Random Ramblings of a Video Game Blogger : Ads In Video Games, How Far Is Too Far?

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier (for you planks who aren’t following me !) , today I was off sick from school (AKA the educational prison). So, I’m sat on the sofa all ill and tired, just watching T.V when an ad pops up and for some reason it irritates the heck out of me! I spent hours trying to figure out why it had annoyed me so much, when it hit me ; I’d seen that ad before, many times before in fact. This scenario from earlier made me think about how many gamers have complained about advertising in video games and why nothing is changing. The image above (via blogs.indystar.com ) is an example of in-game advertising that has caused an uproar (in 2008) but more recently Joystiq featured a post stating that there are plans for A LOT (trust me, I meant the capital letters) of ads to be put all over the in-game world of the new Splinter Cell video game. So I ask “How Far Is Too Far?”.

While us gamers realise that sometimes ads are used to cover the expensive developments costs and in this futuristic day and age they are generally guite high, but like many of you reading this, I played through Call Of Duty : Modern Warfare 2  , a game which cost approx. $150 million (!!!!!) to develop by the way, and I didn’t find a single advertisement in the game ! So to any money-hungry video game companies *cough* Activision *cough* EA *cough*  out there who are reading this, consider us, the consumers and the avid video gamers and our hatred of ads in the games that we love because one day, when your average game consists of 10 Coca-Cola banners and a McDonalds mini-game , no one will be buying your games anymore.

Are you for or against in-game ads? Post your thoughts below via the comment box.

Random Ramblings of a Video Games Blogger : Are New Games All The Same?

 

Being 14, I am still in full time education and when I'm travelling to and from the place I've nicknamed "Beelzebub's Lair", I have a lot of time to ponder random thoughts (much like Russell Brand's Ponderland but with less euphemisms and WAY less hair!). Today, I was sat on the epically slow bus that I catch to school everyday and I was staring out of the window (with a blank look on my face of course!) when I happened to see 3 of the same make of car zoom past. All 3were different colours but it did get me thinking, "are we seeing the same video games all the time but with miniscule variations?". There's a reason that Call of Duty: World At War was such a commercial flop in comparison to its predecessor, it was because developers Treyarch didn't bring anything new to the table. Modern Warfare was innovative and imaginative and that's why it was so successful. The likes of DICE's Mirror's Edge really pushed the boundaries of video game development as a "first-person free-running combat" concept had never been made before. While the game didn't do as well as DICE and publishers EA had hoped it did give many other developers the courage to create original IP's. So, as gamers we can only hope that more of there "out-there" games are produced in the future.

Battlefield 1943

Here's the trailer for the game Battlefield 1943 the new video game form the developers of Mirror's Edge > DICE



What do you think of the game so far? Leave a comment in the box below to speak your mind.

PSN Is Where It's At

Just a few reminders for some new releases on the PlayStation Store.
The first one is Bejewled 2- one of the best online games available on the net.You have to make rows of 3 or more to eliminate jewls from the screen. To see how awesome the game is take a look at this screenshot on flickr


Bejeweled Screenshot

The other release for the PLayStation Store is the free and exclusive for PS3 MIrror's Edge Time Trial Map. The pack is ONLY AVAILABLE ON PS3 so take advantage and download it (whilst rubbing its exclusive-ness in your Xbox 360 fanboy friends face)