ESRB Rating Symbols

EARLY CHILDHOOD Titles rated EC (Early Childhood) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 3 and older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate. EVERYONE Titles rated E (Everyone) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language. EVERYONE 10+ Titles rated E10+ (Everyone 10+) have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language, and/or minimal suggestive themes. TEEN Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language. MATURE Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language. RATING PENDING Titles listed as RP (Rating Pending) have been submitted to the ESRB and are awaiting final rating. This symbol appears only in advertising prior to a game’s release. ADULTS ONLY Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

To take full advantage of the ESRB rating system, it’s important to check both the rating symbol (on the front of the game box) and the content descriptors (on the back of the game box).

ESRB Content Descriptors

• Alcohol Reference - Reference to and/or images of alcoholic beverages
• Animated Blood - Cartoon or pixilated depictions of blood
• Blood - Depictions of blood
• Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts
• Cartoon Violence - Violent actions involving cartoon-like characters. May include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted
• Comic Mischief - Scenes depicting slapstick or gross vulgar humor
• Crude Humor - Moderately vulgar antics, including bathroom humor
• Drug Reference - Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs
• Edutainment - Content of product provides user with specific skills development or reinforcement learning within an entertainment setting. Skill development is an integral part of product
• Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life
• Real Gambling - Betting like behavior
• Informational - Overall content of product contains data, facts, resource information, reference materials or instructional text
• Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death
• Mature Humor - Vulgar and/or crude jokes and antics including “bathroom” humor
• Mature Sexual Themes - Provocative material, possibly including partial nudity
• Language - Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use
• Lyrics - Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music
• Mild Violence - Mild scenes depicting characters in unsafe and/or violent situations
• Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity
• Partial Nudity - Brief and mild depictions of nudity
• Sexual Violence - Depictions of rape or other sexual acts
• Some Adult Assistance May Be Needed - Early Childhood Descriptor only
• Strong Language - Profanity and explicit references to sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use
• Strong Lyrics - Profanity and explicit references to sex, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music
• Strong Sexual Content - Graphic depiction of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity
• Suggestive Themes - Mild provocative references or materials
• Tobacco Reference - Reference to and/or images of tobacco products
• Use of Drugs - The consumption or use of illegal drugs
• Use of Alcohol - The consumption of alcoholic beverages
• Use of Tobacco - The consumption of tobacco products
• Violence - Scenes involving aggressive conflict

Check out this excellent step-by-step guide for getting homebrew on your Wii console with both video instruction and starter kit courtesy of WiiHD.

Starter Kit
Download starter kit and unzip it to the root directory of your SD card. It includes the Twilight Hack and the Homebrew Channel (courtesy of Team Twiizer), Quake (the shareware version) (Courtesy of tehskeen user eluan and Peter Mackay and id software for having shareware in the first place), Tetris (Courtesy of Wiibrew user DesktopMan), FUSE (a Sinclair emulator courtesy of Armstad and Philip Kendall and Wiibrew user bg), as well as Sinclair games that are legally available courtesy of their respective developers and the World of Spectrum.

Download Starter Kit- 11.98mb

[source]

DigitalPh33r made the following tutorial covering the in’s and out’s of machinima. What is “machinima“? Well it’s a portmanteau word, or a fusing of two different words together into one machine cinema.

This first installment of DigitalPh33r’s Guide to Making Halo 3 Machinima covers the pros and cons of machinima, the games to use as a medium and legal issues regarding game content and use of music.

Check it out.

Check out this easy to follow step-by-step guide to upgrading your PlayStation 3 hard drive from VideoJug:

How To Change A Playstation 3 Hard Disc
If you want to change the standard hard disc in your PS3, you’ll need to follow these simple steps. We discuss which sort of drive to buy, how to backup your data, and provide a step-by-step tutorial for replacing the HDD itself.

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Step 1:

Buy the right Hard Disc

• As long as you use the right sort of drive, changing the hard disc won’t void your warranty.
• You need the sort of drive made for laptop PCs – that’s a 2.5” SATA drive. We picked up a whopping 250GB drive - that’s more than enough to store several series of recorded TV shows, plenty of games and still loads of space left over for all your photos.



• The other element to factor in is the speed of the drive. Most are 5400rpm – that’s the speed of the drive. You may notice marginally-faster loading and saving times with a 7200rpm drive, but it’s not strictly necessary.
• The smartest thing to do is to scour The Internet for customer reviews of the drive you want to buy – if you find people reporting success of installing it into a PS3, you know it’s a safe purchase.

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Step 2:

Backup

• The only stuff that’s stored on your Hard Disc is whatever you’ve downloaded, copied across, and your games’ save data. All the front-end operating system stuff is handled separately, so there’s no need to copy that. Your user ID and PlayStationNetwork login will all remain in-tact after the swap.
• If you want to do a full backup, get hold of a large-enough USB External Hard Disc, and plug it in.
• Head to Settings-> System Settings and Backup Utility. From here, you can auto-backup everything to your USB device.



