Change You Cannot Believe In: GTA V Pulled By Target and Kmart

So, this just happened. A petition on Change.org has successfully convinced Target and Kmart to pull Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) off their shelves on the grounds that the game promotes sexual violence against women. This annoys me on a number of levels, which I shall neatly outline in a variety of dot points later on, but on a whole, the petition itself pisses me off because this is a wonderful example of how factual inaccuracy, media coverage and sheer utter ignorance results in a moral panic towards a medium that already has enough criticism levelled at it from within and without.

While Target and Kmart have every right to pull GTA from their shelves and people have the right to complain and take action against what they perceive to be a potential threat and/or dangerous to the social fabric, I detest the fact that the success of this petition rests on faulty claims and clearly being used to further a particular agenda. An agenda criticising the portrayal of violence against women, a proposition that I do not disagree with but nonetheless is misguided in this instance.

Firstly, I shall pick apart the petition and point out exactly what is factually inaccurate about the claims made and hence undermine the entire premise of the petition.

• The authors claim that GTA V "that encourages players to murder women for entertainment. The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points."
• First of all, the game incentivises you to commit crime in general. It does not differentiate between violence against men or women, allowing the player to indiscriminately attack and potentially kill both men and women in various ways.
• Second of all, there is no mechanic allowing the commission of sexual violence against women. I will concede that you can abuse women by choosing to punch them but at the same time, you can abuse men by choosing to punch them, so I'm not sure what the issue is here.
• Third of all, there is literally no point in the game where hurting a woman will forward the game's narrative and there is absolutely no way to get health points from killing women, let alone anyone. On the contrary, attacking a woman (or a man) will almost always get the attention of the police who will bear down upon you as a force of almighty vengeance, which actually harms your health, not helps it.
• The authors also claim that "after various sex acts, players are given options to kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat or guns to get their money returned."
• Yes, but you're given the exact same options to deal with any non-player character in the game.
• Also, you can't punch anyone unconscious. Typically punching an NPC results in death.
• The author clearly has never played the game because machetes are not present in GTA V at any point. A knife, yes. A golf club, yes. A police baton, yes. A machete, no.
• "This misogynistic GTA 5 literally makes a game of bashing, killing and horrific violence against women. It also links sexual arousal and violence."
• Again, the game lets you kill any NPC regardless or race, gender, body size, body weight, body shape, religion so, I wouldn't call it misogynistic.
• I'm not sure what she means by the linkage between sexual arousal and violence. A further explanation would help.
• Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fuelling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia - and globally.
• Oh good, another person in the camp of every gamer gamer is an idiot who cannot differentiate between reality and a video game world. Yes there are people who cannot tell the difference but they are in the minority.
• Also, the same could be said of violent books, television and movies, why not get rid of those as well?
• Gamers are not all boys either. A lot of them are men. And a lot more of them are women, for crying out loud.

Secondly, I should point out that the authors highlight the fact that they themselves have encountered sexual violence in their past. If this is true, I am honestly sorry for them but it does not justify this false crusade based on strawmen and factual inaccuracies. While the game may glamorise the criminal life and allow many depraved acts of violence, it should be noted that the game is also a work of satire. It often pokes fun at the player for committing violence with wanton abandon and punishes the player for excessive violence through a vigilant police force. 

Thirdly, I'll cover why the results of the petition are disappointing.

• People actually genuinely believe that the game is misogynistic and promotes violence against women now. If you don't believe me, read the comments in news stories about it or why people signed the petition on Change.org. This further delegitimises and adds to the already weighty opposition to video games as an entertainment medium.
• We, as in gamers, fought for an R-rating in Australia for so long for the reason that we do want to play games with mature themes but recognise that they should not be accessible by minors. That is the point of an R-rating. By simply pulling the game off the shelf, this undoes years of work to provide gamers the freedom to make their own choices while trying to protect minors. 
• This is not a victory for Target and Kmart as responsible corporate entities. It simply removes a form of revenue for them and redirects business to other companies. It's not as if the game cannot be bought anymore. People can just go elsewhere to get it.

A Guide to Battlefield 4: Solo PTFO

Hello readers, welcome to the second installment of "A Guide to Battlefield 4" where I will be outlining some basic solo tactics to help you better PTFO. So if you want to stay alive on the Battlefield, I suggest you pay attention, soldier.

Stick Together, Team!
This one should be a no-brainer. Battlefield is a team-based game, so, remember to stick by your team. More importantly, stick with your squad because everything you do to support them will net you additional points. If separate from your squad, try and get back to them or at the very least, back up your team. By working together, you can capture objectives faster and have additional firepower when faced with the enemy. Plus, you can get ammo, health, revives and repairs if your team/squad knows what they're doing.

