Movie games are usually bad, but why? They try to stick to just what the movie had and the developers take comfort in the fact that people will buy them just because it has the movie stamped on it.

If developers were more careful to create a quality product, as careful as when they make say a Resident Evil or Final Fantasy game, then the quality would shine through.

For example, if Harry Potter created a dueling system where you could train and improve over time and they opened more spells and they even allowed you to go bad (play as Tom Ridle for the second part for example) and added so many more layers to the depth. If they worked on graphics for Harry Potter games like they do in Assasin's Creed and made the game have many choices like Mass Effect, they could be good. So the player could ELECT to follow the movie, and get the movie ending. Or make different choices and get different endings.

Sure it would deviate from the movie a lot, but it's not the plot that matters, it's the universe that gamers want to spend time in.

I want to make a couple of video blogs. It seems literary blogs don't satisfy me anymore. I need to go beyond. I filmed the first one but I have come with many problems. The first is lack of information on video blogs, from what I have seen at least. I don't know if to really post it. I don't think it's professionally done, and while nobody expects to be, nobody probably even cares about wether or not I do the video blog. I still wish I had some sort of tips or something to go by when making it for me to judge it before publishing for the crowd to tear apart.

I don't know how to add a video of what's going on in my computer screen while you hear my voice in the background, like when explaining a sites feature. I have HyperCam and know how to record, convert, upload videos but I am using Windows Movie Maker until I get Sony Vegas later and don't know how to compose the blog.

Anyone has any tips or guidelines to adhere to when making video blogs?

Recently, the ESRB has assigned Manhunt 2 for the Wii an AO Rating. This effectively reduces sales by reducing the number of retailers that will carry the product. This made me think about how unfair the system in place really is. Video games keep being hammered by people who appear to be "caring" and lack rational thinking skills.

All of this starts by saying violent video games affects young children. I will grow tired of saying this but it's quite easily the most truthful statement you can make about this situation, it's the parents fault. Quite frankly, parents are supposed to lead a child in the right path. They should guide him or her and shape their child into what is to become responsible, rational thinking adults who will contribute something to society. Parents are not doing their jobs, however. Most parents have no idea what their kid is doing, and that applies to video games. Most parents let their children play violent video games and then blame it on the interactive entertainment industry. They criticise the sale of violent games like Grand Theft Auto and many Take-Two releases because they say it is too violent or inappropriate for children. What they have failed to see is that those games are not meant to be played by children. They are too busy complaining about video games that they fail to supervise their child when they play games and end up allowing their child to be raised by violent video games. Young children are said to be bad at distinguishing reality from fantasy and end up violent because of bad parenting, not because of video games.

Parents are not being smart, with the overwhelming amount of information that is displayed on "The Internet", you would think they'd have enough time to check up on parent resources and do their homework when it comes to raising their child. But they do not, they keep on letting their children buy violent video games and blame it on the stores not enforcing the policy, when they are the ones that have to enforce it, not some random guy who nailed a job at GameStop or Circuit City. Even though such companies do try to enforce it, by trying to educate parents, who refuse to be educated. Parents need to pay attention to their child, and to understand them and learn what they are like. If they know their child is easily influenced they might want to steer clear of inappropriate content the child might try to emulate. If they know however, that their child is intelligent, can differentiate right from wrong, and has a very logical and rational thought process then they should allow that child more freedom. Parents want to just open their mouths to tell government how to raise their children and then have government put laws that will effectively limit that kid's ability to play those violent video games, rather than the parent him self going up to the kid and being like "Get the hell off" That is not to say that parents are the only problems video games have.

The interactive entertainment industry, also called the video game industry is a very misunderstood business. People in general think of video games as "just games" for "kids". However, that is like saying all movies are for kids. Does that mean I should take my five-year old to go watch Hostel 2? Probably not. Video games have gone way past the "just for kids" target audience and now appeal to people of all ages. They're not "for the geeks" anymore.

The appeal this industry has is tremendous and our success is to be opposed by closed minded individuals. A fine example could be Jack Thompson, a Florida attorney who has fought a valiant and relentless battle against the sale and distribution of violent video games, this was after he gave up his war on rap. Of course I used Jack Thompson as an example because his stories are quite humorous and has been a complete failure as a lawyer, as the guys at Penny Arcade will tell you. Needless to say, I'll probably be sued by Thompson a couple of days from now just for this blog; he'll probably sue me for "harassment of character" or something similar. He is not the only one on that mission though, he's just the most popular example.

The fact is however, that a lot of people discriminate against the video game industry. They treat it unfairly and are holding it on a much more strict stick of judgement than other media such as movies or music.

It is just as easy for a ten year old kid to get into a rated R movie than it is for that same kid to buy a rated M game. Yet people don't see it that way. They see movies as a simple mean of entertainment and video games as a murder simulator. They are trying to make the levels of gore and violence in a game like Grand Theft Auto equal Saw III and I have to say, it is not.

You can't measure everyone by the same ruler you measure your self by. That means that not everyone thinks like me, and I accept that. Nobody has to be like anybody else. I personally am 15 years old. I've been playing Grand Theft Auto III since it came out. I can think logically. I realize not everyone is like me, some kids take it harder and can't differentiate what is right from what is wrong. Yet I still don't see why the industry I love should be bombarded with limitations that makes it hard for developers to make the violent video games I want to play. I don't believe in the old principle that if I let one person do it I have to let everyone do it. I think people are individuals and should be treated as such and not just grouped together in a huge stereotypical pool of thoughts that make all teenagers have problems with differentiating reality from fantasy.

