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Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. ©2005 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. PlayStation Durs: is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

eveloped by industry veterans who continue to innovate the genre.

and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "Live In Your World. Play In

Prepare to enter the realm of the samurai, where the art of revenge is always painted in blood. Mist rolls through valleys, birds of all colors fly through lush forests and all seems at peace. Beneath this cover of mystical beauty lies a tortured people ruled by the sword of a brutal samurai dan. But there is hope, for within one man burns the

fire of redemption.

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Soy hello to EyeToy: Play 2; with 12 all-new games like GoalAttack, HomeRun, AirGuitar and 75 bonus games. The included EyeToy USB camera tracks your every move, putting you in the middle of the action. It's the most fun you can have in your living room!

EyeToy USB Camera {for PlayStation 2) included EyeToy: Play 2

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(©2005 SCi Games Ltd. А! Rights Reserved. Total Overdose is a trademark of SCi Games Lid, Developed by Deadline Games A/S. Deadline Games and the Deadline Games logo are trademarks of Deadline Games A/S. Eidos and the Eidos logo are trademarks of the Eidos Group of Companies. The rating icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. 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 in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. All rights reserved.

HOW TC SURVIVE IN MEXICO'S DRUG-UNDERWORLD

STEP 1: STEP 2: STEP 3:

i

m

NA

Cut out targets on opposite page. Crumple other game ads into small Tally points and reward yourself Fold along the dotted lines. wads to build up your ammo supply. with a shot of tequila (if you're Arrange at various distances in a Jump and spin 360° while trying to of legal drinking age, of course). circle surrounding yourself. hit as many targets as you can. If you are in a group, the lowest

score buys more tequila. If you are alone, make friends.

A GUNSLINGER'S TALE IN MEXICO

Got this move nailed down? Congrats amigo, this is your first step to surviving the open-ended world of Los Toros, a, drug-infested town south of the border. No rules exist in Los Toros - hijack any vehicles you need and arm yourself with T| amarsenalof illegal weapons.

Master a series of deadly, freestyle kill moves and you might survive as you work your way through Mexico's top drug cartel in the search for your father's killer.

conte

LETTERS 2 /

12 Love, hate, whips, and chains in literary form

PRESS START

The latest news, previews,

features, and gaming gossip

26 DRIVER 4 Will an overhaul leave Driver ready to run?

32 GUN a We squeeze the trigger of the wildest Western game ever

36 RESIDENT EVIL 4 Capcom's evil masterpiece survives its transplant to a new host: the PS2

44 ZELDA WATCH Just how Zelda savvy are you?

56 NBA LIVE 06 A first look at some of the goods Xbox 360 brings to the court

60 .TAKE THIS JOB: GAME DESIGNER Find out just what it's like to design the hell out of some games

64 CASTLEVANIA: DAWN OF SORROW Have a peek at Sorrow's soul- sucking and stylus-sketched magic

68 ADULTS ONLY A suitably mature look at those Hot Coffee shenanigans d c

72 EGM 200 А 7 We scared up all of the best baddies 4 and bosses

74 MOT 10 p 4 Re-imagined, but still dedicated to

GAME OVER E x @

We say that, but it's never over I ۰

134 SEANBABY’S REST OF THE CRAP C OV E R STO RY:

135 CROSSWORD/GRUDGE MATCH

136 NES 20th ANNIVERSARY

140 NEXT MONTH

142 HSU & CHAN

\ р Eight years after Final Fantasy VII rocked the role-playing:world, Square Enix delivers four new titles that carry on its hallowed heritage. Plus, EGM offers a look at the creation of the PS1 classic and a glimpse into future of the franchise...

> ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA

CONTRIBUTORS

t McDaniel

Marci Yamaguchi PRODUCTION Territory Managers & Acct. Execs. or Pr Gaming Accounts

8 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

AYA REVIEW CREW 21 Y MAI "| Multiplatform p | Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance 5 Grand Theft Auto is to. Y | Darkwatch videogames what

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78 : TARGET PRACTICE

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ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 9

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What do these three machines have in common? IBM processors.

really Big Blue After reading “Deciphering the Technobabble” [EGM #194], it's clear that the only real winner in the console war is IBM. It is amazing to me that each company has separately decided to rely on IBM's chips. And it's even more amazing to see the difference in construction between these chips. If | were smart, I'd be buying Stock in IBM right now.

Lou Youngstrom

Avatars | met my boyfriend while playing Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast. We ended up in a room together [along] with his clan. He was a low-level character, and | kept saving his butt. | gave him my phone number, and soon we were talking and e-mailing every day. Two months after meeting him | flew to the States (from Canada) and

POST OFFICE

never went back. We've been together four years and have two children together. —Andi Walke

We're glad to see the state of human- android relations on the up and up. Congrats on your new clan.

Debunking gamer stereotypes

I'm put off by the stereotypes we gamers receive. People who do not game often seem to see themselves as above us. | don't think our industry helps with the image game advertisements present. Has anyone noticed the TV ad for Destroy АИ Humans! ends in a gag about having a love affair? How do you think that makes the public perceive gamers?

—Zachary Glatt

There’s no hiding the lecherous swinger lifestyle of the modern gamer. When he’s not indoors leveling up, he’s out on the town getting down...with your wife.

ads

Game companies are coming up with much craftier methods of advertising their products these days. | was reading your “From Combat to Console” article [EGM #195] and was amazed that there was so much written

about a

Raz explored EGM's hive mind and found love for bright colors and kid-friendly themes.

paranoia

game I'd never heard about. That is, of course, until | got an issue of my other gaming magazine that had the very same article! | finally noticed the word “advertisement” discreetly printed on the top of the pages. They'll think of anything these days to get us to buy their games.

бат! Doo

and

cartoony Stop trashing kids' games in your reviews. My 11-year-old daughter is autistic and happens to greatly enjoy the kid-themed and animated/cartoon-looking games. She doesn't like the violent, sporty, blood- spurting games like GTA, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil, etc. But if she sees a picture of something like Spyro, Sly Cooper, Kingdom Hearts, Ratchet & Clank, or Psychonauts, we end up owning the game.

As an after-school program director, | specifically look through her monthly EGM for games for the kids in my care—not mindless sports games, endless car chases, or boring shooting galleries of mobsters and aliens. These kids want fun

Rambling and ranting from our message boards, boards.1URcom (look for Electronic Gaming Monthly's forums)

What gets you through the summer gaming drought?

Kili: Talking about games on these forums instead of actually playing them.

Maximosi: Knowing that even if there were a lot of games out, it wouldn't

matter. I'm as broke as your grandpa's back.

costes: Suntan lotion and

my PSP on extra-bright mode.

Yisgysyang: Thinking about how much money I’m saving on games.

Ragnarok 32: Catching up on the games I’ve yet to beat.

12 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

cost: Doing anything to stay out of the hot southern sun. It's 100-plus degrees in North Carolina today.

MyDingling: “Hot Coffee" with Mr. Thompson [the anti- videogame lawyer/activist, see pg. 68—Ed].

Crossbones “Hot Coffee” ON Mr. Thompson.

ProdigyDude85: To me summer is all about being outdoors. You guys should try that once in a while.

aa Playing through the Zelda franchise in aroused anticipation of this fall.

Dos Hike to play a little game called "real life."

Congrats, Al. Your pessimistic paranoia earns you a game on good old- fashioned DVD.

games that more than one person can play, games that aren't gross-out fests. Sorry guys, but Mortal Kombat and Halo 2 are passed over in favor of Lego Star Wars and Super Smash Bros. To each his own...just Stop trashing the kid-themed games. —dJinjer McCurtain

Anyone ever teach you to say “please”? Doesn't matter—we think you wrote the wrong magazine. Who's trashing those titles? Almost all those “kids’ games” you mentioned (except some of the later Spyros) have received awards and high review scores in EGM. In fact, the recent Mortal Kombats are the lowest-scoring of this bunch. Next time, read the reviews and check those scores before complaining about them. Please.

Thank you,

| come to you with a problem. My parents won't let me buy M-rated games (I'm underage). Despite the fact that | lack about half the awesome games out right now, my parents also continue to hinder my gaming further by taking away the

CONTACT EGM

E-mail us at: EGM@ziffdavis.com

Or write to: EGM Letters 101 2nd Street, 8th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94105

For subscription help, contact: E-mail: subhelp@egmmag.com Web: http://service.egmmag.com Phone: (800) 779-1174

To order back issues: E-mail: back_issues@ziffdavis.com

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гии Е | BROADBAND ONLY.

NINTENDO хеох GAMECUBE.

Internet Connection, Network Adaptor lor

BONUS GALLERY

Going the extra mile for love of the game

Criminal Cube | just figured out what to do with my GameCube's useless high-speed and modem ports: | can stash money, laser pointers, and various illegal substances in them.

—Jesus Calderon

See, not all the bad kids are playing Grand Theft Auto; they're all over the Nintendo GameCube, too.

Internet connection to my PS2 and my PC. They don't understand online gaming. They think it'll expose me to "things unneeded for my development." Help! My ‘rents suck! —Steve Mucci

If only there were more parents out there like yours, Steve. Now be a good little tot and stay away from the big- people games.

of boredom Assuming you have the weekend off, get up as early as possible on Friday morning. Do not sleep that day. When it gets dark, play a bright, flashy, colorful videogame all night. When the sun comes up, sleep for two hours. Then get up and go for a walk outside. You won't notice for a minute or two, but it will hit you real suddenlike: The whole world looks like a videogame. | have done this three times myself. My only real fear in telling the world about this is that Uncle Sam may make Mario a Schedule | drug.

—Steven Wellner

We've got an even better one: Spin around really fast for a whole minute. Stop. Enjoy.

Those numbers | came home from work just a couple of hours ago to find my house had been broken into. My GameCube, PlayStation 2, and DS had all been taken. The police couldn't really do anything about it. It turns out that all those numbers on the back of your systems serve a purpose. In my blissful ignorance | never bothered writing down the serial numbers of my systems. | didn’t know until informed by the cops that if [the consoles are] sold to a pawnshop, the serial number is scanned and entered into a database to see if it matches any stolen property. | urge all gamers to learn from my mistake and write your serial numbers down. —Eric Farmer

Fashion I'm tired of seeing so-called fans of videogames all wearing the same T-shirt bought at Target, JC Penney, Sears, or some thrift store. They all wear it around town thinking they're the biggest fan because they have a shirt. A few minutes later, another person walks by wearing the same shirt. Wearing those cheesy Target/Wal-Mart shirts makes you look like a poser and a cheap ass.

—Ducky

GAME DESIGN-O-RAMA

Got proof that вате design is best left to the pros? Send your concept (with art) to EGM@ziffdavis.com, subject: design-o-rama

PlayStation.

Ф. | Herpie the Love Bug

You're too cool for us. We just wear anything that doesn't have pit stains or smell like Rico’s nacho cheese... Where’s that Dead to Rights windbreaker?

Rockstar

The ESRB has been had by Rockstar Games. By hiding code [the Hot Coffee sex minigame, see pg. 68] in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that can be unlocked with a downloadable hack, and failing to disclose this to the ESRB, Rockstar brought unwanted and unneeded attention to the board. While Rockstar states that the content in question was “edited” during finalization, the failure to remove the code could turn the industry upside down. Politicians and other watchdog groups already on the warpath over videogames now have even more ammo. Thanks, Rockstar! Thanks for taking us out of the pan and into the fire!

—Gregory M. Hall

Damn Why can’t the ESRB get it right? The ratings need to be on game boxes much more prominently, so that parents can no longer claim ignorance about the ratings system. | don’t want to hear parents say things like, “My kids told me M stood for Mass Audience!” Obviously the type isn’t large enough. Maybe this mock-up label | made is a little bit extreme, but it sure as hell gets the point across. Keep away from the kiddies.

—Robert Cicetti

them both | recently read that the infamous “Hot Coffee” mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was revealed to be in the PS2 version of the game. This is after Rockstar blamed the PC issue on “hackers.” This makes me angry because | like the GTA games but | also like the ESRB. If game companies can’t be respectful of the ratings system, how can the industry detractors place any faith in what the ESRB does? However, if Rockstar really had nothing to do with it: Thank God! On the flip side, if they did, shame on them. —Ethan B.

GET PAID. TO RANT AND RAVE

Don't keep your feelings about EGM all bottled up. Participate in

the 2005 Electronic Gaming Monthly Editorial Study and you may win a $300 American Express check. Fill out the survey at http://gamersvoice.1UP.com.

rule has an exception, and this game is a prime example. К7 is not really a game that has some great movielike story moments. Rather, it is a movielike story for which the “gameplay” merely serves to bind the chapters all together. | realize that opinions are neither right nor wrong...they are simply opinions. Yet in my personal opinion, you are truly oh-so-wrong regarding Capcom's latest masterpiece.

—Danny Ray

Shane responds: “Wow, it actually did play in Peoria. Well, at least in one style- conscious household. Frankly, I'm glad you could dig it, but | still contend that Killer 7's fans are all too willing to overlook its boring, repetitive gameplay because they're dazzled by the inventive story line and slick visuals. Artistic merit is admirable, but call me old fashioned for wanting good gameplay. Even though | didn't give the game an award-winning score, | still found it unique and interesting enough to own.... It's OK to respect the daring narrative success of Killer 7 without pretending that it's a fun game.” $h

Killer 7: Pretentious, boring nonsense, or masterpiece of interactive minimalism?

| Catch an incurable case of the giggles when Herpie the Love Bug rolls into your PS2 this

fall. He’s faster than a co-ed on spring break and itching for action. Drive the streets in search of a 24-hour pharmacy, where Herpie

| fills his prescription with sunglasses on, even in the dead of night.

—Lee Carlton

We find this pretty tasteless, but it beat out such inhumanly bad entries as Bran Turismo and The Getawank. Please readers, for the love of God, send us something good....

14 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

plays in Peoria In his review [EGM #194], Shane Bettenhausen expressed a belief that Killer 7 wouldn't play in Peoria. Guess what, man? | live in Peoria! | found Killer 7to be an artistic masterpiece. True, it violates the golden rule, which is to put gameplay above all other considerations. Yet every

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft

Perfect Dark Zero, Xbox, Xbox 360, and the Xbox logos are either re

‚неке к Dann (ZF

egistered trademarks or tradernarks of Microsoft

ВЕ LEGENDARY

Massive environment that includes Manhattan and Queens.

weeps, | "ад Language

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Encounter more Spider-Man characters than ever before.

ACTIVISION. SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 зоот ULTIMATESPIDERIVIANGAME.COM

gaming news, previews, ca

>> AS PART OF THE NEW PLAYSTATION PORTABLE FIRMWARE UPGRADE (VERSION 2.0), YOU CAN NOW BROWSE THE INTERNET USING

18 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

n the arsenal of any console

maker, it'd be a terrifying weapon.

Capcom's Resident Evil 5, sequel to the GameCube-only early-2005 horror hit that's still our front-runner for Game of the Year, has just shown its rotting face in Japan (see page 20). But instead of livening up the library of one system as an enticing

г advice, and other stuff

exclusive, it's hitting two: Microsoft's Xbox 360 (which is out this fall) and Sony's PlayStation 3 (due no earlier than spring 2006). Strange—Japanese developers usu- ally shy away from ands, instead focusing only on exclusives. But this surprising new stance reveals a lot regarding the Japanese front of the next-generation console war.

For the big picture, we turn to two recent Tokyo conferences thrown by Sony and Microsoft to flesh out their next-gen plans for the Japanese market. We've already seen some of what the companies have in store for us here. Both the Xbox 360's and PS3's splashy debuts at Los Angeles’ E3

Sony and Microsoft take the next-gen battle to the Japanese

front, unveiling new war plans and big games (

games conference back in May had decid- edly Western orientations—understandable, as North America has grown to become the largest of the three major gaming markets (North America, Japan, and Europe). Still, Japan and its star developers are widely perceived as important and influential par- ticipants in the next-gen race. “A lot of

SONY'S HANDHELI

baseball fans right here [in Japan] think that their players only become world-class when they succeed in the American major leagues," says Xbox Corporate Vice President Peter Moore. "What you need to know is that a lot of Americans and Europeans feel the same way about how a console does in the Japanese major gam-

ing leagues." While Sony already has that success, Microsoft craves it.

Acceptance from Japanese developers and consumers eluded the original Xbox. Microsoft has realized that no amount of marketing or Western acclaim will turn games like Halo or Project Gotham Racing into Japanese success stories. Only

GO TO THE “NETWORK UPGRADE" FEATURE ON YOUR PSP TO DOWNLOAD THE NEW FIRMWAR

D

Japanese software can do that. "We have been taught lessons that only the world's most developed gaming market can teach," said Moore. And Microsoft's conference made it clear that the company won't give up Japan without a fight. Though no single Xbox 360 title established itself as a must have for Japanese gamers, the breadth of >

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 19

@ press stərt

XBOX VS. PS3 сом, |

BRINGING OUT THEIR DEAD

rears its beautifully ugly head for both PS3 and Xbox 360

We've seen zombies hustle in Resident Evil games before (the Crimson Heads creatures of the RE GameCube remake managed a power-walker's pace), but the trotting rotters of Р the just-unveiled Resident Evil 5 should be tested for perfor- mance-enhancing T-viruses: These guys move! That's one of many tidbits we took away from the game's debut at Sony's PlayStation conference. The bigger bombshell: RE5 is hitting the Xbox 360, as well. We expect both versions in late 2006.

Developer Capcom isn't saying much, not even confirming if that's S.T.A.R.S. supercop Chris Redfield—last seen in Resident Evil Code: Veronica—skulking in the darkened alley- ways of a nonspecific South American country in the first footage of the game. We see the mystery hero startle a flock of crows, which fly off and expose the alley to the burning light of day. And then the zombies come running...

Director Jun Takeuchi hopes to exceed even RE4's level of terror. Wide-open environments, for instance, lack safe zones. (He cited the Black Hawk helicopter crash in Somalia as one inspiration.) And then we have those faster, smarter zombies, which will swarm the player from any direction. Takeuchi hopes to expand on RE4’s core game- play with fiercer action, real-world physics, and reactive environments.

One new danger is the environment itself; players must rest in cooler areas to survive the heat. And the graphical detail is stunning; each stubbly hair on the hero's face is individually modeled, and the developers have control over expressions right down to individual muscles. We had a = hard time controlling our own jaw muscles after looking at these screens....

Capcom won't confirm whether RE5's hero (above) is series regular Chris Redfield, but eyeball him next to Redfield in the RE remake (below left) and cheeseball live-action incarnation from the original RE (below right) and make up your own mind. ^

Sunblocked: Don't fear the dark in RE5—you'll actually welcome its shade from the scorching sunlight. Last thing you need to worry about while fighting superfast zombies is skin cancer.

its Japanese support is still impressive. "Today," said a beaming Moore, "I am proud to say that every major third-party publisher right here in Japan is committed to supplying games to Xbox 360." Microsoft swallowed its pride and hit the street, winning Japanese support for the 360 one developer and one project at a time. Many developers announced projects

in the early stages. Heavy-hitters Capcom and Konami, for instance, promised an orig- inal game each, Namco touted a new role- playing game from the staff behind the popular Tales series, and Bandai showed more of its shooter based on Gundam.

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Microsoft move first, then adjusting its plans accordingly. Another part is psycho-

In | Miny ways, Capcom’s marquee zom-

bie title is a poster child for next-generation game development. Its multiplatform debut stems not from a newfound sense of fair play, but from the simple economics of cre- ating a triple-A game. Next-generation titles the quality of Resident Evil § will cost tens of millions of dollars and be made by teams of well over 100 people. To recoup this investment, a game has to reach the largest audience possible, period. Even if the Xbox 360 barely cracks Japan, it will still likely take a big chunk out of the North American and European markets. Japanese develop- ers can't afford to miss out on global cus- tomers, so they're hedging their bets now. >

SOUNDS SUPER—ACTIVISION PLANS ON RELEASING A BRAND-NEW MARVEL-BASED ROLE-PLAYING GAME SOMETIME IN 2006....

20 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

Is of additional chi t by Yahoo!. Yahoo! id/or its affiliates. ©2005 $1

XBOX VS. PS3 cono |

>

DISPLAYED IN JAPAN:

FIVE FRESH

(AND ONE TO KEEP AN EYE ON)

al

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DISPLAYED IN JAPAN: FIVE FRESH ?L2/510510)]9

(AND ONE TO KEEP AN EYE ON)

| —At last, а game receives the rare and provocative “double X” rating! (Actually, the “ХХ” means “tag team.") Konami has added four-girl brawls and a "relationship system" to this version. Sounds a Jittle...awesome.

—Namco's РСК (heh) impressed with its bustling city streets and Matrix-style gun fu.

—Taito’s air-combat game collects the world’s niftiest jets and lets you dogfight in ’em online.

i—The PS3’s first massively multiplayer online role-playing game comes from WEBZEN, a Korean developer with a long history of this stuff. The trailer revealed little—just a butterfly fluttering by a hot iron-armored maiden.

—Pilot a mech in a destructible city in this sim from the makers of the Armored Core games.

i—An action game from the developer behind Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy epics.

Тесто is readying DOA4, DOA Xtreme 2 (more than just volleyball!) and DOA Code: Cronus.

i—Launching with the system, RR6 will be the first in the series to support online racing.

i—A PS3 sequel to a Japan-only samurai slash-em-up. Will it live up to the promise of its flashy CG movie? |

—This squad shooter based on the white-hot robo-combat series will likely sell big in Japan.

AND KEEP YOUR EYE ON... N3:

In fact, the rising cost and challenges of next-generation development were major themes of both presentations. Microsoft, always one to push its software advantage, was touting XNA, its unified Xbox/PC devel- opment platform designed to streamline the Xbox 360 development process. Even Sony, which never met a stat it couldn't graph, eschewed its usual number crunching to focus on the affordability of Epic's Unreal 3 engine (demoed by Epic Technical Director Tim Sweeny himself) and strategic alliances with Havok and Ageia, physics middleware providers. Impressively, Sony is not only

>> MIDWAY ANNOUNCE!

HAT I

22 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

linety Nine Nights—Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man who made trippy shooter Rez and PSP puz- zler Lumines, says this is his best game yet. So ally we're interested in this fantasy title that you single-handedly decimating entire armies.

including Havok and Ageia with all PS3 development kits, but will provide “frontline support" for the Japanese market. For a variety of cultural and financial reasons; Japanese developers have been slow to adopt middleware in the past. With next- generation hardware, however, all but the. very largest developers Will need to swal- low their pride and accept a degree of out- Side help. Both hardware companies are doing everything in their power to make this transition as painless as possible.

For now, at least, the Japanese industry is in a holding pattern. Sony, the dominant force, expects to remain dominant.

MAKING A GAME BASED ON WARNER BROS.' UPCOMING ANIMATED FLICK THE ANT BULL

AND KEEP YOUR EYE ON... Lair—Developer Factor 5 is known for eking every last processor cycle out of Nintendo systems with its Star Wars: Rogue Squadron games. Lair, the American developer's first ever Sony title, is a dragon-filled fantasy shooter, and it looks hot.

Microsoft, the scrappy stranger in a strange land, is hungry for a piece of the action. But as Peter Moore put it, "In our business, things can change faster than some entrenched business interests would like." A little more than 10 years ago, the

PlayStation was just a gleam in inventor Ken Kutaragi's eye. Nowadays, the American videogame market is nearly twice the size of the Japanese market, making it a force that cannot be ignored. Along with Some interesting games, the two confer- ences have given us our first glimpse of Japan's answer to these exciting times.

Andrew Vestal

Hey, what about the ? Sony and Microsoft's recent next-gen racket has us looking in Nintendo's direction: When will it reveal more about its back- wards-compatible mystery machine, the Revolution, due in 2006? Mid-September's Tokyo Game Show seems like the likely venue for further disclosure, so expect new Revolution details іп EGM #198. $%

pe ee AAA

Create and customize with the Track Editor. Share with friends through the PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system's wireless feature.

Gear up for an outrageous mix of stunt driving, puzzle solving and platform action.

Play multiple modes, including wireless multiplayer, challenge, and bonus games.

http://psp.station’sony!com)

| EVERYONE

сл рр Sons

PlayStation, Portable

PLATFORM PUBLISHING

ESRB CONTENT RATING _www.estb.org

Sony Online Entertainment, 8928 Terman Court, San Di license from Prodigy Design Limited and Red Mile Enter Prodigy Design Limited. US Patent Nos, 5,269,687, 5,35: Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required

the Platform Publishing logo are trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment Inc. GripShift © 2005 Prodigy Design Limited. GripShitt ished under nt and the Red Mile Entertainment logo are trademarks of Red Mile Entertainment, Inc. GripShift and Sidhe are trademarks or registered trademarks of

пзе from Midway Games West Inc. "PSP" is a trademark and "PlayStation" and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer n is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

DEAT HyAS, ЕЛЕ ЛАС

"WE HAVEN'T SEEN АП Action GAME THIS PROMISING SINCE GOD OF WAR" psm

“THE TITLE OOZES WITH ENOUGH STYLE TO KEEP EVEN THE MOST COLDEHEARTED GAMERS ENTERTAINED” GamerinFORMER.COm *

2y Я

j | |

"e NI L^ "A" 4. TOTALA oc IER >. | WARRIOR MATURE 17+ Blood LAEE t ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrh.org PlayStation.e

Spartan: Total Warrior @ The Creative Assembly Limited, 2005. Developed by The Creative Assembly Limited. Spartan: Total Warrior is either the registered trademark or trademark of The Creative Assembly Limited. or trademarks of SEGA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. TM, and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association.

lou are the Total Warrior. An orphan, raised by the Spartans to'fight, chosen y the gods to win, you must prove your worth in the most epic battles ever seen on console.

right alongside thousands of fearless warriors, amid blood-soaked battlefields that stretch for miles. Nothing can stop you, not the might of Rome, the wrath of mythical monsters or the evil of black magicians. Master skills, god-given powers and legendary weapons to follow your destiny from Warrior, to Hero to Legend. www.sega.com

EGA is registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Sega and the Sega Logo are either registered trademarks Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft

РЅ2/ХВ EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Reflections Release Date: March 2006

PARALLEL LINES

The Driver series looks to its roots to save itself

ormer Driver series hero Tanner

has turned in his tarnished

badge. The conflicted undercov- er cop who slaughtered hundreds of inno- cents and lawmen alike just to bring down some two-bit car thieves is gone, replaced by a new wheelman known only as The Kid. And after the sloppy, bug-rid- den, frustrating experience that was

DRIV3R, The Kid definitely has his work cut out for him.

“It's New York, 1978,” says Gareth Edmondson, production manager at devel- oper Reflections. “Tanner's no more. You're a driver for hire, so you're not am undercover cop—we got rid of allithose obscure conscience-type issues) He's. doing work in New York Cily for the mob,

Gareth Edmondson, ОФК Parallel Lines production manager

26 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www. ШЕ ОЙ

small time building up to bigger time. [And]sthere is a big twist that we're not revealing yet, a big twist that affects all aspects of the gameplay.”

But that’s not all that's new with Driver

Parallel Lines. DRIV3R sold like crazy; but. Reflections knows it was seriously flawed—to avoid a Tomb Raidéresque Meltdown for the franchises some things: Heed to change. “Тпегедмеге quite a lot oF issues with DRIV3R, and We had a Very good hard look atAhat, а very in-depth postmortem," says Edmondson, А revamped mission progression is one of

Multitasking main char- acter The Kid can drive and shoot at the same time.

Righting the

Wrongs of DRIV3R:

Hey Kid, get back in the car Many of DRIV3R's worst moments hap- pen when the wheelman gets out from behind the wheel. Shoddy targeting is the worst problem, and often-idiotic level design doesn't help. But Parallel Lines is primarily a four-wheeled affair. "There's a very heavy focus on driving, says Reflections' Gareth Edmondson. "There is on-foot stuff—we have com- pletely overhauled that—but it's back to Driver's roots of being heavily driving focused. I'd say 20 percent of the mis- sions would be on foot."

Photograph by Randy Dodson/SFMISFITS 2005

>> SEAN “DIDDY” COMBS, ROSARIO DAWSON, AND BRITTANY MURPHY ARE JUST SOME OF THE FOLKS WHO WILL BE PROVIDING

Righting the

Wrongs of DRIV3R:

#$%@ this #$%@ing #$%@!

DRIV3R was just a liiiiiitle frustrat- ing. Hit a light post or tree five min- utes into a long chase mission and prepare controllers for entry into near-Earth orbit. Edmondson says you'll have a bit more leeway to catch up to your target, and the A.I. controlled cars will sometimes mal mistakes too, but if a mission’s giv- ing you fits, you can save it for later

and do a different one. We have to take his word on that, but the immovable light-post problem is definitely fixed—smack one at speed and you'll knock it down and keep on going.

VOICEOVERS FOR THE GRAFFITI

Developer Reflections’ wish feature: download- able missions, which would be small enough to fit on a memory card. They may not make the final game, though.

the results of that good hard look. "We've changed it from sort of a very linear 'do the mission, retry, do the mis- Sion, retry' to much more open game- play," explains Edmondson. “So the mission structure is a branching one, but you don't necessarily have to do every mission."

Reflections is also going back to Driver fundamentals, like, er, concentrat- ing on driving instead of running around on foot, although The Kid will climb out of the car now and then—otherwise, you'd never see his kickin' bell-bottoms.

You'll be able to not only save cars in your garage as usual, but also spend money on performance and cosmetic upgrades. “The idea is that when you're playing through the missions, we want people to be a bit smarter and...choose the right car for the right mission," says Edmondson. That armored AMC Pacer look-alike might be just the ticket if you're planning to get shot at, while a highly tuned sports car will leave the cops in the dust.

One of DRIV3R’s strengths is its sprawling, detailed cities, and Parallel

Lines looks to build on that with its ver- sion of NYC. It won't be a street-by- street re-creation like The Getaway's London, but a more stylized, game- friendly New York that includes parts of New Jersey and Staten Island along with the usual boroughs and landmarks, including the Twin Towers and Coney Island (complete with roller coasters), and even Studio 54 if all the legal wran- gling works out. It'll also be a lot more alive—expect to see random events like fire trucks tearing through the streets or a garbage truck running its route.

LLED MARC ECKO'S GETTING UP: CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE (PS2/XB), HITTING IN OCTOBER

À Team up with over 175 characters...

4 p Не,

| 8

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br

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...зауе your kingdom D" certain destruction.

Hows that for your first week on the job?

You only got into the Radiata Knights because your dad was famous. You just might prove yourself worthy... if your smart mouth doesn't get you killed first.

