The Week in Review: Potpourri & GTA 4

Oh the tribulations of a recreational games blogger: the writer's block, the lack of monetary incentive, no VIP status, sleep deprivation and let's not forget the time-consuming nuisance of playing some great games. There isn't any one reason the blog's been quiet for so long. Let's just say the urge to blog can strike as easily and suddenly as the urge not to.

Take right now for instance. We've been blessed in our neck of the woods with a sustained 10 minutes of sunshine and only now have I suddenly felt the need to sit down and rattle out some thoughts on gaming. In particular, I wanted to do a quick recap of what has happened in the last week of the Xbox 360.

Put down the sunscreen and read my texts after the jump...

GTA 4 trailer #2
I'll admit to watching the latest trailer, titled "Looking for that Special Someone", about four times on my computer. Then I grabbed it off the Marketplace and watched it another four or five times. I even gave the French sub-titled version a spin. Reactions on the Internet are not unanimously glowing, much to my surprise. Me, I can't help but get goosebumps every time I watch it. Rockstar has really been honing their cinematic chops and it shows by how well this latest video emulates the feel of a movie trailer.

Where the first teaser trailer focused on the environment of Liberty City slash New York, the second one gives us a heady montage of plot points and cutscenes, with much screen time devoted to our gritty protagonist, Niko. The graphics, voice acting and loopy soundtrack are all superb and makes me believe GTA 4 may have the strongest narrative and characterizations yet in the series. Sure, everything is quite ambiguous at the moment, especially when trying to discern what is actually in-game graphics or a pre-rendered cinematics. In hindsight, I'm almost disappointed they didn't show us some more solid gameplay footage. The final product is only 3.5 months away so there must be a mountain of goodies they are (shrewdly) holding back on.

All the Freebies
Xbox Live Marketplace has been positively spammed with delightful, free content this week. A complimentary theme and picture pack accompanied the GTA 4 trailer and both are quite nice. In honour of Canada Day, a Canadian theme and picture pack was released in the spirit of the Xbox web comic, 360 Prophecy. Those too are delightful in both price and quality.

But stop the presses! Two established Xbox shooters got the free DLC treatment as well. Two new game modes were released for FEAR and Rainbow Six: Vegas got a slew of new maps in the form of the Black Pack. Initially priced at 800 MS points, the Black Pack was temporarily pulled from the Marketplace, then reposted with news from Major Nelson that it was now a free download, then unceremoniously pulled again. A wee bit of confusion right now, as some players have managed to snag the new maps while others like myself have yet to see anything listed on XBL about any free Black Packs. But I wait, patiently.

Another surprising move, starting on July 6th, the Rainbow Six: Vegas Red Pack will become a free download, causing gamers the world over to rejoice, except for the early adopters -- also known as Devoted Fans -- who dutifully spent their points already in the 2 months since the release of the Red Pack.

Carcassonne
I tried describing this digital translation of the German board game to a friend of mine over private chat and resorted to my cliched mash-up of older games. "It's like Rampart crossed with Pipes and Catan". It's hard to be articulate when you're gaming and talking at the same time.

I was taken aback by how charming and deep this game is. The short, stingy demo does a good enough job of teaching you the basics and a taste for the simple, strategic gameplay. I was hooked after my first game (a slight fallacy, since the demo doesn't even allow you to complete a full 71-turn game) and felt compelled to buy the unlocked version. When you consider I passed on many excellent XBLA titles of late, including Prince of Persia, Catan and Band of Bugs, that should count as fairly high praise for Carcassonne.

Overlord and The Darkness
Two well-reviewed game releases in one week equals gaming goodness for the Xbox masses. Interesting to note that while both games are in completely different genres, they both feature evil minions to do your nefarious biddings. One of these games just happens to be a lot more grotesque and brtually violent than the other!

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Reward Me for Gaming

The blog has been quiet for the last week. While I would love to blame the lack of news for this week's dearth of posting, the truth of the matter is I caved last weekend and picked up Forza Motorsports 2. I, the gamer who cut his racing teeth on arcade fare the likes of Test Drive and Need for Speed, went out and purchased the first unabashedly realistic, car racing simulator for the Xbox 360. I now play this game compulsively.