To conclude I think video games are really getting a very unfair treatment and I am frustrated that parents blame their poor parenting skills on video games. Parenting is getting harder, but that's not an excuse to be a bad parent. If your not up to the challenge that parenting now represents with so much information flowing everywhere then do not become one.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this, also I am very much interested on comments or constructive criticism on the blog it self, and on my writing skills. I hope that through this blog I can increase my skills and experience and produce quality blogs.

Well I joined The Pokemon League Union around a week ago. It seemed like a good choice for a Pokemon union. I have to say, not only am I not disappointed but I find my self enjoying my time there and liking the choice I made.

The union is organized and aesthetically appealing. The layout seems well thought of and there are quite nice members in it. It has over one thousand members, yet the topics in the forums are maintained clean and improper behavior is corrected immediately. I learned first hand to not post things in the wrong section, even by mistake. Yet I really felt the moderators or in this case moderator was not obsessive about the order he helped maintain and was rather polite and straightforward.

Apart from organization and efficient management of the 1,000+ members. The union is also quite active and has a number of activities and services one can request. These include wi-fi battlegrounds, gym challenges, trade centrals, and quite a different number of resources. Union dictionary ensures that you are not clueless, even if you are new, your questions are sure to be answered.

Instead of me continuing this talk, how about you go over there right now and check out The Pokemon League Union.

What did I tell you? I was a bit discouraged at first by the lack of comments my blog received at first, so then after about a week I decided to actually write a couple reviews but my lazyness came back like I knew it would. Needless to say I've been playing World of Warcraft.

So today I discovered Mega Tokyo. The comics pretty cool. I read the first one and it made no sense, until I figured I had to go back a thousand comics to the year 2000. No really, it's crazy seeing a page dedicated to 911, it's almost like I find it hard to believe the internet was around at that time. Anyways, they're good and I like the story so far, the main character reminds me of me.

I already mentioned I played WoW and have been playing WoW for about close to a week, after weeks of being clean. Mal Ganis, character called Yaria. Made a Human Paladin and I'm following Brian Kopps guide for leveling. It took me 5 hours 39 minutes to level 12, which is 19 minutes more than what it took him, but that's because I died a lot, and did lots of searching before I downloaded his coordinate mod. If you have experience in leveling in WoW or with his guide please post your comments.

If my lazyness leaves me for a bit longer I'll be sure to post some reviews later, I've been playing plenty of Pokemon Leaf Green as well and might feel up to it later on.

Well what a surprise, I go to the GameSpot home page and I see a review for a game I am quite surprised can stay innovative for so long. To understand exactly how I feel about this fresh installation please just check out this next comic done again by Idsanty.

What do you guys think of Madden coming out with yet another fabolous game? I can see Madden 2090 coming out, I already made a cover for it, message me if you want to see it.

So I've been reviewing a lot of games lately, and playing a couple.  I picked up SWAT 4 yesterday after seeing it on Gameplay HD, well... I didn't really pick up the game, but I downloaded the demo.  It looks really cool but its a pain in the ass sometimes because you miss some criminals sometimes and I have to keep running around the same areas like twenty times, the maps are not that large so I got bored kind of fast, the concept of it is brilliant though.  Looked way better on TV.

I also took a habit of reviewing games lately.  I am actually aiming for over 100 concise and well-written reviews on GameSpot so I encourage you to read some of my reviews and send me some critiques if you wish to.  If you know of very active reviewing unions please tell me about them.  I am currently on The Reviewers Legion Union but I posted a review like five days ago and haven't gotten a response to it yet so I don't know how active that is; doesn't seem to be too alive.

I plan to work on reviews for Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XII, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and Need for Speed Underground 2 sometimes soon.  I don't own or buy that may games because of money anyways but when I pick one up I'll try to review it.

I'll probably include some comics with the next blog posts I make about real-life gaming issues.  Be sure to look out for those.

I got my hands on a PS2 lately and now I have it, it's mine.  You  might be thinking "Big deal, PS2 is old" but the last one I owned broke and I haven't had a console in about a year or two so I am happy with the PS2...for now.

So, I took the opportunity that getting really bored of WoW presented and took Final Fantasy XII and Guitar Hero II for a spin.  In the case of Guitar Hero II, I don't own it.  However, my friend does and I have to say it is...amazing.  The game is quite addictive and has a good soundtrack, good enough for you to download the songs to your computer after playing it.  It's lots of fun really.

What I've mainly been doing however has been playing Final Fantasy XII.  I am not quite done with it, after 87 hours of playing time, I am around the middle of the story I am guessing, on my way to Nevagura or something of the sort.  All characters at levvel 65-66 and I have the Zodiac Spear.  You can tell I use Walkthroughs to maximize efficiency.  Well, I am enjoying the story.  I keep reading all of these reviews with fairly good points on how the character development is lacking as well as others parts of the game but for some reason, even though I agree sometimes with what they say, I don't mind the negative aspects of the review.

It certaintly is quite a more mature, dark, and twisting story than ever before and it's more event driven than character driven.  Nice innovation.  You won't feel like your playing last year's Final Fantasy game with better graphics.  The experience all together will be nicely felt and different.

Of course those are not the only two games that I've been playing.  I also played Scarface for a while.  It's quite addictive.  I managed to buy almost all of the exotics from the catalog except for the last 3 which are collectibles that cost nearly $20M each.  That'd take me 3 distribution runs, takes about an hour...too long.  So I returned it to my friend and haven't played for two weeks.  I'll probably get it again soon, so I can actually finish the storyline component, I was only in the beginning of the last area.  Soon...

If you have anything you want to discuss then please go ahead and message me, I enjoy hearing from you.