А sneak peek at what Р53 сап do, on- and offline

Online addiction hits Xbox 360 and PS2

: vs. Who's the comic-game champ?

The first real screenshots for Xbox 360!

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*MSRP-price quote refers to PSP system price only. PSP Entertainment Pack also available for $249.99 MSRP.

eal ра PlayStation Portable >

тата] “PlayStation” “PSP” and the "PS" Family logo are registered MURRELL trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainmentinc. Internetconnection and Memory Stick Duot™ may be required. All games featured are trademarked and copyrighted properties of respective publishers and/or licensors. Memory Stick Duo is a trademark of Sony Corporation. ©2006 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

[^а playstation.2 OWN IT OCTOBER 19"

ALSO AVAILABLE: XBOX 360™ COLLECTOR'S EDITION

BROADBAND ONLY

L › & 8) N ONLINE. CDROM) с р 1

© 2006 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Double Agent, 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. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. TM, ®, and the Nintendo GameCube logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2001 Nintendo. "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. Software platform logo TM and © IEMA 2003. Mobile version © 2006 Gameloft. All Rights Reserved. Gameloft and the Gameloft logo are registered trademarks of Gameloft S.A.

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www.sega.com

PLATFORM SPECIFICATIONS.

Finally, gamers won't need to take a time-out to check live game scores. NBA LIVE 07 blends in-game action seamlessly with a constantly updated stream of real-time, real-world sports information from ESPN — including ESPN Motion video clips. Players can check the sports news ticker at the bottom of the screen while making trades in Dynasty Mode™. ESPN Radio SportsCenter updates and podcasts are delivered live to the console every 20 minutes. Never before have the two halves of the NBA LIVE player's psyche - hardcore gamer and rabid hoops fan — lived in closer harmony.

CREATIVE CLOSE-UP ЕЯ $

URNABY STUDIO BURNABY, CANADA Ф © @ 9 Ф © © © ©

| | TACTO: lines of new RI code: |

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TITLE

INFORMATION nbaliv

DEVELOPMENT STA 15

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Sometimes you have to tear an old house down to build a new one. For NBA LIVE 07, the development team rewrote the game's artificial intelligence from the ground up. Players react not justto teammates, opponents and coaches but to the ball as it moves through the air and around the court, tracking it with their eyes, heads and upper bodies. Player attitudes change depending on how much time is on the clock and how close the score is. "We spent the last year turning characters into athletes," says EA Canada gameplay producer Matt Lafreniere who squares off in daily hoops games against fellow NBA LIVE team members in the Burnaby campus gym. The difference is easy to see with new motion-capture video resulting in thousands of new moves and dozens of new dunk styles. Defenders now have to fight through screens. Guards plant hard when curling off picks and cutting. Big men pivot and square up to the basket before going up for a slam. Ouch.

number of basketball-related injuries sustained in Burnaby campus gym by NBA LIVE 07 developers

feet — height of soda can wall made from empties consumed by the Dynasty Mode team

number of table tennis-related injuries requiring hospitalization during the development of NBA LIVE 07

number of speech files by Greg Anthony and Ernie Johnson in All-Star Weekend mode

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lines spoken by Steve Kerr per day during recording for NBA LIVE 07

number of scripted color comments from Steve Kerr in the game

number of player animations in-game player ratings per player

real NBA plays

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Blood and боге Intense Violence

A T DE Microsoft XBOX Strong Language gameytstudios | (ӘУЕС

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gearsotwar com

GEARS -WAR “EMERGENCE DAY -

contents

issue 208 > october 2006

<, П 14 Some are politically incorrect. Some аге grammatically incorrect. Many are both

Everything you need to know about gaming in one convenient locale

20 DOUBLE TROUBLE Rockstar re-ups its bad-boy image with two controversial new games—Bully (PS2) and GTA: Vice City Stories (PSP) 26 COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH One brave developer weighs in on the PS3-versus-Wii debate 36 AFTERTHOUGHTS: DEAD RISING Gory details on this summer's breakout hit from the guy who raised the dead

44 RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN

Insomniac’s promising shooter gives us a

glimpse of the PlayStation 3’s true power 52 FIVE MOST DANGEROUS GAMERS These top-tier players look forward to seriously wounding your ego 60 PHANTASY STAR UNIVERSE Finally, an exclusive hands-on with what matters most in Sega’s long-awaited online RPG: multiplayer 64 COME OUT AND PLAY We asked, and gaygamer.net told— meet gaming’s most valuable queers 66 THE BIG ONES The latest intel on everything triple-A 74 RUMOR MILL Hot gossip injection

124 SEANBABY’S REST OF THE CRAP The GBA goes out with a whimper

125 CROSSWORD/GRUDGE MATCH

126 EGM RETRO N Super NES .פע‎

128 FINAL WORD 129 NEXT MONTH 130 HSU & CHAN

IFF DAVIS MEDIA

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY. EDITORIAL item Rosemary Pinkham n CONTRIBUTORS. Barty

киши

GUITAR HERO |

Spinal Tap only went to 11, but this rawk-powered sequel goes way beyond 40...songs, that is. Find out who's on this tour and which bands didn’t make the

cut with our all-access

backstage pass.

ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA GAME GROUP

HEAD HONCHOS cot С. M

алуп K Territory Managers & Acct. Execs. ! Jason Wilson Gaming Accounts Regional Sales

MARKETING

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

The eternal debate about whether Batman can kick Spidey’s ass spills over into the gaming realm

Justice League Heroes Ae

104 Saints Row

106 NHL 07

106 NHL 2К7

107 Madden NFL 07 109 Enchanted Arms

110 NASCAR 07

110 Samurai Warriors 2

111 Lego Star Wars Il: The Original Trilogy

112 Xenosaga Episode Ill: Also Sprach Zarathustra

112 Yakuza

113 Rule of Rose

114 LocoRoco 114 Rengoku Il: The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N. 116 50 Cent: Bulletproof—G-Unit Edition

116 Mario Hoops 3-on-3

117 Star Fox Command

118 Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

118 Mega Man ZX

119 Contact

120 Reviews Wrap-up 122 Reviews Archive

э

| Yakuza, pg. 112

ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA ING.

Chairman 8 CEO Robert F Callahan Chief Financial Officer Mark Моуег Executive Vice President & Chief Content Officer Michael J. Miller Executive Vice President, Licensing and Legal

's, General Counsel

Gregory Barton

in-Chief, eWEEK)

rketing Group) es, Game Group)

NETWORK

True story:

Awhile back in

downtown San

Francisco, a group

of punks jumped

me outside a

public-transit train Hest

station. My adrenaline was pumping, | was freaking out, and the first thought that ran through my head was: “Crap, my Xbox is in my backpack, and if they steal that, I'll lose all my game saves."

You ever try running for your life with a Titanic-sized Xbox on your back? The thugs might as well have had a tractor beam. Luckily, they didn't give chase—either they wef just messing with me, ог that random passerby scared them off.

After | calmed down from the night's events, | came to a startling revelation: “Oh, ту 904-і care more about my saved games than | do my well-being.” That's pretty sad, but when you're this passionate about a hobby, it's bound to come with some eccentricities.

I've since played out several scenarios in my head to see if | really value intangible electronic files that much.

If someone were to rob my home, yes, I'd be fine losing the Xbox 360, if only the thieves would be kind enough to leave behind the hard drive. If someone mugged me on the train, Га politely ask if | could at least keep my Advance Wars: Dual Strike cartridge before handing over my Nintendo DS. Hey, | can always buy

a new DS, but it'd take forever to get all those AW medals back!

| realized all the time I've spent with videogames is invaluable (yeah, yeah, time spent with loved ones is great, too, but this isn't Reader's Digest). And judging from some of the letters we get retelling horror stories of lost game saves, a lot of you feel the same, too.

Got proof you’re as pathetic as me... or more? Write to EGM@ziffdavis.com (subject: Save Ме) and share. I'll get to your letters right after my judo class.

Oh, in case you’re wondering why Spider-Man 3 isn’t on our cover this month (as promised last issue), well, you'll have to ask movie director Sam Raimi why he's such a jerk and pulled our story at the last minute. Sorry for the late change in plans, and we hope you enjoy our in-depth look at Guitar Hero Il instead!

— Пап “Shoe” Hsu, Editor-in-Chief

whole or in part, by any means,

without written permission from Ziff Davis Media Inc. is strictly prohibited,

leather daddies, cruelty, thompson-baiting, and videogaming

like a fantasy world 1 own а game store, and | put copies of EGM out for customers to see new games. It looks like that will now come to an end. Your comments [in EGM #206] on “wanking” (with perverted photo to boot) were uncalled for. Later in the issue, Seanbaby says that “Christian anything sucks.” Sex is for marriage! What a great concept that God had! If we all followed that, the world would be a far better place: No rape, little to no STDs, divorce rates down, unwanted pregnancy down, no pedophiles, and probably no AIDS.

—Gameworld1

Some call our “wanking” pic perverted. We call it art. We spent many hours creating that photo. Was it wrong? Yeah. Was it fun? Ohhhhh yeah.

like real life Wouldn't it be awesome if there was а huge Xbox Live game where you live in a

OF THE MONTH

| keep hearing about how the used game business is stealing money out of the hands of developers, but | just want to point out [something]: You can't count money you never made as money you've lost. When a used car gets sold, you don't see GM, Ford, or Chrysler throw their arms up in the air and scream, "There goes another new car we could have sold!"

There is a growing trend among the bean counters of America that just dis- turbs me. Too many of them sit around in their offices and ask themselves, "How can 1 make more money without actually having to roll my sleeves up and earn it?" Unfortunately, the answer all too often is to try to take or steal it from somewhere else.

A sale is not a sale until you've made it. There is no guarantee that the guy who bought that used game would

have paid full price for it. The

ОО simple solution is this: Make

а great game and sell it at a reasonable price. Then the profits will roll in.

—dJoseph Dennis

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

A typical night out in Oakland.

City and need to earn money? You could get a good job and a girlfriend, or you could get drunk and stab someone for money (but you go to jail). And you'd be playing with people over Xbox Live, so maybe you could be a millionaire hitman while another guy is a poor hobo.

—-Sgt. Executioner

We've played that game already. It's called Oakland, California. We gave

it a 2/10, mostly because the police helicopters kept us up every night. And the voice acting sucked.

Stop and smell the

I'm one of the two loonies who founded the "Flowers for Jack Thompson" project mentioned in [EGM #206] "America's Least Wanted.” It was really great to see our endeavor recognized in print, even if it was just a passing mention. | must say, though, 1 was really let down by your view on it.

It was referred to as “а bouquet" given in “mock condolence.” You clearly didn't get the right picture.

Alyson [Burch] and | founded the proj- ect with the idea of approaching Jack Thompson with a respectful, lighthearted gesture. This was at the height of his personal culture war against gamers them- selves, and he was receiving death threats and prank calls at his home and office. As much as we despised the man, we couldn’t stand the actions of childish idiot gamers

that were fanning the flames of his senility. We sent nine massive flow -- arrange- ments wort: $500 alongside + seven- page letter We made a point +f being straightforward and honest. We told him we didn’t like him but said w- d approach it with dignity. In return he called us ter- rorists and said that we were employed by Take Two Interactive to harass him. He personally confirmed to me that he threw out our letter without a glance because we were teenagers who play videogames. Flowers for Jack was in no way “mock condolence.” We wanted a humane exchange with the man to break down the

stereotypes on both sides. He just hap- pened to make an ass of himself. —George Ettinger

strikes again | was recently reading the letters section of your magazine when | came across something that | had written. At first | was thrilled that my letter had been selected for oublication, but then | read your response and was a bit offended. | figured your referring to me as “thin-skinned,” “humorless,” and a “fat virgin” was sim- ply a form of ironic humor, as was your exclamation that | should "eat it." That

After months of playing GTA in search of boobies, Thompson turned a sickly shade of paste.

‚1 beat just one more level. | swear this time I'll turn it off.

when | can по longer walk on my own, and when | frequently make “fatalities” in my pants.

..the controllers become some kind of suppository.

„they pry the controller

from my cold, dead hands.

Rambling and ranting from our message boards, Боагӣѕ 1ОР.сот (look for EGM’s forums)

“ГИ stop gaming when...”

my Xbox Live chats are war- rantlessly wiretapped.

..When I get to Step 5 of my Gamers Anonymous meetings.

I'm done leveling up.

| would say that ІІ stop gaming when I die, but Jesus is a gamer. ! totally just owned him in Quake.

CONTACT EGM

E-mail us at: EGM@ziffdavis.com

Or write to: EGM Letters 101 2nd Street, 8th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105

For subscription help, contact: Web: www.zdmcirc.com Phone: (800) 779-1174

To order back issues: E-mail: back issuesQziffdavis.com

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Не ain’t heavy, he’s my lover.

didn’t really bother me. However, when you called my letter “stupid,” it seemed awfully serious. Ра say my opinion was totally valid, and my letter was, in fact, well written and far from stupid. —Ephraim Freed

You've got it totally backward. The comment about “stupid letters” was 100 percent humor, and it wasn’t referring to you specifically. But when we called you a fat virgin we really meant it.

Don’t try to reason

Pm all for sarcasm and the dishing out of ridicule to the deserving, but every reply save one in [EGM #206] letters section was negative. | think the letters editor needs some antidepressants, or maybe another outlet to vent his/her frustration in life. | get that they are attempts at humor, and maybe it just ain't my cup of tea, but a balance would be nice. It feels like letters are picked on the basis of, "Can | make

a smart-ass remark about this subject?" Maybe half of the replies could crush someone's spirit and the other half could try to answer a question or something? С. Normant

You try waking up from a three-day bender with your tongue covered in what appears to be cat litter and air- raid sirens sounding from the inside

of your skull, then sit down to read a thousand variations on, “Your review of Crusty Demons was total bulls***!”

Pathetic I'm tired of the people who complain about being insulted when writing to you. | for one am glad to be insulted. | don't care whether | deserve it or not. Please insult me! P.S. | would prefer your insult to me be about my sexual preferences. —Grandmaster J.

Don’t you have anything to bitch about, you sad little masochist? Grow a pair.

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

George Dubya’s Action Grammar After receiving a DS and a copy of Brain Age for his latest birthday,

George W. Bush decided to make his own game—not about math or patterns like Nintendo's hit game, but about stuff that has, to quote him, “more importantness.” In George Dubya's Action Grammar, you learn actual grammar and spelling from the president himself! Practice actual George Bush grammar such as: “Neither in French, nor English, nor Mexican.” Become illiterate and gain unlimited power,

just like Dubya, with ACTION GRAMMAR.

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

—Mike LeGere

daddies

Reid Schneider, senior producer for Army of Two [EGM #206], needs to grow up. He got awfully defensive when asked about the somewhat obvious homoerotic overtones in the game. “These are tough military guys,” he said, as if a gay person could be neither. He then proceeded to further cement their straight manliness by saying they have “love interests” in the game. Duh, each other! Before you even asked the question, | thought to myself that the heroes of the game look like a couple of big, burly, BDSM leather daddies. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

—4.C. Foster

You think Army of Two's bad dudes are fruity? Check out page 64 for a cornu- copia of questionable fellas.

Games should 1 am concerned about these "brain games" for the Nintendo DS system. These games may seem harmless, but they are really bad for people. They sneak math problems and other mentally challenging stuff into games. You shouldn't challenge gamers. Challenge is bad. Have you ever read а challenging book? It sucked, didn't it? And what about the Space Shuttle Challenger? It exploded! Do you want to explode? | propose that developers make games that encourage people to not think-maybe a game where you get drunk and drive home. Then, when you get pulled over, you can assault the cops as they take you to jail. I'd play that game for sure.

ЈА.

Are you оп Sony’s PSP marketing team?

found I'm 31 years old, a father of three, and | have been playing videogames since | was five. | let my daughters play games, though they may not play some of the ones | play. І have games for us to play as a family. According to Jack Thompson, people like me do not exist. l'm successful in my life. I've been married for 10 years and am very happy. What would he say to me? People like him only see what they want to see, and | am not mad at him. I truly pity him.

—Benjamin Brooks

GET A FREE WII!

„ог whatever else a fresh $300 can buy ya. Just head over to http://gamersvoice.1UP.com, enter the password EGMGamer, and fill out our survey—you'll then be entered into a sweepstakes to win a $300 American Express gift card. More importantly, you'll be helping us to improve Electronic Gaming Monthly for future gen- erations of readers to come. (OK, maybe that's not more important than a chance to win $300...)

Congrats for successfully existing, bro. And kudos for keeping your daughters

away from GTA...but good luck keeping them from attending “rainbow parties.”

Leave the boobs Why does every new M-rated game have drugs and sex in it? What about the good old days when it was all about blood and gore, intense violence, and bad language? I'm only 12, and | can play M-rated games with blood and violence, but not with frickin’ DRUGS and SEX! Just add blood and violence and you've got a good M-rated game. But they have to put in booze, sex, and nudity. What gives?

—Zulu

You and the guy who wrote our first letter should collaborate on a game about beating up chronic masturbators. The final boss: yourselves. 9%

8 Mbps connection from Com

IGN, like betas, clips and the latest news. Comcast gives you an incredibly fast CEHÊ and content you won't find anywhere else, so you play better.

Upgrade today and game like you mean it. Thats Comeastic!

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MONDAYS 9/8 с s NBC.COM

heroes.nbc.com

Enough recreation sports—Rockstar gets back to business with Bully and GTA: Vice City Stories

ell, look who’s come crawling ₪ back.... You’d һе crawling too if you had been hunched over a Ping-Pong table for the past five months. Rockstar’s most recent release, the fun-on-a-lark Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (XB360), threw gamers used to mature content for a loop and into the world of recre- ation sports. Before that, the infamous Hot Coffee scandal—a big hubbub surrounding supposedly cut sex scenes appearing in hacked and modded ver- sions of the PS2 and PC game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas—ended with a neutered rerelease. Amazingly, this chain of events has 1 put Rockstar in a not-so-tough light, which is akin to sacrilege for the usually controversial company. But 4 itlooks to finally be getting back to what it does best this October: mak- ing games that push boundaries and piss off mainstream America. And if Bully and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories prove successful, you can expect Rockstar to be standing ramrod straight as it pushes next year’s light- ning rod, GTA4, —Greg Ford

FOR WC

Wear Sa SS SS STAYING IN THE DARK мери 4 St

This tough-guy thing is all an act—Jimmy's the next Martha Stewart in the kitchen (just look at his book).

PS2 * October 2006

The dirt: Bully follows the exploits of stubble-headed Jimmy Hopkins, a 15-year-old malcontent who's been kicked out of preppy boarding schools across New England. His latest stop is Bullworth Academy—a full-fledged learning center complete with library, girls’ and boys’ dorms, ball-busting prefects, and creepy teachers. The missions in this story-based action-beat-em-up have Jimmy helping or hindering the five cliques infest- ing the school—including nerds, jocks, and 07685615.

Why Bully will piss off PTA members: The thrust of the game involves advancement through the use of bully-approved tactics and weapons such as slaps to the face, dead arms, Indian burns, slingshots, stink bombs, and plain old fisticuffs, which you execute with simple button presses and combos. Also, the mission subject matter ain't always mother approved: One mission finds Jimmy bumping into the embarrassed phys ed teacher exiting an adult book store, who then has the student go on a panty raid in the girls’ dorm. Not exactly after-school-special material.

Why it’s not that bad: Bully not only takes place at a school, but part of the game requires you to go to class, where you'll complete rhythm-action games in chemistry and word jumbles in English. Also, bad behavior results in punishment, made possible through minigames—like mowing the lawn or shoveling snow—designed specifically to drag. So it’s best not to think of the game as Hogwarts gone to hell, nor is it right

to compare it to the Grand Theft Auto series, a regular misconception. For one, Rockstar is aiming for a Teen rating (not Mature, like most Rockstar titles). The

game contains no blood, knives, or guns—think comic mischief—and char-

acters don't die. Also, though you'll be able to explore the Bullworth Academy campus and surrounding town, you're held in check by curfews each night and

a more linear mission-based story, which takes place over five chapters.

525

юл

start

"мі

. 4 Ф 22» ELECTRONIC conatur ° www Р comi

ж.

PSP > October 2006

The dirt: Vice City Stories is the second PSP go-round for a Grand Theft Auto retelling. Last year, Liberty City Stories took GTA3's world and added a new story to the seminal go- at-your-own-pace driving/shooting action game. This year, Rockstar gives the same treat- ment to Vice City, which tackled decadent '80s-era Miami through its fictional titular city. Among the improvements, Vice City Stories features longer missions than those in Liberty City Stories, increased draw distances (resulting in less graphical popup), controllable Jet Skis and helicopters, new multiplayer modes, and a stricter adherence to common sense (i.e., frumpy elderly folks won't be stepping out of Bentleys in the ritzy part of town, dusk brings out more ladies of the night, and the like).

Why Vice City Stories will piss off politicians: It's hard to say the words “grand theft auto” without eager-to-please elected officials throwing their hands over the eyes and ears of children while filing antigaming legislation. And, as expected, it's more of the same here. The story again takes place in the drug-riddled, socioeco- nomically stratified Vice City, this time in 1984 (two years before Vice City's happenings), and you can expect lots of shoot-outs, flattened pedestrians, and billboards boasting all sorts of double entendres.

Why it’s not that bad: Let’s see.... Maybe the lawsuit-happy hotheads can find solace in the fact that Vice City Stories’ main character, Vic Vance—brother of Vice City’s Lance Vance, who is usually the impetus for the new game’s morally ques- tionable missions—is a Marine. That counts for something, right? What about the crappy shooting and lock-on system? Seeing as that will still be wonky, you're pretty much ensured lower kill counts than in, say, the 360'5 Saints Row. (Hey, work with us here if you ever wanna see San Andreas Stories.) ah

ем = FL

№ Even if you fall off the new Jet Skis, at least you can now swim in VCS.

. >. № DON'T EXPECT NEW Q GADGETS ANY TIME SOON, AS ACTIVISION WON'T BRING OUT A BOND GAME (ITS FIRST) UNTIL SOMETIME ІМ 2008....

EVERYONE

Е Mild Cartoon Violence [С] NINTENDO

‘CONTENT RATED BY => ESRB

тм ВАМОА! МАМСО

Games

A ee ағаны ла УЧИ ЕРО

PS2

AMAGOUSHI NO YAKATA

Wow, an adventure game that doesn’t involve dating girls? You got it—and it's from Nippon Ichi Software (Disgaea), so you know

it has potential. Yakata isn't completely devoid of clichés, though—the game starts out with the typical spooky setup: Eight people are mysteriously invited to a musty old mansion, and—wouldn't you know it?—someone starts killing them. And as an unwitting “ninth actor,” it’s your job to find the murderer.

Sounds kinda run-of-the-mill. You're in for a surprise, then—the adventure’s completely non- linear, and you're free to solve the case any way you want to. Drag it out to keep everyone alive? Whatever, wimp! Snuff out the other guests to draw the killer out faster? Go for it!

Arcade

LET'S GO JUNGLE!

I want to get away from it all! Then why not visit beautiful Southeast Asia? If Sega’s latest arcade game is any indication, it's a relaxing place resplendent with lush scenery...and giant bugs. Yes, they raise ’em big down here, and if it weren't for your machine gun, you'd be dead the moment you left the plane.

What makes this gun game worth playing?

A remarkable array of gimmicks—as if giant mantises weren't gimmicky enough. Made with two-player simultaneous play in mind, Jungle

is set up like a cheesy action movie. And if you play with a friend, you'll get a “compatibility analysis" at the end that determines how hot a couple you are...assuming your genders are dif- ferent, of course.

30

701

1, 321 459, 576

WHAT'S PLAYING IN THE

AMD buys АТ! for

$5.4 billion In July, PC processor manu- facturer (and Intel competitor) AMD paid a cool $5,400,000,000 for ATI, one of the world’s leading graphics

card producers. For budget-

minded PC gamers, this hope-

fully translates to inexpensive,

quality graphics chips built 4

right onto AMD-powered PC

motherboards. As it stands A

now, onboard videocards flat M D out suck for gaming, and a

decent card typically runs

PC enthusiasts an extra

$300 or more. If you ask

us, the ATI-AMD merger can

only mean good things for the

frugal PC gamer.

World of WarCraft homogenizes

The biggest news for World of WarCraft play- ers right now: Upcoming WOW expansion The Burning Crusade opens the Alliance side’s paladin class and the Horde side’s shaman class to everyone—meaning equal access to all the game’s professions for players on both sides. This news sent the official WOW forums into an uproar, with some players celebrating the occasion and others crying foul at what they interpret as an affront to game balance. We say: Get over it.

Titan Quest

Developer Iron Lore Entertainment's Titan Quest provides ample satisfaction for action-RPG addicts still yearning for Diablo Il. Yes, Titan Quest's clearly a derivative game—and it doesn’t pretend otherwise. Fortunately, a deep character-develop- ment system (you can progress in two of eight different and varied "skill trees" at once), excellent user-mod support, and an impressive world editor place it well ahead of most Diablo clones...and the dazzling visual treatment and excellent lighting don’t hurt, either.

—hyan Scott

Ryan Scott is the reviews editor for our sister publication Computer Gaming World

ROCK FANS WILL BE GETTING AN EARLY TASTE OF THE WII AT THIS FALL'S NINTENDO FUSION TOUR. THE TOUR KICKS OFF IN SEPTEMBER...

COMME OCIOBE 2006

TO THE PSP’ (PLAYSTATION'PORTABLE] SYSTEM

ao) Е.

PlayStation. Portable

cöuntdown to launch

T-MINUS TWO MONTHS

Your monthly prep for the PlayStation 3 and Wii liftoffs

ony and Nintendo aren’t the $ only ones scrambling to

ship out the next-gen goods. Right now, dozens of developers are currently hard at work trying to get their games ready for the impending launch and beyond. So we shot over a few questions to a man who knows both systems well—Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox Software. Pitchford gives us intel on his first next-gen game, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway for the PlayStation 3 (and though it’s not confirmed, it’s safe to say the Wii as well) and also dishes some details on what it’s like working with two soon-to-be hot systems.

ЕСМ: We know you're work- ing on Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway for the PS3, so tell us: How much more powerful is the PS3 than the Wii?

Randy Pitchford: From a pure computa- tional power point of view, it’s really not fair to compare the PS3 to the Wii. The PS3 is built for speed. The Wii is built for its unique controller interface. You’re going to be able to stretch the limits of next- generation rendering capability on the PS3 over its life cycle. From a graphics point of view, the Wii will just edge out the best of what was possible in the last generation. From a computing power point of view, the PS3 is a generational leap. The Wii is not.

EGM: Speaking of the PS3’s power, can the games really look as good as the infamous Killzone target video that was shown at last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)?

26 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY « www.1UP.com

Or was that just a bunch of flashy fluff?

ВР: It’s widely understood that the Killzone target video was, as you say, “just flashy fluff.” But there is a lot that was shown in that video from a graphics rendering point of view that is fully within the range of the PS3's potential. We are already doing stuff [in Brothers In Arms Hell’s Highway] that is real and is on par with the features that the Killzone video wanted to articulate.

ЕСМ: Let's be honest...is

the Wii merely a souped-up GameCube, at least in terms of graphics?

RP: If we're being honest, then yes...l wouldn't use the word "merely," however. | think the Wii is awesome! It is just that what makes it awesome isn't about com- puting power—it's about interface, acces- sibility, usability, and how we think about playing games and interacting with them.

EGM: How is the Wii’s new controller making you rethink first-person shooters? Now that you’ve worked with it, are you happy with all the things you can do?

RP: The Wii controller gives us some very, very exciting possibilities. We like aim- ing the thing directly at the screen and gesturing to reload, etc. We like using gestures like authentic hand signals to issue order to squad mates. We just won't need as many sticks and buttons to do things—you just do it. We've just begun to explore the possibilities.

