No, you didn’t miss it. There was no multiplayer release list last week because no multiplayer games were released. In fact, no games were released. And frankly, we would have been better off had that trend continued for another week. The new year brings with it four budget PS2-to-Wii ports of years old racing games from Destineer. No Pick of the Week or Runner-Up this week; just four games you’d be better off avoiding.

Available this week:

Classic British Motor Racing Originally released in February 2006 for the PS2, the game finally arrives on the Wii this week. It features 13 cars and 6 tracks, and yes, is just as pathetically content-starved as it sounds. Still, if you really love classic British cars and have managed to remain completely uninterested the dozens of great games that hit the shelves over the last few months, this game might be worth checking out. Actually, no. Not even then.

Kawasaki 4X4 Quad Bikes What is it about the Wii that screams “port your year old PS2 game to me!” Oh, that’s right, throngs of new console owners that don’t yet know the difference between quality titles and shovelware. Enjoy your profits while they last, publishers, consumers aren’t as stupid as you think. Right?

Monster Trux: Offroad This game was originally released in Europe in July of 2005 for the PS2. It is two and a half years old. You should only buy this for one of two reasons: (1) You’re extreme “enuff” to handle “trux” or (2) you want publishers to keep saturating store shelves with this garbage, inching out worthwhile labors of love in favor of cheaply developed cashcows.

Rig Racer 2 Wait, hold on. Enough people bought the first Rig Racer to justify a sequel? Hold me. It’s getting dark.

Sure there’s an interview with the developer and some chatter from the 1Up guys, but you’re watching this for the footage. The first time we’ve seen the game in motion, Capcom seems have a winner if this initial video is any indication.

For the old school fans, it’s easy to appreciate how accurately the 3-D models represent their 2-D counterparts. Every animation seems lifted from the underrated Street Fighter III, and the combo system is flawlessly captured. Look at how the hits connect, and it’s easy to see the feel they’re going for. The gameplay they saw was sped up according to the shows host, so a slightly more reasonable speed could be expected.

Then there are the little details, such as the cringe on Ryu’s face as he takes a Dragon Punch to the sternum. While it may not have the comedic effect of puke from SFII, it sells the blow completely within the sharp graphical style. Here’s hoping the game can find an audience outside of the die hards that dove into SFIII, leaving everyone else out.

As terrorist and counter-terrorist activities continue to dominate the news, and as game developers continue to exploit current events as the basis for new games, more and more players are turning to the original to live their escapist fantasies. According to Online Gaming Zeitgeist, Counter-Strike is still the most-played first-person shooter on the PC and is now actually more popular than at any point in the previous three years. Its technological update, Counter-Strike: Source, is also wildly popular, second only to the original. Battlefield 2 comes in an extremely distant third.

Of course, this stands in direct contradiction to Nielson’s numbers, which places the PC versions of Halo and Halo 2 well above the big little Half-Life mod. According to Nielson, 0.19% of PC gamers are playing Halo 2 in the average minute, while just 0.10% of them are playing Counter-Strike. Clearly, someone’s data is incorrect.

Though Nielson may have ratings gathering experience from years of television work, they’ve only been covering video games for a short time – less than a year, in fact. Online Gaming Zeitgeist, on the other hand, has been watching you play games for three years now. I know many people that still play Counter-Strike online on their PCs, and not a single person that even owns the Vista-exclusive version of Halo 2. In this case, I’ll believe OGZ until I have reason not to.

An ironic event recently happened to me involving music, video games, and my age. While working a side holiday job, one of my high school student employees made a comment about the song on the radio. She said, “This song is on Guitar Hero!” Of course, my reaction was, “this song is as old as the original Nintendo!” The good part is she was aware that the title of the song is “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. The bad part is that she couldn’t even tell me that Guns N’ Roses were the writers.

I understand that I am not the oldest or the youngest gamer out there, but I really like to think that there is not such a generation gap for good music. Unfortunately, there are problems with the music industry. The reason I bring all this up is because, ironically, I sat at my computer desk later that day and noticed the new game BURNOUT: Paradise.

