The #1 Videogame Magazine MON га, / А 4 


[WWWIUpCOM, А. 









ТОО НОМАМ 
THE XBOX 360 SCI-FI TRILOGY 


We finally played Microsoft's 10-years-in-the-making 
adventure, and it’s an entirely new breed of epic 





ALSO INSIDE: 

* Zelda: 20th anniversary celebration 

* Why old problems are in our next-gen games 
* Brain Age: the next big thing for DS 

* Huxley: massively multiplayer shooting 

* Next-gen Alone in the Dark...and tons more! 


23 ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA 





o 74470 06960 ^7 


© 
E 
2 
8 
ER: 
uo 
2 
29 
E 
5 
o? 
ЕВ 
N5 
2 
во 
8 
8 


А WORLD WITHOUT LIMITS 





FINAL FANTASY. M 


0 א‎ LIN E 


Chains of Promathia . 


` JOIN THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS 
ALREADY PART OF AN UNPRECEDENTED 
ONLINE COMMUNITY. 


EXHILARATING QUESTS AND AN EPIC 
STORYLINE AWAIT YOU IN THE PREMIERE 
ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAME. 


EXPLORE. POSSIBILITY. 


ADVENTURERS FROM ТН! 
REACHES OF THE GLOB 
CALLED TO DEFEND TH] 





AN UNENDING ADVENTURE 


COMING IN APRIL 





ШИР 


Dpef tezien (шш rati 
I Pm t PM 














ESRB CONTENT RATING _www.esth.org XBOX 3€ SOFTWARE 





TEEN Play Online. РС 
Animated Blood 3 
Mild L XB 

"Y о а ЕМІХ. ₪ АЛ DVD-ROM 


ПНЕ REAL 





From the makers o 
the most realistic motore 
Featuring over 35 real-life and fantasy 
riding gear, and over 100 licensed sport bi а 
that truly capture the fluid movement of man and таб 
he leathers and open up the throttle. Nothing 
ction than Tourist Trophy. 


in this game are trademarks and/or copyrighted terials of their re 
5 a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Americi 














intended to be or 








SEEING IS BELIEVING 


Blood : І) 

Language 3 . .חסו‎ 

Suggestive Themes tim i > — 
EET Violence | SOFTWARE 


A 
LU. Lara rot Tomb Rode Legend © 200 Cote D ib Raider logo, Eidos and the 
all trademarks of SCi Entertainment Group. 0 used under i 
LOGOS are all trademarks of Ducati 0 eer vene AIDIA logo are registered trademarks of the NVIDIA Corporation. The ten ed." and the "NVIDIA: 
ЛА Corporation. PlayStation" and the PS: Family logo es 'of Sony Computer Entertainment inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, and the Xbox logos are either registered. 
“ang icon ва registered trademark of the Ente ‘Association. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Al rights reserved. 








www. lombRaider.com 

















Winner, Best RPG of ЕЗ 


- 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 


“The biggest title for the Xbox 3601, 
and the one I’m most looking forward to." 


— GamePro Magazine 





“One look at Oblivion will Shatter your 
ане gon what is possible in а 
video game.” N 


₪ "Game Informer 








The RPG for the Next Generation 
Visit esrb. 
ap Ө С. “Bet 
SOFTWARE З 


2 A : RKS 
information. XBOX Sru a ZeniMax Media company 



















issue 203 · may 2006 


14 We get a lot of heartfelt notes froi 
people, We also get a lot of cra 





A monthly dose of news, previe 
features to keep you hummi 


20 TRAIN YOUR BRAIN 
The next big thing in. 
isn’t necessarily a @ 
ALONE IN THE DARK 

Central Park gets littered with next- 

gen corpses 

BLU-RAY VS. HD-DVD 

We get e straight dope on all this 














W: HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY 
47 may be the next target 
: DEAD RISING 
mall zombies attack: the game! 
EW: LOST PLANET: 


60 that features snow pirates! 
IEW: HUXLEY 
lassively multiplayer shooting a 1 | 
60? Where do we sign up? 

"48 NEW & NOT-QUITE-SO IMPROVED 
Why current-gen problems are 
popping up in next-gen games 
PREVIEW: BIOSHOCK 
Noone can hear you scream when 
you're 20,000 leagues under the sea 
58 RUMOR MILL TT 

All rumors and Scuttlebutt guaranteed, 
not to mention Brangelina 





This issue's touching denouement 


114 SEANBABY’S REST OF THE CRAP 
115 CROSSWORD/GRUDGE MATCH 
116 EGM RETRO 

A look back at 20 years of Zelda 
116 OLD SCHOOL 
119 NEXT MONTH 
120 HSU & CHAN 
















15 it too ambitious? Too simple? Тоо complex? Too highbrow? 
We've played it.... Find out the truth: about the Xbox 360’s 
surprising new trilogy 













5 ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA 


EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS HEAD HONCHOS. PRODUCTION 
Robert As ү 


tive Rita Ki 


12 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY e www.1UP.com 





EDITORIAL 


| like,the PSP. It's a well-designed machine. | don't like many of its games. 
They're not well designed for the machine. (I suppose that could mean the 
PSP isn't all that well designed after all.) 

Metal Gear Ac!d, Lumines, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories... Many 
games work just fine on this platform. Splinter Cell Essentials, Me & My 
Katamari, and almost anything that involves the combination of "looking" 

and "shooting"? Forget about it. The control issues of not having a second 
“look-around” analog stick are just overwhelming. You can kind of blame Sony 

for not designing its portable system to be 3D-proof and for not accommodating 
the kind of games people are playing these days. But | more blame the publishers and 
developers who are trying to shoehorn their console-sized games into something that is, 
most certainly, not a console. 

Gamemakers must embrace a platform and all of its strengths and weaknesses. The 
PSP isn't a first-person-shooter machine, so quit making first-person shooters for it 
(unless you find some ingenious control scheme that gamers can dig). It plays puzzle 
and strategy titles just fine, so how about some more of those? (OK, | know those aren't 
blockbuster genres, but still....) 

Just look at the Nintendo DS. That system may not be as sexy, but, for the most part 
(not always), its games fit better. That's because developers are more inclined to take 
advantage of the touch screen, rather than forcing something onto the DS that it was 
never meant to play. 

Whoever makes it, the next major portable system should have: a big screen like the 
PSP's, touch screen functionality like the DS, two analog sticks, two to four shoulder 
buttons, four face buttons (not counting Start or Select), a microphone, 
and wireless functionality. Yeah, this monstrosity might look a little bit — ee 
like the gaming equivalent of The Homer, the everyman's car. ۳4 
But hey, at least it'll work for all the games | want to play. is Pm. 


What's around the corner for the little fellas: 
the portable gaming machines 









Monster Hunter Freedom New Super Mario Bros. 





Mortal Kombat: Unchained 


pNGN C چچ چک‎ 


LocoRoco 









sees 


Eu 








—Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Editor-in-Chief "и 











REVIEW CREW 


88 The Outfit 104 Warpath 
"| 88 Top Spin 2 
89 Rumble Roses XX 





90 Blazing Angels 104 Daxter 
90 Dynasty Warriors 5: 105 Me & My Katamari 
Empires 106 Capcom Classics 


Collection Remixed 
106 Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror 
92 The Godfather 107 Splinter Cell Essentials 
94 Driver: Parallel Lines 
94 Major League Baseball 

















p 108 Tetris.DS 
96 Tomb Raider: Legend 108 Tao's Adventure: Curse 
Y 98 NBA Ballers: Phenom of the Demon Seal 
1 98 Commandos Strike Force 109 Metroid Prime Hunters 
= 
1 100 Kingdom-Hearts. || 110 Reviews Wrap-up 
% 103 Suikoden V 113 Reviews Archive 


De 
Nick Kalisler 


reserved. 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com » 13 








Prison advice #1 
Here’s my situation: | am in prison in 
Maine, and | play a minimum of eight hours 
of games daily, seven days a week, 365 
days a year. The PS2 is simply a godsend 
here. It's the cheapest baby-sitter any 
Department of Corrections could ever allow 
inside its walls. Recently, though, | have 
noticed that my eyes start to tear up after 
about 10 minutes. The eye doctor here 
says my eyes are OK, that it's not them. 
This only happens when | am playing a 
game, any type of game. When | just watch 
TV, there’s never a tear. What gives? 

— Roger W. Smothers, Sr. 


Have you tried blinking, or better yet, 
cutting your 57-hour-a-week habit down 
to a more manageable 20-30 hours? We 
get paid to play games, and we don’t 
even put in those kinds of hours. 


Prison advice #2 

lam an inmate in an Ohio prison, which 
means | don't have access to a computer. 
I'm writing to find out if there are any good 
Adult Only (AO)-rated games out yet. Also, 
are there any gaming magazines that are 
not afraid to publish the titles of the AO- 
rated games? —Michael L. Wimer 


LETTER 


Online racism 

I've been hearing a lot of talk about how 
online play is the future of videogaming, 
but it's not a future | want to be a part 
of. Since I've been playing online, I've 
encountered some of the most ignorant 
people on earth. Most recently, | was 
playing Dead or Alive 4 online, and | was 
kicking someone's butt. But after | beat 
him twice, he says that I'm a “cheap-ass 
n***er," and that “n***ers” like me are 
all the same. This is nothing new. | hear 
stuff like this online all the time. | filed a 
complaint, but let me ask the videogame 
industry: If this is the new generation of 
gaming, do | or any ethnic people want 
to be a part of it? Experiencing things 
like this makes me want to give my 360 
away. Online play can never 
be the next big revolution until 
this problem is fixed! 
—Matthew Brown 













Thanks for reporting back 
from front lines of the idiocy 


wars (aka online gaming), 
Matthew. Look for a game 
from us in your mailbox. 





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


We're not afraid of AO-rated games. 
You're aware that Katamari Damacy, 
roughly translated from the Japanese, 
means "group sex in ball configuration," 
right? There's also Beatmania (self- 
explanatory), Gun (hot pistol action), Rub 
Rabbits! (perhaps the most perverted 
game ever made), and plenty of other 
Sexy titles for an incarcerated young man 
such as yourself. 


Prison advice #3 
Hey guys, thought I'd type a few words down 
until the sheriff comes in. I'm a correctional 
officer here at a lovely jail, and | thought 
| would tell you about why my job's the 
coolest! Have you seen that TV commercial 
about people getting paid to play games? 
That's about how it is here. We play all sorts 
of games up in here, and | play two-player 
games with the inmates. As long as | get to 
come to work and play the latest games and 
get paid for it, it's the best job around 
—Jonathon Bouldin 


Do people in jail do anything but play 
games these days? What happened to the 
riots, the makeshift knives, the synthetic 
drugs made from cleaning products, 

and the grain alcohol fermented in toilet 
bowls? Besides, aren’t games supposed 
to make you act like a criminal? We're 
totally disenchanted. 


Run-on rant-a-thon 

I'm one of the many 11-year-old kids that 
plays Mature-rated games, and | read ЕСМ 
every month, and you guys always make 
fun of us, and we don’t appreciate it, and all 
the 30-something-year-olds write you about 
Street Fighter or some other game that took 
two seconds to make, and you compliment 
them all the time, and I’ve played those 
games, and they suck! —Alex M. 


Well, we think that kids who play M- 
rated games are making it harder for 


Letters 


Prisoner advising, genre debating, cannibal satiating, and videogaming 





₪ It took two minutes to make and 10 
years to get over. 





their intended audience to play them, and 
we make fun of kids like you because 
you write such bad letters (presumably 
because you're playing Grand Theft Auto 
when you should be playing Elmo's Letter 
Adventure), and Street Fighter is a great 
game, and it took much longer than two 
seconds to make, and you suck! 


(In)complete genre analysis 

1 was looking through some old issues of 
the magazine a little while ago, and I began 
to notice that sports games, as a whole, 
tended to score higher than all the other 
genres. Curious, | decided to do a little 
number crunching to see if my observation 
was true or not. | looked through a whole 
year of issues (June 2004 to June 2005) 





E Scary Resident 
Evilthingy says, “But 
survival-horror games 
are the bestest!!!” 





POST OFFICE 





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


“If life is really an elaborate videogame, 
what is your game called?” | 
Linkthelegend2: People Crossing, fewer animals but more idiots 


Neato_Jinkins2: Filliam Н. Muffman's Splendiforous Zeppelin Adventure 


Icymatt: The Game You Never Want to Play 


daniel564: Welcome to My Life (rated M for Mature) 
lamEthos: The Silent Adventures of That Really Quiet Kid 











and recorded all the scores given to games 
in the following genres: sports, role-playing 
games (RPGs), fighting, racing, shooters, 
strategy, puzzle, and survival-horror. After 
tallying up all the scores and determining an 
average score for each genre, here are the 
results | was left with: 


Puzzle: 7.917 

Sports: 7.880 

RPGs: 7.429 

Racing: 7.304 
Shooters: 7.061 
Strategy: 6.833 
Fighting: 6.737 
Survival-horror: 6.317 


Sure enough, it looked as though sports 
games had a higher average score than 
almost all of the other genres, taking a 
backseat only to puzzle games. To be 

fair, though, | must point out that only five 
puzzle games were included in this average 
[versus] 32 sports games. —Brian Sheehan 


Interesting analysis. You left out some 
key genres, though. We suck at math, so 
we just made these numbers up: > 

/ 







EGM@ziffdavis.com 


EGM Letters 
101 2nd Street, 8th Floor 
San Francisco, CA 94105 


E-mail: subhelp@egmmag.com 
Web: http://service.egmmag.com 


Phone: (800) 779-1174 


E-mail: back_issues@ziffdavis.com 


THE WAIT IS OVER 








ADVENT JOH TL DREN 


AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON 
2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION DVD AND FOR PSP™ 


4.25.06 


ee С OSE OUR ТЕЕ DELEON 


ЕЕ UMD. VIDEO 





DVD SPECIAL FEATURES 
* Feature Film including original Japanese • FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children Venice 


language with English subtitles and an Film Festival Footage 

English dub * Sneak Peek of upcoming FINAL FANTASY VII 
Reminiscence of FINAL FANTASY VII games 

Story Digest * FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children trailers 


* The Distance: Making of Featurette e Deleted Scenes 








Available at Á Special Features Not F 
моме ‘TRADE 
GAMES SQUARE ENIX. | 
И 


www.square-enix.com 
w 

















ml ROTE Ee www. SonyPictures.com/FinalFantasyVIl 
SONY ve 
 ППросвуј [PG i3S|panents STRONGLY салоне \ Crna 
LOGIC II [FOR SEQUENCES OF INTENSE SCIFI ACTION VIOLENCE] o c EIS 










"> 1997, 2005 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA, FINAL FANTASY is a registered trademark of Square Enix Co., Lt. 
1. ADVENT CHILDREN is a trademark of Square Enix Co, Ltd, "PSP" and “UMD” are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Dolby, Pro Logic, and the double-D 
are trademarks UM) Laboratories. = >is a trademark and "PlayStation" is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. 
9/2006 Layout and Design Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. 





Junk-ball rolling: 8.893 

Japanese adventures starring effeminate 
male leads: 8.207 

Lawyer simulations: 7.639 
Dog-sitting: 6.481 

Games featuring some form of 
"baditude": 5.199 

Mario Kart knockoffs: 5.001 

Games that inspired Uwe Boll 
movies: 4.851 

Military propaganda and recruitment 
shooters: 4.521 

Crime-sploitation: 3.402 


Playing 

| thought | was a “hardcore gamer," but last 
week the torch was taken from me. | was 

in the recreation area playing pool when | 
saw a guy named Justin whip out his PSP. 

| watched him play Tony Hawk for about 

an hour and half, and as he played, he was 
rocking back and forth faster and faster. 
Soon, he ran up to me and thrust the PSP 
into my hands and just said, “HOLD!” | was 
busy with my game, so | went to put his PSP 
into its case, and that's when | noticed that 
there was a small wet spot on his chair. We 


never asked, but we can only assume that 
he played until his bladder decided to teach 
him a lesson. | now bow to Justin's super- 
hardcoreness. —John Grimes 


Actually, what you witnessed was 
a rare public viewing of the species 
Hardcoreious gamerous secreting 

a special reproductive fluid, which, 
via mitochondrial Wi-Fi, alerts other 
hardcores to his presence. He was 
probably running off to mate. And 
also: ewww. 


Hungry for 


| NEED MORE GAMES ABOUT CANNIBALISM. 
NEXT TIME YOU GUYS TALK TO ANY GAME 
DEVELOPERS, TELL THEM. —Herman 


Will do, for sure. By the way, in case 

you were wondering, everyone ак EGM 
is supertrim and fit, not the kind of 
deliciously meaty, sedentary people-veal 
you might find at competing game mags 
and most gaming fansites. Anyway, we'll 
pass this along. 


When Stephen Nobles 
was your age, he used to 
sit out in the snow, freezing 
to death, just to play online 


games, you whippersnapper. 
| 


GAME DESIGN-O-RAMA 


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


Bob Ross: The Game 





ES Орыш шт 
iGame: Preorder yours today, jackasses. 


Not 

It was way too obvious that the “iGame” 

[in ЕСМ #202] was your April Fool's joke. 

that is, until | read that Metal Gear Solid 

3: Subsistence received Game of the 

Month honors over Ghost Recon Advanced 

Warfighter and/or Fight Night Round 3. 
—Thomas Harrington 


In ЕСМ #202, you forgot to mention iGame’s 
biggest benefit: With all the games being 
scaled down to play on a D-pad for main- 
stream gamers, the iGame could bridge the 
gap between mainstream and hardcore. 
Games like Call of Duty 3 [on the iGame] 
might persuade mainstream gamers to buy a 
next-gen console and get into real gaming. 
рату! Levy 


Fool 
I'm really excited for the iGame to come out, 
and | will not sleep until it does. I'd just like 
to tell you guys how toadally awesome you 
are for being the only source for this informa- 
tion. | say that you are “toadally” awesome 
because only a word used to emphasize the 
pure radicalness of Battletoads can describe 
how awesome you guys are for catching this 
scoop on April Fool's Day. If it were not for 
Battletoads, | would have to express my deep 
feelings for you through ritual sacrifice. 
—Dave Knapp 


commitment to gaming 

| don't have a router at my house, so | miss 
out on Xbox Live, DS Wi-Fi, etc. Fortunately, 
my pal hooked me up to his router, so | can 
play my DS online. Unfortunately, his parents 


BONUS GALLERY 


Going the extra mile for love of the game 


Ms. Pod-Man 





are never home, so | can't go inside to play. 
Instead, 1 sit on a hill across from his house 
and play Mario Kart DS online. Where | live, 
itis very cold. | sit іп the snow, freezing. Му 
face stings. My fingers are numb, snow piling 
down hard each day. It's usually 30 degrees 
or less, and | can hardly see the screen 
through the snow, yet I'm having the time 
of my life! 

—Stephen Nobles 


Complete 

In the letters section of [EGM #200], you 
referenced Namco's Space Shuttle Complete, 
which shipped with a $17,999 cockpit! 
Please, can you give me more info on this 
product? | have been looking everywhere on 
the Internet and can’t find info or pictures of 
it. You also mentioned you were stuck on this 
game. —Lowride 


What more can we say about a game 

that bankrupted families, destroyed 
friendships, and trained gamers to make 
precise mechanical repairs to the Hubble 
Space Telescope? The game's $17,999 
controller was built into the chassis of a 
Dodge Sportsman van. It ran on diesel fuel, 
had king-size cupholders, and smelled 
like a Jiffy Lube station. Hell yeah we were 
stuck...somewhere in the middle of our 
second semester of quantum physics. ќа. 


An enterprising geek built this supercute 
clash of old school and new school, a tiny 
Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet that houses 
an arcade-emulating iPod Nano. "Yes, it 
works. This is the prototype version. It 
stands about 5 inches tall," says Scott 
Lawrence, the cabinet’s creator. Check out 
his making-of photos at: 
,www.umlautilama.com/gallery/nanomame 


Finally, the killer-app launch title for Nintendo's 
3D-pointer-equipped console can be revealed. 
Realize your dream of becoming a mediocre 
landscape painter with the help of Afro-tastic 
PBS superstar Bob Ross. Learn to paint "happy 
little trees, happy little clouds, and pretty little 
mountains," all using Nintendo's freehand-style 
controller and optional palette attachment. 
—Peter Kwarts & Bert Zuilhof 





16 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


бе. טנטפ‎ 68 
j 
i 


1 
» 


! 







| 


A 


A) 


THE MAKERS OF TAG BODY SPRAY ADVISE THAT WEARING NEW WILD CARD AND PLAYING STRIP BLACKJACK CAN 
LEAD TO SEVERE NUDITY. TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T LEAD TO YOUR OWN NUDITY, USE ATTACHED INVINCI-CARD. 


2 uw 


Ae : Introducing new Wild Card from TAG?" - CONSIDER YOURSELF. 
j v.ConsiderYourselfWarned.com 8 3.5 ounces of Vegas ina can, М Ln ED 





1190/09 јаки 10 ESPE 
006 


Brothers! Summon your every power. Together we shall leave the Vinci war 


aking machines rusting in the desert sands. Enlist at www.alinarmy.com < / 


m 


3506 


00-96 


8 


1 


Summon а recruitment advisor at: 








gamexstudios: 


Windows" 


g 
© 
e 
= 
= 
בד‎ 
5 
ә 
сс 


2 
5 
= 














— —— CALL THE RECRUITING OFFICE בי‎ 





ress star 


gaming news, previews, new and not-so-improved consoles, and а 





The latest portable ganling trend in Japan doesn't 
involve a single elf, plumber, or dragon—but it does - 
require some other serious nerd tendencies 


Са ~< 4 


BRAIN AGE WILL BE RELEASED FOR DS APRIL 17, WITH THE SECOND GAME IN THE SERIES, BIG BRAIN ACADEMY, HITUNG STORES MAY 30, 





20 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ¢ 2 


Curious how well your brain is aging? Get cracking on the four 
puzzles below. Keep in mind, the real game bases your score on 
how fast you can solve the puzzles, so don’t dillydally! 


TRAIN 


YOUR 





rosswords, brainteasers, word 

jumbles, and 10 tests may be 

tried-and-true time-wasting 
phenomena, but they’re not exactly 
what comes to mind when you think 
of upcoming hot trends in high-tech 
videogaming. Sure, you've got 83 million 
(or so) middle-aged women playing Text 
Twist online at this very instant, but 
when you think about the cutting edge 
of the medium, daily sudoku doesn't 
pop to the forefront. That all changes 
this spring, when Nintendo hits us with 
its new DS game, Brain Age: Train Your 
Brain in Minutes a Day. 


Strain that brain 

Brain Age takes the basic skills we 

all learned in grade school—reading, 
writing, and arithmetic—and turns them 
into addictive timed puzzles. It calculates 





— Mond 


the speed and accuracy with which you 
solve the puzzles, then calculates your 
“brain age"—a number that determines 
whether you’re a spry young whiz kid of 
20 or positively geriatric in your 80-year- 
old dementia. 

The puzzles involve everything from 
rapid-fire arithmetic and speed-reading 
classic literary passages from Gulliver's 
Travels to sketching out from memory 
the shape of the African continent. The 
minigames make extensive use of the 
DS technology—answers are written on 
the touch screen, and some puzzles have 
you speak the correct answer into the 
microphone, Some activities are easier than 
they sound, and some are harder—test 
your own gray cells in our quizzical sidebar 
(right)—but they all make you feel brainy. 
And that’s never a bad thing, especially 
when it’s based on actual science. 


QUESTION 1: SUDOKU 














QUESTION 2: SYLLABLE COUNT 


Шы 
- 
|| 
И 
GE 
8 
A 
= 
- 
₪ 
[=й 


Watching television rots 
your brain. 


| No, really, it's been 
scientifically proven. 


Videogames, on the other 
hand, keep your prefrontal | 
cortex active. 


And that's really good for 
society. 


By the way, have you been 
reading this aloud? 


If you have, that's good, 
because it's the best way 
to train your brain! 


QUESTION 3: ARITHMETIC 


QUESTION 4: CONNECT MAZE 


Complete the grid so 
every vertical line, 
horizontal line, and 
3-by-3 grid contains 
the numbers 1 
through 9 with no 
overlap. 


Determine the 
correct number of 
syllables in each 
phrase and fill in 
the blanks with your 
answers. 


This one's pretty 
straightforward—just 
do the math and 
write in the correct 
answers to each 

of the following 
equations. 





Draw a line from A 
to 1, then to B, then 
to 2, and so on until 
complete. Don't 
touch any letters or 
numbers except the 
ones you're aiming 
for. 


JUST A MONTH LATER. THE SECOND TITLE OFFERS MULTIPLAYER BRAIN GAMING FOR U TO EIGHT PLAYERS USING A SINGLE DS CART.... >> 





ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com “ 21 





(> press start 





TRAIN YOUR BRAIN cov: 


> Weird science 


Brain Age is the first in a series of three 
games for the DS that came out last year 
in Japan and have sold more than 2.5 
million copies to date. Based on research 
by Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a neuroscientist 
who has spent decades studying and 
writing about brain activity, the games 
are built on the premise that brain 
functions start to decrease after the age 
of 20—and that, just as with the rest of 
your body, exercising your brain keeps 
it strong. “Have you noticed yourself 
forgetting things lately? Do you have 
trouble articulating exactly what you want 
to say?” Kawashima asks in the game's 
introductory manual. “These symptoms 
can be alleviated by training your brain.” 
The games are supposed to stimulate 
activity in the prefrontal cortex—"the 
control tower of your brain,” according to 
Kawashima. All the activities in Brain Age, 
whether counting syllables in words or 
quickly memorizing a series of numbers 
on the screen, have been specially tested 
(using MRIs, even!) and designed to train 
this center of your practical intelligence. 


Real genius 

Math equations and MRI scans of brain 
activity might seem out of step with 
today’s popular games, but Nintendo isn’t 
doing Jedi mind tricks. From President 
Satoru Iwata’s keynote address at last 
year's Tokyo Game Show ("If we cannot 


SUDOKU 


expand the market, all we can do is wait 
for the industry to slowly die”) to Executive 
Vice President Reggie Fils-Aime's public 
promises to market to Oprah Winfrey's 
audience, the company is clearly looking to 
bring new gamers into the fold. 

If its unique sales pattern is any 
indication, Brain Age is a step in that 
direction. Unlike most games, which see the 
bulk of their sales in the first couple weeks 
after release, Brain Age wasn't crazy out of 
the gate. "But then word of mouth built" 
says Nintendo localization writer Alan Averill, 
who's working on the series. "So five, six, 
seven months after release, it was selling 
way more than it was at the beginning—it 
never works like that." Averill notes 
that sales increased particularly around 
Japanese holidays when people go home 
to visit family, suggesting that gamers were 
buying it for parents and other relatives who 
weren't already playing the game. 

And now, Nintendo looks to get 
Stateside smarties addicted—a sensible 
move, considering that the first baby 
boomers start turning 60 this year (and 
there are upwards of 75 million more out 
there, most of whom probably still view 
games as kid stuff). Nintendo's not the only 
company doing this, either. Microsoft's 
Xbox Live Arcade has definite potential to 
capture a similarly casual market. One way 
or another, with Brain Age hitting stores 
this spring, the mind games are about 
to begin. —Jennifer Tsao 


SYLLABLE COUNT 











| Watching television rots 
your brain, 


No, really, it's been 
scientifically proven. 





ој ьо س‎ 





E S 


Videogames, on the 
other hand, keep your 








And that's really good for | 
society. 


зр س‎ 


Ву the way, have you 
been reading this aloud? 























T 
6 
1 
2 
al 


If you have, that's good, 
because it's the best way 
to train your brain! 














Ao 





2 ₪ || | ₪ | о | | 


i 


ARITHMETIC 


11-8 = 3 
9+2=11 
1x7 =7 
2x0=0 
2-2=0 
3+3=6 
9х4 = 36 
4+5 = 9 
1х9 = 9 
15-9 = 6 


4x1=4 
1+7=8 
4-0=4 
10-8=2 
449 213 
6x9 = 54 
9-1 = 8 
8+1=9 
0х1 =0 
12-8 = 4 





СОММЕСТ МА2Е 


A SOURCE DEEP WITHIN NINTENDO OF AMERICA (WHO, QUITE UNDERSTANDABLY, WISHES ТО REMAIN ANONYMOUS) LET SLIP THAT CER- 


22 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 











mI | "BETTER THAN 
Aca 4 DRUG ABUSE!” 


We certainly want to believe that doing a few math problems 
can make our memories better and potentially stave off 
Alzheimer's, but when we saw Dr. Kawashima's floating head 
reminding us to eat a healthy breakfast before starting our daily brain training, we 
decided we wanted a second opinion. 

Dr. J. Wesson Ashford, senior research scientist at the Stanford/VA Alzheimer's 
Center in Palo Alto, CA, acknowledged that several studies have found links between 
mental activities such as puzzles and a decreased likelihood of developing dementia. 
"The problem is that the people who tend to do the crossword puzzles in the first 

₪ Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, the neuroscientist whose research is the basis for the Brain Age place may be those who have more education and are less likely to have early signs 
games, is a well-known figure in Japan who has also written popular brain-training books. of Alzheimer’s disease anyway,” says Ashford. 

But even without affirming the direct link between sudoku and superpowered 
brainage, Ashford did have some clear advice. “There’s something to be said for 
playing these games rather than watching television, where everything’s just flooding 
in and you don't do anything with it,” he says. “If you're coming home and doing 
a puzzle rather than drinking a pint of brandy, | would say that the puzzles are 
tremendously better—and it’s a tremendous amount better than abusing drugs.” 





First, we’re assuming this didn’t take you forever to complete— 
slow brains are old brains, and time is of the essence! 


гым. Quis. 


Did you read what the good brain doctor = MC. 
said about abusing drugs? Clearly, you need to train your brain Tu 
for more than a few minutes а day. ^ + > 


Congratulations. Your brain age is offi- 
cially not embarrassing. But keep practicing. You have room for 
improvement. 


We'd be impressed at your intense mental acuity... 


if you weren’t such a cheater! See, we fudged No. 4 to make it 
physically unsolvable. Try again, smarty pants. ЖА. 


IG MONTHLY > www.1UP.com “ 28 





EGMINTERNATI@NAL 


Motherly love 





Cay 
MOTHER 3 


What the heck is this? A fan-made 
game? Nope, it's far better than that. 
In fact, despite the Peanuts-style 
graphics, Mother 3 is one of the most 
exciting portable role-playing games 
of the year. But it’s definitely been a 
bumpy development road: This series 
is the brainchild of Japanese writer 
Shigesato Itoi and has been haphaz- 
ardly published by Nintendo (Mother 2 
hit the Super NES in 1995 under the 
name EarthBound). Itoi started work 
on the third game for the Nintendo 
64, but it got canned in 2000 after 
multiyear delays. Yet now, much to 
the delight of the EarthBound maniacs 
at fansite starmen.net and elsewhere, 
the project's been resurrected for the 
Game Boy Advance (Japanese gamers 
can pick it up in late April) 
Why should | care? The Mother 
games are among the most offbeat 
and self-referential RPGs ever made. 
EarthBound, for example, stars a bunch 
of neighborhood kids that bash zom- 
bies with baseball bats and an alien 
race called "Mr. Saturn" that speaks in 
a kindergarten scrawl, and it has you 
Searching a monkey-infested cave for 
the "gourmet yogurt machine." It even 
features a truly spasmodic soundtrack 
that samples everything from the 
Beatles to Monty Python's Flying Circus. 
Itoi is currently teasing Mother 
3 оп his Japanese site (1101.com), 
using a slow stream of screenshots 
and music samples. Is a U.S. release 
possible? It'd be a crime if it weren't. 





Ф 
v. 

tal © Mother 25 woods are full 
ze of surprises...and some creep! 





BY THE NUMBERS 


Oh, the profanity! 
Number of hours freelance writer Josh Smith 
34 (imjosh.com) monitored gamers’ swearing 
habits while playing Halo 2 (XB) online 
8 11 Number of times per hour Smith heard someone 
. drop the F-bomb (the most of any curse word) 


7 Percentage of profanity that involved something 
sexual (usually directed toward someone's mother) 


Price (in dollars) for a bar of Dove soap, 
which, after reading Smith’s study, some parents 
should stick into their online gamers’ mouths 





>> SHINY (ENTER THE MATRIX) PRESIDENT DAVE PERRY HAS TEMPORARI 





24 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





THE HOT SEAT: 











FT HIS POSITION TO HELP FIND A BUYER FOR THE STUDIO.... >> 





‘BECOME THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR За "DNE | | 
AS JACK CARVER - ה‎ HUNTED MAN TURNED HUNTER Atso metudes 


anced 


IN A PARADISE x. HELL. ИС... rome 








Eatin Ye] 







WAGE WAR ACROSS LAND, SEA, AND AIR IN A 4 290 CREATE YOUR OWN MAPS AND SHARE THEM 
BREATHTAKING TROPICAL WILDERNESS. ONLINE FOR EXPLOSIVE ISLAND WARFARE.” | 


HUNT AND BE HUNTED BY UNNERVINGLY BRILLIANT Al ENEMIES. 35 > | 


МАТО тт. cod Available Now wuw-FarcryGame.com 


Drug Reference 


Intense Violence P 
Strong Language J 
Suggestive Themes 4 





UBISOFT 












Visit www.esrb.org 
for updated rating 
information. 


~C} lo-Interactive 








Ox 











SOFTWARE 


(с) 2006 10 Interactive A/S. Hitman, Hitman: Blood Money, Eidos and the Eidos logo are trademarks of the SCi Entertainment Group. IO and the IO logo are trademarks of IO Interactive A/S. All rights reserved. "PlayStation" and the “PS” 
Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logo, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in 
other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. The rating icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association, 


E: 


М 


www.HitmanBloodMoney.com 





28 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 









Publisher: Atari 
Developer: Eden Studios 
Release Date: Early to mid-2007 


Б.а: 


- 
D imagine the unreal 
slither out of his own skir 


have long, sharp blades emanating { 
fill the unknowable void of dai 


= See, ladies: 

We men до a long 
way for that super- 
close shave. 









| This gameplay 
perspective looks 
very Resident Evil 4 
(that's a good thing). 


