ESS METROID PRIME AND FUSION PREVIEWED, INSIDE У Тре са ларо Соте Мад for PS2exbox. SKF $$ THE GAME THEWO КО > ВЕЕМ WAITING FOR... “EXCLUSIVE INFO AND SCREENS! ш ЗЕ PLAY: AE №. ‘COVENANT С BNEW WEAPONS, VEHICLES AND ALIENS ш "pec ОРАМУ GAME...EVER Ў ECRETS Тор STILL DON’T _ K UT HAL n isons YOU'LL LOV; ү THER im D. = = HE $200 XBOX GAME SEE WHY STEEL BATTALION WILL R THAN YOU CAN ІМ ВЕ WORTH THE CASH vember 2002 $4.99/$6.50 Canada 11> . . " ¥ SY Cooper (PS2) | PREVIEWED: = 007: NightFire (all) Star Fox Adventures (GC) Ar m WWE SmackDown! (PS2) = Terminator (Xbox) "АШ Contra (PS2) 0" 14024 "06960 в Mario Party 4 (GC) ЕСМ.САМЕЮ$.СОМ ® m Neeti РОГ Speed (ор ieee / ; 52 2 a d j LIVE IN YOUR WXRLD. PLAY IN DURS 7 3 ae ter ж- ` \ EYE OF RAJAH m di NER pede rte гл ние „ы diamond comes ا م اس مت بی ا‎ ae d etr THE 27 ete TUA. “-. EVERYONE Mild Violence www.playstation.com PlayStation” and the ily logo are register CONTENT RATED BY Computer Entertair Ат Inc, Sly Соо ESRB Punch Productions LLC. ©2002 Sony Солт Опе сиппта аеуіоив thievius raccoonus. Stealing is never condoned, unless you're Sly Cooper. A notorious raccoon thief on a mission to steal back his family's most prized possession. Using a repertoire of sneaky moves, you'll go from one impossible jab to the next using cunning skills and maneuvers to infiltrate the most secure places in the world. Spotlights, alarms, infrared lasers and tripwires are no match for this raccoon. Because when you're as good as he is, grabbing priceless jewels and emptying casinos is like taking candy from a baby NP uS Raccoons Se PlayStation. y Infogrames, Inc., New York, МҮ. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft, © 2002 Infogrames Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured and marketed b; FEM a "Y'S Holly THE HOLLYWOOD Е Wenn EYEWITNESS Pic www.looneytunes-games.com Hills Estate. Mild Violence Violence Bugs seeks anger management! INFOGRAMES LOONEY TUNES, characters, names and all related indicia are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. WBIE LOGO: TM & © Warner Bros. (s02) TO MAKE IT TO THE ТОР ALL YOU NEED IS TALENT, FAITH AND AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF TNT. Legendary director, Yosemite Sam, is casting the lead for his new feature film. Whoever lands the role is sure to become an instant Hollywood icon. But there can be only one. Who will it be? Daffy Duck? Bugs Bunny? Taz? Sylvester? Praised for "great graphics, a wacky sense of humor and some frantic multiplayer fun," by ХВМ, Loons is a no-holds-barred, no-rules, anything-goes, free-for-all struggle for stardom. Welcome to the dark side of Hollywood. vA LOONT THE FIGHT FOR FAME ion, X Рс 3 PlayStations — 7. e cux EVERYONE Violence CONTENT RATED BY ESRB ©2002 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. Electronic Arts, EA GAMES, and the EA GAMES logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electroni Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. "PlayStation" and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/ or other countrie and are used under license from Microsoft. TM, ®, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendc © 2001 Nintendo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. EA GAMES™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K. Rowling. WBIE LOGO: ™ & © Warner Bros. Anglia is a trademark owned and licensed by Ford Motor Company. (502) E t ` Plipendo from Defense Against Dark "M Evil from The Chamber of Secrets D Have you got what it takes to be Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets? Available November 15th. , ) | йы от Mrsrit Arts. | A : LÀ n" x 4 N TURN BASED RPG GAMING OLD-SCHOOL STYLE...ENJOY! =). FRESH — is ge y $ ^. 7. ' AN Baki Master то 7 у Lp CONTENTS Game Directory 306 158 182-184 122 194 116 306 164 186 102-103 123 204 128 160 125 162 283 283 138-140 204 164 144-146 202 134-135 283, 300, 306 164 284, 300, 306 298 300 300 127 108-110 283, 302 286-288 308-310 126 150-152 192 172-177 298 127 298 124 164 304 290 187 204 292 294, 306 283 114-115 4x4 Evo 2 Batman: Dark Tomorrow Blinx: The Time Sweeper BMX XXX Brute Force Contra: Shattered Soldier Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Cubivore Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball Devil May Cry 2 Disaster Report Doom И Dr. Muto Evolution Worlds Fighter Maker 2 Godzilla: Destroy АЦ Monsters Melee Grandia Xtreme Gundam: Federation Vs. Zeon James Bond 007: NightFire Kirby Legend of Zelda, The Mario Party Metroid Fusion Metroid Prime NASCAR Thunder 2003 NBA 2K3 Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 NFL Blitz 20-03 Phantom Crash Prisoner of War Ratchet & Clank Red Faction И Robotech: Battlecry Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus Star Fox Adventures Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Star Wars: The Clone Wars Star Wars: Jedi Knight 11: Jedi Outcast Steel Battalion Sub Rebellion Suikoden III Summoner 2 Superman: Shadow of Apokolips Swingerz Golf Terminator: Dawn of Fate Thing, The Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Tomb Raider Tribes: Aerial Assault Turok: Evolution Wild Arms 3 WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth Novemher 2002 Issue 160 Departments (9 Editorial Letters 22 Press Start 34 Swoon over the first shots of Square's Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicle for GameCube. Also, check out the Ultimate TV Setups for maximum gaming enjoyment. All that, plus Doom ЇЇ! on Xbox! Gossip 18 =г= 6 X pis Previews 100 This month, down a double dose of Samus with Metroid Fusion (GBA) and Metroid Prime (GC). Then, get all shaken and stirred by the lovely girls of James Bond 007: NightFire and the burly brawlers of WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth. Stick around, because Devil May Cry 25 Dante fills your soul with light on the PS2. Review Crew 282 Judgment Day has arrived, as holiday heavy hitters like Star Fox Adventures, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 compete to win gamers’ hearts. @ Tricks 312 Go on...use our Turok: Evolution cheats. You know you want to. Follow up that cheating with some relaxing Animal Crossing strats. Ө The Final Word 328 SYSTEM COLOR KEY ле СК ЕЗ 4 The next Halo? Yep, if anyone can hope to follow in Master Chief’s groundbreaking footsteps, it’s the ol’ Chief himself. Discover what the wizards at Bungie are preparing for next year’s amazing sequel to the best Xbox game. Exclusive info and images await on page 214. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City More vehicles, more guns, more fun...revisit the pastel-colored excess of the 1980s on page 264 Wax nostalgic as EGM chooses the 20 Greatest Moments in Gaming on page 248. Can any game be worth $200? Find out why Steel Battalion costs a mint on page 172. Bo 10016. Periodicals Class Postage Paid at New York, NY 10016 and additional mailing offic East 26th Street, ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY (SSN #1058-918Х) в published monthly by f Davis issue rates: $4.99. The one year (12 issue) subscription rate is $24.97 in the U.S, and $4 changes to Electronic Gaming Monthly, P.O, Box 55721, http:/ subscribe egmmag.com (to order); Phone mailing label with any correspondence. subscribe; do not send attachment cited materials. Without limiting the rights under сору лба, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the the prior written notice of Zi Ds а form faxed or mailed to you by calling (425)430-1663. Copyright luction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. For permission to reuse m ion (or on this Web site) orto use our logo, contact Ziff Davis Media contact Reprint Services at 800-217 7874. Olga Gonopolsky, Ziff Davis Media Inc. 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212503:5438. Fax: 212503 5420. Оа. опо; trademarks of Ziff Davis Media Inc. TM and © forall other products and the characters contained therein are owned by the respective trademark and copyright owners. All mi ‘change and the publisher assumes no responsibilty for such changes. The Canadian GST Registration number is 140496720 RT. Thanks for the shots, Rob Fox! Printed in the U.S.A. Aur Breas Окно DC ЅНОЕСХ JUSA INTRODUCING DAVE MIRRA'S NEW SIGNATURE SHOE, THE RATIO. TAKING BMX FOOTWEAR TO DONTRODUCES THE FIRST SOCKLINER THE NEXT LE VEL. EVER BUILT IN A BMX Е. Ж. thermoplastic urethane bag injected with air that provides cushioning. SHO! Designed for supreme stability and foot sup- АХ port, DC's stretchable inner sock is made from ) breathable mesh, and has a built-in elastic band 1 А N for the ultimate in control Ф, ырын) | [Gi rer A slightly different composition of polyurethane, Performalite™ is softer and lighter than reguar polyurethane. (BLACK/B.ROYAL) | (CHARCOAL/C.BLUE) ^ (LI.GREY/DK.RED) Mild Lyrics Mild Violence = کے‎ ae = = E— ` ID == OMM Im = —— T. я = OMA LM NT. ee — — m —— = zl | | d Б o = ШР Visit 13 of the popular surf spots from around the globe. Hd! E Z= LII m 9 modes of play including > 2 player PUSH™ mode. - ты = SURFING WILL NEVER BE THE ЗАМЕ Drop in with 6-time World Champion Kelly Slater or one of 8 other top pros in the ultimate surf experience, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer®. Play a total of 30 levels at the most challenging surf breaks from around the globe. Pull off big air and fantasy tricks like Rodeo Flip, Knack Surf on waves populated Knack and Hangman that let you take surfing with other surfers. to a whole new level. Surf in a constantly О Р p Й — 4 ——————— changing wave environment — you'll never г. 81 gs see the same wave twice. ACTIVISIONO2.COM EDITORIAL Size Matters old the jokes and set aside your insecuri- ties for one moment. Now, feel and caress this magazine. Can you respect our girth? You’re holding in your hands what is quite possi- bly the best Electronic Gaming Monthly ever. It’s the biggest issue in years, with double the amount of editorial pages than normal. Did you lift with your feet? You'll notice a huge chunk of the real estate is dedicated to our cover story, Halo 2. Hey, it’s only the game every Xbox owner is looking forward to, and the only Xbox-exclusive title that PlayStation 2 and GameCube gamers are jealous of. By Dan "Shoe" Hsu other systems want: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It's next month's cover story, but we've got the goods now. Check out our *25 Reasons Why You'll Love Vice City" feature on pg. 264. But maybe it's the GameCube crowd that has the most to boast? | mean, c'mon...how can you beat a console that is home to Samus, the hero- ine of the fan-favorite Metroid series? We've already done a cover story on her (see issue #157), but now that she's preparing to be released into the wild, we're paying her another visit with a Metroid Prime preview. Check out her little sister, too, with the Metroid Fusion story in Not that the PS2 doesn't have something the the Game Boy Advance section. Shoe Contributors David Kushner Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine We sent David, a writer for Spin and Entertainment Weekly, undercover to experi- ence the rough life of a game tester for our Press Start section. Peter Suciu This NY-based freelance writer has covered trends in home theater and video games for the past several years. He currently writes for FHM and Newsweek. Darren Gladstone Originally hailing from New York, Darren has contributed to the likes of CNET, Wired, Playboy, and some graffiti near his apart- ment. Now, it's EGM's turn. Christian's back with some hands-on pre- views for us. You can also see his work in Wizard's Anime Invasion and Animejump.com. He gets around! Jeanne Kim Ah, ha! Despite her tearful good-byes in last month's issue, Jeanne “Token Girl Gamer" Kim has weaseled her way back in. Look for citings of her work in the Reviews section. Dan Leahy No longer at GameNow, Dan's concentrating on the *moving and shaking" required to get freelance gigs. And by that we mean spend- ing 14 hours a day playing Madden online. Eat My Shorts! Look around this issue for quotes from The Simpsons or a famous movie. Find one, e-mail it (and where you found it and your non- РО. Box mailing address) to us at Shorts —EGM #160), and you тау be one of five lucky winners (chosen at random) who will win a copy of this month's Game of the Month. No purchase necessary. EGM@ziffdavis.com (subject: Eat My This month, EGM's sister mag came to the res- cue by sacrificing four editors —Joe Rybicki, Chris Baker, Todd Zuniga and ol' John D.—to the EGM God of Workload Toil and Torture. Scott Steinberg Scott's our very own Jules Asner, running around the world, interviewing every celebrity in sight and asking them ditzy questions. Only Scott doesn't look so hot in a bikini. Miguel Lopez This former GameSpot editor continues to strongarm EGM for work every month. It's a good thing we're hooking him up, otherwise he'd have to peddle medicine door-to-door. Dean Hager Our former managing editor was a trooper and stuck around for another month to help wrap things up—and to make sure people didn't jack all of EGM's stuff back in Illinois. * Jonathan Dudlak After leaving EGM to stay rooted in the Chicago soils, not much has changed: Jon's still got his damn fingers in Reviews, Press Start апа... David Hodgson (Prima Games) For this month's Tricks section, Dave went back and "old-schooled" Mario 64, grabbing all 120 stars. During this time, we learned many new (and British) swear words. Just a few of the quotes from issue #159: * "Will someone please think of the children?" (The Simpsons, pg. 22) * "That armor's too strong for blasters. Use your har- poons and tow cables!" (Empire Strikes Back, pg. 138) * "Wipe them out—all of them." (The Phantom Menace, pg. 186) Issue #158’s winners of Madden NFL 2003 (PS2): * Alain Patenaude— Las Vegas, NV * Steven Noonan — Whitman, MA * Daniel Klingspor— Austin, TX * David Huynh— Riverside, СА * Christopher Bhatti—Brooklyn, NY We use EarthLink EarthLink’ for our online gaming needs. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 14 - egm.gamers.com Number 15.11 | November 2002 | ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY egm.gamers.com | ДЕН 0 Chief B x m an nn E Hsu е shoe@ziffdavis.com E ive Editoi Mark шен e mark_macdonald@ziffdavis.com м Jennil er 1520 • jennifer_tsao@ziffdavis.com Features Editor N Cent Boyer e crispin boyerGziffdavis.com lews Editor Chris "CJ" jjohioston e chris johnstonGziffdavis.com Previews: Editor ев Sewart * greg_sewart@ziffdavis.com Reviews Editor Monkey Man е E boyer@ziffdavis.com Web Content Edito James Mielke « . "lames | mielke@ziffdavis.com Associate Editors gne Chou е che_chou@ziffdavis.com ine Bettenhausen e shane_bettenhausen@ziffdavis.com ieee Я David Hodgson • tricks@ziffdavis.com Senior. ГИ? ШІ rector ril Wochok • cyril_wochok@ziffdavis.com Art Direct or Mike Reisel е mike_reisel@ziffdavis.com Copy Editor Preg Ford ® greg_ford@ziffdavis.com Contributors Chris Baker, John Davison, Jonathan Dudlak, Barren PCR TE Dean Hager, ; leanne Kim, Dan Leahy, Miguel el Lopez, Christian Nutt, loe Rybi icH, Jeremy) Scott, Scott Steinberg, ter Suciu, Jennil ter Whitesides, Todd Zuniga International ІШ John Ricciardi Japanes Correspondent Manufacturing Director Carlos Lugo Senior Production Manager ‘Anne Marie Miguel Graphics Manager Michele Kellogg Pre Media Manager Dave McCracken Assistant Production Manager Р Meurs nd roject Leader. Mark Lek ме e mark lefebvreGaiffdavis.com Vice President/Game Group ‚ Dale Stran; Editorial Director John Davison Creative Director Simon Cox Busing 5 EN, Bend sent New stand Sales Manager Don Galen Adventist ІШПЕ ШЕ Contact: Game Grou 50 Beale, 12th floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Telephone: 415-547-8783 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE NUMBER: WEB SITE: PLEASE SEND ALL SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS TO: DO NOT CONTACT THE EDITORS RE: SUB. PROBLEMS Publis ИГ nn 415-357-4910 * lee uniackeGziffdavis.com Group Associate Publisher Stan Taigen 4157: Е 4915 * stan_taigen@ziffdavis.com Account Executive Meighan O'Rourke 415-357-4920 * meighan_orourke@ziffdavis.com BAY АВ District Sales Representative Mai Grey A 1 415-547-8782 • mary_gray@ziffdavis.com Account E Mary Let 415- US igas * mary letsonGziffdavis.com MIDWEST, KES Regional eas M Manager 630: СЕЗЕ 903 * marc_callison@ziffdavis.com кебе арабе anager [ШЕ 255-5795 * ian sinclairGziffdavis.com Account SERE Emily Olmai 415- HOM -5226 • emily olmanGziffdavis.com SOUTHWEST Regional sales Manager 760-942-6277 * karen. landonGziffdavis.com Senigr account тео 7:8 (Bs «inda hilapil@ziffdavis.com E Online S салар lonati an Nag s 03-468! West Coast E les р Allison Rotcop ® 415-547-8564 Senior Marketing Manager & Creative Director Rey Ledda 2 р 415-547-8775 * rey. leddaGziffdavis.com Marketing Coordinator Wayne Shiu ps 547-8248 * wayne. shiuGziffdavis.com SENE КОА а ipler Ubbelol 45 -357-4930 * tipler ubbelohdeGziffdavis.com ENS nm risteen Laut 415- 5474 8778 ® kristeen_laut@ziffdavis.com 15:54; 547-8783 * cj amitGziffdavis.com Founder Steve Harris. “^^ NINTENDO 9! ARCADE FIGHTING 4 FL 9¥ NINTENDO GAMECUBE" | /С Tene ums ir c RR riot iai. FROM TV/O*OF YOUR FAVORITE WORLDS: CAPCOM. SNK P OVER 44 CHALLENGERS - 6 GAME MODES EXTREME OFFENSE DELIVERS INSTANT DEVASTATION! Two monster corporations are at war! Choose from 44 of your all-time favorite fighters. It's Capcom vs. SNK2 Е.