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Topics - Bloodworth

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201
NWR Forums Discord / ty is random, you should be too
« on: November 10, 2005, 10:27:07 PM »
I just now read this.  This was the body of an e-mail verifying that he got a game in the mail.

Quote

S-U-P-E-R> is 25 dollars enough for both a cheap date, a steak knife,
and garbage bags
BreakyBoy> o_O
BreakyBoy> you can probably get a steak knife at the dollar store you
BreakyBoy> can probably also get garbage bags at the dollar store,
but you might want the good ones... $3-5
BreakyBoy> so that leaves you roughly $20 for a cheap date
BreakyBoy> yes
S-U-P-E-R> 20 dollars will cover pizza and maybe a ski mask and gloves
S-U-P-E-R> too
BreakyBoy> I've done cheap dates for $10 before, not including
transportation
S-U-P-E-R> i think we're in business
 

202
NWR Forums Discord / Spam headlines that make you go wha?
« on: November 10, 2005, 09:30:27 PM »
Quote

I farted in my soup.

203
NWR Forums Discord / a year has passed
« on: November 10, 2005, 09:11:43 PM »

204
NWR Forums Discord / It's a set up
« on: November 10, 2005, 07:31:20 PM »
Congratulations Funhouse posters!! You'll all be banned tonight!

205
NWR Forums Discord / does the desert have INTERNET?
« on: November 10, 2005, 05:25:04 PM »
Quote

Where Is It? It's at an undisclosed location in the Mojave Desert. Top secret.
When Is It? We'll play Xbox 360 games from sundown on November 20 through launch on November 22.

What Else Do I Need To Know?

You have to be at least 18 years of age to win. If you win the tickets you
will be responsible for your own transportation, lodging, etc.
We'll give
you the tickets; the rest is up to you.


206
NWR Forums Discord / if the laundromat's closed now it's ty's fault (nt)
« on: November 10, 2005, 05:07:03 PM »

207
NWR Forums Discord / copyright
« on: November 10, 2005, 04:56:38 PM »
I thnk ty stole the name fro this forum  from the TOTALLY AWESOME NES GASME Krusty's Fun HOuse  see. all you have to do is take off the Krus and you get ty's funhouse I came here wanting info about new kursty sfun house game, but there is no ne because ty deciebed me

208
TalkBack / Harry Potter in Stores
« on: November 08, 2005, 07:12:06 PM »
Available on GameCube, GBA, and DS.

EA Ships the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Videogame; Master the Magic in the Latest Edition of the Harry Potter Videogame Series on Console, Handhelds, and PC    


CHERTSEY, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2005--Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are pleased to announce the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire(TM) videogame released today for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system, Xbox(R) video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube(TM), Nintendo DS(TM), Game Boy(R) Advance, and Windows PC. Launching in conjunction with the Warner Bros. Pictures film based on J.K. Rowling's fourth book, the game allows players to experience thrilling moments of the movie and master magic in cooperative play with up to two of their friends.    


  "The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire videogame offers Harry Potter(TM) fans and gamers alike a chance to explore the adventures of the young wizard and his friends in a whole new way," said Harvey Elliott, Executive Producer at EAUK. "We worked closely with David Heyman, the film's producer, to ensure a synergy with the overall look and feel of the film. The game is cinematic and immersive, and we're looking forward to getting it into players' hands."    


  "The extremely rich Harry Potter world captured in both the film and the book is brought to life in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire videogame with a completely interactive experience," said Jason Hall, Senior Vice President for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "We worked closely with EA to ensure this latest edition to the Harry Potter videogame franchise is a great action adventure game, depicting the magical story for players."    


  In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry is mysteriously selected as the fourth competitor in the dangerous Triwizard Tournament(TM) and must confront a fire-breathing dragon, rescue friends from the icy depths of the Black Lake, and navigate the twisting mysteries of a vast, enchanted maze. Players will experience all the adventures of the movie -- from the Quidditch(TM) World Cup campsite to a heart-stopping duel with Lord Voldemort(TM) himself!    


  The magical world of Harry Potter comes to life with in-game characters that look like their big-screen counterparts for the first time and nearly a dozen cinematic locations that mirror those in the upcoming film. Additionally, Academy(R) Award-nominated actor Ralph Fiennes carries on his role of Lord Voldemort from the film by lending his voice talent and likeness to the game.    


  In another first for the franchise, players can join forces with friends to combine and cast spells cooperatively creating more powerful magic than ever before. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all playable characters in this action-packed game where magic is everywhere!    


  The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire videogame was developed at EA's UK studio and has a US MSRP range from $24.99 - $39.99. The console and PC platforms are rated "E10+" and the handheld versions are rated "E" for Everyone by the ESRB.    


  Coming soon, the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire videogame will make its debut on the PSP(TM) (PlayStation(R)Portable) system. Gamers will engage in thrilling, exclusive mini-games via cooperative wireless gameplay.


209
TalkBack / Two Viewtiful Joe Titles Ship
« on: November 08, 2005, 07:03:19 PM »
Red Hot Rumble on GameCube and Double Trouble on DS

LIFE GETS A BIT MORE 'VIEWTIFUL' AS CAPCOM(r) RELEASES NEW TITLES FOR VIEWTIFUL JOE(tm) FRANCHISE    


     


- Capcom's Favorite Cel-Shaded Hero Is Back In Two New Adventures -    


     


SUNNYVALE, Calif * November 8, 2005 - 'Awaken the hero-ness from within' as Capcom(r) today released two new action-packed titles for the Viewtiful Joe universe. Viewtiful Joe(tm): Red Hot Rumble brings intense versus-style action to the series.  Premiering on the Nintendo GameCube(tm), this game has Joe and his friends battling it out with their VFX powers to determine who will star in Captain Blue's latest production.  In Viewtiful Joe(tm): Double Trouble a new mysterious syndicate invades the peaceful "Movie Studio" theme park and it's up to Joe to reestablish the tranquility that once was.  Available for the Nintendo DS, the game will make full use of the handheld's dual-screen and touch-sensitive panel. Both Viewtiful Joe(tm): Red Hot Rumble and Viewtiful Joe(tm): Double Trouble are now available at retailers across North America and carries an "T" rating for teen audiences by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board).    


     


In Viewtiful Joe(tm): Red Hot Rumble, production on the newest Captain Blue movie is just about to begin. Unfortunately he can't seem to decide on the lead character. Now it's up to gamers to be the star of the show and 'audition' to see who will take the leading role in this big action extravaganza.  An all-star cast of new and familiar playable characters will be available in this intense versus-fighting game including Captain Blue Junior, Sprocket and other original characters from the popular Japanese TV animated cartoon series. With completely new movie set designs and two player cooperative gameplay, there is an exuberant amount of action that extends beyond the silver screen.    


     


Viewtiful Joe(tm): Red Hot Rumble boasts the following features:    


*         New versus gameplay for the Viewtiful Joe universe -The gloves  come off during the 'audition' as players participate in this intense versus fighting action; a first for the award-winning series.    


  *         All-star cast of playable characters - Reacquaint yourself  with familiar faces or discover new and original characters from the TV anime series including Sylvia, Alastor, Sprocket, an ice princess that intimidates people with her cold stares, and Captain Blue Junior, Captain Blue's sidekick who calls himself 'Junior'.    


  *         Interactive environments - In addition to new set designs,  players will be able to use enemies and background elements to attack their opponents.    


  *         Two different modes of play:    


  o        Story Mode - A single player mode where gamers face off against  the AI-controlled characters and advance through the story    


  o        Multiplayer Battle Mode - Duke it out with up to three other  players and see who reigns on the big screen    


     


In Viewtiful Joe(tm): Double Trouble an action-movie hero's work is never done! During an on-location shoot of Captain Blue's latest movie, a new sinister group literally steals the show and it's up to our not-so-average Joe to reclaim it.  Using the Nintendo DS(tm) dual screens, gamers help Joe split the screen wide open to solve mind-boggling puzzles and perform his devastating moves in this side-scrolling action title.  Plus the 'Joe Camera' let's you pull the upper screen down to literally give Joe a helping hand. To help with all this chaos is Joe's quarrelsome little sister, Jasmine, who joins in on the action this time around.    


     


Viewtiful Joe(tm): Double Trouble will include the following features:    


  *         Viewtiful Joe(tm): Double Trouble retains the exciting cel-shaded gameplay that is synonymous to the series.    


  *         All new and engrossing storyline set within the "Movie Studio"  theme park.    


  *         A diverse set of new enemies to tackle and defeat.    


  *         Introduction of a new character to the "Joe" family - Meet  Joe's little sister, Jasmine, an aspiring actress who gets caught up in the movie action.    


