- iGameCu neue ; a é s ms Teno ae Ca acca ae A SS ENTER THE ie POLLS LEE ‘ OPPO: ia! = F SoS 3 Sr : r macs Was a ms i i Oo es a aer cae ee ee oes ‘7PS . WAR es eet a : of Pi “ . ~ > * oon i ‘ J “GRO tery 3 hh ey Analy ; rd THE ARE IN HERE: HOW THE WHAT OTHER ° & Mi ea rv btn ltt ° pee 6 “ar Cant yor . ei A me q trig ta 4 . ayy fn 6 pie . « "it ‘ o a sey , % , / ‘wiser bad a ‘ , th AG, £4 ; f ; : \ y . iy a - 2 4 \ o a : PVC WA ‘ 4 ; d A boo ni ‘ / ; ¥; ty sgh Sao De ty rote } x is Bae Pe ‘ ‘ ‘ + ines pe, oe eh ie o ¢ Pe OF le . }) j aa ' , dik , E M: e ail or lew ta ge ae fe ‘ ie s”? he, ths as A > jj Fi ow ge tee” ’ ; j Miya Re tee ‘ ‘: p f Pint “ert i > ‘ © ob j P Pas. 3 " ’ ’ j - abd vat ’ » D N ‘~ ; ; At aa Ps: me ‘ i x Gad ; aire ~ i saa . x +s by< 8 © a . tid . hy f ~ 2, " 3 F the ey ¥ - a my ” “at > ABOUT THE MOVIE DIRECTORS DEF JAM: VENDETTA LARA'S BACK! PIN ag 4 ZIFF DAVIS MEDI/ ae May 2003 $4.99/S6.50 Canada Splinter Cell (PS2), WWE Crush Hour, The Hulk, F-Zero, Starsky & Hutch Special Collector’s Cover 1 of 2 WWW.EGMMAG.COM | - “Take the first stepin the sequel to-one of the most epic quests ever: Dark Cloud. 2. Create weapons: Invent gadgets: Restore the future by rebuilding the past with an enhanced-Georama systém that puts the fate of the. world in.your hands. Customize homes; sufroundings and towns with virtually infinite possibilities, then'see how they affect the future. But beWare: Every action has a consequence. isi www.playstation.com }), PlayStation.e TEEN Violence CONTENT RATED BY ESRB LIVE IN YOUR W#RLD. PLAY IN-QURS “APEX is honestly the best-looking facing gome we've EVEf seen. The textures, the models, the tracks, and the effects are absolutely amazing. Fun, fast, and gorgeous looking.” - Official Xbox Magazine - 8.9/10 SOx Officiat Abox Magazine Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 for more info. APEX © 2003 Infogrames Europe. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Milestone, Inc. The Atari trademark and logo are the property of Infogrames. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. = Manufactured and marketed by Infogrames, Inc. Infogrames, Inc. 417 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016 USA 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. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Dolby and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. “..fop notch graphics, excellent track design, and well designed single-player campaion...totally sweet.” - GMR - 8/10 “Pristine and sharp visuals help define APEX as a solid racer... spectacular course designs that beg to be driven...the track variety beats any current facing gome out already... the sense of speed is absolutely dizzying. - GamePro - 4.0/5.0 “Must. Have. This. Game.” - IGN : —— j ti e oe a 4 } : % 4 o a “ wee Bet ta AME OF THE YEAR Xbox Game of the Year (IGN, Gamespy) 52 ; : “Don't hesitate to buy this: ~ amazing game. f Electronic Gaming Monthly ~ Editor’s Choice Gold Award § L Le ames Peles atte - XBox™ SCREEN SHOWN. j ‘A spectacular-looking, gizmo- crammed black-op experience. Electronic Gaming Monthly COMPUTER EN’FERTAIN ME} STEM SCREEN SHOWN. : intendo GameCube™ Use the - Game Boy* Advance cable and access new gadgets and levels arate etree 3 eee See a SNTERDG GAMECUBE” SCREEN SHOW if Stealth action for the first time on your Game Boy’ * Advance. Giiep Boe A Also available on your com cell phone at NINTENDO GAMECUBE. xeox SOFTWARE GAME BOY ADVANCE nfiertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. “PlayStation” and the "PS” Fan pre : ly logo are os are Gither repisterec arks or s of Microsoft Se sashes on in the ULS. and/or in other countries and are used under license loft an a the Gameict i love are registered trademarks of Gameloft 3A. WHEN YOU’RE THIS DEADLY, ONE PLATFORM CAN’T HOLD YOU. i kkk ok NOwW REDEFINED FOR ALL NEXT-GENERATION CONSOLES. KKKK Redeiined with all-new cinematics and exclusive content. Thermal goggles, prototype guns, and the ability to use your enemies as human shields are just a few of the weapons and tactics in your arsenal. You are Sam Fisher. You are a Splinter Cell. & Tom Clancy's Ubi Soft et SE tA eR BF ew Fake a Mm 7 SARA? Sit te ae Pe ee oe ae ee CONTENTS 116 100 132 132 138 126 136 134 136 134 120 32 134 78 96 88 130 70 124 1080° Aslan Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction All-Star Baseball 2004 Amplitude Armored Core: Silent Line Army Men: Sarge’s War Big Mutha Truckers Black 9 Clock Tower 3 Color Quest Def Jam: Vendetta Deus Ex 2: The Invisible War Dynasty Warriors 4 Enter the Matrix Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick F-Zero Final Fantasy X-2 Furious Karting Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age Halo 2 Hulk, The Ikaruga Inuyasha Jak 2 Kakuto Chojin Lost Kingdoms II MLB SlugFest 20-04 MVP Baseball 2003 NBA Street Vol. 2 Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Primal Red Faction Il Rent-A-Hero No. 1 Run Like Hell Sims, The Soldier of Fortune Il: Double Helix Sonic Advance 2 Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut Starsky & Hutch State of Emergency Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness UFC Tapout 2 Unlimited Saga Wakeboarding Unleashed Featuring Shaun Murray Wario World WWE Crush Hour X2: Wolverine’s Revenge Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner May 2003, Issue 166 Game Directory Departments — sqooconeceatocanoneTcOnERONNOI HOON PE OODROD ROLLA ROALD 12 20 Press Start 32 You’ve been pleading for more Halo 2 information, and now we deliver. Also read our news section to find out why Microsoft’s Xbox fighter, Kakuto Chojin, was pulled from store shelves. =) Gossip 06 lM page 100 Tumble Down the Rabbit Hole Previews 68 Not only do we start to unravel the mystery of Yuna’s journey in Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)—we also dish out the first details on the PS2 sequel to Jak and Daxter. Plus, read about Xbox sci-fi shooter Black 9, X2: Wolverine’s Revenge, Deus Ex 2, and a remake of the Dreamcast game Sonic Adventure for GameCube. 112 Check out how Splinter Cell holds up on PS2, and if Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire are good enough to make you wanna “Catch ’em all.” We also evaluate ZOE2, NBA Street Vol. 2, Clock Tower 3, and Dynasty Warriors 4. Let’s face facts. Games based on popular movie franchises usually fall way short of the standards set by their film counterparts. We were given an exclusive backstage pass to see how Enter the Matrix is trying to change all that. Take your pills and come join us. @ page 32 Definitely No Angel Ms. Croft is taking her sweet ol’ time transitioning to life on the Ps2. Our hands-on preview checks out how Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is shaping up. Tricks 144 Get the lowdown on all the Dark Cloud 2 supporting characters, and find out how to unlock the secret cars in The Getaway. J ®@ The Final Word V Which Def Jam: Vendetta moves were toned down because they were considered too raunchy? Don’t you wanna Find out on page 44. » Read everything you need to know about this year’s fine crop of baseball games before making your purchase on page 50. know... 148 , NY 10016 and additional mailing offices. Single Monthly magazine. POSTMASTER: Send address /service.egmmag.com (for customer service) or 5721 (please include your he address at which you eserved herein, no part of this publication may be out t the the prior written notice of Ziff Davis Media Inc. To ht © 2002 Ziff Davis Media. All Rights Reserved. Rights and Permissions Manager. For reprints, iffdavis.com. Electronic Gaming Monthly and EGM are e trademark and copyright owners. All materials listed in this magazine are subject to manufacturers’ change and the publisher assumes no respons ibility for’ such voters, The C canadian ¢ G ST Re gistration number is 140496720 RT. A census taker once tried to test me. | ate his liver, with some fava beans and anice Chianti. ription rate is ap 97 in the | U.S. - te 97 outs side the U: S. C checks gmmag.com. The editors and the publisher are not responsible for unsolicitec d mate system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means hae ctronic, mechanical, phe n, obtain a permissic on request form at www.icopyright.com/ziffdavis > your full r name With out limiting the ri rights u nder g, rding, or otherw (ise), W or have a form faxed or mailed to yo ion is prohibited. For permission to reuse material in this 5 0U iblication (or on this We OLRIRESS, Ziff Davis Media Inc. 28 E. 28th St., New York , NY 10016. Tel: 212 Printed in the U.S.A. Audit Bureau of Circulations ES RRR ER AIRS HG $50 videogame. A $10 movie ticket. What happens when you combine the two? You get a wallet that’s $60 lighter, that’s what. But nowadays, you also get a totally new experi- ence—a sum-is-greater-than-its-parts sorta thing. Take The Matrix. If you see the next two the- atrical releases without paying any attention to the videogame Enter the Matrix, you’re gonna blow right past a big chunk of the cyberthriller mythos. “Big deal,” you say. “I’m gonna miss out on some movie characters shooting up enemies in a game with a half-baked plot line.” Well, smartypants, read our cover story to see how the directors of the movies intentionally crafted the Matrix story line to weave through the flicks, the upcoming Animatrix DVD, and the videogame. Later this summer, you’ll get to see The Hulk on the big screen. You’ll also get to play The Hulk videogame. Why will you want to do both? | don’t want to spoil anything here, but those who watch the movie very carefully will get to do things in the game that others won’t. Now that videogames are a $10 billion-a-year industry, you'll see a lot of arranged marriages between Hollywood films and their interactive counterparts. And why not? It’s fantastic for mar- keting (you don’t have to try very hard to sella Lord of the Rings videogame) and half the cre- ative work is done for you (though that’s not really a good thing...). ‘SOORNROROOIROORRODOOHEOEEHOSICES HOOD OONOONDOONORIODORIOOOHIONIESOAOSIAIHONIDODOSNINORSDIODOROIOIOSRO NOSE NIKAADOONIOIROSRSOOOSEONDESODSSOSHOAOSSERHONERIHOOIROOIRORSHOADHOSOOI SosneneeeanoonnnanconsnoanonnncnsaaKkonNSee Contributors Greg Sewart Before the INS dragged longtime EGM Previews Editor Greg Sewart back to his Canadian homeland, he reviewed one more game while hiding in our crawl space. Jon Dudiak The guy behind our Splinter Cell review and crossword could work anywhere, but he ... chose to run a factory so your children and q children’s children will have paper tubes. Jon Gibson In no way related to Neuromancer scribe William Gibson, Jon is a very tall, very young freelancer who wrote a very short story on game commercials in Press Start. Casey Loe Who better to review Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire for us than the industry vet who wrote its strategy guide? Hey you, Pikachu, _ you are this man’s little yellow bitch. seanhaby Would it warm your heart to Know that this humor writer was born with only one lung? It’s not true. But he does review some very special games in Rest of the Crap (pg. 140). RAs By Dan “Shoe” Hsu — My only hope is that developers have out- grown the movie-to-game funk of the ’80s and 90S. Remember the crap that was Home Alone, Dragonheart, and Batman & Robin? (You proba- bly don’t, as playing these would’ve permanently damaged areas of your brain.) Now, movie games aren’t all terrific, but they’re certainly get- ting better, and the more Hollywood pays atten- tion to them, the more resources developers will get to create a great experience. Speaking of damaged brains, I’d like to say good-bye to one of the hardest working editors in the biz: Greg Sewart. Sadly, he really did have to go back to Canada. We'll miss you, Greg. We have a fresh crew in place, though. Please say hello to Joe “ex-GameSpot” Fielder, Demian “ex-/ncite” Linn, Bryan “ex-GameWEEK and should be spelling his name ‘Brian’” Intihar, Paul “ex- Daily Radar” Byrnes, and Shawn “ex-nothing par- ticularly exciting but he was a teacher” Elliott. None of these guys is Canadian, but they’re still damned talented. On another note, if there’s ever a time when you need to trust me, it’s now. MAKE SURE you check out the next issue (EGM #167). Not only will we have one of the coolest exclusives ever, but this will be our totally new, totally redesigned relaunch issue. What should you expect to see? Come back in 30 days to find out. — Shoe, Editor-in-Chief Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine Todd Zuniga, Chris Baker, Sam Kennedy, and John Davison can review a PS2 game from 300 paces. Funny: That’s exactly how far they sit from our side of the office. GameNOW Guest reviewers Carrie Shepherd, Ethan Einhorn, Phil Theobald, and Miguel Lopez put together a magazine with more heart, wit, and Yu-Gi-Oh! coverage than anybody. Like extra cash? No? Then avoid EB stores, where you can subscribe to GMR for $10 and get 10 percent off used games. It’s the home of reviewer James “Milkman” Mielke. Microsoft says the Xbox is potent enough i to create its own mag. Well, they’re right, ",, but reviewers Evan Shamoon and Greg Computer Gaming World The Ancients say that inside every console you'll find a “computer.” So we appease the old gods by letting Computer Gaming World’s Scooter Nguyen review Golden Sun. OFC WalTinge Vi ’ 7 t+ > yewmen™ oaaesienaaabannenanannbanansenendabennaaannnsanmnnannnnnanennsasengnnanatatanseaatsannsaciaeeeetiececcccreecrec cence cece ccncenere cree reer ee rere Orlando are there to push the Start button.. ConRROREIOREERORROREREROREEODICORIOKIORIOOI SOOO IIIRIONIAAO IODA ORIIIIRR SRI OIIRRIIIGIE DONOR OOSHRIH KARRI ROSH ERRORS ERODED DORORSOIRERRIENSSISERRSOORONIIOG ELECTRONIC Number 166 May 2003 GAMING ——} MONTHLY Editor-in-Chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu * shoe@ziffdavis.com Executive Editor Mark MacDonald * mark _macdonald@ziffdavis.com Managing Editor Jennifer Tsao * jennifer_tsao@ziffdavis,com Features Editor Crispin Boyer ¢ crispin_boyer@ziffdavis.com News Editor Chris “Cj” Johnston © chris_johnston@ziffdavis.com Previews Editor joe Fielder * joe fielder@ziffdavis.com Reviews Editor Shane Bettenhausen ¢ shane _bettenhausen@ziffdavis.com Editor-at-Large Demian Linn * demian_linn@ziffdavis.com Associate Editor/Production Designer Paul Byrnes © paul_byrnes@ziffdavis.com Associate Editor Bryan Intihar * bryan_intihar@ziffdavis.com Associate Editor Shawn Elliott * shawn_elliott@ziffdavis.com Tricks Editor David Hodgson ° tricks@ziffdavis.com Art Director Monique Martinez * monique_martinez@ziffdavis.com Associate Art Director Stefan Belavy * stefan_belavy@ziffdavis.com Copy Chief Kristen Salvatore ¢ kristen_salvatore@ziffdavis.com Copy Editors Greg Ford © greg ford@ziffdavis.com Tom “T-bone” Edwards * tom_edwards@ziffdavis.com Contributors Scott Steinberg, Seanbaby, Jonathan Dudlak, Jon Gibson, Scooter Nguyen, James Mielke, Sam Kennedy, Chris Baker, Todd Zuniga, John Davison, Miguel Lopez, Greg Orlando, Ethan Einhorn, Carrie Shepherd, Casey Loe, Charles Ernst, Norm Scott, Cyril Wochok, Greg Sewart International Editor John Ricciardi Japanese Correspondent Yutaka Ohbuchi Manufacturing Director Carlos Lugo Senior Production Manager Anne Marie Miguel Art Production Manager Michele Kellogg-Manousos Production Manager Monica Brent Assistant Production Manager Teresa Newson : ss winners ae icc a cd Vice President/Game Group ; Dale Strang Editorial Director John Davison Creative Director Simon Cox Business Director Cathy Bendoff Sentor Newsstand Sales Manager Don Galen Group Circulation Director Tracy Schultz Single-Copy Sales Director Bob Kerekes Internet and Partnership Marketing Director Chris Wilkes Advertising Inquiries Contact: Game Group 101 2nd Street, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Telephone: 415-547-8783 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE NUMBER: WEBSITE: PLEASE SEND ALL SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS TO: DO NOT CONTACT THE EDITORS RE: SUB. PROBLEMS ALAN IN LI AIR HII RIOR RRO NOSE COgpNRDERIERENRERODEOI AORN ANON OHNO OHHIT en nenenoopHOODON HORI DIINO COR RR ARERR m Group Publisher Lee Uniacke 415-357-4910 * lee_uniacke@ziffdavis.com Group Associate Publisher Stan Taigen 415-357-4915 * stan_taigen@ziffdavis.com KEY ACCOUNTS WEST Regional Sales Manager Marci Yamaguchi 415-357-4944 * marci_yamaguchi@ziffdavis.com Account Executive Amy Mishra 415-547-8780 * amy_mishra@ziffdavis.com BAY AREA District Sates Representative Mary Gray 415-547-8782 * mary_gray@ziffdavis.com Account Executive Aaron Gallion 415-357-4925 * aaron_gallion@ziffdavis.com MIDWEST Regional Sales Manager Marc Callison 630-810-4095 * marc _callison@ziffdavis.com Account Executive Candace Droz 415.357-4920 * candace _droz@ziffdavis.com T Regional Sales Manager lan Sinclair 203-255-5795 ® ian_sinclair@ziffdavis.com Account Executive Mary Letson 415-357-5226 * mary_letson@ziffdavis.co SOUTHWEST . District Sales Manager Julie Knapp 310-379-4313 * julie _knapp@ziffdavis.com Account Executive Emily Olman 415-547-8781 * emily_olman@ziffdavis.com : is | Online Sales : Bill Young * 415-547-8453 Marketing Director Rey Ledda 415-547-8775 © rey_ledda@ziffdavis.com Marketing Coordinator Wayne Shiu 415-547-8248 ¢ wayne_shiu@ziffdavis.com Senior Advertising Coordinator Tipler Ubbelohde 415-357-4930 * tipler_ubbelohde@ziffdavis.com Senior Sales Assistant Kristeen Laut 415-547-8778 * kristeen_laut@ziffdavis.com Sales Assistant e Amanda Nelson 415-547-8783 * amanda_nelson@ziffdavis.com ; Founder Steve Harris : ee : CSR ERS aiaennivonsin cit ati can i 9 tombraider.com 1 a on Rate ‘New 3D Engine and character control take full advantage of the latest technology. Stealth and hand-to-hand attacks help Ns remove anyone in your path. The gritty urban underbelly of Europe offers whole new environments. A bloody crime scene. A ritual killing. A shocking pursuit of good becomes the desperate flight fromevil. Ant | if the dark forces arrayed against her believe she's incapable of the ultima about Player/character Kurtis Trent brings his we _ own distinct gameplay mechanics. to learn a painful lesson: Payback's a bitch. __ Blood . PC Violence — CD aft mn a O 3 | © 2003 Core Design Limited. Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and Core are registered trademarks of Core Design Ltd. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the Tomb Raider logo and the Core Design logo are trademarks of Core Design Ltd. Eidos Interactive an - lO Cal layS Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Computer Group of Companies. Alll rights reserved. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony bgo are trademarks of the E Fe TE NE Ne SO LNT CONTENT RATED BY sais RIVE eS, “ie DOTA AACH 4K gti ae Swabanahing.i PALADIN > 4 i? HOOPER ONEONTA II MIO OI III NAITO IIIS DIINO SOOIIIIARII IRIS HOO SOS I ERPS OODOIOOSRIDOCODORAIOESSOINOODIOOSIE | OUTRAGED LETTER OF THE MONTH Congratulations, Dameon Willich, if that is your real name. You win a copy of either NBA Street Vol. 2 (PS2) or Splinter Cell (PS2), our game of the month co-hon- orees. Or you could probably have the old copy of the D&D Monster Manual that's been lying around the office. HANDBAGS AT DAWN Regarding the “Knights of the Kitchen Table” box in EGM #163 [pg. 90]—nor- ceivable that someone reading the article could be a prospective client, | can’t let Chris Baker’s statements freaks in armor that attends Renaissance Faires,” and “guys who teach themselves to fight in their par- ents’ basements,” for example) pass without comment. While I’m glad Mr. Baker is of the opinion that we “at least know what they’re doing,” the blurb was at best condescending, and at worst, actively damaging to our pro- fessional reputation. Mr. Baker’s com- ments are uncalled for, and reflect badly on the level of professionalism at your magazine. I’m glad Mr. Baker got a “good laugh” out of our website. It is intend- ed to entertain the casual browser as well as inform prospective clients. If he had investigated further, he might have discovered that The Seattle Knights is a real theater troupe that trains professional, certified actor- combatants and stunt people, many of whom have performed stunt work in films, television, video, motion cap- mally I’d shrug it off, but since it’s con- (calling the Seattle Knights a “band of ture, and live theater. We spent years learning to safely perform our craft, and we get paid to do it. None of us taught ourselves to do this in our par- ents’ basements. I’d like to see a retraction/apology in your next letters or editorial page. Dameon Willich Director, Seattle Knights ironwolfe@seattleknights.com Sounds like someone’s historically accurate banded mail is chafing in all the wrong places. Former Previews Editor Greg Sewart added many of those comments to Chris Baker’s text, which is kind of funny when you think about it, seeing as how Sewart’s now Safely out of harm’s way, up in Canada. Have fun storming the castle! i. _2 ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Robert F. Callahan Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer Bart W, Catalane Senior Executive Vice President (Publishing Operations) Tom McGrade Executive Vice President Stephen D. Moylan Executive Vice President and Editorial Director Michael |. Miller Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary Gregory Barton Senior Vice President (Technology and Sales Operations) Jasmine Alexander Senior Vice President (Finance) Derek Irwin Senior Vice President (Circulation) Charies Mast Senior Vice President (Publishing Director, Baseline) Sloan Seymour Senior Vice President (Game Group) Dale Strang Senior Vice President (Internet) jason Young Vice President (Corporate Sales) Ken Beach Vice President (Publisher, PC Magazine) Tim Castelli Vice President (integrated Media) Charles Lee Vice President (Corporate Communications) Aimee D. Levine Vice President (Editor-in-Chief, Internet) jim Louderback Mark MacDonald: Ef Hater I’ve had faith in your magazine for a long time! I’ve read each issue front to back! | even created a Dan Hsu shrine out of extra EGM issues | had lying around! But when | saw the horrible, biased, and revolting score for Zelda by that jerk Mark MacDonald, | vomited! A 9.5? How much money did Microsoft and Sony shove into your wallet, you biased, horrible, and revolting score- giver! Ur teh making me angrie!!1! You should be fired...for your name alone! | mean c’mon, “MacDonald”? Ha! And another thing, you only gave the review five pages! Five? It deserves at least ten, or fifteen! | will now burn every single EGM | own, and I’ll never look at another one again until you apologize for every good score you gave to Xbox and PS2! You all make me sick! Jon—An ex-EGM fan MetroidHunter89@aol.com We’ve received, oh, let’s say one or two e-mails about Mark’s Zelda score. Mark responds to all the fan- boys, with signature restraint: Dear a******5, In the interests of space, allow me to point out just three of the countless holes in your “argument”: 1) When we write our reviews, we don’t consider what award a game might ultimately get (or not get) — no one even knows the other Electronic Gaming Monthly - 20 - www.e you guys some- thing | noticed -— Zero. |f| am not mistaken, Billy’s tatloosays “MAKE LOVE.” _ just thought you should know. Chad Lewis Good work, Chad, that’s some top-quali- ty sleuthing. _ Willitbea = Trivial Pursuit question in 10 years? No. Vice President (Editor-in-Chief, eWEEK) Eric Lundquist Vice President (Editorial Development) Bill Machrone Vice President (Controller) David Mullen Vice President (Human Resources) Beth Repeta Vice President (Editor-in-Chief, Baseline) Tom Steinert-Threlkeld Vice President (Internet Audience Development) Stephen Sutton Vice President (Publisher, C/O Insight) Stephen Veith Senior Director, Manufacturing Carlos Lugo Director, International Christin Lawson INTERNET ACCESS NECESSARY TO PARTICIPATE. Must be U.S. | sident at least 9 years old at time of participation. Minors under 13 must register off-line and have a parent/legal guardian provide written permis to parti ate Find Auction Points Code inside specially marked _ packages of Bagel Bites: Items for auction will be of varying values and subject to varying minimum Point bids. The sale, trading, transfer, assignment, combining, or barter of any Bagel Bites Auction Points Code packa teri or codes is prohibited and they cannot be purchased or redeemed for cash or credit. Subject to Official Rules found at www.bagelbites.com on about 12/01/02. Void where prohibited. Auction ends 4/30/03 9:00 p.m. ET. Sponsor: HJ Heinz Company, 357 Sixth Ave, Pittsburg Stati Y and the “PS” Family logo are registered trade- ©2002 