December 2003

Week in Review – 12/08/03

December 15, 2003

Hello everyone, I trust you had a wonderfully productive weekend as we near the end of the holiday shopping frenzy. Dots and I managed to get almost all of our shopping done. That is no small feat I might add. That is enough about us, on with the news.

Gamers worldwide were saddened by the news from Interplay that they were closing Black Isle studios. Black Isle brought us titles like Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, and Icewind Dale. I know they will be missed by many RPG fans. Thank you Black Isle for all the great games.

In a swift move, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association has announced that they will begin carding purchasers of M-Rated video games by the 2004 holidays. Why exactly do they need a new system for this? Shouldn’t it be as simple as requiring employees that work in the video game section to see an ID for anyone requesting an M-Rated title? It isn’t like the “M” is hidden. While I think people should be carded for Mature games, it doesn’t solve the problem of parents purchasing Mature games for their 8 year old children. Unfortunately, I think we still have a long way to go before the video game rating system is fully effective.

For you PC gamers that are running about a week behind, Bioware released the v1.01 patch for Knights of the Old Republic. Head on over and get it here.

Take Two Interactive is in the news again stemming from a racism charge by various Hatian-American groups. The groups cite a phrase of “Kill all the Haitians” in the 2 year old game as the basis for their argument. To avoid a political fiasco, Take Two has offered to change the phrase in all future shipments of the game. In what I can only describe as a “surprise” move, this is apparently not enough and some feel they should pull every game off store shelves until the replacement is ready. Jean-Robert Lafortune, of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition had this to say “The presence of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the shelves of national distributors and retailers … continues to constitute a clear and present danger for Haitian nationals in the United States. Residents of Little Haiti (in Miami) have become like a sitting duck.” I sure didn’t see that one coming… Wal Mart has come out and said they will not be pressured into removing the game and they will continue to sell Vice City on the grounds that it is a product their customers want.

In more Take Two news, New Zealand has banned the new title, Manhunt. What a surprise. The NZ Office of Film and Literature Classification called the game gruesome and had this to say “You have to at least acquiesce in these murders and possibly tolerate, or even move towards enjoying them, which is injurious to the public good.” Really, I am surprised at that too, I didn’t see it coming. Manhunt is one of the most gruesome games to date and Rockstar seems intent on having a reputation as the game company that likes to push the envelope.

This past week, Sammy purchased a large amount of stock in Sega making them the majority stock holder. Sammy then made it clear to Sega they wanted the game company to focus on arcade games where the profitability was higher. Sammy’s pressure comes from a hefty loss, 2.5 billion yen, in the console market for the last 6 months versus a whopping 5.6 billion yen in profit in the arcade market. Sammy executives have announced they will be taking a more active role in Sega and expect the company to select its console release more carefully.

The much touted PSX hit the Japanese market last week to a less than stellar welcome. The $925 and $740 price tags for the units may seem a bit steep after Sony cut some of the features they had raised much hype about. The device was slated to support all 3 DVD formats (-R, -RW, and +RW), have a 24x DVD burner, and play MP3s, but the features were eliminated to make the mid December release date in Japan. The unit is scheduled to be available worldwide by 2004’s holiday season, but due to the lackluster enthusiasm is it even a good idea?

In Xbox 2 news, sources seem to think that Microsoft may be leaning towards a proprietary disc for the next gen console. How that would affect backwards compatibility is unknown at this time. Currently this is all speculation based on a job posting on a Microsoft site. The job details mention “…the design and development of the Xbox Game Disc for the next generation Xbox console…” Why would they need to develop a new game disc if they were sticking with the DVD format? Hopefully we will have more details in the near future.

That wraps up this Week in Review and I am off to finish some reviews for you guys.

More Search News

December 15, 2003

News / by Chris Rasco /

I tweaked the search again so that it “highlights” the words you searched for when you open the news post, review, or feature. Likewise you can also highlight things on your own if you so feel inclined. Simply add “/highlight=highlighted+words” to the end of the url and they will be bolded. Examples: News post with “halo 2” highlighted, Review with “crimson skies” highlighted. I think you get the picture. I hope this makes it easier for you guys to find what you are looking for. In terms of search results, I have it limited to displaying only the first instance of each word in the summary below each result. If you guys would like to see that displayed differently just start a thread in the feedback forum and I will see what I can do.

Mortal Kombat: No Fatality Here

December 12, 2003

Features / Opinion / by Lauren Rasco /

There are times that you wish that someone would put some sort of regulation on what is allowed to be portrayed in the movies, as we found out in the last venture to movie world with Mario Bros. Then there are sometimes when you are pleasantly surprised. Yes, I am admitting that Mortal Kombat was actually a descent movie. I will even go as far to say that I liked it. So here it goes, Dots likes the movie…so what about the game?

