Gaming & Idling
This season's sports games
Fri., April 21, 2006
Grudge Match
MVP 06: NCAA Baseball
EA Sports
$29.99
MLB 06: The Show
Sony Computer Entertainment
$39.99
both PlayStation2
The debate over whether professional or collegiate sports is more exciting to watch lingers as a water-cooler topic and has no end in sight. Some argue that professional athletes are prima donnas who slack off once they've made their money and that college athletes play with hustle and all their heart. Others feel that college players have inferior skills and that, therefore, the quality of the game pales in comparison to the pros. While that argument stalemates, the battle between MVP 06: NCAA Baseball and MLB 06: The Show steps into the batters box.
First to the plate, MVP 06 merits some local attention by featuring UT's own David Maroul on the cover. A fitting tribute to a championship season. Aside from the occasional lag, the smart gameplay and player animations deftly capture the minutiae of the game. When using the Classic batting mode, hitting the ball for power is next to impossible, but the new Load and Fire system allows for some serious slugging, although it requires some practice to master. The Dynasty mode offers the full recruiting experience, something absent from MLB 06. A noticeable difference between the professional and college level of play is the use of aluminum bats in collegiate ball. The crack of the bat – ball meeting wood – is one of the many sensory delights of the game, and the metal pinging of the aluminum bat can be grating to many baseball purists. Fortunately, MVP 06 gives the option of using wooden or aluminum bats and control over most other rules of play. Its biggest drawback, EA Sports' loss of MLB licensing, is the cardinal reason for the switch to collegiate ball. Nonetheless, the graphics are sharp, you can see I-35 from the field when playing at the Disch, and, hell, your coach can even argue a call.
Clearly swinging for the fences, MLB 06: The Show is such an accurate and thrilling portrayal of a big-league game that users will experience all the stress and teeth-grinding of an actual major-league manager. ManRam, Pujols, Berkman, Pedro, Ichiro; all the world's best players are here. The graphics are smooth like a well-executed double play, and the pitching and hitting interfaces are both superbly done and quickly become second nature. The gameplay is intuitive and reacts realistically to all of baseball's subtle nuances. Tagging up, pitching out, double-switches, putting a runner in motion – if you see it at the park, you'll see it in the game. The CPU anticipates and reacts to situations as an opposing manager would, knowing when to intentionally walk a batter, which relief pitcher to use, or pinch-running at the appropriate time. Both games make for solid summer escapism with excellent Career, Dynasty, and Online modes, but college ball turns out to be no match for the big leagues. – Mark Fagan
Arena Football
PlayStation2
EA Sports
$29.99
Staying loyal to the AFL rules and regulations, Arena Football aims to keep sports junkies hooked on the juice during the off-season. However, unlike real-world NFL, Madden NFL 06 has no off-season, thus the need for another game is eliminated.
Necessary or not, Arena Football garners a lot of rave for its slamming sidewall and hyper-speed plays, but these features just dilute the feverish intensity of how a football game should play.
If your player gets anywhere near the Great Walls, he slams onto the ground or flies over the rails and crinkles like a tin can. Like driving a bumper car, except every time you hit something, your car dies. Warp-speed plays and passes keep you on your toes but make the action so fast that you never enjoy the precious moments playing as the Austin Wranglers or one of their rivals, let alone perform a play that is strategically satisfying or longer than five seconds. Overprotective walls and speedy play ejaculations turn what should be an exalting experience into a one-night stand.
The visuals in Arena Football are noteworthy, but they sparingly make up for the design itself. For the intro, you are panoramically viewing a huge arena with fireworks, light shows, and crowd noise piped in from a Rage Against the Machine concert. When the whistle blows, all the noises that make a football game audible (crowd-roaring, grunts and moans, trash-talking) go mute. The few voices that remain are insipidly scripted – especially the trash-talking: third-grade humor at best.
Dream team options grant you personal selection of your teammates, a notable advantage over the real AFL. But does this make it game-worthy? Imagine a vaguely appealing idea at the goal line when you're on the 10-yard line, then slamming into one of AFL's padded walls.
