamerscore improvement competition in which you can win some top gaming stuff. Wowie.