@Gary Russell Johnson I'd say that if your kids under the age of 12 are playing GTAV then that's your decision, but I personally can't recommend it considering the violent and shamlessly sordid - that's not a criticism, it's just GTA - nature of it and I certainly think that you can't blame the game itself with its big red 18 stamp (or M or whatever) for any adverse effects your decision causes.
@ShadowOfKratos I'm not Eddie Makuch nor do I even know who he is, but I wholly agree.
Further to that, I'd also like to add that adults need to take responsibility over what their kids get. You wouldn't give a 12-year-old an 18-rated movie. Nor would you, generally, give a 15-year-old one - though at that age that varies from child to child. Certainly, you'd think twice as a parent, knowing that the content of that film was not intended for a child of that age.
With games, on the other hand, people hold age ratings in much less regard. Whilst I personally think that the ratings are over the top in many respects (certainly there are some games which are rated 18 that pale next to 18-rated movies), these ratings still stand and if the parents are upset with their children playing violent games then that's their fault for misunderstanding and misinterpreting the game and the wider game industry as something for children.
Clegg has no more right to criticise games for causing violent behaviour than he has to criticise 50 Shades of Grey for causing rape.
@Jasper_73 @NeutralFan @dannyodwyer @khurram93 Agreed - the hardcore gamers hold the keys to the console war, as Danny eloquently put it in the video.
IMO, Microsoft did the worst possible thing by back-tracking in the way they did. At least before they could market the One as something unique and different; now, it's just does exactly what the PS4 does, except worse because those systems which have been smoothly built up for years in the PS4 are going to have to be adapted from existing code and crammed into the space of a couple of months of development. And the industry still hates it.
@dannyodwyer @khurram93 Agreed - though I also think it's worth pointing out that many of those hardcore Xbox gamers will feel alienated enough by Microsoft ATM that they'll jump ship despite the Xbox 180 - not to mention that anyone with two brain cells can see that the u-turn will require a whole lot of work (they're going to have to re-write virtually all their policies, lot alone re-code much of their firmware and networking systems) in very little time, which is more or less a guarantee that there are going to still be issues when the console is released.
On the other hand, PS4 and its infrastucture is going completely to schedule and ought to be well organised, planned, coded and polished already. Microsoft are playing catch-up, at building sky-scrapers - and you don't want to cut corners with something like that.
Looks very good, but also looks exactly like Arkham City. Can't help but be slightly worried by not seeing any new animations or anything in the combat. Also a little underwhelmed by the new gameworld being 'twice the size of Arkham City's' - great, but Arkham City was tiny. And if that includes recycled parts of Arkham City (which presumably it will, what with all the iconic landmarks within it), then that's a bit of a cop-out.
Hopefully my fears will prove unfounded and this will be another progressive, well-planned sequel, but ATM, with what we're seeing and taking also into account the new studio and the relatively short development period, I'm worried this is just going to be Arkham City 1.5.
NeutralFan's comments