H.J. Heinz | mpany, L P. Bagel Bites is a registered trademark. marks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All games featured herein are trademarked and copyrighted properties of their respective publishers and/or licensors. Sony is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation r of points, MANY WILL BID, FEW WILL WIN. ae s! or ? essons i ed boxes of | Collect the poi : : Bid to Win ck out 3) Go to hell. reviewers’ scores until they settle on their own. 2) We received your bitchy letters mid-February. The game comes out mid-March. You haven’t even played it yet. You have no idea if my score is too low, too high, or right on the money. (And by the way, it’s right on the money.) You can write EGM Letters 101 2nd Street, 8th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 E-mail: EGM@ziffdavis.com Please note: We reserve the right to edit any correspondence for clarity or space purposes. If you don’t want your name, city/state, e-mail address, or boxer/brief preference printed, better mention that somewhere. And note this, too: We also reserve the right not to edit your letters (hate mail) if leaving them in their original form will make you look silly, due to egregious grammar and spelling mistakes. maaaaaieaatieaaaia tea daaeeaadadaaaaeaiadaadaeadaiaaaaasabbasdaanaaanecmnaneannaetenessnneneionaienssennsennenntessontesztazziecaenesenetseseneseneanecietetcarcccrrcereemeese neater TE My boyfriend is a voice in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and | want everyone to look for him and run him over, beat him with a nightstick, or whatever method you prefer. He’s one of the blond guys that hang around the hotel. He has no shirt on and his swimming trunks are red. So, how i think The Bouncer (PS2) was the best game ever! You should give it a higher score. Rouse No. Some thought it was too obvious, a mere shadow of last year’s Sonic-and-Tails-in-Super-Smash-Bros. jolly jape. Some threatened to burn all future issues and cancel their subscriptions. Some lied and claimed they actually did unlock the topless mode in Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball, even though we made the whole thing up. Yep, it’s that time of year again. Liked it I'll admit it: I’m a big fan of your April Fool’s pranks, but this year’s joke was very disap- pointing. | mean, who in the world would actually believe that The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker only got a 9.5 from one of the reviewers? Next year, maybe you should try a fake nude code or something. Steve Wittkamp Very nice job on the recent issue and the joke in the back. First, you had the world believing that Sonic and Tails were in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and now you get the preteen world hot and bothered with a nude code for Xtreme Beach Boobies...er, | mean Volleyball. Within minutes of reading it | visited an online message board—all over the page, | saw top- ics of rage and frustration: “OMFG | CANT GET TEH NUDE CODE TO WORK!s!4!!1” | did laugh. Bo Hunter Cry Babies If that DOA: XBV topless code is this year’s April Fool’s joke, | am going to hunt you all down, tie you to a chair, and force you to watch me cry. For now, though, I’m off to have some private time with the ladies. Mitchiner Underhill | went out to buy DOA: XBV solely because of topless mode. You bastards lied. | followed the directions but received no due recom- pense (e.g., topless women). Now | am stuck with a lackluster game with great jiggle effects. | demand that you repay the expense of the aforementioned game and compensate me for the five hours of my life spent trying to unlock the aforementioned mode. Jason Schweitzer How dare you! How could you? That was a low blow! OK, it was - the best April Fool’s joke ever, but if you do anything like that again IL...well, just look at the pic- = ture. Catch my drift, punks? Joshua Carcamo General Pervs You know how in DOA: XBV there is the Topless mode? Well, can you please send me some screenshots of the game like that just without the stars covering all the “good stuff”? Name withheld | tried the topless cheat for DOA: XBV several times, following the directions in EGM #165 very closely, but no dice. Finally, | gave up and decided to play some Super Smash Bros. Melee, and to my surprise, Sonic and Tails jumped out topless! It was very traumatizing. Michael Barker MHC GaaifiiS WIOTILALY - 22 - WWWLCSMmMad ARES Eee OMANI AION ONIN ONE IONNIINIIS about beating him up? | would really appreciate it. Thanks. vdeogamegrl@aol.com | was just reading a recent issue of EGM, and it strikes me odd that people say “the gaming industry has matured” just because a bunch of games where you hurt things and they squirt blood have come out. How is that mature exactly? GTA games are as far from maturity as they come. Things are so parodied that they become unreal and even car- toonish! Zelda: The Wind Waker is “not grown up enough” for many gamers, and yet it’s very mature. The game is so serious that the develop- ers want you to feel the things Link feels. So please, I’d prefer if the words “gaming has matured” do not cross my eyes again. DeathBuu@aol.com Spotted Disc | dropped by my local Electronics Boutique today to pick up a couple of new games. | specifically asked for new copies of both (no one seems to under- stand that DVDs are much more sensi- tive to dirt and scratches than CDs). However, when | got home | noticed that one of them was in some kind of ghetto shrink-wrap, and was missing the security seal stickers along the sides. The disc was in obviously used shape, with little splotches and dings on the media side of the DVD. | headed back to EB and called them on it, and they exchanged the disc fora new one. | thought the whole thing was a bit odd, so | did some checking online when | got home. Apparently, most major retail chains do this—selling what they consider “good condition” used games as if they were new. Ben Lincoln EB and other retailers will reshrink- wrap returned games and sell them as new, which isn’t so bad, really. That’s probably what happened. Any retailer selling used games as new, though, is cruisin’ for a bruisin’ from the suit- wearing thugs at the Better Business Bureau. They'll mess ya up, spread- sheet style! AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE IN. “WE GUARANTEE YOU'VE NEVER IMPORTANT MILESTONE | aamcccuTA IKE IT ‘THE EVOLUTION, OF GAMING...” THE PLAYSTATION®2 GREATEST HIT IS NOW COMING TO THE XBOX™ WITH ALL NEW MULTIPLAYER MODES TOPPLE THE CORPORATION OR PREPARE FOR CHAOS AS HUNDREDS GO HEAD TO HEAD WITH UP TO 3 FRIENDS CAUSE COMPLETE MAYHEM OF PEOPLE FILL THE SCREEN - ON ALL NEW MULTIPLAYER MODES EACH CITIZEN REACTS DIFFERENTLY TO EVENTS EXCLUSIVE TO THE XBOX™ Blood and Gore Y Violence PlayStation.e VIS State of Emergency game © 2003 VIS Entertainment Pic. State of Emergency and the State of Emergency logo are trademarks of VIS Entertainment Plc. Rockstar Games and the Rockstar Games logo are registered trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, XBox and the XBox logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US and / or other countries. “MANUFACTURER'S SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE FOR BOTH XBOX™ AND PLAYSTATION® GREATEST HITS LETTERS WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM? MISSING AN ISSUE? SUBSCRIPTION DELAYED? DODGY TICKER? Don’t tell us, we’ve got games to play, words to write, and windows to stare out. Tell our subscription people—they wanna know! E-mail: subhelp@egmmag.com Phone toll-free: (800) 779-1174 Website: http://service.egmmag.com Snail mail: P.O. Box 55722; Boulder, CO 80322-5722 Getting to Know: Brett isaacoff You should designate a little section in each issue for readers to send in pic- tures and a little bio of themselves. I’ll Start ya off. Age: 15 Likes: Dir en Grey [a Japanese goth band—Google it] Dislikes: A\\ the hype Kingdom Hearts got. It’s not that great of a game! Interesting Fact: | play bagpipes. Brett Isaacoff OK, enjoy it now because we proba- bly aren’t going to do this again. The picture was just too funny. And the Dir en Grey part. And the bagpipes. | admire how you sought to support Dan Hsu’s editorial in EGM #165 witha real-life example. Despite an inter- view with “celebri- ty gamer” Vin Diesel and his appearance on the front cover, q f 3 Got some ideas about how the next-generation PlayStation, _ GameCube, or Xbox might look? We bet you do. Put pen to paper (or crayon, if you must—or Adobe Illustrator, best-case sce- nario) and send your prototype sketches by April 16, 2003 to: EGM/Next-gen Systems 101 2nd Street, 8th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 Or e-mail files to egm@ziff- davis.com, subject: Next-gen Systems. The best ones will be published! That’s it. That’s the prize. Stop reading this already. later in the issue, you said his movie was “horrible,” gave the game version of xXx a Tobie Award for “crapulence,” and likened Vin Diesel’s acting skills to those of a chair. There is no doubt left that the reviewers at EGM have com- plete journalistic freedom; | am glad my favorite magazine is not a sellout. | just won’t expect many celebrity gamer interviews anytime soon, unless it’s Elijah Wood or Keanu Reeves. David Binkley | love the cross- word puzzles | in would like to point out a glar- The uc for 35- down ys “Take _ - clock is Madden 2003” and the answer is _ “knee.” What?! Yeah...could you do us a solid? Don’t tell Vin’s people about that one. And Take a knee to turn to page 51 for some Elijah Wood stop the clock? action. By the way, Keanu Reeves When a quarter- kinda has that chair thing happen- back takes a ing, too. Mom's Pissed | couldn’t believe your Final Word in EGM #163! You think it will be five years or more until 30- to 40-year-old moms become interested in gaming? Mark says, “The systems are already in their houses for their kids...” Excuse me, but I’m a 32-year-old mother of four, and we have every new console system, including GBA. But guess what! None of my kids are old enough to play! | buy the systems and games for myself, and play them until people start throwing their hands up in dismay. And yeah, | like Animal Crossing and The Sims, but my favorite games are the ones I’m not supposed to like: World Series Baseball and NASCAR Thunder. A 30-something mom doesn’t have to be a washed-up, boring old loser. A lot of us do have our priorities straight! Don’t underestimate us—or our influ- ence on the gaming market. Heather Deshaies hea he is : oa for run aout coherent? Jason Du Has press hen ever released just a 7 the stuff he does for the Final Snap! Hey, we’re behind you 110%, but honestly, how many of your gal pals play videogames? That’s not a rhetorical question. Rim Shot DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball? More like Asleep or Awake: Xtreme Narcoleptic Boring Ball. Ha. Gillott Ba-dum, tissh! But have you tried the nude code yet? # Electronic Gaming Monthly - 24 - www.egmmag.com QUESTION What game franchise should be retired for the good of all humanity? Mega Man. |s Capcom trying to see how many prequels-to-the-sequel-side-story- spin-off-director’s-cut-remixed-editions they can make of Mega Man each month?! evil_chocolate_penguin@yahoo.com For the love of God, somebody stop Turok. These worthless pieces of crap can proba- bly be blamed for every major internation- al conflict since the franchise started. Fuzzy The Dragon Ball Z franchise must end! Not only does the show suck (weird people acting constipated and shooting farts out of their palms), but the only half-decent game they’ve made is Budokai. Zak M. For the love of Pete, the Army Men fran- chise. Send Sarge and his heroes to the grave with a tiny firecracker, sandbox-style! Alex Dugan Someone please “finish” Mortal Kombat. The novelty wore off some time ago. MK is the Police Academy of videogames. Actually, | wouldn’t mind playing a Mortal Kombat game with characters from Police Academy. Something about ripping out Steve Guttenberg’s spine appeals to me.... Babelfishg4@aol.com Zelda. Nintendo’s decline in quality games from Nintendo 64 to GameCube has become blatantly apparent. | mean, two 10s and a 9.5 just don’t cut it these days. P.S. Just kidding! Thomas Lynch No offense to Resident Evil fans, but it’s getting kind of ridiculous. It’s like they add another game to the Resident Evil series every day. Please make it stop! Mark Marchitto Definitely Tomb Raider. | think everyone has seen enough of her. And having a new black shirt and bigger boobs just isn’t cut- ting it. Sorry Lara, but you have to go. Ryan Chambers Final Fantasy. Am | the only one that doesn’t like those games? Nice hair. Evan Trask Next Month’s Question of the Moment: Well, there isn’t one...at least not yet. Question of the Moment is joining the 21st century and going online! Woo! Each month we’ll post a question on our message board (hit www.egmmag.com and you can’t miss it), and then we'll stand back as the magic happens! GameSpy 2002 PS2 Game of the Year! “A rare must own title.” -EGM, Editors Choice Gold Award “Funny, smart, richly entertaining and superbly crafted.” -OPM, 5/5 Sy “Still the Best!” -GamePro, 5/5 2002 Best Alternative Sports Game of the Year PS2, Xbox and GameCube. “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 is easily the best game in the series...” -IGN.com ® Featuring songs by N.WA., Offspring, and System of a Down. Official Strategy Guide available from Brady Games. * Online piay exclusive to 5 es PlayStation® 2 computer Ssisenis entertainment system. All new tricks - skitch behind 14 of the world's top pros New multiplayer and online modes cars, skate on moving objects, challenge you to prove including Score Challenge and and transfer over spines. your skills. Capture the Flag!’ GAME BOY ADVANCE Vicarious ayers Visions ® Compatible with PlayStation® game console and compatible with PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. B | 0 od © 1999-2003 Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Published and distributed by Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision and Pro Skater are registered trademarks and Activision 02 Comic Mischief and Sports Revolution are trademarks of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. Tony Hawk is a trademark of Tony Hawk. PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube ; _ versions developed by Neversoft Entertainment, inc. PlayStation and Game Boy Advance versions developed by Vicarious Visions inc. "PlayStation" and the “PS” Family logo Mild Ly rics are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. : — —]—_—[_—_—_—_—_ and/or other countries and are licensed under Microsoft.™, ®, Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. The ratings icon is aa ACTIVISIONO2.COM CONTENT RATED BY SU gg XSANISMMAISIAAletse | registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. f ‘ ESRB PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system screenshots shown. lai? Hl kt ity i ae ire My NAA i ia: bai Hapa Wi seat H MA Mh f a . i ‘ 5 ies i) ae 5 RY i Bea My : i @ i Aaa Meta: si es re ee aa (can Ha Hay a wi re i aa Aven iit i ie ain saa iin Hf Anal Y My yo : ‘Look through the eyes of the soldier of the future. — RIRS rRE OD ROCK. Pe Sere WOOD S3JESEA mmm 4 IAI}S Se ee ee ae --qeams e yeaug 03 Ou Ruy ‘way3 do7s 07 NO Guipuas au,am pue Ruojoo verwey uno unJuano aney SJapenu! vally “3! Pas OF Guo au,noh puy “We FYB wNOR oWU! yINg jeuasue jeaVeYysawog B pUe BUIUIeI, 5919923 jeaIpes YIM Rw4e veW-auo y * nah Ss pa 305 Jeu “‘peaysul §joOgo0 puss ¢é7e JOYS Gulag jo pay 1a 8] suolysanb HSH “JSJig SUGI|E ase 2.25 = , : kee = —- ‘as eaaoaials PEBAIGEE) recites zi Blood Violence CONTENT RATED BY www.wolverinesrevenge.com ESRB Confront your past at the Weapon X facility, using your claws, combo attacks and accelerated healing powers in action and stealth scenarios. PREPARE Enter the Realm of Senses, using your heightened mutant senses to see scent particles and detect heat when tracking enemies. Face off with Sabretooth,’ Wendigo;’ Juggernaut™ and Magneto;” while Professor X”" and Beast™ help you search for an antidote to save your life. IT’s THE ADVENTURE OF YOUR LIFE. PlayStation.e | 7< S xBox Hi NVENBS Screenshots taken from PlayStation’°2 computer entertainment system gameplay. activision.com X2 Motion Picture Elements: © 2003 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. MARVEL, X-MEN, Wolverine and all Marvel characters and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc., and are used with permission. Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved. www.marvel.com. Game code © 2003 Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Published and distributed by Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. Licensed for play on the PlayStation”2 computer entertainment systems with the NTSC U/C designation only. “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, ®, Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo, © 2001 Nintendo. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. ry TG MGM EN Mild Language Violence Tactical Action Without Equal! : 2° Play over 50 stages across 17 unique maps 2 Giant siege engines: battering rams, catapults, and bridge layers 6 Fierce new one-on-one duels 9¢ Create your own officers and bodyguards £ New character-specific special attacks 2° Brand-new Weapon Upgrade System 2° Kingdom Play! Select a new general for each stage in Musou Mode 2° 3 brand-new officers for over 40 playable characters MARCH 2003 _ The Warriors Return, and the Battle Rages On... ae DW3 Play XTREME LEGENDS by itself or with Dynasty Warriors 3 to power up the original with REMIX!!! new Xt features. Memory Card data is fully compatible between both games. yi nals’ AVAILABLE Now Ne A oa — rt Will Lara Croft's first P52 game resurrect Tomb Raider fervor? We dig up what's hew...and whether It's really improved t was an unlikely scene for a murder con- Spiracy, especially since the victim was a celebrity. But deadly deeds were planned at 2 Roundhouse Road, an ordinary brick-and- glass building within an office park nestled in the sparse English countryside. Here, inside a dim but airy room coated with tacked-up story- boards and filled with humming workstations, more than a dozen people plotted the assassi- nation of the woman who paid their salaries. They were going to kill Lara Croft. That was three years ago, when artists, pro- grammers, and designers for Tomb Raider developer Core Design crafted the series’ fourth game, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. At the time, the team was winding down the PS1 Raider games and prepping Lady Croft for her next-generation PlayStation 2 adventures, amidst grumbles that each new installment— churned out every year since the series’ 1996 debut—was too much of the same ol’ shoot- and-climb formula. “Everybody asked for more interaction with the environment and its char- Electronic Gaming Monthly acters...but Core never delivered,” says Luis Cunha, head of Lara mega-fan site The Croft Times (www.cubeit.com/ctimes). So Core ended The Last Revelation by crush- ing our heroine under rubble, leaving fans to wonder if she was a goner. This wasn’t a heat- of-the-moment murder; it was premeditated. “It gave a clean break, so we could start [her PS2] game fresh,” says Core Development Director - $2 - www.egmmag.com Adrian Smith. “We didn’t want to have to go into much history and what she’d been doing.” Now, on the eve of its mid-May PS2 debut, the Tomb Raider franchise has reached a turn- ing point: Lara’s new game, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, will either heat her series up again or lack the necessary spark. All long- in-the-tooth franchises face this situation. Just ask Crash Bandicoot. But the folks at Core know the score. “Five games in five years is a lot,” Smith says. “We had a load of new ideas that we wanted to bring in.” Tales from the bible Those ideas have waited for Angel of Darkness, Core’s first Tomb Raider game that’s not hitting a mere year after the last one. With this extra breathing room to plan things properly, Core is creating one giant story and keeping it all ina massive three-folder series bible. “It’s similar to the X-Files,” Smith says, “where you know Tomb Raider: 9.2 Tomb Raider II: 9 , Tomb Raider III: 6.8 |\—+-— Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation: 5.1 \ I\ —Tomb Raider: Chronicles: 4.3 *PSi1 versions only KUNG FU What’s new: When Lara kicks off her quest, her big guns are nowhere in sight (insert easy joke about what’s holstered in her sports bra); she has to make due with punches, kicks, and combos that’ll have thugs spitting teeth. But is it improved? The hand-to-hand antics at the start of the game are a novelty—we spent most of the time sneaking past enemies. Once we found Lara’s guns, we preferred slinging hot lead rather than her dukes. CHATTY CROFT What’s new: Lara now talks tough with characters for items and info. These chats unfold via dialogue choices. But is it improved? The version we played still wasn’t populated with talk- ative folks, but we’re told the streets of Paris will teem with clue-givers. STEALTH FIGHTER What’s new: As a wanted woman on the lam in Paris, Lara’ll have to make with the sneaky-sneaky. Tapping the L2 button snaps her into Stealth mode, a hunched-over stance that lets her skulk behind bad guys. Jab Circle near a wall, and she'll cling to it, then slink along and peer around corners. Lara can also sneak up on enemies and snap their necks. Way to rebalance that karma, accused murderess. But is it improved? Stealth is more than a gimmick this time—it’s crucial. Many puzzles involve figuring out ways to get from point A to B unseen, although we still saw plenty of old-fashioned switch puzzles. Silla aie tid Mali the Las epn een Doge WALK THIS WAY What’s new: Lara doesn’t walk like a remote-control 60s robot any- more. Now, you just tilt the analog stick in the direc- tion you want her to mosey. SaNGiiiatiohanasadadste velar “This is the first new game since the original.” there’s this big sinister plot, and each chapter affects it and gets closer to revealing it. So there will be a natural ending to this game, but it’s also the beginning of the big story.” Angel of Darkness’ shorter-than-usual 12- hour adventure begins with Lara very much alive, but in a black mood and unwilling to dis- cuss what she’s been up to since her brush with death. Someone has framed her for the — Core Development Director Adrian Smith murder of her mentor, Werner Van Croy, and all she knows is Croy’s death has something to do with a conspiracy to revive an ancient race. Sounds like another day at the office for Lara, right? We can assure you that tombs will be raided during Lara’s adventures through Prague, deep under the Louvre, and into the bowels of a freaked-out lab. But, Smith says, “It certainly won’t be the same old thing.” But is it improved? The control setup was a messy and cumbersome work-in-progress in the version we tried, but Core is still tweaking the interface. Lara’s short-term fate, not going anywhere. Core is already deep into development of Angel of Darkness’ sequel. And Lara’s sta- tus as a digital-dan- ger-girl icon hasn’t Slacked with the Sales of her games. She’s still landing on maga- zine covers, and Lara’s alive...but well? What it will be is a larger blend of gameplay styles than past Raider titles, melded to a new control setup that pulls away from the clunky grid-based movement system the CHARACTER BUILDING What’s new: Chalk it up to a bum knee from too many two-story falls: Lara isn’t her usual super self at the start of Darkness. She can’t leap as far or dangle from ledges forever. Instead, you must build up her abilities by finding power-ups, which come in two brawn-boosting flavors: upper body and lower body. But is it improved? Core tells us the game will fully soup up Lara about halfway through her adventure, whether you find all the power-ups or not. So we won- der, “What’s the point?” In the mean- time, let’s flex... too. You don’t even need BELOW THE WAIST Beyond an extra boost to her leaps and vertical jumps, lower-body power-ups will also allow Lara to kick down doors and find secret areas. series had used. But even if its improved features fall flat (and we'll reserve judgment until we review the game next issue), at least, is certain: She’s ABOVE THE WAIST Beef up Lara’s upper bod, and she’ll shimmy along longer ledges — great for finding alternate routes above prowling guards. She’ll also slide down zip lines and clutch sheer rock walls. Oh, and her chest jiggles now, TOMB RAIDER SERIES SALES (ON PS1 Tomb Raig er: 1.9 million units Tomb Raider Il: 1.8 million units Tomb Raider Ill: 1.3 million units Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation: 900,000 units - Tomb Raider: Chronicles: 300,000 units Source: NPD Funworld TRSTS Service don’t forget that Angelina Jolie is reprising her role as Lady Croft for this summer’s (hopefully better) Tomb Raider movie sequel, which does not tie in with Angel of Darkness. But Lara’s fortunes began with videogames, which makes her rebirth on PS2 that much more crucial to Core and publisher Eidos. They’ve already killed her once. Can they bring her back to life? “| don’t think we’ll ever beat what we did on the original game as far as creating that sort of buzz,” Smith says. “But this game is infinitely different from any other Tomb Raider games, and | truly believe that it is what’s need- ed on PS2.” —Crispin Boyer LARRY CROFT What’s new: Kurtis Trent—who’s out to avenge the death of his pop—is Lara’s first-ever playable ally. “He’s the charac- ter who’s watching from afar,” says Core’s Adrian Smith. “He’s often ahead of you and where you want to be, or he has something you want.” The two fight side by side in one scene, and you spend the last fifth of the game in his shoes. But is it improved? Don’t expect to strain Kurtis’ brain: His levels focus on action, gunplay, and telekinetic combat with his bladed Frisbee. If nothing else, his survival-horror-style trek through a spooky nuthouse will give you a nice break from the all the tomb raidin’. a power-up for that. Hunting Season Begins... GAMECUBE. May 2003 MATURE , Blood Strong Sexual Content Ee|LDoOS Violence hee -{ \. lo-Interactive hitman2.com — CONTENT RATED BY ESRB Hitman 2: © 2002 IO Interactive A/S. Developed by IO Interactive A/S. