As you all can tell, it's been a while since I posted to my blog. Mainly, it's because there have been a ton of games and I've been trying to actually play them. Two of those games are going to be topics of this post. First off, we have Fallout 3, which is a spectacular game by Bethesda Softworks. However, an important part of the game is being undone for the Japanese release of the game. Bethesda has unilaterally decided that making Megaton go boom would be too offensive for Japanese audiences. Mind you, Japan's had nuclear weapons as part of many games and anime. Consider the video below, from the anime Barefoot Gen.

This is just one of many times in which nuclear devastation or similar phenomenons have happened in Japanese entertainment. Consider the destruction of the world – starting with Tokyo – in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, or the continual devastation of cities in Godzilla, or 3 impact in Evangelion. It's a very common theme in Japanese entertainment, and unsurprisingly so, considering the undeniable effect the most horrific weapon of all kind being used on a country would likely have on its culture. However, american company Bethesda doesn't bother doing their back research, and as a result, one of the most profound choices in Fallout 3 is removed. This isn't the first time this has happened, of course. The movie Pearl Harbor was edited in its Japanese release to remove direct references to Japan. Why the rest of the world sees the need to coddle Japan, when they themselves aren't anywhere near as prickly, is beyond me. This didn't even help Fallout 3 in the ratings department (Where it still got the strictest CERO rating possible – Z). If you can't even get a ratings change, why do it? Sufficed to say that if Fallout 3 were being published in Japan by a Japanese company, they wouldn't have made such a brainless decision. And then we wonder why Japan has no interest in our games half the time.

Another game I've been playing is the Xbox Live Arcade version of Duke Nukem 3D, which is indeed the full Atomic Edition. Expect a full review after I've had some time with it, but the one thing that gets to me now is just how silly it seems now. Yes, the game is as hardcore and fast paced as ever (aim assist is a plus here), but the 12-year-old jokes are incredibly dated. I go back and realize just how dated everything feels. A lot of the more memorable parts of that game (like the white ford bronco on the one TV screen in “Red Light District”) feel so far removed from 2008 that they don't elicit the giggles that they used to . Even the Evil Dead quotes and other one-liners from Duke aren't as cool and funny as they were all the way back in 1996. Humor is one of those things that's incredibly hard to keep fresh, and Duke Nukem 3D, while still able to get the occasional laugh, isn't anywhere near as funny as it was all those years. It is, however, a striking testament to how far the gaming industry has come. This used to be the goal, the pinnacle of “mature” gaming in an era where Nintendo was more than a novelty and gaming really was mostly aimed at kids. Now it comes off as patently immature and purient when held next to games like Bioshock, Halo and Fallout 3. The meaning of “mature” sure has changed.