Dive headfirst into a highly detailed, interactive world that could only be realized by the creators of the Star Ocean™ series. Explore your surroundings by kicking everything in sight, from furniture to sheep to people. Pick fights with monsters and townsfolk alike, but choose your battles wisely.

RADIATA

—т-

STORIES.

cx

Available September 6! Ф Y

brave souls to Meet all sorts of eccentric With the innovative Link Explore a fully interactive and

b for your cause characters along your journey System, coordinate your party animated environment ү эое members and unleash devastating da A i team attacks in fast-paced, uc C: real-time combat $ edit

- . SQUARE ENIX. es. Published by Square Enix. ме. @ 2005 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTO. Al as Res n 3 PlayStation.e

‘SQUARE ENIX, and the. and the “PS”

@ press start

DRIVER co;

Atari won't tell us if it's planning a next-gen version...but we're hoping.

Gareth Edmondson, production manager

DRIV3R's director mode gets the ax— sorry amateur moviemakers—but the good news is you'll be able

GM EXTRA р to see much further E ahead as a result = $ (director mode put a E Z major strain on the E š 5

hardware), so dangerous oncoming traf- fic won't suddenly pop into existence half a block up the road. DRIV3R can handle 8 to 10 cars in your vicinity, while Parallel Lines is more on the order of 20 to 30, and you can drive at a much high- er speed while dodging all those damn

GAMES HAS ANNOUNCED A SEQUEL TO Г

28 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www. 1 URIGOM

taxis.

Faster, better, stronger...every sequel makes similar Six-Million-Dollar Man promises. We hope, for the sake of a good game, that Reflections comes through this time.

—Demian Linn

Righting the

Wrongs of DRIV3R:

Big city, nothing to do

Tooling around Miami, Nice, and Istanbul in DRIV3R is fun for five minutes, until you realize there is really nothing going on aside from the missions. In Parallel Lines, there’s more to see and do— you'll notice random events, like cops chasing other cars, or stumble into a shoot-out between two street gangs. "We've got a guy sitting on top of a building [threatening to jump], a few cops [parked below]. You can stop and kill him if you want to and drive off," says Edmondson. Traditional Driver minigames such as Survival, Trailblazer, and Quick Chase offer fun diversions, along with track races (oval, dirt, and Street) and a destruction derby. “For Survival, you ram doughnut stands to piss off the cops, and they all come chasing after you. If you survive, you win some money," says Edmondson.

As with the minigames, you can also access online multiplayer directly from hot spots on the map. Online modes include cops and robbers (one player tries to outrun five others), circuit racing, and team-based carjacking competitions that work like capture the flag. 4%

SS-THAN-STELLAR DRIVING TITLE (PS2/XB), ARRIVING IN 2

Hp c-buttan dance mat EROOVE on vir > gurt TCH Houh RoD! ‘ance floor

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jl PLAS ALONG USING YOUR WHOLE BODY in freestyle mode or battle friends,

Suggestive Themes

ESRB CONTENT RATING _www.estb.org

EGMINIERNATI@NAL

More hardcore than a month-old crab apple

TIDBIT A эщ...

Xbox 360 Lookin’ Marvelous!

PSP STAR SOLDIER

I've heard that name somewhere before. Then congratulations—you're officially а game dork. Originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Hudson's Star Soldier has made an appearance on a massive variety of systems. This version, though, may take some getting used to. Since the game runs in tate mode (that's shoot-em-up nerdspeak for "vertical"), you have to hold the PSP like a cell phone, with one hand on the control pad and the other on the face buttons while you cradle the unit at the same time.

I'm a man! | can take it! Then prove it by importing this shooter. And while Star Soldier is aggressively old school, it's also hip to modern culture—you can even win tote bags and stuff by sending your high scores to Hudson.

PS2 EUREKA SEVEN

Is this like Didi Seven? No, Eureka Seven isn't a cleaning product sold in infomercials. Rather, it's a robot anime currently running on Japanese television. Bandai is treating the game version quite seriously, as the company has brought in the anime's main writer and character designer to work on the project. The game itself somewhat resembles MechAssault 2; Lone Wolf (XB); the environments are large and detailed, and you can explore most of it on foot or via enormous mech.

Гуе got techno-envy! When сап I play this? Bandai isn't bringing the anime Eureka Stateside until at least 2006. With any luck, the game (or another one based on the series) will have a simultaneous release over here.

WHATS PLAYING IN THE

If the millions of first-person-shoot- er fans out there are any indication, then whoever claimed violence is bad for games is clearly an idiot.

Battlefield 2: Special Forces

Online gaming clans have no doubt already embraced Battlefield 2 as the new king of first-person shooters, and there's even more to look forward to before the end of '05: Battlefield 2: Special Forces. This expansion intro- duces Navy SEALs, Russian Spetznas, and other elite forces to the game, as well as new stealth-driven gameplay mechanics and gear (night vision gog- gles, flashbang grenades, etc.). A handful of new maps—all designed with these new toys in mind—round out the experience, which might be best described as Battlefield meets. Splinter Cell.

F.E.A.R.

n s

As October is a month widely known for ghosts, goblins, ax murderers, and EverQuest cosplayers, VU Games’ aptly named FE.A.R. couldn't be timed more perfectly. Here, you'll head up an elite strike force team to contend with grisly murder scenes, Predator-like stalkers,

a. Attention all true believers: specifics were released.

1 Spider-Man, the Hulk, and This news comes on the the rest of the Marvel super- heels of another superhero. hero family have found a announcement, as earlier new home—Xbox 360. Microsoft recently acquired the exclusive rights to make

and other eerie supernatural menaces. FE.A.R. is no survival-horror game, though. Developer Monolith bills the suspenseful, atmospheric shooter as a “cinematic combat experience"— picture Die Hard meets The Ring and you'll have a good idea of the type of creepy, immersive action that's in store. Just spare us the clichéd Doom 3-style jump scares, OK? Ryan Scott Computer Gaming World

this summer Sony Online £ revealed that it's developing © a DC Comics-based MMO for massively multiplayer online PlayStation 3 (the game is

games featuring Marvel's cast of characters for its upcoming console. Unfortunately, no game

due out in 2007). So expect the next generation of gam- ing to have more than its fair

share of men in tights. © Sorry in advance to the person who

gets stuck playing as Paste Pot Pete.

>> WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE PLANS TO RELEASE A JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA RPG (PS2/XB) DURING THE FALL OF 2006.

30 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

ag - Trente yout oun character and battle other players or legendary SQULCRUBUR warriors.

ДШИ warriors like Hitsurugi or square as 1051018. Setsuka and Tira

Battle classic 5

“phronicles of the Sword” off against newcomers suth

Explore the SOULCALIBUR word in lation.

_ and test your abilities ina real-time sim

ЗАО NI when Nightmare

The battle begins anew in

returns о а world inhabited by classic and new warriors. Choose your character's face, hair, armor and weapons in "tuac Creation” mde ten ead tim in side bates RENE = (Cav. 171/1001 Tonik ео

“Chronicles of the sword” mode. Experience

through the world of SOULCALIBUR like never before.

ж

RATING PENDING

Visit www.esrb.o1 .esrb.or

for updated rating у

information.

ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrb.org

<> |

PlayStation.?

SOULCALIBUR® Il & G19 (01995 1998 2002 2003 2005 )3 2005 NAMCO LTD., ALL RIGHT! IS RESERVED, “PlayStation” ion” and the “PS” Family l Ну logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entert tainment Inc. The ratings icon icon is a registered trademark of t һе Entertainment Softw: are Association,

Gun star: Hero Colton White was into fringe way before fringe was cool—or even optional, really.

{

DARY COACH AND BROADCASTER JOHN MADDEN TO A

>> STICKING WITH JOHNNY BALLGAME: ELECTRONIC ARTS HAS SIGNED LEGE

E

32 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com.

= | = XB360/PS2/XB/GC /

Publisher: Activision. Developer: Neversoft Release Date: November 2005

Ihe posse behind Tony Hawk's Pro Skater gives us hands-on trigger time with the wildest Western game ever

hen Los Angeles police walked into a-mirror-glassed office building after an intruder tripped its silent alarm, they found a wiry man with a handlebar mustache sitting behind a desk piled high with Old West pistols and mountain-man knives. Try talking your way out of that one: “There was sort of this frozen moment before | could spit out, "They're not real!" says Joel Jewett, the building's “intruder.” Actually, Jewett is the president of devel- oper Neversoft, best known for the block- buster Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, and

he unknowingly set off his building's alarm when he arrived’ early for work that morning. Fortunately, L.A.’s finest weren't. the type to shoot first, ask questions later. Jewett, without making any quick;move- ments, explained that:the guns were merely research material for a new Wild West adventure called, appropriately enough, Gun—due this November for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and. Xbox 360 (a separate developer is making a PSP version for later release). The office was actually full of such weapons, Jewett told the cops, and all of them were just

Slow-mo quickdraw mode makes for fun surgical strikes. Target foes’ weapons, hats, or their family jewels.

replicas. “We have fake rifles; pistols; knives, bullwhips, hatchets all over the office,” says Jewett. “You ever play with'a bullwhip? You can put out an eye with one of them, and it will likely be your own."

Wild, Wild West

Between the phony-arsenal, team trips to tumbleweed-strewn towns such as Deadwood, SD, and Jewett's own cowboy- ish upbringing (he was born in Montana and runs a working ranch there today), Neversoft had all the gun-slinging research it needed to build'a:game that

hog-ties how the West was done. If you've seen itin.a Western or read it in Time Life's famous series of Old West books ("We must have five sets of those,” says. Project Lead Chad Findley), you can proba- bly.do it in Gun. "You never know what will happen next;" says Studio Development Director Scott Pease. “You might be on horseback. You might be ón a mounted weapon, You might be on a stagecoach” As the first magazine allowed to squeeze Gum'strigger, we got to break in its broncos, blast its bandits—just put the whole experience through its paces. We >

BULLET TIME: WE WALK A MILE IN THE GAME'S COWBOY BOOTS...

Those carefree deer and antelope have it made. But for cowboys, home on the range is one tough place to make a living. Gun keeps you busy with side tasks anytime you decide to take a break from the main story (which itself has about 20 missions). Completing this bonus busi- ness pumps up your five skills—gunplay, horse- manship, melee attack, quickdraw, and health— plus earns money you can use to upgrade the

weapons you swipe from bosses.

Peace Keepin’ Colton gets deputized later in the game, and that opens a series of law-enforcing missions, including breaking up а! opium ring, killing the town sniper, escorting a

snitch, and finding a rapist.

Pony Expressi Hey, these copies of.

Nonelectronic

Gambling Monthly

to carry the mail— other vital itemi

MULTIYEAR CONTRACT, WHICH MEANS SIMPLY THAT EA'S GRIDIRON FRANCHISE WILL

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com * 33

m Repeatedly digging in your spurs boosts speed—but kick too quickly and you'll kill your horse.

Bounty ie You'll find want: sere featuring notorioi cowpokes. Just

walk up to the

posters to accept Ç _ the bounty mission, # then go hunt down

your man.

34 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

> found a game | indent ture to the Grand Theft

a sprawling world fulf of side acti and held together by an epic story starring ft

big-time Hollywood actors. Neve

doesn't dodge the GTA comparisoi - . out of

don’t think it hurts ya." says Jewett “And at this in U.S. history, He's leaving it up to бите thei they're [tg for a fight. ^ “You've got thi

the game apart from other GTAcion

whole: Wes stem migration д from. all these.

After all, despite valiant attempts by e all du up. af the Civil

Rockstar's decent Red Dead Revolver and #

пеге to

Capcom's ridiculous cowboy-vampire _ They're mean an heye. tough and Shooter Darkwatch (feviewed this issue), _ qc got one t thin fo recent game has bull's-eyed the Western genre. “If we do it right. first," says Jewett, “then you can't catch us: An adventure with a mature tale ani

potty-mouth language that Would be al home on the range of НВО Deadwoot Gun sprawls across big-sky country, si

- named Colton White, is по exc Т die early, right after ап wasn't actually

ing in the lush forests of Montana, contin uing to dusty Dodge City in Kansas, and then on to the Wess and canyons of

the United States all boil best parts,” says Findle

cent of the way can swipe horse:

y

|: ` 4 Ranchers will hire you to round up their cattle or пов

| es, or protect them from rustlers and wild animals. | Use your horse to head off strays and keep the herd | together. Promised tor the sequel: lassoing.

cial attack mode. hen activated:

Prospectin’

The old hays are

right: There really is gold in Фет thar hills. Neversoft has hidden it throughout Gun’s world. Buy а $5

pickax early in the game and you can mine the deposits for a tidy profit.

Neversoft tapped Hollywood talent to voice Gums gunslingers, including Thomas Jane (The Punisher) as main man Colton, country legend Kris Kristofferson as his old man, and Deadwood's Brad Dourif (above left) as gold- obsessed preacher Reed (above right).

molem

throws you into first-person view, slows down time, and makes it easier to.go for. the money shots: shooting baddies between the eyes, blasting the hats off their noggins, and sending their weapons. spinning from their hands. Such skillfal shots extend the time you can аут quickdraw mode (as does scalping ene- mies, a brutal ability you acquire later). More than just useful, quickdraw is a blast to play—a fun mix of trick shooting and arcade twitch. You don't have to use the mode if you don't want to, but nothing embodies cowboy cool like walking into a saloon, dropping into quickdraw, and blasting every crook's gun out of his hands before he can get a bead on you. Aside from various pistols you can wield in quickdraw, you'll find four other weapon types—shotguns, bows (one with TNT-tipped arrows for Rambo-styie kabooms), long-range rifles, and regular rifles—for use outside the mode. You also get dynamite-and Molotov cocktails. But, as you'd expect from the guys who let you infuse your own play style into the Tony Hawk series, much of-Gun's fun comes from how you wield your...-well, guns. You can, for instance; spend the game disarm-

Huntin’ Grizzlies, wolves, and other

beasts range widely in j

the West. You'll earn / bounties for the hides 2 ¥ of rare and dangerous... Q

animals, although at times it's hard to tell

WEST EASY

Four Neversoft inspirations to get you in the Gun-wielding mood...

Crow Killer: The

Saga of Liver-

Eating Johnson

When Crow Indians

scalped pioneer

John Johnson’s

pregnant wife, he

didn’t get mad—

he got psycho.

This book follows the real frontiersman’s path of vengeance as he hunts Crows and gulps their livers (wi out even a side of fava beans). “The stuff that happened back then is way gnarlier, more brutal, and interesting than you can make up,” says Neversoft's Joel Jewett.

The Wild Bunch No need to wait j until November to expe- rience Gun's slow-mo quickdraw mode. Director Sam Peckinpah pioneered low-speed gunfighting in this 1969 Western (available on DVD) about bad cow- boys doing really bad things in Mexico. The film’s highly choreo- graphed slow-motion shoot-outs play out like brutal ballets of flung bullets. Also worth seeing: Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (only available on VHS).

ing enemies with eagle-eyed quickdraw shots. 0r why not grab some.innocent bystanders for use as human shields? Or—more fun still—trail unlit dynamite across a road, retreat to a safe distance, then blast it when enemies.teach your trap, “Luring people to their doom doesn’t get old,” says Findley. “It’s like, ‘Just come a little closer!"

Westward expansion Gun is more than just a side project for Neversoft (which has divided its staff between this game and the next Tony Hawk title, American Wasteland). It's the company’s first go at a new franchise since it launched Spider-Man for Activision. And these guys can’t quit now—what are they going to do with all the replica pistols and Wild West books? “Once we started doing a little research,” says Jewett, “it hit us like a ton of bricks. There's so much content here that we can tap into. We can jump back in time and be a mountain man. We can jump forward to the turn of the century, We can do the Civil War. If we get the ball rolling, we can have fun with this for years to come.” —Grispin Boyer

Card Sharkin’ Each town

Deadwood

This HBO series’

muck-caked cast

of gold-rush pio-

neers live, die,

and fornicate in the most

lawless town in Old West America—and it makes for must-see TV among the Gun team (the first season is out on DVD). Random acts of holy-moly violence are always one hot temper away, an atmos- phere Neversoft wants to create for its game. Plus, Deadwood's residents swear more than George Carlin with Tourette's syndrome.

Unforgiven Oscar-winning actor/dir- ector and veteran gunslinger Clint Eastwood straps on his holsters one more time for this ultrarealistic tale of an out- law killer who settles down, goes legit, raises a family, then finds his old habits dying hard. Ultimately, it's tough to tell who's the bad

guy here: ol”

squinty Clint or

Gene

Hackman's

menacing fron-

tier sheriff, who

keeps trouble-

makers at bay

by beating

them to death.

бштз horse controls are slick, letting you gallop in one direction and shoot in another, It’s like driving a Halo Warthog with hooves.

has a casino with its own

poker tour- neys. And

The West being ly brutal and all, innocent pio-

yes, you can

neers need all the help they can get. So you'll be sent to rescue trapped miners, rush medicine to outposts, save besieged wagon trains, and more.

H AS COACH CARTER, TEAM AMERICA, AND SAHARA (HEY, THEY ALL CAN'T BE WINNERS

cheat. The game? Texas Hold ’Em, of course. “No point reeducat- ing the ESPN2 crowd,” says Neversoft's Jewett. h

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 35

9 PlayStation 2

RESIDENT EVIL 4

Capcom's infectious masterpiece spreads to the PS2

Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom Release Date: October 2005

f Vegas set odds for the gaming

industry, the chances of Resident

Evil 4 coming to the PlayStation 2 would've fallen somewhere between “New Mario title exclusively for Xbox 360" and “Halo 3 will be a puzzle game." In other words: not bloody likely.

For one thing, Capcom Producer and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami was per- fectly clear on the matter: “Resident Evil 4 will definitely release only on GameCube, not on another console.” And he didn’t stop there. "If that happens,” he said, "I will cut my head off.”

A year ago it didn't seem like such a bold statement. The last two editions of the hor- ror-adventure series—a remake of the orig- inal Resident Evil and a prequel, Resident Evil O—were already GameCube exclusives. Besides, RE4 had been designed from the

eft o

SHAKE @BE

>> ALSO NEW TO THE PS2 VERSION OF RESIDENT EVIL 41$ AD.

36 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

ground up for Nintendo's system, its new behind-the-back perspective and revamped, fully 3D graphics squeezing every ounce of power from the Cube. “We were afraid it might not even be possible to port it over [to the PS2],” says Producer Masachika Kawata. His job? To port it over to the PS2. Turns out the wishes of Capcom's share- holders and millions of PS2-owning sur- vival-horror fans are worth more than Mr. Mikami's head (or at least his pride); for the past 10 months, Kawata and his team have been busy getting RE4 up and running on Sony's console. "It's taken a lot of work,” he admits. “The game underwent a thorough reworking to maintain the [high-quality graphics of the GameCube version]. We made changes to almost everything, includ- ing character models, background graphics and effects, etc.” Ironically, the net result of

all these changes is a game that appears almost exactly the same—save for some slightly muted colors, you could mistake the PS2 version for the Cube original.

And as you'll see over the next four pages, Capcom didn’t stop at creating a faithful port, adding extra options and bonus content: a true 16:9 ratio widescreen mode (that still runs in extrasharp progressive scan mode on HDTVs); new areas, weapons, and costumes; plus movies and files that fill in some of the game's background and unanswered questions. "I'm confident," says Kawata, "that all gamers, from those who are patiently awaiting the PS2 version, to those who already enjoyed it on the GameCube, and even those who haven't played the series for a long time, will enjoy it." Sounds like a safe bet to us.

—Mark MacDonald

` Makes waiting for the

| PS3 a little easier, eh?

= This is not the best way to fight “El

| Gigante.”

’5 REPORT, A COLLECTION OF MOVIES AND TEXT FILES THAT SHOULD FILL

THE G00D & EVIL RESIDENTS

Leon S. Kennedy >> Six years ago during his first night as a Raccoon City police officer in Resident Evil 2 his boss went completely insane, the station house was overrun by flesh-eating zombies, and the entire city was bombed into ashes. Not surprisingly, he quit. Now he works for the Secret Service, which sent him to find...

Ashley Graham >> 20-year-old daughter of the President of the United States. Ashley has disappeared and is presumed kidnapped, although no group has come forward to claim responsibility or demand a ransom. The only lead to her whereabouts occurs when she's spot- ted in a town run by...

«« Bitores Mendez 9-foot-tall mayor of a small Spanish village, whose oddly colored eyes, shaved head, and gigantic ZZ Top beard no doubt helped him get elected. Bitores may be keeping a secret buried deep inside, but he’s not talk- ing to Leon or...

Luis Sera >> A Spanish cop from a town next to Mendez’s vil- lage—or so he says. 3 Luis is captured along with Leon and eventually helps him escape, but he seems a little too slick to be trusted. He never gets very specific about what he's after...perhaps he has his. own agenda? Or perhaps he's working with...

«« Ada Wong The last time Leon saw "the bitch in the red dress" in Resident Evil 2 she was lying about her identity and get- ting him shot. Turned out she was working for the mysterious “Agency, trying to locate a sample of the virus.

Now Leon doesn't know who she's working for (series fans are in for a surprise), and if she's friend or foe. >

IN WHAT SHE'S BEEN UP TO IN THE SIX YEARS BETWEEN RE2 AND RE4. LOOK FOR IT AFTER YOU FINISH THE MAIN GAME.... >>

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com 37

>

RESIDENT EVIL 4 cov

FOUR WAYS TO PLAY

Approximate completion time: 16-24 hours You'll go over a river and through the woods, but instead of grandma's house, you'll find a nasty old castle, caves, and...well, we won't ruin it for you. The goal here is to rescue Ashley, uncover the evil plot, kill the bad guys, and, of course, escape to safety. Save all the treasures you find hidden along the way and money you pick up from dead enemies, then trade with merchants for guns (including a new-for-PS2 laser), upgrades for your weapons, and healing items. Some simple puzzles and incredible boss fights every now and then mix things up.

© Leon and Luis hold off a giant assault from inside this crusty shack.

р , infected soldiers are cute chase a laser pointer around.

ыы

ر A LINE OF RE4 ACTION FIGURES, INCLUDING LEON, ADA AND THE‏ >> t š‏

38 © ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

‘We've seen combos as high as 132 kills in a row. > Е >

Approximate completion time: 4-12 hours

If you're still itching for a fight after you've finished the main quest, choose this unlockable bonus game. Mercenaries tosses you into one of four big arenas with a couple weapons, some healing items, and a hand- ful of ammo to slaughter as many enemies as possible before time runs out. Earn bonus points for combo-ing kills one after the other, or extend your time by locating hourglass power- ups. A four-star ranking on any stage will unlock a new playable character, each with his own weapons, melee attacks, and special moves.

Approximate completion time: 3-6 hours In this unlockable bonus game, you play as supersexy superspy Ada Wong in her hunt for five samples of the "thing" causing so much trouble in Spain. Ada is fast and has a nasty kick, but she doesn't have a knife to open boxes, takes twice as much damage as Leon from any attack, and can't save (so you'll need to fin- ish the whole thing in just one run).

z і Р SAW GUY, IS ON THE WAY —CHECK МЕСАОМИМЕ.СОМ.... >>

ij

УА ДЗ EGER

Tackle over 180 levels in the most exciting 3D puzzle Collect gems and grab power-ups to Race against time through 6 surreal worlds filled with adventure on PSP™ (PlayStation Portable) system. boost your puzzle-solving abilities. obstacles, traps, deadly hazards and cunning enemies.

Developed By

pd p | ЖО

and Frantix is a trademark of Sony Online Entertai s rtainment In my of Motion Picture Arts and

ent Inc. Platform Publishing a логу m

s o! mark of the Aca

ings icoi

RESIDENT EVIL 4 cov

FOUR WAYS TO PLAY

A tew of the all- new areas added for the PS2 version.

Approximate completion time: 5-8 hours Ah, we saved the best for last. This mode is entirely new to the PS2 version—five mis- sions that finally reveal everything Ada was doing in the background of Leon’s adventure. (For example: Guess who rang the bell that summoned the villagers away at the start of the game?)

Although most of Separate Ways is Ada retracing Leon’s steps through familiar areas, sometimes she can use her grapple gun to reach areas he never saw. And a few sec- tions are entirely new, like a huge battleship in dry dock, where Ada needs to ride her zip line back and forth to take out the ship's giant turrets. “The idea came from wanting a stage that was sort of a puzzle in and of itself,” says producer Kawata.

Toss in a new weapon, two extra boss fights, and a timed dash to get Leon that rocket

launcher at the end of the game, and it’s clear a lot of time and effort went into this PS2 extra.

hi

GETTING ALONG WITH THE LOCALS | (PLAY DRESS UP

Learn these useful expressions to help you blend [гүш caninlockitwo:new costumes In

^ ^ 5 " Py = | RE4 PS2: Leon's purely cosmetic tn with RE4 s friendly Spanish locals: “smooth criminal" gangster getup and a

MM al” “There he is!” qq. » “Dial” full suit of armor for Ashley that actually B Cue l M ueren! D le 3 affects gameplay. “The armor deflects

+ У » “Grab him!” bullets and makes her too heavy for “iCogedlo!” “Get him!” *iAgárrelo!" “Gra í enemies to easily carry her away," says eer roducer Kawata, “[so you] don't have to Morir es vivir..." "To die is to live..." Е poy

MA | “Ki im!” protect her as diligently. It makes it easi- iMátelo! Kill him! Have a great trip! er to [replay] the game." ж

>> NUBY WILL RELEASE A PS2 VERSION OF ITS AWESOME BUT AWKWARD RE4 CHAIN-SAW CONTROLLER IN OCTOBER FOR $59.99.... >>

40 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

TEEN

Blood and Gore Fantasy Violence

1-—

ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrb.org

S€alSru€ FATE or VouR FOES.

Dawn ri Sorrow"

The adventure Ninteádo DS players have been waiting for has artived!

The Magic Seal: destroy your enemies with the touch screen

Enhanced Taryel Souls : collect more souls to upgrade your abilities'and^w eapons 1reless' Versus Mode: race another player through custom maps

Wireléss Soul Exchange: trade acquired souls uds other players

“<

=. > NINTENDODS

ww.konami.com/castlevania

KONAMI

ZELDA WATCH *

Brush up on your

Zelda knowledge while

you await the arrival of Twilight Princess

t's only the second edition of

can offer is this (totally awesome) quiz on all things Zelda! Write your answers down on a piece of paper and send

them to: Give EGM Some New Zelda Info,

Which of the following

statements about Twilight

Princess is not true?

` It takes place decades after Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

7 Link transforms into a wolf when he enters the dark world of the Twilight realm.

-The boomerang weapon now has an added whirlwind effect and can lock on to multiple targets.

| A pack of wild red-assed monkeys helps Link get through one of the dungeons.

.. By blowing on a blade of tall grass, Link can summon a hawk to help him.

c/o Nintendo of America, 4820 150th Ave. N.E, Redmond, WA 98052. Mark MacDonald

Who is this

Match the Zelda nsn? game to its plot арра E summary: would love to make a mast for Link's boat, if only someone _ Zelda: -. Link travels between light could help him find his toolbox.... Twilight and dark realms in his quest ` A rival from Link's village who says Princess to save Princess Zelda and that he—not Link—is the best cow- the land of Hyrule. boy! Prove him ` Zelda: _ Link travels between light wrong in a goat- A Link to and dark realms іп his quest herding minigame. the Past to save Princess Zelda and .. Boogie Nights star the land of Hyrule, Luis Guzman, >

г Sealed copy of the original 8-bit Zelda

2 1988 Milton Bradley Legend of Zelda board game

Match the following pieces of Zelda merchandise with their approximate eBay values:

Zelda's Adventure for the Philips CD-i system

jh pee |

Which image represents Link's new, more realistic look for Twilight Princess?

|

True or false: The Princess Zelda in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the same Princess Zelda from the first game.

What is your reward for

spending hours—no, days—

painstakingly creating

| figurines for every man, woman, and

| monster as part of a side quest in

Zelda: The Wind Waker?

Access to the two dungeons they should have never cut from the game.

A making-of video documentary and interview with Director Eiji Aonuma.

| » One f***ing lousy-a”* figurine of f***ing

Link on his f***ing boat?! What the f***2!?

Essay Question: What the hell is this guy thinking? >

`_ Score yourself: 1 to 7 correct. = Return of Ganon; all 8 correct = You are the hero of Hyrule! 9%

»Ieduij:'*00]-00y 1аібиц іәјбиц,, -I DUI, + AAUOW YIN 001—0 2—9 1—9 ‘p€ SIE BAOGE әш JO 9UON—p ` , FEUM JAMSUE I SJEUI SOA 7—9 2—2 >P әпд ye әле /auy—uonsanb ощ! suswsuy

44 o ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UPcom

FIRST EVER SQUAD-BASED RACING

You're breaking the DRAFT when you see a massive wreck beginning in front of you.

You tell your teammate to get on your tail and FOLLOW you through the pile-up. [

You call your team to PIT so they can help you keep your track position.

A split second before your car slams into the wall, you use the real time SWAP feature to jump into your lead teammate's car and race flat-out for the checkered flag.

CALL 1-877-LITL-HELP TO HEAR YOUR TEAM.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

< PlayStation.2 FN e EC сла xBox BENE AEN NITIDO US

CONTENT RATED BY ч u $. $ s St < * ESRB у мей f Г cxecusive ИОД ес

EVERYONE

WEAPON

LOCATIONS ҒОР THE LOCKOUT

FACILITY

The rise of online tutors: How the student becomes the Master Chief

ying via needler, the shard-spit-

ting wimpiest weapon in Halo 2,

is like being tickled to death— only more embarrassing. And it was hap- pening to me, EGM's lowly intern, at the hands my boss, Editor-in-Chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu. We were in the first round of a three-map challenge in the Xbox's blockbuster online first-person shooter. It goes by in a flash. Shoe wins 25-12. The second map—a 25-6 defeat—is more humiliating. For the final round, | get feistier and lose by only seven points, reclaiming some of my manhood, so | don't feel like | need to sit down to pee after the match.

We weren't playing for fun or to satis-

fy Shoe's sadistic streak. This one-sided

46 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

mini-tourney was an experiment—a trial of the latest profession to hit the indus- try: videogame coaching. This budding industry is starting with the popular Halo 2 but will soon offer training in other games, such as Super Smash Brothers Melee and Tekken 5. We've established that | suck at Halo 2—at least against а seasoned player who once even beat the guys who made the damn game. With my rematch with Shoe looming, it was time to see if this coaching thing could work for me.