My goal is to play each game and then watch the movie. The only thing we have Mortal Kombat on in my little household is the good old Sega Genesis. Well this posed a little problem for me seeing as how I didn’t have a Genesis growing up, we were Nintendo girls at my house. I was in for a bit of a challenge; being that I had never even held a controller. We pulled out the old Sega and hooked her up and Cone put the game in to show me how to play. I watched him punch and kick and jump over and over, only to get his butt kicked over and over. At this point, I was less than amused with this fighting game deeming it too hard to play. I then decided that I needed to give it a shot even if I couldn’t beat one person in one fight. I picked up the control and I punched and kicked and jumped and then those words you long to see while playing Mortal Kombat popped up on my screen; “Fatality”. I somehow, on my first try, had won. I tried not to gloat, but I couldn’t help myself. I must say though, that is where my fun ended. I found the style of the game a tad too redundant to keep my attention. I am not one for fighting games at all, so it is no surprise that I didn’t take too kindly to Mortal Kombat. After playing for a while, I found myself thinking of my mission at hand…video game to movie. I had no clue how they were going to turn this game, with almost no plot, into a movie.

So, I did the naturally responsible thing as a writer and put off watching the movie for a week. Once Cone finally convinced me that there was no way it could be as bad as Mario Bros. I agreed to put it into the DVD player. I was a little taken aback at first with the, uh, catchy Mortal Kombat theme song and cheesy opening scene. But I pressed on into the actual plot of the movie. I am not usually one for kung-fu type fighting movies, but there was something about the supernatural aspect of the story that kept me watching. Plus, it was kind of fun to see the characters in the game portrayed as “real” people. Perhaps the story seemed to flow so well because some key members of the video game staff, Ed Boone and John Tobias, had a writing part in the movie. They were able to take the story that was in their minds for the game and make it a reality on the big screen. I would say they did a good job in taking the somewhat shallow characters from the game and turning them into pretty decent living breathing human, and some not so human, characters in the movie.

To sum up the movie in a few sentences is pretty easy: Three martial arts experts end up on this mysterious ship that takes them to this island someplace very much not on the map. They are then instructed by Rayden, the wise old goofy guy, that they must fight for the lives of all mortals in the ultimate match on martial arts combat. They fight, they kick butt, they get their butts kicked a little, but ultimately they win. It of course ends in the sequel set up, which I suppose came around a couple of years later. Whether or not it started where this one ends…I don’t know, haven’t seen it. Mr. Boone and Mr. Tobias are now also behind a third installment of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Domination set for release in 2004. We shall see how that next endeavor goes.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It, by no means, deserves an Oscar, or even an MTV Movie Award for that matter, but it kept me entertained for over an hour and that is pretty impressive. I would say, if you like the game, you will like the movie. Even if you didn’t like the game, if you are the kung-fu action type you should check the movie out. (I am saying this like the movie just came out or something) I may even venture into the world of Mortal Kombat: Total Annihilation and see how our champion mortals fare.

Happy Birthday Wraith!

December 12, 2003

News / by Chris Rasco /

Let me be the first to give a HUGE Happy Birthday shoutout to The Wraith. For those of you that don’t know, Wraith is the manager at the EB store we shop at. Him and his staff run the best gaming store I have ever stepped foot inside. They blow away the poor reputation of video game “clerks” that many of you have experienced. On top of running an excellent store, Wraith allowed us to place flyers in the store when we first began and I firmly believe that without his support we wouldn’t be where we are today. So Happy Birthday man.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III : Rebel Strike

December 11, 2003

GameCube / Reviews / by Zack /

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/rebelstrike/cover.jpg[/floatleft]The first Rogue Squadron, released during the N64’s heyday, garnished a plethora of high reviews, as not only was it well made, but in a genre of half-assed attempts and poorly conceived gameplay, Rogue Squadron was like a shining beacon of hope for the much-vaunted Star Wars license.

Fast forward to the GCN’s debut, coinciding with the release of Rogue Leader. Much like its predecessor, Rogue Leader pushed Nintendo’s hardware like no game at the time, and even added new vehicles and film clips from classic Star Wars moments. Not choosing to wait to leap to next generation hardware again, Factor 5 debut’s its latest Star Wars game in its Rogue Squadron series, Rebel Strike.

Like Rogue Leader, Rebel Strike brings over the branching paths you can take to progress through the game. The two characters you will play as, Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, each have their own route through the game. In general, Luke’s campaign comes across as land vehicle heavy, while in Wedge’s campaign you dogfight more using the X-Wing etc. This is a nice change from past Rogue Leader’s where you were mainly forced to only fly spacecraft, and if you became stuck on a level, tough. Thankfully, this branching pathway mechanic allows you to alternate campaigns at any time if you happen to get stuck or just want a refreshing change in scenery.

Rebel Strike’s story picks up right after the Death Star is destroyed. Imperial convoys and a massive air sortie impend upon Yavin-4 to strike back, and it’s your duty to show them just how much the TIE fighter sucks. From here, the story takes the usual backseat to the action, relying on the tried-and-true Star Wars clichA

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