Thumb Bandits Australia - Gaming News

Fable 2 co-op no more?

WTF?!! This can't be right surely, wasn't Molyneux only raving the cool Fable 2 co-op features mere weeks ago? According to the sci-fi blog fidgit "You won't be playing Fable II with your friends when it comes out next month, unless your friends come over to your house to play. And why would they do that, since they won't be able to use their characters?"

The much hyped hop in hop out multi-player that was totally bigged up mere weeks ago appears to be non present in Fable 2. XBox Community Manager "Sara N" let the news slip out. We're a bit stunned by this, we need to go have a coffee and rethink our game purchases. Sure they'll probably add it as a patch at some point, but to that we say... don't frakking big up a particular aspect of a game if it isn't going to be included out of the box!

Via [Fidgit]

Xbox Sounds Australia with The Pussycat Dolls

Xbox Australia and Universal Music Australia has announced an exclusive live event with The Pussycat Dolls on the northern boardwalk of the Sydney Opera House. The event, the first in a series entitled Xbox Sounds, will see music artists performing throughout the summer at iconic Australian locations exclusively for Xbox.

Xbox Sounds will take place between October 2008 and April 2009 and is set to energise Australian music fans this summer. Tickets to each event will be free, offered through competitions and promotions in the lead-up to each performance.

Via [Xbox Australia].

New Nintendo DS before years end

That new Nintendo DS that's long been rumored seems to finally have a bit of weight behind it, with Japanese news site Nikkei Business daily seemingly spilling the beans. The new Nintendo DS will apparently see a release in Japan before the end of the year.

The new DS model will allegedly include a built-in camera and a music player. Analysts suggesting this may be Nintendo's way of competing with not only the Sony PSP, but also Apple's iPhone. Whether the Nintendo DS needs to 'compete' is another thing, the little machine that could has sold an estimated 22 million in the United States alone.

Silent Hill Homecoming refused classification in Australia - Essentially banned.

Games banned in Australia are nothing new, this comes down to no "18+" rating like they have in other countries. "Silent Hill Homecoming" appears to be the latest victim in the Aussie censorship debacle. The Age is reporting that "Horror game Silent Hill: Homecoming has become the fourth game this year to be refused classification by Australia's censors."

As the news states "Censorship ministers in March agreed to canvas public opinion on the proposed introduction of a long overdue R18+ classification for games, but are still working on the mechanisms to let Australians have their say." Here's a silly idea, why don't they just ask Australian gamers if they think the "18+" rating is a good idea, then when they get the resounding YES, put the damn thing into action.

Jane Shepherd in the Mass Effect movie

Our friends over at Lesbian Gamers have an interesting post up regarding the new "Mass Effect" movie. The grrls consider the option of a female Commander Jane Shepherd over the - seemingly - forgone conclusion if a movie gets made the Commander will be male.

Given the success of the "ALIEN" franchise and its heroine Ellen Ripley, seeing another lone female space heroine would be a good move, particularly with the deluge of male heroes in the genre. One can almost hear the fanboys squealing "let Vin Diesel be Shepherd", "Ooh ooh how about Dwayne "the Rock' Johnson". To that we say the LG grrls have chosen a couple of sweet ideas for Jane Shepherd that would be far more appealing.

Rock Band Australia - release info

Aussies have been waiting on "Rock Band" for months, many, many months. It's lucky Australians are such a peaceful bunch or EA HQ Australia may well have been stormed by angry mobs. Finally though "Rock Band" releases in Australia November 7, that's a full year after it's release in the US minus a few days.

Pricing for "Rock Band" in Australia is at least not as painful as it was for European gamers, with the full kit coming in at $250 AUD ($208 USD), the drums and the game together for $180 AUD or if you want the guitar and game, you're looking at $140. The game alone will be one hundred bucks. The cynic in us thinks this pricing kindness is less to do with appeasing the long - and ridiculous - delay and more to do with the release of "Guitar Hero World Tour" being just around the corner (November 12). No word on the recently released (in the US) "Rock Band 2" needless to say.

C_nt the game by Edmund McMillan

Gaming is a funny ole place isn't it. You sometimes see something and you just have to shake your head in utter disbelief (or disgust). What you're looking at above is "C_nt" a new flash game by graphic artist Edmund McMillan, he had a little hand in a game called "Braid" - you might have heard of it.

What possessed an adult male - presumably human - to make "C_nt" is anyone's guess, but from a Freudian perspective we'd guess probably some sort of major mother issue or perhaps an innate fear of women. Alright, maybe Freud has bugger all to do with it, maybe the guy needed hits, he needed to be heard of, talked about and disgust.. sorry.. discussed. Whatever the case there's plenty of discussion going on about "C_nt" the video game, so we'll leave it to others, we're way too disturbed just now to consider it further.

Girl Gamers Australia consider what the hell Edward McMillan was thinking and come to the same conclusion we did, hits, hits and more hits.
Lesbian Gamers consider the question of this as 'art', which is interesting and puts a new spin on things.
Acid for Blood considers "C_nt" as one of the worst forms of misogyny in gaming and pretty much hangs McMillan our to dry.
Feminist Gamers - as you would expect - also take on the game of "C_nt" and they're about as impressed with it as you might be if you found a stool floating in your expensive soup... no.. not a bar stool.. a poo stool.

Saints Row 2 voice acting details

There's a nice spangly new trailer of the voice actors for the upcoming "Saints Row 2" game and it features a hefty bunch of names including Michael Rappaport - if you don't know the name you'll know the face - as Troy, LOST's Daniel Dae Kim (Gin in LOST) as Johnny, Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Michael Dorn (Worf from STNG, DS9), Jaime Pressly and Eliza Dushku (pictured).

That's quite the hefty casting list. The game is more of what you'd expect, GTA style with the Saints Row story, lots of swearing, violence, drug references. All we can say is if Fallout 3 was edited of 'drug' references for the Oz market, the board will have a ball with this one.

Via [LesbianGamers].

Animal Crossing Let's Go to the City in Oz

Looks like "Animal Crossing: City Folk" is no more for Australian shores, with the Australian Classification Board having listed a 'G' Rating for upcoming Wii title "Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City". Given there's only one "Animal Crossing" title in development for Wii we're aware of, it seems yet another silly name change has been slapped on yet another game.

Why "Animal Crossing: City Folk" would get a name change here is anyone's guess, maybe Nintendo think Australians don't know what "folk" means, whatever the case I like the original title more. What do you guys think? Wonder if the name change will hit Europe as well?

Via [ACB].

Fable II Pub Games glitch intentional

Were you a naughty girl or boy when playing "Fable II: Pub Games", did you perhaps utilize that 'glitch' that gave you more money to bet with and less money to lose? Well cheaty cheaterson, apparently you might be set to pay for your evil doing in game.

Peter Molyneux (aka the "Fable" God) has come out of his designer cave and said that glitch was no glitch, it was put there on purpose and that those that used the intentional glitch "will have a surprise waiting for them in Fable 2". A nasty surprise one would imagine.

Via [EuroGamer].