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a trademark of Eidos Interactive. 10 Interactive and the IO Interactive logo are trademarks of 10 Interactive A/S. TM, ® and Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2001 Nintendo. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other titles, trademarks, characters, and regis- trations are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. EGM Gold Award was received in the December 2002 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly for Hitman 2 on PS2. Electronic Gaming Monthly Gold Editors’ Choice Award Logo is a trademark of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. Used under license. RABAT} A009 | Take it to the street and experience the rush of the first cell-shaded online racer for the ae Ph . 4 _ PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. Build the ultimate dream car and go | BROADBAND ONLY head-to-head against eight online players in your tricked-out, world-class ride. Feel the pulse of the street as you add sonic screen effects and digital music to your own instant replay footage. Racing fans get set and Go! Auto Modellista. EVERYONE Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 © CAPCOM CO., LTD. 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. © CAPCOM U.S.A., INC. 2002, 2003. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CAPCOM and the CAPCOM LOGO are registered trademarks of CAP- for rating information COM CO., LTD. “auto modellista” is a trademark of CAPCOM CO., LTD. “PlayStation"and the "PS" Family logo and DUALSHOCK are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Online plays requires internet connection and Network Adaptor for PlayStation 2 (sold separately). The online icon is a trademark of Sony Computer CONTENT RATED BY ESRB Race and chat with up to 8 OPPONENTS ONLINE Edit your own INSTANT REPLAY Add music and screen effects... “nh : Fi hil wa pee a atl # Race REAL CARS from lap 1/1 = i Honda, Toyota, Mazda, istal time 8 00°46 mick ; tap LATTE. juasiaat CUSTOMIZE your tires, suspension, turbine kit, transmission and more. ros ao erons wor BEST GAMES SNF PlayStation.e ©? \nn oe - & 6 os Entertainment America Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. ALL MANUFACTURERS, CARS, CAR PARTS, NAMES, BRANDS AND ASSOCIATED IMAGERY FEATURED IN THIS GAME ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS INCLUDING TRADEMARKS AND/OR COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FIGHTERS ALL THE REALISTIC », Featuring: Stemm, Scars of Life and more... www.lfe.ty | ‘.steiteoan.con REAL AGCHTERS. Www.tik-mediactive.com s aa Utimate Fighting Championship, UFG ond the UFC Logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Zoffa, LIC ia the US oad other countries, ond are sed ender Hcense. @ 2003 TOK Mediactive, lnc. All Rights Reserved. PUBLISHED AND DISTRIBUTED BY TOK MEDIACNIVE, INC os j ff, aeihati MAT [ip 72 TTL. fy q Hii, Hi HATE BeGASE {A aliioadidah SUH eer teeenet Ay. ee CARLOS NEWTON FRANK SHAMROCK i * « =. = he p ¥ ee aa The ratings icon is a registered trodemark of the lateractive Digital Software Association. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation ia the U.S. and/or ia other countries and are used vader license from Microsoft. It's a phone! it's a console! It’s expensive as hell! Finnish mobile-phone giant Nokia used a chilly | Raider were pushing 3D graphics akin to early Well, while N-Gage will launch in the United February evening in London to unveil its stab PlayStation 1 titles—pretty impressive for a States and Europe by Christmas, no price at handheld gaming, the N-Gage. Combining handheld. Very impressive for a handheld has been set. And unfortunately, Nokia’s the capabilities of a well-stocked cell phone that’s also a phone. Games will be sold sepa- only statement on the matter is “definitely less and a gaming console, N-Gage’s communica- rately on cartridges. than $540!” Phew, thanks for narrowing it down. tion features appear to be its biggest draw. Now, how much would you pay for all this? —Ravi Hiranand Imagine playing games with your friends either locally via Bluetooth (a wireless network technology that connects devices up to 100 feet away) or from anywhere over cellular net- works—and then calling them afterward to | F are Several big names plan to make games for N-Gage. Here’s a list of who’s involved and a ged $4 % 3 di gloat over your win! How much would you pay what you can expect from them when the device debuts later this year. for a device that does that and plays MP3s and is aradio? $100? $200? Whoa, ho, Nokia— Virtually Board Taito— Taito Memories, Activision—No titles ho...don’t answer yet. Snowboarding 2, Kart Super Puzzle Bobble announced yet, but we’d We always Say it’s all about the games, and Racing, Bounce THQ— MotoGP, Red guess a certain skate- Nokia rolled out a few big guns, with Sega Sega— Sonic N, Super Faction, MLBPA Baseball boarding game involving headlining the short but sweet list (see side- Monkey Ball, Puyo Puyo, £idos— Tomb Raider, the words “Tony” and bar). Despite being in development for only a Sega Rally, Virtua Tennis Pandemonium “Hawk” is in the works. month, demos for Pandemonium and Tomb Shining Light on the Phantom RAMPANT HOANERY When we heard about start-up Infinium Labs’ —wouldn’t return our calls or e-mails, the word ite ¥ The videogame plan to launch an ultrapowerful broadband- “infinium” is already trademarked by another § media isa only console called Phantom (www.phan- company, and Infinium Labs’ listed address is aa ay pretty juicy tom.net) —by this Christmas—the flimflam actually a Mail Boxes Etc. in Florida. But after ga. : 4" target for meter hit 10 and exploded. We were con- much digging, we can confirm that the ot ® hoaxers, what vinced it was ahoax; Phantom is real—real ambitious and real i’ ie te “* | with all the the company unlikely to succeed, but real nonetheless. | i A # online news The plan is for Phantom to play regular PC NO WAY, . 7 a sites run by games preloaded on the system, downloaded NOT IN MY HOME guys who from Infinium’s servers, or on a pay-per-play TOUGH GUY. | | never leave the basis via a subscription service. Think of it as ™ house except DirectTV for gamers. to attend cosplay conventions. Parsons f Good luck, Infinium Labs, or whatever your School of Design student David Yoo oo) name is once the lawyers get done with you. perpetrated one recent, wildly success- ful hoax as a class project—MAVAV.org (Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence). At its height, MAVAV’s vitriolic antivideogame ranting attract- ed more than 60,000 hits per day and ROUGH* PHANTOM SPECS Windows XPe operating system Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound 2.0+GHz Intel or AMD CPU S$600+ retail price 256-512MB DDR RAM inspired thousands of sputtering e- High-capacity hard drive (Source: Infinium Labs’ VP of Retail Sales mailed rebuttals from videogame fans Wireless network card Jason McDermott’s now-deleted posts on worldwide — many of which were cc’d to Wireless controller, keyboard, mouse Internet message boards.) EGM’s own inbox. Thanks for that. * so very, very rough 1 Cobalt #232807-8 $99.99 #233034-8 $39.99 be - GAME BOY PLAYER AVAILABLE 5/27! “AVAILABLE 4/8! \ \ ele, INN j yu a yaa A \ , ANS \ AAS ay a Sas YR 2 #4233037: $29.99 #233035-5 $29.99 aCe P * > Everyone th es e-READER BUNDLES $39.99 2 DONKEY KONG #226755-/ AVAILABLE 5/2 Call 1-800-800-5166 for a store near you. PORTO OL OREO RE LEIDEN I ROOD CEST TON ERB CORRODE RODE DERE COE BT RP DEIR When box art must be ridiculed.... This month: Sorcerer’s Maze (XS Games) ¢ “Look deeply into my beard, children,” says the wizened mage on the cover of this $10 PS: title, “and | will explain to you the mysteries of dragon eggs, ancient elf lords, and generic stock imagery for cheapo games that have nothing to do with sorcerers or mazes or even kids with transistor radios and pullover sweaters.” SARNIA ISEB SEE ED IIE PIED BEES EEE EE IE CETTE EEE EEE TESTES TREN SRNR APARNA BAAN SSSA AAD SAN RC REISSUE PE ERENT PELE PTET OBIE STET RE FETE TUTE TOBE RITE SIUSSRETOERE Microsoft Recalls If you’re one of the few who bought Kakuto Chojin, our condolences: You’re the owner of one crappy 3D fighter (Microsoft’s first for Xbox). But your luck may be changing. Now, it seems you're the owner of a crappy 3D fighter that’s also a collector’s item. Microsoft pulled Kakuto from shelves in early February after it discovered that a background music track included an inappropriate verse from the Quran, the Muslim holy book. The company has since destroyed all affected copies. (A version of the game without the prayer is now available, but we doubt it will do anything to help Kakuto Chojin’s already lackluster sales.) A similar recall occurred in Japan. So, what was the offensive chanting about? And is it worth all the fuss? We went to the Muslim Educational Trust in Portland, Oregon, and spoke to Assistant Director Gail Ramjan and Principal Wafa Subhi to find out. “It is inappropriate use of the Quran,” remarks Ramjan, noting in the character Asad’s ending theme repeated and overlapping use of the phrases “Qul Hewa Allah Hoo Ahad” (“He is Allah, The One”) and “Allah Hoo Samad” (“Allah, the Eternal, Absolute”) —recitals taken from the 112th chapter of the holy book. And it doesn’t seem like an accident. “‘Asad’ means ‘Lion’ in Arabic,” Subhi tells us. “Some of [the Prophet] Mohammed’s companions were known as ‘Lions of the Desert,’” adds Ramjan. Not only that, but the character’s bio also says he comes from Somalia, a country with a 99 percent Muslim population. This, along with the Quran recitation, seems to our experts to signify a badly chosen mix of fantasy with holy narration. Ramjan and Subhi tell us, “[Microsoft] did the right thing [by pulling the game. The recitation] doesn’t belong in this format.” —David S.J. Hodgson tournament patted spectac- ularly with Asad's vietory. ~- Always a spir- itual man, he continued devoting himself to obeying his fate. he went hack to his homeland, a village. co! ong Sure there’s been a lot of talk about videogames causing violence, but can they prevent it, too? If we’re at war by the time you read this, the answer is no, but at least Mikel Reparaz tried. Reparaz launched a successful online money- raising campaign to buy George Bush a PS2, complete with SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, Conflict: Desert Storm, and an extra controller for Dick Cheney, in hopes that “you [Bush] accept these gifts and use them, rather than the lives of lraqi civilians and our U.S. servicemen, to fulfill any militaristic fantasies.” No thank-you notes on White House stationery as of yet, but check evilninja.net/buybush for updates. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 42 - www.egmmag.com "..Other pure wrestling games tend to have matches that drag on and on and on. it becomes a long, drawn-out experience.” — Def Jam Producer Josh Holmes eM SIHPER aia i i ya = efore Def Jam: Vendetta arrived, wrestling games were about men in tights beating each other senseless for hours. But EA has broken free of those con- Straints to deliver a game that, like NBA Street and SSX, has genre-busting, universal appeal, with help from some of hip-hop’s biggest stars. We sat down with Vendetta Producer Josh Holmes to talk about wrestling game conventions (and the breaking thereof), working with hip-hop’s top names, and what had to be cut to get a Teen rating. EGM: Now that the game’s done, what do you think of the finished product? Josh Holmes: As a team, we’re very happy with the result and very proud of what we accomplished. In a lot of ways, it’s more than we hoped. EGM: But let’s say you had another month for development. What do you wish you could tweak? JH: If we had some more time, there would’ve been some additional music. One of the big From that expression, it looks like he’s getting the foot-tickling of his life. challenges with this game was the music licensing. Hip-hop is a notoriously difficult you usually have a number of samples you THE WRATH OF 100 B*TCHES genre to license music for. We felt it was need to clear as well. important to have a good mix of old-school hits and new breaking music, and within that, | EGM: There are 4o characters to choose from in Versus mode, but only four that you can play with through the Story mode. Don’t take this the wrong way...but what were you thinking? JH: It was just a creative choice we made. We wanted to make a clear distinction between the heroes you’re able to develop and the opponents you face. The heroes are vessels you can put yourself into and experience the Story through their eyes. It would’ve been cool to allow people to go through Story mode with the other characters, but it would’ve changed the experience a lot. Since the Def Jam artists worked so closely with EA Canada to put their like- nesses into Vendetta, we had to ask: Did anyone want to have some kind of really crazy super move or be super- powerful to the point where you were like, “Uhhh...no?” “Oh yeah,” Producer John Holmes tells us. “Redman had this crazy move where once he got his oppo- nent down, he wanted ‘100 b*tches to come from the audience and kick the guy in the nuts.’ And we were like, ‘Yeah, _™ yeah...we don’t know ¥ ey) if we’re going to be EGM: Vendetta’s missing a few conven- —— NS — apiete ath tional wrestling game standards, like Vy \ | % move t customizable multiplayer matches and ove that \ @ ' : "i 1 \ stays true to a Create-a-Wrestler feature. Why did ‘ 4 the spirit of ' what he was — asking for, but they get the ax? NS \ within the techni- 2 {cal constraints of : —~. @ » the game.” JH: In creating the game, we wanted more of an arcade-style, quick pick-up-and-play experience with a lot of depth in its own right. Part of that simplicity is keeping That back beat really gets ya in the kidneys. the number of options to a minimum and erg F : om sae RA 1, | * Riertronic foaming AAnnthiy - 44 » TAMARA Gor SAECO ric Ud MINS MVGOTTLEELY VV VY VV OL TF focusing on creating a really well-tuned, bal- anced, and polished gameplay experience. It’s very similar to the approach we took with NBA Street (another EA Big title). EGM: In our experience, the K.0. system (where you can defeat an opponent with a super move without pinning him/her) really helps keep matches to a realistic length. Was that the goal? JH: When we came onto the project, we had Aki [WWF No Mercy for Nintendo 64, Ultimate Muscle for GC] as the world’s greatest wrestling developer—| think that’s pretty widely acknowledged. And we wanted to blend the gameplay into a hybrid of wrestling and fight- ing. Part of that was having a really intense feel to the matches, where they had a natural pro- gression, so the intensity built to a climax and there was an end in sight. The K.O. system came from brainstorming around that. I’ve found that other pure wrestling games tend to have matches that drag on and on and on. It becomes a long, drawn-out experience. EGM: It’s gotta be a challenge to put togeth- er a T-rated game with artists who use very M-rated lyrics. Did you have to cut anything? JH: We decided early on we wanted to deliver a game that was suitable for a T audience. We worked closely with the ESRB throughout the process, running ideas by them and getting DETRUSOR ZY RS BUST IT OPEN Still got a couple ‘?’ slots in Vendetta’s Versus mode Character Select screen? To unlock those, finish the Story mode with all four heroes. The last few Easter Eggs are bouncers from the Story mode’s cine- mas and an alternate costume for D-Mob. aR RE nari RORORERORR their feedback on what they thought was appro- priate. In the end, there were some minor things. We had to make a couple modifications to moves that were incredibly violent. EGM: Can you give us an example of a move you had to tone down? JH: One of the girls who has high heels, Tai, had a special move where she would grab the legs of her opponent and grind the back of her heel into the upturned crotch of her foe, which was incredibly painful-looking, especially with the sound. | think it would’ve been OK against most of the male characters, but when you got her doing that to a female who’s wearing a Skirt, she was grinding her high heel into the girl’s panties...and it didn’t really work. So, that’s one minor example. We tweaked the move, and it didn’t affect much. It’s still a really cool, really painful move. EGM: That hurts just to hear about. So, what was it like working with Def Jam guys like Redman and Method Man? Did they show up all bright-eyed and bushy- tailed in the morning? JH: It was actually a really great experience. Red and Meth were really enthusiastic; they’re huge gamers. In particular, Method Man has been there for us every step of the way. Ever since he saw the game, he’s been hyped about it. He’s been playing it and giving us et ortrar te ke “yy 3 no & fers nt l, i Ty 46 ~ CARARAS OCOMMmnaa cram LO Uaaiiie PVRREELE Ly ~ yi} Vet i SERS SSSA B Ta IO PSDP SSS eS Sn PRO STRATEGIES, YO If you’ve been playin’ Vendetta for a while, you probably have your own strategy for winning. But we thought we’d ask producer Josh Holmes for his advice on... The best fighter in the game: “It’s gotta be D-Mob. He’s pretty stacked. All of his attributes are pretty maxed out, and there’s nobody who can hold their own against him...except maybe DMX.” His personal strategies for winning: “1 usually go for the K.O.; I’m not a pin guy. Usually, what I’ll do is get my first Blazing move, pull that one off, and maybe do a couple of Turnbuckle moves to take down my opponent’s health before he can recover from the special. Then I’tl build up a second Blazing and keep his health near the Danger zone, send him into Danger, and K.O. him. But when you’re playing against an expert, it becomes harder to pull off a strategy like that.” feedback, and giving us direction since day one on how he wants to appear and how he wants to fight. EGM: Finally, we gotta ask: Are you thinking about a sequel yet? JH: Not yet. We’re just really curious to see how this one does. We’re really happy with how it turned out, and the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. If it’s successful and people enjoy the game, we'd be stupid not to come up with some sort of a sequel. But we’re in a wait-and-see mode right now. New Excuse To Talk About Halo 2 Normally, we wouldn’t run a huge screenshot of some dude standing in a big metal room. But that’s not just any dude—that’s the Master Chief. And that’s not just any big metal room— that’s a big metal room from Halo 2, the follow-up to the best-selling Xbox first- person shooter that was EGM’s 2001 Game of the Year. Hot dog! So, yeah, we admit it, we’re hungry for anything new on this game, and we’re probably not alone. Since it’s not due out until this fall and developer Bungie is working on it in virtual isolation, even this some- what plain new screenshot got us excit- ed. Here are a few facts we already know about Halo 2, plus some idle, pathetic speculation: SPORADIC OMRON ON eandannnabeamanaaaneaesnteeeneeeee eee EE EEE EERE RRR GANGSTA LEAN: Looks like the Master Chief is leaning around the corner here, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? (Work with us here people.) That’s one of his new abilities—he can peek around corners to see what he’s up against before entering a room. Other new moves include a full sprint and melee-attack combos. 2B: NEW GUN: More accurate but with a lower firing rate than its Halo equivalent, the new assault rifle also includes a scope for longer-range sniping. www.egmmag.com MYSTERY SHAPE: Halo 2 uses new shadowing techniques to make everything look even more realis- tic, which makes us wonder: What’s casting this shadow? Looks like a new vehicle of some sort! (Does too! Shut up!) Bungie has promised | plenty of new rides, including troop | transports, an ATV four-wheeler, © and the alien equivalent of a jeep. — IMPROVED METAL GRATE: Halo 2 will contain more than twice the amount of grating as the first Halo. OK, maybe not. GAMECUBE ‘SPURIG Shy < YOSOINA {0 SYJLU SHPLWIAPL} ae 0 HES ¢ AN ( Duy ‘SaLEdQd WEN FOZ G' du] * JUasl aAngadsal au} pue “du id YON iG Aad : | Jayjo p payyBusAdoo ‘sysewapes) ale HU} UE 40 HIENOD IBUJO 10/DuR “Sf BU} Ui “Ouy Spi yur ) SHJPLUAPE) ale ODO] IG SLYOdS WF Su) PUP OIG SLUGS YS ‘Son | EVERYONE NS Ss Er RRR is worth your $50? Trust us, you’ll only need one. We wade through the hype so you can feel like a Hall of Famer. — Todd Zuniga a With the season in full swing, which of the six baseball games Li] Franchise It Resembies Model Player Game Cover Star Cred We Hate Motels? 