WPI gaming gets due attention

The video game industry has never been bigger, vaster, or more interesting than it is today and I think that it is only going to get better in the next few years. My name is Darren Torpey, and from now on I'll be doing this new weekly column here in Tech News. This column will be dedicated to both video (console) and computer (PC) games. Though I have been a serious PC gamer and only a light console gamer for the last 5 years (and a big gamer overall my whole life), I know that there are a lot of people on campus who like console games, and I think that many developers (even, perhaps, our own Game Development Club) will be coming out with interesting, original, ingenious, and just plain fun games for all types of gaming systems in the next few years, and I will make it a point to hunt out the best of what's out there and bring it, along with some personal insight, to my readers in this column.

The Playstation 2 has finally been released, sold out like mad, and traded for ungodly amounts of money on E-Bay. So far it has a handful of good games, and, as we should expect from the "sequel" to the Playstation (bearer of an ocean of uninspired, me-too, thrown-together games among a few handfuls of great ones), many of the current games are really quite poor. Of course, this could be expected from any new system, and we can surely expect many great games, such as the highly-anticipated "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty", to come out in the future, even if they do take some time to finally surface on the PS2.

Meanwhile, the Dreamcast is entering do-or-die time, and from the likes of games such as "Skies of Arcadia", which is currently being heralded as one of the best Role Playing Games ever, it would seem that ultimately the Dreamcast is proving that it does have the goods to make it worthwhile for those who've purchased it. It's probably a little too early to be able to tell what will become of Sega's proud new network Seganet. It certainly has a lot of potential, with great prospects such as "Phantasy Star Online" and, of course, a huge amount of console fan interest out there for online gaming. The question is: can Sega get the ball rolling, with great games and reliable service, before Sony and Microsoft start whispering promises of broadband online games that will give gamers wet dreams?

For Nintendo fans (which, by my estimation, is anyone who loves any 5 of the 10 or 20 unbelievably great games that Nintendo comes out with with each generation of gaming system), as the N64 sees it's final days, Nintendo looks ready to finally break out with all it's hyped-to-hell goodness for it's been promising for it's beloved Gamecube system. I for one am very excited to see the games they have in the works. One of my favorite games of the last few years was StarFox 64, and I can hardly wait for the inevitable sequel. Not to mention any other games that Nintendo's superstar of gaming excellence, Shigeru Miyamoto, will surely be coming out with in the next few years. I still remember Miyamoto saying that even from his early days with the N64, he was dreaming of what he could do with an even better system (such as the Gamecube), such as realisticly modeled waves for a sequel to "WaveRace 64."

Next week, I should have the reviews for quite a few games-it's going to take me a while to catch up with all the great games that have been coming out recently!

Until then...