Here’s a look at some hardware and software that’s available:
Rainbow Six 3: Official DVD Strategy Guide, by GameTime Entertainment for DVD-enabled computers and home entertainment centers, rated M: content suitable for ages 17 and older, $14.99; and Rainbow Six 3 by Ubi-Soft for Xbox, rated M: content suitable for ages 17 and older, $49.99. Under the “What the heck took so long?” heading, a New York company has transformed the traditionally paper-based strategy guide into a multimedia event.
The cheaters’ bible — I mean strategy guide — has long given video-game players a way to work through titles’ particularly frustrating and time-consuming levels while enjoying a colorful monograph loaded with information and artwork.
GameTime simply has recast the guide from bookshelf clutter to DVD with its first release, which gives the commando in the family helpful solutions for graphically battling violent thugs.
For those unfamiliar with Rainbow Six 3, the squad-controlling first-person shooter has a single-player take on the role of Ding Chavez, the leader of an elite international anti-terrorist unit code-named Rainbow in the year 2007. The player must work through 14 missions ranging from saving hostages to defusing bombs.
The game becomes a multimedia experience with the help of a headset, sold separately, that allows the player to bark out commands to his computer-generated team members.
Thanks to GameTime’s digital video guide, a player can pop the disc into any computer or entertainment console with a DVD drive and walk through all the missions of the game while someone else does the hard work.
The presentations are clear and concise, and the narrator-instructor never stumbles while offering a comprehensive overview, including weapons required. Viewers with a separate DVD player hooked up to newer televisions should be able to toggle back and forth easily between Xbox and guide.
One may wonder why someone would pay $49.99 for a game and then spend another $14.99 to cheat his way through it. Well, in this multitasking society in which minutes have become precious commodities, most of us don’t have time to lock ourselves in a bunker and completely master a title, especially one as intense and consuming as Rainbow Six 3.
So consider GameTime’s digital guide the saver of both space and time and keep the c-word out of it.
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Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Ubi-Soft for Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube, rated T: content suitable for ages 13 and older, $49.99. Merely by pressing a button on a favorite entertainment-console controller, players can be whisked into the magical lands of a medieval Middle East in a game that turns the third-person action-adventure experience into an action-packed, brain-draining event.
The Prince of Persia has been part of the video-gaming world for 14 years and has returned to stop a plague he created unintentionally. Even the most jaded gamer will be dazzled by the exploration of cinematic environments, variety of acrobatic movements and ability to control time.
I would have been satisfied with having the ability to perform such eye-popping stunts as back-flipping over opponents, running along walls, gracefully swinging among poles and edge-jumping while using a sword to shish-kebab an army of sand creatures. But Ubi-Soft turns palatial rooms and outdoor gardens into architectural mazes and obstacle courses, and finding their exits is as important to the overall outcome as terminating enemies.
Now throw in the time-control stuff. The prince’s supply of sand (collected from slaying an assortment of nasties), combined with his dagger, allows him to fast-forward or turn back his adventure. I’m much more prone to try to climb ancient ruins if falling off them can be reversed, or to take on a “Lord of the Rings”-type Uruk hai if I can freeze the creature in time, turn him into sandstone and perform a demolition.
The game never stops pleasing, as richly entertaining, diversely complicated elements crop up throughout, including replenishing health by drinking from a fountain, getting a peek into a black-and-white future by running into a sand vortex and the constant melding between the computer-generated scene and actual game play.
Jordan Mechner, creator of the original Prince of Persia and acknowledged “godfather” of the action-adventure genre, acted as a consultant and added his passion to the proceedings. Add that to Ubi-Soft’s expertise, and the title will stand the test of time as one of the best video games of 2003.
Write to Joseph Szadkowski, The Washington Times, 3600 New York Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002; or send e-mail (jszadkowski@washington times.com).
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