“| can't say much,” says David 
Nadal, director of the series’ next-gen 
reinvention, currently confirmed for the 
Xbox 360 (and most likely headed to the 
PS3). “I’ve got [publisher] Atari on my 
back. We're still keeping mum on the 
story line, but players will be thrust into 
a modern-day setting and assuming the 
role of Edward Carnby.” Carnby, of course, 
is the paranormal investigator who has 
been at the center of the Alone in the 
Dark series since its inception in 1992. 
The original game first made a name for 
itself with horror-seeking PC gamers, 
essentially inventing the atmospheric, 
puzzles-and-monsters formula that 
Resident Evil would later use to create a 
gaming empire. To this day, Alone in the 
Dark remains hidden in the shadows of 
its progeny, a fact that irks Nadal. 

“When I played the first Resident Evil, 
1 couldn't help but have the impression 
that I was playing a remake of Alone,” 
he says. “But when the object of a game 
is to scare the living hell out of people, 
an immersive experience beats an 
original one. When RE first appeared, 
its only competition was a port of Alone 
2 оп [the original PlayStation], which 
had graphics that paled in comparison 
to RE’s new generation of realistic 


ACCORDING TO NINTEN 





30 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





characters. It was at that moment that 
Alone lost its leadership." The series only 
slid further downhill from there, with 
sequels that, according to Nadal, “merely 
surfed on the wave of success from 

the first [game].” The Behind the Music 
rock-bottom moment came with 2005’s 
embarrassing movie adaptation, courtesy 
of notorious film butcher Uwe Boll. How 
embarrassing? Colin Covert, film critic 
for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, quipped, 
“If you took the 100 worst ideas ever 
conceived for a science-fiction film, 
rattled them around in a lotto tumbler, 
and spilled them out onto the screen at 
random, you could not produce a more 
asinine hodgepodge than Alone in the 
Dark” Ouch. 

But every great Behind the Music 
story has a post-rehab return to form, 
and this Alone in the Dark could be just 
that. Nadal and his crew at Eden Studios 
are going for a full-on makeover to 
“break from the established survival- 
horror genre and propose a new vision.” 
Central to this new vision will be the 
game's location, New York City’s famous 
oasis of green, Central Park. “The park 
is a place that one might think of as a 
quiet, peaceful environment where one 
would feel almost safe,” says Nadal. > 


MORE THAN ONE MILLION PEOPLE HAVE NOW GONE О 














Е WITH THEIR DS HANDHELD: 





What; Dark: Beast Lurks Within ой? 














jo —— 5 — — e| -— —— — 

Immerse yourself in an epic storyline = Experience an enhanced 3D game engine Hack, slash and morph your way 
brought to life through dramatic that takes graphics, SFX and'lighting to a through the game with the help of 

in-game cinematics and voiceovers. stunning new level of quality and detail. the superior combat system. 


Pre-order now at www.untoldlegends.com 


Untold Legends" The Warrior's Code™ © 2006 Sony Online Entertainment. SOE and the SOE logo are registered trademarks and Untold Legends and The Warrior's Code are trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment Inc. 
"PSP" is a trademark and "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). * Based on data from NPD group. 





E + — ONLINE‏ م 


ENTERTAINMENT 








PlayStation. Portable 


To really capture that feeling, the team 
is re-creating the real thing. "We're 
building every single piece of itin ап = 
exact replica,” he says. “From satellite 
photos and altitude data, we’ve been 
able to reproduce the park with a 50cm 
precision. From Central Park tree species 
to the well-known sites, the player will 
really feel as if he or she is in today's 
Central Park." Of course, the point of 
convincing you that you're experiencing 
something real is to subvert it with 

the unreal. “One overarching theme of 
this game is to challenge the feeling 

of security and make these elements 
horrific,” says Nadal. 

It will be interesting to see just how 
Eden pulls it off, given that players will 
be free to roam the park as they see fit. 
“The game's gonna be like the real world 
in a way that hasn’t been seen, bringing 
a new sense of freedom of movement,” 
Nadal says. “The player will be 
completely immersed in his surroundings 
and can use everything he has around 
him to survive.” It’s an interesting twist, 
but that freedom pretty much eliminates 
any use of the old spring-loaded 
haunted-house gags so prevalent in 


the genre. Perhaps what we think of as 


“scary” in games isn’t necessarily what 


... this Alone in the Dark will be about. — 


^| think that true fear is suggested 
fear, the type that grows in our minds,” 
says Nadal. “It’s not based on classical 
surprise effects or gore. Real fear festers 
in our minds over time.” This accounts for 
the game's hiring of Lorenzo Carcaterra, 
screenwriter for the movie Sleepers and 
the television series Homicide. The game 
will approximate the flow of a television 
drama, “festering” over episodic twists 
and turns, while Carcaterra’s script will 
focus on the border between life and 
death, with Edward Carnby investigating 
“paranormal elements linked to the 
afterlife,” Nadal says. "We're building 
the story from converging similarities 
between religions, cultures, and beliefs, 
as well as near-death-experience tales 
lived by those who have brushed 
against death.” If anything, the series 
itself has brushed against death. Ме"! 
be watching to see if Alone in the Dark 
returns from the grave a zombified 
shadow of its former greatness, or horror 
gaming reborn. 

—Robert Ashley 




















The new Alone in the Dark takes place 
in a painstakingly re-created model of 
NYC’s Central Park, in which you can 
move about at your whim. It sounds 
great and all, but does that mean you 
can bludgeon to death those annoying, 
spandex-wearing rollerblader dudes? 
“We wanted the player to feel part of 
the adventure but not forcefully be the 
center of it,” says Director David Nadal. 
“There will be other people around 
living their lives. We'll have some of 
the ‘typical’ characters you'd find in 
Central Park, so yes, we'll have those 
rollerbladers, and yes, you'll be able to 
realize your fantasy.” It’s about time. ќи 














>> PUBLISHER VU GAMES HAS OPENED UP A MOBILE GAMES DIVISION. AND YES, A CELL-PHONE VERSION OF LEISURE SUIT LARRY 15 COMING.... >> 


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


STORYLINE SPANS THE E 
SPLINTER CELL'SERIES т 


ALL-NEW, EXCLUSIVELY pj cum 
д ESIG| 
MISSIONS FOR THE Psp" SYSTEM 


Go deeper th 

adventure exclusiv 

Sam Fisher, you are arrested 
you must re-examine your pa: 





MATURE 17+ 








Strong Language 


de A. ге [ r. AVAILABLE NOW ONIY FOR THE PSP" SYSTEM. 
. PlayStation. Portable WWW.SPLINTERCELL.COM 


© 2006 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Splinter Cell, Sam Fisher, the Soldier Icon, Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. "PSP" is a trademark. " 
and “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately) u В І вс = T 























© press start 





КА 


אלל 


DISC 


JOCKEYING 


Who will win the format battle between 
Blu-ray and HD-DVD? And why should 
gamers care? We pick a side 


t's as if the consumer-electron- 
ics industry failed to learn from 
the great Betamax-versus-VHS 


wars of the late '70s. Once again, we're 
about to see a clash of media formats: 
HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray, two supersize disc 
types vying for the future of high-defini- 
tion movie playback and data storage. 

And you should give a crap because...? 
Well, for one thing, movie buffs who own 
HDTVs will find that flicks encoded on 
Blu-ray and HD-DVD—which will start 
shipping soon—look amazingly crisp 
on their fancy boob tubes (you need a 
high-def TV with HDMI inputs to take full 
advantage of either format). But the two 
are also not-so-secret weapons in the 
next-gen console wars. 

It all begins with Sony, the primary 
owner and supporter of Blu-ray. The com- 
pany plans on getting consumers to wel- 
come its format by including Blu-ray sup- 


>> FOR $6, YOU CAN DOWNL 





34 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


port in its upcoming PlayStation 3 system. 
Microsoft has responded by announcing 
its support for rival HD-DVD, which is less 
expensive than Blu-ray technology and 
will be available sooner. Microsoft has 
promised an add-on HD-DVD drive for the 
Xbox 360—although it will be used for 
movies only and not as a games format 
(the system uses standard dual-layer 
DVDs for games). 

Hollywood movie studios have 
taken sides, too. Only one major studio 
(Universal) has not yet announced its 
support of Blu-ray, while the HD-DVD 
camp is still missing support from Sony, 
home video juggernaut Disney, and oth- 
ers. Whichever side emerges victorious, 
consumers must take care as to which 
horse they back, at least early on. There is 
nothing quite so bad as being stuck with a 
closet full of eight-track tapes or Betamax 
movies once the war is over. 


$1,000 and up for the first Blu-ray 

players (no price for the PS3 has 
been announced yet, but analysts 
expect it to be around $500) 


50GB (dual layer) 


May 2006 
FUNCTIONALITY 


Movie playback, recordable formats, 
data storage (PC and PS3) 





$500 and up for HD-DVD play 
price for the Xbox 360 add- 
been announced) 










30GB (dual layer) 


March 28, 2006 





Movie playback, recordable formats, _ 
data storage (PC only) 





Ae 
Н 







WILL ITS HARDWARE ALSO PLAY STANDARD DVDS? 


Up to 1080p (full resolution promised 
for launch units and the PS3) 





Up to 1080p (though initial units only 
support 720p and 1080i) 


NECESSARY GEAR 


Blu-ray players will hook to any TV, but 
to take advantage of the ultra-crisp 
resolution, you'll need a 1080p-com- 
patible HDTV with a digital input such 
as DVI or HDMI. “Old fashion" analog 
component inputs won't do the job. 


| 


HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS SUPPORT 


Sony (Columbia TriStar and MGM), 
20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, 
Warner Bros. 





Same story. That means the 360 add- 
on might need its own digital output, 
since Microsoft won't confirm if the 
360's A/V port supports DVI or HDMI. 

| We bet it doesn't, which essentially 
makes the add-on a standalone player. 





Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros. 


GAME SUPPORT 


An underdog called the PlayStation 

3 and any software developer who 
wants to take advantage of the great- 
er storage capacity Blu-ray offers. 


= 
[4 
ЕЗ 


WHY IS SONY BACKING 
4 


Simply put, Sony is counting on sales 
of its game system to get Blu-ray 
players in homes. Sony figures people 
will then buy Blu-ray movies, which 
will make the company a mint in 
licensing revenue (hence the reason 
Sony is willing to take a substantial 
loss on every PS3 sold). 


Anew promised add-on for the Xbox 
360, but Microsoft says it will be for 
movie playback only. 


WHY IS MICROSOFT BACKING 
HD-DVD? 

T 
The last thing Microsoft wants is Sony 
gaining power through Blu-ray. Yet 
Microsoft’s initial HD-DVD support is 
weak; the company has stated that its 
add-on won't play games. We figure 
Microsoft is just stalling until wide- 
spread online distribution of games 
and movies makes disc size pointless. 





Blu-ray is faster and more durable (scrape the discs with steel wool and they 
Still play). More importantly, it has better support, from games to movies to hard- 
ware, and the PlayStation 3 will serve as a Trojan horse for the format. "Based 
on the first two PlayStation systems, it's a pretty safe bet that Sony will sell 20 
million PS3s [worldwide] in the first couple of years," says Michael Pachter, ana- 
lyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities. With hardware numbers like that, the PS3 
should be able to do for the Blu-ray format what the PS2 did for DVD and the 
PSP has done for UMD. $h —Marc Camron 


THREE NEW MULTIPLAYER MAPS FOR SOCOM 3: U.S. NAVY SEALS (PS2) ONTO A STANDARD MEMORY CARD.... 





s Cl» 


THE GAMEKILLERS 





There are people out there whose sole mission in life is to cause you to 


blow your cool and lose the girl. They are, The Gamekillers. 


HE BALLADEER 


For an encore, he's going to do your girl. 





It doesn't matter that he might sleep on a futon in the 
back of a van, chicks will always dig а guy who can 
sing. Whether he's the quintessential frontman for a 
college indie-alternative band or the scratchy-voiced 
crooner at the local pub, you've got to be wary of 
this pseudo rock star and his ripped-up jeans that he 
only takes off to have sex. Sure, his esoteric lyrics are 
irritating, but The Axe Dry wearer keeps his cool by 
etting the tune play out—after she sees he's a quasi- 
omeless has-been that never was, you'll be the one 


eft singing her a sweet bedtime lullaby. 


























Keep Your Cool. Axe Dry. 


Learn more at gamekillers.com 


©2006 UNILEVER 





Ra cie 


Маяа ахли 


Ba! 


on De (€ env En a-‏ ته 


TAKE THIS JOB: 


COMMUNITY 





MANAGER 


„ = The lo 


Qr athea Семе. 
түгү АШ. 


eo 








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


DETAILS 











Experience: Six years in the industry 
Notable games: The Lord of the Rings: 
The Battle for Middle-earth 1 & И (PC), 
Command and Conquer franchise, EA’s 
first LOTR game for Xbox 360. 


Salary range: $50,000 to $70,000 
Recommended education: A major in 
communications or marketing, as well 
as something of an art background and 
knowledge of multiple design and Web 
programs. Or, alternatively: “Jump in and 
throw yourself to a pack of wolves, see 
if you can come out alive, and learn to 
have a thick skull!" Kaufman says. 
Location of most jobs: West Coast 
Current level of demand: High 


This person acts as the voice of a devel- 
opment studio. He or she must under- 
stand its audience better than anyone 


36 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com 


>> NEED MORE STORAGE CAPACITY FOR Yí 


and offer support for fans. That includes 
talking daily on message boards, posting 
the latest news and updates, providing 
screenshots and videos, and orchestrat- 
ing events. "It's all about creating and 
maintaining the connection between the 
fans and the developer,” Kaufman says. 
He also organizes summits, inviting top 
community leaders from around the 
world to visit the studio for behind-the- 
scenes looks at current projects. 


Team leaders stop by Kaufman’s cube 

in the mornings for community updates, 
and he sits in with the development 
teams on several meetings every day. 
“Face-to-face interaction is key in my 
role,” he says. He’s constantly interacting 
with community message boards and 
fansites, assessing the vibe, maintain- 
ing the website, compiling feedback for 
development teams, and keeping the 





community informed of his team’s plan 
of action for the week. “I deliver reports 
assessing all the community feedback 
and the love—and the occasional bril- 
liant ideas from our avid fans,” he says. 


Kaufman worked as a game consultant 
for a market-research company for 
several years before arriving at EA Los 
Angeles. “I had a friend that worked at an 
EA studio,” he says, “and | was referred 
for a position in the marketing depart- 
ment at the then-new EALA studio.” He 
joined on and was responsible for creat- 
ing videos and screenshots, among other 
things. “But the most pivotal moment was 
when 1 organized a successful community 
summit at the studio, and the rest is his- 
tory,” he says. “The studio soon saw that 
there was a need for a full-time commu- 
nity manager. | jumped at the chance, and 
here | am.” + —Evan Shamoon 


PSP? THIS JULY, SONY WILL RELEASE A 468 MEMORY STICK, BUT IT'LL SET YOU BACK $250. 





b. | 


HIS TRADE 


If you're gonna walk the walk, you'd 
better talk the talk. “Pwnd, flamed, 
noob, ROTFL,” Kaufman rattles off. 
“My English teachers didn’t teach 
me these words in school.” 


Part of the job is having an eye for 
design. “Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, 
and Final Cut Pro are [the] primary 
tools for creating trailers and enhanc- 
ing and updating our websites,” he 
says. “I also create videos for the fans 
and take screenshots.” 


"| wouldn't be in this role without 

the many dedicated and passionate 
Lord of the Rings and Command and 
Conquer fansites,” he says. “They 
[create] the community's vibe and 

can also make.me jump out of my 
chair. It's a priority for me to know all 
fansites involved with my development 
studio's games inside and out." 


Photograph by Kate Romero 





Graphic cards, games, 
T-shirts, posters, mugs, 
autographed props—you 
name it, and Kaufman gives 
it away. ќа. 








Г 







IN COMMAND. IN CONTROL. ON THE MOVE. 


` STRATEGIC MILITARY 
WARFARE IN THE PALM 
OF YOUR HAND. 





VO JA sv 


M EE o | / VN A 
| לוה‎ : : + Е 21 j x 
. x FIELD > 


Wage War Multiplayer Style, їп Ad Hoc, Turn the Battlefield to Your Advantage in 30 


Infrastructure, Hot Swap and Transmission Modes. C 0 М M AN n E R Single-Player Missions. 


JOIN THE RANKS AT 
רה‎ | «SONY ONLINE WWW.FIELDCOMMANDERGAME.COM 4 — r3. 


: ENTERTAIN! 
Game experience may МЕНТ e PlayStation.Portable 
change during online play. 

















Violence 





© 2006 Sony Online Entertainment Inc. SOE and the SOE logo are registered trademarks and Field Commander is a trademark of Sony Online Entertainment Inc. "PSP" is a trademark and "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family 
logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All rights reserved. 





PS2/XB 


What a (Solid) Snake + ; | 
Rasmus Hojengaard: “On occasion, gels ..... 
ТУТИ 
approach. This means our assassin will need Г 

to pull out some new abilities from his ‘bag " 


of trícks; ћ as using en 5 as human | 
shields, tos: istract them, and | 
knocking ‘em out with hi . | wonder if 


<< LEGENDARY COMIC ARTIST JIM LEE WILL ACT AS EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR ON SONY ONLINE'S UPCOMING MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER 














Follow the Boy Scout Motto 

“Being prepared is key here, so Agent 47’siforever-expand- 
ing arsenal of ballistic gadgetry—sincludingspisi fistols, tifles, 

| and submachine guns—wilf become ingféasingly handy as 

you progress through numerous missions’ Each one of these 

weapons is now completely customizable,too. Here, he's found 

a spot to use his upgraded sniper rifle, but don't expéct all.of 


Blood Money's prime sniping locations to be this, desoláte. Ж 











| Global Killer 
| 
| 
| 





| 
| RH: “Agent 47 will set up:shop in several U.S. cities, | 
including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New Orleans. But | 
in this screenshot, he’s made his way to a Paris opera | 
| 

| 





house, in which wearing the correct disguise has gotten 
| him onstage and that much closer to his target. Damn, 
| | didn’t expect this much blood—1 guess | shouldn't 
| have used armor-piercing ammo for such a close kill. | 
| wouldn't be surprised if the audience thinks twice about 
- going | to the opera after they figure out what happened." | 














.. We always knew Agent 
47 was a backstabher. 


ans Wocessary. 
роци“ t have let all those bodyguard 
see me. | shouldn't Пауе wasted all that ammo for no 
| reason at all. But sometimes unexpected things happen, 
and situations can take a turn for the Worst, This Квин... 
tal. | don't like doing itthis way. But | have a paying cus- 
_tomer—| have to get the job done. Otherwise, someone 
else will Come in and do it...and do me afterwards.” #6 


1 Ваша. : 
ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAME Ps3 THAT $ BASED ON THE DC COMICS UNIVERSE. 


| 








C) press start 
OVERHEARD 


Did you catch that? 


“It’s like eating 





—Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness, Too Human) prez Denis Dyack on his visions 
for how subsequent games in the Too Human trilogy will complement one another 


“Get behind the 
wheel of Desert 
Bus for a first-per- 


son, | 





It’s a bus. And 
it’s an eight-hour 
drive. In real time.” 


—Froin the 1995 press release describing a level 
in Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, 4 never- 
released бода CD game that recently resurfaced 
as a download for Sega CD emulators 


ТЕТЛА Se mee | 









Го шз 


Sss 


“If you think that the | 
fashion industry is filled 
with divas, no, the worst 
divas are the guys who got 
wedgies in high school. 


| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 


than a guy 
reviewer in a Helmut Lang 
suit standing in the second 
row of a show. Those guys 
| аге easy compared to the 
| pissy gamers.” 


— Getting Up's Marc Ecko on gamers 





“| believe the nature of the [videogame] medium pre- 
vents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stat- 
ure of art... 

of those precious hours we have available to make 
ourselves more cultured, civilized, and empathetic.” 


—Movie critic Roger Ebert, responding to questions about his 
claims that videogames are inferior to film and literature 


| 
| 


representations of the 
graphics in the games themselves.” 


—A British advertising watchdog group demands that Activision take down its 
Call of Duty 2 television ads because of their superior—and fake—graphics 





PENNY ARCADE WWW.PENNY-ARCADE.COM 


I'M going to get 
Grandia III. You should get 


Mark Ecko's Getting Up. 
We'll share custody. = 
| Ж You know what? 
₪ Pkk* You. You always say E: 


oP these games? Now 
and Porever? 
we'll share custody and 
"| тена up stuck with Billy 
Hatcher ог some 





Can you honestly, clearly, 
| / and directly assure me that 
we will assert Co-ownership 








“That'd be like getting a f***ing 
star in Super Mario Bros. and 
just walking at a regular pace 
instead of running around. When 
you get that star, 


—Hip-hop star Kanye West on why he bragged 
about his numerous Grammy nominations 


Man, Getting Up 
16 God's punishment Por 
an evil world. Leb ме 
ор on that Grandia. 
oy said 


y 
| 





QUOTATION SOURCES FROM ТОР TO BOTTOM, STARTING WITH LEFT COLUMN: ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY, WAXY.ORG, KOTAKU.COM, ROGEREBERT.COM, ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY REPORT, PLAYBOY 


>> THIS FALL, 2K GAMES WILL RELEASE AN ACTION-ADVENTURE TITLE (PS2/XB) BASED ON FOX'S ANIMATED SERIES FAMILY GUY.... >> 





40 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com. 



























DEAD RISING 


Xbox 360 * Capcom * Summer 2006 

Capcom's goofball zombie brawler has соте а 
long way since its debut last summer—vastly 
improved visuals, multiple playable characters 
(that’s Isabela rockin’ the poofy shirt), and open- 
ended gameplay prove that it's.more than just 

a silly Resident Evil knock-off. It's truly zany 
stuff—the game’s Dawn of the Dead-inspired 
setup (you're trapped in a zombie-infested mall) 
has you attacking mobs of undead with anything at 
your disposal—guns, pipes, lightsabers, groceries, 
and even dismembered body parts. 


Disnep Y SQUARE СМІХ 











Й ₪ ue 3 
Chaos erupts at Chess King's spring clearance. "E y^ 1 & . | И A. 
м Pm 
z= 


New worlds 


Think: Starship 





LOST PLANET: 
EXTREME CONDITION 


Xbox 360 * Capcom * Winter 2007 Эў 
“We want people to understand that this is not just a mech 
game,” pleads Lost Planet Producer Keiji Inafune. Yes, you do 
spend much of the game battling from within various giant robots, 
but you'll lay waste to plenty of giant alien bugs on foot as well. 
As the subtitle implies, the game’s subzero climate plays a major 
role. “This wintry world makes a great setting because the 360 
creates amazing snow effects and avalanches,” Inafune adds. 
“Plus, it also creates an excellent atmosphere for survival.” ќа. we А 


>> EXPECT A SEQUEL TO HIT PSP PUZZLER LUMINES ON BOTH PSP AND PS2 BY YEAR'S END. 
€ y 7. 


BIA к: 








Publisher: Webzen 
Developer: Webzen 
Release: 2007 


200-player firefights? PC and 360 gamers teaming up? Welcome 
to online role-playing shooter Huxley’s bold new world of warcraft 


hat's a residential area; you'll 
T find clubs and bars there. This 

central part over here is more 
like a town square where players will 
gather. And out here in the outskirts 
we have ruins—the bad part of town.” 
Producer Kijong Kang swoops the game 
camera for an aerial tour of the central 
city in Huxley, a first-of-its-kind mega- 
multiplayer first-person shooter due for 
the Xbox 360 in 2007. A lived-in-looking 
metropolis of dunnish apartment blocks, 
smog-belching industrial parks, and 
blazing neon signage, the city will hold 
thousands of players within its nearly 
one-square-mile area. “At first it was 
two-and-a-half square miles,” Kang 
says, “but we scaled it down because 
users couldn’t find each other.” 

Even shrunk down, Huxley is a lot to 
take in for console gamers, who are used 
to first-person-shooter multiplayer counts 
maxing out at 32 players and online 
worlds that typically don’t require their 
own mass-transit system to get around. 
And even for computer gamers used to 
this sort of supersized online gaming, 
Huxley—which hits the PC first at the 
end of this year—still comes as a system 


shocker. It’s part first-person shooter, 

part massively multiplayer online (MMO) 
role-playing game. It will have PC gamers 
helping out their console brethren. Even 
the developers at South Korean MMO spe- 
cialist Webzen need a whiteboard to.chart 
out the workings of the game's strange. 
new world. 

Kang draws two circles on our demo- 
room board and labels one as the city of 
the sapiens and the other as the home 
of alternatives, two of the three races 
in the game. The PC version packs both 
cities. He draws a third, separate circle 
and labels it the capital of the Hybrid 
Liberation Army. It’s the one city in the 
Xbox 360 version, and it’s home to the 
player’s custom-made avatar, who fights 
for the freedom of the game’s third race, 
the loping hybrid monsters. He then 
scrawls lines connecting all the cities, 
showing how they'll sync up for POand 
console cooperative and combat missions, 
before finally drawing separate squares 
that represent the battlefields outside 
the cities where all combat will actually 
take place. 

The central city itself will hold 5,000 
players. They'll mingle, form clans, 





ml Step 1: Whether playing 
online in MMO mode or the 
‘solo campaign, players will 

get jobs by chatting with 
nonplayer characters or via 
the in-game e-mail system. 
Your inbox will fill up quickly, 
50 you’re never short on 
assignments. 









42 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com 


DUTY CALLS: FINDING WORK 
IN HUXLEY’S MASSIVE WORLD 


If you want to level up skills, build your bank account, or 
unravel the mysteries of the shadowy scientist the game’s 
named after, you'll need to get a job in Huxley. Here are 
three steps to becoming a working stiff... 


Us 


buy and tweak weapons and vehicles. 
(for which they'll need special driver's 
licenses), and talk to nonplayer residents. 
for stuff to do. "There are two types of 
quests in Huxley," says Kang, *main story 
quests and side story quests, which link 
to the main story line. Players will get 
the quest by locating and speaking with 


Î, NPCs. They'll also find them by using the 


in-game e-mail system or other forms of 
communication.” 

Once players get a quest, they'll posse 
up with: others who've accepted the 
same mission and then head to the quest 
area—always a location separate from 
the city. It could be in the wasteland of 
the outskirts, or maybe in the dungeon- 
like nether regions. Developer Webzen 
offers few specifics on mission types yet, 
but it’s planning quests that support up 
to 200 participants for full-on 100-оп-100 
wars. Some missions will allow far fewer 
participants. One underground quest, 
for instance, limits participation to how 
many players can fit in the elevator to the 
combat area. 

Unlike the PC game, the 360 version 
offers a solo campaign—but even that 
packs online elements (after all, this is 





from a Korean developer that makes noth- 
ing but online games, in a country where 
people have actually died of exhaustion 
from not knowing when to log off). You'll 
play as a hero of the Hybrid Liberation 
Organization, and you'll go on missions 
that often require a trip to PC players’ 


'y, towns for items and info (see sidebar 


‘for a step-by-step guide). Again, Webzen 
offers few solid details on how the game 
will entice cooperation. In fact, with well 
over a year to go until the game's release, 
the developer is hazy with lots of details. 
Will Webzen charge a subscription fee? 
(Likely.) How will Xbox 360 players using 
joypads compete against PC users wield- 
ing the superior mouse-and-keyboard 
combo? (Webzen says it’s working on 
leveling the playing field.) Will console 
players even embrace the massively mul- 
tiplayer online shooter concept? (They'll 
also have Webzen’s other 360 MMO—All 
Points Bulletin, à car-combat game from 


ihe creator of the original Grand Theft 


Auto—competing for their time.) 

For now, we'll just have to settle for 
these first 360 screens and Kang's bird's- 
eye-view.tour. ќа. 

—Crispin Boyer 


ГЕ 2: You got a quest—now 
you just need to get to:the:mis- 
sion area. It might be as simple - 
as taking an elevator ride to. 
dungeons below town. Groups. 
of players might share a trans- 
port to a battle топе, Last one 









ml Step 3: Missions will vary 
from army-on-army battles 
to 4-on-4 frag-and-runs. In 
this solo-campaign quest, we 
rendezvous with a real-life PC 
player who gives us а вресја! 
| weapon. What's in it for him? 
“He'll get something special for 
| completing his mission, too,” 
‘says Producer Kijong Kang. 





























y wu 
E Y. “SQUARE ENIX 





M The game uses the same graphics engine as , VELIE Ec NE dad 
pendens. © reside О ОУ 





18 Collateral damage: You can blast apart massive sections of the environment, such as this steam pipe structure you just 
% brought down on a squad of enemies. “We'll mark these destructible areas іп a special way,” says Kang. 

















\ 
\ 


\ 
\ 


Е 


5 


"оланан.‏ يه 
21" זי 











PTTL 





m 


PlayStation.2 








неј Y SQUARE ENIX 


AMES 


" 






“> 


с jr 


The story isn't over. ~ 


SQUARE ENIX. 


www.kingdomhearts.com 
Published by Square Enix, Inc. 


© Disney. 
Developed by SQUARE ENIX. 

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas © Touchstone Pictures. Characters from 
FINAL FANTASY video game series: © 1990. 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001. 2002, 
2003, 2005 Square Enix Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. SQUARE ENIX and the SQUARE 
ENIX logo are trademarks of Square Enix Co., Lid. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family 
logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. 

The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. 

























Mild Blood 
Use of Alcohol 


Violence 














THIS MONTH 


/ 
le 857.075 - 


П; Чья, ago ` 


40,825,056 
BÛ, aus 
7 fà. Obl, abo 


B. пы, bbS \ 


© This guy thinks he’s better than 
you at Geometry Wars. Oh wait, he is. 





Shocker—Geometry Wars king sucks at Robotron 


eet Scott Smith, 22: account- 

ing student by day, Geometry 

Wars: Retro Evolved evil 
genius the rest of the time, terrorizing 
the Xbox Live Arcade leaderboard from 
the No. 1 spot. Smith’s record score 
(as of this writing) is 33 million—that's 
more than 10 times the high score of 
the guy who made the game. 


Well...that's pretty funny, 
but um...| mean, it's just so addicting, 
the game is like crack, you know? | keep 
coming back to that game more than 
any other Xbox 360 game or Xbox Live 
Arcade game. 


After 1 got the 22 million and first 
place, | decided to play different games 
and switch off. 1 only play maybe one 
game every two or three days. But then 
again, one game will take an hour and a 
half or more, because 1 could last until 10 
or 15 million. | guess my average score is 
around 10 or 12 million a game. 





Google “K4rn4ge” (Smith's gamertag) to find 
videos of this Geometry Wars freak in action. 


<< WATCH OUT, TIGER—OVER IN JAPAN, SEGA RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THAT IT'S DEVELOPING A GOLF GAME FOR PLAYSTATION 3.... >> 


46 e ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


Yeah, that part’s easy; it’s just kind 
of boring after a while. Sometimes...you 
know the Pacifism achievement, right 
[don’t shoot anything and don’t die for one 
minute—Ed.]? | would actually try doing 
that again, keep dodging. That's a good 
way to practice skills you'll need later. 
Also, for more than the first few minutes, 
lll stand in the middle of the screen 
and just use one hand to try to kill them 
instead of moving. That's pretty fun, too. 


When I first played the game, my 
friend said, "Why don't you try playing 
without bombs?" And that was a great 
idea, because if you use a bomb, you 
never know what kind of situation you can 
escape from. So | started playing games 
trying not to use bombs, not necessarily 
to get high scores, but later on, | figured 
out in which situations 1 would need a 
bomb and in which situations | don't. 
[Now] usually what | do is try to get a 
high multiplier and keep playing, and use 
bombs sparingly if | need to. Sometimes, 
if I'm really high, if | have a 10X multiplier, 
| might afford to use a lot of my bombs, 
even if | have one or none left, as long as | 
keep my 10X multiplier, which will rack up 
points really fast. 

Another thing | want to point out: | go in 
a counterclockwise motion all the time, as 
much as | can. | just got used to one way 


and 1 kept going that way. 1 always try to 
go in either a circle or a square, although 
sometimes if there're too many snakes on 
the sides, you'll see me cut up the middle, 
and then continue around the circle, like 
a semicircle. So yeah, that's something | 
always do. 


A combination of two, if that's possi- 
ble. At the maximum difficulty, usually you 
get stuck with the jack spawns—those 
are the little tiny blue guys—and with 
a lot of the magnet guys, the red ships. 
They come together, and it's really hard to 
navigate through the jacks while magnets 
spawn in different areas. 


1 actually made a playlist called 
Geometry Wars Fever [Laughs]. Usually 
punk or techno, Pennywise, Avenged 
Sevenfold, Less Than Jake, the Offspring. 
1 also have some random techno trance 
mixes, Oakenfold...fast-paced punk and 
techno music really get me going. 


No, definitely not. | didn’t buy the full 
version. | guess | didn’t give it much time, 
but | never really played it that much. 


[Laughs] You mean like the subject? 
Yeah, Geometry Wars helps you do good 
on tests...maybe. 





WHAT'S UP АТ 


FE Je КЕТТЕН, 
WHEN YOURE 


EGM.1UP.COM 

Our friends at 1UP.com are nice 
enough to give our content a home 
in cyberworld. Head online this. 
month and you'll find video 
interviews with the Too Human 
(XB360) developers, plus another 
big Zelda retrospective. 


CHEATS.1UP.COM 

We won't tell anyone you checked 
here for Big Mutha Truckers 
cheats. And we promise not to 
laugh (well, at least not to your 
face) after you look up those 25 to 
Life hints. 


