St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 152

EV8 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH HELPHOME SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 2000 http:www.postnet.com gj iand 'ebwatch VIDEO REVIEWS Here is another batch of sites offered by readers. Many thanks and keep them coming. Sega fails to score with its first baseball game for Dreamcast Veterans' Forum lh http:www.veterans.coni This fantastic Web site is maintained by HistoryChannel.com and the folks with the Networks. Devoted to those who have served in uniform for the United States, this site's slogan sums it up: Veterans.com Connecting the Generations.

The main features on the home page include the Eyewitness Accounts, Veteran of the Month and Discussion. A truly great use for the Web. Foreigner in America httpwww.foreignerinamerica.com Thanks very much to the English professor at Washington University who sent in this St. Louis-based site. With relatively timely updates on features and information, this site is geared toward international visitors to the United States.

It is an excellent example of what the potential usefulness of the Internet can truly be. Game FAQs http:www.gamefaqs.com Thanks to the reader who passed along this Web site about video games. This was one that did not originally register on my radar, but I'm glad it does now. This is yet another Web site about finding cheat codes for those video games we all love and play to death. One feature on this site that I like: The codes for the video arcade games.

The site moves very fast and has reviews and message boards for each game. Enjoy! Instructional Use of the Web Irttpwww.hsu.edufacultyshuffiinstweb.htm Still a little shaky about getting your feet wet in the World Wide Web? Check out this Web page hosted by Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark. There are no great graphics or interactive features, but this is a good, solid page of information for getting started online and to help you begin to find what you need on the Web. Federal Agencies and Commissions http:www.whKehouse.govWH1n dependeirtfinks.html From the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to the Women's History Commission, some of the lesser-known agencies of the federal government are featured on this White House Web site page. The index may not have each and every agency, but it is a good place to start looking.

Right Arrivals 'A http:www.flightarrivals.com This site works quickly to determine how commercial air traffic is moving. Relatively straightforward, users can search by arrivals, departures, delays and cancellations; the site tracks either by airport or airline. To add to the usefulness to travelers, the site promises PQA for Palm VII and wireless access. State and Local Governments on the Web http:www.piperinfo.comstateindex.cfm This is a very straightforward and comprehensive Web site for getting information about government over the Internet. The page is organized by state and includes entries on most state agencies, counties and communities as well as regional sites.

All of the links take users directly to the sites. Official City Sites http:OifidalCitySites.org Seems this column has taken on a flavor for finding gover- ment offices online. In any case, here is another index Web site for city government. Users can search for official sites in nine countries, including the United States. When searching for U.S.

information, official Web sites will sometimes accompany Chamber of Commerce Web sites as well as tourism and visitor bureau Web sites. Neil Joellenbeck njoellenbeckpostnet.coni A- The game doesn't live up to the graphics in World Series Baseball 2K1. World Series Baseball 2K1 System: Dreamcast Publisher: Sega Number of players: 1 or 2 Supports: Visual memory unit Street price: $49.95 Rating: for everyone Score: By Chris Snider Of the Post-Dispatch Video game public relations firms are a curious bunch. They'll send me an advance copy of Flintstones Bowling months before it is scheduled to reach store shelves. But when it comes to a game I want to try out, a game so anticipated I scheduled weeks off of work just to play it, they dragged their feet.

And so I found myself in Best Buy on July 24, the day before the release of World Series Baseball 2K1, hoping some pimply teenager had inadvertently put out a copy a day too early. No such luck. But they had loaded one up on their demo Dreamcast. So I grabbed the nearest 10-year-old and started a game. While the two of us marveled at the graphics, the game play just didn't do it for us.

We couldn't figure out how to pitch anything other than a fastball. We weren't sure why we had to press the right trigger just as the ball was released in order to hit. And why did we have no control of our fielders? It was another week before my own copy of World Series Baseball 2K1 arrived in the mail, a week of anticipation, a week of playing Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball on my PlayStation to get in the mood. What I never though was that WSB2K1 would barely be an improvement on the baseball games for PlayStation. The good: The big thing in baseball games these days is offering all the major league stadiums.

And WSB2K1 offers them better than any game to date. Part of that is Dreamcast's ability to show better graphics with its 128-bit architecture. Part of it is that the producers spent lots of time to get the details just right right down to seeing the St. Louis skyline in the background when you are batting and the new courthouse in the background when you are throwing the ball from the outfield back to the infield. They also spent a lot of time developing the players' faces.