О. with custom fighting Grooves and the most radical features of any fighter on the NINTENDO GAMECUBE™ system - including exclusive Extreme Offense control! Deliver furious combos and devastating super moves at the touch of a single button! This plus, control the level of your fighter’s strength with the new “Free Ratio System.” Let the battle begin in this system defining arcade fighter. @CAPCOM CO., LTD. 2001, 2002 GCAPCOM U.S.A., INC. 2001, 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CAPCOM and the CAPCOM logo are registered trademarks of CAPCOM CO., LTD. OPLAYMORE e T Corporation. CAPCOM VS. SNK 2 EO is manufactured and distributed by CAPCOM CO., LTD. under Suggestive Themes the license from PLAYMORE Corporation. SNK is a trademark of PLAYMORE Corporation. Nintendo E and Nintendo GameCube are trademarks of Nintendo. The ratings icon is a registered trade. Violence mark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. capcom.com can't fight ES what you can't see. 2 E О OVERWORKS?, SEGA Б a registered trademark of SEGA CORPORATION. SEGA and Shinobi are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sega Corporation and its affiliates. ©2002 SEGA CORPORATION. Original Game @OVERWORKS/SEGA, 2002. All Rights Reserved. www.sega.com Blood and Gore Violence “Rayman Ағепа is impossible to put down, | especially multi-player.” -PLAY magazine 2 | “Ubi. Soft’s limbless hero will soon strong-arm = __ the competition..." -Nintendo Power al 2 | LIbi Soft wow wu b dete $ 54 EVERYONE Mild Violence хаох в Ww 2002 Ubi Soft, Ine pit nte a trademark of Ubi Soft, Inc. Rayman, Ubi Soft and the Ubi Soft Entertainment logo are atlemarts of Ubi ІШ ОН BET SMOKEN nibus multipla / Rayman تت رمل دازلل لیل دل دارو‎ 1.5 spe filled racecourses and 15) ря . You wanna represent) in) НЕ rus fini and the othér оп your backeand| у just might Prk’ em all. уумим/.гаутапагепа. сот "Du e. ET d j ou ARE BRUTU .brutef j қ " Р ЗЕ устите отсяда: сот The year is 2340 and more than fifly star systems are populated with colonies. But when an alien invasion threatens to put every living MATURE мя organism on the endangered species list, the Confederation of worlds must dispatch its elite special forces unit, code-named Brute iolence Blood Ж Force. That's you. As Brute Force, you command four separate intergalactic mercenaries. The trigger-happy assault trooper, cyborg ттт digital/ lil ESRB sniper, stealthy assassin and feral alien are all played by you. As you guide these shooters through 201 missions and 6 exotic worlds. 2002 Microsoft Corporation, AIT rights reserved. Microsoft, Xbox, Bruto Force: and the Xbox logos are registered tademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countsios, The Ка 5 ^ NI по ARE BRUTE ж > EY ed your knowledge of squad based combat will be severely tested. Depending on the danger at hand. you'll need to utilize the right Brute Force member for the job. Whether you play alone or in co-op mode, the battles escalate. the plot thickens and the violence gets addictive. It's an experience of such epic proportion that it could only exist on Xbox. Good luck. To all four of you. DANGEROUS ALONE DEADLY TOGETHER Letters to the Editors WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM? MISSING AN ISSUE? SUBSCRIPTION DELAYED? Then don’t bug us! Мете all huddled together in an igloo on the North Pole making this mag every month. Talk to the subscription folks who get paid to deal with people like you! Phone toll-free: (800) 779-1174 Web site: http://service.egmmag.com Snail mail: P.O. Box 55722; Boulder, CO 80322-5722 Congratulations, Kevin Wada! You win an InterAct GameShark for PlayStation 2, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance or Game Boy Color. Hopefully, you'll put your GameShark to good use. Try entering the "fun" code! exp азшылық LETTER OF THE MONTH Tekken It Too Far | ат deeply disturbed by the Tekken 4 reviews in the October issue of EGM. When | read the individual reviews scoring Tekken 4, | was agitated by the disorderly research done by the reviewers. Now | realize that the reviewers probably had very little time to work with the game, and fitting their reviews into the limited space affected the in-depth quality of their reviews— but, regardless, the October reviews were inconsistent and crudely done. | understand that these reviews are opinions and personal feelings, but to add facts that aren’t even correct (only two new characters?) makes me question the validity of ANY of the points in these reviews. The reviews are in no way completely wrong, but they leave a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not attacking the integrity of the magazine or the reviewers. | only wish to bring my point across. Virtua Fighter 4 is a great game; Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore is a great game. But 74 is also a great game. Kevin Wada Wadaboi12@aol.com Thanks for your brutal honesty, Kevin. We got bags of mail from tearful Tekken fans crying foul, but we've had our hands on this game since the debut of its identical import version earlier this year. And please remember: With a 7, 6.5 and 7.5, 74 still earned decent scores. (On EGM’s scale, 5 is average.) That said, we knew what we were getting into when we laid down the numerics. We calls ’em like we sees "ет, and as polished as Tekken 4 is, there just isn’t enough meat on the bones to keep us coming back. As to your “two character” comment, we only consider Steve and Craig the true newbies. Christie is basically a rehashed Eddy, and Combot is 7475 Mokujin. Big whoop! In stark comparison to Virtua Fighter's stunning reinvention this year, 74 is little more than a mild tweaking of a stale and aging franchise. Imagine if the leap between 73 and 74 were as substantial as that from Soul Blade to Soul Calibur. The mind boggles at what could have been. I'll get straight to the point: Your SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs review in the October issue was a direct affront to anyone (including myself) who truly trusts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Since you used the term nine times during the course of your review, please let me remind you that “God” and “damn” when put together are highly offensive to a lot of people— believe it or not—including Some gamers! Aaron Marshall Erwin, TN Aaron, of course we care, and of course we meant absolutely no disrespect to anyone who has belonged to any kind of organized religion anywhere, at any time in the course of human history. We're sorry you took offense, but let's face facts—if we never printed anything that we thought might piss off some nutjob somewhere (not that you're a nutjob), you'd be holding a bunch of empty pages right now. And then we'd get letters from people complaining that they just spent five bucks on a bunch of empty pages. As for the SOCOM review in particular, we had a tough call to make: Do we piss off a few extra- sensitive types with a mild expletive, or do we piss off a bunch of big, brawny army drill sergeants with an unrealistic portrayal of their manner of speech? Put yourself in our shoes, and hopefully you can understand why we chose to piss you off instead. Mascot Infidelity Over the past few months, | have seen a few of my favorite series—like Crash Electronic Gaming Monthly - 22 - egr I'm refusing to eat. until | get word that Blast Corps 2 is being made for GameCube. realwinner1og@ hotmail.com Well, it looks. like someone’s gonna be a little hungry come supper time! With all the talk of Rare-buyouts (first Activision, now Microsoft), no one has stopped to give the long-lost 1997 hit much consideration, The developer probably has bigger things to worry about. gamers.com Bandicoot and Sonic—ported to other systems. Crash [appeared on] all three of the next-gen consoles and Sonic [went] to the GC. After | finished Crash Bandicoot on the Xbox, | realized it was just plain boring to play. | noticed that bringing the same game series to three different consoles could do a lot of damage to the game itself—even kill the entire series. There aren’t that many series left out there that haven’t been going down in popularity since coming to the next- gen systems. That’s why | think we need more franchises, and developers need to keep series exclusive to one system. [Old faves] like Mario and new rising stars like Halo should stick to one system only. Christopher Rivers quaken2002Qyahoo.com First of all, we're shocked that you had to finish Crash for Xbox before realizing that it was boring. Secondly, with regard to Sonic, he had to go to another platform, since the Dreamcast is no longer a viable Et = ыы Sonic contemplates jumping to another system, then thinks better of it. console. We don’t necessarily agree that a franchise should stay platform-specific, but we are aware that flooding every system with a port of every game rarely allows titles to take advantage of any single console’s strengths. For the time being, though, you needn’t worry about Mario and the Master Chief switching sides. Ever since the announcement that Square would be making games for Nintendo, I’ve been hopeful that a Final Fantasy title would come to — Enter Champs Sports All-Star Game Sweepstakes. Visit your local Champs Sports store or log on to champssports.com his is NBA Starting Five-the game that moves so fast you'll be hitting the showers after you play. the pros. Execute real NBA team tactics that'll keep your offense putting up numbers and your D g fs cesarved, Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox logos ‘The тийпуө con ty a trademark ot on 10/30/02, Is open only 10 lega! US, resi le number al etes received. Vols не or LETTERS „onli ng _ | games? And has | Capcom given up. гоп fighting games . (such as the Street Fighter sei _ gundamwingio@ hotmail.com GameCube. Finally Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicle is announced on your website, and | hear it can only be played with the GBA game? Come on! | want a classic Final Fantasy for GameCube. My suggestion is a U.S. release of FFX International for GameCube. Any plans for that? BlueJacket57@hotmail.com Details on the GameCube and GBA FF games remain scarce (check page 42 to see what we know). For the record, though, we’re betting you won’t need the GBA game to enjoy Crystal Chronicle on your GC. The handheld title is likely a pint-sized version of its big brother, and they'll probably link up in some substantial way, but Square and Nintendo wouldn’t make you buy them both just to play. Here's the bad news though — FF:CC doesn't look like a “classic Final Fantasy." It might be more of a multiplayer action-RPG —not the standard, turn-based role-playing you know and love. You'll have to make do with it, though, since there are no plans for FFX on the 'Cube. | have been playing Super Mario Sunshine for the last 15 hours. The time right now is 6 a.m., but | can't stop playing. | am 18 years old. | have no shame admitting that I’m devoting my life to the superior quality of SMS. But...l hate it. Why does Nintendo make me love them, when | really want to hate them? They give us nothing for months and then unleash this monster on us. Why?! Do they want to give me a heart attack with the sudden shift from gaming miss to gaming bliss? I can only imagine what will happen to me when Metroid and Zelda hit. Oh well, here's to our love-hate relationship, Nintendo. Simon Arestov Paris, TX Yep, you've figured out Nintendo's diabolical plan to toy with the fragile emotions of millions of gamers. If they really wanted to, they could just release tons of incredibly mediocre games all year long. Instead, they've cruelly decided to spend lots of time crafting thrilling blockbusters that everyone loves! What nerve! Maybe your life would be more stable if you investigated the gaming offerings by 3DO. “Mu ha ha ha! If you think sleep is the only thing | will take from you, fear also for your HEAD! The world will be mine, I tell you. Mine, all mine!!!" So you've just finished reading the magazine from cover to cover, but you want more EGM? May we suggest the EGM message boards, viewed daily by literally thousands of other gamers just like you? Hit egm.gamers.com and strike up a conversation today! “Hell yeah. Mario’s the dopest, stupidest, most ninjaist plumber this side of the Mushroom Kingdom.” —MrGlubGlub “You actually get to ride Yoshi in this one! But we have not seen Luigi! How come Luigi didn’t want to go on vacation?” —Ajmks Electronic Gaming Monthly - 24 - egm.gamers.com Which fighting game 1$ hetter: Virtua Fighter 4 or Tekken 42 Why? Virtua Fighter was first. It's better—always has been. Tekken started life as a “me-too” game and a mediocre one at that. dmcdream@hotmail.com | think Tekken 4 is better. In my opinion, the controls for Virtua Fighter 4 are a little hard. Tekken 4 is a lot easier to control and a little more fun. xsaiyax2002@yahoo.com | like VF4 more. One word: Kumite. jc5891529@mail1.ellijay.com Virtual Fighter 4? Tekken 4? Who cares?! Give me Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance! hurt_like_me@yahoo.com Tekken 4. Deeper, more satisfying gameplay. Plus—a fighting bear! Arty Wadd, e-mail address withheld Virtua Fighter 4 is best. Tekken 4 is slow and sluggish. It’s dung. slosberg@stonerrock.net Neither. I'll wait for Dead or Alive 4. Why? Large, jiggly breasts. sacrosanct@mail.com I've always felt that Virtua Fighter was the better series overall, except when VF kinda dropped the ball with part 3. But VF came back tenfold, while Tekken hasn't changed a lick in five years. StealthMantis14Gaol.com In a close fight, I'd say that VF4 gets the К.О. over Tekken because of the Kumite mode and the countless ways to customize your fighter. supernamek 17Ghotmail.com Virtua Fighter 4! Why? Simpler user interface, faster fights, more realistic fighting styles, and a drunken geezer. Sinamanstic@aol.com Next Month’s Question of the Moment: We've told you our favorite gaming moments. Now tell us yours. Send your brief, coherent responses to: EGM@ziffdavis.com with the subject heading: My favorite gaming moment! | “Я brilliant game" - Nintendo Power | “Looks like one of the best FPS yet. We can't wait." - PSM | | “the best-looking first-person shooter currently in development for PS2." - Gamespot. com | a ..8 true heir іп GoldenEye ..sn polished it shines." - НВОН Nation | | “TimeSplitters 2 is going to be awesome." - IGN.com | THET | ШЕШ ACCLAIMED GAME OF 2002 LETTERS You can write EGM at: Please note: We reserve the right to edit any correspondence for clarity or space purposes. If you don’t want your name, city/state or e-mail address printed, tell us so (but please include your mailing address and system preference for Letter of the Month prize consideration). EGM Letters 50 Beale Street, 12th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 E-mail: EGM@ziffdavis.com Also note: We just can’t write back to everyone, but make your comments constructive—or at least humorous—and you might get sumpin’ back! Don’t Hate the Animals Because They're Ugly | was reading my ЕСМ, and suddenly | hit the review section. | headed over to the Animal Crossing review since | had mocked the game for its inferior graphics. Shame on me for being jaded by next-gen visuals. | overlooked a game simply because of its looks. | have to say, though, that after reading such a well-thought-out review of AC, | will definitely be buying it. I'm just saying, keep up the eloquent writing. Because of your reviews and games like AC, you really made me see the Since the SOCOM headset is a one- size-fits-all dealio, we're surprised you can't get it to fit your big, fat head. And despite your assumptions SILLY QUESTIONS! ANSWERS! 1 was just looking through Гат writing in for some kind of regarding Greg’s cranium, he’s gone my old EGMs, spiritual advice. on record to say: “It fits quite nicely, and I havea Music de thank you very much." So there. question: Why русо ` is Maximo's leg Our advice to , 2%“ green in all the you is to chant MO COM Problems ads? Иа | was wondering if it’s possible to play David Fluke Rea have SOCOM even if your PS2 doesn’t have INSTITCHES34@ no regret! Rasta an Internet connection. email.msn.com a forever! Rasta alexg1@cox.net is 1 guide. Rasta Uh...Maximo was borrowing Peter is all t'ings." Good news, Alex. SOCOM does have Pan's satin tap-pants for the day? an offline mode, where you go through 12 dangerous missions with 7 Got a stupid game-related question? Send it to EGM@ziffdavis.com with computer-controlled buddies, so you’re in luck. Have at it, our Internet-challenged friend. error of my ways. ZekeKravn@aol.com the subject heading “No one is more stupider than me!” Your letter might appear in this very blue box! Congrats on seeing past Animal Crossing’s ugly duckling looks. Ме’ге sure that anyone who really gives this oddball title a chance will find it to be more innovative, fun and addictive than Pop Rocks! It’s so open-ended and easy to play that even your mom will be hooked. We’re still jabbering on about captured bugs, attractive end tables and Feng Shui furniture placement. SOCOM Problems Do any of you find the headset that comes with SOCOM a little small? | have a big head, but it’s not huge like [Previews Editor] Greg Sewart’s. PsYcHoMaNtls7625@aol.com Our tester scowls at the pinching power of the SOCOM headset. "It hurts!" Letter Art of the Month WINNER Leo Hussey * Baltimore, MD = ) y а ай BT It's too bad you can't really see the sick amount of detail in this Rapidograph'ed video-game homage to Diego Velasquez's The Surrender at Breda (circa 1635). Congratulations, Leo. It seems staying awake during your art history class has finally paid off since you're now the proud owner of a shiny new GameShark (with which you can rewrite the history of gaming, much in the same way you defiled Velasquez's original vision). Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of your InterAct GameShark for PlayStation 2, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance or GB Color. Some assembly required. | Almost Sharkworthy... Get creative with your postal supplies. Slather your "art" over a standard #10 envelope (the long, business type) and then send it to this art-loving mailing address real quick. (Don't forget the stamp!) | EGM Letter Art, 50 Beale St., 12th Floor | | | Old-school Spidey-versus-the-Green-Goblin action... San Francisco, CA 94105 (or e-mail EGM@ziffdavis.com) Make sure you send us your address and which console you'd like your GameShark prize for in the event that you win. By "win" we mean “pass.” See, all entries are subjected to a battery of tests to determine durability and flavor. Those entries able to withstand being fed to a family of singing raccoons will be entered to win our Letter Art of the Month award. From there on out, it's all based on flights of fancy, menstrual cycles and falling stars. Make a wish! The ice thing about Letter of the Month and Letter Art of the Month contests is that no purchase is necessary. Did you know you can get EGM without actually having to pay for it by knitting your own copy with realy fine yarn? Or by spinning an ше using fresh, earthen clay? How about crafting a copy with a sandwich, a tin can and your nipple? That's the booze talking. What we're really saying is that you can find official contest rules on our official web site: wwrw.egm. gamers сот, Electronic Gaming Monthly - 26 - egm.gamers.com SO BRUTAL. 50 EVIL. 50 DEADLY. Ee (г + ЕДІГЕ ——BROADSU/ORDS-. ra a featring ADEMI As immorale mute dide. WUU.MORTALRKOMBAT.MIDUAY.COM ad , А NEW LEVEL OF INTENSE COMPETITION HAS ARISEN AS ТШО POWERFUL SORCERERS HAVE ШЕ IN YOUR BLOOD. FORGED A DEADLY ALLIANCE THAT NOU REPRESENTS EARTH'S GREATEST THREAT. Coming... FATALITY FRIDAY AN ALL-NEU, LETHAL FIGHTING SYSTEM. THREE UNIQUE FIGHTING STYLES PER WARRIOR, ЖА INCLUDING HAND-TO-HAND AND DEADLY WEAPON COMBAT. OVER 20 NEU AND CLASSIC November аа WARRIORS. EXTREMELY REALISTIC EFFECTS AND BRUTAL NEW FATALITIES. Cj DMIDWAY Blood and Gore (GAME BOY ADVANCE х Violence | PlayStation® ӘС kae ly Aliance © 2002 Midway Азот Gomes, LC. Al ri ноу Home Entertainment Inc. ™, 52, боле Boy Advance o ето or trademarks of Microsalt Corporation in the U.S DEADLY ALLIANCE, th trademarks o under ense either register miexes 1! UE GAME BOY ADVANCE PlayStation. bamafun.com/reignoffire sociated logos are trademarks of BAM! Entertainment, 4o. Licensed for play on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment пу Computer Entertainment inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos ed under license from Microsoft. The ratings icon is a registered of their respeauve owners, MATURE у. Copyright © 200; Boy Adv оп” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trader ft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other count other trademarks and trade names are the property ) 2002 Copyright B&B Com 2 Spyglass Entertainment Group. L 5 8 5 with the NISC U/C desigr Violence are either regist trademark of the Inte Blood x "^ IS E 5 RENE э; RAVAGE EARTH AS А DRAGON, SWOOPING FROM ABOVE TO HURL FIREBALLS D NATURAL NAPALM WITH ЕМІ Y BREATH. UNLEASH FAST-PACED FIREPOWER AS A DRAGONFIGHTER IN 16 MISSIONS LOADED WITH CHAOTIC ACTION, DESTRUCTION AND EXPLOSIONS. BATTLE DRAGONS IN THE SKY AND BEASTS ON THE GROUND 3 ^ WITH HIGH-TECH WEAPONRY ; AND MILITARY-STYLE VEHICLES. zi сеа V» oí ^ Trust us, this gameplay is way too strong for print. You must see the game in action to fully ĉomprehend the power harnessed within. Check out www.twsnowboardgame:com. peter line | tina basich | andrew crawford | barrett christy | daniel franck | kevin jones | jussi oksanen | todd richards | wille yli-luoma “| Aiola thost Sa housemarque; the world. Jib and grind off of anything and everything, You‘ll be put through the ringer so much you'll be happy you're potty trained. um PENDING Visit www.esrb.org or li call 1-800-771-3772 TransWorld SNOWBOARDING ©2002, Infogrames, Inc., a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment, S.A. All rights r ед. Developed by Housemarque. телен id for Rating Information. SNOWBOARDING is a registered trademark of Time4Media, Inc., used by Infogrames under license. All righ ft. Xbox, and the Xbox logi er registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. The ratings icon nteractive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. рулет ESRB p3 = Мә e > MATURE м т ESRB $; 7%) ША % ; ^ 2 ge е Ф * > ме ay f Ў ET udi * =. і ‚жй A” a get REDE / ax a x3 à n % AA 4 uh o Behead Yr Not То Behead hat Is The Question È К ü E : AE s ! This game is intended for mature audiences ONLY. PlayStation.2 XOOx March 2002, Kain returns to video gaming's high-throne of bloodthirsty bad-asses. When batthe-ax and sword edges dull, Kain turns to Dark Gilts such as rupture and possession. Whether in pursuit of power or just for the thrill of the kill, Kain's lust for blood is inspiring. БІЛІНГЕН A 4 : m доор ey HE'S BACK ^ ке www.LegacyofKain.com The on the Planet П box Live officially launches on Nov. 15, hets on broadband with the launch delivering the promise of fast, dependable = = x = online gaming to the broadband-enabled of their online gaming service, masses. Or, at least it'll let thousands of gamers call each other dorks (and—ahem—probably worse) 'til they're blue in the face. Here's a quick rundown of what you'll need to know to dip your toe into Xbox Live. This is what your $49.99 Xbox Live Starter Kit gets you: Installs the Live software on your Xbox's hard drive. Lets you talk to and hear other players. Beta testers got Acclaim's RC racer Re-Volt. The Starter Kit's game is TBD. Install Live and voila! You'll have a new option in your system's main menu to configure your account. Your name in the online world. (Make sure it's catchy—like AnubisMaximus.) By the time your subscription's up, you'll have a week or so of Halo 2 under your belt. What you'll need on your end to play on Xbox Live: A They ain’t free, ya know. We're talkin’ DSL, cable modem, T1 or other fat-pipe connection to the 'Net. Note: Your ISP service is a separate cost from your Live subscription. Change player options. © Ready $ Select players б Friends Each game has its own look and feel, like this setup screen in NFL Fever 2003. To prepare members of the press for Sony’s PS2 online launch, Microsoft sent out a “PS2 Online Starter Kit" with items including an online voice communicator (phone card), a short-range voice communication system (two cups connected by a string) and a 56k Download Assistant (ball and paddle). The sarcasm was overwhelming. Microsoft Here's a quick rundown of the first seven online-enabled titles you'll be October 2002 able to play on or around the Nov. 15 launch of Xbox Live: 2-4 No No Need a break from all those serious, strategic online escapades? Turn off your brain and mash away with Whacked, a bizarre party title in which four contestants bludgeon one another in six frenzied mini-games, like Dodgeball, King of the Hill and Fragfest. Ubi Soft November 2002 2-16 (Deathmatch) Yes Yes The Xbox “counter-strikes” against Sony’s SOCOM offensive with Ghost Recon, a realistic squad-based FPS. Play through a campaign Xbox Live. An online first- in six-player co-op (with 10 spectators, no less), or engage in 16- Atari person shooter crammed full of player skirmishes with your favorite real-world weapons. Nov. 15 gorgeous graphics, creative 2-16 weapons, addictive gameplay and some tasty Nali Fruit. Up to Yes, to be determined. 16 players can frag it out in Sega Yes Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, October 2002 Survival, Double Domination 2-8 This is it—the killer app for and Bombing Run matches. Yes Clans, no. Rankings, yes. Back on the Dreamcast, the NBA 2K series was the first online b-ball game for consoles, and we dug it. For its Xbox Live debut, NBA 2K3 features quick match and optimatch (enter in search criteria and it'll find a game that fits those parameters), plus you can download stats and see how you rank against players across the country. % What's better than fast-paced Microsoft urban destruction in the cockpit Nov. 15, of an 800-ton war machine simultaneous with Xbox Live. against waves of computer- 2-8 controlled enemies? Why, getting Yes, up to eight giant mechs to go at it available on day one. in Assault's various online No modes, of course. ^rs.com RIGHT TURN LEFT TURN RESTART AFFIX OWN JETPACK BEFORE ASSISTING OTHERS © 2002 Sierra Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Sierra, the Sierra logo, Tribes, and the Tribes logo are trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS FOLDER FROM JETPACK FALLING TO YOUR DEATH ES FUTILE FLAPPING CANNONBALL PRAYER IN CASE OF MISSILE LOCK THROW: ENTERING TRANSPORT FLARE GRENADE DO NOT THROW: SPITBALL (% “> (1) READY (2) LEAN (8) BEND ھک kiss ass _|‏ )4( GOODBYE‏ „ IF YOU CANNOT PERFORM THESE FUNCTIONS, PROCEED DIRECTLY ATTENTION: TO TRIBES.SIERRA.COM FOR A TRIBES VIDEO FEATURING “DOWNFALL.” * DON'T FLY ALONE. PLAY WITH UP TO 16 PEOPLE OVER MODEM OR BROADBAND USING SONY'S NETWORK ADAPTER. SHARE THE PAIN. * JETPACKS LET YOU TAKE THE CARNAGE AIRBORNE. THE FORECAST CALLS FOR RAIN—OF BLOOD. * CATCH BIG AIR—AND CATCH THEM UNAWARE— WITH EXTREME SKIING, JETPACK-STYLE. * CAN'T GET IT UP WITH YOUR JETPACK? JUMP IN A FIGHTER, BOMBER, ARMED TRANSPORT OR GRAVBIKE. TEEN + Violence CONTENT RATED BY ESRB Exclusively for the PlayStation*2 PlayStation.e computer entertainment system. It's Substance over Style for the Xbox version of Metal Gear Solid 2 Even one year later, there are moments in MGS2 you never forget: Raiden battling three giant REX robots at once; Solid Snake jumping into the sea to chase after his nemesis, Revolver Ocelot; you tapping a button over and over trying to skip through endless, confusing dialogue.... OK, they aren’t all necessarily happy memories. But the new version of the game, MGS2: Substance, heading to the Xbox this fall and the PS2 early next year, adds more action and pure gameplay to balance out the story-heavy main game (which is also included in Substance—check out the next page). Here's the new-stuff you can play as either Raiden or Snake, with slight differences depending on whom you pick: These five levels might be the best part about Substance for those of us who have already played М652. Each is its own self-contained story, starring Solid Snake and using the same environments and characters from MGSz. Think of Snake Tales as slices from the game in some alternate Twilight Zone dimension. For example, in NO FOOLIN’ For their most recent April Fools' trick, our baby-brother mag GameNOW doctored up some really convincing shots of an Xbox game they called Metal Gear Solid X. X, they claimed, would finally let fans play throughout MGS2 from Solid Snake's point of view (like the pic here looking down on the infamous harrier battle from a helicopter above). The funny part is, since Substance does let you play through the game as Snake, in a way, the joke came true. Maybe next time, GameNOW should show something totally ridiculous like a Metal Gear skateboarding game. Oh wait, Substance has that, too.... "This looked a lot easier from up in the ‘copter. VR MISSIONS get almost 200 of these training-style mini-games, in four flavors: Sneaking (use stealth to get to the goal), Weapon (shoot targets with various guns), First- person (complete missions entirely from a first-person perspective) and Variety (a smorgasbord combining elements from all of the above). Because all of these missions are set on a sort of virtual-reality “holodeck,” backgrounds are very simple, but the game does change the look of the levels to morning, evening, or night after checking your Xbox's internal clock. You're also scored on all your missions; do well, and you may unlock some secrets. one mission, Solid Snake—not Raiden—is called in to defeat the terrorists and rescue the president from Big Shell. He meets Secret Service agent Ames—but ina different location this time. And in the hostage room, he must listen for a woman dialing a cell phone, not a man’s heartbeat. Snake Tales use the same framework, levels, and people as М652, mix them all up, and pad ’em out with new story sequences (all told through text). Electronic Gaming Monthly - 38 - egm.gamers.com y ALTERNATE MISSIONS Like the VR missions — but set in environments from the actual game (the Big Shell oil rig and tanker boat) — the Alternate Missions explore some of the more quirky bits of MGS2's gameplay: Bomb Disposal (locate and disarm hidden explosives), Eliminate (kill everything that moves), Hold Up (sneak up and draw your weapon on all guards without being seen or firing a shot —see pic above), and Photo (match a picture of an object hidden somewhere in the level with your own snapshot). Cont. on page 40 Death is my business and business is good. | OUT NOW MATURE Blood Strong Sexual Content Violence L 10 Interactive logo are trademarks of IO Interactive. “PlayStat nd are used under license from Microsoft. The ratings ic PlayStation.e e hitman2.com CONTENT RATED BY ESRB NEVER PLAYED METAL GEAR SOLID 22 You’re in luck. The full standard version of Sons of Liberty is included in Substance as well, with an added perk: now you can play through the whole thing as Solid Snake or Raiden. (In the original, you start as Snake and switch to Raiden a couple hours in.) All the dialogue, item locations and story elements are still exactly the same as in the original PS2 version—but hey, you’ve What did М652 look like when Konami first started development? On what date did MGS mastermind Hideo Kojima make his controversial decision to scrap series mainstay Solid Snake for the PS2 sequel, much earlier than you probably think.) How does the enemy A.I. figure out which staircase to go down once they spot you? All of these questions and many more you would have never, ever had the slightest inkling of thinking to even consider about Document of Metal Gear Solid 2,a $20 making-of DVD—on sale Sept. 24. WHAT YOU GET: More than one dozen categories of extras are stuffed into the Document Disc. Here’s just a sampling: Backgrounds: Check out 3D models of all the game’s environments, including a few that didn’t make it into the final game. PS2 OWNERS DON'T DESPAIR—MORE METAL GEAR SOLID 2 IS ON SALE NOW! in favor of newcomer Raiden? (Hint: It was possibly asking will be answered with The never played it before, right? You also get another difficulty level—even harder than the super-uber-tough Extreme—for a little added replay value. And remember, when you start to hear Rose drone on and on about when she and Raiden first met (you'll know what we're talking about soon enough), you've got all those extra VR missions to play instead. Characters: Play Barbie with every single character model in the entire game (even all the New York business people who only appear at the end). Dress them up in different outfits (or buck naked, in Raiden's case), try on new hairdos, weapons —you know, that sort of thing. Mechanics: Again, play dress-up, but with vehicles and machines this time—and no wigs. Program: Read about the tricks and techniques that Kojima's team used to push the PS2 and to achieve the level of quality found in MGS2. Music: Switch between different versions of MGS2's music tracks on the fly to see how the game's dynamic sound system works. Polygon Demos: Watch any cutscene from the game, pause it, adjust the camera, or check out the original storyboards. An unobscured view of Raiden's crotch. Hmm...explains a lot. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 40 - egm.gamers.com À $ ee illi HF.BLADE VR Training: Five playable VR-training mini-games from MGS2: Substance, ranging from super simple to frustratingly tough. BUT IS IT WORTH BUYING? Die-hard Gear heads will marvel at the wealth of sketches, 3D models, and trivia sprinkled throughout Document, while everyone—including more casual fans—will appreciate the sampling of VR missions. The interface is clunky, and unfortunately, some of the best bits remain in Japanese (including storyboards and the original design documents). But if you loved MGS2, or you're interested in detailed info оп how а modern blockbuster console game is put together, the $20 price tag is worth it. Фф —Mark MacDonald Military expert and MGS2 consultant Mr. Mori takes talking during class personally. YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE ПОТ ELI COMMANDO UNIT ON THE PLANET. You're looking forward to the release of Yu Suzuki and | Sega's modern-day adventure game Shenmue Il, but you never played the first one (because it was on Dreamcast, and you didn’t buy that, now did you? No. Curse you!). Fear not, because Microsoft just announced that Shenmue: The Movie, a DVD of all the cinemas and story bits from the first game, will be included with the sequel for free. Now that the six-year- long Cold War between Square and Nintendo is finally over, both companies can get back to doing what they do best: making gobs of money off each other. Square recently announced their first trio of games for Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance, as well as the first details on the mysterious GameCube/Game Boy Advance link-up title, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicle. Here’s a brief rundown of what we know so far about these soon- to-be hotly anticipated titles, none of which has been confirmed for a U.S. release (yet): Square Square Winter 2002 4/5 Originally planned as an “enhanced port" of the PS1 Final Fantasy Tactics, FFT Advance has taken on a life of its own as an entirely new game under the direction of the original game's creator, Yasumi Matsuno (who's also heading up FFXII for PS2). According to Square, the game will feature an all-new scenario and "improved gameplay," as well as link-cable support for multiplayer battles. Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1) Square Brownie Brown Summer 2003 3/5 Densetsu is neither a port nora remake of the 1991 Game Boy game of the same name (known as Final Fantasy Adventure in the U.S.), though it will а са а а be “largely " on th TI yet i Final Fantasy > Adventure (GB) classic. Interestingly, Square has commissioned Brownie Brown, the Nintendo second-party made up of ex-Square staff who worked on the original Seiken trilogy, to develop the game. 3»42J]b IPL IS — ZURNALI OGame Designer's Studio Square Square Late 2002 1/5 The first Square GBA game scheduled to go on sale is none other than Dice de Chocobo, a multiplayer board game featuring everyone’s favorite lil birdy and other characters from the Chocobo series of games (Chocobo’s Dungeon, Chocobo Racing, etc.). This underwhelming title was originally released as part of the Chocobo Collection anthology on PS1 in Japan. (Р51) Attention: Your Xbox Is Doomed When Doom Ill for the PC was first revealed at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, people were amazed by its stunning, starkly lit Resident Evil-meets-first-person-shooter visuals. It was thought, however, that the graphical quality (as ever, enabled by coding wiz-meister, John Carmack) could only be EQOA BETA-TEST ALERT Free-game alert! Sony Online Entertainment is seeking some helpful gamers to beta test its upcoming massively multiplayer online RPG, EverQuest Online Adventures. If you have a PS2, а Network Adaptor and a memory card, surf over to http://everquestonlineadventures.station.sony.com /beta/ and apply for the open public beta. produced on the most powerful PCs. Not so! During his keynote speech at the Quakecon event held last month, Carmack commented that he is “completely committed” to releasing Doom III on the Xbox. He also noted that the Xbox version of the game would have the “full graphics fidelity” of the PC version. All the pants-wetting visuals of Doom III on PC (shown here) should be intact when the game's baddies hop to Xbox. No Online Play For PS2 TimeSplitters 2 We've got some bad news for those of you expecting to blast it up online in Eidos' TimeSplitters 2 when it's released. Online play has been excised from the PS2 version of this first-person shooter. “We had always hoped to include an Internet component in the PlayStation 2 version of TimeSplitters 2," Eidos tells us. *However, the infrastructure is not yet in place that will enable us to incorporate an online element and still make the game’s proposed release date. We don’t want to delay the release and disappoint the many fans who are awaiting the game.” How many people out there who are waiting for 752 wouldn’t be able to wait a little longer for a release with online play? Raise your hands! Thought so. If it’s any consolation, you can still hook-up 16-player matches using i.Link (up to six PS2s) or over Ethernet LAN (up to eight PS2s with the Network Adapter). So if you’re in Boston and were planning on fragging your friend from Albuquerque, it’s time to invest in a plane ticket. Үш can’t see them, of course. After all, they're SEALs, a commando unit legendary for its ability to penetrate enemy territory undetected. And then strike with surgical precision. Enter the world of SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, where stealth, intel- ligence and teamwork are the ultimate weapons. ams P ыз 2 Developed in association with the U.S. Navy SEALs, SOCOM is unconventional warfare the way it’s really fought. That means hostage rescues, reconnaissance, ambushes and demolitions. Hoo-yah. Whether you're in single-player mode or playing online with and against up to 16 total players, your SOCOM headset is critical. It'll help you communicate and strategize with your unit, so everyone returns in one piece. Remember: “No SEAL left behind.” TEES ТЕ” Combat terror in extreme environments like Turkmenistan, Alaska, Thailand and the gnat- infested Congo. Should be a walk in the park. Next to Hell Week, that is. le LIVE IN YOUR WXRLD. PLAY IN OURS?” PlayStation. MATURE Blood and Violence Um c АЖ 92020,4 24244 OO 50525554 | 220 252 SOUNDTRACK ALBUMS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON EPIC RECORDS WWW.VICECITYRADIO.COM RATING PENDING AW Visit www.esrb.org = or call 1-800-771-3772 for more info. PlayStation. Rockstar пс. All Games, the Rockstar Games logo, of Take-Two Interactive Software, In n the marketing of this уу and the story, names с! ‘Any resemblance 15 2002 Rockstar Games. Inc. Ro and Rockstar North are subsidiar or M rated да č interpretation of gangste tended or should be inferre vior. ion" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc are, Inc. Rockstar Games г North logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Sof All Righ not be appropriate for persons ilarity to actual persons, living or dead, n any way endorse. condone or encourage this kind of е Roc perties of their т RATING PENDING E В Visit www.esrb.org ж t 8P or cal 1-800-771-3772 PlayStation.e CONTENT RATED BY for more info. Adag ышыш Game and Software © 2002 THQ Inc. © 2002 BattleBots® Inc. All rights reserved. BattleBots and related logos, characters, names, and distinctive likenesses thereof are the exclusive Licensed Property of BattleBots Inc. and used under exclusive license. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Warthog. Warthog and its logo are trademarks of Warthog. THQ and its logo are registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All rights reserved. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.™, ® and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. POWER STEERING. PRECISION HANDLING. GRIPPING, CIRCULAR DISC OF DEATH. Ji 20 BattleBox" Arenas of Destruction | 3 Modes of Gameplay — Tournament Mode, 4 Arcade Mode and Multiplayer (1-4 players) Choose From a Variety of BattleBotse Seen on the Show |“ Build Your Own BattleBot © BATTLEBOTS © © Kick Bot! www. batt lebots.com www.thq.com —Nintendo Director Yoshiaki Koizumi on the origin of Super Mario Sunshine’s water tank Aftertheughts: € Soon after the release of Super Mario Sunshine, Nintendo held a press conference in Japan with key members of the development team —and didn't invite us. Hmpf. No, that's cool, Nintendo; we didn't want to go to your stupid press conference, anyway. Besides, we'd rather just get our hands on the transcript, cut it up and rearrange it, then pretend we were there for the interview. On hand were Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Sunshine's Director Yoshiaki Koizumi. (For more of this interview, minus our pithy comments, head to the developer section of the Mario Sunshine page on nintendo.com). Thank you for coming. EGM: Well, when you invited us personally, Mr. Miyamoto, we had to accept. Mr. Koizumi worked on Super Mario 64, too, and he played a major role. | also worked with him on The Legend of Zelda— “I'm a-gettin' £ -— too old for f EGM: OK, OK, enough with the p.i tisse introductions — let's get to it. What were you hoping to accomplish with Sunshine? the game so that Sunshine is more like Super previously known as 100 Marios], which is Whenever we create a new Mario game, Mario 64 —a kind of conservative move. headed in a different direction. But Sunshine even though it's a sequel in a series, we took this direction—it is an authentic sequel always try to offer some new challenge. We EGM: Conservative in what sense? to Mario 64. | regret this somewhat— not want to incorporate everything that the We're working on many projects. We have because of the quality of Sunshine, but existing technology makes possible. We shown the idea for Mario 128 before [Ed. note: because this Mario may not attract players want to be able to say, "We have used the We're guessing he's referring to the game returning to gaming after some time. full functionality of the hardware so we Cont. on page 50 cannot do better on the current console." When a new game was to be developed for GameCube, we approached the project with very high aspirations. EGM: What did you think of the early reports that said Sunshine looked just like Mario 64? е]! About а year ago — when we showed the series. TI ег first video of Sunshine—even though we seel offered a glimpse of something really unique, wad we did not show Mario using the water pack. We didn’t want that idea to be stolen at such an early stage. As a result, I’m afraid that you might not have found the video footage very exciting when you saw it. Around that time, the basic game system was complete, and new characters were moving around in it. Over the past year, we've changed the direction of | Electronic Gaming Monthly - 48 - egm.gamers.com Eck6 Function. ^. [7 PTT THEIR POWER IS UNLIMITED. THEIR DETERMINATION IS UNMATCHED. Nintendo Gamecube" video game system and Playstation"? computer entertainment system screenshots shown "| | BARRIERS. MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION, FULL CONTACT, BATTLE ROYALE! PERHERO SHOWDOWNS, SMASHING YOUR WAY ACROSS HUGE 3-D LEVELS, TAHING ON | = X-MEN CHARACTERS. THERE ARE NO BOUNDARIES TO YOUR BATTLES—NO BAR . IT'S MASSIVE SUPERHERO WARFARE. AND VOU WON'T BELIEVE THE POWER YOU HAL AVAILABLE LATE OCTOBER 2002 PlayStation? | >< MARVEL, X-Men, and ай Marvel characters: TM and © 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. AN rights reserved. wwnicmarvelcom. Game собе © 2001-2002 Activision, Inc distributed by Activision Publishing, Ine trademark of Activision Inc, and its affitates. АП rights reserved. Licensed for play on the PlayStation computer ente бел ater qe mur: и D Entertainment ne. Mrs Xbox, and the Koo logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation n fhe US ander other countries and re used under ens rom Microsoft. ТН, @ and te Nintendo trademarks of Nintendo, © 2001 Nintendo. АИ rights reserved. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Al other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners: ACTIVISION. activision.com —— i AN ALL-OUT, NC FIGHT ІП ЕРІС SU OF YOUR FAVORIT TO HOLD OU BACH Cont. from раде 48 MARIO SECRETS! Where can you find this mysterious door? What does it lead to? What happens when you get all 120 Shines? Find the answers to all your Mario questions in our Sunshine extravaganza in the tricks section at the back of this issue. “Get accustomed to the GameCube controller because, 10 years from now, it will be the standard.” EGM: You want Sunshine to bring a lot of people back to gaming? SM: | want people who have not played any video games for the past 10 years to try Sunshine. The video-game industry has changed a lot, and people who try a video game for the first time in 10 years won't have a clue about what's happened in the interim. People who have been away from gaming may have trouble understanding Sunshine the first day they play it; however, on the second day, they will start to understand its charm. Even though you might feel like stopping on day one, please don't. If you play Sunshine for three days, you'll make the reentry into video-game culture. [Laughs] | am not saying that it’s an easy game, but that most people will understand its charm instantaneously. EGM: Back to Mario 64, we noticed the player needs to adjust the camera more often in Sunshine, while in 64 it was usually automatic. Why the change? SM: That question isn’t very easy to answer. Some say that Mario games should be very easy to play, so the camera angle should be fully automatic. We have tried many different camera systems, including semi-automatic ones, but they did not appeal to everyone. Some liked it and some didn’t. As far as the camera system is concerned, now we tend to leave greater autonomy to players—but not to the extent that it prevents smooth gameplay. Yoshiaki Koizumi: You don’t have to change the camera angle all the time in Sunshine, but, at some points, you can see cool graphics by changing the angle yourself. | Many of Sunshine's character models will be reused in future games like Mario Party 4. hope people will get accustomed to it. SM: In many games, we are now incorporating the notion that, if you press [L], the camera will show a 180-degree view. As long as that kind of system is in place, it may be better to leave the camera angle LITTLE SQUIRT Mario's backpack-mounted FLUDD water tank is the biggest innovation in Sunshine, affecting just about every area of gameplay. Here, our hosts explain how the idea evolved —from its initial squirt-gun inspiration to the final form you see here. УК: What | really wanted to reproduce with this new game were the feelings we had in our childhoods when we were playing. | wanted players to engage in mischief, such as watering other characters. or playing with mud. | wanted to simulate child's play. That was the first priority. The water-pistol idea came from this effort. When | was pushing the [R] button, the Stiffness reminded me of the trigger of the water pistol that | used to play with. I thought, *What would Mario look like if he sprayed water around with it?" EGM: So washing away graffiti and mud grew out of that? УК: When | submitted the basic proposal for the game to Mr. Miyamoto, | had already come up with the water-pistol idea. [But] letting Mario have a water pistol alone wouldn't make the game fun. | liked the basic play-control style of Mario 64 and thought that it should be applied to the new game. Then, | imagined why Mario might have a water pistol; what should [he] aim [it] at? Opponents? A wall? Around that time, we decided to include the wall jump move, so we wanted to create a number of tall buildings that Mario could jump around. So why would Mario have to move around a Electronic Gaming Monthly - 50 - egm.gamers.com to the discretion of players. If we like, we can incorporate both the automatic and manual modes so that players can chose whichever one they like. YK: Right, but | tried both and found the free- camera-angle style easier to play. town with many walls? Maybe he had to clean up the town with the water pistol. | thought up the idea of painting mud all over the town. The idea of Mario leaving dirty footprints followed. In the end, | thought we could reproduce the feeling of childhood play. SM: We experimented with watering and graffiti drawing and erasing, among other things. In video games, it is not a simple task to draw graffiti and have it remain there. It's not as easy as it seems. Painting and maintaining a screen full of graffiti is very difficult in a video game. It can be accomplished only with the GameCube. EGM: So why did it go from a water pistol to the water tank? YK: Well, | thought it was like a child's dream come true—flying in the air by using the equipment on your back. SM: Although we called it a water pistol, we tried to design it so that no associations could ever be made between it and actual weapons. So we were trying to design the weirdest and funniest gadget, which turned out to be a tank you wear on your back. “1 feel it's necessary to make the interval between sequels as short as possible... [Nintendo has) to improve the situation for our fans.” EGM: So are we going to have to wait another six years for the next Mario? SM: Whenever we are working on so-called “series” games, | really feel it’s necessary to make the