So yesterday I happened across a story on local6.com (which I later saw was also linked on one of my favorite gaming blogs, Kotaku) that made me cringe. Not because of the allegations made by the story, but because of what an utterly craptastic piece of “journalism” is was. What made it even worse was the follow-up, also posted by Kotaku.

Let’s look at this, shall we?

The headline of the piece: “Predators Could Target Children During Online Games, Cybercrime Officer Warns”

The sub-headline: “Maurer: Kids Being Asked To Take Photos Of Themselves Naked”

The first freaking sentance: Child predators who are apparently offering “game points” in exchange for nude images through Internet-connected video games have prompted a warning for parents from a cybercrime detective.

The second freaking sentence, which is actually a quote from the guy upon whom this “article” is based: “Kids are playing games, and they are being asked to take photos of themselves naked in order to get game points,” Florida Attorney General Cybercrime Detective Lt. David Maurer said. “There is not only the chatting version of the games but also a webcam involved.”

What aggravates me about this is not so much the implication that there are sexual predators loose in online games (there are… and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves), but rather the overall vagueness and inaccuracies in the article itself.

First of all, I would very much like to know what games the guy has been playing to come to this conclusion. I haven’t played a game that uses a points-based system in years… and to my knowledge, there isn’t a game out there that lets you give away experience points. In-game cash, yes… Items, yes… but not points of any kind. All this statement proves to me is that Florida Attorney General Cybercrime Detective Lt. David Maurer doesn’t have the faintest idea what the hell he’s on about.

I also have an issue with his list of “the most popular games”, which includes Halo 3, Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, and Grand Theft Auto. Halo 3, while certainly popular, and still widely played, is hardly the most current of games. The rest are not so much games as they are franchises… unless of course, he was actually implying that 1987’s Final Fantasy is one of today’s most popular online games… with the exception for FF11, the Final Fantasy series doesn’t even offer online play. Nor does any Grand Theft Auto title prior to IV, and none of the games he mentions use these “points” that predators are supposedly offering. And seriously… no WoW?

I would also point out that two of his four most popular games are M-rated (three if “Call of Duty” refers to CoD4) and targeted specifically at older gamers… not kids. But that’s another rant altogether.

To make matters worse, according to Kotaku, the “journalist”, when contacted, responded with “I believe he was referring to some of the fantasy games where players go on quests to be awarded points and different levels. I personally am not a “gamer” so I have not encountered such a problem. But feel free to call the cybercrimes unit of the state attorney’s office in Tallahassee and I’m sure they could fill you in.”

Apparently the news media is no longer required to do research or even know what they’re talking about before resorting to scare-mongering (but then, that’s been the case for years…). Half the danger of children being online is due to parents being so woefully uninformed (primarily because they listen to crap stories like this).

Returning from my unannounced week-long hiatus, I bring you What’s New This Week?… with extra Soul Caliber-y goodness. Enjoy!

For Consoles

Soul Caliber IV | PS3 | 360 | PS3 Premium Edition | 360 Premium Edition
Warriors battle for control of the powerful spirit sword, Soul Caliber, and the cursed sword, Soul Edge. For some, there may be redemption, for others… damnation. Like earlier installments of the series, both versions of the game features a guest character. This time around, for PS3, it’s Darth Vader, and for 360, Yoda. For an extra $20, you can grab the premium edition and get yourself a metal game case, an art book, a tournament bracket card, and a Soul Caliber t-shirt.

Spectral Force 3 | 360
The Overlord is dead, and the kingdoms are all vying for control of the entire continent, plunging them into a great war. A strategy RPG, Spectral Force 3 allows you to recruit up to 40 characters and complete more that 100 missions, as you lead a group of mercenaries to defend the kingdom that hired you.

Sam & Max: Season One | Wii
Based on the episodic PC game, ten people are invited to a lavish estate on a remote island, and their host accuses each of them of murder. It’s not long before people start dying off one by one. The Wii version has added new twists, mew puzzles, and new mini-games, for more that 20 hours of gameplay.