• If you’ve only got a small USB key, you can simply backup your save files to that by going to Game-> Saved Data Utility, selecting the game and pressing Triangle to go to the Options. Selecy Copy, and the USB device you want to copy to.
• You can re-download anything from the Playstation Network several times, so there’s no real need to worry about software you’ve spent money on – you can re-download it after you’ve changed the discs over.

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Step 3:

Remove the Drive

• Unplug the PS3, and move it to a nice clean bright space so you can see what you’re doing. Sit it on its back, and you should be able to see this label on the bottom.
• Using a small screwdriver, carefully pry away the plastic plate covering the Hard Disc. It comes away from the right hand side.
• With a crosshead screwdriver, unscrew the blue screw holding the disc in place, and lift the small metal lever. Carefully push the drive to the right, and slowly pull the whole thing out.



• There are four screws holding the drive into the metal frame, one at each corner. Carefully remove each of them with a crosshead screwdriver. Make a mental note of how the drive fits into the tray, and slide it out.



• Wrap it up and store it somewhere nice and safe and dry in case you ever need to use it again.

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Step 4:

Insert the New Drive

• Place your new Hard Disc into the metal frame in the exact same way as the old one, and replace the four screws. Make sure it’s all nice and tight, and re-insert into the PS3. Slide the unit to the left ice and firmly, push the little metal lever back across, and replace the blue screw that holds everything in place.
• Re-insert the little plastic cover, and hook up the PS3 to the power supply and Television as before.

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Step 5:

Format

• When you fire up the PS3, it’ll tell you that the Hard Disc needs formatting. Accept, and wait for the process to finish.
• Once that’s done, your PS3 is up and running again. If you want to check, head to Settings-> System Settings-> System Information to check the disc capacity.

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Step 6:

Restore Save Data

Depending on how you backed up all your old info, you can now re-copy it across in the same way as before, either by going to settings-> system settings-> Backup Utility or Game-> Saved Data Utility -> selecting the USB device, then the game’s save data. Press Triangle, and select Copy.

Congratulations, you’ve now got a monster Hard Disc in your PS3. Good luck filling it up…!

This recent episode of Systm has David Randolph “out from the studio and dipping into his previous life building interactive museum displays… to cheat at Guitar Hero.

“Or, to look at it in a different light, David’s figured out how to automate Guitar Hero by wiring one of Gilderfluke & Co’s spiffy “Show Control Systems” the BR-miniBrick8 into a Guitar Hero Guitar.

And the tricky part, of course, programming it to play Foghat’s “Slow Ride.”

Wondering what exactly a Show Controller is? Think tiny gadget that can turn other devices on and off… or trigger them… or, you know, control them!”

Mastrmind made the following video documenting his amazing 13.1 second run through F.N.G. playing Call of Duty 4. Not only does this kid show off his impressive speed run, he takes time to break down all the details each step of the way, offering tips and pointers that should help shave quite a few seconds off your completion time.

While watching this video tutorial notice the number of bullet holes that are in the walls - and for firing so few shots, it obviously took REPEATED tries to record a full 2 second faster time than the games developer Infinity Ward’s recorded best. Watch and learn soldiers.

Have you ever wondered how much work goes into the creation of your favorite game?

We have too, which is why we approached Ubisoft about breaking down the making of Rainbow Six Vegas. They were kind enough to explain the timelines behind the scenes and each of the major steps behind the game’s development.

CONCEPTION [ 11 MONTHS ]

• Ubisoft gives a core design team composed of five people (producer, senior producer, creative director, art director, and lead programmer) a mandate outlining the project’s objectives and the target audience.
• Since this is Ubisoft Montreal’s first next-gen title, the team is given more time than is usually allotted for conception.
• The creative team brainstorms to outline the game’s plot, location, and player experience.
• The technical minds decide which engine and tools will be used to create the game.
• The team then comes together to build cheap prototypes to test core gameplay ideas like the new cover mechanic and multiplayer.
• Once the concept and prototype are ready, the team presents them to management in hopes of receiving a green light.

STORY DEVELOPMENT

• One of the big differences between how a story is created in games as opposed to film and literature is the amount of people involved in the process.
• Crafting the story is largely a team effort; while the creative director is responsible for the overall vision, the screenwriter, art director, and level designers are all involved in the process.
• The team brainstorms to draft a general synopsis, then writes the dialogue and fills in the minor details right down to each level objective.

RESEARCH

• Because popular casinos weren’t interested in being targeted by terrorists in a video game, Ubisoft Montreal was faced with the unique challenge of recreating Vegas without destinations that make the city famous.
• The producers sent a team to Vegas for two weeks to capture the essence of Sin City so they could use it to create a believable Vegas doppelganger.

PREPRODUCTION [ 8 MONTHS ]

• The team now brings in a larger production team to build what’s called a “vertical slice” of the game.
• One single-player and multiplayer level are created and polished so they are nearly final.
• The goal is to ensure that the engine and tools are mature enough to incorporate all the ideas brainstormed during conception.
• This test level gives the producers a general idea of how to schedule production, and confirms that the idea will work before Ubisoft commits more money and staff to the project.

