I haven’t touched “Boom Blox” that much lately. For a few weeks there, it was easily one of my favorite Wii games yet, certainly the most fun to control.

But that’s stalled recently. No, I haven’t mastered all of the available challenges on the single-player side, but that’s not where “Boom Blox” really shined to begin with.

It was the multiplayer. Despite the game’s robust edit mode, “Boom Blox” doesn’t offer a particularly easy solution to download new puzzles. They have to be passed from person to person via friend codes, rather than retrieved from a central online destination.

Majesco’s “Blast Works” has found a way to sidestep the frustrations of Nintendo’s friend codes system to create a user generated content portal. “Boom Blox” doesn’t have that and desperately needs it — or Electronic Arts-sponsored downloadable content — but it sounds like a feature for a sequel.

Am I the only one who wants to play more “Boom Blox,” but has run out of content?

Last week I re-reported my findings that “Grand Theft Auto IV” does not have split-screen multiplayer. While the game has more than a dozen multiplayer modes, those modes are made to be played over Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

Readers of my post asked if the game supported multi-system LAN play, or if it had any single-screen multiplayer gameplay that two friends could play with one system and one TV. The answer to each of those questions is “No.” I’ve checked and double-checked this with Rockstar Games.

“GTA IV” multiplayer is all online or bust.

(What follows is an excerpt of my coverage of my hands-on with “Grand Theft Auto IV” multiplayer mode, originally filed at MTVNews.com)

…Our two hours at Rockstar showed that the secret of “GTA IV” multiplayer is the same as the secret of single-player: Whatever the rules are in “GTA,” the most fun may be attained by not following them.

For example, [Rockstar's Jeronimo] Barrera and another Rockstar rep seemed to have a jolly time avoiding the actual point of a “GTA” multiplayer race set in the Liberty City airport. In theory, this race was set up to pit four players on motorcycles and mopeds on a three-lap race across and around an active airport runway. While Monsters [Totilo] was busy finding a fueling truck to race instead and Shoplifting [a guy from Yahoo] ditched his bike to putter along in a luggage-cart cab, Undead CJ [Barrera] was ignoring his lap count to focus on creating a multi-vehicle roadblock. Then he stood there with a pistol, daring people to complete their laps.

….

The full scope of “GTA IV” multiplayer hasn’t been revealed. Even just a few weeks before release, the game isn’t spilling all its secrets, and that includes the other multiplayer modes. “We put in as many options as we can,” Barrera said. “We think this is totally fun.”

And how would he distinguish the “GTA” multiplayer mode from that of other games? “Not tacked on,” he said. “It fits seamlessly into the game — the variety and ultimately the freedom that players are going to enjoy for a very long time.”

For the rest of this piece, go to MTVNews.com

Readers, I need advice.

My girlfriend is wiping the floor with me at “Super Smash Bros. Brawl.”

I’ve been able to convert my girlfriend into digging most of my nerdy habits, be it “X-Files,” “Lost,” or comic books (she just finished Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns”) — but not games. Yet she has an obsession with the “Super Smash Bros.” series. I had no idea this passion existed, but she counts the brawlers among her favorite games of all-time, right next to “Tetris.”

When I was in middle school, none of my friends were much into “Smash Bros.” “GoldenEye 007″ always dominated our time, so the N64 and GameCube “Smash” games mostly passed me by. Thanks to my girlfriend’s surprise interest, that’s changed with the Wii’s “Brawl.”

My girlfriend is a formidable opponent with the pink puffball of doom, also known as Kirby. Most of the time it seems like she doesn’t know what she’s actually doing, but there’s a method to her button smashing madness.

Read more…

If you are playing “Super Smash Brothers: Brawl” alone — you are not alone.

I’m with you.

If you have ever bought a multiplayer game of any kind before without the intention of playing it against other people, I’ve been there too.