EGM: Everyone seems to believe it is way harder to

Even though these PS3 shots look killer, Pitchford admits it will take years to tap the PS3’s potential.

develop games on the PS3 than the Wii. Is this really true? If so, how come?

АР: It is a lot harder to develop for the PS3 than the Wii. The PS3 is a multicore cell processor that, to use most effec- tively, requires superspecialized and optimized, heavily threaded software. Meanwhile, the Wii is like a supercharged GameCube! We can do things exactly like we did them in the last generation, except we have faster processors and lots of extra RAM to use to make everything look better and run faster. So, we don’t have to learn anything to be optimal on the Wii—

7 we already start off as optimal. In fact, we

can even be a bit wasteful on the Wii and be really competitive with other Wii titles. Meanwhile, to be competitive on the PS3 as we move through this next generation, we have to invest heavily in highly spe- cialized code. It will be years before we are using the PS3 to the fullest.

EGM: Both Sony and Nintendo have had shoddy online sys- tems in the past. Do you

think either can compete with Microsoft’s Xbox Live?

RP: Microsoft's core business is software. | think it's a little optimistic to imagine that Sony or Nintendo can beat what Microsoft has done with Xbox Live as they kick off. | imagine that, like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will want to focus on their service. They do have the advantage of looking at what Microsoft has done and being able to save some of the trouble of discovering how one could approach that problem. Because there is a baseline, it’s easier to imagine improvements and vari- ants. It will be really exciting to see where things land and what gamers think about the relative results.

EGM: Which system do you think has a better chance of

RETRO GAMING BUFFS WON'T HAVE ТО WAIT FOR THE WII'S VIRT ONSOLE TO GET THEIR PAWS ON OLD-SCHOOL SEGA GENESIS GAMES.

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succeeding after they storm stores this fall?

RP: Both systems will be successful,

and with great odds in their favor. If | had to say which of the two has better odds, I'd have to go with Nintendo this round.

In its favor are a nice price point, a very interesting interface, and a library of must- have first-party games as well as retro classic games. Nintendo is guaranteed to be successful—it’s just a question of what limit they hit as far as maximum installed base goes. | think Sony can peak at а much higher plateau than Nintendo (with respect to maximum installed base poten- tial), but they have a number of risk fac- tors that they have to deal with. Ultimately, my bet is very strongly in favor of both platforms being successful—therefore it’s better that | bet on both.

ЕСМ: Do you think the third- party games for the Wii will rely too much on gimmicky gameplay?

RP: | think some folks may overdo it. But we know that those of us who get it right will be rewarded by our customers. You use the word “gimmick” as if it is deroga- tory. | think the most exciting thing about the Wii is the interface. | am actually really excited about the possibilities of how it can be used. Of course, "И only buy the

games that give me the experiences | think will be entertaining.

ЕСМ: Is the PS3’s new tilt controller just a gimmick? And is the loss of rumble really worth it?

RP: | think the motion-sensitive controller is really interesting and we have designs at Gearbox that are using the controller

in really cool ways. | don’t buy that the decision to have the motion-sensitive con- troller has to be mutually exclusive with

a rumble feature. I’m not sure how | feel about the trade-off yet. I’m sure РИ miss rumble, though...

ЕСМ: Has the price for both the PS3 and Wii influenced which system you'll put your focus on for the future?

RP: For now, we are strongly support- ing all next-gen systems including the 360, the PS3, and the Wii. Depending upon how things unfold, we are very adaptable and agile. My bet is that both systems. will succeed. | am watching the PS3 price point, howev- er, and am most interested to discover how the relative prices will affect the launch season later this year. xh

»

5 3.4 ғ

№ № more ps3 rumble means no more machine gun massage.

@nline this month

How to make—and sell—an Xbox Live Arcade game...

his month’s online section

is custom-made for anyone

who's ever been told, “Don’t quit your day job." That's just another way of telling you to give up on your dreams and keep flipping grease bombs at Burger King. Well flip that! Let's say you have this amazing idea for a casual game. You've planned out the gameplay, know what you want for the visuals, laid down some sweet tunes for a soundtrack, and even mapped controller buttons. Now what?

The best—and, let's be honest, most realistic—way to get it published is through Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade, which is fast becoming the new fron- tier for DIY game development. And with Microsoft releasing XNA Game Studio Express—a free Xbox 360 game-making program that works on Windows XP-based PCs—this fall, get- ting into the videogame biz couldn't be cheaper or easier.

Here's how to make it happen in five simple steps, plus some expert advice from two indie developers whose day job really is making games.

—John Brandon

Submit your idea to arcade@microsoft.com Short of shoving your mock-ups into an exec's face at a trade show, you can get the attention of the folks at Microsoft with an amazing idea just by sending it to their inbox. They don't respond at all if they hate the idea, and, even if you do pique their interest, it could be months before they reply. "Microsoft will want to know what the game is, can they play a cur- rent version, what will make it absolutely fantastic on Live Arcade, and do you have the team to make it happen," says Steve Taylor, president of Wahoo Games, which made Xbox Live Arcade games Outpost Kaloki X and Cloning Clyde.

Sign preliminary contracts and get a dev kit If the Microsoft team likes the idea, they will set up a contract and loan you devel- opment hardware. (Or, more likely, they will send you to msdn.microsoft.com/xna to download XNA Game Studio Express.) It's not a guarantee that Microsoft will publish your game; it just means the hard work starts. "You'll need a team with the Skills to manage every aspect of develop-

ment,” says Reflexive Entertainment's Simon Hallam, the producer, designer, and programmer for Live Arcade action game Wik & the Fable of Souls. “[That] includes the programming, networking implemen- tation, art, level design, user-interface design and implementation, music, sound effects, debugging, and performance and memory optimization.” Sounds tough,

but just one guy made Live Arcade hit Geometry Wars. Many Live Arcade games, in fact, were made by small indie teams of just one or two people.

Get help from the Live Arcade team Making a game means picking camera angles, deciding whether to include multiplayer, adding Live achievements and leaderboards, paying a programmer, and hiring an artist, It's time-consuming. Figure on three to four months of work and high credit card bills. But once you get all your stuff straight, it’s time to get Microsoft involved. “There’s always a review and discussion process with the Live Arcade team,” says Taylor, “but they are passionate about helping the little guy with a great idea.”

Survive the certification process Every Xbox 360 game has to meet Microsoft's rigid criteria. It's not like pull- ing teeth—more like having them all sur- gically removed. Both Taylor and Hallam say certification can be grueling. "It's the most difficult part, but the requirements are clearly specified,” says Hallam. “It’s stuff like using the correct terminology when referring to the Xbox 360 system, Xbox Live Arcade, controllers, peripher- als, what actions the controller buttons perform, etc.”

Your game goes live and you get paid! Once you pass certification, cry over your credit card bills, and bemoan giving up part of your life for this crazy dream, you finally see your baby released into the wild. It's exciting, says Taylor, because you never know if your casual game could become the next Bejeweled. When someone downloads it from Marketplace, you get a percentage of the royalties along with the satisfaction of knowing you made а good game. And maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to quit the burger joint.

>> STAR TREK NERDS, SET YOUR PHASERS ON "SPOOGE"—BETHESDA SOFTWARKS HAS BEAMED UP WILLIAM SHATNER, PATRICK STEWART,

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

I Garage days visited: Which of these current and upcoming Live Arcade games came from tiny teams? Тор row: Mutant Storm Reloaded, Cloning Clyde, Alien Hominid, Wik: The Fable of Souls. Bottom row: Marble Blast Ulitra, Feeding Frenzy, Crystal Quest, Outpost Kaloki X, Geometry Wars. Answer: All of them.

Before you hit the send button

on that e-mail detailing your big 1 Маке sure the game is in some play-

idea to arcade@microsoft.com, able form, just in case Microsoft asks.

it’s important to be prepared. Wahoo’s Taylor and Reflexive’s Hallam fire off advice for the budding game developer...

FOUR TIPS FROM MINOR-LEAGUE GAMEMAKERS...

This could be a simple mock-up in Macromedia Flash or even notecards that step through the gameplay—just something to show the idea.

2

Keep the Live Arcade portfolio in mind. If the Marketplace is filled with puzzle games like Jewel Quest (below), make something different instead. Microsoft wants not only good games but a broad spectrum of them, as well.

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score: 10,290

Make sure before you submit an idea that you have already talked to a few programmers and artists about help- ing you with your proj- ect. They're not hard

to find: You can track them down at places like guru.com and even ask the important question: How much do they charge?

Just be ready with a plan so if Microsoft does like your idea, you can explain exactly how you will create the title, with what team, by when, and also how much support you'll need from them. dx

ASSURANCE LEAD

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

Kim's details

Experience: Five years with EA and Crystal Dynamics

Notable games: Tomb Raider: Legend, 25 to Life, Tiger Woods PGA Tour series, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, LOTR: The Battle for Middle-earth, Battlefield 2

What's a QA lead?

This key person oversees the entire game- testing process, making sure his or her team of testers finds and reports every glitch, as well as updating the rest of the developers with the game’s status. The job involves a lot of database work, assigning the right bugs to the right testers. "It's like air-traffic control,” Kim says. “You're the middleman...between team members."

QA lead job data

Salary range: Hourly: $10 to $19/hour or $23,000 to $40,000/year. “If you're coming on as a temporary tester," says Kim, "they're hiring you during crunch time. Expect 60 to 90 hours of work a week. The overtime pay is nice." Recommended education: Kim says that

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

ОМУ CONFIRMED YO!

in terms of formal education, you'll need а high-school diploma. “A college degree isn’t necessary but definitely helps,” he says. “English or communication degrees are particularly useful, as getting your voice heard by the rest of the team and being able to put your ideas on paper are both important parts of the job.”

Location of most jobs: California Current level of demand: High—and get- ting higher. “As next-gen games get more complex,” says Kim, “they need more tes- ters to make sure every nook and cranny is checked out thoroughly.”

Kim’s typical day

For a QA lead, organizing and prioritizing is the name of the game. “The first thing 1 do is look at any defects or bugs the QA team put in overnight," says Kim. "Then 190 into the database to make sure all the bug write-ups are clear—this is key, so that the developers don’t need to ask me or another tester what's happening with this or that bug, or what it is." When there’s a new revision of the game, it's Kim’s job to tell the producer whether it’s

in good enough shape to go through the testing process. While he did quite a bit of playtesting before—it used to be at least 80 percent of his work—now all of Кіт 5 actual playtime is voluntary. “I try to play as much as possible," he says. “I want to understand the bugs we're dealing with."

How'd he get the gig? Kim originally applied for a QA position because he'd just moved near his compa- ny's HQ and was passionate about games. “At first, | didn't know what the job would demand,” he says. “1 had to go through a few tests to see И | noticed small details and how my writing was. They wanted to see that | had a good attitude, because I'd be spending so much time with the team.”

Like many game-biz folks who got their start in QA, Kim sees the job as a springboard. “It's a great way to make good contacts and let people know what you're capable of,” he says. "Knowing what defines a milestone, which discipline а certain bug falls into—you learn lots of crucial things from testing.”

—Evan Shamoon

AN TRANSFER OLD GAME SAVES WHEN PLAYING PS1/PS2 TITLES ON THE 3

TOOLS OF HIS TRADE

TestTrack Pro

“For the QA team, every bug you find in the game will be entered [into this database program]," says Kim. "Its status is always changing.... Some places use different programs, but knowing how these work is key.”

Coffee, Red Bull Forty-to-90-hour workweeks are

no joke, and you need to stay really focused and on the ball. “You don't want to be falling asleep on the job," says Кит.

Certification documents These are the documents provided by first parties (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) that detail the QA requirements to get your game published. If you're going to achieve your goal, you need to first know what your goal actually is.

А good personality

“You're gonna be with your team more than you're with your family,” says Kim. “And honestly, if you can’t get along with your coworkers...it's gonna Suck." дф

Photograph by В Dodson/SFMISFITS Inc.

For a more colorful picture.

We're the world’s only HDTV maker using a sixth color—magenta—to create our % MITSUBISHI ee ELECTRIC

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W Wii PREVIEW: SHOW & TELL

Sen uim Rayman’s makers are still waiting for Nintendo‏ ו to give them the 411 on the system's online functions‏ and how to utilize the Wii Remote's built-in speaker.‏

А СукЕр (ее AN ANCIEN#@ лы ФА РАР

A BATTLE To E ND ALL BATTLES

INTENSE ACTION й; | ; IMMERSIVE BATTLES

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-> SQUARE ENIX IS UP TO 0 IETHING FISHY —

34 - ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www. tUP.com -

Pac-Man’s eating disorder

When: 1980 Where: Stage 1 Why: Scientists have speculated for years. Was he hungry? Did his parents not feed him? Did he eat too much fruit? After years of research, we’ve come to the conclusion that Pac-Man turned to binge eating to deal with the multicolored ghosts of his past—and occasionally eat them when they flash blue.

How: Waka-waka-waka

8 u$ _\ i] 0 PROS ARE WORKING ON SACRE HARDWARE, THOUGH IT'S LIKELY A PHONE.... >>

/ LET T | Е ÓNESS BEC ео ШЕГІП М.

AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 2006.

ENTERTAINMENT PLAYSTATION Ə

© 2006 Sony Online Entertainment LLC. SOE, the SOE logo, Untold Legends and Dark Kingdom are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC in the United S "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. This title is not yet concept approved by Sony Computer Entertainunent Ап

ith gamers ransacking virtual wW! malls all across America іп

Capcom’s Dead Rising, we thought it would he best to buy some time with the game's director, Yoshinori Kawano, while the game is still alive at retail. Know what smoothies you should be drinking while busting open zombie heads? Kawano gives you the scoop. You might even be surprised to learn what happens when main char- acter Frank West turns level 50, but then again, you may already know. You won't be sure, however, until you kill some time reading up.

—James “Milkman” Mielke

EGM: So just how much time did you spend in American shopping malls? And did you hang out in any one in particu- lar for research?

Yoshinori Kawano: We visited quite a few in the California area, taking photographs and studying the layout, but the Willamette Parkview Mall isn't really based on any one mall. Most malls share similar dynam- ics, so we designed one that included all of the things we noticed.

ЕСМ: Is it really possible to save everyone іп one play- through? Or are players simply forced to restart and beef up Frank to a high level?

УК: It’s actually possible to save everyone on a single runthrough without leveling

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

up, but you’d really have to know where everything is and how to do it as efficient- ly as possible. [Programmer] Jiro Taoka can do it, but it’s very difficult.

EGM: Damn, Taoka is hard- core! Now the save system can also be tricky, since it holds only one save. We actu- ally screwed ourselves once because we saved too late to complete the main cases and we had to start over. Why not just allow multiple saves?

YK: We decided that, since the game takes place in a “real-time” style of environ- ment, it would create a tension that you couldn't get simply from hitting restart and trying from your most recent save. We wanted there to be a penalty for your actions. It's something of a reprieve, actu- ally, to be able to replay a chapter with the skills you’ve learned.

ЕСМ: Тһе game's story is hilarious—the whole zombies came from beef experiments, the gun-nut dad and his two sniper sons, and so on. Do you think all Americans are burger-bingeing gun crazies? Seriously, though, do you think any gamers in the States would take offense, or will they get it as a parody? And is the game a metaphor for mad cow disease?

№ Americans love burgers and guns—but mostly guns.

YK: [Laughs] Well, we hope people real- ize the whole game is tongue-in-cheek, but it is sort of a commentary on how the outside world views the United States. The mad cow disease thing is, how shall we say this, not completely unintentional.

EGM: How many endings are there for the story mode and then the overtime mode? Ours ended with Frank screaming atop the tank. Is that the best ending?

YK: Yes, that is the best ending, actually, out of the seven total that you can unlock.

EGM: We figure this game has to be full of inside jokes and other little Easter eggs (well,

TO GET THE FULL MEGA MAN COSTUME, YOU MUST UNLOCK THE PUNISHER, UNBREAKABLE, AND ZOMBIE GENOCIDE ACHIEVEMEN

besides all the Mega Man toy stuff), but it’s hard to stop and look for them when you're sur- rounded by zombies. Can you point any out? Any posters or products we should examine for hidden messages? Any particular things we should photograph?

YK: There are 55 [tiny PP stickers] in the game of the same type that you need to track down, and [photographing] them

all will get you some pretty cool achieve- ments and other bonuses that unlock. The problem will be finding them all. Some

are hidden in plain sight, while others you won't be able to find unless you're looking at something at precisely the right angle. They're very small. >

Body by milk.

$ suggest ean who ו‎ it fend to be leaner. Staying active, ing right, and drinking 3 glasses a day of lowfat or fat free milk elps уои1їоок great. So grab а glass and get т the game. 0

got milk?

www.bodybymilk.com

DAVID BECKHAM (02006 AMERICA’S MILK PROCESSORS

DEAD RISING сок

ЕСМ: Is photography the best way to level up?

YK: We definitely recommend going through the game two or three times, because at level 50 you're superpower- ful, and it almost becomes a different game. The CDs you pick up early in the game become lethal at higher levels. Taking all the right pictures, saving all the people, and finding all the different objects and books will give you experi- ence as well.

EGM: Are there any other cool interactions gamers might miss the first couple times through?

YK: For example, there’s a ride, which

if you ride all the way around you get

a lot of PP points. There’s a mountain bike, and you can do jumps with a skateboard. You'll need certain things in your inventory in order to pull off certain skills, things like that. Other things are like [if you turn] a Servbot face around until it's smiling, you'll unlock a certain achievement. There are 12 асһіеуе- ments that if you unlock them you'll get a special costume in the game.

EGM: What's up with the supersmall font? Why not include a font that’s legible for non-HDTV owners?

YK: [Laughs] People should definitely have an HDTV before buying an Xbox 360.

ЕСМ: What's Frank’s most useful move, and what level does he get it at?

ҮК: It’s close to around level 15 or so.

Once you learn the football skill, you can tackle. The cool thing about the tackle is, once you tackle an enemy, if you hit the attack button at just the right moment, you automatically jump off of them onto another, so you can chain them together like Onimusha's issen attacks.

ЕСМ: Is there any particular side mission players should see that they otherwise might have missed?

YK: There's one mission where you're taking pictures of all these sexy ladies. That’s the one we would recommend. It's the one we tried first. [Laughs]

EGM: Are there any weapons players should try for pure comedy effect?

YK: There’s a lot of good stuff in there. One thing you should try is the gumball machine, where, if you find a crowded room filled with zombies, you can throw the gumball machine and it'll shatter, sending gumballs scattering every- where, and the zombies will do this comedic shuffle before falling down.

ЕСМ: The localization is real- ly good in the game, which is ironic because it took a funny horror game to get it right when most of the seri- ous survival-horror games sound silly due to subpar voice acting.

YK: A lot of it was thanks to [localiza- tion producer] David Crislip. We wanted to make sure we did it right, so we

called motion-capture actors from Los Angeles, rather than using Japanese people, so that the motions would “look” American. We used the same mo-cap actors to do the voices as well to make sure that everything “fit” together.

EGM: Are the raincoat-wear- ing bad guys supposed to be the comedic equivalent of the robed druids from Resident Evil 4?

YK: [Laughs] A little bit, yeah.

EGM: Are there any smoothie combinations we should know about?

YK: There’s a blue juice, which gives your spit the power of a bullet. It gives you “spitfire.” | don’t recall the specific ingredients, but it involves ice cream, something cold. There’s also a black smoothie that gives you a random effect.

EGM: The game ends with

a cliff-hanger. Do you have

a plan for a sequel, and will the sequel take place some- where like Disneyland or a NASCAR race?

YK: If everyone buys the game, there probably will be a sequel, but it depends on how well it sells. If there is a sequel, one place I'd personally want to set it at is a resort, so | could go to one and take pictures...

EGM: For research? УК: [Laughs] Yes. Research and devel- opment. Bikini-wearing zombies, etc. 4%.

A

Т ANNOUNCED FOUR NEW PETZ GAMES FOR ТНЕ DS....

NOW SHOWING @ ר:‎ GAME VIDEOS

watch now, play later

Aman and his homemade mech, what а next-gen Star Wars game might look like, the next game from the guys who made Alien Hominid in their garage... see all these and more at www. gamevideos.com/egm. —Demian Linn

WIF

GameCrazy retail training video Check out this inten- tionally cheesy (we hope) training video for new GameCrazy employees. Next time they bug you to preorder, you shall know the depths of their personal pain, homey.

OMG Next-gen Star Wars Jedi powers LucasArts created this fancy target video to show off what a Star Wars game might look like powered on the next-gen behemoths. Absolutely wicked, as it turns out.

LOL Land Walker: one man’s giant mech Some dude built this walking, Nerf-gun fir- ing mech in his (cavernous) garage. Word to the wise: If you ever meet this guy, do not taunt him. Though, judging by its tipsy- turvy design, you could probably knock the tin can over with а push from your pinkie.

1337

Castle Crashers ‘Level 1’ gameplay See this upcoming Xbox Live Arcade new- school-meets-old-school beat-em-up in action. If it looks familiar, it should—indie developer Behemoth, the same people who brought you the controller-bustingly

hard Alien Hominid, is making it.

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In Stores Now

© 2006 THQ Inc. Developed by Volition, Inc. Saints Row, Volition, Inc.,THQ and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. Compatible phone and carrier service required. Text messaging and data service charges may apply. Check your carrier for more details.All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live 1000 are either register trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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ЕЙ PREVIEW: EXCLUSIVE HANDS:

FALL OF MAN

An in-depth look at the PS3’s online capabilities, motion-sensitive controller, and more through the eyes of one launch game

alo meets Medal of Honor, Half-

Life 2 meets Call of Duty, this

game meets that game—when it comes to his company's PlayStation 3 first-person shooter (FPS) Resistance: Fall of Man, insomniac President Ted Price has heard all of the comparisons. And he didn’t expect any differently. “Whenever a new franchise comes out, people automatically paint it with their impressions of previous games,” says the studio head of hits such as Spyro and the Ratchet & Clank series.

У A Resistance's Internet-based warfare supports up to 40 players.

And during our fully populated play- test, the action ran without a hitch.

Resistance’s war rages on—head to egm.1UP.com for all-new footage of this PS3 first-person shooter, plus a tour around devel- oper Insomniac's home base.

“It’s inevitable that you get compared to other games that you are familiar with. {think that when people play through Resistance, and when they experience the story, they'll discover that there аге a lot of big differences between our game and the other first-person shooters.”

But quick-to-judge gamers are the least of Insomniac’s worries. The developer is well-awarethat with. Resistance being billed by many as the PS3's premier launch title, the pressure is on to deliver

Publisher: Sony CEA Developer: Insomniac Release Date: November 17, 2006

one helluva shooter that shows what the console is capable of, and more impor- tant, convinces consumers to shell out some serious cash for this much-hyped machine. “We know all eyes are on us to demonstrate the power of the PlayStation 3,” says Price. “But we feel very confident that we're going to do that at launch." Can the game really be the Day 1 poster child for PS3 technology? We recently. headed to Insomniac's headquarters, where we got the full lowdown on the

game's superhuge multiplayer mode, how. it'll utilize that darn motion sensor in the. PS3 controller, and, on the single-player side, just what makes Resistance "next gen." Oh, and expect some comparisons along the way (like Price says, they

are inevitable).

The PS3 online trendsetter

As Sony drags its ass to reveal additional PS3 online details, we know that at least one game for the system will be bringin’

№ While we miss the rumble feature in the PS3 controller, at least it’s lighter and the shoulder buttons feel better for playing first- Person shooters than using the PS2 joypad.

a a de s

it—in terms of Internet play—at launch. Like Halo 2 (there goes comparison No.1), the multiplayer here is as important as—if not more than—the solo campaign. And

it all starts with Resistance's high body count, During our online session (playing a mode called Breach), literally 40 soldiers and aliens filled up a massive circular warzone where both sides tried to acquire nodes and blow the holy hell out of each other’s reactor. But it ain't just the number of players that impressed us; even when

the firefight gravitated to one confined area, the action never chugged. Technical feats aside, Insomniac really wants to make the online experience attractive to everyone. “We discovered that there are two multiplayer camps,” says Multiplayer Lead Mike Stout. “First is the hardcore: the ones who go and play and compete and try to get better stats than everybody. And then, there's the casual: They like to tweak the game and make their own experience, play with

their friends, and have fun. They don't like stats getting in their way. Usually,

a game will only appeal to one or the other. So what we tried to do is make it so there are two aspects of this game: unranked and ranked.” Now, sure, other FPSes have used these classifications, but few have had such tough regulations for their ranked games. “It'll be the pure environment where no one can come up with a loophole, like, “Оһ, shotgun- only matches are the best way to boost

“We know all eyes are on us to demonstrate the power of the PlayStation 3.” „шы

my kill stat,” says Stout. “So in ranked matches, we're being very strict,” That's. good news, as leaderboards and rankings will certainly be a big deal in Resistance. While the former will be updated weekly (and have all kinds of stat subsections, such as total number of kills, who's taken the most nodes, base defense), the latter 15 based on military ranks. “The more you play and the more people you defeat and team victories you get, the higher your

military ranking becomes,” says Stout. And >

(>) press start

RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN «ov;

> for those needing extra kudos, Resistance will also include a boatload of in-game achievements. “Ribbons are per-game rewards for doing something cool—like for a head shot, you'll get a head-shot ribbon,” explains Stout. “Оп the other hand, Medals represent long-term accomplishments like accumulating 1,000 head shots or getting a kill with every weapon in the game.” We're not sure if all PS3 games will offer similar achievements, but Resistance’s batch gives a good idea of what you can expect.

Maintaining control

Remember how this past spring, Sony unveiled the motion-sensing capabilities of the PS3 controller via dogfighter Warhawk? Remember how, at that time, so many developers were jazzed about putting

such functionality into their PS3 games?

And remember how, with the PS3 launch now only two months away, we still haven't heard jack s*** about how other titles will take advantage of this feature? Well, Insomniac’s finally ready to give up the goods.

And better yet, Resistance is using it in smart, practical ways. Can't recall the button for melee attacks? You don’t need to—simply thrust the controller forward to perform this in-game action. Say you get “tagged” with the Bullseye weapon during multiplayer (which means your opponent can shoot in any direction and the bullets will still find you)—just shake the control- ler, and the tag goes buh-bye (that same motion in single-player can free you from the clutches of an A.I. enemy). Also, while it's not set in stone yet, Insomniac’s toying around with this idea: Moving the control-

ler in some manner would offer a quick glimpse of the entire multiplayer map. (We say: Make it happen.)

The next-gen equation

Think Resistance is just another World War Il game with a shot of alien culture? Well, Mr. Smarty-Pants, according to this game's history books, such a global fight never occurred. "Being set in 1951 with an alternate history, based on a really well thought-out time line, is something that we've been excited about from the very beginning,” says Price. “It gives a lot of opportunities to do different things with the story, the characters, and what's going оп worldwide. We believe it grounds the game a little bit better, perhaps, than some of the way ‘out-there’ science-fiction stories.” The game tracks three days in

the life of U.S. Army Ranger Nathan Hale, who's sent to Great Britain to help the last-standing European country from the Chimeran invasion, Resistance's not-from- this-world creepy critters.

But we've seen plenty of FPSes (like Half-Life 2—oops, make that comparison No.2) with rich and powerful narratives. What's this one gonna do from a game- play perspective that's “пехі gen?" What makes Resistance a PS3-caliber game? АЛ. is part of that answer. "There's a lot of things going on here [with the А.1.] that would have brought the PS2 to Из knees,” says Price. “Іп the Ratchet games, all of our characters were scripted—we were pretty much telling them exactly what they have to do at any time. With Resistance, we developed a lot more complex, innate behaviors for the А..— <

MULTIPLAYER DEBRIEFING

A glimpse at PS3 online via Resistance: Fall of Man

The modes: So far, we know of four game types: deathmatch, team deathmatch, Breach (described in the main text), and Meltdown. “The objective in Meltdown is

to destabilize your opponent's reactor by controlling more of the nodes on the map than your opponent,” says Insomniac’s Mike Stout. “The more nodes you've secured, the faster their reactor will drain of energy. Once the energy is completely gone, the reactor explodes, and you win.” Stout assures that several other multiplayer modes will find their way into the final game (they better).

