Busy Gamer News

Microsoft continues to pile on the Marketplace downloads:

• Demos for Far Cry Instincts Predator and Madden NFL 07 (free)
  
• Spell Tomes mod for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which adds new spellbooks to the game's random treasure drops and expands the range of spells your mage character can learn ($1)
  
• Time Pilot ($5)
  
• Brothers in Arms trailer (free) and picture packs ($0.50 each)
  
• Battlestar Galactica TV episode "The Story So Far" (480p only - but it's free)
  
• TV trailers for the Viva Pinata children's TV series
  
• Movie trailers for Crank, The Departed and The Fountain

If you've managed to hold off on getting a Nintendo DS Lite this long, you might as well wait another week - unless you're a big fan of iPod white. Nintendo is introducing black (aka Onyx) and pink (aka Coral) versions of its smaller dual-screened portable. And if you don't have a DS yet, well, what kind of grown-up gamer are you?! The thing has great games that can be played in short bursts and can even save at a moment's notice just by folding it shut. Just be sure you keep it charged...

If you're looking for a compelling reason to pre-order Guitar Hero II (due in November only on PS2), look no further than the cooperative multiplayer with separate skill level settings. Not enough? The official song listing ought to do it, assuming you're old enough to remember any of these ditties:

• Nirvana: "Heart-Shaped Box"
  
• Alice in Chains: "Them Bones"
  
• Van Halen: "You Really Got Me"
  
• Guns N' Roses: "Sweet Child O'Mine"
  
• Motley Crue: "Shout at the Devil"
  
• The Police: "Message in a Bottle"
  
• The Rolling Stones: "Can You Hear Me Knocking?"
  
• Stone Temple Pilots: "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart"
  
• Rush: "YYZ"
  
• Spinal Tap: "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight"
  
• Heart: "Crazy on You"
  
• Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Freebird"
  
• Allman Brothers Band: "Jessica"
  
• Dick Dale: "Misirlou"
  
• Reverend Horton Heat: "Psychobilly Freakout"
  
• Black Sabbath: "War Pigs"
  
• KISS: "Strutter"
  
• Butthole Surfers: "Who Was in My Room Last Night?"
  
• Primus: "John the Fisherman"
  
• Anthrax: "Madhouse"
  
• The Pretenders: "Tattooed Love Boys"
  
• Avenged Sevenfold: "Beast and the Harlot"
  
• Lamb of God: "Laid to Rest"

From time to time, I report on stuff from my company, Big Fish Games. I only share the biggest news, and most of the time it has nothing to do with my day job as online community manager. BFG's newest innovation is grabbing headlines, and with good reason: Now you can earn money for simply sharing your opinions on casual games at My.BigFishGames.com. It's completely free to create a Game Space and you make commissions on any sales generated by your page. One newspaper has dubbed it Amway for Games, but it's probably more like MySpace since you don't have to show up in anyone's living room! They're still working a few of the kinks out, but you can sign up now and even get two free $20 games if you take a short marketing quiz. How cool is that? More on what I've been up to at Big Fish soon enough...

The "ship now, patch later" philosophy of PC gaming has landed squarely on the Xbox 360. The latest victim is Chromehounds, which just received a much overdue patch to fix login issues, network stability and other problems. Also, Scramble was delayed a week; its Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday release was replaced by the $1.25 Uno expansion deck themed with Project Gotnam Racing cars. There's even a Gotham TV card that lets you peek at another player's hand.

Other new marketplace downloads include:

• NHL '07 demo (free)
  
• Coldhearted Snake outfit unlock for Dead Rising (free)
  
• Videos for Gears of War, Test Drive Unlimited and The Godfather
  
• Aragorn�s Journey � Map Pack 1 for Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II is now half price ($4.38)
  
• Samurai Warriors 2 theme ($1.88) and picture packs ($2.50 each), plus another Dead Rising theme ($1.88)
  
• Ubisoft studio tour video (free)
  
• Various NBC promotional videos, including NFL, Conan O'Brien and The Office and Heroes (free)
  
• Jessica Simpson music video (free)

• Bonk's Adventure
• Castlevania
• Duck Hunt
• Excitebike
• F-Zero
• Kid Icarus
• Legend of Zelda, The
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Mario Kart 64
• Metroid
• Mortal Kombat
• New Adventure Island
• Ninja Gaiden
• OutRun
• Pac-Man
• Prince of Persia
• Punch-Out!!
• R-Type
• Rayman 2
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Star Fox
• Super Mario 64
• Super Mario Bros
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario World
• Tecmo Bowl

Introducing The Busy Gamer Review
I started this site as an aid to adult gamers who still want to keep one foot in the gaming world while they're busy with work, family and all of the other distractions of life. The news feed on this site is short and focused only on the biggest, most useful or important announcements and fun trivia to give you gamer cred at the water fountain.

