If anyone knows about gaming, they've heard all about the Manhunt 2 controversy surrounding the industry lately. There have been rumors flying around lately that a leak of Manhunt 2 has been introduced to "underground" gaming sites (read: it got pirated). I poked around a bit on the net and sure enough, it was there - an uncensored, fully intact version the original Manhunt 2 that was barred from release by the invariably damning AO label slapped on it by the ESRB. Let's get the unimportant stuff out of the way - the gameplay is terrible, the AI is stupid, the graphics are subpar, and the camera is atrocious. Now that that's out of the way, it's time to elaborate on the important parts of the game - that is, whether the controversy surrounding it is worth all the negativity it's been getting.

Now, remember this as you read the following: I'm a medical school student, so seeing dead bodies, blood, gore, and the like are nothing new to me anymore, so the shock factor may be amplified a few times for other people. The game begins with a jailbreak from an insane asylum - it's reminiscent of how The Suffering began. The main character, Danny, is being ordered around by a fellow inmate that appears and disappears throughout the course of each stage. It is at this point, right when the game begins, that every shred of dignity Rockstar possesses is thrown out the window.

Within the first few minutes of the game, we see insane prison inmates attempt to spray you with their urine, throw their feces at you, and beat the hell out of you. The game's playstyle hinges on hiding in the shadows and sneaking up behind enemies, and 'executing' them with whatever you have on hand - shivs, syringes, plastic bags, anything and everything can be used to kill. The murders are separated into hasty, violent, and gruesome - but I can't really tell anyway, because pretty much all the murders are pretty grotesque. Killing with plastic bags has the bag slowly outlining the face of the victim as you choke the life out of him. With a syringe, you stab the victim in his heart or neck and empty him of his blood. With a shiv you do it much more gruesomely, stabbing the victim then slicing him open like a gutted fish. A crowbar can be used to impale a victim and slice him open with a jagged wound. While the actual executions aren't that graphic in terms of gore, what is actually happening is pretty apparent and those with even a little imagination can pretty much fill in the blanks. I played to the third stage (which is where they introduce women in bondage gear), and stopped because I just couldn't bear with the horrid controls anymore.

So is Manhunt 2 the epitome of violence that media watchdog groups claim it is? Well, no. Not really. It is pretty gory and gruesome, but you'd find much, much worse in many R-rated movies. The fact however, is that the game itself is pretty bad, and seems to push the envelope in terms of content for no good apparent reason. While playing it, I just kept asking myself, "Why did they even put this in? What is the point of it? What purpose does it serve?"

I'm suspecting even Rockstar and Take Two can't answer that question.

I don't consider myself one who is learned in the practice of naming important company products, so it is not often that I criticize things by merit of their name alone. Nintendo, however, has decided to brave the waters like a foreign submarine boldly intruding on American waters.

Last generation there was an uproar about the codename for the GameCube system. At the time it was called the Dolphin, much to the distraught of many. Nintendo discarded the name for a rather plain moniker for its new system. We find the opposite to be the case this time, with the Revolution being a rather unexciting name despite its connotations being renamed the Wii. Not even Wii as in pronounced in "Wifi," no, it's Wii pronounced as in "We." I must note that every message board I've visited had a handful of people who've made unsavory use of this new handle, and it doesn't exactly help that "Wii" phonetically can serve as a euphemism for the male genitals. Those who rely on homosexual insinuations and exploitations of the terms used for the sex organs in their dull witted tongue brawls of game systems will no doubt find the name entrancing to their fragile arguments, but I digress.

I say with little doubt in my mind that Wii is not the name many people were expecting or, indeed, hoping for. I find it a rather unpleasant name myself, but it's a discomfort that I'm unable to put my finger on. Perhaps the way it's spelt - "Wii." It's a rather uncomfortable combination of letters. It could be the way it's pronounced - I can say I would've been much less skeptical of the name if they'd only pronounced it like "wai." Or it could be that I'm not very keen on saying to my girlfriend that I'm "going home to play with my Wii." One must wonder if these things like this are deliberate, and some Nintendo higher up is looking at all of these entries about the new name, chuckling to himself while whispering "DANCE, MY PUPPETS, DANCE!"

The mind boggles.

Those who delight themselves with under-the-radar game series, such as, say, Suikoden, come upon a point where they must assess that their favorite niche series may or may not have fallen into that dreary abyss called the "Capcom syndrome," wherein the series produces a diminishing returns effect in relating to its gameplay - that is, each sequel produces an effect that makes each new entry less and less enjoyable, the aforementioned Suikoden series being one such series.

I myself am one of those people who think that Suikoden is going the way of Megaman. So it is that I've been spending time with Suikoden V - a release which I've been dreading, without accurate knowledge of how exactly Konami was going to run the series into the ground any more than they already have.

So I played the game. And there must be something very, very wrong here, because it is absolutely amazing. Any fears I've had were either unwarranted or baseless, and this new entry manages to capture that priceless feel that came with the old Suikoden games. While my experience in the game is somewhat limited in scope currently - I'm focusing on others so as to churn out those little reviews many of you enjoy oh-so-much - but from what I've seen, Suikoden V is a very well done homage to the roots of the series.