The game has had me in its grips for 6 days now for all the usual reasons. There is another aspect of Forza 2's design that keeps racing happily around same tracks, over and over again.

Tune up the jump to read more...

I could waste valuable blogging real estate praising the accessible ultra-realism presented in Forza 2's gameplay. Similarly, the silky smooth framerates (60fps for those of you who are counting) and fantastic detailing of the game's 300 accurately modeled cars are also very much worthy of mention. No, all those things are to be expected of a next-gen racing game.

The thing I didn't quite expect from Forza 2 were the rewards it had in store for me. Simply put, I feel rewarded every time I play the game. Make no mistake it is very typical of other console racers in that almost everything is locked in the beginning. The tracks available to race on: sparse. The selection of cars you have to drive: meager. Your available funds to purchase new cars and upgrade existing rides: beyond pitiful.

It all started with a few races in Career mode with my unassuming Class D jalopy. These contests were easily won with the help of some very useful assists that eased me into the hardcore simulation driving mechanics. As the game celebrated my victories, it displayed expanding bar graphics representing my Driver and Car Levels. Interesting. I then noticed that I had unlocked a new car and had earned a modest sum of credits that I assumed would be used at some point to upgrade stuff on my cars. Pretty cool, I thought.

It wasn't long before I was doggedly replaying race events to win gold trophies, thus earning the right to unlock prize vehicles specific to that event. The Forza 2 designers have done an amazing job of turning what has always been a bit of a chore in racing games (unlocking shit) into an addictive play-reward system. It's not uncommon to win a single race and be hit with a flurry of rewards. Perhaps you earned enough credits to level up your Driver Level. You may have hit that milestone that unlocks new, advanced racing circuits comprised of several dozen new tracks. At the same time, you might have also leveled up your current vehicle, which in turn unlocks manufacturer discounts on upgrade components and brand new cars. Finally, if you happened to perform particularly well in the race, a car company may put their support behind you and award you a bonus car on top of the car you won for completing the race event.

It's all very RPG with all the "leveling" going on and on the whole, it's extremely rewarding. The game succeeds because it constantly makes me feel like I'm making progress and there is always something to do. If I get stuck on a Career race, I can go back to any other race that I've already won and beat up on the amateurs there to grind out some easy credits. If I tire of that, I can always play the Arcade mode and unlock more cars and tracks there. When racing my car gets completely frustrating (which it often does), I can unwind a bit and spend some time pampering my cars with a new paint job or trick it out with some strategic upgrades.

Playing this game has really reminded me how crucial it is for a game to reward the player for their efforts. Working towards a big payoff, or a series of smaller, incremental rewards, is really what our lives are based on at the end of the day. This raises the question of why we should ever settle for a game that wastes our time or provides weak incentives for playing.

What are some of the games you keep playing? What are the rewards?

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Top Gamespot Reader Review Cliches

Pick any game and scan through the reader reviews. You will notice a certain pattern to the title headings:

"Instant Classic"
"Immersive"
"Masterpiece"
"Highly Addictive"
"Amazing"
"Just Plain Fun"
"Rocks"

And my personal favourite:

"All it's cracked up to be"

Negative reviews tend towards the following taglines:

"Mixed reactions"
"Rent it first"
"Don't believe the hype"
"Almost, but not quite"
"Overrated"
"Been there, done that"

You'd think they have a phrase generator churning out these headings with such regularity.

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A Night at the Arcade: Prince of Persia

You may remember my gushing excitement about this week's XBLA release. Side-scrolling platform games are a dying breed. The original Prince of Persia broke some new ground back in 1989, featuring some of the most fluid character animations ever seen and a unique take on 2D swordplay.

