Busy Gamer News

Ever imagined what Grand Theft Auto would be like online? A group of modders had made the dream possible with Multi Theft Auto, a work-in-progress multiplayer mod for the PC versions. The new Vice City 0.2.2 release includes stunt mode support and improved stability. A step-by-step guide explains how to make it work: http://www.mtavc.com/sbs.php...

Digital Illusions issued the v1.5 patch for Battlefield 1942. Apart from fixing a vexing lag bug, an ammo exploit and the CD swapping fiasco, the update includes an all new Invasion of the Philippines map with added patrol boats and weapons. Get it from http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=3982...

GameCubers salivating over the broadband games on Xbox Live and PS2 can get in on the online multiplayer action with WarpPipe at http://www.warppipe.com/ and the next version of Xlink Messenger at http://www.xboxlink.co.uk/. So far, the only supported multiplayer games are Kirby Air Ride, Mario Kart: Double Dash! and 1080�: Avalanche...

Xbox 2 is shaping up thanks to news that IBM will supply the CPU, ousting Intel whose Pentium III chips reside inside the current herd of Xboxen. This joins prior news that ATI's graphics processor will replace nVidia's. What's the big deal? Apart from suggestions that Microsoft and Intel are on the outs, this means playing Xbox games on the Xbox2 -- currently expected in 2005 -- will be unlikely unless the new chips are so fast that Microsoft can build in Xbox emulation. Let's hope the units will at least stack...

If you've delayed getting a GameCube even since the recent price drop, a new bundle might finally sway you. On November 17, Nintendo is releasing a Zelda collection that includes 1987's Legend of Zelda, 1988's Zelda II, 1998's Ocarina of Time and 2000's Majora's Mask. The bonus game disc also contains a Wind Waker demo and a history of the game franchise. Already have a GameCube? You can get the disc by registering two major holiday games and your console or by getting or renewing a Nintendo Power subscription...

The new Rockstar game Manhunt supports the PS2 headset, but it's not what you think. It won't enable online multiplayer or even voice commands. Instead, your earpiece carries the voice of the game's "director" who has dropped you into the middle of an urban game hunt where you're the prey. Additionally, noises you make while playing will be picked up by the microphone, giving the hunters something extra to track you by...

Detective novelist Robert Crais dropped his True Crime copyright suit against Activision. The company gave Crais unprecedented access to the game and its development materials. While lead designer Peter Morawiec admitted being inspired by Crais' Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels, the author found nothing actionable and dropped the case without a payoff. Of course, he did get a brief boost in publicity and a chance to play the game early. Word is he liked it...

If you're curious to see how Internet gamers view the Nokia N-Gage, be sure to check out http://www.sidetalkin.com/. The device, disparaged by many as a gaming taco, must be held sideways to perform as a phone. And you thought stepping outdoors to play Boktai made you look goofy...

America's Army: Special Forces, the newest version of the U.S. Army's recruitment shooter game, is now available at http://www.americasarmy.com. It adds new Special Forces player models, maps, training, squad structures and weapons including the SOPMOD M4 Carbine, a marksman rifle and thermite grenades. Play at your own risk: You might wake up one day with a crewcut and the overwhelming desire to trade your virtual weapons for the real thing...

Logging into Xbox Live with Crimson Skies will update the game with a few improvements. For one, changes to your multiplayer options will no longer mess up your single player game. Also, errors in turret scoring have been fixed and if you choose inverted aim it should stick. The Crimson Skies team also revealed that game data is saved throughout the online action, not just at the end of a run. So if you're thinking of playing the disconnect game to save your stats, you can forget it...

Microsoft hasn't confirmed Xbox 2 won't support Xbox games, but recent chip news suggests it's possible. To keep the big M from making such a boneheaded move, concerned gamers created a petition. Sign at http://www.petitiononline.com/xbox2/...

If you've let your Earth & Beyond subscripton lapse, Electronic Arts is offering one week's "amnesty" to let you kick the tires on the latest improvements and twists in the ongoing storyline. From now until November 17, simply login with your old account credentials...

Forget Enter the Matrix, how about The Matrix Online? The next big Matrix game will be massive and multiplayer, enabling gamers to join others in the world of Neo and Trinity. Details are sketchy, but c'mon -- it's massively multiplayer Matrix! It's either gonna be really good or really bad. Then again, there are some who will say we're already living it...

