How опе kid got a videogame job by being good...at videogames SR hands-on, icles, new screens.. we've got the full scoop! PS3 + Wii How their crazy controllers will work with your games - Next-gen previews Rainbow Six Vegas, Lair, DOA: "валу 2, апа тоге #1 of 2: The Human 3 қ / y и 1 s ІШ Curb Stomp Cover AT е < - a 447 Ju p с = 7 Dirt God Commandments Thou shall race all offroading vehicles: ATVs, bikes, buggies and trophy trucks. Thou shall do sick freestyle tricks off jumps. Thou shall not mud pants while getting big air. Thou shall customize vehicle to make faster. Thou shall race in all terrain: stow, dirt, sand, forest and especially mud. Thou shall not wash ATV unless thou washes it with mud. Thou shall strive to become a pro racer. Thou shall feed on adrenaline for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thou shall honor all commandments of the Dirt Gods or feel their wrath. rtainment Aineticainc. Developed by Climax Racing. “Blaze Your Own Tra ent Aftiericainc. Online iconis a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment s» Mild Lyrics Б j^ 4 Mild Violence $ Network Adaptorifor jon$2)or PlayStation®2 with internal network nnector, and! leath sold separately). "PlayStation" andthe "PS" Family logo are registered. trademarks of Sogy.Computer Entertainment Inc. “Live 1n Your World, Play in Ours.” ia registered trademark of Sony Computer “Entertainment ricalnc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. he n. “STF FI OID. LIL LS ( BLAZE VOUR OWN TRAIL ж» > Бу NINTENDODS. GAME BOY ADVANCE 4 PLATFORM SPECIFICATIONS RATING PENDING mountain air, tire smoke and nitrous | With cities cracking down on street racing and the once-underground drift scene sliding toward sanctioned respectability, the corest of the core are heading for the hills. Or, more accurately, the canyons, where it all began decades ago in the Japanese touge. A perfectly executed drift is a marvel of physics and a thing of beauty on a track, but on a plummeting mountain turn, the stakes - and the adrenaline levels - are higher: In street racing, a bad night ends with the police impounding your ri and crushing it. In the canyon: ight ends with a 200-f drop into a ravine —and your ride crushing you THERE ARE Raw skill wins races. Recruiting a rock-solid crew paves the road to world domination. drafter Purist. Team player. Creates the aerodynamic draft that slingshots you to the front of the pack. wh scout (73 Knows the map — and what's not on the 174% map. Sees around corners. Finds shortcuts. / ф-» blocker / |” p Rough. Aggro. Makes life hell for your ы. opponent. Opens the road wide for you. / 4 (Rs fabricator m Master of mods — adds body panels, roof / | ® өз scoops, tall wheels, exhaust kits, wings. Cr mechanic РА Has skills to boost your ride's juice and 8 connections to get discounts on cars and parts. =} fixer Keeps the heat off your back — and gets you extra money when you win races. Visit www.esrb.org for updated rating information. TUDIO VANCOUVER | SES ын ы U BLACK CREATIVE CLOSE-UP EA GAMES TITLE | | Facrom: 91, жаг | INFORMATION Ез IN] | WP Scar DEVELOPMENT START 81 primer, bolts and welding burns Like a lot of us, Andy Blackmore dra rs - except he does it really, really well. Blackmore, à 46 A Black Box studio іп Vancouverwho once workedfor McLaren, spends his days putting who love to get their culpt™ toolkit to Боду she hoods; intakes, vents and every other detail of masterpiec ted by Blackmore and fellow designer Mike gu. Or they can build eye-popping whips of their own. The be part of working in t igital г , as Blackmore puts it; "In the real world, you have to worry about legality." Endless adventure, incredible worlds.. Evil has poisoned the pure heart of the Mana Tree, and now, she calls on her children to save her. Armed with sword, flail, bow, and hammer, and joined by your spirit companion, you must fight to drive back the corruption before your whole world is lost to darkness. Discover the magic within over a hundred gems, and use their power to enhance your own--the Mana Tree is counting on you! For more information, please visit www.nintendods.com/childrenofmana. PRODUCTS RANGE FROM EVERYONE ro EVERYONE 10+ CONTINUE YOUR ADVENTURE AT WWW.DS-RPG.COM. . the Nintendo DS awaits When a handful of magic students stumble across a rocket hidden on their school’s campus, they find themselves launching into an adventure that spans the stars. Blast off for tropical jungles, frozen wastelands, and other exotic locales as you uncover the secret behind your teacher's disappearance. Your magic grows more powerful as your planet moves into alignment--but the same goes for your enemies, too! for more information, please visit www.nintendods.com/magicalstarsign. ммтемоврус, NINTENDA S Game trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners. TM, ® and