interval between a game and its sequel as short as possible, and we have to do something to improve the situation for our fans. Accordingly, people who used to work together on the Mario series have been split into several teams in order to introduce Mario games with less lag time between them. We are taking a similar approach to the Zelda series. However, all the games shall be developed so that they retain the high quality that people expect from Nintendo. EGM: So then we can start expecting more sequels to the big-name series (Mario, Metroid, Zelda) in the future than what we've seen over the last few years? SM: There are many characters in Sunshine: Mario, Peach and many others. We will make use of the same character models in future games such as Mario Party. Before, we had to create each character for each game. Standard character models are being created by one team at Nintendo, which will be shared by other game-creation groups. Of course, that system won't work 100 percent of the time. However, when we make a completely new Mario game, the development time will be significantly reduced. This is one way to тег take a tropical vacation to doa li earch for Sunshine? Actually, yes-but on their own dime. Shorten the development time: by improving the R&D circumstances. EGM: Right, right...wait, you didn’t really answer our que— YK: The idea of letting Mario use some tool initially faced opposition. Now that he is using a water tank, he may also use other tools. In that sense, Sunshine may have paved a new way for Mario's future adventures. SM: We have had rather serious discussions over the question, “Can Mario use tools?" It may be okay for Luigi. [Laughs] The water pistol was created by the same designer who armed Luigi. If that's the case, Mario can use one, too. [Laughs] EGM: Huh? What are you laughing ab— SM: Га like to add one more thing. Not Electronic Gaming Monthly - 81- egm.gamers.com everyone has used the GameCube controller. So, those who play GC for the first time may feel a bit uneasy initially. Of course, we, the developers, have been playing exclusively with the GC controller so we can't play [games] with any other controller. | had some confidence with the N64 controller, too. However, when | compare the two, | can tell that the GC controller is better designed for gameplay. What | really want to say is: Get accustomed to the GC controller because, 10 years from now, this controller will be the standard. EGM: Oh SNAP! You go girl! But wait a sec; a few years back weren't you saying the N64 add-on 64DD disk drive was the future of gaming? And before that, the Virtual B— YK: Security! ж — Mark MacDonald PRINCESS CORTANA What does Mario have in common with Halo, besides both being great games and ending in “o”? Actress Jen Taylor—she voices both Princess Peach and Cortana. “Sora is actually а combination of all of the male lead characters | have designed, from Cloud (FFVIN) to Tidus (FFX) ." —Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura on his inspiration behind Sora, when asked if his latest hero was designed to resemble Nomura himself. With no Final Fantasy-related action on the schedule for the remainder of the year, RPG-starved eyes instead turn to Square’s other magnum opus, Kingdom Hearts. Now that the game is finally here, we sat down with director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura to see what he had to say about his first project as lead designer. EGM: What help did you get replicating the movements of the Disney characters? Disney provided us with tons of assets—mostly stills [and some] video material. We modeled each and every character based on the assets we received. Some traditional Disney characters were given new outfits for Kingdom Hearts. The models for those were then given to Disney for review and eventually, after a round of edits, were approved. As for the animation, we handled all of that at Square, too, and had Disney review and approve it. During the first six months, our animators’ “research” involved watching Disney movies. EGM: What do you think of Haley Joel Osment’s performance? His performance...well, compared to us he's still a little kid—a little boy. So during breaks in recording, Haley’s like a little kid. But when he gets to the job, he gets it done right. If they have to do retakes, Haley gets it in [only] a couple of takes. He’s done the job very maturely. EGM: We hear that Haley’s voice was changing during voice recording [Editor’s note: Ahh, puberty!]. Would you keep Haley, with his deeper voice, for the sequel? (во t Magic itom Fes "72d V If there is a sequel, and if the story is set two years later, there wouldn't be a huge difference in the character, so we would keep Haley. But if the sequel's story takes place 10 years after, we would have to make adjustments. EGM: In Japan, KH sold more than anyone expected. Why do you think this is? KH had conservative projections in Japan where Square was hoping to sell 5ook, but ended up selling close to a million— so, clearly, KH is very successful. Final Fantasy sells 2 million copies, but that's in the first three days. KH [was] on the charts for months. Why is it such a sustained success? Is it because of the Disney thing? Final Fantasy fans want to buy it the instant it comes out, but is this for a broader audience—for people who might want to try it out later? I think it is. EGM: So U.S. gamers get the improved version of KH. What changes, obvious and not-so-obvious, did you make for the U.S. version? [We didn't do any] big camera work, like Electronic Gaming Monthly - 82 - egm.gamers.com change the camera angles [Editor sobs at this point]. In [Japanese gaming magazine] Famitsu's review scores, one of the reviewers mentioned that. But if we changed any of that stuff, it would've created some bugs. So that's why we didn't change any of it. But for one of the events in the game (a conversation between Sora and Squall), we didn't have enough time to do voice recording for it during the Japanese version, so we included it for the U.S. version. ж Hearts Part Deux Despite the fact that the special ending of Kingdom Hearts (for those hardcore gamers who get everything) shows a clip that sets up a sequel, Nomura will not confirm that he’s involved with a Kingdom Hearts 2. He mentioned to us that he’s working on “more realistic” character designs for a secret project. “Рт working on another title now,” explains Nomura. “It hasn’t been announced in Japan yet, so | cannot go into details.” BEW A RE ! А NEW BAD BOY. GIVING THE FINGER. TO LAME GAMES. it's A FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. АПР an ADVENTURE FOR REVENGE! FEATURING 6 DANGEROUSLY INTERACTIVE WORLDS WITH OBjECTIVES VIEWABLE FROM ANYWHERE іп tHe УЕхх № UNİVERSE! SCALE SHEER CLIFFS АПР UNCOVER DEADLY attack COMBOS AND SPECIAL ABiLiTiES! BUT BEWARE OF NIGHTFALL - F YOVRENEMIES MORPH İNTO MORE EVIL FORMS AS THE LIGHT OF DAY WATES! VEXXtTHEGAME,com Violence ж XGOx TEEN PlayStation e NIN ‘CONTENT RATED BY Vexx™ and Acclaim ® & © 2002 Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Acclaim Studios Austin. All Rights Reserved. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. TM, ® and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. Screens shown were taken from the Xbox version of the video game. WAR GAMES A girl in every port? Who needs “ет! Now the U.S. Navy promises a game in every sub. Thanks to a generous gift from the Interactive Digital Software Association, all 72 submarines in the U.S. fleet have been outfitted with a PS2, GameCube or Xbox, plus a smattering of games. CELEBRITY GAMER: BRUCE CAMPBELL Kicking Ash And Taking Names With Bruce Camphell Celebrities are normal people, too —just incredibly rich ones. You like games; they like games. Each issue we'll talk to a different celebrity who plays 'em, is involved in their creation, or is lucky enough to be in one. This month we caught up with B-movie mainstay Bruce Campbell, who stars in THQ's Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (pictured below), coming in early 2003 for PS2 and Xbox. EGM: Fans have been clamoring for an Evil Dead movie sequel. Why another game instead? Bruce Campbell: Because it doesn't take as much of (ED director) Sam Raimi's time. There's a harsh reality of availability. However, games are also a way to keep the franchise going. Fans like the character—and if they can't have a movie, give 'em a game. The quality's getting better and better. It'll just become like a movie eventually anyway. EGM: Why does ED stand out even today? BC: The films are irreverent. They don't play by the rules. The average viewer can sympathize. College kids love flipping off the world, saying, “I’m out of high schoo ә . of now; don’t tell me what to do.” That’s what Ash personifies. EGM: The Deadites: Can they ever be defeated, or will marketing prevail? BC: To some degree. In the game, it'll depend how good you are. You can win. They just won't make it easy. The Deadites, that is— not the marketers. EGM: You tend to appear in B-level games and movies. Is that due to a talent deficiency, ог...? BC: | dunno. I’ve done a whole range of stuff, 50 | don't really have one particular notion of myself. | think you just wind up where you're perceived. That's nine-tenths of the law. EGM: Working on horror titles, you've gotta have some pretty freaky stuff sent your way. Anything that stands out? BC: Руе seen a lot of Evil Dead tattoos. l've seen Ash on shoulders and butts and breasts. | met a kid named Ash, who was 16, named after the [character]. Lots of piercings, too. The Evil Dead crowd is a pierced crowd. EGM: Think the Ash-man will ever get smart Ecks Vs. Sever: Game to Movie to Game This fall, if you wander into your local mega-cineplex, you might see what you think is "n % another game-gone-movie. And you’re half-right— Ecks vs. Sever was released as а Game d 3 Boy Advance game а year ago. But the movie, starring Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas, isn’t Campbell with a statue <, of Ash-the.character he made infamous in the Evil Dead movies. Can you, guess whichis enough to stop going back to the cabin? BC: No. He's just too stupid. He's the salmon that has to return to spawn. EGM: Very perceptive. You seem quite sensible. Want to sacrifice a virgin with us this Tuesday? BC: No. | don't believe in the occult. That's the beauty of movies. Schwarzenegger may own a Humvee, but | don't think he rolls around with Mso machine guns blasting through the backyard. Although, in his case, maybe. — Scott Steinberg 449 2 4 based on И. It’s the other way around. Here’s the scoop: Bam Entertainment developed Sever 3 (the game) for release when the movie was originally supposed to hit theaters...last year. | — ےا Ecks: “Let's settle this once and for all. Got yer GBA, Ms. Sever?” Electronic Gaming Monthly - 54 - egm.gamers.com But when it was done, the film was a year away from opening day. Instead of holding the game 'til the film was ready, Bam released it (minus mention of the flick) last November. And now that the movie’s out, Sever has returned to GBA once again (and PSz this time, too). The new game is still called Ecks vs. Sever, but it isn’t a re-packaging of last year’s release it's a sequel. Now you know the rest of the story. اا اک a © The recent Japanese Dreamcast launch of /karuga, the spiritual follow-up to Treasure’s Radiant Silvergun for the Sega Saturn, re-ignited interest in the classic and rare import among the hardest of the hardcore. Mint- condition copies of RS have been selling on eBay for over $220. See what all the fuss is about when /karuga hits the U.S. on GameCube next year. варам есим Still not sure what to don оп Halloween this year? Here are a few quick-and-dirty game-related costume suggestions from us here at EGM: super Mario Sunshine Why it’s easy: You can either grow a moustache or paste on a fake one (that includes you, too, girls). A pair of overalls and a garden hose later, and you're all set. Potential snags: Wealthier households might think you’re there to do some landscaping. Sidekick possibilities: Some construction paper and a helium balloon can make a half-assed Shine in a pinch. Presentation: Aim water cannon innocently at face/crotch of homeowner, pets or antiques visible from doorway, and bargain for a larger candy take. lalo/Hale Why it’s easy: Just a few simple mods to your Doom Space Marine costume from '94, and you're ready to rock. Potential snags: Some out-of-touch yokel's bound to think you're Robocop. Sidekick possibilities: Hot girlfriend? Cortana. Ugly best friend? Covenant Elite. Presentation: Recruit your younger siblings to dress up as The Flood and cling to your limbs. People may not get the reference, but it'll be the most interactive costume they see, guaranteed. BuT, мом SAK me! Illustration by Jeremy “Norm” Scott fant ПОПЕ AUTO Ш Why it’s easy: There’s а good chance you look like him already, so just throw on a black jacket and some cargo pants. Later, you can dig out your '8os threads and revisit the same houses as the guy from СТА: Vice City. Potential snags: (1) You'll get about three houses in before the cops confiscate your Molotov Cocktail. (2) People may think you've just come to rob 'em. Sidekick possibilities: (1) Friends in fed suits and black Town Car constantly following you around. (2) Baseball bat. Presentation: You're on your own here, folks. Keep it clean. PRE-ORDER PIPELINE we're your connection! PUBLISHER RELEASE DATE PiayStation 2 Hitman 2: Silent Assasin Eidos 10/3/02 Legoia 2: Duel Saga Eidos 10/4/02 Run Like Hell Interplay 10/10/02 Ty The Tasmanian Tiger Electronic Arts 10/11/02 The Lost Crave Entertainment 10/18/02 Silent Scope 3 Konami 10/18/02 Vexx Acclaim 10/21/02 NBA 2K3 Sega 10/25/02 Xbox Hitman 2: Silent Assassin | Eidos 10/3/02 Conflict: Desert Storm Toke 2 Interactive 10/3/02 Blinx: The Time Sweeper Microsoft 10/10/02 Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter Crave Entertainment 10/11/02 Тоејат & Earl Ill: Sega 10/23/02 Mission to Earth X-Men: Next Dimension Activision 10/25/02 Medal of Honor Frontline Electronic Arts 10/31/02 Unreal Championship Infogrames 11/1/02 GameCube NHL 2003 Electronic Arts 10/3/02 Robotech: Battlecry TDK Mediactive 10/9/02 legends Of Wrestling 2 Acclaim 10/18/02 Vexx Acclaim 10/20/02 Mario Party 4 Nintendo 10/23/02 МВА 2K3 Sega 10/25/02 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Activision 11/1/02 NHL 2K3 Sega 11/2/02 Batman: Dark Tomorrow Kemco 11/8/02 Gam Antz Extreme Racing Downforce Bionicle: Matoran Adventures Road Rash Shrek: Hassle at the Castle УР Tony Hawk SSX Tricky e Boy Advance Empire Interactive 10/12/02 Titus 10/17/02 Electronic Arts 10/17/02 - Jailbreak Destination Software 10/17/02 TDK Mediactive 10/18/02 Ubi Soft 10/31/02 's Pro Skater 4 Activision 11/1/02 Electronic Arts 11/1/02 PREORDERPIPELINE.COM GAMERS.COM THE CLONE WARS ARE FAR FROM OVER Pilot over five land and air combat units. ^. | ШТП Where Episode Il ends, your battle begins. Defend the Republic on the ground and in the air across the battlefields of six different worlds. Battle through four multiplayer modes, including team-based strategy, deathmatch, king-of-the-hill and co-op endurance. Or lead your clone troopers to victory in an epic single-player campaign as Mace Windu, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Your directive: crush the Separatist armies! adr | (2 GAMECUBE. 3| PlayStation.e THE CLONE WARS www.swelonewors.caom CONTENT RATED BY ESRB Violence LJ TO SAVE HUMANKIND, YO MUST CHANGE INTO A HERO. РАМЕ, YOU: MUST INTO A WARRIOR. EOS CHANGE www.robotechgame.com у Gold USA, Inc. All Ri CHANGE OR DIE. TEEN т Violence ‘CONTENT RATED BY ESRB Cut your console ~/ free from that rinky- dink TV with our guide to the ultimate gaming televisions and the UHF knob busted off in the “Tekken incident of '96," but otherwise your trusty 19-inch TV is still fine for gaming, right? Sorry, Jack. If you're playing on a dinky, outdated set, you're just not getting the big picture. Many PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox games pack visuals souped-up for today's super-duper boob tubes. And the great news: A surge in demand for the home-theater experience has pushed down the prices of cutting-edge sets that would have required a second mortgage two years ago. But if you've been livin' in the A/V stone age for a while, a trip to the TV aisle of your local mondo electronics store might give you the techno-jeebies. So tag along for our crash course on modern couch- potato technology. 