I’m doing a story for The Press at the moment on what modern games consoles offer parents in the way of protecting their children from inappropriate content.

All three - Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii - offer parental controls using four-digit pin codes that let parents set the rules over what content young gamers can and cannot access, i.e. stopping the ability to send voice or text messages online or locking out an R-rated game. The PS3 and Nintendo Wii will also let parents disable the internet functions of the respective consoles, and a Microsoft executive I was talking to for the story told me that while it wasn’t the company’s place to tell parents what their children could and couldn’t watch, he personally felt it was the company’s responsibility to provide tools so parents could make the decision more easily.

Xbox NZ hasn’t said anything official yet, but I spotted a news item on TeamXbox the other day that Microsoft’s Community Games program, where you can use the company’s free XNA Game Studio tool set to make games, will be available to gamers in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore on December 15.

Effectively, this will give budding game designers in our part of the world a chance to join our Northern Hemisphere cousins in creating a game then upload it to Microsoft for peer review, then, if good enough, the game will be published on Xbox Live Marketplace where gamers can buy it, giving the game’s creator potential to earn some royalties from it.

It’s not all drag-and-drop game making, though: it seems you need to have some basic understanding of C++ or some other programming language.

… Bethesda goes and announces some new downloadable content and a game editor for the PC version.

Called the G.E.C.K. (Garden of Eden Creation Kit), the game editor will be available free in December and will let Games for Windows users create and add their own content to the game. The first downloadable content, Operation: Anchorage, will be available exclusively for the Xbox 360 and PC versions in January. More downloadable content will follow in February and March.

My, my, Bethesda have been busy but it proves that Bethesda wants to make Fallout 3 a game that people will play for some time to come. No word, though, on whether the downloadable content will be free or not, but I suspect not.

“We’ve always seen the original world of Fallout 3 as a foundation for even more content. Some created by us, and a lot more created by users,” said Todd Howard, game director for Fallout 3. “It’s fun to create your own character, but it can be equally fun to create your own adventures. We can’t wait to see what the community does with the G.E.C.K.”

Here’s my Saints Row 2 review. Copycat GTAIV or brilliant satire of the genre? You decide.

Saints Row 2
From: THQ
Reviewed on: PlayStation 3
Classification: R18
Score: ***

The decision to delay the release of Saints Row 2 has definitely paid off for publisher THQ.

Originally the game was destined to be released around the same time as Grand Theft Auto IV, that other free-roaming sandbox game, but wisely THQ decided to hold off until later in the year, saying it needed a bit more polish.

Whether it was more polish or a strategic decision not to go head-to-head with GTAIV, it has worked, and while the game might not be a storytelling success or as technically proficient as GTAIV, it is entertaining just don’t expect to be playing it in a few months’ time.

Heading its press release with “Wii Wish You a Merry Christmas”, Nintendo Australia informs me that the latest figures from data research group GfK Australia shows that Nintendo’s DS handheld has an install base in Australia of more than 1.5 million units, making the DS the fastest console to reach the milestone in 194 weeks. I’ve asked for New Zealand figures but they still haven’t got back to me.

Nintendo says GfK also notes that the Wii reached 750,000 units sell through in 102 weeks, making Wii the fastest-selling console to hit this mark.

On a personal note, around our house, our Nintendo DS is still used almost daily, especially by my young son.

Nintendo expects Wii games Animal Crossing: Lets Go to the City, the Wii Speak accessory, Wii Music, Disaster: Day of Crisis; and Nintendo DS games KORG DS-10 Synthesizer, Kirby Super Star Ultra and Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia to be big this Christmas. Do our Nintendo lovers agree with Nintendo on what they see as the big sellers this Christmas?

So, the New Xbox Experience has come and considering the size of the install base, it seems it has gone comparatively smoothly. My initial observations are that the customisation options for your avatar are a bit limited (just three pairs of jeans at the moment) and some of the old themes are obscured by the new look, but the problems seem to be relatively minor and no doubt being worked on.