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When you get the itch, punch in these codes and really get into the game. Check out www.getinfothegame.com {0 download a coupon for $5 off any game on this card. While you're there, get the scoop on all the hottest games and accessories. BRUTE FORGE GET INTO THE GAME.COM ©2003 Target Stores. The Bullseye Design is a registered trademark of Target Brands, Inc. All rights reserved. PRIMAL : PLAYSTATION 2, GAMECUBE PLAYSTATION 2 TEAMMATE TIPS SUPER MOVES . FIGHTING TIPS Tex When first start- maneuvers over and over again, : = Te : Hid ‘ i iat paler Tex is your inga match, use _—the crowd gets bored, and you is ie ee . silane : gh rhe fle biggest hitter, quick strikes and actually lose: momentum in the i ' ? ndle aes etc tf radia i the one most soft grapples to —smatcli. It's when you add kicks hang ee When she mies, as their health will regen- able to deal damage and take a hit. He's the guy to efficient- ly clear out a lot of enemies. Tex, especially when he acti- vates his Berserk mode with the right team backup, can bash his way through most obstacles. Brutus Brutus is your best all-around Operative. He likes the same weapons as Tex, but he's faster than Tex, and can quickly close in on enemies and escape easily. His senses will allow him to pick up enemy contacts where your other Operatives see only scenery. , Hawk Hawk is all about stealth. Her special attack mode, her elusive- ness, her silent approaches, everything about her is geared toward stealth. Naturally, the best time to use Hawk is on a delicate mission when you need to stay out of sight. Flint Flint is a special case. While her weapons aren't useful in a run- ning fight, when she can plan her shots, there is no one better to get rid of enemies. While Hawk is your designated scout, Flint's acute vision allows her to look ahead. She's not as stealthy or quiet, but Flint's who you want spotting terrain for you before you charge. weaken your opponent. These moves are easy to pull off and hard for your opponent to counter or reverse. Once you've gained the upper-hand, move on to hard . grapples to get momentum on your side. When it comes to momentum, it's not just about strong moves, it's about variety. If you keep pulling off the same and slams to your, suplexes and piledrivers that the match really begins to turn in your favor. The faster your momentum meter fills up, the faster you can finish off your opponent with one of the lethal Blazin’ moves in your arse- nal. encounters an enemy, press [L1] to initiate combat. Pressing and holding [R1] blocks an enemy's attack. Pressing [L1] executes a spinning attack (quite helpful when surrounded), and pressing [L2] or [R2] executes left and right attacks. e By pressing the various attack- buttons in different orders, Jen can pull off damaging combo attacks. Use [R1] for special attacks by pressing it while mov- ing the left analog stick. During a battle against multiple enemies, press [X] to cycle through and lock onto different opponents. ¢ When fighting tougher enemies, Jen will need to execute super attacks, which are also Finishing Moves, by simultaneously press- ing [L2] and [R2]. These attacks take off more damage, but are EXCERPTS FROM FULL PRIMA GAMES STRATEGY GUIDES. erate if they are not eliminated this way. ¢ Jen taunts enemies by pressing Triangle, as well as disengage combat by pressing Square. Screw this ring crap- let's go play some Tony Hawk. New Line Cinema Celebrities are people, too—just incredibly rich ones. You like games; they like games. Each issue, we talk to a different celebrity who plays games, is involved in their cre- ation, or is lucky enough to be in one. Although he’s a fantasy expert, Lord of the Rings trilogy star Elijah Wood is strict- ly down to earth about his games. Given all the time the guy’s spent on the LOTR set cooling his fuzzy feet in a trailer, he should be; homeboy’s got a lot of free hours to kill in front of his favorite console. We couldn’t resist prodding the Hobbit heartthrob to spill the beans about his favorite title and the lengths to which Electronic Arts went to make its LOTR game memorable. EGM: Must be tough sitting around making epic films. How do you relieve all that stress? Videogames. | love ’em to death. Sean [Astin, who plays Sam] and | played tons of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 on the Lord of the Rings set. That game is amaz- ing. We couldn’t keep our Hobbit hands off it. EGM: What makes you think your game, The Two Towers, is anywhere near as addictive? Have you seen the graphics? |’m real- ly impressed with the way the game Ae EDIE I ICO O HOPI DIT IEPO DSTO AION FLOP OIA LALA ELE PIRES R NER ERE DAL EES AEE PRESSE ERE AS MERE EEL AOR R RIEL EPO ARAPRL BARA EEG RE DE EE turned out. Come on—tell me you don’t see the attraction. EGM: Graphically, sure, but what about the gameplay? Hey, I’m a gamer, too. All right, so The Lord of the Rings is a hack-and-slash title, and |’ll admit there’s not much to it. But Electronic Arts did a great job with what they were given. EGM: That’s better than doing a crappy job with what they were given — still sounds like a backhanded compliment, though. Look. We all know movie games never turn out right. It’s always a rush job to have the game’s launch coincide with the release of the film, and there’s not enough real art or attention to detail put into the process. Just know that the developers worked really hard to create something that was true to the film and maintained its integrity. EGM: What was it like hearing your voice emanating from a PlayStation 2? Pretty cool, actually. Doing voiceover work was a lot of fun and made the title sound so much better. It’s not as freaky as you'd think, and it was a good way to get my big, hairy foot in the door of the world of gaming, so to speak. EGM: So a sequel’s not out of the question? Depends on the particular project. I’m looking for more mature roles now, movie or game. If there’s a quality script attached, no matter how big or small the project, then | want to be a part of it. EGM: Now casting: Lord of the Bedsprings: Elven Girls Gone Wild! Thanks, but I’ll have to pass on that one. 51. “PROYAS —LIMAN RATNER A. SLY COOPER B. METROID PRIME C. SHINOBI Metal Gear Solid is coming to the GameCube! Yes, you read that right. In an interview, Nintendo bigwig Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that the big N and Konami are working on a new edition in the iiber-popular stealth-action series. No release date or other details were announced, but that shouldn’t stop Cube owners from dancing in the street. R-Type Final, the [| latest ina line of | ~ beloved shoot- i ers, is due this June in Japan for PlayStation 2.A U.S. date is TBD. Is the future of after-market GBA lishts still glowing? While most gamers are giddy that Nintendo released its Game Boy Advance SP on March 23 (with a built-in light so they can play without donning a miner’s headlamp), at least one entrepreneurial GBA fan has every reason not to celebrate. He’s Adam Curtis, president of Triton Labs (www.tritonlabs.com) and designer of the Afterburner, GBA’s first internal-light kit. Demand for his $25 doodad, which must be installed in the GBA via a delicate operation we detailed back in EGM #157, has been high: 75,000 of the lights (which can also be bought preinstalled) have shipped since the kit launched last fall. But now that Nintendo has unveiled its GBA SP—with so-called front-light technology that’s the same as the Afterburner’s (Curtis jokingly says he has no plans to sue) —you’d figure the kit’s prospects might dim. Curtis disagrees. “We are confident that significant demand will remain for the Afterburner for at least another year,” Curtis says. “There will be those who pre- fer to install an Afterburner in their current sys- tem rather than spend $100 for the new GBA. And from the pictures I’ve seen, gamers with large hands will be much more comfortable with the horizontal ergonomics of the original GBA.” Even if demand for the Afterburner does plummet after GBA SP’s March debut, Curtis Says his company has new products on the hori- zon that will likely cause just as much of a stir as the Afterburner, especially since they'll be compatible with the new GBA SP. And, ultimate- ly, “The gamer half of me is very happy to see Nintendo release an internally lighted system,” he says. “The original goal of [my] project has been realized in full.” You can order an Afterburner kit from tritonlabs.com, and if the thought of eviscerating your GBA and wielding a soldering iron is daunt- ing, the folks at www.portablemonopoly.net will do the surgery for some extra cash. eee We need to find something that is a substi- tute for [GTA] in terms of a game that sells. It’s our mis- sion to find an alternative that is unique and nonviolent.” ~~ Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto “It is aren e independently yet so advanced it exceeds the needs of hardcore gamers.” — Line from Infinium Labs’ press release on their Phantom console: we’ll believe it when we see it WHAT YOU DID... Bought a plane ticket to Cancun, then purchased drinks for you and 10 potential Mrs. Yous Took a road trip to Tijuana, got an impulse tattoo, underwent tattoo removal one week later Went to Vegas, played 30 games of blackjack, bought a lap dance (cost varies with your luck at both) Got a part-time job selling Reservoir Dogs posters to college kids Spent 1o rolls of quarters seated in front of the Ms. Pac-Man machine at Pizza Hut Electronic Gaming Monthly - §2 - www.egmmag.com Wondering what you’ve got to show for all that cash you spent on spring break? We’re here to make you feel a little worse—check out all the fun you could have had: Illustration: Jermey “Norm” Scott YOU COULD HAVE... Bought an Xbox, Girls Gone Wild DVD, DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball, and suntan lotion to use as you see fit Rented 50 games, gone on a tequila bender, and then tried to redistin- guish Max Payne’s life from your own Bought a PS2, GTA: Vice City, and 100 hours’ worth of cash to spend at the game’s Pole Position strip club eBay’d that mint-in-box Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn) and spent the week playing GBA in your kiddie pool Hell, that sounds like a winner to us. Throw in one of them stuffed-crust pizzas, and we'll be there next year. The Human Anatomy as deconstructed by Tao feng Fic.1.— Considerable Pain The process of deconstructing the anatomy begins with bruwsing at the point of contact, leading to bloody contusions and cerebral hemorrhage. FiG. 2.— Physical Disability The deconstruction nears completion ad limbs weaken and break from continuous physical abuse, finally rendering the enemy useless FIG. 3. — Environmental Destruction Opponents are often hurled into walls and glass situated nearby, resulting in injurted of variable depth and stze. = if © he uy 'S” The Pain ts Real Blood Microsoft CONTENT RATED BY game ‘Studios www.xbox.com/taofeng ESRB Ss T og lh THE Violence ONLY Oil yBor ©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Fist of the Lotus, Tao Feng, Xbox, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Entertainment Ratings Board. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. APRIL 2003 THE JOURNEY BEGINS INCLUDES 5 EPISODES, A BONUS: POSTER AND COPIOUS DVD E ALSO AVAILABLE IN A SPECIAL - COLLECTOR’S EDITION - With AN EXCLUSIVE feria WWW.ADVFILMS.COM 30 P| td DOWN 1. Like Neo and 10 Across of the Matrix series 2. Navi of N64 Zelda: OOT does this 3. PS2 DVD remote medium 4. Object of Tomba’s affection 5. Scope, Service, or Hill 6. Root of Q*Bert serpent’s name 7- Munch’s Oddworld accomplice 8. The Matrix _loaded (movie sequel) g. Will sound if you get found in Metal Gear 10. Some of Bloodrayne’s bad guys are these 4a. Power-up meter built into the Matrix game 14. Gallop Racer track, Golden _ 15. The Wavebird eliminates these 18. Blue Oyster Cult would fear him if they’d played Castlevania (NES) 20. Beach volleyball is played only this way in the world of Dead or Alive 21. Pokemon #86 22. The red one will take you inside the Matrix 24. Gameplay guideline 26. Something to slide on in Tony Hawk 27. Mario Kart 64’s mountain 29. Developer of game based on The Matrix 30. Square-pantsed Bob of GBA, PS2, and GameCube fame 31. NFL 2K3 playing surface 32. Competitive gamers “play _ _” (2 words) 35. Deus Ex modifications, for short 37. Full Matrix game name: _ the Matrix 39. Duck _ or _ for Red October (both NES) 42. Like Double Dragon’s Billy and Jimmy Lee 43- EGM’s is found at the bottom of its pages 44. One of these might intersect a Fighting Street (abbrv.) 45. Egyptian sun god referenced in a Game Boy/NES title, Pyramids of 47- Noneditorial content in EGM, for short ee te =CCCo™ pescooecoeaqseeqgosanaeoncsocgnoccoseaanepnoapoaaoooaonenoanecsonnosoOnEHSIgpINsadbSnnoReEsOnnoHNADEHOReCEaDOERE a a wt ert ett tt ACROSS 1. To gun down from afar 5. Street Fighter Rose’s weapon 9. Matrix publisher label 10. Female star of the Matrix game 12. Slowdown in network connection speed 13. Plays the net in Winning Eleven 6 15. Big boss, to Solid Snake (abbrv.) 16. Pirates-speak (PS2) 17. Panzer Dragoon Saga’s (Saturn) leading lady 18. 1983 arcade game from Konami, _’n Rope 19. Gran Turismo 3 Acura model 21. Saturn’s Mr. Bones doesn’t have any 22. Westernmost neighbor to Blanka’s Brazil 23. “Three,” to Street Fighters Vega 25. One of GTA3’s gangs 27. Motley band heard in Vice City 28. Alpine Racer (arcade) locale 29. In Mario’s world, they come in red or green 31. Game piece in Shanghai 33._ Alone (NES) or_ Run King (GO) 34. Tekken’s Phoenix 36. PS2 Resident Evil game that uses the Network Adaptor (abbrv.) 38. You're surrounded by it in The Thing (PS2, Xbox) 39. Duke Nukem: Zero _ or WWE Crush_ 40. Darkstalkers sequel, for short 41. Options menu negative 42. Matrix martial art 44. Built the GameCube’s graphics chip 45. Sonic’s “precious”? 46. Vulcan of Metal Gear Solid (PS1) 48. Devil May Cry swordsman 49. Stereotypical RPG wise man Solution on page 148 #231929-1 $19.99 #231921-8 $49.99 : Call 1-800-800-5166 for a store near you. “From the makers of Resident Evil comes Driver: The Movie!” That’s right, a big-screen version of Infogrames’ good guy/bad guy car game is in the works. The film is scheduled to begin production this year under the direction of Paul Anderson (Evil’s director). Why do games like Driver and Crazy Taxi get scooped up while Metal Gear gathers dust? We may never know. maces eceaenta aa eea ane taaesnaaata aanasaasanetuanananannasenananeananabanestanssanansnnnenannnaannbannennaannmeaamneanmaaaannanamnaannaannananananananaasanaannanaanagannasnammeraananaazaaeraenseaaacacercicessacattarenaetriaccreetereieneientanenies raeertokeomereeeere eee TORTIE) Good (morning, afternoon, evening—pick one) gamers, ’tis |, your illustrious host to the world of videogaming rumors— The Q-Mann. The new-Jenchu game recently hit PS2, and word | appear before you once again to deliver a virtual bounty of gaming _has it a side story is in the cards. Plus, The Q gossip and rumors for your reading pleasure. Please, read what | hears the producer of Sega’s Shinobi has defected have to say and be amazed at the future! to Activision’s Japanese development studio to work on the game. Sneaky, sneaky.... A bevy, a passel, or possibly a throng of Sony sequels lurks around the corner. A new Syphon Filter is on the way, and this time it’s got online If you’re a Star Wars junkie who owns an Xbox, connectivity. Want 3D platformers? How do Ratchet & Clank 2 and Sly you might be wondering, “Where the hell’s my Cooper 2 (not to mention Jak and Daxter 2—see page 74) sound to Knights of the Old Republic?” A fair ques- you? We have it on good authority that they’re all currently in develop- tion, Surely. Current scuttlebutt tags a summer ment. We haven’t heard from Gran Turismo in a while, which is reason release after all the smoothing and polishing’s enough to be suspicious —expect an online installment (maybe called been done. Besides, we wouldn’t want a GT4) to make an appearance later this year. janky game, would we? Wait for it.... Sam Fisher may be back in actionearlier than you think. Word has it The Q’s sources indicate James Bond might » Splinter Cell 2 is scheduled'to debut in.early 2004. be changing his first-person ways in the next ™\ Expect more of what you loved from the first one, plus game (scheduled to hit as early as the end of possible Xbox Live connectivity for onlineplay. The this year). Expect the new game toinclude a third- Q’s psyched about that li’l bit of news.... person view (a la Splinter Cell and Metal Gear). In addition, another Bond in the works is supposedly a-direct sequel to Nintendo 64’s GoldenEye... Square has begun-preliminary beta tests of its massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Final Fantasy XI.Beta testers are playing the Japanese version Stateside, but at least it’s progress toward-a-U-S. release later this year.... ww Console Prices to Drop Soon Predicting console price-drops is a tricky business. They're inevitable—the question is, when? This year, The Q’s sources have heard we may have new prices for all our favorite consoles (Xbox, PS2, and GameCube) as early as E3. Of course, when one drops, Tired of saving Middle-earth by yourself? they all follow suit, limiting any short-term advantage... You may not have to for long. The Q has learned that EA is planning multiplayer And with that, | must bid you adieu for another month, my friends. support for the next Lord of the Rings But don’t worry—30 more days and I’Il be right back at ya with game coming out this fall. (Kinda fits the another boattoad of the juicy stuff. If you feel like dropping me a hack-n-slash gameplay, doncha think?) line, send e-mail to quartermann@ziffdavis.com. Until next time.... —TheQ cl | ah ae) Electronic Gaming Monthly - 36 - www.egmma LIGHTS......CAMERA......ATTACK!!! a 8 SaOept_isteeheeseshethBeapeesesthnstasasss e ie 7 i i e a : ne me, ed 5 Bins ee Cle «Rey Hs : ‘ 3 wy j i ieee ate e F r y : E 4 : Re ni 3 we? ; \ Ss .) » Si & DIRECTED BY SHAO TING In a world where violence and celebrity go hand in hand, one video game beautifully glorifies both. Kung Fu Chaos is the story of director Shao Ting’s mad obsession to assemble top 70’s martial artists — throw them onto movie sets and have them beat the duck sauce out of each other. With 21 big-budget locations, 8 hot-tempered actors and a cameo by a mystery master, it’s never the same movie —er, game twice. Blood : Mae tumor | Micresott 4 fonuron| hasan. ie gamexX€studios- — VA) Ox CONTENT RATED BY Violence ESRB ©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Xbox, the Xbox logos, and Kung Fu Chaos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other products and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. This is a parody of a typical 1970's movie poster. The ad does not intentionally represent any specific movies, establishment, or any individual living or deceased. Additionally, the reviews are fictitious, and any perceived connection to an actual movie review is purely coincidental. ROS « RENOEY TONS poe dosoapeenconpaR EOL NROORHE 1 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Rockstar 10 610—Ss«é*i0 Che GregS Milkman 2 Grand Theft Auto ill Rockstar § 9 10 Crispin’ GregS Milkman 3 Madden NFL 2003 EA Sports John R Jon Dean 4 Super Mario Advance 2 Nintendo 3 Gran Turismo 3 A-spec Sony CEA 6 Medal of Honor: Frontline 7 Spider-Man: The Movie — Activision —r= § 8 Kingdom Hearts _— }eem! Square EA Microsoft 10 Super Mario Sunshine 11 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Activision 02 13 Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku Infogrames 14 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 16 Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories 17 NGAA Foothall 2003 EA Sports 20 SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Sony CEA Source: NPD TRSTS Video Games Service. Call Kristin Barnett-von Korff at (516) 625-2481 for questions regarding this list. A “—” indicates the game was not reviewed. k: , i} . . FS i # , ee ee YD i aif ' 2 is | ee ee \ Ge | Oe 8 | oe ee 8 ee = : s Rockstar 2 LOTR: The Two Towers } Surprising sec- Nintendo ive z — nd-pl how- ndo Puzzle Collection | ing. ofequal_ Makai Senki Disgaea ing. Of equal Nippon-ichi Software 2 WWE SmackDown! SYM Yuke’s interest is the appearance of debonair Brit — | James Bond in NightFire, in the eighth position. » | Witness the " * softening of James Bond 007: NightFir Japanese isola- Electronic Arts Square =r | tionism. 10 Operator's Side Sony CEI =a Source: Weekly Famitsu, week ending 2/9/03 ST SmackDown! SYM 4 ® 2° ded ice] dud pad ge) oo kad hea = : alia = Sa= SE par he zota mo a rie he & =EeaSSe SS m= 5 a =o = eB2B2E5 #\ = an = 4 ' - : : a = = = al —_ s oe Ay 4 .*. . oe ee i S2Ea . io Moco. "WILSAS IWY9 OFOIA wiXO8 WOM JY OIAVTdSIO SLOHS H33NDS LIOSONDIN WOH et BION GIS FEY GNY SHINN) MBHIO BO/GNY “SA IF praudeo) iZOSOUDIW 40 AUVWIOVEL HO SHEVWIGVEL G383! 1538 HIHIG IY $0 allel gy bodied = [ x XOaX JH GNY XOEX ‘gosoust wu aPhULHALH YILNdWOD ANOS 40 AMWAGVEL C3UI1SI9IN ¥ SI NOHSTVNG CY SHavWaaveT CS ai OT HWE SaggHE ONY -NOLIVESAVG., “QGNILNIN 30 SNRVWSCVaE Ja 9N WY GONIENH IHL ONY @ WL DHT LMSW VLEGENG JOH AVA 2 == od 2 © = - ©S iW 40 MEVWSGVaL ¥ SEX THAW FSH NOFSSHWHId Ad CSN D1) SSWVSRN SOOT WM i KGHY vaPASY ads AYMAOI Ne SLSGAS AVM. AVPAQEW “QUAHISI¢ SLOT 1 NENW ELEUG Brit) AVAACH £008 @ WEN TUS i foe Se a Ld CA = jd IWISHWY AVMCIW 40 SHAVWIOVEL "- y # * 7 ‘ P 3 - 5, 4 - . “a NEinNTENDO RESS TART P S 22ORERRIEODNOROROREORICNDDODISOONOROORDOOROIIDINSOOH NIC 0 oe x cosconeenooanneeonnenioonesobooRnOnaDOn ODN nOROROIIIDO RI HAIISORICORIISORIEEEIIERIOSEHO OIE EEDEESDaSHECIToS IDI NTIS CORICAnSEESpEASHoaHRE REDO NeHIDEeoSpEgopEagooNRSRISEESbagHEESSgoSSIINOEEIORHEISAEEDE Backyard Baseball (Sports) GC BattleBots (Action) PS2, GC Brute Force (Action) Xbox Colin McRae Rally 3 (Racing) PS2 Conflict: Desert Storm (Action) GC Dragon’s Lair 3D (“Adventure”) PS2 Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (Action) PS2, Xbox Freedom: Battle for Liberty Island (Action) PS2, Xbox Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (Fighting) Xbox Golden Sun: The Lost Age (RPG) GBA Hamtaro: Ham Ham Heartbreak (...uh, Misc?) GBA High Heat Baseball 2004 (Sports) GC Ikaruga (Shooter) GC Lufia: The Ruins of Lore (RPG) GBA Midnight Club II (Racing) PS2, Xbox MLB 2004 (Sports) PS2 Pinobee’s Great Adventure (Platform) PS Rent-A-Hero No. 1 (Action) Xbox Run Like Hell (Action) Xbox Stake (Action) Xbox Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (Puzzle) GBA Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (Action) PS2 World’s Scariest Police Chases (Action) Xbox X2: Wolverine’s Revenge (Action) PS2, GC, Xbox, GBA Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition (Card Game) GBA May -hack Part 2: Mutation (RPG) PS2 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Action) GBA Color Quest (Monster Breeding) PS2 E.T.: Return to the Green Planet (Action) PS2 Enter the Matrix (Action) Fila World Tour Tennis (Sports) Gladius (RPG) PS2, GC, Xbox The Hulk (Action) PS2, GC, Xbox Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (Action) PS2 Lost Kingdoms II (RPG) GC PS2, GC, Xbox Xbox Mafia (Action) PS2, Xbox MLB Inside Pitch (Sports) Xbox NBA Street Vol. 2 (Sports) PS2, GC, Xbox RTX: Red Rock (Action) PS2, GC Smash Cars (Action) PS2 Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut (Action) GC Space Channel 5: Ulala’s Cosmic Attack (Action) G&A Tomb Raider:,, - The Angel oF Darkness (PS2) | _ 1080° Avalla NBA Street Vol. 2 (PS2, GC, Xbox) Speed Kings (Racing) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (RPG) PS2, GC Xbox Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (Adventure) PS2 Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (Action) GC, GBA Urban Freestyle Soccer (Sports) PS2, GC, Xbox Wario Ware, Inc: Mega MicrogameS (Action) GBA Wario World (Action) GC Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection (Action) PS2 Wolfenstein: Tides of War (Action) Xbox WWE Raw 2 (Wrestling) Xbox June 1080° Avalanche (Sports) GC Advance Wars 2 (Strategy) GBA Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction (Strategy) PS2, Xbox Backyard Wrestling (Wrestling) PS2, Xbox Charlie’s Angels (Hot Girl on Girl on Girl Action) PS2 Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (Flight) Xbox Crouching Tiger, Hid. Dragon (Act.)PS2, GC, Xbox, GBA Deus Ex 2: Invisible War (Action) Xbox Donkey Kong Country (Action) GBA Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes (Action) PS2, GC, Xbox F-Zero GC (Racing) GC Freaky Flyers (Action) PS2, GC, Xbox Freestyle Metal X (Sports) GC, Xbox Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter (Action) PS2, GC, Xbox Midtown Madness 3 (Racing) Xbox Outlaw Volleyball (Sports) Xbox Rock ’N Roll Racing (Racing) GBA Soldier of Fortune Il: Double Helix (Action) Xbox Splashdown 2 (Racing) PS2 Starsky & Hutch (Action) PS2, Xbox Wakeboarding Unl. feat. S. Murray (Sports) PS2, Xbox Wakeboarding Unleashed feat. Shawn Murray (PS2, Xbox) Import Pick of the Month Fire Emblem: Sword of Raging Fire IMPORT CALENDAR \- pr HEEFT CE Frtbnk || ae. 3/27 4/10 4/17 4/24 4/24 3/21 3/28 3/29 4/18 4/24 4/25 5/8 ‘GameCube 3/27 3/27 3/28 4/10 4/25 Apr. Fire Emblem, one of Nintendo’s oldest franchises never to come to North America, is about to make a second appearance on Game Boy Advance in Japan. Rekka no Ken (The Sword of Raging Fire) is a prequel to last year’s Fuuin no Tsurugi (The Sealed Sword), and it once again stars the Pharaen swordsman Roy (featured in GC’s Super Smash Bros. Melee), this time as a younger, gen- tler ass-kicking warrior. The Emblem series fea- tures deep, addictive strategy/RPG gameplay (think Advance Wars, but with swords and knights), making Nintendo’s decision to keep the games away all the more unfortunate. PlayStation 2 Game Boy Advance import-game store for the latest release info. “Hey dudes, thanks for rescuing me. Let’s go for a burger.... Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!” Soul Calibur Il, Namco (Fighting) -hack Vol. 4, Bandai (RPG) Final Fantasy XI: Vision of Ziraat, Square (RPG) DDR Max 2: DDR 7th Mix, Konami (Music) Metal Slug 3, Playmore (Action) Made in Wario, Nintendo (Action) Shin Megami Tensei, Atlus (RPG) Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, Enix (RPG) Zoids Saga II, Tomy (RPG) Hunter X Hunter, Konami (RPG) Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken, Nintendo (RPG) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Konami (Action) P.N.o3, Capcom (Action) Soul Calibur I, Namco (Fighting) Shaman King: Soul Fight, Bandai (Action) Dokapon DX, Asmik (RPG) Giftpia, Nintendo (RPG) Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Nintendo (RPG) Mobile Suit Gundam, Bandai (Action) Viewtiful Joe, Capcom (Action) F-Zero GC, Nintendo (Racing) REMASTERED EDITIONS PINAL FANTAOY ORIGIN Pima EXPERIENCE THE FIRST TWO GAMES IN THE WORLD-FAMOUS FINAL FANTASY. SERIES Two complete, classic games in one exclusive package. Two amazing stories with dozens of hours of gameplay each, plus all-new enhanced graphics and bonus features. Two incredible adventures at one low price. FIA FANTASY. & FINAL FANTASIA Violence PlayStation SQUARESOFT ° SQUARE ENIX U.S.A., INC. www.playonline.com ©2003 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. ILLUSTRATION: ©1987, 1988 YOSHITAKA AMANO. FINAL FANTASY and the SQUARESOFT logo are registered trademarks of Square Enix Co., Ltd. FINAL FANTASY ORIGINS is a trademark of Square Enix Co., Ltd. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. HSU AND CHAN’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE — www.ape-law.com/evilmonkey HSU AND CHAN IS NOW A COMIC BOOK SERIES! HALLELUJAH! WHAT 1S wane uP, video Youg @REAKFrET WORLD, AS YOU CALCULUS AND BREATHES TERMINATORY KIND OF WAY. NO, IN KNOW \T 1S A cell fone OE a THE REAL WORLD, THE HOmMAN Race FRAUD ! LIVES IN INDIVIDUAL, ART-DECO BATHTUBS FOLL OF SELL-O WHILE SPIDERY ROBSTS GLIDE ABouT FIPDLING witH KNOBS ~— WHICH, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, 15 ONLY SLIGHTLY LESS LUDICROLS THAN WEARING WOMANY \TALIAN SUNGLASSES WHILE STAGEHANDS SWING fou AROUND ON WIRES AS You TRY TO DO MIDAIR KUNG FO. BYTES IN A COMPUTER. OR, HECK, BEING IN GENERAL. cuit eee a ee PRETIR? VERY ENTERTAINING? SURE. But EVER SINCE THE ALIENS OF "“\WNOEPENDENCE DAR” WERE REevEALED TO BE MAC USERS, | CAN NO LONGER REMAIN TOLERANT OF FILMS FEATURING THE HOMAN RACE DECIMATED BY ALL- POWERFUL, IDIOT-SAVANT ENEMIES. _- You KNOW WHAT MG FIRST BIG PROBLEM WITH IT WAS? WHY OSE ONLY TMIIMANS AS YOUR ENERGY SOURCE? WHY DION'T WE $66 PODS witri ELK, OR SOME HIGHER- METABOLISM Lire FORM THAT'S EASIER TO PLEASE, LIKE PUPPY DOGS 7? THEN WOULDN'T EVEN NEED SOME FANCY-PANTS SIMULATED WORLD; SUST Give “EM a LOOP OF CHASING RABBITS AND HAVING THEIR BELL'ES SCRATCHED, AND Gouo'vE QUELLED ALL PossiBLE CHaANce of REBELLION! - HERE'S ANOTHER THING -- ALL THESE "GLITCHES" IN THE MATRIX -- REPEATING CATS , “THE tag —— ~~ ae Wave OVER BODIES -- IH THE! PROGRAM GENERATED ** INSTEAD OF SUST “: INSERTING THEMSELVES AT ¥,%% 2 COORDWATES, 1 MEAN, DID TWTUS SOFTWARE PROGRAM TAS THING? Come ON. {| HAVE SOME AHEM, GES, EHcS. WELL, ANQWAY, ON To “THE MATRIX" Game S. THESE TWTLES, AS YOu MAY KNO ED ACK PEE RE ouveD FROM A LIZARD, COULD MAKE THE CASE THAT-- WE EXPECT THIS SORT OF THING FROM rOLLN WOOD, BUT A COvPLE comic BOOK GEEKS FROM OA, RIGHT, RIGHT. UM, AS WERE Low ON TIME, AND In ACCORDANCE wits priew! MY DIGITAL CrICAGO SHOULD REALLY STATING SELF \S CONGRESSIONAL LAW KNOW BETTER ! THAT ANG FORM OF MEDIA GETTING ALL MAKING MENTION OF “Tre SWEATY! MATRIX" IN ANG WAY MOST PRESENT A PARODY OF THE FAMOUS "LOBBY SCENE," WE'RE BUST GOING To Go ANEAD ANP SHAMEFACEDLY PRESENT TO YOu THE FOLLOWING SHORT PLAQLET, SHAME BE UPON YOU TW: PLEASE PLACT ALL METAL TTEM: ON THE BELT \ LIKED “THE MATRIX." VLATCHING PAILISTINES| 62 KONAMI © www.konami.com/usa SUBS TANC E EXCLUSIVE GAMEPLAY ONLY ON SUBSTANCE! 350+ VR MISSIONS « 150+ ALTERNATIVE MISSIONS ° 5 SNAKE TALES EUROPEAN EXTREME MODE « CASTING THEATER » BOSS SURVIVAL MODE ENTIRE SONS OF LIBERTY™ GAME ° MERYL RETURNS! FIRST-PERSON VIEW MODE e« VARIETY MODE ° WEAPON MODE SNEAKING MODE ° SKATEBOARDING MODE ° BOMB DISPOSAL MODE ELIMINATION MODE © HOLD UP MODE »° PHOTOGRAPH MODE HIDDEN PLAYABLE CHARACTERS « GIGANTIC SOLDIERS » NEW DOGTAGS NEW MUSICAL SCORES « EXCITING NEW STORYLINES Blood and Gore Violence Partial Nudity CONTENT RATED BY ESRB METAL GEAR®, METAL GEAR SOLID®, SONS OF LIBERTY™ and SUBSTANCE™ are either registered trademarks or trademarks of KONAMI! COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN, INC. © 1987 2003 KONAMI COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN. KONAMI@® is a registered trademark of KONAMI CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon \s a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Screen shots are from the PlayStation®2 version. Skateboarding mode is only available in the PlayStation®2 version. TE AH Ae PlayStation.c ©2003 Ubi Soft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubi Soft and the Ubi Soft logo are trademarks of Ubi Soft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. Rayman is a registered trademark of Ubi Soft Emertainment. Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. Station” and the PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. TM, ®, Game Boy Advance, and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. i i ene Official trailer featuring “Madder” by Groove Armada, courtesy of Jive Records. EVERYONE Violence Comic Mischief ist ' Aa i PLUNGE into 56 ENORMOUS levels and WHIP OUT all new powers & gear like Heavy Metal Fist and LockJaw to battle the GARGANTUAN ter to win a trip to Jamaica at: www.rayman3.com ox > Oo > Cu oOo OSs E VIOLENCE CONTENT RATED BY ESRB a | iC UBL 7) 0 Gb Go. Fi / REP ner) ogee Fwy amen gene i? Nw os . 4 th event Aa = — PREVIEW Square Enix U.S.A. Square Players: 1 Ca ec 73.9% Fall 2003 None Yuna...in hot pants. Oh, and Rikku in a bikini. No wait, Paine in S&M leather. It’s all so good! The mission-based gameplay might shock series regulars who expected a linear plot. FFX's costars (Lulu, Wakka, and Kimahri) are relegated to nonplayable cameo roles here. S you read this, legions of Japanese gamers are uh...mysterious disappearance after trouncing the already enjoying Final Fantasy X-2, the first-ever | monster (how’s that for spoiler-free?). Luckily, all You can select your next mission direct sequel to an FF game. Lamentably, we’re hope isn’t lost. After finding a magical sphere hinting from this handy overworld screen. still a good six to eight months away from its U.S. to his whereabouts, Yuna sets off with cousin Rikku me ee ti i, + release (due to translation time, English dubbing, and a mysterious new friend named Paine to find global market positioning, yadda yadda), but now more spheres and, hopefully, her missing boyfriend. that it’s out somewhere, at least we finally know Just as Yuna’s put away her old summoner’s robes more about X-2 than “Yuna looks mighty good in in favor of frolicsome hip-huggers, the developers those daisy dukes.” bravely steamrolled much of FFX’s established game- First off, fans desperately want to know what’s up play for this sequel. First off, X-2 is mission based. with the plot. Here’s the scoop—two years after Instead of going about the quest in a purely linear Tidus, Yuna, and Co. defeated the world-destroying fashion, you can now tackle a large number of mini- beast known as Sin, the realm of Spira has begun to adventures in any order you choose, thanks to the heal its physical, spiritual, and social wounds. Yuna, __ gals’ globetrotting Celsius airship. The overall narra- however, has yet to fully recover from Tidus’ tive remains intact, but what you see along the way Although our three lovable heroines appear to be the game’s only playable characters, thanks to the new Job Wheel system, variety isn’t lacking. In X-2, you’ll uncover a slew of job classes for the girls as you progress, including classic FF fare like black or white mage, gambler, and thief—and creative new jobs like pop star, dark gunner, and mascot. Each job fea- tures unique stats and abilities (not to mention a snazzy outfit), and you can switch between them during battle using the Dress Up command. to your ultimate goal is completely up to you. Also, Square has revamped the combat system, bringing back the classic Final Fantasy Active Time Battle con- cept (where enemies will continue to pummel your characters while you make your choices). The end result: faster, more dangerous combat. Yuna also “The developers bravely steamrolied much of FFs established gameplay for this sequel.” sees more action while scampering about the field and dungeon screens. Now, she can jump and pull herself up onto ledges. Don’t worry, she’s not going all Lara Croft on us, but it adds some excitement to the previously uneventful walking bits. Finally, FFX’s Sphere Grid character customization system gets trashed in favor of the all-new Job Wheel system, a melding of Final Fantasy V’s beloved job system and playing dress-up (See sidebar). NEW FACES AND OLD LeBlanc = A 2 y humor clashes with the other girls’ giggly effervescence. his new party member’s cold This brazen lady leads a rival group of sphere hunters com- peting with Yuna for the goods. SILLY AND EXPENSIVE in Japan, diehard FF nuts will be able to purchase these $100 replicas of Yuna’s Tiny Bee pistols. They’re functional controllers that have all the required but- tons for playing the game, but they don’t work like a GunCon—all the shooting action is purely implied. No word ona U.S. release, but don’t hold your breath. Check out the mag wheels on Yuna’s fueled-by-girl-power Celsius airship. The one area X-2 hasn’t changed much from its ¥ gt prequel is in its graphics. Since it takes place in the same world as its forerunner, you’ll visit many of the same locations, only updated with two years of reno- vation. You'll view previously unseen areas of Spira as well, so it’s not merely a nostalgic geographical retread. As expected, Square also includes a healthy dose of brilliant CG cinemas and ridiculously over- the-top spell effects. The music, however, might blindside you. Longtime series composer Nobuo Uematsu isn’t involved at all. Instead, The Bouncers sound team delivers a mix of pop, R&B, and other styles you’d never expect on an FF soundtrack. But change can be a good thing, right? 4 —Shane Bettenhausen oe \ vt 2 ‘ = ——— You’ll meet some FFX alums— Kimahri, Lulu, and Wakka will cheer you on, but won’t join up. This grizzled veteran of the war against Sin leads The Youth League, a group of rebel teens. Pee Woe A ae oo Re al a Re ah Bao ee Aa Boca ek oe LPOPREC 5 aming Mionimniy - 69 - WWWLEVTAM a? . com PREVIEW ‘f) Activision Gene Pool ! mi . re: | Action % Done: S Hl 85% | PF April 2003 CT Gc, Xbox Cee www.wolverines revenge.com A Wolverine's more than a cutout action character with claws. The Bad: | Killing hordes of face- less henchmen. Yawn. OMA Said lackeys after a thorough slicing...wait, they just disappear. as good as it looks, Activision turned to some | To ensure that X2 sounds | big-name voice talent: : Goodbye, Luke. Mark | “Will Read Dialogue For Food” Hamill gets gruff as Logan. i | | Who better to | play the | Professor | than the man | himself, | Patrick | Stewart? | This short-bus-approved headgear is from Department H (seen in the comic), not the movie's Alkali Li hile Wolverine’s no stranger to videogames, comic-book readers know the full range of the X-Man’s abilities have previously been slight- ed on the consoles. What with his signature pig-stick- ers, it’s always been easy to overlook the ol’ Canucklehead’s other mutagenic gifts. Of course, Wolvie’s claws will always take center stage, and developer Gene Pool has devised plenty of satisfying ways for you to use ’em in its upcoming action game, X2: Wolverine’s Revenge. You'll get a meat-and-pota- toes series of wild slashes, perfect for tearing through an equally redundant menu of generic goons, while other acrobatics include somersaulting, Sliding, and spin kicking. Thankfully, though, Revenge goes a bit beyond this programming-by-the-numbers by letting you cull these clones with several flashy finishing moves. More than just lethal tinsel, these special attacks can be indispensable in boss battles. For example, to best the Juggernaut, you’ll need to pry free his hel- Unbridle the wrath of a dozen orangutans. Thwart state-of-the-art defens- es with raw animal instinct. met with aerial attacks before you and X-pal Colossus can finish him with a straight-from-the- comic Fastball Special combo attack. So, what’s the fuss about the furball’s other, often overlooked, talents, you ask? Well, for one, if Wolvie’s always doing what he does best, his accelerated heal- ing factor won't kick in; he has to sheath his claws in order to regain lost health. But it’s access to his height- ened senses that really puts you inside this killing = Po w.Y why) ra dd 82, eR i machine’s Adamantium-plated skull. “We thought long and hard about the mutant abilities of Wolverine,” explains Executive Producer Rob Letts, “and tried to tai- lor the gameplay to really bring his awesome potential Ri alee hd FD ehs e on . vena? Save the bandages—Wolvie regenerates health on his own. | — 70 z \ LA Or@MIVITII ARH sa aN ea | 1. Wear car door. KEEP THE MOOCHERS AWAY! 4. Keep Juicy Fruit! Ss PREVIEW OM ONONP MONEDA NHI HIE NDOT DONO IOI POITIER NOOO NII OO OIRO BI SIROR DER IBNRIDIN CODD SORIRDRIHIN SEDO RODIRRO DIDO RERURDERRDDRONAREREROREROORRERAES alive.” And it shows. Revenge is designed so Stealth is, at least some of the time, a viable alternative to wholesale slaughter. When you hold down the L2 button, the screen goes gauzy and red, and environmental noise dulls to a quiet drone. Suddenly, you’re at one with your Surroundings: You can follow previously unde- tectable footprints, scan the UV spectrum for evidence of booby traps, and surprise your quarry from the shadows. Wolverine can be cool and collected or a savage berserker—it’s really up to you. Adding welcome depth to the breadth of we FRIENDS Colossus A bod of organic steel adds invul- nerability to this Ruskie’s brute strength. “Be our guest! Be our guest! Be our...” Professor X He has the most powerful mutant mind on the planet. G these genetic blessings is a story line crafted by comics scribe Larry Hama. So, despite hav- ing titular ties to the X-Men movie sequel due out this May, Revenge’s plot has much more in common with the long-running comic book. It also means that underlying the standard Series of lackeys and locked doors is a solid Story that Letts calls “fast and punchy.” All we know so far is that Wolverine must trek deep into the Canadian wilderness, returning to the clandestine Department H facility. There, he must locate an antidote to the viral bomb that’s just been discovered in his system. Yeah, the infamy of shoddy superhero titles could be Wolverine’s real worst enemy. But if Revenge’s gameplay consistently puts his powers to meaningful use, perhaps the clawed one can escape the comic-book-to- videogame jinx. #iFe — Shawn Elliott Snikt! Pop Juggernaut's shiny top like a tin can. ly -12- w > ON X2°S SECRET ORIGIN Can’t wait for this May’s X-Men film sequel? Comic shops are now carrying a reprinted edition of the 1982 X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel (in which the X-Mansion is invaded by antimutant forces) that inspired the movie. Sabretooth Power for power, this psy- chotic murder machine is the Canucklehead’s Fe evil incarnation. Lady Deathstrike Wolverine ina Wonderbra? Sabretooth in tights? Yeah, / even the mighty Marvel think tank can lose a tread. Wendigo If you ever snack on a human drum- A stick, you can ‘\, expect to host wah, this immor- ty tal spirit of an albino Sasquatch. Magneto Now, how’s our man with a metal-laced skeleton gonna take down the self-proclaimed master of magnetism? BEFORE WARCRAFT: THREE HAIRY NORSEMEN SET THE STAGE FOR A TRADITION OF GREAT GAMING. THE BLIZZARD CLASSIC RETURNS. Now On GAME Boy” ADVANCE. ame Boy and Game Boy Advance are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2001 Nintendo. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software names are the properties of their respective owners. a 2 PREWIEW SOOO RIOD RIOR ROPING Sony CEA Naughty Dog Players: 1 Ce Action 60% September 2003 None www.jakand- daxter.com It's the sequel to one of our favorite PS2 platform games. We're still mad about the lame “extra” ending of the last game. Aren't you? Puma |e Jak, after a dark eco transformation, can get pretty ugly. Jak and Daxter make friends wherever they go, right? Wrong. iven the popularity and critical acclaim of Jak & Daxter, a Sequel was a no-brainer. What we did- n’t expect was that a follow-up to the kid-friend- ly platformer would follow with such a dark, gritty, prison, but hard time has changed Jak into an angry, street-smart tough guy (see the sidebar for details). With this new attitude comes a new focus on game- play, too. Jak now has access to four guns, each After Jak’s time in prison, his eyes are no longer wide and soulful; they’re glaring and omi- nous. His hair has grown out, his body is buff, and he has a soul patch (always a sure sign of evil). But the biggest change? Get ready for it: Jak... speaks! (He was mute in the first game.) more mature approach. As you can see, developer Naughty Dog has left behind the bright Crash Bandicoot-style backdrops of the original in favor of a setting that looks more like a war zone. When we last left Jak and Daxter, they were peering into a mysterious, glowing doorway. At the start of Jak Il, we learn that doorway is actually a portal to a dark, depressed city in a completely different time period. Naturally, the pair enter the doorway, but they aren’t given a warm reception on the other side; the natives grab Jak, throw him in jail, and experi- ment on him using dark eco, the mutagenic goo from the last game. Daxter eventually helps his friend break out of loaded with a different kind of projectile—and the game’s fighting is also more combo driven. For exam- ple, you can spin kick, then follow up by smacking a goon in the face with the butt of your gun. Or you can jump into the air and blast downward to apply a bru- tal finishing touch. There are a number of changes to Jak // from a tech- nology standpoint, as well. Every one of the hundreds of different computer-controlled characters you run across in the city look different; you can travel through the entire town in a number of futuristic flying cars, and the cut-scene graphics have improved dramatically. Darker, bolder, prettier—all told, this is definitely one sequel to look forward to. #¥ —Ethan Einhorn GAMES, electronics boutique’ THEE NINLENOD) FAaMeECUVE Lame Wien IEOSHIEL AE WINTER DO ) GAMECUBE J AGEid NEW LAMB GUE $149.99 EACH © saweoliee ry . <= Resident Evil’! Jet #212451-9 Platinum # 227069-2 *See sales associate for complete details. Offer expires 5/3/03. Not valid on previous purchases. The Mario Sunshine Bundle (227198-9) is excluded along with pre-owned console systems. Free game offer is only valid on the four featured titles: Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Zero, Starfox Adventures or Mario Party 4. The free game is available while supplies last. No rain checks or substitute titles. Not to be combined with any other offer or promotion. Other exceptions may apply. ce ~ EVERYONE i "| #2198971 $34.99 Call 1-800-800-5166 for a store near you. NINTENDO GAMECUBE. = — PREVIEW GALLERY Agetec * May 2003 « Also On: None—|f you're a budding Picasso who derives pleasure from customiz- ing your car logo in racing games, decorating your room in Animal Crossing, or breaking out that dusty Super Nintendo copy of Mario Paint, you'll be all over Agetec’s Color Quest. It’s a creative reworking of the Monster Rancher concept, except this time you actu- ally design the cuddly creatures you bring to battle. At the game’s outset, you can create little more than a tiny blobbish freak, but as you progress, you’ll be able to forge nearly anything from a massive, ten- tacled monstrosity to a ramshackle rendition of Freddy Krueger. Your creation’s stats and skills change depending on the colors and shapes you employ (undulating appendages increase agility, objects placed in monsters’ hands up attack, and so On), SO success is more about careful consideration than random doodling. Combat combines traditional RPG-style attacks (magic, fight, heal) with a paper- rock-scissors hierarchy of dominance, so winning is a mix of skill and luck. Fighting your way through the surprisingly long single-player experience is only part of the fun—pitting your artistic creations against your friends’ sketchbook rapscallions should settle some long-forgotten art-class rivalries. Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick THQ ¢ May 2003 ¢ Also On: Xbox— Let the one-liners commence. Cult horror-movie favorite Ash is giving this whole videogame thing another shot after the criminally disappointing survival horror-style Evil Dead: Hail to the King (PS1, DC). A Fistful of Boomstick isn’t a sequel, but an entirely new action game based on the signature Evil Dead formula of chain saw-wielding wiseass meets shambling zombie horde. Bruce Campbell voices Ash with predictable aplomb, thank goodness, with VIS (State of Emergency, Earthworm Jim 3D) handling development duties. In fact, Evil Dead is based on State of Emergency’s basic game engine, which means it should be able to handle dozens of bloodthirsty zom- bies all moaning and limping onscreen at once. We just hope the mission objectives are a little more interesting than SOE’s. Combat certainly will be, as Ash can wield two weapons at a time. And thanks to the magic of target autolocking, he’ll be able to take out a zombie with a no-look, over-the-shoulder shot- gun blast while chasing down another foe for some impromptu chainsaw surgery, delivering rapid-fire catch phrases all the while. Hail to the king, ba—hold up, maybe we should wait for the review.... Electronic Gaming Monthly - 16 - www.egmmag.com ‘ A = : y= : Pa Nothing takes the “un” out of “undead” like Ash's boomstick. Fever - i = : = erens 5 a ———e i 5 ‘ BOSE GS ret EES — ‘ ¥ He, i mee B . i } sueibii.t | fxs My ll AGETEC has beer hit wth fhack, : 7 wuames oy mare ecko scopes a PREVIEW GALLERY Agetec ¢ Summer 2003 ¢ Also On: None—When a develop- er just adds a subtitle to a game name instead of dubbing it a true sequel, you usually can’t expect too much. But with Silent Line, Agetec says it will address the main complaint against its mission-based robot-combat series: Your mech’s always been too slow! In addition to quicker controls, it also promises a wider selection of parts to trick out your robot, smarter backup mechs to assist you on missions, a new tar- geting feature that lets you selectively shoot parts off foes, and the ability to import your old ’bot from Armored Core 3. The only feature missing is online play, which was included in the Japanese version. (Grumble, grumble.) Big Mutha Truckers Empire Interactive * May 2003 ¢ Also On: Xbox Ma Jackson ain’t a pretty lady. Hell, she barely passes for human. But somehow, she spawned four kids—with four different daddies, no less. Now, she’s leaving her trucking company to the offspring who can make the most money runnin’ goods from one place to the next. Truckers isn’t just a racer, it’s also a trading game where you buy various items and sell them for profit elsewhere. Of course, you have to learn the fastest routes between cities (that means loads of shortcuts, people). Along the way, you’ll run from the cops and avoid motorcycle-gang hijackings. Oh, and you might have a couple run-ins with some of Ma’s illegitimate children as well, of which there are quite a few. For some reason, this game reminds us of when Fudd beer made all of those hillbillies go blind... CLETUS ABDUCTED BY ALIENS. NOBODY SURPRISED ORNL RE SCREENER LORETO es Square Enix U.S.A. e Summer 2003 ¢ Also On: None Finding a Final Fantasy aficionado among RPG fans is easy, but locating a fervent admirer of the SaGa games (Square’s other long-running franchise) is much more difficult. It’s not that SaGa Frontier and SaGa Frontier 2 (PS1) were terrible games, but they were completely odd and never caught on with the mainstream. Unlimited: SaGa is the series’ first PS2 installment, and while it’s still pretty damned weird, it’s definitely interest- ing. With seven interrelated scenarios (Some are supposed- ly 40 hours long) to be tackled in any order and a revolu- tionary art style that looks like animated sketches, Unlimited definitely breaks new ground for the genre. Problem is, the mind-warping difficulty, bizarre movement system (you don’t actually walk around, so dungeons play almost like a board game), and wildly complex battle sys- tem (filled with more giant spinning wheels than your aver- age game show) might scare off all but the most hardcore role-playing faithfuls. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 18 - www.egmmag.con PlayStation.e #232539-7 $49.99 Blood and Gore Violence eee ieee “Vou: are 2B Blazkowicz, a US Army fanoet recruited by the OSA and the Allies‘ top spebialist iin covert. operations, heavy weapons and assassination. Hitler's head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, is twisting Science and the occult into an army capable of annihilating the Allies. The balance of victory i is in your ands. BETERY JR CHSTLE > yeaa a brutal arsenal — oS fe: , = = of authentic and a ses . Eaincle= player campaign = experimental weapons. _ re across over 30 levels. PlayStation.c = "cluding se ie = assassinating Nazi offic icers. Soa ee os | idePttwarexcimn activision.com Screenshots taken from Xbox" ‘Siaieg game system. nand PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system gameplay. - © 2001-2003 Id Software, Inc. ‘All rights reserved. Published’ ‘and distributed by Activision Publishing, Inc. under license. Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection, Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the Return to Castle Wolfenstein logo, theid Software name and the id logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Id Software, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Licensed for-play on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment systems with the NTSC U/C. designation only. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logo 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. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. PREVIEW _ Ss Pe eR Sega Sonic Team 1 | Action/Platformer 65% May 2003 Dreamcast www.sega.com The { _ GameCube owners finally receive Sonic’s finest Dreamcast adventure. It's basically the Same game as before. Dr. Robotnik’s mous- tache. Somebody get that mana razor, quick! ieiittlaniaamctaereRe eR a op Pinas eR SoS e = comreecneretieet athe (0 eee Vs umors have circulated for years about two of today’s most talented developers— Mario maker Shigeru Miyamoto and Sonic’s pop Yuji Naka— levels were superfun.) The hedgehog’s back, doing what he does best: foiling the plans of his egg-shaped, walrus-musta- Nope, that’s not Sonic after he fell into a tub of bleach. It’s Super Sonic, and you can only play as him and access the game’s true ending if you com- plete all six characters’ journeys. In the last stage, Sonic’s abilities are upgraded to the max as he draws the emeralds’ power and challenges Chaos’ last form, Perfect Chaos. Even though it’s a short level, it’s an intense thrill ride that’s a must-play for Sonic fans. working together on a secret game project, mainly because Naka-san often gives props to Miyamoto’s work. So, while that secret project has yet to materi- alize, it’s hardly surprising that Nintendo’s systems have become the (so far) exclusive new playgrounds for Sega’s speedy blue hedgehog. Thankfully, after a subpar GameCube debut in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Sega’s mascot returns ina Slightly enhanced version of the original Sonic Adventure (which launched with Dreamcast in 1999). Unlike its sequel, this game—now sub-titled Dx: Director’s Cut—keeps the superstar rodent at center Stage. (Battle, on the other hand, gave equal play- time to all of Sonic’s superbuds, but only Sonic’s chioed nemesis, Dr. Robotnik, who has summoned a giant water monster called Chaos. Robotnik plans to turn Chaos into a 4o-story killing machine by fueling him with Chaos Emeralds, so it’s up to Sonic and his pals (more about them later) to find the emeralds first. If you never played Adventure on Dreamcast, or its Cube sequel, buckle up—in this game, speed thrills. Backgrounds blur and levels corkscrew as Sonic bounds from platform to platform or boosts to max speed to outpace environmental hazards such as a titanic killer whale. Adventure DX features a wide range of locales, each with multiple objectives. In one wicked tornado level, you need to pounce on trampo- The Tamagotchi-inspired Chao creatures star in Adventure DX’s racing minigame. The more time you spend caring for them, the better they perform. You can also spoil the little guys on the road via the GC-GBA link cable. Just download the Chao Garden | (where you care for the Chao creatures) to your GBA and head out. In order to save your Chao’s progress, you'll need to download the garden into one of the three GBA Sonic titles—Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance | 2, or Sonic Pinball Party. Otherwise, the garden dis- appears when you switch off the handheld. Knuckles the Echidna takes...wait a second. What the hellis an echidna, again?!? “Sonic will also meet up With five - familiar and'not-so-familiar faces..." line-like devices to skyrocket about. And when Sonic isn’t retrieving gold rings or scouring for Chaos Emeralds, he’ll face off against Robotnik and different Chaos-monster forms. Like the title says, the game also includes adventure elements, but they’re pretty basic; they mostly involve moving objects from point A to point B to access new Stages. Sonic also finds upgrades along the way, such as new shoes that'll help him gain enough steam to conquer those mammoth loop-de-loops familiar to series vets. Sonic will also meet up with five familiar and not- so-familiar faces (See sidebar), who eventual- ly become playable characters. You might be asking, “What makes this game different from the Dreamcast version?” The answer: not much. You can link up your Game Boy Advance to raise those cute and loveable Chao creatures for Adventure DX’s racing minigame. And Sega is promising slick- er visuals (in our version, the characters looked improved while most of the game appeared the same) and 50 new mini chal- lenges (time trials, grab the rings, etc.). But it’s a bummer Sonic Team didn’t develop new areas for these additional missions, and you don’t need to complete them to open up Adventure DX’s much cooler ending. We’re a bit confused about why Sega decid- ed to release the worst of the two Sonic Adventure games first, but hey, Adventure DX’s arrival is better late than never. eee — Bryan Intihar 8 a] ” « .o ew a . x QO ie) stages in a designated ND FRIENDS — Or eS Sonic’s levels are so ~ y ‘ fast-paced, some might complain of motion sickness. Expect to collect numerous gold rings, race through time limit, and take on | various Chaos forms. i Tails Sonic’s wingman gets time in the spotlight as he races Sonic and takes on Robotnik. Knuckles SAE PEWTER LELAND) Yr Dot ATMA it’s hard to tell whether Knuckles is Sonic’s friend or if he’s waiting forthe | { perfect moment to take j his place. Each of his stages requires finding three pieces of a broken emerald, which might explain why they are the least favorite among most Sonic fans. Amy Sonic’s (intimate?) lady friend. You better show her , some respect, because Amy ( comes armed with a ham- mer she ain’t afraid to use. Big the Cat We’re still trying to figure out why Sonic Team decided to let you take control of an overweight feline. In each stage, Big fishes for his lost frog. 2272... — a esl Qa ‘J E-102 Gamma This Robotnik- designed robot eventually tells his creator to take a hike. E-102’s levels consist of destroy- ing everything in Ls his path. | PREVIEW ——_ © Activision ' From Software 2 == RPG By 98% © May 2003 _ None | www.activision.com Lc Ha) Tons of new cards to find and upgrade ) It's easy to waste rei i) Use up all your cards and you're toast Tara can barely go 50 feet without tripping over a chest with a new card in it. That's a good thing. he first Lost Kingdoms was a cult favorite RPG, thanks to its epic story line and unusual but sur- prisingly intuitive battle system. Lost Kingdoms |! improves upon these strengths and addresses many of the original’s weaknesses, which just might lift its cult Status and turn it into a GameCube RPG worthy of everyone’s attention. LK/! takes place 200 years after the first game. Evil You can tran wizards are threatening the Kingdom of Argwyll with synthesized Runestones—talismans that summon and control monsters. You play as Tara, a young girl raised by thieves who mysteriously possesses a true Runestone and Is, in short, the kingdom’s only hope. Who is Tara? Where'd she get one of them Runestones? You'll need to use the gem’s power to answer these questions and protect the realm from invaders. The original battle system returns for the sequel, with some key enhancements. As before, collectible magic cards allow you to Summon creatures that fight on your behalf in real-time. With experience, you can improve the creatures’ abilities. A new addition to the system lets you use multiple cards to launch powerful (and visually dazzling) combo attacks. And of course, you’ve got a much bigger deck to play with this time— of the 200 cards to discover and power up, half of them are brand new. Having magical beasts fight for you is thrilling, sure, but sometimes you get a hankerin’ to dish out a spank- 84 erin’ without proxies. LK// has many new cards that let you attack enemies directly or transform your character Altered Beast-style and personally issue a beatdown. These transformation cards also help you solve puzzles and reach new areas—you can morph into an aerial creature to fly over a broken bridge, for example. Battles happen in real-time, but—as in any good card game—there’s still plenty of strategy. All cards have rm your character Altered Beast-style associated elements that interact in rock-paper-scissors fashion: water defeats fire, fire defeats wood, and so on. Bear this in mind and use your cards wisely, lest you use all your creatures and attacks, leaving Tara defenseless like the waify girl she is. # — Paul Byrnes ' “ 1 bel : ), 4 i fp is } P "% ( ii \ ‘ ‘ Ais r f 2 é f . ¥ . | i, 4m ’ 4 ' ? we | y = ti5 é " b * Y a me a Kangaroo Jack begins his Elvis-esque descent into booze and overeating. 600 pounds and counting... | Power to the People. apiece OSA AMINE IN EH iy a” © he Lost ACH EVERYONE Harness the power of the elements, summon great forces and bring magic back to Weyard in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Only for Game Boy Advance. © 2001-2003 Nintendo/CAMELOT. TM, ® and Game Boy Advance are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2003 Nintendo Players of the arcade version of F-Zero (which = looks identical to the home version) can use | their GameCube Memory Card to race their * craft in the full-moving cabinet. Sega hasn’t said whether such interfacing will unlock spe- | cial characters or vehicles, but it seems likely. | Fesvcatenvetm pean tenses eERSRERSEA SSUES PREVIEW GALLERY sesonesssccesss CORONERS SES AOSEDIEEOOEE conenenoncnnntennienbhtt Nintendo ¢ Summer 2003 © Also On: None Andre Komatsubara is sweating. It can’t be the weather on this brisk winter morning that’s got Japan’s No. 1 F-Zero player (he won a Nintendo-sponsored tournament years ago) all hot-n-bothered. And it’s certainly not from exerting himself—he’s been shuffling through a line for the last hour. To borrow an old slogan, it’s gotta be the game. Andre has just finished his first play of the new F-Zero, the Sega-developed GameCube and arcade update to the famous hover-racing Series. Having tried the same 50-percent-done version of F-Zero ourselves, we can understand why he’s all shook up; this game is intense. F-Zero has always been about speed, but this latest version makes previous incarnations feel like a trip to pick up the kids from soccer prac- Points you earn based on your top Speed, crashes (both causing and avoiding them), and other stats can be used to upgrade your ship. tice. Colorful buildings and bright neon signs 360 degrees. And the jumps? Once, we hit a cial sections of the course, you’ll lose precious blur as you streak through the wild, futuristic ramp at such an insane speed, we clocked a seconds docking with a repair ship. cityscapes —and that’s before you hit any of 10-second hang time before landing. Yeah, Many questions still remain about F-Zero: the strategically placed turbo pads or your you'd be sweating too. How many courses will be offered? What new boost button. Then, things get even faster. Oh, and there’s always the chance your ship characters are planned? And when exactly will The track designs only add to the chaos. might explode, since its energy meter goes the game be released in America? Andre cer- Sometimes, courses split in two, with both down each time you use a boost, hit the side of _ tainly doesn’t know, but as he wipes his brow roads twisting around until one is suspended, the track, or run into another racer (asthe one —_ and moves to the back of the hour-long line for upside down, above the other. Another unique to three other splitscreen players and up to 30 __ five more minutes of F-Zero, he does offer level is actually one long, twisting cylinder— computer-controlled opponents are well some advice: “When you play, don’t wear a lot you ride along the outside at any point on its aware). If you don’t refuel by driving over spe- of clothes.” sie EGM: So, you won an F-Zero competition? EGM: Doesn’t going out of your way to Andre Komatsubara: Yes. twas ano-handi- attack others make it tougher to win? cap contest with more than 30 contestants. AX: Oh yeah, it definitely makes it tougher But | was the only battle racer among them. to win, but | can’t help it. That’s what | love about F-Zero. Usually, racing games are just EGM: Battle racer...? about who can drive the fastest. But in F- AK: | love playing rough, you know? | don’t Zero, you can also wreck other cars. Not just ae like just racing through the track to win. | push them away —actually crash them. ee a ye want to use side attacks, wreck the other [laughs] | don’t like Time Attack mode— Coming soon to a Wheaties box near you. players, and then win. | want to compete with others and win. ester ei etant cei tabiataelrabei eerie miecrronic Gaming MONLY - 86 - www.e gmmag.com t VIOLENCE ee S Se Pa | -— xeox" CONTENT RATED BY Se ee Serene er ESRB 2. ee ee 2003 LucasArts Entenainmnent Company LLC: ©2003 Lucastiim Ltd & TM or as indicated. All ights reservetl:' Used under authorization. LucasArts and the LucasArts logo are registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Lid. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US. and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft, “PlayStation” and the "PS" Fa amily logo are registered trademarks of Sony es Entertainment Inc. PlayStation.2 Official indiana Jones website . www. indianajones.com PREWIEW GALLERY 1080° Avalanche Nintendo e Summer 2003 ¢ Also On: None It’s been more than five years since the original 1080° first raced onto Nintendo 64, but Nintendo’s snowboarding fran- chise is finally strapped in and geared up for a return on GameCube this sum- mer. You'll travel to areas reachable only by helicopter where the fresh powder is as soft as a feather bed, but collapsing wooden bridges and falling evergreens make your downhill journey ever so dan- gerous. Also, be on the lookout for mon- Strous avalanches that can make you the next great snowboarder to grace the obituary pages. The action gets even crazier when you add tricks such as Toe-grabs and Rail Slides to your repertoire, all while trying to stay in front of the pack. Combine this with a two-player Versus mode, and 1080° Avalanche is primed to please snowboard junkies (like EGM editors Crispin and Shoe) who are desperate to extend their riding season. Wario World Nintendo ¢ May 2003 ¢ Also On: None You can’t keep a good bad guy—or in Wario’s case, a psychotic Italian leprechaun—down. At right are the latest screens of Wario World, a 3D side-scrolling action game in which you take control of Mario’s evil twin as he tries to regain his riches from the clutches of a myste- rious black diamond that’s changed the loot into a horde of baddies. Unlike Wario’s portable adventures, World’s gameplay is straight-up action, so he has new ways of dealing with enemies instead of the ol’ run-into-them-elbow-first routine. For instance, you can now grab and twirl a foe around, knocking other nearby enemies out of the way, or lift him up and perform a floor- shaking pile driver, creating a ripple through the ground that'll knock other enemies on their asses. Or, if it’s simplicity you prefer, you can always toss your foes into a background object. Any way you decide to go, once you’ve dispatched a bad guy, he turns back into the lost treasure and brings you ever closer to discovering who did this to your fortune. Look at it this way: It’s the closest thing we’ll ever get to a licensed game for Leprechaun in the Hood. “| want me gold!” n by their respective holders. oO [la | C PlayStation.c Pees bea aL A jain ® = oO — oO = @ = = Fe) — RE PERTTI To eGrabber.com Products/trademarks shown are not in any way intended to indicate an affilia C 2003 Pri © It's not whether you win or lose—it’s how you buy the game. Grabber ‘Video Games > : > ) Comparison Shopping Beyond Compare:" Eidos ) lon Storm 1 )) First-person shooter, action-RPG 65% _ Winter 2003 " None an mre: ‘etal TA _ eidosinteractive.com _ Customizable heroes, solutions for every puzzle, great weapons and tools ee No multiplayer options, and lon Storm isn’t sure about Xbox Live support a5 tse ie " Bye-bye, Chicago i _ fea NI NT aa Choosing your character’s | sex and abilities is just the | start of the gameplay options Deus Ex 2 pre- sents. For instance, light- ing will be dynamic to the point that you can create shadows to hide in, or you can shoot gas barrels to unleash a toxic cloud that causes your enemies to choke and die in horrific fashion. From what we’ve seen of it, it’s clear that you’ll impose your will on the game, and not the other way around. - “You go show that power generator who's boss, Carl. I don’t like the look of those three...red... lines..." eus Ex 2 begins with a bang, not a whimper, according to lon Storm’s Project Lead Harvey Smith. “We start the game by killing off every- One in Chicago,” he says. That tragedy, apparently sparked by terrorists, forms the backdrop of this new first-person shoot- er-cum-action/role-playing game...but beyond cryp- tic mention of human cells as an invisible weapon in an invisible war, the developers are keeping mum on the plot. We do know that Deus Ex 2 is set in the not-too- distant future—roughly 15 years after the events in the original game. This time, you’ll jump into the role of Alex D—a secret agent of sorts—and you choose whether Alex is male or female. Since nanotechnolo- gy has become more commonplace in this brave new world, you'll improve your hero using special neural interface bio-modification chips. Render him/her a brutish figure strong enough to kill enemies by pick- ing up crates and using them as projectiles, or cre- ate a stealthy sort who can slink through the entire game without ever picking up a weapon. Or, aim for some point in between. “It’s your experience,” says lon Storm’s Studio Director Warren Spector. “We want to empower play- ers. We want them to create the experience while we get out of the way.” That’s DE2’s biggest draw: the freedom it presents to players. Modification chips (some of them illegal) boost strength, suck energy from the dead, or make you tough as Steel. One particularly useful (and shady) biomod will allow you to possess the game’s droids. With it enabled, Alex D can saunter into a room as a cleaning robot (no one ever suspects the cleaning robot), eavesdrop on an important conver- sation, leave, then possess an ass-whomping military robot, storm into the same room, and lay waste to foes with extreme prejudice. Smith and Spector don’t want to reveal much more about the game just yet, but they have said that DE2 will take you to Seattle, Cairo, an Antarctic base (inspired, they admit, by John Carpenter’s The Thing), and a number of additional spots around the globe. lon Storm has written approximately 20,000 lines of text for the game. Like its predeces- sor, DE2 will have multiple endings. —lon Storm Studio Director Warren Spector The game looks delightful in motion, with highly detailed characters; menacing, burnished-metal robots; and even cool, bump-mapped (a graphics technique only Xbox and PCs are capable of) sofas that, Spector laments, currently look like a dinosaur’s hide. We’re a little concerned about the game’s A.|. after seeing a character run into a table and get stuck there, but it’s still early, and the game looks very promising. “We’re using everything Xbox has to offer,” Smith says, remarking that this version will be identical to the PC game in look and content. You'll be able to judge that for yourself when the game ships at the end of this year. sR — Greg Orlando Above: Play it sneaky or shoot him Above left: Happiness is a warm gun ~» Below: Some wild and/or crazy guys “In a really good game, you’re not just increasing your character’s stats, you’re also figuring out who you are,” Warren Spector says, telling a story that illustrates how different people’s experiences can be with Deus Ex 2. “My wife was playing an [early] version of the game, and she accidentally killed a dog. It squealed horribly and fell to the ground in a spreading pool of blood. She was so upset by it, she refused to play. The consequences of her act were so overwhelming, she had an emotional response to a virtual act of vio- lence. That’s what it’s all about! There’s no other medium that can do that.” 91 PREVIEW Majesco NH Taldren 1 (2-46 Online) Third-person shooter/RPG 40% November 2003 Might come to PS2 www.majesco- games.com A twist on action games plus lots of Xbox Live love Why isn't there a first- person mode? Flashbacks of the Tom Selleck movie, Runaway, while getting swarmed by spider-bots Here’s a list of the differ- ent illuminati factions you need to deal with during the game and where they originated... aSis — The Sega sys- tem evolve into a robotics and A.|. company. | roup — Based upon Dr. Robert Zubrin’s theories on space colo- nization Oriental fticiem and countless kung fu flicks eT ee ons — The Sigtinds meets the Triads. : NO - GameNOW editors become radical environmentalists. der — Old- world poventnadL Dubya style—God help us all. Glimmer A.G. — As Oliver Rane puts it, the “mili- tary-industrial complex.” Sounds like a bad finan- cial dot-com, doesn’t it? Mon Dieu! The French even- tually take over the media. ajesco has been almost as enigmatic about its new title, Black 9, as the nine secret societies the game is named after. Is it an RPG? Is ita third-person sci-fi action game? Is it an even more aggressive Unreal Championship? Actually, it’s a mix of all those things, with a deep, story-driven single- player campaign and ambitious multiplayer modes. CEO Erik Bethke at developer Taldren foresees a rather dull future, at least by videogame standards. “Not much is going to change 78 years from now,” he says. “There’s no apocalypse, no World War III, no clichéd, bleak cyberpunk future.” Luckily, there will be plenty of cybernetic technological developments and duplicitous, warring secret societies to keep us busy in 2081. In an effort to keep spoilers to a mini- mum, we'll leave it at this: You’ll find a linear but plot-twist-riddled single-player campaign where you'll cross paths with the nine different illuminati Go for a spin on a hoverbike a la Halo. Eabbanethe big computer-sends in the drones. sects as you fly to Hong Kong, the moon, and Mars. On the surface, Black 9 looks like your standard- issue third-person action-adventure game, but it actually has the story and character growth of an RPG. Take, for example, your three alter egos in the game: There’s the military bruiser, a stealthy hacker/thief, and a cyber mage with nanotech “magic” abilities. But just because you play as a sol- dier doesn’t mean you have to blast and bash your way through the entire game. If you develop hacking Skills or buy nanotech upgrades, other ways to achieve each objective present themselves. Bethke was quick to bust out old Dungeons & Dragons refer- ences, saying players can be any permutation of a multiclassed magic user, fighter, or thief—or you can create a jack-of-all-trades (note: not an official D&D character class). With every completed mission, you gain attributes ® Y Pe Ss + <2 ° Gorgeous graphics and 1 r calistic weather effects a hg © boopeell by thi feature film coming uly oth a ae pe ect * 2 Visit www.esrb.org or TIVE an: call 1-800-771-3772 for Rating Information. CONTENT RATED BY ESRB _==— a ZeniMax Media company 1¢ COMPANY rs QrzeLbLa™ ==... © 2003 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax are registered trademarks or trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are either > registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. Audio/Visual elements © Disney. Other product and company names e a referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved. ere + aati PREWIEW I hope my legs don’t break... Walkin’ on the moon.... and skill points that increase your potential. And with all the credits you earn on the job, you'll also be able to fine-tune your mercenary with brand-new weapons, supplies, and nan- otech implants. Screw the clothes—it’s the Stats that make the man. In the early build we played, only a handful of standard-issue ballistic weapons were in place. Handguns, machine pistols, and the like were fired from a third-person chase-cam perspective, while some sniper weapons push you into a first-person view. Ultimately, Black 9 will include grenades, mines, detonation packs, crossbows, and much more-roughly 20 weapons in all. And vehicles? In our demo, we boarded a hoverbike, donned a flight pack, and climbed into an assault ground car. Word So OEE EE NTRS NA BONAR RAP IPO TE PEI SPAR ARN ARS RRND SSRN ST has it six to eight vehicles will be available. But it’s the variety of 30 different skill and nanotech upgrades that impressed us most. Some are bland but helpful, like those that improve targeting or give you onscreen stats of enemies in view. But then there’s the gen- uinely cool new inventions; Urban Tracking, for instance, turns you into a cyber blood- hound able to see stray DNA molecules that come off your prey (they appear onscreen as colored blips that fade over time). Or take the magnetic grappling hook that lets you work out your Spider-Man fantasies as you swing through the levels. Other nanotech-based Skills work a lot like magic in most fantasy RPGs. Five schools of spells are planned, one for each of the four elements and another called drain, which focuses on leeching health, mental energy, and chi (used for spell- casting and other cyber skills). The single-player campaign is shaping up to be a huge character-building quest, but Inspired by the art styles of acclaimed comic-book artists Moebius and Geoff Darrow, art director Nate Simpson was keen to give this version of the not-too-distant future a sophisticated look. For a good example, check out this sketch of an Intimidator and its in- game counterpart. Genesis Corp. is looking to create the ulti- mate artificial intelligence at the beginning of Black 9. Its name: Charles Babbage. For those not geeky enough to know, Babbage is the father of the modern computer, which he called a difference engine. (Little known fact: He also invented the cowcatcher that used to be put on the front of trains to push wandering cattle off the tracks.) Taldren also has some big multiplayer plans in store via Xbox Live. You'll get a Co-op mode, where you can go through the whole game Online with a buddy, as well as combat scenar- ioS Supporting up to 16 players. Bethke explains, “We’re using the backstory of Black 9 to pit mercenary agents of the various illumi- nati in thematic scenarios. There will be cap- ture-and-hold matches like in [the PC game] Battlefield 1942, rescue/kidnap a VIP missions, and scenarios that have you hacking into or defending important installations.” Multiplayer will also sport additional crafts not available in the single-player game. The developers still have plenty to do before Black 9’s November target date, but Taldren is definitely onto something. The only mystery left is figuring out what we’re anticipating the most: seeing the finished graphical flourishes, the single-player action/RPG experience, or the multiplayer scenario-based matches. #¥ — Darren Gladstone XBOX INTRODUCES PLATINUM HITS muy om : aay OF, ‘ vo ma KB0x* Pago | - P.4 a Poe ; 2 F 0x ‘ “4 rat o » = rs) © Los uy ® co & 7) mT 4 _ o = o xa] oO = o ‘ee —) wo Oo = wy ~ =~ o —_ o <= .