The updated Prince of Persia Classic is literally the same game you played 18 years ago but with a dazzling makeover to hide all the wrinkles. The full version of the game will set you back 800 points, which is uncharacteristic of a retro release on Arcade. Granted this is the best-looking, value-priced retro remake ever released, on any platform. We should all be so lucky to have such beauty lavished on all of our "moldy oldies".

But please don't take this as an unconditional recommendation of Prince of Persia Classic. Like the original, there is an unforgiving 1-hour time limit to complete the quest of rescuing the princess from the evil vizier. Assuming you die and restart a lot (which you will), total time for completion may only clock in at 2 hours. So despite the marvelous graphics and gameplay to be found in this title, there is the value proposition to consider before plunking down those expensive Microsoft points.

For myself, I plan on waiting until I get that masochistic craving for a challenging platform game before I unlock the full game. Hey, it's not going anywhere, so why the rush? But in all honesty, Rainbow Six: Vegas is taking over my life again and has threatened to make any other games its bitch.

Vegas, she is a jealous mistress.

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Overlord Demo Recommendation

Just try the demo, it's good. The lack of good camera control will vex you for maybe 5 minutes before you get used to it and relish the wanton destruction wrought by your minions.

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Mouth-Watering: The Darkness Video

Game Trailers recently posted a preview video of the upcoming shooter, The Darkness, by Starbreeze Studios.

Look, I was extremely curious about this title since I heard about it at the beginning of the year. Having viewed this latest video, I am anticipating the release of this game with bated breath.

My dark n' twisted thoughts on the video after the jump...


The video does a great job of showing just how far this game has come in the last few months. The graphics have gone through some impressive refinements. The lighting is very immersive and looks to play a large role in the gameplay. Frame rates and animations also look more fluid. And the gunplay. Oh, the gunplay! The protagonist, Jackie Estacado, seems to go through the entire game dual-wielding his firearms. A number of brutally vivid execution moves are available to the player and, more interestingly, each gun hand seems to move semi-independently from the other. I'm not sure how that will impact gameplay. Perhaps it will come in handy when taking aim around corners and firing only the gun that has a clear shot on the target.

Speculation aside, The Darkness just looks very slick right now. There seems to be a decent story driving the single-player campaign, with beautiful cinematics, solid voice acting and a fairly unique take on the standard horror-FPS genre. My only reservation to buying this game is that I would be adding yet another shooter to my already shooter-centric collection. The Darkness, or Forza Motorsports 2, or DiRT?

The good news is picking games for the 360 is only going to get harder as the year progresses! Look for The Darkness to hit stores shelves at the end of June.

Source: Game Trailers

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Vampire Rain Demo Impressions

I think will be my last negative post for a while before I discuss more pleasant subjects, like the Overlord demo and fluffy kittens.

I posted about this game last week to mercilessly blast its crummy graphics. Little did I know they released the demo that same day, as if challenging me to look beyond the superficial and find beauty in the gameplay. Well, did I find it?

Bite the jump to get my take on the Vampire Rain demo...

Vampire Rain plays like a confused mash-up of survival horror and stealth. The demo offers up 5 short, single-player missions and the option for multiplayer matches over Live. I was able to try out 3 of the single-player missions. Based solely on my experiences there, I can confidently say that this game is headed in the wrong direction.

You play a guy who looks very much like Sam Fisher, only with half the mojo. See, instead of getting the jump on unsuspecting terrorists, you are facing off against a brood of vampires (referred to oh-so-creatively as Nightwalkers). These are deadly, deadly blood suckers. You have a health bar that regenerates when you're out of combat but it's primarily for show. Once you are detected and a vampire gets within striking range, nothing can save you except a couple blasts from the shotgun.

Sadly, you are not equipped with the shotgun in every mission. Instead you are outfitted with a pistol and rifle that do wonders for blowing the dust off a vampire's lapel, but little more. Fine, this is clearly a game of stealth, not a run & gun extravaganza. Unfortunately for us, this is where the demo suffers the most. The stealth mechanics are horribly basic and are provided little support by the uninspired level design. Forget light and noise meters. The enemy AI feels very scripted, making the stealth portions simply a matter of waiting for all vampires to leave a room before entering it yourself.