  *         Innovative use of the Nintendo DS Dual Screens - Make use of the handheld's dual-screens and touch-sensitive panel to help Joe solve puzzles using his renowned VFX powers and new moves specifically designed for the Nintendo DS:    


  o        Scratch - Shake the world with this power to have items fall  from the sky and crash onto the heads of enemies    


  o        Split  - Split the touch screen in half and slide the top  section left or right    


  o        Slide - Swap the top screen and touch screen to stop an enemy  in its tracks    


  o        Touch - While performing a Slide, use Touch to move around objects


210
TalkBack / REVIEW: Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
« on: November 07, 2005, 07:06:01 PM »
This is the first time I have ever played DDR. I'm no longer a shame to the PGC staff.

Like a few other Nintendo fans out there, I've been curious about this DDR thing for a while, but never really checked it out myself, despite owning multiple consoles and having plenty of chances when other PGC staff came to town. What this means is that over the past week, I haven't been reviewing DDR Mario Mix so much as trying to figure the crazy thing out.

The game starts with the whole song list pretty much locked up, making you start out in the story mode. The "story" is essentially a series of conversations with Toad, leading you from song to song with odd scenarios like "Mario, the river is flooded, how are we going to cross? I know: dance!" You then proceed to get on a boat as the song starts. How your dancing helps the boat cross, rather than capsizing it, is anyone's guess. While it's bad enough to laugh at the first time through, not being able to skip the story sequences makes it a dreaded annoyance on the repeated runs necessary to unlock all the songs. Story mode also has a few other quirks, like mini-games thrown in between songs and shops with special items that can be equipped to refill your dance meter, change arrow speed, or have other effects.

Once you have all of the songs (just shy of thirty in all), you can abandon the story mode and stick to free play, where you choose songs and difficulty levels as you like. You can also create profiles to count the calories you burn as you play. Mario and Luigi dance in the background just like in story mode, but it can be even funnier out of context as friends walk up and ask, "Why is Mario fishing?" As you'd expect, Mario Mix is filled with songs inspired by Mario tunes from across a wide spectrum of games: songs from Super Mario World to Dr. Mario, Wrecking Crew, Wario World, and even a song from a Famicom Disk System game. There are also some classical and traditional tunes like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but Konami merely took the original themes for all of these and integrated them into their own beat-filled constructions. While you can certainly catch glimpses of the original tunes, most of the songs take their own directions. For instance, the Donkey Kong tune is a pleasing mix of sounds from the arcade classic integrated with music from Donkey Kong Country.

The range of difficulty is broad enough for players of any skill level to feel uncomfortable. The easiest setting only uses the left and right arrows, making the game super-simple for novices and children. Normal uses all four arrows and is a good setting to get oriented with the game. Hard presents a good challenge for most players, and really lets you feel the rhythms with your feet. Beyond that, Very Hard is the last stop for the sane. With some practice, players can get through the first few songs, but it quickly becomes difficult to even finish a song, much less get an A or B rating. Once you do clear a song on Very Hard, you'll unlock a Super Hard setting for that song. At this level, even if you had eight legs, the arrows are moving so quickly and close together, that your brain simply shuts down, shocked, mesmerized, and in disbelief of the information climbing up the screen. DDR veterans will be pleased with Super Hard; everyone else will curl up in the fetal position and cry for their mommies.

The relative difficulty of each song is unfortunately influenced by the progression of the story mode, causing a lack of balance when you get to free mode. The first song is pitifully easy on the Normal setting and Bowser's song is always the hardest. The disparity lessens as you move into the harder difficulty settings, but it's still noticeable.

Mario Mix also has a new feature called Mush Mode that I'm sure is a center of debate among experienced DDR players and novices alike. Basically, Mush Mode throws random Mario objects into the mix with various effects. Many of them, like goombas, hammers, and koopas, just need to be stomped or double stomped like the arrows, but they can be a bit tougher since they don't stand out as much and they move at different rates or in arcs to throw you off. There are other mush objects too: spinies and freezies shouldn't be stepped on, multiple bullets need to be deflected to destroy cannons, and cheep-cheeps are the worst since they will actually smack into your arrows, switching the steps at the last moment. Mush Mode is certainly more challenging, but each player will have to decide whether it's an improvement or an annoyance, especially since it's on by default and has to be turned off every time you boot up the game.

As a newbie, it took some time to really "get" how to move on the pad. While playing on the normal setting, I was just kind of staying in the center, bouncing my legs over to an arrow and back to the middle. Hard forced me to realize that my technique was inadequate, and I was nearly ready to give-in when suddenly something just clicked, and I understood exactly how I needed to move my feet with the rhythm. My scores went from F's and D's on every song to B's and A's – for a little while at least. Also, once I got over the initial anxiety of playing by myself, I was no longer embarrassed to play in front of others when we had our Halloween party, which then led to me feeling more comfortable to go out and do whatever I felt like on the real dance floor. I doubt it's actually improved my skill in dancing, though.

Since this is the only first-party game to use the "Action Pad" on the GameCube, somebody decided to relive the glory days of the NES Power Pad and include a variety of mini-games in addition to the dancing. Most of them aren't very noteworthy, involving things like "Whack a Goomba", dodging giant snowballs, or running in place to escape a chain chomp. A few like the Super Mario Bros. flagpole leap and jumping across platforms to collect notes are kind of nifty, but there's not enough depth to make them worth playing over and over to improve your score.

As for the Action Pad itself, while it's a soft pad, it seems durable and responsive. It can slide a bit at times if you're not picking up your feet properly. And since it's a Nintendo product, it's covered in warnings: kids, be sure not to drink alcohol before use and place cushions around the pad in case of a fall. Those interested in using a pad designed for another platform may have mixed success. We had a $200 hard-pad available to us for the party, and while the arrows worked fine when we hooked it up, the A button was mapped to B on the pad and none of the pad's buttons triggered the B or Z functions, causing us to switch controllers when we needed to change settings in the menus. So, if you do need to buy an extra pad, it would be wise to try before you buy, or you can get another official pad from Nintendo's online store for a cheap twenty bucks.

While you'll have to see Jonny's review to get a better opinion on how Mario Mix compares to other DDR games, it's a simple, addictive, and exhausting experience that should please DDR and Nintendo fans alike.

Pros:
Remixes of Mario tunes from a wide variety of games
Enough difficulty tiers to satisfy any player
Mush Mode can bring additional psychological mayhem

Cons:
Story mode is a bore and a half
Mini-games are weak
Songs unbalanced

Graphics: 8.0

   Arrows are all that really matter here, but Mario Mix has the added bonus of seeing Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and others turn into dancing fools with moves that are often surprising and funny.

Sound: 9.0

   The remixes all sound great. I was jamming to the soundtrack for a few weeks before I got the game, and I already felt like dancing then. The announcer talking over the music has got to go. Shut him up from the option menu as soon as you can.

Control: 8.5

   There's no trouble with the responsiveness of the buttons if you can get your legs there fast enough. When you first start, it can be easy to "crawl" away from the center of the pad or slide the pad while you're moving.

Gameplay: 8.5

   Moving your feet to these beats is a lot of fun, and there's a calorie counter to help make it part of your exercise routine, too.

Lastability: 8.0

   This is one of those games which has a pretty relative lastability, depending simply on how much you like it. You might play it for a week and stash it away or consistently pull it out whenever you feel like getting your blood pumping. Any version of DDR is good to have around for parties, especially if you invest in a second pad.

Final Score (Not an average): 8.0

   Good music, good beats, and a good workout. Be sure to keep plenty of water on hand and don't wake up your housemates by stomping around after midnight.

211
TalkBack / True Crime Soundtrack Announced
« on: November 07, 2005, 06:15:19 PM »
Bob Dylan and DMX play music as you pawn off contraband.

ACTIVISION ANNOUNCES THE ULTIMATE NEW YORK CITY SONG LINE-UP FOR TRUE CRIME®: NEW YORK CITY    


   Santa Monica, CA—November 4, 2005— More than 80 eclectic songs from NYC raised or transplanted bands that span such diverse genres as punk, hip hop, hardcore and rock bring true East Coast flavor to Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) highly anticipated True CrimeÒ: New York City video game. The in-game soundtrack features licensed tracks from some of the biggest names in music from Bob Dylan, The Ramones and Blondie to Run DMC, Public Enemy and DMX, as well as new music from Redman, including “Rush The Security” from his upcoming album Red Gone Wild and two original tracks written for the game.  True CrimeÒ: New York City, set to hit store shelves on November 16, also features an in-game customizable play list option that allows gamers to order the music based on their personal taste.    


     


“When we moved the True Crime franchise to the one and only New York City we compiled a soundtrack to match the look and feel of the game,” said Tim Riley, worldwide executive of music at Activision.  “Many of the artists on the soundtrack helped define the city’s music scene including Jay-Z, Fat Joe, A Tribe Called Quest, New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground, My Chemical Romance, The Bravery and Iggy and the Stooges, among others, making this soundtrack the ultimate New York experience.”    


