game & gear
keep.on giving
Because nothing says "I love you" like a first-person shooter. JAYPLAY STAFF REPORT PHOTOS BY ERIC BRAEM
Authors' note: With those massive gift-giving holidays looming in the future, we thought we'd offer you a few ideas of what to give your loved ones and what to put on your own wish list. The following products are what the Game & Gear writers feel are the top technological toys in our first-ever gift guide:
Noise-canceling earphones
If you're a music lover and want to listen to your favorite Mandy Moore CD without the droning background noise of your roommate or the campus buses, ask Santa for Aiwa's noise-canceling ear phones. According to the packaging information, they offer up to 70 percent background noise reduction. The noise-canceling mod
requires one AA battery that lasts 60 hours. These earphones have a folding design that makes them easy to store in your backpack or coat pocket. A one-meter cord is included so you can use them in your residence hall room or while you're cooking your Ramen noodles. Traveling during the break? These earphones also come with a dual-plug cord for airplane use—no more crappy airline headphones! Best Buy, 2020 W. 31st St., sells these steel gray beauties for $59.99.
—Kim Elsham
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne isn't Half-Life 2, DOOM 3 or Duke Nukem Forever. That's a good thing. The first two games in that list won't be released until next year, and the third may never see the light of day. That leaves us with a short list of potentially entertaining or disappointing games released before the holiday season.
Let's get something out of the way. You may have heard Max Payne 2 is a short game. It's true. There may be eight hours of story, but it's the best eight hours I've had since Half-Life.
In it, you play Max Payne, a New York City detective caught in the middle of a gangland war. The games bills itself as a "film noir love story" and makes good on the promise.
The game looks like a dark graphic novel, replete with comic-book style cut scenes that explain the story.
As a player, you use a third-person shooter who plays like a John Woo film from his days in Hong Kong. Think Hard
his days in Hong Kong. Think Hard Boiled. Max Payne 2's claim to fame is its "bullet time" effect. Activating this power slows down everyone else but allows your character to aim at regular speed. It makes for entertaining firefights as you dodge bullets and return fire. The graphics are good, but not DOOM 3 or Half-Life 2 good.
So to kill the time while Valve searches for its stolen source code, John Carmack plays with rockets and 3D Realms sits on its thumb, give Max Payne 2 a shot.
—Andrew Ward
Half-Life 2
The sequel to 1998's Half-Life, which won more than 50 game-of-the year awards and the "Best PC Game Ever" title from PC Gamer magazine, promises to crush the original and strip it of that title, when it finally gets released. You play Gordon Freeman, a research scientist wielding a crowbar, and soon, various other weapons, to save the world from an alien invasion you helped perpetuate at the Black Mesa Research Facility.
But Half-Life 2 is more than a firstperson shooter. It is the most realistic looking game to date, where you can control everything in your environment, and anything you manipulate affects the gameplay. Valve has worked for years to improve the sound, the look of the characters and the fluidity and accuracy of object and human movement. The artificial intelligence of enemies and allies is extraordinary. For example, your allies no longer simply follow you, they decide when it is best to move, hide or fight,
truly personifying the characters.
Valve has repeatedly delayed the release of Half-Life 2 for refinement and security reasons—part of the game code was released over the Internet. The most recent plan is to have it in stores by late first-quarter 2004, so give your loved one this coupon that they can redeem to you when the best game of all time comes out in the next few months. Or tide them over with Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, a brand new version of Half-Life's biggest spin-off. But keep it away from your 10-year-old brother; the extreme reality of
24 jayplay
thursday. december 11, 2003