Sometime you don't even have to do that. The first mission in the demo sees you clambering atop one nondescript rooftop after another. While it is a decent way to introduce the controls to the player, I almost quit the demo entirely from the crushing boredom I was experiencing.

The shallow stealth gameplay, coupled with the brutal consequences of being detected, do make Vampire Rain play more like a survival horror game than anything else. There are some tense moments to be sure, but the mood is constantly ruined by the lackluster production values. As I mentioned already, the graphics stink. The textures are extremely bland, as is the lighting and map design. The only thing they nailed with some success is the look of falling rain at night. I should also mention that the cutscenes are poorly animated, poorly directed and are voiced by some pretty bad actors.

Bad-mouthing a demo like this is almost pointless since it's a free download. I hope that I can spare some of you the 800+ megabyte download. Conserve your Xbox's life and put it to more meaningful use than downloading and running this sorry excuse for a 360 game.

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Tenchu Z Demo Impressions

When you think about it, ninjas occupy a very select, elite position in the echelons of pop culture and fanboy geekdom. Much like how pirates have become all the rage in the last few years, there's an unconditional acceptance of ninjas and all things ninja-related. Ninjas, aside from the deadly nature of their business, can do no wrong. In games, the ninja has enjoyed a largely successful run of titles, most notably represented by the Ninja Gaiden series. Ninjas, in and of themselves, are simply cool and demand respect. I would go so far as to say it takes a special brand of incompetence to screw up the ninja mystique.

Well slap me silly and call me Marvin (??), because From Software has seemingly pulled off the impossible. Based on my short time with the Tenchu Z demo, I'd say they have thoroughly taken everything that is cool about ninjas and pissed it into the toilet.

Assassinate the jump link and I shall explain...

Graphics and overall presentation aside (both are average), the biggest flaw with the demo is in the gameplay. The stealth component needs a lot of work. The enemy AI is extremely inconsistent and is a pushover during head-on swordfights. While pulling off a surprise attack is quite satisfying, there doesn't seem to be much incentive to remain undetected for most of the level. Your ninja is a capable enough fighter but I did not derive any joy from clashing swords with the enemy. I must be missing something because I was limited to a single 3-slash combo, a block and a crouching underhand slash. In short, the fighting system is boring as well as cumbersome.

More problematic than the fighting, my ninja simply does not feel graceful. You can make small leaps and grab ahold of low ledges. While on a rooftop you may also peek over the edge to do some recon. And that's the extent of your ninja stealth abilities. There are no other moves in your arsenal that even approaches what Sam Fisher might do in your average game of Splinter Cell. You can't scale the sides of tall structures, grab and execute enemies from above or do anything that you might expect a ninja from the movies would do.

I had watched the trailer for this game a couple months ago and was thinking Tenchu Z might be a diamond in the rough among all the A-list blockbusters coming down the pipe. The trailers featured very compelling action sequences and multiplayer games involved cooperating squads of ninjas. Playing co-operative and competitive matches with other ninjas has tremendous potential.

I came away from the demo very disappointed. Unless something drastic happens to the game mechanics in the final version (unlikely), I will probably be steering clear of this game when it comes out this summer.

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Shadowrun Demo Impressions

Very few games have me sitting on the fence over their purchase quite like Shadowrun does. Even after reading a dozen or more reviews from critics and players, as well as spending some quality time with the demo, I find myself waffling on my verdict for this game.

Experience my "confused feelings" after the jump...

I will dispense with most the back story behind this controversial game. The Shadowrun demo was released yesterday about a week after the retail version arrived on store shelves. I would have expected a demo to precede the final version and it's unclear why there was this reverse in the typical demo/final release schedule.

I'll start with the many good points I noticed while playing the 1.1 GB demo yesterday. Upon firing up the game, I was impressed with the polished presentation of the menus. There's an ominous, Brazilian theme to the background music that adds a lot to the atmosphere. The demo includes 3 training missions that guide you through basic weapon use and introduces you to a handful of useful magic and tech skills. While fairly standard, I would say these tutorials do a great job of easing me into the game mechanics and are pretty much crucial if you want to learn the game's basics without too much frustrating trial-and-error.