The trailer as well as the actual game features the hit “Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses. Making me realize that the there are people out there that still have good taste in music. This news makes my day by reiterating the fact that if there is any industry that knows good music, it is the gaming industry.

EA announced the soundtrack for the new Burnout: Paradise game. It ranges in hard rock titles and even streams to classical tracks such as Mozart. Get the play list at the website here. Don’t forget to check out the trailer too:

So far, I have just been excited about the soundtrack. This only compliments a finely designed game. This is only from what I have seen second hand. I, like all of you, must wait until January 22nd to get a real glimpse at the action.

Dylan Jobe, game director for Warhawk, has some new information on Omega Dawn, Warhawk’s first booster pack, at Sony’s PlayStation.blog. In the lengthy FAQ Jobe discusses the number of dropships per map (two), the possibility of a snow-themed map (outlook good), and whether or not fans can expect any free new content in the future (signs point to yes). Besides the new dropships, Omega Dawn also features some interface enhancements and a new battlefield for the best online game on the PS3 (sorry, Unreal Tournament 3). Omega Dawn will be available through the PlayStation Store and Warhawk’s own in-game store on December 20 for $7.99.

I have a confession to make: For two years I played World of Warcraft like there wasn’t much else in the world worth doing. I have little to show for it, of course — some transactions on my bank statements, a growing sense of personal failure, and a massive collection of epic loot.

Figure Prints is a new service going live on December 11th that promises to make 3D printouts of your World of Warcraft character, gear and all. It’s an officially licensed Blizzard product, so the 4-inch statues themselves are of the highest quality. Check out the official FAQ for more information. Whether you’re still a hardcore WoW addict, or a former raider looking to remember your glory days, this looks to be the coolest (real world) World of Warcaft loot yet.

I’m seriously going to order one.

The FPS has always been seen as the poster child of PC gaming. Innovative titles that pushed game design and game hardware to their limits established the first-person shooter as the go-to genre for the hardcore PC gamer. Wolfenstein 3D and Doom established the rules of the genre; Duke Nukem 3D pushed them to their limits; Quake popularized polygons, capture the flag, and mods; and Half-Life set the standard for in-game storytelling. The first-person shooter has long since tried to make a go of it on consoles with varying degrees of success. Golden Eye and Perfect Dark were both perfectly playable in their time, but have aged terribly. Halo, of course, set the stage for a console FPS revolution, and in 2007, six years after Halo’s original release, plenty of fantastic first-person shooters took the consoles by storm: Halo 3, The Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, and Bioshock, to name some of the best.

Sales for all four of the aforementioned games have been huge, with Halo 3 in particular setting sales records. Though, not just first-person shooters or similarly hardcore genres have been prospering; the entire console market has surged compared to previous years and the Wii continues to dominate beyond everyone’s expectations, including Nintendo’s. To combat the continued supply strain and unprecedented demand, Nintendo has even gone so far as to partner with GameStop and offer rain checks – essentially hardware pre-orders in the middle of a console cycle. And yet, as the consoles flourish, some of PC gaming’s most anticipated titles flop. Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis have both failed to sell more than 100,000 copies.

So, are the analysts, critics, and loudmouthed message board posters right? Is PC gaming finally dying? Hit the jump to find out.

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Tales of the Past III is the 90-minute World of Warcraft machinima that’s been making the Internet rounds lately. The action-packed movie follows a host of well-known Warcraft characters, including Thrall and Jaina Proudmoore, as Alliance and Horde are forced to join together to face an impossible threat. You can download the movie from Warcraftmovies.com, but if you’re allergic to the 2.3 GB filesize, they also have a streaming version available.

Tales of the Past III is obviously a labor of love for writer/director Martin Finch. The film is incredibly impressive, using a combination of skilled editing techniques and clever use of WoW as a movie making tool to produce a slick, high quality movie that goes reel-to-reel with most summer blockbusters. Clearly, the machina bar has been raised.