As part of a campaign to promote Windows XP, Microsoft launched a new PC gaming hub at http://microsoft.com/windowsxp/games/. Featured promotional downloads include bonus levels for TRON 2.0, a Half-Life 2 skin for Windows Media Player, a Final Fantasy XI desktop theme and a Zoo Tycoon card game...

A bug in the new PC port of Dead to Rights makes the training level impassible for gamers using the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card. During a cut scene, the player's character doesn't actually pick up a flammable canister required for the next interactive sequence, leaving the gamer stuck only a few minutes into the first level. Developer Hip Games is working on a patch...

Xbox gamers are reporting an intermittent audio problem with their version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City where pedestrian voices drop out of the game. While some never experience the so-called "ped glitch," others are enraged by it. Apart from removing a layer of the immersive game environment, the bug leaves the player open to unannounced attacks by street cops. Theories abound, but so far there's no definitive answer or workaround. Rockstar is investigating. Stay tuned...

Nokia confirmed that hackers have broken the code on the N-Gage's copy protection, permitting the system's games to be traded and played on any Symbian-based device including competing phones by Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu and Motorola. Nokia vows to track down the culprits. Perhaps it's not too early to start referring to the sidetalkin' gaming taco as the "ill-fated N-Gage"...

Despite recent losses, Nintendo revealed it's still in the hardware game with a new console to be unveiled in 2004. The system, probably an heir to the GameCube or possibly the GameBoy Advance, will likely be released in 2005 alongside competing systems from Sony (PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable) and Microsoft (Xbox2). Next year's E3 just got a little more interesting...

UPDATE: Nintendo is now saying that its new gaming device will be neither console nor portable gaming device. Instead, it's some mysterious new platform to launch next year in Japan and possibly other markets. An heir to the GameCube is reputedly in the works, but this is something else...

Hip Games released a patch to fix the canister bug that prevents users of the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card from completing the tutorial level of Dead to Rights. Install it only if you need it. The patch itself is nearly 40MB. Get it from http://www.hip-games.com/news.php?id=33...

An update to Rise of Nations adds new multiplayer features including a quick match interface and lobby and the ability to save multiplayer games. There are also some new multiplayer scenarios, including an Italian Renaissance campaign, a NATO battle against the USSR and more. Download them at http://www.riseofnations.com/. ..

If you've somehow managed to survive this long without a PlayStation 2, Sony hopes to entice you with a sweepstakes where you could win a million dollars. You can enter without buying the PS2 combo pack but you'll need a 3x5 card and a stamp. Details at http://www.playstationmillion.com...

Star Wars Galaxies continues to evolve with the emergence of the first Jedi player characters and the release of some enhancements. A new city system enables gamers to incorporate and activate local government. And public transportation is improved with the first mountable beasts tamed by creature handlers...

Nintendo only joined the discount game this year with its Player's Choice titles that range from $20 to $30. The $20 titles include Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin and Star Fox Adventures. For $30, you can pick up Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Smash Bros. Melee...

Recent additions to the $20 PS2 Greatest Hits collection include Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and the Thievious Racoonus and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs (minus the headset)...

Why pay more? New additions to the $20 Xbox Platinum Hits line include Conflict Desert Storm, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2, MechAssault, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and WWE Raw...

Fans of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance will be at home in the world of Final Fantasy XII. The next game in the series, due in 2004 for PS2, will revisit the lands of Ivalice. Yes, there will be Judges though they will be much less benevolent. Let's just say that in this game they're known as the Knights of Terror. You'll also see Bangaas, Vieras and Moogles. Oh, and the game will be the first to go fully 3D. Drool much?...

Those of us who grew up during the '70s energy crisis know the familiar refrain that electricity doesn't grow on trees – unless, of course, you burn them. We've been programmed to believe that it's wrong to leave on a light or TV set or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound receiver if we're leaving the room for more than a few seconds. And we're joined by those environmentally aware among us who realize that reduced power consumption isn't just good for the pocketbook, it preserves natural resources, reduces damage to air quality and preserves precious river water that aids in the growth and development of those yummy Northwest salmon.

Which is why it's so daunting to be a grown-up gamer with family, work and responsibilities. Game companies, for the most part, want our gaming dollars but they just don't get that we may only have five or ten consecutive minutes to devote to their game and we want to SAVE OUR PROGRESS when we get up to feed a crying baby or run to the bank or leave the house for a full day at the office.