And while they don't exactly look like the real-life counterparts, they are close enough that you believe them. You're not going to pick out Sammy Sosa based solely on his face, but you won't argue that it is Sammy. The variable season mode (you can play 13, 26, 52, 104 or the very long 162-game season) and the create-a-player mode are nice additions to the game, but also ones that we have come to expect from Sega's sports games. What this game does have going for it is that it is baseball. Rating system Skip it Political sites trols are pretty good and very accurate.

One out of three ain't bad. The instant replay function isn't very good. You can't decide when to use it. The computer decides for you, and it only shows short five-second clips (which are usually of your batter running to first base). Sure, you can change the vantage-point and speed of those five seconds, but why would you want to? The computer also decides to show you a shot of players sitting in the dugout between batters way too many times.

Some sort of batting practice would have benefited the game, considering the method of swinging is entirely new from other games whether that be a home run contest or just practice mode. Without that, it takes a long time to learn how to hit in the game. Overall, the game just isn't as polished as some of the baseball games for PlayStation and Nintendo 64. It looks much better, but doesn't offer the features of some games that have been on the market for years. Buying advice: Sega clearly rushed this game to get it on the market even after the baseball season was halfway over.

The fact ESPN decided to pull the plug on its Baseball Tonight a game that won't make it to market until next year makes that even more impressive. Since this is the only baseball game on the market for Dreamcast, it is definitely worth the look. But next year, when we have two (or more) baseball options available, you might want to do some comparisons before buying one. Chris Snider still says "Baseball Stars" for Nintendo is the best baseball game ever. Agree or disagree with him at csniderpostnet.com.

For the political junkies out there, here are more sites to follow the Democratic National Convention past this week. At Issues2000 httpwww.issues2000.org Find every candidate's stance on every issue. The Polling Report http:www.pollingreport.com It keeps track of trends in American public opinion The Skeleton Closet http:www.realchange.com If you like scandal, you'll love the closet, it has All the Dirt on All the Candidates." The Center for Responsive Politics http:mm.opeasecrets.org The site tracks campaign financing. See who owns the best government money can buy. Federal Election Commission tracker http:www.tray.com This is another source for tracking campaign financing through FEC reports: Independent Media Center http:www.indymedia.org Independent? Yes.

Unbiased? No. Check some new insights and decide on the editorial lean. You may not find one. More politics http:teachpol.tcnj.eduamerpolhist William J. Ball, at the College of New Jersey, maintains a site called "Teaching Politics." Part of that site is a repository of more than 500 public domain images of American political history.

Unlike most such images on the Web, these are available in sizes we can actually use in the paper. Most of them are black and white, and a lot of them are drawings, or scans of handbills and such, but there are quite a few histor-. ical photos. Steve Bolhafner sbolhafnerposlnet.com Anyone who loves baseball will love this game. The bad: This game falls a bit flat in game play.

The batting is somewhat odd at first. Instead of just pressing a button to swing, you hold down the right trigger and then release it to hit the ball. How far you held it back is supposed to determine how hard you hit it. The only problem with that is actually being able to hold the trigger only halfway back. It's just not an easy thing to do.

Don't expect to hit homers right away. And when you do get base runners, expect to make some mistakes on the basepaths. When you try to send one base runner, the computer usually takes that to mean you want to send them both. The base runners also aren't smart enough to head back to their base on a fly ball. You have to do that manually.

Fielding is easy because you don't have to field. In fact, you can't field. The computer does it for you. All you get to do is decide which base to throw the ball to. You can't even run with the ball after you catch it.

Sometimes it can be painful just to watch the fielders your center fielder just standing there for a couple of seconds before going after the ball, your shortstop's legs moving in one place on a pop-up. Fortunately the pitching con Site of the week ITS a to Rent it first Buy it Buy two oNitptefwrs OJMAiN Site Info. Notices C) Registry Top IS Register) MOVIES TOP 10 WMfc Aa r. CfcrtHflwljftKaywLwjwiflwTiiS-I Happen rivUJaaw, Mitotan Street Fighter EX2 Plus Maker: Capcom Platform: Sony Playstation Price: $35 Address: http: www.capcom.com Rating: Teen for violence Score: Nttpwikw (fan i Overdose on nitpicking online, and then shut up! httpVwww.nrtpickers.com You just came out of a theater after seeing "The Sixth Sense," and before you can say a word about the plot or the acting, the person with you launches into this major rant about how, two-thirds of the way through the film, the woman who plays the little boy's mom answered a question from Bruce Willis, which couldn't have been possible since Willis was a ghost. Poof! There goes all the fun, the mood, the magic.

People who do this sort of thing are called names we can't print in a family newspaper. They're also called nitpickers, and like every other group on the planet, they have their own Web site. And it's hysterical. Nitpickers.com is a list of more than 18,000 movie goofs submitted by people who care. About what, we're not sure.

