GP: Big thanks to GamePolitics reader Videolandhero for pointing this one out...

Everyone who knows Flash seemingly has a Sarah Palin game these days. I don't know about you, but I'm all Palined out.

But, given our mission to bring you all things related to politics and gaming, we dutifully take note of Puck Palin from T-Enterprise. Hit the link for the full-sized version.

More creativity is needed, however, as the presidential campaign winds down. How about a Joe the Plumber game? That's something designers can work with. There's the obvious Mario connection, for one thing...

UPDATE: If you are not seeing the game, it is because T-Enterprise is migrating its server...

The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama's Xbox Live ads have sparked some humor.

According to an AP report, Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday quipped:

Barack Obama has begun running ads within video games. Obama ads can be seen in video games such as `Madden NFL '09' and `Burnout.' Not to be outdone, John McCain has begun putting ads inside many MRI machines.

GP: Look for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert to have some fun with the Obama ads as well...

Via: GoNintendo

Thanks to: Sharp-eyed GP correspondent Andrew Eisen for spotting this one!

Online games spoofing the 2008 presidential election are plentiful these days, but Truth Invaders takes one of the more unique approaches that we've seen.

In the Space Invaders knockoff, players select among several questionable statements made by both the Obama and McCain campaigns and then try to turn lies (red) to truth (green).

Designer Jeremy Bernstein, who previously created The Redistricting Game, describes Truth Invaders as FactCheck.org meets Space Invaders.

...this one is from Politico.

Blast Russian missiles an MiGs as well as moose and lipstick-wearing, flying pigs...

UPDATE: for some reason the embedded game was starting up in IE, so I've replaced it with a screen shot. Hit the link if you want to play the game at Politico.

Via our sister-site, GameCulture, comes this spoof of those old Intellivision commercials which inexplicably featured erudite writer George Plimpton.

Here's the original. It's almost as funny as the parody...

Over at Crispy Gamer, game scribe Kyle Orland pokes fun at the whole Jack Thompson is a media creation bit, with GamePolitics coming in for some extra attention:

A group of prominent game journalists is gathering together to fight the recent disbarment of anti-game crusader Jack Thompson. The group, headed by GamePolitics editor Dennis McCauley, issued an open letter to the Florida Supreme Court this morning, urging them to reinstate the controversial former lawyer...

 

The statement also included a link to an online petition where gamers could sign up to "get Jack Thompson off the bread lines and back in the headlines, where he belongs." Signatories on the letter include prominent writers for Kotaku, Joystiq, Destructoid and dozens of other gaming blogs...

 

McCauley is worried that those reveling in Thompson's fall from grace haven't fully absorbed what the game journalism landscape will look like without him... McCauley went on to argue that Thompson delivered "the spittle-flecked, borderline-incoherent rants that gamers wanted -- that they needed -- and in that he'll be nearly impossible to replace. We've lost a giant, and we need to do everything we can to get him back."
 

GP: Funny stuff, Kyle.

Oh, and I have just one word for you: paybacks...

Pwn or Die serves up new Sarah Palin images in which the Republican Veep candidate is Photoshopped into various video game shots. 

You'll recognize GTA IV, Tomb Raider, and others

Personally I found the GTA IV lollipop girl image (hit the link) the most entertaining, but the big, huge Pwn or Die watermark across the center is a buzz kill.

We are seeing more and more Palin parody material of late. Fidget finds it no surprise that Palin is getting so much attention in gaming circles, citing this RNC-time post on The Atlantic

In addition, I predict a bonus unintended consequence for McCain among middle class/educated/post-college/pre-adult white males. A demographic label that follows many into their late 30s and currently trends for Obama. Basically the gamers/Gen-Xers/Seth Rogen/Will Farrell crowd..."Sarah Palin as Lara Croft" will leave these guys drooling like zombies.

GP sister site GameCulture points us to Singh Is King.

The Flash game, posted on an Indian website, parodies the numerous political struggles faced by India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh:

Singh Is King's charm and goofball mood belies the black humor behind the game's obstacles. There's the obvious, such as a grinning President Bush floating in air with an outstretched arm, but there are also references to the PM's frequent clashes with India's communist party... as well as India's failure to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

 

Perhaps the darkest token, however, are the Indian farmers that Singh is occasionally forced to leap. In 2003 alone, more than 17,000 farmers committed suicide in India, swallowing pesticides to avoid the shame of debt and family financial ruin brought on by an agricultural economic crisis...

