Jason Rohrer's 'Game Design Sketchbook' has an interesting meditation up on the nature of single player game mechanics — a lot of the achingly simple, but endlessly challenging board games that Rohrer points to require a minimum of two players. Rohrer's question is how to make a single player game that doesn't rely on typical mechanics to provide depth and challenge? Is it possible to have a game with the (gameplay) depth of go without falling back on AI or randomness or 'physical' contests? Well, in short, no:

OK, this is hard to run down exactly, because there's a Live Weekend going on right now, which means you can play online for free on Xbox Live. But reader Draco, a Silver level gamer, says that he's been playing cross-platform multiplayer games for free since Wednesday night, which precedes the Live Weekend (which started at midnight Friday.) I checked his Gamercard and, yeah, he played Shadowrun online on Thursday.

It seems that ending the gold/silver distinction in Games for Windows Live (effectively making it free) might have had the same effect for those who game on titles that are both PC and 360. A commenter on Xbox Live forums found that Shadowrun online play was free, for example. Reader Draco, who spotted this, says it works for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition and Universe at War: Earth Assault, too.

We'll have to check back after the weekend ends. But bigger picture, could this -- don't get your hopes up, but it's gotta be on everyone's mind -- mean that Xbox Live may eventually convert to a free model for all multiplayer gaming too?

Live Silver for Xbox Allowing Online Play? [Xbox Forums, thanks reader Draco]

After a slight delay due to internet issues in the prior presentation, a pack of media people shuffled into a little room to hear all about Killzone 2. Guerilla Games' managing director, Hermen Hulst, looked slightly horrified that the horde of journalists had left the two women in the room to sit on the floor ('Someone please get her a chair!'), but Kotaku writers getting stuck on the floor be damned, the show will go on! Eric Boltjes — senior online game developer — launched into a presentation and explanation of Killzone 2 online multiplayer's unique features and mechanics. After, of course, a nice video showing ... fast action, and lots of explosions! Boltjes underscored the fact that everything we watched was shot in real time on the PS3, and everything still looked nice even with 32 players in a game. We got a long laundry list of features and mechanics, which all seemed to come back to one word, 'customised.' For more from the presentation, hit the jump.

Llexx over at NextGen Gamers has put together a short list of pointers to get you through the rigours of multiplayer combat in Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4. I know every time I lose at any game online it's like someone's punched me in the nads, so avoid that burning sensation in your lower gut and give this guide a read. Unless you're a chick, in which case I don't want to know about burning. Or sensations.

Want a teaser? Here's tip #7, which came as news to me:

7. In death match mode, spawning is totally random. Before you spawn we recommend that you always hold your select button to pause your forced re-spawn. By doing this it will give you time to check your surroundings, thus preventing you from materialising next to an enemy.

MGS4 multiplayer survival guide [NextGen Gamers, thanks Lauren and Dave]

Gears of War 1 is a really good game. We like it! But there were, like with every game, things that bugged us about Gears 1 multiplayer — made us mad, even. The Cliffster, Gears of War mastermind, cares. The Cliffster doesn't want what bugged you in Gears 1 mulitplayer to bug you in Gears of War 2 multiplayer. Why? Because The Cliffster is good like that. Like we said, The Cliffster cares. Just listen to what The Cliffster has to say:

Chill Out, an all-time greatest hit for Halo gamers from the Combat Evolved days, is getting a makeover and will be coming to Halo 3 soon. Bungie debuted "Cold Storage" at Major League Gaming San Diego over the weekend, to wild applause from the gallery, which watched the first match on the new map.

Bungie offered no word on when specifically it will drop. MLG's site has some low-res shots of the event (camera shots of the monitor). You can at least make out the chilly, blue-hued, nitrogen-spewing environment familiar to the original Chill Out. Three more pics after the jump, and more in MLG's gallery.

Reader Rob H. pointed out this nice little mid-Sunday diversion: Dino Run. After you get the hang of it you realise nothing in the environment will kill you, just slow you down on your panicked quest to outrun extinction. But most importantly, it's a flash game with multiplayer across three servers, although I waited forever for a game to start up.

Still, to the designers, hat-tip for rendering it like an old 4-bit PC game. I dunno, the tone just seems to deserve that kind of treatment. And also note how your dino farts after you chow down on less fortunate sauropods. Hat-tip for that, too.

Dino Run [Pixeljam, thanks Rob]

Slate contributor Sudhir Venkatesh is a Columbia sociology professor who has written a book about street gangs, even going so far as to run with one in Chicago for a book. So, naturally, Grand Theft Auto IV would intrigue him. His verdict on the game's realism? It "actually offered a less sensational portrait of gangland and ghetto streets than the one put out by most cops, politicians, policymakers, and even academics."

But it does pretty much nail the always changing landscape of a criminal's life, in enemies who become friends and vice versa, risks taken trusting someone and goals that were of vital importance at one point becoming expendable in short time.

Soon after Grand Theft Auto's launch, when I went to start playing online matches, I noticed that the instruction manual was almost totally devoid of multiplayer details. In fact, the Brady Guide for the game, a virtual encyclopedia of GTA facts, was also missing any real information about multiplayer.

Normally the lack of instructions wouldn't bother me because I never read them, but the nuances of matchmaking and party formation can be a little confusing in GTA IV. Fortunately, Rockstar must have realised that they left something out in their instruction manual because they've recently published a PDF dedicated just to multiplayer gaming.

The guide is filled with interesting tips and info. For instance, they explain how Party Mode work, something that has been driving me crazy since the launch. Turns out that when playing team modes, the game tries to find a similarly sized party to match you up with. In competitive modes it just fills up the slots with people and gets you going.

There are also plenty of usefull tips in the guide, like using blip settings to tweak your difficulty setting, and how auto-aim is an "awesome feature" that is often misunderstood and absolutely doesn't level the playing field.

Hit the jump for the full guide.

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg expects GTA IV's launch to drive a big boost in Xbox Live memberships, he told Reuters today:

"The multiplayer in this game is so well implemented that I can't imagine anyone owning a copy without trying to play it on Xbox Live," said Aaron Greenberg, the director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.

"GTA is unique because it appeals to such a large audience. It will likely be the best-selling game launched all year and we expect it will drive a lot of new members to Xbox Live."

GTA 4 poised to dominate Xbox Live [Reuters]