PS3.1UP.COM 

Head here for the full scoop on the 
PlayStation 3's November world- 
wide launch, including details on 
the console's hard drive and online 
network. And beginning May 10, 
visit E3.1UP.com for everything 
that comes outta the industry's big 
annual trade show, the Electronic 
Entertainment Expo. 


Featured Club: 

The 1UP Show 

The EGM editors make frequent 
appearances on The 1UP Show—a 
weekly behind-the-scenes 

look at the videogame biz. Visit 
The1UPShow-club.1UP.com to 
chat with others about past epi- 
sodes and make suggestions. 


Featured Blog: 

Mike Cruz 

We've got fresh meat here at the 
mag—new Assistant Art Director 
Mike Cruz. Be sure to drop in 

and visit him, as he's going to 

be blogging all about what goes 
into bringing EGM to life each and 
every month. We make no guaran- 
tees that any images posted at 
EGMcruz.1UP.com will be safe for 
women who might be pregnant, 
people with heart conditions, or 
those with nervous bladders. 










W LIKE EAGLES. 
THEY FOUGHT LIKE LIONS. 


um 







detailed aircraft, 


and more, 


Dawn breaks over the skies of war torn Europe. Bandits at 
twelve o’clock high! It’s time to take command, lead your 
squadron of Blazing Angels into combat, and send the 
enemy fighters down Матеј. 4 We ve 


8 4 $ 








Language 


Violence 





© 2006 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Blazing Angels, Ubisoft, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. 
and/or other countries. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks 7 
of Microsoft Corporation іп the U.S. and/or other countries. Software platform logo TM and © IEMA 2003. и [=] ו‎ So FT 










_ SERAPH Ji TOUS | 
"E CHOPPY 


ticky glitches, the 
same old snafus seem here to stay on the newer 
systems. Will these problems ever go away? 


SAN FRANCISCO'S WALK OF GAME—GAMING'S ANSWER TO THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME—JUST WELCOMED LARA CROFT, CIVILIZATION 


48 e ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY e www.1UP.com 
























₪ Mega-shooters like Huxley 


7 5 








` There's also the question of how much latency the game can tolerate while still 





LIMITED ONLINE OPPOSITION 


Our PC-gamer buddies keep razzing us about how they can host 64-player orgies 
in online shooters like Battlefield 2. But on the same Internet, our consoles find 
half that many adversaries—and that's at the most—in our games (unless there's 
а cooler, faster Internet we don't know about). What, do we have to give up the 
gamepad for a keyboard and mouse to get some damn company around here? 


Why it happens—Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software: 
“It’s really a question of the type of game. Some PC games that support a lot 
of players don't require as much bandwidth as the action games on consoles. 


providing a great experience. Another consideration is the amount of bandwidth 
consumed by other required features. Requiring voice support for all simultaneous 
users really affects the maximum limit. PC developers cheat a little bit, because 
they don't have to get technical-certification requirements. So, someone can ship 
a game that ‘technically’ supports a ton of people knowing that very few actual 
game experiences will reach maximum support. [In order to get certified on the 
console side, developers must] prove that everyone can use every feature at the 
same time online." 








half of that—or even less. 
| the Dreamcast run at 60fps 


дат 


‘buttons on the controller, update all subsys- 
controller is doing, check to see what's collided in 


ady to draw the next frame. It's a lot to do in 1/30 
So if you try to do too much, framerate drops. 
‘things are machine-dependent. So if you [tried], 
le to make a supercomputer chug—honestly!" 
Nathan Martz: “Framerate is basically hardware divided by features. 
Even though hardware has improved substantially in the last six 
years, developer ambitions and gamer expectations have increased 
| even more rapidly. It's also a question of how to spend valuable pro- 
‘grammer and artist time—developers and publishers often have to 
“| choose between adding a feature and getting the game to run faster. 
| Features tend to be more marketable than framerate, so most of the 
time features win out.” > 


Quake IV’s graphics look next-‏ מ 
=й gen, but it's one of the roughest-‏ 
А running games оп the 360.‏ 























CREATOR SID MEIER, FINAL FANTASY, MASTER OF DOOM JOHN CARMACK, STARCRAFT, AND EVERQUEST TO ITS SIDEWALK SHRINE.... << 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www. 1UP.com • 49 


© press start 

























ОМЕР? (COND) 








At least NBA Live 06 оп 360 
hides its loads with a virtual gym. 








Bouncing a game to multiple consoles is an easy way for publishers to 
make extra dough on development work that’s already been done. But 
across different generations of hardware? That just sounds like a way to 
make a quick buck (especially when third-party games on next-gen hard- 
ware typically cost $10 more). Resident Evil 4 to the PS2 is a good port. 
Gun to the 360 is а we-can-get-away-with-it-'cause-it's-launch-day port. 


Why it happens—Nathan Martz: “Many companies are still develop- 
ing/releasing titles for the older systems but want to have a presence on the 
new systems, too. It’s much cheaper to port an existing game than it is to 
make an entirely new one. So, not surprisingly, we're seeing a fair number of 
ports—most of which don't look as good as a title developed specifically for a 
next-gen system. Companies are already gearing up on the new platforms, so | 
expect that we'll see fewer and fewer last-gen ports as time goes on." 

Опе Gun screen above is from Xbox | Chris Charla: “Bottom line, if the polygonal density or texture resolution is 
360, the other from the original Xbox. | PS2-quality, that's what the game is going to look like! The 360 can maybe 
Which is which? Hell if we know. make edges smoother, but it can't add detail that isn't in the source art." 


| Perfect Dark Zero's baddies % р 
bounce worse than they bite, ks = #5 
to а funky ragdoll-physics glitch, ` we 


















ne lock up or watching your character get 
ill gaming ever be bug-free world? 





most every problem you've ever seen іп a game is 
out of time. It’s safe to assume that developers 
y lacked the time to fix them. It's easy to blame big, 
usually know how much time we have to work 
mate how long it takes to fix every little problem. 
more features in the game instead of fixing all the 
lly bug-free or slightly more buggy with one or two more 





we'll be able to do much more computationally expen- 
ill [minimize] characters clipping through walls or getting 
ng really robust collision detection, like per-limb or even 
ically—it's just expensive. Hopefully on 360 and PS3, we 
here. Оп the other hand...we're also going to have way more detailed 
0 it could be a wash!” ќа. —Jon Dudlak 












8 





ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • 10 








| שש‎ 7 
ation.e 


p" чч 


MIDWAY N PlaySt iolence 


М 


ШЙ: 


XBOX 360 / PREVIEW 


Developer: Rockstar San Diego 


| Publisher: Rockstar 
Release Date: May 2006 


The house of Grand Theft Auto has gone soft 


ne little Hot Coffee scandal 
0 and—BOOM!—you're left 
making...a Ping-Pong game? 
For its first next-gen offering, highly con- 
troversial publisher Rockstar is tempo- 
rarily trading prostitution and carjacking 
for paddles and nut-hugging shorts in 
Table Tennis for the Xbox 360. 
So why the unexpected change- 
up? Company reps tell us that rather 
than creating a complex open world a 
la GTA's, the dev team (which is also 


5 = 
= IS 





DEVELOPER BIOWARE (JADE EMPIRE) HAS OPENED A STUDIO IN TEXAS THAT WILL WORK אס‎ A MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE RPG.... 


responsible for the Midnight Club series) 
wanted to focus and “get one thing 
perfect.” A lofty goal for sure, but Table 
Tennis does look solid; we found the 
controls accessible yet deceivingly deep 
(you can put all sorts of spin on the ball, 
for example), And like in any good casual 
sports title, the action is geared toward 
multiplayer—the game really shines 
when two highly skilled players get up 
and rocket the ball back and forth during 
lengthy volleys. 





52 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 








This one will also bring a little bit 
of personality to the sport. Each of the 
characters here has distinct behavior 
traits; you'll see the Egyptian Somalian 
perspire a lot (complete with next- 
gen back sweat) and the ponytailed 
Frenchman loves to talk trash. 

And...well, that’s about it for Table 
Tennis. Which gets us thinking: The 
game seems fun and all, but аге 
people really gonna dish out $40 for 
freakin’ Ping-Pong? 


WHAT'S PLAYING IN THE 
COMPUTER 








Windows Vista 

To the 12 angry Internet nerds who 
continue to insist that PC gam- 

ing is dead: STFU. Windows Vista, 
the next generation of Microsoft's 
Windows operating system, arrives 
in early October—here’s everything 
you need to know about its gamer- 
friendly features. 


Games Explorer 

Whether you dig on Half-Life 2 or 
Minesweeper, Vista's Games Explorer 
provides an all-inclusive gateway to 


everything PC gaming related. No more 
searching your desktop or Start menu 
for the right icon to start your favorite 
game—it’s all right here. Each game's 
entry displays the box art, ESRB rating, 
publisher and developer information, 
and everything else you need to know 
at a glance. 


Parental Controls 

Videogame-hatin’ Jack Thompson, be 
damned: Using Vista’s parental con- 
trols, moms and dads can designate 
specific hours of playtime for their 
children, restrict access based on 
ESRB ratings, and even set up an activ- 
ity logger to make sure those impres- 
sionable tykes aren't poking around in 
places they don’t belong. 


DirectX 10 

Enjoy your PlayStation 3s and Xbox 
360s while you can, because the 
DirectX 10 API should make them look 
like baby toys in comparison. Microsoft 
is cleaning up the messy code and 
stability problems present in previous 
DX incarnations, and adding support 
for new geometry shaders and 

other fancy graphical technology. 
Translation: incredibly awesome-look- 
ing PC games. 


Halo 2 
Yep, Halo 2's coming to the PC—but 
only for Vista. Our only question: Is a 
PC port of a 2-year-old Xbox game the 
best showpiece Microsoft can come 
up with? Good thing we have plenty of 
other incentives. 
—Ryan Scott, 
Computer Gaming World 





8 6 
8 8 
5 3 
x = 
pA на 
8 А 
₪ E 


- 4| ו‎ 8 er ai 
Battle skilled rival aces with their o The Ace Style Gauge adjusts play Challenge your friends or enemies 


own individual flying styles. í Sg to maximize the challenge. n two-player versus mode. 


Violence 
ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrb.org 


ACE COMBAT? THE BELKAN WAR & © 2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered tradema 
ation. All trademarks and copyrights associated with the manufacturers, aircraft, models, trade names, brands and visual images деј 





ш XBOX 360 


Developer: Irrational A 
| Release Date: 2007 "wf \ 


Heading 20,000 leagues under 








IW tf you think this 


„wait till you meet up with Bioshock's 
tykes during chowtime. (Hint: That dead 
old fart looks awfully scrumptous.) 
L 

















>> THE PASTY SPARTAN IS BACK—SONY CEA RECENTLY REVEALED GOD OF WAR 2: DIVINE RETRIBUTION, WHICH IS DUE EARLY NEXT YEAR. 


54 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





SURPRISINGLY, THIS WON'T ВЕ KRATI 











о, it's not you. Technically speaking, 
N and thanks to the corporate miracle of 

“everything-everywhere-every time,” 
we inhabit an era so swollen with ricocheting 
motifs that even the most steroid-pumped movie- 
comic-game plots, monsters, and themes these 
days look like clip-art collectives, a museum to 2 
our American obsession with speed, guns, and ~ 
girth. So what does an award-winning developer 
who’s “been there, done that” do for an encore? 

“For all its ups and downs as a movie, the - 
most frightening part in Titanic is when the water 
takes over,” muses Irrational Games founder 
and Bioshock Creative Director Ken Levine. 

He's talking about something Hitchcock, Lynch, 
Shyamalan—and you—understand instantly, 
“In a game, | can throw all the rocket-launching 
demons at you in the world. So what?” 

Not that Levine’s known for cheap parlor tricks, 
but OK, we've heard that before, too. Hide, don’t 
show. (Or show, don’t roar.) But when was the last 
time a game made you care enough not to kill? 

“In Bioshock, we're moving away from ‘hey, 
look at the monsters in the zoo' to real people, 
just like you," Levine says. "People who've had to 
make tough choices and must now live with these 
horrible consequences, people that do more than 
charge you on sight. How you interact with them 
casts the entire dynamic of an encounter, and we 
want that to be vastly more complex than just 
‘you shoot, they shoot back.’ Im talking about 
emergent А.” 

Levine is, in fact, vamping on a wider-cast 
industry term: emergent gameplay, a “less pointy, 
still buzzy” phrase referring to unpredictable and 
proportionately memorable experiences brought 
about by player experimentation—in some cases, 
bugs; in others, the sort of recombinative А.І. 
behavior that’s at the core of Irrational’s spiritual 
sequel to the much-venerated, if long-toothed, PC 
series System Shock. 

But the immersive first-person bio-horror 
game Bioshock wants to be more. Firstly, it's not 
set in space, cyber or otherwise. Instead, think 
early 1960s, and imagine crashing in the middle 
of the ocean, surviving, and discovering a light- 
house—no, not on land, just out in the middle of... 
nowhere. You swim over, climb to the top, and 





discover a deep-sea diving sphere. It’s back to 
the roiling ocean or down (and curiosity only kills 
cats, right?), ‚50 into the bathysphere and seaward 
you plumm near the bottom, you suddenly 
pass a ל‎ Mlliboard advertising a genteel- 
looking brand of cigarettes. Huh? Moments later, 
you're bathed in the murky glow of a massive 
underwater city. Say hello to Rapture, in-the-deep 
utopia extraordinaire. 

Fall back half a century to post-WWII capital- 
ist America, flush with ideologues like Ayn Rand, 
the concept of “man-worship,” and the contrast 





of an almost apocalyptic Cold War arms race. 


Disenchanted with America's “society of looters,” 
wealthy industrialist Andrew Ryan absconds with 
a few thousand of the world’s “best and bright- 
est.” Safely tucked at ocean bottom, Ryan builds 
Rapture, a “pure capitalistic” dream society full 
of intellectual and athletic titans...bet you can't 
guess where this train’s heading! 

The catalyst to catastrophe in this case evolves 
from a stem-cell breakthrough that enables radi- 
cal human genetic “modding” via a substance 
dubbed “Adam”— initially for the better, but you've 
no doubt seen The Fly and know all about ways, 
lies, and madness. Arriving late to the party, you 
find the lights on (sort of) but no one apparently 
home (like that’s going to last). Decaying bodies 
snarl tunnels and clutter magnificent art deco 
vistas. Aping a tradition the original System Shock 
pioneered, the story’s told in recordings and videos 
as you're quickly caught up in the consequences of 
this genetic war and struggling just to stay alive. 

Along the way, you encounter a range of Adam- 
jacked characters, many wearing masks to hide 
their genetic disfigurations out of shame. And 
eventually, you'll be forced to make uncomfort- 
able choices yourself: Will you use Adam to buff 
up? Compromise your humanity? Kill for it? The 
advanced A.I. ecology that spawns and sets crea- 
tures interacting independently promises to hatch 
psychological situations that should make series 
like Grand Theft Auto look one-dimensional. “1 love 
to write game stories,” Levine says, eyes alight. 
"But, frankly, any game story | write won't be half 
as interesting as the emergent experience you cre- 
ate based on the variables we throw out and you 
set in motion.” —Matt Peckham 





City of Lost Children — 


We can’t say why, but something about a featureless diving-suit monster scares the hell out of us 
in ways no horny demon from hell ever will. Dubbed “Protectors,” these hulks of metal and gun- 
nery shamble stoically around Rapture searching for “Gatherers”—young children who harvest 
Adam from dead bodies, ingesting and internally recycling it into a reusable genetic resource. The 
Gatherers scuttle out of ventilation ducts and hop rides on Protector backs or hold their hands on 
the way to the bodies. Why? Rapture’s become one messed-up habitat, and a third group of meta- 
humans called “Aggressors” roam its ocean-infiltrated hallways, attacking other survivors relent- 
lessly. Without the Protectors, it'd be open season on the Gatherers; though, where the Gatherers 
take the harvested Adam is one of the game’s many mysteries. And there’s one more thing the 
Protectors are guarding these frail, battered children from...you. 44. 








NEXT-GEN DEBUT. RATHER, HE'LL BE GETTING INTO THREESOMES ON THE PLAYSTATION 2 . 





ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com 55 


© press start 





THE SALES CHARTS | 2006 


BEST-SELLING GAMES 






; { Call of Duty 2 > XB360 • Activision 





| 2 Maiden nri 06 + PS2 + EA Sports 




















10 апа тен лшо: ап Апатеа5 • Р92 5 Носк 








Source: NPD TRSTS Video Gi 


0 GAMECUBE 
I AED 









= 


| МУР 06 NCAA Baseball. ж. ‘Super Mario Strikers 
Fable: The Lost Chapters Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 
Madden NFL 06 Mario Party 7 
Need for Speed: Most Wanted Super Smash Bros. Melee 
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Super Mario Sunshine 
Halo 2 Lego Star Wars 
Star Wars Battlefront II Mega Man X Collection 
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One Shadow the Hedgehog 
Gun Animal Crossing 
25 to Life Madden NFL 06 








п Dead or Alive 4 






PORTABLES 


Grand Theft Auto: LCS * PSP 


XBOX 360 





Call of Duty 2 





Dead or Alive 4 

Madden NFL 06 

Perfect Dark Zero 

Need for Speed: Most Wanted 
Project Gotham Racing 3 
Condemned: Criminal Origins 
NBA 206 

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 
Quake 4 


PS2 





Чан 


4 Madden NFL 06 


MVP 06 NCAA Baseball 
Need for Speed: Most Wanted 
Star Wars Battlefront И 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006 
Gun 

25 to Life 

NBA Live 06 

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One 









) RENTALS 


FOR THE WEEK ENDING 02/12/06 






A Y Z 4 
Ж. ва 
2 vs. 








Mario Kart DS • DS 

Animal Crossing: Wild World • DS 
SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo * PSP 
Nintendogs: Dachshund > DS 


j Need for Speed: Most Wanted г PSP 


Madden NFL 06 > PSP 

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Duel Academy • GBA 
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time * DS 
Nintendogs: Chihuahua • DS 


Arena Football > PS2 

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One • PS2 
Star Wars Battlefront И > PS2 
Gun e PS2 

Peter Jackson’s King Kong * PS2 
True Crime: New York City * PS2 
Need for Speed: Most Wanted * PS2 
Arena Football • XB 

Madden NFL 06 * PS2 


Source: Blockbuster Video 


CAPCOM IS OPENING UP А NEW DEVELOPMENT STUDIO IN LOS ANGELES THAT WILL MAKE GAMES PRIMARILY FOR MOBILE PHONES. ... 


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


POWER or THE X-MEN’ 





IN STORES 5.16.06 





(GAME BOY ADVANCE 
Language @ 


ымы: | NINTENDODS, 


| 
ו‎ ACTIVISION. 
MARVEL activision.com 


MARVEL, X-MEN and all related character names and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc., and are used with permission. Copyright © 2006 Marvel 
Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. www.marvel.com. This Interactive game is produced under license from Marvel Characters, Inc. X-Men: The Last Stand Motion Picture and Images from Motion 
Picture © 2006 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Game © 2006 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights 
1 2 reserved. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360 and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation їп the U.S. and/or other countries. TM, ®, Game Boy Advance, 

PlayStation. 


Violence 

















Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2004 Nintendo. All rights reserved. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer 
Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. PC CD-ROM logo TM and © IEMA 2003. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks and trade 
e names are the properties of their respective owners. 




















month doesn’t go by without 
A hearing the three following 

questions: 1) When’s Nintendo 
gonna remake Kid Icarus?, 2) Will 
Shenmue 3 ever see the light of day?, 
and 3) How about a Nights sequel? Well, 
guess what—you won’t find any of 
those answers here. Now, don’t get all 
pissy; I’ve got plenty of scuttlebutt that'll 
surely turn that frown upside down. 
Check й... —The Q 


| Finally unlucky 


— By the time you read this Rumor Mill, 


Square Enix's hotly anticipated (yet 
ridiculously delayed) role-playing game 
Final Fantasy XII will be in the moogle- 
loving hands of Japanese gamers. But 
get this: We'll catch a glimpse of the 
series’ next installment way before 
FFXII hits our shores. That's right; | hear 
Square will unveil FFXIII at this May’s 
big industry trade show, the Electronic 
Entertainment Expo (known to most 
folks as simply E3). Expect a brief teaser 
video and confirmation from the publish- 
er that the RPG will be a PS3 exclusive. 


OK, smile 

1 don’t know about you folks, but The Q 
can spend only so much cash on "new 
and improved" versions of his hand- 
helds. (But I'd still donate some pints of 
blood—or other bodily fluids—for that 
DS Lite. It looks Н-0-Т hot!) Anyway, 
more upgrades are on the way, as both 
the DS and the PSP will receive addi- 
tional redesigns by the end of the year. 
So what's the latest and greatest fea- 
ture? It seems Nintendo and Sony will 
add a camera to their respective por- 
table systems...and more. 


THE RUMOR MILL 


Where we talk the talk 
and walk the walk 


Paint us a picture 

Tall, dark, and a 

rumormonger extraor- 

dinaire—l've definitely got a 

lot going for me. Sadly, that list doesn't 
include my art skills (I struggle drawing 
а darn stick figure). But that doesn’t 
mean I'm not excited about new ver- 
sions of Mario Paint for the DS and 
Nintendo Revolution. Details are pretty 
scarce right now, but word around the 
underground'is that the next-gen 
console version will be quite robust, 
including the option to create 3D images. 
Nice, very nice indeed. 





High flyer 

And speaking of Nintendo's upcoming 
console, here's another scrumptious 
piece of gossip: It appears the flight 
simulator series Pilotwings is currently 
in development for the Revolution. 
Imagine holding the system's motion- 
sensitive, TV-remote-like controller in 
your hands just like a paper airplane 

and effortlessly guiding your craft 
through the friendly skies. If 4 game like 
Pilotwings can’t get you jazzed about the 
Revolution...well, then you're dead to me. 


Next-gen lombax 

Talk about changing your stripes— 
Sony’s Ratchet series went from а cute 
and cuddly platformer to a multiplayer- 
heavy shooter in just four short years. 
How will the furball and his metallic 
mate handle their next-gen debut? 
Honestly, Im not entirely sure, but well 
all find out when Ratchet lands on 

the PlayStation 3 sometime in 2007.1 
just hope this franchise keeps up with 
the funny. > 





(WHAT'S THE DEAL? 





0: Last year, you mentioned 





T [ren nn не wuss. escape 
[| eror ו‎ Dions 





THIS SPRING, ELECTRONIC ARTS WILL RELEASE 2006 FIFA WORLD CUP GERMANY FOR, LIKE, EVERY GAME SYSTEM 


58 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 











SATIN 


ШО 


Vut OFFICAL кй GAWE ПЕ НИЕ 


ו 


‘Hore: 


IGH PRINCE 








и verizonwieless | | gameloft 


MALA аттетоті лот 


© 2006 Gameloft. All Rights Reserved. Gameloft, the Gameloft logo, Asphalt: Urban GT, Platinum Solitaire and Midnight Pool are trademarks of Gameloft in the US and/or other countries. All manufacturers, cars, 
motorbikes, names, brands and associated imagery featured in Asphalt: Urban GT mobile game are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. © 1989 Jordan Mechner. All Rights Reserved. 
Based on Prince of Persia® created by Jordan Mechner. Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia The Two Thrones are trademarks of Jordan Mechner used under license by Gameloft. Universal Studios’ King Kong movie 
© Universal Studios, Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing LLLP. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. © 2006 Verizon Wireless. 











PROJECT 
KATAMARI 
Students in Yury Gitman's 
“Making Toys” class 

at Parsons School of 
Design whipped 


up these 
remote-con- 
trolled Katamari 
Damacy characters, thanks 
in part to the magic of 
Velcro. See them in action at 
yg.typepad.com/makingtoys. 
One question: How much? 

















TAPE ON A 





QUARTER 


Sure, you can order Street 
Fighter Alpha 3 Max 
through capcom.com and 
get that special D-pad that 
(permanently) grafts on to 
the PSP's semi-inadequate 
pad. Or you can stick 
some tape оп а quarter. It 
works. Hot tip courtesy of 
gamevideos.com’s Ryan 
O'Donnell. 








m HITS 
бро GO "au 
PLATINUM 


Microsoft’s offering a new “best-of plati- 
num hits” lineup—16 games at $10 a pop. 
And they are: 


* Elder Scrolls Ill: Morrowind 
* Enter the Matrix 

* Fuzion Frenzy 

* Project Gotham Racing 2 

* Shrek 2 

* Soul Calibur Il 

* Ghost Recon 

* Ghost Recon Island Thunder 
* Rainbow Six 3 

• Splinter Cell 

* Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow 
* Tony Hawk's Underground 

* Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 

* True Crime: Streets of L.A. 


* Counter-Strike 





4 | BULLS” GAME 
ADS BANNED 


Well, in Britain, at least. After three 
viewers complained that ads for Call 
of Duty 2 showed graphics that looked 
nothing like the actual game, the U.K’s 
Advertising Standards Authority booted 
the ads off TV. Too bad the U.S. doesn't 
have anything even remotely like an 
Advertising Standards Authority. 














BRAIN AGE 

Brain decay starts at 20. Find 
out how much damage has 
been done with Nintendo's lat- 
est not-really-a-game. 


Training 


4 | MORE CLASSICS ON 
LIVE ARCADE 


Midway's dusting off Defender, Cyberball, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 
3, Paperboy, and Root Beer Tapper for Live Arcade. Be excited! 






















* MechAssault 


fro 
wi 


>> 


60 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


hoodies based on gangs 


com or your local fancy- 
pants boutique. Tell them 
Francoise sent you. 


our our XBOX 360 GAMES LOOKING NEXT-GEN 
COME OUT 0 PAY ost Recon: Advance Warfighter, oo uman, ight Night Roun 


3, Alone in the Dark...this 360 thing is starting to turn out OK! 
Rockstar has partnered 


with a collective of 
designers called 
the Retail Mafia 
to create limited- 
edition shirts and 


т The Warriors. Check 
WW.rockstargames. 











Experience the f; 
be destroyed. Wi 
battlefield to instantly 










Available Now. 


MATURE 17+ 





Violence 
Blood and Gore 
Language 


DESTRUCTION ON DEMAND™ 


www.thq.com 


www.theoutfitgame.com 





‘CONTENT RATED BY 
ESRB 





6 THO Inc. АН righ 
trademarks ап 
or trademarks of 


оред by Relic Er 
THO In 





fosoft Corporation in the U.S. 


© press start 






COMING SOON 


Maybe you should just go outside instead ЧЛ | й кө те 


‚ * Okami's шрте 
hero considers, 











Fuel 
DreamCatcher • XB — Feed your thirst 
for fossil fuels with this madcap racer 

featuring more than 20 vehicle types. 








Jaws Unleashed 

Majesco * PS2 — Get all chummy with 
the locals as the titular great white him- 
self. Unless the game gets delayed again. 


MotoGP '06 

THQ * XB360 — Crotch-rockets go next- 
gen. Not to be confused with the other 
cycle series called MotoGP (by Namco). 











Okami 


Capcom • PS2 — Prepare to venture through mythical ancient Japan as a power- 
ful wolf-god in this unique action-adventure. From its sophisticated ink-on-rice-paper animated fighters and shreddin’ butt rock 
visual style to its creative paintbrush-based magic system, Okami embraces innovation. | of Guilty Gear X2 #Reload into your pocket. 





MLB SlugFest 2006 

Midway * PS2/XB — Zany, over-the-top 
hardball returns with a new create-a- 
player mode, all for only 20 bones. 





Over G Fighters 

Ubisoft * XB360 — Defend freedom 
and combat evildoers in this arcadey, 
Ace Combat-esque dogfighting sim. 






The Da Vinci Code 
2K Games * PS2/XB/GC — This book-to- 
movie-to-game cash-in offers arty puzzles, 


שש 
mild action, and a badly coiffed Tom Hanks.‏ = 
₪ | 





Guilty Gear Judgment 
Majesco “ PSP — Crams all the smoothly 








TimeShift 

Atari • XB360 — Just as Timecop shattered your conceptions of the Jean-Claude 
Van Damme genre, TimeShift injects potent chronological trickery into the first-person 
shooting genre, allowing you to pause, rewind, and fast-forward time at will. 














Miss Spider infests your DS. 


Black and White Creatures Men at Work Monster Hunter Freedom 
Majesco * 2 VU Games * XB Capcom • PSP 

Gander Mountain’s Trophy Miss Spider: Harvest Time X-Men 3 

Hunter: 2006 Season Hop and Fly Activision * XB360/PS2/XB/GC/ 
VU Games * PS2 Game Factory • DS DS/GBA/TI-85 

















>> NEXT YEAR, MIDWAY WILL BRING THE SWEATY, HARDCORE GRAPPLERS OF TNA WRESTLING TO BOTH PLAYSTATION 3 AND XBOX 360.... >> 


62 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY “ www.1UP.com 


SOME PEOPLE WILL WANT A PIECE OF YOUR IDENTITY, 
CHANGING IT TO FIT WHAT THEY THINK YOU SHOULD BE, 
AND OTHERS WILL WANT A PIECE OF YOUR TIME, WASTING 
IT WITH STUFF LIKE GETTING DRUNK AND GETTING HIGH 
AND THEN ANOTHER PIECE AND ANOTHER PIECE AND... 
IF EVERYONE TAKES A PIECE OF YOU, WHAT'S LEFT OF YOU? 






OFFICE oF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY/PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG-FREE AMERICA" 


abovetheinfluence.com ® 





э cover story: 
~~ too human 


19 No prerendered mock-ups 
here: Every shot in this story 
showcases legit Too Human 
graphics and gameplay. 


64 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


For even deeper Тоо Human cover- 
age, including video interviews and 
a guided tour of developer Silicon 
Knights’ studio, head to the “EGM 
Extras” section of едт.10Рсот. 








By Shane Bettenhausen 


t's no secret that the 
Xbox 360 is going to 
need a lot more games 
if it’s going to stand 
up against the looming 
competition of Sony's PlayStation 3 and 
Nintendo's Revolution. Multiplatform 
fare like Madden and Splinter Cell won't 
he enough—the console will assuredly 
need some killer exclusives. And that 
burden falls squarely upon the shoulders 
"Microsoft, a first-party publisher that, 
‘when compared to Sony CEA or Nintendo, 
hasn't really built a diverse stable of 
"popular brands. Sure, Halo stands as 
- an unstoppable juggernaut, and upstart 
Series such as Fable and Forza will see 
anticipated sequels on the 360, but the 
majority of Microsoft's first-party Xbox 1 
offerings are best left dead and forgot- 
ten. (Masochists, feel free to conjure up 
memories of Sneakers, Tao Feng, Fuzion 
Frenzy, Whacked!, Azurik, and—most 
distressingly—two Blinx games.) 
Thankfully, the guys in charge now 
appear to have learned from past 
mistakes. This time around, rather 
than haphazardly dabbling in random 
genres, Microsoft has enlisted top-tier 
developers to create original, big-budget 
titles. Too Human is one of these dream 
projects, a ready-made blockbuster 
forged with carefully calculated mass 
appeal. Conceived as an epic from the 
ground up by maverick developer Silicon 
Knights, Too Human's grandiosity can't 
be contained by a single game, as this 
fall’s debut chapter is but the first in a 

















trilogy of planned releases. And there's 
more to this story than just a big-budget 
action game— Too Human has been in 
the works at Silicon Knights for over a 
decade, and if the words of its outspoken 
creator are to be believed...it just might 
change the world. 


The history of humanity 

Too Human hides a wealth of drama, 
intensity, and gravitas beneath its evoca- 
tive, enigmatic title. We're not just talk- 
ing about its complex mythology of gods, 
men, and monsters: While most new 
next-gen franchises start with a clean 
slate, this game arrives under a weighty 
burden of history. And although Silicon 
Knights President Denis Dyack seems 
reticent on the subject of Too Humar's 
abnormally long gestation, that decade of 
development may secretly give this game 
the edge it needs to succeed. 

Too Human began its bizarre journey 
over 10 years ago, when Dyack and his 
crew at Silicon Knights were working 
on the cult classic Blood Omen: Legacy 
of Kain (PS1). While toiling away on that 
gothic action-RPG, Dyack was waxing 
philosophical on some heavy issues. 
“We wanted Too Human to be a really 
cool game that’s fun to play, but at the 
same time, a game that makes some 
statements about technology, to help 
people to understand the effects of 
technology on society, what the differ- 
ences are between man and machine, 
and what defines a human soul, beyond 
even what was done in Blade Runner,” 


Microsoft and developer Silicon Knights are forging an ambitious 
adventure trilogy—will Too Human change videogaming forever? 









“We've created something that was 
utterly impossible before." -rouman srr sens nac 





says Dyack. “So we created the concept 
called Too Human, where you're playing 
this game and you're constantly being 
told that you’re too human, that you 
need to cybernetically upgrade yourself 
in order to combat the growing machine 
forces.” The team managed to get both 
PS1 and GameCube versions up and run- 
ning (scope the sidebar on page 75 for 
details on these highly different takes on 
the concept), but a cavalcade of other 
projects continually relegated Human to 
{һе back burner for several years. 

Fast-forward to 2004. After creating 
GameCube hits Eternal Darkness and 
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, 
Silicon Knights amicably parted ways 
with Nintendo and dove headfirst into 
reimagining Too Human as a next-gen 
property. “Nintendo has publicly said 
that it wants to make smaller, simpler 
games,” Dyack explains. “Тоо Human is. 
not a smaller, simpler game—Microsoft 
better understands the kind of games 
that we want to make." 