 

Singh Is King is, therefore, worth a look on two fronts. It's a reasonable way to pass a few errant minutes and gives a peek at how politics are penetrating game culture around the world.
 

Bush's Billions, the latest news-oriented, online game from T-Enterprise parodies the current bailout crisis in the U.S. financial markets.

From the game's description:

US President George W Bush has an imaginary shoot out with the speaker of Congress to get his hands on the $700 billion bail-out cash, in this weeks FAB game.

 

You control "Dubya" hiding behind a patrol car after robbing a bank, and must fire guns at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Bush comments on game progress during play, using real life audio clips of the President.

Pwn Or Die has posted this short but funny parody of the classic AYB... with a presidential campaign twist.

Today's Sydney Morning Herald reports on a viral YouTube fad involving mash-ups of 2004 Adolf Hitler bio-pic Downfall.

In one version the evil dictator gets banned from World of Warcraft (hit the video). In another der fuehrer is booted from Xbox Live. From the SMH:

In yet another case of an online parody taking on a life of its own, hundreds of internet jokers are dubbing over a scene from the film Downfall, in which Hitler explodes with anger when told he has lost World War II...

 

The narratives include Hitler fulminating about being kicked off Xbox Live, football star Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United to join Real Madrid, Barack Obama giving a speech in Berlin and being forced to see an Adam Sandler movie.

 

Other Downfall clips include Hitler reacting to having his car stolen, being banned from World of Warcraft, Hillary Clinton's nomination defeat, getting rejected from university and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's disastrous Glasgow byelection results.

Following last week's news that Silent Hill: Homecoming has become the latest video game to run afoul of Australian censors, GUComics couldn't resist poking fun at Down Under politics...

Over at BlipTV we found this:

"Swift Kick Moms for Truth" is a one-minute “machinima” video featuring virtual versions of Obama’s grandma and McCain’s mother scolding the candidates for their deceptive ads. Lead-in by virtual Tom Brokaw.

 

Created in the Second Life virtual world by Machinima by Silver and Goldie, with voice artist Mark Winston.

The title, of course, harkens back to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group, which trashed John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. The term "swiftboating" has since become part of the language, denoting a smear campaign.

This video, however, is both non-partisan and just for fun.

With the presidential campaign in full swing, Chris Morris of Forbes recaps of the current crop of election simulation games.

Here's a brief sample of Chris's thoughts on the games. Hit the link for his full report:

• President Forever 2008 ...lets you get as detailed as you want to in the campaign. You can determine ad spending, spin news headlines and change campaign themes. Heck, you can even recruit Oprah as a crusader.
• The Political Machine... You're... able to campaign against other players in online multiplayer matchups.
• Power Politics III is the grandfather of political games, having put a version out for every election since 1992 (with the exception of 2000, when designer Randy Chase was unable to find a publisher) 

Morris also mentions a pair of games that are just for fun, with no pretense of simulation:

• Kung Fu Election pits all the candidates... in a series of one-on-one "Mortal Kombat"-style bloodfests.
• Campaign pits Obama against McCain... in a game that seems like an odd combination of "Risk" and any generic spell-based game.

Although neither the McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden tickets have especially significant track records in regard to video game issues, one of them will win in November and thus be in a position to influence the course of the public debate over games.

With that in mind, it's clear that some bloggers can't resist sending a bit of parody the candidates' way.

Kotaku yesterday ran What Can Games Teach Us About the Election?, recommending that the would-be presidents study titles like WoW (leadership), Missile Command (foreign policy) and Trauma Center: Under the Knike (heath care). Here's a sample:

Far from condemning video gaming, McCain and Obama would do well to embrace gaming culture in the hope that some of our collective wisdom will rub off...

 

Worried that you may not have traveled extensively enough, or had enough experience on the world stage?

 

...Chillax, just grab a PC and binge on Civilization... A few Civ campaigns should be enough for a basic grounding in the subtle nuances of international relations. The tech progress tree might also give a greater understanding of science although beware — if the candidates heed the game's advice too closely, Wall Street may reel from the unexpected national investment in Pottery and Burial Rituals.

 

A Civ player quickly learns the importance of a stable economy to a war effort. It's no good throwing phalanx after phalanx at a conquered land if your advisors are telling you to build more granaries, after all. Better to focus on diplomacy, and maybe build a colossus or two to keep the plebes happy back home.