As I've wrestled with staying an active gamer myself, I've found I wished someone would look out for my needs whenever I pick up or rent games that are, in truth, often designed for kids and very young adults who can devote a 12+ hour day to their gaming habits. Me, nowadays, I prefer games that are easy to pick up and even easier to put down and return to when I have a few spare moments for game time.

So I'm launching a new feature: Busy Gamer Reviews. Each write-up is not an exhaustive exploration of the depths of a game. Instead, it's a brief overview with a focus on how hard it is to learn, how engaging the early gameplay is and whether you're going to struggle to find a save point when the baby wakes up or you realize you're running late for work.

Let me know what you think and whether these help you maintain some game/life balance.

Busy Gamer Review-
Test Drive Unlimited

Reviewed On: Xbox 360. Versions for PC, PS2 and PSP due in October.

In a Nutshell: A sandbox racing game where you can explore and race across the entire Hawaiian island of Oahu. If you have Xbox Live Gold, you can share the experience, including your pimped out rides, with dozens of other real people logged into a shared server space.

This game is amazingly deep and addictive. Race the clock or other online players, collect cars and houses and pick up models and hitchhikers to earn coupons for trendy duds. You can drive anywhere at any time right from the start, but some features - like motorcycles, paint shops and certain cars - will take some time and effort to unlock.

Learning Curve: Easy, if you've ever played a racing game. Some of the deeper features may take awhile to figure out - a few are even counter-intuitive. But there's plenty of fun to be had right out of the box.

The Save Game: Saving happens almost constantly. Press the Start button and the game will autosave. Once that's done, you can turn off your console. You'll start back at your  house, but you can warp anywhere you've been so picking up your progress isn't a problem. The lack of a Quit option does mean that you may find yourself unable to easily walk away, but that's another problem.

Family Factor: The rating is E10+ for language and violence, but the game seems pretty tame overall. If you go online, some people may intentionally run into you, and headset audio is piped through your TV so you don't know what someone might say in front of your kids. But you can choose to play online or block voice from all but your friends, so this is a minimal risk.

Buy, Rent or Skip? Buy it if you love racing games or want to explore every nook and crevice of Oahu. If you're not sure, a rental should convince you.

The iPod has had games for awhile, but they've been strictly cheap, spartan affairs: solitaire, a breakout clone and a sluggish and buggy music quiz. No more. Apple has launched a new downloadable game service with top titles from EA, Popcap, Namco and FreshGames:

• Bejeweled
  
• Cubis 2
  
• Mahjong
  
• Mini Golf
  
• PAC-MAN
  
• Tetris
  
• Texas Hold �Em
  
• Vortex
  
• Zuma

The Nintendo Wii will launch in the U.S. on Sunday, Nov. 19 for $250 - half the price of the cheapest PlayStation 3. Reports suggest the Wii will also outnumber the PS3 on store shelves by 2 to 1. The price includes a pack-in game: Wii Sports, supplying Wii-mote controlled baseball, bowling, boxing, golf and tennis right out of the box. As expected, Virtual Console downloadable retro games will run $5-10. Other features of the system include Web browsing (if you buy the Opera browser), news, weather and photo browsing. Most importantly, more than 30 titles are expected at or near launch, including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - though new Mario titles have all been delayed until 2007...

UPDATE: Nintendo has confirmed that DVD playback is no longer a Wii feature. But they claim they'll be profitable on every system they sell, something that gives them an edge over Microsoft and Sony in this console generation...

There are a few new goodies on Xbox Live Marketplace:

• Two new cars for Test Drive Unlimited: the Audi RS4 quattro Saloon and Nissan Skyline GTR R34 (free)
  
• Demo for NBA 2K7 (free)
  
• Trailers for NHL 07 and Test Drive Unlimited (free)
  
• The Kameo Powerpack, which adds three new co-op modes: Expert Mode, Rune Battle Mode and Time Attack Mode ($5)
  
• Scramble ($5, and the skimpiest trial yet!)
  
• Street Fighter II: Hyper-Fighting theme ($1.88) and picture pack ($1.25), NHL 07 themes ($1.88 each) and The Outfit picture pack ($2)

Overall, gamers were disgusted with the Beta 2 release of Windows Vista, which was not good with cutting-edge games like Half-Life 2. That's changed. Early reports suggest games now run vastly better on the new Vista release candidate, in some cases showing up XP. Want to check for yourself? Download Vista RC1 and see what you think. If you're not sure whether your PC is powerful enough for the next-generation operating system, it's probably not - but Microsoft has a handy download for that too...