Target Spotted
Always remember to spam the spot button when you see an enemy and they aren't shooting at you. If you can manage to spot while shooting or being shot at, even better! Spotting gives a massive advantage not just to you but your team because the pesky enemy has a floating dorito over his head and appears on the minimap. This gives you and your team the tactical advantage of knowing where the enemy is and having them sighted in for friendly artillery (either the M142 rocket truck or the M224 mortar).

Hey! I Need a Ride!
Chances are, if you've played Battlefield 4 enough, you've heard the above phrase. Try to stop for your team or squad when you're in a vehicle to give them a ride to the next objective because it's just the nice thing to do. I'm sure you've spent a lot of time hoofing it if you've played many a Battlefield game where you just wish there were a vehicle so you could just get where you want to go, so, do the nice thing and offer people a ride. Of course, common sense should also dictate that you don't stop in the middle of a firefight and offer a ride, make sure it's clear and safe for you to stop and pick up passengers.

How to Defibrillate Correctly
Did you know that you can charge up the defib paddles before reviving someone to give them full health? It takes some experience to know when the paddles fully charge up but don't just do a quick tap revive when you have time, because your revivee will need to recover their health from a measly 20 points meaning they have a significant disadvantage if they get shot. If you do go through with a low health revive, at least throw down a health pack or health bag to accelerate their healing. Also, for the love of Battlefield, check your surroundings before you revive. No one likes a Rambo revive. Don't just revive people just because you can, it's a waste of their life and a waste of your life when you revive someone when there are enemies still around shooting at you. Consider the situation and act accordingly.

Recon 101
While I think that people can play the game however they want, don't be that guy camping halfway across the god-damned map contributing nothing to the team. If you want to be a sniper, fine, but at least spot some enemies, lay down some suppressing fire, deploy a SOFLAM or designate vehicles with the PLD. Don't just lie there thinking about the next headshot, it's just selfish. Alternately, be an aggressive recon, equip a DMR or shotgun or carbine and run around pew-pewing people and dropping motion sensors everywhere.

The Wolf Among Us (Episode 1: Faith) Review

Hello readers, it's been a while since I did a review but that's because I haven't really bought or played anything really review-worthy is current months until the January PSN sale rolled around and I picked up a season pass for The Wolf Among Us because it was cheap and I've been told many times that Telltale Games' The Walking Dead was one of the best games ever.

Like The Walking Dead, Telltale has created another choice-driven point-and-click adventure game based on pre-existing material for The Wolf Among Us, specifically, the Fables comic book series written by Bill Willingham and published by DC Comics Vertigo imprint. The story takes place in the Fables universe some time after an unspecified event that forces various characters from famous fairy tales and stories, collectively referred to as "Fables", from their original homeland to New York City where they've set up a sanctuary in the form of Fabletown, a second home to the Fables that is hidden from the "mundane" world by various forms of magic. You play as Sheriff Bigby Wolf, formerly known as the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood as well as the Three Little Pigs, tasked with protecting the Fables and investigating any crimes related to the Fabletown community. Equally feared and hated by the Fable population, Bigby is nevertheless a competent detective trying to do his best as sheriff.  The first thing you notice when the game starts playing is the crisp and gorgeous art design. Although the graphics are a little inconsistent especially when it comes to the environment with some areas detailed gorgeously while others look a little lacklustre, the game has a beautiful comic book look and feel to it. The character design is especially outstanding although the characters seem to share very little aesthetic similarity with their comic book counterparts. Particularly Bigby, who is a lot less ferocious and bestial than his comic book appearance. Snow White is also very different from what she looks like in the comics with the key distinction being she looks less weary and bitter at the world. Understandable as The Wolf Among Us takes place before the comics. Perhaps the events of the game contribute to her future world-weariness and cynicism.  Gameplay-wise, The Wolf Among Us is more akin to a point-and-click adventure with the odd quick-time event than a real fully interactive game. I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing, it's just how the game works. And at least from my point of view, it's pretty effective. It gives you some degree of choice in how you respond to people and that has consequences in the future as highlighted by the notifications saying something along the lines of "She'll remember that" or "Toad noticed what you said". The game is fascinating, particularly the premise, but my main issue is that choices don't have full weight, at least in the short term. I ran through the game a few times choosing different verbal responses and sometimes even choosing not to say anything and the outcome was almost always the same. I get that the game is ramping up to the finale like a television series but it feels really linear and forcing you down a chosen path. There is of course nothing inherently wrong with that aside from the fact that the game is sold on the basis of choice and to me, it feels like choice is an illusion.  In other words, the game is pretty interesting and has me sold on the next episode but I'm wary of whether Telltale will be able to deliver the impact that my fellow gamers have told me they were able to achieve in The Walking Dead. Furthermore, the interesting premise is what keeps this game interesting for me and the credit should partially be given to Bill Willingham, who created Fables which is something I definitely recommend people start reading. In conclusion, give this game a play but perhaps temper expectations until the final episode, I suspect it might not deliver the impact that people expect but that's just me.