Returning to the project, Dyack and 
co. realized that their vision for the game 
had changed radically since they last 
tackled the material. “Since working 
with (Mario creator) Shigeru Miyamoto 
at Nintendo, our understanding of 


gameplay evolved dramatically,” Dyack 
says. “And when we worked with Metal 
Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima, our 
understanding of spectacle and drama 
really developed as well.” The new Too 
Human would need instantly accessible 
gameplay, gripping cinemas, and stellar 
production values if it was going to be 
the triple-A hit Microsoft wanted. Most 
importantly, though, it would need more 
than one game to get its point across. 
“Back in the early days, we would have 
probably just gone and made one huge, 
gargantuan game,” explains Dyack. “But 
looking at now, | personally think that 25 
hours is pushing the limits of how long 
a game should be.” Galvanized by the 
promise of new technology, Too Human 
became something far greater than its 
former iterations hinted at. ^We're actu- 
ally happy that we waited,” Dyack adds. 
“The Xbox 360 is the perfect machine for 
the game, and we've created something 
that was utterly impossible before." 


Too simple? 

So now that the developer has had over a 
decade to carefully craft its dream project, 
what exactly is Too Human? Put simply, 
it’s an action game. You control Baldur, 

a beefy, bald warrior who wields both > 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 65 


traditional weaponry and firearms against 
deadly mechanical foes. Combat pro- 
vides the core of Too Humar's gameplay. 
“Puzzles and platforming tend to be frus- 
trating, so we didn’t go in that direction,” 
says Dyack. “What’s crucial is that the one 
thing you do the most in the game—in our 
case, fighting—has to be fun.” 

The crew at Silicon Knights sought to 
make a revolutionary gameplay system 
that was both incredibly simple and 
surprisingly deep. “Just because people 
want instant engagement doesn't mean 
that they want something dumbed-down 
or stupid,” explains Too Human Designer 
Henry Sterchi. So while the game seems 
initially simplistic (check the next page 
to get a grip on the unique controls), this 
pared-down setup masks startling depth. 

^We were lucky enough to go through 
the Shigeru Miyamoto school of game 
design," says Dyack. "And if he were to 
pick up the controller with Too Human 


today, | think he'd be really happy 
because he could play it so easily." 

The button-free melee combat feels 
easy and instinctive, yet it’s actually a 
tad disorienting at first. By simply tap- 
ping the stick in the direction of nearby 
enemies, you’ll send Baldur rapidly 
careening around the screen dishing out 
devastating attacks and combos. When 
flicked in tandem with directions on the 
left stick, the right analog stick digs even 
deeper into Baldur’s arsenal, filling the 
screen with effects-laden supermoves. 
Once you acclimate to the frenzied pace 
and fluid fighting, it’s a highly reward- 
ing, visceral combat experience more 
akin to a fighting game than a traditional 
adventure title. “The motion-capture 
guys we’re working with have worked 
on films like Hero and The Chronicles of 
Riddick,” explains Dyack. “We feel that 
some of the stuff they're doing surpasses 
even the fighting in Soul Calibur.” 


66 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


Plus, the interplay of firearms and tra- 
ditional weapons-based fighting allows 
for over-the-top, knock-em-up-and- 
shoot-em-down maneuvers a la Devil 
May Cry. Boredom is the ultimate enemy 
in games like this, so customizable com- 
bos and a wide variety of weapon types 
(swords, hammers, polearms, pistols, 
rifles, lasers, and more) will hopefully 
ensure plenty of variety. “From my stand- 
point, the big failure with God of War was 
that | found the one combo that worked 
and just did it over and over,” explains 
Sterchi. “In Too Human, you have to con- 
stantly be thinking about your enemies 
in order to succeed.” Don’t worry about 
Human mimicking God of War's too-few 
boss battles, either. “We have tons, and 
they're more Metroid- זס‎ 86 


bosses than in God of War,” says Sterchi. +. 


“And don’t worry about us doing one of 
those climbing-up-the-grinder levels, 
that's for sure.” p 








| “You generally have autoaim working, but if you use 
the right stick while shooting, you can manually target, | 
and if you use the bumpers, you can do eight-way, 
Robotron-style control." —тоонитап Designer Henry Sterchi 


ince we don't have platforming, 
the jump is here for air combat. 
We didn't want it to feel floaty, so 
we spent a lot of time making sure 


that the jump didn't feel crappy." 
—Denis Dyack 


ELECTRONIC ШЕ 














. (CONL) 








|, 
4 
я 


Of course, Too Human’s innovative, 
stripped-down control system would 
be functionally impossible without its 
equally inventive camera system. Like 
Sony's breakthrough action hit God of 
War, Too Human purposefully takes all 
camera control away from the player. 
“I've never heard anyone say, ‘Moving 
the camera was really fun,” Sterchi 
muses. “So we've made it very dynamic: 
If you’re using pistols, the camera auto- 
matically zooms out to give you a clear 
view of your targets, but if you use the 
sword, it zooms in to show off the action, 
more like a fighting game.” The camera 
seems full of surprises—we witnessed 
some really clever zooms, pans, and cuts 
that gave the game a unique look. 

“The camera is equivalent to what you 
see during the Super Bow! broadcast,” 
Dyack explains. “You might have 50 cam- 


SES 9 id Ж 
п Too Human’s lush environments skilfully merge füturistic architecture with design elements lifted from Norse mythology. 
i 3 


- ae 
i Sul 


eras around at all times, and you never 
know when that touchdown is going to 
occur, so you're constantly switching to 
the best camera to view the action.” 





To ? 

Although Too Human aims to lure casual 
gamers in with its accessible combat, 
some surprisingly robust role-playing 
elements await those gamers looking for 
more than just a standard beat-em-up. 
“At first it's easy to play, but then they 
realize that there’s a lot to dive into,” 
says Dyack. “In my eyes, it’s kind of like 
chess—you can learn the rules to chess 
in 10 minutes, but to become a master 
takes a lifetime.” Silicon Knights wants 
to keep the game’s role-playing elements 
largely under wraps, but expect deep 
character customization in the forms of 
cybernetic upgrades, weapon proficien- 


68 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY “ www.1UP.com 


cies, and oodles of unique equipment. 
“We really want to make sure that people 
don’t think of it as a role-playing game, 
though,” exclaims Dyack. “Because as 
soon as you say RPG, people think end- 
less menus, boring combat, and dialogue 
trees—our game isn’t about that.” 


The single most surprising aspect of Too 
Human isn't its creative combat, murky 
role-playing depths, or gorgeous visu- 
als—it's the care Silicon Knights put into 
crafting its colossal story line. “There 
are a lot of really bad stories in video- 
games, and quite frankly, a lot of people 
don’t really take it seriously,” Dyack 
explains. “We approach game story from 
a Shakespearian model: He’d write cere- 
bral metaphor for the people in the bal- 
conies while also including dirty jokes > 






. Тоо Human's 
combat aims to be 
зо easy and fun that 
even your mom could 
play й. “if we only 
hit with a hardcore 
audience, then we've 
failed,” says Director 
Denis Dyack. 


HIS BAZOOKATSINORSE THAN HIS BITE. 


“dogs with rocket [ deep and totally likeable...” 
launchers sounds like “Че ре USA 

a recipe for successi 
- VGO Network 





PlayStation. 




























































































а very high opini 
rink: @ Exit:@ Helo: @ bk of hunters 


Alcohol and Tobacco Reference no 
Fan Vio i RPG 

аас p PlayStation.e | 

Simulated Gambling WWW.ATLUS.COM 
Suggestive Themes 


ESRB CONTENT RATING _ www.esrh.org 








©2005 Success/Crea-Tech Licensed to and published by Atlus USA. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. 
The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. Sony Computer Entertainment America takes no responsibility for this offer. 


'cOUer story: 
too human 









> for the groundlings throwing beer on 
the actors from the front row.” Too 
Human's sweeping plot works on 
three distinct levels: a top-line level 
chronicling the war between man- 
kind and machines, a symbolic level 
referencing Norse mythology, and 
finally, a deep metaphorical level 
channeling Nietzsche's writings on 
relativism. “People who get into the 
mythology are going to get a ton 
out of this,” says Dyack. “The rabbit 
hole goes really, really deep.” 

Norse mythology permeates 
every aspect of the game—each of 
the game’s characters, monsters, 
and locations has a direct parallel 


GOD COMPLEX соо 
“The rabbit hole goes really, really deep." : 


—Denis Dyack on his game's complex narrative 


+ As you guide Baldur through bleak terrain ravaged by millennia of warfare, you'll 
occasionally need a break from all that grisly combat. Good news: You can find 
temporary solace in a virtual-reality world dubbed Cyberspace. Don’t expect an 
} edgy realm of glowing green text like in The Matrix, though. “In Cyberspace we 





to the ancient legends. Be on the 
lookout for supremely subtle refer- 
ences—at one point during our 
demo, Dyack paused to point out 
that a doorway’s shape was based 
on a particular ancient rune. But of 
course, this isn’t a straight-up myth 
retread in the vein of God of War: 
Thor and Loki weren't traditionally 
portrayed with laser rifles. When 
pushed on the subject of whether 
the Norse symbolism was meant 
solely as metaphor, Dyack lets it 
all hang out. “Imagine if the story 
we're telling in Too Human is really 
the source of Norse mythology,” he 
explains. “Ten thousand years later 


70 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com 


plenty of secrets.” 
= x 








: really wanted to juxtapose what people usually think of as cyberspace, which is 
1 technological, with something that looks as natural as possible,” says Dyack. “In 
+ Cyberspace, you'll find a great repository of information, cybernetic upgrades, and 




















the true events are forgotten, so it 
becomes religion, and later a myth.” 
So your Baldur, the brave warrior 
defending the humans against a 
mechanical onslaught in a long- 
forgotten futuristic past, is later 
canonized as Baldur, god of light in 
Norse mythology. It's clever stuff, 
and the brainchild of Dyack's per- 
sonal interest in the subject matter. 
“Norse myths are my favorites 
because the gods are not immor- 
tal—they can die,” adds Dyack. 

“In fact, they’re fatalists—they 

all know that they are fated to die 
in Ragnarok, the apocalyptic war 
between the gods and giants > 





COMMAND A WIDE RANGE OF SQUADS UTILIZE REAL-WORLD COMBAT TACTICS 8 UNIQUE MULTIPLAYER LEVELS/MODES 
US Light Infantry, US Special Forces, Outthink, Outmaneuver, Outgun Enemies Through Co-op and Coalition Vs. Opposition Forces 
Multi-National Coalition Forces Over 12 Levels of Intense Combat 


/ Æ POWERED BY 


WWW.FULLSPECTRUMWARRIOR.COM AVAILABLE NOW. чы gamespy. 


MATURE 17+ 





Blood and Gore 
Strong Language : PC 
Violence L РІауѕгайоп.о ea E 
הרסחה‎ GRON 


© 2006 Pandemic Studios, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Pandemic ®, the Pandemic logo ® and Full Spectrum Warrior" are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Pandemic Studios, LLC and are reproduced under license only. Exclusively licensed by THQ Inc. 
THQ and the THQ logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logos and the Xbox logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries 
and are used under license from Microsoft. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Online play requires internet connection and Memory Card (8MB) (for PlayStation 2) (each sold separately). The Online 
icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. GameSpy and the "Powered by GameSpy" design are trademarks of GameSpy Industries, Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks, 
logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA Logo, GeForce and "The Way It's Meant to be Played" Logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and other countries. 


“o +7 


PANDEMIC www.thg.com 





cover story: 
too human 









that ends the world.” Truthfully, Too 
Human’s deities aren’t really gods at all. 
“The gods are humans who have been 
cybernetically enhanced to the point 
where they have seemingly superhuman 
powers,” Dyack explains. “They’re not 
magical in any way; they’re just pro- 
foundly powerful.” 

Although his face lights up with glee 
when discussing his game’s labyrinthine 








GOD COMPLEX com 


narrative, Dyack still worries about giv- 
ing too much away. If fans pore over 
ancient texts, they might just spoil the 
second and third game’s climactic plots. 
Ultimately, though, he’d probably be 

proud of these impatient bookworms. “If 
you can get game players talking about 
mythology or Nietzsche then you’ve 

done something for the art form,” Dyack 
offers. “Paying attention to the meaning > 


72 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


+ Although Silicon Knights remains adamant = 
+ that the first chapter of Too Human will 3 Та i iu n^ 
: ship this November, the company faces the 


: a game on time?” he asks. “Well, Eternal 
; Darkness actually would have made GC 


; set in the Arab world. It's not that we 


The Tough Question 








stigma of several delayed past releases. 
That's a reputation that Denis Dyack would 
like to shake. "Can Silicon Knights ship. 












launch ext 
possibly ant 
ally had tor 


one thing that we couldn't 
ate—and that'was 9/11." D; 
0 25 percent of the levels beg 


goes on to explain: "We actu- 
we had some major setting 
е anything negative—at all—but 
were very disappointed about all. 
press over that delay. But as Miyamoto- 
game was late, but they'll never forget 


ent just wasn’t ready fg 
we really got beatei 
ple will forget 


Some of us are givers. 
Some of us are takers. 


Filefront.com serves both. 





Unlimited uploads, unlimited downloads, unlimited bandwidth. 
The latest PC gaming patches, drivers, demos, tools, and videos...free. 


CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF JEFF ohne www.filefront.com 


CHECK OUT HIS COLUMN 
What's New in PC Gaming 


Only on filefront.com е heck it out! 


CUP 
NETWORK 
















Too ambitious ? 

For something that’s being billed as an 
instantly accessible action game, Too 
Human feels mysteriously like a Trojan 
horse—its user-friendly exterior masks 
untold depth, the promise of online 
addiction, and that seriously heavy story 
line. This ballsy bait-and-switch isn’t 
accidental. “I think ме"! hopefully take 
the gamer places that they've never been 
before,” promises Dyack. “If we want to 
take entertainment to the next level, then 
we have to provide the perfect entertain- 
ment experience, and that’s what defines 
Too Human above anything else.” In order 
to achieve this lofty goal, Dyack will have 
to delicately balance the gameplay and 
story line of his epic creation. Hopefully, 
this time working alongside Hideo Kojima 


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


Too Human will also allow players to venture onto Xbox Live and tackle the full 
ingle-player adventure with up to three other players. “A good analogy for this 
mode is Phantasy Star Online,” explains Too Human Designer Henry Sterchi. “It 
was the first online RPG that had real combat, and you could actually chain the 
ttacks together. We thought: What if every time you were attacking, you were 
usting out all these really cool moves?” Expect seriously ramped-up difficulty, 
ome unique rare item drops, and ass-kicking team-up moves. “Imagine you 
launch an enemy up in the air, then your buddy jumps up and grabs him by the jy 
legs and piledrives him into the ground," adds director Denis Dyack. 


behind the story is the future of gaming.” 















(CONT) 
[| 





Ш Тоо Human’s online play hearkens 
back to Sega's Phantasy Star Online,’ 


taught him where to draw the line with 
his high-minded approach to game 
design...gamers don’t want another head- 
scratching Metal Gear Solid 2 situation. 
Despite all the pressure, Dyack seems 
confident. “I think that Too Human 
will be the product that will define the 
company, for good or for ill...but we're 
thinking it will be for good," says Dyack. 
“In some sense it defines who we are 
and who we want to be.” He has simi- 
larly high hopes for gamers in general. 
“In the future, instead of some negative 
story about how videogames turn peo- 
ple into killing machines, maybe we'll 
get a story about how games are getting 
people to talk about philosophy,” muses 
Dyack. “I think a parent would be pretty 
happy if a kid was playing a game and 
starting talking about Nietzsche.” Dream 
on, crazy dreamer... 


Looking back at the original PlayStation version of Too 
Human (above) reveals it to be a surprisingly different 
game. In. this iteration, you controlled John Franks, a 


a tough-as-nails detective going undercover to infiltrate 


shady corporation in the year 2450. Comparisons to 
stealth blockbuster Metal Gear Solid were appropri- 
ate...Denis Dyack himself made the connection in an 
iguing interview from 1999 that can be found on 
Too Human fansite www.toohuman.net. We know less 
; about the later GameCube revision—unlike the PS1 
game, it was never presented in playable form—but it 
ќ appears to follow a similar hard-edge sci-fi aesthetic. 
The original concept for the game now seems rather 
simple compared to the nuanced, mythology-laden 
epic that it's evolved into. Hopefully, we'll get a deeper 
look into these abandoned versions in the inevitable 
behind-the-scenes DVD that will ship alongside a lim- 
ited-edition release of the Xbox 360 game. 74. 














WE BUILD IT, 
YOU PLAY IT. 





*The AMD Athlon" X2 dual-core processor enables everyone to do more in less time by delivering exceptional 








multi-tasking capabilities and increased performance on digital media. 

Dual-core technology is like having one processor responsible for running programs in the background while а 
second runs the applications you want to work on. The AMD Athlon" 64 X2 dual-core processor brings true parallel 
processing to the desktop and can increase computing performance by up to 8096. 


eProvides leading-edge 32-bit performance for music, video, and games and is ready for future 64-bit software. 
*Imperoves security against certain types of viruses, with enhanced Virus protection for Microsoft? Windows® ХР SP2. 
• Сопѕегуеѕ power and operates quietly with AMD Cool'n'Quiet" technology. 

Features HyperTransport" technology for improved multitasking performance 


L BATTALION S-TURBO 1 





15.4"Wide Screen 16:10 WXGA TFT LCD 1280x800 Display 
AMD? Turion" 64 Mobile Technology 

- AMD? PowerNow! Technology 

- HyperTransport Technology 

- Ehanced Virus Protection Technology 

MS WINDOWS? XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Service Pack 2 
Mobile ATI? Radeon" X700 128MB DDR Video 


1024MB DDR-400 Memory 
Removable 8x DVD+R/+RW / CD-RW Drive 

60GB 5400RPM Ultra-ATA100 Hard Drive 

10/100MB Ethernet LAN & 56K Modem 

Wireless 802.119 54MBps Міпі-РСІ Network 

4x USB 2.0 & 1x Firewire IEEE-1394 Ports; 3-in-1 Build-in Media Card Reader 
Free 1-Year i-Care Deluxe Phone Support 

High Performance Li-lon Battery 

Free Deluxe Carrying Case 


AMD Turion" 64 MobileTechnology MT-30 Processor $1265 
AMD Turion™ 64 MobileTechnology MT-34 Processor $1299 
AMD Turion" 64 MobileTechnology MT-37 Processor $1345 
AMD Turion" 64 MobileTechnology MT-40 Processor $1379 





Order Toll Free 


<i (5989 ] 


E © 
154" Wide Screen 16:10 WXGA TFT LCD 1280x800 Display 


AMD® Mobile Athlon™ 64 Processor with HyperTransport Technology 
MS WINDOWS® XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Service Pack 2 
Mobile ATI? Radeon" 9700 PRO 128MB DDR Video 

512MB DDR-400 Memory 

Removable 8x DVD+R/+RW / CD-RW Drive 

40GB 5400RPM Ultra-ATA 100 Hard Drive 

10/100MB Ethernet LAN & 56K Modem 

Wireless 802.119 54MBps Міпі-РСІ Network 

Зх USB 2.0 & 1x Firewire IEEE-1394 Ports 

3-in-1 Build-in Media Card Reader 

Free 1-Year i-Care Deluxe Phone Support 

Choice of 6 Exclusive Reflective Colors 

High Performance Li-lon Battery 

Free Deluxe Carrying Case 








Mobile AMD Athlon” 64 3000+ Processor $989 

Mobile AMD Athlon" 64 3200+ Processor $1035 
Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3400+ Processor $1045 
Mobile AMD Athlon" 64 3700+ Processor $1119 








tm | BARGAIN в USERRA 17.2 


NVIDIA® nForce" 4 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ Processor $529 
NZXT® Trinity Mid-Tower Case + See Through Window + Neon Light AMD Athlon™ 64 3500+ Processor 9 
Corsair 512MB DDR400 Memory AMD Athlon™ 64 3700+ Processor 9 
Serial-ATA-Il 160GB 7200RPM 3 Gb Hard Drive AMD Athlon™ 64 4000+ Processor 9 
16x DVD-ROM + 52x32x52 CD-RW Combo Drivre AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ Processor $689 
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6200 w/ TurboCache 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4200+ Processor 9 
8 Channel Surround 3D Premium Sound 

10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN 

600Watt Surround Sound Speakers 

Logitech Multimedia Keyboard & Optical Mouse 

Free 1-Year 24/7 i-Care Deluxe Technical Support -- On-Site Service 

Add ViewSonic? VX924 19" LCD - Xtreme 3ms video for ultimate gaming @ $449 








я! E PRO | i |i לטות‎ Be Ee RR Os | Re 


NVIDIA® nForce" 4 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ Processor 9 
MS WINDOWS? XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Service Pack 2 AMD Athlon" 64 3500+ Processor 9 
Cooler Master Ammo-533 Gaming Tower Case AMD Athlon™ 64 3700+ Processor — $1089 
Corsair 1024MB DDR400 Memory AMD Athlon™ 64 4000+ Processor 9 
Serial-ATA-Il 20068 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4200+ Processor 9 
16x Double Layer DVD+R/+RW Drive AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4400+ Processor 9 
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7300GS 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card 

8 Channel Surround 3D Premium Sound 

10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN 

600Watt Surround Sound Speakers 

17" Viewsonic? Q7B LCD Monitor 

Logitech Multimedia Keyboard & Optical Mouse 

Free Wireless 802.11g 54MBps Network Adapter 

Free 1-Year 24/7 i-Care Deluxe Technical Support + On-Site Service 






n! aera 
AMD Athlon™ 64 3500+ Processor $1559 
AMD Athlon™ 64 3700+ Processor $1619 
AMD Athlon" 64 4000+ Processor $1679 
AMD Athlon” 64 X2 4200+ Processor $1749 
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4400+ Processor $1859 
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4600+ Processor $1959 
AMD Athlon” 64 FX-60 Processor $2489 


NVIDIA® nForce™ 4 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard 
NZXT® Lexa Gaming Case 

IBuypower? CPU Liquid Cooling System 

MS WINDOWS? XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Service Pack 2 

Corsair 1024MB DDR-400 Memory 

Serial-ATA-Il 300GB 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive 

16x Double Layer DVD+R/+RW Drive 

16x DVD-ROM Drive 

2X NVIDIA® GeForce" 7900GT PCI Express 256MB Video Cards - SLI Enabled 
8 Channel Surround 3D Premium Sound 

Creative Inspire 8 Channel Surround Sound Speakers 

10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN 

Logitec Multimedia Office Keyboard; Optical Mouse 

Free Wireless 802.110 54MBps Network Adapter 

Free 1-Year 24/7 i-Care Deluxe Technical Support + On-Site Service 


NIGHT ₪ 





“9 


AMD Athlon" 64 3200+ Processor $1199 
AMD Athlon™ 64 3500+ Processor $1249 





AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ Processor $959 
AMD Athlon™ 64 3500+ Processor $999 





AMD Athlon” 643700+ Processor 51049 AMD Athlon™ 64 3700+ Processor — $1299 
NVIDIA® nForce" 4 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard AMD Athlon™ 64 4000+ Processor $1119 NVIDIA® nForce" 4 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard AMD Athlon™ 64 4000+ Processor $1369 
MS WINDOWS? ХР Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Service Pack 2 АМО Athlon" 64 X2 4200+ Processor — 51189 Raidmax Ninja Gaming Case AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4200+ Processor 9 
Mose ui Саре oe PCS AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4400+ Processor $1299 pee eu quid vot Technology AMD Athlon" 64X24400 Processor $1539 

шуроуге! iquid Cooling Techno! > orsair lemory м 

Созай 1024MB DDRAOO Mena sti AMD Athlon” 64 X2 4600+ Processor $1389 Serial-ATA-II 250GB 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive AMD Athlon™ бија 4600h Processor $1699 
Serial-ATA-II 200GB 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4800+ Processor $1489 16x Double Layer DVD+R/+RW Drive АМО Athlon™ 64 X2 4800+ Processor $1739 
16x Double Layer DVD+R/+RW Drive 16x DVD-ROM Drive 
6-in-1 Media Card Reader 2X NVIDIA® GeForce” 7600GT 256MB DDR3 16X PCI Express Video Card - SLI Enabled 
2X NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7300GT 256MB 16X PCI Express - SLI Enabled 8 Channel Surround 3D Premium Sound 
8 Channel Surround 3D Premium Sound 10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN 
10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN MS WINDOWS® XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Service Pack 2 
600Watt Surround Sound Speakers Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers 
Logitech Multimedia Keyboard & Optical Mouse Free Wireless 802.11g 54MBps Network Adapter 
Free Wireless 802.110 54MBps Network Adapter Free 1-Year 24/7 i-Care Deluxe Technical Support + On-Site Service 


Free 1-Year 24/7 i-Care Deluxe Technical Support + On-Site Service 








^ preview Feature: 


portable games 


78 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 








Take a journey with the 
next hot crop of games 
for your handhelds 


ow this is what you call a fight. With year two of the portable war 

well underway, the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PSP are still running 

neck and neck among U.S. gamers (over in Japan, Nintendo's 

machine currently has a slight lead). Sure, each handheld has 

had its share of ups (Nintendogs, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City 
Stories) and downs (few non-Nintendo-made DS titles are worth picking up; the 
PSP is flooded with poor PS2 ports). But after looking at the upcoming software 
lineup for both systems, this battle’s best days are ahead. 

You'll find four different genres covered here: role-playing, action, fighting, and 
alternative. So pick your preferred path (no cosplay outfits, please) and catch a 
peek at the adventures you'll be having in the near future. > 

—Bryan Intihar and Demian Linn 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com • 79 








preview feature: 
"J portable games 


xi 





\АУ 2006 


Ll = Believe it or not, monster 
hunting requires more than the ability to slay a few 
dragons. You gotta be domesticated, too, as the best 
of the best are pros at fishing, gardening, and cook- 
ing fine meats (can’t go out hacking and slashing on 
an empty stomach, now can you?). Don’t expect a 
break from your “chores” on the portable version of 
Capcom’s action-RPG, because unlike most PS2-to- 
PSP ports, Freedom contains just as much content as 
its big brother does (and looks just as damn impres- 
sive visually). 

But let's be honest: You really came here for the 
killings. And thankfully, the developers are making 





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


“MONSTER HUNTER 
FREEDOM 





the necessary changes to the home edition’s grueling 
single-player campaign. “Basically, we ‘adjusted’ the 
{game’s mission] structure, rather than ‘corrected’ 

it,” says Producer Tsuyoshi Tanaka. “We didn’t just 
shorten the time involved for each mission, but 
focused more on making the game easier and more 
enjoyable to play on this portable system.” Still need 
а helping hand when tackling one of the game's 
Jurassic beasts? Freedom also supports local ай 

hoc play, where up to four players can venture out 

on quests together (sorry, no true online mode here). 
Who knows, maybe you can get one of your friends to 
tend to your garden or cook up some grub (suckers). 












ALTERNATE 
ROUTES 





Paintball 


1 
₪ 





You сап also head to the 
new Felyne Kitchen for some 
hearty meals (the food con- 
sumed here will temporarily 
improve your stats). 


A four-player dungeon hack that’s a lot like Phantasy Star 
Online...minus the online bit. 


Cloud's best bud, Zack, takes center stage in this long-awaited 
action-RPG. Want more info? Yeah, so do we. 











Like anything we could say here 
will stop 5 million Pokémaniacs from buying this game. 





| Шу 











Jr- 7-0 
É „30045 mi 50M 














₪ m E 
4 ^," 2 Sh ָ 5 . 
РЬ тын Y . as . P Basically the same package as the 2000 PS1 cult classic, but 
4 К ^ т E zi now in handheld form. Hey, at least it's a port of a good дате... 
1 
Es F , E = Expect 2D 
е. м ој 3 visuals as these two console RPGs go portable (must be to 
: " Та make room for those 237 hours of cut-scenes). > 


f Freedom's less-demanding single-player 
К game should mean you сап take down Sean 
Connery’s Dragonheart kin all on your own. 


preview feature: 
* portable games 





ACTION 


“NEW SUPER M 


NINTENDO - DS - MAY 2006 






The Journey Ahead: it's a good thing we don't 
judge games based on the creativity of their names. 
Otherwise, we'd have to give this one a big fat donut. 
And don't let the "New" in this Super Mario Bros. 
fool you, either; even with its snazzy mix of 2D and 
3D visuals, this platformer will resemble its elder 
NES and Super NES cousins more than the last few 
console installments, so expect a very straightforward 
and accessible game (in the past, the developers 
mentioned that they felt the recent Super Mario titles 
had gotten a bit too hardcore). 

While the series returns to its roots (at least for 
this go-around), the chubby plumber and his bro-ham 


* 


will still sport some new tricks for reaching those 
flagpoles. Power-ups making their debut in this 
Mushroom Kingdom include 'shrooms that'll shrink 
our two heroes, ones that'll really supersize them, 
plus a Koopa outfit—slip into this turtle shell and you 
can slide all around the level knocking out enemies. 
Just cross your fingers that you'll don this attire more 
often than SMB3’s (NES) popular, yet underutilized, 
Hammer Bros. getup. 

Aside from New Super Mario Bros.’ butt-stomp- 
ing, pipe-traveling solo venture, the game will also 
come packed with a two-player wireless co-op mode. 
Princess Peach—we're a-coming. 





ALTERNATE ROUTES 


Boktai DS * Konami • DS Fall 2006 — Good news 
for all you albino gamers: This dual-screen Boktai ditches 
the GBA versions’ light sensor, meaning you don’t ever 
have to head outside while hunting these vampires. 


Gangs of London • Sony СЕА > PSP > Fall 2006 

The makers of The Getaway franchise (PS2) want to show 
you that England’s hooligans spill blood over more than a 
Arsenal-Manchester United footy match. 


Killzone: Liberation • Sony СЕА > PSP • Fall 2006 
The PS2 first-person shooter goes all Metal Gear Solid (as 
in, a top-down stealth-action game) on PSP. 


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


MechAssault: Phantom War * Majesco * DS * Fall 
2006 — Apparently, Microsoft doesn’t mind lending its 
Xbox BattleMechs to console competitor Nintendo for 
handheld purposes. 


New Grand Theft Auto г Rockstar > PSP • Fall 2006 
If we were a bettin’ man (or woman), we'd put our money 
on Vice City as the backdrop for the next portable СТА. 


Ultimate Ghosts ’n Goblins > Capcom > PSP > Fall 
2006 — Expect to see Sir Arthur’s dirty drawers a lot, 
as the developers swear this side-scroller will be just as 
challenging as the previous GNG titles. 


















d IN 
FIGHUING 


MIDWAY - PSP - FALL 2006 








ES 
Watch where you're putting 
those four hands, бого. = 





- j | 
ж = ב‎ gnus 
- Mee X | 
The Journey Ahead: => . \ КО UTES 

„И Tekken: Dark Resurrection * Namco • PSP • 
| Summer 2006 — This port of the latest arcade install- 
f ment aims to improve the franchise's piss-poor hand- 
held record (remember Tekken Advance?) with addi- 
tional characters (including scary newcomer Dragunov 


and series vet Eddy Gordo) and stages. You'll find lots of 
new attire for decking out your pugilist, too. 
















Power Stone Collection * Capcom * PSP • Fall 2006 
Feel that? It's the spirit of Sega's ill-fated Dreamcast, 
as two of the console's brawlers—Power Stone (good) 
and the four-player Power Stone 2 (not so good)—get 
revived for Sony's handheld. Aside from some routine 
upgrades (new quirky weapons, a training mode, etc.), 
this two-game collection makes the four new characters 
from Power Stone 2 playable in the original game. And 
thanks to the game-sharing function, you only need one 
UMD for others to jump in with their PSPs and beat the 
crap out of you. > 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com • 83 


ALTERNATIVE 


SONY (IN JAPAN) · PSP - LATE 2006 






Lead Programmer Gregg 
Tavares knows his game—at least from the onset— 
isn’t very manly. “Yeah, | guess a single LocoRoco is 
pretty wimpy,” he says. “But a 20-weight LocoRoco is 
huge, and | certainly wouldn't want to get squashed 
by one.” 

So how does your jellylike creature go from 
chump to champ in this disgustingly happy-go-lucky 
side-scroller? Here's how it works: Rather than mov- 
ing the LocoRoco from point A to point B with the 
PSP's analog stick or directional pad, you'll use the 
handheld's two shoulder buttons to actually tilt the 
game's environment up to 30 degrees, thus causing 
the LocoRoco to head in the desired direction. As 
you guide this orange goo through settings such as 
jungles and snow-covered mountains, you also must 








15 LocoRoco the next Katamari? “The development team is very pleased when we hear [those comparisons]," says Lead 
Programmer Gregg Tavares. “We are all fans of Katamari and are happy to be considered in such good company.” 


84 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


y 


avoid hazards like splinters and enemies, plus eat 
fruit so that your LocoRoco's size increases (the 
bigger the LocoRoco, the higher your score at the 
end of each level). But the game's not just about 
becoming a fatty; occasionally, you'll have to split 
your LocoRoco into several tinier ones so you can fit 
through really tight passageways or gain access to 
secret rooms. 

Unfortunately, Sony hasn't announced a U.S. 
release for LocoRoco just yet, but don't worry—we've 
already heard of several other publishers that are 
extremely interested in bringing this wonderfully 
bizarre and intuitive handheld title Stateside. And 
remember, if a prince rolling a giant katamari ball 
around can make it here, so can one wimpy...er, we 
mean one tough blob of jelly. 








ALTERNATE 
ROUTES 


Mario’s crew really wants to give your noggin one seri- 
ous workout, as this sequel hits only a month after Brain 
Age (head to page 20 for more on that one). The big 

deal here: an eight-person multiplayer mode that only 
requires one game cartridge. Great, now all your friends 
will see that your brain cells really are fried. 


This 
one's in the vein of the puzzler Bust-A-Move. You'll use 
the DS’ stylus and touch screen to match similar-looking 
marbles and protect your base. You can hurl marbles of 
your own at the CPU, too. 


This 
portable shooting gallery 
includes 50 minigames from 
all three corny Point Blank 
games, complete with touch- 
screen functionality and 
a versus mode. Lightgun- 
shaped stylus not included. 