One thing that really stands out in this game is the overall feel of moving my avatar. The weapon bob is mercifully subtle and pulling off all the maneuvers, from jumping and climbing to gliding and teleporting, feels fluid and natural. In short, I don't feel like the controls are getting in the way too much... until I start assigning skills to specific buttons. To be fair, they handle that mechanic pretty well and it's more of a learning curve issue than a glaring design flaw.

Even with a single map and game mode, I would say the Shadowrun demo is fairly generous with the content it has to offer. After you've run through the training missions, you can engage in bot matches or hop on to Live for a public match. If the monotony doesn't kill you first, you could squeeze a lot of fun out of this thing, free of charge.

Which brings me to the dark side of the moon: does the demo make me want to drop the $70 Cdn. on the retail version? Before I attempt to answer, I have a few grievances to air with the game itself. In an effort to even the playing field between PC mouse/keyboard users and 360 owners (this is the world's first cross-platform, cross-play video game), developer FASA implemented the expanding crosshair system used in so many tactical shooters. If you run or hop all over the place while firing, you will hit very little. Stand still or crouch and you will see your aiming crosshairs slowly contract and focus in for more precise shots. Let me repeat this; they will slowly contract. Does it have to be this slow? The delay in getting a focused reticule is even slower than in more realistic shooters like Rainbow Six: Vegas! In a sci-fi game that features magic, elves and trolls, this strict adherence to weapons realism feels very out of place and screw up the play experience somewhat by making the weapons unsatisfying to use. When I'm snapping off a few shots with the pistol, I get the impression I could use a shotgun and get the same amount of accuracy. Add to this the lack of any indication that you're successfully landing shots on someone and you have a very important aspect of any shooter that could have been done so much better.

The guns at your disposal are your standard fare. In the demo you are offered an SMG, pistol, rifle, shotgun and sniper rifle. Each of these acts as you would expect of them. It's clear that the designers didn't want the weapons to take the spotlight away from the magic or tech skills, because all the guns are purely functional. Flashy or innovative, they are not. This goes double for the character models, which are divided up into the 4 races (only humans and elves in the demo), as well as which faction you're playing for (red or blue team). All characters of a certain race within a team share the exact same appearance, which really lends a flatness to the presentation. This flatness also extends to the graphics in general. There are some nice special effects to be seen when someone teleports or lays down a Tree of Life, but the texture design, as displayed in the demo map, are pretty bland indeed.

Multiplayer matchmaking looks to borrow a page from Halo's book. You simply launch the system and wait, wait and wait for the game to connect you to an available game. The wait can be interminable. With preferences and TrueSkill filtering options available in the final version, I can see how this can be an efficient way to find games to play. I just wonder whatever happened to the tried-and-true method of bringing up a list of open games and simply selecting the one you want out of that list. Here's an example of a multiplayer menu screen:

• Quick Game


• Custom Game


• Create a Game

It's really that simple. If you cannot execute a new, more efficient way to organize multiplayer games, don't even bother. Just stick with the proven formula and save your customers the headache.

Finally, I have a few comments on the bot AI. Now I know that single-player is not the point of Shadowrun but I'm new to the game and need to brush up on my skills. The first 3 levels of AI that I've tested out seem pretty good, but why on earth is the AI on MY team so incompetent? I've played a dozen games where I'd be singled out by the opposing team, die early and watch in abject horror as my AI teammates flounder around the map. I was close to yelling at my TV set as I witnessed the end of one particular round where a lone enemy player trotted straight through FIVE of my teammates on the rooftop and successfully extracted the Artifact. Egads.

You'd think that I absolutely despise this demo at this point, but I don't. I still feel compelled to play the game because despite all of its flaws, it pulls off enough competencies to make the entire experience fun and rewarding. I liken Shadowrun to bringing home that sort-of-hot girl from the bar. She's got funky teeth and she smells kind of funny, but the bar was closing and you really had no other options. Even so, she's there, she's willing, so why not? You take what you can get.

