Players vs. Spectactors

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- As the Angels head to the World Series, people will be glued to their TV sets. The level of focus will be intense but hopefully it will be entertaining, exciting and riveting, with a personal identification with the players on the screen. Of course, the World Series is not the only game in town these days.

New electronic games with increasingly higher levels of sophistication and graphics keep appearing on the market. These interactive attention diverters are actually more addictive than the World Series, because the World Series will be over after no more than seven games, whose fans are merely spectators with no interactive role. The video game console series allows the viewer to be an interactive player and never ends, with top-of-the-line games duking it out to garner the following of tens of millions of global video gamers and console owners.

One of the latest offerings of the industry that has captured the attention and imagination of trans-continental board riders is the heavily anticipated Kelly Slater Pro Surfer. This explosive title has had surfing and non-surfing gamers salivating for its release ever since its titillating pre-launch view at the E3 Expo held in Los Angeles earlier this year.

The fact that it received input from the world's top surfers indicates that the game developers were serious about making this a realistic surfing game, where every attention to detail is covered, especially the waves themselves. Gamers who also surf and are familiar with some of the different surf breaks will notice this right off the bat.

For example, the waves at Trestles (a break in San Clemente, California) break a little thicker than the smaller waves at Sebastian Inlet, Florida; the monster waves at Maverick's (a big wave spot in northern California) tend to close out, and it's much hairier to get tubed, much less stay on the wave.

Six-time world champ Kelly Slater narrates and introduces the gamer to the world's best surf breaks and gives tutorials on how to bust out wicked maneuvers. The video footage of the surf spot before each beach selection adds an in depth element to the game, as does the soundtrack, which is a classy hip selection of sophisticated downtempo groovers from the likes of Mo Horizons, Greyboy and Thunderball.

The player has a wide selection of other top pros to play, from Lisa Anderson to Bruce Irons to Tom Carroll, each of which accurately portrays the personal style of these surfers in real life.

Kelly Slater Pro Surfer has hit a homerun and is by far the best surfing game ever to be released in the video game industry, certainly raising the standard for future surfing games. For anybody who has ever wanted to get on a surfboard, but have been unable to for whatever reason, this provides an awesome alternative; it doesn't get any more real than this unless you're getting wet.

Another game that's just arrived on the market is Kingdom Hearts; it is yet to be seen whether this title makes it to first base or not, but its creative element spins a surreal retro-futuristic twist, and is certainly distinct from other console titles in the role playing genre. It offers the gamer a unique fantasy-filled adventure that only Disney can creatively capture in a fashion that appeals to all, regardless of age and game interest.

The plot starts out a bit slow and weird, but with patience, the game sucks one into its bizarre twists, complete with a childhood array of Disney characters from the past and present, from Mickey, Minnie and Donald to Snow White and Peter Pan, to Aladdin and Tarzan. The non-Disney characters closely resemble those of Japanese Manga. The scenes and plot are overwhelmed by graphic animation design that is nothing short of amazing, like Fantasia for video games. This deeply vast adventure tale has all the trappings of a 21st Century style fairy tale fable that will keep all ages coming back for more.

Picking up where last season's stellar Medal of Honor left off, Prisoner of War has given the Xbox console a piece of World War II history. The goal is to escape from a Nazi POW camp by using one's wits. This means gathering information from fellow inmates and buying off camp guards. Like Medal of Honor, it is an interactive alternative to watching the history channel or a war flick on TV. The graphics are better than Medal of Honor, but the storyline is a bit cliché and corny.

The offbeat first person shooter, Time Splitters 2 is the sequel to last year's Time Splitters, and a vast improvement to an already popular title. The stunning graphics and game play have greatly improved. The player has the choice of being one of over 100 different characters with special abilities and a wide array of weaponry. The scenes are awe-inspiring and creative, from 1990 Siberia to 1920's Chicago. The player is even able to create a personalized story line with varying levels of difficulty.

Life was much simpler when families and friends gathered around the tube to root for their favorite player of their favorite team. That may be something that younger generations are missing. It might be something of value that has been lost, but past generations never had the chance to have the experience of surfing huge waves or escaping prison camps by outwitting Nazi guards.

More than 100 game titles are expected to be released between now and Christmas, each one with its own special experience for the player, because unlike in the past, those sitting in front of the screen are now the players.

Stay tuned for future Rootless Cosmopolitan columns covering the best of some of these titles plus the new modem adaptors bringing the video game console world online.

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