     


 Following is a list of tracks:      


ORIGINAL TRACKS    


Redman – “True Crime”    


Redman –“True Crime (Bonus track)”    


   LICENSED IN-GAME TRACKS    


  Redman – “Rush the Security”    


Cam'Ron featuring Jay-Z – “Welcome to NYC”    


Run D.M.C. – “Sucker MC's”    


Kool Moe Dee – “Wild Wild West”    


The Sugarhill Gang – “Rapper's Delight”    


Public Enemy – “Bring The Noise (Chuck D Mix)”    


DMX – “Where The Hood At”    


Busta Rhymes – “Put Your Hands Where my Eyes Can See”    


Agnostic Front – “Police State”    


Bad Brains – “I Against I”    


Bob Dylan – “Knockin' On Heaven's Door”    


Danzig - “Mother”    


The Ramones - “Beat on The Brat”    


Interpol – “Slow hands”    


Wu-Tang Clan – “Protect Ya Neck”    


Jungle Brothers – “Straight Out The Jungle”    


Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – “New York New York”    


Hatebreed – “Another Day, Another Vendetta”    


Misfits – “Last Caress”    


Blondie – “Hangin by the Telephone”    


Sonic Youth – “Kool Thing”    


Skarhead – “New York Crime”    


Dope – “The Life”    


Kool G Rap and DJ Polo – “Streets of New York”    


Biz Markie – “I'm The Biz”    


Big Daddy Kane – “Ain't No Half Steppin'”    


24-7 Spyz – “Yeah X 3”    


Suicide – “Ghostrider”    


Iggy & The Stooges – “Search and Destroy”    


New York Dolls – “Subway Train”    


Bloodsimple – “Blood In Blood Out”    


Biohazard – “Shades of Grey”    


Gang Starr -    “Full Clip”    


Big Punisher – “Twinz (Deep Cover)”    


Vision of Disorder – “Imprint”    


Mandrill – “Echoes In My Mind”    


The Damned – “Neat Neat Neat”    


The Velvet Underground – “I'm Waiting For the Man”    


Helmet – “Unsung”    


The Rapture – “The Killing”    


Black Star – “Definition”    


NaS – “N.Y. State Of Mind”    


Slick Rick – “Children's Story”    


Youth Of Today – “Break Down The Walls”    


Cramps – “Wrong Way Ticket”    


The Casualties – “Sounds from the streets (Death Toll)”    


White Zombie – “Thunder Kiss 65”    


Unsane – “D train”    


A Tribe Called Quest – “Scenario”    


Mark Ronson – “Bout To Get Ugly”    


X-ecutioners – “Let Me Rock”    


Black Rob – “Woah!”    


Madball – “Pride (Times are Changing)”    


Richard Hell And The Voidoids – “Blank Generation”    


The Walkmen – “The Rat”    


Kurtis Blow – “The Breaks”    


Black Sheep – “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)”    


De La Soul – “Thru Ya City”    


Gorilla Biscuits – “New Direction”    


Eric B & Rakim – “Paid in Full”    


Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Force – “Planet Rock”    


Sam Scarfo – “Homicide”    


Bobby Womack – “Across 110th Street”    


Marley Marl – “The Symphony”    


My Chemical Romance – “I Never Told You What I Did For A Living”    


Mobb Deep – “Shook Ones  Pt. II”    


Quicksand – “East 3rd Street”    


Vordul Mega – “Neva Again”    


Black Moon – “Who Got The Props?”    


Jeru the Damaja – “D. Original”    


Leaders Of The New School – “Case of the P.T.A.”    


LL Cool J – “I Can't Live With Out My Radio”    


Sick of It All – “Potential For A Fall”    


The A.K.A.'s – “Shout Out Loud”    


Blue Oyster Cult – “Don't Fear the Reaper”    


Digable Planets – “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like dat)”    


Murphy's Law – “Crucial Bar-B-Que”    


Yeah Yeah Yeah's – “Black Tongue”    


Harley's War – “Criminal (4 Life)”    


The Bravery – “Honest Mistake”    


Television – “See No Evil”    


We Are Scientists – “Callbacks”    


     


True Crime: New York City is being developed by Luxoflux for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Nintendo GameCube™ and has been rated “M” (“Mature” – Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs) by the ESRB.


212
TalkBack / Video Game Concert Tour Goes Worldwide
« on: November 07, 2005, 05:58:59 PM »
The same production company that produced Dear Friends-Music from Final Fantasy is back, going worldwide with a wider selection.

PLAY! A Video Game Symphony Concert Series Launches World Tour    


     


From the Creative Team That Brought You the Ground Breaking Dear Friends-Music From FINAL FANTASY Symphony Tour, Comes an Entirely New Celebration of Video Game Music and Images    


     


SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- JMP Productions announced today that PLAY!, a symphony concert series with music from a catalogue of blockbuster video game titles will tour the world, starting in North America in April 2006.    


     


PLAY! A Video Game Symphony concerts, to be performed by full orchestra and choir, will feature award-winning music from titles such as FINAL FANTASY ®, BATTLEFIELD 1942 (TM), WORLD OF WARCRAFT ® and THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND (TM). Outstanding graphics on large screens above the orchestra will accompany the scores, highlighting memorable moments from the video games. "As the most experienced team in the field of video game music concerts we will present the ultimate tour to the fans," says series producer Jason Michael Paul. "Our concerts will feature many brand new arrangements done by the original composers themselves. We will focus on celebrating video game music like never before."    


     


Arnie Roth, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Chicagoland Pops will serve as Principal Conductor and Music Director for this concert series: "This spectacular concert will attract people of all generations to some of the worlds greatest concert halls."    


     


The first state side video game music concert, Dear Friends-Music from FINAL FANTASY, was held on May 10, 2004 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA. The concert, produced by JMP Productions, featured music from Square Enix's world-renowned video game series, celebrated the unique beauty of FINAL FANTASY's award-winning score and images. Performed by the acclaimed Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Dear Friends sold out in three days and received rave reviews from the press. The positive reception given to that performance gave rise to the 2005 U.S. concert series, under the direction of Maestro Arnie Roth. The performance of Dear Friends- Music from FINAL FANTASY by the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra and CPO Festival Choir, conducted by Roth in February 2005 was a sold-out house of over 4,250. Of the attendees, many were young people who had never attended an orchestral concert before.    


     


Producer: Jason Michael Paul Productions    


     


Paul has brought critical acclaim to the video game music genre after creating the first ever video game music concert series in the U.S. with Dear Friends- Music from FINAL FANTASY. As a producer, he has staged concerts around the world for such artists as Luciano Pavarotti, and The Three Tenors. Paul began his career at a marketing agency handling corporate entertainment and environmental design for clients such as Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sun Microsystems, Adidas, Midway Entertainment, Sony Metreon and Square Enix.    


     


Music Director and Conductor: Arnie Roth    


     


Roth is a Grammy Award winning artist known for his work with performers Diana Ross, Charlotte Church, Peter Cetera, Art Garfunkel, the Irish Tenors, and Dennis DeYoung. He has also been a long time member of Mannheim Steamroller. Roth has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, the Houston Symphony, and the BBC Symphony. Roth served as the Music Director and Conductor for Dear Friends, and More Friends Concerts. He has produced and conducted music for many films, and has produced dozens of best- selling CDs, released on American Gramaphone, JVC, Mattel, Warner Bros., Sony, Koch, and Razor & Tie. Roth received the award for Best Score at the 2003 DVD Premier Awards.  


213
TalkBack / Mario Kart Tournaments Coming to Europe
« on: November 07, 2005, 05:53:11 PM »
While not officially endorsed by Nintendo, WiFiKarts.co.uk offers racers a chance to join leagues and win prizes.

HM-Fusion announces WiFi Karts    


  Lincoln, UK, November 7th, 2005 – HM-Fusion today announces the launch of WiFiKarts.co.uk, your online destination for Mario Kart gaming over Nintendo's new WiFi service. WiFiKarts.co.uk provides you, the gamer with the ultimate source for finding fellow karting gamers and gives you the opportunity to prove to the masses that you are the best karter in the land!    


WifiKarts which can be found over at www.wifikarts.co.uk is supported by several online sites, including the likes of Revolution Europe, Club Skill, and more!    


With the success of other such events for other online games, such as Halo 2, and Unreal Tournament, WiFiKarts brings something new to the table by bringing organised gaming events for Nintendo's karter to the masses. Signing up couldn't be simpler just head on over to www.wifikarts.co.uk and get your name on the list. The helpful staff team will then email you with the details of your match, it's really that simple!    


But that's not all, as an extra incentive, prizes will be up for grabs, ranging from new games, to hardware and more!    