the Nintendo DS logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo MATURE 17+ Віооа Language Violence i PlayStation.2 AVAILABLE OCTOBER 2006 ALSO AVAILABLE: XBOX 360” COLLECTOR'S EDITION © 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 2006. Mobile version © 2006 Gameloft. All Rights Reserved. Gameloft and the Gameloft logo are registered trademarks of Gameloft S.A. np c ы. cates { “It’s easily the best RPG to hit PSP, not to mention one of the best of the last two console generations." (Game of the Month, 9 out of 10) —PSM: Independent PlayStation Magazine, August 2006 LENNETH You ARE A VALKYRIE, CHOSEN TO RAISE FALLEN WARRIORS AND PREPARE THEM TO FIGHT ALONGSIDE GODS. DISCOVER CLASSIC GAMEPLAY, ALL-NEW CG CINEMAS, AND AN EPIC STORY. OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION. AVAILABLE NOW гед FOR THE i ж й қ PSP* (PLAYSTATION'PORTABLE) SYSTEM m» hn SQUARE ENIX. www.square-enix.com Published by Square Enix, Inc. e qe PlayStation Portable Fantasy Violence Language Suggestive Themes Use of Alcohol [В YOUR SOUL PREPARED? GET READY FOR ADVEHTURES BEYOND MORTAL EXPERIENCE “This is one of the best role-playing experiences оп the PS2 and shouldn't be missed." —Electronic Gaming Monthly = SILMERIA “i REBEL SPIRIT, THE GODS HAVE EXILED YOU TO THE MORTAL WORLD. WHEN THE WARRIOR WITHIN YOU AWAKES, YOU MUST FLEE THOSE WHO WOULD CONTROL BOTH YOUR BODY AND YOUR SOUL. AVAILABLE NOW à > FOR THE PLAYSTATION'2 ж COMPUTER. ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM 4 Alcohol Reference Fantasy Violence Mild Language [рх Suggestive Themes PlayStation. ЕЗ TEN ESRB CONTENT RATING — www.esrb.org PLAYS Тт ЕТТ КЛ ГҮ. 23 © SEGA. 5ЕбА з registered in the U.S. Р: nd Trademark Office: SEGA IWESEGA«ogo, FULL AUTO and FULL AUTO BATTLELINES are either redistered trademarks or lrademarks of SEGA Corporation. All rights reserved. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family SUIS ада logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. ae CO conte issue 209 - november 2006 LETTERS 20 We've got crabs—giant crabs...or at least a letter about them PRESS START Gaming news just how you like it: rife with sex, politics, and Legos 26 PLAYING WITH POWER Before you yank the voting crank, bone up on our guide to the politicians putting games in their campaigns 32 COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH We give a history lesson on the PS2's and GameCube's launches. Will Sony and Nintendo get it right this time? 34 LAIR Dress in layers for the best dragon's- lair game since Dragon’s Lair 46 HALFPIPE DREAM Meet a Tony Hawk player so good at the game, he got hired to help make it! 48 DEAD OR ALIVE: XTREME 2 Dead or Alive head ninja Tomonobu Itagaki makes fun of Tekken 56 HEAVENLY SWORD Our exclusive look at the PS3's hot goddess of war 64 LEGO MANIAC See a brick master snap together three game-inspired masterpieces 68 RAINBOW SIX VEGAS We tear into the game's online mode like it was a Vegas buffet. Burp! GAME OVER 148 SEANBABY'S REST ОҒ THE CRAP Seanbaby vs. Uwe Boll...fight! 150 CROSSWORD/GRUDGE MATCH 152 EGM RETRO A salute to systems you never played 154 FINAL WORD 156 NEXT MONTH 158 HSU & CHAN C GEARS Well in advance of this Xbox 360 Shooter's November 12th “Етег- gence Day," we spend 24 hours in the trenches with Gears of War creators Epic to craft this 14-page war journal about the game's single-player campaign, online modes...and orbital lasers? Zy ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY EDITORIAL Northwest Editor-in-Chi oc dUPcom s Director Junts— Detroit Scot Teritory Managers & Acct. Execs Gaming Accounts 14% ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com CONTROL ISSUES Joysticks are for babies. See how games for the PS3 and Wii use motion- sensing controls Шш MotorStorm (PS3) REVIEW CREW Xhox 360 118 Test Drive Unlimited 119 NBA 2K7 Multiplatform 120 Just Cause 122 Scarface: The World Is Yours PlayStation 2 124 Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 124 The Fast and the Furious 125 God Hand 126 Final Fantasy ХІІ 132 Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA GameCube 132 Baten Kaitos Origins PSP 133 Bounty Hounds 134 WTF: Work Time Fun 134 Spectral Souls 135 Gangs of London 05 138 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 138 Scurge: Hive 139 Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis 140 Magical Starsign 140 MechAssault: Phantom War 141 Touch Detective Extra Stuff 142 Reviews Wrap-up 144 Reviews Archive TE Ч п Final Fantasy ХІ, pg. 126 ><. EDITORIAL Do me a favor— turn to pg. 96 and read the Gears of War cover story. When you're finished, turn to pg. 156 to see what we have lined up for next issue. Why all the Xbox 360 love? Well, we're genuinely excited about what we've played so far of Gears of War (regular readers know we'll offer our honest