*) 8) G 2 — G o aa A) @ = Li] & Po = w Q. £ oO oO Go vant Li) 3 oad oD 2 . he 2 = = oO a 2 = = | o © d is) S ir | = ©2003 Microsoft Corporation. A! ee RANGE FROM EVERYONE To MATURE Se = ire & BY “Estimated Retail Price. Actual retail prices may vary. PREVIEW GALLERY IS VS. Extinction Electronic Arts © Summer 2003 ¢ Also On: PS2—You might assume this would be a first-person shooter like the last two Aliens vs. Predator PC games...but you’d be wrong. Oddly enough, Extinction is a console-exclusive real-time strategy game in which you build and battle armies, a la Starcraft. You’ll play mission-based levels as the colonial marines, Predators, or Aliens, and each team has its own abilities. For instance, the marines use the latest hi-tech weaponry, Predators rely on their advanced stealth technology, and Aliens attack en masse and impregnate their foes. Every unit you’d expect—from Alien facehuggers to marines in exo- suits—will be present, as well as new creatures like the Predator Hydra and Alien Ravager. And special weapons like the Marine’s airstrike will have you using movie quotes like, “| say we nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Wakehoarting Unleashed featuring Shay Activision O2 ¢ June 2003 ¢ Also On: PS2—What’s this? Tony Hawk tied to a towline? More or less, since you can expect to experience a familiar, Zen-like oneness with Murray’s master- ful controls. Aside from the obvious differences between rid- ing water and asphalt, it’s the wakeboarder’s ability to cut and reconnect to his tether on command that distinguishes this latest O2 entry. (In one of several imaginative locations, it’s possible to grind the length of a roller coaster before returning to your leash.) In addition to the now-standard Trick attack and H.O.R.S.E. challenges, two players can take turns at the wheel and on the wake. And in Tug-o-War, tandem wake- boarders score points that shorten one another’s lines until someone is torn to pieces by the boat’s propeller. 0 TWEED s sap AIR FROM BIG LAUNCH x 986 idier of Fortune Il: Double Helix Activision ¢ June 2003 ¢ Also On: None—Assume the role of John Mullins, a merc working for the antiterrorist group The Shop, in the hyperrealistic (and extremely gory) first-person shooter Soldier of Fortune !/: Double Helix. As in the first Soldier (PC, PS2, and DC), Mullins tackles everything from hostage rescues to search-and-destroy missions, wielding more than a dozen meticulously re-created real-world weapons. State-of-the-art modeling and animation, location- specific damage, and scenarios based on Mullins’ experiences (he’s a former Special Forces officer) lend authenticity to the game. Bad guys await your bullets in such diverse locales as Prague, Hong Kong, and Kamchatka. Best of all, Double Helix “ supports various forms of online bloodletting (Deathmatch, 4 Team DM, Elimination, and Infiltration) via Xbox Live. = Electronic Gaming Monthly - 96 - v.egmmMag.com PREVIEW GALLERY aX | o—e> = %, The Hulk - ; eas Universal Interactive ¢ May 2003 ¢ Also On: PS2, GC—No longer just a support- ing member in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise, the Hulk gets top billing at the box office and on your consoles this sum- mer. In this game set one year after the film, the Hulk’s nemesis, The Leader, plots to destroy Earth by creating an army of gamma-irradiated creatures, forcing the not-so-mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner to unleash the greener side of his personality. In some levels, you’ll play as the less-confrontational Banner (voiced by the film’s star, Eric Bana) and use stealth to complete the mission at hand. As the Hulk, you'll let loose on hordes of | : : military personnel, destroy buildings like _ ’ | ~. = they’re made from papier maché, and - : OD ug | prove once and for all who’s the strongest one there is. SISO aa Nima ie ret ee 2D & 3D Animation | 3D Modeling Character Design | Computer Graphics Digital Imaging | Filmmaking | Game Design Visual Effects | Web Design | And more... Gowoon Choi, AAC Student AA | BFA | MFA Degrees Portfolio Development | Online Classes Apply Now for Summer, Fall & Spring Semesters High School Scholarships & Teacher Grants Available AcademyOfArtCollege 1.800.544.ARTS | www.academyart.edu 79 New Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94105 Nationally Accredited by ACICS, NASAD & FIDER Established in 1929 fc2278 See over there, where it looks like nothing is going on? That’s your future if you just sit there. A real college degree, focused on advancing technology. Available on campus or online, right where you’re sitting. PREVIEW GALLERY | i ent = ely Wit pane Gy oe Wah | Di rs it. ti H a tle i uy 7 4 Hh He Wy AIA Games ¢ Spring 2003 « Also On: None— Believe it or not, he’s walking on air! When a mild-mannered suburban kid finds a costume that gives him special powers, he sets out to make good use of them. You’d probably guess he’d beat up criminals and foil an arch villain’s plans— and he does—but he also finds time for more lighthearted tasks. He reconciles feuding lovers, saves pets from trees, and runs errands (at superspeed, no less) for his neighbors. Although this quirky RPG was previously released in Japan for Sega’s Mega Drive and Dreamcast, this spiffed-up Xbox version will be its U.S. introduction. me ee eS ae ee ee Starsky Empire Interactive ¢ June 2003 ¢ Also On: PS2 —Streetwise Starsky and soft- spoken Hutch, true friends and partners, fight crime their own way over the objec- tions of their tough-as-nails but well- meaning captain. If that sounds trite, it’s because Starsky & Hutch (broadcast 1975 to 1979) became the archetype for virtually every TV buddy-cop show since. The game features the loose-cannon cops, the classic red-and-white Ford Gran Torino, pimpish informant Huggy Bear, and a whole lot of mission-based driving and shooting. True to the spirit of the Show, Starsky & Hutch encourages vehic- ular mayhem, fierce gunplay, and team- work. That’s right—two-player coopera- tive play means one partner can concen- trate on driving like a maniac while the other makes the bullets hit the criminals. And yes, support for steering-wheel and light-gun controllers is planned. Man, this is sure looking better than the those old Dukes of Hazzard games... Hara oye MOREMMEDRBUTSS MOREOVER 4 Kids everywhere are lo eir prized Medabot Medals and Medaparts to a diabolical team of warped Medamaniacs! Join Ikki nd his friends as they track down the source of the trouble and beat the a Rubberobos at their own twisted game! EVERYONE CONTENT RATED BY ESRB All your favorite Medabots characters! A 30+ hour adventure! Trade and Robobattle with friends! N, ATSUMU F° www.natsume.com / www.medabots.com Natsume is a registered trademark of Natsume Inc. Serious Fun is a trademark of Natsume Inc. © 2002, 2003 Natsume inc. All Rights Reserved. Character Design by Horumarin. “Medabots” is a trademark of Kodansha and is used under license. ©1997-2002 imagineer Co., bid. © 1997-2062 Natsume Co.,Ltd...Published by. Natsume Inc... Illustrations Copyright © 1997 Imagineer, Natsume. © 1999 NA ‘odansha, 4s S ® and the Nintendo Game ey Advance logo-are trademarks of Nintendo. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive : Digital Software Association. Serious Fun™ It’s a $20 million game nearly three years in the making. Now, we slip you the pills for our exclusive hands-on look at ENTER THI [//! arry and Andy Wachowski, the notoriously secretive filmmakers behind the Matrix movies, don’t want you reading this story. We just spent a full day as the first outsiders to play Enter the Matrix, the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox game based on the Wachowskis’ cybermystical universe. It doesn’t hit your con- sole until May 15——the same day The Matrix Reloaded, the first movie sequel, materializes in theaters—but we’ve already seen and played too much. And we’re ready to talk. We'll tell you about things—how the game’s story unfolds, how its hyperactive kung fu combat really works, how you can actually hack into your game console—that no other magazine has seen. All you must do is choose between two paths. Swallow the red pill to transport yourself to the fantasy world that is Enter the Matrix. Head back to reality with the blue pill if you want to know who truly orchestrated this massive undertaking. (Here’s a hint: It wasn’t the game’s developer.) To quote Morpheus from the first Matrix film: “We have shown you the door. You must walk through it.” No, eat me! Choke down the blue pill for a dose of behind-the-scenes reality. Get on down the blue road for... e The Wachowskis’ secrets-pg. 102 © An insider's look at the flick-pg. 104 ¢ The game's stars fess up-pg. 108 < 4s oe uw a =) ya okue UW > ne} pa.” 2 — e) = + I = Shiny told us that the Xbox version (shown here) will pack sharper graphics and more eye candy. And while the game fits onto a single DVD for PS2 and Xbox, the GameCube version will be a two-disc set. ENTER THE MATRIX— BLUE PILL f you want a simple gauge of how involved the Wachowski brothers were in making the Enter the Matrix videogame, think about this: The brothers had to approve every Screenshot you see on these pages. Yep, these guys are obsessed. They logged major frequent-flier miles zipping to the offices of Shiny Entertainment, the game’s developer, to see how things were progress- ing, or they had Shiny staff fly out to the movie set in Australia with updated versions of the game. The brothers even produced the first Enter the Matrix trailer. Throughout development of the game, the Wachowskis would conjure up new scenes that would require additional last-minute Electronic Gaming Mont filming. They even had Jada Pinkett Smith (who plays Niobe, one of the game’s main characters) fly back to Australia to shoot additional scenes just for Enter the Matrix. “The crew that worked on these scenes in Australia literally walked off the set shaking their heads going, ‘l can’t believe we just did that for a videogame,’” says Shiny President David Perry. Enter the collaboration But Perry isn’t grousing about the Wachowskis’ control-freakery. After all, the brothers are hardcore gamers, as well as film- making wonderboys—they know what it takes to make a good game. And Perry’s just happy to have the opportunity to make Enter the Matrix after his company kissed away the opportunity —because of “bad timing,” he Says—back when the Wachowskis first shopped around the license (when they were working on the original film). Shiny got a sec- ond shot at it only after both Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and Halo developer Bungie Studios turned the project down (the brothers are huge Halo fans). “I think they [the brothers] were looking for a combination of the technology we were able to demon- Strate along with a shared opinion of what this game could be,” says Perry, explaining why the Wachowskis gave Shiny another shot. ly - 102 - www.egmmag.com The Wachowskis Don’t Play GameCube. .. ..and 9 other things you don’t know about the men behind The Matrix Larry and Andy Wachowski, the auteurs behind the Matrix films, are so secretive, they have a no-publicity clause in their contracts. Doesn’t matter: We still dug up some dirt. 10. Both are young: Andy is 35; Larry is 37. g. They were raised on the mean streets of Chicago. 8. Marvel Comics hired them to write the obscure and unsuccessful series Ectokid. 7. The Wachowskis’ first screenplay, Carnivore, never made it to the big screen. 6. According to Jada Pinkett Smith, who plays Niobe, the Wachowskis are obses- sive over their actors’ hairstyles. 5. It’s rumored that, after the Matrix trilogy, the brothers want to make a movie based on the comic-book series Plastic Man. 4. They are huge fans of videogames and Japanese animation. 3. Their favorite gaming genres are action and role-playing games. 2. Arecent game fave is Splinter Cell (Xbox). 1. The Wachowskis own a PlayStation 2 and an Xbox, but not a GameCube. t took almost three years to get our hands on a Matrix-based videogame, but we final- ly logged exclusive playtime at the offices of Enter the Matrix’s developer, Shiny Entertainment (best known for the Genesis/Super NES—era Earthworm Jim and MDK for PS1). We uncovered never-before- seen levels, picked about 100 fights with some familiar (as well as new) Matrix ene- mies, and discovered just how deep this rab- bit hole goes. Enter the Matrix’s plot has been shrouded in mystery...until now. It turns out the Wachowski brothers decided that both the Mystery men: The super Wachowski brothers Andy (left) and Larry (right). “They knew we weren’t going to go off and try to mess up their design or break everything they wanted to see happen.” The two groups—the filmmakers and game makers — then set off to give people an all-new experi- ence: a movie-based game that doesn’t stink. While Shiny began developing a cross-plat- form game engine, the Wachowskis spent the end of 2000 putting the finishing touches on the game’s script. Wait—whazzat? A game Script? That’s right...the brothers wrote an entirely new story for Enter the Matrix, span- ning 244 pages and featuring three of the movie sequel’s supporting characters. The Wachowskis then broke new ground by film- ing an hour of footage solely for the videogame at the same time they were shoot- ing The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: second film, The Matrix Reloaded, and the game would pick up where the last of The Animatrix animated shorts (see sidebar on page 105) ends. In that final episode, you watch the rebel hovercraft Osiris stumble upon evil machines drilling a hole through Earth. Before the hovercraft is ravished by thousands of tentacled-robot sentinels, a crewmember drops off a package at a mail- box inside the Matrix. The package contains a message about the machines’ advances toward the last human city of Zion. This is where Enter the Matrix kicks off. Rather than having you play the game as the all-powerful Neo (played by Keanu Reeves in the films), the Wachowskis wanted to go in another direction and build upon the second film’s events by telling a parallel ie | Revolutions. By incorporating this new footage into a videogame, the brothers were able to expand their sci-fi universe without having to cram too much stuff into the next two movies. That means Matrix fans will get the whole story only if they play the game as well as see the movies, and Perry promises that players who go through Enter the Matrix will be in for some real surprises that will make the movie experience that much more rewarding. Gamers will have a better under- Standing of certain events in Reloaded because they’re triggered by what transpires in the videogame. For example, in the game, there’s a balls-to-the-wall driving mission that ends with you entering right into a scene from Reloaded. If you only see the movie, you just see Niobe arrive, and you miss out on the dra- matic chase that took place beforehand. Still, one hour of exclusive movie footage was not enough for the brothers to tell their Story. The game’s script also includes more than an hour of cut-scenes that Shiny created using the game’s graphics engine. “These scenes help keep the game flowing,” Perry says. “The movie footage is usually a payoff that explains something that has happened.” The motion-capture process used to create the scenes—filmed in the United States and Australia—took six months. The film’s fight choreographer, Yuen Wo Ping, and his stunt team also completed the motion capture, to ensure that the game’s combat system would feature the same stunning martial arts moves made famous in the original Matrix movie. The Wachowskis also demanded eS ae Electronic Gaming Monthly - 103 - www.egmmag.com Ce] m= story that further explains the Matrix’s ins and outs. To accomplish this, the game includes two playable heroes, Niobe and Ghost, who are supporting characters in the next two Matrix movies. You pick the char- acter you want, then start the game. Just as the plots of Reloaded and Enter the Matrix’s intertwine, so do Niobe and Ghost’s paths. Both start the game in a post office where they must retrieve that all-important package left by the Osiris crew. The two then go On separate journeys, but ultimately reunite down the road. In the power plant Stage, for example, your goal as Niobe is to make it through the level without falling vic- tim to heavily armed SWAT members. But as Ghost, your job is to back up Niobe and Snipe unsuspecting enemies before they whack her. The two also work together in the driving and hovercraft missions (see sidebar on page 103). Although Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity will never do your bidding in the game, they fre- it won't be this easy for Niobe when the noto- rious Agent Smith arrives on the scene. quently appear in the movie footage and in- game cut-scenes. Enter the Matrix features approximately 80 characters, and Shiny promises you’ll confront all the big-league bad guys, including Agent Smith and the odd-looking, silver-dreadlocked twins who first Show up in the movie sequels. While playing the game, we also met freaky vam- pire-like enemies. Finishing them off required the use of—you guessed it—a wooden Stake, ala Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Shiny President David Perry wouldn’t explain the origin of these oddball creatures, saying it would give away too much of the story Death from Above: Slowing down the game via the Focus button (see pg. 109) gives your character's punches and kicks that extra “oomph” needed to take the enemy down with one perfectly executed move, as playable dude Ghost demonstrates in these two screenshots. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 104 - www.egmmag.com Like Metal Gear's Solid Snake, Niobe can peek around corners, scoping the area for threats. before the movie’s May 15 debut. | know more than kung fu Of course, your method of doing away with the game’s army of agents, evil twins, and other ripped-from-the-flick nogoodniks is no secret: Both main characters know Matrix- Style martial arts moves that make Steven Seagal look like a bloated has-been (well, more so than usual). Enter the Matrix repli- cates the movies’ high-flying martial arts with a combat system that combines souped-up chop-socky techniques with 24 different (continued on page 108) te Sa that Shiny deliver additional game content that every player would want to expe- rience, but would not be able to access easily. “They had us make it so players will get to have a sparring match with Trinity,” Perry adds as an example, “but they will skip right over that part unless the player does what is nec- essary in the game to reach it.” The point? Replayability. “When people see screenshots in magazines of Trinity fighting, they’ll say, ‘Whoa! Who’s fighting Trinity? | didn’t do that,’” says Perry. This isn’t the first time Perry has worked with a famous Hollywood franchise. In 1992, he developed a Sega Genesis game based on the first Terminator movie. Perry describes it as “the worst thing ever.” Movie executives set up so many obstacles, it became nearly impossible for him to create a quality game. He was forced to base it on a character, Kyle Reese, who dies in the first movie—there couldn’t be a Sarah Connor character, and the game’s main enemy was indestructible. Perry had better luck with Disney’s Aladdin (1993, Sega Genesis) because the directors were into videogames, and he was able to work with the movie’s animation team. But the Enter the Matrix project has involved so much more cooperation with the filmmakers, Perry likens it to “Aladdin on steroids.” For instance, when it came time to choose the motion-capture studio for the game, Shiny teamed up with the film’s Oscar-winning visu- al-effects supervisor, John Gaeta, so the team could reach the level of quality the brothers wanted. “When the Wachowskis have some- thing in their mind they would like to see, they go for it,” explains Perry. “They say, ‘This is what we want to see. Find a way to get it done.’” Even if everybody comes back to them saying it’s not possible, the Wachowskis’ phi- losophy is to scour the earth and find some- one who can make their dreams a reality. Even the game’s publisher, Infogrames (Atari label), is upping the production values. The company plans to release a 30-minute Making of Enter the Matrix DVD (produced by the same people who put together the film’s DVDs) some time this year. Don’t be surprised this Christmas to see a special edition of Enter the Matrix bundled with the extra DVD. All of this unprecedented collaboration between the Wachowskis and Shiny leaves us with one white-hot question: Do we need to see Reloaded before playing the game, since both plots intersect? Perry says yes. “The game has good things in it that would give away some secrets you don’t . a Electronic Gaming Monthly - 105 - www.egmmag.com We're still trying to figure out how this Marilyn Manson lookalike fits into the Matrix saga. Shiny says we'll have to wait until the game's release to find out. You Mate Your Console Do What? A guide to hacking the Matrix want to know first.” He adds, “On 2 The game’s cheat sys- the other hand, when you’ve seen the tae, available eben movie, you don’t even want 24 hours to go Main menu, is a funky by before you See the rest of it [by playing little bonus designed to Enter the Matrix].” Looks like May 15 will be : make you feel like one busy day. you’re hacking into the Matrix. By jabbing in Editor’s note: Before you go into suspended old-school DOS com- hibernation until Enter selon os api vant the Matrix’s May oad new ghting styles and various behind-the- debut, we have our . scenes goodies like con- own movie-inspired cept art. Shiny hopes to game for you to also let you download play—with some blueprints for levels major Matrix you’ve already beaten, goodies as prizes then place health or for the winners. weapons in certain Just follow the rooms before re-enter- ing that area. Just think back to when Neo said, “Guns. Lots of guns,” and infinite racks of them zoomed out of thin air. Here’s another twist for true hackers: You'll actually be able to take control of your console. We watched a Shiny rep hack into the PS2 and make the machine’s disc tray eject and controller guarantee this super- vibrate. No word on whether the the Xbox version will spit out Bill Gates’ zillion-dollar bills. cool contest will make : you say, “Whoa.” white rabbit in our next issue for all the answers. We Electronic Gaming Monthly - 106 - www.egmmag.com oP. 16 P , yee oe 2 a ee a a oa a a a oa Pe VF f is § i f. f. { a% i f ‘ i £. 