Users can then discuss their matches, scores, tactics and more in the exclusive community forum, over at HM-Fusion, just keep the trash talking to a minimum!    


"WiFiKarts is a superb way of bringing Mario Kart gaming to those dedicated to proving their skills, and Charlie Douglas has done a superb job on the project" said Chris Brandrick, manager of HM-Fusion.co.uk. "The opportunity to rank higher in different leagues is a great way of engaging gamers in friendly competition and will add superb replay value to an already awesome product."    


Tournaments start from the 1st of December, and the user list is quickly filling, so head on over to get involved in the karting action. New leagues start regularly, and it's the ultimate way to prove your karting skills!    


So go get your entry registered at www.wifikarts.co.uk and make your challenge known to have the chance to win some very cool prizes, and earn the title as the ultimate Mario Karter!


214
TalkBack / SpongeBob Squarepants Ships for DS
« on: November 07, 2005, 05:31:08 PM »
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger ready for the buying.

THQ Ships SpongeBob SquarePants(TM): The Yellow Avenger for Nintendo DS(TM)    


Beloved Nickelodeon Character Takes Bikini Bottom to the Nintendo DS for the First Time    


     


AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI - News) today announced that SpongeBob SquarePants(TM): The Yellow Avenger has shipped for Nintendo DS(TM). Based on the characters of Nickelodeon's chart-topping animated television show SpongeBob SquarePants, the game explores a new dimension of SpongeBob as a superhero and is now available at retail outlets nationwide.    


     


"THQ is thrilled to bring the SpongeBob video game franchise to the Nintendo DS for the first time," said Kelly Flock, executive vice president of worldwide publishing, THQ. "With the show's wide-ranging appeal, the video game offers an opportunity for fans to have an entirely different SpongeBob gaming experience utilizing the special features of the Nintendo DS."    


     


"As SpongeBob continues to be the #1 animated show on all of kids TV, we're excited to offer new gaming adventures in Bikini Bottom on the Nintendo DS platform," said Stephen Youngwood, Senior Vice President, Entertainment Products, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products. "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger gives fans of the show a massive world to explore in the palm of their hands."    


     


About SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger    


     


In SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger the wrath of the Dirty Bubble strikes Bikini Bottom as SpongeBob's favorite superheroes, Mermaidman and Barnacleboy are kidnapped. Players assume the role of SpongeBob and harness the power of Mermaidman's superhero belt, gaining powers like Super Strength, Super Speed, Summon Sea Creatures, Raging Whirlpool, and Water Ball to restore order in Bikini Bottom. The game features non-linear gameplay in a dense and richly detailed 3D world, giving players multiple ways to complete the main objective. The Nintendo DS touch screen allows players to have direct interaction with the controls of Mermaidman's belt, easily activating new powers and abilities. Players can also utilize the DS touch screen to interact with the dynamic environment, allowing them to participate in the SpongeBob world like never before.    


     


Tantalus Interactive developed SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger. THQ also recently released, SpongeBob SquarePants(TM): Lights, Camera, PANTS! for PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® videogame system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube®, Game Boy® Advance, and Windows PC developed by THQ Studio Australia Pty Ltd.    


     


For more information on SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger and the rest of THQ's product line-up, please visit www.thq.com.
 


215
TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Mario Kart DS
« on: November 03, 2005, 08:10:55 PM »
TYP spends quality time with Mario Kart DS multiplayer, both online and locally. The short story: buy your wireless router now.

Inarguably, Mario Kart DS is the biggest game at the Gamers' Summit—and rightly so. I have owned the game for less than a day, yet I have easily put over four hours into multiplayer.

Upon receiving Mario Kart DS we joined international matches among New York, Redmond, Germany, and Canada. After specifying the online mode (Regional, Friends, Rivals, or Worldwide), you are pitted against up to three other players. After each player specifies a character and kart, a four-course contest begins. Every course is chosen democratically: each player's choice is immediately visible to the others and the most popular track wins. Chance breaks ties, and players are awarded points for their performance in each race, much like in a Grand Prix.

The online matches were impressively smooth, considering the circumstances. My game usually stuttered once or twice per match in a room with thirty Nintendo DS systems all connecting through a single NOA router, which in turn connected to similarly crowded gatherings around the globe. Lag can be deadly, since the copy with lag freezes while the others continue, but horrible attacks were rare, even under such worst-case-scenario conditions. I strongly doubt the game will suffer from these issues under normal conditions at home.

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection menu interface is surprisingly intuitive. Although techies can tweak the nitty-gritty details (yes, you can look up the MAC address), the partially-automated tutorials make setup a breeze. Nintendo also confirmed a few compatibility questions, definitively stating WPA is not supported and that free (Wayport) connections which normally require browser authentication are supported. There are some disappointments: opponents cannot converse through the DS, players cannot drag items, and (like all Nintendo Wi-Fi games) your online profile is tied to the game-system combination. These problems are forgivable: overall Mario Kart's online mode is very impressive, especially when coupled with the access point location directory and game tracking features found on the official Nintendo Wi-Fi web site.

But enough about online performance—you probably want to know if this is a good Mario Kart entry. HELL YES! My colleagues and I couldn't get enough: we played local eight-player matches on the bus ride to and from dinner, and plan to continue the mayhem later this evening!

Crisp digital controls, varied new and old-school tracks and a ****-load of options blow previous incarnations out of the water. A new mission mode provides skill-honing challenges such as chasing down item blocks, driving through tire hoops, or fighting bosses. Yes, you can relive the glory of ramming Mario 64's Big Bully into lava with mushrooms and karts. Such missions are ranked, and performing well will unlock items such as new selectable karts for the characters. The karts have different strengths, including a new Item parameter specifying the frequency of desirable items.

A strong selection of old-school courses, ranging from Choco Island 2 (SNES) and Sky Garden (GBA) to Wario Stadium (N64) and Luigi Circuit (GC) provides instant familiarity, but the new courses are surprisingly good as well. I appreciated the new courses' details, such as the graveyard gates in the Luigi's Mansion track and the desert track's hopping fireball chain from Super Mario Bros. 3. Waluigi's Pinball course is especially zany. It is difficult to pinpoint, but many of the new courses simply feel good and certainly hold their own against the retro offerings.

The local multiplayer modes are similarly infused with fresh variety. Team battles extend the comradery found in two-player GP, requiring teammates to watch each others' backs and avoid friendly fire. Players may now choose the same character, creating a fairer environment. (Luigi seemed to be popular!)

Balloon battle is quirkier than ever. Although characters still only attach three ballons to their kart, they have five balloons at their disposal. Only one is initially inflated -— players must inflate their extra balloons by stopping and pressing select or blowing into the mic. Failing to inflate balloons fosters premature deaths; eagerly inflating balloons invites balloon theft. Blowing into the microphone also speeds the inflation process. The sound of eight gamers resuscitating their handhelds trumps even the most triumphant "OBJECTION!"

Mario Kart DS also includes a slightly less amusing Shine Runner mode, modeled after the star-nabbing multiplayer game from Mario 64 DS. Shines will randomly appear on the map as a timer counts to zero. When the buzzer sounds, the players with the lowest score are bumped and the timer resets, slowly whittling the contenders down to one. The concept is amusing, but I'm not yet sold on its lasting appeal.

Mario Kart DS has top notch production quality. Believe the hype: this game is yet another killer app for the blossoming Nintendo DS.  

Michael "TYP" Cole, Senior Editor, Trivia Manager

216
TalkBack / REVIEWS: X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse
« on: November 01, 2005, 07:50:52 PM »
Raven and Activision revisit X-Men dungeon crawling with improvements in almost every area.

Last year, Activision and Raven brought us one of the most satisfying X-Men video game adaptations to date with X-Men Legends. Now they've taken that basic dungeon crawler design and updated it in nearly every area in a way that anticipates a variety of play-styles.

As you learn in the opening scene, the X-Men have formed an alliance with their enemies from the Brotherhood, led by Magneto himself, in order to fight Apocalypse, a powerful mutant who has lived for thousands of years and believes it is the duty of the strong to destroy the weak, human and mutant alike. This setup gives players a chance to play as some of their favorite characters from "the other side". However, some fans may still be a bit disappointed as there are only four playable Brotherhood characters of the total eighteen -- especially since Sunfire made the cut rather than Pyro. Party lines aside, there is a varied mix of characters to choose from, and after you've completed the introductory level, you'll have access to fifteen fighters throughout the entire game, with another three available after you make the effort to unlock them. When mixing and matching your characters, you might also happen across specific teams with extra stat bonuses, such as Double Date (Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, and Jean), Brotherhood of Evil, Old School, or Femme Fatale.