opinions, good or bad, on prerelease games if we get our hands on them). And Halo 3... well, it's Halo 3. But in case you're questioning why we've had so many Microsoft first-party games on our covers this year (Halo 3 will be No. 4), lemme explain... First off, with our shift to more next- gen reporting, the Xbox 360 is obviously ahead of the curve compared to the Wii and the PS3, which aren’t out yet. Thus, more 360 coverage is to be expected for this year. But the bigger thing is, Microsoft is just plain better at getting the word out about their products. Nintendo’s notoriously secretive because its mothership back in Japan doesn't want anyone to know anything. (In recent years, however, the company has thawed some—see our Wii cover story earlier this summer.) And if Nintendo's an evasive ninja that we сап never pin down, 5опу 5 the hotshot yakuza crime lord who doesn't really give a s*** about getting any coverage. Oh, he'll throw us a bone here and there, but in general, he has better things to do, like not putting out good games on the PSP or something. Regardless, Electronic Gaming Monthly will continue to strive for equal coverage across the board. Nintendo and Sony might not change attitudes, but we'll keep pushing and pushing them. And you can trust that when it comes to criticism, reviews, and opinions, we'll be totally honest and unbiased, no matter who's playing or not playing ball with us. So, now that you've read our Next Month page, you know our other big secret for the next issue, right? Yup, we're changing our look and our logo in preparation for a new age of total awesomeness...from us. So come for the Halo 3 business—stay for the kick- ass new EGM. —Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Editor-in-Chief any Ort 3 NETWORK All rights reserved. ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 15 TAKE EVERYTHING YOU LOVE ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND MULTIPLY IT. TAKE THE FUN, THE GAMES, THE CURIOSIT Y, THE EXPLORATION, THE CREATIVITY, THE EXCITEMENT, THE PROGRESS, THE LEARNING, AND THE PASSION... AND AMPLIFY IT. NOW TAKE EVERY THING YOU DON'T LIKE - THE LAG TIMES, THE LOCKUPS, THESTUT TERSTEPS.. AND DELETE IT. IT'S А NEW WAY OF COMPUTING. IN FACT, IT'S COMPUTING THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO BE intel) Leap ahead" INTRODUCING INTEL? CORE"2 DUO. THE WORLD'S BEST PROCESSORS. Intel's new Core"2 Duo desktop processor multiplies everything you and your computer can do. Now you can experience performance up to 4096 faster and over 4096 more energy efficient. Learn why at intel.com/core2duo THE LAST THING GOING THROUGH YOUR &N < D ў THE ULTIMATE NEXT-GENERATION ACTION-RPG EXPERIENCE. AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 2006 Engage your senses in a world so immersive that it blurs where only you can end the long-standing oppression the boundaries between gaming and reality. Brought to of a tyrannical king. Get ready to experience Untold life through true HD graphics, heart-pounding combat Legends Dark Kingdom - the ultimate next-generation and in-game cinematic storytelling, players will find action-RPG. A game that will lead you so far into themselves in a world of beauty, betrayal and deceit, the darkness, you may never want to find your way out |do PLAYS Т1 Т1 07 ГТ. = WILL БЕ R Go online and play cooperatively with Devastate enemies with chained Embark on a fantasy your, friends or acquire melee attacks, mind-blowing spells adventure as it unfolds in additional game content and powerful special attacks true high-definition SONY ONLINE Violence ENTERTAINMENT ‘© 2006 Sony Online Entertainment LLC. SOE, the SOE logo, Untold Legends and Dark Kingdom are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC Game experience may change in the United States and/or other countries. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Al rights reserved. during online play. a EE‏ ا RYE: Pose‏ artsy-fartsy debates, curse words, hot teens, and killer crabs granted | wish that Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft would make a simple game where you play as a normal kid who goes to school, throws spitballs at other students, gets in trouble with teachers, and maybe even gets suspended. Oh, and after school, you could play basketball, hang out with your friends, or maybe go cause trouble with the local cops. | love games that let you go blow people's heads off, but | still think it'd be cool to have a game like this. —Bruno Ferreria OF THE MONTH I still hear gamers criticizing film critic Roger Ebert's suggestion that videogames are not art. Stop and think about it, though: Do we really want vid- eogames to be art? As a fan of both, my answer is a very emphatic "no." While videogames undeniably have certain artistic elements, the very nature of games and