MORE INFO FOR YOUR ADVENTURES 
LITE IT UP 


Nintendo’s dual-screen handheld has gone and gotten itself a make- 
over. And it's lookin’ good. In addition to being lighter and smaller (the 
screens stay the same size, though), the DS Lite features four bright- 
ness settings (the colors really pop on the highest one) and a larger 
stylus, and the microphone is now positioned in the middle of the unit. 
When we tried out the DS Lite, the D-pad just felt better as well. 


The price is right: 
Expect the DS Lite 
(which is due out this 
May) to cost the same 
as the current model, 
roughly $130. 


EVER WONDER... 


...Why so few third-party PSP games support online play (more confusingly referred to as “infrastructure 
browsing (thanks to its touch screen and stylus), the cumbersome PSP mode”)? While we’ve heard rumblings that Sony has purposefully kept this technology close to its chest 
is the handheld that allows you to check your e-mail and/or favorite (giving its own games an edge), the hardware maker insists that’s not the case. "We've made it a focus 
porn site. That may change soon; Nintendo recently announced Web- for both first- and third-party titles to include infrastructure mode in future titles and are confident in the 
"browsing software for the Japanese market. A company rep hinted to stellar content offerings that will become available this year,” says a company spokesperson. OK, then 
why haven't we heard of any new third-party titles that'll include this feature? 


FFVII: ADVENT 
CHILDREN GETS 
A DATE (NO, REALLY) 


Good thing we didn’t hold our breath for the U.S. release of Square Enix’s antici- 
pated CG flick. It's only been, what, like seven months since the Japanese debut 
of FFVII: Advent Children? Well, wait no more: This April 25, you can pick up the 
movie—which is set two years after the events of the hugely successful PS1 
role-playing title—on both DVD and UMD (for $27 and $29, respectively). And we 
recommend buying the DVD edition; it'll include bonuses such as deleted scenes, a 
making-of documentary, and a glimpse at future FFV/I-based titles. ќи 





























DIRECTORY 


The Outfit 


Top Spin 2 
Rumble Roses XX 
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII 


Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires 


The Godfather 

Driver: Parallel Lines 

Major League Baseball 2K6 
Tomb Raider: Legend 

NBA Ballers: Phenom 
Commandos Strike Force 





"58 


100 Kingdom Hearts Il 
103 Suikoden V 


104 Warpath 


104 Daxter 

105 Me & My Katamari 

106 Capcom Classics Collection 
Remixed 

106 Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror 

107 Splinter Cell Essentials 


108 Tetris DS 

108 Tao’s Adventure: Curse of the 
Demon Seal 

109 Metroid Prime Hunters 


110 Reviews Wrap-up 
113 Reviews Archive 





86 • ELECTRONIC GAMING мох. * WWw.1UP.com 


y ка 


THE RATING SYSTEM & AWARDS 


10-7 


GOOD 








* | 2 










GAME OF SHAME OF 
| THE MONTH THE MONTH 
Platinum Gold Silver | The highest- The lowest-rated 
Straight 10s. For | For games with | For games witha | scoring game game with 
games that are | an average score | mean score of 8.0 | each month gets | unanimously bad 
life-changing. of 9.0 or higher. | or higher. | astar. scores. 








ESRB Ratings The ESRB's game ratings range from “Everyone” to "Adults Only.” 
Visit www.esrh.org for the full lowdown. 


THE REVIEW CREW 


Lookin’ good in their matching satin jackets 





DAN “SHOE” HSU • Editor-in-Chief 
Shoe's riding the Tom Clancy roller coaster: 
Hates Ghost Recon 2. Loves Advanced 
Warfighter. Loves Splinter 


Cell, Hates Essentials... 
Now Playing: Ghost Recon 
Adv. Warfighter, Godfather 
Blog: egmshoe.1UP.com 








MARK MACDONALD * Executive Editor 
Now that Mark is away on vacation, people 
are no longer afraid to talk openly about 
enjoying Metal Gear Solid 3: 

Subsistence's online game. 

Now Playing: Final 

Fantasy XII 

Blog: egmmark.1UP.com 








JENNIFER TSAO • Managing Editor 

Tetris DS made her feel old. Top Spin 2 made 
her feel unathletic. Katamari made her feel 
uncoordinated. At least Jen 
had Brain Age this month 50. 
she could fee-—aw, crap... 
Now Playing: Brain Age 
Blog: egmjennifer.1UP.com 


CRISPIN BOYER > Senior Editor 

Crispin thinks Godfather is the best Marlon 
Brando game since the late, great actor 
played Superman's old man 

in the classic Superman 64, 

Now Playing; Tomb Raider: 

Legend, The Godfather 

Blog: egmcrispin.1UP.com 











SHANE BETTENHAUSEN * Previews Editor 
Although he's not about to write Goofy/Sora 
fan fiction like Bryan, Shane had a magical 
time with Kingdom Hearts И. 

Now Playing: Soul Calibur 

lil, Kingdom Hearts Il, Too 

Human, Black Tiger 

Blog: egmshane.1UP.com 


GREG FORD • Reviews Editor (incoming) 
The new reviews editor wanted to make a 
big splash for his first issue—he opted for 
the always-welcome ‘fro 
wig/flowered shirt combo. 
Now Playing: Ghost Recon 
Adv. Warfighter, Full Auto 
Blog: egmford.1UP.com 














DEMIAN LINN • Reviews Editor (outgoing) 
Please direct all your complaints ге: EGM 
hates/loves Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo/ 
whatever game to young 

Greg Ford. It's his fault now. 

Now Playing: GRAW, Soul 

Calibur Ill, Field Commander 

Blog: egmdemian.1UP.com 


BRYAN INTIHAR > News Editor 
With G. Ford officially joining the squad, 
Bryan's no longer the youngest staffer. 
But he'll always be our 
baby-games editor. 

Now Playing: KH2, Mock 
Trial With J. Reinhold 
Blog: egmbryan.1UP.com 














ROBERT ASHLEY > Staff Reviewer 
Robert has had already enough of the 
console war, and if you try to talk to him 
about your favorite system, 

he might bite your face off. 

Now Playing: The 

Godfather 

Blog: robertashley.1UP.com 


ROBERT COFFEY » Staff Reviewer 
For Robert, the great thing about sports 
games is that he can trick himself int 
thinking he’s actually 
outside doing something. 
Now Playing: Fight Night 
Round 3, Top Spin 2 

Blog: citizen_pain.1UP.com 











JENN FRANK > Staff Reviewer 
Everyone loves to see the wildly 
contorted, sneering “musician faces” 
Jenn makes when she's 
concentrating on rocking 

out in Guitar Hero. 

Now Playing: Guitar Hero 

Blog: superjenn.1UP.com 


JAMES LEE > Staff Reviewer 

After some time away, James came back 
to review, uh, one game. He's going to 
take a nap and do another. 

one later. 

Now Playing: Fight Night 

Round 3 

Blog: egmwiley.1UP.com 








NICH MARAGOS > Staff Reviewer 
This month, Nich kept it nerdy but still 
explored new frontiers of penniless 
freelancing by working on 

his own comic book. 

Now Playing: Steambot 

Chronicles 

Blog: debaser.1UP.com 





PATRICK MAURO > Staff Reviewer 
This syndicated radio guy reviews street 
hoops games while carrying his young on 
his back. 

Now Playing: Major League 

Baseball 6 

Blog: Patrick believes the 

future of blogs is radio 











KATHLEEN SANDERS • Staff Reviewer 
Kathleen decided that if her own sidekick, 
Minnie Chihuahua, should ever star in her 
own videogame adventure, 

it isn't going to be on PSP. 
Now Playing: GRAW, Age of 
Empires (DS) 

Blog: cookiecups.1UP.com 





RYAN SCOTT > Staff Reviewer 
Computer Gaming World's reviews editor 
plays plenty of console games, too—like 
geeky import rhythm games 

about male cheer squads. 

Now Playing: Exit, Ossu! 

Tatakae! Ouendan! 

Blog: cgw-ryan.1UP.com 

















GREG SEWART > Staff Reviewer 

Thanks to The Godfather and Driver: Parallel 
Lines, this sweet-tempered Canuck has 
a New York-y attitude. 
He's walkin’, here! 
Fuggedaboudit! 

Now Playing: GRAW, Ico 
Blog: stewy.1UP.com 











E OFFICIAL U.S. PLAYSTATION 
MAGAZINE and 1UP.COM are there for 
us when we need someone clever to help 
us out with reviews, or just someone to 
give us a hug and tell us that everything 
is gonna be OK. Because, you know 
what? It is. 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY г www.1UP.com • 87 


@ 


review crew: 
xbox 360 


Xbox 360 


THE OUTFIT 


Dressed to kill...slowly 


^d 


For an 
ехріоѕіоп= 
packed game, 
splash damage 
sure is useless 
in The Outfit. 


Publisher: THQ 
Developer: Relic 
Players: 1-2 (2-8 online) 
ESRB: Mature 


THE VERDICTS 
(OUTOF 10) 


SHOE MARK ANDREW 


www.theoutfitgame.com 


Xbox 360 


TOP SPIN 2 


Bjorn (Borg) again 








EI 





Kind of makes you long for the 
staid tradition of Wimbledon, eh? 





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


THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 








ROBERT С. 


JENNIFER ANDREW 


www.2ksports.com 


88 e ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





Good: Action-packed multiplayer 
Bad: That “action” is slow, clunky 


Most Embarrassing Death: Crushed by an air-dropped tank 


SHOE; Forget about “careful.” This World 
War Il shooter emphasizes carnage and 
raw firepower over tactics and planning. 
You and your A.I. squad must capture 
strategic bases (à la Battlefield) and 
explode Nazis with your guns, all while 
spending experience points (called FUs) on 
firepower (vehicles, gun emplacements, 
soldiers, etc.) that’s air-dropped down in 
real time. It's the opposite of realistic, but 
the potential for fun is still there. 

I like this “Destruction on Demand" 
gameplay hook. It works especially well 
in the unpredictable world of multiplayer, 
where you have to make on-the-fly deci- 
sions about whether to save up for that 
super-duper tank, place machine-gun 
nests around a base, call in an artillery 
strike, or whatever. But in single player, 
this hook doesn’t factor in as much since 
the missions are so linear. The game will 
tell you if you need to hunker down, and 
your armament choices are limited by 
which factories you've captured so far 
(and you'll be capturing them in the order 
the missions were designed for). 

What ends up spoiling the experience 
for me, however, is the general slow and 
clunky feel of the game. If Call of Duty 215 
a blitzkrieg of shooting action, The Outfit 
is a leisurely zeppelin ride...underwater. 
It’s still exciting, just severely hampered. 


MARK: Its World War Il 

setting notwithstanding, The Outfit 
deserves props for trying something new. 
The game's mix of action (running and gun- 
ning, tossing grenades) and strategy (plac- 
ing troops and weapons, taking and holding 
objectives) works great in multiplayer, 
where unpredictable opponents and some 
great modes make for intense battles. Slow 
everything down in single player, however, 
and The Outfit's flaws catch up with it: 
mediocre graphics (which look much worse 
in the real-time cut-scenes), touchy vehicle 
controls, repetitive situations, and a story 
that never makes you give a damn. 


1UP.COM—ANDREW: The Outfit does a 
good job of mixing an open-map, control- 
point system with linear missions, and 

it makes you feel like you have more 
freedom than you really do. This is espe- 
cially beneficial when you die—instead of 
starting the entire mission over, you just 
pick the closest spawn point and jump 
back in. But it’s almost too easy: You aren’t 
penalized for dying, and money’s rarely a 
problem, since you “earn” it just by blow- 
ing crap up. In terms of fake-war fun, The 
Outfit is more G.I. Joe than Army Men, 
and the battle scenarios always keep your 
attention. But you don’t need to be a four- 
star general to win this war. 





Good: The great, strategically deep career mode 


Bad: The browbeating, lopsidedly cruel career mode 


The Party’s Over: 





ГИ never forget the first time | 
played a Top Spin game. Of course, back 
then, we called it Pong, but still...it's a 
pretty irresistible formula. Top Spin 2 
does a fine job of delivering tense smack- 
the-ball-back-and-forth action. 

Aside from the obvious—and fairly 
nice—graphics upgrade, the big update 
comes in the form of two new shot types. 
The timing-reliant risk shots can be 
devastating...to your game, since timing 
them right in the heat of a match is cra- 
zily tough. The new advanced shots are 
more reliable, though you have to spend 
momentum (which you build up by win- 
ning points). 

The game's heart, career mode, is 
generally strong but it skips a few beats. 
Custom-developing your player (by win- 
ning stars to assign to stats and then 
competing) is really satisfying...until you 
realize that though you're inexplicably 
ranked 14th in the world, you're constantly 
and depressingly trounced by lower- 
ranked opponents with better star ratings. 
Upgrading your initial bronze stars to gold 
is a long, hard slog. If only Тор Spin 2 had 
given you better options for improving 
your player after maxing out your 60-star 
allotment... It's still fun, just not great fun. 


It only took two seasons in 
career mode to demolish my grand-slam 


nce you fire up the lame “party” games 





dreams. Then | retired, out 
of money for training and sick of 

playing robotically good A.I. opponents 
who never miss. Guys, this is a video- 
game—give beginners a fighting chance! 
The risk shots needed to win shouldn't 
require quite such precise timing, at 
least from a rookie. Also, let me train for 
free and travel through time to practice 
and compete when I’m good and ready. | 
enjoyed Top Spin 2’s solid tennis action 
much more when | was playing against 
human opponents, but | still want better 
party games. 


I've discovered 
the one major reason for tennis fans to 
pick up Top Spin 2, even if they already 
have the original. It's not because it looks 
like a next-gen visual stunner (it mostly 
doesn't) or because it's a fun and techni- 
cally accurate representation of the sport 
(it is, but the first Top Spin already took 
care of that). It's that you can finally save 
your progress during the middle of a 
tournament. A majority of Top Spin 2 feels 
very similar to the original, which is both 
good and bad: The various skill and power 
shots allow for different play styles, career 
mode is pretty deep, and the presentation 
is again top-notch, but the players still 
sometimes act the fool, turning some easy 
shots into embarrassing whiffs. 


(une) 





Good thing | review games for a living. 

Otherwise, | don't think | could've explained to 
my girlfriend why | was playing this silicone-filled 
grappler. Really, how do you tell your significant 
other that snapping photos of these vixens...or tick- 
ling them with a giant stick...or adjusting the size of 
their machine-gun jubblies is all part of the game? 

Yet once you get beyond the bouncin’, you'll 
find one legit wrestling game here. Thanks to XX’s 
oh-so-simple controls, any jobber can make these. 
bombshells execute moves that would make the 
WWE's divas jealous. | just wish their repertoire 
sported a few more throws and body slams (all the 
gals rely too heavily on submission moves—which 
some pervs may consider a positive once they 
see their opponent in such a comprising position). 
Moving on, this sexy sequel also comes to the 
squared circle with a much more robust feature 
set than the original had. You can now create your 
very own slu—1 mean superstar, the new street 
fights are perfect for those looking for a speedier 


RUMBLE RO 


Dont forget the lube 


bout, and no other wrestling game has a more 
finely tuned tag-team match (unlike in the WWE 
titles, XX's tag-team partners don't jump in every 
five freakin' seconds to break up a sure 1-2-3). 
And for all you graphic whores out there: Yes, the 
game looks “next-gen” good...even if the power of 
Microsoft's console can't remove the sticks from 
the wrestlers' asses (the girls still move like con- 
stipated Barbie dolls). 


1 remain a firm supporter of the original 
PS2 Roses, but this flaccid follow-up fails to get 
me in the mood. Konami wisely adds several key 
features missing in the debut— character creation, 
tag-team matches, and online play—but foolishly 
nixes some of the best stuff about the last game. 
The gleefully gratuitous Mad Mud mode? Gone. 
The patently absurd story mode with its wicked 
lesbian doctor attempting to dismember the other 
ladies? Replaced by a simple series of meaning- 
less bouts. Still, the strategic, grapple-heavy 


A Disturbing Stipulation 








a 


gameplay suffices, and the:character models look 
next-gen sexy, Here's hoping for a vastly improved 
Rumble Roses XXX... 


I assume that the point of a 
‘sequel is to improve and build ироп а previous 
effort. So why is Rumble Roses XX worse than 
its predecessor in every way imaginable? Here, 
Konami considerably tones down the pace, giving 
the game an extremely sluggish feel that almost 
makes the plodding Legends of Wrestling series 
seem good in comparison. The sexy creativity 
allowed by the lack of a license (crazy submis- 
sions and the like), which made the first title great, 
remains intact, but a severely downgraded game- 
play experience overshadows the ingenuity. Another 
problem: Boring random matches replace the story- 
driven, albeit cheesy, single-player stuff from the 
first game. | expected great things of next-genera- 
tion Rumble Roses, and all | got was hyperdetailed 
boob veins. ЖЕ. 





Good: Much bigger feature set than the first Rumble Roses 


Bad: Too many submission moves 
We Miss: The original’s mud-wrestling mode 





Publisher: Konami 
Developer: Konami 
Players: 1-4 (2 online) 
ESRB: Mature 


www. konami.com 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com • 89 





BLAZING ANGELS: 
SQUADRONS OF WWII 


Five-by-five 


Given the countless paper air- 
planes | manufactured during my school 
days, I’m something of an authority on 
armchair aerodynamics—and Ubisoft’s 
Blazing Angels appeals to that inner flight 
jockey. Simple controls and 18 objective- 
oriented missions make this arcade-style 
flight-combat game accessible and easy 
to play in quick bursts. 

A handy follow-cam helps you pinpoint 
targets in the war-torn WWII skies, unlim- 
ited ammo and a forgiving checkpoint 
system keep things simple, and CPU-con- 
trolled wingmen lend on-demand repairs 
and interference. Bombing runs, territory 
defense, and nerve-racking dogfights 
with squadrons of Luftwaffe aces make 
up most of the objectives; these tasks 
do get repetitive, but the action remains 
exciting enough (and brief enough) to 
keep boredom at bay for most of the 
single-player missions. 

Once you earn your wings in the cam- 
paign (and three other unlockable single- 
player modes), the real fun begins with 
Blazing Angels’ 16-person multiplayer. 
Two teams square off in base capture, 
bombing, and kamikaze (suicide bombers 
versus defenders) modes, often making 
for intense and unpredictable matches. 
You can team up with a squad of buddies 
to tackle historical missions, too—and the 
single-player maps take on a significantly 
different feel when you bring three human 
pilots along to fly the not-so-friendly skies. 


So WWII dogfights consisted of 
Allied pilots soaring in lazy circles around 
bogies, downing them at their leisure 





and occasionally dumping 

bombs on enemy tanks and boats. Oh, and 
they apparently suffered from glaucoma. 
At least, that’s the impression | get from 
the first two-thirds of Blazing Angels, a 
slow-to-get-going flight shooter filled with 
too many boring dogfights and sporting a 
Vaseline-like filter around the edges of the 
screen to simulate superspeed. 

Later levels—including a cool canyon 
tun and an air blitz over Omaha Beach— 
ratchet things up. But it’s the online stuff 
that soars to the rescue, with novel coop- 
erative and kamikaze game modes. It's 
the most fun I've had flying online since 
Crimson Skies for the original Xbox. If only 
the single-player game flew as high. 


Two things about Blazing Angels 
jump out at me: | dig the follow-cam, 
which makes focusing on a single target 
much easier—especially when he starts 
with the incessant looping. The other is 
the repair system. As unrealistic as it is, 
using a button combo to patch up your 
newly aerated airship sure beats nursing 
a life bar. 

These additions aside, not to mention 
the sweetly simple controls, you can 
expect the same lock-on-em-then-rock- 
em gameplay of any arcade flyer. The 
clever levels—following a faint radio 
signal through a sandstorm, navigat- 
ing through a fjord—are the exception. 
Ryan’s right about the multiplayer, though. 
Kamikaze and co-op matches tilt Blazing 
Angels into guilty pleasure territory, but 
don’t expect many next-gen delights 
unless you're a high-def flyer. 





THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 





RYAN 


CRISPIN 


G. FORD 





Publisher: Ubisoft 
Developer: Ubisoft Romania 
Players: 1-2 (2-16 online or 
system link) 

ESRB: Teen 


www.blazing-angels.com 


90 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


Xbox 360 


DYNASTY 
WARRIORS 5: 


EMPIRES 


Rerun of a rerun returns...again and again 


ROBERT А: Welcome to the Groundhog 
Day of videogames. It seems that every 
morning, | wake up to find a new ver- 
sion of Dynasty Warriors in my bed, 
and—after a strong cup of Joe—I go 
through the familiar motions of playing it. 
This morning, though, | was semiexcited 
to see a shiny new Xbox 360 version 
seductively placed on my pillow...that is, 
until | discovered it was yet another rerun 
of the same game with an infinitesimally 
improved appearance. Here, ГИ just fill in 
the Dynasty Warriors Review Form, 12EZ. 

Big, generic landscapes with castles, 
tents, rivers, hills, fields of green, fields 
of dirt, fields of snow? Yes. Ten billion 
half-witted foot soldiers to plow through 
with spear/sword/ax/hammer combos? 
Uh-huh. A character roster that reads like 
а who's who of ancient Chinese history 
(1 know all the names now!)? Also yes. 
Shallow attempt at pushing the game 
in a strategy direction? Check. Design 
issues that, as part of the Dynasty 
Warriors tradition, remain untouched 
(crappy camera, nonexistent defense, 
worthless A.l., etc.)? Yep. 

Better than the previous games in 
the series, though not nearly different 
enough to warrant giving a damn? Bingo. 


RYAN: Everyone rags on Electronic Arts 
for releasing the same damned Madden 
game ad nauseam, but Коеѓ5 the real 
king of shameless regurgitation: Empires 
marks the 15th Dynasty Warriors title 
(I'm counting the Samurai Warriors spin- 
offs, too) since the series’ 1997 debut. 
For you nonmath wizards, that accounts 


THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 


ROBERT A. RYAN 


for 1.5 Dynasty Warriors per 

year. Hey, somebody out there must still 
love 'em—Empires certainly caters to 
its audience, with a campaign mode that 
tosses you into the fray without so much 
as a tutorial. And like Dynasty Warriors 
4: Empires, it mistakes drastically over- 
complicated tactical menus for strategic 
depth...but underneath, it’s just another 
tepid hack-n-slash tour of ancient China. 
Wise man say: Learn some new tricks. 


TUF.COM RICHARD: Question: Why 
should | pay for something that has 
been repackaged and remarketed over 
and over again? Perhaps for the new, 
improved graphics? Or the chance to 
play the game with a totally different 
controller? Well, sorry to bust your balls, 
Dynasty Warriors fans, but Empires is 
barely new; it still sticks to the same 
aging formula, with the same quasi- 
strategic battles and the same scenarios 
repackaged into different levels. | can 
find very little justification for buying a 
game that plays just a little better, with 
prettier character models and no appar- 
ent slowdown. 


Publisher: Koei 
Developer: 
Players: 1-2 
ESRB: Teen 


RICHARD 


www.koei.com 





22 


ma GAME 
VIDEOS 


watch now, play later 











e е 
Exclusive videogame shows 
From weekly news updates to in-depth roundtables, interviews and features on the hottest 
titles, GameVideos.com will be the home of the very best videogame programming. 


е, e 
Trailers of upcoming games 
You'll find gameplay videos and trailers for all the latest and upcoming games at 
GameVideos.com to stream or download in hi-res. 


Video cheats and walkthroughs 


Never be stuck again. Video cheats and walkthroughs show you exactly how to play the 
games to win. 


„апа other stuff! 


Including retro game ads, the funniest game-related videos on the Web, user-submitted 
movies, ‘extreme’ gameplay movies and more. 


са GAMEVIDEOS.COM 


CUP 


NETWORK 


review crew: 
multiplatform 





"A 


м 


The Bizarre 
Finale of 
Marion Brando 
Once an icon 
of acting great- 
ness, Marlon 
Brando spent 
the later part of 
his life making 
more...eccen- 
tric career 
moves, his role 
in The Island 
of Dr. Moreau, 
for instance. 
So it came as 
somewhat less 
of a surprise 
that Brando 
had signed on 
to reprise his 
famous cotton- 
cheeked Don 
Corleone role in 
The Godfather 
game. Months 
before he died, 
recordings 

for the game 
were made 

at Brando's 
home, but due 
to poor audio 
quality (the 
sound of the 
man breathing 
through an oxy- 
gen mask), the 
performance 
was ultimately 
scrapped in 
favor of a 
soundalike. 






Though the shooting in The Godfather 
is better than that in GTA, it's little con- 
solation to poor Pat Rooney. 


| THE GODFA 
THE GAME 


Becoming Nobody Corleone 


ROBERT A: There was a time when storytelling 
in videogames could be written off as window 
dressing, something akin to the dialogue in a 
porn flick (back when they bothered with such 
things). But when a game ќ а classic 
drama like The Godfather, standards change. 
Sure, we're all used to game-marketing tie- 

ins with the latest Hollywood blunder, but The 
Godfather is different, a legitimate candidate for 
Greatest Film Ever Made. It's one of those stories 
that plays your spine like a violin and beats your 
chest like a drum. 

So it's strange that, with such great source 
material (including the faces and voices of most 
of the film's actors), The Godfather: The Game's 
greatest failure is a lack of drama. Your user-cre- 
ated blank slate of a character weaves his way 
through every memorable scene in the movie. 
He's there, peeking through a window when 




















"sleeps with the fishes" Luca Brasi gets strangled 
with piano wire, and he witnesses Sonny's toll- 
booth slaying firsthand. But he's always hovering 
around the edges of the story, an extra in his own 
movie. In contrast to the full characters around 
him, his story consists of a thinly developed 
vendetta and a pocket full of canned phrases. 
Because of this, The Godfather feels less like a 
movie and more like a mobster theme park—a 
pretty awesome mobster theme park. 

it is a game, after all, and by all the usual 
weights and measures, it’s a fine piece of work. 
The obvious comparison is to Grand Theft Auto, 
but where that series has expanded over the 
years to include workout routines and girlfriend 
upkeep, The Godfather stays focused on the 
relevant stuff: namely, offing your rivals, shak- 
ing down businesses, and running errands for 
the family. The city layout is perhaps the most 


ر 
ו ו 








navigable of any game in the genre, a simplified 
version of greater New York City, circa 1944. | 
felt like a cab driver by the time it was over. The 
developer took a legitimate stab at improving the: 
mechanics of GTA, with a more satisfying take on 
gunfights and a bunch of lapel-grabbing extortion 
moves. It never really achieves GTA's exhilaration 
(or charisma), but The Godfather manages not to 
shame a good family name. 


SHOE: It's impossible not to compare The 
Godfather to Grand Theft Auto, so I'm not even 
going to try. 

Obviously, The Godfather’s got some great fic- 
tion to work with. You will weave in and out of the 
events of the movie like a key character who's 
always lurking in the background (you're the guy 
who helps deliver a certain equine package to a 
movie studio 60'5א6‎ bed, for example). And while 











Basement: 





Publisher: EA Games 
Developer: EA Redwood 
Players: 1 

ESRB: Mature 


Good: Great atmosphere; easy-to-digest NYC; loyal to the movie 


Bad: No real drama; credits don’t roll until everything is complete 
People Skills: Police bribery, merchant intimidation, hit-and-run... 


“THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 


ROBERTA. SHOE 


JAMES 





www.ea.com 





92 © ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 








its certainly cool to see the Corleones welcoming 


you into the family one bloody step at a time, it 
gets a little hokey. You have to speed-drive the 






And if you're unfamiliar with the original fiction, 
the bits-and-pieces storytelling in this game will 
totally confuse you. 

Combatwise, The Godfather does what GTA 
still can’t. Gunplay is efficient and precise, with 
a frustration-free autoaim system. Melee com- 
bat is even fun, combining punches and grapple 
moves with environmental factors (don't tell the 
FBI, but | never got tired of throwing thugs into 
giant ovens). 

The Godfather's missions are generally more 
entertaining than GTA’s due to the combat, rank- 
ing, and respect systems. But without the zany 


side stuff you find in GTA (which would, of course, 





be out of character for The Godfather), you lose 
out on a lot of variety in the long run. 

Oh, regarding the audio: The Godfather 
soundtrack is fantastic...for a movie. | was ready 
to go Sonny-crazy after about 10 hours of violins 
in my ear. And someone please make the voice 
actors for Michael and Fredo disappear... 


JAMES: СТА: 1945-1955 New York...| mean, The 
Godfather manages to shake things up with some 
worthwhile features—and I'm not talking about 
hitting the gym so you don't balloon up to Brando 
proportions. The Godfather gives you free range 
in your gangster paradise, even letting you extort 
clubs for cash. However, this isn't Monopoly: You 
have to work for that estate on Broadway, which 
means slapping around a bakery chef and watch- 
ing the onscreen pressure meter to make sure 
you've got him convinced. Sure, at times it's like 





Extortion for Dummies 


Tailors, bakers, cigar merchants, 
brothel madams, poker bosses— 
they all have one thing in common: 
They need help protecting their 
business...from you. In a town like 
this, you never know what might 
happen when you refuse to pay 
protection money. Here’s how you 
get your point across: 


Hot Cross Funds 

Your local boulanger refuses to share 
his dough? A little face-baking time in 
the bread oven should fix that. 


Smudge the Glass 
You know how touchy people can be 


about their display cases. Throwing 
them headfirst into the glass will 
surely change their minds about 
protection. 


The Customer Is Always Terrified 
Even the toughest shopkeeps melt 
when you to start smacking around 
their regulars. And shucks, even if you 
accidentally kill them, you'll still get 
your cash. 


Smash and Grab 

You don’t need anyone’s permission to 
loot the cash register. Hey, if they had 
somebody to take care of them, then 
maybe this wouldn’t have happened. 








you're а meter maid 
cop, pressure, heal 
watch—but you'll 


throw a dude off a го 
like an accident, and | 

sticks to choke a fella to death as engaging as 
you'd want to get. 

It's just too bad that it feels like a lesser 
Francis Ford Coppola is behind the camera. Plus, 
all the bar hopping you need to do to meet up 
with Tommy the manicurist—or whatever—gets 
tiresome. But when the action picks up, you'll. 
appreciate the fresh take on escort missions—in 
one, a guy follows you with a bleeding horse 
head—or the game's version of “whack-a-mole” 
that has you killing off traitors. | welcome The 
Godfather into the GTA family, though | can’t say 
it'll be running the place anytime soon. א‎ 











ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY “ www.1UP.com • 3 


review crew: 
multiplatform 


PS2/XB 


DRIVER: 
PARALLEL LINES 


DRIV4R: The Apology 


Sure, things look smooth here, but wait'll you fire a 


rocket launcher while on foot...slowdown city. 


@ 
EE) 
ЕЕ 8.5 [] е 
= CREG S. G. FORD 
PS2/XB/GC 
) 


DEMIAN 


Publisher: Atari 
Developer: Reflections 
Players: 1 

ESRB: Mature 


www.atari.com 


MAJOR LEAGUE 
BASEBALL 2K6 


Untapped potential 









1-1] our 











94 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





ב 


л ||)‏ ד M‏ יוות 





D 


Publisher: 2K Sports 
Developer: 2K Sports 


Players: PS2/XB 1-2 (2 online), 


GC 1-2 
ESRB: Everyone 


www.2ksports.com 





Good: Fantastic driving physics and atmosphere 
Bad: Story’s still too linear, not enough extra stuff to do 
Weirdest Feeling: Seeing the Twin Towers in the NYC skyline 


GREG S: What a difference a sequel makes. 
Parallel Lines is such an improvement over 
DRIV3R that it's hard to believe it's from the 
same developer. Roaming around a mas- 
sive re-creation of New York City circa 1978 
(for most of this third-person action/driving 
game, anyway) conjures up that same feel- 
ing a lot of us got while wandering around 
СТА Vice City during the era of excess. 
Atmosphere is everything in Parallel Lines. 

It's easy to see what developer 
Reflections did right this time around. 
The action is restricted to one big city, the 
story is a bit less linear (though you still 
don't have the freedom of a СТА title), and 
you almost never, ever need to leave your 
vehicle, unless it’s to jack a replacement. 
So while the on-foot controls are still pretty 
clunky, it never becomes a real issue. 

| dig this game. Reflections has done a 
great job of keeping the vehicle-based mis- 
sions varied. Sometimes you're using a tow 
truck to steal rides for a fence, sometimes 
you're just the getaway driver for a petty 
robber, and sometimes you're racing. And 
thanks to strong driving physics, staying in 
the car has never been so much fun. This 
series has definitely turned a corner. 


б. FORD: I’m with Sewart: Parallel Lines 
is a great return to form for the series and 
the most competent GTA clone I've played. 


Unfortunately, it’s also three 

years late. Had it come out within a 

year of Vice City, Rockstar would’ve had 
something to worry about. But it can’t 
match San Andreas’ scope, and as good 

as the game is, | found myself treading 
between boredom and frustration more than 
Pd like. Driving, though, couldn't be smooth- 
er, and props to Parallel Lines' take on the 
wanted meter, which puts different values 
on your car and your person. Perhaps if it 
brought something significant to the for- 
mula and the limited on-foot stuff weren't 
so weak, I'd be even more impressed. 


DEMIAN: Still got room in your heart for 
the Driver series? After the buggy, sloppy, 
frustrating DRIV3R, 1 didn't. But | made 
some, because both Gregs—Sewart and 
Ford—are right: Parallel Lines is pretty 
decent. Not amazing, but decent. 

Parallel Lines fixes much of what made 
the last game such an acute pain in the ass. 
The chase missions are more forgiving, you 
can actually see traffic far in the distance 
rather than having it pop up 30 yards 
ahead, and the on-foot bits—well, though 
improved, they're still annoyingly clunky. But 
the game's style and story make up for its 
occasional deficiencies; NYC is a good place 
for a destructive romp, even if the missions 
and few side jobs eventually wear thin. 