The maps: Trust us—there’ll be enough of 'em. “We have a pretty large number of maps,” says Stout. “There are four maps that work for 40 players, and then we can take those 40-player maps and shrink them down for 30 players, and 20 players, and 50 forth. Then there are other maps that are made specifically for smaller groups of “> people, and those don’t ever change in size.” 18 Resistance takes a page from Xbox 360 and offers in-game achievements in the form of medals and ribbons. Will other PS3 titles do the same?

How the 40-player maps will stay populated: Matchmaking, that’s how. “In the matchmaking we're doing for ranked games, we're trying to narrow the available pools of players so that we're more likely to pull out big player bases," explains Stout. "For example, if we let the players choose from three modes, rather than segmenting the players down into each of the various modes and sizes, we'll have bigger pools from which we can draw players to drop into bigger games."

Voice chat: Check.

Downloadable content: Check again. And Insomniac tells us that thanks to every PS3 having a hard drive, the dev team is much more likely to consistently offer addi- tional content postrelease. Still no word on the cost (if any) for extra goodies.

Clan support: Pretty basic stuff here: You create a clan, invite others to join, and you'll see a little tag next to your name that tells players which group you belong to. Also, being part of a clan "makes it a lot easier for others to add you to a party and matchmaking games," says Stout.

Vehicles: No dice. "After doing a lot of tests, we found that we enjoyed the more frantic, personal play style as opposed to a more open Battlefield style,” says Stout. “So we decided against vehicles in multiplayer." You will get behind some wheels in the single-player game, though.

Advantages/disadvantages to playing as a human: Beginner players will want to use these guys, as their radar range is quite large and they can sprint forever. Humans are also less prone to head shots than the Chimera (whose heads are more in the cen- ter of their bodies). Still, humans aren’t as inherently powerful as those unsightly fellas.

Advantages/disadvantages to playing as the Chimera: The key to their success— as well as their biggest weakness—lies within the Chimera’s Rage mode. Enter this mode, and suddenly you can do more damage and run faster. But during this period, your body will also start heating up, making you more vulnerable.

(| № Sensitive play: Just move the PS3 controller forward | to execute a melee attack.

VERRE 8

>>THIS HOLIDAY, MICROSOFT WILL RELEASE ITS HD-DVD ADD. ОК THE XBOX 360. THE BIG-ASS DRIVE WILL COST AR

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

©.

RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN com

» which takes а lot more processing power because they're doing constant checks to figure out who's around them, what's going on in the environment, who's shoot- ing at them, where the projectiles are, what's about to fall on top of them. And they have to react appropriately, and this means they need to have a lot of different options." Lead Designer Colin Munson echoes Price's sentiments, adding that not only does the PS3 enable Insomniac

M Taking a joyride in Resistance's jeeps feels very Halo-ish.

48 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UPcom

to create brainier A.I. enemies, but it

also allows a lot more of them onscreen. “You'll find whole battlefields full of guys who are interacting intelligently together,” he says. During our time with Resistance, we witnessed Chimeran troops wisely using cover to avoid our bullet sprays, others jumping outta the way after a grenade landed at their feet, and some even recognizing the gaps in our strategi- cally placed (or so we thought) proximity

mines. So, yeah, these ugly dudes defi- nitely got something goin’ on upstairs. Big, bad weapons is the other half of Resistance's next-gen equation. And just like with the A.l., what Insomniac's doing with the game's multifunctional firepower simply wouldn't be possible on the рге- vious console. Take the Auger assault rifle: Firing through obstacles at such a ridiculously high rate just couldn't be done on PS2. Designer Nathan Fouts provides

2 АА.

SOMEONE GOT МУ ВАСК?

further evidence: “In Ratchet, we could only get the lava gun to shoot out four or five big blobs at a time, and the enemies could pass through them. But because of the PS3, Resistance's Zapper spits out 30 balls, and these chunks of explosive goop can even hang from the ceiling and then fall right on enemies.” Look at that—even the developer is judging the game against its own creations. See, comparisons really are unavoidable. —Bryan Intihar

low get over here and give your Aunt Sally a kiss.” `

Resistance will also come with a co-op mode, but don't get too excited—it can only be played via splitscreen (online co-op wasn't ever in the plans, says Insomniac). Still, if you decide to fight the good fight alongside a bud, you'll face some enemy types that don't appear while playing the campaign mode solo on the normal dif- ficulty (they do pop up on the hardest setting, though). ж

2

THIS FALL, EA WILL RELEASE EA REPLAY (PSP), A COMPILATION OF CLASSIC GAMES SUCH AS ROAD RASH AND MUTANT LEAGUE FOOTBALL

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SQUARE ENIX.

www.square-enix.com Published by Square Enix, Inc.

02006 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA. FINAL FANTASY is a registered trademark of Square Enix Co., Ltd, DIRGE OF CERBERUS, SQUARE ENIX and the SQUARE ENIX logo are trademarks of Square Enix Co., Ltd, All Rights Reserved. "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.

ч

Mild Language

Use of Tobacco Violence

Ld SOMETHING SURVIVED... >

THE WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY’ VII IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE.

A mysterious organization has emerged from the wreckage of the Meteor disaster. The enigmatic Vincent Valentine may be the only one who can save this shattered world.

Set after the events in FINAL FANTASY VII and FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN, this entirely new game features familiar characters, dazzling gunplay and

Take on new enemies and dangers mas Meet familiar faces and unique in dazzling 3D environments continuing the epic storyline allies in an all-new action adventure

Greatest achievement: Winning the MLG 2005 Super Smash Bros, Melee champions! hip Road to the pros: When Hoang was still unknown in the Smash Bros, community, he hustled some unsuspecting pros into losing hundreds of dollars to him in money matches, Emboldened, he surprised the 100-strong attendees at an underground А tournament by placing first using Marth, an obscure Fire Emblem Character no one was used to playing against at the time, In hundreds of tournaments since, Hoang has placed first in all but four, and he’s never placed lower than ninth. Hoang admits that the travel and stress of being арго can get hectic, but he Says support from family and friends keeps him going. “Also, it’s 9004 to know that you аге No. 1 at Something,” he says,

/ Luckiest tournament moment: At an MLG “gephirothKen” event in Anaheim, CA, Hoang was Saved at ka “Sephiroth , СА, Ken Hoang, al the last second when a happy-face cloud e: 21 appeared under him on the Yoshi's Story

Stage. To this day, some Players still call it the “Ken Cloud”

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“THE DRAGON PUNCHER”

Name: Michael Brandt, a Age: 22

His games: Tekken 5, other fighting games Hometo Newport News, VA

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EAGLE VIDEOGAMES. CELEB ATTORNEY KAZUYA MAI

Biggest Achievement: В Halo 2World Champions after winning World Cyber Games 2005 in Singapore,

Road to the Pros: After being introduced

to Halo at a friend's house in 2002, Dan апа Ryan burst on to the national Halo Scene, Winning the 2-on-2 portion of an Atlanta, GA, tournament in April 2003, From there, Dan Says the biggest challenge moving up the ranks was finding teammates to complement their style for 4-0n-4 matches, With fellow. pros David “Walshy” Walsh and Ryan “Saiyan” Danford, Team Final Boss placed a 0 {Р B first in eight of nine 2005 MLG tournaments, Full mes Dan and Tom Ryan | ied to e a Lis Dan Е:

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Greatest achievement: Getting second place out of a field of over 550 at the largest Halo 2 free-for-all tournament in the world last December. First place went to his uncle—who goes by the handle Poison—but we reckon de Leon is a little more notable because, you know, he’s barely halfway to driving age. Road to the Pros: De Leon started Playing Halo at the ripe old age of 4 and first Competed in a local tournament at 5, earning fourth place as рагі of a team with his dad and two uncles. His second tournament was his first win, and he says he got used to “winning money 50 | сап buy toys or other Stuff.” De Leon Says he feels more pressure now that he’s well known, but he doesn’t let that Stop him from embarrassing older Opponents or Offering Coaching services over Xbox Live,

Reactions to age: "In the last event in Dallas, а guy triple my age quit during

the competition," says de Leon. “I've also Seen people Cry because they lost to me." дй

; “| ison” e: Victor de Leon Ill, ака LiL Poi: - 8 (That's not a misprint!) lis game: Halo 2 1 pnmo ong Island, Ny Play style: “Unpredictable

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ME C ТАМА WILL APPEAR IN COMMERCIALS FOR THE GAMES IN HIS НО!

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ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com • 53

All these screens showcase the Mugello track, which is located in Italy and owned by Ferrari.

Release Date: Winter 2006/early 2007

Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Microsoft

Hard drivin’

heck it out, the first real с screenshots of Forza 2. Not

too shabby. For a game that’s coming out in just a few months, Forza-related info has been pretty hard to come by. But Dan Greenawalt, Forza 2 director and full-time automo- tive evangelist—although that’s not technically part of his job title—is finally ready to talk about what’s going on with the sequel and how the game might not be just for hardcore racing sim fans anymore. You still have to be a hardcore car fan though—no getting around that. —Demian Linn

EGM: You've announced a new photo mode that will allow players to upload their pics online. What else ya got? Dan Greenawalt: Well, we've done a lot more in the online career space to give people the ability to really level up and win a lot more money. One thing we found is that we've got this really home-grown community of people that were creating their own seasons and tracking their car clubs with each other online, doing all this crazy stuff, and what they want to be able to do is make tournaments, and limita- tions, and create really competitive races, So ме’уе given them those options, and it's still in the online career, so there can

THE DEV TEAM IS CONSIDERING RELEASING A

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

kind of be a ringmaster that can set up races and set up leagues for people and actually earn a bunch of money.

EGM: Is it possible for some- one who’s really into the online mode to, basically, not play the single-player game, and just progress through the online stuff?

OG: Completely. The money is seamlessly integrated, and the only things that

they wouldn't be able to do are some events that unlock one-off special cars. However, they could get the cars from other people online.

EGM: Do you anticipate that people who have Live access are going to be playing the game that way, as opposed to traditional single-player?

06: We've got a really deep single-player, we're targeting 50 to 60 hours of single- player without repeating a race, and that's assuming you win all of them. A lot of players are really into that aspect, mastering the physics and just playing it more like a game, leveling up your char- acter. But | think there's also a group that is very, very competitive. The nice thing is, we can match them with other people of the same skill level and they can race >

С RACING MODE А5

1. Разашану +128 2. Turmo + ול‎ 3. Јоповіо E: а. ChasoBase - 49

PLACE 12

'ADABLE CONTENT SOMETIME AFTER FORZA 2 SHI!

ULTIMATE

AGILITY

online and do their career that way. And

| think there’s going to be people who

are more about expression online—that's drifting, painting their cars, getting together and talking about cars. Our goal is to create more of a hub for those people too, so we can really be a bridge between gamers that like cars and car people that are getting into games.

EGM: How is the game going to feel different? Is it?

DG: I'd say that 95 percent of the play- ers won't notice a big difference. But

the people that do a ton of drifting, what they'll notice is when the car is at like

25 degrees of yaw, and you're using your accelerator to steer rather than the wheel, 50 you're not counter-steering but you're literally just changing the weight balance from front to back by using your accelera- tor, you'll notice you can get yourself in and out of trouble much quicker.

(CONT)

exciting to watch the game. | th are going to go apes

.

Los E

— Forza 2 Director Dan Greenawalt

EGM: What's changed with the Drivatars? How has A.l. evolved in Forza 2?

DG: Our entire A.l. system is still built on Drivatar technology, but there has been some evolution on the back-end side, which is that they follow the line a lot better. And they've actually gotten really freaking fast.

ЕСМ: Sometimes the A.I. cars would get really aggres- sive in Forza 1....

DG: Yeah, every once іп a while the A.l. would just decide to hit you. But we got to the bottom of some of that. As far as the actual Drivatar training aspect of the game, we're taking on most of the training ourselves, and we're going to let people hire Drivatars just like last time, but how the training is going to be expressed... we're taking а lot of that offline and just doing it ourselves on this one.

W Price jump: Forza 2 will cost $60, which is 10 bones more than most Microsoft-published Xbox 360 titles.

EGM: So what’s going on with the finally-force-feedback wheel you guys are coming out with?

DG: Being able to actually feel the forces through the wheel itself, it'll be exciting. Obviously, | play with force-feedback games all the time, so you can imagine that I’ve gotten pretty opinionated about force feedback!

EGM: Are you upset that it doesn’t have a clutch pedal? DG: Yeah, I'm torn. What | want is a wheel that has fantastic force feedback and lets you experience the game the way we intended, yet normal people can buy it and use it in their living room. But at the same time, I also want [one that has all of the bells and whistles of] a $400-500 wheel.

EGM: So can you talk a little about where the series is

Е PS3—THIS FALL

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

SHOOTER TO SONY’S CONSOLE IN ADDITION TO THE 360....

headed—what are some of the dream features that you have in mind down the line?

DG: My ultimate goal in all of this is to get people that play games to get hooked on cars and get that car passion that I’ve got. Also, how can | get gamers who aren’t the best racers, but maybe they know a lot about cars, to be part of the community and be really successful in the community and valued equally as much as these great drivers are?

ЕСМ: Are you thinking, like, player-run tuning shops,

paint jobs....

DG: Yeah, all sorts of things like that. | don't want this game to be just a driver's club and a tuner's club. What | want is one group made up of people where some are drivers, tuners, painters, organizers, and some guys who just like the shoot the 5*** a lot. жй

ULTIMATE

STRENGTH

afterthoughts

A brush with greatness

ith its four-legged heroine and М evocative watercolor visuals,

Okami seems...a bit strange, But don’t let it scare you off—this game offers a nearly perfect balance between offbeat artistry and stellar gameplay. We caught up with producer Atsushi Inaba in Japan to talk to him about Okami’s distinctive graphics engine, the game’s tepid reception in Japan, and whether or not we'll be stroking it on the Wii.

—James Mielke

EGM: Those Celestial Brush techniques seem tailor-made for the Wii. Admit it—you’re bringing Okami to Nintendo’s new machine, right? Atsushi Inaba: Before the Wii and the controller were announced, everyone was like, “Why not the DS?” because it had the touch pad; you see the stylus and assume that it could be a substitute for the brush. As soon as the Wii came out everyone started saying the same thing. So at this year’s Electronic Entertain- ment Expo, [designer Hideki] Kamiya and | went and tried it out. But it might not actually fit for Okami because it doesn’t seem like the interface would be just right for brushes, but more specifically because the game doesn't just center around the brushstrokes. It’s actually an action game, so having that controller response is more critical than the actual brush system. We specifically devised the brush system to work on the PS2’s DualShock controller.

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

EGM: Early in development, Okami sported realistic graphics—what made you change its look?

Al: We realized that the hardware limita- tions just didn’t give us what we needed in order to do it in that style, so we started thinking about other ways that we could present Okami. The whole artistic aspect that you see now is just some- thing someone came up with as a whim, and that’s the one everyone liked, so we stuck with it all the way until the end.

EGM: Did that guy get a bonus? Al: [Laughs] A little bit.

ЕСМ: Any extra bosses ог secrets we may have missed in the game?

Al: There are no secret bosses because the bosses are all part of the main sce- nario. But, in terms of areas, you'll find tons of secret areas and dungeons,

side stories, things like that. So

if you play the main quest, it's already а big game, but if you add in all that stuff it just becomes huge. There are some stronger enemies that kind of resemble bosses in

a sense.

ЕСМ: What’s the payoff for beating those guys?

Al: [Laughs] You can get something special for it.

DESPITE A CHILLY RECEPTION BACK HOME, ATARI WILL BRING THE JAPAN

EGM: The game is rich in Japanese mythology—are you surprised the game didn’t sell so well in Japan? Were you worried that American gamers might not “get it"?

Al: | was disappointed that the game didn’t sell as well as | was hoping it would in Japan, but that may be partly

a result of the market. | kind of expected that Japanese gamers might not be as open to the idea of games outside of defined genres, but | didn’t expect it to be that extreme. Now | realize exactly what the market is like after releasing Okami in Japan.

But when it comes to America, a lot of the myths and stuff may be Japanese, but a lot of Japanese people don’t even know the myths. So the game wasn’t made with an expectation that our audi- ence, whether it’s Japanese or Western,

understands or is familiar with

the myths. It’s more that the

myths are used to create a

unique fantasy world and envi-

ronment to play in, so | feel that

American gamers can look at it

from a fantasy game approach and not think of it as “I don’t understand Japanese myths so | can’t enjoy this.”

EGM: Right. Just like American gamers wouldn’t necessarily

be instantly familiar with, say, Greek mythol- ogy or Norse mythology.

ООТЕК BULLET WITCH

к}

№ Okami's original, realistic look

. It’s just an exotic setting to

them. Would you like to make a sequel or is Okami a one- game deal?

Al: When we began making this game, we had no vision of a sequel. We wanted to make a game that stood on its own.

ЕСМ: It’s kind of surprising to hear that, since you seemed to put so much work into this. Does that mean there abso- lutely won’t be a sequel or just that you didn’t envision one initially?

Al: A lot of developers follow differ-

ent patterns when it comes to making sequels. Some fall into the cycle of coming out with a new game every year, while others come out with one every four years. With Okami, it’s more about us feeling what the users want. It’s a timing issue. If the users want the game, the available platform supports the game that we want to make, and the designers are into it, then a sequel is not out of the realm of possibility. 4

The world’s largest army of Super Heroes" is under your control.

Create four-member strike teams. Choose from over 20 playable characters. Interact with more than 140 legends in all. Become your favorite heroes and change the fate of the universe in this epic action-RPG.

Fall 2006 WWW.MARVELULTIMATEALLIANCE.COM

РС

її. | mm [SOFTWARE

PRODUCTS RANGE FROM 0 a EU E АСТ ОМ co-owned registered trademark, Game © 2006 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. e Playstation,

PS” Family logo and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). This title is not yet concept approved by Sony Computer Entertainment America. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either

activision.com registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US. and/or other countries. ТМ, 9, Game Boy Advance, and Wii logos are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo. All rights reserved. PC CD-ROM logo ТМ and © IEMA 2004, The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners,

ГУД PREVI J PREVIEW: EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON | HAND:

Publisher: Sega Developer: Sonic Team Release Date: October 2006

P until now, Sega has done

ранен Sees С STEP 1: GET CREATIVE

Universe as more than just Designing your online avatar for PSU offers players far a follow-up to the groundbreaking more freedom than they ever had in PSO. Now, you Phantasy Star Online games by choose your character’s race, gender, and appearance focusing on this new Phantasy’s (including intricate new details like eyebrow shape, cloth- epic single-player quest. And while ing patterns, and...er, breast size) before starting the

we appreciate the effort to rise above the tacked-on offline content of PSO, we know where PSU's true strength lies—in its absurdly addic- tive multiplayer action. And whether you’re a series noob or a 300-hour PSO vet, this rundown will prep you for the year’s biggest online adven- ture... —Shane Bettenhausen

game, yet you're no longer forced to choose a character class. "Each race has their advantages and disadvan- tages,” explains PSU Creative Manager Takao Miyoshi. "For example, if you want a powerful Force [magic user], 7 you'll likely want to pick a Newman...but, if anything, our experience with PSO has shown that people like to play in diverse ways and play with lots of different challenges." How you choose to develop your hero depends entirely upon your in-game actions, but if you want to make a morbidly obese robotic dwarf, unfurl that freak flag.

Space race riot

PSU offers four different playable races: humans, elf-like Newmen, robotic CASTs, and the all-new Beasts. Each one has merits and drawbacks, but we have a hunch that you'll be seeing an awful lot of Beasts and CASTs online. Why? Members of these races get access to killer special attacks: Beasts have Nanoblasts, absurdly powerful transformations that send them into a lycanthropic fury, while CASTs can summon SUV weapons, colossal guns that drop from the sky to obliterate enemies.

STEP 2: FIND SOME FRIENDS үне

Once your carefully designed hero beams onto Guardian Colony, the game’s massive, five-story space station, you're inundated with possibilities—you can converse with other players (using preset phrases, a USB keyboard, or, if you’re playing on the Xbox 360, voice chat), go shopping, shake your rump at a hoppin’ discotheque, grab a cup of joe at the café, or chill out in your customizable personal quarters (see sidebar).

Of course, PSU isn't just about socializing іп a snazzy space mall. Your real goal here should be to find some party members to go questing with. Up to six players can join forces to tackle missions across three vast planets, each with its own city full of shops, townsfolk, and goodies to discover. Mission types vary wildly, so you'll be delivering, escorting, exploring, and exterminating your way through a huge variety of locales. And this time around you don’t have to worry about getting stuck with a pack of losers. The © party leader can easily boot troublesome players from the group, or even ban them

| from any future collaboration. Plus, you can prevent looting by choosing to divide the spoils evenly among all players.

8 The leader chooses a level- appropriate mission for his party from PSU’s | new map screen (shown above).

MONTH LY FEE, IT INTENDS TO

60 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY © www.1UP.com

в Note: te: All of these screens in _ this preview hail from the PC Version of PSU, which is a dead

ringer for the XB360 game.

Home decor

“Another fun addition for returning Phantasy Star Online fans will be the cus- tomizable ‘My Room’ feature, which allows players to decorate their own personal space on Guardian Colony with various plants, objects, and furniture,” explains Miyoshi. “Players can also decorate their walls and display their hard-earned weap- ons and trophies.” Trust us, it’s a lot easier to lure some random robotic hottie back to your bachelor pad if you have an impres- sive array of lava lamps and jellyfish-filled aquariums on display.

Partner Machinery

PSO players surely remember mags, the tiny

stat-boosting robots that required demand-

ing Tamagotchi-style upkeep. In PSU, a

more advanced type of bot debuts—Partner

Machinery. These metallic buddies generally

hang out in your room, storing your extrane-

ous equipment, but they also have several

other uses. “You can feed Machinery things

that allow it to make items,” explains Miyoshi. L

“For example, some Р.М. can create powerful Now, that’s our weapons and armor and, as your Machinery E kind of robotic levels up, it will eventually be able to fight k operating buddy. alongside you on missions.” >- РЕР"

OUT NEW MISSIONS ON А REGULAR BASIS. PLUS, PS2 AND XB360 PLAYERS MIGHT SEE EXCLUSIVE STUFF ON THEIR RESPECTIVE PLATFORMG....

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > www.1UP.com • 61

HANTASY STAR UNIVERSE сок

. [dim STEP 3: (ыбовһіп 135 EMBARK ON A MISSION белен

The real fun begins when you and your crew pick a mission and travel to one of the three planets in the Gurhal star system. Each world sports a distinct theme—Parum is an industrial- ized, Earth-like planet ruled by CASTs, Neudaiz provides a lush, watery land of natural beauty populated by Newmen, and Beast homeworld Moatoob offers a bleak desert terrain.

No matter where you choose to land, you'll be doing a lot of hacking and slashing—beneath its slick veneer, PSU remains a Diablo-inspired action-RPG. And that core monster-slaying gameplay receives a sizable upgrade over what kept PSO play- ers grinding. Hauling multiple weapons into battle now gives you a sizable strategic advantage: Customizing your equipment with special orbs called Photon Arts imbues them with magi- cal techniques (your character doesn’t actually learn magic in PSU—only your weapons do) and unlocks longer, more power- ful combo strings. Plus, additional weapon types (a new type of twin daggers, longbows, and several more), a handy new strafe move (why didn’t they add this earlier?), and the ability to wield a gun and sword simultaneously further deepen combat.

And although PSU's online play, like PSO's, will ultimately feel like an endless treadmill of new equipment and powers, you'll have more incentive to keep on truckin’. High-level char- acters will now gain access to specialized classes with new abilities and equipment...yep, kiss another 100 hours good-bye.

| Who's the boss?

PSO vets still regale one another with tales of how they bested that game’s monumental boss battles, so expectations run high for PSU’s biggest baddies. The one end-of-mission behemoth we faced, the flying monstrosity pictured here, didn’t disappoint. The age-old strategy of blindly hacking away at him didn't work at all...the best tactic we devised involved switching into the new first-person view to snipe his wings, leaving him grounded until they regenerated.

What about single-player?

Sees

ا

| We won't lie—we're far more psyched | for PSU’s multiplayer action than its

| | offline quest. But at least this time ZELUM it’ -í MM around, its nota tossed off rehash | | ofthe online game. With classy cut- келес f

-| scenes, tons of voiceovers, and A.l.- _ | assisted combat, it's actually a fairly ВЫ IESE ag soon RE LEN] TUIS

® Sadly, none of the cool gear you find offline can

polished standalone adventure...that be used online. Bummer.

we'll play when our Net is down. 4%

THE DEATH OF ONE AWAKENS A PATH TO THE END.

THE LONG-ANTICIPATED CONCLUSION TO AN EPIC TRILOGY. Over 8 hours of movies including voiced cut scenes.

An easily accessible in-game “Xeno Bible" includes every detail from the entire Xenosaga® series.

Money and shops are back! Buy, barter, and sell any items or equipment.

An updated battle system combines the best aspects of the first two games, while introducing the new Brea

| | Е Customize your characters with a branching skill set. You'll be highly rewarded for strategic party management:

60-premade mini-game levels and a mini-game level editor for sharing custom maps with friends.

f

Malicious Charge

™ Language А ВАМОА! Mild Suggestive Themes р | S t t e j| Violence a a І 0 ח‎ 0 > Games

Xenosaga® EPISODE III Also sprach Zarathustra &©2001-2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.

Soul Calibur II & Ш

Talk about Gay Paree! Hell, this guy makes San Francisco look like a redneck metropolis. Just take a peek at his two costumes: 1) a “butch” blond bob with the goatee look and 2) an über-gay French-pansy- who's-prettier-than-Marie-Antoinette look. But it's his long rapier, ruffly lacy collar, flamboyant thrust-thrust- jab-thrust moves, and mincing, hip-shaking walk that place him solidly at number 10. Sure he's a stereo- type, but stereotypes are hilarious. Vive la gay France!

Super Mario Series In “her” first appearance in

Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo iaa

was described in the manual as such: "He thinks he is a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. He'd rather be called Birdetta." In subsequent printings, Nintendo corrected the “mistake” and Birdo became а full-fledged female. So, in reality, Birdo was the first male-to-female transsexual in the videogame universe. Just look at the size of

“Ў

y

that rock on her finger! Definitely a drag queen ring if | ever saw one and, believe me, after living іп San Francisco for 11 years, I've seen plenty...

Star Wars: Knights

of the Old Republic

Jedi babes are out and

Й proud! When you first meet Juhani in KOTOR, you can either whack her or court her to be your bud. If you kill her, a jeal- ous female Jedi will exact revenge out of her love for Juhani. Now if you save Juhani and fol- low the right conversations with her (you must be a female character), she will profess her love to you. Once the game is over, you are left to assume that you and Juhani fly off to some Jedi lesbian love nest for some Forceful lovin’.

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!

In my opinion, Don really treads

that fine line between gay and

metrosexual Eurotrash. But come on, this guy enters the ring with a rose in his mouth and proceeds to prance about while throwing out lines like, “Hey! Mr. Referee Mario. 1 like your hair!” and "Carmen my love... dance so sweet for you!” He compliments the referee’s hair but then professes his love to Carmen. Is Carmen a girlfriend or is he just expressing his big gay love for opera?