art are not entirely compat- ible. Art is a more passive experience; an artist—such as an author, director, or painter—presents his/her completed vision for you to react to, one way or another. Games, on the other hand, are considerably more active. The program- mers give you a basic framework, but the substance of the experience comes from how you play using the things you were given. It’s a two-way street instead of a basic give-and-receive scenario. Games and art fundamentally operate on two different skill sets. This is why most movies make lousy games (The Da Vinci Code or X-Men: The Last Stand, for instance), and why most games make lousy movies (consider Doom, BloodRayne, Silent Hill, or a dozen others). Personally, | think the great value of videogames is set back when they try to be art. Games are unique and special, and should take pride in that rather than trying to shoe- horn themselves into something that goes counter to their purpose. —Mike McGranaghan * BIG Amis 20 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com We're not sure what's weirder—the fact that you want to play a virtual ver- sion of your own incredibly mundane life, or that Grand Theft Auto publisher Rockstar Games is actually making the damned thing. Yep, Bully (hitting the PS2 this October) basically cov- ers all the bases you mentioned here, although in this game you'll be the one dishing out the atomic wedgies...not receiving them. in town Like millions of other males aged 18 to 35, | bought my copy of Madden NFL 07 the day of its release in hopes of play- ing out all of my pro-football dreams on my brand-new HD screen. Upon taking the game home and actually playing it, | instead found a glitchy game with bargain-basement production values. Seriously, is EA really spending any money on the Madden series anymore? Beyond the completely useless new features and the updated draft, there really isn't much improvement in the series at all. This surely isn't helping EA's already tainted reputation in the gaming industry. And having the exclusive NFL license doesn't really provoke them to create better m © se J E Madden laughs all the way to the bank. Thanks to Bully, obnoxious brats can fulfill their fantasy...of being obnoxious brats. games either. The back of the Madden box where it says “No. 1 Selling Pro Football Franchise” should more appropriately be titled “The Only Selling Pro Football Franchise—Suck It.” —D. Terletsky We actually received several letters like this one, and although our review- ers didn’t feel quite as ripped off... Madder's scores have dipped a bit in the past two years. Has the lack of competition made this revered foot- ball franchise too complacent? Next season, look for a big shake-up in the field, with a new NFL Blitz installment and an original, unlicensed game from 2K Sports. developments First off, | am the reader who, a number of months ago, declared that | was not going to read the letters section Rambling and ranting from our message boards, boards.1UP.com (look for EGM's forums) „anything that starts with Z and ends with e/da: Twilight Princess. ...Gears of War, because | can't wait to use a chainsaw gun on some poor sap online. ... Guitar Hero Il, because it rocks. Period. ...the classics over and over, because | have no money. “This fall, I'll be playing...” ..the DS, because touching is good. -.. With all your girlfriends while you're all busy playing your games. Losers! ...a game called Which bill should 1 pay? after all the debt | put myself into buying new consoles. -..Halo 2 online. I'm still not done yet. any longer because you made fun of a previous letter 1 wrote. 1 have decided | was far too hasty in my reaction and have since learned to appreciate your jibes in good humor. | even showed it to my English professor, mother, friends, and one stranger. Good show! In other news, | recently had the time to take off the plastic of my copy of Kingdom Hearts ІІ and start playing. ІР5 a great game, but 1 noticed something rather odd. In the previous installment, Sora's playmate Kairi was completely flat- chested. Now, they are actually showing the curvature of her breasts. Not that | spend much time staring at preteens, but it's just...you know...noticeable. —Ephraim Freed We're glad that you came to appreciate the “tough love" in our reply to your previous letter, but we're perplexed by CONTACT EGM E-mail us at: EGMeziffdavis.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 hack issues: E-mail: back_issues@ziffdavis.com WHEREVER IT'S GOING DOWN, DELTA FORCE GOES IN. DELTA FORCE BLACK HAWK DOWN. TEAM SABRE. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. женишке + M MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 27 М WHO АМ I? Leland Yee His job: California state assemblyman (D) 1 His thoughts: "[The Hot Coffee mod] basically tells you how to copulate with a woman. It tells you how to do it, what position to do it. It's outrageous. [It] should not be in the hands of children." His vitals: This previously little-known middle-aged California state assemblyman joined the antigaming cabal after the notorious Hot Coffee incident. Yee inked AB 1179, a California bill that bans the sale of violent games to anyone under 18. Last October, Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger rounded up a group of Girl Scouts, propped up covers of outdated games like Manhunt and Postal, and signed Yee's bill into law. Yee hasn't backed down. This summer, he made headlines after successfully getting Sony to discontinue a Dutch advertisement for the PSP. The cryptic ad showed a white woman holding the face of a black woman (right), which Yee called demeaning. “| am pleased to see Sony tak- ing responsibility for their racially charged ad and appropriately pulling it from the marketplace," he said. 1| 4014814 19915 шолу siejsejy Әу jou. Hillary Clinton Her job: U.S. senator, New York (D) Her thoughts: "We should all be deeply disturbed that a game which now permits the simulation of lewd sexual acts in an interactive format with highly realistic graphics has fallen into the “ hands of young people across the country." Her vitals: Of all the politicians to come out of the woodwork over Hot Coffee, no one made a bigger splash than the former First Lady. Word of the secret coitus struck a nerve with Senator Clinton, who joined the outcry for a ratings overhaul. With Lieberman at her side, Clinton would later throw her support behind the Family Entertainment Protection Act. But, most shock- < ingly of all, word surfaced that Clinton’s knowledge on the issue came from a briefing with none other than Jack Thompson, the crusading Miami attorney most often associated with the far-right wing of the Republican party. Clinton has had no comment on that association. With a much-rumored presidential run in her sights, she’s possibly the best-positioned politician of all to strike li a deathblow to violent games. Doug Lowenstein His job: President, Entertainment Software Association His thoughts: “We don't think 12-year-olds are rushing out with к money to buy Grand Theft Auto." His vitals: As the head of the gaming industry's trade associa- tion, Lowenstein is on the front lines of the deathmatch with the opponents of violent videogames. It ain't easy. In addition to heading up initiatives on videogame piracy and free trade, Lowenstein has the unenviable job of being the whipping boy for the antigaming crusaders. In the wake of the Hot Coffee mod, ева attorney Jack Thompson wrote an open letter asserting that Mee! 54%, Lowenstein "never met а pixilated [sic] prostitute he didn't like." For Lowenstein, the lashing is simply a matter of the public's misconception that games, like Trix, are for kids. "A lot of critics tend to overlook that we’re a mass-market medium,” Lowenstein says. “The average age of people playing games is 30. Critics think the only people playing games are 15-year-old boys. That’s just completely dead, 180 degrees wrong.” r&& Your cat’s ass 22% CASE YOU NEEDED ANOTHER WORLD WAR Il GAME, UBISOFT ANNOUNCED BROTHERS IN ARMS D-DAY IS COMING TO THE PSP THIS FALL.... >> egm internatienal Destroy all robots, cook your own dinner 8 PS2 THE OTOKO-TACHI NO KIJUU HOUZA What's the story with this one? Well, it's pretty simple, actually. As a gunner on a Millennium Falcon-ish starship, you zip through 18 rail-shooter stages while blowing up tons (and tons) of typical sci-fi fodder. So why should | care? Because this game is actually a milestone—it's the 100th game in D3 Publisher’s Simple 2000 series, a massive line of Japanese PS2 budget titles that all go for 2,000 yen (about $17). Featuring everything from old standbys (The Dungeon RPG) to the downright insane (The Friendship Adventure), the lineup is every- thing wrong with Japanese games—and everything so, so right with them. 0045364000 Қ 20g EA ee КС” EL B3 пут: Тұз». cT eU 5-1 E Nintendo DS SHABERU! DS ORYOURI NAVI This isn’t what | think it is, is it? Yep! Nintendo's latest surefire million-selling “nongame” is a cooking tutor for, well, your typical Japanese gamer. Complete instructions for over 200 dishes аге рго- vided, each with voice commentary and even video examples that show you exactly what a rolling boil is. You can even choose foods уои don't like (tomatoes, for example) and Navi won't introduce any recipes with that ingredient. But is there a game in all this? Sure—just load up Navi's built-in cooking timer, and you can have a little Game & Watch action while waiting for the cookies to rise. 9 76 MAS PRE DITS Gatanr¢s TT [TIR WHAT'S PLAYING INTHE má In the News Whores of WarCraft Judging from the preview videos at www.whores