Controls remain largely unchanged from the first game. You travel through each level in groups of four, and in single player, you can easily switch between characters in your current group by pressing the control pad in a specific direction. You perform melee attacks by pressing combinations of the A and B buttons, jump with Y, and pick up items with X. Holding the R trigger toggles the face buttons to correspond to your character's various mutant powers, which are displayed in a diamond formation on the screen. What's new is that you can now access a much broader range of mutant abilities by holding R and using the cross pad.

Taking advantage of these powers of course requires that you first attain them. Leveling up gives you four stat points to alter attributes such as attack power and speed and one skill point to boost or gain new mutant abilities. Abilities include not only attacks, temporary stat boosts in battle, and Xtreme powers, but also lasting stat bonuses and special attributes such as flying, Nightcrawler's teleport, and Might, which increases the physical strength of guys like Colossus. Constantly gaining and improving your moves is really one of the most exciting aspects of the game. While Juggernaut starts out with just a single, slow, powerful punch, he'll eventually be able to charge head-first through groups of enemies like a freight train. And with his Path of Destruction Xtreme move, he temporarily gains unstoppable strength, smashing enemies with damage in the neighborhood of 32000 HP (which is far more than any of them have).

While geeks like me tend to enjoy fiddling with stats and meticulously molding their characters' strengths and weaknesses, it may not be so exciting to others, especially when it comes to multiplayer. Spending a lot of time in the menus can be a real drag on a multiplayer session, so Raven has wisely included options to automatically distribute stat points, skill points, or new gear. This feature keeps the pace moving, and it can be set independently for each character in case there are some characters you want to focus on and others you couldn't care less about.

Also, because of the abundance of powers available, it may not be easy to determine which moves you like right away, but don't worry; the game has you covered there too. In addition to the piles of gear stacked up in the shop, you can also buy extra experience levels and skill points, but most importantly, you can spend cold cash for the ability to reassign all of the skill points you've gained for a character. So once you've unlocked and tested all of your skills, you can use this option to return to a blank slate and use the points you've gained to max out your favorite moves and forget about the duds.

Rise of Apocalypse plays out in five acts as you move base around the planet. Each act has a safe area (like the mansion in the first game) and several missions to complete. You'll camp out in areas like Magneto's Sanctuary, the Savage Land, and the Weapon X labs, and there is plenty to do before you go out and beat things. There are shops, manned by Beast and Forge, a Hero Stash to store excess armor, and a trivia game to test your knowledge of the X-Men, giving experience bonuses for right answers. The review computer provides a single location to check out comic covers, cinema scenes, load screens, concept art, and even look at how many secret goodies you're still missing in each act. The Danger Room computer is here too, giving you a chance to train, gain extra experience, and earn unique items from character challenges.

Most of the levels are enormous. There is a lot of ground to cover, a lot of villains to beat the snot out of, and a lot of set pieces to break. The majority of enemies are easy pickings, but some enemies have special attributes, such as shields, that require you to execute specific combos or resistances to certain kinds of attacks. Parts of the environment require certain mutant powers to pass. If you want to move a huge stone block, you'll need Colossus or Rogue to push it away. You may need Magneto to build a metal bridge across a gap or you might just have Toad spit on a fire to put it out. Boss battles often require you to shift your attention from the boss to devices or allies surrounding him, and fans should be happy with all of the different villains you'll go up against. In addition to Apocalypse's Horsemen, you'll fight against the likes of Lady Deathstrike, Sauron, Stryfe, Sugar Man, hordes of Sentinels, and many others.

Although the first X-Men Legends was a purely start-to-finish affair, Rise of Apocalypse gives you a lot of room to move back and forth between levels. In addition to saving and changing teams, extraction points can now be used to jump to different levels or head to base to pick up supplies or try a Danger Room challenge. Plus, once you save Blink, early in the game, you can call on her teleporting ability to quickly take you back to base at any time, but you'll have to wait five minutes before the game will let you do it a second time. Then, once you have finished the game, you'll be able to carry your leveled-up characters into a new game, perhaps on a harder difficulty setting, where you can continue to make them stronger.

Multiplayer plays pretty much the same, except you benefit from the energy and real cooperation of other players. In some ways, it can be harder and more frantic without any individual player in control of the camera, but it does make things like executing power combos a lot easier. Multiplayer couldn't be easier to set up; all anyone has to do is pick up a controller and press start, and when that friend wants to leave, just unplug his controller. One problem that pops up in multiplayer, though, is that since the camera ties the group together, it's impossible for a flying character like Rogue to quickly cross a chasm to find hidden goodies, leaving you to either come back while playing alone or unplug the other players' controllers temporarily to check the area. Also, hidden away in the main menu are some quick versus modes in the Danger Room to put X-Man against X-Man.

While X-Men Legends II is truly excellent in most regards, there are a few significant problems with the equipment system. First of all, even though they've added the Hero Stash, which holds an extra sixty items, your party can still only hold twenty items at a time. This amount is sufficient for a while, but at some point, the game just turns on item overload, and you might easily come across thirty to fifty items in a single stage. What this means is that on an increasingly regular basis, you have to dredge through your inventory and figure out what you don't need anymore or simply sell things off blindly to make space for items that you know you want. The auto-equip function doesn't help alleviate this problem much, since it is only applied to characters in your current group at the time that you pick up an item. Also, equipment I picked up throughout the game was usually for characters ten experience levels higher than any of mine, probably because I routinely rotated the fifteen to keep any of them from becoming useless, rather than using the same characters all the time.

The equipment system hides a more sinister problem, though; one that will hopefully be ironed out in future copies of the game. Somehow, hanging on to lots of equipment can cause a number of serious bugs to show up. I personally experienced the game crash about eight times or so, and also had several bizarre experiences with my skills and equipment. One time, a character's skills were all suddenly maxed out. Another time, all of a character's skills were missing. Then one of my unique items for Nightcrawler permanently turned into a dud, void of any stats or description. Browsing message boards, I found that some people have even encountered corrupted save files, forcing them to start the game over from scratch, and in most cases, the other problems were solved simply by emptying out the Hero Stash.

While the bugs are a real problem, it's worth taking the time to avoid them, because Rise of the Apocalypse is truly a great game. With a great story and polished cinemas and voice-work, it has a lot for fans, and it gives players considerable freedom to approach the game however they like, either as a single-player or multiplayer experience.

Pros:
Expansive adventure with lots of goodies for fans
Wider range of mutant powers and easy power switching
Freedom to jump back to old levels

Cons:
Horrible bugs can ruin the experience
A flood of equipment too deep to carry
Only four playable Brotherhood characters

Graphics: 8.0

   There is a marked improvement in the graphics over last year. Characters still look a little blurry close-up, but overall, the game looks a lot brighter and sharper. On top of that, the cinema scenes are really spectacular.

Sound: 8.5

   The music sounds very much like what you'd expect from an orchestrated motion picture soundtrack, but rises and falls appropriately as you move in and out of battles. The songs in Act 3 are particularly cool. Voice work is top-notch, with Patrick Stewart and others returning.

Control: 9.5

   The X-Men Legends control scheme still works really well, with some tweaks to things like flight. The added ability to change mutant powers without pausing is great too.

Gameplay: 8.5

   This game is really all about taking your favorite X-Men characters and getting cooler and cooler moves for each of them while pounding goons like Sugar Man and Holocaust. It can still get a bit tedious at times, but it's not nearly as slow to start as the first game.

Lastability: 9.0

   This game is huge. I was surprised when I saw that the clock had passed fifty hours when I finished, but I spent way too much time micro-managing things, so you may beat it in less than thirty hours. Even then, you can run through earlier stages again to look for extras or make another run through the game with full stats and the new characters you unlock at the end.

Final Score (Not an average): 8.5

   The bugs are extremely disappointing, but not enough to keep a game as good as this down. X-Men fans should be greatly pleased with all of the skins and abilities. A lot of thought really went into making this a great experience for micro-managers and brawlers alike.  

217
TalkBack / Electroplankton Gets US Release Date
« on: October 24, 2005, 05:06:04 PM »
Available January 9th, but only online and at Nintendo World Store.

Did You Know?  Nintendo's Musical Electroplankton Strikes a Chord on Jan. 9    


   REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The artistic musical experience   Electroplankton(TM) will begin making beautiful music in the United States on   Jan. 9.  This should come as welcome news to gamers and music fans who have   longed for the hit Japanese music-making title to arrive overseas.    


    Electroplankton, made exclusively for Nintendo DS(TM), doesn't fit the   traditional definition of a video game.  It features 10 different musical   modes that let the user create melodies using the microphone and touch screen.   Electroplankton is something that could only be played on Nintendo DS.  Its   dual screens, touch screen and microphone provide the perfect palette for   artistic creation.    


    Created by renowned artist Toshio Iwai, Electroplankton presents a   beautiful combination of art and music that unfolds in a different way with   every touch of the screen.  Players might find themselves getting lost in the   melodies they create before they share their masterpieces with friends.    