More pompous, vain, and bitchy than a dressing room full of drag queens, and shall we say a, uh, theatrical fashion sense: purple formfitting catsuit, frilly collar, cape, rainbow headpiece, crown, six-pack, prominent package, and facial hair that would make the most seasoned biker bar patron seethe with jealousy. Don’t forget his “Royal Rainbow” powers, either—this guy is so gay that when he opens his mouth, a rain- bow comes out...literally. If your gaydar doesn't go off into the red zone with this one, it's time to get new batteries. Yeah, | know he has a wife and kid, but so does Tom Cruise.

Katamari Damacy

Street Fighter Series

Not all gay guys are femmy, limp- wristed dudes who dart about stroking their long, feathered hair. So, Capcom decided to represent the burly side of things with the Russian man-grappler Zangief. But what really gives away his gayness? The skintight Speedo? The thatch of groomed chest hair? Or maybe it's the fact he dislikes “beautiful young women.” Yeah, that’s pretty queer.

>> IF THESE FRUITY PICKS AREN'T TASTY ENOUGH FOR YOU, PRANCE OVER TO GAYGAMER.NET TO CHECK OUT FRUIT ВКИТЕ 5 ORIGINAL AND UNED-

Metal Gear Solid 3

Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix

This may be up for debate, but if you look closely, you

can spy the flames. First, his relationship with Colonel Volgin—at one point, our hero Solid Snake is disguised as Raikov. Pretty straight, eh? Well, until Volgin grabs Snake’s crotch twice and exclaims, "| know the Major better than anyone else.” Gay. Oh, and his special move in Subsistence is a massive crotch grab that renders his opponent stunned. Really gay. Hell, even porn mags won't faze this flamer.

Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix not only features two hot chicks, but two particular females who are also into hot chicks. Now that's hot! Hana Tsu-Vachel is “a beautiful assassin...desired by many yet belonging only to one.” And yes, my gentle readers, the one she belongs to...is a woman! Rain, to be exact—Hana finds her pretty messed up in a cem- etery and takes her in. The rest is history, folks.

Shadow Hearts Covenant

The 2004 role-playing game Shadow Hearts Covenant features Pierre and Gerard Magimel—two swishy, unmis- takably gay twin brothers. Gerard sells weapons while brother Pierre is a tai- lor who creates dresses. The dresses he designs have names like Sassy Sailor and Windy Pixie, but if you want "ет, you must trade Pierre a series of sexy muscleman trading cards. Yikes!

ITED LIST OF THE TOP 20 GAYEST CHARACTERS. WARNING: SOME OF HIS PICKS ARE MORE OBSECURE THAN OUR EASIER-TO-SWALLOW LIST.

Zelda Series

You have to admit,

Tingle made quite a

questionable impres- sion when he first floated into the Zelda franchise in 2000. Being а 34-year-old man-child who longs to be a fairy doesn’t exactly help, either. And if that weren’t fruity enough, Tingle is now set to star in his own RPG in Japan entitled Tingle’s Fresh-Picked Rose-Tinted Rupee Land. Hell, it doesn’t get much gayer than that. And while Tingle may not sew doll clothes or have a spe- cial crotch-grab move, | think we can all agree he is rightfully the gayest character in videogames. sh

—Fruit Brute, gaygamer.net

“Hey, don't yell at us—we didn't write this. So...uh...how ‘bout them Bears?

WHO AMI?‏ הז

Even though | hate my job, І can’t quit—l'm kinda chained to it.

2 Screw Gatorade; l'II take nectar, thank you.

3 А day doesn't go by when | don't think about my wife and kid.

Tanning is so overrated. Why look like a turd when you be а nice, pretty pale?

Flowing hair is so girly—a real тап lets his head shine.

soey злемю pog uamsuy

>>

the BIG ones

` Heightening your anticipation -- for these heavy hitters

HALO:3

XB360 • Microsoft Fall 2007 Someone get Bungie's Frank O'Connor a drink—he's the one guy we can always count on for something Halo 3-related. During a recent post on bungie.net (the developer's official website), he made a mention about being killed by a Banshee during a Halo 3 multiplayer session. Maybe this time ‘round, Bungie will actually gameplay balance the Covenant craft. Also, during the Halo Graphic Novel panel at Comic-Con, he said that Spartans (like Master Chief) were never listed as killed, only missing. Could this be a clue about Halo 3, or just more warble from the Bungie camp? We guess the latter.

METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS

PS3 • Konami • Fall 2007

Rather than gawk like an immature fanboy, one MGS diehard took a chance run-in with series creator Hideo Kojima at this summer's Comic-Con to ask him some choice questions about No. 4. And better yet, Kojima answered them. He confirmed that the stealth-espionage game wouldn't be shown in play- able form until next year, the final version should run in 1080p (the PS3’s highest resolution setting), and his team is still conducting tests on how to take advantage of the motion- sensor controller. When the fan brought up the possibility of tilting the controller to crack enemies’ necks, Kojima simply laughed and said another member of the MGS4 team had the same exact idea. Sounds like a good one to us.

M H.R. Giger called. He wants his phallic symbols back.

е:

FINAL FANTASY Хш

PS3 * Square Enix е 2007

Expect a flood of new info on Square Enix’s absurdly ambi- tious (and goofily named) multigame Final Fantasy XIII project, Fabula Nova Crystallis, in the wake of September's Tokyo Game Show. Until then, though...this lovely new screenshot from Final Fantasy XIII will have to sate your hunger for next-gen FF.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS

Wii/GC > Nintendo * Fall 2006

They say that no news is better than bad news, and here’s 26/04 to prove it. Last month we had a big fat nothin’ to report, which left us talking about the Tingle RPG (DS) in the EGM International section. But that sure beats this month’s news, which is that

Link’s own DS outing appears to have been delayed until next year. Nintendo hasn’t confirmed anything, but Phantom Hourglass was a

no-show on the company’s recently released 2006 schedule. ah

>> NEILL BLOMKAMP (WHO?) IS DIRECTING THE HALO MOVIE. SEARCH HIS NAME АТ GAMEVIDEOS.COM FOR CLIPS OF HIS WORI

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

FOR JUNE

TOP 10 XBOX 360

1 Hitman: Blood Money

2 The Elder Scrolls №: Oblivion — mn, 3 Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 9 4 2006 FIFA World Сир

5 Fight Night Round 3

& Table Tennis

7 MotoGP °06

& бай of Duty 2

5 Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

10 Burnout Revenge

TOP 10 PS2

8 Another month, another butt-stompin’ victory.

1 New Super Mario Bros. • DS • Nintendo

| 2 Theft auto: Liberty city Stories • PS2 • Rockstar

[3| Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! ® DS е Nintendo

| 4 ЛЫП

Е Hitman: Blood Money + XB360 • Eidos Grand Theft Auto: LCS

| 6 СЕП!

| 7 20 гл мота сир + Р52 > ЕА 5роп

2 Cars

3 2006 FIFA World Cup 4 Hitman: Blood Money 5 God of War

8 Guitar Hero Bundle

7 Kingdom Hearts И

$ NFL Head Coach

3 Over the Hedge

12 MLB 06: Тһе Show

[8 | Big Brain Academy е DS е Nintendo

[9| Hitman: Blood Money ® PS2 * Eidos

Source: NPD TRSTS Video Games Service. Call (516) 625-6190 for questions regarding this list. ₪

10 cars “ cc + тна

| = EE SW CHEN vec A р " > 5 n 0 2 т | 2 2 хещ Е D о ©363' T ч 2% (s Ы 1 REN 7 р . Е pan à тар ін... Lf Cars Cars New Super Mario Bros. • 05 2 2006 FIFA World Cup 2 Over the Hedge 2 Brain Age ® DS 2 Pac-Man 3 Hitman: Blood Money 3 Naruto: Clash of the Ninja 3 Cars • GBA 3 World Poker Tour 4 Halo 2 4 Paper Mario: TTYD 4 Big Brain Academy * DS 4 Bejeweled 5 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 5 Dance Dance Revolution: Mario 5 Cars • DS 5 JAMDAT Mahjong 5 Fable 8 Super Smash Bros. Melee 5 Super Mario Advance • GBA 5 Platinum Solitaire 7 NFL Head Coach 7 Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 7 Over the Hedge е GBA 7 Diner Dash & Jaws Unleashed 8 Teen Titans 8 Mario Kart DS • DS 8 Ms. Pac-Man 9 X-Men: The Official Game 9 Super Mario Sunshine 2 Animal Crossing: Wild World ® 05 5 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 10 Major League Baseball 2К6 10 Lego Star Wars 10 Metroid Prime Hunters * DS 10 Sonic the Hedgehog

>> THOSE ITCHING TO FRAG A BUNCH OF NOOBS IN UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2007 ARE GOING ТО HAVE ТО WAIT—EPIC DELAYED IT UNTIL 2007.... <<

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

Text the Game’s Keyword to 82174 to get Тһе Game Today!

очи

=)

© 2006 Gameloft. All Rights Reserved. Gameloft, the Gameloft logo, Asphalt: Urban GT, Midnight Pool, Midnight Bowling and Platinum Solitaire are trademarks of Gameloft in the US and/or other countries. АМОТ® and Mix Tape® are trademarks of AND1. © 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. All other trademarks and registered trade- marks are property of their respective owners. © 2006 Verizon Wireless.All manufacturers, cars, motor- bikes, names, brands and associated imagery featured in this game are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. All rights reserved, © 2005 pussycat dolls llc. All rights reserved.

Кк ы

ET ВКТ, ОВЕС

HE'S LIKE тїнє. нє (d CAN'T BE

Kevwore

verivonwireless

1: AND Ре,

JREF Jesi

HRONES|

WWW.GAMELOFT.COM

zj

>> WANT TO GET GUN-HAPPY WITH JOHN WOO'S STRANGLEHOLD (PS3/X360)? LOOKS LIKE YOU'LL HAVE ТО WAIT—IT GOT DELAYED UNTIL 2007.... >>

SOME PEOPLE WILL WANT А PIECE OF YOUR IDENTITY, CHANGING IT TO FIT WHAT THEY THINK YOU SHOULD BE, AND OTHERS WILL WANT A PIECE OF YOUR TIME, WASTING ІТ 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 or NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL PoLicY /PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG-FREE AMERICA

(>) press start

overheard

Sure, they talk a big game...

“Gaming is the essential role of Xbox 360, and the experience is ” —Takahashi Sensui, general manager for Xbox 360 eae reasserts his

‘company's dedication to the Japanese market, despite the fact that roughly 70 percent of 360 hardware shipped to Japan remains unsold on store shelves

“Рт very confident this is going to be >

—Stephen McGill, head of Xbox U.K. marketing, declares an early victory in the next-gen console war...although, in reality, Microsoft has never had the best-selling console during any holiday season

4 “What other entertainment medium that’s mass-market is at $60 a pop? | would kill to have a game that’s jam-packed with an amazing story and amazing moments and four hours long and costs 20 bucks.

“(Digital distribu-

tion] will be the

business model

for the future of games.

. $50 is far . А too much for an impulse buy. $60 is 0 NE ү сот pletely out of the question М —Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, —Epic Games Designer Cliff Bleszinski in February 2006, six months before ‘speculates that Sony's future systems won't use disc-based media at all. Does Microsoft announced а $59.99 price point of his Xbox 360 game, Gears of War this mean planned obsolescence for the PlayStation 3's fledgling Blu-Ray format?

PENNY ARCADE WWW.PENNY-ARCADE.COM 0 1 What's your I can't perceive the Yo. V-Real. ort of person who would be name, Young /( You can call Me Where to ма Заа snared by the ultrathug y Wreazlé? „/ shit bitches,

pastiche of Saints Row. His name's Kevin. you know how I swang.

FS He is the Pood court gangsta. І gets my cinna-on Well, it's nob Жай pipes 5 at the Cinna-bon Por us. It's Por guys Sitting sideways in his parents! 'nna-bon.

like this. ב‎

“Finally, a violent video- game you can trust to help raise your kids....

He blessed his f***in’ = head off!” | | Ayoung мап 7” —Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry extols the 5 \ whose greatest Pear is

virtues of the biblically based Left Behind PC game, b | that һе will, one day, be which may be headed to home consoles in 2007 caught riding dirty.

f E 2 ІЗ ₪ Н 5 E è 2 5 8 8 ©

QUOTATION SOURCES (COUNTERCLOCKWISE, STARTING WITH PHIL HARRISON): WIRED, MCV, MAINICHI DAILY NEWS, SHACKNEWS, THE DAILY SHOW

>> MECHASSAULT 2 (XB) DEVELOPER DAY 1 STUDIOS HAS SIGNED A DEAL WITH LUCASARTS TO CREATE A NEW NEXT-GEN FRANCHISE.... >>

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

| ) 600. НЕКО. HUNTER. SAVIOR.

COMING SEPTEMBER 2006

2 2) / | “Will go down as one of

2 % s the best games of all time.”

AX NNNM |

“A brush with greatness.”

TEEN

Blood and Gore Crude Humor

TRTA 2 ! % СО Use of Alcohol and Tobacc: S A BST ME мааа . PlayStation. 2Р6

©CloverStudio Co., Ltd. 2006. АН rights reserved. DISTRIBUTED BY CAPCOM CO., LTD. Okami, CloverStudio and the CloverStudio LOGO are trademarks of CloverStudio Co., Ltd. CAPCOM and the CAPCOM LOGO are registered trademarks of CAPCOM CO., LTD. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Scratching the scuttlebutt

ounding up all the rumors

for the month ain’t so easy.

Dissecting the truth from the trash takes some practice, but after all my years in the dirt-digging biz, 'm a seasoned pro. So | was shocked when a few pissy peeps started to doubt my rumormongering skills. Well, truth be told, kiddos, my track record isn’t as spotty as you may think. Sure, some dirt never grows, but that’s no fault of The Q. If you wanna blast around the blame, set your sights on the develop- ers and the publishers, because while most of my rumors are true, they may not end up coming to fruition because of reasons | know...but you, I’m afraid, will never understand. But enough jibber-jabber—let’s get to the good stuff. —The 0

Monster publisher EA has dipped its hands in just about every videogame genre: sports, role-playing, fighting... Hell, they even planted their seeds in the evolu- tion-world-simulator field. But one game genre still remains untapped: survival- horror. That's right—1 hear EA is digging through its closet of scares for a new

74» ELECTRONIC GAMIN

next-gen survival-horror game. No word on what the game is about, but let us hope it has nothing to do with football. Though pumping shells into the bloated mug of Madden does sound fun.

With all the Wii buzz going around, it's supereasy to hear some juicy deets about Nintendo's

Wii Sports

and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories should keep portable pundits chipper. But while these two games look hot, the PSP's

upcoming casual console. For instance, my sources tell me that Wii Sports is going to pack more than just your typical tennis and baseball. In fact, it looks like Wii Sports is going to sport over 30 different games in one sweat-inducing package. The obvious Sporto games are easy to guess, but you have to wonder what else it's going to offer. Horseshoes? Jacks? Synchronized swimming?

With all the hubbub over Nintendo's DS Lite, it's sometimes hard to remember Sony also has a slick portable system. Thankfully, games like Killzone: Liberation

future is поі-І hear several big-time third-party publishers are giving up on the PSP.

So we all know Resident Evil 4 reanimated Capcom’s popular survival-horror series, but what exactly do we know about Resident Evil 5? Zip! Well, until | man- aged to unearth this tidbit—so 1 hear Sony may have caroused Capcom into making Resident Evil 5 а PlayStation 3 exclusive. While we're on the talk

of exclusivity (and zombies), | hear the sequel to Capcom's Xbox 360 zombie romp, Dead Rising, may also set up shop only on the PS3.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the maestro behind Rez, Space Channel 5, and Lumines, knows his music games. And ever since Rez hit the PS2, fans have been rabid for a sequel. Well, now they can shut up:

Over the years, Street Fighter's toughest competition has been busting out the sequels (it's been almost a decade since Street Fighter Ill hit the arcades). Thankfully, Capcom is finally pumping up for a true sequel—

Square Enix has been tight- lipped about the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII games, but not tight enough for my rumor spies.

FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS

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\ Г XB360 • Microsoft Grand Theft Auto equals big bucks, so Microsoft contracted one of the guys behind the popular series to make an open-world game for its new machine. You can tackle these gang-ridden streets solo or with a bud online, and every action will evolve your character's stats (for instance, clob- ber enough foes and you'll eventually be able to throw cars).

"Ере

FAMILY GUY PS2/XB/PSP > 2K Games When Fox resurrected Family Guy (good call, guys),

GOD HA PS2 * Capcom Development powerhouse Clover Studio (Viewtiful

PSP • Sony CEA Thank you, Guerrilla Games: It's so nice to see a

developer adapt a franchise for Sony’s handheld rather than butcher it. This means no awkward first-person shooting here; Liberation is a pure (and easy to control) action game played from a third-person, top-down perspective. A co-op mode allows you to bring a friend to this firefight, too.

Joe, Okami) and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami are responsible for this supremely weird brawler with ridiculously over-the-top combat. Now, you'd think that with such smarties behind it, God Hand would be a surefire hit, right? Well, from what we've played so far, the controls and camera still need a ton of work.

you knew it was only a matter of time until someone gobbled up the videogame rights. In this action- adventure title, you'll play as Peter, Brian, and smart- ass baby Stewie and cause all kinds of chaos (and probably annoyingly scream “What the deuce?”) around their hometown of Quahog, Rhode Island.

>> UBISOFT HEARTS THE WII—IN ADDITION TO THE LAUNCH TITLES RED STEEL AND RAYMAN RAVING RABBIDS, UBISOFT ANNOUNCED FIVE

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

PSP » Buena Vista

The sequel to last year’s techno-heavy puzzler is really bring- ing out the stars, as it'll have music tracks (and videos—a series first) from headliners such as Beck, Gwen Stefani,

and the Black Eyed Peas. Unfortunately, recent American Idol winner Taylor Hicks won't be sending his “Soul Patrol” after Lumines Il players.

MORTAL KOMBAT: ARMAGEDDON

PS2/XB • Midway

Awhile back, we asked series cocreator Ed Boon which of his kombatants he’d rather nix: rent-a-cop Stryker or generic ninja Ermac. In

the case of Armageddon, his answer doesn’t matter—this one will feature every single warrior from the franchise’s history. And if you need a break from the bloody action, you can always take a spin in the all-new kart racing mode. (Oh, and for the record, Boon chose Stryker.)

SUPERMAN RETURNS XB360/PS2/XB * EA Games

It was a rough summer for the Man of Steel: First, his movie underper- forms at the box office, and then his game—an open-world affair that has Kal-El flying all over Metropolis and using his super-duper powers to save helpless civilians—gets sent back to the fortress of development solitude for a few extra months. But after see- ing Supe’s interactive return recently, we question if he'll even be ready by this October...

MORE OCTOBER RELEASES

-HACK//G.U. PS2 * Namco Bandai

BLITZ: THE LEAGUE

PSP е Buena Vista

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JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES PS2/XB/PSP • Warner Bros.

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TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 07 XB360/PS2/XB/GC/PSP > EA Sports

Tiger may be “the man” on the real links, but man, did he ever land in the rough (and couldn’t get out) in his next-gen debut

last year. This edition promises to have double the number of

courses and crowds that finally bring the environments to life. Maybe it’s just us, but check out the onlookers in this screen-

shot—don't they look like dead cardboard cutouts? 4.

SPIDER-MAN: BATTLE FOR NY DS/GBA * Activision

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80» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY = www.1UP.com

Superheroes aren't necessarily super friends— we pit Marvel: Ultimate Alliance against Justice League Heroes and declare an early winner

п the real world, sporting a slick pair of span-

dex tights can lead to lots of laughing, finger

pointing, and sometimes even a severe beating. But it works completely the opposite way in comic book land; donning that same ridiculous getup there will have folks calling you a hero. Luckily, two videogames will help minimize the fashion faux pas and maximize the do-gooding, as comic publishers Marvel and DC are both leasing their stars to almost every system this fall.

So, to get you ready for the upcoming villain-thwarting and world-saving, we profile Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS3/Wii/360/PS2/XB/PSP/GBA) and Justice League Heroes (PS2/XB/PSP) and compare them to see which one—at least at this point—is closer to claiming super- hero supremacy. »

—Michael Donahoe

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY e www.1UP.com • 81

алыш.

MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE

МАН of our Ultimate Alliance screens are from the PS3 and 360 editions. Which is which? It doesn’t matter—visually, those versions are indistinguishable.

You can't go wrong with the oddball ensemble that comprises Ultimate Alliance's megastar lineup, mainly because developer Raven Software wasn’t picky when choos- ing its heroes. Hell, the studio chucked in practically every Marvel character known to fans—the cast of costumed freaks peaks at 140 (though only 20 of those are actually playable). While hardcore comic buffs will go gaga over some of the more obscure characters like Dr. Strange and Nick Fury, most will probably stick to playing as the Marvel mainstays (Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, and so on). Yeah, the smor- gasbord of heroes is a great idea, but expect most of the D-list dopes to show up for their quick cameos and bolt back to parts-unknown-by-people-with-social-lives.

₪ Re-create a classic Marvel team like the Avengers and you'll start the game with a slight stat boost.

на | THEHEROES

JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES

№ No one in the Justice League can compete with Batman’s gadgets...or his bank account.

Though this game doesn’t pack the playable punch (in terms of quantity) of Ultimate Alliance, JLH's crusaders are hardly chumps. Also, you won't find any half-assed fight- ers riding Superman’s coattails in this group (well, that’s if you ignore Zatanna, the one character whose special powers consists of—get this—saying words backward). Magical wordsmiths aside, JLH houses some of the most iconic names in the comic book biz, including Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. Even lesser-known Justice League members such as the Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and the Green Arrow are intriguing characters (and unusually fond of the color green).

X a

ADVANTAGE:

Though JLH has a tight-knit group of good guys, not even SS a and his pals can take on Ultimate Alliance's massive cast of costumed crime-fighters. >

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

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id guys, the super life would quickly bi sl

imate Alliance features a crapload of ‘em. (fans of the Flash will know we're referring to Gorilla Grodd...all үй others are prob- ably scratching your heads like big, dumb apes). The only bad dude casual players k may recognize is longtime Superman adversary Brainiac. The others (like Queen B мепигег and his or her archnemesis probably ап Й / and Killer Frost) will make you | wish Bruce Wayne’s alter ego had called upon

‘world job 5 awesome enemies for the game.

Now, imagine how spazzy the Flash ild be if he weren't on Ritalin.

ADVANTAGE: MARVEL Gorilla Grodd, Killer Frost, Queen Bee—even the me us would agree that their foes are pretty pathetic when compared to Ultimate Alliance's villains. >

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

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< preview Feature: marvel us. dc

THE STORY

“MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE

Dr. Doom’s plotting a scheme for world domina- tion? Wow, that’s deep. Sarcasm aside, at least Ultimate Alliance offers a break from its clichéd story with optional character-specific comic book missions, many of which feature classic battles. For example, if you unlock Mr. Fantastic’s mission, you'll play out how he escaped from Arcade’s Murderworld and fought the walking, talking muscle Bulldozer in the process.

B Another Fantastic Four movie is

in the works? Now that’s a stretch. |

BON

"JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES

The story for JLH got some special treat- ment from Dwayne McDuffie, game writer by day, DC Comics writer by night. McDuffie's story has Brainiac searching out an all- powerful artifact that'll help put the Justice League out of business. And since the game focuses on a core set of characters, its narrative has less of a broad, overarching approach than that of Ultimate Alliance. McDuffie himself has written stories for The Justice League, so all of the characters’ dialogue should read like they would speak in the comics, as opposed to your generic, “Yeah, let’s go kick some butt!” crap.

ADVANTAGE: JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES

What did you expect? Publisher Warner Bros. Interactive had a comic writer pen the script. You can’t get more legit than that.

86 е ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com

“MY HERO IS MORE SUPER THAN YOUR HERO BECAUSE. ..."

No other comic creator deserves as much credit as Marvel legend Stan Lee. You know, the guy who created every character you ever dressed up as for Halloween. We visited with both him and DC comic writer (and the story writer for Justice League Heroes) Dwayne McDuffie to ask them the ulti- mate comic questions.

||| STAN LEE

The Incredible Қ Hulk vs. Superman

“If | wrote the story, | guarantee the Hulk would win. The way | established the Hulk, the more he fought, the stronger he got. And Superman has a certain amount of strength and that’s it. | assume at some point he'll get worn out, but never the Hulk."

The X-Men

vs. the Justice League

“The X-Men without question. I’m try- ing to remember who the hell is in the Justice League! | feel silly having to answer this. A child would know the X-Men would win.”

Who’s the one DC superhero you'd bring to the Marvel team?

“Superman. He seems to be the strongest and has more powers he can use—he can fly, he’s bulletproof. So I'd feel safer with him as my bodyguard than if | had Robin, the Boy Wonder.”

р Ai = „ DWAYNE MCDUFFIE

4 aj The Incredible

с Жы Hulk vs.

{126 Superman “Superman. So the Hulk gets angrier

and angrier, and stronger and stronger.

Well, Superman would grab him by the

ankle and pitch him into the sun. The

Hulk would be mad as hell...as he’s

flying into the sun.”

r

The X-Men

vs. the Justice League “Oh, no contest, the Justice League. The DC characters are about two orders of magnitude more powerful than the Marvel characters.”

Who’s the one Marvel superhero you'd bring to the DC team?

“For power, Dr. Strange.” >

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Since it’s being made Бу the same guys who did the X-Men Legends series, Ultimate Alliance plays a lot like those action-RPGs...except with an added emphasis on fisti-

cuffs. ("You can now grab guys and sock them a bunch of times," says Grutzmacher.) But just because this one plays more like an old-school brawler than a wordy role-

- JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES

The longevity and strength o! superpowers are completely customizable,

player doesn't mean you won't be evolving your superheroes, as you'll find plenty of upgradeable powers. For instance, Spidey can eventually gain the ability to shoot out two webs and then slingshot himself across the screen.

WII POWERS

While the Wii version of Ultimate Alliance will look > practically identical to its gû next-gen counterparts, the console’s unique controller will have you playing it a bit differently. < “Many of the characters’ actions are mapped to gestures made with the controller,” says Associate Producer Chris Williams. “On any of the other platforms the player has to perform a button combo such as X, X, Circle. However, on the Wii, the player has access to these moves even outside of a combo, so the player can simply give the Remote a quick flick upward and watch their character uppercut an enemy clean off

his feet.” Executing superpowers will also require select movements with the

Wii Remote or Nunchuk. “To make Captain America throw his shield,” explains Williams, “the player holds down the modifier button on the controller then makes a thrust gesture.” Better stay alert around those acting out the Hulk smash or it could be lights out for you.

JLH's developer also has an action-RPG pedigree; Snowblind’s résumé includes Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2/XB/GC) and Champions of Norrath (PS2). The formula doesn't stray too far from these games: You pick a hero from the league and battle a bunch of evildoers, but instead of traditional medieval hack-n-slash, you perform a little comic bop-n-pop. Plus, the game’s experience system ensures that you can play any way you like. “As you level up the powers, you can then customize them more to your play style,” says Producer Jason Ades. “So you can make it so Superman’s heat vision lasts forever, but it doesn’t do a ton of damage. Or you can have it last for a shorter time, but do loads of damage.”

ТА?

.

ADVANTAGE: TIE

Both games furnish the thrill of bashing buttons to kill endless rounds of enemies, so it’s impossible to pick a knockout winner. Gamers win, the games tie.

