Critical News Rundown

The "Resident Evil is racist" piece almost seems like one of those Somethingawful.com Truth Media reviews, written simply to net a bunch of a hilarious flame mail. The fact that it refers to Vice City as "this year's most popular video game" would support that.

The incredibly relevant reference to Kung Fu, which featured a big black guy as the level 3 boss - in a reference to the Bruce Lee film game of death. Heck, the bad guys in that game aren't even recognizably Asian.

Hehe. Yeah, if this isn't a joke, I'm guessing that whoever wrote this played Pac-Man once or twice ten years ago and did a really lousy search on Google to write this article. Either way it's damn amusing.

The Halo Review Experience: Thought I'd cash in on Halo 3ver with either the most utterly banal example of game coverage, or the most interesting insight that other people missed. It was tough, but I think this strikes a happy balance...

Racist Evil: Now I was sympathetic to the woman who blogged about the RE5 trailer a while back, but this goes and ruins a probing discussion with illogical assumptions ("unlike moviegoers, the gamers don't just sit and watch the accented villains"; um, how would this be okay, exactly?), borderline hysteria (the confused fourth paragraph) and a ruthless desire to link gaming with nationwide racist sentiment, particularly towards immigrants. Although at least that last aim means they raise the subject and even link to an enlightening game about the inadequacies in US immigration policy. What do we think? Do the ends justify the means?

No Woman, No Die: So those crazy Chinese MMO addicts can no longer play as female characters, yet the women have not been banned from playing as men. Um, if anyone knows the official reasons behind this, do tell.

$ex Pi$tol$: Thought this was an interesting crossover promotion from punk's original publicity whores, mainly because, as GamesRadar points out, music enthusiasts will for once have to venture into gaming to complete their collections.

Fletch

In order to give journalists plenty of time to research and write their reviews, Microsoft invited us to play the game way ahead of schedule. For two days straight. In creator / developer Bungie's offices, the hallowed home of the entire Halo trilogy.

Yeah, journalists aren't swayed by hype in any way at all!

What really gets me is that any guy with a female friend could easily bypass the system: Take one snapshot of female friend, create account, off you go. And you're 'assured' of being a woman to everyone else.

Still, the why factor remains in force. What was the reason behind banning men from playing women? Is it a pure morality/homophobia thing?

"What was the reason behind banning men from playing [as] women?"

Maybe it was just a oddly-conceived reaction to the Chinese MMO addiction that claimed another life the other week: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=83547