    "Electroplankton represents just one of the many ways that Nintendo is   developing new kinds of software to reach new audiences," said George   Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and   corporate communications.  "Even if you have never played a video game, you   can pick it up and start making amazing musical combinations with no   instruction."    


    Electroplankton, Rated E for Everyone, will make a public debut befitting   its creative, quirky nature.  Electroplankton will be sold exclusively online   and at the Nintendo World Store in New York.  It will be carried by all major   online retailers and at Nintendo.com.  


218
TalkBack / Impressions: GUN
« on: October 19, 2005, 05:25:51 PM »
Howdy cowboy!

GUN is Activision’s newest franchise, a third person shooter / adventure title set in the Old West. From what we’ve seen so far, the setting seems to stay within the boundaries of reality, steering clear of any zombie cowboy encounters or anything. However, the story, written by Randall Jahnson (Mask of Zorro, The Doors) gives a dark view of the West with conspiracies, dirty lawmen, army psychopaths, and a wicked preacher.

The opening of the game starts out innocently enough, the main character Colton White hunts game with his father and sells the goods to a local riverboat. You get a grip on the gun slinging by shooting local wildlife like elk and quail. Aside from your standard shooting mechanics, GUN also features a system called Quickdraw. When you enter Quickdraw mode, time slows down, and you can simply press a direction on the control stick to auto target an enemy. Quickdraw is limited though, and a meter will drain while you’re in the mode and then refill automatically over time. You spend a bit of time shooting elk and packs of wolves that mean to take a share of the spoils, and you finally face up against a massive charging bear before the steamboat comes ashore.

Once aboard, your father Ned speaks with a "lady of the night" about some special item. There’s also a man on board dressed as a preacher, but Colton doesn’t believe that he’s a man of the cloth for a second. At first, it’s just the bloodshot eyes and sneaky disposition, but then the preacher confirms Colton’s suspicions by putting a hatchet through the head of the whore his father was just talking to and leading a raid of white bandits covered in war paint to find and recover the "item" she’s been hiding.

After blasting away a few waves of bandits, you’ll probably come to realize that GUN is quite the bloody game, complete with craniums bursting like in Resident Evil. Ned verbally directs you to key areas of the ship that are being attacked, but it does seem a bit tough to find the area he’s talking about. Then you man a cannon to fire on approaching canoes and other boats aiming back at you. In the end, an enemy cannon destroys the wheelhouse and Ned gives you a token for the Alhambra in Dodge City before pushing you off deck to save you.

We skipped ahead to Dodge, which is the first city you’ll encounter. You can choose to go straight to the Alhambra and look for someone who might give you some insight, or you can take part in a number of side-quests. There are wanted posters with bounties to collect. The Pony Express is always looking for a good rider, and there are poker games to be played in the Alhambra before spending some quality time with the bartender.

Once you do go up to the bar, you’ll meet Jenny, another lady of the night who knew the girl on the steamboat. But before you get a chance to talk to her, the locals get rowdy, thinking you’re trying to cut in line on their tail, and they start a-shootin’. After you’ve shot a few drunks, one comments, "Just once, I’d like to come to Dodge and not get shot." Then the crazies start coming again, threatening to burn the place down, and you have to protect the Alhambra from inside and out.

In the next scenario we skipped to, we had to protect a stagecoach from "vicious Apaches". I can smell the bad press on this already. Apaches running around like madmen, raping women and murdering as they go -- and having their heads pop off when you shoot them. At least by this point, we’ve already learned that drunks and preachers act similarly in this game.

The first part of the stagecoach sequence is on horseback, and firing while riding actually doesn’t feel any more difficult than shooting on foot, except for the difference in speed. It’s important to note that this isn’t Zelda and there’s about as little attachment to your horse as there is to the boots you’re wearing. Horses will routinely be shot from under you in a big bloody mess, and you can "jack" any horse wandering about if you need one.

After using some TNT to clear a boulder out of the road, you’ll fight through the second part of the stagecoach scene while riding on top of the coach. In addition to the continued presence of Apaches on horseback, some will also drop on to the carriage from the cliffs above, forcing you to take a few jabs at them with your trusty knife.

Graphically, GUN isn’t particularly exciting; there’s a wide field of vision, but textures seem blurry and unconvincing. However, the audio is very impressive, with great ambient sound that really draws you in and dialogue that holds its own pretty well. GUN looks like it will be pretty massive in scope, and despite feeling a bit like True Crime: Dodge City, it should stand apart from the crowd.  

219
TalkBack / Impressions: Shrek SuperSlam (GC)
« on: October 18, 2005, 03:35:02 PM »
Smash your way to victory.

Activision’s latest Shrek title, developed by Shaba Games, is a full knock down drag out melee fighter. Up to four players can pick their favorite Shrek characters to battle it out in completely destructive 3D arenas.

The battle is viewed from slightly above the action, and players aren’t tethered to each other in any way, leaving you free to run away quickly at any time. Each character has weak attacks, strong attacks, and throws, and you’re able to grab not only other characters but tons of background objects like chairs and pool tables. You’ll also be able to pick up various weapons that appear, like the fairy launcher or a giant ham to beat people with. Your strong attack can be charged for more power, and weak attacks are used to start combo chains, which vary from character to character. Each character has his or her own fighting style of course, -- not that Donkey could fight much like Prince Charming anyways.

One of the most impressive parts about Shrek SuperSlam is the extreme destruction possible thanks to the Havok physics engine. As you knock each other about the room, you’ll smash tables apart, shred through stairways, and send towers crumbling. Plus, most stages have at least one background element that can cause larger changes in the level, such as a giant statue that, when destroyed, will leave a few eyeballs rolling around to be picked up and thrown at your opponents.

As you beat on your fellow fairy tale pals and blast through rooms, your character’s smash meter will build, and when it’s full, you’ll be able to execute a powerful and often hilarious smash attack. Smash attacks include Shrek’s cloud of gas called the "Green Storm" and Puss’s "Love Stun" which stops opponents in their tracks with his cute kitten eyes, giving him an opening to skewer them with his rapier.

Oddly enough, smash attacks are the crux of SuperSlam’s fighting system. Your characters don’t have life bars and you don’t need to knock anyone out of the ring. Instead, you have a set amount of time to pull off more smash attacks than your opponent. And, if you happen to be on the receiving end of a smash, a point will be deducted from your score. It’s certainly a different way to judge a match, and it definitely leads to some frantic rounds, as all four of you try to build up your smash meters and connect your attacks to as many opponents as possible.

There are also some more subtle maneuvers. You can perform tricks like wall attacks and mid-air dashes, or you can catch items thrown at you. If you get the timing right, you can also use your block move to deflect an item back at the person who originally chucked it at you. But what’s more is that they can still deflect it to send it your way again. If the two of you are skilled enough, the item will bounce back and forth ever more rapidly, getting hotter and hotter. Once it’s red hot, it will count as a smash attack against whoever finally gets hit by it.

When you’re on your own, you can participate in the mega-challenge mode, which features fifty mini-matches focusing on specific gameplay maneuvers. You might have to do some platform jumping over a fiery chasm or practice your grabbing and throwing moves by picking up gingerbread men to throw them into a fiery oven. As usual, the slightly twisted Shrek humor prevails throughout.  

220
TalkBack / Impressions: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
« on: October 17, 2005, 04:58:41 PM »
A hands-on look at the latest WWII shooter.

PGC had a chance to check out Activision’s latest WWII shooter for GameCube last week, Treyarch’s Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. Despite Activision’s odd numbering system, Big Red One is a completely separate game from Call of Duty 2 on PC and Xbox 360. Unlike other games in the series which put players in control of a variety of characters from US, British, and Russian squads, this time around you’ll follow the heroic American unit Big Red One from beginning to end. Missions take place in countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany, so there is a bit more variety in the scenery.

Keeping with the team is an important part of Big Red One. You’ll often be given verbal orders to flank an enemy or cover the squad from a specific location. Activision went all out with the vocal cast this time, as many of the actors also had roles in the television series Band of Brothers. When in the heat of action, a handy icon will pop up to identify teammates so that you don’t fire on them by mistake, but unfortunately, other friendlies don’t always get the same treatment. Trying to move ahead of the squad will usually get you shot down pretty quickly, but it really doesn’t feel constraining.

As WWII game developers love to bring up, the weapons are all authentic, and Treyarch took the time to examine the real guns and record sound effects from them. Another interesting trait the weapons have is that when you zoom in, the HUD cursor fades away, and you’ll be left using the actual sight on the gun to aim. This can be a bit challenging, especially when you have to learn how to aim a new weapon, but it’s an added flair that gun junkies will surely love. You also won’t be carrying full arsenals around with you. It seems that you can carry two guns and some grenades at any given time, and you can drop either gun to pick up new weapons that you find along the way.

