Week in Review - 12/27/02

     This past week doesn't rank very high among my best, I've been sick and bedridden for the majority of it. After producing enough mucus to fill a kiddy pool I am finally feeling a bit better. Being sick usually isn't so bad because it gives you an excuse to lie in bed and play video games all week, but unfortunately I left my PS2 up at school. I expected to be days behind on my gaming news, although when I finally emerged from my room I found that not too much had happened this week. I'll try and touch on a few things though.

     Pretty much the biggest headline of the week is that Netamin released Homerun Tournament, which is a minigame of company's upcoming Ultimate Baseball Online. I heard mention of this game awhile back but it didn't quite register in my head. Chalk this one up to great idea. In fact this is one of the best ideas I've heard in a long time. I am a huge fan of sports games, and if you follow the forums at all you'll know that I am a sucker for a good baseball game. I also love online multiplayer included in games. The concept behind a MMORPG has always intrigued me but has yet to find a way to appeal to me. Ultimate Baseball Online is being classified as a Massively Multiplayer Online Sports Game (MMOSG). Just the sound of that gives me tingles all over. The concept behind this game is sick. Each player will have their own character that they can customize down to the very DNA. You'll have control over how your player looks, acts and whether he is anything from a power hitter to a control pitcher. Once you have your character down you'll start out on the amateur level and work your way up to A, AA and AAA ball. If you're good enough you can eventually work your way up to the show and compete towards the UBO World Series. So you're asking me how does this differ from any other baseball game? Simple. You are just one guy on a team. Online players have to form teams to compete in leagues. Each person controls only their character; so all nine members of your team must be online to play a game. Your team captain draws up the lineup and can drop players from the team and recruit others. In game voice-chat, live-updated leader boards, stats galore, player cards; I can barely sit still just thinking about how sweet this is going to be. Unfortunately there is going to be a monthly charge for UBO, no word yet as to what it will be. I downloaded the Homerun Tournament and gave it a shot. I was actually quite impressed with the graphics, for some reason I didn't expect them to be as sharp as they were for an online game. It was actually fun to play as well. It's very difficult to get the hang of and everyone makes sure to talk plenty of trash while you're in the learning process. It's all par t of the lure of multiplayer games. The only thing I noticed that was out of sorts was that the ball tends to sail off the bat. A hit can look like a pop-up off the bat but end up sailing for a 530 ft home run. You feel like you're in Coors Field. Hopefully Netamin will get the physics straightened out before the actual launch because if this game turns into a home run derby it's going to lose its appeal very quickly. Originally UBO was scheduled to be launched in third quarter 2002 but has been pushed back to second quarter 2003. I'll make sure and keep everyone informed on the progress of this one. I suggest giving the demo a shot if you have any interest in baseball games.

     I hate to admit it, but Pickle and I did actually watch the New Year's celebration on Animal Crossing. Surprisingly it was more exciting than most of the stuff that was on TV at the time. My parents sent me 10,000 bells in the mail for a New Year's present. It was pretty sweet and I was able to pay off my house. Pickle's parents didn't send him anything in the mail though. This has fired a weeklong tirade about how he thinks Animal Crossing is a racist game and so on. The cow that lives to the west of us did stop by and give him Donkey Kong as a gift. The cow didn't bring me anything. Stupid cow.

     In other news, this week was our official launch. I can't explain to everyone how amazed I am at how well everything is coming together. The site really looks fantastic and the backend is working great as well. We have more content than we possibly could have hoped for. I want to give a giant thank you to the guys at EBGames Huebner Oaks for all your help. Last but not least I want to give a giant thanks to our readers who are slowly pouring in. You guys are the best, keep helping us spread the word and make this the best gamer community on the net.

     Unfortunately not too much else happened this week. Well, things did happen, but nothing that terribly interested me. Basically I covered everything you need to know. I was extremely pleased to hear that the original version of The Sims outsold the new online version. Maybe humans grew more intelligent this week? Until next week, keep gaming.

Jan 6, 2003 - 12:00 am
Shane Quast