« May 2004 | Main | July 2004 »
Midway's MLB Slugfest, due June 21, is the first game to take advantage of Xbox Live 3.0 features. The game permits in-game creation of password-protected tournaments with 4, 8 or 16 teams. Past Xbox games with online tournament support required a PC and a trip to the Xbox Web site to participate...
Fans of Chris Taylor's Total Annihilation may enjoy a new Unreal Tournament total conversion mod: Unreal Annihilation. This "3D interpretation" of the real-time strategy classic works with UT2K3 and eventually will support UT2K4 as well. Get it from ua.tauniverse.com...
After breaking free somewhat in Bustin' Out, the next console Sims title puts your highly customizable creation into a bustling metropolis. The Urbz: Sims in the City, due late 2004, has you build your reputation to unlock new areas and actually go to work instead of just watching your house when your Sim catches the bus. Also, expect lots of mini-games (such as sushi making) and, on the PS2, EyeToy integration...
Microsoft's cancellation spree continues. This time, it's the game designed to finally sell some Xboxen in Japan: the massively multiplayer True Fantasy Live Online. If you think about it, this portfolio thinning could be a good thing. After all, how many mediocre games do Sony and Nintendo publish...
It's true. The version of Full Spectrum Warrior designed for the U.S. Army can be unlocked in the Xbox release. Just enter the code ha2p1py9tur5tle. In addition to changes to the head's up display, your soldiers will be more vulnerable under cover plus there are more enemies and civilians to contend with...
Golf fans looking for a new challenge can download another course for Links 2004. The North Course at Gallery Golf Club in Arizona is faithfully recreated. As with the previous Kapalua Plantation download, this one will set you back $5...
If you've been itching to try Star Wars Galaxies, now's your chance to do it for free. Download the game from Fileplanet.com and get a 14-day trial...
With LucasArts seemingly abandoning the non-Star Wars adventure genre, fans have ported and updated some of their '80s point-and-click classics: Zak McKracken and Maniac Mansion. Get them from www25.brinkster.com/lucasfangames/. Force not included...
Or, you could simply unplug your network cable at times when you'd rather not alert the whole world that you're playing videogames. The key is awareness: You need to know that when you power up that Xbox, a popup alert is going out and someone's phone might just start jingling. Heck, there's even a free Windows application called Xbox Friends that can capture and compile your gaming habits.
Actually, privacy issue aside, Microsoft might want to rethink the MSN Alerts functionality. On November 9, we're likely to bring down MSN's networks when I predict a record number of gamers will come down with a new strain of influenza.
The (cough, cough) Halo 2 flu.
-=Gamewatcher
A small bug is annoying adept players of Thief: Deadly Shadows. When playing Expert mode, the enemy AI drops back to normal if you save and then reload a level. The PC version will likely be patched, but what about the Xbox? A recall is unlikely, so you just better be good enough to play through without saving...
Valve revealed that arrests have finally been made in the theft of the Half-Life 2 source code. No real information was released, except that the arrests span more than one country and the gamer community helped uncover a trail that might otherwise have remained cold. Those who were arrested, you know who you are...
Already bored with the multiplayer maps in Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow? Good news: Ubisoft just released some new ones for download via Xbox Live. Federal Bank offers the chance to breach a magnetically sealed vault, but the star in this package is the expansive, neon-washed River Mall replete with ductwork and wide open spaces. If this sounds good, then get out your credit card: You'll pay $5 per Xbox...
The v1.2 patch for Painkiller improves weapon selection and switching, tweaks weapon damange, reduces crashing bugs and adds two new multiplayer maps. Get it from FilePlanet.com or wherever you download patches...
If you can imagine Halo on the GameBoy Advance, well, that's as close as you're going to get to playing it. Bungie denies rumors of a portable version of its star shooter. Its perennial vaporware Pimps at Sea, that's another story...
Patch 2 for Unreal Tournament 2004 tunes Onslaught multiplayer, closes some cheater loopholes, improves networking and in-game effects, cleans up menus and updates the mod tools. No new maps; those are available separately. Get the update and other goodies at unrealtournament.com...
The sequel to Blinx: The Time Sweeper hopes to correct many of the flaws of the original, from removing time limits and linear crystal collection to offering better camera control. Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space also adds stealth levels and multiplayer cooperative and battle modes -- but, alas, not on Xbox Live. The game is due in November, unless Microsoft adds it to the pile of recently cancelled titles...
Want to help decide which NES games get ported next to the GameBoy Advance? Visit nintendo.com/classic.jsp. There are 38 nominees, or you can make three choices from a list of hundreds...
The fix is in for the PC version of Thief: Deadly Shadows. With the patch, available at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5108, enemy logic will stay at Expert even after a save. If you want improved texture detail, a fan has improved the art for this and Deus Ex: Invisible War, Upgrade your graphics at graphics-by-john-p.com...
Warhammer Online, a massively multiplayer online RPG based on the popular offline model- and rule-based RPG, is no more. Supposedly, the game was pretty far along. A petition to save it can't be far off...
The PC version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow has been patched to improve multiplayer, including changes to the ranking system. Get the fix at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=4810,,.
Vivendi Universal will close the last bastion of Sierra On-Line when it shutters their Bellevue, Wash. offices. This also marks the cancellation of the legendary company's popular Hoyle card and puzzle games. But the Sierra brand will live on...
Starcraft: Ghost has been delayed indefinitely, probably into 2005. The stealth shooter, based on the popular real-time strategy series, also lost co-developer Nihilistic Software. It's not clear whether they left voluntarily or were shoved, but rumor has it the game needs major refocus on the much-trumpeted stealth elements...
Doom III will be released August 3 on PC, with the Xbox version to follow...
There's a serious security hole in the networking code of the PC Unreal and Unreal Tournament series, as well as games based on its popular engine including Deus Ex, Postal 2, Devastation, Mobile Forces, Nerf Arena Blast, Rune, Tactical Ops, TNN Pro Hunter, Wheel of Time and X-com Enforcer. Patches are available for most affected games at sites such as fileshack.com...
Vivendi Universal, love 'em or hate 'em, just released the Gustaf Grefberg soundtrack and four remixes from its Chronicles of Riddick game. Download the MP3s at vugames.com/file_list.do?gamePlatformId=767...
If you like your real-time strategy with soldiers and a twist of science fiction, get the free download of Ground Control at fileplanet.com/promotions/groundcontrol/. Released in 2000, the game is a promo for the just released Ground Control II: Operation Exodus, which offers more of the same...
A patch for the PC version of The Suffering is out, fixing some crashing and gameplay bugs. Get it from gamershell.com/news_BTheSufferingBPatch1.1.shtml...
The first major update to the massively multiplayer City of Heroes adds new zones, outdoor maps, new mission twists, a tailor who makes superhero costume alterations (for a price) and more...
Joining the stable of military-funded videogames is Close Combat: First to Fight, a first-person squad-based shooter bankrolled by the U.S. Marine Corps and developed by some ex-Bungie personnel. You'll control the team leader, issuing orders, calling in air support and using the latest authentic tactics in a Middle Eastern setting. It's due in the fall for PC and Xbox...
This page contains all entries posted to Busy Gamer News in June 2004. They are listed from oldest to newest.
May 2004 is the previous archive.
July 2004 is the next archive.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
