I Bring Nothing to the Table

Game Overview: GTAIV, Mario Kart Wii, MGS Online Beta

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen.

Tired of Metal Gear coverage on this site yet? Man I hope not, because we’ve got even more news. Thanks to my Insider subscription to IGN, I’m eligible for the Metal Gear Online beta (!). MGO is a standalone multiplayer title set to tie in with MGS4 once it launches. I don’t know much about the game other than that it features man-cannons, persistent character development, cardboard boxes (comic for the old MGO), and that it will most likely include body dragging that will inevitably degenerate into corpse-humping. I’ll have more details once the beta opens on Monday.

Mario Kart Wii has been in the hands of just about everyone but the Americans so far this year. While there remain some really tough detractors for the slightly more casual perception of the game :cough: IGN :cough:, just about everyone agrees that the online portion of MKWii is amazingly well done, as is the Mario Kart Channel. Personally, I’m not sure I’m gonna be a first day purchaser, I may wait until I graduate and get to my new apartment. With a pre-order on Persona 3: FES coming in next Wednesday, MGS3 to beat, the MGO beta, and needing to get enough work done to graduate, I just might have too much on my plate to handle MKWii. This also means one other important game will have to wait:

GTAIV comes out a few days after Mario Kart and the promise of at least a 100+ hour single-player experience seems quite daunting, to say the least. That doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the game, as it apparently offers some kick-ass multiplayer modes to really keep you interested. I don’t know all of these modes, but one of them that I heard about, Cops and Crooks, has a lot of promise. One team spawns in cop cars and they’re the cops. The other team spawns throughout the map and their goal is to escort their team leader to an escape point (a helipad or a dock) without the slightly tougher than usual team leader crook dying. All of the franticly fun stories I’ve heard about this mode have more than made me interested in this game, so we’ll see how that goes. Rumors of the Xbox 360 exclusive DLC being a whole new city are also very intriguing.

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Comments

11 responses to “Game Overview: GTAIV, Mario Kart Wii, MGS Online Beta”

  1. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    Did previous versions of GTA have multiplayer mode? That sounds like a really neat multiplayer game!

    Reply
  2. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Yes and no…

    The PC version of GTA II had a rudimentary multiplayer mode and the PC versions of GTA III have had fan-made multiplayer modes.

    If you want to hear about how bizarre those are, listen to this week’s 1UP Yours podcast.

    Reply
  3. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    So this is the first true attempt. Strange, given how popular multi has been. However, I can see where they might struggle on a multi game premise for a game like that one.

    Reply
  4. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Console multi-player has been around for a while, but it really only became a standard in this generation with Xbox Live!

    It’s also hard to figure out the multiplayer for GTA, since it can very easily devolve into a clusterf*ck (and probably still will)

    Reply
  5. Eric Mesa Avatar
    Eric Mesa

    Some comments/questions with hindsight.

    1) Did you ever play MGO? I don’t remember you talking much about it. But maybe it’s on here and I just forgot because I’m not into Metal Gear.

    2) I know your opinion of IGN has changed over time. Are you still am member?

    3) Mario Kart Wii was a lot of fun, but I think the multiplayer was/is crap. Especially, after having (finally) used Playstation online play. But, even back when I first played Mario Kart Wii, I was extremely frustrated with the online experience. It’s certainly a lot better than Smash. And, on the whole, it wasn’t that bad. But all the exchanging of numbers, the fact that the second player can’t also be logged in (so if we’re on my account, Danielle doesn’t build any score for hers), and the fact that I knew how it is in the PC world – I was/am disgusted with the way Nintendo has handled this.

    4) GTA IV – you were excited about it for a while, but I seem to remember you souring on it later.

    Reply
    1. Dan Avatar
      Dan

      1. I only played MGO in beta. After that I was too busy/my PS3 was in MD and I didn’t have the time to play it. It was ok, but not great, which was why I moved on to playing other things.

      2. I’m not a member and I find most of their journalism to be suspect and poorly written. I even stopped listening to their podcasts because I found them to be juvenile, redundant, less funny, and less informed that my current favorite, the Giant Bombcast. Beyond that, I’m just not as into their style or the website’s community. I much prefer NGJ like ABDN or thoughtful blogs like some of the stuff at Sexy Videogameland or The Brainy Gamer and I tend to get most of my news from Kotaku and Giant Bomb.

      3. If you had an Xbox you’d think that MKW’s multiplayer was even more suspect. We’ll see if their next console has a respectable online presence.

      4. GTA IV was more of the same and I’m kind of sorry that I bought it. I guess it was worth playing to be a part of the conversation and really understand where people were coming from, but I don’t feel like it was $60 well spent nor do I think it was as good or as different as everyone hyped it to be.

      Reply
      1. Eric Mesa Avatar
        Eric Mesa

        Giant Bombcast is definitely awesome. I know I most widely read IGN in middle school. Perhaps something about it appeals to a more casual gamer vs the more in depth stuff that goes on in the podcasts you currently listen to.

        Reply
        1. Dan Avatar
          Dan

          I think something about it appeals to middle schoolers. It’s not a casual site at all, just an immature one.

          Reply
          1. Eric Mesa Avatar
            Eric Mesa

            Hehe…I didn’t want to go there, but I think you’re right

            Reply
    2. Dan Avatar
      Dan

      Am I the only one who misses when this blog had giant-sized MGS tags in its cloud? I wish that the new game this year wasn’t PSP, because you know I would be covering it much more (even after my disappointment with MGS4)

      Reply
      1. Eric Mesa Avatar
        Eric Mesa

        Now the names of the Giant Bombcast Persona Players are the biggest.

        Reply

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