The Force Unleashed...For Only One? While there have been many games with no multiplayer that were extremely worth playing (the original Condemned on the Xbox 360 comes to mind), there's no denying that a game with no multiplayer ---especially on the Xbox 360--- is doomed to die on the vine. So let's hope the news byte over at destructoid is a misunderstanding of some sort, when an official statement by Lucasarts claims that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will not have a multiplayer component for either the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 versions. Here's what's confusing: the Nintendo Wii edition will. Lucasarts' official statement says: "To be specific, there's no multiplayer in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, because there is on the Wii, PSP, and DS. As far as specific reasons are concerned, we don't really like to get into the reasons why we don't do things because I don't think there's really a satisfactory answer that people would really be happy with. So, there isn't multiplayer and that's kind of how it is..."

Spielberg Plays Bioshock. So imagine you're Shia LeBeouf and you're on the set of the new Indy movie, walking in to see Steven Spielberg. What do you see the famed director doing in his spare time? How about: playing one of the best games of the past year? According to an article on the web site kotaku, not even Steven Spielberg could resist playing Bioshock in his spare time on the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In fact; Spielberg was as far as level 15 of the game, trying to beat one of the game's tougher "boss battles." Said Shia about the moment: “This is like months to get to this level, and he can’t get past this one little mysterious spider god, and he’s losing his mind. He’s like, ‘I can’t do it, Shia! I can’t do it.'"

Snapshot of the Week: Zero Punctuation "Tiff." Okay; so it's not exactly a tiff, though this week's Snapshot of the Week is a link to an intriguing video posted in the past week by Escapist Magazine's "Yahtzee," who does those funny Zero Punctuation reviews. To be honest they aren't exactly reviews, because he isn't exactly telling you what games to play or what he rates each game. He just gives a playful "roasting" of sorts to some of the biggest names in games, in a format where he never stops to take a breath (hence the Zero Punctuation title). So most of the time he roasts a game playfully and the fans of the game enjoy it for the humor; other times...? Not so much. His recent review of Super Smash Brothers Brawl received a lot of flak from the Nintendo fans, and a recent video of his breaks protocol and "reviews" some of the more colorful complaints he received about it. Did "Yahtzee" go too far, or did the Nintendo fans just not take a joke at face value? Send me your thoughts on this, and the most well written letters will get posted online! Of course; if no letters are received about whether this is a non-event or not..."QED," I suppose. Let me know.

Xbox "Originals" Updated: Stubbs the Zombie, Gauntlet. The Xbox "Originals" idea is growing on me. I love the idea of putting my 120 Gig Xbox 360 hard drive to good use, downloading 3 Gig game classics and having them available at any time, right from the hard drive, with no need to find and indert the game disc. Anyway; two games have been added to the Originals Library this month (May), and should be available by the time you read this. The first is Stubbs the Zombie in: Rebel Without a Pulse, which is basically exactly what the title sounds like, with the added intrigue that it was a game on the original Xbox system which used the original Halo game engine. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is equally self-explanatory, as one of the more recent upgrades of the classic multiplayer arcade game. Both games will be available as of this Monday for 1200 Microsoft Points (around $15 dollars).

Inside Joke In Banjo Kazooie "3" Irks Mario Fans. So you probably know by now, if you're a fan of games by the "Rare" software company, that the makers of such Nintendo 64 hits like Banjo Kazooie and 007: Goldeneye are now in cahoots with Microsoft and the Xbox 360 system. You might have also heard that the next Banjo Kazooie game is an Xbox 360 exclusive. Though how far is too far? More to the point: one might ask if there is any animosity between the software company and their old "exclusive" Nintendo deal. A recent sneak peek at the next Banjo Kazooie game alludes to a possible answer, when a building with a likeness to the chubby plumber "Mario" on it is blasted to smithereens by the bear and bird heroes of the game. According to an article over at MTV's web site, it's all just a playful joke. Fanboys at such sites as Go Nintendo, however, are not amused. What do you think? Let us know!

Banjo Kazooie 3 Has Lots Of...Vehicles? Speaking of the new bear-and-bird game: it may be a little late to ask (given the earlier news byte), byt: anyone remember playing Banjo Kazooie back on the Nintendo 64? It was like an interactive cartoon with a bear (Banjo), whose best friend was a bird (Kazooie) who Banjo carried in his backpack as he trekked across the land to defeat an evil witch, rescue his kidnapped baby sister, and save the day. I remember it being a whole lot of childish fun. I just don't remember lots of vehicles...not that the sequel won't have them. According to destructoid.com's sneak peek into the game; the new Kazooie for the Xbox 360, will be "80 percent" vehicles. Sounds like someone is trying to ride on the coattails of car and racing games a bit much, wouldn't you say? Then again: remodeling a game to appeal to a larger demographic of gamers, isn't a new approach. The sequels to Jak & Daxter had little to do with the original game, with Jak 2 having Jak morph into a super strength evil version of himself (yes; the game came out at around the same time as the first Hulk movie; how'd you guess)? The third game had...vehicles. Lots of vehicles. Which game in the series is this for Banjo Kazooie? It's third. What is it with the third game in a series always requiring race cars? Curious...

Final News Byte This Week: Games Radar's "Worst Celebrity Renders" List. There's many amusing lists online, though sometimes you have to love how imaginative some of them are, yet they still seem like: "Why didn't someone think of this years ago?" To wit: Games Radar offers a list this week, for the worst celebrity renders in the history of video games. These are the games based on a movie or TV show, which attempted to put the actor or actress "into" the game, with mixed results. From the 8-bit era (the Nintendo Entertainment System's rendition of "Rambo"), to the GameCube (Charlies Angels); it's all on the list, and not in a mere "top ten" format, either. The list is pretty thorough.

-------------------------------

 News we missed...?

Be your own reporter at Techtite's Letters page!