Naly D, a longtime Game Junkie reader, has raised an interesting point though if you own an Arcade or Core model Xbox 360: “I’m gonna be the party pooper. Gerard, do you know if Microsoft NZ are going to do what Microsoft US did and offer a free memory storage unit to compensate for the space being taken up? [www.xboxstorageupgrade.com],” Naly posted yesterday.

It’s a valid point, as unlike 360 console models such as the Pro or Elite models, which come with a swappable hard drive, the Arcade model doesn’t, so how do Arcade owners install the update (which seems to sit at around 128Mb)?

Some time after 11 tonight, when you boot up your Xbox 360 console, you’ll be prompted to download an update to your Xbox 360’s software and when it restarts, you’ll be welcomed to the New Xbox Experience, perhaps the biggest change to the 360 console’s dashboard environment since the console was launched here in 2006.

I got a look at the NXE last month in Japan and was impressed. In fact, Microsoft’s John Schappert told me that the plan was to make Xbox Live as strong a social networking tool as Facebook and Bebo.

Gone is the blade system of the original launch software and in its place is a much cleaner layout with areas labelled “My Xbox”, “Game Marketplace”, “Video Marketplace”, “Friends” and “Spotlight”.

You’ll have to create an avatar - designed by British game studio Rare - that can be used in games like Uno and Scene It! as well as in your gamer pic, and using a function called Xbox Live Party, you can invite up to seven friends to interact with.

Have you ever played a game and got to a point that just frustrates the heck out of you and no matter how many times you try you just can’t complete a task/perform a jump/find a switch? That’s the point that I’m tempted to toss the controller across the room.

That point hit me while playing Mirror’s Edge the other day, the parkour-inspired game where you’re a futuristic courier on the run who must bounce, jump, swing and wall-run from the pursuing police. All had been going well until I came to a section where I had to wall-run, jump then turn and grab on to a bar. Do you think I could do it first go? If you answered no, you’d be right.

After about 15 minutes I was still trying to master the move, but generally ended up on my back on the floor below or missing the wall run completely and just dropped to the floor below me. I think that was when I tossed the controller on to the couch - gently, mind you, as I’m too tight to buy a new one - muttered a couple of choice expletives and turned the game off. I came back to it later that night after I’d cooled down, where I managed to complete the manoeuvre and move on.

Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty

For: PlayStation 3

On: Blu ray disk ($34) and PlayStation Store

Classification: PG

Score: 3½ out of 5

With a slew of games out and the reviews mounting up, it’s time for another review. Here’s one for PlayStation 3 game Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty.

This is the second outing for the spacefaring lombax Ratchet on the PlayStation 3 and despite being classed as a “budget” title (the retail disc sells for less than $35), this game has full-price production values and visuals written all over it.
Being a downloadable title (it’s also available on Blu-ray disk), Quest for Booty won’t take as long to complete as the much longer R+C: Tools of Destruction - four to five hours - but that’s a good thing, really. And it’s all done so remarkably well and is wrapped up in the trademark Insomniac humour that you’ll enjoy most of it till the very end.

Unlike previous R+C games, where Ratchet jets from planet to planet in his intergalactic quests, most of Quest for Booty takes place on the planet Hoolefar, where you start your search for Clank, who has gone missing.

The Battle of the video game Bands will step into overdrive tomorrow, with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour in New Zealand.

It will finally give NZ gamers the chance to put it and MTV’s Rockband to the test to see which one is, in fact, the ultimate band game. Let the battle commence.

I enjoyed Rockband but the fact that it took over a year to get here has left a sour taste in many gamers’ mouths so many may spend their hard-earned cash on Activision’s GHWT as a result, despite some well-publicised reports of GHWT instruments failing. It will be a battle of epic proportions.

But will the price of the instrument pack for GHWT put gamers off, especially given the tight economic circumstances? So far I’ve seen the full GHWT instrument package (guitar, drum set and mic) ranging in price from $345 (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii) to $325 (PS2). Just a guitar and a copy of the game will set you back between $179 (PS2) and $209 (Xbox 360, PS3).