EARLY WINNER:

MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE

JLH has a super team, but it’s hard to match the plethora of characters and options in Ultimate Alliance—online co-op, comic missions, and the ability to. create your own team...hell, it's enough to give some nerdgasms. h

88 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.tUP.com

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“ % ЛЫ О Raiseth thy Bics апа cranketh thy lo של‎ ны g ind the music of | à ? Rem that strikes all the right power chords

i ое By Crispin Boyer, Jennifer Tsao, and Michael Donah

== hen the lead rocker of the mega-selling six- In the likely event Henderson’s enterprising protest doesn't String Phenomenon Guitar Hero bangs a busi- rake in Millions, he can always fall back on his gig with Guitar | / ness idea from his head, it's probably a good Hero Il, the focked-and-loaded PlayStation 2 Sequel guaran- idea to listen, “Рт going to start a record teed to be America’s loudest game when it hits November 7, label that sells nothing but blank CDs,” says "Guitar Hero is my band," Says the wiry Henderson, formerly Marcus Henderson, the guitarist whose blurred-finger fret- of punk-metal rockers Drist and now the go-to guitar virtuoso work powers many of the game's tunes, for RedOctane, Guitar Hero’s publisher, And, as it turns out, “What, like blank CDs People can record their music оп?” the sequel fights Henderson’s good fight against mediocre We ask. music simply through sheer tonnage of top tunage: 40 songs “No, they’re locked, non-recordable,” Henderson Says. from every school of rock, from Screaming Guns № Roses to “How-much will you charge for them?” We ask. Countrified Allman Brothers to mock-rocking Spinal Tap to "$6.99. We're going to be the first record label to sell angsty Nirvana. “We're Continuing to keep music out there 1 million blank CDs. It’s in Protest to all the CDs filled with that may get swallowed y bad, bad music in stores tight now.”

р by all the Crap that's being force fed to America and the world tight now on the radio,” Says >

M There will be an encore; Worked-up fans will scream for one more song when you finish

TRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 91 your set at each venue,

Е 8 г i 5 g E Ё ё

> Henderson. “I mean, you have kids going to Hot Topic and getting their look and makeup and just assimilating themselves to a scene instead of developing their inner voice. When you're more into being cute on stage, it's time to go back to square one, grab Guitar Hero Il, and focus on the masters."

Monsters of rock EGM is revealing 12 of these masters and their songs in this cover story, which—along with the 12 tunes already unveiled—brings the total of announced hits to 24 (see sidebar at right for the full setlist). That leaves 16 more songs for RedOctane to reveal between now and the game's release, not including the bonus tunes players may purchase with cash earned іп the game's souped-up career mode (the bonus music will come from much bigger, more marquee bands this time). We've played many of the still-to- be-announced songs, which range from You start the дай classic rock to thrashing punk to stuff қ in a high-school gym. that's playing on your radio right now. “1 - : You end it at а trippy think 40 songs is the sweet spot between outdoor festival budget and what you can do with a really à ТЕГ 1 called Stonehenge. good setlist, to reach out and grab enough people,” says Producer John Tam, adding that the new multiplayer ability to strum # Industrial light and magic: Stage lighting is keyed bass or rhythm guitar along with lead to the music. The strobes go nuts during solos. effectively doubles the gameplay content for most songs. Guitar Hero 1/5 setlist is hashed out by RedOctane, developer Harmonix, and the. session musicians who must re-record each tune to strip out the guitar portions for gameplay purposes (although Primus’ “John the Fisherman” is the real deal; the band provided its original master tracks to RedOctane’s recording engineers). Picking the tunes is a process of “spirited debate,” says Henderson, between the East Coast- based Harmonix and the Sunnyvale, CA, НО of RedOctane. "Because they're in Boston and we're in California,” says RedOctane’s Tam, "there's this East Coast/ West Coast balance to it.” Sometimes this think tank gels with a minimum of fuss. Everyone agreed including the Allman Brothers “Jessica” would be a worthy experiment in how far they could take Guitar Hero into southern-rock territory. And settling on “Freebird” was a cinch. It's “Freebird,” for crying out loud. ("It's one of the hard- est songs in tle дате,” says Tam, and after playing its marathon guitar solo, we agree.) But other times, the music-selec- tion committees could barely even agree

to disagree. Case in point: Both camps 4 “Jf it’s super hardcore nd

knew.an Anthrax song Was essential to.

Guitar Hero Il, but they battled over which re quires ultra- hig h g al

max-distortion hit to go with: "Caught in a that's m t n »

Mosh” or “Madhouse.” "Any time you have

one of your personal favorites, a song б у tune. 1 guitarist Marcus Henderson you grew up with, you want that song,”

says Associate Producer Ted Lange. “For

almost half the songs, we had a lot of

push and pull.” In the end, they went with >

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

Discography

The songs you'll be playing

Song Title “Heart-shaped Box” “John the Fisherman” “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” “Madhouse” “Shout at the Devil” “Message in a Bottle” “Tattooed Love Boys” “Surrender” “Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" "Crazy on You" “Jessica” “Freebird” “Beast and the Harlot” “Misirlou” “Laid to Rest” “Them Bones” “Psychobilly Freakout” “War Pigs” “Strutter” “Who Was in My Room Last Night?” “You Really Got Me” “Sweet Child 0’ Mine” “Can't You Hear Me Knocking”

«үү"

НЕК

You know this song

As made famous by... because

You've listened to the radio

Nirvana in the last 10 years

You always wanted to rock the air

Primus (original recording) bass guitar Les Claypool-style

Singer Scott Weiland entered drug

Si Temple Pilot: one ep Toe rehab the same time this single hit Anthrax Rhythm guitarist Scott lan is everywhere right now x 3 It was in heavy rotation in your M MURS 3 ey бе big sister's record collection The Police It's from the band's second album,

and it rocks more than you think

Тһе tune’s got oddball timing (which

he Freine makes it really fun to play)

Ticket scalper Mike Damone sings it

шерш їп Fast Times at Rigdemont High

Stonehenge is your favorite dwarven tourist trap

Spinal Tap

Heart It’s got a classic riff you'll recognize instantly

Allman Brothers Band It's a little bit country... Maybe you don't, even if you've

Lynyrd Skynyrd mock-requested it at a live show

It's like God and Satan

Кирсе eae = collaborated on a metal song

Dick Dale You've seen Pulp Fiction » Lamb of God This metal act's grunty

vocalist scares your parents Alice in Chains It flattered your flannel and your dirty

hair and your heroin addiction

The frontman hits you over the head

Reverent Harton, Neat with the song’s name from the get-go

You respect your heavy metal

Black Sabbath elders, sonny

It's old-school KISS. Like, from NS their first album

Butthole Surfers (It's OK—you probably don't)

Van Halen It’s really a Kinks song! It's a wistful reminder of Gn'R

Guns N’ Roses before Axl went bats**t

You're either a hardcore Rolling

The Ronina Stones Stones fan...or you're Keith Richards

It's a complex instrumental—

БЕЛ and it’s super fun to play co-op

m The SG strikes back: Guitar Hero II will be packaged with a black- on-red Gibson SG-mod- elled guitar, which feels and plays the same as the one that came with the first game.

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > www.1UP.com • 93

> “Madhouse,” a debate that Henderson now

figures was pointless. “You can't really lose with any Anthrax song and those heavy thrashing rifts,” he says. "That's kind of the criteria. The song has to play well in the game. Generally we want to see a kick-ass guitar solo. And if you don't look like a total rockstar goofball jumping around with the guitar controller, then the song's not going to cut it. It’s like passing an audition: You gotta look good playing the song."

Well, that's part of the formula. “Popularity and street credibility are also important,” says Tam. Take “Heart-shaped Box,” the Nirvana tune included in Guitar Hero Il. We wondered why the team didn't go with the more anthemic "Smells Like Teen Spirit." "A lot of times when you go with the most obvious songs," Tam says, “the problem is it's so played out that it's almost too familiar to people. When you pick a hit, but it's а lesser-known hit, it actually gets a better emotional response."

Of course, the grind of song licens- ing—the wheeling and dealing with the ego-powered, makes-the-kraken-look- like-a-guppy monster that is the record industry—ultimately had the greatest sway over what you play in Guitar Hero Il. Although RedOctane's music-licensing guy had an easier time getting bands on board (thanks to the first game's runaway Suc- cess), major supergroups from U2 to Quiet Riot to Led Zeppelin proved too prickly to pin down. Sometimes the sought-after song was just too expensive to license. Sometimes its rights were split between band members scattered hither and yon... or unreachable for other reasons. “Our clearing guy has told me stories of trying to call [band members] in jail to get their 2-percent cut,” says Tam. “I'm not mak- ing this up." Sometimes it came down to a simple band feud. The team pined for a bona fide Van Halen song, beyond just the band's included cover of The Kinks" “You Really Got Me,” but the rift between Van Halen's former frontman and the rest of the band got in the way. “With my understanding from our clearing guy, it's because of David Lee Roth,” Tam says. “And we don't want ‘Van Hagar’ songs, OK? We want early Van Halen. Obviously, рип dreaming of the day when we can fig- ure out a way to make *Panama' work."

That day's not here yet, but RedOctane is not giving up on Van Halen or the other groups who slipped through the cracks—even though the team knows it's impossible to please all players. “You can’t make people 100 percent happy,” says Tam, “but as long as this game keeps on spurring a million conversations on what song would be the best one to play, as long as [fans are] still fighting to hear [their favorite songs], they'll be interested to see what we do next time.” And that leaves us with the question we've been asking RedOctane since the first Guitar

Hero sauntered on stage: When will we get > ТУГЕ ДЕГДЫ 480p for

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

©

₪ i

New modes that'll make you mosh

1. — Becoming а head-banging hero is no longer just a solo act. Along with the versus mode from Hero's debut, you can now join forces with a bud on the bass (or rhythm guitar for some songs). During a tune, you'll share a combo meter with your bandmate, and to activate your collective starpower, you'll have to coordi- nate your rock-outs for some synchronized shreddin’.

2. — Even heroes need practice taming the beasts of rock. Thankfully, now you can master specific sections of finger-cramping ditties in the new practice mode. Along with the ability to pick different sections

of the song (intro, chorus, solo, and so on) you can slow down specific parts so you can perfect the ideal finger- ing to fight off any tune holding you back.

3. — Working your way up to 8 guitar god

is a little different this time. You'll still build your street cred from the bottom, but now you'll start below the bottom; the first round of songs starts you off in a high school battle of the bands. You'll end each setlist with an encore. And now the game will really take you on tour—each venue is set in а different city. A map tracks the cross-country progress of your tour bus.

crisper digital TVs and Pro Logic И (for crowd noises).

WHEN THE CLOCK IS TICKING, PRAY HE FINDS. YOU FIRST.

сааш FE

ой E

> to jam on Europe's spectacularly cheesy synth hit "The Final Countdown?" "I kind of have plans for that song," says Tam,

“but | can't tell you about it. If and when

| Err guitar:

you screw up this time. Miss a note during a combo and the scrolling fretboard shakes for a sec.

1 do something about that song, 1 will tell you, personally, first. That’s a promise.”

“We are jamming today,” says Henderson, gripping the neck of an acoustic guitar with a tattooed, whiphandle-lean arm. He just finished taking us on a “world tour" of RedOctane’s office, playing personal- ized rock ballads for every cubicle dweller while we provided clumsy backing on bass guitar. It's just the warm-up for today's headlining event: Henderson's heading to the nearby WaveGroup—the studio that records all the cover tunes for the game—to lay the last few wailing solo tracks for the final song. “It's more sweet than bitter,” he says of today’s farewell performance. "It's been a grueling four months of recording. The degree of dif- ficulty is so much higher this time. Some songs are seven to 10 minutes long.” That difficulty, he says, translates into the game. "Songs on expert (difficulty) are finger-pretzel mindbenders—more difficult than playing on an actual guitar,” he says. “1 remember reading on forums [after the first Guitar Hero came ош], ‘I got this game yesterday, and | cleared it all on expert in three hours.’ Right, so either you're lying or you're exactly who we're making-Guitar Hero | for.” Fortunately, the new training mode lets you practice entire songs—or just the tricky parts of them— until you're ready to rock for real. Henderson says the recording process was even more painstaking this time, with the already anal WaveGroup engineers and studio musicians tracking down exactly the right instruments and other gear to duplicate the songs. A punk and metal guitarist since his first gig at Taco Bell at age 13 (his pay: "A Burrito Supreme and nachos”), the 33-year-old Henderson laid down the tracks for the heavier stuff in Guitar Hero ЇЇ. “It’s just like а videogame,” he says of his recording routine, which starts in his bedroom where he thrashes

boss is slain, I'm rewarded with another level—another song.” Today's tune, he says, is the final boss. "You'll know it when it arrives,” he says, unable to reveal the name of this monster. “This is a major, major guitar ass-kicker. It has no less than 11 guitar solos in it.”

Yikes. But as fanatical as Henderson.

explains Tam. "It's just in our contracts >

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

Dream until your dreams come true

Which band are you most

Which band that didn’t make the cut glad didn’t make the cut?

would you like in the game? game

through solos until he has them nailed. 3 ^ “Once | get all the pieces and put them ren Day AFI Spin Doctors 600 бо Dolls Crash Test Dummies together, I go fight the boss. And when the (3%) (2%) (4%) Stryper (2%) (2%)

The White Stripes Coldplay (2%) Six

ON (5%)

Led Zeppelin b (20%)

pr | | Nickelback

and WaveGroup are about capturing each (10%) Metallica | 8 song's sound—right down to maintaining np de) | 49% a database of soundalike vocalists for \ The Beatles тең CS

every famous lead singer—it's a little- N (1196) 4 |

known fact that these tunes suffer a small N / | AC/DC

degree of hi-fi infidelity. “Some bands N ^. Weezer | (3%

don't want to be emulated perfectly,” x (12%)

Source: EGM Poll

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a-— жа A дж а

> [with them].” Another reason boils down

to pure gameplay concerns. “The endings for all our songs have this rock-concert crash-out,” Tam gives as an example, “because you want to end it feeling ener- gized. You can't end it with a radio fade: That would put you to sleep."

We've played many of Guitar Hero Il's tunes ourselves. They capture not only the spirit of the rocking original versions, but they're also incredibly fun to play. Clearly, the session musicians’ grueling work has paid off. “I can't believe | spent that many hours in my bedroom with my guitar alone. Without a girl,” Henderson says.

Something is awry at RedOctane. Cubicles are decidedly un-thrashed. Not a single employee has died of a drug overdose, lost a limb in a horrific car crash, or choked on vomit. It goes against every- thing we've learned from watching VH1 5 Behind the Music. After all, the company has had its garage-band beginnings (in game rentals and peripheral sales) and experienced superstardom with the first Guitar Hero. Hardcore fans might even say RedOctane sold out when Activision recently bought the company (Tam insists the acquisition means only good things, such as increased resources for support- ing the inevitable downloadable songs of future versions). Following the Behind the Music career curve, isn't the Guitar Hero phenomenon due for its crash and burn? "We're only on the sophomore record—l'd say we still have five years left," jokes Henderson. "We'll leave a goddamn good- looking corpse.”

And even if the series does flame out in spectacular rock-god fashion, it could leave behind a legacy that inspires tomorrow's Eddie Van Halens. "I predict we will see a generation of kids who will play real guitars better than the generation before them who didn’t have the benefit of Guitar Hero to act as training wheels,” says Clark Vogeler, guitarist for alt-rock- ers The Toadies. “Funny thing is, | spent a week in Portland playing Guitar Hero with members of The Shins and Modest Mouse, and we ran into Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age. | asked him about having their song ‘No One Knows’ іп іне game. Не responded with a frustrated, ‘I can't even play my own song!”

All that matters to Henderson, though, is that people are playing Homme's song—and every other song in the series. The Guitar Hero setlists are, he figures, the ultimate weapons in his war against crappy music. “Ву the time Guitar Hero VI comes out," he says, "hopefully there will be a new generation raised on the music that preserves the legacy of rock n" roll and metal. When it's my turn to pass the torch, | want to make sure there are wait- ing hands to grab it and carry that thing as far as it will go."

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

ш After the sucky sales of the PS2 hard

drive, RedOctane scrapped the idea of selling downloadable songs online. It's a plan they'll revisit when the series hits the new systems.

New to the sequel: Metal

Five f "ing awesome tributes

Gamers are famous for creative tributes to their hobby, and биНаг Hero has proved suitabl inspiring fodder. Ме asked Producer John Tam to tell us about some of his favorite fan-created homages.

The Real Musician 5 www.guitarherotabs.com

A couple of rabid fans out there went to the trouble of

detailing the more challenging Guitar Hero routines in г tablature (notation that helps guitarists practice notes and fingering). They even checked with RedOctane first | to make sure they weren't going to get sued. Tam says [кее ы ы ا‎ RedOctane supports these fan efforts, especially as they don’t use copyrighted material. “There’s no reason to stomp on guys that do that,” says Tam.

The Hacker www.myfavoritebutton.net/guitar.html

This crafty college student connected his guitar controller to a sequencing program on his PC, which then enables him to assign different sounds to the buttons on the guitar. From there, it's just a couple button presses to beautiful music, Tam alerted Harmonix to the kid’s work: “1 said, "When you're ready to look for a job, send a résumé,” says Tam.

he’s done.”

“They love what

The Guy With Blisters on his Fingers www.gamevideos.com/egm

When you watch this video, prepare to see fingers flying. You may find yourself wondering how this could possibly be real...and your suspicions would be well-founded. "That's fake,” says Tam. “He's doing hammer-ons and pull-offs where there's no hammer-ons and pull-offs. And he's not strumming the lead note on some of those...”

The Last Guitar Hero www.gamevideos.com/egm

This is one of those video efforts that looks like it really took some time—and passion. It tells the classic tale of rock 'n’ roll—the love of the music, the inevitable fall into drug addiction, and the inspirational rebirth. "I live rock יחל‎ roll, | breathe rock 'n' roll, | piss rock ‘n’ roll,” spouts a coke-addled lead character. Complete with ZZ Top-inspired fake beard!

The Michelangelo Check the GuitarHeroGame.com forums

Why settle for a boring old red or black guitar con- troller when you can have one with flames, skulls, and alien demons spray painted on it? A creative movement is afoot of artists pimping their guitars. The community is alive and well on the official Guitar Hero forums. “Of course,” warns Tam, “it voids your 49 warranty.” 4%. 4

Sponsored heroism: Beyond the licensed guitars and drum

RE SSS Ч kits from the prequel, you'll see ripped-from-real-life amps and even sponsored tour venues (such as the Vans Warped Tour).

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

HF $ E

LJ e 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.

LI е 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 walk-throughs

Never be stuck again. Video cheats and walk-throughs 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.

63 GAMEVIDEOS.COM

СЫР NETWORK

THIS MONTH IN REVIEWS...

t's been a busy month, with

plenty of interesting games.

Saints Row does the whole “flattery through imitation” thing quite well, making the wait for 6744 much easier. Lego Star Wars Il handles the beloved original trilogy in its unique way. Madden once again delivers the expected goods. Meanwhile, 50 Gent brings in-game branding to a new high.

And yet, despite this menagerie,

only one game qualified for an award, and it’s perhaps the most bizarre of all (quite impressive, considering we also reviewed instant cult fave LocoRoco). But the baby-game-seeming—but surprisingly deep—Rocket Slime takes the crown...and yeah, we're as shocked as you are, Just proves that you can’t judge a game—ah, screw it. If you’re into quirky action-adventures, check out this DS entry.

—Greg Ford, Reviews Editor

GAME DIRECTORY

Xbox 360

104 Saints Row 106 NHL 2К7

106 МНЕ 07

107 Madden NFL 07 109 Enchanted Arms

Multiplatform

110 NASCAR 07

110 Samurai Warriors 2

111 Lego Star Wars ||: The Original Trilogy

PlayStation 2

112 Xenosaga Episode Ill: Also Sprach Zarathustra

112 Yakuza

113 Rule of Rose

PSP 114 LocoRoco 114 Rengoku ІІ: The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N. 116 50 Cent: Bulletproof G-Unit Edition

55

116 Mario Hoops 3-03

117 Star Fox Command

118 Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

118 Mega Man ZX

119 Contact

Extra Stuff 120 Reviews Wrap-up

122 Reviews Archive

revieu сгец

cute as they may be, these slimes would maul you given the chance

месе oe MONTH

DRAGON QUEST HEROES:

ROCKET SLIME

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

Platinum Gold Silver Straight 10s. For | For games with | For games with a games that are | ап average score

life-changing. of 9.0 or higher. | or higher.

mean score of 8.0

GAME OF THE MONTH The highest-scor- ing game with unanimously “good” scores.

SHAME OF THE MONTH Тһе lowest-rated game with unani- mously “bad” scores.

ESRB Ratings The ESRB's game ratings range from “Everyone” to “Adults Only.”

Visit www.esrb.org for the full lowdown.

THE REVIEW CREW

Surprisingly nice people in real life

DAN “SHOE” HSU е Editor-in-Chief Shoe hates film director Sam Raimi for messing up this issue’s cover story. What a mess! Now Playing: Anything that's not Spider-Man Blog: egmshoe.1UP.com

SHANE BETTENHAUSEN > Exec. Editor Three years and 200 gameplay hours later, Shane finally found Jesus —literally—in Xenosaga. Now Playing: Yakuza, Xenosaga ІП, Virtua Fighter 5 Blog: egmshane.1UP.com

JENNIFER TSAO > Managing Editor Someone's not feeling photogenic these days (she's no Britney or Demi). Luckily for Jen, that Xbox

CRISPIN BOYER • Senior Editor

Crispin is either 1) bitching about the PS3’s price on the EGM podcast, ог 2) directing air traffic.

Bryan’s newfound interest in blogging has the EGMer, according

to himself, “blowin’ up.” What a moron.

Now Playing: Okami Blog: egmbryan.1UP.com

Live camera isn’t out yet. Let's hope it's 1.

Now Playing: Contact. Now Playing: Okami

Blog: egmjennifer.1UP.com Blog: egmcrispin.1UP.com BRYAN INTIHAR > Previews Editor GREG FORD + Reviews Editor

Greg's definitely scared of Bry explodin’... mostly ‘cause he'd have. по one to spearhead future Madden reviews.

Now Playing: Saints Row Blog: egmford.1UP.com

MICHAEL DONAHOE > News/Features Ed. Michael went to Comic-Con for research, but he mostly spent time posing with freaks.

ADAM GOTHELF > Editorial Intern Playing the EarthBound-esque Contact reminded Adam to call up

Nintendo for a little chat

Dead Rising: $60. Xbox 360: $400. Pretend revenge on the Babbage's manager who fired you 12 years ago? Priceless. Now Playing: Okami Blog: mark.1UP.com

Now Playing: Rocket regarding a few “mothers.” we К. Slime, Dead Rising Now Playing: МВА 2K2 * Blog: egmiked.1UP.com Blog: egmadam.1UP.com

MARK MACDONALD • Editor-at-Large ROBERT ASHLEY * Staff Reviewer

Why do we play videogames? Robert thinks it's because we feel powerless in the real world. He's a wuss.

Now Playing: Tetris DS Blog: robertashley.1UPcom

CH

ROBERT COFFEY > Staff Reviewer After enduring 50 Cent, Robert decided to take a vacation. Hopefully, he doesn't end up sleeping with the fishes. Now Playing: In Kauai Blog: citizen раіп 1ШРсот №

JON DUDLAK Staff Reviewer T-minus 58 days till Jon gets married, so he’s marking his territory with bulky old consoles, Now Playing: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Blog: Coming soon!

JAY FRECHETTE Staff Reviewer Distraught over the size of gaming T-shirts, Jay is on a high-calorie diet to gain weight. Beats having to buy clothes. Now Playing: Tetris DS Blog: jayfresh.1UP.com

DEMIAN LINN Staff Reviewer

Another videogame hockey season ends in

partial disappointment.

Why did NHL "94 have to

be so good?

Now Playing: NHL 07 Blog: egmdemian.1UP.com

PATRICK MAURO > Staff Reviewer

This syndicated satellite-radio guy played 50 much Madden NFL 07 this month that carpal tunnel syndrome began to kick in. Now Playing: Madden 07 Blog: What do you think?

GREG SEWART > Staff Reviewer

The yearly release of EA's NASCAR game brings out Stewy's inner redneck. Yee-haw!

Now Playing: Dead Rising, NASCAR 07 Blog: stewy.1UP.com

The valiant assistance from 1UP.com’s battalion of

writers assures us monthly victory against deadlines. Tour their home base for reviews we don't have room for.

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

review crew: U xbox 360

No Respect Saints Row’s respect sys- tem proves interesting but limiting. You earn respect for completing side missions and defend- your-territory pushbacks, with bonuses for blinging out your created character. Unfortunately, you have to spend respect to play story missions. It's kinda annoying that you need to finish multiple activities when you want to go on a mission kick.

Xbox 360 ЄЛ»

For wannabe thugs іп upper-middle- class houses countrywide, Saints Row will seem like a sleek glock from the gods. This game delivers what any fan of the genre that Grand Theft Auto built (open-world, mission-based driv- ing/shooter hybrid) could hope for in a next-gen entry—provided that doesn't include innovation.

Visually, its varied boroughs impress with a grungy splendor (provided you’ve got an HDTV). On-foot shooting, so often а misguided endeavor in this genre, is actually enjoyable, ditching clumsy lock-on methods for an ever-present and easily manipulated reticule. And the list of goods goes оп (see sidebar on the opposite page for a more comprehensive breakdown). The most notable inclusion, though, is the game's hit-or-miss online mode (see sidebar below).

The result: Saints Row brings you into a stun- ning, addictive world that you'll easily lose yourself

SAINTS ROW

Attack of the beautiful clones

in with demonic (or lackadaisical, depending on how you play) glee. Too bad it's such a familiar world; developer Volition focused more on refin- ing the genre than changing the landscape. Both the story (help your gang capture the city, one district at a time) and means will induce déja vu in veteran players. And, naturally, the game has its share of minor flaws, including graphical glitches, a criminal lack of midmission checkpoints, and no controllable boats or planes—what gives? But the quality of what’s here sucked me in for the 20-plus hours it took me to beat the game, and Ра have no qualms wasting away a few more.

l've been having a hell of a time trying to figure out why | don't /ove this game. Yes, Saints Row technically fulfills my “how to improve GTA” wish list (for the most part). But something’s miss- ing here. The GTA “soul” just ain't there.

A tour of Saints Row’s tangle of online modes

A standard free- for-all or team-based deathmatch. Herky-jerky play leads to unsatisfy- ing combat in the weakest mode.

Kill enemies to earn chains, which you bring to designated areas to score. The team-based variant offers some strategic thrills.

Li

A team-based mode. One team must escort the pimp to an exit; the other team tries to stop them. Tight interior levels ratchet up the suspense.

Teams com- pete to be the first to upgrade then drop off their car. This wide- open mode makes liberal use of

cars and can result in some tense tug-of-war matches.

A paltry two stages deliver enjoyable shenanigans for two players. One’s a straight-up battle to the exit. The other involves methodically lugging time-sen- sitive, weapon-limiting boxes across the stage.

₪ Nothing says “badass but fash- ionable" like a gun on a chain.

15 it the city? No, Saints Row's metropolis is huge, detailed, and a breeze to navigate thanks to the awesome GPS-like navigation system (I now can't live without it). Is it the theatrics? Nope—the cinemas and acting are top-notch here. It must be the irreverent way СТА tackles gang/mafia life. Naw, Saints Row has that covered, too. Going on suburban drug runs with an airhead soccer mom says it all. Hmm...seems like Saints Row has got “АТА” down pat.

1 guess that’s the problem. Like Greg says, it’s all familiar. What defines the game’s personality? What makes it unique? It’s hard to find Saints Row’s soul when all | can see is it trying so hard to steal G7A’s. | had a lot of fun looking for it, but in the end, | came up empty handed.

Sure, it seems like the developers had a GTA rip-off checklist they

killed Мода" 60.

k : gets a man NM

Good: HD visuals, good gunplay, online multiplayer

Bad: Where's the creativity? Our Fave Side Activities: Drug trafficking, hitman, hostage, theft

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

THE VERDICTS (OUTOF 10)

SHOE

Publisher: THQ Developer: Volition Players: 1 (2-12 online) ESRB: Mature

SHARKEY

www.saintsrow.com

What does Saints Row do better, worse, and the same as genre king Grand Theft Auto?