If I do decide to buy Shadowrun, I would have to do it very soon. It won't be long before I'm distracted by the bigger, shinier toys that come out. The Darkness comes out at the end of this month and very soon after that, we'll start to get the heavy-hitting releases. Virtua Fighter 5, Bioshock or Halo 3 anyone?

Shadowrun is a fun game in its own right, but based on what I've, it can't compete with the ambitious, A-list titles that are due out for the 360 in the near future. That knowledge alone, keeps me hesitating. And the longer I wait, the less I will want this game.

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XBL Demo Rain

A trio of new game demos were made available today: Shadowrun, the team-based online shooter released last week; Tenchu Z, the latest installment in the stealth-ninja action series; and the upcoming last-gen homage, Vampire Rain.

I've been getting my feet with the Shadowrun training mission in between bites of lunch and I have to admit the game is working its charms on me.

For those of you with offline consoles or who are too lazy to download these demos, I'll be laying out my usual criticisms and impressions of these new offerings before the weekend rolls around.

Happy gaming and remember to aim for the head!

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A Night at the Arcade: Pac-Man CE

Well, it's Pac-Man. What can I say about Pac-Man? The first ever Pac-Man World Championship wrapped up yesterday in New York. Immediately after the event, Namco Bandai dropped a news bomb on the world and announced the release of Pac-Man Championship Edition on XBLA. The gaming news world was shaken to its very core! Women fainted on the streets and dogs began sleeping with cats! Once the dust of the apocalypse settled, we really were left with another iteration of our time-worn Pac-Man. And the trial version is your ANatA feature for this week!

Eat the jump for my impressions...

It's becoming more apparent each week that my goodwill towards retro arcade releases on Xbox Live rely heavily on my affection for the original versions of these games. Pac-Man CE, for all intents and purposes, is your classic Pac-Man with some shiny new effects and a handful of new game modes. How many ways can you play Pac-Man? In several ways, apparently. Alongside the standard mode, these are the: Challenge Modes, Patience and Reward Course and The Darkness Course. Finally there are 3 different Extra Modes consisting of 3 unique courses. These new modes mark the first time new mazes have been released in the game's 26 year history.

As far as retro titles are concerned, Microsoft could not have chosen a heavier hitter than Pac-Man. The game is undeniably fun and is a frantic test of your hand-eye coordination. Only the main Championship Mode is available in the trial. Your session is set on a timer before everything fades to black and you're booted back out to the main menu.

It's a fresh enough take on a classic game and it's fun. Whether the package is worth your 800 MS points is really going to depend how much mileage you can squeeze out of this repetitive dot gobbler. Such was the case with Mad Tracks last week, if the trial offered up a taste of what the other game modes were all about, maybe I would be more willing to open up my wallet.

As it stands, I don't like Mr. Pac-Man that much. I'd rather spend my points on another retrofitted retro classic, Prince of Persia Classic, arriving to XBLA next week!

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Vampire Rain: Disgusts Even Non-Graphic Whores

A recent IGN cover feature draws the spotlight to a little-known game called Vampire Rain. The game looks to blend stealth aspects as you might find in Splinter Cell with down & dirty vampire combat.

Some more blah after the jump...

Who is Artoon? What have they done before? Why haven't I heard of Vampire Rain until now? I would be more compelled to find out the answers to these questions if the IGN article did not leave such a bad taste in my mouth...and a burning sensation in my eyeballs.

This game looks horrendous.

I will always maintain that I am not a graphics whore. In my defense, you'll often find me blowing the dust off 4-year old PC games, simply because I enjoyed the gameplay and can appreciate less than cutting-edge graphics. Vampire Rain, however, is due out this summer (a demo was just released to the Japanese market) and as such is expected to look like a 2nd generation Xbox 360 game. At the very least, any new game should look like it belongs in the year 2007.