Good: Revamped swinging and hitting systems hit the mark 


Bad: Fielding and baserunning controls, not so much 
Dangling Carrot: Earn points to spend on tons of unlockables 





Though it's not quite a 2004 
Yankees-level choke job, the Major League 
Baseball 2K series missed a hanging curve 
of its own this year. With 2K Sports nab- 
bing the exclusive third-party baseball-sim 
rights to the MLB license, it had a golden 
chance to nab the hardball crown from 
EA's NCAA-license-relegated MVP series. 
Instead, we get this scattershot effort. 

Things start out strong: Pitching involves 
manipulating a pulsating bull’s-eye, which 
you stop once for the amount of juice 
on your pitch, then again for accuracy. 
Effective, but MVP's superb pitching meter 
still reigns. As for batting, you now pull 
back on the right analog stick to take a 
step, then release it to swing—definitely 
a welcome addition. Also, during the fran- 
chise and GM modes, you can buy scouting 
reports on players, which clue you in toa 
batter's weaknesses or a pitcher's tenden- 
cies—good stuff. 

But what's with the way-too-complex 
baserunning? Or the suspect А.І. fielding 
choices and the oh-so-weak pitchers? 
Sporting solid fundamentals but still in 
need of some seasoning, MLB 2K6 misses 
its chance to dethrone MVP 06, MLB 
license or not. 


First EA Sports bobbles the ball 
with Madden NFL 06, and now 2K Sports 
does the same with its latest baseball 


installment—man, you just 
gotta love those exclusive sports 

licensing deals. Sarcasm aside, you'll find 
lots of holes in 2K6's lineup: overcomplicat- 
ed baserunning controls, players who sprint 
around the diamond like Olympians (which 
translates into too many infield and extra- 
base hits), and hurlers—even when they 
don't encounter any tough innings—who 
lose stamina faster than some dude who's 
in the sack for the first time. What a disap- 
pointment, because | really enjoyed goin’ 
yard using the right analog stick and the 
new pitching wrinkle that lets you adjust 
the catcher's position at home plate. 


I don't like this game enough 
to play a full 162-game season. But an 
81-game one is doable. MLB 2K6 gets 
enough things right—solid pitching, games 
that don’t devolve into home-run-hitting 
contests, a rich season mode—that most 
every game is a real pleasure to play, win 
or lose. But when those losses come at the 
expense of the less-than-crisp infield play 
or the truly awful baserunning controls, that 
pleasure is compromised. The animations 
and player models range from dull to hor- 
rific (Blue Jays’ first baseman Lyle Overbay 
is a ringer for Billy Bob in Sling Blade). Still, 
visual flourishes, like the way a catcher 
leaps to snag a high chop off the plate, inject 
a little excitement into the realistic play. 


САМИМ "si TB 


MONTHLY 


HAVE TEAMED UP WITH DELL TO BRING YOU... 


THE EXCLUSIVE — XPS 600 


GIVEAWAY! 


The Dell™ XPS™ 600 is one of the best 
gaming systems money can buy...but YOU 
may not need money to get it! We're giving 
away this luxury package to some lucky 
gaming enthusiasts, and we want YOU to be 
one of them. Check out this amazing package, 
then learn how easy it is to enter! 








> 


воре голе n c'e 


THIS STATE OF THE ART GAMING | = 
SYSTEM INCLUDES: оед > m 


» Realistic video and gaming provided by up to 
two NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 256 MB x16 PCle 
graphics cards with scalable link interface technology 


Extreme performance with dual-core Intel® Extreme Edition and Pentium“ 
D 8xx processors or single-core Pentium 4 6xx processors 


8 GB 667MHz DDR2 memory 
Massive storage for games and media with up to three internal drives 
» 19" wide screen display panel 


Wireless keyboard and mouse 


HOW TO ENTER For full contest legal rules, restrictions, and details, visit http://xps600.egmmag.com 


уре ИЗ OO, етта; com 


submit this code: RSG426 


review crew: 
multiplatform 





Doing Lara Right 
Congrats, Eidos: 
You saved your 
premiere series 
from extinction. 
Now here’s how 
to keep it alive: 








... you leap, keeping 
deaths to а minimum. 





- Finally, a tomb worth raiding 


«keep it in the 
hands of Crystal 
Dynamic: 

«get crackin’ on 
that nude code. 
We're all adults. 


1UP.COM—JEREMY: Lara Croft's been in exile 
for the past three years, driven into hiding by the 
shame of 2003's double-dud combo of Cradle of 
Life—that's the movie—and Angel of Darkness. 
Since then she's gotten herself a new wardrobe, 
some new moves, a little, ah, reductive surgery... 
oh, апд а new development team. Crystal 
Dynamics has applied its Legacy of Kain experi- 
ence to the tombs and cenotaphs (and occasional 
Tokyo rooftops) of Lara’s world and come up with 
the best Tomb Raider since the original. 

Legend has the formula down to a science: 
Lara delves into ancient ruins, evades death- 
traps, repairs crumbling mechanisms, and loots 
corpses in true Prince of Persia style. But unlike 
the Prince's recent outings, Legend puts far more 
emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving than 
on combat. Gun battles are rare; most of the time 
you're looking for footholds in sheer cliff faces 


Don't... 

„..Crank out 
annual sequels. 
баск more 
movies. Tia 
Carrere's Relic 
Hunter blew less. 





Equation for a Resurrection 


and tripping switches. 

What makes Legend such a welcome change 
from Raider norm is that it’s a complete reinven- 
tion of the aging franchise. The graphics are 
wonderful, and Lara moves fluidly yet still tackles 
obstacles with precision. Even the narrative is 
engrossing thanks to running commentary by 
Lara’s own Cortana-come-latelies. The loneliness 
that made the first game so haunting is absent, 
but the trade-off is a much greater sense of 
purpose to all the grave spelunking. 

Lara still has a few stumbling blocks to over- 
come, though. The overhauled combat engine 
makes gunplay fun, but targeting stinks, the 
bad guys’ A.I. is spotty, and long-range skir- 
mishes are like watching a stormtrooper battle: 
Everyone's shooting, but no one's getting hit. The 
“interactive cinema” sequences can be mad- 
dening exercises in trial and error, and the bike 





Lara couldn't make a comeback of Legend’s magnitude all by her lonesome—her makers clearly cribbed ideas from these games... 


= 








The acrobatic moves of 
the Prince of Persia series, 
minus the time-rewind trick 


The real-world physics of 
Half-Life 2, incorporated into 
the game's puzzles 











EXE 


Haute couture swapping 
à la Final Fantasy X-2 


The heady puzzles of Tomb 
Raider 1 and its first sequel 











RAIDER: LEGEND 


chases are just agonizing. 

Snags aside, Crystal Dynamics has made Tomb 
Raider worth playing again. And thanks to the 
cliff-hanger finale, I'm actually looking forward 
to a Tomb Raider sequel for the first time in 
memory—which is no small feat. 


CRISPIN: | dunno about the reductive surgery; 
relic-hunting hottie Lara Croft is still just a sports 
bra away from suffering severe head trauma 
every time she breaks into a jog. But Jeremy is 
otherwise dead right: Legend is that most mythi- 
cal artifact of all—a good Tomb Raider sequel. 
This is how you reboot a short-circuiting series, 
with nonclunky controls, a realistic physics sys- 
tem that enhances the clever puzzles (expect lots 
of “hmmm” and “aha!” moments), and a return of 
the sense of awe that filled the first two games, 
with their moldy tombs and breathtaking vistas. 











Shenmue's forklift 





Good: Refined graphics and control help Lara’s star shine again 


Bad: Clumsy motorcycle chases, unsatisfying “ending” 
What's the diff? The Xbox game has better textures, and that's it 





96 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 








(OUT OF 10) 








THE VERDICTS 


JEREMY 









CRISPIN 


Publisher: Eidos 
Developer: Crystal Dynamics 











Players: 1 
ESRB: Teen 
DANA www.tombraider.com 


Legend isn’t half as large as the earliest Tomb 
Raider games—you'll reach the disappointing, 
too-abrupt cliff-hanger finale in one weekend play 
session—but what's here is almost all outstand- 
ing. The so-so combat is kept to a minimum, 
leaving you mostly trying to figure out how to 
reach distant reaches through puzzle solving and 
Prince of Persia-style acrobatics. Lara's great- 
est-of-ease moves are so Prince-ly, in fact, that | 
found myself reaching for the time-rewind button 
after blunders. 

Like Jeremy, | could have done without the 
motorbike levels, which drop the pacing into low 
gear. The story—a mash of new characters and 
flashback levels—threw me for a loop at times. 
It hits you over the head with cheesy magical 
effects that manifest themselves in the too- 
similar-to-each-other boss fights. More magical 
subtlety would have been nice—or at least give 















The run-anywhere, fully ana- 
log control scheme of апу 
game made after 1996 


The Dragon’s Lair-style 
tap-the-button quick-time 
events from Resident Evil 4 


me the only artifact | ever wanted: a relic that 
restores all the time | wasted playing the lousy 
sequels before this one. 


OFFICIAL PS MAG—DANA: When | first booted 
up Legend, | have to confess that my stomach 
tensed up, mostly because | was expecting to 
have a girl fight with Lara to get her to do what | 
wanted. So it came as a pleasant surprise to dis- 
cover that Crystal Dynamics has finally been able 
to accomplish what former series developer Core 
never quite figured out: a control scheme that 
actually responds to what you want to do. 

And thanks to these intuitive controls, | could 
use the conscious part of my brain to concen- 
trate on the fun stuff, which is climbing around 
and exploring the tombs. The game looks really 
pretty, with crystal-clear graphics and a good 
variety between levels. Legend has poached 


Metroid Prime’s scanning 
visor (Lara uses binoculars) 





Ж 





some gimmicks from other recent 
ful action-adventure games, includi 
War’s one-button recovery option (which gives 
you another chance to nab a ledge you initially 
missed), interactive cut-scenes from Resident 
Evil 4 and God of War, and pole swinging from the 
Prince of Persia series. But copying is fine as long 
as it works, and it does here. The shooting stuff 

is a little eh—enemy A.l. is pretty pathetic, and 1 
often had a hard time getting Lara to target the 
right thing—but fortunately, it's not a big enough 
part of the game to affect my enjoyment. So while 
Legend may not innovate, it works, and | had а 
ball playing it. 

Unlike Jeremy, however, | didn’t like the cliff- 
hanger ending—t don't like having to wait more 
than a year for resolutions. But when the next 
game does come out, rest assured PII be there to 
see what happens. $h 




























ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY « www.1UP.com • 97 





review crew: 
multiplatform 


PS2/XB 


COMMANDOS 


(PS2/X8) 


STRIKE FORCE 


Multiple-personality disorder 


THE VERDICTS 
(OUTOF10) 


CRISPIN G. FORD 


PS2/XB 


KATHLEEN 


Publisher: Eidos 
Developer: Pyro 
Players: 1 (2-8 online) 


commandosstrikeforce.com 


NBA BALLERS: 


PHENOM 


Hip-hop basketball diaries 


p 2 Ва 





JACKPOT: т 








THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 





BRYAN 


DEMIAN 


98 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





PATRICK 


@ncine 
(PS2/X8) 











We couldn't play 
Phenom online, 
Ф. but we'll let you 
know next issue if 
we encounter any 


Publisher: Midway 
Developer: Midway 
Players: PS2 1-2 (3-4 via 
Multitap, 2 online), XB 1-4 
(2 online) 

ESRB: Everyone 
www.midway.com 


Good: Huge levels, cool character switching 


Bad: PlayStation 1—era graphics, confusing objectives 
Nothing Like: The Commandos strategy games on PC 


CRISPIN: Here's one way to make your 
dubya-dubya-two game stand out—if 

not exactly stand tall—on the crammed 
battlefield of military shooters: Load it with 
great ideas, then have each one misfire. 
At least you'll give us game reviewers lots 
to lament. 

Why, for instance, do you get three 
unique combatants to switch between on 
the fly (gung-ho green beret, knife-chuck- 
ing sniper, and quick-changing spy), but 
leaping from one trooper leaves him as 
vulnerable as a switched-off robot? And 
why turn players loose in such enormous 
levels when finding the objectives is so 
confusing? And why not include online 
co-op campaigns—which would suit the 
multicharacter gameplay so well—instead 
of tacking on lame deathmatch modes and 
one novel defuse-the-bomb game? 

But despite these unfortunate myster- 
ies—and blah graphics that look like 
they're out of a homebrew project—t really 
found it hard to hate Commandos. The 
later levels give you a lot to do with your 
guys. You'll sneak your sniper into posi- 
tion, then use your spy to take out Nazis of 
progressively higher rank, assuming their 
identities so you can march among enemy 
grunts with impunity. It’s not conventional 
warfare—a good thing in this crowded 
genre—but it's far from ready for duty. 


Good: Huge single-player game 


Bad: You really can't control your teammate 


б. FORD: If anything, 

Commandos serves as a great propa- 
ganda piece. Nothing gets gamers enlisting 
in the next-gen war faster than mediocre 
games like this. Commandos does earn 
some stripes with its clever three-man 
hotswapping feature...it's just a shame 
about the weak teammate A.I. Then you've 
got the sometimes comatose, sometimes 
eagle-eye enemies; perplexing objectives; 
and the old saving/trial-and-error/reloading 
routine. Crispin's right, though: Commandos 
has a strange appeal when it hits its groove 
deeper into the game—just bear in mind it's 
a mediocre groove at best. 


KATHLEEN: As a spy in disguise, 1 don't 
need to be too stealthy to garrote a fat, dirty 
Nazi. Unfortunately, another guard sounds 
the alarm. | take control of my sniper and 
shut up that tattletale soldier...but am 
dismayed to see that the spy character | 
switched from is being shot in the face. 
Stupid blunders like this usually sabotage 
Commandos’ most interesting moments. 
Yeah, it does offer brief moments of fun fur- 
ther along in the game. Plus, some optional 
side missions do change up the outcome 
of other missions enough to make replay- 
ing some of them worthwhile. Problem is, 
getting to the good stuff requires battling 
through a blitzkrieg of banality. 





in 2-on-2 games 


Long: The load times, which are slightly less aggravating on Xbox 





I'm really torn here. On the one 
hand, this arcadey hoopster shows the 
kind of ambition I've been begging more 
sports games to demonstrate. In a Grand 
Theft Auto-style fashion, Phenom makes 
the whole city of Los Angeles your play- 
ground. And just like in Rockstar's con- 
troversial series, you can do whatever the 
heck you want, whenever you want. Feel 
like entering that tourney in Hollywood 
against the NBA's best? Or would you 
rather head downtown and put up posters 
to help promote some concert? The choice 
is always yours. 

On the other hand, Phenom tosses up 
way too many air balls. The awkward 
fixed camera makes walking the streets 
of this metropolis an absolute chore. And 
for all the things you can experience in 
this world (including a large assortment of 
laughable minigames, such as an 8 Mile- 
esque rap-off and a charity car wash with 
the Laker Girls), it still feels pretty lifeless. 
Even the on-court action is messed up; 
the fact that you have such limited control 
over your teammate in the new 2-on-2 
matchups (you can’t switch to him on 
defense in story mode) is ridiculous. Well, 
maybe not as ridiculous as the game’s 
insufferable load times on PS2. 


On the court, Phenom is still 
а couple steps behind the best arcadey 


basketballer, NBA Street. 
The gameplay just doesn’t feel as 

refined, and Phenom's tournament struc- 
ture—most events run between eight and 
15 games, and you can’t save halfway 
through—gets really grueling. But 1 have 
to give Phenom some snaps for actually 
grafting a real story on to the basket- 
balling. The cut-scenes may be ugly and 
the minigames pretty lame, but the game’s 
ambition matches the main character's 
rise through the ranks. Too bad it doesn't 
quite execute in the clutch, though. 


| like Midway’s unique approach 
to this Ballers sequel: It lets you slide into 
the three-quarters-tops of a baller/enter- 
tainer with aspirations of bling and babes. 
You'll start as a nobody before getting 
noticed and drafted, and then choose 
whether to follow cover boy Chauncey 
Billups on a baller career path or Ludacris 
and become more of an entertainer. It's а 
cool twist, and the story is pretty interest- 
ing either way. Unfortunately, Phenom 
plays almost exactly like its predecessor 
except for some new shots—l'd like some 
тоге gameplay innovations. But | gotta 
admit, cruising around shrunk-down L.A. 
locales in search of stuff (such as dia- 
monds to commission some custom bling) 
kept me playing, as did the Zydrunas 
ligauskas spelling bee. 


From af four rise 





ntertainmer 





Switch between 4 Lay waste to entire armies Annihilate enemies 
characters with unique on the ground and in the air. with more than 60 weapons 
weapons and abilities. in over 90 missions. 


"| ו‎ SQUARE ENIX. UBISOFT 





review crew: 
playstation e 


GATES 


COMMANDS P 
"IE nttack 5 


Sammonia 










Li'l More Heart 
Want to know 
what's in store 
for Kingdom 
Hearts III? Well, 
you're gonna 
have to earn it. 
To unlock KH2's 
secret ending, 
you must either 
complete all 
the worlds and 
Jiminy's Journal 
on the standard 
difficulty, or 
bump it up to 
proud (the hard- 
est setting) and 
just do the first 
of the standard 
difficulty's 
requirements. 
Sorry, babies, 
but finishing 
КН2 on beginner 
won't give you 
this fairly telling 
bonus clip. 







₪ PlayStation 2 


BRYAN: Mickey Mouse, Cloud, Simba, Sephiroth— 
sounds more like a terrifying cosplay session than 
a winning videogame combination. While the first 
Kingdom Hearts proved that pairing Disney with 
Final Fantasy wasn’t completely crazy, this action- 
role-playing console sequel proves the duo has a 
lot of staying power. 

It's been almost four years since Sora and his 
animated pals Donald and Goofy traversed various 
Disney-themed worlds on your PS2 (in 2004, the 
trio also had a quick GBA pit stop in the card-filled 
Chain of Memories), but this return trip to find 
pals Riku and Kairi—as clichéd as it may sound— 
was definitely worth the wait. And it starts with 
the Disney-based areas; simply put, this game's 
environments are way more appealing than the 
original installment's collection. It has worlds 
based on Tron, The Lion King, and Pirates of the 
Caribbean, just to name a few—only the Pixar- 









Oh Mickey, you're so fine 


OK, every KHZ 
boss doesn’t look ù 
so cool. But least s 


it's got a lot of "em. ча, 


Finagun 
ИТ? Attack 
Ў Magic 

Items |) 


жыл 


made Disney films are missing here (gotta leave 
something for KH3, right?). But more importantly, 
each world is impeccably designed. Take, for 
example, the Steamboat Willie level, where every- 
thing—from Sora’s character design to the back- 
ground noise of a running film projector—reflects 
the area’s simplistic nature. Even the places you’ll 
revisit from the first KH, such as those based on 
The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hercules, 
feel fresh thanks to some heavy-duty renovations. 
Also, the game’s FF cast plays a much bigger role 
than in the previous go-around (some even fight 
alongside you during skirmishes—very nice). 

But the biggest compliment | can give this 
action-RPG is that you don’t have to be part of 
the Mickey Mouse Club or love chocobos to enjoy 
it. And that’s due to the vastly enhanced combat 
system. It’s no longer just a game of routine hack- 
ing and magic-casting; you can now transform 













САМЕ 
ТНЕ MONTH 


into a dual-keyblade-wielding wild man, execute 
crushing double-team attacks that can equate into 
100-plus-hit combos, and add some flash to even 
everyday battles with the all-new reaction com- 
mands (think Resident Evil 4's quick-time events). 
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I can’t 
praise this game enough. It also delivers epic boss 
fights, a gripping narrative packed with twists 
and turns (ignore what Shane has to say about 
the prologue), and some of the slickest visuals of 
this console generation. I've now invested over 80 
hours in KH2 (solved both the Japanese and U.S. 
versions), and | want to play it again. How that’s 
for a ringing endorsement? 


SHANE: Man, compared to Mouseketeer Bryan's 
love-in, my review is going to sound harsh. But 
trust me, I’m not hating—Kingdom Hearts И 
improves on the original in several key ways. 











SS Ain ехе 
ל‎ U 














ששב אד 


га 0 
ен 


P... Per $ 
^ Т hadn't?thought of that. 














Publisher: Square Enix 
Developer: Square Enix 








Good: Everything a sequel is supposed to be Players: 1 


ESRB: Everyone 10+ 


Bad: The Little Mermaid stage 
Hardcore: Optional Sephiroth boss battle. Can you say 15 life bars?! 


THE VERDICTS 
(ОЛОРО) 








BRYAN 


SHANE MILKMAN 


www.kingdomhearts.com 





100 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


1 | 


Nowathens ‘Monsieur 


Get Meg outta „ШУ“ 





Back in the day, | griped about KH’s spazzy, jarring 
camera; its dull, repetitive combat; and the mind- 
bogglingly bad Gummi Ship minigame. Incredibly, 
each of these missteps has been fully addressed 
in the sequel. Of these, the surprisingly deepened 
battle system makes the most profound differ- 
ence. You're now able to better customize Sora’s 
abilities, and a host of new, context-sensitive 
combos transform everyday combat into stun- 
ning acrobatic melees. The game’s plentiful boss 
encounters fare even better: Unique “quick-time 
event" combos make these climactic face-offs 
feel appropriately special and dynamic. 

Despite these welcomed fixes, KH2 still feels 
rough around the edges. The mash-up of director 
Tetsuya Nomura’s gravely serious narrative and 
the whimsical Disney worlds doesn’t really gel. 
This unsettling disconnect begins with a woefully 
boring four-hour prologue that has you perform- 


ing odd jobs and watching plenty of slow, talky 
cinemas. The clumsy juxtaposition of overwrought 
Final Fantasy-inspired psychobabble and giddy, 
kiddie high jinks might enrapture hardcore FF nuts 
and Disney freaks, but the rest of us will just want 
to tune out and fight... 


1UP.COM—MILKMAN: Kingdom Hearts Il, | ат 
relieved to say, delivers on everything the series" 
potential hinted at. While it follows the first game's 
formula of leading Sora through a series of Disney- 
themed worlds and introducing him to a staggering 
roster of familiar characters, the overall level of 
polish is amazing. It’s not enough that you get to 
meet high-quality renditions of characters like 

Tron or Capt. Jack Sparrow—when you see the 
immense detail of their respective worlds, it's jaw- 
dropping. Visually, this might be the PlayStation 

2's best-looking game (these screens don't do it 





justice). It's not just about the polygons, either. 1 
don't know what director Tetsuya Nomura's team 
did, but this finesse really shows in the animation, 
which is the 3D equivalent of Disney's finest 2D 
animated feature films. The fluid manner in which 
the Lion King preens his head or the Little Mermaid 
gestures with her wrist makes a big difference. 
But the greatest difference is in the gameplay. 
Not only has the camera been tamed this go- 
around (though it still gets iffy in places), but the 
actual encounters are much more exciting, thanks 
to new combat mechanics and even more amaz- 
ing summons. Combine all these vastly improved 
elements together and you have one amazing 
action-RPG. My biggest gripe is with the annoying 
load times, but besides that—and an occasional 
feeling that the developers stuffed in as many 
cameos as they could for cameos’ sake—this 
might well become Square’s No. 1 franchise. > 





Even though you can play the game in 
first person (just hit the Select Button), 
don't bother—it's really disorientating 
since you can’t see your keyblade. 

4 


* d 
/ DRIVE 





E 





review crew: 
playstation 2 








Beauty and the Beast 







Aladdin 








The Nightmare 
Before Christmas 





] Steamboat Willie 


e 







fts what you" thin 


Pirates of the Caribbean 


¦ OO 
OND ₪ 


102 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UPR.com 










ONE OF THE 
TOP FIVE 


GAME DESIGN 


SCHOOLS 


- Electronic Gaming Monthly 


- 
₪ 


בא 
~ 





Selectable battle for- 
mations inject strategy i 
into random combat. 


PlayStation 2 


SUIKODEN V 


A magically decent adventure 









Good: Familiar-feeling but compelling story 
Bad: Blah graphics, fighting system needs an overhaul 


Dumbest Name: Georg 





GREG S: Suikoden Vis a hard game to 
judge. On the one hand, it's got the same 
ol’ story. Everything’s hunky-dory until 
one day a massive coup sends every- 
thing out of control, and one hero must 
gather together the 108 stars of destiny 
(he being one of them) in order to make 
things right again. Graphically, the game 
looks clean but completely lacks style, 
and while the random battle system is 
improved slightly over its predecessor's, 
it still feels archaic (probably because 
it's almost exactly the same as it was in 
the original Suikoden, which came out 

in 1995). The game also takes way too 
long to get going—we're talking several 
hours of setup before anything important 
really happens. 

On the other hand, | can't be too harsh 
with the game. Underneath the musty 
exterior is a compelling RPG that will 
keep you playing despite its foibles. The 
fighting setup isn't too bad thanks to the 
inclusion of duels and army battles, and 
the whole thing has that Pokémon collec- 
tion thing we all seem to love so much, 
with 107 characters to meet and recruit. 

This series needs a major shot in the 
arm, as it's starting to show its age more 
than ever. Even so, Suikoden V is still 
entertaining, and that's what really counts. 


THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 


GREG S. SHANE 





JENN F. 


SHANE: With Suikoden V, 

Konami attempts to get its fan-favorite 
RPG franchise back on track after part 
IV's misguided displeasure cruise into 
nautical nonsense. A back-to-basics 
approach means that this installment 
directly channels the series’ finest 
effort— Suikoden II (PS1)—though it ends 
up feeling more like a bad cover version 
than an honest, modern improvement on 
the formula. 

All the predictable ingredients are 
here: 108 charismatic characters to 
amass, climactic 1-on-1 duels, giant stra- 
tegic battles, and a town to construct.. 
Sure, it's deep and mildly engrossing, but 
we've seen it all before. Glacial pacing, 
lengthy load times, and an obnoxious, 
often infuriating new camera angle (good 
luck navigating the towns) keep Suikoden 
V from being the return to form it was 
intended to be. 


JENN F: This latest Suikoden's story is as 
good—and long-winded—as ever, nar- 
rated through tremendously well-acted, 
very pretty, and frequent cut-scenes. 
But while the cut-scenes impress (which 
helps move the story along), a strange 
murkiness totally undermines the in- 
game graphics’ detail and artfulness, 
even when you zoom in on the action. 
And the large-scale strategic battles— 
that's right! War'—move in disconcerting 
real time, resembling something like an 
upset anthill, with battle units all moving 
in a panic. Though these war screens feel 
woefully out of place, they at least make 
the game feel even more epic. Actually, 
my Russian lit professor back in college 
used to shout at us, “What is epic? It is 
long and boring!" Yeah, kind of like that. 


Publisher: Konami 
Developer: Konami 
Players: 1 

ESRB: Teen 


www.konami.com 


103 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 








Student Artwork A 
Francisco Cruz 





Real World Education 


School of 


School of 


800.226.7625 
fullsail.com 


3300 University Boulevard 
Winter Park, FL 32792 


Financial aid available to those who qualify 
Career development assistance 
Accredited College, ACCSCT 


o 


review crew: 
xb/psp 


1 
0 


E 
Dwayne's pleas Гога shirts versus 
skins.CTF-game went ünheard: 


© הר 


WARPATH 


It's a mod world 


Good: Smooth online play, weapon upgrade system 
Bad: Limited options and modes, lame vehicles 


At Least It’s Only: $29.99 


G. FORD: If you've been holding on to your 
Xbox in the hopes that you'll be rewarded 
with a few more system-specific gems, the 
mod-feeling, multiplayer-tilted first-person 
shooter Warpath, made by the creators of 
the lukewarmly received Pariah, is gonna 
piss you off. Sure, the action is smooth, 
fast, and entertaining in that “hot damn, 
I'm playing against my friends in deat! 
match” way. But, man, it feels archaic. 
Warpatlrs hook is its upgradeable 
weapons. During matches, you get chips 
you can use to beef up your weapons (the 
standard shotgun/sniper-rifle/etc. assort- 
ment). Interesting, but I'd gladly trade that 
feature in for more diverse weapons. 
and more than four generic modes. Single 
player consists of a grid-based board-game 
setup—think a simplified, futuristic Risk— 
with each attempt at conquering a territory 
involving a deathmatch, capture-the-flag, 
or “fight for a point, move to the next” 
assault match (which isn’t as great as 
Robert claims). Playing with bots gets old 
fast, though, and it's not playable online. 
Warpath ain't so much a bad game— 
everything works as it should—but every- 
thing you'll find here has been perfected 
elsewhere for years. Generic name, tired 
weapons and modes, modlike feel—bud- 
get price or not, Warpath has no rightful 
claim to your time. 


Е VERDICTS 
) 


(OUT OI 


G. FORD ROBERTA. 


ROBERT A: Maybe some 
people out there have exhausted every 
online war-making game possibility and 
are jonesing for another fix. Me, | only 
get into an online game when it's some- 
thing special, something that compels 
me to cancel important parts of my life 
(say, sleep), adopt questionable hygiene 
practices, and eat with a dietary abandon 
that knows no unfriendly delivery service. 
Warpath is not one of those games. 
Bereft of a worthwhile solo experience 
and short on original ideas, Warpath is 
more like emergency relief rations for 
head-shot-oholics. It has some memo- 
rable maps, a couple of interesting twists 
on worn-out conventions (the tug-of-war- 
like assault mode is especially cool), and 
a bargain-bin price tag, but that’s about it. 
Wake me up when the sci-fi shooter fad 
has passed. 


1UP.COM—GARNETT: This Frankenstein 
seems to have been assembled from the 
Pariah spare-parts bin. As a PC game 
(which it also is), I'd swear it was a nicely 
done community mod. But on the Xbox, 
even at a discounted price, | expect a little 
bit more than some text and still artwork 
for the single-player game's story. It feels 
incomplete—whether or not it's just a 
tune-up for multiplayer. At least that part 
comes through with the same clever 
weapon upgrade system and lag-free 
performance Pariah had, though it also 
inherits that game's unsatisfying gunplay. 
And the skimpy four modes with just 

a handful of new maps only add to the 
"downloadable content" feel. If you want 
a quality online FPS, grab the criminally 
overlooked Unreal Championship 2: The 
Liandri Conflict off the bargain rack. 


Developer: Digital Extremes 
Players: 1 (2-16 online and 
system link) 


Publisher: Groove Games 
ESRB: Teen 


GARNETT 


www.groovegames.com 


104 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





co 
DAXTER 


From under the shadow 





Kids love farts andl Tasers. А 
re ————— 


а 


Good: Bright, beautiful graphics, solid action 


Bad: Repetitive, not as clever as it thinks it is 


Now Required: A good Clank game 


| usually just assume that a 3D 
platformer on the PSP is going to be a 
mess. The system wasn't designed for 
easy manipulation of a camera in three 
dimensions. Surprisingly, though, Daxter 
manages to avoid any major problems of 
this sort and offers up some rather solid 
platforming action. 

Daxter’s not quite up to the standards 
of the PS2 games in the Jak series (of 
which this is a side story, taking place 
before Jak II), thanks to fairly straight- 
forward levels and very little exploration, 
but what's here is fun. Daxter's unique 
abilities—the hoverjump, using a make- 
shift flamethrower, and climbing certain 
surfaces—make for a few interesting 
gameplay twists, as well as some cool 
boss encounters. 

1 dig the dream minigames, too, even 
though it's so cliché to base anything on 
films like The Matrix or Braveheart nowa- 
days. These sequences do a good job of 
breaking up the action just enough to keep 
the game from getting too monotonous. 

Daxter isn’t the best platformer you'll 
ever play, but on a system where the 
genre is so often done poorly, it man- 
ages to stand out. Definitely worth a play, 
whether you're a fan of the series or not. 


| wasn’t sure what to expect 
from career sidekick Daxter's first solo 
project. But | enjoyed using the ottsel's 
flyswatter and pesticide sprayer to smash 
insects of unusual size and variety into 
splattery messes (the bright, beautiful 
graphics didn’t hurt, either), even if the 
action does get a bit repetitive. 











Some killer minigames 
and bonus levels help give this game 
some spice, though it could use more of 
'em. Likewise, some clever boss battles 
illuminate the game’s greater potential. 
Considering its PSP platformer peers 
(wanting in both quality and quantity), 
Daxter’s a pretty fun platformer that 
could've been something really special 
with some more fine-tuning...something 
like its PS2 brethren. 


Visually appealing 
and rife with production value, Daxter 5 
competent enough to be a PS2 platformer, 
which makes what developer Ready at 
Dawn did on the PSP all the more impres- 
sive. The game design itself is fairly basic 
platformer fare: collect these thingama- 
bobs, double-jump onto the platform, swat 
enemies with a multihit combo, play tim- 
ing-based minigames...and so on. What's 
cool about Daxter is that it's the first 
decent Super Mario Sunshine clone, in 
that Daxter's gas/fire gun does essentially 
the same thing as Mario's waterpack. 
Despite the game's been-there, done-that 
feeling, if all developers cared about their 
original PSP projects as much as Ready at 
Dawn obviously cared about Daxter, we'd 
be in good shape. 





THE VERDICTS 
(QUT OF 10) 





GREG S. KATHLEEN 





Publisher: Sony CEA 
Developer: Ready at Dawn 
Players: 1 (2 via local Wi-Fi) 
ESRB: Everyone 10+ 


ANDREW 


www.us.playstation.com 


This may be blasphemy, but | 
have a feeling Me & My Katamari would 
have been a really excellent game...on the 
Nintendo DS. The series' unique game- 
play, where you roll a ball around wacky 
Japanese environments, picking up objects 
to increase your size, doesn't work well at 
all with the PSP's controls. Everyone knows 
that the DualShock controller's two analog 
Sticks work elegantly on the PS2 versions. 
Until you play it without those sticks, you 
can't imagine how necessary they are. 
Using the directional pad (forget the analog 
nub—it's worthless, even here in the one 
game where it actually might work) and the 
face buttons to navigate your ball is painful, 
clunky, and ineffective. The normally clut- 
tered environments become really tough 
to get around when you can't turn around 
easily or move deftly. 