MLB Power Pros 2008 | Wii | PS2
MLB Power Pros is Japan’s top-selling MLB series. Players can act as general manager or play in several story modes and follow the career of individual players. The Wii version will support the option of importing Miis.

Summer Athletics The Ultimate Challenge | 360 | Wii | PS2
Summer Athletics offers multiplayer fun in popular summer sports, such as archery, cycling, swimming, and track. Career mode and head-to-head competition, as well as four difficulty levels round things out.

King of Clubs | Wii
King of Clubs is described as mini-golf with an attitude. Every course is something of a puzzle, with multiple routes, moving obstacles, and intricate hole-in-ones. 96 holes are offered, as are accessories like special balls and trick clubs.

Ford Racing Off Road | Wii | PS2
Drive 18 officially licensed Ford vehicles through 24 intense tracks in 12 different types of races. Racing environments include forests, mountain terrain, and snow, among others, as well as hidden routes to sneak past the competition.

Freddi Fish: Kelp Seed Mystery | Wii
Intended for younger games and based on the PC game, Freddi Fish is a learning adventure in which you must track down Grandma Grouper’s missing kelp seeds. The story changes slightly each time you play.

Women’s VolleyBall Championship | PS2
Play on any of twelve international teams in sic venues around the world. Manage your roster, and train your team as you take on Season Mode against the world’s best volleyball teams.

WiiWare

Pong Toss (800 Wii Points)
Formerly “Beer Pong”, Pong Toss is WiiWare’s first game to receive a T rating. Toss ping pong balls into cups of what surely couldn’t possibly be beer.

Seeing as there were so many people live blogging the event, there wasn’t much point in little old me posting obsessively about this year’s E3. But in case you missed them, here are the highlights from this year’s kinda tame E3:

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On the Sony Front

The major announcement was that the 80GB PS3 would be getting a $100 price drop in September… along with losing PS2 backwards compatibility.

SCEA CEO and president Jack Tretton promised that PlayStation Home would be well worth the wait and that gamers’ patience would be “more than rewarded” when the public Beta opens later this year… and that EA, Ubisoft, LucasArts, Activision, and Nike (yeah, the shoe people) were all partnering with the service.

From Nintendo

A new Pikmin title is in the works…

As is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for DS…

Along with a port of Dead Rising for the Wii…

So is “Wii Music”… the casual version of Rock Band, where you flail you arms about wildy. There are no points and no way to “lose”… it’s more of a toy than a game. It will sell millions. Moving on…

The Wii-Remote is getting a new add-on called Wii MotionPlus to improve it’s motion-sensing sensativity, and Will debut with Wii Sports Resort.

The Wii is also getting WiiSpeak, an add-on that sits on top of the sensor bar and provides voice chat capability.

And From Microsoft

Final Fantasy XIII will be ported to the 360! OMFGWTFBBQ?!

NBC and Universal have entered into agreements to provided content for Live, as has NetFlix.

A new Live interface is coming this fall, with a new GUI, avatars, and a My XBOX channel.

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All in all, not the most interesting E3 on record. Sony and Microsoft showed a lot of stuff we already knew about, and Nintendo harped on about casual gaming. Is it me or was this whole thing a bit of a letdown? Oh well… Maybe TGS will do better.

Scans of some interesting pages from the latest issue of Japanese gaming mag Famitsu have surfaced around the net, and what they show should make some Wii owners very happy. It looks like Capcom is bringing some good old zombie-bashing fun to Nintendo’s console with a port of 2006’s XBOX 360 title, Dead Rising.

It looks to be a direct port, al la Okami and Resident Evil 4, and will be played with the Wii-mote and nunchuck. No word yet on whether or not Dead Rising’s rumor-shrouded sequel is in for the Wii treatment as well.

I love Dead Rising. It was the first game I bought when I got my 360, and there are few thing more satisfying that fending off zombies with whatever you happen to find lying around. Whether or not it will work on Wii remains to be seen… it doesn’t strike me as a game that lends itself well to the Wii-remote… then again, RE4 wasn’t half bad on the Wii, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Sony’s E3 press conference ended not so long ago, and I am very disappointed with them. Their big announcement (courtesy of Venturebeat) is something I’ve been wanting to hear for a while now… Sony has decided to drop the price of the 80GB PS3 to $399.99 (a $100 drop!) starting in September. They’re also dumping the 40GB version.