This is where Tom Taylor comes in. He's one of the rising stars in the Halo 2

world and leading the charge for one of the first console videogame coaching sites: gaming-lessons.com. “I've given lessons to people who [are] looking to go to tournaments or people who are just looking to brag to friends,” Taylor says, adding that he guarantees I'll beat Shoe after my training session. He's gotten offers from gamers in Europe and Australia for some schooling—his rate: $40 for a one-hour session—but today he'll be training a simple guy who just wants to beat his boss once.

1109 on to Xbox Live for our first train- ing session; all such sessions are done over the Net—I never actually meet Taylor in person. We do a quick match so he can see what level I'm at. In the first

30 seconds, | accidentally jump off the map...twice. “Uh, this isn't a good sign,” Taylor tells me. Final score: 25 to nega- tive 2. | would’ve done better if | had just put down my controller. But Taylor’s a pro and goes over the basics with me from strafing to quick reloading. "It's all about having good strat,” or strategy, Taylor emphasizes. He offers advice on which weapons to go after and where to station myself. But | feel like | still have a long way to go.

I move on to my second lesson, this one with 14-year-old Bonnie Burton, one of the elite girl gamers in Halo 2. Burton gives me some more much-needed strat- egy, then gives me all the power weapons to see how long | can “control

>> WHILE METAL GEAR SOLID 4 REMAINS A PS3 EXCLUSIVE, KONAMI PREZ MICHIHIRO ISHIZUKA TOLD THE JAPANESE PRESS THAT THE

dd

я

the map.” I station myself on a sniping tower and scan the horizon. After a minute, she whispers, "Look behind you,” and | see her Master Chief ninja standing behind me. | need more practice.

So | decided to play some 1-on-1 against a professional player that | thought would be more my speed. He dices me with his favorite weapon, the plasma sword. | don't register a single kill and try not to notice that this pro is, in fact, 7 years old. It's not easy; Victor DeLeon III, the youngest Halo 2 pro player, keeps giggling in his helium-high youthful voice after each kill. | had to phone his dad to set up a time for some coaching, but it all

COMPANY WILL MAKE ONE OR TWO FLAGSHIP TITLES FOR EACH NEXT-GEN SYSTEM. WONDER WHICH CONSOLE GETS WINX CLUB.... >>

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 47

feels less like a training exercise and more like a playdate. | face Shoe for a rematch tomorrow and ask the little kid for some advice anyway. "Stop rushing," he tells me.

| feel like | rushed through the train- ing anyway. | don't know if I will be able to put all the pieces together. I call up Taylor minutes before the rematch. “Just remember the strats 1 taught you,” he says. Shoe and | start the first map. He doesn't kill me in a split second, and | slowly start to build up confidence. Before | know it, I'm leading 7-1. | have found my eye of the tiger.

Still, when the fog of war is lifted, Shoe pinches the victory out of his ass 25-24 and dominates the second map 25-18. On the final map, Shoe's up 24-17, but I continue to stick with what I’ve been taught. Like the sage rumblings of Obi-Wan Kenobi, my coaches' lessons echo in my head. I'm not blind with rage and stupidly rush- ing out. | pick up power weapons and make him work for each kill. After the two long hours of battling Shoe, | finally get the best of my boss: | win 25-24. Cue the Rocky music. If my coaches were here, I’m sure they'd carry me on their shoulders in cele- bration. Well, maybe not the 7-year- old kid. ж. —James Lee

"SWEEP THE LEG!"

The coaches of Gaming-Lessons.com

Tom Taylor, AKA: Tsquare

Rated in the top four in 16 consecutive pro tournaments, this hotshot Halo 2 sensei gets paid anywhere from $400 to $800 a week teaching players level 3 to 37. He's getting profiled for True

Life on MTV.

Personal website: gaming-lessons.com

Rate: $40 an hour for an

individual lesson

Bonnie Burton, AKA: Xena Burton, a member of the all-girl PMS clan, will handle most of the female clientele and isn't worried that girls won't sign up for a class. "Most of them just want to game and get better like every other gamer out there," she

tells us.

Personal website:

msxena.1UP.com

Rate: $25 an hour for an

individual lesson

Victor DeLeon III

AKA: Lil Poison

At 7 years old, DeLeon is the youngest pro gamer in the world. He began playing videogames when he was 2 and will train the younger Halo 2 players. DeLeon also enjoys spelling and

swimming.

Personal website:

lilpoison.com

Rate: $30 an hour for an

individual lesson

Other sites to see: www.halo2player.com—Watch videos that promise to teach “secret ninja moves” in Halo 2. Just don’t hurt yourself. www.consolepro.com—Another new coaching site with its own band of pros. These guys'll run you 20 bucks an hour.

Background photo by Michael Sexton; Master Chief courtesy of www.nightmarearmor.com

ubi СОТ" = f www.BrothersIn

194% St. Sauveur, D-Day +10

I've been out of Baker's shadow for no more than threa days now and already I'm feeling the weight

of my fear, The fear that around every corner somebody's lying in wait. The fear that any wrong Choice could end up killing what I'm trying to save. Well, somebody’s got to lead this fight. And 1f І call this right, my nen the men who have fought next to ne will get out of this hell alive.

р

6/16

Me

À ORS A |.

INTENSE URBAN COMBAT: z ENSE URANNI BAT: SECURE WAR-TORN Í : TU B | V THE NEW TW0-PLAyEL LI TEAMS C

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for updated rating | Хх information. DVD-ROM а [SOFTWARE

TAKING COMMAND ISN'T EASY. | TAKING THE CONSEQUENCES IS EVEN HARDER.

1 - F - i О PC véisions ©2006 Gearbox Software, LUC. All аак РБИЕ СИ БАБО Елиа тепе Una eena

‘Gearbox Software, LLC. PlayStation 2 Version © Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Brothers In Arms Earned In isa trademark of Gearbox Software and used under license. Ubisoft, Ubicom, and the Ubisoft logo аге trademarks of Ubisoft atertainment.in the U.S. and/or other countries. Gearbox Software and the Gearbox logo are registered trademarks of Gearbox re; LLC. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logo and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of

soft Corporation in the United States and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. “PlayStation” and the Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Online play requires internet connection, Network

® pior or PlayStation 2) and Memory Card (EMÈ) (or PayStation 2) (each sold separately) The Online icon is a trademark of Sony UBISOFT lmputer Entertainment America Inc. Software platform logo TM and © IEMA 2003.

@

ес Service, Call

Source: NPD TRSTS М

press start

FOR JUNE

THE SALES CHARTS 2005

BEST-SELLING GAMES

1 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ° XB Rockstar

E] Pokémon Emerald - GBA Nintendo

[ star Wars: Episode m Revenge of the Sith PS2 * LucasArts

С Medal of Honor: European Assault + PS2 + ЕА Games

Star Wars: Episode III ROTS

Medal of Honor: European Assault

Lego Star Wars Madagascar

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

Destroy All Humans!

WHATS UP AT

EGM.1UP.COM Our mag is stuffed with info, but if you desire more content, you have

MVP Baseball 2005 to get one of those computer con- Batman Begins traptions and visit this here site. God of War We've got additional screenshots Juiced of NBA Live 06 for Xbox 360, plus

XBOX

[Ej] Conker: Live & Reloaded XB Microsoft

6 eso star Wars PS2 + Eidos

[Ej] Madagascar ° PS2 Activision

E] madagascar - GBA * Activision

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Conker: Live & Reloaded Star Wars: Episode III ROTS Destroy All Humans!

Medal of Honor: European Assault

videos of the Driver 4 producer talkin’ shop.

SOULCALIBUR3.1UP.COM Our comrades over at 1UP.com, Computer Gaming World, and the Official PlayStation Magazine love all that is Soul Calibur nearly as much as we do. Apparently, our love is better, because in the com- pany-wide Soul Calibur 2 tourney our own Demian Linn took home the crown. Head to this URL for footage of the competition, as well as everything you need to know about Namco's next soulful fighter.

CHEATS.1UP.COM

bes үшән " This site not only is a great source orza Motorspot | š 2 го vem Club 3: DUB Edition PS2 Rockstar Batman Begins for hints, strategies, and tactics

10 Destroy Аи Humans! Ps2 THO

GAMECUBE

PORTABLES

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Advent Rising

RENTALS

FOR THE WEEK ENDING 7/17/05

7

Se ae a TAa

,

Madagascar

Pokémon Emerald * GBA

NCAA Football 06 PS2

Super Mario Sunshine Super Smash Bros. Melee

Madagascar GBA Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones ® GBA

7 Destroy All Humans! PS2

Medal of Honor: Eur. Assault ® XB

but now features a forum for post- ing your own questions, or you can answer those posed by others. Just try doing so in a polite and articulate manner.

Featured Club:

Useless Videogame Facts Think you know more completely insipid things about videogames than anyone else? Find others

like yourself and delight each other with inane bits of trivia at UVGF-club.1UP.com.

Featured Blog: Dan *Shoe" Hsu So you want to write about

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Animal Crossing

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Kirby: Canvas Curse * DS

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Super Mario 64 05 05 WarioWare: Місгодате$ GBA Need for Speed Und. Rivals « PSP Untold Legends * PSP

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Source: Blockbuster Video

great gig, for sure, but it ain't just about being able to solve Metroid Prime in less than one hour. Visit egmshoe.1UP.com, where EGM's head honcho gives some sound advice on how to take his job.

WEBZEN HAS ANNOUNCED ENDLESS SAGA, A MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ROLE-PLAYING GAME FOR PS3 THAT'S DUE IN 2007....

50 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www,1UP.com

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

Issue commands to your partner

for maxi ge, You better с Б жы “лат

Special appearance.

by Tekken’ Paul and ge

100 missions, 60 playable characters, 30 weapons

Mild Language | 2) Violence | : MESES RE ~ PlayStation.@ namcao COMING SEPTEMBER

URBAN REIGN" & ©2005 NAMCO LTD., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association,

@ press start

OVERHEARD

Silly things said by interesting people, or vice versa

“Let me make it clear: This is Universal f***ing Studios, guys. These are the producers of Batman... [God of War] is a real movie...ao offense to mr./Dr. Bowl (or whatever you spell it like), but this ain't gonna be Alone in the Dark."

—Sony game designer David Jaffe assures readers of his blog that the movie licensed from his PS2 actioner will surpass game-movie director Uwe Boll's previous masterpiece

GTA VS. AMERICAN MORALITY: ROUND ONE!

“I'm not going to reveal [the PS3] price today.

—Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi

“Be a nerd. watch tots of movies, read comics, do what you've gotta do. If you

can run your friends through a [Dungeons & Dragons] game as a dungeon master, and they have a good time, congratulations: You’re a game designer.”

—Alex Jimenez of Tesseraction Games gives advice to would-be game designers at a San Diego Comic-Con panel

“I don't think we look at { «we've got a Ferrari. They've as a negative thing, because as got a Ferrari.

we're not focusing on the Internet, we've got to focus on the local [wireless multiplayer] stuff.”

—Metroid Prime: Hunters designer Richard Vorodi comments on the upcoming DS shooter's lack of online multi- player, proving denial ain't just a river in Africa

©2005 Jeremy "Toastyfrog" Parish

апа, 7 in most races, that’s a very Nothing makes a game, album, пісе thing." or movie less cool more quickly than knowing your mom and dad think it's, like, totally awesome." —Microsoft chairman and spokesgeek —Editor Nathan Alderman of the financial site Motley Fool in a column on why the recent Bill Gates on the upcoming showdown

controversy over GTA: San Andreas will only make teens want the game more between PS3 and Xbox 360

Youll just have to Pay Close Attention To His Technique WWWPENNY-ARCADE СОМ po Mw, Wh the. hips? That's where the

Splinter Cell last night, right? 80 I'm a Merc, and this guy is pulling some Aggro Spy Shit Smoke, Smoke,

You delivered such a Mighty blow, that you caused

—Neversoft President Joel Jewett

when asked if his company's M-rated py + poweris. d Wild West adventure Gun would have a Plash, and I'm like gas Mask, Motion а your opponent to be ejected hidden sex minigame similar to San detector, back of the gon. Prom the server?

Andreas’ notorious Hot Coffee mod

“1 think everybody is kind of confused by [Nintendo] right now.

Publishers don’t know what to think— whether this Revolution thing is even going to happen, whether it’s going to be cool or not, or whether Nintendo's just

going to stop making consoles and just š й That's right. become a software publisher." Anyway, ъ. I hit him во hard he Pell È the moment I smacked him? o? the Internet. —Ex-Microsoft Games VP and current game industry We lost his connection.

consultant Ed Fries paints a not-so-rosy picture of Nintendo's image among third parties

QUOTATION SOURCES FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: DAVIDJAFFE,MODBLOG.COM, GAMESPOT.COM, GAMASUTRA.COM, NINTENDO OF EUROPE INTERVIEW, GAMESPOT.COM, FOOL.COM, ЕСМ INTERVIEW, UAT.EDU

>> DELAY OF GAMES: EIDOS HAS PUSHED BACK THE RELEASE OF ITS NEXT TOMB RAIDER AND HITMAN TITLES UNTIL EARLY NEXT YEAR.... >>

52 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

j A

hthearted experience.” ~ GameSpot

Sid Meier’s legendary Pirates! is available for the Xbox” for the first time ever. Loaded with new features in stunning 3D, you'll unleash your cannons on enemy ships, pillage the 17th century Caribbean and romance the fair maidens in exotic ports while searching for buried treasure:

www. siðmeierspirates.com

© 2005 Take-Two Interactive Software and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. 2K Games, the 2K Games logo, and Take-Two Interactive Software аге all trademarks and/or registered trademarks о! Такө-1уго interactiva Software, Inc. © 2005 Firaxis Games, Inc. All rights reserved. Firaxis Games and Sid Mejer's Pirates! are registered trademarks of Firaxis Games, Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logo, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other marks and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Mild Violence

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Publisher: EA Sports Developer: EA Canada Release Date: November 2005

STs = EM

Hoop dreams | } :

h man, just wait until they see the game.” next-gen debut of EA's hugely successful basketball “We have three goals for this game: It's gotta look » o That's what Tim Tschirner tells us he said to series? The company had only released one screen- next-gen, play next-gen, and feel next-gen." xw! himself a few months back after reading shot from a “visual target" CG video, which wasn't And after some exclusive hands-on time with the our first (and quite skeptical) preview of МВА Live 06 even the actual game. Xbox 360 title, this baller already has us eating our for Xbox 360. But how could we not question the “This is a brand-new NBA Live,” says Tschirner. initial words. —Bryan Intihar

"s

The Players The images here aren't dressed-up beauty shots—the NBA's superstars really do look this lifelike when you're playing the game. And aside from the photo-realistic mugs and rippling physiques, you'll also notice moving uniform cloth and perspiration. Yep, players now break a sweat (some more than others) throughout four quarters. “Players will also portray true emotion” says Tschirner. For instance, a defender will grimace after taking a charge, and loudmouths such as the Pacers' Ron Artest will argue calls. Hopefully, he won't be too emotional and get into a brouhaha with unruly fans.

1

\

«e^ EXTRAS

The Camera The Crowds

Even the perspective from how you play the Usually, those in the seats go neglected. Not in how they look, game is receiving some tweaks. NBA Live 06 per se, but in their reactions. In NBA Live 06, crowds will

will offer roughly 20 different (and fully cus- respond with a thunderous roar if, say, the home team has just tomizable) camera options, and the overall sys- sunk a go-ahead free throw in the waning seconds of overtime. tem will be more dynamic. “It may start as your They'll recognize momentum changes, too; fans will get all basic low camera,” says Tschirner. “But if you're pumped and start cheering louder as the home squad starts

at the top of the key and you pass the ball to an mounting a comeback. The increased emphasis on audio is also open guy in the corner, the camera is going to trickling down to the players, as you'll now hear teammates call then cut to behind that particular player.” for the ball and bark at you to shoot the rock.

FILM BASE

HOLLYWOOD GOES GREEK—UNIVERSAL PICTURES HAS ACQUIRED THE RIGHTS TO MAI N SONY CEA'S ACTION HIT

56 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

Another next-gen bonus is the crazy amount of detail that's going into each team's digs. “We've rebuilt all the are- nas from scratch," says Tschirner. This equates into scenery like fully function- ing Jumbotrons that display game footage, a scorer's table, and even those ever-changing billboards that wrap around several NBA homes.

Due to technical limitations, physical play, such as applying pressure D or contesting a layup, has never looked very pretty on today's consoles. Either it seems like there's a thin invisible wall between the two players, or even worse, one will literally go through the other's torso or stretched- out arms. “We are now using real physics to deter- mine collisions," explains Tschirner. “This means that players can really get tangled up. If body parts hit, it will interrupt the offensive player's flight path to the basket." So definitely expect a rougher brand of basketball in the next generation.

Attend any real pro basketball game and you'll see the courts surrounded with spandex-clad cheerleaders, cameramen, security guards, and annoying team mascots. While the court in this batch of screenshots is bare, Tschirner promises that the final game will have several onlookers. "The sidelines are coming to life,” he says. "You can collide with these people, too. The plan is that if you dive for the ball and crash into one of the cameramen, the game will show an instant replay from that camera." Very nice.

раввин

Can't Afford

an Xbox 360?

No biggie— МВА Live 06 will also rat- tle the rims of all the current consoles and the PSP this September and October, respectively. The major addi- tion here is what EA's calling Freestyle Superstars. Each of the six player classifications, from the dunkaholic High Flyer to the no-look-passing

Playmaker, will provide the NBA's best with unique move sets. Also, expect a smoother transition game and an eas- ier slam-dunk contest. $h

GOD OF WAR (PS2). NO RELEASE DATE WAS ANNOUNCED, BUT CHARLES ROVEN (BATMAN BEGINS) WILL BE THE MOVIE'S PRODUCER... >>

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com 57

MATURE 17+

3 Blood anc e ани М Drug В ý А |

Intense Viol: X хеох $

al Theme: N y И. РЕ os LEME <> PlayStation.2 SOFTWARE | 5

BROADBAND ONLY

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2510 Life © 2005 Eidos. Developed by Avalanche Software, LLC and Ritual Entertainment, Inc. Published by Eidos, Inc. Creative direction by Hwy! Productions. Avalanche and the Avalanche logo are trademarks of Avalanche, LLC. 25 to ifo, Eidos and the Eidos logos are registered trademarks of the Eidos Group of Companies. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association, ‘PlayStation’ and the "PS Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment lnc. Online play requires Internet connection and Network Adapter (for PlayStation 2) and Memory Card (8MB) (for PlayStation 2) each sold separately). The Online icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Livelogo, 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. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Game Experience May Change During Online Play.

T'S A CLASSIC PORTRAIT OF MODERN URBAN LIFE - AS SEEN ON COPS"

AVALANCHE SOFTWARE

@ press stərt

TAKE THIS JOB:

GAME DESIGNER

Our monthly look at the jobs you want— with tips from the guys who have them

| LANNINC'S DETAILS

Experience: Eleven years as a designer, 19 years in the graphics industry Notable games: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (PS1), Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee (XB), Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (XB)

Salary Range: $40,000 to $90,000 Recommended education: It varies, but solid art and communications back- grounds help

Location of most jobs: West Coast Current level of demand: Low

Becoming the ringleader of the oddest and ugliest bunch of heroes in gaming isn't easy. Lorne Lanning's career path to president and creative director of Oddworld Inhabitants was a detour- heavy road, to say the least. After learn- ing photo-realistic painting in New York and studying special effects and anima- tion at Cal Arts (also the alma mater of many at CG-movie powerhouse Pixar Studios), Lanning went on to work in the defense industry, creating simulations in weapons programs. Working on such

ultra-high-end simulators and graphic equipment was like “looking into the future of gaming,” he says. From there, Lanning switched to special-effects work, where he met Sherry McKenna, then a client. The two cofounded Oddworld Inhabitants in 1994 and devel- oped the award-winning Oddworld series of videogames. Frustrated with what he calls the sequel-driven direction of the industry, Lanning recently scaled back his company and shifted its focus to developing movies and TV shows. —Johnny Liu

MASTERS OF DOOM AUTHOR AND EGM CONTRIBUTOR DAVID KUSHNER HAS A NEW BOOK: JOHNNY MAGIC AND THE CARD SHARK

LANNING'S QUICK TIPS

1. Learn the basics: for instance, the fundamentals of art, such as draw- ing from real life, light, and shadow. The tools are secondary.

. Create work that stimulates the soul. Don't let go of your imagina- tion. Be a storyteller.

3. At the same time, live in the real

world and understand financing.

4. Don't be one of those #$@% artists who are unwilling to bend. The best ideas are sometimes the collective ones that merge together creatively.

. Practice your design skills by creating custom levels for games that foster the DIY lifestyle (such as Pariah for Xbox or the multiplatform shooter TimeSplitters: Future Perfect).

Faces off E Street arts how creatures tick," he says. "They. Lanning finds expressive, twisted art Street culture is an endless source of also make great pieces of art.” E. inspiring. These faces normally adorn inspiration for Lanning. “Look atthe > the wall inside his library. - . way graffiti is different in each cul- Е Light reading š

ture,” he. says. He also highligh! š Behind Lanning's office is a library s

Я Sexy toys turntablism, the iconography of surf with bookshelves 15 feet high. The |3 Look on the desk of anybody in the and skate graphics, and machinima. books—about everything from art [= game biz and you'll find at least one “Anything that allows young, creative and design to the Chernobyl disas- (5 toy. Lanning's eclectic collection has people to create faster and [less ter—are meticulously organized with | š everything from a statue of comic expensively] is exciting.” labels and bar codes. A sign reminds |= anti-hero Grendel to designer toys employees to put every book back —— from Europe to sculptures from fans. Skeletons in his closet where it was found. Lanning has Japanese bobble heads cheer him up Thanks to the power of eBay, Lanning worked social commentary on bad days. “A man has to be pretty landed the skeletons of two gophers from these tomes into his Be Hols = depressed to need these,” he says. _ locked in battle. “Skeletons show Oddworld series. PRODUCE

KIDS. IT'S THE TRUE TALE OF A GROUP OF GAMERS WHO USE THEIR SKILLS TO WIN BIG ON THE LAS VEGAS POKER CIRCUIT....

Ew ë ë ë g ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com 61

TEST: AWARD-WINNING MULTIPLAYER GAME HAS PEOPLE DUSTING OFF THEIR: GRENADE LAUNCHERS AND SAYING HAST/

REPORTS ADD: SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN: FEATURE:

RATING PENDING

Visit www.esrb.org

| for updated rating A PlayStation e A | |

Z | information. | =

N R ) чә XBOX 360

pMat3s

NewBie King Pin - „Р x v:

NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WANTS THIS BATTLE TO END

BATTLEFIELD.EA.COM

A VISTA TO BEING “NICE” VIND-BRLOWING ABILITY TO LEAP BETWEEN SOLDIERS INTO ACTION:

Soma takes aim at a nice piece of fish.

DAWN

OFS

Give your DS a little soul

fter 19 years of gothic flagella- tion, Konami's most prolific action-adventure series still

manages to successfully reanimate itself on a regular basis. Castlevania is so iron- clad that even the departure of its signa- ture villain, Count Dracula himself, hasn't hurt the franchise. Dawn of Sorrow con- tinues the playfully weird plot of 2003's Aria of Sorrow (GBA), in which Soma Cruz, an androgynous high school lad, avoids becoming the vessel for Drac's resurrec- tion by sealing the accursed castle in a magical solar eclipse. Now, one year later, Soma must infiltrate a diabolical cult that’s plotting to assassinate him to facili-

tate the dark lord’s return.

Gameplay faithfully adheres to the established "Metroid-vania" mold pioneered by Symphony of the Night (PS1)—you wind your way through a labyrinthine castle, collecting oodles of creative weapons, armor, and items—yet still manages to feel sufficiently original. Additions include a substantially deep- ened take on Aria’s innovative soul system and some gimmicky yet enjoyable touch-panel functionality (see sidebars on the next page). The game's fresh feeling even extends to its roster of grisly, screen-filling bosses, which are nearly all new to the series.

mo

RROW

While the previous game offered little reminder of its futuristic 2035 setting (aside from a few modern weapons and Soma's boot-cut blue jeans), Dawn's set- ting bravely mixes elements of old and new. "The cult's fortress is a modernized replica of Castlevania," explains Dawn of Sorrow Director Koji Igarashi. “Some ele- ments are close to the original, but the cult also uses modern machinery and implements of dark alchemy.” In other words, you'll still dodge Medusa heads in the clock tower, but you'll also launch a few rocket-propelled grenades past the parked cars of cult members. Vania vets will note that the more open-ended level

Publisher: Konami Developer: Konami Tokyo Release Date: October 2005

layout allows for increased exploration. “Much like in Symphony of the Night, | wanted to give players a little bit of free- dom,” says Igarashi. "It's also a fair bit more difficult than Aria of Sorrow." Even players who traditionally blast through these portable adventures in two days might be stumped by some of Dawr's wicked new puzzles, including slot machine doors, movable rooms, and ripped-from-the-tabloids mysteries involv- ing Bigfoot. "We made some of the puz- zles really quite hard,” Igarashi says. “Of course, those are optional: You don't need them to see the ending...well, an ending at least.” —Shane Bettenhausen

CASTLEVANIA FANS WILL BE GLAD TO HEAR THAT DAWN OF SORROW'S SOUNDTRACK ISN'T NEARLY AS SPARSE AND TINNY AS THOSE

64 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

All-Star Whipping

Bad endings aren't always so bad. Reaching Dawn's nets you a classy unlockable—Julius mode, where Julius Belmont (above, descendant of original Drac-whipper Simon) and sexy shopkeeper Yoko Belnades (below) join forces with other surprise playable characters in a remixed ver- Sion of Soma's game. You're able to Switch between the members of your vampire hunting squad with a simple button press. Expect plenty of new attacks, a cool new story, and sweet remixes of classic Castlevania tunes.

Small Touches

Dawn of Sorrow doesn't go overboard with its DS-specific functionality. The ever-present map on the upper screen is a godsend, but the touch-panel implementation is fairly minimal. Each boss battle climaxes with a *Magic Seal" puzzle where you have to trace a specific rune with the stylus in order to kill the foe. Other than that, you'll only whip out the stylus to clear a special type of ice block from the screen.

IN THE PREVIOUS GBA

“Dawn of Sorrow seems very difficult at first glance," says Director Koji Igarashi. “But if you find the right enemy souls along the way, it will become much easier." The man speaks truth. Armed with only a weapon, young Soma is a weak girly man, but armed with the right combo of enemy souls, he’s unstoppable. Souls come in three types: Bullet (weapons), Guardian (defensive and summon spells), and Enchant (special abilities). Every enemy in the game has a soul, ripe for the taking.

Soma earns the most crucial souls (giving him abilities like double-jump- ing, breathing underwater, etc.) from bosses, but every other attack must be earned by killing foes. Depending on the rarity of the enemy (from one to three stars, three being the rarest), you may have to kill an enemy over 50 times to harvest its soul. "If you're a hardcore gamer, you'll feel that you really want to get them all," laughs Igarashi. “But beginners might not want to take the time to collect them, so they can clear the game without concentrating on soul collection.”

Not all enemy souls are created equal. Many can be powered up, often as many as nine times, to create more potent effects. Sometimes this is as simple as collecting nine copies of the same soul, but a few of the most damaging Bullet-type attacks require nine souls just to reach level three. Ouch. It's worth it, though: A high- level attack soul always delivers seri- ous damage, and the attack animation looks a hell of a lot cooler. Our personal favorite: a fully leveled-up Waiter Skeleton attack, which hurls a massive platter of deadly food at foes.

You'll find a sizable arsenal of weapons scattered throughout the castle (and a few more available for purchase at a shop), but the finest equipment can't be found just lying around. "Enemies drop some basic weapons, but if you want to make the ultimate, more powerful weapons you'll have to use souls in the weapon synthesis,” says Igarashi. That means doubling up on your favorite rare souls if you want to keep a spare one after buffing up your sword. Think that's rough? Some upgrades require one-of-a-kind boss souls. ж

УМРНОМУ OF THE NIGHT COMPOSER MICHIRI

YAMANE SCORED SEVERAL TRACKS

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 65

This title is available for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and PSP" (PlayStation@Portable) system. í

| WIRELESS )GAME

Mild Language Violence

ON LIE. BROADBAND ONLY

by Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc.All rights reserved. "PSP" is a trademark and "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family Jogoare registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo may be required (sold separately). Online play requires internet connection and Memory Card (BMB) (for PlayStation 2) (each sold separately). The Online icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live ogo 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. TM, & Nintendo GameCube logo is a trademark of Nintendo. © 2001 Nintendo. АЙ rights reserved. PC CD-ROM logo TM and © 2004 IEMA. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. © 2005 Nokia. АН rights reserved. Nokia, N-Gage and N-Gage OD are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nokia Corporation. GameSpy and the "Powered by GameSpy" design are trademarks of GameSpy Industries, Inc. Al rights reserved. AI other trademarks and trade namesare the properties of ther respective owners,

MARVEL, X-Men and all Marvel Characters and the distinctive likenesses thereof: ТМ & © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. www,marvel.com. This game is produced under license from Marvel Characters, Inc. Game © 2005 Activision Publishing, Inc. Published |

annis - Assemble previously unimaginable teams from 16. playable X-Men” and evil Brotherhood characters.

Co-op online and, off with up to4 4 players ,

joining at any time. Dodi

THE ULTIMATE ALLIAN NCE

э үл

A secret prophecy has fallen into Apocalypse” 's diabolical hands.

Unite the X-Men with their sworn enemy—the Brotherhood—and

DIESES RISE OF. APOCALYPSE

T P

liberate Earth from the ultimate tyranny.

X-men-Legends2.com September 21, 2005

ALLOWED

Videogame ratings firestorm burns on

ntil recently, all most gamers

knew about the Entertainment

Software Ratings Board's Adults Only rating was that they didn't see too much of it. Like NC-17 for films, the dreaded A0 is something publishers go out of their way to avoid—largely because major retailers like Wal-Mart, EB, and GameStop don't sell such titles. But then a modder (a type of videogame hacker) unearthed explicit sexual con- tent buried in the code for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, prompting the ESRB to reevaluate the game and change its rating from Mature to A0. The ramifica- tions for the industry are unclear.

