PC-based 'EverQuest' coming to PlayStation 2

Gannett News Service

"EverQuest," a popular online role-playing game (RPG), is coming to Sony PlayStation 2.

The title, which allows thousands of gamers to play simultaneously via the Internet, has been available only on PCs running the Windows operating system. But Sony Online Entertainment, which produces the game, said "EverQuest Online Adventures" for PlayStation 2 (PS2) will debut in the spring of 2003.

It will require Sony's Network Adapter, a combination, snap-in telephone modem and broadband interface that will be released this summer for about $40.

The PS2 and PC-based games will be completely different, so players running the game under Windows won't be able to compete with friends playing the game on a PS2.

"We have seen phenomenal success with the original EverQuest — the look, feel and functionality of the game provided the foundation on which we built a truly unique console-focused game," said John Smedley, chief operating officer of Sony Online Entertainment.

The pricing plan for "EverQuest Online Adventures" is to be announced later this year.

Sony officials say they hope that providing "EverQuest" on the PS2 platform will help the console maker get a jump on competitors Microsoft and Nintendo, which also are discussing online gaming strategies.

Sony also sees the PS2 as helping to enlarge the "EverQuest" franchise, which has nearly half a million players who pay $10 a month to "live" in the "EverQuest" fantasy kingdom.

Game of the Week: "The Sims Vacation"

The beloved Sims have "lived large," held house parties and gone on hot dates. Now, it's time for a little R&R.

Introducing "The Sims Vacation" (Electronic Arts, www.thesims.com, for Windows, $29.99, rated "T" for teen), the fourth add-on disc for the best-selling game "The Sims," where your little sim residents can be whisked away to Vacation Island.

This geographical anomaly has three distinct areas in just a few square miles — a forest campground, a snowy mountain setting and a beach resort — with countless activities, new people to meet and nearly 150 objects to play with.

The game is "Virtua Fighter 4," the latest entry in the most authentic and possibly most interesting series of fighting games on the market. The fighters in "Mortal Kombat" may pelt one another with fireballs, but combatants in "Virtua Fighter" games use real-world fighting styles with exaggerated moves.

Hence, ninja Kage-Maru may have a better vertical leap than Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson rolled into one, but his moves are real. Aoi Umenokouji employs accurate traps and holds in her Aiki jujitsu, and martial-arts instructor Akira Yuki throws believable elbows in his hard-style version of kung fu.

"VF4" is almost as much about art as it is about combat. The arenas are architectural masterpieces. One is set in an underwater parlor with sharks and reef fish peering through the windows. Mountain and beach battles take place on blankets of virgin snow and sand; as the clash takes place, the fighters leave footprints and indentations behind.

"VF4" is clearly the best fighting game in the PS2 library.