News

Sony Computer Entertainment America, Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games, and Wal-Mart are facing a $246 million dollar lawsuit from the families of two victims who claim their son and daughter were shot as the result of Grand Theft Auto 3 and its influence.

Aaron Hamel, 45, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, was seriously wounded after their car was fired upon by two step brothers, age 16 and 14. While in custody, the boys said they had taken rifles that were in their house and shot at cars like one can do in GTA3. The teens plead guilty to reckless homicide, endangerment, and assault in juvenile court and are now serving an indefinite term. The families claim that the game inspires and trains one how to shoot at people and vehicles.

In other GTA 3 news, the title has sold 192,000 copies in its first three weeks of availability in Japan, and has stayed in the country's top 5 for these weeks.

Source: Gamespot

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I feel much sympathy for the two families, but I don't know if this suit wants to make me roll my eyes or agree with it. There are a numerous reasons for the eye roll. Firstly, the game does not teach someone how to use a rifle. Secondly, the game is rated "Mature." If the kids were not able to handle it, they should not have been playing it. If anybody should be sued, it should be the parents for not taking greater interest in what their children were up to (and I'm not saying they should be, necessarily). Thirdly, not one of the companies being named in the suit put the gun in the childrens' hands.

On the other hand, if one is able to sue over the slightest little things in the US (the people who wanted to sue the fast food businesses "for making them fat," I'm looking at you), a person who lost a love one should definitely be allowed as well.

What does everyone else think? I'm especially interested in the non-US members' point of view because I'm not aware of many lawsuits in other countries and how the legal systems handle them.

It appears Pilotwings, Nintendo's popular air-stunt franchise, may not see life on the Gamecube after all. Factor 5, the company developing it, has fallen behind in its production schedule and the title is not expected to be ready until 2005 now.

The "Gamecube 2" may be ready by this time and Nintendo may choose to use Pilotwings as one of its launch titles for the system.


Source: ComputerandVideoGames.com

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I have never played the SNES or N64 versions of this game, but I have heard many good things about them. I'm sure this will disappoint many Gamecube owners.

Nokia's "answer" to Nintendo's Gameboy Advance sold poorly during its first week of availability in the UK.

6000 stores that had the device available for sale were polled. These stores combined to sell only 500 units. That means only 8% of retailers sold even one unit. In the time period that these 500 N-Gages were sold, 1,500 Gameboy Advance were purchased by UK consumers.

In other N-Gage news, the best selling game for the unit during its first week was a Tomb Raider remake.

Source: Gameforms

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I'm all for competition to the Gameboy Advance. I really am. But the N-Gage isn't going to be it. Reading some of the product reviews, it seems that you basically have to disassemble the unit just to play a game. Even worse is its price which is $300 US.

Has anymore here actually tried one of the units?

More job classes (14, and 3 special) for the game FFX-2 have been revealed, and are as follows:

Gunner (That common picture of Yuna where her jean skirt is on just one leg.)
Thief
Warrior
Singer
White Mage
Black Mage
Trainer
Dark Gunner
Dark Knight
Gambler
Alchemist
Berserker
Samurai
Mascot
Floral Fallah (For Yuna only)
Machina Muzzle (For Rikku only)
Full Throttle (For Paine only)

Further descriptions, and convenient pictures, can be found at RPGamer

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My personal favourites here are Dark Knight and Samurai. Although there has been much complaining and anxiety over this new job system, I'm looking forward to it.

Some of you may remember that Nintendo gave out free ports of Ocarina of Time and Master Quest for the Gamecube as a bonus to those who had pre-ordered the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.

Well, Nintendo is putting together another Zelda compilation for the Gamecube. The games planned to be included this time around are: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Other than the titles to be included, not much else is known about the compilation. There are no release dates for either Japan or North America. It is not even known whether this will be a standalone product or another pre-order bonus.

Source: RPGamer

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I know many are getting upset at gaming companies for the recycling of old titles, but this is definitely some recycling I would enjoy.

Today sees three new Mozilla releases. For the uninitiated, Mozilla is the open source software that rose from the flames of once mighty Netscape Navigator/Communicator, though long-time detractors from the frankly awful Netscape 4 will be pleased to note that it bears very little relation to today's Mozilla products.

Along with the main Mozilla Suite 1.5 release (the suite featuring Navigator for browsing, Mail & Newsgroups, Composer, and various integrated bits, much like the old Netscape Communicator) come new versions of the increasingly popular (and highly recommended by many CoN staff and regulars) standalone applications based on Mozilla code: web browser Mozilla Firebird 0.7 and e-mail client Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3. While these are pre-release software, they have both been shown to be extremely reliable in the past, and this should be especially true of these releases, the first to be built from a release branch of the Mozilla code. Should you require the ultimate in stability, you might prefer Mozilla Suite 1.4.1, released earlier this week.

Not even remotely Final Fantasy or even gaming news, but it falls broadly under the umbrella of site news, since we've recommended Mozilla browsers for the best experience viewing the site (and browsing the Web in general) for some time now. Standards compliant, free and, especially in the case of Firebird and Thunderbird, light, fast, and user-friendly. What more do you want?

Download:

• Mozilla Firebird 0.7
• Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3
• Mozilla 1.5
• Mozilla 1.4.1
• Downloads via BitTorrent and builds optimised for specific CPU types or with varied feature sets can frequently be found at the MozillaZine forums.