PRODUCTION [ 10 MONTHS ]

• As Rainbow Six Vegas enters the production stage, the development team now ramps up to maximum capacity, nearly 150 people.
• The team has answered all of its questions about the game, and now it’s all about execution. Levels are built, code is refined, and art is sculpted.
• The producers have defined the scope and number of question marks facing the game, but must remain flexible to overcome the unforeseen challenges.
• The first major milestone is the alpha stage, where a rough build of the entire game comes together.
• This allows the team to begin the six month process of play testing, during which quality assurance and quality control teams will comb over the game to balance the game mechanics and make sure objectives are clear to players.
• The team continues to fine tune the graphics, audio, and game engine until it reaches the beta stage, which is a complete build with finalized art and audio.
• Now that the game has reached beta, programmers optimize the framerate while the play testers continue to hunt down the remaining bugs.

MARKETING

• One of the major decisions discussed in the first conception meeting is how the game will differentiate itself from the hundreds of titles on the shelves during the holiday.
• Ubisoft decided to keep quiet about Rainbow Six Vegas until it had something that would blow people away.
• That something was the gameplay demonstration unveiled during E3 2006.
• The game had a great buzz around it after the unveiling, so the team decided to create a demo for the public so players could experience Rainbow Six Vegas firsthand before it was released.
• This was a major production challenge because the team needed to pull some people away from the main production schedule to finalize the demo level.
• In the end, Ubisoft believed the exposure paid off.

SUBMISSION & RELEASE [ 3 MONTHS ]

• Once the game finishes beta it goes ‘gold.’ At this stage it is sent to Microsoft and Sony for final approval.
• Each company has its own teams of testers to make sure the title meets quality expectations for the console.
• Once the game is approved, Ubisoft can begin manufacturing discs and shipping to retail.
• The development team can then take a well-earned vacation before starting its next big project.

[source]

UPDATE: How to unlock Recon armor - Recon armor is unquestionably the most sought-after status symbol in the entirety of Halo 3 multiplayer. The problem is, players can only get it directly from a Bungie staff member, and this almost never happens (despite the constant flood of pleading emails and Live messages).

All of this is about to change. Once the aptly titled Halo 3: Recon is released (due Fall 2009), players will finally be able to earn this coveted armor on their own. The best part is you can star working toward it now.

Fans have been speculating on the newly added Vidmaster Challenge achievements featured in September’s Halo 3 title update. We can now confirm that completing these four achievements, in addition to three new Vidmaster Challenges available only through the Halo 3: Recon disc, will unlock Recon armor at long last.

Source: Game Informer, December 2008

Body Pieces
Spartan

EVA……………..Complete Tsavo Highway on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary
EOD……………..Complete Tsavo Highway on Legendary
Scout……………Unlock “Too Close to the Sun” Achievement (Destroy an enemy banshee with the Sp’laser or missile pod in a ranked playlist or campaign)

Elite

Flight……………Complete Tsavo Highway on Heroic or Legendary
Ascetic…………Unlock “Up Close and Personal” Achievement (Kill 5 enemies via melee or assassination in a ranked FFA playlist)
Commando….Unlock “Triple Kill” Achievement (Get one triple kill)

Shoulder Pieces
Spartan

EVA……………..Complete The Ark on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary
EOD…………….Complete The Ark on Legendary
Security……….Earn 750 Gamerscore Points
Scout……………Unlock “We’re in for some Chop” Achievement (Destroy an enemy vehicle with a piece of equipment in a ranked playlist or campaign)

Elite

Flight……………Complete The Ark on Heroic or Legendary
Ascetic…………Unlock “Overkill” Achievement (Get one overkill)
Commando….Unlock “Killing Frenzy” Achievement (Get one killing frenzy)

Head Pieces
Spartan

EVA……………..Complete Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary
EOD……………..Complete Campaign on Legendary
Security………..Earn 1,000 Gamerscore Points
Scout…………….Unlock “Used Car Salesman” Achievement (Destroy an enemy vehicle containing 3 enemies in Campaign or ranked playlists)
Mark V………….Unlock “UNSC Spartan” Achievement (Reach Sergeant ranking online)
ODST……………Unlock “Spartan Graduate” Achievement (Earn 5 EXP or complete 10 ranked matches)
Rogue………….Unlock “Spartan Officer” Achievement (Advance to the Spartan Officer ranks online)

Elite
Flight……………Complete Campaign on Heroic or Legendary
Ascetic………….Unlock “Steppin’ Razor” Achievement (Get one triple kill with an energy sword in ranked FFA)
Commando….Unlock “Overkill” Achievement (Get one overkill)

Looking to for the 9 skulls in Halo 3? Here are two videos from xTala25x & Slick Nick that detail the locations of the hidden skulls that will net you cool gameplay-altering options, obtain even higher scores in the campaigns meta-game, and 90 achievement points.