Click here to read this week\'s twoplayer game comic. Every few months, a few of us here at GamesFirst gather our Xboxes together, board up the windows to prevent TV glare and possible intervention from concerned loved ones, and take on one level or another of Ghost Recon 2. Unwilling to turn down the difficulty below maximum, we invariably eliminate the entire population of U.S. Special Forces by charging them over and over again to their deaths in some level that we never end up beating. Ghost Recon 2 is a wall that our little band of Special Forces has smashed itself on time and time again; there are levels that we simply cannot beat. All this has lead me to the realization that the Ghosts are not really the elite of the Special Forces world, as the trailer would lead you to believe, but rather the rejects. We\'re not really sure what the requirements are for admittance to the Ghosts, but we\'re pretty sure that skill isn\'t one of them.
We spent a good portion of last week is such a campaign, preparing for Ubisoft\'s release of Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike. Now that it\'s shown up, I can pretty much assure you that the local crew will launch itself once again into this new source of unbeatable levels, and time will cease to have relevance to us. Pizza will be ordered, and all-night benders will commence. What\'s interesting is that Rainbow Six 3 , the original, not Black Arrow , is a better game, but without the ability to play split screen over system link it simply isn\'t competitive. Ghost Recon 2 rules in this respect, and our 8-player co-op wars against the computer represent our most consistent multiplayer game. Despite my many fond memories of Ghost Recon 2, I have high hopes that Rainbow Six 4 will manage to alleviate these issues by blatantly stealing the code from Ghost Recon, or something. Not like the Ghosts could stop them; the Rainbow Six guys would beat the crap out of the Ghosts, at least indoors, where the code is most likely to be stored.
Since Summit Strike broke out the second of August, it gets to occupy my time for roughly 2 weeks before Nintendo steps forward to interfere. With Advanced Wars for the DS scheduled for release on the 16th, followed by Nintendogs and Metroid: Hunters, it\'s very possible I might not survive to the end of the month. Lack of food, water, and other basic bodily needs might end me long before the holiday seasons arrive to unleash additional gaming goodness. My only hope comes from the fact that three of the four games I expect to be occupying my time are for a portable system, and therefore might allow for Jack-in-the-Box raids, assuming I can find someone to drive while I play. The gallon of sour milk and bag of Marshmallow Maties that I\'ve currently got at the house will simply not sustain me, and a trip to the grocery store is out of the question; ordering a Sour-dough Jack may be the extent of my abilities.
All of this, of course, comes off a fairly substantial addiction to Psychonauts and , oddly enough , Silent Scope. Back before these games found their way onto my Xbox, the milk in my fridge was not sour, and my freezer was freshly stocked with all sorts of frozen, microwavable goods. Coming off of a month binge, these are mostly gone, and the upcoming release schedule does not appear to have an opening for taking a breath, and restocking. As much as I like good games, I must face the realization that the game industry is very possibly starving to death an entire generation by their constant salvo of worthy game titles. Damn them.
Aaron Stanton
cartoons[AT]gamesfirst.com