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It's been a long week for Multiplayer. It's been a whole week and we've barely scratched the surface of everything we took away from the Game Developers Conference. To make matters even worse, San Francisco's parting gift to Tracey John was an industry-wide flu, and Electronic Arts decided to disrupt our otherwise calm weekend with a huge announcement last Sunday. And that's not all...

* We had the exclusive on the new "Drawn to Life" game from THQ, this time set in the "SpongeBob SquarePants" universe. Surprised? So were we

* Last week's XBL Arcade release, "N+," proved frustrating enough for us to start a new feature, My Enemy This Week, but inspired us to find out why Microsoft made the developers take out a global level sharing feature

* Sony's Phil Harrison announced his departure from the company

* Jason Cipriano updated us on the latest additions to MTV's Rhythm Tracker and chronicled his progress to the Achievements finish line

* The newest latest release date for "Haze" prompts us to remember the other release dates announced for "Haze"

EA Wants Take-Two Interactive:

* EA's pitch for Take-Two Interactive broke early Sunday morning and Stephen Totilo was there to follow-up, including EA's surprisingly honest Q&A about the future of Take-Two IPs

* Go-to gaming analyst Michael Pachter, who believes EA's proposal will eventually go through , no matter how much posturing Take-Two does in the press

* Elsewhere, Tracey John was tasked with listing off EA's previous acquisitions, while I spent an entire afternoon researching the history of Take-Two in brief

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"N+," the game that produced Multiplayer's first Enemy of the Week, was always intended to let players upload custom levels for anyone to download, but Microsoft nixed the feature at the last second.

The decision was so last second, in fact, the version of "N+" available on Partnernet, a test version of Xbox Live that publishers and select media can access, actually includes this feature. We wondered why a small studio like Metanet Software would bother investing in such an ambitious feature if they had any suspicions it wouldn't make the cut.

They told us that up until a few months ago, they had every belief it would. We asked Microsoft to explain the late change, and they released this statement over email:

"We do not discuss our contracts with partners. Game development is a complex business; however, we work closely with developers and publishing partners on solutions for any development issues. Microsoft is committed to bringing the best games to Xbox 360."

The games developers, however, were willing to provide some details. "We were devastated to learn we couldn't include that functionality," said Metanet co-founder (and, thus, co-creator of the original "N") Mare Sheppard to us over e-mail. "It's a huge disappointment, and we had to settle for at least some level-sharing while we wait. We hoped fans could deal with creating and sharing levels only with friends until we get to re-enable the full level sharing functionality, someday."

Custom levels are currently shared by joining a multiplayer session and downloading from the host. There's nothing preventing users from creating an offensive level design (i.e. obligatory genital references, swastikas, etc.), but the current restrictions effectively limits distribution to private games. This presents enormous obstacles for gamers serious about developing new content for "N+," as there's almost no way to release it without relying on word-of-mouth.

Couldn't Microsoft just hire a few moderators to police content? Read on to find out why Metanet discovered it's a little more complicated than that.

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Why would Tomonobu Itagaki implement a YouTube-like capture-and-share video system in the upcoming Xbox 360 "Ninja Gaiden II"? I didn't know last week. So I asked him, backstage after the Microsoft keynote at GDC.His answer -- and a classic Itagaki moment of turning the tables on the interviewer -- are above.

An excerpt from the above clip:

Itagaki: Well, we had a lot of feedback that the first "Ninja Gaiden" was a little bit too difficult. And we're taking a lot of steps for the sequel to help alleviate that. But one thing that we thought is if we give people an example, a reference, say this is how you get past this certain encounter this is the moves you can use in order to play the game better, if you give some advice in the way of a video that would help increase their proficiency in the game."

A new "Tecmo Bowl" game is still coming. That's what I learned at GDC as I wrapped up a quick interview with Tomonobu Itagaki.

He and I mostly talked about the Xbox 360's "Ninja Gaiden 2" (and gambling). But here's my exchange with him about the famous football series, which took place right after Microsoft's GDC keynote:

Multiplayer: People back in my office would be upset with me if I didn't ask you for an update about "Tecmo Bowl." About a year ago, there was an announcement that a new game was underway for an unspecified system. What can you update people about about that beloved franchise?

Itagaki: To be honest that was a totally different division that made that announcement, so I have no idea what's going on with that.

Multiplayer: So you're not working on any "Tecmo Bowl," right now?

Itagaki: I'm in a tough position because when I am making "'Dead or Alive," for instance, all the "Ninja Gaiden" fans say quit messing around with Dead or Alive and make a sequel to "Ninja Gaiden". When I'm making a new "Ninja Gaiden," all the "Dead or Alive" fans are like, "You have to quit that and start making "Dead or Alive." And that's tough enough as it is, but I also get letters all the time for the past 10 years from "Tecmo Bowl" fans saying, "When are you going to resurrect that franchise?" So it's tough being in my position.

Somewhere in the company there are people working hard to bring that to you. So I would suggest you wait for further announcements from them.

***

That's all I could get about "Tecmo Bowl," but I will have more from my chat with the Itagaki shortly. Stay tuned.

What platforms is the new "Puzzle Quest" game coming out on?

Earlier this week, I wrote that "Puzzle Quest: Galactrix," the sequel to "Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords," would be released on PC, DS, Xbox Live Arcade as well as the PSP and "possibly Apple Mac," all according to the official website. However, when I checked the next day, on Tuesday, February 26, the PSP and "possibly Apple Mac" versions were removed.

I put in a request to D3 Publisher of America to ask them why. Would there be a PSP version on the way, since "Challenge of the Warlords" on PSP was one of the first platforms released alongside the DS? And would we ever see an Apple Mac version? (Last year, we also learned that the ESRB rated the PS3 and Mac versions of "Challenge of the Warlords," but we have yet to see them.)

