War of the Minds

In today's society, it seems like more and more violent media are marketed towards the younger generation. Whether it be teens or pre-teens, today's violent and expletive video games, music and movies are marketed towards the younger crowd. Troy and James give their varied opinions on this topic.

"While I do fault the video game companies for marketing their violent games towards kids, it really

FINAL FANTASY XI arrives on the PC.

© Square Enix

"I don't really see too much of an issue in the videogame industry. The ESRB has done a good job in working with companies to establish a good guideline system. These ratings aren't always enforced, but neither are your ratings at a local movieplex. Many stores won't sell an 'M' rated game to someone under seventeen. There's always ways to get around this - but it's a start. As far as marketing goes, I don't see too many violent game commercials period - the most frequent would be for VICE CITY, but even then, that's usually late night TV. I can't say I watch a lot of children's TV, but from what I have seen, it is not an issue. There will always be cases of youngsters getting there hands on violent games - but it's no worse than any other industry." James

Sierra's WAR OF THE RING, the strategy game based on THE LORD OF THE RINGS, has gone gold...Nokia claims that the launch of the N-Gage system was a success, although analysts say otherwise...The new TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES game has shipped for the GameCube, Xbox, Playstation 2 and Game Boy Advance...Namco's TIME CRISIS 3 has shipped to stores...

Grim and gritty is the order of the day for MAX PAYNE 2 players.

© Rockstar Games

ON SHELVES

This week, we've got TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND for the Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamcube, along with WWE SMACKDOWN: HERE COMES THE PAIN for the Playstation 2. The new expansion for DARK AGE OF CAMELOT, TRIALS OF ATLANTIS, comes out for the PC as well. But the pick of the week has to be FINAL FANTASY XI for the PC.