9 ure, its faux-wood finish faded years ago, Digital TV: crystal-clear gaming High-definition television, or HDTV, has been a big-buzz display technology for years, promising high-resolution imagery so crisp you'd swear you were peering out a window. Reality, however, hasn't caught up with the hype—at least when it comes to watching TV shows. HDTV is supposed to be the broadcast standard by 2006, but that's taking longer than anticipated. Right now, HD programming is only available in a few dozen cities. But who cares about watching Hee Haw in high definition anyway? You just want better- looking games. And the great thing about HDTV is that it makes games look spectacular. High-definition sets come in two flavors. The on progressive scan in PS2 games like SOCOM. Most GameCube and Xbox games do it automatically. You must turn . cheaper kind—in the $800-to-$2,000 range —fits in the “HD- ready" category, also often called “digital TVs.” They pump the same high-res visuals as true HDTVs but lack a receiver (sold separately for around $500) to pick up HDTV broadcasts. True HDTVs have a built-in receiver and a wider, 16:9-ratio screen, as opposed to the 4:3 screen of analog TVs and many digital sets. But true HDTVs start at around $4,000. It’s an unwise investment, since HDTV programming is so limited and games will look just as good on the less expensive HD-ready sets. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 60 - egm.gamers.com Illustrations by Pixel Pushers Design 16:9? 4:3? Whazzat? Simply put, 16:9 and 4:3 refer to a television screen’s dimensions. The current screen ratio of a standard analog TV is 4:3, meaning four units wide for every three units high. That was the actual dimension of movies until the 1950s. When TV began to catch on, film studios countered by offering a “bigger” experience and produced movies presented in widescreen. As a result, most flicks today are closer to 16 units wide by nine units high, or what we call 16:9. Obviously, you can't fit a 16:9 image іп a 4:3 space unless you crop the sides or use black bars above and below the image, а trick called “letterboxing.” More and more 4:3 TVs are offering a 16:9 Shape Changers If you enable the 16:9 mode in a widescreen-ready game like Eternal Darkness (GameCube) and play it on a 4:3 TV, you can only view it in letterbox format (note the black bars above and below the image). On the other hand, if you play non-widescreen games on a 16:9 television, your set will either center the image or stretch it to fit the screen. screen mode, which ups the horizontal resolution to make widescreen movies and games look extra sharp in letterbox format. The screens of some pricier digital sets and all true HDTVs come in the extra-wide 16:9 shape, so you don’t see those black bars above and below the image at all. The big question, then, is which screen type should you buy? It all depends on how much time you spend watching DVD movies in addition to playing games. Most flicks play in а 16:9 mode, making your widescreen TV the perfect home theater. Widescreen games, on the other hand, are still a rarity—most games are only available in 4:3. Play them ona 16:9 TV and you'll either have to stretch the image to fill the screen or deal with vertical black bars on each side of the image. Think of it as the opposite of letterboxing (it's actually sometimes called “window”-boxing). The power of progressive scan We haven't really explained why digital TVs look way better than analog TVs, so here's the poop: Digital sets use a screen technology more along the lines of PC monitors. But the real key to their clarity is a screen enhancement called progressive scan. To understand what progressive scan is, you gotta learn what it ain't. Standard analog TVs feature interlaced displays, meaning the picture you see is divided into two parts: an even and an odd set of scan lines, which are the horizontal image lines your TV tube displays on the screen. These two sets are actually not displayed at the same time but instead alternate at a rate of 60 frames per Second. Progressive scan, on the other hand takes the whole image—all the scan lines— and displays it at зо frames per second. You get a much sharper picture without any of the flickering common to interlaced displays. Digital TVs also offer higher-resolution modes labeled 480p, 720p and 108oi. The 480p mode is similar to the resolution of most standard TV broadcasts, except that it's progressive scan and not interlaced (which is called 480i), so it's much sharper. It is not considered a true HDTV format. 720p mode may or may not be true HDTV, depending on whom you talk to, but it's still vastly better than 480p. Even though it's interlaced, 10801 is considered true HDTV. OK, we can sense your eyes glazing over from all the tech-speak, so let's get to the point: What can all this do for my games? If you own an Xbox, plenty. Nearly every Xbox game supports 480p progressive-scan mode, although developers have been slow to support 720p and 10801. About half of GameCube games — all first-party stuff and a few third-party titles—support 480p. PS2 developers, meanwhile, are just now catching on to progressive scan; so far, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs and Tekken 4 are the only games to support the mode, although many future titles will be 480p compatible. Note that you will need to use component cables (and your respective system's component-video adapter, sold separately) to take advantage of progressive scan. Can you live without digital TV? Regular analog TVs are still a safe bet for gamers on a budget. Features like flat screens, digital-comb filters and high horizontal resolution add a lot of visual pizazz to analog sets. And you can find these features on 27- inch analog TVs for under $500 and on whopping 36-inch tubes for less than a grand. Flip the page for our recommendations. Nerd's Eye View Smash your face against a conventional analog TV screen, and you'll see the horizontal scan lines that make up the image. These lines are nearly invisible on an HD display with progressive scan activated, making your games look unbelievably crisp. Plug 'n' Play Pick the right cable to punch up your console's graphics 71142122770 1 7. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 61 - egm.gamers.com Even the best TV ain’t worth crud if you jack in with a crap connection, so avoid stone-age RF hook-ups and, at the very least, use the composite cables that came with your console. Better still, go with S-video, which makes for more vibrant colors and less blurring. Component signals look slightly better on conventional TVs, but they are the required connection for HD sets with progressive scan. Composite videa Oapin 309000105 Booh-Tube Buyer's Guide Now that you're ready to upgrade your gaming experience, here's a selection of super-sharp sets of every size and budget [$3 TVs on the cheap If you're paying for college or just buying too many games, you probably don't want to drop a small fortune on a TV. Good news: These conventional (and one HD-ready) sets will make your games look awesome and you won't even have to sell much blood to get them. JVC AV32320 32-inch TV е $450 в» Just а couple of years ago, the idea of a 32-inch TV for under $500 was unheard of, yet JVC has delivered with a set that offers 700 lines of resolution and even high-end component video inputs. Designed as an ideal TV for DVD playback, this set will also make games look great—and at 32 inches they'll be larger than life. [SS The junior- executive systems Why not spend a little more dough and step up to these HD-ready sets, which a few years ago would have cost more than $5,000. You'll need to buy a hardier TV stand for the bigger sets, which can weigh up to 300 pounds. t Samsung TXM-3296HF DynaFlat 32-inch HDTV Monitor • $1,300 This beauty is essentially the same TV as the 27-inch HD Samsung in the cheapie section except, well, it's a little bigger. One of our editors liked this model so much, he bought one for himself. You got home-theater questions? Mega-site www.avsforum.com has answers. Head here for in-depth FAQs, classified ads for used gear and forums frequented by like- minded home-theater buffs. Friendly advice is just a click away. ASK THE INTERNET t Sony KV-27FS13 FD 27-inch Trinitron WEGA ТУ • $550 This model is a wee smaller in screen and a wee larger in price than the JVC, but you'll appreciate the difference a Trinitron tube makes. The ultra-sharp flat screen increases the viewing angle so more people can crowd around for multiplayer Halo. And not only does this set feature a 16:9 enhanced mode to improve DVD movies and widescreen games, but it also has S-video and component video inputs. Toshiba 36HF72 36-inch Digital TV ° $1,800 > We're getting bigger. This righteous 4:3-ratio HD- ready TV (sometimes called the 36HFX72) comes with all the features of the smaller Samsung, including 10801 maximum resolution and а 16:9 mode. Plus, you get two component inputs—handy for when you want to hook up more than one game system at a time. Hitachi 43UWX10B 43-inch Rear-projection HDTV * $2,200 каф If you crave а mega-big HD-ready screen (like, so big you can park your car in the box it comes in) for under three grand, you'll have to settle for a rear- projection set. Unlike the direct-view models we've shown you so far, rear-projection TVs beam the image onto the screen with little ray guns hidden behind it. The picture isn’t quite as crisp as a direct- view set—especially when viewed from any angle but head-on—but this Hitachi model is stunning nevertheless. Widescreen games on Xbox are particularly rich and vivid. It will be hard to go back to anything else after playing Madden on the 43UWX10B. Beware, though: Rear-projection screens are more susceptible to burn-in from static images, such as TV-channel logos or health bars in your games, than direct-view sets. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 62 - egm.gamers.com 1. Tantus TXM2796HF 27-inch HDTV Monitor • 5800 Here's your ground-floor opportunity to dive into digital TV. Samsung's HD-ready monitor packs all the features of the big boys— progressive scan, 10801 resolution, a 16:9 mode—at a budget price. And at 27 inches, it's the perfect size for a dorm room or small apartment. аге either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft i Be interactive Digital Software Association. icon is a trademark of B E Е | | GO BEYO FROGGER FUN IS GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS, WITH AMAZING NEW ADVENTURES THAT MIX CLASSIC FROGGER GAMEPLAY WITH FROGGERIFIC NEW FEATURES! JUMP INTO WILD TILE-BASED PLATFORM ACTION WITH FROGGER BEYOND" ON THE XBOX, NINTENDO* GAMECUBE" AND PC. UNLOCK GAMEPLAY AREAS, COLLECT POWER-UPS AND MORE. (4195) eiu | HE LOST. WAND FROGGER'S ADVENTURES 2 THE LOST WAND" BRINGS ARCADE-STYLE INTENSITY ON GAME ВОҮ” ADVANCE, AND MULTI-PLAYER MINI GAMES WITH UP TO 3 FRIENDS. BUT WATCH OUT- ONCE YOU HOP, YOU JUST CAN'T STOP! EVERYONE PG X CD ee ROM aiio: GAME BOY ADVANCE CONNECT THIS BOX If you want to hook up more than one console to the component input of your new TV, then the JVC JX-S111 A/V selector (sold online for under $100) Quick tips for happy viewing The prime seating location in a home- theater room is called “the sweet spot,” and when it comes to setting up a TV, all adjustments (color, brightness, etc.) should be done from this location. But the best technique for finding this elusive spot is hotly debated, and numerous online viewing-distance calculators complicate matters. We'll keep it simple: You want to sit where you can see and appreciate the finer details, read sub- titles and basically view the picture without seeing actual pixels on the screen. If you start to see too many artifacts, either you have really bad source material or you're just too close. The basic rule has it that you should sit at least 4 to 6 feet away from sets bigger than 19 inches. And be sure to play in a darkened room to avoid glare. Most flat-screen direct-view TVs offer the largest off-axis viewing angle, meaning you don't have to be directly in front of the set to appreciate the picture. Serious about seeing the perfect picture? Get the AVIA Guide to Home Theater (www.ovationsw.com). This $50 cinch-to- use DVD walks you through your TV's calibration, letting you tweak color, brightness, etc., with scientific precision. With rear-projection, LCD and plasma, on the other hand, it is much more important for your view to be centered on the Screen, so don't place your comfiest gaming chair too far off to the side. When you're picking out your set at the store, keep in mind that bigger doesn't always mean better. A 63-inch widescreen TV is not going to be ideal in a 10-by-10-foot room no matter what you may think. And don't necessarily take the sales-person's advice, especially as bigger sets cost more! For a medium- to small-size room, a 27-inch set will do the trick. is a must-buy gizmo. It lets you connect and switch between three additional component signals with no picture degradation, plus you get two S-video inputs. Sets for the filthy rich So you sold your Internet stock when it was high, eh? Then why not splurge on these fantasy displays which —believe it or not—are actually much cheaper than they used to be. № Samsung HLM507W E> DLP 50-inch Monitor $4,500 Buckle the heck up: You're entering the future of display technology when you game on one of these. The heart of this set’s digital light- processing technology is a micro-mirror optical semiconductor chip with an array of more than a million microscopic mirrors that are used to create especially high-resolution images. In English: Your games will be crystal-clear (although eagle-eyed viewers may notice occasional rainbow effects). The Samsung isn’t as slim as plasma or LCD displays, but the 50-inch screen still has a front-to-back footprint of only 18 inches, which isn’t too bad considering its versatility. The unit can be used as a computer monitor as well as your primary TV. Electronic Gam nthly - 64 - egm.gamers.com Sony Cineza VPL-HS1 Home-entertainment Projector • $3,000 Hitachi's 43-incher still not big enough for you? If you demand a truly titanic gaming experience, Sony's Cineza is among the new and highly affordable projectors. It'll turn any room into a home theater, and since it accepts both 16:9 and 4:3 signals, you don't even have to worry about aspect ratios. Just sit back and watch movies or play games that will truly immerse you into the experience. You can even buy a screen that retracts, but we doubt you'd ever want to turn this thing off. Just be warned that the projector has a bulb that will eventually dim, burn out and require replacement. Typical bulbs last about 2,000 hours and cost between $205 and $250. Sound Advice Great visuals are only part of the equation when you assemble the ultimate gaming rig. So meet us back here next month for round two of our A/V assault: how to soup up your sound system. Ме”! run down everything from the different types of surround sound to how louder isn’t always better. Your ears will thank us in 30 days. а — Peter Suciu £92002 Misrosoft Corporation, All rights reserved. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live and the Xbox logos are registere: : d mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Xbox Live subscription ок! separately. www.xbox.com/live = = E ~ © = = LIFT YOUR THUMBS WITH PRIDE, FOR THEY SEPARATE MAN FROM BEAST. Keep your thumbs happy. Play video games. 7 EB GAMES zom AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY OUR GAMES OUS! AND SO AMI: · |- N ANYTHIN G YOU WILL EVER MEET, ALIVE BEFORE THE SEAT Of THE DARK LORD. Blood Violence и Ф ВАЛА ААА ===" Va и 5-24 TR ШІ? ШҮ ІШ ШІ Y" 11 01 Ali PS is the one video-game job nearly anybody can land (and it'll get your foot in the game-hiz door). But with all the mind-numbing hours spent chained to the same title for months on end, is it a dream job or just a nightmare? Electronic Gaming Monthly - 70 - egm.gamers.com i i А ill iil! | ІШІП hen уои play video games for a living, Ш your dreams get weird. Just ask any of the professional game testers at Rockstar, the New York City-based publisher of the mega-hit Grand Theft Auto franchise. These 10 guys (and one woman) spend all day, sometimes seven days a week, playing the same game over and over and over again to make sure it doesn’t suck, crash or bug out when you slip it into your console at home. It’s not easy. And, after all that time, it doesn’t take long for their neurochemistry to freak. Rich Huie, a 23-year-old tester for the GTA series, dreamed he was working a storefront in the game with Goodfellas’ Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci. Joe Green, a 35-year-old veteran, once dreamed he was inside Ms. Pac-Man, so to speak, running around and gobbling down dots. “| woke up thinking, ‘Um, this isn't supposed to be happening," he recalls. Sometimes the dreams don't wait for sleep. Lance Williams, a Rockstar tester who worked on the riot game State of Emergency, found himself passing a cop on the streets of Manhattan and thinking, “ОН yeah, | can take that guy." Bad dreams are a small price to pay for what many would consider the coolest job in the world. Game testers—or, as they tell their parents, “quality-assurance analysts” —are in the enviable position of getting paid to play. They sit on their cans in front of television sets all day doing exactly what you do every night for nada, nachos included. But, as they eventually learn, a gig like this is hardly all fun and games. As the gatekeepers of the $8-billion video- game industry, these elite players are the front line of any successful company. The stakes couldn't be higher. With a typical game requiring up to $5 million and two years to produce, the last thing a publisher wants is to release a game with bugs that will infuriate if not alienate persnickety buyers. The only way to make sure a title is clean is to hire gamers who can play it for thousands of hours without breaking their thumbs or losing their minds. The professionals Video games weren't always run through the ringer. Back in the golden age of 1980s gaming, many developers chose to do their own testing. But as the industry began to rival the movie business, demand for quality—not to mention the rise of competition — required more hardcore testing. Nintendo of America Just another day at the office: The decor of most game-tester work zones is about as plush and sexy as a telemarketer call center. But then telemarketers don't get paid to play games all day, they don't have game posters all over their office walls, and they don't have break rooms filled with classic arcade machines. