Psychology expert Cooper Lawrence, now well-known across the Internet after she appeared on Fox News‘ Live Desk With Martha MacCallum segment, recently explained why she “misspoke” about Electronic Arts and BioWare’s Microsoft Xbox 360 video game Mass Effect’s sex scene. She’s still not happy with the nature of the game, but shed light on a few things.

After offended gamers fired back by spamming her book - The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace With Your Inner Overachiever - on Amazon with negative reviews, Lawrence admitted Mass Effect is not like pornography. To further clarify her stand on the matter, she told MTV News:

In hindsight, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to play this game before appearing on the program. As a developmental-psychology expert, I was asked to appear on this particular show to discuss the broader issue of video games and their impact on developing adolescents, not as an expert on Mass Effect.

However, the only statement Lawrence took back was the one about Mass Effect involving a man who can decide how many women he wants to be with.  “I firmly stand by the research I cited that violence and sexual content in video games has a desensitizing effect on young developing minds,” she said.

Following the success of Epic Games‘ arena shooter, Unreal Tournament 3, on the Sony PlayStation 3 (also on the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows), Microsoft might make up their minds to consider pushing for user-created content proliferation over Xbox Live. Or so that would seem, after Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, opined that Microsoft may observe the advantages of strolling down the mod alley and push for user-created content. Rein said:

… I’m confident Microsoft will look at what’s happened with UT3 on the PS3 so far and think, ‘Well, we’ll take that baby step with you,’ because what we’ve done so far really is just a baby step if you think about it.

Sony were pioneers, said Rein, and he can’t blame Microsoft if they decide not to go the whole way. “… We don’t fault them for that. They’ve got a closed system where everything’s checked, users know the quality of everything they download, and you know it won’t crash your machine,” added Rein.

But Epic Games is keeping an optimistic outlook, because Microsoft hasn’t said “no” to user created content. It’s just that the company still hasn’t said “yes” just yet. “We need them to do it soon,” he concluded.

Buy: [Unreal Tournament 3 (PC)]
Buy: [Unreal Tournament 3 (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Unreal Tournament 3 (PS3)]

Electronic Arts recently had a conference call with analysts regarding some of its more recent (and more popular) titles, and we’re here to give you the lowdown on what sort of talk was tossed around during that fateful conversation. We’ve already covered the part where they talked about the challenges they had with the Sony PlayStation 3, and now we’re moving on to Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) breakdowns, a potential Wii version, and Spore (PC, DS, Wii).

Yes, you read that right. The Nintendo Wii is getting a Rock Band of its very own, confirmed by none other than Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. No, we didn’t quite get a release date, but the fact that a Wii version of the highly-popular rhythm game should be enough to tide us over until more info comes along.

With that out of the way, let’s talk Rock Band instrument breakdowns. In the conference call, Riccitiello reported that the amount of instrument breakdown complaints are seriously overstated, with the numbers only reaching the single digits. If anything, the breakdowns themselves are not the reason for the delay of Rock Band’s European release.

As for Spore, Will Wright’s upcoming epic about creature evolution, Riccitiello seemed a bit cautious as to the status of the game. He said that they’re paying enormous attention to it, and that he’s confident it will be released before the holidays. This is a bit strange to say, in contrast to an earlier statement of his that puts Spore’s release date as somewhere near March, April, or May.

Well, that’s some of the big news doled out by the conference call. Keep it locked right here for more developments as they happen.

Capcom developers behind Devil May Cry 4 (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC) recently shed light on design decisions that made the action-packed game as promising as it is. Some interesting factoids were brought up, such as the reason behind not requiring Xbox 360 owners to install the game in their hard drives, DMC4 having hot babes, and Dante’s badass Pandora weapon.

Aside from confirming Dante loves pizza - simply because it’s that good - producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi explained one of the reasons why the sword-slinger starts off with a plethora of kick-ass abilities off the bat. According to him, it’s because Dante has become a very powerful character story-wise, as seen when Devil May Cry 3 (a prequel featuring younger Dante) ended with him able to utilize four combat styles then became stronger with a superior Devil Trigger form in the first DMC.