If you've been living under a rock for the past month or so, here are the basics. Patrick Wildenborg, an avid GTA fan and modder, dis- covered Hot Coffee, a sex minigame hidden within San Andreas. After initial deflections, GTA publisher Rockstar eventually acknowl- edged that the scenes, though inaccessible to ordinary gamers, were in fact in the code. Oblivious parents, headline-hungry politicos, and talk-show hosts everywhere were moral- ly outraged. The ESRB launched an investiga- tion, then rerated the game. Rockstar ceased production and began working on a version that did not contain the code; the company

Push UP and DOWN in

rhythm

LMB Change view

LSHIFT Change position ۴ RETURN Quit

Hot Coffee is undoubtedly graphic, but then so is the R- rated Team America (inset). Both feature caricatured sex scenes.

also reduced its quarterly earnings forecast by roughly $50 million. Soon enough, Congress was calling for a Federal Trade Commission investigation of Rockstar's par- ent company. Senator Hillary Clinton was denouncing games for their violence and depravity. Antivideogame lawyer Jack Thompson was obsessing about labia in The Sims 2. Real gamers simply saw more evi- dence of how misunderstood games are in the mainstream.

Sex is nothing new to videogames. In the past few years, high-profile games with adult- themed content occupied store shelves with no ratings fanfare. The Sims 2 (PC) features rampant fornication and user-created nude mods. Playboy: The Mansion has gamers shooting racy centerfolds and boffing like bunnies. The title character of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude is a horny college student desperately trying to get laid. Games have been rude, raunchy, and rapacious for a long time—G7A itself first gained notoriety for its potential for free-form and extreme vio- lence. What's the fuss about Hot Coffee? "We're talking about sexually explicit acts," says ESRB President Patricia Vance. "The Hot Coffee minigame is explicit, with or without the nudity... You have scenes of sexual inter- course and fellatio.” Sex in The Sims 2, in

ё

—ESRB President Patricia Vance

other words, takes place under the covers and is only implied. In Playboy: The Mansion, the sex might seem explicit to some, but the raters didn't agree. “In M[-rated] games, you might have references to [these acts]. You may know what's going on, but they're not explicit,” Vance says. Violence seems to be in another category altogether. San Andreas has always let gamers bludgeon innocent bystanders at will. “Our raters didn't consider it to warrant an A0 rating,” says Vance.

To the average media consumer who's watched The Sopranos, heard an uncensored 50 Cent song, or seen Paris Hilton's sexed-up Carl's Jr. ad on prime-time TV, GTA's Hot Coffee content might appear reasonably within society's bounds for content intended for a mature (but not adult-only) audience. It's consensual sex, after all, and its original gameplay function seems to have been to reward a strong relationship with your girl- friend. Sounds almost...emotionally healthy?

Yet there's still something touchy about videogames, even when they contain content that's not measurably different from other forms of mainstream entertainment. “There does seem to be a credible gap between society being perfectly fine with underage kids watching raunchy videos on MTV and having them play similar videogames," says Hal Halpin, president of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association. It's an important issue to raise, Halpin says, because IEMA member companies such as Blockbuster, Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys "R" Us often account for a significant share of music CDs and DVD movie sales. "It's very often the same executive responsible for two or more of these categories," Halpin says. "It helps fuel the discussion about a universal ratings system for all packaged-good enter- tainment products." Such a system would hold games to the same standards, and any- one complaining about GTA's sex and vio- lence would have to put the game up against films or TV with the same rating.

The ESRB stands by its current ratings stan- dards, and the only change as a result of the Hot Coffee scandal is that now the ratings board has made it clear to game publishers that all content on a disc, playable or not, must be disclosed if it's pertinent to the rat- ing. Beyond that, it's really anybody's guess which way things will go. Halpin says he doesn't foresee videogame retailers changing their no-AO policy; in fact, he says, the social and political climate could affect even those games that have thus far stayed out of the crossfire. “The subject of the debate [will be] what separates Teen, Mature, and Adults Only," Halpin predicts. "Increased pressure regarding M-rated games from religious and political groups may well see a reduction in total M-rated games stocked by retailers." It's equally difficult to assess how this could affect the development community, but so far it sounds like business as usual. "The ESRB rating system is... well executed, consis- tent, and highly respected," says Electronic Arts spokesperson Tammy Schachter. "We're big supporters." Reilly Brennan, spokesperson for Midway, says the company will continue making games for a wide audience. "Games are a mass-market form of entertainment," he says. "There's no reason they should have to adhere to one certain age group—you don't see that with TV or movies.” Whatever hap- pens, one thing is for sure: Gamers aren't get- ting any younger, and the adults-only issue is here to stay. dah —Jennifer Tsao

Playboy: The Mansion, an M-rated game that had, if not explicit, then at least badly acted sex.

>>> THE ESRB SAYS THE PERCENTAGE OF GAMES IT HAS RATED “MATURE” HAS CLIMBED ABOUT 2 PERCENT EACH YEAR SINCE 2002.... >>

68 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

THE CITY HAS ITS DEMONS... BUT SO DO YOU.

Sr ERING

ТЕЗ THAT BINL

You're out of prison but still not free. Now the battle rages on two fronts: in the city - and in your mind.

Dis $ а cover the dark secrets of the inner city. Monstrous action pss. oma

А ipm sh enemies: s of nightmar's with your survival

Fight teeming horde www.sufferingtiesthathind.com

Blood and Gore

Imane Violence; PC m - | exual Themes xeox e... y | | Sexual Themes X Tw PlayStation. PM

| > RP t |

Use of Drugs

THE RUMOR MILL

Producing juicier gossip than Grandma's knitting circle

an, how time flies. To think it

was 20 years ago that I

rocked out to Mötley Crüe, learned from MacGyver how to make a rocket launcher out of tree bark and two rubber bands, and purchased Nintendo's very first console (check out page 136 for our retro piece on the NES). Damn, those really were the good ol' days. Wanna share with me one of your memorable moments from 1985? Shoot me an e-mail at quartermann@ziffdavis.com. In the meantime, enjoy yet another delicious helping of rumors. —The Q

Greek time line

If you haven't tried the simply divine God of War yet, then WHAT PLANET HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING ON FOR THE PAST SIX MONTHS?! Anyhoo, it appears enough of

you already approve of main man Kratos, as word around the Acropolis is that a GOW sequel is scheduled to slice-n- dice the PlayStation 2 sometime next year. Why isn't the game coming to Sony's next-gen system? Well, I'm hearing that the pasty-white hero is waiting until the third game in the action series before calling the PS3 home.

Is that a snake

in your pocket?

As much as | eat, sleep, and s*** games, I've never been one for playing them on my cell phone. And quite honestly, most titles for the platform aren't worth their weight in pixels. But hopefully that'll change very soon, as Konami is planning to bring its stealthy Metal Gear Solid franchise to mobile phones by the end of the year.

>> EA GAMES HAS BOUGHT DEVELOPER HYPNOTIX (OUTLAW GOLF), WHICH WILL WORK ON THE COMPANY'S ARENA FOOTBALL SERIES.

70 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

Where you hiding, Sam?

And speaking of sneaky fellas, it seems Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher is returning to the gaming scene. In addition to revisiting the current crop of consoles, the grizzled spy is going out on a next-gen assign- ment. That's right, Splinter Cell 4 will head to Xbox 360 and PS3 next spring and fall, respectively.

Make 'em bigger

Even though The Q's mainly a console guy, | do dabble in the art of PC gaming. And right now, Battlefield 2 has yours truly handcuffed to the computer. So it makes me giddy that the SOCOM series is taking a page from EA's gigantic shoot- er. Look for SOCOM on PS3 to be really multiplayer focused, feature much larger maps, and support up to 64 people online.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

God of War's Kratos, still pissed off about those Mr. Clean comparisons.

Next-gen fare In my last rumor mill, | made mention of Sega teaming

up with outside developers to remake some of its clas- sic franchises for the upcoming consoles. That's still the case (and add Virtua Cop to the list of series | mentioned last time around), but I also hear that the company plans on keeping the next-gen version of Crazy Taxi in-house. Expect this one to pick up Xbox 360 and PS3 passengers in '06, plus it appears that the game will include some type of online component.

If the Xbox 360 has a shaky launch, will Sony push back the release of the PlayStation 3?

Put it to you this way: Sony will be watch-

A е ing gamers' initial impressions of the Xbox @ 360 very closely. Those in the know tell us

[3

that if Microsoft's Xbox successor does stumble out of the gate this November, Sony will consider moving the PS3's debut from next spring to the fall. And a delay

might not be such a bad thing; it would leave the

Sony's PlayStation 3 could still be a ways off.

company with enough time to change that god-awful boomerang-shaped controller.

NO CRYING TO MOMMY WHEN YOU LOSE!

1 PlayStation 2

OFFICIA; < m ©

7.

© ACTIVISION.

GAMECUBE. SOFTWARE

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Online play requires internet connection, Network Adaptor (for PlayStation 2) and Memory Card (8MB) (for PlayStation 2) (each sold separately). ©2005 Activision, Inc. and [EVERYONE 10+ its affiliates. оп is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. All rights reserved. World Series of Poker, chip logo and related indicia are registered trademarks ог | gg

trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC. and used under license. All rights reserved. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Asso- Mild Language ciation. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. "PSP" is a trademark and “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered " ; trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick DuoTM may be required (sold separately). The Online icon is а trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Simulated Gambling

America Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live Logos and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States | ESRB CONTENT RATING mm andlor other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. TM, @, and Nintendo GameCube are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2001 Nintendo.

wa-ha-ha! So, you want to

get closer to EGM's 200th

issue? FOOLS! You will have to get through us first, for we are the top 10 bosses of all time! Whether we intimidated you with our stunning looks, finished off your game in dramatic fashion, or just straight up kicked your ass...we are the best of the best, and we shall not let you pass. Enough talk, have at you!

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES) R-Type (Arcade,

If Iron Mike winked at you back in many consoles) 1987, it meant that with the next Any boss can pop up punch, your world was going to at the end of a level; end. If the former heavyweight this one is the level. A champion winks at you now, it giant battleship that

| probably means that he wants to filled the entire screen back when 4-inch-tall _ | rip out your large intestine and monsters ruled the arcades, this bad boy can | wear it as a tie, or perhaps a fry you with its thrusters, smash you into a LL] tasteful scarf. wall, or straight shoot you down. Respect.

Phantasy Star Online (DC/XB/GC)

A barrage of purple energy balls. Gut-piercing tentacles. A skin- scorching laser beam. It’s no wonder you need one, two, or three other friends to help take down this unpredictable, water-dwelling worm.

Ninja Gaiden (XB)

One of the few bosses from the current generation of consoles to make the list, Alma earns her spot by separating the men from the boys in one of the hardest games ever made. Many a ninja has fallen to this femme fatale, but surviving means that you are among Ninja Gaiden's elite.

f š E d n Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (PS1/DC/GC) "S.T. A.R.S.!" Being hunted room to room for hours by this giant freak e н scarred us for life (іп a good way). Note: Nemesis was knocked down š two spots for his appearance in Resident Evil Apocalypse.

HELL ON WHEELS—MAJESCO HAS ANNOUNCED THAT IT'S MAKING AN ACTION GAME BASED ON THE MARVEL PROPERTY GHOST RIDER

72 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ww.

: s. Gunstar Heroes (Genesis) = Back in the day, ап action дате wasn't ап action дате unless you ^ broke a sweat battling its bosses. Seven Force, a robot that possessed а! 4- » whopping seven different forms, helped keep several couch potatoes t a from sporting love handles (at least for the time being). f$ Super Metroid (Super NES) | Metal Gear When it comes to epic end- EM. Solid 3 (PS2) ings, you can’t do much better than the climax of Super Metroid. Mother ` The lengthy Brain's first form jogs the memory of \ d sniper showdown with the battles past, but what unfolds after her

true form rises is the perfect finale to an already sublime experience. What's truly amazing about the event is that it happens without the characters speaking a single word.

% elderly End is the quintes- A sential Metal Gear Solid ° experience: a lethal game of hide-and-seek ? , where you must use sight, ь sound, and technology to track down the old fart...and to avoid being caught yourself.

Metal Gear Solid, MGS: The Twin Snakes (PS1/GC) By committing a narrative faux pas and breaking the fourth wall, MGS mastermind Hideo Kojima gave us one of the most uniquely memorable boss fights ^ ever. Psycho Mantis can read our minds i (actually, our memory cards), mess with " "T our TV sets, and anticipate our every move. |

as read your sery taught Here! etes poor anta voi

(Castlevania series)

There's just something undeni- ably cool about fighting a giant ball of dead bodies.

BOWSER

(Super Mario series)

None of Mario's meetings with Bowser have been that note- worthy, but we still love the guy's never-give-up attitude.

GANON

(The Legend of Zelda series) Link's main adversary just missed the list, but that last fight with Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time (N64) still deserves a shout-out.

but we do know that thanks to what he does to Aerith (see pic), he’s unquestionably the most memorable villain in role-playing game history, and the EGM staff's unanimous No. 1 boss of all time. ё

< E Ux 4 Final Fantasy VII (PS1) Is it his luxurious flowing hair? His 7-foot-long sword? The green & glow of his eyes? We may never

know why we love Sephiroth so much,

(PS2/XB/PSP). THIS ONE IS SCHEDULED TO SHIP NEXT SUMMER ALONGSIDE THE GHOST RIDER FLICK STARRING NICOLAS САСЕ....

Glock render by Chuck Ernst

(>) press stərt

THE HOT 10

This month's list of must-see gaming items (and eight other things)

ALTOIDS CANS AS GAME CASES

Once you get rid of the crap inside, those round Altoids sours tins are the perfect size to hold three PSP UMDs. DS owners, try the Altoids chewing gum case for your carts.

Videogames > candy.

g 2 DODD DA

3939999

HIDDEN

2 CONTENT

San Andreas’ unlockable booty Call isn’t the only bit of extra con- tent ever left buried in a game's code. Head to egm.1UP.com for links to leftover Super Mario Bros. 3 levels (above), unused voices from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1), and a test area

Photograph by Randy Dodson/SFMISFITS 2005

& "D d 127, d = f | THE WARRIORS (ua A }\ B Рох vc * October 2005 Warriors be lookin" (5 good. You hear me a babies? PIMP MY CONSOLE

Stuff your game machine's guts into something else— the more ridicu- lous the better—and e-mail us a pic at EGMGziffdavis.com. Bonus points for hydraulics, fish tanks, and anything neon.

REAL STYLI

(Yes, that’s the plural of stylus.) The secret weapon of all serious Meteos and Yoshi's Touch & Go mutliplaying gamers. Ditch the dinky plastic toothpick and get yourself a full-sized stylus at any office supply store ASAP.

NEW

Thanks to the Multiplayer Map Pack and a cheater-banning patch (praise Jesus!), everything old is new again online with Halo 2. Well, except the needler—it still sucks. To anyone who doubted our triple-10 review scores: We forgive you.

MAPS

from Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC). 1UPCOM'S GAME DEVELOPER BLOGS

2 А few to get you started: mizuguchi.1UP.com, getting-up.1UP.com, seropadope.1UP.com. Would we be shilling for this website if it weren't owned by the same company as EGM? We like to think so. 8 Super Metroid completed in 36 minutes. Super Mario Bros. 3 in 11. The original Resident Evil in one hour and 10 minutes—using only the knife. Check out speed- demosarchive.com to download (or buy on DVD) these and other incredible feats of gaming derring-do. 8) PS2 October 2005 You'll dig the пем “separate ways” side missions, even if (actually, especially if) you've already played

through RE4 on the Cube. Besides, it's a great way to pass the time until...

SPEED RUNS

RESIDENT EVIL 4

g

wy

s | What if you fight zombified Al Qaeda terrorists? How awe- some would that be?

PS3/XB360 Release TBA

Who knows what the final product will be like—remember how much RE4 changed from its original teaser trailer? We expect a long wait before we find out, but even the brief glimpse of new high-speed 28 Days Later-model zombies will hold us for a few months.

KONAMI WILL CREATE GAMES BASED ON THE ANNOYINGLY POPULAR TV SHOW AMERICAN IDOL FOR CURRENT AND NEXT-GEN SYSTEMS...

74 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

Aeon Flux Majesco * PS2/XB Don't be fooled by the Oscar-winning film Monster. Oscar- winning actress Charlize Theron is HOT!

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Nintendo * GC The GBA tactical-RPG hit migrates to the Cube, picking up some superbly smooth animation in the process.

= Ultimately, the scariest thing about Nightmare's Jack Skellington was his Struggle with anorexia.. _

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Rockstar * PSP A game? On PSP? That you want to buy? Whoa.

Jaws Unleashed Majesco * PS2/XB Clear something up

breakers on Amity Island as the revered chi

for us, please: Who put a leash on Jaws to

begin with? In this action splash-fest it's your turn to terrorize the unsuspecting spring ium-guzzler.

Ratchet: Deadlocked Sony CEA * PS2 Sony's fuzzy mascot enters a Running Man-esque game show. Who loves you, and who do you love?

Midway * PS2/XB Race your fly-ass pimpmobile through the very heart of darkness—the greater Los Angeles area.

Trapt Tecmo PS; Allura, you trap your suitors with weapons Such as chandeliers and pregnancy.

2 As devil woman Queen

EJ a

The Warriors Rockstar * PS2/XB “Warriors! Come out to plaaay!" By "play," they mean roam a lawless urban wasteland.

We Love Katamari Namco PS2 Grab a friend and tackle

this ball-rolling sequel's new co-op mode. If it doesn't end in a fight, we'll be impressed.

.| Before Christmas: 0ogie's Revenge

Infected

Majesco * PSP Finally, technology that properly captures the fun and excite- ment of global viral pandemics.

Tim Burton’s: The Nightmare

Buena Vista Games * PS2/XB An absurdly long title. No room to be glib.

тетя

WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw '06 THQ PS2 Even the all-new “buried alive casket match" isn't as scary as men of great girth in gamey singlets.

Digital Jesters « PS2

Majesco * PSP

Capcom PS2/XB

24: The Game Backyard Skateboarding Fatal Frame Ill: The Tormented Soul Calibur Ш Ё > i

2K Games PS2 Atari GBA Tecmo PS2 Namco * PS2 "О...

50 Cent: Bulletproof Blitz: The League Jak X: Combat Racing Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

VU Games PS2/XB Midway * PS2/XB Sony CEA PS2 Activision * PS2/XB/GC/PSP/DS & ? Armored Core: Nexus BloodRayne PSP Shining Force Neo Virtua Tennis: World Tour | =

Sega * PSP

| 24's real-time waiting action!

Y »» HOLD THE CANNOLI—EA GAMES HAS PUSHED BACK THE RELEASE OF THE GODFATHER (XB360/PS2/XB) UNTIL SPRING о NEXT YEAR.... >>

ELECTRONIC ING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 75

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AD. JACK CARVER. GOD KNOWS HOW I WOUND UP IN THIS HELLHOLE. IT’S CRAWLING ITH MERCS. THEY'RE HUNTING ME FOR SPORT. BUT THEY GOT A SURPRISE COMING. I CAN FEEL MYSELF CHANGING. I CAN SMELL THE BAD GUYS’ BLOOD. THEIR SWEAT. AND I CAN KILL. ГМ GETTING REALLY GOOD AT KILLING. TRUTH IS, I'M STARTING TO LIKE IT.

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CALL OF DUTY 2

XB360 * Activision * November 2005

Targets Acquired: For a young series, Call of Duty already sports a twisted fami- ly tree. This Xbox 360 launch title is the direct sequel to the original 2003 PC hit, not last year's console smash, Finest Hour. Plus, a totally different COD2, Big Red One, hits current-gen consoles this fall. Confused? Don't be. Just know that this is probably the most anticipated first- person shooter of the year. And under- standing your enemy isn't difficult. "The Nazis are very bad people,” COD2 Producer Grant Collier explains. "They were a highly trained, technologically advanced, and incredibly effective fighting force." It's your job to stop them as you join American, Russian, and British squads across pivotal battles leading up to World War II's climax.

Know Your Enemy: "In the first COD, we got a lot of props for how smart the

78 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

friendly A.I. was, and now we've put that attention to detail into the enemy side," says Collier. "When attacking an enemy, he might decide to fall back, call for back- up to either flank you or set up a machine gun, or maybe he'll suppress you with grenades." This game aims to do this incredibly efficient, fastidiously trained army justice. "The enemy knows its sur- roundings, it knows where you are, and will attack you from the best position for greater success," adds Collier.

Having highly intelligent enemies transforms urban battlegrounds into dynamic, constantly shifting war zones where anything can happen. It's all about the chaos of war, with ricocheting bullets, airborne shrapnel, clouds of dust, explod- ing scenery, and copious amounts of real- istic "battle chatter," an almost constant stream of useful info (and panicked freak- outs) from your friendlies...and enemies.

"Any fans that speak German will be able to hear the Nazis shouting out your loca- tion, calling for ammo, or ordering flank- ing maneuvers," muses Collier.

Even with all this extreme realism, Collier isn't forgetting that the game is, well...still a game. "Good A.I. doesn't shoot you from a mile away; good А.І. acts like a human." Your foes will make mistakes, get confused, and react slowly if they're near an explosion. And while it's à difficult game, it's still doable by the average player, thanks to multiple difficul- ty settings. "Fun definitely trumps reality," says Collier. "It's still a game. It's not the History Channel."

The Most Dangerous Game: Although Call of Duty 2 will invariably offer out- standing multiplayer action via Xbox Live, the developers claim that the single-play- er action might actually be tougher. "Sure,

there are different levels of players out there,” Collier says. "But | think that for the average person who

picks up Call of Duty í

2...the AL. will actu-

ally be better play-

ers than they are." y WAN à E

GOEDE

This fall's shooters don't go down easily

nce the playthings of the hardcore PC crowd, shooters (either first person or otherwise) are now solidly main- stream, and the recent massive suc- cess of Halo 2 proves that the love affair between gamers and gunplay is Still as hot as an exploding barrel. But what makes shooters so fun? Realistic

graphics certainly help, as do creative map designs and badass weapons. Yet, in terms of single-player shooting, it's really all about enemy artificial intelli- gence (А.1.). It's these complex pro- gramming routines that makefoes like Halo's Elites so damn tough (and rewarding) to gun down.

We've quizzed the developers hehind this year's most promising

STAR WARS

N N М `

N

BATTLEFRONT Il

PS2/XB/PSP LucasArts November 2005

Targets Acquired: In this massive shoot- er spanning both the new and old Star Wars trilogies, you'll have the opportunity to blast just about every man, woman, droid, and Ewok in the far, faraway galaxy, including this super battle droid. We aren't making any promises, but we heard a rumor of a possible Gungan extermina- tion on Naboo...

Know Your Enemy: Since you can tackle the conflict as one of four different fac- tions (Separatist and Republic for the Episode Ill era and Rebel and Empire for the classic era), the single-player game boasts an immense quantity of foot sol- diers, from dumb-ass battle droids to slightly more dangerous clone troopers. Not everyone is easy cannon fodder, though: New units such as the clone com- mander and magna droid pack lethal fire- power, and brutal boss characters, includ- ing General Grievous, Boba Fett, and the daddy of them all, Darth Vader, provide climactic duels.

Simply adding new baddies isn't enough, though— Battlefront's developers are keen on making the fights in this sequel more intense and realistic than they were in the previous game. "Let's face it: If you are going to be waging a war, the A.I is a key factor in making that war come alive," explains Producer Dan Pettit. “Our team has done a great job to make sure not only that the A.I. behaves realistically as individuals, but also that they work well as a group." Often that means that each enemy will use his unique skills to get the best of you: Bothan spies launch sneak attacks from behind, battle droids roll up shields blaz- ing, and Jedi embarrass you with all man- ner of unfair magic trickery. As if the fray wasn't already crowded enough, factor in a full arsenal of ground- and space-based vehicles to commandeer and you've got one hell of a star war on your hands.

The Most Dangerous Game: “A.I. can definitely give players the sense of real-

shooters to find out how dangerous their latest creations are and also how their games' human-versus-human online combat stacks up against the competition. The next time you see these foes, it'll be at the business end of a shotgun, so it's best to know your enemy...

—Shane Bettenhausen

and Dan "Shoe" Hsu

т Picture this, nerds: You load up a boarding party inside your = 7 Republic gunship, land inside an enemy capital ship, then sabo- -; tage its engines, shields, or turrets from within. Awesome!

ism that allows them to become immersed in the game," Pettit says. "But in the end, you are never going to be able to create the uniqueness and various styles that a human player can bring to an online experience." He's right: 16 players

running and flying around expansive maps blasting and slicing one another...it's good stuff. The new ability to play as crucial characters like Darth Vader, Yoda, or Han Solo doesn't hurt, either... >

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 79

~~ |

W Multiplayer (both versus and cooperative) comes іп two flavors: Allied...and Axis for all you

flag-burning commie terrorists out there. “If people enjoy trying the German side of things, we may see more treatments in the future that consider the German soldier’s point of view," says Randy Pitchford, president of developer Gearbox Software.

80 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

n cfe oic s UE RR contains all the multiplayer missions , from the first Brothers in Arms. EM ы

"BROTHERS IN ARMS: EARNED IN BLOOD

PS2/XB ° Ubisoft ° October 2005

Targets Acquired: Everyone's bitching about the overabundance of shooters based on that big ol’ war that grandpappy was a part of. But at least Brothers in Arms did something to set itself apart— instead of controlling one soldier through several epic battles, you command a cou- ple of squads in intense, small-scale fire- fights while first-person shooting all Nazis in sight. In Earned in Blood, you're a 101st Airborne Division paratrooper going from Normandy to the Cherbourg peninsula to help control a key deepwater port that's vital for bringing in all that’s needed for the Allies to attack Germany directly.

Know Your Enemy: Forget about “shoot- ers"—improved A.I. is the real theme of our feature. And in Earned in Blood, the Nazis aren't just smarter, they're a whole lot more unpredictable. “Even simple, sub-

tle movements in enemy positions get me jumpy,” says Randy Pitchford, president of developer Gearbox Software, “because | don’t know if the adjustment is a survival movement or some kind of feint to keep my attention while something else is going on. The designers have been pretty forgiving, so the game is actually winnable, but the A.I. has gotten to the point that if we wanted to let it, it could totally kill you without cheating.”

The Most Dangerous Game: Online, you're trading bullets not just with other human players, but their A.I. squads as well. You can be a squad leader on the Axis or Allied sides in new scenario- or objective-based missions. EIB also fea- tures a new cooperative skirmish mode, So you and a buddy can be squad leaders and take on missions together. >

T ER" ~ i YEE в

than he's own. But more importantly, it s given him someth ас О: ДЕНҮ

^ Warfighter’s international multiplayer ranking system will promote players through the ranks of » the real-world militaries of their countries of origin.

82 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

“GHOST RECON

ADVANCED WARFIGHTER

XB360/PS2/XB/GC * Ubisoft « November 2005

Targets Acquired: The “Rainbow Six for the outdoorsman” Ghost Recon series continues to explore near-future technolo- gy with Advanced Warfighter. It's 2013, and the U.S. Army can now outfit its boys with the Integrated Warfighter System, which gives soldiers unprecedented bat- tlefield awareness with satellite linkup wizardry. That means war for the Ghosts is no longer about finding enemies lurking in the bush, but rather knowing that they're there already and analyzing their movements and figuring out what to do next. In Advanced Warfighter you must use this tech to find and secure the U.S. prez and the nuclear-weapon codes he was carrying with him.

Know Your Enemy: Ghost Recon 2’s ene- mies must've been using some future sci- fi tech as well, since they were able to see and shoot through solid objects when it suited them. This sloppy programming tuined the experience for many—hopeful-

ly, Warfighter’s bad guys won't feel the need to cheat this time around. “Facing strong, smart, and organized A.I. is central to the gameplay,” says Producer Robbie Edwards. “We are putting a lot of effort into having the enemy behave like real soldiers do.” What about those short-bus moments when your teammates or ene- mies just sit and take bullets like some- one’s blowing them kisses? “We've imple- mented what we call 'self-preserving A.l.’ meaning the enemies as well as your Ghost teammates will care for their lives,” says Edwards. “For example, if the cover they are using is blown away, they will automatically run to the next cover instead of staying there in the line of fire.”

The Most Dangerous Game: Except for GameCube players, online gamers will get to pick a character class before heading into combat. What you pick (grenadier, marksman, etc.) will determine your stats (accuracy, recoil management, etc.). >

#1 rated NHL game.

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Get physical with the Enforcer System wear down your opponent's scoring line.

Maximum Goaltending & On-The-Fly Coaching let you rule the rink from any position on the ice.

519 A ر‎ Hit the ice like never before with NHL 2K6! With fast action and new cutting-edge features galore, no other hockey game comes close to < NHLPa matching 2K6. Skate, pass, shoot, defend—and enforce—with all the intensity and total authenticity of the real NHL! www.2KSPORTS.com

EVERYONE

© |

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ог LIVE

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Rang according о GameRarkngs com average score of 20002005 hockey vdeo gamos, O 2005 Te T Interactive Sofware and is sudare Al gis reserved. 2K Sports, he 2K Sports kgo and Take-Two erac Sowa are al ademas andlor registered ademas ol Take Two rat Sofware, К. NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. Al NHL logos and marks and team logos and marks depicted herein are the property ol the NHL and the respecbve teams and may not be reproduced without the prior writen consent of NHL Enterprises, L P O 2005. A nights reserved. NHLPA. NHL 2k гл Oly Lene Prod of ho NHLPA NHLPA, Ntra Hoey League Payers Asoc and fe NHLPA logo are Тайата o По NHLPA angare used under охе by 2K Spots. "Мадан and e PS Fam bgo re rst camur сі Sony Contr Enorament hc

requires inlemet connection, Nee г с Рабиа 2 am Mano Cr) (er don 2 рай эй separi e Onine icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Morosof, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logo, and the Xbox logos are ether registered trademarks or trademarks of совой Corporabon in the US. andor in other counties and are used under icense from

“CALL OF DUTY 2: BIG RED ONE

PS2/XB/GC Activision ° October 2005

Targets Acquired: Yep, it's more World War Il, "сері this Call of Duty 2 is on the consoles that are currently in your pos- session. It's not quite as visually stunning as its Xbox 360 cousin, but for a current- gen game, this one's quite the looker.

Know Your Enemy: Better А.1.? You bet! "The A.l. system in Big Red One is struc-

tured to re-create the very dangerous Axis soldiers of WWII,” explains Creative Director Christian Busic. Of course, "flank- ing" and “working as a team" are all part of this А.1/$ vocabulary, but what makes it feel real is how it's all communicated on the battlefield. "The player and his squad encounter a group of German soldiers defending a supply depot," Busic offers as.

an example. "As the Germans become aware of the player, they will move to cover. The player's squadmates will also move to cover and call out what they 'see" the Germans doing— Behind that wall!’ or “Watch the left!’ If the Germans feel they have an advantage on one side, they may try to flank, and the player’s squad may call out the new threat— They're flank-

ing!’ If the player isn't paying attention, he could all of a sudden find himself sur- rounded by the Germans."