A Guide to Battlefield 4: PTFO Basics

If you've played Battlefield for more than an hour, you'll probably have heard or see the term "PTFO" get thrown around. For those who are terrible at using the internet to search for the meaning of this term or those who just like hanging around this terrible excuse for a blog, today's your lucky day because I will be breaking down what it means to PTFO in Battlefield 4 (or any Battlefield game, really).

Defining PTFO
"PTFO" stands for Play the F**king Objective as some of you will no doubt have learned. The "F" in "PTFO" arises from the frustration many veteran players have with noobs or lone wolf players who apparently bought the game under the impression that getting kills is much more important than taking the objective and helping your team. If you want to make sick montages with your long-range sniper kills or maintain a super-high K/D ratio, please play Domination, Team Deathmatch or Squad Deathmatch because those three game modes emphasise killing the enemy above all else. If you want to play Conquest, Rush, Obliteration or Defuse, then please contribute by playing the objective.

Learn to Play, Mother Truckers: How to PTFO
If you take "PTFO" literally, you'd think that all it means is to capture flags in Conquest, arm/defuse MCOMs in Rush and make a mad dash for the bomb in Obliteration. While this is what you should be doing in the first place, that's not what "PTFO" is all about. Playing the objective is all well and good but you have to make sure that you're playing the objective right. Don't just throw yourself blindly at an objective, value your life because it might make the difference between winning and losing during those hard-fought and ridiculously close matches.

For example, there's no point capturing an objective in Conquest if you know you can't hold it. You'd be wasting time better suited to defending an objective you can hold. Alternately, there's no point assaulting a heavily-defended objective because you'll just be wasting tickets and giving the enemy team some free kills. Ah, but what about if you are an attacker on Rush, you may ask. Well, don't just throw yourself at the objective. Watch the enemy, determine if there are any weak points in their defence and flank like your life depends on it because it very often does. If it looks like they have an impregnable defence, then send up some armour or send in the EOD bots. Where there's a will, there's a way.

At the end of the day, to PTFO means to contribute to the team towards victory. As long as you're doing something for the team, that's PTFO and you'll be considered a valuable member of the community. If you don't, that's fine but know that you'll probably one day find a torrent of swear words headed your way. I don't like telling people how to play but this is a team-oriented game, so, put aside your lone wolf tendencies and help your team out.

Video Game Time Machine: Arkham Asylum

Hello readers, new series again. This time with a twist. It's a new series about older video games. When I say old, I mean anything from classics like Pong to more recent classics like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, depending on what older game I decide to go back to. This time we're looking at Batman: Arkham Asylum from 2009, which although seems like a fairly short time ago, is nearly a whopping five years.

When Arkham Asylum first hit the shelves, I must admit I was rather sceptical about the quality of the game and felt that perhaps it was an attempt by the video games industry to latch on to the successes of both Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). It wasn't until later that I realised Arkham Asylum was made by Rocksteady Studios, who made one of my favourite games on the PS2, Urban Chaos: Riot Response and was penned by Paul Dini, one of my favourite writers from Batman: The Animated Series and various DC comics as well as the creator of one Dr. Harleen Quinzel, better known as Joker's moll, Harley Quinn.

I think my favourite part of the game is the brilliant plot and backstory-rich setting of Arkham Asylum with a fantastic cast that combines staple Batman characters with new interesting characters who I can easily see transitioning into the comics. While the game seems to primarily target Batman and DC Comics fans, it toes an extremely fine line that welcomes people new to the Batman/DC universe, sometimes crossing a little too far into the fan section with the near encyclopaedic knowledge of the DC Universe needed to solve the Riddler's riddles legitimately but the gameplay, plot, voice acting, visuals and level design is enough to win over the casual gamer.

Going back in Arkham Asylum, I was a little startled by the contrast between the cinematics and gameplay graphics with the gameplay graphics having aged very well while the cinematics look a little lacklustre, almost too the point of quite extreme screen-tearing on a LED TV. Being a veteran of Arkham City, the combat system feels a little clunky with movement and fighting being less smooth than City but ultimately still feeling quite satisfying. Detective Mode is also useable at all times because the imaging has less contrast than in City and feels a little like a cheat some times because I can see hidden enemies, voiding the potential jumpscares written into the game. The riddles are a lot harder in Asylum if you're not a Batman or DC Comics fan because they often refer a lot to some less obvious Batman lore. As an avid Batman comics reader, it was mostly easy but it's a little unfair to some less avid comic book readers.

Overall, Arkham Asylum holds up very well in contrast to its successors and is one of those games you can just slap on and start playing again without feeling lost or feeling like your skills have seriously atrophied.