Busy Gamer News

With so many great games coming out, it's easy to forget those pushed to 2005 - some to dodge the inevitable holiday glut. Here are the highlights: Battlefield: Modern Combat (late 2005), Brothers in Arms (early 2005), Devil May Cry 3 (March 8), Forza Motorsport (February), The Getaway: Black Monday (January), Juiced (summer), Playboy: The Mansion (January), Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge (fall) and Splinter Cell 3 (early 2005)...

Microsoft continues to play the limited edition game, trying to lure preorders with special bonuses for MechAssault 2 and Zoo Tycoon 2. The more enticing is MechAssault, which not only includes the obligatory "making of" video but also two exclusive in-game maps. Then again, the Zoo Tycoon set includes a bonus DVD with clips from Totally Wild (a National Geographic series) and a branded pen with a handpainted animal...

Fans of Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow can download fresh multiplayer maps on Xbox Live. Assault Pack #1 includes a military training facility, a Canadian winter lodge, a Saudi oil depot and a three-story office building. And it will cost you $4.99... If you've somehow missed out on the Tom Clancy series on Xbox, Ubisoft is offering a holiday bundle with the original Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six 3 and Splinter Cell for only $39.99...

Star Wars: Battlefront for PC has been improved as promised, most notably multiplayer features and enemy AI on the Hard setting. Get the v1.1 patch from support.lucasarts.com... Far Cry fans are happy now that v1.3 of the game fixes some of the notorious bugs of v1.2. Alas, there is some question about whether v1.2 saves work with the update; use \map (levelname) in the console as a workaround. Get v1.3 from fileshack.com/file.x?fid=4787... Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 just landed at retail and already there's a beta patch with substantial improvements to the game - too many to list here. Get details and the patch at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5776...

Microsoft launched Xbox Live Arcade, a platform for more casual and arcade games that can be downloaded for unlimited play. Sound good? Well, you need a "free" game disc, which can be ordered for $5.45 (shipping and tax) from xbox.com and includes a playable version of Ms. Pac-Man. (Or you could wait for the January issue of Official Xbox Magazine, which will include the starter disc, or other distribution methods.) Titles for sale include Bejeweled, Super Collapse 2, a collection of Namco arcade games, a Solitaire game, and a Minesweeper knockoff. The buzz kill: They start at a steep $9.99 apiece, while larger collections of classic arcade games on Xbox can be had for $20 or less...

The I Love Bees marketing game for Halo 2 has ended with four "training events" where gamers got to enjoy multiplayer shootouts on movie screens in Austin, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Other cities had distribution points for a collector's DVD that contains all of the audio clips from the ongoing series, which manifested largely as a radio program revealed via payphones initially and eventually added to the Web site as audio files so fans could piece together the full story... In other news, some midwestern Meijer stores began selling Halo 2 early; word is the wrath of Bungie is upon them...

The open beta for World of Warcraft is expected to start in the next day or so. A limited number of people will be accepted, and the beta will no doubt end well before the Nov. 23 launch. Keep an eye on worldofwarcraft.com if you missed the closed beta and want an early taste of its massively multiplayer world...

Beware geeks bearing gifts. A file that promises to unlock the Half-Life 2 preloaded files actually contains a Trojan horse that steals your Steam account login. You'll just have to wait until 12 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday, Nov. 16 for the global game activation... To tide you over, pick up the Source SDK at valve-erc.com/srcsdk and start making mods for Counter-Strike Source...

Moments before Halo 2's official release, Microsoft began exercising its prerogative to ban anyone with a modified Xbox detected on the Xbox Live network. This may include folks who performed self repairs such as a simple drive replacement. Even modders with the chips switched off report getting the ban. Ostensibly this is an effort to prevent piracy and cheating with Halo 2. Wonder how many people picked up a new Xbox at a midnight madness event...

Wondering if you should shell out for the guide? Piggyback, makers of official guides for Halo 2 and Jak 3, have free downloadable samples. For Halo 2, get a walkthrough of the single-player level Metropolis and the multiplayer map Midship. The Jak 3 pages include a character guide, a First Act mission overview, and some sample mission walkthroughs. You'll need to register first at www.authorisedcollection.com...

Some Halo 2 players with widescreen HDTVs are reporting portions of the head's up display are cut off on the sides. The amount of overscan seems to vary by TV model. The quickest workaround is to disable progressive scan modes and play the game in the default 480i, sacrificing some of the game's visual splendor... In other news, the game broke all prior sales records with a $125 million opening day (2.4 million copies)...

In a marketing ploy to give gamers a stake in the title before it's released, UbiSoft is fielding a poll on Splinter Cell Chaos Theory's new cooperative multiplayer mode. You'll help pick the appearance of the most visible spygear: goggles and tactical vest. Cast your vote by Nov. 22 at splintercell.com...