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 11 was one of the first heavy hitters in the U.S. to devote an entire department to quality assurance back in 1988 when, as part of its Treehouse (named for Donkey Kong’s abode) development office, it hired full-time testers. The very first of these lucky players was Michael Kelbaugh, who has since worked his way up to being the director of product testing for the company. “Back when | started, the company only needed two of us,” Kelbaugh says, “but now as games have gotten incredibly complex, we have 350.” Nintendo isn’t alone. Microsoft, Sony and Electronic Arts each employs similar numbers of full-time testers. These larger publishers test about 30 to 70 different titles per year, with at least a few solid months of scrutiny applied to each and every game. Many titles land on the testers’ machines a full year before their official release. Each game will go through about 30,000 hours of tests. "We're trying to open up the games to testers earlier and earlier," says Jamie King, Rockstar's director of development, *because no one wants to have to spend a bunch of 12- hour days playing the product at the very end—it can be quite the miserable experience." As the tumultuous holiday season approaches, game companies even need to supplement their tester troops with civilian volunteers and freelancers. Most testers do it more for love than money. Professionals make between $20,000 and - egm.gamers.com $50,000. Civilians get around $10 per hour and/or—what else? —free games! Often, testers do it simply to get a foot into an increasingly competitive industry. “It’s definitely one of the better ways to get into this business," says Kelbaugh. He's far from the only one who's worked his way up the ranks after starting as a tester. But one thing's for sure: If you want to play games for a living, you need to know how to hack it. And if you want to know how to hack it, the first thing you've got to learn is not how to play a game, but how to break it. Game busters The offices of Rockstar Games are three floors above a busy strip of Broadway in New York City. Three floors is roughly 30 feet. Thirty feet is about how far the PlayStation 2 console fell when the Rockstar testers chucked it out the window. OK, that's an extreme and rare example of just how far some testers go—to the point of seeing if blatant console abuse will affect a game—to make sure your playing experience doesn't blow. Sometimes they'll plug a hair dryer into the wall and leave it blasting overnight on a console that's running their title, just to see what happens. Other times, they'll give the machine a subzero dose of arctic suffering by cramming it into a freezer for the weekend. Believe it or not, such lengths are necessary given the increased demands — and creativity —of players who will chuck, freeze, and bash a game, deliberately or not. *The gamers today are highly intelligent and are absolutely going to take your game apart," Cont. on page 74 www.onewickedcricket.com Cont. from раде 71 Rockstar’s King says wearily, “and they will savage you. That makes our job harder.” So today’s testers are expected to bust a game by any means necessary. That means playing a game precisely how it’s not supposed to be played: running where you're not supposed to run, jumping where you’re not supposed to jump, blowing up stuff that you’re not supposed to blow up. Since a gamer is capable of doing anything at any moment, the game has to be prepared to do something sensible in response—something besides crashing. Unplaying the game Lance Williams is an accomplished tester at Rockstar. He knows how to break stuff. And like the rest of the dozen testers, he works in an airy loft with the typical accouterments of a gaming company. A foosball machine and a vintage Asteroids Deluxe arcade game await play. Packages of Throat Coat and other cold and flu remedies—just what the doctor ordered for all the long hours—line the shelves. Bikini centerfolds leer seductively from the walls. For Williams, however, there are по distractions beyond the game unfolding on the monitor before him: State of Emergency. At the time of this writing, the PS2 urban-riot simulator is just weeks away from completion. hat means it’s been going through the testers’ brutal calisthenics for months. As we watch, Williams guides a character named Hector Saldaldo, a.k.a. Spanky, through the roadside melee. Williams is playing the game’s Revolution mode, which tests a player’s ability to complete various missions during the riot. The one he’s testing now centers on Spanky’s ability to protect a character named Marcus Washington from becoming road kill. “You want to unplay the game,” Williams says as he maneuvers Spanky toward a city bench. Spanky lifts up the bench and hurls it at Washington, the person he’s supposed to protect. Washington survives the punishment. “That’s good,” Williams says with a nod. “He’s still alive. He’s not supposed to die.” The ability to break a game, to push it beyond what it was meant to do, is high ona publisher's list of tester skills. But it’s a tough task—one that goes against all your gaming instincts. “To do this job right, someone really needs to break out of their linear train of thought and play a game backwards,” says Nintendo’s Kelbaugh. “Being first or best or getting a high score is irrelevant. If you’re directed to go somewhere, go out of order.” Electronic Gaming Monthly - 14 - egm.gamers.com Bug hunt Testers generally receive a detailed list of tasks to play out over the course of the day. In State of Emergency, for example, Williams had to spend a couple of days simply running around with a baseball bat and trying to break every storefront. If a bug is found, it’s logged in a company database, then passed along to the developers for a fix. A typical game can suffer nearly 15,000 bugs over the course of its development. And sometimes it even takes a good accident to uncover a bug. That happened rather crucially while Nintendo was testing the Nintendo 64 destruction game Blast Corps. The company videotapes every hour of play testing, and this example shows why. Just three days before the game was to be approved, a game tester got up from his desk and went out for lunch. The car he was driving in the game was left plowing up against a wall. When the tester came back, he found that the car had somehow passed through the wall and was drifting out into the strange ether beyond the game’s environment. The presses were stopped. The game was recoded just in the nick of time. Other companies use more scientific tools to get to the heart of the problem: psychologists. Bill Fulton, the user-tester lead for Microsoft Games Studios, employs full- time psychologists who prepare detailed questionnaires for people who play-test the games. The doctors observe professional and Tester volunteer testers for up to two hours at a time while the players run through the games. In 2001, they tested 6,500 participants in 270 tests on 70 different titles. One such test used in Halo, for instance, showed that gamers had varying assumptions about which way their character would look when they pushed the joypad stick up. “There’s nothing worse than trying to shoot someone on the second floor,” Fulton says, “and shooting your feet.” The game was then changed to accommodate a gamer’s viewing preference. But while the testers themselves feel accomplished at finding such crucial snafus in a game, the developers don’t necessarily share in their revelry. “It’s probably more frustrating for the developers who have to fix it!” says Craig Hunter, a producer at game studio VIS. This creates a notoriously tense relationship between the two groups. "There's always going to be a conflict in delivering those messages," says Rich Rogers, a producer for Sony Computer Entertainment America. Gary Rondez, lead tester for the PS2 motocross racer FreekStyle, admits that being the frequent bearer of bad news affects how testers are perceived. “Everyone thinks we're the lower end of the spectrum," he says, he grunts in the army. But we're just going out and doing the job. That's what they hired us to do." Back at Rockstar, Williams finishes his mission. The game passes muster. Soon he will be on to the next one. And when it comes, he'll be ready to play it...and break it to bits. 9 — David Kushner A guide to landing your first game gig Now that you’re ready for the job, peruse these tools for finding game- testing opportunities in the industry... (www.cooljobs.com) In addition to offering job listings for cool gigs like counter-terrorism and clowning, this site has a section devoted to “electronic- game design.” Recent listings include a position testing games for EA. (www.qajobs.net) An exhaustive resource for “quality assurance” personnel, this site lists positions according to job, salary and location. You can also register as a candidate for prospective employers who come to troll the site for recruits. (http://www.microsoft.com/playtest) Microsoft enlists play-test volunteers here. To qualify, gamers need to be at least 16 and willing to spend some time in the Seattle area, where the campus is located. (http://entertainmentcareers.net/sbjo bs/) Check under the Multimedia/Video game category for listings of companies seeking game testers. (http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stor ies/flat/0,11963,2636409,00.html) This address is a bitch to type in, but it leads to a great repository for companies seeking people to beta test new PC games from home. One Wicked Cricket Take a charming cricket, give him a serious chip on his shoulder, add to that a pair of high-voltage antennae and there’s only one thing that can happen. Someone's going to get hurt. PlayStation.2 GAMECUBE. GAME BOY ADVANCE EVERYONE Е и у" Microsoft Cor are used und Family | Ente (Solution on раде 329) ACROSS 1. Contra: Hard _ (Genesis) 6. UFC Publisher 11. Halo novel, Тре _ of Reach 12. Xbox driver Wreck_ 14. Ms. Pac-Man, to Jr. Pac-Man 16. Halo's Needler, Pistol... 18. Shaq (Genesis) 19. Used to digitize full-motion video 21. Sends your console's signal to a TV 22. Capcom's Devil may do this 23. Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Epona 25. Lent voice to Activision's Spider-Man 27. Grants gamers' cheating wishes 28. of Thunder (TurboDuo) 29. Makes Quakes 30. Type of strategy game (abbrv.) 31. Mario's new, not-so-secret weapon 34. Dreamcast, to the hip-hop community? 36. Zelda: OOT's mountain city 38. Halo's Derelict is one, for multiplayer 39. Hunt _ Red October (SNES) 40. Kingdom Hearts venis-summ-on 42. Army Men: Attack (PS1) 44. Leon S. Kennedy’s employer, ВС _ _ 45. Rayman's benefactor 47. Madden NFL 2003 position (abbrv.) 48. PS1 shooter -osoma 49. NBA Street's B-Ball surface? 51. Uses weights in Olympic Summer Games (PS1) 52. Final Fantasy movie didn't win one DOWN 2. Sony's The Mark _ Kri 3. Xbox WWF title 4. “Magic word” when asking for a game 5. Dreamcast’s Zero 6. Final Fantasy VII (PS1) hero 7. You usually get five days to finish one 8. Shrek's kart-racing donkey 9. Against, in fighting games 10. Low-level Doom (PS1) baddie 13. Final Fighter-turned-Street Fighter 15. Thumbs do it after many games 37. Shooter on 3DO system "ed 18. Goes Bedrock Bowling (PS1) 20. Halo tour guide, for a while 22. Palm-sized pal in Halo 24. Gallop Racer (PS2) jockey 26. Powers Jedi Starfighter (Xbox) 32. Overheard from the undefeated Mark MacDonald during Halo, “| ат !” 33. Jumping Flash’s (PS1) flashy jumper 34. Lets the car slide in Gran Turismo 3 35. Final Fantasy (NES) boat type 37. Ammo for Quake's (N64) nailgun 38. Double Dragon's big guy 39. Halo's genre, for short да. Owns Halo-maker Bungie (abbrv.) 43. World Series Baseball (Xbox) stat 45. Wireless-cable-gaming frequency 46. Super Nintendo un-killer app TNN Bass: _ (abbrv.) 48. Part of Pac-Man’s waist size? 50. Pac-Man, to Jr. Pac-Man ML Now through Nov. 2, 2002, when you buy an Xbox and the DVD Player Kit, you'll be eligible for a $30 mail-in rebate, making the DVD kit (basically) free! s 4 е е e eooo (1) Lunar Legend, the portable version of the first title in Game Arts' acclaimed Lunar RPG series (which has been seen previously on PlayStation and Sega CD in the U.S.), has finally been confirmed for a stateside release. But it's not by the company many role- playing fanatics would expect. Ubi Soft will do the honors this time around, and the good news is you won't have to wait long before getting a chance to play it— Legend will be out in November. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 16 - egm.gamers.com ES IM PlayStation.? | ни | We'd bet there aren't many kids out there named Turok, but her might be a few more after Acclaim's “Turok: Evolution Baby- Naming Contest.” In perhaps the most shameless video-game | promotion ever, Acclaim ran а contest to give away $10,000in | | U.S. savings bonds to the first child born on Sept. 1, 2002 and | given the name Turok. (The catch? The kid has to keep the name for one full year.) Мете not sure whether to laugh or cry. Quartermann - Game Gossip & *Sup homies? It’s your streetwise rumor collector, The Q, here to rock your world with gnarly tidbits of gossipy goodness scrounged from the darkest depths of the game industry. This month yours truly has a huge amount of Square-related news to dump upon ya (in addition to a bunch of other schtuff). So lemme back up the truck and spill it: Skip ХІ and Go Right to XII pee „Kicking off the Square a tumorpalooza this month is word that Final Fantasy ХІ, the online installment of the series that gamers. are currently enjoying in Japan, may not get a ò stateside release at all. E. - Why? With the servers to maintain and police, technical support to give, and games to monitor, the - е В RPG maker's U.S. operation can't do it alone. Only someone the size of EA / or Sony could lay the proper groundwork. Without that, the game\may һауе” to skip a U.S. release entirely. What does that mean to you, thes tawny Yi American gamer already in the midst of posting this tasty rumor on message boards across the Internet?\Three possibilities. One, Squar secures a partner to do the dirty work'and the game's released here next- year no problem. Or, the next Final Fantasy to be released on PS2 i in the U.S. could be ХИ, skipping over XI entirely. The fi final option i is that one or ofthe three Final Fantasy Gaidens based'on FFX scheduled for release in | the near future in Japan may be brought to America as ХГ. T Final Fantasy І and ІІ To See U.S. ant ...Another tidbit of note The О picked up on recently is > the chance that the PS1 remakes of Final Fantasy І and II will see stateside releases. The story goes like this: When word of the upcoming Japanese releases of these classic quests hit the streets, gaming retailers began to knock on Square's door wondering when they might come to the U.S. Up until retailers started asking, there was по plan to bring them here. But}! hear the change, and if the rumors аге” to be believed, you might just be playing the earliest of FFs before too long at a value- conscious price... = и ТЕС Мап jattle Network ` related.The transmissions are a bit fuzzy at this Square GBA/GC Releases in the More Zelda On The Way „Ме don't even have our hands оп d GameCube Legend of Zelda, and already The Q's sources have reported in on another Hyrulian adventure: Nintendo's U.S. development house, Nintendo Software Technologies, is working on something Zelda- point, but it may-be the long-rumored GameCube Your Asses Bungie Gets.Medieval On While we're all waiting | for Halo 2 2, we have one more game from the guys at Bungie to look forward tò, Previously known as Project Phoenix, Bungie's — next title has been re-named (it'd be a breach of national security to tell you — what that name is, though), ànd it's a bit of a departure from the likes of Haló: Details are scant, but a recent dumpster-diving mission near the developer's HQ revealed that the game has a medieval theme. Either that or | dugup discatded pictures from someone's trip to a Renaissance Faire.... U.S.? quare’s still тит оп the topic of how their GBA and GC releases will come “out in America. But Тһе Q's sources hear that none other than Nintendo will publish their ’Cubé title, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle, in the U.S. in 2003 just às they are'in Japan). As ‘for the GBA games, it’s expected that Square will self- publish those in both territories (U.S. and Japan). The Hot Q: Mother 3 On GBA „Хои may remember a few issues back The Q told you about rumblings from the bowels of Nintendo of a Mother game for Game Boy Advance. (The only game in the Mother series released in the U.S. was the 16-bit Super NES cult fave Earthbound.) And indeed The Q was correct, but the upcoming title is not a port or remake of a previous game. Instead, The Q has heard recently that the original scenario from the cancelled Mother 3 (for N64) is being adapted to GBA by a second party, most likely Brownie Brown. Expect official news on this shortly—maybe even by the time you read these very words.... Time to call it a day, folks. Well this month’s section kicked ass Ecks vs. Sever-style if | do say so myself. If you want to write this ol” “skipper on the good ship Gaming Gossip, get on yer computer and drop m E-mail to ‘quartermann@ziffdavis.com with any comments or questions you might have. Until next time, “may the luck of the Seven Pillars of Booloo be with you at all times!” (And if you can tell me what movie that’s from, give yourself a cookie.) —TheQ Electronic Gaming Monthly - 78 - egm.gamers.com Y4 INISION Tm POE IE 10 | ІІІ) (45; TE. Go to www.activisionO2.com/hawk and enter the "Tour with Tony" [ N Sweepstakes for your chance to win E b. a trip to meet Tony Hawk at Boom “Wee BURN Boom HuckJam and other cool prizes. Register today! FE | тузо VISION for more info. : EEE EVERYONE j Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 for Rating Information. CONTENT RATED BY ESRB ca a EN Uie 3 THE THREAT [SIN YOUR HANDS. BOTH OF THEM. