G-pinions

Hi and welcome back to your regularly scheduled G-Pinions column. First, let's give Nick a round of applause for doing a bang-up job in my absence. He single-handedly fixed our vital comments system and debuted to a worldwide audience the secrets that have been buried under Fort Redmond for years. It's not often that a small website such as ours, with no funding to speak of and a cache of informants only willing to speak "off the record," is able to break the biggest news story of the year.

Moving on to more important matters: Rare is back in a big, big way. You all know that I love Rare more than any other video game company. You have witnessed my passion for current gaming ebb and flow as time has slowly crept by this generation. Considering how into gaming I was during the last go 'round - my social life could have been described as "Goldeneye with pizza" - it saddens me to realize I have been on the final boss in two games for more than a week now and have yet to actually finish my adventures. I would love to say I have "grown up" and found more adult activities to pass the time, but ultimately that is a lie. The reason, at least in my mind, gaming has gone downhill this generation is a simply lack of the one company who has guided me over every hurdle through my gaming years - Rare. But now, after four long years of dormancy, they are back and I couldn't be happier.

While the horizon is almost blinding in its brightness, I'll start things off with a trip down Present Lane (the lane in questions walks people down the present, a period of time. It does not bring a gift with each passing step). Behold Tom at his most happy: holding a brand new Rare game!



Tune in to G-Pinions towards the end of June for the next installment in Tom Holds a Brand New Rare Game!

In the immediate future is the much anticipated Conker: Live and Reloaded. Leave it to Rare to take two years and four months to essentially port an N64 title to a current console. In my mind, this is an incredibly important game, though. First, it is the first ever online enabled Rare title. They were the kings of multiplayer during the split screen days, but the world is a different place now. Can they avoid lag? Can they provide enough variety to keep gamers coming back? Can they provide enough depth that every match is an entirely new experience? Can they woo gamers away from Halo 2? I assume the answer will be "yes" to all but the last question.

Conker is also very important because it is a non-FPS that utilizes bots. I'm sure there have been bots in games like Conker before, but considering the dearth of AI opponents available this generation I am not only surprised but genuinely impressed that Rare has gone that extra mile. Programming AI routines into a game like Conker, where teamwork is key and every character type needs to be played in a different way, is a step towards showing the world that bots should be standard in every FPS experience and really aren't that difficult to incorporate. Let's hope it sticks this time.

And now, the most important piece of information: a pre-rendered screenshot of Joanna Dark.


Move over Jade...

Early reports describe Perfect Dark Zero as playing similar to Counter-Strike and Splinter Cell. My first impression was to recoil in horror. But then I remembered - Goldeneye is the original stealth first person shooter. That is what made the game so amazing. Though I didn't even realize it before these reports, mostly because how far the stealth genre has fallen since GE's release, this is the logical next step for PDZ. Sneaking around an enemy base with a bunch of spy weapons. That is exactly what the original Perfect Dark was like and I can only assume, with five years of development time, the new adventure will be just as fun to play through. Though ultimately I don't care about the Campaign mode because, like every FPS worth its sat, PDZ will live and die in its multiplayer mode. Turn in to G-Pinions during E3 for a hands on impression of the game that will change my life.