The Most Dangerous Game: You will be able to play war against other players online on PS2 and Xbox, but multiplayer intel's been light, so details are a bit scarce right now.

HALF-LIFE 2

XB * VU Games * October 2005

Targets Acquired: On the keyboard-and- mouse side of gaming, few games get bigger praise or more hype than Half-Life 2. The thrilling PC first-person shooter killed with realistic environments, even more realistic physics, and a tense story line about a group of human rebels fight- ing back an alien infestation on Earth. Expect the Xbox game to be just as good, with a downgrade only in graphics.

Know Your Enemy: You won't find any Nazis here—only several aliens who are quite unhappy to see a free human run- ning amok. "Half-Life 2 contains a variety of enemies," says Doug Lombardi, director of marketing at Valve, the developer behind the series, "from the very agile Combine soldiers, to the pesky headcrabs, to the large and lethal striders." Of course, these aliens have the smarts you'd expect: They find cover, they find help, they know how to flush you out of hiding

84 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

with a well-thrown grenade. But they also know their own game better than you. "The A.I. in the game is wired to the physics simulation system," says Lombardi. “So a zombie on the attack knows it can use the objects in the world. If you launch a barrel at one, it can throw it back at you."

The Most Dangerous Game: This war of the worlds is for lone sol- diers only. So while you won't find any multiplayer modes here, the developers don't feel they're necessary. "Humans are infinitely more unpredictable than even the most advanced piece of code," says Lombardi, "but it's impossible to re-create the epic battles such as the ones at the end of Half-Life 2 in multiplayer" >

E IUS IN THE DARKEST DAYS т. WHEN A LEADER MUST STEP INTO THE LIGHT.

*warri . Only-then:can you id-the tyranny that e or choose a

ino

= r- i в No usus A battle party is only as stron ай! leader. | „thà unforgivin my ll, yo win | аб idol

their skills and adop battle the ancient sw

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multiplayer campaign Dungeon Siege, the fate of

Violence gameXStudios:

Blood and Gore

е

Targets Acquired: Hop into a tank, heli- copter, gunboat, jeep...or hoof it on foot. In this jack-of-all-trades shooter, you can do whatever you want, however you want. Each time you spawn, you pick a charac- ter class (ranging from sniper to special ops), then jump into a war zone where everything you see can be used, whether it's an APC (driver, gunner, or passenger,

It's tank vs, tank vs. chopper vs. antiaircraft gun vs. guided missile | vs. tank vs. mounted machine 1 guns vs. tank vs. artillery...

"BATTLEFIELD 2: MODERN COMBAT

PS2/XB * EA Games * October 2005

Know Your Enemy: EA delayed Modern Combat almost a year just to put in a Strong single-player game for this designed-for-multiplayer experience. You'll get to fight for various superpowers and against A.I. enemies that don't play So nice. "Each enemy will fit his soldier type,” says Producer Dan Blackstone. "It's definitely a kick in the pants when an

wheel of a vehicle you just climbed out of, then proceeds to run you over with it."

The Most Dangerous Game: Up to 24 players can battle it out online with per- sistent characters that you can upgrade through victories and experience. Eventually, you'll be able to earn better equipment, like thermal-vision sniper А

it's up to you) or ап artillery gun. enemy combat engineer jumps behind the

scopes and faster tanks.

Behold the unholy union of cloven hooves, karate pants, Fu Manchu mustaches, and saw blades.

Targets Acquired: While other shooters strive for realism, Sam // approaches the genre with a lighter touch. And by lighter touch, we mean going toe-to-toe against swarms of maniacal, unicycle-riding clowns that throw exploding cakes. The enemy roster is a motley crew, indeed: Dumb-as-dirt lizard men fight alongside sinister witches, murderous tank-beasts, and crafty orcs.

Know Your Enemy: Sam Ilis a thrill-a- second shooter that doesn't skimp on the

86 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com AE

SERIOUS SAM II

XB * 2K Games * October 2005

body count, but the foes don't just stand there and let you circle-strafe them to death. "You will see enemies spreading around you, circling while shooting and throwing grenades, flanking players, and even jumping from dropships." says Lead Artist Admir Elezovic. "Also, enemies are now able to spawn other enemies, so watch out if you see a large bastard in front of you—he might have surprises for you!" Deepened battlefield tactics should help elevate this sequel over its fairly basic predecessor, but the developer defi-

nitely intends to keep the simple run-n- gun gameplay intact. "We never planned to make the world very realistic, because that's not what Serious Sam is about," says Elezovic.

The Most Dangerous Game: Sam II's multiplayer hails from the fragfest old school. Expect big guns, bizarre maps, and a stable of...interesting characters. “We will have a plethora of different mul- tiplayer characters,” says Elezovic. “Some really weird, some even weirder.” 4%

OUR GAME DEVELOPERS DON'T RELY ON IMAGINATION.

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92 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UPcom

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FINAL COUNTDOWN

SEM These 10 pages provide a verita- ble Final Fantasy Ses overdose, but we AM Š

$

know all too well ee that some of you are truly insatiable. We've got you covered. Look for “Final Fantasy” under “EGM Extras" on for exclusive interviews, videos, documen- taries, retrospectives, and lots тоге,

© = я © ё

Shaiya wo

Eight years after Final Fantasy VII changed the world of role- playing games, its offspring assemble to do it all over again

by Shane Bettenhausen inal Fantasy stands

firm as the most suc- cessful and influential role-playing series in the history of console gaming. But do you remember the last time you actually played a regular Final Fantasy game? The three most recent releases were hardly normal: Online-

only massively-multiplayer Final

savvy audience, Final Fantasy X-2 turned off some players with its giddy girl-power themes and recycled FFX environments, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for GameCube was, well...just plain loopy. You have to go way back to 2001 to find the last tradi-

Fantasy XI reached only a specific, Net-

tional installment, Final Fantasy X. Luckily, publisher Square Enix has devised a plan to win back the support

of its rabid fans: the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII project. Using 1997’s phenomenally successful PS1 RPG as a springboard, four different development teams have devised a cadre of prequels and sequels to the best-loved and most

ADVENT CHILDREN PAGE 94

BEFORE CRISIS PAGE 99

PAGE 99

CRISIS CORE

PAGE 100

DIRGE OF CERBERUS

successful Final Fantasy game of all time. The fun kicks off this holiday sea- son with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a full-length CG-animated motion picture sequel to FFVII and con- tinues with three new games for three different platforms. Choose your alpha- betically oriented FFVII poison from among the following choices.... >

FFVII & BEYOND PAGE 104

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 93

>

FINAL FANTASY VII: 4

ЕСМ digs deep into the mind of director Tetsuya Nomura

fter the painful failure of EY 2001's big-screen effort

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the franchise's chances of crossing over into the realm of motion pictures seemed doomed. Surprisingly, Square Enix decided to take another stab at the format, although this time going with a safer bet—a full-length animated sequel to Final Fantasy VII. Advent Children picks up two years after Cloud and company defeated Sephiroth. All of your favorite characters return, along with a trio of new villains, a new cri- sis (a deadly disease known as geostigma), and plenty of jaw-drop- pingly pretty fight scenes. We recent- ly sat down with reclusive director

T

CLOUD STRIFE

FFVII'S mopey antihero is still working through a lot of per- sonal issues and contracting the dangerous geostigma dis- ease isn't helping.

Tetsuya Nomura (the man behind Kingdom Hearts and just about every Square Enix character design for the past eight years) to discuss the details of his highly anticipated film.

EGM: How did the Advent Children project evolve over time?

Initially, the project began as only a 20- minute short film. We quickly realized, however, that from a scenario stand- point it would be impossible to pull off a sequel to FFVII

THE CHARACTERS OF "ILES р ч, W 3 "

in such a short work. We wanted to include every crucial element from FFVII, so the scope of the film grew and grew. Now that it's roughly 100 minutes, | feel that we have what's necessary to truly speak to the fans of FFVII.

EGM: How did you go about redesigning and updating the characters and world of FFVII for Advent Children?

Eight years is definitely a long time, and l found it very challenging to bring these characters into a more realistic pro- ject. Had I kept the art style from the game and simply tried to age them up, the film might have felt like a bunch of marionettes prancing around in a box. I

m The FFVII gang's all back. Well, the surviv- ing members, at least.

Г“

had to make huge changes; | had to add a lot of depth and life to the world and characters. 0f course, it's still not fully realistic, but | wanted to make it seem less comical overall.

EGM: You've been split- ting your time between two projects for the last two years. Which ended up being a more difficult birth: Kingdom Hearts Il or Advent Children?

| experienced very specific difficulties with both projects. For example, AC is the first film that my team and | have ever cre- ated, so everybody had to struggle to dis- cover what must be done when creating a motion picture. On the other hand KH2 is >

SEPHIROTH

FFVII's bad-ass villain cer- tainly seemed dead, yet we have to wonder if his appear- ance in AC is limited to spooky flashback scenes...

94 « ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

KADAJ

This young swordsman is AC's central villain, and he definite- ly bears a striking resem- blance to Sephiroth. There's certainly a connection...

LOZ

He's a burly brawler who reports directly to Kadaj. He fights with a unique weapon called Dual Hound that's both a shield and a gun.

YAZOO

This unfortunately named longhair also follows Kadaj's lead. He fights with a gun- blade that's similar to Squall's in FFVIII.

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wag

couer story: Final fantasy un

65

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In the crumbling slums of Midgar, Reno joins the fight against Kadaj.

a sequel, and our team feels that the fans have a tremendous amount of expectation for this game. So we must try even harder to exceed their expectations. Plus, we're not even done with that one, yet. ...

EGM: How would you compare the creation of a film versus that of a game?

TN: Completing any title, game or other- wise, fills me with a profound satisfaction. | feel that even though AC is not a game, | have crafted it in such a way that the viewer can still look within himself to fully define its meaning. The viewing is not a passive experience, and | have left places in the work where viewers can insert their

own memories, experiences, and concepts.

BARRET WALLACE FFVII's brawny, foul-mouthed freedom fighter continues to crusade for justice and equal- ity with his newly modified gun arm.

* m [: ve

TIFA LOCKHEART Cloud's childhood sweetheart sports a sexy new look in Advent Children, and her hand- I-to-hand fighting

| t

EGM: Final Fantasy VII is so revered by fans, and yet there's no way that the plot of Advent Children can match the colossal depth of a 50- hour-long game. Do you feel that fans will be dis- appointed because the film is more action ori- ented than the game?

TN: Actually, I'm not so sure that it can be considered an "action movie." My team debated what genre to promote it as, and we ultimately decided that it really has no genre. In many ways, it's every genre. | believe that each fan will determine its meaning on a personal level. It's true that I've used action set pieces to bridge the

VINCENT VALENTINE Mysterious, lycanthropic, and possibly undead, Vincent has a minor role in AC. His own game, Dirge of Cerberus, takes

One of the central mysteries of Advent Children concerns the con- nection between Sephiroth (above) and the silver-haired boys (Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo—pictured below). We won't sp.

it for you here..

deeper, more narrative scenes from the film. But really, action isn't new to Final Fantasy VII, the game features a substantial number of battles. So, naturally, you'll see many elaborate action scenes throughout the film, and they're quite important. Plus, the so-called action in Final Fantasy VII was Still encumbered by numbers and text. In the film, viewers can truly enjoy the thrilling combat scenes like never before.

EGM: Can you point to the central narrative theme present in Advent Children?

TN: Mr. Nojima (the scenario writer) has written a script that's ultimately about sal- vation. Personally, | approached the project with a slightly broader theme—the concept

RED XIII

This fan-favorite furball lends a paw to help Cloud combat the terror of geostigma. Hardcore FFVII fans know that he'll be

Td

i I

of life itself. | believe that our viewpoints both combined to form the final product.

EGM: The film's fight scenes seem to defy established medium tra- ditions; they are both more realistic and viscer- al than anime, yet with a supernatural flair beyond Hong Kong-cinema wire- work. What do you cite as inspirations?

TN: It's funny, | didn't originally approach Advent Children from an action standpoint: It was all about the dramatic aspects of the story. The script came first and offered no real direction for the fight scenes. And I Couldn't very well assault the viewers with >

YUFFIE KISARAGI

FFVII Director Yoshinori Kitase asked us why American gamers love Yuffie so much. "Cause she's a thief?" was our only guess.

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ADVENT CHILDREN сом

nonstop scenes of gripping drama; it would simply be too tiring for the viewers. So | broke up the scenario, inserting action sequences throughout the film in a vaguely abstract way.

Back to your question about my inspira- tions for the fight scenes. Well, | think the unique look might just be a result of a bunch of game creators coming together to make a film...games are violent, and we're used to creating violence. | can't really point out any single works that influenced the creation of AC. Everything in my life inspires me.

EGM: Cloud has always seemed to us a rather nontraditional hero, as he’s reluctant, mysteri- ous, and conflicted. What are your personal feelings about what’s arguably your best- known character?

| actually rather like him as a hero. | find it's easier to utilize a strong, laconic character than one who talks too much, like Tidus (FFX’s jovial hero). Someone like Cloud speaks so very rarely, that when he does utter something, it's much more meaningful.

EGM: Are you like Cloud? All silent and mysterious?

I'm not at all like that character. [Laughs]

EGM: Really? You have a reputation for being the Clint Eastwood of Final Fantasy....

[Laughs] Well, | think that I'm getting too old; there's no “Dirty Harry” left in my mind now...

EGM: Can you tell us a little bit about the new villains in Advent Children: Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo?

Those three are an inseparable trio, and Kadaj is their leader. Really, Advent Children isn't just Cloud's story...it’s Kadaj's, too. The central theme of the film really pertains to him. Many of the people who have now seen the completed film tell me they feel a deep emotional attach- ment with Kadaj. He's really very impor- tant. It's much like Final Fantasy VII, in which Sephiroth was the enemy, yet still well liked. Fans who felt a connection with Sephiroth will likely feel that way about Kadaj, too. In comparison, Loz and Yazoo don’t really have a lot of lines, but perhaps the viewers can use their imaginations to speculate about their lives.

EGM: Why do you think Final Fantasy VII fans gravitate towards char- acters like Kadaj and Sephiroth?

: It's true that іп the fans’ eyes, Sephiroth is very often sympathized with. At the same time, he’s a character that has perfect confidence in himself, so | don’t fully understand why people feel so sorry for him. On the other hand, Kadaj is still only a boy. If you think of the title “Advent Children,” obviously one of the film's themes is about children, the vulnerability and difficulty of youth. The fact that he’s not a man makes him quite a different vil- lain than Sephiroth. | think that viewers will be surprised that AC isn't so much a love story between a man and a woman; instead, you experience love through the character of Kadaj. | can't really reveal anything more about him without spoiling the film...

Here at EGM, we've officially decided that the statute of limitations has expired on FFVII spoilers. If you don’t already know that Aerith (above) bites the big one, well...now you do. So, what's she doing back in Advent Children? Excellent question...

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THE CHARACTERS OF

CID HIGHWIND Tough-as-nails pilot Cid returns with a newer, larger airship in Advent Children. His surly attitude remains safely intact, of course.

CAIT SITH AERITH FFVII's comic relief, a GAINSBOROUGH mechanical cat controlled by a FFVII'S beloved martyr

reformed villain, returns. He seems to have ditched his huge moogle mount, though.

appears in what must be a poignant dream sequence. At least we hope it is....

THE TURKS

Most of the ShinRe’s elite mercenaries are dead, but Reno and Rude survived the end of FFVII and now fight alongside Cloud and company.

ZACK

Cloud's dearly departed friend makes a guest appearance in a flashback scene. Perhaps we'll get a bit of insight into his relationship with Aerith....

98 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www, 1UP.com

BEFORE CRISIS: FINAL FANTASY VII

Sir, we have Sephiroth on line three...

Ithough you probably consider cell phone A games to be fluffy fare like Bejeweled, Jamdat Bowling, or Tetris, Square Enix intends to change the way U.S. gamers think about mobile entertainment. Before Crisis is serious stuff: an episodic (16 downloadable chapters are available so far in Japan) action-RPG chronicling the six years that led up to the events of Final Fantasy VII. You control various members of the Turks—highly skilled merce- naries hired by the nefarious ShinRa corporation. Fans of FFVII will recognize nearly everyone, and it's an inter- esting twist, for example, to lead the Turks against a free- dom fighter such as FFVII's Barret. “BC really fleshes out the events that transpired before FFVII,” explains Producer Kosei Ito. “And it also shows you how your favorite characters turned out the way they did." As you'd expect from something you play with a phone, BC doesn't sport overly complex gameplay. Exploration occurs in top-down dungeons, and battles use a blend of real-time action and menu-driven magic. If you're in over your head, you can even fire off a text message to a friend, who can instantly lend some of his own magic materia to help you win the battle.

Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Release Date: Spring 2006

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ADVENT CHILDREN сом

nonstop scenes of gripping drama; it would simply be too tiring for the viewers. So | broke up the scenario, inserting action sequences throughout the film in a vaguely abstract way.

Back to your question about my inspira- tions for the fight scenes. Well, | think the unique look might just be a result of a bunch of game creators coming together to make a film...games are violent, and we're used to creating violence. | can't really point out any single works that influenced the creation of AC. Everything in my life inspires me.

EGM: Cloud has always seemed to us a rather nontraditional hero, as he's reluctant, mysteri- ous, and conflicted. What are your personal feelings about what's arguably your best- known character?

| actually rather like him as a hero. | find it's easier to utilize a strong, laconic character than one who talks too much, like Tidus (FFX's jovial hero). Someone like Cloud speaks so very rarely, that when he does utter something, it's much more meaningful.

EGM: Are you like Cloud? All silent and mysterious?

I'm not at all like that character. [Laughs]

EGM: Really? You have a reputation for being the Clint Eastwood ^^^ Fantasy....

[Laughs] Well, | think too old; there's no "Dirty mind now...

THE CHAF

CID HIGHWIND Tough-as-nails pilot Ci, returns with a newer, | airship in Advent Child surly attitude remains. intact, of course.

98 ELECTRONIC GAMING М

EGM: Can you tell us a little bit about the new villains in Advent Children: Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo?

Those three are an inseparable trio, and Kadaj is their leader. Really, Advent Children isn’t just Cloud’s story...it's Kadaj's, too. The central theme of the film really pertains to him. Many of the people who have now seen the completed film tell me they feel a deep emotional attach- ment with Kadaj. He’s really very impor- tant. It's much like Final Fantasy Vil, in which Sephiroth was the enemy, yet still well liked. Fans who felt a connection with Sephiroth will likely feel that way about Kadaj, too. In comparison, Loz and Yazoo don’t really have a lot of lines, but perhaps the viewers can use their imaginations to speculate about their lives.

EGM: Why do you think Final Fantasy VII fans gravitate towards char- acters like Kadaj and Sephiroth?

It's true that in the fans’ eyes, Sephiroth is very often sympathized with. At the same time, he's a character that has perfect confidence in himself, so | don’t fully understand why people feel so sorry for him. On the other hand, Kadaj is still only a boy. If you think of the title “Advent Children,” obviously one of the film's themes is about children, the vulnerability and difficulty of youth. The fact that he’s not a man makes him quite a different vil- lain than Sephiroth. | think that viewers will be surprised that AC isn’t so much a

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Here at EGM, we've officially decided that the statute of limitations has expired on FFVII spoilers. If you don't already know that Aerith (above) bites the big one, well...now you do. So, what's she doing back in Advent Children? Excellent question...

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Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Release Date: Spring 2006

BEFORE CRISIS: FINAL FANTASY VII

Sir, we have Sephiroth on line three

Ithough you probably consider cell phone A games to be fluffy fare like Bejeweled, Jamdat Bowling, or Tetris, Square Enix intends to change the way U.S. gamers think about mobile entertainment. Before Crisis is serious stuff; an episodic (16 downloadable chapters are available so far in Japan) action-RPG chronicling the six years that led up to the events of Final Fantasy VII. You control various members of the Turks—highly skilled merce- naries hired by the nefarious ShinRa corporation. Fans of FFVII will recognize nearly everyone, and it's an inter- esting twist, for example, to lead the Turks against a free- dom fighter such as FFVII's Barret. “BC really fleshes out the events that transpired before FFVII," explains Producer Kosei Ito. “And it also shows you how your favorite characters turned out the way they did.” As you'd expect from something you play with a phone, BC doesn't sport overly complex gameplay. Exploration occurs in top-down dungeons, and battles use a blend of real-time action and menu-driven magic. If you're in over your head, you can even fire off a text message to a friend, who can instantly lend some of his own magic materia to help you win the battle.

ye 280.9260 пр Ди Is your phone up to snuff? Nope. BC will support only specific models debuting in '06.

Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Release Date: Late 2006

CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII

Bizarre love quadrangle

hen Square Enix announced an all-new PSP action-RPG based on Final Fantasy VII, fans anxiously

waited for further details...and they're still waiting. So far, only a brief anime trailer (which turns out to be scenes from the Last Order short film packed with the Japanese limited edition of Advent Children) has sur- faced for the game. CC appears to center on FFVII's flashback scene of Cloud, Zack, Tifa, and Sephiroth in Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim. “CC is still very far away,” says Director Yoshinori Kitase. “All | can say is that it's about three men and one woman.”

“Fans want this to be Zack’s story,” says Crisis Director Yoshinori Kitase. “1 will respond to their expectations.” 7

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com * 99

DIRGE OF CERBERUS: = FINAL FANTASY VII

Final Fantasy gives shooters a shot

he idea of blending the swords- and-sorcery realm of Final Fantasy with the trigger-happy

shooter genre might seem far-fetched, but ew Square Enix has actually been kicking the concept around for years. "We had the notion to make a gun-based action game for quite a while," explains Dirge of Cerberus Director Yoshinori Kitase. "We toyed with several different FF charac- ters, like Yuna from FFX and Irvine from FFVIII, but Vincent from FFVII made the most sense. FFVII's brooding, vaguely undead marksman Vincent Valentine plays a supporting role in. Advent Children but takes cen- ter stage in Dirge, which is set about a year after Children. "Vincent carries a lot of dark secrets," explains Kitase. “He still has a lot of tragic, unre- solved issues from his past—he was in love with the woman who gave birth to Sephiroth, after all." Kitase cites a personal

love Ton RC shootere asian About half of Dirge’s levels are inspiration: “I'm a huge fan of + based on FFVII and Advent Children Half-Life 2, and l'm currently locations. The rest are all original. addicted to Battlefield 2,” he

says. But it's not simply some vanity project —Square Enix also has its eyes on a potentially lucrative untapped U.S. market. "Final Fantasy VII is very popular all over the world, and shooting games are so popular in the U.S.,” Kitase says. “It's not a major genre in Japan yet, but | think it will become accepted here over time."

Dirge's plot centers around the Deep Ground soldiers, a powerful military force wreaking havoc on citi- zens still struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. “Deep Ground was a secret project that President ShinRa began before the events of Final Fantasy VII," Kitase says, “These supersol- diers were forgotten about g after his death, and 3 Pines ni they've transformed pth eee

pol ч! un HP gets low.

ей

©2005 Lionhead Studios: Corporation. ©2008. ademais ol

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Microsoft game Studios "e

THe Lost CHAPTERS

FOR EVERY CHOICE, A CONSEQUENCE. Will you be a noble warrior, a fearsome villain, or something in between? Fable: The Lost Chapters broadens the RPG adventure and the possibilities of the award-winning original, for both Microsoft Windows XP and Xbox. More lands to explore, more journeys to take, more lives to be lived. Look deep into yourself, and discover what you might become. www.microsoft.com/games/fable

Sexual Themes Strong Language Violence

cover story: final fantasy vi

DIRGE OF CERBERUS «ow

the ruins of Midgar into a fortress.” It's your task, as Vincent, to defeat these radicals across a series of linear, mission-based stages. You will get a little help, though: A

& group called the World Recovery : 3

Organization (WR0) provides tactical sup- port on some levels. м батер!ау blends the асгобайс leaps, { ем N 35/30 554 dodges, and hand-to-hand attacks of Devil Г š T. Rvar ë May Cry with traditional first-person shooter Š elements. Vincent isn't limited to his Cerberus handgun, amassing an arsenal of shotguns, rifles, and other firearms along Ld <. his journey. А dynamic camera system shifts the view from behind-the-billowing- 8 > cape for walkabouts to ап over-the-shoul- der angle for aiming, but FPS fans can go E Halo-style if they choose. "We're leaving the = E viewpoint up to the user," says Kitase. "You » can play through the whole game from = strictly a first-person perspective if you really want to. \ Vincent will also be able to unleash а M А limited set of materia-derived magic spells, and you can cash in his entire magic gauge à r for a special surprise. "Vincent's limit “< SS: š = breaks in FFVII had him transforming into other creatures,” Kitase explains. “We’ve Wi, brought that idea back, so he can now š h x morph into a beast with its own unique a moves, attacks, and spells." i: In its current state, Cerberus certainly shows a lot of promise. Although, we must admit, it might not be every Final Fantasy fan's ideal FFVII follow-up. Players accus- tomed to solving their quests by patiently v tapping one button whilst eating a sandwich X should be worried. Pinpoint aiming, skilled enemy snipers, and the simple fact that you use every button on the DualShock 2 con- troller could prove to be a deadly informa- tion overload for RPG fans.

Vincent may be a loner, but he's not afraid to ask for help. Here, WRO soliders lend him some much needed support:

Cerherus ain't just a hell- hound: It's the name of Vincent's frisky triple-barreled handgun.

ш The developers chose a Resident Evil 4-ish over-the-shoulder perspective in hopes of keep- Takin g the Action ing gamers who experience motion sickness (oddly prevalent in Japan) from blowing chunks. Square Enix’s decision e "m

- online multiplayer mode in Dirge took 163/1000 К us by surprise. But Director (and die-

Е hard shooter fan) Yoshinori Kitase wouldn't have had it any other way. “Of course, | had to include online play," Kitase says. “We're starting the beta test in Japan this August, and we hope to have between 20 and 30 simultaneous online players." Online, you don't play as Vincent. Instead, you design a Deep Ground enemy soldier and engage in team deathmatch, sur- vival, or co-op mission-based modes.

| ITECTIVE. GAME SKINS-

ectors the guard that never needs to come down even when you're playing.

_ SNAP ON LEAVE ON PLAY ON!™

СС

> m

AFTERTHOUGHTS:

FINAL FANTASY VII

Retro RPG reminiscence

n light of all these new FFVII EE offshoots, we thought it would

be interesting to look back at the groundbreaking original PS1 game that popularized the role-playing genre in the United States. We waxed nostal- gic with two of FFVII's most integral team members: Director Yoshinori Kitase and character designer/battle director/coauthor Tetsuya Nomura.

EGM: What does Final Fantasy VII mean to you?

FFVII was the first Final Fantasy for the PS1; and it was also the first 3D game in the series, so it determined the new direction that the franchise would take after the 16-bit Super Nintendo era. It's by far the most memorable and important title for me, and when | had the chance to expand any of the past games, | immediate- ly chose Final Fantasy Vil for the project. The ending of FFVII seemed to me to open up so many possibilities with its characters, more so than other games.

EGM: When you were working on FFVII eight years ago, could you conceive of how much the game would affect the RPG marketplace? When | look back, I remember having no concept of just how massive that project would go on to become. Of course, I'd been associated with the Final Fantasy fran- chise before FFVII, as | did monster designs on Final Fantasy V (Super NES). І remember

Aerith: Died like a champ.

MONTHLY www.1UP.com

that before we started FFVII, the characters from Final Fantasy IV were still very popular, despite the fact that FFV and FFV/ had been released. | found this really frustrating. Why would people still be talking about those characters? So | made it my goal to create my own batch of characters that would be remembered and loved by the Final Fantasy fans. Also, starting with FFVII, | was far more deeply involved with the story and characters, so | was really extremely excited to work on that project.

EGM: FFVII was a depar- ture from the Super NES titles...were you worried about fan reaction?

| wasn't really worried about response to the graphical shift, as there were already several 3D games in America that were accepted by fans. My fear had been that the Final Fantasy franchise might be left behind if it didn't catch up to that trend, actually.

EGM: What did you think of Cloud as a hero when you were making FFVII? There wasn't really much controversy or criticism about having him as the hero from within Square, but he is definitely a mysterious character. That's one of the game's main themes, the fact that the pro- tagonist has all these secrets to unravel. He isn't a straightforward hero like Superman; rather, he has lots of mysteries, self-doubts, and a real dark side. Mr. Nomura was also very good at designing a character like that.

EGM: We heard that the death of Aerith and the creation of Tifa both originated in a phone call between you two.... It's funny, some magazine ran that Story, but only the beginning and ending of it. People think that | wanted to kill off Aerith and replace her with Tifa as the main char- acter! [Laughs] The actual conversation between Mr. Kitase and myself was very, very long. Originally, there were only going to be three characters in the entire game: Cloud, Barrett, and Aerith. Can you imagine that? And we knew even in the early con- cept stage that one character would have to die. But we only had three to choose from. | mean, Cloud’s the main character, so you can't really kill him. And Barrett...well, that's maybe too obvious. But we had to pick between Aerith and Barrett. We debated this for a long time, but in the end decided to sacrifice Aerith.

Back in '97, spiky hair and huge swords were totally cutting edge. Now, everyone's got ‘em.

EGM: Did you pick her to increase the drama?

In the previous FF games, it became almost a signature theme for one character to sacrifice him or herself, and often it was a similar character type from game to game, kind of a brave, last-man-standing, Barrett-type character. So everyone expect- ed that. And | think that death should be something sudden and unexpected, and Aerith's death seemed more natural and realistic. Now, when I reflect on Final Fantasy VII, the fact that fans were so offended by her sudden death probably means that we were successful with her character. If fans had simply accepted her death, that would have meant she wasn't an effective character.

EGM: Which female character in FFVII is your personal favorite?

[Laughs] I'm not really interested in any superdeformed females.

Tifa was not even written into the early drafts of Final Fantasy ИГР story.

EGM: Since Dirge of Cerberus is, chronologi- cally speaking, the fur- thest game in the FFVII timeline, does it have a happy ending?

AC and DC both have their own resolu- tions, so don't expect cliff-hangers there. Also, DC isn't the direct sequel to FFVII, Advent Children is. So we can't view DC as the ending to the whole big FFVII saga. Plus, FFVII definitely has so many diverse ele- ments, and different fans have interest in different characters, so if, for example, one person is interested in Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith's relationship, then AC may provide some sort of answers for them. Somebody else might be interested in Vincent, so they might want to explore DC. It's not like this is going to complete the whole story, but it will satisfy fans who have strong attachments to individual characters.