On the other hand, both PS3 and Xbox 360 owners can be assured that they’re not missing anything, since the only difference Kobayashi noted is that the version on Sony’s console is clearer. This is due to different compression methods used and not because of the larger Blu-ray format, he said.

Those keeping tabs on the game already know it asks PS3 owners to install the game to the hard drive before playing. According to Kobayashi, the same could’ve been implemented on the Xbox 360 version if Microsoft gave the green light. The platform holder apparently disapproved because some models of its consoles don’t have hard disk drive storage.

When asked how Devil May Cry 4 improves on its predecessor, director Hideaki Itsuno took the opportunity to let everyone know that this iteration of the demon-slaying series is friendly not only to fans, but also to those who haven’t played the game.

On adding more than a single hot lady to the game, Itsuno said, “We weren’t thinking so much about balancing out the roster of characters as much as we just wanted to put a lot of sexy ladies in this game! The more cool guys and sexy ladies the better, right?”

Of course, now that both Trish and Lady are in a single package, Itsuno reassures old fans will enjoy learning more about Dante’s relationships with the two. “I’m also hoping that new fans will become interested in the other games in the series after learning a bit about Dante and his very interesting friends,” he added.

Dante’s Pandora, the multi-purpose weapon which can transform into various guns and even a rocket launcher, also piqued our interest. Here’s what Itsuno had to say about it:

I wanted to have a transforming, multi-purpose firearm in Dante’s arsenal… In its final form I wanted it to transform into something that would be even bigger than Dante himself. I was thinking about Gundam when I asked for this. I also wanted the weapon to shoot out a lot of small missiles, kind of like some of the fighters in Macross.

He admitted that it could have been in Devil May Cry 3, but idea didn’t materialize. In that installment, we were able to wield an electric guitar and talking twin swords, so it’s difficult to complain.

For the full interview, click on the “Via” link below.

Buy: [ Devil May Cry 4 (360) ]
Buy: [ Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) ]
Buy: [ Devil May Cry 4 (PC) ]

Because we can’t get enough of Devil May Cry 4 (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC) before Capcom finally ships it west, here’s another trailer made of gameplay footage and awesome accompanied by a fitting song from prominent Japanese band L’arc en Ciel. A good chunk features Dante head-to-head with Nero, but most parts are all about the new protagonist.

If anything, this new Japanese trailer is a collection of the best we’ve seen before - Fallen Angels swarming Nero, the Devil Bringer put into good use, and the good ‘ol combos that end in slam dunks. Words aren’t enough to describe how Capcom patched up something great from previously shown footage of Devil May Cry 4, so just watch the embed below.

Buy: [ Devil May Cry 4 (360) ]
Buy: [ Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) ]
Buy: [ Devil May Cry 4 (PC) ]

There’s something to be said about the console modding community - and in this update, we can’t help but give the community its dues. Where else will you find a group of dedicated, talented people spending their own resources and free time to make console gaming more accessible? Nowhere else, and in this update, we see this drive in full force, with Cyberpyrot’s Voice Recognition Controller Mod.

Yes, that’s right - a mod that analyzes spoken commands and performs the specific button function to perform that command. Say reload, and that’s just what it’ll do.

The kit itself is readily available, and as Cyberpyrot says so himself, is quite easy to put together. Expect to do lots of soldering, but as with all mods, a little time with the soldering iron is always mandatory. After that, voice-sensing controls will no longer be a pipe dream - as proven by this video of the mod in action that you can see below. If you’re interested, check out the via link for the release thread itself.

Thanks to l0rdnic0 for the tip!

Superstar publisher Electronic Arts took to the press waves, bringing along its preliminary results of the company’s financial performance for fiscal year (FY) 2008. The report highlighted that EA gathered as much as US 1.503 billion as net revenue for the third quarter of FY 2008. On a year-on-year basis, that’s a 17 rise from their third quarter rewards of FY 2007.