But unfortunately, it comes at, in my opinion, a very steep cost. When the price drops, the 80GB will lose all backward compatibility with PS2 games. In a way, I understand. They’re still manufacturing (and doing pretty well selling) the PS2… but if this is a sign of their future attitude toward backwards compatibility, I have to say I’m a little pissed off.

The PS2 has arguably the best library of any system on the market, and Sony seems to think no one cares. They won’t be manufacturing the PS2 forever. They’re keeping PS1 compatibility (for the time being, anyway)… why not PS2? It’s bad enough they cut hardware emulation out of the original 80GB model and lost compatibility with a number of PS2 games in doing so… now we get nothing?

Personally, I’d sooner have less storage space than see backward compatibility tossed to the curb. Bring back the 60GB PS3, dammit! Or just sell us the PS3 without an HDD and let us add one on our own. Unlike Microsoft, Sony decided to make theirs non-proprietary.

So, E3 started today, and there’s oodles of live blogging going on around the net. This morning, though, Square Enix held a press conference, and of special interest is the fact that Final Fantasy XIII will NOT be a PS3 exclusive.

Yeah, you read that right… FF13 is going multi-platform and will be released on the 360, as well. According to producer Yoshinori Kitase, Square-Enix will first finish the PS3 version of the game for Japan, followed by the overseas localizations, and then will begin development on the 360 version. Interestingly enough, the 360 version may not be released in Japan. Whether or not XIII will make use of XBOX Live in any way is still undecided.

Versus XIII, however, will be remaining exclusive to the PS3.

Info courtesy of Kotaku.

It’s time, once again, to take a look at what can spend your hard-earned cash on this week!

For Consoles

NCAA Football 09 | PS3 | 360 | Wii | PS2
Also available on: PSP
Apparently it’s time once again for another annual football title. Helm you favorite collegiate team, call your plays, and hype the crowd during the 2009 season. Or try out the all new Mascot Mode. NCAA Football 09 features online and multiplayer for up to four players.

Rock Band Track Pack: Vol. 1 | Wii | PS2
To compensate for the Wii version of Rock Band’s complete lack of downloadable content, you can now grab an extra 20 songs to rock out on, including Buddy Holly (Weezer), Move Along (All-American Rejects), and Teenage Lobotomy (The Ramones). More than just an expansion pack, it’s a fully functional game with all the features of the standard Rock Band disc.

We Love Golf | Wii
Touted as a family-friendly golf experience for all ages, Wee Love Golf lets you choose your clubs and battle wind conditions in a variety of game modes and courses. Online play and multiplayer are supported, and there is quite a bit of unlockable content.

World in Conflict | 360
In this action-strategy title, players must defend their country in a world where the Cold War never ended and the Soviets started World War III. World in Conflict has destroyable environments (right up to polluting the skies with toxic smoke and radiation), single and multiplayer modes, as well as online play.

Space Chimps | 360 | Wii | PS2
Also available on: Nintendo Ds
Not surprisingly, this week’s most hyped animated movie gets it’s own game to go along with it. Based on the new movie, Space Chimps, this title follows the story of the movie, allowing you to play as HAM III as he and the rest of the crew attempt to free the imprisoned aliens of Planet Malgor. For 1 or 2 players, this is an action/adventure title.

Popcast Greatest Hits Vol. 2 | PS2
This is one of those two for one deals that can either be a great buy or a complete waste of money… two old games on one shiny new disc. This one includes action/puzzler title, Zuma, and and the sidescrolling action/shooter, Heavy Weapon. They even were nice enough to through in some extras, as well… like… the making of Zuma.

WiiWare

Major League Eating: The Game (1000 Wii Points)
MLE offers 12 different foods for players to much while they compete against other eaters from around the world. The goal is to consume as much food as possible (playing against the computer or other players). Players special digestive attacks, defenses, and counters, including Mega Burp, Gas Attack, and Antacid. Online mode is available, and the game also features a leaderboard.