EGM: At the very end of FFVII, we see the epi- logue to the whole story that takes place 500 years later, so really, you still have another 497 years’ worth of games and movies to fill in....

Ha, maybe РИ try to do that. In a way, | consider that epilogue to be the true happy ending of FFVII. Well, it's a happy ending even though all the human beings are destroyed, [Laughs] >

FOR EXPERTS ONLY.

t the massive E3 game confer- ence this past May, Square Enix debuted a trailer dubbed "Final

Fantasy VII Tech Demo for PS3." This clip re-created the opening CG cinema from the PS1 game in vastly improved form, all of it rendered in real time on the PS3 hardware. Fanboys fainted, Yuffie cosplayers squealed with delight, and the rest of us were left wondering, “Wait, does this mean that they're actually remaking this game?” It seems like an obvious decision—it would Move a lot of PS3 hardware and sate the demands of countless fans.

Even so, company representatives seem remiss to confirm that the demo is anything more than a theoretical showcase. “Well, if

the team were to decide to remake the game for PS3 with that level of quality,” says FFVII Director Yoshinori Kitase, “we'd have to hire 300 people and it would take about five years.” Hmm...that doesn’t mean that Square Enix isn’t already doing that, right? Kitase went on to speculate on what the graphical prowess of the PS3 could do for the game: “In a PS3 FF game, we'll be able to have such incredibly detailed char- acter models that when you change their clothing and equipment, we'll be able to carry that look throughout battles, fields, and cinema scenes.”

Advent Children Director Tetsuya Nomura doesn't rule out the possibility of the project coming to fruition. “Mr. Kitase has told me

many times that if there is a remake, that | should create it,” Nomura admits. “But | have so many projects already in the pipeline that it would be difficult to squeeze it in...perhaps if the timing is just right, though. It's a very interesting prospect..."

Here at EGM, we believe that FFVII will eventually be remade, but it probably won't be Square Enix's first РЗ effort. That honor will likely go to Final Fantasy XIII, a title reportedly headed up by Nomura. “I'm incredibly excited about the new systems,” says Nomura. “My team has already started working on several next-generation projects for multiple consoles, though | won't name which ones...I wish | could tell you all about them now....” So do we, man.

т Yep, this shot sports actual, real-time graphics pumped out by the PlayStation 3.

Bi In the demo, Cloud Strife sports his all- new Advent Children look.

106 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com.

Finally, a release date...

; WHATS UP WITH

?

*

ith all this hoopla surrounding the FFVII spin- М offs, it's easy to forget about Final Fantasy

XII, first shown nearly two years ago. After a series of crippling delays, the game is finally back on track and scheduled for release on PS2 in Japan on March 16, 2006. (Expect a U.S. release by late sum- mer.) The project has been tumultuous—Director Yasumi Matsuno (the dude behind PS1 classics like Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics) has left the project citing medical reasons (rumors of a mental breakdown persist), and Akitoshi Kawazu (the guy in charge of quirkier fare like Unlimited Saga and Final

Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles) has taken over the reins.

The change in leadership hasn't produced any noticeable changes yet: A recent playable demo offered the same characters, world, visual style, and battle sys- tem present from the project's outset. We're secretly hoping that the very nontraditional battle system— combat takes place on the field map in semiautomated FFXI fashion—receives some tweaks before release. In its current state, the repetitive, simplistic battles make the game feel a lot like a dungeon hack. Perhaps: Kawazu can inject some of his unique flair into the pro- ceedings. Hope springs eternal, right? ri

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Winner, Best RPG of E3

Game Critics Award, GameSpot, IGN, GameSpy,

Xbox Evolved, Console Gold, Daily Game, Games Domain

“Oblivion is, at this time, the best-looking game I have ever seen in my life."

Xbox.com

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“One look at Oblivion will Shatter your conceptions about what is possible in a video game”

='Gamelnformer

Visit www.esrb.org for updated rating information.

The RPG for the Next Generation

XBOX

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у. The Elder Scrolls, Oblivion, Oblivion character and place names, Bethesda Gam Inc. Microsoft, Xbox. Xb i the Xbox logos are either registered trad

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8 little heavy on the puppies, honestly

GAME DIRECTORY

Multiplatform

112 Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance 112 Darkwatch

113 NASCAR 06: Total Team Control 114 NHL 2K6 vs. NHL 06

115 187: Ride or Die

PlayStation 2 116 Radiata Stories 116 Urban Reign

Xbox 117 MotoGP 3

GameCube 118 Mario Superstar Baseball 119 WWE Day of Reckoning 2

PSP

120 Frantix

120 MediEvil Resurrection

121 Namco Museum Battle Collection 122 GripShift

Nintendo DS 122 Trace Memory 124 Nintendogs

Extra Stuff LS 126 Reviews Wrap-up 130 Reviews Archive

¥

ua l Ee ВЫ,

THIS MONTH NINTENDOGS

his ain't Dog Fancy. We're also happen to suck (187: Ride or 2005 .®.. not used to this much Die), are cynical money grabs (187: cuteness in our magazine— Ride or Die), or are can't-miss or our games. At least not the good vehicles for established mascots ones. And even though Nintendogs (Mario Baseball). But still. Too bad isn’t a game in the traditional sense, only one of 'em was worthy of even a

it is fun, and interesting, and Silver Award.

different. A lot of people like to whine In other news of note, we had to about all the sequels in the game give different scores to the PS2 and industry, and it’s true, the yearly XB versions of vamp-shooter treadmill that some franchises are on Darkwatch. The PS2 game gets an now (even nonsports games... exclusive two-player co-op mode, a especially nonsports games) may not bonus train robbin' level, and one be sustainable. But look at that list of extra weapon, but that doesn’t games up there. Nine out of the 17 make up for the Xbox version's 16- are brand new. Sure, some of them player online deathmatches....

TIO * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

I REVIEW CREW

DAN "SHOE" HSU, Editor-in-Chief Likes: Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Halo 2 online Dislikes: Controversy over sex/violence in games

MARK MACDONALD, Executive Editor Likes: Action, shooters, colossi Dislikes: Getting online with most PS2 games Blog: egmmark.1UP.com

JENNIFER TSAO, Managing Editor

Likes: Nintendogs, Dog Whisperer (TV), hot dogs Dislikes: Dog days of summer, double dog dares Blog: egmjennifer.1UP.com

CRISPIN BOYER, Senior Editor

Likes: Action, adventure, breathing underwater, Dislikes: Sports games, body sprays

Blog: egmcrispin.1UP.com

SHANE BETTENHAUSEN, Previews Editor Likes: RPGs, karaoke, fighting games, FFVII Dislikes: Unicorns, natto, pennies, jet lag

Blog: egmshane.1UP.com

BRYAN INTIHAR, News Editor Likes: Next-gen sports games, theater of dining Dislikes: Mark crapping on this blog (literally!)

Blog: egmbryan.1UP.com

DEMIAN LINN, Reviews Editor

Likes: Beautiful stick work, going top shelf Dislikes: Cheap goals scored by James Lee Blog: egmdemian.1UP.com

ROBERT ASHLEY, Staff Reviewer Likes; Water levels, desert levels Dislikes: Lava levels, ice levels Blog: brainfreezebob.1UP.com

GREG FORD, Staff Reviewer

Likes: Baseball, games with Mario in them Dislikes: The stagnant brawler genre Blog: egm ford. 1UP.com

CHRISTIAN NUTT, Staff Reviewer

Likes: Current-generation gaming

Being too sick for the July Japan trip Blog: ferricide.1UP.com

GREG SEWART, Staff Reviewer Likes: Driving really fast in circles Dislikes: Dizzyness, building igloos Blog: stewy.1UP.com

You may also see reviews written by the chaps and chapettes of OFFICIAL U.S. PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE and

š š | x š JAMES LEE, Staff Reviewer š Likes: NHL's return, Yzerman, shoot-outs š Dislikes: Punk-ass Colorado Avalanche i Blog: egmwiley.1UP.com š THE RATING SYSTEM & AWARDS M “ә 7. 0 | 0 GOOD = KATHLEEN SANDERS, Staff Reviewer . | wass: Likes: Guns and steel (in games, too), 'huahuas, Dislikes: Germs, PSP's latest game offerings Platinum— | Gold— for | Silver | The highest- | The lowest- N straight 10s. | games with | for games | scoring rated game Blog: cookiecups.1UP.com For games | an average | with a mean | game each | with unani- that аге life- | score of 9.0 | score of 8.0 | month gets | mously bad changing. | or higher. | orhigher. | a star, scores, 54 0-6. 5 FAIR (Also check out www.esrb.org) JUSTIN SPEER, Staff Reviewer Everyone: Teen: Saccharine fun for the whole family: The PG-13 of game ratings. Fisticuffs, Likes: Games that offer meaningful choices dancing elves, rampant sharing, and hilarious sexual misunderstandings, and Dislikes: Choosing between “good” and “evil possibly Smurfs. madcap antics. Blog: zepyulos.1UP.com Everyone 10+: Mature: М FGM. wo ova eia only uma t ране рова Ries fun for family members For the 17-and-over crowd. Intense deemed final and reviewable by their publishers. | over 10 that may include mild violence violence, gore, pixilated sex, drugs; Three editors rate each game independently, and between cartoon squirrels. parents no likey. Е we use the whole scale. 5.0 IS AVERAGE. 1UP.COM. Angry letters will be forwarded.

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review crew: multiplatform

PS2/XB

PS2 REVIEW ош

шт

БЕШ шт

CRISPIN MARK

(OUT OF 0)

THE VERDICTS

G. FORD

756 and 757 lead the charge.

6.5 7.0 65

GIANCARLO.

[T

DARKWATCH

Midnight at the O.K. Corral

Publisher: Capcom. Developer: High Moon Studios Players: PS2 1-2,

XB 1-4

(2-16 online) ESRB: Mature

www.dark- watch.com

PS2/XB

BEAT DOWN:

FISTS OF

VENGEANCE 2

Kicking and screaming

Ng

ROBERT

ANDREW

112 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

Publisher: Capcom Developer: Cavia Players: 1-2 ESRB: Mature

www.capcom.com

Good: Atmospheric visuals, fun physics

Bad: Repetitive enemies make for blah battles See Villainess Tala Butt-Naked in: The October 2004 Playboy

CRISPIN: Fear not that the armies of the underworld are idle and wasting away. They're gainfully employed—thousands upon thousands of them—in Darkwatch, a gritty Old West shooter with an extra-crypty flavor. As an outlaw hero turned high-plains bloodsucker after a vampire curse, you'll face skeletal gunslingers, ax-hurling skele- ton Indians, scythe-wielding skeletons— even the ghosts of skeletons you've blast- ed. Oh, you gun down a few other enemies, too—including witchy barmaids and mor- bidly obese, projectile-vomiting zombies— but mostly the game blends into one blah battle against the undead, with a few horse-riding, turret-manning, and vehicle- driving sections thrown in.

But that's not the only bone I have to pick here. Darkwatch often feels so...so-so, with Halo-inspired play mechanics (a regenerating shield and two-weapon limit). The pacing goes giddy-up toward the end, and you can make moral choices that affect your vampire powers, which wilt if you wander into sunlight—a cool but under- used gameplay quirk. Playing good or evil has little effect on the loopy story; although the game kept me entertained, | didn't feel the need to replay for the alternate ending.

MARK: For the first few hours Darkwatch feels like a job on the skeleton disassembly

Good: Unique ideas for a beat-em-up

Bad: Fighting gameplay is nothing special; crappy camera

Not Quite: Grand Theft Brawler

Recent years haven't seen much in terms of memorable brawlers—and even though Capcom makes a noble attempt with Beat Down, a 3D beat-em-up with some interesting ideas, it's not enough to rekindle this once beloved genre. Beat Down's action takes place in the open yet limited fictional city of Las Sombras. You can choose one of five char- acters to bring through the story mode missions, accepting a slew of optional sub- missions as you see fit. More interesting is your ability to recruit up to two additional A.l.-controlled characters to join you in group battles, which offer a contrast to the game's 1-on-1 showdowns. Finally, you can use money you acquire to buy a vari- ety of clothes and accessories, and you earn ability points to upgrade your stats.

Bland gameplay, however, stifles what inspiration there is. The fighting action is fundamentally underwhelming, and a poor camera and constant loading further hand- cuff things. Plus, boss battles are won more often by finding the one move your character can exploit rather than by utiliz- ing any high level of skill. As it stands, Beat Down's good ideas aren't enough to overcome its shortcomings.

Grand Theft Auto is like goat cheese; they put it in everything these days. And like the goat cheese peach tart |

line as you blast one mind-

less, bony cowpoke after another. But a funny thing happens once all hell literally breaks loose halfway through the game— Darkwatch gets good. The increased diffi- culty and enemy variety force you to take advantage of your vampiric powers and the strengths of your different weapons. Sadly, the game never sheds its bad-80s-heavy- metal-album-cover design or silly plot, but along with the unbalanced-but-fun online modes (exclusive to Xbox, though PS2 offers offline co-op), the second half of this undead shooter brings it back to life.

OFFICIAL PS MAG—GIANCARLO: Darkwatch is the very definition of average when it comes to first-person shooters. While just about every aspect of the game is sound in terms of design, none of the individual elements truly shines or does anything to really set the game apart. Sure, the theme of the game is kind of cool (who doesn't love cowboys that also happen to be vampires?), and the vampire powers idea is alluring, but the in-game story just isn’t all that deep, and the vamp powers turn out to be pretty similar to typical first- person shooter power-ups. Multiplayer is fun when you're first getting a feel for the layout of each level, but beyond that, it won't do much to hold your attention.

ordered the other night, this GTA-infused brawler is sour and weird, maybe even a little rancid. The entire game consists of jogging around town (hitting load times left and right) in search of char- acters with red arrows above their heads. That's when you fight. Yes, Beat Down bills itself as a fighting game, but that’s like calling an Ernest movie “cinema.” The dumb, simple fights have a stuttering, ham-fisted feel. The game also suffers from a laundry list of technical problems: invisible cars that run you down, bogged- down animation, camera troubles, even the occasional full-on crash, The hilariously bad, obscenity-peppered dialogue relieves the pain at bit...a very tiny bit.

| enjoy my job, most of the time. But I've never resented having to play a game as much as | did while reviewing Beat Down. | think it was right around the time when | had to run back and forth across the city looking for my kid- napped gang members—before | was told where they were, | had to run to the other side of the city...just for the hell of it. If this is the most creative way to freshen up the brawler genre, maybe it's time we put it to pasture. Also: Capcom makes the clumsiest menus and interfaces in the industry today. Figuring out what items you have equipped is an aesthetic nightmare.

Pos 12/36 Lap LEE

Re

Behind 0 82 ¿Lap Time 26.460

It may look cool, but the cockpit view is for NASCAR obsessives only.

NASCAR 06: TOTAL TEAM CONTROL

Lame left turn joke goes here

Good: Extensive voice-recognition control (on both PS2 and Xbox)

Bad: Dated graph For a Good Time:

occasional visual slowdown on the PS2 'se into the microphone

GREG: It would be easy to think NASCAR 06 is nothing more than the usual annual incremental upgrade over last year's title. And in a lot of ways, it is: NASCAR 06 still offers four different series to run and delivers a superb feeling of congestion as you race through a 180 mph traffic jam in each event.

But it’s the addition of voice recognition in tandem with the new team controls that makes this new version of NASCAR kick so much tail. With a headset on, you can control just about every aspect of the game with simple voice commands. Ask a teammate to draft with you, tell your crew chief you want only two tires on the pit stop, or turn the HUD on and off.

The team control part adds an aspect of the sport that’s become quite impor- tant in the past couple of years. Now— along with the old ally/rival system, in which drivers react to whether you race clean or dirty—you have partners out on the track. They can work with you, or against you should you get them caught up in a wreck of your making. Team chemistry and prestige are just as impor- tant as your personal points standing in

f"

THE VERDICTS (QU OF 10)

GREG BRYAN

9.0 70 6.5

NASCAR 06, which makes the whole experience much deeper.

BRYAN: Even though my passion for the sport doesn't quite reach the magnitude of Greg "Hi, I'm the president of the Jeff Burton fan club" Sewart, | appreciate the innovative efforts of this year's NASCAR. Thanks to the new team-based tactics and voice commands, taking the check- ered flag now requires more than just hitting the gas (and turning left); it’s easy and, more important, enjoyable ordering your teammates to open up passing lanes or asking your crew chief to apolo- gize to the competition for your “rubbin’ is racin’” ways. Too bad the handling— even with the assistance turned on—is Still so sensitive. And visually, this fran- chise is really starting to show its age.

1UP.COM—JOHN D: Although І can see why the whole team control thing is inno- vative and certainly quite significant, | just don't like it very much. To me, the idea smells more of ^what more can we do to try and make this interesting?" rather than "what more does the game need?" Managing the team is far too distracting for my liking, regardless of how clever the voice recognition stuff is. Last year's Chase for the Cup somehow managed to make the sport far more accessible to car fans rather than just hardcore NASCAR wonks like Greg. Personally, | enjoyed it because it focused on driving. Sadly, that's not the case here, and, coupled with the inexplicably sensitive handling, it's not a particularly enjoyable racer.

Publisher: EA Sports Developer: EA Tiburon Players: 1-2 (2-4 online) ESRB: Everyone

JOHN D.

www.easports.com

The end of Civilization begins here.

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review crew multiplatform

screen or tell your D to clear the net, among other options.

ELTE XB (PS2/XB)

PS2/XB/GC

Diving poke checks are still overpowered in 06 (shown here), but no longer quite so godly in 2K6.

s

NHL 2K6 VS. NHL 06

Just when hockey was getting back to normal...

t's a brave new world over in

the real NHL, and it's the

same over here on the videogame side. The 2K series is solid as usual, but EA Sports has finally turned its hockey game around. Does parity reign once again?

BRYAN: It's fitting that the PS2 version of NHL 06 also includes the Super NES/Genesis classic NHL '94, because | haven't enjoyed EA's hockey franchise this much since those glory days. The develop- ers have finally toned down the checking, which was a major issue with the last two editions, and really spliced up the offensive side of the puck with new signature moves mapped to the right stick. | only wish those SportsCenter-worthy shots hit the back of the net more often on the higher difficulties.

DEMIAN: | know it's blasphemy, but | find '94 almost unplayable now, at least this version. Anyway, yeah, 06 is incredibly improved, though still a bit biased toward offense. | love using the left analog to con- trol my stick work and get the goalie to bite—my “crack monkey technique,” as James calls it—but | don't dig the canned right-stick superdekes that Bryan likes. Those moves are too ridiculously highlight- reel to happen half a dozen times a game.

JAMES: Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the highlight-reel button either. However, | agree with Bryan that EA's finally reached a great balance with the checking. You can still rub out opponents along the boards and perform some sweet open-ice

NHL 2K6

e Ss : we = :

DEMIAN BRYAN

7.5 7.0 6.0

hits, but against the big guys in the league you'll have to play the puck. On the other hand, in 2K6 you're always playing the body since every check is a doozy.

DEMIAN: I'm fine with the checking in both games. Sure, you can lay the computer out, but a human player will make you pay.

BRYAN: 2K6's checking doesn't bother me—it's the game's shoddy goalies. This year’s netminders are way too weak on the glove side (even letting unscreened shots from the blue line get by), plus they don’t react fast enough on wraparound attempts.

DEMIAN: Wraparounds score way too often in both games, but you're right, in 2K6 it's ridiculous. Of course, in 06 the goalies stack the pads and roll around like Hasek doing the worm if you just look at them funny. 2K6 has more variety—you'll see five-hole goals and pucks bounce off defensemen (and in) more often. But then players'll put the puck in their own net, too.

JAMES: | didn't find 2K6's goalie A.I. to be that shoddy compared to the computer's defense. | found myself pushing up the difficulty to Hall of Famer—once you cross the opponent's blue line they almost never force the play. They'll let you dance around their zone as if they were scared of the damn puck. Plus, after playing EA’s somewhat arcadey fast-paced hockey, 2K6 felt like hockey underwater.

BRYAN: What about 2K6's new icon-based passing system? At first it’s a tad compli-

Publisher: 2K Sports Developer: 2K Sports

Players: PS2 1-2 (3-8 w/Multitap, 2-8 online), XB 1-4 (2-8 online)

ESRB: Everyone 10+

JAMES

www.2ksports.com

114 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

cated (memorizing every position's button icon so you can send teammates the puck even when they aren’t onscreen), but after a few games you get comfortable enough to pass with the grace and efficiency of the prelockout Red Wings. And you'll set up more one-timers this way.

JAMES: Yeah, | did enjoy the icon-passing system, but is it just me or do the passes in 2K6 seem incredibly slow? Hit it with your purse next time, Rob Blake.

DEMIAN: It’s definitely harder to thread passes through the defense in 2K6, but I'm all for that. What about 06’s 120-plus mph slapshots? Don't answer: They're a joke.

BRYAN: True, but what really has me laughing is each game's franchise mode. When will sports developers get the hint that piling on text-heavy features isn't want we want from this already snooze- filled mode? | mean, really—who cares (or even has the time) to sit there and simu- late a team practice?

JAMES: | like that in 06's franchise mode each NHL team has its own objectives—be the Wings and anything short of Canada's Holy Grail is a disappointment. But EA still hasn't fixed last year’s problem with fran- chise mode, where bottom-tier teams have pathetic missions like "Get the No. 1 draft pick for next season." | played as the Penguins and tried to lose as hard as | could during the season, but ended up with the second pick (sorry, Sidney Crosby). 2K6's franchise mode can be just painful,

e [2 2s 52 25 $5 28 E =

DEMIAN BRYAN

7.0 7.5 7.5

like when you're forced to fiddle with а goaltending consultant's wages.

DEMIAN: All right, enough talk. Both games lack polish, but | give 2K6 the slight edge because the defense is better (even with the faults James mentioned), there are more options to customize gameplay, and it's $20 cheaper. But 06 is Still a lot of fun to play. It's good to finally see some competition out there again.

BRYAN: Tune and tweak all you want, Demian, and 2K6's goalies will still be absolute sieves. And for that reason—plus 06's faster play and flashier offense—l'm giving the nod to EA's game.

JAMES: Demian's obviously forgotten what hockey's supposed to look like because of the lengthy lockout. The game's action- packed compared to 2K6's snail pace. Plus, outside of the rink, 06 offers enough options for me, such as being able to create а 7-foot hockey player with the play-by- play name of Spanky.

DEMIAN: There's a speed slider, you know. Crank it up if you want to commit sacri- lege. Jerks! sh

Publisher: EA Sports Developer: EA Canada

Players: PS2 1-2 (3-8 w/Multitap, 2 online), XB 1-4 (2 online), GC 1-4

ESRB: Everyone 10+

JAMES

www.easports.com

gr ==

187: RIDE OR DIE xe

We choose "die"

Every once in a while a game comes around that really makes you think. 787: Ride or Die is one of those games, and what it makes me think is that when marketing guys have free reign to do whatever they want, the resulting product can be shockingly, amazingly crass. There is one thing that the people who conceived of 187 dream about at night, and that is how to transfer the money from your wallet to their own, with a minimum amount of effort.

187 is a below-average racing/car- combat game with repetitive events and gameplay that offers absolutely no sur- prises and not much fun. Usually, you'll lap the same few courses, trying to shoot (and ultimately destroy) the other cars—sorry, whips—and place first, with occasional arena battles and escape-the-cops stages.

But what l didn't factor into my score is 187's bald-faced, cynical attempt to capi- talize on "gangsta" trappings and an M- rating. If only the Eskimos had 144 words for “tasteless” in their language, | would totally learn Inuit just to describe 787. As a game, | give 187a 4.0, but as a product, my score is negative f*** you.

187: Ride or Die tells me, “Don't be the last ride at the end of the race. You feel me? Holla back,” but | ain't feelin’ it, thug dizzle. This game took pieces from Burnout’s scrapyard and gives you a dude riding shotgun...with a shotgun. Shooting other brightly painted generic-looking cars is simple, at least, with muscle cars that blow up just as easily as in any B movie. But everything gets old quickly: The same

S MONTH

bland race tracks and even

exploding bad guys reappear—and the game forces you to watch each car blow up in slow motion, like you're a rubber- necker on the expressway holding up traf- fic. 187 tries to mix it up with yawn-induc- ing battle modes and escort missions (don't let 'em destroy the hooptie), but none of it put any crunk juice in my sys- tem. Did I say that right?

From the moment you fire up 187 and see a chrome version of the Ubisoft logo, you know something is wrong. Maybe it's the liberal use of bad, intentionally broken English (tip sheet: "bets" means "best"), or maybe the devel- pers over on the mean streets of Paris just see urban culture differently than we do, but 787 gets a zero for style, and style is all it really had going for it. Otherwise it's a mindless Twisted Metal-style blast- em-up that's OK in short doses. The star of the show is multiplayer, and though we don't understand why the gunner can't control his own camera—even while on his own screen online—taking out oppo- nents as you race around is as good as 187 gets. Holla back!

THE VERDICTS (QUT OF 10)

DEMIAN JAMES

Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Ubisoft Paris Players: 1-4

ESRB: Mature

www.187game.com

You won't stop playing until you want to stop playing.

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ox CivAnon & The 12 Steps

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review crew: playstation 2

PlayStation 2

RADIATA STORIES

A bright RPG debut

dd 3 / буз,

The character designs have kind of a Precious Moments thing happening. Plus swords.

1.5 7.5 7.9

CHRISTIAN SHANE JUSTIN

Developer: Tri-Ace Players: 1 ESRB: Teen

THE VERDICTS (OUTOF10)

| Publisher: Square Enix

www.square-enix.com

PlayStation 2

URBAN REIGN

Just another street fighter

My Buddy: When accompanied by a CPU-controlled partner, you can switch characters on the fly and set up satisfying double-team moves.

Publisher: Namco Developer: Namco

Players: 1-2 (3-4 w/Multitap) ESRB: Teen

THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10)

ROBERT

G. FORD ANDREW

www.namco.com

116 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UPcom

Good: Lots to do, a sense of humor Bad: Way...too...slow.

Biting Suikoden's Style: 100-plus potential party members

CHRISTIAN: Radiata Stories spins a gener- ic fantasy yarn with slight comedic flair. Young Jack Russell aspires to be a knight. His comrade in arms, Ridley Silverlake, finds herself at the center of a political conspiracy against the elves, dwarves, and other nonhuman races. The story's a slow burn...too slow, in fact.

The bulk of the game, like most role- players, will send you exploring far-off vis- tas and dank holes in the earth, battling monsters in droves. The battles are a damn sight better than Star Ocean's frustrating encounters, offering action and strategy, although | would have liked more of a chance to mix up my tactics on the fly.

Optional content is as crucial to Radiata Stories as the main tale. The lively town of Radiata is full of potential recruits. You're also forced to do side quests to keep things moving: fetching items mainly. Yawn.

Unfortunately, the game takes way too long to come together. The result is slightly reminiscent of Fable and Suikoden—and too disjointed. RPG veterans will enjoy put- tering around the town and uncovering its secrets, but it's all a bit low-key to truly engage the player. | was entertained but never quite addicted.

SHANE: Radiata, like developer Tri-Ace’s previous PS2 effort, Star Ocean, thrusts the

|: Fights that flow from pile drivers to baseball bats

Bad: The “now fight these dudes!” concept gets a little tired Where’s: The co-op play? Final Fight had it 14 years ago.

Fusing the traditionally separate genres of wrestling, fighting, and old- school beat-em-up, Urban Reign is a kind of Unified Theory of Fisticuffs. You got your grappling moves, your martial arts, your broken bottles, and your lead pipes, all while taking on several enemies at once. There’s a nice weighty feel to the way fighters give and take abuse. Just watch how the force of an attack is trans- ferred as you sidestep an incoming hay- maker and bury your opponent's face in the pavement. Exaggerated realism you might call it.

But for all the quality combat (at least | thought it was—not so much G. Ford and Andrew), the game surrounding it is underdeveloped. You play through a series of disconnected levels in “gritty” locales, populated by generic “tough” guys, thrown together on a big map. The best moments feel like fleshier versions of Soul Calibur's master mode or the Tekken Force minigame. Too bad the only real develop- ment over the course of Urban Reign’s 100 missions is the steady unlocking of features, some important to enjoying the game. Consequently, the game isn't really compelling until you're a third of the way through it.

In a number of ways, Urban Reign is an adequate brawler. Graphically,

player into a massive, messy role-playing world that's positively over- stuffed with content. Unlike the meticu- lously honed Final Fantasy experience, Radiata is loose and goofy, and you're expected to squander hours just messing around with optional crap. Following the denizens of the city through their daily lives (how very Shenmue) in order to befriend them might be the genre’s most ambitious minigame to date. The cutesy art style and cornball dialogue are borderline baby game, but the total package is solid.

JUSTIN: Jack Russell, the young hero of Radiata Stories, is great with people. By chatting up and helping out, he can win the friendship of dozens upon dozens of potential party members. Animals, on the other hand, hate this guy.

And that’s a problem, because wildlife tends to hang out in the middle of very narrow roads, so creatures big and small are constantly lunging at the opportunity to kick your cheerful little butt. This adds length to the adventure and keeps you pressing buttons, but because Radiata trims away all the complexity and cus- tomization that would make these battles interesting on their own, these meaning- less scuffles only serve to muck up the pace of an otherwise charming RPG.

it looks like it belongs on Xbox, and its basic punch/kick/grapple system works well—beating up your ene- mies is good fun (minus the infuriating deflection system), a mark many games miss (see: Beat Down, page 112). A.l. teammates and some basic stat building also help keep things interesting. But these positive qualities go to waste by about level 12 when you realize each stage consists simply of minibattles between you and up to a handful of ene- mies. There's no sense of progression, only a sickening sense of tedium as you're dropped into the next box of a level and take on another too easy minion, too tough boss, and the too bewildering camera.

I'm perfectly com- fortable being the hater on this one—in fellow subpar brawler Beat Down, at least you can run around a city, beat up random thugs for money, and do cool stuff like recruit new members into your gang. Urban Reign is a monotonous, repetitive march through what seems like the same cheap, unfair fight. Against a single foe, a kick to the back opens you up to an unbreakable, juggle-filled combo. Against multiple opponents, it's open season on your lumbar region. Pile on, boys! Who needs an adequate blocking system or reliable escape move?

ay e=

MOTOGP 3

The ultimate braking simulator

Good: Realistic racing, new online commentator mode Bad: Little has changed, awkward animation Must Buy: If you don't already own MotoGP 2. And love the bikes

GREG: When you look at something like EA's NASCAR series, which has Seen large, sweeping changes every year for a while now, it's hard to get too excited about MotoGP 3, which is essentially the same game it has been since the original release, receiving nothing but a smattering of roster and track upgrades each time.

