Project Thursday

Take Two and Rockstar have once again received negative press for one of their videogames. Senators with nothing better to do (we’re still in Iraq, right?) and anti-gaming activists are up in arms about Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 game for Wii, PS2, and PSP. Apparently, it has been confirmed that hackers have found ways to get past the blurring and other distortion effects that basically filtered out all of the content that gave the game it’s original "Adults Only" rating.

The ESRB has come out and stated in a press release that they will not be changing the rating back to AO, since all of the game’s content (including the filtered parts) were submitted to the ESRB for review. Hacks have only been discovered in the PS2 and PSP versions of the game (by utilizing the third-party Codebreaker application).

So sorry Senators, for once the ESRB is growing some balls and sticking to it’s guns…for now at least. So by all means, go ahead and pick up your copy of Manhunt 2, hack away, and then hack away.

For more info on the subject, check out Mercury News.

Last week’s E For All convention out in Los Angeles marked a new chapter in the world of gaming. Last year, the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) was scaled down dramatically and pretty much closed it’s doors to everyone except for media personnel and industry big-wigs. Average Joes like you and I were forced to either travel all the way to Tokyo, Japan for TGS or stay glued to our computers and check out all of the third-party media and "awesome" text updates.

But what about those of us who like a more hands-on approach? What about those of us who dream of being immersed by awesome games that few have ever played, meeting the B-grade celebrities of the gaming world, and (most importantly) lots of amazing booth babes standing around pretending to be totally into what you’re saying and doing while raining tons of free swag upon you? What are we supposed to to?! Enter E For All: a four-day convention open to the public that provided all of these things and more. Despite a lot of media criticism, the convention actually did a pretty decent job for it’s first time around the block.

Well, it’s official; the Project Thursday crew is heading to Los Angeles in October to attend the first annual E for All electronic entertainment convention. Where E3 has closed their doors to all but the media, E for All is looking to rekindle the flame of thousands of gamers wandering through the LA Convention Center, unshowered, sleep-deprived, surrounded by the hottest games, and ogling booth babes.

While Sony has commented that they will not be attending the conference (screw you Sony), EA has already announced that they will be there in full force, which hopefully means that Microsoft will follow in suit but unfortunately, Microsoft will not be joining them and will instead choose to be a bunch of pussies, like Sony. Either way, we’ll be there to pass you the word on the convention, the games, and the hopefully scantily clad women. Check back between now and October for more information.

If you’re looking to go yourself, you can register online at the E for All website.