Meanwhile, Daily Game has a two-parter with a slightly different twist on the subject. If Barack Obama and Joe Biden Were Video Games and If John McCain and Sarah Palin Were Video Games strains the metaphor a bit to relate the candidates to a half-dozen or so games.
 

In this video Richard Garriott aka Lord British phones in an appearance - from Russia - with Stephen Colbert.

As GamePolitics has reported, Garriott's baggage for his trip to to the International Space Station includes a sample of Colbert's DNA.

Garriott, of course, is best known as the creator of the Ultima RPG series.

Canada's Agriculture Minister is under fire from the public as well as from players of a satirical online game.

As reported by Canada.com, the minister, Gerry Ritz, outraged citizens after he cracked jokes about a deadly outbreak of Listeriosis, caused by tainted lunch meat:

The jokes were made during a conference call with bureaucrats held at the end of August to review progress dealing with the listeria crisis. During the phone conversation, Ritz said that, for the government, "it was like death by a thousand cuts - or, should I say, 'cold cuts?'"

 

Later, when told about another listeriosis case in P.E.I., he said, "Please tell me it's (Liberal agriculture critic) Wayne Easter."

By way of response, programmers at a Toronto web design studio created Cold Cut Cannon, a Flash game in which players "fire salami slices from your cold cut cannon over the skies of Parliament to defend the honour of Canada and the sensibilities of your fellow citizens!"

Of the satirical game, co-creator Roger Grant said:

Gerry Ritz made his comments and we were outraged. We feel that he should've been fired... We believe political satire plays an important role in voter involvement. We didn't want to make it a serious game or a serious site. We made light of it. We wanted to draw attention to it and that's why we put it the way we did it so people would look at it.

Unanticipated Consequences Dept: Ironically, the context-sensitive Google Ads on the Cold Cut Cannon site are primarily for products such as lunch meat, hot dogs and Canadian bacon. 

Yesterday GamePolitics covered AntiSpore, an apparent Creationist site bent on attacking the evolutionary message inherent in Will Wright's best-selling Spore.

We noted that there was some suspicion that the over-the-top blog was a hoax. And so it was. In today's entry the author starts out with a lengthy diatribe on her religious views:

I think part of the problem that is going on here is that the bulk of you are ignorant as to the word of God. I don’t have these beliefs just because I want to, I have them because they are the beliefs that I was raised in. I understand that everyone didn’t have the chance to be taught these things, and learn about God as my family did so if I am going to have this kind of attention I should use it to help teach others about the words of God that helped to shape me into the woman I am today...

...and then goes on to quote biblical passages from the Book of Genesis:

...But the Bible teaches us that God was not done with man. For we were His creation and He then spoke to Noah in Genesis 8:21-27 after the flood.
“21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never gonna give you up.
22. “Never gonna let you down.”
23.”Never gonna run around and desert you.”
24. “Never gonna make you cry.”
25. “Never gonna say goodbye.”
26. “Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.”
27.”Never truly believe anything you read on the Internet. There will always be cases of Poe’s Law.”

So - a very clever Rickroll, indeed!

Now, the only remaining question is: who pulled this off? To find out that AntiSpore was an EA marketing stunt would be disappointing. Otherwise, Bravo!

Not content to rest on the laurels of their hilarious GTA IV Activity Book for Kids, the crew at the -minusworld has come up with a Resident Evil Activity Book for Kids.

By way of explanation, there's this:

Oh Resident Evil 5, you elusive wench! Why must you make us wait so long to play you? What the hell are we supposed to do until March? And think about the kids! They can’t even play the game, period. Luckily, though, Capcom has heard your cries and is clappin’ back with the Resident Evil Activity Book For Kids. You won’t find any blood, gore, or racism here but you will find good old wholesome fun! So much fun that your head might explode, exposing wavy tentacles of joy that flail around the village. Get to it!

Political cartoonist Dana Summers of the Orlando Sentinel checked in recently on the media violence issue...

There are those who fear that tomorrow's activation of CERN's Large Hadron Collider may generate a world-ending black hole (see: Legal Bid to Stop CERN Atom Smasher from "destroying the world").

The picture at left may lend credence to that notion. Popgive has alertly picked up on the fact that the guy on the right looks an awful lot like Half-Life protagonist Gordon Freeman. And we all know how bad that guy's luck is when it comes to scientific experiments:

A theoretical physicist working at the fictional Black Mesa Research Facility, Gordon is involved in an experiment which accidentally opens an interdimensional portal, releasing confused, hostile beings into the complex. The first Half-Life sees Gordon fighting through the facility alongside fellow employees, engaging the aliens as well as a black ops military unit sent in to contain the situation.