That, however, didn’t help the company with its gross profits, as the quarters numbers the company managed to grab only racked in a total of US 721 million. When compared to the third quarter of FY 2007, EA saw an 11 drop. Net income also isn’t doing well. When compared to last year’s income of US 160 million, US 33 million in net loss for the third quarter of FY 2008 does cut deep.

Still, the company is proud of its revenue figures. Even EA’s CEO, John Riccitiello went on to say, “This was a record revenue quarter for EA and the single biggest revenue quarter for any third party publisher in our industry.” He also says despite the move of two crucial games’ releases, they are proud of Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)’s success in the market and anticipate the reception of Army of Two and FIFA Street 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, and DS).

Sadly, the two games moved to EA’s fiscal year 2009 (April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009) are Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3, Xbox 360) and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). More news in the business of making games as soon as they drop by.

A poster named Npaean on the ScoreHero forums has recently posted a scan of what’s supposed to be a release schedule for Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2) DLC in March. The scan, which Npaean says was originally on GameFAQs, was supposedly taken from the March issue of OXM.

Anyway, here’s a short list of what’s on the scan:

• March 4, 2008: Three-Pack Thrash
• At The Gates - Blinded By Fear (master)
• Evile - Thrasher (master)
• Haunted - Shadow World (master)
• March 11, 2008: Singles
• Bad Company - Shooting Star (cover)
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man (master)
• Police - Message In A Bottle (master)
• March 18, 2008: Three-Pack NIN
• Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs (master)
• Nine Inch Nails - The Collector (master)
• Nine Inch Nails - The Perfect Drug (master)
• March 25, 2008: Three-Pack Metal
• Iron Maiden - Wrathchild (cover)
• Black Sabbath - Supernaut (cover)
• Metallica - Fuel (master)

Since we haven’t got any confirmation about this DLC schedule yet, we’re keeping this tagged as a rumor for now. The DLC lineup sure does look good, though. You can check out the scan by clicking on the source link below.

Buy: [Rock Band Special Edition (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Rock Band Special Edition (PS3)]

Well, the votes are in and the ballots have been tallied, so to speak. The judges of the Game Critics Awards have finally announced their list of the best games for the year 2007, with 2K Games’ BioShock (PC, Xbox 360) grabbing the top spot as the Game of the Year.

The ranking was based on a points system based on the score from each judge based on their own top 10 list of games. The total for each nominated game was then calculated to generate the ten highest scoring games.

Here’s the list of the top 10 games based on the results:

Top 10 Games of 2007

1. BioShock (464 points)
2. The Orange Box (387 points)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (361 points)
4. Rock Band (349 points)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (323 points)
6. Halo 3 (232 points)
7. Mass Effect (213 points)
8. God of War II (103 points)
9. Assassin’s Creed (88 points)
10. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (87 points)

You can also take a look at the breakdown of each of the top games by platform and by publisher below:

Game of the Year breakdown by platform

• Xbox 360: 7
• PlayStation 3: 5
• PC: 3
• Wii:  1
• PlayStation 2: 1

Game of the Year breakdown by publisher

• Microsoft Game Studios: 2
• Sony Computer Entertainment: 2
• EAP (Valve, MTV Games/Harmonix): 2
• 2K Games: 1
• Activision: 1
• Nintendo: 1
• Ubisoft: 1

If you want to take a look at the specific votes cast by each judge, you can visit the official Game Critics Awards website, accessible through the Via link below.

Valve Corporation spokesman Doug Lombardi has announced that the company plans to further expand on Portal. In addition, he also gave word of more Team Fortress 2 maps for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the future.

Lombardi said in no uncertain terms that they plan on releasing more updates for Portal in the future. However, he did add that they’re still working out the details on that particular project. That’s pretty good news for fans of the game everywhere.

Console gamers have another reason to rejoice. Lombardi mentioned that Valve plans on releasing map packs for Team Fortress 2 on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The awesome thing about this is that the new content will be going for the low, low price of US 0.00. Yes, they’re going to be releasing them for free.

So it looks like fans of Valve’s Portal and Team Fortress 2 have a lot to look forward to. In case you want to see the full interview where all these details were revealed, feel free to follow the Source link below.