Vampire Rain makes the average PS2 game look "next-gen". All I needed to see was the HUD design in the screenshots. My immediate thoughts were "sloppy and cheap". The rest of the graphics look muddy and washed out. The trailer makes the game look atmospheric enough, but the gameplay videos just killed off any respect I might have had for this game. Please tell me the the videos are just very compressed and the player crosshairs are not made of giant, green jaggies...

I think I speak for most 360 owners when I say that we demand better. Is Microsoft that hard up for third party support that they need to allow this low-res insult to all vampire games into the Xbox catalogue?

Vampire Rain, coming to stores this summer. Watch for it!

Source: IGN

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Face Lift

There's a small redesign in progress which I plan to wrap up in the next day or so. I'll do my damndest not to disrupt the usability of the site while I mess around in the backroom. The only significant changes will be in the colour scheme of the sight and maybe a few new graphics.

Thanks for your understanding.

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Rainbow Six: Terrorist Hunt Etiquette

Look, I'm a co-op whore and I've easily logged a 100 hours playing Rainbow Six: Vegas' addictive Terrorist Hunt online multiplayer mode. I shudder to imagine the landfill large enough to hold the legions of digital terrorists I've sent to an early grave.

With all the play experience under my belt, I thought I'd give back to the community and offer up a PSA of sorts about game etiquette. The R6: Vegas fan base are a pretty mature and courteous lot to begin with and I've had the pleasure of playing with (and against) some outstanding human beings. But as is the case with manners in all areas of life, it never hurts to get those reminders on proper conduct and even the best of us can forget that there are real people on the other end of our 360 headsets.

So without further ado, here are my personal guidelines to playing well with others in Rainbow Six: Vegas Terrorist Hunt:

(Hit the jump for more...)

1. Thou Shalt Not Join a Game in Progress
   Ubisoft has not gotten around to fixing a bug that will deny you and your team victory points if a player enters the round mid-stream. There's still some debate on whether the points are still awarded despite the game screen that declares all points has been nullified and the mission has failed. Gripes about Ubisoft's buggy products aside, it's just better form to join a game that is still on standby in the lobby than popping in when the sole surviving player has eliminated the last terrorist in a map like the Research Labs. On Realistic difficulty. And set to High Density. Trust me when I say you don't want to potentially deny that player his just reward!
   
   The game will tell you when you're about to join a server that's already started their round, so do the right thing: wait before joining or find another server.


2. Thou Shalt Refrain from Joining Games Just to Rank Up
   Few things are more uncouth than having fresh blood join your fight against the terrorists, only to have the entering player state that he wants to rank up, so please don't lose any rounds. Annoyance levels escalate further when said rank-obsessed player proceeds to do nothing but die within the opening minutes of every round. The moral of the story is: everyone likes to rank up, but most players out there also want to have fun and play alongside good teammates. All for one and one for all, right?


3. Thou Shalt Not Pressure Teammates to Commit Suicide
   This is a big one because it happens so often and is an incredibly boorish thing to do. This also applies to telling a player to "hurry up", as if his only intention of playing is to walk around the map aimlessly and run out the clock, thus losing the round and sacrificing valuable victory points. When most of the team gets wiped and there's a single player left to battle the spawning hordes of terrorists, take a breather and offer him friendly support. Don't be a backseat driver gamer, mind you, just try your best to be an extra set of eyes and ears for your valiant teammate.
   
   On the flip side of this equation, if you find yourself the sole surviving member of your squad and there's still a horde of terrorists to shoot, know when to bow out gracefully. Let's say you're in Calypso Casino on max difficulty and all your buddies buy the farm on the rooftop. Even if you're confident in your abilities to win the round, are you really going to force everyone to watch you crouch-walk around with your shield and pistol for 15 minutes? I sincerely hope not, soldier. This is one of those times when you do need to take one for the team, and take it gracefully.