Here's the response I got from D3 Publisher of America:

"The Infinite Interactive site is maintained by the developer, separate from D3 Publisher. They were likely updating game details (posted intermittently since March 2007) to align with details announced during the first look last week. At present, 'Puzzle Quest: Galactrix' is confirmed by D3PA and Infinite Interactive for DS systems, PC and XBLA. There is the possibility that more SKUs will be announced. We'll keep you updated as new details about the game are revealed."

What other platforms would you like to see "Puzzle Quest: Galactrix" made for?

Will Wright's modus operandi for "Spore" has always been about empowering the user to have a personalized experience from start to finish.

Such ambitions extend to even the game's music. Electronic Arts Audio Director Kent Jolly and Composer Aaron McLeran, who temporarily came in to work on "Spore'"s musical implementations, discussed the execution of their hard work at last week's GDC.

"Spore" uses what's called procedural music. The sounds generated are executed through processes designed by a composer. In this case, the composer is musician Brian Eno and the processes hidden in the various editors (creature, ship, etc.) found in "Spore."

Jolly's team has incorporated most of the user-influenced music into the game's creation editors (some bits show up elsewhere, such as the civilization building era), but it wasn't until Eno arrived that the team became really jazzed about the prospects.

"[Eno] was a very inspiring person," recalled Jolly. "He came and really just got everybody pretty excited about the idea of doing procedural music and I think that's one of the things that's just amazing about him as a person."

When McLeran came on board, he worked with Jolly on tools for Eno's procedural ambitions to be realized in "Spore." When the player is using one of the creature editors, building a UFO or alien or what have you, the ambient music alters based on the player's editing work. Moving the mouse over different icons produces small, but noticeable, alterations to the music, while placing a piece on a ship causes a much more substantial change.

Music is best understood heard. Click the player below for a quick example. Here, McLeran is building a ship in the same editor pictured above.

"Hopefully, the average user might not even notice that it's procedural music. In fact, if they don't notice, then I think aesthetically -- and they still like the music -- we've achieved something that's pretty awesome," concluded McLeran.

I have no musical talent, but "Spore" seems to take the hard part of creativity and make it an organic process without the user aware it's happening. There's something very compelling -- maybe even unnerving -- about that.

There was a time when PC gaming was in "disarray," or at least that's what I had been told back at DICE. And those comments is what has gotten many people riled up here and at Penny Arcade. But Cliff Bleszinski, the man who told me that just earlier this month, sat down with fellow Epic Games power player Mark Rein to tell me at GDC what the situation with PC gaming really is.

Specifically, they told me what the point of this whole PC Gaming Alliance is.

Rein: "Right now, if you have a laptop with integrated graphics and try to play our game, it doesn't play. Or if you're trying to play some games aren't capable of integrated graphics, they play terribly. So you just lose your interest in that. We don't want that. We want all these people buying laptops and reasonably priced PCs, to at least be able to be exposed to gaming. They can go out later and upgrade to something better, but let's at least give them a baseline experience."

Multiplayer: "Cliff, you buy it? PC gaming is back?"

Bleszinski: "Abso-frigging-lutely. The thing is, I think everybody coming together in that kind of way will essentially kind of help re-glue things back together and kind of help fix the market. I have a big PC gaming heritage and I love playing games with a keyboard and a mouse, as well as a console, and I'd just love to see it."

Is there a part of a game that's driving you crazy this week?

For me it's Level 14-4 in "N+," which is driving me up the wall for the simple fact that I cant... drive my character up a wall.

14-4 of my latest Xbox 360 download obsession involves is tricky. It throws the most frustrating curve ball in "N+'"s level design. To play the game you must bring a small ninja through some challenging platform stages.

The majority of the game's obstacles involve avoiding carefully scattered mine fields, but occasionally the game's development team, Metanet Software, throws a few heat-seeking missiles your way. In 14-4, there's not one missile out to destroy you, there are two. The trick is getting said missiles to crash into a wall. Another missile spawns, but there's a split-second to plan a new move.

Apparently, that split-second isn't enough for me. In less than 20 minutes, 14-4 made me put the controller down.

That, or I simply need more practice.

So far in "N+," I have been unable to perfect one of the more advanced techniques associated with the wall-jump. Bouncing back and forth a la "Super Mario 64" is a breeze, but skillfully timed presses are required to wall-jump up a completely vertical slope, and coming to grips with that is crucial to my success.

We've all encountered brick walls and hated foes in video games, the kind we lose sleep over. Read on to learn how 14-4 has vexed me and how my desire to conquer Bungie's Luke Smith is helping me get over it.

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Cliff Bleszinski and Mark Rein of Epic Games wouldn't talk details about "Gears Of War 2" at GDC last week. But they would talk about the potency of the Unreal Engine and what some of the new features make possible in future games.

To get you all up to speed, at Microsoft exec John Schappert's keynote during GDC, several improvements were shown in the Unreal graphics engine. They were demonstrated through tweaked areas of "Gears of War." In one scene "Gears" hero Marcus Fenix machine-gunned a gooey cube of meat that broke to bits the way you'd expect machine-gunned meat to. In another, hundreds of Locust enemies ran down a street, demonstrating the increased number of characters the engine can draw.

Hence, my questions about what gamers should think of this improved tech. So... how did we get there to talking about paper lanterns and running afoul of the fire marshal? Just watch the clip.

Video not available in Canada, The U.K., And Japan. Sorry! IPs are blocked.

This newsbrief has been airing on MTV and its sister channels. It should give readers of this site a hint at what's to come as we roll out more video from GDC. You'll be seeing more clips from most of those interviews we tease...soon.