GP: Stressed out by the looming Armageddon? Relax with this Large Hadron Rap video... (Uh, we think we spotted Freeman in there, too...)

The Associated Press reports that when Ultima series creator Richard Garriott travels to the International Space Station in October, he will carry with him the DNA of Stephen Colbert. Said the comedian:

I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my lifelong dream of being the baby at the end of 2001 [A Space Odyssey].

Garriott, whose father was a NASA astronaut, is gathering material for a human DNA time capsule. The Ultima designer, often known as Lord British, quipped:

In the unlikely event that Earth and humanity are destroyed, mankind can be resurrected with Stephen Colbert's DNA. Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?

A disgruntled former GameStop employee who goes by WhistleBlowerZero has posted a nine-part YouTube video series detailing his view of why gamers can do better elsewhere.

Done in the style of Zero Punctuation, The videos are very funny and somewhat NSFW - especially if you work at GameStop.

GP: And - just wondering here - is there such a thing as a "gruntled" former employee?

Via: Kotaku

Sharp-eyed GamePolitics correspondent Andrew Eisen spotted this cartoon on Dork Tower.

Hit the link for the rest of the panels...

Video game columnist Dave Davies of the San Antonio Express has tongue firmly planted in cheek as he ticks off a quartet of video games that he says can increase one's understanding of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin.

In what amounts to a series of micro-reviews, he writes:

Before we jump to conclusions about Palin, we should get to know her a little better — walk a mile in her snowshoes. Video games can help us do that.

By way of powering up your Palin I.Q., Davies suggests the following games:

The Deadlist Catch (360):  According to her official biography, Palin worked with her husband, Todd, on a commercial fishing boat. So playing the game you can see what tough work this is. And playing this game is a lot like work.

 

Kawasaki Snowmobiles (Wii): Todd Palin is the five-time champion of the world's longest snowmobile race... So what's it like to be a snowmobile champ? Play the game  and find out — not! Even with all the distractions, Palin's political career is having an easier time staying on track than the snowmobiles in this simulation.

 

Cabela's Alaskan Adventures (PS2): Sarah Palin loves to shoot her some of that moose and you can, too...Despite Sony's promise of backward compatibility, this game did not run on my PS3 — but I've still got the PS2.

 

Arctic Tale: Palin doesn't want federal protection for the polar bears and she doesn't believe in global warming. But if we could get her to play this game, she might change her mind.

When we think of marathon video games, it's usually some 100-hour RPG.

So how does a 14-year-long game sound?

It's a spoof, of course. the Onion Radio News serves up an audio report on Middle East Meltdown, a new game based on the Iraq War. The fanciful title includes fun activities like building and re-building the same infrastructure, beheadings, and spending time in rat-infested V.A. hospitals.

A new YouTube video spoofs Republican presidential contender John McCain with a Mario Bros. flair.

In John McCain - POW Bros. video game journalist Jared Rea depicts McCain as exploiting his five years spent as a prisoner of war to counter just about every issue.

Jared, clearly not a McCain fan, writes:

John McCain uses his prisoner of war status as both sword and shield. It’s the entirety of his foreign policy experience and ultimate defense against legitimate questions and concerns rolled into a single onomatopoeia.

Final Fantasy XI gamer catwho, posting on liberal political supersite Daily Kos, describes using her feminine wiles (read: cleavage) in an attempt to win a "player of the month" election on a popular Final Fantasy XI fan site. Posted under The Politics of Video Games, catwho writes:

While the Presidential war rages on, I'm fighting the good fight on a video game forum of all places...  But now, I'm in a race on that very forum -- for Player of the Month for my video game.  This is more or less like the Democratic Primaries where it came down to Clinton and Obama -- I'm the only girl in the race, and it's the funny popular guy that is my main competition...

 

More or less, the "race" is just a popularity contest.  Unlike the Democratic primary, however, this is a no-holds-barred knock-down drag-em-out slugfest.  I'm behind in votes, so I offer to sing songs for people.  I surge ahead briefly.  Then I break out the big guns and post a shot of my cleavage.  (Sexism? What's that?)  My competitor responds by posting a pic of his man cleavage, chest hair and all.  Words cannot describe the horrors contained in this image...

GP: Seems like it worked. Election results on Allakhazam show catwho edging out her nearest competitor.