But you do get used to it, however hard 
the adjustment might be, and then it's 
possible to feel that old Katamari magic. 
Repetitive environments, however, mar the 
otherwise gorgeous presentation. 1 got bored 
playing in the same places over and over 
and over again, especially because levels 
are broken up into tedious "starter" stages 
(probably to accommodate the loading) that 
you'll play again and again and again. The 
unlockable stages are fun, and the ending 
credits minigame is classic. This just isn't a 
true stroke of brilliance for the series. 





MEG MY KATAMARI 


On a roll of complacency 








Publisher: Namco Bandai 
Developer: Namco Limited 
Players: 1 (2-4 via local Wi-Fi) 
ESRB: Everyone 





THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 








JENNIFER RYAN JEREMY 


www.namco.com 


Add a new dimension 


m 





| agree with Jen—Katamari wasn't 
quite meant for the PSP. The digital con- 
trols often turn gameplay into an awkward 
endeavor as you fumble around in a race 
against the clock. The stages themselves 
are unremarkable and few. Even the mul- 
tiplayer map (a small island arena for up 
to four players) failed to hold my attention; 
with a *he who makes the largest katamari 
wins" rule in effect, it's next to impos- 
sible to dethrone any player who gains a 
substantial lead. | did enjoy the King of All 
Cosmos’ expectedly oddball dialogue (per- 
haps the best reason to pick up the game), 
but that isn’t enough to save a great PS2 
franchise from handheld ho-hum. 


It hurts me deeply to 
give a Katamari game anything less than 
a glowing review, but alas, honesty über 
alles. | love being able to roll errands for 
the implacable King of All Cosmos any- and 
everywhere, but the joy of having a katamari 
in my pocket is diminished by some seri- 
ous flaws. The awkward controls | can deal 
with—what | can’t get past is the limited 
level design. The game's missions consist 
of six small segments strung together with 
no sense of connection, and you replay the 
same bits repeatedly. Which makes this 
game something | never thought I'd say 
about Katamari: predictable, and slightly 
unsatisfying. We are so very disappointed. 





m6 





COLLINS COLLEGE 
TO YOUR LIFE. 


Collins College offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Game Design and 
a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Arts with a major in Game Art. 


Main Campus - Tempe, Arizona >> West Campus - Phoenix, Arizona 


ca Now 1-800-728-4500 


Collins College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT). 


Financial aid is available for those who qualify. Career services ance. Collins College West is a branch of Collins 


College. Not all programs available at all locations 


by Rick O'Connor 





review Crew: 
psp 


LINE 

CAPCOM CLASSICS 
COLLECTION 
REMIXED 


THE VERDICTS 
(OUT ОРТО) 


KATHLEEN SHANE 


GIANCARLO 


(2-4 via local Wi-Fi) 
ESRB: Teen 


www.capcom.com 


LINE 
SYPHON FILTER: 
DARK MIRROR 


Who shot out the lights? 








THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 





DEMIAN 


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





KATHLEEN NICH 






וו 
= 


Е 
\ — 


Publisher: Sony CEA 
Developer: Sony CEA 
Players: 1 (2-8 via local or 
online Wi-Fi) 

ESRB: Mature 


www.playstation.com 


Good: Bright graphics, classy games 


Bad: Videogames have come a long way, baby 


Approximate Price Per Game: $1.36 


KATHLEEN: Talk to any respectable child 
of the '80s, and it's likely you'll discover 
they cut their teeth on many of the games 
included in Classics Collection Remixed. 
Capcom has assembled a sweet retro treat 
here with 20 different games, from the 
heralded Street Fighter to the kitschy cult 
classic Quiz & Dragons. Each title also has 
the option to be viewed in an “enhanced” 
mode, an option that formats the image to 
fit the PSP’s screen so it doesn’t look too 
stretched or weird like some other PSP 
ports, You can even play some titles, such 
as the top-down shooter 1941, vertically 
on the screen, which makes things much 
easier to see—though it’s awkward to 
hold the PSP that way. Every game also 
has customizable controls, perfect for all 
us fussy old fogies who like our game 
tapes just so. 

This collection truly hits its stride with 
wireless action for every game that offered 
multiplayer in the arcade. It doesn’t get 
much more boss than hooking up with a 
friend for a co-op Wi-Fi brawl through Final 
Fight or—even better—a four-player mash- 
fest through Captain Commando. 


SHANE: Bow before Capcom, the king of 
quality shovelware. Rather than merely 
porting last year’s excellent Classics 
Collection (PS2/XB) to PSP, Capcom 


Good: Lots of guns, long campaign mode 


Bad: Convoluted controls, samey enemies 
Dark Is Right: Crank up the gamma, use the night vision 





The Red Section minion in my 
crosshairs is having a rough day. Those 
world-domination plans will have to go 
on hold; I’ve not only dispatched 30 of his 
best pals and comrades already, but I've 
also winged this one in the leg, so he’s 
slowly limping back to cover. 

It’s hard to pull off a good shooter on 
the PSP, but little touches like that gimped 
grunt help Dark Mirror compensate for a 
seriously complicated control scheme and 
the lack of two analog sticks. If you’re 
expecting traditional Syphon Filter run- 
and-gun action, though, time to rethink. 
Dark Mirror slows the pace way down. In 
most battles, you'll have to peek around 
cover and pick your shots—rush the 
enemy, and you'll risk restarting from the 
last checkpoint in short order. 

This measured, almost plodding game- 
play ups the tension and works well in 
campaign mode, but the faster-paced 
chaos of multiplayer only heightens your 
awareness of the innately awkward 
controls. Multi's a bit short on maps and 
modes, too. 

Still, it’s fun to flip on the infrared 
vision (the better to part Dark Mirror's 
oppressive gloom—forget trying to play 
outdoors) and take out a pair of enemies 
with an explosive dart, even though 
accessing and equipping the game's gad- 
gets can be a royal pain. 


instead unearths 15 entirely different 
nostalgic gems (alongside five returning 
favorites) here. OK, so not everything on 
the UMD qualifies as a classic... Outdated 
relics such as Avengers and Section Z 
won't hold your interest for 10 minutes. 
But you can't deny the appeal of fan-faves 
Strider, Final Fight, and Magic Sword, and 
many of the lesser-known B-tier titles 
qualify as buried treasures. Black Tiger? 
Totally awesome. 1941, Side Arms, and 
Varth? Quality arcade shooters. Mega 
Twins (aka Chiki Chiki Boys) and Three 
Wonders? Fun, colorful platformers. Factor 
in a slick presentation, sweet unlockables, 
and Wi-Fi multiplayer for many games, 
and it's a must-have PSP release. 


OFFICIAL PS MAG—GIANCARLO: I've 
played most of these games well over 50 
times, and | have to say that 1 can easily 
see myself playing through them another 
50 times with this collection. Nearly every 
one is absolutely perfect for a handheld like 
the PSP—and the fact that they support 
the system’s Wi-Fi multiplayer capabilities 
only makes them that much better. Add 

in a bunch of other cool little features like 
different aspect ratios for each game and 
vertical displays for the shooters—even if 
it’s a little cumbersome, it’s still incredibly 
cool—and you've got an instant classic. 














Syphon Filters ial 
clever missions, sweet spy giz- 
mos, and stirring music make for a really 
fun game—even if it is trapped on the tiny, 
portable hand-cramp maker called the 
PSP. Too bad controlling this third-person 
shooter can be a battle by itself, despite 
the alternate button layout options. | some- 
times felt like | didn't have a real chance to 
react in time or maneuver properly. 

Dark Mirror retains the series’ signature 
autoaim target lock, but I’m just going to 
come out and say it—autoaim is cheap. 
And an ammo waster. Not that | was above 
using it, but when | did, | felt ashamed. 


Gabe “Crazy Legs” Logan is back, 
not that his absence in the last Syphon 
Filter game was much remarked upon. 
Dark Mirror’s single-player game still 
relies less on manual accuracy than 
lock-on targeting, something the handheld 
can easily handle. Scripted waves of 
guys rush at you and you take them out, 
sometimes with teammates at your back. 
It's all right. 

The online multiplayer is better, 
although it's tough to recommend this 
over the team action in SOCOM: Fireteam 
Bravo, and it could use some more maps. 
1 definitely enjoyed the all-against-one 
Rogue Agent mode, though, despite being 
complete crap at it. 












== 





Dark game + dark PSP screen = premature eyesight failure. 4 


SPLINTER CE 


Rather unnecessary 


Good: Story told via flashbacks 
Bad: Moving, looking, shooting... 


N-Gage, GBA, DS...: Handhelds and Splinter Cell just don't mix 


Sam Fisher, superagent 
extraordinaire, is accused of a few 
unpatriotic acts against his outfit. Is 
he working for the bad guy, or is he 
being set up in this Tom Clancy world 
of political intrigue? | would give a 
crap...if this game weren't so god- 
damn terrible. 

Essentials is near impossible to 
control. The problem is, Splinter Cell 
is as 3D a game as they get—you 
have to be constantly looking up, 
down, and all around at your sur- 
roundings, searching for paths and 
avoiding enemy peepers. The PSP 
is 100 percent not the platform for 
this style of stealth-action. You get a 
couple of control and.camera options, 
and you will eventually’get better 
at moving and looking, but you will 
never feel comfortable doitig anything 
in this game. Ever. ГИ jump when I 
meant to look down. I'll crouch-when 
I meant to look right. ГИ cry when — / 
what I really want to do is snap my“ 
PSP in half. Oh, and the game has 
rough graphics, afew crashes, 








THE VERDICTS, 
(OUT OF 10) 





.+ r4 


hiccup pauses when something 
new is happening onscreen, long 
load times (load screens have load 
screens!), ала an unfun, throwaway 
spy-versus-spy multiplayer mode 
(with only four maps)... Wait, all this 
just to play a Splinter Cell that offers 
no gameplay innovations whatsoever? 
It's official, Splinter Cell is not 
meant to be a portable game. | think 
these other reviewers are too forgiv- 
ing because Splinter Cell's so great 
to begin with. But I'm a fan of the 
series, and | think this one stinks. 


We shall agree to disagree. 
The great thing about Essentials is 
how faithfully it reproduces the full 
console experience:;From gameplay 
to controls to graphics, everything 
works as good or better than any PSP 
owner has a right to expect (Well, 
besides minor gripes like loading hic- 
cups, the labor-intensive camera, and 
completely worthless multiplayer). 
But the problem with Essentials is 
how faithfully it reproduces the full 


Publisher: Ubisoft 


ESRB: Mature 


GARNETT 


LLESSENTIALS 


www.splintercell.com 





playing Splinter Cell anywhere is held 
back a bit by the feeling that you've 
already played it all before, especially 
during/the Tecycled missions you 
really have played before. 


Just because 
you can make a game on PSP doesn’t 
mean you should. Sure, Sam Fisher 
has trés cool superspy mojo normally, 
but it gets sapped away in handheld 
form, where punishing restarts for 
every misstep come all too often. The 
analog nub doesn’t offer the control 
subtlety needed for a game where 
the difference between walking and 
running can be life or death. And 
the onscreen action is so dark that 
portable play is out of the question. 

If | have to hunker down somewhere 
to control the light conditions just to 
play, 'd much rather be in front of a 
full-size telévision. Outside of a few 
graphical glitches, Essentials may 
impress, but this is best left to fans 
interested in the lore. | 





Developer: Ubisoft Montreal 
Players: 1 (2 via local Wi-Fi) 





His the first tine ту Life 
| that Wve felt Uke | actually או א‎ 
Ос at least In happy Mow that | dont 


Truly OBSESSIVE 


ULSI 
לי‎ video MANI КС“ 
2 ו‎ 













lant To learn how Yo create 
pant Bac. ol m ФР ү 


cloth 


1 





WE SPEAK G33K 


Geeks transform into Alpha-Geeks 
by becoming fluent in: 


GAME DESIGN COMPUTER FORENSICS 
DIGITAL ANIMATION NETWORK SECURITY 
ARTIFICIAL LIFE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING 
DIGITAL VIDEO TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT 
WEB DESIGN GAME PROGRAMMING 


www.uat.edu > 800.658.5744 








review crew: 
ds 


TETRIS DS 


A puzzle game for the post-Cold War era 
"2h 2 | T 


E We get the Metroid nostalgia, but 
nobody asked for a Yoshi’s Cookie revival. 


Developer: Nintendo 

Players: 1 (2-10 via local Wi-Fi, 
2-4 via online Wi-Fi) 

ESRB: Everyone 


£5 7.0 9.0 


JENNIFER CRISPIN JEREMY 


THE VERDICTS 
(QUT OF 10) 


| Publisher: Nintendo 


www.nintendo.com 


ио д 

TAO'S ADVENTURE: 
CURSE OF THE 
DEMON SEAL 


More like Curse of the Awful Interface 






East Burzganga. 
пона, поми. 
227 220 





Publisher: Konami 
Developer: Konami 
Players: 1 

ESRB: Everyone 10+ 


THE VERDICTS 
(OUT OF 10) 





GREG S. 


JENN F. JEREMY 


www.konami.com 


108 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


Good: Fun to relive the memories of classic puzzling 
Bad: Only one new mode really uses the touch screen 
Pandering: The fan service goes a bit overboard 


JENNIFER: If anyone out there can’t conjure 
off the top of their head the six different 
shapes formed by four blocks that you fit 
together into lines that disappear, | want 

to meet you. You’ve managed to avoid one 
of the most pervasive gaming phenomena 
of the last 20 years. Tetris DS repackages 
this classic gameplay into six different 
modes, from the familiar and still appealing 
Standard to the new, strange, and at-times- 
unnecessary ones like Push (in which two 
players vie to edge the other off the screen). 
My favorite new mode is Touch: You have a 
grid of assorted pieces that you manipulate 
to form lines and clear the grid. It's perfect 
for the touch screen; too bad it's only five 
Stages long. Tetris DS remixes itself further 
by layering classic Nintendo themes over 
each of the modes. So, for example, clear- 
ing lines helps Mario progress through a 
level of Super Mario Bros. Cute, but it adds 
almost nothing to the core gameplay. 

If it weren't for the local multiplayer, this 
repackaging would seem almost pointless. 
But getting 10 people in a room all going 
crazy with items (Mario Kart-style zingers 
you throw at your opponents) is truly fun. 
It's a shame the regular online supports 
only up to four players. 


CRISPIN: "In Soviet Russia, you play Tetris 
alone on monochrome Elektronika 60 


computer. In America, you play with nine 
comrades over Wi-Fi on color handheld. 
What a country!" Oh, it's funny because 
it's true, Cold War-era comedian Yakov 
Smirnoff: Tetris has changed in the 20 
years since both you and it left the moth- 
erland. But it hasn't evolved quite enough 
to be worth your rubles if you already own 
a portable incarnation. 

The new stylus-powered Touch mode is 
more gimmicky than fun, and most of the 
new game modes add unnecessary com- 
plexity to the elegant formula. Still, playing 
it with friends is a Chernobyl-size blast, and 
the remixed tunes from your favorite made- 
in-Japan Nintendo franchises will have you 
pointing to that Far East island nation and 
hollering, "What a country!" 


1UP.COM—JEREMY: Up till now, DS own- 
ers have been forced to slum it on GBA 

for a Tetris fix—shocking! After all, this is 
the game that made Nintendo a portable 
powerhouse to begin with. Tetris DS rights 
this wrong while practically reinventing the 
game. Don't worry, though; purists can play 
straight-up Tetris. Those needing something 
more up to date have five other modes to 
choose from, all marinated in that tasty old- 
time nostalgia Nintendo does so well. These 
range from novel (Catch) to brilliant (Push), 
especially with 10-player online support. 





Good: Spell-drawing system is actually pretty cool 


Bad: But it gets lost in the bad game surrounding it 
Inspired By: Azure Dreams (PS1, 1997) 


When | first fired up Tao and 
started learning how to cast spells using 
the touch screen, it looked to me like we 
finally had a roleplayer that took advan- 
tage of the DS’ hardware—you could say 
| was excited. 

This excitement lasted right up until 
1 reached the game's main town. It was 
there | started to realize the strange, arbi- 
trary nature of the interface, like how some 
supposedly “open” doors were actually 
locked, how | couldn’t interact with every- 
thing, and how the objects | could interact 
with weren’t labeled as such. 

And the battle system! “Awkward” isn't 
a strong enough word to describe it. The 
fantastic spell-drawing setup is lost in lay- 
ers upon layers of touch-screen menus and 
frustrating physical combat. You have to 
dig through two menus to access your spell 
screen; then you must draw a spell, confirm 
it, and choose your target area before tap- 
ping another button to attack. Repeat. 

It all could have been streamlined a lot. 
But even then, the slow pace and annoying 
guessing-games-style exploration in the 
main town make Tao yet another disap- 
pointing RPG endeavor on the DS. But it's 
still better than Lunar: Dragon Song. 


Townfolk can be pretty cruel to 
kids with funny hair and facial tattoos. 
Luckily, Tao's got a friend in Petcho, a 





snarky tagalong who appears to be a cross 
between Pikachu and a moogle. Petcho's 
good at making little suggestions (Hey! I'm 
hungry! Let’s до eat!”) that really drive the 
plot forward—which | appreciate. 

Actual gameplay in Tao is—oh, how do 
1 say this? Basically, it's a Rogue-like dun- 
geon crawl (Google it—Rogue’s an ancient 
RPG). It's simple, intuitive, and utterly 
tedious. The fun is in using а stylus—l 
mean, “wind rod"—in spellcasting, accom- 
plished by doodling runic symbols inside 
some mystical circle. But when you call a 
дате “Tao’s Adventure,” | want adventur- 
ousness, dammit, and this wasn't it. 


Unlike just about 
everyone | know, | actually enjoy these 
turn-based, dungeon-hack RPGs. Sure, 
they're repetitive, shallow, and usually 
more than a little unfair in places, but when 
done right, they can be ridiculously addic- 
tive. Unfortunately, Tao isn’t done right. It's 
plodding and cumbersome, even for this 
Style of game, with primitive 3D graphics 
and a slothlike pace. It also violates most 
of the rules of portable gaming, including 
the all-important “must be playable in short 
bursts” maxim. The touch-screen elements 
are pretty slipshod, too. Any joy you might 
glean from Tao's progressive treasure 
collecting and monster slaying will be com- 
pletely drowned by your tears of boredom. 


Pumped and nearly 


‘SHANE: It’s been well over a year since we all 
tried Hunters’ DS pack-in demo, First Hunt, and 
all that development time has paid off—the full 
game emerges as an impressive showpiece for the 
hardware. Developer NST somehow overcame the 
seeming impossibility of squeezing the first-person 
adventure/shooter Metroid Prime onto the roughly 
Nintendo 64-esque DS. Hunters amazes with 
detailed alien landscapes and explosive special 
effects that wouldn't look out of place on the PSP. 
It's a shame that the single-player adventure 
can't live up to the Prime heritage. Here, you guide 
Samus across multiple planets while amassing 
alien artifacts. And though the varied environments 
and open-ended progression represent innovations 
the franchise needs, the half-assed execution won't 
win any awards. Levels seem contrived and predict- 
able—after a few worlds of hunting for keys, fight- 
ing repeat bosses, and escaping before the bomb 
blows, the design feels rote. Plus, placing the inter- 
face for switching visors and weapons on the touch 


Online Bounty Hunting 
Hunters’ wireless multiplayer action 


traditional, but they run 


primed 


screen adds an unnecessary layer of complexity. 

But at least you'll never mistake the gameplay 
for warmed-over Prime outtakes, Whether you're 
controlling the camera with the stylus or the four 
face buttons, the necessity to aim transforms 
Hunters into an entirely new Metroid experience. 
It’s fast, visceral, and occasionally exhausting: You 
don't realize how much you relied on locking on to 
enemies in the Prime games until you're forced to 
aim. Thankfully, the control works well and makes 
for adequately thrilling online multiplayer...well, 
as thrilling as a four-player king of the hill match 
can be. 


1UP.COM—ANDREW: I'll agree with Shane about 
how good a job NST did in getting Hunters to work 
on the DS—it managed to design the game around 
the system’s awkward setup for first-person shoot- 
ers. I'll also echo that it never really felt like | was 
playing a true Metroid game, despite Samus Aran’s 
presence. But once | passed that small mental 


pads, and even zero-G sec- 





3 


METROID PRIME HUNTE 


roadblock, everything was fine. 

Because of the free-look ability granted by the 
DS, Hunters' multiplayer is far better than Prime 
2's, with enough modes and maps to keep a rela- 
tively small group of four entertained. Occasional 
slowdown can get in the way, and some of the 
maps and modes have certain quirks, but Hunters 
remains a very strong effort for the DS. 


1UP.COM—JEREMY: | love Metroid, and 1 love por- 
table games, So why am | not madly in love with 
Hunters? Maybe because it emphasizes its mul- 
tiplayer aspect, which turns out to be little more 
than an expanded version of Prime 2’s lackluster 
head-to-head gameplay. With support for only four 
players, Hunters doesn't even begin compete with 
superior portable shooters like SOCOM. Meanwhile, 
the single-player experience is disappointingly un- 
Metroid-ish. It's a good game, a huge leap for DS 
visuals, and perfectly fun in short bursts. Just don't 
expect much staying power. rix 





4 


b 
Б" 


Lame characters — After see- 


allows you to connect with other 
players through DS Download Play, 
local wireless, or Nintendo’s online 
Wi-Fi connection service. Is it worth 
the effort, though? 


Pros: 


Plenty of modes — Hunters’ 
seven match types remain fairly 


Good: Best 3D visuals on the DS 


the full gamut of what you'd 
expect in a first-person shooter, 


Voice chat — Sure, it's limited to 


tions, these stages feel vaguely 
Quake-ish. 


Cons: 


intermatch chatter with your friends, ^ Four-player limit — Deathmatch 

but it’s a step in the right direction. can be fun for a while with four 
peeps, but many of these team- 

Creative arenas — With plenty based modes feel weak given the 


of environmental hazards, jump 


low number of combatants. 


| 


ing how ugly the six new bounty 
hunters look, we think we'll 
stick with Samus. 


Weak weapons—Apart 
from a nifty lock-on laser, 
most of the weapon pick- 
ups you'll find seem fairly 
useless. 








С? > 
За à | 
Á Aa ` 


Publisher: Nintendo 
Developer: NST 
Players: 1 (2-4 via local or 


Bad: Repetitive level design, reliance on touch screen 
Promising Innovation: Online voice chat between matches 





THE VERDICTS | 





SHANE 


7.5 8.0 7.5 


online Wi-Fi) 
ESRB: Teen 





ANDREW JEREMY 


www.nintendo.com 





ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 109 


review crew: 
wrap-up 
































The games that were too late... £ 


or too little / 





THE ELDER 
SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION 


XB360 г 2K Games * ESRB: T 


We're more than a dozen hours into this mammoth roleplayer, and we 
haven't made a dent in it. Forget about dents—we haven't even scratched 
the surface. Or probably even seen the surface. This is a game, after all, 
with 50 achievements, most of which are going to require tens upon tens of 
hours to unlock. | 
And that’s OK, because the sprawling world and story of Oblivion is 
something that really pays off over time. No other RPG is as open-ended in 
letting you determine who you want to be and how you want to play. Feel 
like going the beloved hero route, with a small serial-killing issue on the 
side? With maybe some vampirism? Oblivion is happy to oblige, featuring 
а game world stuffed with physical and moral challenges just begging to 
be explored. One caveat: If you're looking for fast-paced RPG action, it ain't 
here. The deliberate, old-school PC roots of this series are front and center. 
Check back next issue for our full review. 

















XB360 • EA Games * ESRB: Е10+ — Before 7 
you invest another $60 into the Burnout f 
chise, ask yourself these questions three; 
1 miss out on the current-gen Versions? Do | 
love online racing? Do | own an HDTV set? = 





If your answer to at least two 
of these questions (5 "уво," then Burnout 
Revenge on the 360 wouldn't be a bad 
investment. If you agree to all three, then it's 





ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY e www.1UP.com: -‏ > סור 











S 





GC * D3 * ESRB: T — Given the middling quality of most anime-based fighters we 
encounter, this 3D brawler starring the abrasive orange phenom comes as an unexpect- 
ed surprise: It's good. Clash of Ninja features beautiful graphics, a simple-yet-versatile 
fighting engine, great controls, and awesome over-the-top special Chakra attacks. 


The character roster might be slim (10 fighters total), but this is still 
a well-rounded fighting game. 














PS2 * Namco Bandai * ESRB: T — Now, this is a recipe for weirdness. Champloo 
brings the badass Edo-era swordsmen, goofy situational comedy, and modern-day 
hip-hop trappings from the hit Adult Swim anime series into an unconventional 
brawler by the guys who made Killer 7. 


When it's really weird (see: an entire level that plays like an acid-trip 
version of Super Mario Bros.), it’s great. But endless hacking and slashing gets old. 














PS2 * Atlus * ESRB: T — This one might have been 
below the radar, but Metal Saga's tank combat is 
pretty fresh for the role-playing genre. You can't always 
say the same thing about the story, but the side quests 
should keep you occupied for a long time. 


Sharp humor and massive tanks give this 














XB * Ubisoft > ESRB: T — Ghost Recon 25 ol’ dumb/ 
cheating АЈ. returns, but it's more tolerable this time 
because we get to cheat as well (with cheap healing 
Stations scattered throughout the levels). Mexico City looks 
amazing, if not nearly as good as in Xbox 360's GRAW. 


All the "pretty" means the action chugs. 
And when the A.I. has near-perfect aim, that's a bummer. 








PS2 * Ubisoft « ESRB: M — Nearly two years after 
the debut of the original, the song remains the same. 
Panzer Dragoon meets Ace Combat meets Desert 
Strike meets Dynasty Warriors meets mind-numbing 
boredom. 


Drakengard 2 is one of developer Cavia's 
most uninspired efforts to date. 





overlooked RPG an edge. It sure ain't pretty, though... 











PS2 * Sony CEA * ESRB: E — From the makers of 
Gran Turismo, it's Gran Turismo for bikes. Straight up. 

This is one serious cycle sim: If you're a manual-gear 
type, you'll be hitting up to four buttons at a time, plus 
the left analog stick—which ain't easy. Look for a full 
review next issue. 


How much do you like motorcycles? 








PS2/XB * Rockstar • ESRB: Е10+ — This rerelease 
adds a new city (well, new if you missed driving. 
around Tokyo in Midnight Club 2), audio tracks, and 20 
extra rides, all for just $20. 





If you love yourself some spinner rims 
and you don't own MC3, you're not going to get a bet- 
ter deal than this. 








PS2/GC * Midway * ESRB: E10+ — Kudos to Midway 
for doing what it can to liven up the building-wrecking 
Rampage formula: Now you can attack buildings from the 
front, unlock tons of characters, and earn new moves by 
completing challenges on every level. 


It’s still the same ol’ Rampage underneath: 
Fun in short doses. Which may be worth $20 to you. 








ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 111 


review crew: 
wrap-up 


WRAP-UP (cont. 


DS Majesco • ESRB: T 
Take the heavy-metal, 
leather-clad Guilty Gear 
characters on the road 
(20 fighters in all) and 
add four-player Wi-Fi 
battles, multilevel stages, 
and a selection of touch- 











screen minigames (rang- 
ing from arm wrestling to 
billiards to playing with 
dolphins). 


It's kind 





of like Super Smash 
Bros., but with Guilty 
Gear combat. Too bad 
everyone needs a cart to 
play multi. 




















PSP • THQ * ESRB: E10+ — Worms: Open Warfare returns the weapons-based 
insect-larvae team-combat series to its 2D roots after a mediocre flirtation with 3D. 
Once you acclimate yourself to its tactical gameplay and develop a good eye for 
weapon ranges, it's а fun—and funny—little strategy game (also coming to the DS, 
but we didn’t get our hands on that one). 


Should please old-school Worms fans. 








PSP > Sony СЕА • ESRB: E — Sony's handheld baseballér is much improved and 
includes a surprisingly thorough GM feature in season mode. In fact, we'd rather play 
this version than the PS2 game. Still, the complicated baserunning controls could 
definitely use some work. 


If you're dying to build a baseball dynasty during your morning commute, 
this is your game. 








PSP > Capcom * ESRB: T — While the PSP version of 
Rumble adds a set of minigames and more characters 
(such as Devil May Cry’s Dante), the action is still way 
too crazy and chaotic to follow, even in widescreen. 


A decent improvement on the GC version, 
but only for people who can legitimately get through a 
match without saying, “What the hell's going on?" 











PSP • Capcom ESRB: E — Now this is a remake. 
Powered Up is addictive, fun, and—despite the baby- 
faced look—hard as hell. It's got the original game, a 
remixed mode with new bosses, a level editor, and tons 
of stuff to unlock. Awesome. 


It arrived too late to review, but MMPU's 
score would've been “frickin’ sweet" (out of 10). 





PSP > THQ > ESRB: E — Leave it to developer Rainbow 
Studios to pull off a good, portable motocross/ATV title. 
MX vs. ATV's racing is pretty much what you'd expect 

if you've played the console versions, complete with 
mix-n-match vehicles and four-player local Wi-Fi. And the 
physics feel spot-on. 


A solid lap of on-the-go motocross. ri 











112 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


A (re)view to тешет... | 


BEST OF THE WORST 


Sometimes, being No. 1 isn’t as 
impressive at it could be. It’s 
always kick-ass to get Game of 
the Month, but there were a few 
months when the pickings were 
on the slim side. Here’s a look at 
the lowest-scoring Games of the 
Month from EGM’s deepest game 
doldrums (all scores out of 10). 


Batman: Return 
of the Joker (GB) 


Nintendogs (DS), 
Rumble Racing (PS2), 
Max Payne 2 (PS2/XB) 


2990S OSES 9099S кла 


2 FIDES РА Гөз Chit} 
Mario Paint (SNES) 





My Lord, we will cut them 
down like ripe wheat! 
RUIT С 


Age of Empires: 
The Age of Kings (DS), 
Drill Dozer (GBA) 


Ace Combat 2 (PS1), 
Circuit Breakers 
(PS1) 


бАМЕ 
24: The Game 
50 Cent: Bulletproof 


America's Army: Rise of a Soldier 
Animal Crossing: Wild World 

Ape Escape 3 

Ape Escape Academy 

Arena Football 

Beatmania 

Black 

Chibi Robo 

CMT Presents Karaoke Rev. Country 
Condemned: Criminal Origins 
Crime Life: Gang Wars 

Dead or Alive 4 


Electroplankton 
Exit 

Fight Night Round 3 

Final Fantasy IV Advance 

Final Fight: Streetwise 

Full Auto 

Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers 
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows 

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 
Grandia Ill 

LA. Rush 

Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion 
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time 
Mario Kart DS 

Mario Tennis: Power Tour 

Mark Ecko's Getting Up. 

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X 

Metal Gear Ac!d 2 


MLB 06: The Show 
MS Saga: A New Dawn 

MVP 06 NCAA Baseball 
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams 
Perfect Dark Zero 

Pokémon Trozei! 

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness 
PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient 
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones 


Pursuit Force 
Quake 4 

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence 
The Rub Rabbits! 

Samurai Shodown V 

Shadow Hearts: From the New World 
Sonic Riders 

Sonic Rush 

Spider-Man 2 

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max 
State of Emergency 2 

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll 
Super Princess Peach 

Tales of Legendia 

Tales of Phantasia 

ToCA Race Driver 3 

Tokobot 

True Swing Golf 

Untold Legends: The Warrior's Code 
Wild Arms 4 

World Soccer: Winning Eleven 9 


-y 


SYSTEM * 
Ps2 
PS2/XB 


PS2/XB 
DS 

PS2 
PSP 
PS2/XB 
PS2 
PS2/XB 
GC 

PS2 
XB360 
XB 
XB360 


05 

PSP. 
XB360. 
GBA 
PS2/XB 
XB360 
PS2/XB 
PS2/XB 
XB360 
PS2 
PS2/XB 
PSP. 

DS 

DS 

GBA 
Р52/ХВ 
PSP. 
PSP 


PS2 

PS2 
PS2/XB 
PS2 

XB360 

DS 

GC 

PSP 
PS2/XB/GC. 


PSP. 
XB360. 
DS 

05 

XB 

PS2 
PS2/XB/GC 
DS 

DS 

PSP 
PS2 

DS 

DS 

PS2 
GBA 
PS2/XB 
PSP 

DS 

PSP 
PS2 
Р52/ХВ 


“Games in red аге previous Game of the Month winners. 