For HandHelds

Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Clue Bender Society | Nintendo DS
Plays as the famous sleuth, Nancy Drew, as she strives to get herself inducted into the Clue Bender Society in this third-person action title. Use the DS microphone to uncover clues as you attempt to recover a secret tome that holds the solutions to some of the greatest mysteries in history, and do it before your rivals beat you to the punch.

Wordmaster | Nintendo DS
A vocabulary strategy game, Wordmaster is based on the board game, “Mastermind”. Solve the puzzles and progress from novince to wordmaster, as you unlock new puzzles and new modes of play.

Mister Slime | Nintendo DS
In Mister Slime, you must protect Slime Village from the evil Axons. This is an action/platforming title that apparently involves a lot of blowing into the DS’s microphone.

Smart Girls: Magical Book Club | Nintendo DS
This… is not so much a game as it is a digital novel for the younger set (and by younger, I mean it’s intended for kids age 3 and up). Assuming the title alone isn’t enough to turn you off to exposing your younger kids to it… Smart Girls features 12 interactive stories, complete with life lessons and moral messages, along with mini games.

Underwater Attack Nintendo DS
Unleash humanity’s last hope against the Chaos Empire in the underwater sidscroller as you pilot a top-secret attack fighter. Lots of shooting and upgradable weapons, as well as multiple modes of play.

Surprising absolutely nobody, seeing as the news has been floating around all over the net for weeks now, Microsoft did indeed annouce today that the XBOX 360 Pro (20GB) is getting a $50 price cut, dropping from $349.99 to $299.99.

While suppiles last, that is. Like the 20GB model of the PS3, the 20GB XBOX 360 is being phased out. The sku will be replaced sometime in August with a new 60GB model for the Pro’s old price point of $349.99.

Prices for the Arcade and Elite models will remain firmly at $279.99 and $449.99, respectively.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not a big fan of multiple skus for the same console… especially since the primary difference is just storage space. But if you’ve been holding off on buying a 360 because the Pro was too expensive, and the Arcade’s lack of a hard drive didn’t appeal to you, now’s the time to break out the credit cards. Head over to Kotaku for Microsoft’s full press release.

Also, today’s Target ad (page 7) shows that the store is offering a $25 gift card with the purchase of the reduced-price XBOX 360 Pro. Circuit City’s ad (page 21) offers a $30 gift card with the purchase of the console and NCAA Football 09. And Best Buy’s ad (page 32) is offering the console essentially for free when you buy the advertised Samsung 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV for $1399.97.

As often as it’s in the news anymore, I’m seriously starting to wonder whether or not that’s anything left that hasn’t been patented. Sony’s been sued over patent issues with their controllers, and with their Blu-Ray technology, Microsoft got slapped with a suit over XBOX Live, and Nintendo’s had their share as well.

Well Nintendo’s got one more to deal with now, courtesy of Rockford, Illinois resident John R. Martin. GamePolitics is reporting that the complaint filed by Mr. Martin is suspected to be related to the Nintendo DS’s touchscreen technology, though no product is mentioned by name, and the patent in question was filed in August 2005… nearly a year after the release of the Nintendo DS.

Hit up GamePolitics for the official complaint and patent filing.

Don’t you just love patent trolls?

I’m sure just about anyone who follows gaming news on teh intrawebz has already heard the rumors and speculation regarding a price drop for the XBOX 360 Pro. Microsoft has yet to comment, but the evidence that it’s more than rumor has been steadily building over the past few weeks with leaked fliers and internal memos from retailers advertising a new low price of $299.99 for the console, effective on Sunday, July 13.

JoyStiq recently added an internal corporate memo sent in by an anonymous GameStop manager to the collection… they’ve even assembled a nice little gallery of the various pieces of evidence.

For those of us who already have a 360, here’s to hoping that Sony will soon follow suit in order to compete, and drop the price of the PS3 to more affordable levels. I wanna get me one before the next millenium.