Sure, there are games like Viewtiful Joe and the Contra series that are designed to be played more or less in one sitting. Face it, these are designed for hard-core gamers and if you don't like it, screw you - you can go play something else like Halo or Barbie Horse Adventures. But what about Buffy the Vampire Slayer – what's her excuse? Chaos Bleeds is designed to appeal to mainstream fans of a freakin' TV series. And they won't let you save except at the end of a level. This means you end up leaving your gaming console up and running all day and all night until you finish a level – some of which can take an hour or more to beat even if you're pretty good.

As videogames go increasingly mainstream, game designers need to recognize that while many gamers would love to play a game for 24 hours straight without anything but bio and pizza breaks, real life intervenes. Most of us can barely squeeze in a few minutes here and there.

Online games in particular need to feature modes that allow gamers to jump on, play a quick round or two and then jump off. Long races, epic battles, huge maps and expansive team dynamics are great, but sometimes I just want to find a quick race or shoot something for 5-10 minutes before I fix dinner or balance the checkbook. The saddest day for me was when they pulled the plug on Re-Volt for Xbox Live (available during the pre-launch beta period and for a few months after). It was just a little RC car racing game but it was great because I didn't have to unlock vehicles or invest much time into learning the tracks and I didn't really care much if I came in first place or last. It was just plain fun, and, even now, I miss it.

I know, I know, there have been some online racing games since Re-Volt faded from the scene. Midnight Club II was so much fun offline that I never managed to get online. And I always figured I'd just get my butt kicked by all of the folks who had made it to Tokyo and unlocked the primo cars. As much as I loved the game, I never got all the way through Paris before another great game pulled me away. Again, not enough time. Then there was Midtown Madness 3. Frankly, I just didn't care for the physics very much so I didn't devote much time to it. Project Gotham Racing 2 is great and it almost fills the void, but I still spend most of my free time unlocking cars and tracks in the single-player game rather than jumping online for a quick match. That could change once I get a little further but with all of the great games out right now vying for my time, it will probably be next year before I progress that far.

But overall, online isn't the biggest problem and I really didn't mean to spend so much time talking about it. It's simply another place where game designers should consider their audience. The biggest problem is save points (or lack thereof). In a world where game consoles support pretty large memory cards and even hard drives, the solution is to let the gamer save anywhere or at least at reasonably spaced continue points.

Games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 manage to balance the challenge level by limiting the number of times you can save during a mission. Other games like Maximo make you "pay" for saves with currency you collect in the levels, so you can save as often as you like from a hub location as long as you have enough coins. Jak II neatly saves in the background whenever you complete a mission or major milestone. Voodoo Vince saves whenever you die or finish a level, so you'll never have to pick up the same item twice - though its implementation could be better; you'll quickly tire of the save screen.

I'm sure there are many more creative solutions to this problem and I look forward to seeing them. But let me bottom line it for you game designers out there:

Save a tree, add a save point. There might even be a yummy salmon in it for you.

-=Gamewatcher

Halo for Xbox joins the list of discount holiday titles, priced to move at only $29.99...

Another batch of new cars is available for Midtown Madness 3 players with an Xbox Live account. There's a modified two-door sports import, a sports coupe and a dumpster on wheels. Really. Go check it out...

It's only been out a couple of days but there are already downloads for Secret Weapons Over Normandy on Xbox Live. Add some new planes to your hanger: the ubiquitous Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk Mk. II, the gullwing Vought F4U-1A Corsair and a camouflaged version of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning...

Eager to try the buzzworthy Deus Ex: Invisible War? If you have a PC with at least a 1.3Ghz P4 processor, 256MB of RAM and a decent video card and don't mind a 224MB download, you're in luck. Other hot demos (with similarly steep system overhead) include Max Payne 2, Secret Weapons Over Normandy, Lords of EverQuest and Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna. Get them at Fileshack.com or your favorite download source. PC upgrade not included...

In an effort to breathe new life into a year-old title and test its for-pay downloads model, Microsoft introduced a bundle of new MechAssault multiplayer game modes and maps. For $4.99 you get Take It, an expansion of capture-the-flag play that requires teamwork to open a gate, and Check It, a domination game. The maps include a maze set in a blizzard, a city set in a crater and a volcano whose fiery magma can either help or hinder you. Not a steep price if you like the online game...

If you missed out on the bonus levels for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell released on the Rainbow Six 3 pre-order bonus disc, don't despair: both Vselka submarine missions are now available for download on Xbox Live...

PS2 gamers with SSX 3, mark you calendar for Dec. 19. That's the day you can go head-to-head online with the developers of the game. So practice up while you can and get full details at http://easportsbigonline.com/games/ssx3/...