VERDICT d 1 
I8 Faithful to the hit show but lacking the same freshness and wicked gunplay 75 


W Awful third-person shooter looks like a million bucks but plays like, well, 50 cents 5 


W A decent, realistic, Army-themed first-person shooter with less flavor than an MRE 60 
ШЕ The same insane fairy-tale fishing/talking/walking game is now portable and online 7.5 
IB A frustrating camera thumps much of the monkey-snatching fun in this platformer 8.0 
E Seeking a good WarioWare-inspired minigame title for the PSP? Keep looking 45 
W Ridiculous defensive rules make Arena more forgettable than the actual league 6,0 
ї Carpal tunnel causing rhythm game require 
W Ka-BOOM! A first-person shooter full of sound and fury, signifying nothing 65 
ї Borky camera and slow text screens keep this adorable house robot from being great 6.5 
W The best (and only) all-country-music karaoke game we've ever seen! 75 
1 Clunky controls hobble this macabre survival-horror title's deeply eerie gameplay 7.0 


much practice as being a real DJ 7,5 


W This brawler is a butt-ugly, fundamentally terrible, mindless embarrassment 25 
E Boobs and button-mashing are the core components of this pretty fighter 70 


W This visually trippy, unsavable-music-making game is all novelty but no gameplay 5.0 
Wi Long-form puzzles and lovely, апу graphics accent this pokey-paced, but fun, дате 8.5 
Im Perfectly pretty pugilists pummel and punch with precision and panache 90 
ША revered role-playing game made even better with new dungeons and portability 9.0 
W Decent brawler with nice minigames stumbles on repetition and bad save system 5 
W Like Burnout with guns and a do-over button—so nice, we woulda liked more of it 8.0 
W A squad-based shooter with broken rules of engagement 50 
W Another solid, but short and mindless, round of elf clear-cutting is fun with friends 5 
Amazing, war-is-hella-fun shooter with great multiplayer. Next-gen is finally here! 10 
W A beautiful role-playing game with a choice battle system and a stereotypical story 8.0 
W This racing game offers a ton of cool cars that crash in random, frustrating ways 65 

ld school" doesn't always mean “all good,” but this RPG is classically sound 6.5 
W Fun, dungeon-filled RPG with action-packed combat featuring your favorite bros. 5 
т Retains Mario's status as champ of kart games, now portable and online 90 
WI Mario's chatty, RPG-ish tennis game benefits from simple controls and fun multiplayer 8.0 
W This partly broken, gritty, graf-art action game isn't half as cool as it thinks it is 45 
WA treat for Mega Man fans but will seem outdated and difficult to anyone else 7.0 
E А short, but streamlined, card-based tactical roleplayer that stars Mr. Snake 80 


Wi Innovation isn't defined as finally adding a decade-old feature to your baseball game 6.5 
Ш Gundam RPG with superbosses and lots of customization but lots of fetch quests 6.0 
1а Poor fielding is just one of many errors found on this collegiate diamond 55 
WI We agreed this samurai game was beautiful but weren't sure of its RPG aspects 5 
E This shooter's multiplayer goes the distance to offset the imperfect single-player 6.5 
I A Poké-themed puzzler that inflicts equal parts dull and puzzle 65 
E The series makes some strides on the Cube with this passable RPG for Pokémaniacs 7.0 
WA rather ho-hum puzzler that does manage to score a few “AHA!” moments 55 
E The leaping, wall-running, puzzle-solving Prince returns to fighting form 95 


MIA crappy vehicular assault game with a dumb premise and broken control 35 
Ii Visually choppy, generic first-person shooter with decent multiplayer 55 
т Outdated graphics and gameplay stunt this portable, multiplayer Resident Evil 6.5 
т А touchable minigame game that doesn't provide enough fun to be lovable 60 
W Sadly, the worst of the beloved classic arcade-fighter series is the one that's online 5.5 
т A ittie-too-short-but-quirky RPG with an excellent timing-based battle sys 80 
ШЕ Sonic's hoverkart racer isn’t fun or fast enough to catch up to Mario's standard 5.0 
IB A step back to the rushing, roller-coaster, side-scrolling Sonic done properly for DS 8.0 
Wi If your spider sense is on the fritz, let us warn you to avoid this ho-hum adventure 6.0 
Im The same Street Fighter you loved—without enough new features to make it shine 6.0 
W Third-person action sequel no one asked for delivers new ways of being average 6.0 
WA maze game that blends infuriating ball-rolling and adorable ape themes 65 
E A shiny new Mario-style adventure that needs to take the difficulty up a notch 7.5 
W An RPG that's too ugly and unbalanced to make the actiony battles worthwhile 5.5 
W This dusty, classic RPG ported from the Super NES hasn't aged very gracefully 0 
W This flawed and unbalanced racer is partially redeemed by its amazing variety 6.5 
WA terrible camera and wonky controls short-circuit this puzzle-solving robot game 5 
т A pick-up-and-play golf game that makes excellent use of the DS’ touch screen 8.0 
W A hackneyed, hack-n-slash dungeon crawl with a semifun multiplayer mode 6.5 
W Fantasy/sci-fi/Wild Wes 
W WE series finally catches up with the rest of the gaming world and goes online 5 


RPG with a solid battle system but surprisingly vanilla plot 8.0. 


ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 113 









чиј | 


ALUTE 


TO GIRL GAMING 





Get out of my games and into my car 


Why don’t girls play games? Every magazine and website has done a feature 
on it, it’s the first interview question with any girl gamer, and it’s the main 
topic of discussion at the gals-in-gaming conferences. After, of course, mud wrestling 
and team slow-motion bra-removing. And after all the hard thinking, here are what the 
experts say are the top reasons that games aren’t appealing to women: 
1) It's men’s fault. 
2) Some kind of basic behavior pattern, like how girls enjoy shoes or crying 
or whatever. 
3) Ovaries, like those found in women, cause electronic devices to malfunction. 
4) Things with buttons are stupid. 
5) Mmm...this Yoplait yogurt is new-fireman-calendar good! 


BS n the last few years, the biggest riddle of the videogame industry has been: 


Most of these arguments about why girls don't play games are pointless. Any idiot can 
take a stereotype and smash it into a discussion about gaming. | even manage to do it at 
the end of this sentence; women love shopping and fruitball crap, so they like Kingdom 
Hearts. But that's the kind of intellectualism that can be annihilated by two things: reality 
and the word “duh.” And if there's one thing I’ve learned from the lifetime I've devoted to 
getting ruined by women, it's that no one understands them. Especially them. 

The fundamental problem with women playing games is that it's harder for a girl to. 
become a nerd. Women have an air of social confidence that comes from knowing they 
control the sex life of every man they ever come into contact with. And they've seen 
enough men who care more about their EverQuest paladin than their abs to know that 
videogames weaken the existing social framework. And when that's gone, your gender is 
moot—your lap becomes just another thing on which to rest your bean dip. 





LADY GAMES FOR LADIES 


1 guarantee you we'll all be killing each other in the desert with bladed boomerangs 
over a tank of gas before we figure out how to get girls to like games. The more impor- 
tant issue is: How long before the industry's blatant pandering backfires completely? 
The following are my picks for the industry's five worst insults to womankind. Go ahead 
and get excited because no one has tackled gender issues this hard since the guy who 
wrote He's Just Not That Into You jumped on his boyfriend and giggled with him on into 
the night until the sun rose on their love. | don't want to get off the subject, but that 
guy knows less about women than I do, and | once gave a girlfriend a gift certificate 
for Christmas. 


| Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2) 

In this game, you get different powers by 
| changing your outfit. This was so indul- 
gent to some dude's idea of what girls 
want, they might as well have released 

| a game called Emotional, Shirtless UPS 
Man Il: He Remembered Your Birthday. 





Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse 
Rescue (XB) 

You get to dress up your pony! Choose the 
perfect ribbons and saddle blankets while 
Barbie shouts words of encouragement 
like, “What a cool-looking horse!” As if | 
need some plastic slut to tell me how cool 
my horse looks. 











Mary-Kate and Ashley Sweet 16: 

License to Drive (GC) 

One question in this game asks the player to 
identify which color is not one of the four colors 
shown. If this game were called Alcohol and 
Pregnancy: Remedial Kindergarten, that question 
would still be disrespectful to its audience. 





Barbie: The Princess and the Pauper (GBA) 

In this game you use the power of song and pretty 
gowns to fight through treacherous woods. And 
while it may be a realistic representation of a 
princess’ outdoor-survival skills, it’s not fun. Barbie 
might as well fill her pockets with bacon and 
scream like a horny bear. Her Attack button makes $ ב‎ 
her sing, for God’s sake! She’s going to die! 


MH 


EHH 





`` то make Erika sing, 
„ press the B Button. 





Troliz Hair Affair (GBA) 

When they were children, Mary-Kate and Ashley sort. 
of looked like troll dolls. Please note the scientific 
proof pictured here. And now that Mary-Kate and 
Ashley have grown up all hot and dress like they 
want someone to buy them a drink, troll dolls did 
the same thing. Which might be even creepier. жи. 


EL] 








114 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 





ACROSS 

1. Resident Evil 4's Ashley 

8. Too Human subject matter 

10. Metal Gear's Kojima 

11. Robotnik, for one 

12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
Shredder's boss 

15. Gun scenery sight 

18. Like MLB’s Derrek Lee 

20. Mega Man V train Man 

21. Illusion of _ (Super NES) 

22. Karate Champ outfit 

23. Xbox 360 fighter, for short 

24. Successor to MSR 

25. Main man of Too Human 

30. Like Madden linemen? 

31. Like Metal Gear Solid 2 Vamp’s 
sexual orientation 

32. Star Wars: Knights of the Old 
Republic's synthesized scents 

34. MLB SlugFest unlockable cheat 
team 

38. ET's last name? 

39. NES flop Chubby _ 





(Solution on page 119) 











DOWN 

Competition for 24 ACROSS? 

PSP Metal Gear 

Nine-headed Battle of Olympus foe 

Munch's Oddworld partner 

Bad-guy Pokémon 

Mario Sunshine Blooper’s ammo 

Console DVD feature Progressive 

9. Latest Fight Night round 

12. Powder-filled explosive barrel 

13. Enemies of 1 ACROSS 

14. Glitchy 

16. Hot Shots Golf hole-in-one 

17. PS2 UFC-inspired fighting 
championship 

19. Where Square’s Bouncers worked? 

20. Grand Theft Auto commercial vehicle 

26. What a shield does to damage 

27. Silly, secret Silent Hill endings 

28. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas homie 

29. Member of Red Faction? 

31. Super Mario Chomp's forte? 

33. Disc drive function 

35. Commodore 64 Star Trek subtitle, 
for short 

36. Street Fighter Ken’s home nation 

. Sega's final hardware, for short 


еер 9m 


GRUDGE MATCH 


Which Night falls? 














FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 3 FRIGHT NIGHT 

















With Mike Tyson out of the picture, the chances of getting your neck bitten 
in the boxing ring aren’t nearly as bad as if you were cast in the 5 
vampire flick Fright Night. But you can get yer ass whooped in either. Which 
would you prefer? 


One-sided 


Hard-hitting slugfests 
у child beatings 


OPPONENTS 


Other crew-cut guys Gnady vampires 


in high pants 


TOKEN GIRL REPRESENTATION 


Bing babes Married. With Children's | 


Amanda Bearse 








SOUNDTRACK 


A surround-sound system lets you hear 
that right hook on your left ear Frightening theme song by 


the J. Geils Band 


SPECTATORS 


Dracula's feathered-hair 


Just a half tick above manslave 


wrestling fans 


STAKES 


Championship title 
1 Mostly wooden 


= WINNER: FIGHT NIG 


Our Fight or Fright response: The only thing that sucks more than Fright Night 
vampires is Fright Night itself! Take that Chris Sarandon, wherever you are. 














TWENTY (REALLY RAD) 
YEARS OF ZELDA 


Take a historic stroll with Nintendo's happy little elf 





СЕ | NOW ITIS THE BEGINNING _ 
без меча re | OF A FANTASTIC STORY! 


only does that put Link and crew їп а 


select group (after 20 years, the series is The original Legend of Zelda first appeared 

still considered cool), but it also divides | Feb. 21, 1986 on the Famicom Disk System 

gamers along a sharp line of mortality. שי‎ (the floppy-drive add-on for the Japanese ver- 

You little squirts who weren't even born | sion of the NES). The U.S. version appeared 

when the original game came out ain’t got START! a few months later and innovated straight 

nothing on us old-timers who swapped out of the gate, by necessity: It was the first 

Triforce tips between classes in high game to feature a built-in lithium battery to NEN 
School. Still, we can all join together and save game progress, since American car- ₪ 
agree on one important issue: Twilight tridges couldn't be rewritten like Japan's FDS Њ. e. 
Princess won't be in our GameCubes diskettes. Incredibly enough, many copies of 

soon enough. —Jeremy Parish Zelda still have functional batteries, outlasting 


Nintendo’s estimated life span by a good 15 
years. (If only Dreamcast VMU batteries had 


been so resilient.) 
Mice 






< EXTRACURRICULAR 
ws ا ا‎ ч EXPERIENCES 
PLAY THAT FUNKY ВЕ Zelda has put in an impressive showing 
MUSIC, WHITE BOYS | п: оп portable systems, with no fewer than 


four top-notch handheld adventures to 
Nintendo certainly had some...uh, interest- date (plus the original Four Swords, which 
ing ideas about how to sell the original 


debuted as a bonus feature in the GBA 
Zelda to American kids who had never remake of A Link to the Past). But not 
seen anything like it. We can get behind | many people realize that Nintendo was 
the “Never-ending adventure” tagline; back | responsible for only one of these games, 1994's Link's Awakening 
in 1986, Zelda really did seem impossibly on the old green-screened Game Boy. The rest have been the handi- 
huge. But the pencil-necked doofus wan- work of external developers such as Capcom and Flagship, which 
dering through shadowy corridors calling 


did a bang-up job of keeping the games lively without straying too 


out for Zelda? Sorry, dude, if it were that | PUTTING THE ACTION | far from Zelda's basics. 




















easy to find the princess, the quest would | | Their work has certainly been a vast improvement over the first | 
hardly be "never-ending," ya know? [ > IN ADVENTURE | > set of Zeldas to come from the outside: the infamously horrible CD-i | 
Still, that's nothing compared to the | | Zelda Il: The Adventure of Link was released | trilogy of Faces of Evil, Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda’s Adventure. A | 
other Zelda commercial, featuring two | in Japan less than a year later, in January frightful example of contractual obligation in action, the CD-i games | 
completely unfly white guys rapping about: | of 1987. However, mysterious “chip short- — | | were the fallout of Nintendo's decision to bail on its Play Station | 
how the дате was, yes, “really rad.” | ages” prevented the game from reaching | deal with Sony and support the CD-i platform instead. | 
Shockingly, the ad campaign was a com- the U.S. until late 1988. While many people | It's difficult to truly understand how terrible these games really | 
plete failure, and the game sold quite well | feel the second game was too dramatic a | | are without seeing the clunky gameplay and spastic cinematic ani- | 
despite Nintendo’s best efforts to make it | deviation from the original’s RPG-like feel | mations. Try to imagine that Link had a face-first run-in with a bag | 
look utterly uncool. Don’t take our word | (it emphasized side-scrolling combat and of ugly before being tasered into an epileptic state. Then visualize 
for it, though—check out the commercials | brisk action), many of the game's concepts. | | how his twitching would look when drawn in crayon by a һурегас- 
for yourself at our new sister website, | | influenced the later 3D sequels like Ocarina | tive 3-year-old. Holding the crayon in his mouth. Got it? OK, now, 
gamevideos.com. Word...to your mother. | | of Time (N64). | the CD-i games look kind of like that, except much worse. | 





116 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY “ www.1UP.com 









LINK TO THE SOMETHING SOMETHING 
mend Rd ‘a 1 are there just a bunch 


























lent.” Yet whether or n 
single game, we're p 





d in the original, 
up; likewise, Link's Awakening (GB) depicted the fur- 











Need an even bigger fix of 
Zelda nostalgia? Check out 
zelda20th.1UP.com for all the 
reminiscing you can handle on | 
an empty stomach. | 











| CREDIT WHERE CREDIT'S DUE 


Psst! Hey, Nintendo fanboy! Yeah, you over there ii 

mushroom T-shirt. You've gotta stop telling your frit 
legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto (top ri 
guiding vision for the Zelda games, because 
these days, at least. The franchise's future is in 1 

















on Twilight Princess and has directed ev 5 
Мајога 5 Mask. Miyamoto serves as producer, whit 
less hands-on. 

Still, Mario's maker is the man behind the origi ol 
We're told that Miyamoto’s inspiration fo the game's vast over- 
world and labyrinthine dungeons was a real-life experience: As 
a child, he stumbled across a series of caves in the Japanese 
countryside and spent a summer slowly exploring them. 

Zelda's gameplay, though totally unique for its time, was 
in some ways like а mc ophisticated version of Atari’s 











Tros. who made his debut in Majora's Mask. ri 











OLD SCHOOL 


10 years ago їп EGM 


During our interview 
with VF3 (Arcade) 
headman Yu Suzuki, 


ting questions such 

as, “The graphics are approaching 
movie quality, aren’t they?” and the 
favorite, “Will there be a change 

in the operating system, like, more 
buttons?” 


Game of the N 

Resident Evil (PS1) 

The first game in this celebrated 
franchise went home with a Gold 
Award that month. One of our 
reviewers called RE “an interest- 
ing graphic adventure loaded with 
puzzles.” Thank goodness someone 
came up with calling the genre 
“survival-horror,” because “graphic 
adventure” just sounds stupid. 


As the staff reflected 

on 82 issues, they 

couldn’t give a 

reason for why the 

folks before them 

put Fabio on EGM's third-ever 
cover. And time hasn't helped solve 
the mystery, either—as Issue #203 
goes to bed, we're still scratching 
our heads about this utterly dis- 
turbing cover choice. 


What? A female Indiana Jones? 
We used the word "shocking" 
to describe the original Tomb 
Raider's (PS1) visuals, and 
judging by the screens 

in our preview, two 

things shocked us 

(hint: they were 

not her guns). 





СЁ ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 117 





WORD 


Metal Gear Solid 3: Controversy Never Dies 


ere at EGM, we don’t fight over 

girls or sports teams or cars. 

We fight over videogames. 
With our recent reviews of Metal Gear 
Solid 3: Subsistence (last issue’s Game of 
the Month), the fierce intraoffice arguing 
flared up again. In one comer, you have 
insane MGS3 fans Shane Bettenhausen 
(previews editor) and Bryan Intihar (news 
editor). In the other comer, you have a 
more reasonable and levelheaded crew 
(guess which side wrote this intro?) in 
Dan “Shoe” Hsu (editor-in-chief) and 
Mark MacDonald (executive editor), who 
appreciate Subsistence but don't think 
it's all that, much less Game of the Month 
material. Here are excerpts from a recent 
lunchtime conversation, which you can 
catch on an upcoming episode of The 1UP 
Show (the1UPshow.1UP.com). 


All right, so nobody is disputing that 
‘Subsistence overall is a really awesome 
package—a better yersiof of the original. But 
online. .here’s ту biggest problem: Why is 
shooting not on a trigger or shoulder button like 
in every single other game? You have to take 
your thumb off of aiming to shoot. 

It shoots like the single-player game. 

You think the control is better with the 
shooting on the Square button instead of a 
shoulder button? And shooting seems to be 
either a no-skill automatic thing, or you have to 
aim every single shot. 

I'm not saying it's better, but 'm saying it 
works. And I'm so used to playing Metal Gear, it 
wasn't confusing to me at all. 

Is the online perfect? No. Would | give 
the online game itself a 10? No. But it’s fun, we 
had a good time, and | would play it again... 

This reminds me of when MGS3 first 
came out. All three of us were on the review, 
and I was the sole guy who said the camera 
was screwed up—that the camera Would be 
better being this other way. And your answer 10 
that: “Oh, it wouldn't be Metal Gear then.” 

1 don't remember that. 


118 * ELECTRONIC 


~ also spent five times as many 


How many times did you come in first 
in deathmatch? 

е: A lot. | routinely came in first. 

So did Bryan and here's how: by run- 
ning around, using the autoaim with the little 
submachine gun. He never stopped moving; 
he just ran around using the autoaim, like 
"buddabuddabudda!" He 
never aimed а single shot.... 

Yeah, | did! Head 
shots! | got head shots. 

By accident. 

: You're ОК with just 
running around and holding 
down the Square button and 
shooting somebody? 

No, | would go to first- 
person mode— did it up top 
from the rooftops, shooting” 
people in.first-Bérson mode 
andigetting head shots. And | 


hours practicing, getting used 
to that. Of course you guys 
aren't going to be as good at it. 

It's not that. Once I'd 
figured out the little autoshoot 
thing, | was right neck and 
neck with you. So, however, 
many hours or whatever that 
you played, | was neck айй neck 
with you just running around 
holding down the Square button. 

1 played that same way... 

When | finally figured out, 
“Oh, so that’s how this Works: 
You just autg;aim.” Р“ going into 
first-person and actually trying 
to use skill; РИ just fin’ sit here 
and shoot s***. 

1 tried playing it all dif- 
ferent ways. | used the clay- 
more mines; | was a sniper 
at one point. But affer awhile, 

1 was getting first place just 
running around shooting... 

You guysimake it 
sound like it's this dumb 
game. It's not. Опсе, we were 
playing a sneaking mission, 


and | set up this huge trap for Bryan. | set up all 


these mines; | Was waiting there in first-person 




















mode to shoot him, and it completely worked. 
That's the “awesome moment” you guys talk 
about in Splinter Cell. That same thing happens 
here. There's strategy. 


How could you possibly like MGS online 
50 much but not want to touch Splinter Cell 
Pandora Tomorrow or Chaos 
Theory or Halo 2? All of those 
other games are better in 
all aspects than multiplayer 
Metal Gear. 

My problem.is that lm 
not really 0066 at Halo 2.1 also 
pefer the Metal Gear universe. 
I'm not saying | don't like [the 

other games]. I'm saying that 
Mike what Metal Gear offers 
as well. Honestly, it’s more 
accessible— 
Oh, no. 
ל‎ it's more 
accessible. 
Not as much as, like, Halo. 
Oh, no, no, no, definitely 
not. First-person shooters are 
more pick-up-and-play. 
I had less trouble play- 
ing Splinter Cell [online than 
Subsistence]. 
No, not me. 
It's easier to control than 
Metal Gear. In MGS3, you have 
to hold down three buttons to get 
precise first-person, down-the-bar- 
ге! shooting. Or you can run around 
in third person and aim toward 
another character's general direc- 
tion. When you hit someone, they 
can't react and tum around fast 
enough. 
That's another thing. 
When you're running and 
you start getting shot in 
the back, you don’t have 
time to tum around or dive 
away—you're going to 
get killed. 
It's the same ina 
first-person shooter! If you're 
shot from behind, you're screwed. @ — 
You need to dive ^ 
In Най, уой tould throw a grenade, or in 
`$рїїї@ Cell, you have a good chance of getting 
away. In Metal Gear, it wasn't worth it to tum 
and fight or do anything; you just kept running 
and tried to get around the comer. 





You know, | think we don’t love Metal 
Gear online as much as you think we do. And 
you guys don't really hat@it as much as you're 
acting like you do. You're acting like it’s 5“““, 
andit's not. 


I don't like it. 

1 think you guys don't play these kinds 
of games so much, só)you get something and 
you're like, “Oh, this something is really cool.” | 
see it more like, “God, this game looks this good, 
and it has potentiala” 

1 had fun! | had fun! And you can't con- 
vince me that | didt have fun.... 

Shoe, you just played a day. That would 
be like me playing Pandora Tomorrow for two 
hours and sayingit was стар... 

1 could tell Pandora Tomorrow was awe- 
some within théffirst hour. 

2: Its not like Bryan and | аге trumpeting 
this as the best online game of the year.... 

And we're not saying this is more revolu- 
tionary than Splinter Cell's multiplayer, but it is 
more accessible. 

Didn't you think it was clunky, though? 

The controls are very precise. It's very 
complex; there are a lot of buttons... 

It's not complex; it's just unnecessarily 
clunky. СО play Halo 2or Splinter Cell... 

Ко comparable. It's more complex and 
not as fast, but you're in complete control. You 
guys тїаке it sound like the gameplay is just 
Shocking... Metal Gear online is gravy to the 
greatest PS2 game of all time. 

Мат So if you had mediocre gravy put on а 
delicious steak, would you be happy? 

бе: We can get into an entirely different dis- 
cussion about the offline core game... 

Hane: | don't really wanna talk about Metal 
Gear with you anymore. | don't wanna talk about 
Metal Gear ever again. You people... 

Mark: [Laughs] sh 











ISSUE #204 


ON SALE MAY 16 


NEXT MONTH: JUNE 


REVOLUTI 
REVELATION 


h, Nintendo, you big tease. You gave the world a glimpse of the most intriguing 

game system ever—the remote-control-powered Revolution—last year, and 

then you shut up about it. Well, we're not having it. EGM, in our single-minded 
pursuit of all things next-gen, has at long last infiltrated Nintendo’s distant fortress of 
secrecy to get an up-close, all-access, world-exclusive visit with the company's next 
home console, the Revolution. We interview Nintendo’s top dogs about their plans for 
taking back your living room with the system’s simple online connectivity, lineup of 
revolutionary games, and back catalog of downloadable classics. More importantly, 
we're getting an exclusive hands-on play session with the system—and you have a 
front-row seat. You won't find this info іп any other magazine. Nintendo's ready to 
talk—but only to EGM. 

If that isn't enough to make you cry, then we'll see what the creative minds of 
Steven "Sad Stories About WWII” Spielberg, Will “Sad Stories About Amoebas" 
Wright, and David “Sad Stories About Threesomes” Jaffe will bring to videogames to 
make you wanna weep. And wait until you read the touching tale of a 10-year-old 
kid who made—and sold—his own videogame. 

We're also gathering intel for a massive preview of every last one of the upcom- 
ing games that are gonna get you hot and bothered and broke this year. From 
Gears of War to Final Fantasy XII, these games will make you and your pocket- 









E Hitman: Blood: Money (Р52/ХВ) |. W 





book cry for mother. So grab your hanky and your favorite blanky—next month is ₪ New Super Mario Bros. (DS) EN 4 
going to be a tearjerker! E Okami (PS2) 2 М 
E Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (XB360) 





ADVERTISER INDEX 

















I Monster Hunter Freedom (В. 
₪ 





(All planned editorial content is subject to change.) 


ANSWERS TO 
MORE HUMAN THAN 


2k Games ЈАМОАТ Mobile Inc. TOO HU ₪ AN 
wwwjamdatmobile.com. ............... 122 оп раде 115 
Microsoft 
эттилїюгөзөй.сот................. 18-19 61,71 
Midway Games, Inc. 
www.midwaycom ........ EET .S1  wuwwubisofteom.......... 25, 33, 47, 59, 99 
Namco Hometek University of Advancing Technology 
wwnwunilever.com . . www.namco.com wwwuat.edu . 107 




















Collins College Office for National Drug Control Policy 
www.collinscollege.edu +105 www.whatsyourantidrug.com ............ 63 
Eidos Interactive, Inc SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT 
www.eldos.com . . 8-9,26-27 = wwwscea.com.... 

Full Sail Real World Education Sony Online Entertainment 

wwwfullsail.com ..103 — www.sonyonline.com................ 3,37 
Gameloft Sony Pictures Entertainment 
www.gameloft.com . www.sonypicturesentertainment.com . .  . . . 15 
iBuyPower Square Enix U.S.A., Inc. 





www.ibuypower.com 


www.square-enix-usa.com2-5, 39, 41, 43, 44-45 














ELECTRONIC GAMING 





(este service Nip susce mma com (о order; Phone US, and 
Canada (850) 





processing): Farc US. 


nunt as a subscription sspe а combined or expanded issue may count as 





Y (SSN 41058-9189 is published monthly by 20 Davis Media Inc., 28 East 201 Street, New York, NY 10016. Pedodicals Postage Paid at New York, НҮ 10016 and additional mailing offices For subscription service questions, address changes or to order, lease contact us at: Web: htp/serviceegmmag com. 
Canad (800) 79-174 (850) 082-704. vius И) O04 A4, POSTMASTER тобе Goring Mon, PO. Box 5572, ear СО 972572 please nud jou maling abe wt any cortespondenen as ii contains חי‎ Pil ope 
) SET 4094, elsewhere 303) 60516; Ё т please уре your Ы ame and the adress al wich you се) и од com. Subscriptions: Tho ene ye scp a тау 
шко subsrpton rcs and Were may sometimes De ап ext ue. Outside е US. abd $16 per ya for surtace ma US. кв oniy Жек alow 6 weeks before מה‎ Jours iso as wel as or ay айко п changes o bak 
Subscription. Back sues: Back issues are 58 eac nthe US, S10 each elsewhere (subject lo availabilty). Prepayment гени. Make checks payable to Electrode Gaming Monthy. Mai your requests to: Back Issue, 2 Davis Meda hn, PD, Box $3133, Boulder, CO 80322-3131. Maing у: We sometimes mak 


te is $24.97, Electronic Gaming Monthly is published monthly, with occasional exceptions: A special iss 





шше O matete goods and sorces hat тау ers yo. V you dort weh 10 receive het masons, lease wit us a Deco any Month, РО. бок 55722 Boulder СО ВОЗЕТЕ, Te eds ard he guber are o response for unsaid ata Without ali e as under су ested erein, то 


рап of їн publication may be reproduced sored in, o introduced into а ret 
is a registered trademark of Zitt Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. Reproduction in whole or in 
‘Giga Gonopoisky, at permissions Финам com or Zit Davis Media Inc. 28 East 28th Strect, 
quotes and order reprints online, Electronic Gaming Monthy and ЕСМ are trademarks ol Zit 


ne are subject to manufacturers” change and te 











Media inc. TM and © fo all other products and 


Beaver Creek, Richmond Hil, ON L48 4R6. И condition persists for longer than four hours, consult your physician. 


vol system, or rane, n any fom, ry any nea (electronic, mechanical photocopying. recording, erase), out he pra ит 
in any torm or medium without express written permission of Zitt Davis Media Inc. 


the characters contained therein ace 





dint For permit io repe ms rom ous puns ₪ הלאי‎ оса 
"York, NY, 10016 Tet: 212) 503-5430, Fax: (212) 503-3560. For article REPRINTS and E-PRINTS, contact FosteReprints at Tel: (386) 879-8144. Visit winwIotereprins com to obtain 
‘ned by the respective trademark and copyright owners, АП materials Usted in this maga 
е publisher assumes no responsiblity lor such changes. The Canadian GST Registration number is 140496720 RT. Publications Май Agreement No. 40009221. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to РО. Box 503, RPO West 


of ZI Davis Media Inc. Copyright © 2006 2и Davis Media inc. Al rights reserved. Electronic Gaming Monthly 


‘our logo, contact ZiM Davis Media's Rights and Permissions Manage, 


Printed in the U 








ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com • 119 






Чоо TOLD мє 


WE WERE JUST COMING 
OUT HERE To MAKE 


TOMBSTONE RUBBINGS! 


You KNow, | HEARD 
ABOUT THiS MASS GRAVE 
OF АТАЙ! 2600 CARTRIDGES 
THAT'S SUPPOSED ТО ВЕ 
OUT IN THE DESERT, 
SOMEWHERE 


ANAY ARE THERE 
GRAVES FoR "| 


AND "FROGGER" HERE? HE ONLY 
WEREN'T THEY BOTH 
RE-RELEASED, JUST 


RECENTLY ? ЗОО ВЕ 


DON'T BE ©! 
ponte ёр RE 
DEAD! 


DARN IT ALL, THOUGH, 

| MUSTVE RUBBED 

TOO HARD, CAUSING 

THiS CORPSE TO 
PoP OUT! 


WELL, 
WASTE NOT, 


Чоо UNDERSTAND, DON'T чо 
THAT eee АЙЕ NOT JUST 
DEAD GAMES? 

RE NOT MERELY 
THESE (RATING HUSKS OF 
бот AND METAL, RUST- 
ANS. AWAR IN THE LOAM! 


No, No, WE DON'T 

TAMPER WITH 
DELIBERATE 

ACTS OF GOD. 


HMM... THE CASE 
ON WIS ONE'S 
^ DEAD LOSS, 
BUT THE INNARDS: 
ARE PASSABLE. 


ILLS, 


Way 


THEY CoULD BE 
RERELEASED 


\Е 


Some BoD D 
DUG EM ОР 
AND BROUGHT 
“EM BACK TO... 


120 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 


HSU AND CHAN'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE — WWW.APE-LAW.COM/EVILMONKEY 


GREETINGS, VIDEO GAMERS! LOOK FOR FULL-LENGTH HSU & CHAN COMICS 
AT YOUR LOCAL COMIC.SHOP! (OR ORDER ONLINE АТ WWW.SLAVELABOR.COM.) 


You REMEMBER 
WHEN | CAUGHT YoU 
SETTING UP THAT 
TELESCOPE OUTSIDE 
“WE UNIVERSITY OF 
очо GIRLS’ DORM? 


THERE'S A 
NALUABLE RESOURCE 
HERE, ARNIE.. 


THIS 16 TWICE 


¥ Ese ARE IDEAS! _ 
SEEDS OF SUCESSFUL 
FRANCHISES! 


eg accel 
“HAT SHALL Gf 
PGT AND PROFT- 
ABLE OAKS! 


THATS THE SCENT 
SE INSPIRARON, 
чоо ISTINE f 


THEN 
Do THEY SMELL 
LIKE WEEK Ор ל‎ 
үөр WITH THE 
TUPPERWARE, 
ARNIE. 


AND WE WOULD BE 
REMISS IN OUR DUTIES 
TOME GREATER GOOD 
TO ALL MANKIND 

ЗЕ WE DID МОТ MAKE 
FOLL USE OF IT! 


NOW, KEEP AN 
ЧЕ OUT FOR THE 
COPS, WOULD ЧА? 





° 
"WT BEST GAMING SHOW. PERIOD. 
x aNothing comes close JEDE get 
4 СИНЧЕ | wish it was released dail 


ор 

КА Ж А К BEST GAMING PODCAST. à 
ПЏР:5 Video podcast is the best by 

far of those availableithrough iTunes; 


ei З М? 
\ 





















һе... 


1UP's WEEKLy dim 
5но 

т 

A : ie GAMING WORLD By STORM 

è ' E WHAT ALL THE Fuss IS ABOUT - 


WATCH ТНЕ 
ТОР S 
HTTP://THE 1 UPSHOW 10o DAY 


W IS TAKING 


© 2006 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, EA and the EA logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic 
Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved. © 2006 JAMDAT Mobile Inc. All Rights Reserved. 





Маче הזוע‎ оче Бу 


<EIROMAG- 


дате magazines SO +‏ 60 וע Cel TS UO presene с/аѕѕіс‏ זט 
they аге по lost permanently:‏ 


People'interested'in helping outinany capacity; 
please м5 05 акгекотад5.сот. 


profitis таае їгот 10656 56305. Nordo TEUER VULP S)‏ סא 
гот publishers: themselves:‏ ו 


І NOW) соте асгоѕѕ5 апуопе ѕе!іпоігеіеаѕеѕ (гот 
115 5116, 016356 Ko пов 50ррог (пет апа ₪0 |61 ₪5 חא‎ 


Thank you!