Evil Avatar has a great new feature up detailing some of the multiplayer features in the upcoming Turok. It sounds like they came away impressed, and that Turok is on track to be the best game in the franchise yet (which, admittedly, wouldn’t take much). They praise the control, comparing it to Halo, which is a high complement indeed, as well as the assortment of over-the-top weaponry, including a pulse rifle that doubles as a grenade launcher and an oversized bowie knife that’s perfect for eviscerating the competition.

Most interesting is the news that multiplayer matches will include AI-controlled dinosaurs in addition to the players themselves, which should help keep things interesting long after the game launches in early 2008. Personally, I have the highest of possible hopes for this game, as I’ve always been a secret fan of the Turok franchise, having slogged through most of its terrible installments. Thanks for nothing, Acclaim. This new Turok title will be hitting the PC and next generation consoles shortly and baring any complete and total disasters, should be worth checking out.

FileFront has the very first user-created mod for the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 available for download. Don’t go getting too excited, though; a total conversion this is not. Actually, it’s just a single map called “DM-Shrine,” created by Thomas Browett, a 23-year-old graphic designer from Nottingham, England, and suitable for 2-6 players. FileFront also has detailed instructions on how to download the mod and get your PS3 copy of the game to recognize its existence, which unfortunately isn’t quite as simple as just using the browser to download the file to your console’s hard drive.

The much-hyped mod support for the PS3 version of the game came under fire after Ars Technica revealed that the feature wouldn’t be ready for launch, and once implemented, mods would need to be designed specifically for the PS3 version of the game. To make matters worse, you need to download a mod to your PC hard drive first before transferring it to your PS3 via memory stick.

Technical issues aside, here’s hoping this is the first of many user-created mods to hit the PS3. If there’s one thing we like, it’s seeing gamers going the extra mile to extend the lifespan of their favorite games. Any bets on how many servers will have DM-Shrine in their map rotation by the end of the week?

Thanks to Kotaku for first bringing this story to our attention.

Xbox Live etiquette, in a perfect world, would be common sense. However, it’s inevitable that at some point, you’re going to run into someone who decided to pay $50 a year simply to ruin your day. These people come in a variety of categories, and not all commit the same offenses.

At Multiplayergames.com, we take our online matches seriously if we’re playing with people. It’s not fair to the competitive types who are trying to pull in some wins. That makes those that are out to ruin a good time even more apparent, annoying, and inexcusable.

What follows is a set of ground rules, basic guidelines to consider if you’re playing on Xbox Live. Why? If you don’t and run into us, you’ll be called out right here in a recurring feature with your Gamertag and the reasons for your inclusion on this list of “dirty” players. You’ll also instantly receive negative feedback, dropping your reputation, and hopefully some action on the part of Microsoft. Yeah, we’re like that.

These little awards are for the worst of the worst. The occasional slip up is one thing, but when you constantly batter other players with your idiocy, you’ll be the fine recipient of one of our many awards. Some people may even earn themselves multiple awards at once!

Just to note, these are people we ran into when we played. We’re sorry if some genius decided to ruin your experience, but we’re not going to blast people unless we’ve dealt with them ourselves. And no, we won’t tell you what gamertags we have either, both to prevent those from misbehaving just to see their name here or to cause someone to behave when we join.
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The sequel syndrome continues. Personally, I am getting bored with the same games adding a few more features. Yet, as far as game developing companies are concerned, this is what keeps their profits up. It has been confirmed that Guitar Hero 4, Call of Duty 5, and the 11th Tony Hawk are all in the works.

Obviously, these title games are not anywhere close to their release date, since each game has recently released its predecessor. By the time they come out, these games should have more advanced graphics and other bonus features. Unfortunately, the concepts of the games are surely going to be the very similar. Like the movie industry, original thoughts are lacking. The difference is that a sequel in a video game goes over much better than a movie. However, when is enough, enough?

A year or so from now, I can bet that I will be buying these games and checking them out. The newer technology will cause me to lose interest in the old games for the better quality. Yet, the new games that I will favor are the ones with new ideas. Originality and uniqueness will be first on my list. So, I would like to just send a message to the gaming designers to please give us something different for a change. If you need ideas, I do offer my services as an advisor, and I am sure about 95% of all other gamers would say the same.