ofwarcraft.com (think dudes in chainmail “stabbing” wenches), World of WarCraft-addicted masses can now... erm...enjoy a WOW-themed fetish porn site—assuming Blizzard's lawyers don’t step in. Our only question: Why “Whores of WarCraft,” as opposed to the infinitely more amusing "World of WhoreCraft"? Coming Up Guild Wars Nightfall The next expansion to Guild Wars, ArenaNet's wildly popular fantasy-action massively multiplayer online role-playing game, spins ап epic (and totally cliché- free, we're sure) story about rogue gods and encroaching darkness in a land that desperately needs heroes. Players get another 300-some skills to keep existing characters on the hamster wheel, along with two exotic new professions: the Dervish (a scythe-wield- ing mystic) and the Paragon (a heavily armored warrior with leadership skills that benefit his entire group). But the biggest new feature—players can now |. customize Guild Wars' previously brain-dead NPC henchmen, equip them with better weapons and skills, and issue orders to them. Good thing that only took a year and a half! Now Playing The Ship The latest bit of quirk to hit Valve Software's Steam download service: The Ship, a psychological first-person action game that’s part Clue, part Sims, and part Hitman. Up to 16 players roam a crowded cruise ship, each in search of a single, specific, and randomly assigned target to whack—while constantly ducking their own would-be assailant through the use of aliases anr! disguises, and tending to Sims-like needs such as bathroom breaks and sleep. Think of it as a big game of cat-and-mouse-and-cat, perfect for short stretches of time...and for jaded first-per- son-shooter haters. --Вуап Scott Ryan Scott is the reviews editor for our sister publication Computer Gaming World >> UBISOFT IS FORCING A NEW STAR WARS GAME ONTO THE PSP AND DS— STAR WARS: LETHAL ALLIANCE LIGHTS UP STORES IN DECEMBER... >> NI EARSo WAR > |, EMERGENCE DAY 11.12.056 Blood and Gore Intense Violence EPG Strong L Microsoft XBOX rong Language IVE cóuntdown to launch T-MINUS ONE MONTH UNTIL Your monthly prep for the PlayStation 3 and Wü liftoffs repare for a battle, Microsoft. Next month, both Sony and Nintendo enter the next-gen fray (the PS3 drops Nov. 17, with the Wii landing only two days later). But unlike these up-and-comers, Microsoft already has a year's worth of games to gloat about. A bigger library, sure, but any new system ships with several choices—some sweet (Halo) and some rotten (Fantavision)—that hungry gamers will gobble up. So since we can't review the day one offerings of the PS3 and Wii now, we looked back at what we did review for the PS2’s and GameCube's launches to see if Sony and Nintendo have a better chance this go-around. PSS'S LAST-GEN LESSON PS2 launch: October 26, 2000 Number of launch games reviewed in EGM: 29. Average score: 7.1 (out of 10) What went right: Although the PS2 didn't slay consumers with a true killer app, Sony did manage to launch with a whopping 29 games. Variety was actually the real killer—just about every gaming genre had at least a couple of options, perfect for the extra finicky folks. From fighting (Tekkerr Tag Tournament) and sports (Madden NFL 2001) to racing (Ridge Racer V) and even billiards (Q-Ball: Billiards Master), it wasn't too difficult for Sony to shill its massive (but mostly mediocre) lineup. What went wrong: Aside from a handful of winners, the PS2’s launch was mostly filled / ACCLAIMED SCI-FI WRITER, ORSON SCOTT CARD, IS WORKING ON ANOTHER BOOK THAT WILL LATER BE TRANSFORMED 32» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY « www.1UP.com with rushed-out rubbish. No matter how pretty Fantavision looked or how much we wanted role-playing games Orphen: Scion of Sorcery and Summoner to hang on the same cloud as Final Fantasy Vil, it was clear these games were made for ignorant launch hopefuls who willingly bought any Sony- approved schlock. Why the PS3 launch could kick ass: If Sony can manage to muster up as many games for the PS3 launch as it did for the PS2, it could at least give reluctant gamers a choice between the two next- gen powerhouses. Plus, sweet-looking exclusives like Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm are the kinds of games that will likely make 360 and Wii owners a little bit jealous. But even if the games don't mange to impress, the packed-in Blu-ray player will at least make next generation DVDs look $600 good. Жанке (| 100 Resistance: Fall of Man 55% 10% Sonic the Hedgehog Fight Night Round 3 2% 57755 a TOTAL TIME и эз" чево A ҒА P uec for the PS2 Why the PS3 launch could suck ass: Um, shortages—Sony already announced it nixed its initial shipment to Europe, which isn't a good sign for us...especially since we're now only getting 400,000 units (100,000 less than the PS2's