Big Red One isn’t afraid of bright colors where appropriate, with the sun beaming down on green rolling hills at times, which is in stark contrast to the drab palettes other war shooters tend to take on. That isn’t to say that the game is cheery, though. The camera shakes a lot to simulate the rumbling earth beneath you, and there are constant gunshots and explosions in the background. At times, you’ll find yourself just inches from death, as you walk into a room just as it gets hit by a shell. You black out for a second, and wake up breathing heavily next to the bodies of soldiers who were standing just in front of you a moment ago.

The main level we had a chance to play through is the Piano Lupo scenario. The stage opens with an air raid on your camp, and you have to quickly jump on an anti-aircraft gun to blast the approaching planes out of the sky. It’s a thrilling experience, and you have to keep a constant eye on the objective radar to see where the next bird is coming from.

From there, you head out on foot with your squad. Coming upon a bridge, you find an enemy convoy stuck trying to cross and are asked to use your binoculars to spot a few vehicles as targets for an allied aircraft. Once the enemy’s out of your way, you move through a few more sections on foot and then man a machine gun to fire on a ridge with rapidly advancing enemy troops and trucks.

As you move on through a series of tunnels in the hillside, your squad will stop as they see enemy tanks swarming over the hills in the distance. Foreshadowing what’s to come, one soldier remarks that “We won’t stand a chance against those tanks,” with another man replying, “Not from here we won’t.” A little while later, you come upon a bunker complex besieged by tanks. There’s a radio upstairs in the main bunker, but it will take time to fix, leaving you to pick up a bazooka and defend the complex from about half a dozen tanks. Squad-mates will call from individual bunkers getting hit hard, and as the tanks continue to fire on the base, the walls and the very roof over your head will be almost entirely blown away. Finally, the radio gets fixed, and you’ll head back up to the main bunker to spy out the rest of the tanks with your binoculars. Your character gives the coordinates to the radio operator, and he has air support fly in to take out the remaining tanks so you can move on to the next level.  

221
TalkBack / Impressions: True Crime: New York City
« on: October 14, 2005, 07:05:32 AM »
Hands-on with the game, from the start.

This Wednesday, we had a chance to check out several games from Activision’s line-up, including True Crime: New York City. Following the same basic framework as 2003's Streets of LA, True Crime allows players to freely explore a realistic re-creation of Manhattan streets and focuses equally on driving, fighting, and shooting elements.

The game opens with a disturbing scene. Marcus Reed enters a place full of people hanging out. Bloodied, beaten, and carrying serious firepower, he walks up on some guys relaxing in a living room, exchanges a few short words, and proceeds to gun down everyone in sight. Meet our hero. This is your first gun fight, and you’ll quickly take control and get a chance to adjust to the shooting and auto-targeting mechanics as you proceed to exact your revenge. Once you’ve bloodied the alley with the last of them, police detective Terry Higgins walks up behind you… but he’s an old friend, and decides to cover for you “one last time”. Fast forward five years, and now Marcus is wearing the badge, with his mentor Terry continuing to stick up for the son of notorious criminal Isaiah “the King” Reed.

To earn your rightful place as a detective, you’ll need to complete some simple training exercises. There’s a fighting course, shooting course, and driving course which teach you the basics of each element of gameplay. While it can still be a little hard to remember all the necessary button functions at first (there are a lot of Z+ combinations), the controls feel much more responsive and streamlined.

Once you’ve completed the courses, you’ll go down to the locker room, change into plain clothes and get a car from the garage to go out on the streets with Terry. He’ll take you into a few situations to give you a quick rundown of a few more game mechanics. You’ll frisk a few guys and search a trunk for contraband. Then you’ll need to break up a street fight. Enemies’ life bars are color-coded to show their threat level: whether they’re unarmed, carrying a melee weapon, or packing a gun. Flash your badge and fire a few warning shots to get them to drop their weapons. However, as you’re arresting the others, one criminal will take off and snatch a car. Terry forces you to commandeer your own vehicle from somebody driving by, rather than taking his car. Chase down the thug and he’ll crash, giving you an opportunity to jump out, tackle him, and slap the cuffs on.

Shortly thereafter, Terry asks you to drive him to a building that explodes the moment he’s inside. Knowing that more than coincidence is at work, Marcus vows to get to the truth behind the “accident” and the game sets you out on your own. You’ll drive throughout the city freely and have the option to respond to small crimes in the area before you get a call and meet up with an FBI agent who gives your first lead.

Manhattan’s a pretty big place, but unlike Los Angeles, there’s an extensive subway network which allows you to quickly jump from one end of town to the other for a small fee. Plus, if you aren’t near a subway terminal, you can hop into the back seat of a taxi and have the cabbie take you wherever you like for a slightly higher price.

The good cop / bad cop system is still in place. If you want to be a good cop, arrest suspects and turn in evidence that you pick up from searches. If not, the bad cop route includes fatal shots to the head and selling the evidence you find at a local pawn shop to buy fancy cars, clothes, and hairstyles. Aside from the story arcs introduced from the good cop / bad cop system in Streets of LA, your behavior in True Crime: New York City also effects your environment. Do your best to be an honorable, upstanding officer and neighborhoods will clean up and crime rates will drop. Shoot guys up in every alley and order will diminish with rising crime rates, dirty sidewalks, and streets full of pot holes.

There are a couple more improvements over the last game as well. You’ll have more weapons available and be able to use your environment as a weapon, pushing suspects into hot stoves or locking them in freezers. The draw distance has been significantly improved. Now there aren’t any traffic signs suddenly appearing three feet in front of you, and a lot more people walk the streets. Plus, the complicated training areas that you had to find and complete to get new moves in the first game have been replaced, and now all you need to gain new skills is a bit of cold hard cash.  

222
TalkBack / REVIEWS: Trace Memory
« on: October 07, 2005, 03:47:15 PM »
An all new mystery for PC adventure fans to unravel.

Trace Memory (known as Another Code in other territories) follows in the footsteps of classic PC adventure games such as King’s Quest, Myst, and Broken Sword. While the genre has been around for ages, originating in purely text-based journeys, games in this style have all but disappeared in the past decade. Now, with touch screen input making point and click controls on handhelds more accessible, Cing and Nintendo are revisiting the genre with an all-new mystery.

The story centers on Ashley Mizuki Robbins, a thirteen year old girl who is being raised by her aunt, Jessica. She has grown up believing that her father and mother died when she was young, and is shocked when a package containing a strange device (oh c’mon, it’s a DS – called "DTS" in the game) arrives in the mail from her father. She then journeys to Blood Edward Island, an abandoned family estate where her father has apparently been doing research all these years. However, her father is not at the shore to meet her when she arrives, and in her search for him, she encounters D, a ghost who has wandered the island over fifty years without any recollection of who he once was. The two travel together, searching the estate for clues leading to D’s past and Ashley’s father.

For those who haven’t played this type of game before, it’s important to note that there is no real action in the game whatsoever - no running through death traps or executing combos against the undead. The gameplay consists primarily of finding clues to advance the story and solving simple but challenging puzzles.

When exploring, you’ll use the stylus or cross pad to guide Ashley through 3D areas on the lower screen, and detailed 2D close-ups will show on the upper screen as you move around. Any time you’re in a place that you can study in detail, you can press the magnifying glass icon to move the still down to the lower screen. The stylus can then be used to tap on items in the room and get further information or closer looks.

The DS hardware does allow for several new variations on the genre. Aside from the simple point and click exploration, the touch screen is also used to interact with puzzles, toss items to the upper screen, punch keypads, or scrape off plaques covered with rust. The microphone is used a few times in some basic ways, and even the DS’s ability to sense when it’s closed is used in gameplay. A nifty camera feature utilizes the dual screen arrangement to superimpose one picture you’ve taken over another, combining two parts to find a much needed clue.

As the US title suggests, memory is a key element in the game, not only in the story, but some of the gameplay elements as well. Unlike most adventure games which allow you to pick up just about anything, whether it seems useful or not, Trace Memory often will force you to remember where things are by not allowing you to pick up an item the first time you examine it. A fireplace may not hold any clues at first, but go back later, and you’ll be able to pick up some much needed charcoal. In addition, the game has a multiple choice quiz, oddly enough, at the end of each chapter to help keep you from forgetting important plot details that you’ve learned.

One adventure game trait Trace Memory does carry faithfully is obscure puzzles. While most puzzles take just a bit of thought to figure out, there are a few that everyone is just about guaranteed to get stuck on. The clues just don’t do it. (Too bad I can’t give examples without spoiling them.) There is one spot that I will spoil where the precision of the touch screen works against the player: you can easily think you’ve examined everything in this china cabinet, except you forgot to tap on one single glass that happens to be the item that you don’t know you’re looking for. It’s a cabinet across the room with no other dishes of significance. I touched the items all around it and in every little window, and then ended up searching the rest of the island to try to figure out what I had missed. These kinds of frustrations are pretty standard for the genre, though, and the game doesn’t suffer too much for it.