* GPS minimap

* Save-anywhere ability % On-foot shooting Recharging health Minimal load times Online multiplayer Character creation

Solid driving controls

• A.I, (getting stuck in places)

* Voice acting

* No controllable planes or boats

* Nearly mute protagonist

* Respect system limits

openness

adhered to religiously. And yes, the game features some of the most stilted dialogue and insulting racial stereotypes ever. But hell, Saints Row is actually an all right game. Like Greg says, it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect of an early next-gen GTA title, if such a thing existed, which isn’t a bad thing. Plus, it’s not completely bereft of innovation, featuring a character editor that allows for the self-insertion we've always wanted in such an expansive world, at the price of a practically mute protagonist. But other than that and some passable multiplayer (co-op is, sadly, limited to two missions), don’t expect anything more than filler while we wait for the next actual СТА. жй.

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Maik 2054

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review crew: xbox 360

E Triple dekes аге possible in NHL 07. The Flying V...well, not so much.

Xbox 360

NHL 07 VS. NHL 2K7

Nobody’s winning the Lady Bing in this battle

t's no secret that hockey ain't П exactly the hottest sport іп the

United States (NBC execs had to be cringing after those sad ratings for the Stanley Cup finals). And the performance of NHL videogames last year definitely didn't help; both EA’s and 2K’s games underwhelmed іп "05. Are NHL 07 and NHL 2K7 comeback material, or should sportos just wait for basketball season?

BRYAN: Man, EA’s got some serious balls for basically changing the way we play hockey games. Shooting with the right analog stick, no turbo, using the face but- tons primarily to change offensive and defensive strategies—it all may seem for- eign for the first few periods, but quickly thereafter, those new mechanics and gameplay alterations feel damn good.

DEMIAN: I’m right there with you, Bryan. The game feels totally alien at first—right

№ We couldn't get МНЕ 07 online, so we'll let you know next issue if we hit any problems.

6 os oc 52 E we x =

ВКУАМ DEMIAN

8.0 75 8.0

Xbox 360

trigger to pass, that’s crazy talk—but the controls are actually really simplified (in the elegant sense more than the dumbed- down sense) and accessible. 2K7’s con- trols, which are basically the same as last year's, feel clunky in comparison. | miss the turbo button in 07—skaters will kick it up a little if you skate in a straight line, but the difference is too subtle.

TODD: I've passed up more empty net goals in 07 because of the new control stick than anyone, but I’m still in love with it. Hockey gamers have been starved for innovation like this for 11 years. It feels next gen. Which is something that can’t be said for 2K7’s game—what a snoozer!

BRYAN: Oh, so 2K7's new music-driven audio didn’t pump you up? | know what the developers were going for (have the music, just like in a great sports flick, add to the drama), but these tunes did little to get my adrenaline goin’. Much like the rest of the game.

TODD: No joke. One second I'm being lulled to sleep by 2K7's boring gameplay, the next I'm looking around the room to see who turned on the Titanic soundtrack. 2K7 is so disappointing. Not only is the new Pressure Control farcical—it basically legalizes full- blown interference—but the player faces аге ridiculous. Who's that red-bearded lum- berjack? Oh, it's Peter Forsberg. | guess.

DEMIAN: | wasn't lulled to sleep at all, what with 2K7’s superfast pace and constant one-timer and seriously BS wrap-around

Publisher: EA Sports

Players: 1-4 (2 online) ESRB: Everyone 10+

TODD

www.easports.com

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

goals (love how the forward's stick clips through the goal post, too). But what hap- pened in this dogs-marrying-cats world where 2K7 is the arcadey one and NHL 07 is the slow, deliberate, simmier one? Well, simmy, except that your defensemen usually refuse to get involved in the offense at all, no matter how much you swear at them.

BRYAN: Yeah, EA's game definitely makes some boneheaded mistakes on the ice: Players jump offsides a bit too much, you'll only win like 10 percent of the face-offs against the A.l., and the fighting...well, as the late great U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks once put it, these guys look like two monkeys humping a football.

TODD: Boneheaded mistakes aside, when it comes to scoring goals, variety is the key. With 07, you can play the game differ- ent ways—crash the net, shoot from the point, crank it from the slot—and it invari- ably leads to different types of goals. With 2K7, it's one-timer after one-timer (cue Braveheart soundtrack) after one-timer. It kills any potential drama.

DEMIAN: Wait, | need to go back to the boneheaded mistakes for a minute, because that's exactly why | can't give а really glowing score to either one of these games. Both 2K7 and 07 screw up too many of the fundamentals, from overly arcadey, shooting-gallery gameplay (2K7) to limp-wristed passes and goalies scor- ing on themselves (07). Oh dang, anyone want to talk about franchise modes? Not it. If it ain't gameplay, | don't care.

HL 2K7

THE VERDICTS Eg (QUT OF 10)

ВКУАМ DEMIAN

1000

₪ МНЕ 287: Imagi this scene, but set to~.

TODD: It's easy for Demian to live for the moment, since he's a Red Wings fan. As a fan of the hapless Blues, | find fran- chise modes particular appealing. While EA's is slicker and | like how it focuses on players' game-by-game improvement, 2K7's is deep. It gets the edge because signing a free agent isn't a button press, it's a negotiation. Which makes the оНзеазоп a game of its own, and one worth playing.

BRYAN: Whatever—you stick to silly conversations with overpaid, toothless athletes. ГИ go to 07's ice and play a real game of hockey.

DEMIAN: ! also have to give the nod

to 07 over 2K7—for the first time in many years. The revamped control is an interesting step forward; now all that's missing is a thick layer of polish. And 2K7: time to innovate. More is not better at this point. 4.

№ Dynamic new camera angles? Hey, 2K, let's get a bit more innovative next season, ОК?

Publisher: 2K Sports Developer: Kush Players: 1-4 (2-8 online) ESRB: Everyone 10--

www.2ksports.com

Next-gen BS? Madden 07 on 360 will feature downloadable content in the form of alter- nate uniforms and historic sta- diums. But it’s kinda strange that after years of the current- gen Madden including such content, we're now stuck downloading

it. Will these uniforms and stadiums at least be free? As of press time, EA isn’t talking, but we're pretty sure—actu- ally, extremely sure—that you'll have to pony up some dough for the upcoming content. (And that blows.)

review crew: xbox 360

(Gig) |

MADDEN NFL 07

One superstar away from greatness

BRYAN: Lemme send a big congratulations to Mr. Madden—the coach-turned-broadcaster-turned- videogame-endorser recently got elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Now, does the 17th edition of his gridiron game franchise also deserve a spot in Canton? Well, almost.

As you'd expect, another year of learning the ins and outs of the 360 has translated into the develop- ers producing a more polished brand of football. Everything now moves smoother, and subtle graphi- cal enhancements (better-looking grass, improved field degradation) and new animations (like running backs dragging defenders for a few extra yards) add to the realism. More important, though, unlike 06's. "revolutionary" precision-passing system, 07's big- ticket gameplay addition actually works. Taking con- trol of your lead blocker and pancaking an aggressive linebacker can do wonders for your running game, especially when trying to break one outside. And it's mot like you have to give up the glory if you assume. this blue-collar role; press the B button anytime dur- ing the play, and you'll take control of the ball carrier.

Yet while 07’s blocking mechanics keep up Madden's storied tradition, the game's ego-filled Superstar mode—which focuses on a single player's. career rather than the team's fortunes—disgraces it. The problem mostly lies in the new position-specific camera angles: Playing from these unique perspec- tives (which you can't adjust) either feels incredibly awkward or simply turns you into a spectator. l'm not the biggest fan of the current-gen franchise mode (who gives a crap about changing concession: prices?), but with Superstar's flaws, maybe that's the опе EA should've brought over to this version instead.

PATRICK: Meticulously checking the attributes of fullbacks and O-linemen in 07 may sound like а recipe for loneliness, but that's simply not the case. 1 couldn't get enough of the innovative Lead Blocker controls, and sometimes, | didn't even mind switch- ing to the oft-ignored brute in the trenches to lay someone out. Outside of the standard four-quarter- fare, I'm right there with Bryan on the revamped ‘Superstar mode; nothing about it really could hold

my attention long enough to earn a bust in the Hall of Fame (not to mention the camera issues). Ultimately, though, gameplay rules, and the Lead Blocker feature revolutionizes routine matchups, which, coupled with the run-enhancing highlight stick (distinct jukes for shifty backs are now mapped to the right analog Stick), breathes new life into the franchise.

1UP.COM—GARNETT: At a quick glance, this year's Madden looks the next-gen part: impressive lighting effects, detailed players, fluid animations. But, like the old saying goes, looks сап be deceiving. The more time | spent with 07, the more | realized that someone forgot to teach it some football fundamentals: Тһе secondary doesn't always respond fast enough to ‘swat commands, lead blockers will occasionally run past defenders to lay a pointless hit downfield, and shoddy blocking schemes can't adjust to unexpected defensive fronts (which translates into too many QB- hungry blitzers). That's not to say I’m totally down on this otherwise solid gridiron sim, but my tolerance for these kinds of mistakes is really being tested. >

Good: New Lead Blocker controls Bad: Superstar mode's camera system Week 2: Our prediction for when the Madden cover curse will hit

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

7.0

www.easports.com

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 107

Ф

review Crew: xbox 360

Not so Super A position-by-position analysis of Madden NFL 07’s busted Superstar mode

Quarterback — Good luck being a field gen- eral with a crappy camera that makes it nearly impossible to see open receivers downfield.

Running back — Taking the ball between the tackles works OK, but you'll continually get your bell rung from offscreen defenders on sweeps.

(ЕЗ מב‎ A ж\з

Wide receiver — Wouldn"

the words of Keyshawn, you could demand your quarterback to throw you the damn ball!

Defensive lineman — Hey, developers, how about including more than two moves for getting to the quarterback...or at least two that work?

Offensive lineman — After you've delivered your first pancake block, you’ll be more than ready to retire from this uneventful career.

Linebacker — You'll get a good look at the ac- tion, but that doesn’t mean you'll be contributing to tackles (the game moves too fast for that).

Secondary — Hands down the hardest position to play in this mode, as man-on-man coverage is a complete guessing game.

Don't Forget Ugly

Little Brother

Still haven't itched up enough

coin for an Xbox 360? No biggie. The current-gen edition of Madden NFL 07 (PS2/XB/GC) still has plenty of game. It, too, comes packed with the all-new Lead Blocker controls, and some of

the ere in Superstar mode han the ones in the next-gen version (especially when playing the quarterback position).

And if you're not into building up

one specific player, you can always stay busy with the ridiculously deep franchise mode. 4%.

Punter/field-goal kicker — The one smart move the developers made with this mode: You can't play as either of these p***y positions.

No, this is not a Final Fantasy X screen.

m

Xbox 360

ב

ENCHANTED ARMS

More like Mild Arms

Enchanted Arms is a big, sloppy ball of overenthusiastic good intentions, a slobbering, overeager puppy that tries to lick your lips right off your face when a simple tail wag would do. And yet, despite the insane amount of pointless banter, despite the jarring halts in forward momen- tum, despite an absurdly over-the-top gay character that sets a new world record for swishiness, | liked it. A lot.

Somewhere over the 40-plus hours of gameplay, this sweeping RPG and its characters won my begrudging affection. Against my better judgment, 1 somehow became interested іп the convoluted plot and the intricate backstories of the bedeviled hero, Atsuma, and his pals. Sure, they spoke five lines when one would do, but they grew on me. They wouldn't have if the meat of the game, the brisk turn- based combat, sucked. But it doesn't, thanks to a large pool of potential. party members you can swap in and

out of your party. Aside from adding

a "gotta catch 'em all" addiction to the gameplay, they create a wealth of strategic opportunities. The game's depth is what won me over—in spite of the clumsiness in other areas.

I remember when | used to love this genre. | remember spending hours running in circles to activate random battles to level up my charac- ters. | remember endlessly pressing the X button to advance through line after line of awkward dialogue between stereotyped characters mixed up in yet another generic fantasy plot. Playing Enchanted Arms brought back fond memories, yes, but it also reminded me why | can’t get into standard Japanese RPGs anymore. Other than the addition of online multiplayer, in which you can take golems you've collected and battle in mind-numbingly slow turn- based battles against other players,

Enchanted Arms is the same by-the- numbers experience that was fun in 1997. The romance may still be alive for Robert—but frankly, I'm bored.

For a Japanese role-playing game on the decidedly un-Japanese 360, this turned out to be surprisingly predictable experi- ence. It's no different from the similar RPGs that specialty publishers bring over for the PS2. Nothing about the presentation goes beyond what's been done in current gen. And the low-tech delivery of much of the. dialogue by flat character silhouettes on still backgrounds almost kills the otherwise intriguing story (if you're a fan of the techno-magic hero saga, that is). The chesslike turn-based combat, though, with plenty of options for attack skills and equipment to mix it up, kept me interested. That depth makes this at least worth a look for tacticians, as well as RPG fans.

THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10)

ROBERT C. JAY

Publisher: Ubisoft.

Developer: From Software.

Players: 1 (2 online)

ESRB: Teen

GARNETT

www.ubi.com

SPORTS

Next-Gen Cinemotion graphics and presentation are hot enough to melt ice. No game brings you inside the hard-hitting, lightning fast world of pro hockey | 7

like NHL 2K7. idi АХ

locke League. AII MAL logos and marks an the respective teams and may nat be XM

XB360/PS2

SAMURAI WARRIORS 2

The cancer of supersized combat

Publisher: Koei

2 5. Developer: Omega Force 58 Players: XB360 1-2 (2 online), 55 PS2 1-2

28 ESRB: Teen

E:

= ROBERTA. JAY MLKMAN BENIN

NASCAR 07

Firmly in neutral

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

THE VERDICTS (OUTOF

GREG S. DEMIAN JOHN

www.easports.com

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

Why am I bored when | play

Samurai Warriors 2? I'm never bored. I'm perfectly satisfied staring into space and picking my toenails for hours at a time. But here І am, engaged in something that exists solely for the purpose of entertainment, and 1 feel like a teenager dragged along on a family vacation. [In a grating, teenager whine]: “Aw, not another Lego brick castle to get lost in, not another batch of scarecrow enemies to butcher, not another marathon horseback ride across the s***-colored land of nowhere.”

Samurai Warriors, like so many sequel- farming franchises, has no big idea. It's a collection of “features” (new characters, new throwaway modes) that supposedly make it more fun than its glut of predecessors (under the Dynasty Warriors alias, in this case). At its heart, the game is the same as always. You run across bland battlefields, hacking through crowds of enemies and risking repetitive-stress injury. Worse, this particular version loves to send you all over the map to protect your troops and escort feebleminded allies (who often die first because the mission objectives and level map are so confusing). Someone please nail this coffin shut.

Playing this game is like taking a high dive into a pool that looks bottomless—and realizing on your way down that you're head- ed into the shallow end. Samurai Warriors 2

GREG 5: Huh? Two years now and still no Xbox 360 version of NASCAR? Anyway...

NASCAR 07's two new features don't do much for me. The adrenaline meter—which boosts your stats when you get in “the zone"—is ineffective and feels gimmicky, while the new driver-stats system doesn't make any noticeable difference during gameplay, which is pretty much the point, right? But the core mechanics are better than ever, despite feeling a tad dated. You still play through four major NASCAR series as you work to become a Nextel Cup champion. You still sign driving contracts, manage your own teams, and set the price of your merchan- dise. You still get the same slightly stunted four-player online experience.

NASCAR 07's biggest plus is with car handling. Gone are 06’s fidgety cars and like tracks, replaced by a much more realistic tire-wear model that still punishes you for Staying out too long on old rubber but doesn’t just flat out wreck you for it.

Oh, avoid the PS2 version if you can. The choppy graphics are too ugly to handle. On Xbox, though, NASCAR 07 is a fun way to drive in circles. Now...next gen, please!

DEMIAN: | don't bleed red, white, and NASCAR like my friend Greg Sewart up there, so for me, the fact that Mark Martin’s Roush team livery sports AAA's logo instead of Viagra’s really isn’t that riveting. NASCAR

₪

initially seems solid because it's loaded with extras, including unlock- able characters, numerous modes, upgrade- able weapons and skills, and lots of things to buy. Get past the menus and gorgeous cut- Scenes, though, and it's nothing but "been there, done that" boredom. You repeatedly run through boring environments fighting the same dumb A.I. enemies while listening to some horrendous voice acting. The different characters may offer separate story lines, but each level is more of the same. Samurai Warriors 2 offers nothing over any other single-button-mashing sequel. Pass.

I'm torn. On the one hand, Samurai Warriors 2 is the more liberal, fun, younger brother of Koei's Dynasty Warriors series (which basically puts it on par with Capcom's Devil Kings, minus the sense of humor), but on the other hand, this feels like a really cheap cash-in on Koei's part. | mean, how many times has it made this damn game? At least it controls well, and the smooth graphics—which, on 360, look like polished PS2 models, which is basically what they are—aren't hard on the eyes. But the camera is zoomed in too close (Devil Kings' and Ninety-Nine Nights' cameras are superior), the voice acting is still straight out of high school, and | could live without the Monopoly-style "sugoroku" party game.

07 is little more than a roster

update, and for someone who nearly.

fell asleep while leading the pack around Daytona, that's not good news.

And it's especially not good news when NASCAR 07 leaves so much room for improvement. Stuff like the online races that support only four players. In this day and age! And the dumbed-down gameplay—’m talking after you turn off the option to have the game do all that pesky braking for you, too. I’m trying so hard not to end with the old “for fans of the genre only" cliché, but...it's just so damn true. Sorry, Sewart!

1UP.COM—JOHN: Is it a game or is it a simulation? Yet again, it’s neither, and Tiburon has failed for the second year running to strike the glorious balance it achieved with NASCAR 05. At least it ditched last year's “total team control” nonsense. While Sewart politely forgives the online play as “slightly stunted,” | can’t be so kind. 1 was the guy in second place while Demian led at Daytona, and the problem for те was that | just Couldn't catch him. Not because he's a bet- ter driver, but because the "simulation" just crumbled. | should have been able to tuck into his draft and surge forward, but that’s only feasible when he’s not jumping around the track, freezing up, or turning invisible. Yes, Greg, it needs to be on 360 next year, but it also needs so much more.

XB360/PS2/XB/GC

LEGO STAR WARS Il:

THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY

For the youngling at heart

If you're the kind of dark- sided gamer who evil-grinned when angsty Anakin cut down all those Jedi kindergartners in Episode Ill, then this is not the game you're looking for. Move along. Move along. For everyone else, however, blasting through the three “good” Star Wars flicks morphed into Lego play sets is a perfectly satisfying experience. Sure, The Original Trilogy technically qualifies as a “baby game,” with its happy-go-lucky characters, slapstick humor (stormtroopers in a hot tub? Now I’ve seen everything!), and often simplistic, shoot-everything gameplay. But many puzzles will surprise bona fide adults with their complexity. You'll need to cooperate with your side- kicks, for instance, to raise platforms with the Force or launch them onto higher ground with the new vehicles. It makes for a game that's best played with a second person (despite the camera going wonky at times).

Jawas, Ewoks, asteroid mon- sters—everything is lovingly given the Lego treatment here. Only the vehicle levels, with their slippery controls and convoluted objectives, put a damper on things. Power through them and you're left with a highly replayable, secret-packed game that even dark- Siders can use as a reliable babysitter.

You have to give credit to the brilliant blockhead who forced this awesome yet fundamentally bizarro idea on LucasArts. Sure, this sequel is every bit as ridiculous as the original, but that's what gives it its playful charm. Witnessing Gamorrean guards rock out, air-guitar style, is the type of hilarious hijinks you won't see іп an "adult" Star Wars game, but for Lego Star Wars it actually makes sense. Plus, it's just more fun to play in levels based on the original trilogy. If only the spastic new ship battles weren't a complete mess to control. And, if

you're a completist, may the patience be with you—it will take a good week or two before you blow your blaster on all the secret goodies.

I don't know how any Star Wars fan (which is, what, pretty much everyone?) could not love this game. Like Michael said, it's got everything that's great about the origi- nal Lego Star Wars, except it's much longer and is about the Star Wars mov- ies that, well, didn't suck. The game is pretty standard action fare for the most part, but the Lego characters some- how make it way more fun. Terrific puzzles pepper the adventure, and, like these other guys, | found myself continuously entertained by how the designers incorporated elements of the films into the gameplay (taking some rather humorous liberties along the way). Your A.I. buddies can be clueless at times (must be the hollow plastic heads), so definitely play with a friend.

(QUT OF 10)

THE VERDICTS

CRISPIN MICHAEL

Players: 1-2

SAM

Publisher: LucasArts Developer: Traveller’s Tales

ESRB: Everyone 10+

www.lucasarts.com

The 360 version looks slightly sharper and much “shinier.” You decide if that’s worth the extra $10.

SPORTS

NEXT-GEN NE Е

Signature Style, that is. Every МВА baller plays with his own unique style of play with true-to-life moves and skills for

unmatched Next-Gen

authenticity. AM

SNBA.COM

The NBA and individual NBA member team identifications used on or m this product are trademarks, copyrighted designs and otber fors И intellectual property of NBA Properties, Inc, and the respective NBA member teams amd may not be usd in whole or in part, without the prior writen consent of HBA Properties, ік. © 2006 NBA Properties, lac. AH rights reserved.

"According to GameRankings.com 2003-2006 average review scores of NBA simulations.

review crew: playstation 2

PlayStation 2

XENOSAGA EPISODE IIl: ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA

That's German for "let's wrap this mother up"

ГУУСУН:

Developer: Monolith Soft Players: 1 ESRB: Teen

£5 70 8.

MICHAEL SHANE RAY

PlayStati

YAKUZA

You didn’t need that pinkie finger anyway

| Publisher: Namco Bandai

www.namcobandaigames.com

Publisher: Sega Developer: Sega Players: 1

ESRB: Mature

5 5 =

THE VERDICTS

SHANE MILKMAN

www.sega.com

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

Good: The mech battles, cool cut-scenes Bad: Very linear, too much talking

Let's Pretend: The misguided Episode Il never existed

MICHAEL: Color me confused! | successfully trudged through this space-age role-playing saga, and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened. Saving the world is one thing, but once Zarathustra chucked in all the religious jargon, my comprehension fell vic- tim to its bewildering bucket of nonsense. But even though I'm still trying to figure out why everyone wanted to kill God (what did he ever do, anyway?), the game smartly packs in a massive database covering all the series’ plot points for those who have a few hours to waste. Or you can just play the game and pray you understand it enough to enjoy the religious ride—it worked for me. So didn't understand the plot, but | did master the game's fun but entirely unambi- tious battle system. | still prefer Episode /'s button-combo setup, but the new system works fine (though bosses take eons to beat). Plus, the Е.5. battles (over-the-top fights in giant mechs) trump those in both the previ- ous episodes. My main complaint? The series is ending prematurely with this entry. But for my sanity's sake, maybe that's for the better.

SHANE: Xenosaga's long, strange trip comes to an early yet oddly satisfying end with this climactic finale. Scaling back the series’ original six-game vision forces Zarathustra to quickly motor through a gaggle of crucial plot points, and we finally get the blatantly

Good:

Nothing draws gamers into a story-rich action game like hitting them with a barrage of confusing Japanese names and organized- crime hierarchy specifics from the start: / think my name's Kazuma, but this Shinji dude is calling me Aniki, and I'm pretty sure we're in the Dojima clan even though my friend just murdered the head of it...

You can definitely feel the sprawling Shenmue (Dreamcast) influence as you wander the rough nighttime streets, trying to piece together the details of your good- hearted gangster life after a 10-year stint in the klink. Meanwhile, belligerent hoodlums and citizens force fights for the most inane reasons when you're simply trying to hit the batting cages, escort your orphan friend to Safety, or scare up some grub for a starving pooch—you know, real gritty gangster stuff. Combat, though it evolves over the course of the game and offers simple but repetitive fun, requires no strategy or skill, and you always have ample funds to buy all the life boosts you need. Take time out to shop for a pimp bracelet, get drunk, and enjoy the nuances of the sprawling city, and you'll find Yakuza to be a more palatable title.

Gee, /оп...'т really sorry that Sega didn't radically rework this phenomenally detailed re-creation of Tokyo’s underworld to make it more palatable to your close-minded Western sensibilities. Seriously, you really

ig-city diversions give you a break from the structured story Bad: Frequent bouts of long load times, repetitive combat Development Formula: Shenmue +The Bouncer + GTA

Biblical payoff that clears up

most of the game’s lingering mysteries. Sure, several of the major revelations were cribbed from anime classic Neon Genesis Evangelion, but no other RPG has ever offered such an absurdly epic, nuanced tale. Unfortunately, this time much of the narrative arrives via lame voiceovers instead of cut- scenes—trudging through these talky bits might test your patience, but the excellent dungeons, efficient combat (which recap- tures the fun of Episode I, after Episode ІГв departure), and deep character customization nearly reach Final Fantasy caliber.

1UP.COM—RAY: It's too bad the Xenosaga prequels are so problematic, because Zarathustra will inevitably get less respect than it deserves. For starters, the battle system isn’t trying to be different this time around. It's speedier and rather sensible in regards to leveling and character manage- ment. The database menu is a nice way to get caught up on the story, but it's a shame it’s the only way. If you're new to the series or just forgetful, you'll likely be stuck reading before actually getting to play, which ain't so fun. But beyond that, you'll find a com- paratively robust sci-fi RPG here. Shockingly, that's enough to see past the hours of clas- Sically self-righteous narrative starring all those ridiculously named characters.

missed the point here, man. Yakuza delivers а superbly paced,

mature, and well-acted narrative in the spirit of classic Japanese gangster flicks. Sure,

the deep story line and hyperdetailed setting initially overshadow the gameplay—brawling feels limited initially, yet it becomes far more rewarding as you unlock new maneuvers and master the gleefully violent “Heat” finishing moves. And although you can motor through Yakuza's visceral fisticuffs and well-directed cut-scenes іп а feels-too-quick 12 hours, you'll want to keep coming back for the plentiful secrets and side quests (including a robust system for romancing the ladies).

Wait, does Jon also think Vito in The Godfather should be named “Chip” because, you know, what's up with all those Italian names? You don't pick up Yakuza if you don’t want to play a game about—wait for it—Japanese gangsters, action-game fan or no. Assuming you do want to live the life of an underground mobster in Tokyo's Kabukicho district, what you'll find here is an excellent adventure with Solid (but not perfect) combat, a rich story line (thanks to crime novelist Hase Seishu), and painstakingly accurate visuals. Yakuza's not really a 3D brawler, it’s not as sluggish as Shenmue, and it's no Grand Theft Auto in terms of interactivity with the world, but it expertly combines key elements of each.

—

PlayStation 2

RULE OF ROSE

This rule was made to be broken

Good: Creepy visuals, unique soundtrack

Bad: Uninspiring gameplay, long load times

A Poor Man's: Haunting Ground (PS2)

‘SHANE: Apparently, nobody bothered to tell Rule of Rose's developers about the existence of Capcom's disturbingly similar PS2 survival-horror outing, Haunting Ground. Startling parallels abound, from the clueless blonde heroine stuck in a stately British manor to her loyal canine sidekick who lends a paw to solve puzzles. And while Ground offers some legitimately ter- rifying bits (like when your evil undead grandfather tries to rape you...while he's on fire), Rose feels rather soulless, At first, Rose seems like scary stuff—a lush opening CG cut-scene showcases the game's bizarre adver- Saries, a group of diabolical young girls who call themselves the Aristocracy of the Red Crayon, These little minxes kidnap and torture protagonist Jennifer at the story's outset, yet the premise falls flat, Despite its Mature rating, the game plays it disappointingly safe—nothing here will shock or titil- late, despite a weirdly erotic subtext

among the nubile tweens. Instead, you get a short, straightforward adventure game with predictable puzzles and tedious, sloppy combat. Dedicated adventure-game fans (you know, the kind who play through offbeat PS2 fare like Clock Tower and Echo Night) might derive some enjoyment from Rose, but Haunting Ground actually did every- thing better the first time around...

