Posts by Paul Talbot

Led Zeppelin catalogue goes digital

Really?

"available from all online music retailers"

Well, I'll look forward to using my eMusic subscription to get the lot then! (yeah, right...).

Terminator will be back in 2009

Could work

I think this has some promise, as long as the godawful McG isn't directing. The ending of T3 was the best part of the movie, the future war sequences have always been interesting so it'll be nice to see movies based on those. Arnie cameoing means they're not going to try putting him centre stage as a terminatior - I agree the best thing to get him there would be as a template for that model of terminator.

Of course, they could mess it up, big time. But, compared to the crop of big Hollywood fare recently, the concept alone is better than some entire movies.

Manhunt 2 banned by UK censor - again

Sigh...

I'm saddened (though not surprised) to see people standing up for the ban here for various stupid reasons. I've grown up with videogames so I'm not scared of them, but I do remember a similar witchhunt back in the 80s.

Anyone remember "video nasties"? Movies that were banned in the 80s under this banner became valuable and much sought-after among young kids like myself back then. Movies like Anthpophagous Beast, Cannibal Holocaust and Zombie Flesh Eaters were ravenously consumed by my 12 year-old self. Yet, I'm not a murderer.

Flash forward to today. The video nasties furor has disappeared. Few movies are cut, let alone banned, and The Sun has given away The Evil Dead uncut - a movie that it pushed to get banned in 1984. Attention has now moved on to games because, like VHS 25 years ago, it's an unknown quantity to many parents. Parents (on whose shoulders the responsibility ultimately lies for entertainment consumed within their property) are being woken up to the fact that, actually, games have never really been 'for kids', and they need to look at them in the same way as they look at movies.

Ultimately, banning Manhunt 2 will achieve the same as banning videos did in the 80s - nothing. Kids will still be able to obtain pirated copies - as I obtained movies in the 80s - and are actually much more likely to do so now that the name is so well known. Meanwhile, the same problems of education, employment, poverty and crime will continue to create murderers, rapists and violent criminals as they did before. it's nothing to do with games, it's just that games are the most popular scapegoat right now. When The Sun is giving away free copies of Manhunt 2 20 or 30 years in the future, there will be a new scapegoat but nothing will change unless we attack the real problems.