– Carson Barker
Fight Night Round 3
PlayStation2
EA Sports
$39.99
The beauty of boxing is its simplicity. It's a sport of man vs. man with nothing but some barely forgiving gloves and only-somewhat concerting low-blow protection. This focus on the human form – one of the toughest challenges for game designers – makes boxing video games a struggle to perfect, kinda like trying to make a ballet video game. Nintendo's Punch Out severely lacked the finer aspects of what is known as the "sweet science." Fight Night Round 3 takes some great strides toward capturing the technical grace of pugilism.
First the science, or technical aspects: Even for the increasingly dated PlayStation2, the visuals are impressive; the controls are tried, true, and intuitive; and the character creation options are respectable. That alone makes Fight Night a winner. Not quite a KO, the soundtrack consists of too few hip-hop tracks – many with infuriating fighting imagery ("Mama Said Knock You Out" is thankfully absent). The sound effects are unobtrusive until a blood-/spit-misted knockdown punch is replayed in slow motion and the Foley artist gets a bit overzealous.
The sweet and just plain fun? Classic rivalries spice things up (Ali vs. Frazier being the most heated), and, as your career progresses, feel free to create rivalries of your own (trash-talking included). Want to brush up on your combinations before stepping into the ring with Sugar Ray Leonard? Try sparring instead of the insufferable training modes, which should be removed in an effort to cut down on loading times elsewhere in the game. Once the bell rings however, be prepared for a smarting ballet.
– James Renovitch
Me & My Katamari
Sony PSP
Namco
$39.99
Ring the bells! Crowd favorite Katamari Damacy is back. So grab a PSP and your favorite Katamari (some kind of magnetic ball, near as I can tell), and get to rolling it around one of this game's many imaginative, multicolored courses, picking up nail clippers, pencils, doors, and walls as you go. Watch your Katamari grow, grow, GROW! Count up your points. Super fun! Good, clean, nonsensical super fun.
But wait. This time, the All-Seeing King of All Cosmos (up there, in the clouds) is exhorting you to absent yourself from felicity awhile and use your Katamari-rolling skills to do some small good: There are poor, homeless animals around in need of charity, you see, and you have to build them an island.
OK. So you push and pull your Katamari and begin that long, hard slog toward building the perfect island home: hard for the turtles, bright for the birds, swift for the cheetahs. Alms for the poor. Succeed and your generosity will be rewarded. Fail and the King will strike you down with furious wrath.
Now I may be wrong here, but I believe there's something subtle, almost subliminal – something, dare I say, Christian? – in this game's admonition to care for those less fortunate than yourself and in its threats of vengeance from on high as punishment for those who don't.
And I'm sorry, but caring for others less fortunate than you?! In a video game?! That's madness! We as a society depend on video games to teach our children valuable lessons about the virtues of violence and self-absorption; they'll run wild in the streets if they get wind of this.
Anyway, my left thumb is exhausted, and I'm crap at this game.
– Josh RosenblattPlayers' Guide
At the Game Developers Conference in San Jose last month, Austin was decently represented. Technical talks aside, Richard Garriott accepted the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award donning a tuxedo and cowboy boots. In February he was given the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Lifetime Achievement award. How many lives does this guy have?More sporting was the Game Design Challenge, a triple-threat match among Midway Austin's creative director Harvey Smith (of Deus Ex fame); Cliff Blezinsky, designer of the successful Unreal series; and Keita Takahashi, mastermind of the cult hit Katamari Damacy. Each presented a game design based on the Nobel Peace Prize. Smith's design for an innovative, socially responsible game, Peacebomb, took the crown ... literally. Last year's winner, game god Will Wright, was on hand to present Smith with a silver plastic tiara.
It was announced that local MMO company Wolfpack Studios will be closing its doors. Bought by French publisher Ubisoft two years ago, they've continued the game Shadowbane. Recently, the game dropped the subscription model and became free to players. It will continue to be free until the plug is pulled on May 15.
Looking for something to do this weekend? Head up to Dallas for the Women in Games International conference. (www.womeningamesinternational.org/register.html) Don't miss Midway Austin studio head Denise Fulton's keynote titled: "The Best Defense ... Why Gender Doesn't Matter (As Much as You Might Think)." – N. Evan Van Zelfden