launch). So Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom 3% MotorStorm 2% 4% even if you have the dough to throw, good luck finding a PS3 without spending enor- mous eBay prices. Plus most of the launch titles are also coming out on the 360, too, 50 it's not like you'll be missing out if you already bought a "box. Genji: Days of the Blade Need for Speed Carbon 1% Call of Duty 3 11% Ridge Racer 7 Source: EGM message-board poll NEXT-GEN IMPACT WII'S LAST-GEN LESSON GameCube launch: November 18, 2001 Number of launch games reviewed in EG 10 Average score: 7.7 (out of 10) What went right: Not a lot, actually. But wannabe Jedis felt a great disturbance in their pants for the exclusive Star Wars Rogue Squadron Il (our highest-rated launch game, receiving straight 9s). And some staffers dug the freakishly different Luigi's Mansion (not Shoe, though—he gave it a meager 5.5), but, for the most part, the launch lineup was filled with above-average third-party games. What went wrong: Games...or lack thereof. To Nintendo's defense, at least it wasn't quite as pathetic as the Nintendo 64's lineup of...uhh...two games. Of course, no one cared then because one of those games, Super Mario 64, tided us all over until a flood of new games shipped. But sadly, the GameCube didn't launch with a Super Mario 64—caliber game. Hell, it didn't even have a Mario game. Instead, we 2% 1% Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz SpongeBob Metroid Prime 3 Corruption SquarePants: 17% Creature from the Krusty Krab got his lanky brother chasing a bunch of ghosts with a vacuum cleaner. Why the Wii launch could kick ass: The Wii's $249.99 price point makes it considerably more affordable than its com- petitors, and Nintendo's even throwing in a free раск-іп game—the infinitely replay- able Wii Sports collection. Expect 20 titles to hit store shelves on day one, along with at least 30 downloadable Virtual Console classics (price range: $5-$10). And having the long-awaited The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess at launch constitutes a groundbreaking first: No Nintendo console has ever shipped alongside a Zelda (and the GC version won't hit until December). Why the Wii launch could suck ass: OK, the first-party Nintendo games will likely be stellar, but what about the rest? Sure, some look promising (Rayman Raving Rabbids), but others (Red Steel) haven't exactly convinced us to strap on a Wii-Remote. And no matter how much fun the games are, those searching for a truly "next-gen" experience may be turned off by the Wii's GameCube-quality graphics. ж. M^ жөнел М 99900 5 Clockwise from top: GameCube launch games Star Wars Rogue Squadron Il: Rogue Leader, Wave Race: Blue Storm, and Luigi's Mansion The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 57% Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam 1% Wii Sports 10% Rayman Raving Rabbids 2% Call of Duty 3 2% Excite Truck 3% Source: EGM message-board poll INTO A GAME. THE NEXT-GEN PROJECT, ENTITLED EMPIRE, IS LOOKING TO COME OUT ІМ 2008.... © press start ШІР53 PREVIEW: EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK LAIR Publisher; Sony CEA Developer: Factor 5 Release Date: 2007 Forget X-wings versus TIE fighters. Thar be dragons— hundreds of them—in this spectacular PS3 slay ride from the guys behind the Rogue Squadron games ot even the might of a million whizzing TIE fighters could coax developer Factor 5 back to George Lucas' galaxy far, far away. "If we had to do another Star Wars game after Rebel Strike [for GameCube], Р shoot myself," says Julian Eggebrecht, president of the San Rafael, CA-based studio that's been developing laser-blasting starfighter titles for the past 10 years, It made for a decade filled with too many trips to iceball planetoid Hoth, set to too much John Williams music. So when this previously Nintendo- chummy developer decided, back in 2004, to test next-generation hardware by seeing how many TIE fighters they could cram on the screen (the result: thousands), the show of Force left them feeling flat. “It doesn't really matter whether you -. have a hundred of them or a thousand,” Eggebrecht says. "It's still just TIE fighters. it's way cooler to have living creatures on the screen.” 