Reports suggest that at least some Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart stores broke the Half-Life 2 release embargo. Only problem is that the game discs are as good as coasters until the Steam servers authorize your copy. (That's right, you'll need an Internet connection long enough to activate the game, even if you only want to play single player.) Valve announced that it won't authorize a single copy until midnight tonight Pacific time...

You could unlock all of the costumes in Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate by playing Story mode 132 times and making 25 runs in Time Attack. Or you could just collect 66 items in Survival mode. The first 50 items are easy. Then you need 50 consecutive wins to get the medal (don't miss it!). Finally, pick up 15 very rare items, one per character (including the unlockable Hitomi, Bayman and Tengu - you'll need a DOA3 or DOAX save to earn Hitomi with Ein in normal Story mode.). The ultra rares are hard to collect; the key is using "down" attacks to get extra items each round, increasing your odds. Once your foes refuse to stay down, take the fall and try again. The prizes include a swimsuit photo gallery, the old DOA3 booster pack and a G4 Icons highlights reel, plus all those costumes...

If you downloaded Half-Life 2 via Steam, you may encounter the dreaded "Map Version 0" startup bug. Simply rename the file sourcemodels.gcf (in your SteamApps folder) and relaunch the game. This should force a re-download of the file...

There's a bonus multiplayer map to be had in Halo 2, if you beat Campaign mode. But there's a twist or, more commonly, a barrel roll. While playing, ignore a tutorial suggestion; the easiest to skip are the Banshee tricks. In the final mission, be sure to perform the trick you skipped. Always do what you're told? There's hope. Some report success replaying the level and forcing a tutorial popup by tapping X (instead of holding it) over a weapon. Others recommend creating a new profile for a cooperative end run. If you do it right, you'll be rewarded with Foundation, an excellent little map for Slayer...

Halo v1.06 for PC closes a small multiplayer security hole. Alas, auto-update only works if you don't already have v1.05; in that case, get the fix from bungie.net...

Forget all that stuff from yesterday. Bungie's released a patch for Halo 2 that unlocks the Foundation map for everybody. It also corrects the 480p widescreen clipping problem and reduces wait time for matchmaking. If you don't have Xbox Live but still want the 480p fix, you'll need to borrow a friend's Gamertag to install the patch since it won't be offered offline...

Looks like Valve has put out a honeypot version of Half-Life 2 to snag would-be pirates and then take away their Steam accounts and ban them for life. Hey, piracy is wrong, but isn't this sort of like entrapment...

Gamers are reporting that playing the demo of Viewtiful Joe 2 on the PlayStation Underground Holiday 2004 Demo Disc erases any inserted PS2 memory cards. For safety's sake, yank any cards before playing this disc - you won't be able to save anything anyway...

I know, it sucks. You wait all this time for Half-Life 2, all the while upgrading your PC to match its swelling system requirements. You finally get the game, and it stutters like a shy teen on a date with a Victoria's Secret model who just stepped off the runway. First, take a deep breath and know: It's not your rig. (Whew!) Valve acknowledges the bug, which is happening to a lot of people just like you. A fix is on the way, but in the meantime find strategies to minimize the problem at blep.net/hl2stutter...

The v1.11 patch for Star Wars Battlefront on the PC fixes a game controller mapping problem, boosts stability and multiplayer features, improves enemy AI on Hard and, best of all, adds a bonus level: Jabba's Palace on Tatooine. Get it from fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5525...

File this under "Whatever." There's a new game on Xbox Live Arcade called Fuzzee Fever. It's block-throwing online multiplayer game that you can try for free (well, for the price of shipping the Xbox Arcade disc), and then pay a steep $19.99 to own. Maybe they should have painted Master Chiefs on the blocks and called it Halo 3 - that's about the only way they'll sell any...

That stuttering problem with Half-Life 2? It's fixed, mostly. Valve developers identified three separate bugs, and so far they've fixed two of them. They're still working out a problem that only appears with NVidia graphics cards. To get the patch, simply relaunch Steam...

The demo for Zoo Tycoon 2 lets you set up shop with four types of critters: dromedary camels, the common peafowl, Thomson�s Gazelle and Bengal Tigers. You can also place some of the game's new objects, such as ATMs and pretzel vendors, and then try out the new zoo guest and photo safari modes. It's 120MB at fileshack.com...

For the gamer who has everything - except his old C64 from the 1980s - there's the Commodore 64 30-in-1. Only one catch: QVC bought all available units and they're selling them in two packs for $52. With the lineup of included games (Gateway to Apshai, Impossible Mission 1 & 2, Jumpman Jr., Summer Games, Winter Games and more), you'll probably want to keep one for yourself - or stash a backup for when that joystick inevitably gives out. Alas, Bruce Lee, Lode Runner and M.U.L.E. are all missing in action...

If you're an old-school Bungie fan, you'll remember Pathways into Darkness on the Mac. If it seems a little fuzzy, well, so were those decade-old graphics. But not any more, thanks to a Doom 3 mod by Brendon Chung that recreates the then-pioneering shooter with photo-realistic detail. Get it from planethalflife.com/blended/pathways...