The site is free, and you don't need to register to browse the lists. But if you sign up (also free), you can post and take credit for nitpicks you find, or you can refute nitpicks. Many of the listings are the usual things: wires holding someone or something up, a conflict in the plot, or some historic or technological inaccuracy. One of the classic examples comes from "Titanic," a movie that was touted as historically accurate down to the smallest detail which is all a nitpicker needs to hear. Leonardo DiCaprio's character claims to have gone ice fishing on Lake Wissota in Wisconsin.

As several nitpickers pointed out, Lake Wissota exists all right, but it is a man-made lake that wasn't created until 1917, five years after the Titanic sank. Raise your hand if you care. But you have to understand the mind of the nitpicker. These are people who live for that one tiny flaw, and when Fighting Game is maddeningly tough they find it, they pounce. Sometimes, however, they really do seem to go too far.

For instance: Toward the end of "Independence Day," Jeff Goldblum shouts "must go faster" as he rides in an alien spacecraft, the same line he used in "Jurassic Park" when a T. rex was chasing him. (It was probably a joke, OK?) When Han Solo is put into the Carbonite freezer in "The Empire Strikes Back," his arms are bound in the back so he can't move them. But when he is thawed out, the binders are gone. (Binders schminders.

The poor guy was encased in a slab of metal and survived.) While Michael J. Fox is shooting free throws during a scene from "Teen Wolf," a player from another team runs through the lane, which is a violation of basketball rules. (Right, and "Teen Wolf" was a violation of the rules of taste. That makes it a wash.) Harry Jackson Jr. hjaxsonposnet.com From News Services Daikatana Maker: ID Platform: Windows Price: $40 Address: http:www.daikatana.com Rated: Teen for violence Score: Game from maker of Doom simply is not fun It's tempting to say that the problem with Doom designer John Romero's highly anticipated Daikatana is that it came along far later than promised.

Truly great shooters like Unreal: Tournament and Half-Life arrived in the meantime to leave it in the dust. And that's true. But the real cruncher is that, though it bulges with visual flourishes and mildly interesting weapons and monsters, the gameplay itself lies along a spectrum from annoying to tiresome. It simply isn't much fun. With "save gems" that must be tediously collected prior to ending a session, maddeningly frustrating (but much-touted and politically incorrect) sidekicks, laughable cinematics and half-hearted (but seemingly endless) level designs, this story of time-travel and swordplay offers little sparkle and no spark, arriving stillborn after the long, long wait.

Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption Maker: Activision Platform: Windows with networked Internet play Price: $45 Number of players: One to several Score: As it gets popular, Vampire will play better It drops you into an immersive 3-D world where role-playing, action and puzzle-solving are well balanced. That's the good news. Creeping about in the shadows as the undead anti-hero Christof and hacking away at one's enemies or drinking the blood of one's victim are lovely and the characters who join your party are interesting and even helpful. But the most highly anticipated aspect of the game, storyteller mode, in which one player builds and controls a world as the game is running, disappoints in that it requires a sure hand at the helm something difficult to find in the twitchfest of the Internet and generally degenerates into a free-for-all. But given the right circumstances a well-built LAN game with all the players physically in a room together Vampire has the potential for transcending even its worst glitches.

This game is maddening! Street Fighter EX2 Plus pulls you into the fiercest brawls against some of the baddest characters on the video game block. Menacing fighters with moves like the Psycho Crusher, the Atomic Suplex and the Death Press wreak mental anguish and virtual pain on your character, forcing you to open up your own little can of whip-butt. But no matter how many blows you land, nine times out of 10 you're going to lose when you play against the PlayStation fighters. With its vivid 3-D graphics, rapid, smooth animation and those nauseating grunts, groans and yelps so germane to these types of 'fighting games, Street Fighter EX2 Plus will keep you and your thumbs busy at least until you're too frustrated to continue. Today sword slow starts at 900 megahertz speed while 1850 is consider fast.

The 1900 megahertz range is the next step, which will enable voice and video two-way communications over instruments such as palm machines and cellular telephones (The global wireless telephone networks that are being es- tablished now are considered PCS). So the next time a salesperson says he deals with PCS technology, he's proba- bly trying to sell you any or all of this stuff. Harry Jackson Jr. hjaxsonpostnet.com PCS PCS means personal communications services. It's another alphabet soup catchall that helps computer-sawy people sound like they're skilled in technobabble.

Actually, the Federal Communications Commission started it. The Microsoft Technical Manual and Dictionary says it covers wireless and all-digital services, "including cordless phones, voice mail, paging, faxing and personal digital assistants." The two major forms are narrow band and broad band, meaning slow transmission or fast transmission. Just as a comparison,.