NEWS
Digital strategy guide enhances game's appeal
December 13, 2003
Digital strategy guide enhances game's appeal
By Mike Antonucci
Mercury News
I'm out of weeks. This is my last column before 2004, and there's no way to cram in everything I still want to report on this year.
I've settled for the top five topics on my list.
GAMER SEE, GAMER DO: Want to watch a strategy guide instead of read it? Buy GameTime Entertainment's Digital Video Guide (or ``dvG'') for the Ubisoft Xbox game ``Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3.''
It's a DVD of a narrated, step-by-step demonstration of the game action, at the strategy guide price of $15 (or lower). If your TV and DVD setup doesn't allow for machine hookups that will let you conveniently switch back and forth from watching the strategy guide and playing the game (which you need to buy separately), a printed guide may seem more efficient. But the video guide is a much better aid -- precise and easier to follow -- than any printed guide I've ever seen.
Recommended stores to try include Best Buy, GameStop, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. I found it at the Best Buy and Game-
Stop online sites by just typing in ``Rainbow Six 3.''
Keep an eye out to see how fast the video-guide concept expands to more games. Looks to me like a winning innovation.
NOT ME, MAYBE YOU: I'm so over ``The Sims.'' Hence my complete lack of interest in the upcoming PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube editions of ``The Sims Bustin' Out.''
But the recently released Game Boy Advance version has my attention -- slightly -- and I'm sure it's a big deal to a lot of people. We've had ``The Sims'' online; now our GBAs give us ``The Sims'' online, at the post office, at the grocery store or wherever else we'd be twiddling our thumbs if we couldn't put them to use on a favorite game series.
The GBA ``Bustin' Out'' is $30.
INSPECT-A-GADGET: Go to www.nyko.com and check out the company's iType2 controller for Play-
Station 2. It has a mini-keyboard built into it, in the middle, above the thumbsticks, between the directional pad on the left and the action buttons on the right.
This is a neat device, designed for the convenience of the chat-and-message necessities of online games.
MY FAMILIAR REFRAIN: For the 1,718th time: Nintendo's GameCube is a vastly underrated game machine that's now a super bargain at $99. But my crusade on its behalf somehow neglected to include a mention that, while supplies last, GameCubes are coming with a cool bonus -- a collector's edition disc of four famous games: ``The Legend of Zelda'' (1987), ``Zelda II: The Adventure of Link'' (1988), ``The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'' (1998) and ``The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask'' (2000).
There were GameCubes in the retail pipeline before the disc was added, but they're supposed to be sold last. And Nintendo says the bundled version of machine and game remains available.
LAST, NOT LEAST: Any game that includes a light gun generates lots of political antagonism. But Namco's ``Time Crisis 3'' for PlayStation 2, about $60 when bought in a package that includes the gun, offers a visceral gratification that you can't get from a game played with a controller.
I'm from a boyhood-and-toy-guns generation and have little problem with this kind of entertainment. It's rated Teen (13 and older) and, if you're not offended by the gun motif, makes a terrific present for action-oriented gamers.
Video guide for `Rainbow Six 3'
Game type: Xbox
Price: Guide (for any DVD player) is $15; game is $50
Age rating: Game is Mature (17 and older)
Graphics: **** for game
Play: **** for guide
Overall: ****
Publisher: GameTime Entertainment (www.gametimemedia.com)
------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Mike Antonucci at mantonucci@mercurynews .com or (408) 920-5690.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2003/12/13/living/7483324.htm?1c
Digital strategy guide enhances game's appeal
December 13, 2003
Digital strategy guide enhances game's appeal
By Mike Antonucci
Mercury News
I'm out of weeks. This is my last column before 2004, and there's no way to cram in everything I still want to report on this year.
I've settled for the top five topics on my list.
GAMER SEE, GAMER DO: Want to watch a strategy guide instead of read it? Buy GameTime Entertainment's Digital Video Guide (or ``dvG'') for the Ubisoft Xbox game ``Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3.''
It's a DVD of a narrated, step-by-step demonstration of the game action, at the strategy guide price of $15 (or lower). If your TV and DVD setup doesn't allow for machine hookups that will let you conveniently switch back and forth from watching the strategy guide and playing the game (which you need to buy separately), a printed guide may seem more efficient. But the video guide is a much better aid -- precise and easier to follow -- than any printed guide I've ever seen.
Recommended stores to try include Best Buy, GameStop, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. I found it at the Best Buy and Game-
Stop online sites by just typing in ``Rainbow Six 3.''
Keep an eye out to see how fast the video-guide concept expands to more games. Looks to me like a winning innovation.
NOT ME, MAYBE YOU: I'm so over ``The Sims.'' Hence my complete lack of interest in the upcoming PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube editions of ``The Sims Bustin' Out.''
But the recently released Game Boy Advance version has my attention -- slightly -- and I'm sure it's a big deal to a lot of people. We've had ``The Sims'' online; now our GBAs give us ``The Sims'' online, at the post office, at the grocery store or wherever else we'd be twiddling our thumbs if we couldn't put them to use on a favorite game series.
The GBA ``Bustin' Out'' is $30.
INSPECT-A-GADGET: Go to www.nyko.com and check out the company's iType2 controller for Play-
Station 2. It has a mini-keyboard built into it, in the middle, above the thumbsticks, between the directional pad on the left and the action buttons on the right.
This is a neat device, designed for the convenience of the chat-and-message necessities of online games.
MY FAMILIAR REFRAIN: For the 1,718th time: Nintendo's GameCube is a vastly underrated game machine that's now a super bargain at $99. But my crusade on its behalf somehow neglected to include a mention that, while supplies last, GameCubes are coming with a cool bonus -- a collector's edition disc of four famous games: ``The Legend of Zelda'' (1987), ``Zelda II: The Adventure of Link'' (1988), ``The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'' (1998) and ``The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask'' (2000).
There were GameCubes in the retail pipeline before the disc was added, but they're supposed to be sold last. And Nintendo says the bundled version of machine and game remains available.
LAST, NOT LEAST: Any game that includes a light gun generates lots of political antagonism. But Namco's ``Time Crisis 3'' for PlayStation 2, about $60 when bought in a package that includes the gun, offers a visceral gratification that you can't get from a game played with a controller.
I'm from a boyhood-and-toy-guns generation and have little problem with this kind of entertainment. It's rated Teen (13 and older) and, if you're not offended by the gun motif, makes a terrific present for action-oriented gamers.
Video guide for `Rainbow Six 3'
Game type: Xbox
Price: Guide (for any DVD player) is $15; game is $50
Age rating: Game is Mature (17 and older)
Graphics: **** for game
Play: **** for guide
Overall: ****
Publisher: GameTime Entertainment (www.gametimemedia.com)
------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Mike Antonucci at mantonucci@mercurynews .com or (408) 920-5690.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2003/12/13/living/7483324.htm?1c