File this under "Why movie licensed games are inherently evil": Some developers at Amaze Entertainment have confirmed what reviewers suspected - that Lego Star Wars II for the Nintendo DS was rushed out to coincide with the rerelease of the original Star Wars trilogy DVDs. As a result, many known bugs were overlooked in the first production run. A second run apparently will fix many - but not all - of the bugs, but it's not due to hit stores until the first run is sold out. Oh, and there's no obvious way to tell the difference, so you'll just have to luck into a "good" copy. Probably best to skip the DS version and play this game on the Xbox 360 or - dare I say it? - PSP instead...

Remember that whole Games for Windows brand thing? Turns out there's actually a little substance behind it. The program requires titles that wear the Games for Window banner to have:

• Easier installation
  
• Better reliability (whatever that means)
  
• Widescreen mode
  
• Support for the 360 controller
  
• Vista features including parental controls and Games Explorer

If you've managed to hold off on buying the 360 launch titles Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo: Elements of Power and Need for Speed: Most Wanted, you might as well wait until Oct. 15. That's when Microsoft introduces the first games in its Platinum Hits for 360. Alas, just like with new 360 titles, these budget-priced games will cost you $10 more than the last generation's discoun line: $30 a pop. Still, better than paying full-price, particularly when it comes to Perfect Dark...

Microsoft finally copped to what many Xbox 360 early adopters had already guessed: The launch systems (those made before Jan. 1) have a higher than reasonable failure rate. As a result, Microsoft Support's new policy is to cover repairs for these systems that surface the Red Ring of Death in the first year and refund money to those who've already paid to have theirs fixed. We can only hope that they've also finally created a system to transfer Marketplace content ownership to the new boxes when they issue replacements - but don't count on it. Anything you buy will still work on a new console, as long as you're always connected to Xbox Live...

MMO fans, cancel your weekend plans! A free preview of Guild Wars: Nightfall is available through Sunday. You get to have minions. 'Nuf said...

If early reports are true, Gran Turismo HD for the PS3 won't come with any cars or courses. Instead, you'll get a game disc with no real game on it and then purchase vehicles and tracks a la carte from Sony's online store. Cars are expected to cost less than $1 each, and tracks will run a few bucks each - maybe as much as $5. Of course, this takes away the fun of unlocking content, and the majority of players will buy only a handful of really fast vehicles. With more than 700 cars and 50 tracks planned, the game would cost more than $500 if you wanted to collect everything - a feat for rich, hard-core fans only. If you're not ready to shift with the paradigm, a premium version will apparently ship with two courses and 30 cars, with more available for download later...

If you're wondering what's next from Rockstar beyond GTA and Bully, it's another open-ended sandbox title set in 1940s Los Angeles called L.A. Noire. In it, you're a detective solving gruesome murders while exploring a fully recreated Los Angeles before the freeways with a jazz soundtrack and the usual gritty Rockstar drugs and corruption. The game is being developed by Brendan McNamara, best known for The Getaway. Apparently Sony was funding it, but now that Rockstar has it you can probably expect it on Xbox 360 as well as PS3 and PC...

I've promised to keep the plugs for my own company's games to a minimum, but this one is too good not to mention - and I did have a hand in it! Oz Video Poker is a free online draw poker game with power-ups and really deep progression. You'll attempt to unlock a 30-chapter story while dodging monkey attacks and the wicked witch. Best of all for busy adult gamers, you can play it in short bursts: The game saves your progress as long as you have a free username. My own contributions were relatively small - some small feedback along the way and deployment prep. The credit really goes to the great designers, developers, artists and engineers I work with. In the first day, the game has set new records and player feedback has been extremely positive. Give it a try - I bet you can't stop after a few hands...

After a lackluster showing at the Tokyo Game Show (at least for the stateside audience), Microsoft finally showed its hand at its own X06 event in Spain:

• Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game for Xbox 360 from Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) set in the Halo universe
  
• The price for the HD-DVD add-on drive: $200 when it ships in mid-November, bundled with Peter Jackson's King Kong and the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote
  
• Guitar Hero 2, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Banjo Kazooie 3 are all coming to the 360
  
• Doom for Xbox Live Arcade with includes 2-player coop and 4-player deathmatch modes (now available for $10)
  
• Marvel Universe Online will be an MMO for 360 and PC from the makers of City of Heroes

• The Battle for Middle-Earth II's Map Pack 1 (free through Sept. 29) and Map Pack 2 ($4.38)
  
• Demos for F.E.A.R., Fuzion Frenzy 2, Lego Star Wars II, NBA 2K7 and Sonic The Hedgehog (free)
  
• Trailers for Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Call of Duty 3, Halo Wars and many more (free)
  
• Vision Camera support for Bankshot Billiards, Backgammon, Spades and Hearts (free auto-updates)