The only other minor complaint is that the constant in-game presence of the DS/DTS may detract from the experience more than draw you in. It’s a launch title sparkling innovation, featured in a game that released late in the US. Treating the DS like some secret device while having messages recorded on DS cards scattered about the house just seems silly and hard to get past at times.

Being a mystery makes Trace Memory a little easier to spoil than most games, so there’s not a much else that can be said. It doesn’t take a heck of a lot of time to finish, but you can run through a second time for some slight variations and extra plot details. This is a cool little adventure, especially for anyone who misses this style of gameplay. Hopefully, adventure game fans can look for more titles like this to come.

Pros:
First classic adventure title on DS
Cool blend of art styles
More story revelations on the second pass

Cons:
Typically obscure puzzles
DS cameo not always convincing

Graphics: 9.0

   The traditional comic book style for characters and flashbacks looks great and mixes well with the pre-rendered scenes and 3D environments.

Sound: 8.0

   The subtle music carries the air of intrigue, and it may even remind you of Metroid at times.

Control: 8.0

   The touch screen can be used exclusively and is a natural fit for a point and click adventure. There are some clever uses of other aspects of the system too. However, sometimes points you need to touch are incredibly small, and the double-tap shortcut doesn’t work as well as using the magnifying glass icon to examine items.

Gameplay: 8.0

   There are some pretty clever puzzles and some aggravating ones to keep you on your toes. Obscure clues are nothing new to veteran adventure gamers, though. Some new wrinkles are added by having to remember items earlier in the game and taking all of the unique inputs of the DS (and DTS) into account.

Lastability: 6.5

   Trace Memory isn’t that long of a title. You can play it again for new plot details, but it’s not quite as engaging once you know the solutions to the puzzles.

Final Score (Not an average): 7.5

   Trace Memory is good for anyone looking for a slower pace. It often feels like an interactive murder mystery and can be fun just to see how the plot unravels.  

223
TalkBack / The Sims 2 Goes Gold
« on: October 05, 2005, 05:51:35 PM »
PC title now coming to GameCube, GBA, and Nintendo DS.

The Sims 2 GOES GOLD FOR consoles AND handhelds     Best Selling PC Game Redefined for New Platforms will Ship to Store Shelves on October 24, 2005      


Electronic Arts is pleased to announce that the The Sims™ 2 has gone gold for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube™, and for the Nintendo DS™, the Nintendo Game Boy® Advance.  These versions of the game will ship to store shelves on October 24, 2005, followed shortly by the Sims 2 for the PSP™ handheld videogame system.      


     


The handheld and console versions of The Sims 2 are hotly anticipated, as the PC version of The Sims 2 was the No. 1 PC game of 2004 and continues to sell, with sales already topping more than 5 Million copies worldwide.  With the launch of the console and handheld titles this fall, and mobile versions available across all major carriers this winter, the Sims 2 will truly be everywhere—on any platform you’d want to play.    


     


Maxis-EA is redefining this highly-acclaimed franchise and will deliver classic open-ended gameplay along with exclusive new features.  Aspirational gameplay and fully customizable content will give players the most authentic Sims experience to date on console.  This innovative gameplay will allow players to make their dreams come true while avoiding their innermost fears. And, for the first time, players will be able to take direct control of their Sim without having to use their cursor.  The handheld versions were developed from the ground up to provide The Sims 2 experience on their respective platforms and each will a feature unique storyline.    


     


For more information, or to find out how the game will play on your favorite platform, please visit www.thesims2.com


224
TalkBack / Dig Dug Digging Strike Goes Gold
« on: October 05, 2005, 04:57:38 PM »
Newest game comes to DS this fall with over eighty areas.

“DIG DUG(R) DIGGING STRIKE” TUNNELS TO GOLD    


All-New Underground Adventure Arrives on the Nintendo DS(TM) this Fall    


  SANTA CLARA, Calif., (October 5, 2005) – Global video games publisher, Namco   Hometek Inc. announced today that “Dig Dug(R) Digging Strike” has gone gold   and is scheduled to launch this October exclusively for the Nintendo DS(TM).   “Dig Dug Digging Strike” marks the return of classic arcade hero Dig Dug in   an all-new adventure to foil a collection of troublesome foes – both above   the surface and below ground. “Dig Dug Digging Strike” offers players   original environments, gameplay mechanics and wireless multiplayer support.    


The tireless underground hero Dig Dug returns in “Dig Dug Digging Strike” as   a group of nasty monsters have infested his home island. Using the top   screen of the Nintendo DS, players will navigate a series of islands above   ground, avoiding enemies while seeking out tunnels to head below the   surface. Once underground, the action heads to the lower screen, where Dig   Dug must activate a series of fault lines to break apart the islands and   send his enemies to the bottom of the sea.    


“’Dig Dug Digging Strike’ combines the best elements from both ‘Dig Dug’ and   ‘Dig Dug II’ as well as a host of all new features for the most in-depth Dig   Dug adventure yet,” said Yoshi Niki, business unit director at Namco Hometek   Inc. “The classic arcade action is enhanced by new features, mini-games and   multiplayer support, and the dual screens of the Nintendo DS are the optimal   setting to depict the game’s two-fold action.”    


As he progresses through the game’s more than 80 areas, Dig Dug will   discover a selection of new powerful weapons and useful items that will make   short work of his foes and even unlock additional game content such as new   areas and abilities. Dig Dug will also partake in mini-game parodies of   classic Namco games such as Hori-X and Horivalou that will help him sink the   islands and defeat his enemies once and for all. Players can even enjoy all   the game’s digging action with a friend in wireless multiplayer adventures.    


For more information about “Dig Dug Digging Strike,” please visit   www.namco.com.


225
TalkBack / Mario Kart to Launch in Europe on 25th November
« on: October 05, 2005, 06:28:37 AM »
Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector to go on sale for thirty pounds.

MARIO KART RACES BACK INTO POLE POSITION IN NINTENDO'S FIRST EVER WI-FI GAME    


- MARIO KART DS LAUNCHES 25TH NOVEMBER 2005 -    


5th October 2005 – Mario Kart fans rejoice as the hugely popular racing game comes to the Nintendo DS on 25th November 2005. Mario Kart DS will drive players new and old to distraction as they race their way around a selection of tracks, including all-new extravaganzas and time-honoured classics from previous versions of the games. What's more Mario Kart DS will be the first Nintendo DS title to offer gamers online play allowing you to race anyone, anywhere, anytime for free.    


Want to show off your skills? Then get excited as Mario Kart DS features both online and wireless multiplayer modes. By using the Wireless DS Single-Card Download Play feature, up to 8 players can link up with just one game card. Alternatively you can battle it out online with three other players either in the comfort of your own home using your existing Wi-Fi broadband; or in the High Street either at Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Access Points in store or at Nintendo Wi-Fi connection enabled public Wi-Fi hotspots. Never before has it been so easy to pick up a games console and challenge friends from all over the world for free!    


Nintendo's unique new Friend Roster enables players to play online with their friends, all you need to do is set up a Friend Code by swapping a number with your friend, they will then be added to your Friend Roster and you can select to play with them online anytime, anywhere. Alternatively you can play with someone of a similar skill level. This is done seamlessly via Nintendo's servers through the use of a skill mapping system to ensure the environment is open to users of all ages and skill levels.    


The Nintendo DS's double screens are put to perfect use in Mario Kart DS, moving certain features, such as the map onto the bottom screen, clearing the top solely for the fast paced action. Mario Kart DS also allows players to see what weapons their opponents have, thanks to a small symbol next to their faces on the lower screen. For the first time ever you will know what item to hang onto and what tricks your opponents have up their sleeves.    


Following in the Mario Kart tradition, players must pick up items along the track such as power-ups which they can use to boost their own powers, mushrooms for a speed boost, a star to become invulnerable or shells, bombs and bananas to attack their opponents. Players can use these items to knock their opponents off the track and out of their way. These power ups can dramatically change the outcome of a race, so mastering these can give you the vital edge over your opponents.    


Mario Kart DS provides excitement and challenges to keep players, both young and old, entertained and in the driving seat. This highly addictive, fun and fast paced racing game launches on the Nintendo DS in the UK on 25th November 2005, at the estimated retail price of around £30. Also launching on the same date is the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector which will enable players who have Broadband at home to join in the Wi-Fi fun. The Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector will be priced at around £30.    


Further details on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Access Points and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection public WiFi hotspots will be announced soon.    


Click onto www.nintendo-europe.com for all of the most up to date official information on Nintendo.


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