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXPRESS YOURSELF WITH THE RIGHT ANALOG. The right to freely express; yourself in 360 degrees. EA SPORTS” FREESTYLE CONTROL. The right to use both hands, to crossover, to stutter step, to spin. To confuse defenders with behind-the-back, through-the-legs, one-handed-palming, backing-down-in-the- paint, fade-away, ball-handling skills, Cuz ЕНГІ never make it in the МВА en with only one hand. Put together fiendish combinations of 100 new moves and exploit the D. If you cannot afford room for a jumper, room wi be provided for you with a little stutter-step fade-away action. Crowded lanes beg to be taken apart with your patented brand of hole-picking-3607- ЭШ crossover artistry. String ‘em out, spin ‘em ‘round, ea em crying and finish big. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFEND AGAINST ANY OFFENSIVE FREEDOMS. The right to form a well regulated-fast-moying-big-balling defensive force. The right to reach into personal space. To perform ` b-ball blocks like an eight-armed hoop obtopus. To borrow without consent, anywhere, any time. To turn hands into brick laying fly swatters. To pound the floor, y on glass, take the chaie and eat your FRONS breakfast, lunch and dinner. ITS HARDWOOD MAGIC IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND: 2003 SET YOURSELF FREE. SEN hic деу а УАТ peter ie Se ae Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 for Rating Information.) Welcome to the 500-mile commute with only one parking spot. Relive great races. Leave tread marks in the record books. ў. 8 fantasy courses. 23 authentic All hearts racing. ba ИАН oe о UG (y z | A dco Г Now оп РС easports.com EVERYONE Comic Mischief Violence © 2002 Electronic Arts Ino. Electronic Arts, EA SPORTS, the EA SPORTS logo and "It's in the game.” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries, All rights reserved, NHL, National Hockey League, the NHL Shield and the Stanley Cup are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and team logos and marks depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective teams and may not be reproduced without the prior writen consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. © 2002 NHL. All Rights Reserved. Officially Licensed Product of the National Hockey League. National Hockey League Players Association, NHLPA and the NHLPA logo are trademarks of the NHLPA and are used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. © NHLPA: Officially licensed product of the NHLPA. The names and logos of all stadiums are trademarks of their respective owners and are used by permission, Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are ether trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. Nintendo GameCube is а trademark of Nintendo, “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are the property of ther respective owners. ҒА SPORTS ™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. NHLPA You got new moves. So do the goalies. It’s only fair. a Every great magician uses a magic wand. This one makes frozen rubber disappear. РВЕ$ $ START Charts - July 2002 TOP 20 BEST-SELLING GAMES TOP 10 RENTALS 1 NCAA Football 2003 ы 1 Stuntman — -— EA Sports = = 95 90 85 - ӘЖЕ 2 Medal of Honor: Frontine (фа EET EA Games == 3 2 Grand Theft Auto Ш ` 3 Test Drive —— Atari Р 9.0 90 10 ; Б Crispin ^ Greg Milkman < 4 Spider-Man aes 3 Metal of Honor: Frontline m Б мави : EA Games = 9 Меп In Black Il: Alien Escape — -— 8.0 9.0 8.0 ег Infogrames - Ш © Сгіѕріп Kraig Mark G а 6 Freekstyle — -— 4 Stuntman анн А EA Big GA M | Atari У j 5 Gran Turismo 3 A-spec A 1 Grand Theft Auto Ш — -— E B5 Sony CEA + Rockstar dd 6 MLB Slugfest 20-03 F 8 Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon „e Midway Universal Interactive 1 Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku слмево 9 All-Star Baseball 2003 — -— Infogrames Acclaim 8 Super Mario Advance 2 GAME BOY 10 Way of the Samurai — — „|9 Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories Konami ТОР 10 BEST-SELLING GAMES IN JAPAN Source: Blockbuster Video, July 2002 2 Super Robot WarsR -- Banpresto 4 Pachislot Aruze Kingdom 7 Japan Amusement Broadcasting ere Activision j 5 Dragon Ball 2: Cho-Senshitachi Ёё 15 Digim on World 3 janpresto Ў: | Bandai 6 RPG School 5 € 2116 ATV Offroad Fury -- (Ен Enterbrain | soc | Т Powerful Pro Baseball 9 —._ |f] Resident Evil Code: Veronica X ton cancom . 8 My Summer Vacation 2 -- 18 Super Smash Bros. Melee S Sony | S 8 Ane Escape 2 " NEC Interchannel Source: Weekly Famitsu, week ending 8/11/02 Electronic Gaming Monthly - 88 - egm.gamers.com 3 PlayStation P (€; | > о ? Мз е | ax y ў www.spyrothedragon.com ge 4 TA X ЕМЕВУОМЕ ————_, ҒА Mild Violence Meee INTERACTIVE چ ‘CONTENT RATED BY ESRB There goes the neighborhood. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. With all new breath weapons: fire, ice, electricity and bubbles, somebody needs to slap a warning label on that dragon. Driver 2 Advance—Atari Action Disney Sports Soccer—Konami Sports October Game & Watch Gallery 4—Nintendo Misc. Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows—Ubi Soft Action PlayStation 2 Godzilla: Domination—Atari Action Evolution Worlds —Ubi Soft RPG Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever—Bam Action Hamtaro (GBC)—Nintendo Misc. FIFA Soccer 2003—EA Sports Sports BloodRayne— Majesco Action Robotech: The Macross Saga—TDK Action Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets — EA Games Action Burnout 2: Point of Impact—Acclaim Racing Star Wars Episode ІІ: The New Droid Army—THQ Action James Bond 007: NightFire—EA Games Action Dragon’s Lair 3D— Encore Software Action WWE Road to Wrestlemania X8 — THQ Action Legends of Wrestling 2—Acclaim Action Evolution Skateboarding—Konami Sports Yu-Gi-Oh! Eternal Duelist Soul—Konami RPG Medal of Honor: Frontline—EA Games Action Fighter Maker 2—Agetec Fighting Metroid Prime—Nintendo Action Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — Rockstar Action Minority Report—Activision Action .hack— Bandai Š RPG November Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance— Midway Fighting Hot Wheels Velocity X—THQ Racing PlayStation МВА Live 2003—EA Sports Sports Jet X20—Sony CEA Racing Grand Theft Auto Compilation Rockstar Action Rocky — Ubi Soft Sports Legaia 2: Duel Saga — Fresh Games RPG PlayStation 2 Sonic the Hedgehog Mega Collection—Sega Action Legends of Wrestling 2—Acclaim Action ATV Offroad Fury 2—Sony CEA Racing Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly—Universal Action Lost, The—Crave Action Batman: Dark Tomorrow— Kemco Action Star Wars: The Clone Wars — LucasArts Action МВА 2K3 —Sega Sports Sports Battlebots C THQ Action Street Hoops —Activision Sports NBA Live 2003 —EA Sports Sports ВМХ XXX—Acclaim Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003—EA Sports Sports МНЕ 2003 —EA Sports Sports Contra: Shattered Soldier—Konami Shooter Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4—Activision o2 Sports МНЕ 2K3— Sega Sports Sports Dance Dance Revolution MAX— Konami Misc. Vexx —Acclaim Action Simpsons Skateboarding — EA Games Sports Defender— Midway Action Wario World — Nintendo Action Sub Rebellion — Metro3D Shooter Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows—Ubi Soft — Action Terminator: Dawn of Fate— Atari Action Dr. Muto— Midway Action Batman: Dark Tomorrow— Кетсо Action Tribes: Aerial Assault —Sierra Action FIFA Soccer 2003 — EA Sports Sports BMX XXX—Acclaim Sports Ty the Tasmanian Tiger —EA Games Action Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets — EA Games Action Brute Force— Microsoft Action X-Men: The Next Dimension—Activision Fighting Haven: Call of the King— Midway Action Crimson Sea— Koei Action GameCube James Bond 007: NightFire— EA Games Action Defender— Midway Action BloodRayne— Majesco Action Legends of Wrestling 2—Acclaim Action DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball — Tecmo Sports Broadband Adapter— Nintendo Hardware Lord of the Rings: Fellowship—Universal Action Dr. Muto — Midway Action Dragon's Lair 3D—Encore Software Action Lord of the Rings: Two Towers — EA Games Action Dragon's Lair 3D— Ubi Soft Action Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters —Infogrames Fighting Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter— Crave Action Fire Blade— Midway Action Legends of Wrestling 2—Acclaim Action Malice— Universal Action James Bond 007: NightFire— EA Games Action Mario Party 4— Nintendo Party Minority Report—Activision Action Kakuto Chojin — Microsoft Fighting Modem Adapter— Nintendo Hardware Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance—Midway Fighting Legends of Wrestling 2—Acclaim Action NASCAR Thunder 2003 —EA Sports Racing NASCAR Heat 2—Infogrames Racing Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter—Crave Action NBA 2K3 —Sega Sports Sports RAD: Robot Alchemic Drive—Enix Action Malice— Universal Action NCAA College Basketball 2K3—Sega Sports Sports Ratchet & Clank—Sony CEA Action MechAssault— Microsoft Action NHL 2003—EA Sports Sports Red Faction II—THQ Action Medal of Honor: Frontline—EA Games Action NHL 2K3—Sega Sports Sports Rocky—Ubi Soft Sports Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance—Konami Action Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I&II —Sega RPG Rygar: The Legendary Adventure — Tecmo Action Minority Report— Activision Action Resident Evil d — Capcom Adventure Shinobi—Sega Action Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance—Midway Fighting Swingerz Golf— Fresh Games Sports Sims, The —EA Games Misc. MX Superfly — THQ Sports Ty the Tasmanian Tiger — EA Games Action Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly — Universal Action Panzer Dragoon Orta—Sega Action Xbox Star Wars: Bounty Hunter— LucasArts Action Rocky — Ubi Soft Sports Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance— Interplay Action Star Wars: The Clone Wars— LucasArts Action Steel Battalion— Capcom Action Blinx: The Time Sweeper— Microsoft Action Suikoden III — Konami RPG Superman: The Man of Steel—Infogrames ^ Action BloodRayne— Majesco Action Super Bust-A-Move 2—Ubi Soft Puzzle Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon—Ubi Soft Action Crimson Skies — Microsoft Shooting Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 —EA Sports Sports Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell — Ubi Soft Action Fatal Frame— Тесто Action Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness—Eidos Adventure Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4—Activision O2 Sports Hitman 2: Silent Assassins— Eidos Action Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4—Activision O2 Sports Unreal Championship — Infogrames Action House of the Dead III, The—Sega Shooting Treasure Planet—Sony CEA Action Vexx—Acclaim Action Legends of Wrestling 2—Acclaim Action Vexx—Acclaim Action Xbox Live Starter Kit— Microsoft Hardware NBA Inside Drive— Microsoft Sports Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions—Activision Action NBA Live 2003 —EA Sports Sports WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth —THQ Action Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms —THQ Action NHL 2K3 —Sega Sports Sports Contra Advance— Konami Shooter Phantom Crash — Phantagram Action Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance— Interplay Action Dragon Ball Z (GBC)— Infogrames Action Star Wars: Knights of the Old Rep.— LucasArts RPG Batman: Dark Tomorrow— Kemco Action Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets— EA Games Action Terminator: Dawn of Fate—Atari Action Battlebots—THQ Action Justice League: Injustice for All— Midway Action Тое)ат & Earl Ill: All Funked Up—Sega Adventure BMX XXX—Acclaim Sports Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers—EA Games Action Toxic Grind—THQ Action Cubivore—Atlus Misc. Lunar Legend—Ubi Soft RPG Ty the Tasmanian Tiger—EA Games Action Defender— Midway Action Metroid Fusion—Nintendo Action Whacked! — Microsoft Misc. Disney Sports Basketball—Konami Sports Monster Rancher Advance 2—Tecmo Misc. Game Boy Advance Disney Sports Football—Konami Sports Phantasy Star Collection—THQ RPG Defender of the Crown—Cinemaware Action Disney Sports Skateboarding—Konami Sports Revenge of Shinobi—THQ Action Electronic Gaming Monthly - 90 - egm.gamers.com Want to know how realistic NFL Fever '03 is? Take a number. 1 - Dramatic camera angles take you all over the field 2 - Go from clipboard holder to MVP in Career Mode 3 - Someone should've used the bump-n-run 4 - Use Hot Routes to exploit the defense 5 - Player physiques from L to XXXXXL 6 - Tougher Al anticipates your moves 7 - Where you sweat — they sweat 8 - Helmets that reflect the playing environment 9 - Unique player faces 10 - NFL newbies, the Houston Texans 11 - Shirtless guy with a painted face being loud 12 - Take your game into the ultimate broadband arena by playing online with 13 - Create killer plays and use them to shock the nation on ) 14- Opti-Match links up players of equal rank 15 - Trash-talk faceless foes with an communicator 16 - Download updated player rosters on EVERYONE CONTENT RATED BY ESRB www.nflfever2003.com Е. ом_ІмЕ ЕМАВ_ЕП Ңӛ( —_ Еһ [50 н CHAN HELLO, VIDEO GAMERS! I'M RSO TANAKA, THAT'S MY BROTHER CHAN, AND "м HOLDING A Вох оғ DRAMA- MINE AND AN INDUSTRIAL- SIZE VOMIT BAG, BECAUSE TODAY's TOPIC 15 КҮЛЕ NOR SIGIR! Vis FiRST- PERSON SHOOTERS! ^ [ ALREADY MO 1 s € RSON eo MACH LURES - ANTICIPATION! НЕ SAD Чоо WALKED комм, j; HSU HAS EXPRESSED 5546 APPREHENSION BOLT DOING THIS ONE, AS МЕ HAS PROVEN EXCEPTIONALLY SUSCEPTIBLE To THE EFFECTS OF MOTION SICKNESS, A PROBLEM THAT HAS PLAGUED MANY A GAMER OF THIS GENRE. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE LAST FIRST- PERSON SHOOTER HSU HAS MANAGED To LAST More THAN THREE MINUTES ON WITHOUT KEELING OVER WAS "DOCK HONT” FOR THE NES, AND EVEN THAT WAS A CLOSE CALL THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS, m. UNWITTINGLY BREEDING A RACE OF aoe BEEN QUICK To VOICE EER CONCERNS THAT EXTENDED EXPOSURE To HESE TITLES МАЧ WELL ЗЕ TAINTING THE YOUTH OF TODAY, ING PowER-UPS! м мә THROUGH Ve REPORT. THE POINT 1, THERE'S TROUBLE prot! enter THE CHANCAM, FIRST IN А CUSTOM LINE OF RESEARCH EQUIP” ALAS, IT WAS NOT To ВЕ. ALL THAT WAS DEFINITIVELY GATHERED FROM THIS RESEARCH WAS THAT WE LEAVE THE HOUSE WOEFULLY FEW TIMES ON ANY GIVEN DAY, AND EVEN THEN, ALMOST NEVER FoR ANYTHING INTERESTING. WE THOUGHT WE WERE ONTo SOMETHING WHEN A RUBBER-BAND FIGHT BROKE OUT, BUT THAT WAS сот SHORT WHEN ONE PARTY HIT ANOTHER IN THE ЕЕ, AND WHAT FOLLOWED ON THE TAPE WAS A STREAM OF CURSING 50 LOUD AND VILE AS Yo RENDER THE PLAYBACK FUNCTION INOPERABLE, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DAMAGE TO THE PLANTS AND WALLPAPER, BORING PEOPLE. OTHER THAN THAT, THE FOOTAGE WE GATHERED TOTALED APPROXIMATELY TWENTY- ONE HOURS OF FINGER -TAPPING, TOENA: CLIPPING, WALKING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN ROOMS, AND HOLDING DULL, MEANDERING CONVERSATIONS WITH аш ысы О СОН но? LACK OFF MBIGUIT? , NO AROUND IN А HIGHLY UNREALISTIC MENT, CRAFTED FROM THE FINEST MATER- LESSNIOLENT SUB-GENRES IN кен, FASHION AT HIGH SPEEDS, NEVER (Ace EVER