6 hes é oye I TVA AAS Hi i MEDIAV PLAY Go “com Yoor tuterteiament “ WS ATCC GIR GOUT a of Nintendo® of America inc. PlayStation® 2 is a registered trademark of Sony® Computer Entertainment | dorsed or distributed by Nintendo® of America inc., Sony® Computer Entertainment Inc. or: Niobe does her best Neo impression from the first movie. Only with the proper use of Focus can you break the boundaries of the computer-gen- erated world called the Matrix. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 108 - www.egmmag.com Oo m> (continued from page 104) types of weapons. Newbies can advance by simply mashing the Kick, Punch, Jump, and Action (which is either a block, throw, or counterthrow) but- tons, but they’ll miss out if they don’t explore the most intriguing gameplay feature: the Focus meter. More than just another iteration of the slow-mo bullet-time effect that games like Max Payne and Dead to Rights ripped from the first Matrix movie, Focus power allows you to pull off brutal, superpowered moves while ramping down the speed of the onscreen action. Just tap the Focus button to initiate these attacks, which last as long as you have juice in your Focus meter. After some trial and error, we were able to create some gorgeous-looking fight sequences reminiscent of the first flick. Take the chateau level, for starters. As we entered its massive ballroom, a pack of vampire wannabes flooded the scene. When playing as Ghost, by activating Focus at precisely the right moment, we ran up the side of a wall, then jumped off and performed a cart- wheel flip with acrobatic grace. While hang- ing upside down in midair, we pulled out our pistol and began blasting the assailants. The actual aiming is automatic, so you can exe- cute these superhuman moves without wor- rying about enemies’ positions. As Niobe, Focus enabled us to pull off simultaneous attacks on multiple enemies with Jean- Claude Van Damme-style split dual super- kicks. We were also able to juggle policemen in the air with a rapid-fire blast of punches to the chest, only to then finish them off with a boot to the rib cage that sent them across the room like we were punting a foot- ball. Now, add fully interactive environments to the equation and the action gets that much more intense. For instance, you can blast apart the first room of the post office level, which is reminiscent of the original film’s marble foyer. Just cut loose with your MP5 machine gun and watch the concrete chunks fly. We also made a mess of the chateau’s fine selection of liquor bottles as we obliterated the bar, and caused problems in the kitchen as our gunshots left all the hanging pots and pans in disarray. The only Enter the Matrix topic we can’t touch is the movie footage filmed for the game; that’s where the Wachowskis drew the line. The brothers won’t let anyone other than Shiny employees catch a sneak peek. In fact, Shiny recently sent the game to Sony to start the approval process, but only after removing all the game’s story elements—almost two hours of movie footage and in-game cut- scenes—per the Wachowskis’ orders. We do know the game won’t have a cliffhanger ending like Reloaded. And Perry says the third film— The Matrix Revolutions, due in November—will answer any questions left after finishing Enter the Matrix. Maybe by then, we'll finally have reached the bottom of the rabbit hole. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 109 - www.egmmag.com FROM BENEATH THE SWRFACE A SECRET HIDDEN FOR EONS IS ABOWT TO BE REDISCOVERED PlayStation.c call | BREATH OF FIRE == CO = Meda Mehs — be Ik » ° ABRAND NEW EVOLUTION OF THE e NEW REAL-TIME, TURN-BASED e 3-D WORLDS EVOLVE TO SUIT BREATH OF FIRE SERIES BATTLE SYSTEM YOUR PLAYING STYLE Blood Partial Nudity 2 . 2 = Violence PlayStation. wal © CAPCOM CO., LTD. 1994, 2003 © CAPCOM U.S.A., INC. 1994, 2003. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CAPCOM and the CAPCOM LOGO are registered trademarks of CAPCOM CO., LTD. BREATH OF FIRE and DRAGON QUARTER are trademarks of CAPCOM CO., LTD. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Our Philosophy EGM rates games based on how they com- pare with other titles on the same system. The highest score we'll give a game is a 10. When a game receives a 10, you can rest assured it’s one of the best games ever made—a revolutionary title that truly stands above everything else in its genre for its time. ofKED s EEE] 0 | At the other end of the spectrum sits the low- est score a game can receive: ao.o. This is the kind of game you want to avoid at all costs. It’s pure crap. In the middle lies the average grade, 5.0. We repeat: 5.0 IS AVERAGE. Simple, ain’t it? Platinum Awards go to : >, Gold Awards go to ™ Games that average at games that get all 10s, 7 EGM A games whose average least an 8.0 (but lower the best and rarest SOLD VS score equals 9.0 or F than 9.0) receive review a game can get. me” higher. cod Silver Awards. Shane Bettenhausen Crispin Boyer Reviews Editor | As the release date for his silver- ly “Hollywood” — now he only com- municates to his fellow EGMers through his publicist. Favorite Genres: RPG, Action, Fighting Current Faves: /karuga, Final Fantasy X-2 Associate Editor Shawn was carving carpet whenever Activision stopped by until Shoe » confiscated the cardboard and told .. ’im he couldn’t have a complimenta- | ry copy of Wakeboarding Unleashed even if they offered. Favorite Genres: Online, FPS, Fighting Current Faves: Wakeboarding Unl., Splinter Cell Dan “Shoe” Hsu Editor-in-Chief The politicians are right: Games are bad influences on kids and » dumbasses. Shoe tried some of the _ stuff he’s seen in snowboarding games, but the rails didn’t treat his shins too well. Unretouched photo! Favorite Genres: Everything Current Faves: Unreal Championship, Ikaruga Demian Linn # Editor-at-Large @ Boy, this California thing is working out great. They aren’t crazy at all. Demian’s already a certified Avatar Metaphysical Toastmaster, and his Miracle Swimming class starts next week! Who’s up for some Bikram? Favorite Genres: Action, Hockey, Racing Current Faves: NBA Street Vol. 2, Zelda: OOT screen debut in The Matrix Reloaded nears, Shane’s becoming increasing- Electronic Gamin Features Editor Crispin worked out his antisocial _ hit the PS2. Now that it’s on Xbox, the only misdeed Cris can muster is gulping down those “Do not eat!” packets that come with beef jerky. Favorite Genres: Action, Adventure Current Faves: Amplitude, Ikaruga, Splinter Cell » Joe Fielder . Previews Editor so much that he spends most of his time in the office muttering lines * from the original Starcraft. “Ghost reporting!” “Bye, bye, bye!” Favorite Genres: Shooters, Action/Adventure Current Faves: Tenchu: WOH, Metroid Prime Bryan intihar Associate Editor Working on this month’s cover story has done something strange to Bryan. He now thinks that the Matrix is real and that he, not Neo, is truly “The One.” Someone help him, please. Favorite Genres: Action, Adventure, Sports Current Faves: Enter the Matrix, Street Vol. 2 Mark MacDonald Executive Editor The announcement of a new R-Type ™ took Mark back to his high school 4 days in the ’80s, when the shooters flowed like wine. Those were sim- pler times. Favorite Genres: Action, Adventure, Shooters Current Faves: [karuga, Zelda: The Wind Waker ge Monthly - 12 - www. NS! tendencies when State of Emergency The newest editor here at EGM, Joe’s already jonesing for Starcraft: Ghost game and constant /karuga sessions egmmag.c NBA Street Vol. 2 p. 118 Splinter Cell p. 120 The satisfying stealth of Splinter Cell and the hot-dogging hoops action of NBA Street Vol. 2 equally impressed our Crew, so both games share the honor. In other news, pre- pare for a senses-shattering, new-and- improved Review Crew section next month. Paul Byrnes Associate Editor ) Paul will kick your ass in Tekken or + DOA3, he holds his own in Halo, and , \Wy he’ll beat your best Tetris score. But 7 Lt you'd clean his clock in any version of ey “4004 Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, guaranteed. | ie There. His shameful secret is out. Favorite Genres: Adventure, RPG, Fighting Current Faves: Zelda: Ocarina of Time, SSX Associate Editor After reviewing nothing but baseball games the past two months, Ford noticed something unusual happen to him. Shocked at first, he just shrugged it off and joined the company softball team. Favorite Genres: Action, Adventure Current Faves: The Sims, Star Wars (Famicom) Chris “GY” Johnston News Editor _ © spent most of this month sick _ with a combination of a cold, the flu, and bronchitis. The cure? A couple rounds of Dr. Mario on the copy of * Nintendo Puzzle Collection for GC that the sick bastard just imported. Favorite Genres: Action, Adventure, Music Current Faves: Phantasy Star Online (Xbox) Jennifer Tsao Managing Editor The guys around the office were more than willing to join Jennifer in a little multiplayer Amplitude this month—right up until they discov- ered that her “winning strategy” involved actual dance moves. Favorite Genres: Action sports, Adventure Current Faves: The Sims (again!), NOLF2 Publisher: Sony CEA —— Developer: Harmonix Players: 1-2 (2-4 w/Multitap or Online) Also On: None Sequel to: Frequency (PS2) Best Feature: Great selection of music Worst Feature: Getting to faraway music tracks Website: www.playstation.com As with any music game, how much you enjoy Amplitude really depends on whether or not you like the music included on its soundtrack. Luckily, it’s a diverse mix here: a hodgepodge of techno, alterna- tive rock, and club mixes that includes songs from the likes of Garbage, Papa Roach, Slipknot, and Run- DMC. If you like those artists and can successfully tap your fingers to a beat, you should give Amplitude a shot. Of course, it’d help even more if you’re famil- iar with 2001's Frequency, as this is its direct sequel. Gameplay-wise, you still rock out using the DualShock’s shoulder buttons to “play” the music, but Amplitude pumps it up with more music than the original, a higher degree of difficulty, a new power-up, and an Online mode out of the box. It’s still not perfect, though, and despite a few cosmetic changes, this is still basically the same game. One seemingly innocuous tweak, however, does make a serious impact. The plane that.represents,the music is now flat rather than cylindrical (as it was in Frequency), which makes it easier to.keep track of everything but actually hinders gameplay. Now, there’s really no fast way to go from one Side to the other—a big problem in more difficult songs where keeping your combos up is key. Despite that, Amplitude is really fun, especially in its Versus and Online modes. «Cl Don’t go a lets dene in traffic if you tuned out the thumping-good rhythm game Frequency. Instead, jam over to sequel Amplitude, which refines the st game’s button-beating gameplay (score multipliers are easier tospot),,while adding music. from..mightier supergroups. It’s this hit list of 20-plus tunes—from bubbly pop to whiplashing metal—that makes Amplitude a music game for the masses (though with 10 more songs, it would be perfect). Even all-thumbs players will open most of the music. Win an online duel or get into your zone to complete the trickier hits, and Amplitude becomes a rockin’ rush. Plus, chicks dig it, TERINE it area for Ope play. _ Crispin When playing Ansett if at any point you start to feel that doing well in this game means you’ve actually got soul, please stop immediately, go buy a Busta Rhymes or Stevie Wonder album—a Janet Jackson video willdoin.a.pinch— and take afewminutes to see what real groovin’ is about. Pressing a couple buttons on a controller just isn’t my idea of true rhythm-action. Amplitude works well for what it is— and the sound- track contains some of my favorites (Weezer, Blink 182, and even the new Bowie song is cool) —but as Olivia Newton-John said in a-similarly soulless but catchy number, |} wanna get physical! Samba de Amigo (DO), - where have you gone: Jennifer VISUALS SOUND INGENUITY REPLAY L i 6 L MLB SlugFest 20-04 Publisher: Midway Sports —— Developer: Midway Players: 1-2 Also On: GC, Xbox Cover Athletes: Shouldn’t act in cut-scenes Best Feature: The new special pitch Worst Feature: Too much time between pitches Website: www.midway.com | don’t want to like Slugfest. I’m hardcore. I’m a purist. I’m the baseball-videogame ambassador. But in my first game, | punch Todd Helton in the face, then knee him in the junk. He drops the ball; | race to second. | laugh. Next game, | throw at Scott Rolen’s head, he collapses to the ground, and, yep, | laugh. Game after that, the loading screen has the two chat- ty announcers taunting an intern. | laugh. There may be no crying in baseball, but SlugFest 20-04 fea- tures plenty of laughs. Funny-bone tickling aside, this new version actually appeals to serious hardball fans. Not really serious fans, mind you—you can still drive in 35 runs in 10 games with Barry Bonds—but detailed player stats and bigger rosters expand the gameplay depth, meaning you’ll want to finish the season instead of just goofing through one-off exhi- bitions. At its heart, though, it’s still arcadey fun— the new special pitch simply rules, as do the hot dames on.the.loading screens and the-plentiful (and often useful) cheats. Overall, it’s a blast to play, with insanely over-the-top pitching, batting, and fielding anyone can pick up and enjoy. | wouldn’t hold off for next year’s model, either. History tells us (if Hitz and Blitz are any indication) this second entry will be SlugFest’s shining moment. There’s not much more ground to cover, so buy this one and you’re golden. It’s a definite eal in yeu eye. Todd cognonssonascascosted 2090000 soc oen CCR RHONRROOHRDRENREC DORREOHODALOECODEO RSE OOPRLORCRDIC ODER ORLEDRISOSECODSLORESIOIS Siuarast Te returns fot a ecru season of hardball that even people who’ve never swung a virtual whooping stick can pick up instantly. Aside from some lack- adaisical outfielders who take forever to react to well- hit balls,.the.gameplay is fast, funy and. simple. It’s funny, too, although the commentators’ goofy anec- dotes become repetitive. Also, like its extreme cousins NFL Blitz and NHL Hitz, SlugFest regrettably lacks the depth needed for serious solo gaming. Luckily, multi- player action shines— it’s always a blast to vibrate your buddy’s controller via the Taunt button after belt- ing another pitch over the fences. Just don’t expect ci ali ilk saa Bryan There’ Sno Auli that iarasncl delivers a msaed time— as the arcadey alternative to this season’s baseball- sim glut, it offers rollickin’ two-player fun. Taunting your buddy after he blows a big lead (which will hap- pen) is great,.and the over-the-top showboating and exaggerated animations capture a competitive spirit the serious MLB sims lack. But that’s not-enough to cover the annoying control flaws, like a frustrating running game and spotty defense, especially in the outfield. If you’re looking for a solid one-player game, look elsewhere. But if you're dying for a rock- em-sock-em multiplayer experience, Slugfest is per- fect for a double header. G.Ford VISUALS SOUND INGENUITY REPLAY vs L b L hly - 113 - nr ee AARON EAR PORE R REET RIESE PEERED PORE E SERPS ODP OPECDLE SEN PODOO ETE MVP Baseball 2003 EVERYONE Publisher: EA Sports ee Fe Developer: EA Canada Players: 1-2 Also On: Xbox Replaces: The tired Triple Play series Best Feature: Worst Feature: Website: Pitching is actually fun! Hitting is way too simple www.easports.com Imagine you have a puppy that has been retarded for as long as you can remember. You now have the power to give the puppy an operation to make it not retard- ed. You’ve loved this afflicted puppy (which, apparent- ly, does not age) for years, but you dream of a better life for him...so you take the chance. Let’s call this puppy Triple Play, and let’s call its new-and-improved nonretarded form MVP. This new puppy looks sweeter than a 460-foot Sammy Sosa tater, and its wickedly awesome new pitcher/batter interface topples any- thing done in previous games. Finally, for the first time ever, pitching is actually as much fun as hit- ting, thanks to a strategic, realistic interface that per- fectly balances risks and rewards. How many puppies can say that? Problem is, the hitting is still too much like when you called the puppy Jriple Play. Which means this puppy needs a stern talkin’ to and some serious discipline. Basically, if you push up, you hit a fly ball, even.on.a.low pitch. If you pushdown, expect a ground ball, even on an eye-high heater. This is way lame. But, of course, there’s no sense in badgering the poor puppy. $a, let’s look at another improvement — the Franchise mode. Here, you can simulate seasons and jump in and out of all of the games as they hap- pen...super-duper kick-ass: If | were the owner of this puppy, l’d be pleased. Next year, | hope the puppy will be even more not retarded. Todd MVP’s most innovative feature—its complex pitch- ing/throwing meter—totally goes against the realis- tic, meter-free, virtual-immersion look of most base- ball games. With an array of multicolored arcs hang- ing above your player, you never forget-you’re.playing a videogame. That said, this meter system lifts MVP’s pitching game above other titles’ point-and-chuck-a- thons. Also, the simple batting controls prove surpris- ingly deep, and the Home Run Showdown mode is highly entertaining. EA took a risk with its new franchise, and it pays off. Let’s hope the company delivers less-repetitive announcers and more control over jumping and diving next year. G. Ford EA finally woke up and smelled the pine tar—say adios to Triple Play and hello to a franchise that com- petes with Sega’s WSB and 3D0’s High Heat. What’s changed? For starters, the developers found a way to make an enjoyable pitching game that actually requires skill. The hitting’s not shabby, either —con- necting with the ball gets easier with every swing of the bat, although home runs are quite rare. The pre- sentation’s sweet, too, with insightful commentary and graphics that shine. MVP does have some prob- lems, like its touchy throwing meter and fielders who are often out of position. Minor issues aside, though, MVP remains a worthy baseball choice. Bryan VISUALS SOUND INGENUITY REPLAY i L 8 1 Clock Tower 3 tht once you're fully Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom/Sunsoft Players: 1 Also On: None Featured in: EGM #165 Best Feature: Worst Feature: Increasingly weird story line “Puzzles” that aren’t the slightest bit puzzling Website: www.capcom.com orget the first two Clock Tower games. Clock Tower 3 has a new look, a new 3D control scheme, and a standalone story that doesn’t require previous CT experience, so no one should be scared off. But the game will scare you. Developers Sunsoft and Capcom took an ingenious route TOP TALENT It’s no wonder Clock Tower 3’s cinemat- ics are so good—Kinji Fukasaku (the recently departed director of the cult- classic flick, Battle Royale) directed them—he’s often described as “the last great Japanese action-movie direc- tor.” And the story, another of the game’s strong points, was written by Flagship, the company that penned the scripts for Resident Evil and Onimusha. Clock Tower 3 to inducing fear: casting players as a teenage girl, Alyssa, who—with no weapons except holy water—must evade hostile enemies as She tries to find her missing mother. Throughout the intricate story line peppered with exquisite cinematics, Alyssa unlocks the mysteries behind some horrible murders—but in turn, a few homicidal maniacs chase her. A Panic Meter rises as Alyssa’s enemies hit or scare her; if it fills up, she freaks out and becomes almost impossible to control. It’s a lit- tle irritating, but it definitely increases your own panic level as you play. Although the puzzles are easy to solve with your brain effectively turned off, the story is compelling enough that you’ll want to pay attention to find out what happens next. Plus, the action elements—running from would-be killers and engaging in some fairly hardcore boss battles—keep C73 from ever being anoth- er cliched adventure game, and the strikingly designed environments deliver a great feeling of creepy realism. Unfortunately, while Clock Tower 3 is fun to play and the story is both intriguing and gory enough to satisfy survival- horror fans, it’s probably disturbingly easy for anyone who’s ever finished a Resident Evil game. Those hoping for a lengthy adventure will be disappointed, and the short, simple quest might not justify its $50 price tag. 114 _Seesseesneonceqanconeocaqaconessoonecqenenonseassentasconsoonqoonqcnooninenetannct Alyssa spends most of Clock Tower running, hid- ing, and acting like...well, like a fifteen-year-old high school student (she is one, after all). Only during boss fights does she finally break out the sacred bow and go all Buffy on that serial killer ass, as Sledge-man here is about to discover. Try hiding from a crazed serial killer by cowering behind a transparent fish tank and see if it doesn’t make your heart skip a beat. Not having the ubiqui- tous sniper rifles or ninja swords at your disposal brings a sense of realistic fear to Clock Tower 3—even with the game’s outlandish plot and idiotic enemies. | loved the diverse, spooky settings, the old-fashioned charm of using holy water to fight enemies and laven- der water to calm your panic meter, the eerie music, and the process of unlocking the stories behind the various murder victims. Some of the story line schmaltz was a bit shudder-inducing, but the CG cut- scenes, which | normally hate, were as interesting as every other part of the game, and beautiful to watch. My main gripe with the game is that the puzzles are too easy. Not only are there no stumpers, there aren’t even many points in the game when you’ll have to evaluate the situation and think about what to do. Outside.of some tense, action-packed. boss battles at the end of each level, the game’s just not challenging. In fact, CT3 plays more like an unfolding,.increasingly weird adventure title (like Myst or the Broken Sword games) than a traditional survival-horror thriller. That said, | really liked playing it. The bottom line is that Clock Tower 3 is a fun game with a fantastic, sur- prising story behind it. | kept playing just to find out what lle aidani next. Carrie CT3 can’t rey on an eanulltonwes ‘With. its hokey, R.L. Stein thrills, much of the game feels like survival-hor- ror lite for the campfire storytelling set. You spritz ghouls with holy water, solve simple puzzles, and recover from near bludgeonings with. lavender baths — hardly the stomach-turning terror of, say, Silent Hill. Even the serial killers on your heels are more.irritating than frighteningthat is, until the chilling. cut- scenes depict each of these murderers’ most grue- some deeds in morbid detail, bravely pushing the envelope for gaming gorewAnd although the truly sick cinemas make the biggest impact, the plush visuals and unique combat aren’t half-bad either. Shawn ORLaOOSCODSoNCOORIRSONEOSEON CONIA ANH REHOOLNDOO EEN DIDICESOOREESHISHOOOIONN ODM Despite its bititalle sited cut-scenes ne crazed serial killers chasing you all over with big, sharp things, | found myself literally yawning through much of Clock Tower 3. You spend 70 percent of the game just.running and hiding from.the.aforemen- tioned psychos, which might be exciting if they did- n’t all follow the same moronic charge-attack-charge pattern. (Haw some of them managed 30+ victims is beyond me.) The game is also relatively short and very easy, with puzzles so simple they would bore a fifth-grader. Only the decent graphics, creepy sound- track and (eventually) interesting story make Tower 3 worth an overnight rental for horror fans. Mark VISUALS SOUND INGENUITY REPLAY L I 6.6hCltC‘«