Are you like me? Are you playing “Smash” as a solo gamer? I’ve played the coin launcher, looked at the trophies, played a few brawls against the computer. I did a couple of the target levels, whacked the punching bag and am a whole 2% into the side-scrolling mode, the Subspace Emissary (which could be played by two people, but not when I’m involved). I’m playing this game solo, because, well, that’s how I play games.

It’s not that I hate playing games against other people (spot the telling denial!). And I know I edit a blog called Multiplayer. But I just don’t game against other people that much. Back in the old days I didn’t because I liked to settle in with adventure-driven games, games with a table that seated only one. These days, I also don’t, because my Internet connection is slow. “Halo 3“’s matchmaking service will only match my Level 4 skills to a Level 30-something, because it can’t find a closer match suited to my inferior Internet connection. So, solo-play it is.

Did you just say I should have people over and play games with them? Not happening.

Yes, my friends, I have played more “Halo 3″ single-player than I have played “Halo 3″ multiplayer. Swap in “Call of Duty 4” and the same holds true. I suspect it will for “Brawl” as well. Like I said, it’s not just my Internet connection that’s to blame. I bought “Mario Kart 64” years ago, unlocked every track, but I don’t know if I ever played it against anyone. Yes, my friends, I have friends. I just don’t play games with them.

Read more…

MTV Multiplayer is proud to announce an addition to our team.

Patrick Klepek, a man who has been covering video games since he was 16 but somehow got into his first E3 when he was 14, will be joining us as a full-time, San Francisco-based reporter on February 4.

For the last year Patrick has worked as the news editor at 1Up.com, breaking stories about Cory Barlog leaving Sony and “Guitar Hero“-”Rock Band” guitar incompatibility among other things. He’s shown initiative, a love for games and a zeal for reporting. He’s also been growing a fine head of hair that just can’t fit in those 1Up offices anymore. Thankfully, the MTV Multiplayer digs all have high ceilings.

So, we welcome him aboard and hope that you will too when he joins the team in February.

What if I was wrong about Nintendo? What If a lot of us were?

As a reporter my job is to ask questions, observe and share my findings. In the process I develop an understanding of facts, a sense of the patterns I see. Sometimes, though, I realize what I think I’ve figured out is incorrect.

That’s how I’m feeling about Nintendo these days. I’m ready to chuck one of my main ideas about the Wii. I see a different pattern than I used to, a new understanding, one that suggests a much more radical aspect of the Wii than I had previously considered.

My old Wii idea: Nintendo’s console is a party console, destined to by full of party games — mini-games. Hence this blog’s running tally, in the right hand margin of total mini-games on the Wii.

My new Wii idea: Nintendo’s console is a party console, destined to mark the end of Nintendo-crafted single-player game designs. I fully expect the next “Zelda,” the next “Donkey Kong,” even the next “Mario” role-playing game to be designed in such a way that at least two players will be able to enjoy the main game mode simultaneously.

I’ve got sales figures, analysis of old games, advertising hints and more to back this up. Let’s see if you agree.

Read more…

SAN DIEGO — At the Game Developers Conference in March, Sony’s PlayStation team stole the show with debuts of two big projects for the PS3: a side-scroller called “LittleBigPlanet,” designed for gamers to create and share levels, and a virtual landscape and social-networking service called “Home.” Last week, the company finally let reporters play early versions of them. Were they as fun as they first appeared?

In my hands, “LittleBigPlanet” lived up to some of the promise of its GDC debut (see “Multiplayer: Is ‘EverQuest’ Sexier Than ‘Street Fighter’?”). At PlayStation Gamers Day in San Diego, in front of a high-definition TV running the GDC level of the game, I took control of a little big-headed character dressed as Evel Knievel. I ran him through a brick-bottom obstacle course littered with oranges, towers of burlap blocks and all sorts of dangling threads and chains from which to swing.

