The latest addition to the 17-year-old series will get five new modes of play (for a total of 35) including Fuzzy Zoeller's Wolf Challenge and commentary from CBS golf analyst David Flaherty. Any deals in the works for more promotion or licensing in the game? When we asked Access' director of sales and marketing, Darren Steele, about licensing clubs or other golf equipment, he responded that the conversation is already going on but wouldn't comment on whose equipment may show up in the game.
NBA Inside Drive 2000NBA Inside Drive 2000 is Microsoft's answer to basketball action, and Microsoft knows that many gamers haven't been all that drawn to PC-based basketball titles because of their slow speed and offense-heavy AI. "Players have always had the feeling that being on the defensive side is always the bad place to be," says John Rodman, product-marketing manager for Microsoft (no relation to Dennis). Looking at Inside Drive for the first time, players will notice the attention to graphics detail - floors reflect the lights high above, the running players, and the ball bouncing off the polyurethane surface. Basketball players look just as good, sporting 1,400 polygons each as they fight and shoot smoothly. The movements of the players were motion captured with the help of the Milwaukee Bucks' Ray Allen.
"We want to get people off the couch and into the game," says Rodman. Some of the details the development team has focused on is the AI. The goal is to make the game as realistic as possible without taking away the fun. First, the game plays fast - characters move lightning fast at times as they fight for possession. Rodman says that the game is still being worked on so the speed may change, but Microsoft's tests have shown that players preferred the faster mode over real-time speed. Secondly, the team is spacing out the players to make the game look more realistic. One example is that in most game, the players move in ant-like patterns with very little space between team. Because of the size of most basketball players, fans know that the players get close, but not as close as other games have depicted. To keep the feel of the game, seven camera angles help users catch all the hoop action from almost any direction.