THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2002
TECH
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 13
Top five destroyers of mind and social life
By Jordan Tucker Jayplay writer
WARNING: Geek-speak follows. Some terms may be unfamiliar to those with good hygiene.
For those of you in the geek world, that feeling of staying up until six in the morning just to finish "one more level" is all too familiar. The toll a Diablo II or a Metal Gear Solid takes on one's social, scholastic, and, yes, love life is considerable. But regrettable?
Hell no.
Here is my tab of the top five video game crack of the past few years, on console and PC.
SOUL CALIBUR for Dreamcast (Namco,1999)
The finest of the 3D fighters, and the first fighting game that was truly a piece of art to watch. Backgrounds are breathtaking, weapons clash in showers of sparks and the game, when really cooking, looks like a martial arts demo. You can even watch the characters performing pre-programmed
demos (or katas) as an unlockable option. Plus, most of the kata moves can be executed and seamlessly chained together while actually fighting.
STARCRAFT for PC (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998)
The game that brought real-time strategy
(considering multi- and single player) to the next level. Starcraft offers three balanced groups with customizable maps. Vibrant graphics and the coolest sound clips around. "Somebody call for an exterminator?" the Ghosts ask. Yeah, and they're called Blizzard, who wiped out all other RTS contenders with their War/Star Craft series.
DIABLO II for PC (Blizzard Entertainment, 2000)
Speaking about annihilating competition, Blizzard's Diablo series sold 7 million copies in five years. The first Diablo was nice, but those hacking pansies destroyed online play. Diablo II comes along with five characters as opposed to the original's three, skill trees and tons of weapons. And yes, a relatively hacker-proof online system. Plus, you can shoot the breeze in the wonderfully laid-out chat rooms.
EVERQUEST for PC (Verant Interactive, 1999)
The infamous, unspeakable addiction known as Evercrack. Everquest is the best working translation of a tabletop RPG
(role-playing game) to online play. Twelve classes and 14 "professions" complete with restrictions and bonuses make for a solid character core, closer to a real RPG than say, Diablo. The game world is huge, large warbands are encouraged, and aimlessly waltzing around has never been so fun. After you play it that ten bucks a month for access doesn't sound so bad all of a sudden.
METAL GEAR SOLID 2:SONS OF LIBERTY for Play Station 2 (Konami, 2001)
As far as single-player games go, this is the most impressive game ever created. More a movie than a third person shoot-'em-up. Oh yeah, let's get to the game part. The dialogue and graphics are top notch — Snake's mullet flows in the breeze. Weird little quirks like losing performance by smoking too many cigs add to the overall flavor. Did you almost cry when Fortune made her last stand? I sure as hell almost did.
Check back next week for Tucker's picks on old-school thumb-hurters.
Local bands use Web to gain fans, recognition
By Henry C. Jackson Jayplay writer
Ask any serious aspiring musicians and they'll tell you; it's much harder to get your name known than to play music. To see how well local bands are taking advantage of the Web, Jayplay looked at the Web sites of three bands from Lawrence and the surrounding area.
The Get Up Kids (www.theget upkids.com)
Aura: The site is slickly designed, with a black background and cover art. Users are greeted by music from Across a Wire, their latest album, creating a
the-band-is-grateful-you-came-to-visit them vibe and promoting their latest tunes.
Usefulness: The site has everything you'd want — tour info, merchandise sales, pictures, contact info and a reasonably well-updated band news section. A minus is the lack of free MP3 downloads.
Overall: A well-designed site for an already quite prominent Kansas City five-some.
Aura: Flower power. The site is bright yellow with spinning flowers. You can listen to tracks from the band's latest album, but they don't play automatically. Instead, you must click on an icon at the bottom of the page to hear your choice of music from The Anniversary's latest release, Your Majesty.
The Anniversary (www.anniversary- rock.com)
Usefulness: Message board, discography biography, photos and a media site with songs to download, as well as links to other bands' Web sites.
Overall: Lawrence's The Anniversary has a nice, upbeat site with a lot of features, but they could promote their music better by incorporating it more.
The Band That Saved The World
(www.tbtstw.com)
Aura: It doesn't look like much at first, lacking attention-grabbing effects, but the site is well-designed, with a maroon menu at the top and band news on the front page.
Usefulness: This site has it all with promotional material — downloadable videos, more than a dozen MP3s, a biography page, a link to song lyrics and links to other music sites. Plus, it's updated regularly.
Overall: What it lacks in style,it more than makes up for in substance. This site has a lot of info packed onto it.