While I havnt seen this mod myself, it sounds as if this content wasnt even in the game to begin with (Its not in the xbox360 version and I dont see why they would add a skin texture to just the PC version). So I dont see what remastering the game would do, its always going to be modable it would just take more of an effort to do so.

If publishers continue to deceive the ESRB, or the ESRB aren't thorough in their reviews, Congress and all the other Nanny State morons like Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton are going to say "see! see! This industry cannot regulate itself!"

The only thing the publisher could have decieved the ESRB on here is the blood/gore content here.
"The content causing the ESRB to change the rating involves more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating"
If this is true and the publisher did not acuratly record all instances of intense violence, blood and gore and they did so knowingly, then the ESRB could come back at them. However I highly doubt this is the case.

So? Who here is actually under 17? Why does everyone whine so much about it? If you go to a gamestore, you'll still be able to buy the game. And, looking ahead, since the gamestore is dying out anyways, you'll have to buy the game online, with either your own creditcard (Which I believe means you HAVE to be 18?), or your parent's credit card, in which case the age check doesn't do shit.
Really, the world won't end if/when the gaming industry ever gets regulated. You really won't notice it. Trust me.

I think you will notice it, and it will have a very bad effect on the game industry. Ever since Hot Coffee, companies have been cracking down harder on the content thats being left in the code, essentialy taking time away from making a better game and more into saving their ass that they dont leave any stray code that could be later found and unlocked. In addition, companies target that T rating because of the larger amount of sales a T rated game gets over and M rated game. Often times content is removed from a game that made the game better in order to recieve the T rating, and if this comes late in the dev cycle a quick hack is put into place that often leaves the game mechanics feeling odd in certain situations. If the goverment were to step in there would be all sorts of odd rules being put into place, since they have little to no knowledge of how the industry works. Which would goto making games take longer to make, and cost more, so in turn gameplay mechanics would get cut in order to bring down dev time and cost.

I too at first thought this name was out there, but I assume I will get used to it just as I have all the other things that have occurred like this. Its just the initial shock of something totally unexpected with a name that is completely odd.

However, I think Nintendo knows exactly what they are doing. They knew this would be huge news and people would react all over the place. So they release the name 2 weeks before E3, have everyone talking about it (good or bad at least its on their brain) and by E3 the initial shock is gone and everything will start to shift focus over to all the games they are going to be showing off.

And I don't get why everyone is associating Wii with that of taking a piss (beyond the haters of Nintendo that would have found a problem with any name they came up with). I don't know anyone who has ever said "I'm going to go take a wee". Now maybe little kids say weewee, but most of the world doesn't speak in such a way. I foresee in the coming weeks people will start to embrace the name more, I for one have started to accept it more if not for just all the hate its generated, I find it rather amusing how quickly this has become a recognized name.

This whole law suit doesnt even look to pertain to HL2 at all. But instead the way valve has been using Steam to distribute games Vivendi is still selling. The only way any of this will effect HL2 is if Valve decides to hold the game back until they get what they want, in which case Vivendi will probaly force them to release it.

All that aside, the whole deal with publishers being the problem with games is slightly off base. Sure they push for a lot of things that would be better off not done, but they also push for games to go out the door. A lot of companies wouldnt ever hit their release dates in a timely matter if it wernt for publishers holding their paychecks. Sure you can think that thats why games come out not done or buggy, or what not. But really you should look towards some of the developers as either not putting in the time, or not being as good as they should be. This isnt to lay blame on either side, because its differnt for every game, and probaly ends up being equal problems among both sides.

Now something that shouldnt be over looked, is that if a publisher loses a big development company like Valve, then they lose money. And by them losing money they are even less likely to take up that risky project. Publishers need big money makers to allow them to take these risks with small start up companies. What if they had decided to never take the risk with HL, the whole project could have gone down the tubes.

As for Online distribution, it may be the way some people perfer to buy games, but will never take the place of the actuall box sale. Reason being, that if a company wishes to sell both ways, they have to meet retails demands, and if you undercut the retail chains they arnt going to want to do buisness with you. So you are left with the dession of getting the box copy and any special deals they include with it, or download the game for the same price without getting anything but the game.