New games stealing time
by Brian Weinstein, Editor

   With a twist of bitter cruelty, the video gaming industry released three of the month's most highly anticipated games the week school restarted.
    Pocketbooks still reeling from the early-August release of Madden NFL 2004, the only video game to make it into the Football Hall of Fame, gamers were assaulted with Tron 2.0, F-Zero and the sequel to the coolest fighting sim ever: Soul Caliber II.
   The odds of my homework getting done this week are pretty slim.
   Tron 2.0 features a return to the world of the '80s Disney movie of the same name. Characters from the movie were cast to voice-act in this masterpiece of gaming art.
   When one first glances at the game, one can be tricked, as the designers no doubt intended, into thinking that the graphics are simplistic and may scoff at the system requirements, which would be worthy of a Cray supercomputer.
    Monolith, Tron 2.0's designers, stayed true to the movie, and anyone who has seen it will recognize the style and settings. Levels feature simplistic design, with large blocks dominating the landscapes.
   But they all glow. Some move. Some are transparent. And the character models are all rendered with high detail, as are the weapons.
   ICPs (Intrusion Counter-measure Programs) have floating torsos; corrupted programs lurch around like diseased post-apocalyptic mutants from a '50s B-movie, and resource hogs explode with a shower of sparks and lightning.
   The game is set 20 years after the original Tron movie, and features corrupt programs, overbearing kernels (to quote Dr. Evil, "It's a homonym"), evil corporations and the all-powerful neon Frisbee.
   Tron 2.0 is a visually appealing first-person shooter; Monolith's collaboration with Nvidia really paid off.
   F-Zero GX, Nintendo's latest racing title, delves into the roots of gaming's past. The first iteration of F-Zero was released when Nintendo was competing with Sega's Genesis.
   Ironically, Sega, who pulled out of the game console market, developed the latest F-Zero for Nintendo.
   Blinding speeds, futuristic vistas and incredulous twists are all the norm in F-Zero GX.
   The story follows Captain Falcon, a character who stayed strong thoughout all the F-Zero games, but delves deeper into his history with, for the first time in the series, an engaging plot.
   The story offers 10 unlockable chapters, each one requiring hours of practice and frequent defeats. Tons of goodies wait to be unlocked, including vehicle upgrades and maps. F-Zero GX turns the Gamecube into a must-have for classic gaming and racing lovers alike.
   Namco showed the world that the "Soul still burns" with last Tuesday's release of Soul Caliber II, the sequel to the reason for have a Sega Dreamcast.
   The first Soul Caliber was a revolution in the fighting game genre when it was released. Totally 3-D, with katas straight out of a kung-fu manual, it wowed the masses and instantly became a hit.
   In the latest version, old characters have been revamped, new characters have been added and, as a bonus, each console that Soul Caliber II was released for has its own special character to tout.
   Sony's Playstation 2 has Tekken's karate-ka, Heihachi; X-box owners get to play as Tod McFarlane's undead anti-hero, Spawn and those with a Gamecube get to pound down on the Soul Caliber regulars with the megaton hammer-wielding Link from the Legend of Zelda series.
   Every character has different unlockable uniforms and weapons. Each level is lavishly detailed.
   The game's perfect for blowing off steam and entertaining friends and yourself for hours.
   From the inside of a computer to the streets of a futuristic city to the arenas of the medieval era, this week's a great week to stay home and game away.