But then you get out on the track and you're reminded why this fran- chise is held in such high regard. MotoGP re-creates the fast, danger- ous world of bike racing better than any other game out there, with spot- on physics and a control scheme that's both newbie friendly and deep enough for the grizzled two-wheel veteran all at the same time.

And the online racing can be a real blast, just like in the previous game. Getting into a crowd of folks who know how to handle these crotch-rockets at high speed leads to intense, close battles for position.

uP 1/3

Mina ВОО

(OUT OF 10)

THE VERDICTS

GREG DEMIAN

Still, if you have MotoGP 2 in your collection, it's hard to justify another purchase. MotoGP 3 is not head and shoulders above its prede- cessor in any department. It remains a very solid racing game in need of a design overhaul.

| haven't hit the brakes so much in a racing game since...oh... MotoGP 2. And while MotoGP 3is clearly not a game that's going to appeal to casual fans, it's just the kind of intense, technical experience that a hardcore player can get lost in for weeks, especially the online matches. But Greg’s absolutely right—there’s really not a whole lot new here.

The game does add a set of “extreme mode” races around tight, demanding courses loosely based on the cities that host the real MotoGP championship. These tracks support up to 10 racers in multiplay (the

tap

Publisher: THQ Developer: Climax

system link) ESRB: Everyone CHE

www.thq.com

Series experts may need to ditch their old power-sliding technique—it's a lot harder to pull off in MotoGP 3.

75 8.0 75

standard courses can handle 16), and while the bikes handle a bit more nimbly, it's not all that big of an addition. The new seeding sys- tem is nice for online games, though, as it'll ensure you race against evenly matched opponents.

COM =; MotoGP 2 schooled me the hard way on the art of super- bike management—you go in hot, ride those brakes, then gun it out of the corner as you rinse, repeat, and win. With MotoGP 3, the developers at Climax have loosened their ties a little by including “extreme” modes that give you some of the over-the- top antics of an arcade racer.

But the meat of the game remains hardcore as ever. Still, if MotoGP 3 wants to be Gran Turismo on two wheels, the bikes need to look quite a bit sexier—as it is now, the game

lacks the visual realism you'd associ-

ate with a simulation. ah

5

Players: 1-4 (2-16 online and

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ameCul

MARIO SUPERSTA

More role player than superstar

Though he may not look the part, Mario always got picked first for sports. The Mario Tennis and Golf series have won over hardcore fans and casuals alike with a mix of newbie- friendly pick-up-and-play controls and deep gameplay. But while the Mushroom Kingdom's take on America's pastime is a generally solid game, it is guilty of a few unfortunate miscues.

Teams in Mario Superstar Baseball are made up of a captain—Mario, Peach, Bowser Jr., etc.— and a slew of lesser Nintendo characters, includ- ing Petey Piranha and Toadsworth. They hit, run, pitch, steal bases—but then there's the Nintendo difference. Certain characters can toss special pitches and take powered-up swings, plus each stadium has its own obstacles, such as floating coin blocks in Peach's stadium that can redirect fly balls. Besides the requisite exhibition games, there's a single-player challenge mode in which you recruit team members and gear up for a showdown with Bowser's team, as well as some entertaining minigames and an enjoyable pitch/hit/catch competition.

A couple of problems prove to be rally killers, though. Hitting is far too fickle for such a casual game, especially with the batless characters (Donkey Kong whacks the ball with his fist, for example). Baserunning can be just as painful— runners take off whenever there’s a hit, fly balls be damned. These are both problems you learn to deal with over time, but the casual audience this game is intended for likely won’t stick around that long. Those who do, though, will enjoy their time with this off-beat ball game.

118 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

Don't let this game’s beloved cast of characters, quirky equipment, and Nintendo- themed fields of dreams fool you—Mario Superstar Baseball isn't very beginner-friendly. Unlike the plumber's stint on the links and tennis courts, you can't get away with simply knowing the basics; you'll be slaughtered if you don't mas- ter the advanced pitching and batting mechanics.

But even if you can get past the game's sur- prisingly steep learning curve, this one still has a few strange quirks. Hitting homers seems to require more luck than skill (I jacked less than five over the fences in the dozens of games | played), and, apparently, fancy-pants mascots can't be bothered with smart baserunning funda- mentals. The addictive minigames help Mario's case, but | still think he and his friends could use some more practice.

The lack of a season mode or player development helps make this the per- fect Friday night pick-up game before (or after) hitting the town. True, newcomers might find themselves swinging and missing with great fre- quency. And running the basepaths, especially with multiple runners, is much harder than it real- ly ought to be...but Mario Superstar Baseball is Still far more accessible than the average base- ball sim. The Nintendo shtick is once again in full effect, but having a random sandstorm turn a sure fly-out into a stand-up triple in the bottom of the ninth is far more frustrating than it is whimsi- cal. For my requisite baseball pun, | shall go with "not quite AAA ball." ё

Mario Superstar Basehall vs. Real Baseball Which game packs more punch?

POWER-UPS

Lucky Glove, Dash Spikes Advantage: Mario Baseball

Steroids, pine tar, Lasik surgery

Sausage race at Miller Park Advantage: Real baseball

Star Dash coin-collection race

BEST 'STACHE

Rollie Fingers Advantage: Real baseball

Waluigi

THE VERDICTS (OUTOF10)

6. FORD

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Namco Players: 1-4

ESRB: Everyone

BRYAN ANDREW

www.nintendo.com

= | GameCube /

WWE DAY OF RECKONING 2

We reckon it could use some work

So real, you can almost smell the various oils and lotions in

Publisher: THQ E. Developer: Yuke's 52 Players: 1-4 Se ESRB: Teen 58 = GREG BRYAN KAREN wi m

Hart's hair. Eww.

Wrestling games have been mediocre for so long now that it's hard not to be jaded about the incremental improve- ments we get to see every couple of years.

Day of Reckoning 2 is a definite improvement over last year's GC wrasslin’ title, though that's like saying being Stabbed is an improvement over being shot. As a multiplayer game, Reckoning 2 delivers action about on par with what we've come to expect, with nice features like submission-hold breaks and the option to attack the referee to stop a count. But like almost every other wrestling game, Reckoning falls apart the second you get into a single-player tag-team match. Unlike the recent Xbox WWE game, in which the AL. is so stupid that it doesn't know when to interfere, here the A.I. is so overzealous that it interferes nonstop, but rarely in the right way. Yes, it's great that my teammate will run in and break a submission hold for me. But boy does it suck when he won't protect me when | attempt to pin or slap a hold on my opponent. Long story short: Reckoning 2 is slightly better than last year’s game, but it’s still nothing special.

Success in the real WWE may be more about looks (and talkin’ smack) than wrestling ability, but in the virtual squared circle, it's the other way around. And sadly,

when it comes to gameplay, < Reckoning 2 performs like a jobber. As with the first game, the A.I. here is a mess. While any jabroni can breeze through the toughest 1-on-1 bouts (it usually took me under five minutes to finish off one of the WWE's finest with my wimpy created grappler), the combination of superhuman opponents and spacey partners makes getting the 1-2-3 in a tag-team match one tough feat. Actually, make that too tough. Toss in an uneventful story mode, and you've got yet another forgettable wrestling title on the Cube.

Say farewell to that weirdly shiny plastic skin! The series has returned with astonishingly good looks and supersmooth play that'll appeal to button mashers and strategists alike. Unlike Bryan and Greg, | think the A.I. is significantly improved (faster reaction times, headier play during fatal four-way matches), and the stamina meter will humble you like a dastardly villain in a classic match. Rather than mashing one button frantically to make or break a submission, the new sys- tem requires more scheming (and as we all know, scheming equals fun). Sadly, Reckoning 2 skimps on voiceovers and cinematic effects, which ultimately lessens the fanfare and epic feel.

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Resist the too-helpful hints under these question marks: They're truly for dummies.

Pleasantly puzzling, but not actually frantic

Good: Dozens of entertaining levels

Bad: Flighty control = cheap deaths

CHRISTIAN: Frantix is not terribly 2005. It's more of a charming throwback to the late '80s action puzzles that populated the Nintendo Entertainment System— the kind in which you control a character and pick up gizmos, avoid enemies, and can walk only in the four cardinal direc- tions. (Adventures of Lolo, anyone?) The goal here is to grab crystals, dodge mon- Sters in a maze, and reach the exit. It's simple fun, great for on-the-go gaming.

Frantix progresses smoothly, slowly getting harder, and by the time you get Stuck, you'll have several levels open, so you can hop to another stage before frus- tration sets in. Smart. If it's the kind of game you just don't see anymore, it's not because the genre sucked—it just got played out. The PSP is the right place to bring it back.

Control, however, is a bit janky, making cheap deaths easy. The camera also tends to obscure things. You don't lose ground when you die, though, making these minor nuisances. The lack of a belabored story is also a breath of fresh air. Long-winded movie sequences are the last thing we want to watch on the bus.

THE VERDICTS (QU OF 10)

CHRISTIAN JENNIFER

Puzzling: The inclusion of the ChubbChubbs CG short

7.0 70 6.0

JENNIFER: Frantix is one of

those games you sort of innocently start playing, and then next thing you know, hours have gone by, Seinfeld reruns are on, your back hurts, and you’re wonder- ing what the hell happened to your life. It's low-level addictive, a game you keep playing not so much because it’s thrilling but because it offers that weirdly satisfy- ing balance of moderate mental stimula- tion and zero actual effort. | enjoyed the pacing and difficulty, and the puzzles are all nice and short—more games should let you play for a minute or two and get rewarded with an autosave and the next level. It's basic block-pushing nicely gussied up, and, somewhat unexpected- ly, that was good enough for me.

OFFICIAL PS MAG—DANA: The name Frantix is a misnomer, as it's much more advisable that you be deliberate rather than hurried while playing this game. And that's OK—the simple pace here is actually a strength in a way. Like Christian and Jennifer said, the short, quick-loading puzzles are perfect for portable gaming; even if all you have is five minutes, you'll be able to complete one or two levels with no problem. That is in itself a bit of a problem—if finding the solution was more of a mental chal- lenge, finishing a level would be more satisfying. Not being able to see pitfalls in a level is also a problem, as obstruct- ed views sometimes led to my untimely and frustrating end. Nevertheless, Frantix fills a nice gap in the PSP's cur- rent software lineup.

Publisher: Platform Publishing/Sony Online Developer: Killer Game Players: 1

ESRB: Everyone

DANA

www.station.sony.com

120 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

rra MEDIEVIL

RESURRECTION

A skeleton from the PlayStation's closet

Good: Great music and funky enemies

Boss of you: MediEvil's mega- monsters still put up a good fight.

Bad: Repetitive levels, frustrating platforming bits Lame Character Alert: Al Zalam, a wiseacre street-smart genie

Turns out that great action games really don't die. They just fade away, replaced by niftier, more innovative titles. Such is the case with MediEvil, a PlayStation 1 hack-and-slash adventure that in its day charmed us with moody visuals, funky bosses, and screwball humor (you play a one-eyed reanimated skeleton out to outdo his cowardly past).

And now that the game has been zapped back to life on PSP (with a few new extras) as MediEvil Resurrection, what once seemed so charming and fresh comes across as competent but stale from the crypt. That's not to say it isn’t fun. Resurrection’s save-your-game- anywhere system makes it perfect for quick snatches of playtime, and the lev- els themselves (only a couple of which are new) are imaginative and hold up well today. It’s just that all the hacking here is hackneyed, lacking the fresh intensity of newer actiony titles like Capcom's Maximo. The new-to-this-ver- sion’s kid-friendly minigames don't add many thrills, either, even in the two-play- er mode. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you played the original MediEvil, anyone into action games will find this grave jumper a bit moldy.

Poor Sir Daniel Fortesque. He dies a coward's death and is then resur- rected in a terminally mediocre action platformer. These dark levels are not well suited for the PSP, and while | could see that the graphics were pretty, | was left wanting when it came time to do more than watch. Sizeable, well designed lev-

5 5 5

a @ S = 5 E T =

CRISPIN KATHLEEN

els are squandered on pedantic step-and-fetch quests during which the game torments you with side- kicks, cut-scenes, and narration that taunts and nags you. MediEvil has the same sense of humor as that schmuck in class who acts cynical and indifferent but is transparently desperate to be loved. Like that guy, this game is harmless and should probably be left alone.

Be thankful the dismal Death, Jr. didn’t discourage other publishers from releasing action- adventures featuring skeleton-headed heroes. MediEvil Resurrection is a delight: a fun, pick-up-and-play game that's ideal for a handheld. At least until the second half, when | had to return to levels I'd already been through to find items | had- n't the first time around. Problem was, | had to redo the levels as if | had never been there, battling the same enemies and bosses. But for some reason, it didn’t bother me. Maybe it was the catchy orchestral soundtrack, the relative ease of the puzzles, or the fact that the PSP can save on a dime that soothed me.

Publisher: Sony CEA Developer: Cambridge Studios Players: 1 (2 via local Wi-Fi) ESRB: Teen

www.us.playstation.com

CZE NAMCO MUSEUM BATTLE COLLECTION

u won't mind being dragged into this museum

THE VERDICTS (OUTOF

7.0 8.0 8.0

SHANE JEREMY

ESRB: Everyone

SHOE

www.namco.com

Players: 1-2 (2-4 via local Wi-Fi)

Good: Plenty of games, fun wireless multiplayer Bad: A few stinkers, old games get dull quickly Don't Import: The Japanese version—it only has half the games

SHANE: If you're interested in this collec- tion of geriatric arcade titles, you're ei

an oldster who survived Pac-Man fever...or someone who's sick of all the sports sims and racing games clogging PSP shelves. Namco's collection oozes quantity: With 17 oldies and four modernized remakes, you'll never be bored again, right?

Well, your mileage will vary, but relics like Galaxian, Rally-X, Bosconian, and Mappy are tough going. Oh, and you only think that you want to play through Rolling Thunder again. At least some of the more obscure older titles, such as Motos, Grobda, Dragon Buster, and King & Balloon (Namco's borderline nonsensical Space Invaders rip-off) provide head-scratching intrigue. You'll likely spend the majority of your time on the real winners, like Ms. Pac- Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug—perfectly bal- anced bite-sized enjoyment that makes your two-hour layover melt away.

The gussied-up, remade versions of Pac- Man, Galaga, ВаПу-Х, and Dig Dug aren't particularly groundbreaking, but the colorful visuals, peppy tunes, and frivolously fun multiplayer action won't disappoint when you need a quick retro pick-me-up.

SHOE: Here’s gaming with an ordinary com- pilation: You're thrilled because the disc contains this, this, and that. You start play- ing. Fast-forward 15 minutes, and the disc

is back in Из case ‘cause those games just don’t hold your attention like they used to. Here’s gaming with Battle Collection: You're extra thrilled because it contains way more titles than the average Namco Museum, plus a few updated clas- sics. You start playing. Fast-forward 60 minutes, and the disc is back in its case... Hey, that's four times the love. But it could've been 20 times had Namco includ- ed more remakes (or made them all as excellent as the four-player update of Pac- Man here). | won't be playing this one for hours on end, but it’s easily one of the best classics compilations ever put together.

1UP.COM—JEREMY: Finally, a Namco Museum that does these classics justice. True, playing Dragon Buster or King & Balloon in the dentist's waiting room makes the prospect of oral surgery seem appeal- ing in comparison, but fan favorites like Galaga, Pac-Man, and Rolling Thunder more than make up for the weaker selection: Plus, these games have never looked nicer; aside from some color bleeding in fast- scrolling titles, the PSP's screen makes these retro graphics shine. The remade ver- Sions are a little too simple, but they make for a fun extra and provide a decent Wi-Fi multiplayer experience, too (which the orig- inal games don't support). It's quite likely the best classics compilation to date. sh

Æ You can also choose to tilt your PSP 90 degrees and play the older games in vertical mode.

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by Rick O'Connor

GRIPSHIFT

We'll agree to disagree

EGER: Lum ej @ HRED

zi

Looks fun, right? Too bad the powersliding feels kind of like ice-skating on stilts.

(OUT OF 10)

THE VERDICTS

KATHLEEN G. FORD

JOE

Publisher: Platform Games/ Sony Online

Developer: Sidhe Interactive Players: 1 (2-4 via local Wi-Fi) ESRB: Everyone

www.gripshiftgame.com

LEN TRACE MEMORY

Myst opportunity

Y Ww i

SHANE JENNIFER

ih

|

ROBERT

122 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Cing Players: 1

ESRB: Teen

www.nintendo.com

If Dr. Frankenstein made a game, he'd probably patch together some- thing like this self-proclaimed puzzle/plat- form/driving/actioner.

Let's break it down. First, GripShift fails as a platformer: Its twisty, hazard-filled, loop-the-looped tracks (perched high over a few stale backgrounds) actually end up feeling tedious, as you repeatedly plummet over edges. It also sucks as a puzzler: Only masochists will enjoy scouring the tracks for hidden collectibles. GripShift isn't much of a racer, either: You’re given several choices for hubcaps and hood decals, but no ability to tweak your car’s handling or performance. This is mash-the-brakes-and- crawl-around-the-corner driving, not easy- powerslide-woo-this-is-so-fun driving. And as far as GripShift being an action game, well, I'm not sure where that part comes in. Do hack car-combat clichés like firing mis- siles and dropping TNT count as action?

GripShift's only novelty is its track editor, which is simple to learn and elaborate enough to allow for some fun designs to race on and trade. But with everything else malformed and pieced together, it's not enough to give this monster life—at least for me. These other yahoos loved it, though.

Bah, l say. Though by no means a killer app, GripShift is precisely the type of

SHANE: What a bizarre little game. Trace Memory beams in from the art-house gam- ing zone, melding the old-timey point-and- click adventure aspects of Myst with a sur- real, postmodern murder mystery plot. The results are, well...suitably weird.

Gameplay (and | use that term loosely) consists of guiding introspective heroine Ashley through a deserted island from a top-down view. When she spies something interesting, you can check it out on the DS's upper screen. Since our white-haired tween solves her problems by thinking rather than fighting, interaction consists of either simple conversation trees or puzzles.

The odd story line, with its moody tone and tragic revelations, mostly succeeds. It's tough to pull off a convincing game set in a quasi-realistic modern setting, especially a game without combat. The puzzles, on the other hand, range from mundane (clumsily using the DS's touch panel to manipulate physical objects) to painstakingly cerebral (deciphering complex codes). A strict order of operations means that you can't interact or collect objects until Ashley knows that she needs to...which leads to plenty of backtracking. It’s all very dreamy, insub- stantial, and ultimately, a bit dull. Plus, at only five hours long, it’s strictly a rental.

JENNIFER: Subtract about 2/3 of the books I've read, movies I've seen, TV shows I've

game the PSP needs right now. Its quirky puzzle/driving/platform gameplay quickly won me over, mostly thanks to the controls. What I love is that in GripShift's world of floating tracks, you'll find a physics system that lets you toss around your vehicle like some sort of metallic Hacky Sack, bouncing from track to islands and through checkpoints in a haphazard yet controllable fashion. New obstacles, including magnets and tele- porters, appear regularly, and though you'll be replaying levels in an attempt at achiev- ing different goals, it doesn't become frus- trating until some of the later stages. Solid.

I'm not sure how much of this is due to the fact that this is actually an original PSP game, but | had a reasonably good time with GripShift. Its claim to "puzzle platform driving action" sounds ludicrous, but that's what you get: a very simple puzzle-based platformer star- ring a car rather than a plucky young mas- Cot. It's kind of like Super Monkey Ball, complete with a sense of not being fully in control of your character. The 100-plus lev- els are so simple that you'll be hooked into beating just one more. A powerful track editor and cute minigames add further value. This ain't no Lumines, but it's a mild- ly diverting puzzler all the same.

watched, games I’ve played, friends I've had, and places I've visited—this puts me at the emotional age of, oh, 9—and sud- denly, this game is just about the greatest form of entertainment in the whole damn world. Something about the simple yet lovely story of a young girl searching for the truth about her missing genius scientist parents really struck my imagined younger, more impressionable self. The brainteaser puzzles are just challenging enough, and they use the touch pad in a variety of clever ways. This really is a glorious place to escape to—unless, like me, you actually have already read all those great books and played all those fabulous games. Then, Trace Memory is, well, just what it is.

ROBERT: Playing Trace Memory is like spending an afternoon sifting through the yellowed photographs and family heir- looms of an estate sale, piecing together the identities of the dead by the things they've left behind.

If that doesn't sound like a thrill ride, it's not. Slow to start and quick to finish, Trace holds your attention by the thinnest of strings: a desire to fill the blank pages of the story. The game's double-helix plot structure—parallel murder mysteries set half a century apart—adds a touch of unusual sophistication. Too bad it lacks a satisfying final twist.

YOUR BASEMENT |

(OU SHOULD AT LEAS

4 BEL TOG THER. ROLL SOME DICE HAVE FUN e e

Puppy love

Good thing Bob Barker and his ball-bustin’ crusade to “fix” the world’s pets doesn’t reach into the virtual world—otherwise my new best friend, an adorable corgi pup named Corky, might've never been born.

Before | lose complete credibility amongst my more masculine peers out there, you should know this "game" (I'll explain why that's in quotes in a bit) isn’t just about making sure you're grooming and feeding a pretend dog like it was some advanced, fuzzy Tamagotchi. It's about watching him develop from a clueless, seemingly deaf ball of fur to a smart, obedient, Frisbee-catching ball of fur. You do this by educating your dog in the ways of the DS: You use the stylus to get him (or her) to move a certain way (or just to rub his belly for some feel-good encouragement), and you speak into the built-in microphone to teach it commands, from a simple “sit” to a more

124 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

provocative “booty call” (my self-named com- mand for getting Corky to shake her thang). Repeat several times and you will see your com- panion evolve and mentally grow over time. It's quite impressive—especially when you realize it's all a “game.”

Oh yeah, about that “game” thing.... You teach your dog tricks, take him for walks, and enter him in agility, disc-catching, or obedience competitions. It's not really gaming, per se— just a lot of activities to keep you and your puppy busy. Nintendogs does offer a collectible aspect, however; you can get and trade a hun- dred random items ranging from squeaky chew toys and clothing accessories to controllable RC helicopters. But all they do is entertain your pal in new ways, or make him look funny 'cause, hey, a dog wearing glasses is pure comedy gold.

So once | cut my emotional ties with Corky

EEE |

iE

И your fave isn't on yours—hook up with friends and their breeds will become available in your kennel.

(named after a personal fave TV character, by the way), | won't be Nintendogging any longer. | do have to give the game huge, huge props for being so technologically cool and for getting me hooked for even a short little while, But it won't be long before you're looking for something much deeper with longer-lasting appeal. Animal Crossing DS, perhaps?

As a lover of portable gaming, dogs, and cute things in general, | was predisposed toward this one. My high expectations weren’t exactly exceeded, though—not by a mile-long walk with two poop breaks.

| adored teaching my dogs tricks, scrubbing their coats till they sparkled, and taking them on long walks where they played in the park and brought me the most darling presents (loved the tissue box, ChiChi!). The competitions are super-

eta

Es

SHOE JENNIFER

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Players: 1

ESRB: Everyone.

KATHLEEN

www.nintendo.com

Scat! Make poop

"you don't, tho other dog walkers In your game wil bitch.

simple, but they're highly addictive; they also happen to be where Nintendogs is at its least cute and cuddly. Three meets a day isn't enough— mostly because even when your dogs are well- trained, well-practiced, recently bathed, and pam- pered with top-quality canned food, treats, and positive feedback aplenty, they'll behave startling- ly unpredictably just when it matters most. Poor Penelope, my prize boxer, would enter the disc- tossing championship with everything going for her but come home an open-class loser at day's end. | understand it's something of a stamina issue, and this game does an amazing job creat- ing a realistic pet you care both for and about. It's just stuck halfway between sim and silly.

If it's supposed to be realistic, then let me truly train, discipline, and breed my dogs. If it's just a quirky game, | want to drive those puppies to compete till they bring home a first-place trophy

WU

we can both be proud of. (Either way, that dorky

precompetition banter should've been skippable.) | really hope the next game works out these iden- tity issues; then Nintendogs will be best in show.

To protect its property from dirty pirates, Nintendo gave us special sealed DS sys- tems to review Nintendogs. Now that we're done they plan on taking them back, so I just want to say this to those puppy-snatching bastards: Cheesy likes when you scratch under her chin, but Gouda doesn't. Dairy likes to play with the balloons, but it scares Cheesy when they pop. Cheesy doesn't like Charlie, and Aster got in a fight with Dairy over her new rainbow wig, so be sure to keep them apart.

Each of my dogs has its own little quirks and qualities that | enjoyed discovering. It was sur- prising how quickly | found myself unabashedly

зенне home l. L.L Е") ра

Р]

The first year of ownership runs around $1,000. But counting Minnie's wardrobe and | spa treatments, it's like $2,500

Dispenses waste in tiny pellet form, occasion- ally under Previews Editor Shane's desk Winner: Minnie

Your ass is in jail for animal cruelty, pokey | Winner: Minnie |

If you speak clearly, don't yell, and are consistent, she will probably chase her tail and then puke in your shoe Winner: Minnie

Seriously, the ladies LOVE Minnie. They love anything about her. Including you, if you're in the vicinity Winner: Minnie

CHIHUAHUA GRUDGE MATCH

Minnie the (real) EGM Chihuahua VS. Nintendogs Chihuahua

Even if you didn’t have a DS and bought all three versions of Nintendogs, you'd still spend only $250 or so Winner: Nintendogs

| Dispenses waste in tiny pellet form, | which is then magically transported | |

into a paper bag

JABBING WITH A POINTY OBJECT |

How else are you going to pet it?

If you speak clearly, don't yell, and are consistent, you may impress your pals with your dog's signature move, the "booty call"

People will be impressed with your dog's beautiful coat or accomplishments in the show ring, but you'll still be sleeping alone

praising Cheesy for sitting on command and catching Frisbees, then delighting in her response of wags and happy kisses. Gouda, on the other hand, had the enthusiasm for agility-based com- petitions but totally lacked the speed and coordi- nation for catching anything. We went to a disc- throwing event and couldn't even place out of the amateur class.

With all of those unique traits, | wish there had been more ways to show off my little troopers. An Animal Crossing-style society and level of interaction would have been a perfect fit. Also, the walks around town occasionally got a bit dull, Since we often ran into the same people. (That Billy is such a brat, and his bitchy mother thinks she knows everything!)

So, farewell to you, my wee wagger brigade! | will do my best to ignore the DS-shaped hole that Nintendo has ripped out of my heart... dah

When you pick your first dog, you're stuck with it for a while. But with the dough you eam from competitions, you can buy a second and third pup.

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com 125

REVIEWS WRAP-UP

The games that were too little, too late...

(ЖЕЛЕ

© Donkey Kong's prehen- 5йе feet: great for tieing his tie, picking mites.

Donkey Kong: King of Swing GBA * Nintendo * ESRB: E Remember back when Nintendo made normal platformers? Yeah, nei- ther do we. But DK: King of Swing is one of the company's better excur- sions off the beaten path: Gameplay revolves (literally) around Kong grab- bing hold of objects in midair and swinging along.

Eotom line: It's a bit gimmicky, but anyone seeking a novel challenge should take it for a spin.

Outlaw Tennis

PS2/XB Global Star « ESRB: M It's Mario Tennis for the frat house as the Outlaw series stretches its blue comedy shtick onto the tennis court. The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert handles announcer duties, lending a familiar voice and witty banter.

Bottom line: The characters are wild, but the game is remarkably tame, almost slow. It's moderate fun, with online multiplayer and slick produc- tion values.

Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life

GC * Natsume * ESRB: E This cute and quirky farming sim has a female star, but other than that it's pretty much the same as the last GC Moon. You'll raise crops and animals and find a good househusband to mind the kid.

Bottom line: Harvest Moon encour- ages solid work ethics and upright social behavior, but it'll leave you wondering if that's really such a wonderful life.

Pump It Up: Exceed

PS2/XB * Mastiff * ESRB: T More than just a Dance Dance Revolution knockoff, but less than original, Pump It Up's subtle variation on the popular dancing game is its custom dancepad: The step sensors have been moved to the corners, and a new one placed in the center. That headstand move you've always dreamed of is finally a reality!

Bottom ne: Worth checking out if you'd like to change up your dance routine.

HEY | SAW YOU ON THE TV!

It's an all-out toonami assault for you folks who love big eyes and chicks with cat ears

= Сап? you robots just get along?

One Piece: Grand Battle

PS2/GC Bandai ESRB: T This anime fighter successfully blends Smash Bros.-style wackiness with traditional kicky/punchy. The large stages make for great arenas: fighting on top of a giant water- logged mer-cow...thing...is a highlight.

Bottom hoe: Party-ready gameplay, even if you don't follow the adventures of the Luffy Pirates on TV.

DICE

PS2 Bandai ESRB: E10+ Who doesn't like robot dinosaurs that transform into bikes and cars? Shame, then, that this stylish but disjointed kids’ cartoon reject runs out of ideas in seconds, offering unbelievably simple, repetitive beat-em-up gameplay.

Bottom ine: The folks who made this one don't care about dinosaurs, robots, or the hopes of small children.

Inuyasha: Feudal Combat

PS2 * Bandai * ESRB: T The popular TV series is now a 3D fighter, thanks to the guys behind the Bloody Roar franchise. But that expertise goes to waste on a game that's far too simplistic to be enter- taining. Inuyasha fans will love the animation, though.

Bottom Hne: The titular demon-dog needs to learn some new tricks.

126 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

touching is good.

suco ems

gum wn

ADVANCE WAR

The twisted Black Hole Army has returned, and this time you'll need both screens as the war rages on two fronts. li's up to you to command your troops on the ground, in the air and at sea as you engage in

dual-screen combat in order to fend off the deadly invasion.

EVERYONE ENE.

Cartoon Violence

© 2005 Nintendo/INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS. TM. ® and the Nintendo DS logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2005 Nintendo. Game and Nintendo DS sold separately. www.nintendods.com

Rebelstar: Tactical Command

GBA * Namco * ESRB: E10+ Get grid-based tacti- cal on E.T. and his lizardman friends with cute but deadly human insurgents, employing some of the most complex tactics ever crammed onto a handheld. The Story line and preset anime-style characters are com- pletely beside the point, but same-cartridge multiplayer could give this one legs if you've got a strat-minded pal.

