Critical News Rundown

This week we take a look at Jack Thompson's swift reaction to the Virginia school shootings (SPOILER: he thinks videogames are to blame); hear why Doom legend John Romero thinks consoles are on the way out (but why Nintendo's are not); and find out why Oblivion's new expansion pack lives up to its parent title's moniker all too closely.

• Dissecting Jack's Lies
  The sadness of the Virginia shootings news was soon accompanied by that of the inevitability that it'd end up in this week's news rundown. Once again, Jack Thompson was first to pounce with his own rather tastelessly brazen brand of opportunism. Kotaku's feature is an amiably sober discrediting of some of his major points.
• Interview with John Romero
  A short interview, but with a post scripted update where Romero responds to the criticism received over one of his answers, in which he predicts the demise of consoles like the Xbox360 and PlayStation3 as they struggle to keep pace with the more efficient technologies offered by the PC or "a new PC-like platform that sits in the living room". His reasoning for this is by no means irrational, but Romero perhaps underestimates the brand power and marketing clout that Sony and Microsoft will call on to ensure their home consoles remain the mainstream, below-the-TV gaming solution; factors which are just as crucial as the IP power that Romero sees as Nintendo's trump card.
• Games industry enters a new level
  As aimless mainstream overviews of the gaming scene go, I really thought this one was pretty good. With just the right tone of pessimism in its look towards the future of the industry, the article highlights the ways in which publishers are diversifying their output and their revenue sources in light of the risky reality of next-gen development costs.
• Shivering Isles bug breaks game
  A virtual world that eventually starts to delete any newly created items, erase character information or deceive the player with false statistics. Why don't more videogame movies take their inspiration from the bugs? They seem to be telling more interesting stories.
• Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
  I know a game review oughtn't really to qualify as news, but I thought GameCritics readers might be interested in what is certainly one of the most pleasingly innovative reviews I've read lately. Take a look and see what I mean!

Other Headlines:

• First Wii fitness classes
• Postal Creator Talks 9/11 'Joke'
• 20GB PS3 to be discontinued

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Andrew Fletcher

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