JON: I'm on board with the freaky British kids and nonsensical plot. 1

can get into the twisted, yet mostly unremarkable, atmosphere, And | can appreciate the canine companion, even though he pretty much walks you through the game with his wonder- nose. But Rose's combat model and boss battles take this game from ador- able to deplorable just when you think it's gotten things right, It's a chore to get our heroine to face the right direc- tion as she timidly waves knives, pipes, and cleavers in the vague direction of

brainless minighouls, Laughably un- scary, spastic bosses offer more of the same “challenges,” The rule of Rose: worth playing for a lark, nothing more.

1UP.COM — ROBERT С: | expect just two things from my survival-horror games: a shot at survival and a little horror. Rose provides neither. All too often, fights are stupidly unfair, with tiny areas loaded up with enemies you simply can't dodge. Toss in the unfriendly camera angles and the graphics’ inability to show you if you have an attack lined up, and you've got an unbeatable formula for frustration (especially since you'll have to trudge long distances back to failed fights, thanks to sparse save points).

For a game so confident of its creepiness, it's amazing how little Rose discomfits. Killer kiddies and murder- ous devil-babies should be way scarier than the dull silliness here, At least the cut-scenes and music are nice.

V

7

(ОТ OF 10)

THE VERDICTS

SHANE JON

Publisher: Atlus

Players: 1 ESRB: Mature

ROBERT C.

www.atlus.com

Developer: Punchline

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Coaches preach it, champions

exhibit it-Tear Unity. If you want to taste The Tournament, you'll

have to master team 7 chemistry. Without it, EU COLLEGE 2 your bubble bursts.

RATING PENDING — Visit www.esrb.org

{ог updated rating information.

CONTENT RATED BY ESRB

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ПЖ LOCOROCO

One-trick blob

+ ¥ е ж + כ‎ n * x Ше у ! + 1 PS Publisher: Sony CEA = Developer: Sony СЕ! 58 Players: 1 55 ESRB: Everyone 28 ws ₪ ЗАМ www.locoroco.com

қ OF THE MONTH

THE STAIRWAY TO THU

A flaming stairwell to hell

РИ: H.E.A.V.E.N. stands for Highwire Enigmatic Automatic Violent Endless Nightmare

MICHAEL

114% ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

GREG S. JANE

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Hudson Soft Players: 1 (2-4 via local Wi-Fi) ESRB: Teen

www.konami.com

Sony takes a classic genre (2D side- scroller), fits it with clever gameplay (you move your characters by tilting the entire world left or right with the shoulder buttons), and flattens the whole thing into a construc- tion-paper fantasy world made up of solid shapes and colors. At first, you might think it's another Katamari Damacy—a quirky, Japanese-weird game that everyone will fall in love with. And you'd be right...at first.

You navigate little LocoRoco blobs to climb steps, swing on vines, bounce on...uh... bouncy things, slide down hills...all to collect useless collectibles and other LocoRoco (to turn your booger-sized globs into Jabba- sized globs, which affects your physics and where you can go). It's fun, challenging, and unique...but any game high you get from this will wear off within an hour.

LocoRoco goes nowhere, fast. The stages are practically indistinguishable from each other, introducing hardly any new gameplay elements along the way. With all this same- ness, your only motivation to keep on rolling is to finish with faster times, more stuff col- lected, or more secrets discovered. It's just not enough for me—although I'd still recom- mend you try it out for that first-hour high...

LocoRoco is a simple game, one that doesn’t challenge you except, perhaps, in perseverance—pick it up, and you'll be

MICHAEL: Before | dismantle this far-fetched futuristic android, | need to ask: Did we really need another Rengoku? Now, | never played the first game, but judging by how hellish its sequel is (and the first game's poor reviews), | think it's my god-given right to officially name the original Rengoku the worst game | never played.

Regardless, it looks like | didn’t miss much—the sequel features the same limb- customizing fighting and a ho-hum multiplay- er mode, but whatever enjoyment you might get from rock-n-sockin’ a bunch of fugly-ass bots is negated with its horribly repetitive, if not punishable, game design. Each of the eight levels has you doing such monoto- nous things as 1) opening doors, 2) fighting enemies, and 3)...wait, that’s it. Seriously.

But the torment doesn’t end here. The more time | spent with the game, the deeper I delved into its defects. Sure, the brain-drain- ing combat is pretty bad, and yeah, the sorry sci-fi environments get old really quickly (like, after the first level), but when the game tried to preach a completely pretentious plot—one that even alludes to the famous literary work Dante's Inferno—| knew it was not created for winners, but for sinners,

GREG 5: The first Rengoku had the most fit- ting subtitle in the history of videogamedom: The Tower of Purgatory. Nothing could have described the painful experience any better.

«екен

able to blow right through its ₪ whimsical, intuitively designed

levels, Many will enjoy this relaxing pace, but it's not for everyone. The game can feel way too simplistic, lacking Katamari Damacy's deceptive complexity. Nor is it addictive enough to justify the limited gameplay—this is no meditative Tetris. But these complaints shouldn't be mistaken for dissatisfaction. LocoRoco is fun, and on your first play- through, you'll definitely find only about half of the colorful blobs and creatures hidden throughout the levels. | don't think this is a breakthrough for the PSP, but 1 enjoyed it.

I've been a fan of LocoRoco ever since | dubbed it the “hap- piest game ever" at the Tokyo Game Show last year—it's one of those rare experiences that just feels right from the moment you first lay hands on it. Unlike most other PSP titles, LocoRoco is a game | haven't felt like I've played a million times before. Sure, it's based around traditional platforming elements, but everything feels so fresh here, thanks to the clever world-tilting mechanic and brilliantly colorful visuals. The game doesn't have a whole lot of substance or payoff to complete challenges, but for a pick-up-and-enjoy title, this is somewhat forgivable. It's the most fun I've had with the PSP since Lumines—that first-hour high kept going for me.

And now we have a sequel that does very little to fix the first game's mountain of problems—backtracking to save, repetitive stages...although you can now use the analog nub for movement. The fabulous potential of controlling a robot capable of fitting almost any weapon to any appendage is completely wasted on room- to-boring-room combat gameplay that would have been just as stale 15 years ago. Not even the admittedly cool character design and above-average graphics can save this game from eternal damnation.

1UP.COM—JANE: An angst-filled android slaughters other androids in a vaguely futur- istic setting derived from Dante's Inferno. Sounds promising, but Rengoku has no tortured souls—unless you count the unlucky players who buy this game. The gameplay in a nutshell is: Kill robots. Level up. Get marginally better weapons. Repeat ad infi- nitum. Customization offers some fun—you can mount a chain saw to your forehead, for example—and eventually melee combos unleash serious damage. These are small rewards for suffering through excruciating level design and cryptic cut-scenes. Existentially speaking, maybe that’s the point of the game: Hell is a place where the player, like Sisyphus, fights a never-ending stream of robot enemies without any real progress. Be good, and don’t end up there.

PRODUCTS RANGE FROM RATING PENDING o EVERYONE 10-+

PLAYS TATIONS

not yet concept approved by Sony Co Entertainment America

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180706. Al rights reserved. © NHLPA. NHL 2KT is an Oficial Licensed Prodoct of бе NHLPA. HLPA. National Hockey League Раде" Association and the NHLPA logo are trademarks of бе NHLPA and are used under Ком by 2K Sports. Ті NBA ad тоа НВА member tam identifications used on or n his product are trademarks, copyrighted ess and other [oms cf intelectual property ol NBA Properties, Ик. and йе respective НВА member teams amd may not be used, in whole or in part without би prior witten consent of NBA Properties, іс. © 2005 NBA Properties, he. Ай rights reserved, © 2006 Take- hyo Interactive Softwar and їз дінін Al rights еза. 2K Sports, бе 2K Sports д and Take hyo erc упт are all ‘remarks and/or regislered vademarks of Take- Two обв Software, с. Мо Xbox bor 360, Xbox Live, е л logs amd the Xbox Live logo are either төріне tena or vademnarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US, and/or other commies. "PlayStation and йе PS" Foy logo are registered trademarks oë Sany Computer Entertainment be.

review crew: psp/ds

гш 50 СЕНТ:

BULLETPROOF G-UNIT EDITION

We ain’t gon’ party like it’s yo birthday

ЕЕ 50

Publisher: VU Games Developer: High Voltage Players: 1 (2-6 via local Wi-Fi) ESRB: Mature

Good: Real music and videos from Fiddy Bad: Aiming system, repetitive action

Mediocre: Just about everything else

An overhead shooter mash-up of Dead to Rights and High Voltage’s own Hunter: The Reckoning, Fiddy’s PSP game fails in the same way his songs succeed: by taking one element and repeating it over and over. Your abilities to take human shields and disarm your foes hide this flaw fairly well for the first few levels, but Bulletproof's gameplay quickly settles into a repetitive groove of mindless gunfire. The flawed targeting system (both yours and the bad guys’) and the fact that enemies suddenly appear in bunches from offscreen lead to frustration as well. Further com- pounding the problem, enemies hardly change throughout the game—even boss- es look and feel like regular foot soldiers but with more health.

And while real 50 tracks and music videos serve as a welcome distraction, I'd gladly trade them all for just a few inter- esting level designs, weapons, or objec- tives (it's mostly “find the key" or “kill 'em all” stuff—even switch puzzles are rare).

As the only guy on this review who actually owns some 50 Cent CDs (unironically, even!), | suspect that Mark and Robert can’t fully appreciate how effectively Bulletproof capitalizes on its license. The underlying game, a mediocre

slashery and 50's PS2 brawler, won't blow you away, but it’s serviceable stuff plagued by some unfortunate camera angles and iffy targeting.

In terms of being fan-oriented product, though, this UMD truly impresses—you can easily unlock the mother lode of G- Unit goodies, including a customizable soundtrack featuring just about every song 50 has rapped on (even most of his guest appearances) and plenty of music videos. More publishers should make their PSP software this value-added...

Dear Mr. Cent— you are a crybaby. So you got shot nine times. Boo-hoo. | encountered scores of bare-chested enemies in your game that shrug off multiple shotgun blasts without complaint. That's impressive. You know what your big problem is? You act tough and throw around a whole lot of naughty words, but the action here is limp when it should be bruising, tepid when it should be scorching. At least the cinemas have some flair. | know your secret, Mr. Cent—you're no street tough; you're a college graduate with а degree in marketing. That’s why this is a relentless branding experience (it’s true, Shane). Next time, devote less UMD space to songs, videos, and licensed G-Unit

THE VERDICTS (OUTOF

MARK SHANE КОВЕКТ С.

blend of top-down Untold Legends hack-n- clothing and squeeze in an actual game.

www.50centbulletproof.com

Good: The touch controls (most of the time) Bad: Teammates don't do jack on the court Football: The sport Mario should tackle next

MARIO

HOOPS 3-ON-

Air plumber

MILKMAN

JAY BRYAN

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

intendo Developer: Square Enix Players: 1 (2-4 via local Wi-Fi) ESRB: Everyone

www.nintendo.com

JAY: | slowly dribble up to the top of the key. Peach takes a defensive stance and makes a swipe at the ball—my ball. | double-tap the left side of the touch screen, which results in a quick crossover, breaking the princess’ ankles and giving me the open lane. Bowser rushes to meet me at the hoop and he brought a friend: a red shell. He fires away, but it’s too late. | drive to the bas- ket—which happens to be a giant piranha plant—and double-swipe up with the stylus, causing me to leap into the air for the dunk as | swipe the stylus side-to-side to collect some extra points (in the form of coins) before slamming the rock back to its home. Welcome to Mario Hoops, basketball with coin-collecting, shell-throwing, and supermove-performing athletes from the Nintendo homeland. Like | described, all of your actions are done with the touch screen, and when it works, it works great. But if you're not precise with your strokes, look out—it'll be turnover city. Also, aside from the tournament mode, you won't find much else to do here. | love unlocking characters, but once that was done, | didn't have much reason to go back except for multiplayer.

BRYAN: Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom pals definitely have some serious ups (sending one down with authority with а. quick tap up on the touch screen—and

raking up coinage—never gets old), but man, Nintendo's crew should've spent more time learning the basics of the game. Seriously, this one might as well be called Mario Hoops 1-оп-3, as your teammates don’t know the first thing about moving without the ball or helping out оп 0. And that becomes a major problem when chal- lenging the tougher squads that are well trained at playing suffocating defense and finding the open man. Jay’s right on about the hit-or-miss touch controls, too; on too many occasions, I'd pass when | meant to shoot and vice versa.

1UP.COM—MILKMAN: Sure, it takes a little while to acclimate yourself to Mario Hoops’ unconventional control setup, but once you get past the learning curve, the game’s pretty fun and something that would only ever work on the DS. The graphics here

are sharp, with good-looking character models and bright, colorful courts. But the game's debt to other Mario titles—primar- ily the Mario Kart-style tournament tree and themed courts— quickly becomes annoying. Who wants to play b-ball on an ice court where everyone's slipping and sliding? And | gotta agree with Bryan on the teammate situation; would it kill these guys to hustle after loose balls and rebounds or try for a steal?

E. MEOS

STAR FOX COMMAND

Commands but does not conquer

MARK: Not content to make Star Fox's handheld debut "just" another on-rails space shooter, Nintendo took some risks with Command,

for better and for worse. The new strategy bits between sorties (where you and the computer take turns moving troops on a map screen) are a blast, as you balance the strengths of your different ships, the speed

of your opponents, and the risks of going out of your way for power-ups and special missiles. But the actual combat is disappointing; the “levels” are dull, wide-open, and (mostly) empty environments where your

job is invariably to kill X number of enemies in Y seconds. The primitive graphics certainly don’t help (most enemies look like abstract art), and the ticking clock never lets you

relax and enjoy yourself. At least the game feels good— Star Fox works surprisingly well with the touch screen: Simply point where you want to go, scribble back and forth for a laser-deflecting spin, tap twice high

or low to control speed, and so forth. Command has great replay value as well, with a simple, engaging multi- player dogfight and branching paths. in its short single-player game—if only the levels were exciting enough to make you want to unlock them all.

G. FORD: | agree with Mark on most of his points: The seemingly out-of- place strategy segments work quite well, and no, the bland graphics don't impress. But he gave a pass on the controls. They work great for moving, spinning, and throttle control, sure, but factor in the more advanced con- trols and things deteriorate quickly. Dropping bombs and pulling off the trick turns make for finger-contorting confusion as you have to watch both screens while tapping the correct area on the touch screen. Oh, as always, artificial time limits иск. Yes, it’s supposed to represent fuel here, but since when do all the ships in а fleet share the same tank оп separate missions? Not buying it. On

the whole, Command's an average shooter buoyed by some commend- able bursts of innovation.

1UP.COM—ANDREW: Given this franchise's off-base track record

as of late, what | liked most about Command was just how much it reminded me of Star Fox on the Super Nintendo. Which is odd praise, given that Command is а quasi- strategy game/arena shooter instead of a pure on-rails action-shooter. Sketching flight paths and clearing out fog-of-war was jarring at first, but as the single-player campaign branched out, | was totally sold on the Star Fox-meets-Advance Wars concept, just like my two wingmen up there (a shame, though, that mul- tiplayer contains no such strategy element). Less easy to adapt to was the stylus control of the Arwings: The stylus is merely an acceptable sub- stitute for a proper analog stick, but doesn’t provide innovation as much as it does hand cramps.

MARK G.. FORD

132° д

t

. m 7 4% А

\

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Q-Games.

2-6 via online Wi-Fi) ESRB: Everyone 10+ ANDREW

Hey furries, get a load of this hot fox!

Players: 1 (2-4 via local Wi-Fi,

www.starfoxcommand.com

ONE OF THE TOP FIVE GAME-DEGREE PROGRAMS

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DRAGON QUEST HEROES:

ROCKET SLIME

Blue ball to the rescue

It's too easy to play 2 cheaply against the A.I.- challenged enemy tanks... \ \

THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10)

SHOE MICHAEL

MICHAEL JAY

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

JEREMY

Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix/TOSE Players: 1 (2 via local Wi-Fi) ESRB: Everyone

www.square-enix.com

Publisher: Сарс‹ Developer: Inti Players: 1 ESRB: Everyone

www.capcom.com

Slimes, the rats of the Dragon Quest world, are headlining their own adventure game whose art style, dialogue, and char- acter names (Fangummy Bob? Gootrude?) were custom-made for lobotomized 5-year- olds. Sounds great, huh?

My first hour of Rocket Slime consisted of painfully kiddie conversations, simplistic gameplay involving stretching my blue bloop to slingshot into enemies, and snag- ging seemingly useless items (like apples and catnip). It was horrible—1 wanted someone to jam a Fisher-Price ice pick into my brain....

I'm glad | didn’t take that brain-trauma route, though—the game gets better over time. Turns out those items serve as ammo in Godzilla-sized tanks for battles against computer bosses. You'll find ballistics that give you different tactical advantages (such as mirrors that reflect back enemy attacks). You'll recruit а crew to man the cannons or infiltrate the opposing tank. You'll learn to mix ingredients to build new, rarer ammo types.

Rocket Slime is still а kids’ game that will hardly challenge anyone (no matter what these two slime lovers will tell you)— including kids. But this one's got some subtle depth buried beneath that baby-puke exterior—it got me, a nonlobotomized, way- older-than-5 dude, addicted enough to be happy | played this game to the end.

MICHAEL: Yippee, it’s а new Mega Man game! Good thing, too, because | was get- ting a little worried Capcom wouldn't meet its Mega Man quota for the month. Not that it's hard to blast these babies out...hell, I'm convinced every time a Capcom developer coughs, a new Mega Man game pops out. So ZX isn't actually much different from the 900 Mega Man games you've already played. OK, so you can choose your char- acter before you start...big deal! Honestly, it doesn’t really matters who you choose— boy or girl, you’re still going blast a bunch of robots until your thumb goes numb. And yeah, so Capcom tries to break the mold by dumping the traditional levels for a shoddy “mission” structure borrowed from past Zero games. Sounds pretty sweet, too—until you realize it's just an excuse to make the game shorter by tacking together а string of short minilevels. And good luck finding where the hell you’re supposed to go—usually, maps help you find something, but in ZX, they only point you to frustration. Thankfully, the game doesn’t fiddle with the familiar Mega Man framework—you still do all the fun things: running, shooting, and, well...you should know the rest.

JAY: This latest case of sequelitis attempts

to keep things fresh by making a few minor changes to the familiar Mega Man formula.

Notably, the nonlinear world gives some

Shoe’s right on: Don’t let this cutesy glob of goo slip off your gaming radar. It’s not just for thumb-suckers— oldsters should get a kick out the plethora of awesomely bad puns riddled throughout the game: S(ub)lime, Chrono Twigger, Don Clawleone...l'd give more, but | don’t want the pun police on my ass. And while 1 was enthralled by both rescuing my slime buddies and tricking out my tank, | have one major complaint: Where the hell is the stylus support? For a game that requires you to stretch a frickin’ slime repeatedly, it's nonsensical that you can't sling 'em yourself. But when it comes to fun, this is a sweet, sticky ball.

Rocket Slime is that rarest of breeds: a kids' game that com- pletely rocks. Sure, the main adventure is basically a low-carb version of Zelda, but two elements elevate this experience to excellence. One is the brilliantly over-the- top translation, laden with incessant puns and in-jokes that perfectly complement the ridiculous premise. The other: the tactical tank battles, which use the upper screen to transform the standard slime- snapping action into a war game. Angry dudes, beware—you'll encounter more goofy cheer in this one game than in most consoles’ entire lineups.

freedom to the series—but at a cost. Like Michael said, trying to find the new area where the next mission takes place results in a frustrating guessing game and lots

of backtracking. The different bit

forms have some cool abilities, sure, but it's a shame the levels never put them to creative use. Rarely do you need to switch to another form to solve a puzzle or beat a boss. And compared to past Mega Man titles (especially the Zero series), ZX can seem pretty simple. | didn’t mind that, though, considering this is the first Mega Man game that didn’t frustrate me to the point of therapy.

10Р.50М--ФЕВЕМУ: Quick lesson: That's “ZX,” as in “sechs,” as in “German for six,” as in “the number of Mega Man spin-offs we're up to now.” Don’t write this off as

a rehash, though—ZX is a much-needed change of pace for Capcom’s creaking franchise, a lovingly crafted adventure

that combines the style of the Zero games with the freedom and side quests of the Legends series. A surprisingly engaging dual-perspective story is the tasty cherry on top, tying the franchise’s various series together. The graphics may be dated, but the controls are perfect, the power-ups bril- liant, and the difficulty tough but balanced. ZX manages to recapture what made those NES originals so darn appealing.

CONTACT

Touched by an alien

Good: Interesting story keeps you coming back for more

Bad: Badly in need of a quest log or hint system Best Bad Guys: Attacking refrigerators!

JENNIFER: Contactis one odd little role-playing game. Not because of the premise—you play a boy who's tasked with helping an eccentric scientist fight alien forces by collect- ing power cells throughout a variety of island environments. Nor because of the gameplay—combat is a simple but effective one-click attack system, augmented by a variety of class-based special powers. What's odd here is the quirky personality and unusual story. Things start off fairly contrived, and the mindless—and useless—chat- ter of your scientist friend on the top screen (you manipulate enemies and levels on the touch screen) can Бе irritating. It's too bad the developers didn't better utilize this setup for hints or guidance; the most frustrating thing about Contactis that you can spend hours wandering around levels because you missed a hidden door or unlockable outfit on a previous island. | found myself dying for the garrulous

Scientist to give me any real clue.

But the multiple perspectives telling the story—from the scientist to the villains to, ultimately, your own char- acter—give the game a uniqueness many RPGs lack. The fun twists and turns (my fave was the Japanese elec- tronics store level) kept me exploring and discovering loads of side quests and new items. Multiplayer boils down to minimally visiting a location to hang out with friends—not exactly essential.

ADAM: Contact offers a creative island-hopping adventure that stands taller than many recent portable RPGs. | agree with Jen that a few of the islands aren't very exciting given the unclear objectives. But it's manage- able, and the eclectic cast helped me practically overlook that fault.

Unlike Mr. Parish below, | find the battle system to be one of the game's strong points (albeit a bit tricky initially). The touch-screen controls and midfight

leveling kept me engaged throughout. Overall, Contactis a bright spot in the poorly lit DS role-playing cave.

1UP.COM—JEREMY: Contactis mostly brilliant. Mostly. It's too bad about the bad parts, because they drag a lovingly crafted game from "exceptional" to merely "very good." If only the battle system weren't a simplified, Diablo-style hack-n-slash affair; if only the story were long enough to make full use of the dozens of skills and hundreds of items you accumulate. Because, really, the rest of the game is superb: a cleverly writ- ten adventure that blissfully ignores the fourth wall, makes sparing but effective use of the DS' unique hard- ware functions, and feels like a love letter to classic games as varied as EarthBound (SNES), StarTropics (NES), and Gauntlet. Brain-dead battles aside, Contact is at once satisfyingly original yet curiously familiar.

THE VERDICTS (ОЛОР

JENNIFER

ADAM

Publisher: Atlus JEREMY |

www.atlus.com

Developer: Grasshopper Players: 1 (2-8 via online Wi-Fi) ESRB: Everyone 10+

REVIEWS ‚1+

Тһе games that were too late...or too little

DS • Majesco • ESRB: E — It’s WarioWare with troubling gender stereotypes! Follow step-by-step recipes to cre-

ate scrumptious dishes ranging in complexity from instant ramen to fried octopus dumplings over udon. Each of the over 60 recipes included here is broken down into a series of supershort minigames, which use the DS technology well. You drag the stylus to crack eggs into a bowl, tap it fast to chop vegetables and peel shrimp, blow on your DS to cool down veggie stew, and more. Cooking Mama isn’t all mind- less fun, either—you might actually learn a thing or two about cooking. (No joke—who knew about that trick for steaming sunny-side up eggs by tossing a little water in the pan and covering it for a few seconds? It actually works!) A couple of the minigames—peeling potatoes and stir-frying—don't always control quite as well as they should, but ultimately that doesn’t lessen the game’s zany appeal.

Bottom line: Occasionally spotty control aside, Cooking Mama is yet another quirkily brilliant DS innovation. Too bad it's so short...

ХВ * DreamCatcher е ESRB: М Pumping lead through an Iron Maiden video's worth of druids and skeleton priests, Painkiller is the speed-metal guitar solo of first- person shooters (with two earfuls of chugging hessian aggression to prove it). Thinking is for the weak and slow of reaction time.

PS2 * Namco Bandai е ESRB: T Eureka combines Virtual On's

robot beat-em-up formula with a rudimentary Armored Core shop system. And, uh...high-school-esque “who's hooking up with who” dis- cussions and borderline-enjoyable hoverboard sequences.

Bottom Line: The lame love-triangle premise will bore teens and bewil- der young'uns, and the dumb-fun gameplay can't compensate.

Bottom line: All you need is 20 brain cells and a 12-pack to enjoy @ Painkiller's relentless расе and campy evil themes.

PS2/XB/GC * EA Sports е ESRB: E — The newest PS2 • Namco Bandai • ESRB: E10+ — Namco has PS2/XB * Oxygen ¢ ESRB: E — ProStroke's makers

current-gen FIFA arrives with a new skill shot, allowing you to bend it like that guy married to that Spice Girl. Topspin, backspin, and more realistic ball physics se ously up the playability. 6 Т Bottom line: Creeping ever closer to the high bar set by Winning Eleven, FIFA isn't quite there yet.

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

tossed aside the racing aspect—the computer handles the driving—in favor of a 3-on-3 high-speed brawl. It's complemented nicely by the various orders you can give your team, giving /GPX a 1 с

depth not normally found in licensed anime schloc!

Bottom line: Nothing overly special, but still a good time.

boast that they’ve “revolutionized” the art of the virtual golf swing, but in reality, all they've done is mimic Tiger's right-analog-stick controls and moved the cam- era so you're looking at x the “real life” angle (right over the ball).

Bottom line: Not so innovative—plus, it’s damn ugly. $h

VVII 11y רו‎ |

BV те

!