4. Thou Shalt Communicate With Your Team
   This is a serious no-brainer but it's important enough to state the obvious anyway. Let your teammates know when you're tossing grenades. Let them know when you're entering a hot room. Let them know if you're pinned down by gunfire. And let them know if you know their ass is in imminent danger. No, you don't have to trot out the faux military lingo and act like Sgt. Slaughter. You only need remind yourself that a team that works together wins together. Also, the more you know, the more you grow. And knowing is half the battle. Or something like that...


5. Thou Shalt Be a Good Host
   It's understandable for a host to want a full lobby before starting up the next round of play. It's also easy to sympathize with a host who delays a round in order to bring in one of his good buddies to play. It is not okay for a host to ask a waiting player to leave in order to make room for the host's friend and his friend's friend. That, my good people, is called a Dick Move.
   
   There are no hard and fast rules to being a good host. It's really a combination of common sense, courtesy and respect. For starters, it's only a good idea to host a public match if you know you're going to be in it for the long run. You may only need a 10-minute fix, but what of the other players who joined? In addition, a little friendliness and MC-ing skills can go a long way. Acknowledge and welcome new players when they join. Give your team advance warning if you think you need to shut down early. And don't be afraid to exercise your hostly powers and boot troublesome players who have no respect or who will only hinder your team from having a good time.

And there you have it, just a few basic guidelines on playing fair and playing with class. If you have some of your own suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. Drop a note into the comments and we'll compile our own little Miss Manners rule book for Rainbow Six: Vegas!

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Play Bits: May 26 - June 1, 2007

This past week saw the release of Forza Motorsports 2 and Shadowrun but I spent most of my game time with demos and older fare.

Hit the jump for the week that was...

Rainbow Six: Vegas
Ah yes, it's been 5 months since I bought this game and I still play it compulsively. Terrorist Hunt still maintains its addictive pull, as does the level grind to promote my virtual soldier to the coveted rank of Elite. I really do play T-Hunt to the detriment of my skills in any of the other online modes. Team Sharpshooter and Attack & Defend would get more play if I didn't get so thoroughly owned every time I try to compete.

Simply put, Rainbow Six: Vegas is probably my strongest reason not to buy Shadowrun. Who has time for TWO addictive online FPSs? Who, I ask you, who?

Virtua Fighter 5
Don't get too excited. I don't have an inside man over at Sega. I merely played the demo version loaded onto a PS3 kiosk at my local Future Shop. A quick succession of matches using the leggy blonde chick (Sara?) was all that was needed to get me excited for the X360 version come July. The controls are incredibly tight and precise and the graphics are simply gorgeous.

There's still some debate on whether VF5 on the 360 will support online play. Online-schmonline, I expect the game to set a new bar for fighting games regardless of how multiplayer contests are handled. We are long overdue for a new fighter to play besides Dead Or Alive 4.

FEAR
On that same visit to Future Shop, I grabbed the 360 version of FEAR using my crazily loaded gift card. I missed this one back in 2005 when it hit the PC. Overall, I'm glad I picked this up. It's sorely lacking a proper difficulty setting in between Moderate and Hard. I've restarted the campaign three times already, feeling the game was too easy, bumping up to Hard, getting absolutely destroyed and crawling back to Moderate. Granted, it's still fun even though I'm literally collecting health kits from not having to use any of them. I'm only in mission 3 of 10, so I'm hoping the challenge ramps up nicely from here on out.

I also have to bitch about my avatar's gait as he runs. The weapon bob seems overly exaggerated and it can feel like I'm tap-dancing on a wet floor. That's what the play control feels like to me when I take the time to notice. Other than that small gripe, everything else you've heard about this game is true. The atmosphere, the destructible environments, the harrowing firefights, the satisfying weaponry and the cheap scares are all there in glorious, bloody detail.

DiRT demo
Taylor and Andy have already posted their thoughts on the demo and I'd like to throw in more praise. The graphics and presentation really won me over and I like how it's not obsessing too much on being a racing simulator. Of course that hasn't prevented me from posting anything but dead last in all the races so far!

I'm just really impressed at how well it makes me believe I'm driving smashing up a rally car in the middle of the desert. If I can find DiRT at a cheapy price this summer, you can bet I will add it to my collection.

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