Bottom line: If you like your tactics tense, pick this

Big Mutha Truckers 2: Truck Me Harder PS2/XB * THQ * ESRB: M All of your favorite red- neck stereotypes return in a basic driving game that has you hauling loads in your big rig, then wheeling and dealing to get more cash for your pork bellies. It's more fun than it sounds...if you can put up with the endless unfunny "humor."

Bottom line: If you like your jokes simple and your games simpler, this one could be worth a spin—it's

Namco Museum 50th

Anniversary Arcade Collection

PS2/XB/GC * Namco * ESRB: E This collection is mostly a been-here, done-that round up of Namco's early-to-mid-'80s arcade hits in serviceable condition with no frills or fancy remakes (like in the PSP version of Museum, see page 121). Rolling Thunder and Sky Kid make their first Namco Museum appearances.

Bottom line: If you already have опе of these Namco

one up. It's by the creators of PC classic X-Com. bargain priced.

comps, no need to get this one. Otherwise, have fun.

RAINBOW SIX 3: LOCKDOWN

Locked, loaded...and reviewed next issue

Rainbow Six: Lockdown PS2/XB * Ubisoft « ESRB: M We couldn't lock down a final version of the realistic squad shooter's latest episode, but we did play a work in progress. Single-player Lock- down is no surprise: a smoother interface, a couple added effects, but basically the same predictable shooting gallery as before. The only two changes we noticed were new (and dull) sniper levels and easier difficulty (the A.I. was clearly not up to final specs, though). Multiplayer is another story. The RPG-like character building system in the Xbox ver- sion is innovative for a shooter—you gain levels and upgrade stats like armor and reload

speed—but frankly, we're worried how it'll play out online. Rainbow Six is a hardcore shooter to begin with, but the prospect of facing competition with skills honed over the last couple games and the advantage of built-up characters might leave more casual players cold (as in dead in the first few seconds of a match). Ubisoft claims that, in prac- tice, the upgradeable skills hardly make a difference (a head shot is still a head shot), which then begs the question, why bother in the first place? In any case, only time online will tell. At least the four-player co-op game has been bulked up with added options as a sanctuary for online players frustrated with the competitive modes. r&

128 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

d p фїагадысы каш more than 20 regular m

PRODUCTS RANGE FROM EVERYONE 10+ то TEEN

Cartoon Violence

A 7 пе ога Кіпа wacky n of crazy gimmicks*Pick up. Laid Use 41) play modes, (LS

objects fight your foes! rand Battle versus models.

f Also look forthe colle game co g soon BAN

3 playStation: e e m4 Hl

*Scregr shots and game play features арр!у4б PlayStation®2 and Ninteñdo GameCube"" versions/ónly. www.BANDAIGAMES.com

One Piece © 2005 Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation © 2004-2005 Bandai. BANDAI logo is a fegistered trademark of Bandai. All Rights Reserved. "PlayStation" and the “PS Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment inc. TM, Game &oy Advance and Nintendo GamgCube are trademarks of Nintendo, © 2001 Nintendo. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. CARTOQN NETWORK and logo are trademarks of and @ 2005 Cartoon Network.

H The big green guy from The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction— neckless and lovin’ it.

REVIEWS ARCHIVE

Just add water and watch them grow!

GAME

SCORES

SYSTEM VERDICT (out of 10) AWARD

bargain bin bounty

JADE EMPIRE

m XB m Released: April 2005 m Original Scores: 10, 9.5, 8.5

This beautiful little role-playing game from BioWare (the developer who also brought us the really-not-bad-at-all Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) puts you in a magic- and martial-arts-filled feu- dal China. Real- Ик. time combat, fantastic character development, and a moving and elaborate story line are even better when the price tag is just $30.

190 * ELECTRONIC

IONTHLY www.1UP.com

Arc the Lad: End of Darkness

Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Advent Rising

Area 51

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

Batman Begins.

Bomberman DS

Close Combat: First to Fight

Coded Arms

Cold Winter

Colosseum: Road to Freedom

Conker: Live & Reloaded

Dead or Alive Ultimate

Dead to Rights Il

Death, Jr.

Destroy All Humans!

Enthusia: Professional Racing

EyeToy: Play 2

Fantastic 4 PS2/XB/GC Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones GBA FlatOut PS2/XB

Fullmetal Alchemist 2 PS2

Haunting Ground PS2 Hot Shots Golf: 0pen Tee PSP In the Groove. PS2 The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction PS2/XB/GC

Juiced РЅ2/ХВ Killer 7 PS2/GC Kirby: Canvas Curse DS

Makai Kingdom PS2 Medal of Honor: European Assault PS2/XB/GC Meteos 0$ Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition PS2/XB Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition PSP Mortal Kombat: Deception

МУР Baseball 2005

Nanostray 0$

NBA Street Showdown PSP

Pac-Pix Ds Pac'N Roll Ds Pariah x8 Pokémon Emerald GBA Pokémon Dash Ds Predator: Concrete Jungle

Psychonauts XB Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory PSP Samurai Western Ps2 Smartbomb PSP Sonic Gems Collection Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory DS

Star Wars Republic Commando

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix

Twisted Metal: Head-On

Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict Viewtiful Joe 2

Wipeout Pure

WWE Wrestlemania 21

mes іп red are previous Game of the Month winners.

W An "action" role-playing game with less action and more dialogue reading 60 m DS is ideally suited for this addition to an awesomely addictive strategy series 90 WI 50-50 sci-fi story, but you won't get past its numerous bugs and sucky controls 45 WI This fun, creepy shooter is satisfying even with Duchovny's monotonous voiceover 8.0 W A difficult-to-pronounce name, but a worthy RPG with simple, enjoyable battles 80 I8 Superstar voiceovers and cool cars can't overcome dull game design. 60 W Have a blast (get it?) with some classic multiplayer fun or the decent single player 8.0 и Belongs in no man's land because of bland gameplay and shell-shocked Al, 50 и First-person shooting comes to PSP...then shoots itself in the foot with this crap 40 ї 007 meets MacGyver (sans mullet) in this above-average violent shooter 70 E Thought Russell Crowe was а pissed-off gladiator? Try playing this repetitive game 7.0 ла The squirrels single-player game should have stayed caged in the Nintendo 64 5.0 The bouncing boobs of DOAs 1 and 2 look way nicer revamped for Xbox 70 IM This boring sequel about a cop and his dog is great...for us to poop on 40 W А lousy camera and dull levels kill off any chance for fun this platformer had 40 E The missions get old, but launching cows and anal probing never do 70 W Even hardcore Gran Turismo fans should take this racing sim out for a spin 80 и Minigames that double as upper-body workouts. Hey, you're on the TV! 80 W Fantastic, eh? This brawer's a little full of itself if you ask us 60 и А great strategy-RPG sequel, but just more of the same stuff from the original 80 W You can learn a lot from a dummy: Avoid this car wreck of a driving game 60

W Diet Kingdom Hearts; with better RPGs to play there is no excuse for less than great 5.0

W Even the bouncy boobs can't make us think this is a top-notch survival-horror дате 7.0 WI An addictive golf game, even though its cuteness nearly sets off our gag reflex 70 W Dust off the headband and spandex: a decent dancing game with more crappy techno 7.0 Es Go green and wreak havoc; explosive rage issues have never been more fun 90

Trails the pack, but with A.I. teammates and betting on races, it earns our respect 7.0 IB A shooter that tries harder for artsy-fartsy style rather than gameplay 55 ла That pink blob's ingenious DS game has us proud of our writers’ cramps 85

W Hardcore tactical RPG fans will love this like they love obsessive organizing 75 18 No online multiplayer; new features are nothing to write home about 75 I Who knew a puzzle game where you rub space rocks would be so addictive? 9.0 W This time around, cars have superpowers and move faster than a speeding bullet 8.0 Long load times keep the tiny version out of pole position 70 This bloated sequel has so many extra game modes that there's even MK chess 6.0 т Sick minigames help make it the best hardball sim yet 85 W This 2D shooter excels at being deeply, depressingly mediocre 5.0 E Decent b-ball, but it just double-dribbles the console version of Vol 200 PS? 65

18 Get ready for more DS drawing—all that doodling in school wil finally come in handy 7.0 W An entertaining, but ultimately soulless and occasionally aggravating, platformer 7.5 I8 This shooter has cool weapons and а semi-interesting story, but its no Halo killer 9.0 W Catch those little bastards all over again, if you're into that sort of thing 70 Win this mediocre Pokémon spin-off for tykes, rubbin' really is racing 50 W Predator vs. crappy camera: Whoever wins, we lose by playing this bland game 5.5 Cure more crazies than shock therapy does in this great platformer 80 W Insanely repetitive—it's more like BattleBots hell than purgatory 3.0 WI Yawn as you hack and slash as a samurai who deflects bullels. with his sword 40 Need to get crappy shareware games and Minesweeper on your PSP? Look no further 3.0 WW Plural form is misleading; the only "gem" is Sonic CD, which is the best Sonic to date 6.5 W If your spider sense is on the fritz, let us warn you to avoid this ho-hum adventure 6.0 E Kirsten Dunst looks nice, but the camera has а hard time focusing on anything else 6.0 W Let's all just try to forget this game ever happened 15 їй Guide a squad of three smart stormtroopers who actually shoot the bad guys! 70 W Play this repetitive game and you'll understand why the dude went to the dark side 4.5 W Maybe in a galaxy far, far away this side-scrolling crap is still considered awesome 4.5 W The additional features make you want to keep grinding in the Destruction Tour 90 W This fighting game with cars is OK, but the series is due for some maintenance 7.5 W tts fast-paced deathmatching is ideal for gamers bored with Halo 2 85 E More of what you (hopefully) know and (should) love from Joe's first outing 80 W Remind yourself to blink while playing this great, intense racing game 80 W The AL. is so bad that this game is even unworthy for a fake sport 35

55 85 40 80 70 5.0 65 55 6.0 65 45 7.0 75 6.0 6.0 7.5 85 75 40 75 40

60

65 70

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The rankings are in, and Top Spin is on top of the tennis video game world. Serve and volley with 16 of the tour's top players like Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova as you compete in tournaments around the world. Create a virtual version of “you” with Eye Toy", refine your shots with a coach, and match skills with the pros on every kind of court surface as you make a run at the Championship!

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9

SEANBABY'S

| HATE

ome over

the van damme references continue

THE 1991s

It was a very crappy year

ometimes | get nostalgic for В the kind of nostalgia іп which

you could just list things you remembered. Like, remember Knight Rider? 0r menstrual pad belts? How about movies from about 10 years ago! Ha ha ha, | know! These days, nostalgia is so self-important that if you want to properly share in the memory of Jean-Claude Van Damme

doing the splits, you have to put together a historical documentation of it, discuss the effect it had on the doing-the-splits world, and interview TV's hottest celebrities after they sing the theme song to Jean-Claude Van Damme Punching Your Crotch: The Cereal. 1 admit I’m partially to blame for the movement of overenthusiastic nostalgia by raising the bar so high

with my award-winning Knight Rider/menstrual pad belt slash fiction website and with this remembrance of videogame crap: 1 Hate the '90s. Except that since I have only one page, | had to rename it I Hate the 19915.

David Hasselhoff and Gary Coleman totally ridiculing the Fonz. Probably not in 1991, either.

—Seanbaby

Jesus vs. Naked on the NES! What with the release of Super Nintendo, the regular Nintendo knew its days were numbered. And when you're faced with your own mortality, there are two ways you can deal with it. One is to film yourself standing between a bear and its cruel, Snicker's-smeared handler to let your awesome death live forever through Internet videos. The other is to turn to superstition just in case there are magical

One-eyed redhead says, “Oh, do my four A's win again? Now shut up and take off your pants, Timmy.”

PEEK-A-BOO POKER

1331 PANESIAN LTD.

angels waiting for you when you die. The NES tried this by releasing three Jesus games in 1991: Bible Adventures, Exodus, and King of Kings. Gamers responded with the kind of excitement you'd expect from bad rip-offs of existing games now with the added fun of Bible quizzes, and the games sold negative four copies com- bined. The same year, other developers tried a different losing strategy by making Peek-a-Boo Poker, a poker game with

134 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

18 Exodus: only the hottest S&M action.

boobs, and Bubble Bath Babes, which was Tetris with untamed eroticism. And here, 14 years later, we still don’t know which was more inappropriate: celebrating our Lord God's majesty with our Nintendos or celebrating ourselves with nude Tetris.

In the arcade!

“What happen? Somebody set up us the bomb.” Zero Wing set dozens of mistrans- lation records on the road to its win in 1991's Broken English Awards. “Gord tuna bounce face bike,” it said during its victory speech. “A thank you is you,” it added.

h- E Z ; Pd š AN

SOMEBODY SET up us THE BOMB.

MECHANIC :

W Zero Wing: You speak very well English.

Pit Fighter hits the consoles! Pit Fighter used digitized photos to re-create the gritty, realistic look of two half-naked paper dolls cut out of a body-builder's photo album and rammed against each other’s pelvises. Previously, the only way to recreate that experience was through the razzmatazz of tap dance.

Scrapyard Dog! The most compelling story of the year has to go to Scrapyard Dog on the Atari Lynx. Dognappers snatch your dog, but in a strange twist, they don't have a sinister plan or ransom demands. They only leave a note to let you know that you'll have to find the dog if you want it. So in what would have been a generic platformer, we now have a smart, psychological thriller in which the gamer must get inside

the head of a madman..a Forms madman who risks everything to move a dog around, then tell its owner that he did it. sh

Daily Beagle

ACR0SS

1. 5. 11. 13.

14. 16. 18. 19. 21. 22. 24. 25. 27. 29. 31. 33.

35. 37.

38.

TMNT Raphael's weapons

FFVII opening city

FFVIII probing spell

Final Fantasy that inspired Advent Children

Upper-left key on most keyboards Golden Saucer racers

Soul Calibur fighter

Lights the way in Shadowgate Final Fantasy perennial guy NCAA's Irish, for short

Like DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball? What a bulborb does with pikmin Cloud's FFVII lady friend

Bungie’s Xbox breakthrough

GBA Frogger: Forgotten

How Snake gets if he doesn't eat in MGS3

Teammate

Where most import games come from

Government space org using games to research brain waves

. Pirates! settings

. NES casino game, for short . EA WWII series, for short

. Jonny Moseley setting

Panzer Dragoon Saga star

Vincent Valentine's tribarreled gun . Dreamcast precursor to Project

Gotham Racing

Pro hockey league in EA games’

names

. Wild or Thousand . Metal Gear boss cloned into a pair RBI Baseball popular hurler

v^ ^4 GRUDGE MATCH

DOWN

N

. Pokémon's Ketchum . In-game marker or symbol . Champions of Norrath venom

pouch pickup

. Halo 2 multiplayer map _ Tower . PS2, XB, or GC media

. FFVII boss Nattak

. Structures found in 5 ACROSS

. What Mortal Kombat II's Reptile

spits

. What you may find under the door

in Silent Hill 4

. Tools of the trade for 43 ACROSS . Early Konami NES shooter

. Like Metal Gear's cardboard?

. Mega Man 2's fiery Man

. Lose all HP

. Crosses the seas in The Legend

of Zelda: Wind Waker

. TV drama turned PS2 title . Metroid Prime plant boss . What a multitap does for extra

controllers

. Online gang? . Shoe's EGM title, for short . Altered Beast (Genesis) animal

form Command & Conquer teams?

. Final Fantasy magic recitation

. Fantastic Four actress

. Resident Evil clue scrap

. Alter or Night

. PS1’s plastic Men

. Does not compute?

. Street Fighter Guile’s homeland

+ Contra: Shattered Soldier director

Nakazato’s initials

Get in the ring...ring...ring

GIZMONDO

N-GAGE | |

Wouldn't it be great if instead of having a few devices to handle your phone calls, pics, and gaming, you could cram watered-down versions of each into one unwieldy brick of plastic? Wish no more: Nokia and Tiger Telematics have released their own all-in-one devices. Let's have a purely objective look at 'em.

MARKETING

Furious Phil literally billed as a splatter-horror-fight- ing-action-adventure !

game

New model QD doesn't stand for anything so you

can't pigeonhole it!

DISPLAY

The 2.8-inch LCD can't make it any clearer that you're still playing Milo and ` the Rainbow Nasties

"Compact" vertical screen makes it feel like you're playing a version of Burger Time from.space

Everything that was hot on consoles many years ago

Go to gizmondo.com and check out Momma, Can | Mow the Lawn? Just go

TARGET AUDIENCE

Folks with N-Gage coupons We honestly have no idea

DESIGN FEATS

Built-in camera can document said hilarity

Impress friends by holding your phone like a jack-off

BONUS OPTIONS

New QD can now change games with- out total disassembly

GPS helps you find the four other Gizmondo owners

о you're all excited-about the | Xbox 360's imminent launch, eh? Microsoft's new power- house may offer a sleek design and astounding processing power, but it's

going to have to work hard to make the same lasting impression on gamers that Nintendo's first console did. That's no slam on the 360, though. It's just that the NES (which is

short for Nintendo Entertainment System) still stands as one of the most successful and influential con- soles of all time—even now, 20 years after Из U.S. debut. —Jeremy Parish

When the NES launched, America hated videogames. Well, sort of. The Atari 2600 had upset folks by flooding the market with bad software and, at first, retailers were reluctant to sell another system. But the NES was a hit, controlling a healthy 90 percent of the U.S. home videogame industry at the peak of its popularity.

It's the Software, Stupid

That high market share, however, brought about lawsuits against the com- pany—which Nintendo won. Although the Federal Trade Commission technically decided against the company, its “punish- ment" was to offer customers $5 off the

= purchase of a future NES game, thus wrapping up even more sales.

All told, the NES enjoyed nine years of life in the United States, with quality soft- ware like Kirby's Adventure being released long after gamers had moved on to the Super NES. Not bad, considering most people figured videogames were dead and buried when the system first showed up on the scene.

The NES was memorable for a lot of reasons, but ultimately it was the games that kept us coming back.

ARS OF NES

Looking back at two decades of playing with power

Mario: teaching kids how to shroom for two decades.

136 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY « www.1UP.com

W Final Fantasy

ERN

ИЯНЕ

ш The Legend of Zelda

Famicom Disk System This floppy- based drive N for the Famicom N

(Japan's version of

the NES) never made >

it overseas. By the time the NES caught on in the United States, plain ol’ car- tridges had exceeded the disk’s storage capacity. Unfortunately, progress in games that started life on the disk system (such as Metroid) couldryt be saved to carts, which is why game rooms were usually cluttered with reams of paper with con- fusing passwords scribbled all over them. Our hats are off to the man who invented battery backups for carts.

y

Power Pad

Before America’s fatties gamed them- selves thin with Dance Dance Revolution, Nintendo had the same idea with the Power Pad. Who knows—maybe if the company packaged it with something as addictive as Konami’s musical confection rather than a lame sports game, it might've been a success.

MOMENTS OF GREATNESS

The sheer popularity of the NES meant that everyone was eager for a piece of the action...even if their efforts weren't terribly well thought out. Here are just a few of the strange moments of brilliance that surrounded the console's life.

Power Glove and U-Force These are two

of the strangest peripherals ever created. The Power Glove looked cool enough to net a cameo in the movie The Wizard. But any- one who ever tried to use this wearable controller quickly discovered that novelty alone does- n't make for fun gaming. Still, it Lucas had it right: was better than This thing was bad. Broderbund's motion-sensitive U-Force, which wasn't much of a controller but certainly did a great job of making users look like complete tools when waving their hands in the air as Mega Man blithe- ly ignored their commands.

POWER GLovE

e 20200

B The Wizard's

Unlicensed carts

Nintendo's decision to force third parties to license their games was actually a very prudent one, since unrestrained software

was precisely what had killed the Atari 2600. But not everyone was willing to play by the rules, including Tengen, which published software from Namco, as well as competing console makers Atari and Sega. Tengen found itself on the losing end of a lawsuit, but Color Dreams had the right idea—it changed its name to Wisdom Tree and started producing Christian-themed games, banking on the fact that Nintendo didn't want to be known as the company that sued Jesus. Then you had Panesian, whose trilogy of NES porn games can fetch more than $500 on eBay today. NES collectors are a very lonely lot, it seems.

unv ro во ног snore care ro LATHER un?

Warning: Don't play with the Power Glove.

MEDIA SATURATION

Great games are essential to any system's success, but clever media exploitation is still the best way to get the word out. And few companies knew how to manipulate the media like Nintendo back in the day....

Nintendo Fun Club News/Nintendo Power Nintendo's quarterly Fun Club News was so popular that after a few issues the company changed its free mailer's name to Nintendo Power and started charging kids for the privilege of reading shame- less propaganda. „Everyone from Sega to Sunsoft tried their hands at mimicking the NP formula, but no one ever pulled

The Wizard

The epitome of cinema as commercial, this Fred Savage star vehi- cle was one part Rain Man and three parts advertisement for Super Mario Bros. 3. Oh, and the Power Glove, of course.

Super Mario Bros. Super Show

it off with quite the A perfectly entertaining (if completely same panache as cheesy) cartoon, the Super Show was the Big N. probably best known for the live-action

Mega Man 2 Metroid

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! Wi

segments featuring Captain Lou Albano as Mario—who, it should be said, fit the part way better than Bob Hoskins did in the terrible, terrible live-action, movie.

Nintendo Comics System

An occasionally amusing diversion, Valiant’s comic series will forever live on in the hearts of young men everywhere for the episode in which Princess Peach dressed up in Luigi’s overalls. Rowr. The "Nintendo (whatever) System" marketing gimmick also found great success in the form of the Nintendo Cereal System, which was pretty much what you'd expect: a sugary Lucky Charms rip-off

Rad Racer

River City Ransom

with marshmallows that vaguely resem- bled deformed Zelda characters.

Worlds of Power A series of kids' books by the pseudony- mous ЕХ. Nine that novelized (in the loosest possible sense) popular NES games. This collection is notable mainly for making Blaster Master's "save your pet frog" plot even lamer than it was in the actual game, which was no

small feat! >

Super Mario Bros.

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com 137

20 YEARS OF NES cov.

The last official NES game was Wario's Woods, released way back in 1994. But the NES lives on in a way that would make horror director George Romero proud.

Nintendo's patent on the system's hardware has expired, leaving anyone free to churn out their own version of the machine. And churn they do: Hundreds of “Famiclone” (Famicom clone) systems are available through- out Asia, where the NES is still the most popular format around. But don't feel left out, America! Messiah Entertainment will be bringing us our very own corn-fed, homegrown Famictone this fall in the form of the NEX (you can preorder now at playmessiah.com).

What fun would homemade hardware be without homemade software to go along with it? Aside from the wide amount of Asian bootleg NES soft- ware available, the most impressive hack we've found is a completely original unlicensed Chinese Harry Potter game in which the young Where's Waldo-looking wizard jour- neys through the Dursley homestead kicking the crap out of rats, bats, fats (Dudley and Vernon), and, uh, Voldemort. And that's just before Harry learns he's a wizard.

Regardless of what you may think of the prickly issue of emulation—that is, using a PC to run NES software— it's introduced the system to an entire generation of gamers too young to remember it. (And given rise to terri- ble NES fansites by said kids.) It's also fostered the search for unre- leased games. Did you know the orig- inal Final Fantasy Il and the prequel to Earthbound (shown above) were translated into English but never released? Check out lostlevels.org for more info on these rare finds.

Nintendo isn't stupid, and the company hasn't been blind to the sustained pop- | ularity of its old games. Animal Crossing's free NES games tested the waters, while the eReader's $5 NES games proved people would still

pay money for tripe like Urban Champion. (How little we've learned

in two decades.) And the rousing success of the the GBA's Classic

NES series proved that people would pay a /ot of money for these oldies but goodies—which is probably why one of the few things we know about the company’s next-gen console is that we'll be able to download NES games to play on it...for a fee, of course. It turns out we weren't just playing cool games 20 years ago—we were laying the groundwork for the Nintendo Revolution, too.

The Revolution: new, but old.

cvv

[nintendo |

a Side ке

КЕЕДЕ

18 Tecmo Bowl

Super Mario Bros. 3 ш Zelda И

138 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com

Е Street 7$ ELECTRONIC Fighter: ORIS The Movie

and Mortal 1

Kombat 3 i

Would you pass up ЩЩ? the chance to put a Guile-clad Jean-Claude Van Damme on your cover? Didn't think so.

b. i>

Game of the Month: Mortal Kombat 3 (PS1)

In our continuing salute that year to all things Mortal and Kombat, No. 3 earned a gold award (averaging a score of 9.0 or above) from the EGM Review Crew.

| ` А P À

Street Fighter: The Movie: The Videogame

A decade ago, Capcom could do no wrong when making a fighter. Then came Street Fighter: The Movie (PS1/SAT). We still wonder what's more painful: watching the flick or playing the game it's based on.

Super Role-playin'

We broke the news on Mario's debut in the realm of role-playing games. Super Mario RPG required an extra chip in the cartridge, which brought the game to a shocking 32 MEGABITS! Also, this marked the first time gamers got a chance to play as the plumber's fire-breathing foe, Bowser.

“40Р IS THE FIRST SITE I'VE BEEN A PART OF THAT REALLY GAVE ME A CE T

THE FAC AT N EASILY WRITE MY OWN JOURNAL ON A SUBJECT I LOVE AND HAVE OTHERS WHO SHARE THE SAME ADDICTION COMMENT ON IT IS AWESOME!"

[DIRTY DIVA] HTTP://DIRTYDIVA.1UP.COM

@

Where Gamers Call Home.

Win a ~. p" КШДШ > d

иин E i ý N 4 > 4 h jns 4

IS HERE!

нии Inm Iit Well, almost...

NES he launch is nigh upon us. This is an exciting hall time for nerds, but it holds great danger, too. We'll get the skinny on all things Xbox 360, from the latest screens and accessories to the launch games you'll need. Greet launch day with

the savvy swagger of a gamer who knows the score.

We're also checking in on the PS3's progress to find out if

promised.

Along with new systems we take a peek at some deals and steals in peripherals (cheap do- it-yourself projector, Nintendo 200-game controller, portable NES) and tell you if they're actually worth a damn.

Sony is delivering on the show it

INDEX

www.mastiff-games.com ......... ШУ?

‘SBC COMMUNICATIONS Www.sbo.comWamer ................ E:

ELECTRONIC ARTS . www.ea.com .

-5, 10-11, 13, 42-43, + * + 45, 54-55, 62-63

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT . млимизсеа.сот .......... s... 2a-2c, 2d-3

iBUYPOWER SONY Ж ad

SQUARE ENIX U.S.A., INC.

www.square-enix-usa.com .....

2K SPORTS Www.2kgames.com .

ACTIVISION www.activision.com . . .

-26b-26d, 27

THE GUILDHALL AT SMU poen smuedu .

BANDAI AMERICA INC. www.bandakcom .................... 129 Yww.mics

COLLINS COLLEGE www.collinscollege.edu ...............121

US ARMY ACCESSIONS COMMAND Www.goarmy.com

BESTE e | NINTENDO OF AMERICA www.nintendo.com . . .

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ANSWERS ТО, FANTASY XV ^ FRENZY!

ELECTRON GAMING MONTHLY (SN 010991800 pubista moni by ZIN Davis Media ne, 28 East 28 Street, New York; NY 10010, Paris Postage Paid at New York NY 1006 and aos maling ocr. For susrpon eve questions, adress changes, or to order, please contact us at Web

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140 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UP.com

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THIS 15 A

ОКАЧ, THE GUIDE SAYS Чоо ARE А BRIGHT-YELLOW: CLAD, EFFEMINATE SPORTS HERO IN SHORT PANTS AND FEATHERS "WHITESNAKE" HAIR WHO WHINES INCESSANTLY, Л

өз үм smi. А GUY, THOUGH, RIGHT?

THEY HAD А RACING GAME, ТОО, REMEMBER? у

THE ONE WITH TH GIANT CHICKENS

WHATS THE FANTASY PART

THERE, 1 ASK YOU

THAT ЧОО NEVER see ANQBODY FORCED TO CLEAN О? THEIR, ELEPHANTINE ALES OF Poor?

142 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY www.1UPcom

GREETINGS, VIDEO GAMERS! LOOK FOR FULL-LENGTH HSU & CHAN COMICS AT YOUR LOCAL COMIC SHOP! (OR ORDER ONLINE АТ WWW.SLAVELABOR COM )

IN EXCHANGE FOR Five BUCKS EACH, LAWN-MOWING SERVICES THROUGH OCTOBER, AND NOT

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ЧОО KNOW, “FINAL FANTASY’ IS JUST ABOUT THE MOST INAPPROPRIATELY NAMED GAME FRANCHISE SINCE "SUNDAY FONDAY” FoR THE NES! 1 MEAN, \TS LIKE A VIRUS NOW! THE SERIES CAN'T DIE! CUT OFF ONE SEQUEL, TWO SPIN-OFFS HAVE ALREADY TAKEN ITS PLACE?

175 THE HYDRA

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ACCORDING “O THE GUIDE, HAS 4,000 HiT POINTS BUT 15 WEAK AGAINST FIRE!

You KNOW WHAT THER SHOULD DO WITH THE "FINAL. FANTAGH" FRANCHISE?

MAKE A GAME. THAT'S JUST UKE

Tage RE THE | = ONE COMPANY | THAT CAN'T

GET AWAY

WITH IT.

SHUT OP. UST FISH IT š TTA THE DIP AND TELL ME WHAT \ GOT.

NICE Rout, Y WALTER RAY,

UM NOT MISTAKING A LITTLE PIECE OF

WHAT'S REALLY IRONIC 19 THAT SINCE DISINTEREST IS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN KILL THE SERIES WHEN THERE REALLY 16 A FINAL "FINAL FANTASY" NOBODY LL NOTICE! дц. THOSE YEARS To FULFILL THEIR DESTINY, WHICH 15 To VANISH:

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SURE, LETS SEE.. "You HAVE A SHORT INTERLUDE IN WHICH YOU TEACH A SHY, GEISHA-LIKE QOUNG WOMAN TO LAUGH LIKE А NINNQHAMMER,"

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THE FATE OF THE WORLD IS IN THEIR HANDS. THEY JUST DON'T KNOW IT.

Powerful Wes aes and cool | Kun Fu Pru skills to defeat enemies

` É

Alcohol Reference Є. Cartoon Violence

[ESRB CONTENT RATING wwwesrb.org

5 JoWooD PlayStation.2

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