L Wi the emperor assassinated an №... b. NM every city, the world lies on the edge of ruin. Only a young spririter named Sagi and his two brave companions can stop a terrifying new evil from consuming everything they hold dear. Discover the beginnings of the Baten Kaitos universe in this prequel to Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Only for Nintendo GameCube. DO וסט‎

PRO LOGIC П

Fantasy Violence Language Mild Suggestive Themes Use of Alcohol

B

TM א‎ 2003 2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. Baten Kaitos is a trademark of NAMCO BANDAI Gams Inc. Dolby, Pro Logic, and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. The Nintendo Game

VERDICT

CALL THEM CRAZY Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War W Great graphics can't make up for boring missions and а forgettable story 55

AND 1 Streetball W Ali the moves and personalities of the sport but with none of the excitement 5.0

-Reviewing LocoRoco this month (see Astonishia Story 18 Looks and plays like a 12-year-old role-playing game—oh wait—it is 3.0

page 114), we couldn't. help геті- Atelier Iris 2: Тһе Azoth of Destiny ША niche role-playing game that, despite new features, still ends up feeling dated 5.5 nisce about other “out there” games

that gamered hype because of their Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light № Another crappy portable role-playing game—nuff said 3.0 crazy premises. A bizarre concept Bomberman PSP. т Old-school fun, but lacks variety and, thankfully, the frightening Act: Zero makeover 6.5

doesn't guarantee great scores, how- Bomberman Act: Zero XB360 ША coldhearted, future-shlocky redesigned look is the cherry on top of a crap game 3.0 a Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! DS WA smart "game" filed with tons of brainteasers that graphs how smart you are (or aren't) 8.5 rable entries (all scores out of 10). Capcom Classics Collection Remixed — PSP и Bright graphics and classy, classic games fill this portable powerhouse 85 Chromehounds XB360 W Big mechs with big guns in big, boring environments 60 Crusty Demons: Freestyle Moto-X XB W This poorly named Tony Hawk clone with bikes can't seem to break mediocrity 35 Dance Factory Ps2 W Changes your favorite tunes into dancepad-ready hump-shaking routines—poorly 3.0 Daxter PSP W This bright, beautiful action-platformer feels cramped by the PSP's limitations 720 Dead Rising XB360 W Anything goes weaponwise, though that won't stop your greatest foe—the clock 7.5 Def Jam Fight for NY: The Takeover ША console port with hardly any new content and cheap Al.—itlooks good, though 50 Deep Labyrinth 0$ W A janky DS role-playing game with tacked-on stylus features—sigh 20 Dirge of Cerberus; Final Fantasy VII Р52 W This first-ever Final Fantasy shooter couldn't hit the side of a chocobo barn 50 Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories PS2 W The cult-classic strategy-RPG returns hardly revised from the first game 70 Dreamfall: The Longest Journey XB I This adventure tile offers an immersive narrative but no game to go with it 40

Field Commander PSP W Sure, it's a rip-off of Advance Wars, but its so good that you won't care 7.0 Final Fantasy ХІ Online XB360 W This online-only sequel has all the things you love—and hate—about the genre 7.0 FlatOut 2 PS2/XB W The poor man's Burnout series sequel serves you another helping of sloppy jalopy 5.0 Freedom Wings 05 W Flight sim meets RPG and sky pirates, but complicated controls hold it back 55 Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter ХВ360 W Amazing war-is-hella-fun shooter with great multiplayer. Next gen is finally here! 10 The Godfather PS2/XB и Grand Theft Auto: Gangster. Atmospheric, faithful to the films, but a bit cheesy 80 Hitman: Blood Money PS2/XB 1а The bald assassin retums with some great level design but a hurtin’ save system — 80

Legend of Heroes ІІ: Proph. Moonlight Witch PSP ША role-playing adventure that plays solid but still feels like more of the same 55

Lemmings PSP W The addictive puzzler returns with new levels and updated graphics 55 m

Major League Baseball 6 PS2/XB/GC. W Reworked the swinging and hitting but forgot to help fielding and baserunning 70

Me & Му Katamari PSP W The PSP's controls hobble the Prince's ball-rolling, garbage-grabbing magic 70

Metal Gear Ac!d 2 PSP ША short, streamlined, card-based tactical roleplayer that stars Mr. Snake 8.0

Metroid Prime Hunters DS W Samus looks great on the DS, but she сап be awkward to control іп first-person 7.5

MLB 06: The Show PS2 № Innovation isn't defined as finally adding a decade-old feature to your baseball дате 6.5

NCAA Football 07 W A faithful update but with fewer features than the current-gen version 70 п

Ninety-Nine Nights Wi Even nine nights would be pushing it to spend with this unoriginal hack-n-slasher 4.5

Odama 6с W This mash-up of pinball and strategy (with voice commands) is more strange than fun. 7.5

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast PS2/XB ША solid arcade racer that’s easy to pick up but lacks the variety of a Burnout — 7.0 Over G Fighters XB360 W This extensive flight sim offers realism—and not much else besides sporadic difficulty 5.0 Pac-Man World Rally PS2/GC а Pac-Man and friends offer an enjoyable (though unexceptional) ride 65 Pirates of the Caribbean: Lad. Jack Sparrow PS2 1а Not even Johnny Depp's Capt. Jack Sparrow can save this game from mediocrity 5 Prey XB360 W Despite creative ideas (portals, wall walking), this shooter runs out of steam 100 soon 6.5 Point Blank DS 05 W It's a port of a light-gun game—but without the lightgun 70 Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis Wi Ping-Pong done right—but the lack of extras will leave you wanting more 75 Ruff Trigger: The Vanocore Conspiracy W A Ratchet & Clank clone that copies everything but the charm 40 Rumble Roses ХХ I Wrestling with sluts has never been more next gen or more pandering to perverts 7.0 Splinter Cell Essentials. PSP. W The controls might be difficult for same—Sam Fisher just doesn't feel right on PSP. 20 Suikoden V PS2 W Slow to start and a bit dated, yet a compelling RPG with collect-em-all fun 65 Super Monkey Ball Adventure PS2/GC W The Monkey Ball series jumps the shark by tacking on tedious platforming 35 Super Princess Peach 05 ША shiny new Mario-style adventure that needs to take the difficulty up a notch 75 Tekken: Dark Resurrection PSP W True-to-the-series brawls and quick loading times make for a great portable fighter 8.0 Tetris 05 Ds W Classic puzzler brought to the DS, but with only one new mode for the touch screen. 7.5 Tomb Raider: Legend № The titular raider is back, swinging and clinging in this solid tomb-robbing game 8.5 Tourist Trophy р52 W Gran Turismo on two wheels, this racer offers realism with a steep learning curve 65 Urban Chaos: Riot Response № With dated graphics and boring levels, this shooter never passes mediocrity 5.0 Ultimate Ghosts "n Goblins PSP т Old-school cheap-death gameplay doubles as a convenient swearing enhancer 7.5 Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth PSP Wi Port issues aside, it's the best role-playing experience on the PSP 65 Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria Ps2 и The six-years-in-coming sequel offers a daunting but rewarding battle system 80 Winback 2: Project Poseidon Р52 ША boring, low-budget stealth-action title that's more frustrating than fun 4.0 X-Men: The Official Game XB360/PS2/XB ІШ Not even the X-Men can save this crappy mess of a game 40 *Games in red are previous Game of the Month winners.

122 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

$ pU S

America’s VideoGame Expo

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“Work as ifsyou were to live a hundred years. Play аз М у 4 were to die tomorrow,”

-Ben Franklin” |

су евр REIL ТЖ Б ks C ROBERTA = БҮ А уәлі ey Eom < отме ог сепсе

ШАЛЫ Mahe смены Gang mey 2 COLLECTION =

lauSFati 1 2] сар 7 NY, PlayStation JOBS WGN: “И ES — «ШЕ M ооо ЫШ = Бы

OF THE

9:

SEANBABY’S

UNDIGNIFIED DEATH THROES

GBA

“One...last thing...before | die... Babar to the Rescue—ACK!!!"

The Game Boy Advance might be the best system ever.

It had all the best NES

and SNES games like

Final Fight One, Mario

3, Zelda, Tactics Ogre, and River City Ransom,

plus it had original rad stuff

like Ninja Ғіуе-0, Advance Wars, and WarioWare. But, for the sake of pity, let it die. Everyone making good games has moved on, yet evil developers are still smashing Barbie and Cheetah Girl cartridges into it. | don’t know what the hell a Cheetah Girl is, but I think one of them is Raven, and, oh snap, there's по glory in a death that’s So Raven. Most of you are probably too young to remember the 2600 going out like a bitch with a glut of post-E.T. garbage, but it’s happening again. Here are five awful games torturing the poor GBA on its deathbed. —Seanbaby

Garfield and his Nine Lives

Since the only glaring failure here is how

the controls seem to have no effect on Garfield, | knew | had to focus my jokes there. But my first try was, “Moving Garfield is like leading a fat person through a maze by making donut sounds.” But that doesn’t make sense, and a while ago | wrote that a game's controls were 50 unresponsive it was like being Stephen Hawking’s thumb wrestling coach, so it seemed time to retire the bad-controls hyperbole. Now that 1 can only comment on the game's slightly competent parts, I'll try to paraphrase its press release: “This sassy tabby has always been among the top five cartoon cats who enjoy food, and this game proves why: CATtitude! We tip our ‘CAT’ to Garfield! | want to kill myself in the face!”

Catz

This game is perfect if you always wished you could pretend to raise a pet, but couldn’t find the time. Catz is designed for the very stupid, so it will take care of || most of the hard thinking for you. This freed up my

7| brain to realize that we as a society haven't come up with an insulting way of describing people who play games about imaginary pet own- ership. Shouldn't such a specific type of lonely nerding have a label?

Luckily, Руе spent hundreds of hours inventing a social slur to describe them: “pet- sturbator.” | think it could really catch on. For example, "| saw some guy and his GBA petsturbating on the subway.” And if petsturbator doesn’t stick, | wrote a backup: Phil Collins. Because when he isn't busy autographing men’s crotches, pretending to own a cat is exactly the kind of thing singer/songwriter Phil Collins would do.

Fun Foreign Fact 1: In Vietnam, Catz goes by the name Trainable Sandwichez.

Fun Foreign Fact 2: In Vietnam, the unit of currency is the dong. So it’s totally con-

ceivable to say, "Where did my dong go? | just put it on the table a second ago.” And that would almost certainly lead to the follow-up question, “Vietnam, why did you let Phil Collins name your money?”

ome over

a shows van damme a thing ог two about death

Babar to the Rescue

If you bought this game strictly for exposure to Babar, | have bad news for you. First, you don’t know how to read any of these words. Second,

the thing that you think is reading is actually Play- Doh. And finally, during the first three levels the gameplay is seen sn from 4,000 miles away, so as far as nonbionic eyes can tell, this game could be about anything. | personally chose “A shrieking whistle that will do anything to make its own head shut up and then make it as a showgirl.” But it's not all bad news for Babar fans. Check this out: 40 free Babars!!!

Take the Babar Challenge: Using two six-inch strips of construction paper and a toothache, | dare you to have less fun than Babar to the Rescue.

VeggieTales: LarryBoy and the Bad Apple

When you're about to die, it's always a good idea to turn your life over to а god, just in case. The release of VeggieTales is the result of the dying GBA's trying to get into heaven on a technicality, because the alternative—someone actually intended for a religious cucumber to be played with and enjoyed—is far too terrifying.

The Bible Part 2—Bible Harder: If anyone ever adds a sidebar to the Bible about god-related videogames, I've started it for them: “And the Lord said, ‘Is this game starring hopping vegetables about Me? Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch got a bet- ter game than this, and I’m, like, God!’ Then lo, everyone's faces melted and heads exploded except for the people with their eyes shut.”

Bratz: Forever Diamondz I^ P If you're unfamiliar with Bratz, they're a group of alcoholic children who 1 | dress for sex and love to shop! And when a system goes out on a game hu n called Bratz: Forever Diamondz, that's the human equivalent of living an ordinary life, then having your last words on Earth be, "Where's that underage prostitute 1 solicited!?" Maybe it doesn't define you as a whole, but it's a bad one to go out on. Gameplay: A directionless stroll through gender stereotypes—your girl plays with a kitten, competes in a fashion show, and figure skates! Boys don't put up with this crap, but if we did, our version would be Dudez: Tractor Yeah— players would drive cars, play

124 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY ® www.1UP.com

beer minigames, vote, shop for morning-after pills, and do math. rx

You can get more exciting looks into the workings of comical game reviews like this at my brand- new EGM Greatest Hits Uncensored website: www.seanbaby.com/egm

(Solution on раде 129)

ACROSS

1. Xbox first-person shooter nickname _ Flash ? 5. Spider-Man 3's Topher 9. Mario’s is 400 seconds 14. Stimpy’s pal 15. Peter Parker in costume 17. Emma's Metal Gear Solid 2 nickname 18. What no one can do to PS1's Mr. Domino 19. ХБох'$ Operation Surma for short 21. New Spidey 3 villain 24. Trick 26. Overwrite 27. 5 ACROSS, as a supervillain 29. Guitar Hero licks 30. Opening scenes 31. DS stylus, at times 32. WarioWare Touched! unique nasal venue 35. GameCube plug-headed robot's initials 36. Genesis Acro-Bat 40. Madden offensive position, for short 42. Green Goblin’s Spider-Man “offspring” 45. Main Matrix man 47. Tetris roots? 48. Square Enix fighter series 49. Lord of the Rings publisher

DOWN

1. Mary-Kate or Ashley 2. Mario transporter 3. RPG inn features 4. Hides and waits, to first-person shooter buffs 6. PS1 RPG _ the Lad 7. Street Fighter Il special version, for short 8. NASCAR 07 power plants 10. DS wireless play, or МІ- = 11. Six games, at least, in Top Spin 12. RC_-Am (NES) 13. US/Canada/Mexico region for short 16. Really good EGM review score 19. Silent Hill's Harry 20. Clues, or cheats 22. Obscure puzzle title Magical _ 23. А little more than half of all gamers 24. Like singer Russell Watson of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness soundtrack 25. Left side of a Pirates ship 27. Final Fantasy VII's Valentine 28. Metroid Samus’ ball ability 33. Slang for publisher 34. Athens 2004 African team 37. Fable was once known as Project _ 38. CD-_ or DVD-_ 39. What Pikmin do with commands 40. NASCAR rubber 41. PS1 driver The Italian. _ 43. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ bigmouthed _ Loc 44. SOCOM difficulty rank, for short 46. GC Capcom vs. SNK suffix

GRUDGE MATCH

| Back to Ghoul

DEAD RISING

SUMMER SHOPPING

The only shopping time worse than the holiday rush is the

back-to-school blitz. In fact, some

might rather spend a week killing

mall zombies than pushing through a crowd of kiddies to snag that last Kim Possible backpack. Crazy? Perhaps not:

MISSION

Get the zombie scoop and live to write about it ad Rising

Get 2-for-1 Toughskins at Sears through Saturday

FELLOW SHOPPERS

Endless legions of undead mallrats 1 Rising

Swords! | Advantage: Dead Rising

Dreaded mall walkers block your every turn

Ice Cream of the Future (as if)

DANGERS

Well, there’s, you know, the zombies...

SHOPPIN!

Cut through zombie crowds like heavy cream Айма! ead Rising

Being seen with your dad at Hot Topic Advanta 1

IG CARTS

Roll right the f*** into your new Explorer

HOURS

72-Hour Mode is a real survival-endurance test Advani ead Rising

Get to Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. and get trampled in the rush!

No surprise—we’re confident any sane person woul d sooner spend the fall schooling zombies in the ways of a second death than shopping for Trapper Keepers and rubber cement. Hmm... Wonder if you

game over

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

(

Se

egm retro

(SUPER) POW

A rough old-school rivalry

ifteen years ago this month, Nintendo launched its 16-bit Super NES in America. Much to Nintendo's surprise, it wasn’t the runaway success that its predeces- sor had been; where the NES easily claimed 90 percent of the U.S. gaming market, the Super NES was caught off-guard by the Sega Genesis. Nintendo eventually claimed victory, but it was a long, difficult struggle. —4Jeremy Parish

SEGA GENESIS

Tech Talk

The Genesis was technologically inferior to the Super NES in almost every way. The screen could display fewer colors, fewer characters, and fewer graphical effects than the competition. The one area in which Genny excelled was clock speed; at 7.61 MHz, it was more than twice as fast as the Super NES. Even if you take the Megahertz Myth into account, it only took one level of Sonic to realize Genesis games felt faster... even if they didn’t look or sound quite as nice.

№ Genesis won hardcore hearts with this near perfect rendition of Strider.

The Early Bird Wonder why Microsoft made such a big deal about the Xbox 36075 next-gen headstart? Look no further than the Genesis—it had a two-year lead on the Super NES in America. Sega made the most of that time while Nintendo happily raked in the cash with its aging NES...and found itself playing catch- up once it entered the 16-bit arena. (Of course, an early start isn’t always reason to celebrate, as Saturn and Dreamcast owners can attest.)

Heavy Hitters What's a console without software? With Genesis, as with every system, it ultimately boiled down to the games—and these three in par- ticular set the tone for Sega fans.

Madden NFL: OK, so EA’s Madden series didn't get its start on Genesis. But for serious sports freaks, the two were peas in a single scrumptious pod. Sega owed much of its early success to this superlative gridiron sim.

18 In between shooting Tough Actin’ Tinactin commer- cials, Madden helped the Genesis score big sales.

Sonic the Hedgehog: With Sonic, Sega hit Nintendo below the belt in two very tender places. One, the game was fast, where SNES games of the same period were pokey. Two, the furry speedster was cool, quite the opposite of the cuddly, safe corporate mas- cot Mario had become.

Mortal Kombat; The Genesis version of Mortal Kombat made Nintendo look even less cool than Sonic

had. Where Midway's kombatants "sweated" when punched on Super NES, Sega let them battle in all their spine-rippingly gory glory (via a secret code).

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

Genesis’ success demonstrates the power of effective marketing—Nintendo extolled gamers to play it loud, but Sega was loud, sneering that its console did what “Nintendon’t” and punctuating every hyper-MTV-style TV ad with the Sega Scream. And who could forget the seductive lie of “Blast Processing,” which basi- cally meant “we program our games to be very fast.”

Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

So what kept Sega from winning? Sadly, the only one with the ability to defeat Sega was, well, Sega. Infighting between the company’s Japanese and American branches, plus wonky add-ons with little support (Sega CD and 32X) hurt its direction. So once pixels made way for the polygons, it was the Super NES that claimed victory in the 16-bit war.

ER STR

SUPER NES

Under the Hood

The Super NES had a pokey processor, sure, but, everyone learned a valuable lesson from Konami’s slowdown-laden Gradius ЇЇ and made the best of things. Besides, everything else about the/System left little question as to which console was iê true 16-bit powerhouse: An amazing custom sound processor and graphics chip gave developers whole lot to work with.

Hot Jargon

The Super NES was powered by jargon—but unlike Sega’s “Blast Processing,” Nintendo’s actually meant something. The “Mode 7” graphics were built around one of the system's seven special hardware modes that enabled different graphical effects; the seventh allowed pseudo-3D rotation and scaling (an overly abused feature). Later, SNES owners learned to love the name Super FX, which referred to an extra chip that enabled actual 3-D polygonal graphics (Star Fox).

Super Software

Many people bought the Super NES based on the strength of the Nintendo brand name, but in the end, it offered the goods.

№ Though Super Castlevania IV’s spinny rooms made us sick, we dug the Mode 7 graphics.

F-Zero: Nintendo made use of those fancy Mode 7 effects to create a racing game with unprecedented speed and realism. Well, a kind of realism, anyway.

Street Fighter ІІ: Capcom created an arcade phenom- enon with its globe-trotting fighting game, and at the peak of that mania it was available on Super NES... and Super NES only.

Donkey Kong Country: How do you make an aging machine compete with next-gen 3D graphics far beyond the Super FX chip's capabilities? Simple—you fake it. Using the shameless voodoo trickery of Advance Computer Modeling, Rare revived Nintendo's.

№ Donkey Kong Country proved that we really will buy anything if it's pretty enough.

original mascot and its 16-bit system in one swoop. DKC kept the Super

NES alive longer than anyone thought possible.

Stay on Target... Ultimately, the success of the Super NES had everything to do

with Nintendo’s single-minded

vision for the con- sole. Where Sega diluted the Genesis market with silly and impracticaladd-ons, Nintendo tinkered with the idea of a CD-ROM peripheral but ultimately decided against it. (Of course, that choice eventually inspired Sony to steal

the idea to create the PlayStation, which made

it something of a Pyrrhic victory.)

But the SNES/Genesis battle was a tight race until the end—the closest console race ever, in fact. Tough competition equals vigorous innovation, and innovation equals better games. That in turn makes for happier gamers—and that is why the Super NES is so fondly remembered for giving us some of the best darned games ever, 4%.

Ho

555

№ The SNES may not have been able to match Sonic’s speed, but F-Zero sure as hell tried.

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 127

game over

FINAL WORD

Best damn sports talk period

f annual Madden sales are of any indication, you are always

ready for some football. So are these two chumps. Our two

regular sports-games reviewers, Previews Editor Bryan Intihar and Staff Writer Patrick Mauro, spend most of their waking hours playing virtual pigskin—why do you think they look so...ungroomed? Let’s see how they handle questions slightly tougher than “punt or go for it?”....

S n № Quite а bit of testosterone and hair in this month’s Final Word...

If you could only have one series from now on, would you take NCAA Football or Madden NFL?

NCAA Football: That's a little like asking if “you could only have your right hand or your left from now on.” I'd keep my left and take NCAA. | believe/hope Madden's hugely innovative Lead Blocker Feature makes its way to the college game. Setting the price of foam fingers notwithstanding, NCAA's in-season recruiting blows anything Madden offers away from the field.

Neither (for now): My allegiance will go to the first franchise that can deliver the one feature that every- one wants: Online Dynasty. I've had, enough of these

₪ silly momentum meters and Owner modes—l'm wait- ing for the day I can set up a league with my buddies from back East and either bring home the national championship or the Vince Lombardi trophy...and totally rub it in their faces.

New Blitz (Blitz: Тһе League) ог old (NFL Blitz)?

New Blitz: Juicing, betting on your own team, sending hookers to your opponent’s hotel the night before the big game...Blitz: The League is everything those previ- Î ous installments should've been. Also, it proves that you don’t need some overly priced license like the No Fun League to make a great sports game.

Bryan

No Blitz: The last three Blitzes:have been entirely dif- ferent games. Talk about a franchise with an identity crisis. I’m sure the NFL will pfovide enough material (kind of like the recent story of the 300-pound Bengal who got pulled over for a traffic violation and wound ир on the wrong side of a Taser) for another game, but with Madden, | got no time for this stuff.

hi

Patrick

NFL 2K series: Bring it back or don’t need it?

Bring it back: Nothing spurs innovation quite like competition. When Sega stopped making hardware and everyone could play 2K on their PS2, no one ever 4 bought another copy of Sony’s NFL GameDay. It also forced EA to make a better Madden. As strong as this year’s lone NFL game plays, it could be even better if a competing NFL:2K7 existed. Bring it back!

Patrick

Bring it back: Yeah, license exclusivity sucks the big

4 fat one. No matter what EA says, you know this lack of competition makes it much easier for them to stay on cruise control. It’s a complete disservice to gamers. And don’t tell me that we don’t have room for more than one NFL game: Those 2.5 million copies of NFL 2K5—not to mention Madden's ridiculously highisales figures during the same year—prove that we do. Anyway, | don’t think it'll be long until 2K Sports brings out a non-licensed football title. My money’s on next year...and it'll be something like an NFL Legends game.

Best old-timey football game: Intellivision NFL Football, Cyberball, or Tecmo Bowl?

Tecmo Bowl: Football fans may debate Madden arid NFL 2K until they are blue in the face, but no one can argue the greatness of Тесто Bowl. And what made the game so fun (aside from running like a wild man with Bo "Knows" Jackson) was that it simplified

the sport, as defense consisted of just choosing which play you thought the other guy was going to call. Sure, those hand-holding gameplay mechanics may be too dated for today's sportos, but what a sweet Xbox Live Arcade title it would be!

Cyherball: Nothing screams cool quite like bastardized 7-mari football from the '80s featuring robots and an explosive ball. It could be a theme for a new Blitz. | took home top prize in a Cyberball 2072 tourney in Pacific/Grove, CA, back in 1989, which at this point is downright embarrassing to even admit. Unlike the football games of today, nobody cool ever played Cyberball.

Forget football: Videogame hockey, basketball, baseball, or soccer?

Hockey: A good head butt makes for strong entertain- ment, but soccer’s lack of scoring ultimately frustrates me, even in videogames. Licensing issues forced out the wrong company in baseball. | love hoops, but the fresh focus on defense in NHL 2K, fun and intuitive analog:controls in NHL, plus lifelike mullets in both titles will attract me to the ice.

None of the above: Here’s my chance to beg and plead for someone to make a college lacrosse video- game. The sport ain’t popular enough, you say? Then why did almost 50,000 fans pack into Philly’s football Stadium (in the blistering heat, no less) for the NCAA Division | championship game? Even lacrosse’s professional league is blowin’ up. C'mon EA or 2K—just do it! sah

> When Patrick's not reviewing sports games for EGM, he's busy being a daddy and hosting Sirius radio show “Patrick Mauro Video Game Review" on Channel 122. Check him out Sunday nights at midnight EST.

NEXT MONTH: NOVEMBER - ISSUE #209

ON SALE OCTOBER 10

PREVIEWS

№ Wii Sports (Wii)

₪ Lair (PS3)

№ Cipher Complex (PS3/XB360) № Warhawk (PS3)

№ Dead ог Alive Xtreme 2 (XB360)

THE BIGGEST GUN

GEARS OF WAR

iller app anyone? November marks the release of Microsoft's most powerful weapon in the console war since Halo

2. This postapocalyptic shooter-sure looks like the prettiest Xbox 360 game to date, but will its gameplay match

the otherworldly visuals? We swarm developer Epic Studios (the guys who also brought you Unreal) to get our war on with exclusive hands-on multiplayer action. Don't expect outspoken Gears designer (and MTV poster boy) Cliff Bleszinski to go ипзба ед during our assault—we’ll extract crucial single-player gameplay and story details from Mr. Gears himself. Our 60 bucks says this won't be just another predictable space soldier vs. aliens conflict...

We'll also introduce you to a guy who was so damn good at Tony Hawk that Activision hired him to work on the series. Get the full lowdown on his ride from virtuoso to paid staff, plus learn how your gaming prowess could land you a gig as a designer. Also; with the anticipated launches of both the PlayStation 3 and the Wii only one month away, check out our progress report оп the games that you'll be playing on Day One, which includes Warhawk, Wii Sports, Heavenly Sword, :

REVIEWS

№ Just Cause (Multi)

₪ Destroy All Humans! 2 (PS2/XB)

E № Final Fantasy XII (PS2) № Crackdown (XB360)

|. m Gangs of London (PSP)

121 02 NEUE

and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

ADVERTISER INDEX

(All planned editorial content is subject to change.)

ANSWERS TO SUPERHERO SHUFFLE

2K Sports Hudson Entertainment SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT

httpi//www.2ksports.com/. ........... 109 — www.HudsonEntertainment.com ....... 42-43 Tr ER PROTEST] on page 125 2K Sports iBuyPower Sony Online Entertainment

hittp://www.2ksports.com/.... http://www.ibuypower.com ........... 78-79 www.sonyonline.com . 7 2K Sports Microsoft Square Enix U.S.A., Inc:

http;//www.2ksports.com/. ...... «eese 113: wwwamicrosoft.com. ........ www.square-enix-usa.com ..............49

2K Sports Microsoft Square Enix U.S.A., Inc.

http://www.2ksports.com . . . www.microsoft.com . www.Square-enix-usa.com

ACTIVISION MILK PROCESSORS Square Enix U.S.A., Inc.

www.activision.com. . . .......- ...55,57,59 — wwwgotmilkcom ....... sese 30,20 wwwsquare-enix-usa.com .............132

Blistex Corporation - Stridex Mitsubishi Electronics Take 2 Interactive

www.stridex.com www.mdea.com www.take2games.com. . .

Capcom USA Inc. Miramax Films The Gillette Company

www.capcom.com www.gillette.com

Comcast Corporation Namco Hometek THQ Ine. www.comcast.com.

DC Comics

Чосописз.сот........... АН 89 Www.thq.com. .

Eidos Interactive, Inc NBC Ubisoft Entertainment www.eidos.com www.nbe.com . www.ubisoft.com Electronic Arts Nintendo of America University of Advancing Technology " . 8-9 ммлмлйМепйосот.................. X21 wwwuatedu Full Sail Real World Education Nyko Technologies Inc Vivendi Universal Games www.fullsail.com . Я .117 мумлилуйосот...................... 97 www.vugames.com Game Crazy Office for National Drug Control Policy Wizards of the Coast www.gamecrazy.com. www.whatsyourantidrug.com WWW.Wizards.com ..................... 47 Gameloft Sega Of America Zed USA Corporation

www.gameloft.com

www.sega.com. ..

www.zed.com. .

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AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 26

PlayStation.e

Alcohol Reference Fantasy Violence

Mild Language Suggestive Themes

AVAILABLE NOW

CONTINUE THE EPIC ADVENTURE ON THE PSP* (PLAYSTATION'PORTADBLE) SYSTEM.

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