“LBP” is meant to be played in groups. Three other people darted through the course with me, including Brian Crecente from gaming blog Kotaku. He’ll probably be getting a letter from my lawyer any day for “reporting” that he was “repeatedly b—h-slapping” me in the game when he should know full well that I slapped him back plenty of times. Said slaps were triggered with flicks of the PS3 controller’s right analog stick, from a down-left to an up-right position. Looking out to the viewers, the little character would put his hand to his opposite hip and then swat it back. I sent Crecente’s scarf-wearing elf flying a couple of times. I’m sure of it. A Sony producer who was too classy to do any slapping explained that the finished game will be full of context-sensitive actions and emotions: slaps, hugs, smiles and dejected moping.

The game enchants because of its physics. Players can make their characters grab objects and other players’ characters with a tap of a button. Through with slapping and getting slapped, I grabbed another player’s character by the hand and helped him up. I found a chain with a rocket pack attached and put it on. Then I grabbed Crecente’s guy by the hand and rocketed up to the sky. For a moment, he assumed I was helping him reach a high ledge. Then he figured out I was just rocketing him to the top of the board so I could drop him. Then I realized that I had reached the length of my chain and we both went plummeting to the ground. At the demo’s end, three of us jumped our little guys onto a skateboard while the Sony producer pushed us all down a slope. We picked up speed and made a jump. The game was light, airy and as fun as advertised.

We were not allowed to see the other “LittleBigPlanet” levels or mess around with the game’s vaunted character- and level-creation tools. Since those are the elements that are supposed to make “LBP” more than just a multiplayer “Mario” game, it’s really too early to say whether the game is going to be all that the thousands who cheered it at GDC hope it will be.

“LittleBigPlanet” was the product I was most eager to test-run at Sony’s event. “Home” was the second. “Home” also debuted at GDC, though word leaked early via that shady Crecente’s Kotaku blog. It was described by everyone but people from Sony as a “Second Life“-style world (see “Sony Unveils Big PS3 Secret: Gamers Get To Go ‘Home’ “). It gives every PS3 owner an avatar and opens up networked lobbies and apartments in which gamers can congregate. I’ve flown through “Second Life,” which is a grand-scale experience. Not everyone likes it, but few could deny that it feels open and big. “SL” users can create objects, architecture and even new bodies using the online world’s software. The simple ability to fly allows world residents to explore that creativity in three vast virtual dimensions.

It’s with that frame of reference that I experienced “Home,” and I was struck by how small it felt. Small isn’t necessarily a bad thing — it can suggest intimate, convenient, straightforward and cozy.

I started my session of “Home” in a virtual private apartment. I controlled a realistic-looking guy, my avatar. A couple of pictures hung on the apartment wall. A chair and a candlestick were on the floor. A Sony press person showed me how to change the photos on the wall, accessing saved shots on the PS3 hard drive. I walked out into a lobby where a couple of other users’ avatars milled about. I approached them and selected an option to dance. Then I cued up a virtual PSP and teleported to a movie theater. My character was in a big multiplex lobby. One screening room was set to show the “Spider-Man 3″ trailer. I walked my guy into it, and, surprisingly, he disappeared. The view switched to the inside of the screening room. No avatars — not mine, not anyone else’s — were in there. On the virtual big screen, the trailer played.

I produced the virtual PSP again and warped out to an arcade. I sauntered my guy over to a bowling area. Other people had their characters standing in the other lanes. I approached an open one and chose the option to bowl. The view switched to a centered view of the lane I chose. My character disappeared again. I could only see the ball. With a couple of button taps, I bowled two in the gutter. I zapped back out and went to the apartment, which is on the second floor of this virtual space, atop a winding staircase. I figured out how to pick things up. I lifted the candlestick and tossed it down the steps. I logged out.

The “Home” demo was limited. It didn’t allow access to the trophy room that is supposed to house items that attest to a player’s achievements in his or her PS3 games. It didn’t have any truly grand spaces. And, most importantly, it didn’t have that many people. If it had those things, perhaps it would have felt bigger. For now, it’s as tiny as a test tube. It’s an experiment whose progress will be interesting to watch.

A limited version of “LittleBigPlanet” is set for release in the fall with a full release following just after Christmas, according to Sony reps. “Home,” which will be free to all PS3 users, is planned for a fall release.