2. Il You'll jerk the PS3 controller | in an enemy dragon’s direction to bash "em when you're close. That explains Factor 5's latest project, Lair, a TIE-fighter no-fly zone crawling with thousands of living creatures and due on the PlayStation 3 in 2007. The game has you mounting dragons and “dogfight- ing" other winged monsters—or taking. your beast in for a landing and tearing through ground troops, slapping them. aside with your horned head, plucking them into the air, or chomping them down for a health boost like in some gorily modern reforging of the classic coin-op Rampage. “When we moved away from. the Star Wars universe, we still wanted to stay with flight," says Eggebrecht. "But we wanted to have a game that transi- tions seamlessly between air and ground combat, something we couldn't do on the - GameCube, PS2, or Xbox.” Dragons—with their ability to soar, hover, and dash across land like scaly, winged horses—seemed like the logical choice for the game's "vehicles." The team was sold, but Eggebrecht, not a fantasy fanatic himself, had one major condition: “The dragons don't talk,” he says. "We don't have Sean Connery providing any voices." Soar spots “Those meters at the top of the screen show the morale of your troops versus the enemy soldiers’,” explains Eggebrecht, giving us an aerial tour of one of the game’s missions. His dragon soars above two armies—thousands strong— approaching each other across a stone bridge spanning a misty volcanic waste- land; while hundreds of enemy winged creatures ride thermals in the distance. The goal of this level: Lead your troops to victory. Eggebrecht starts by knock- ing out enemy catapults, blasting them apart with flame breath and rending them with melee attacks. Then, it's off to down а squadron of black dragons and their riders, a plunging battle you can read more about in the Taking the Reins ‘sidebar, Finally, it’s time to get dirty оп > The good news: You'll battle other dragons in close-up, claw- to-claw combat. The bad news: That's you on the little dragon. TETRIS, BEJEWELED, AND PAC-MAN. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE GAMES ON ITUNES FOR $5 A РОР... - ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY « www lUe com e 35 (>) press start LAIR соғ; the battlefield. Eggebrecht swoops low over the enemy army, rapid-tapping the X button to beat wings and build speed, just before dropping to the ground and skid- ding through platoons of soldiers. They go flying. Enemy archers prick the dragon's reptilian hide with arrows, but Eggebrecht tears through them. Each attack fills his army's morale meter and drains the enemy's fighting spirit. Charging bull-like monsters eriter the fray, but the dragon simply grabs them with his talons and drops them into the abyss. Soon the battle ends in victory, and Eggebrecht's army marches through the enemy's gate. Not all of Lair’s levels will work this жау. The game starts more like a shooter. (think Rogue Squadron, but with dragons). Some stages have you fighting mostly on the ground. You'll face minibosses, larger army-on-army troop-support battles like 1he one described above, "and then there are really, really, really big bosses,” says Eggebrecht. He won't tell us much about the bosses or the story, other than that you will get off your dragon once in awhile. in special areas—but never to fight on foot. You'll also build up dragon-riding skills by "shooting down certain enemies and doing the moves cleverly and fighting combinations right.” he says. Flight itself is actually easier than in the Rogue Squadron games—an attempt to make Lair more mainstream friendly; Much of that ease comes from the motion-sensing control scheme, which we'll get to in a sec, But another reason: You're riding an intelligent creature, which—much like а horse—will dodge obstacles on its own. “А dragon wouldn't be stupid enough to fly into a wall," says Eggebrecht. “They are really damn intelli- gent, about as smart as dolphins. It's like the best pet you ever had.” > Wi All-you-can-eat buffet: Dropping to the battlefield to let your dragon feast on enemy soldiers is...satisfying. UBISOFT IS GAMBLING ON ANOTHER VERSION OF RAINBOW SIX VEGAS—A PSP INCARNATION WILL BE CASHED AND CARRIED THIS WINTER... 36» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY « www.1UP.com Blood Drug Reference Intense Violence. Language Sexual Themes (б) кімі, eidos»> yed logo are trademarks of the NVIDIA r countries. The rating icon is. ment Software Association. F { E { | | © press start LAIR соо Winging it what they can do with the thing." Tilting Up until now, Eggebrecht has been playing the joypad, һе explains, actually offers a the game with casual flicks of the wrist, greater range of motion than an analog holding the Р525 motion-sensing control- — stick, thus granting players more precise ler with one hand while pointing out items flight control. (And, really, joysticks are for of interest with the other. “Not only does aircraft, not dragons.) the controller give you the feeling of hold- When it’s our turn to take the beast ing the dragon's reigns,” he says, "but for a spin, we overcompensate with wild we have seven or eight moves just on the yanks and spazzy motions on the control- motion sensor." That saves players from. fer. But soon we settle into a rhythm with having to input button-and-stick combina- the game, holding the joypad with both tions to, say, charge forward (now you just — hands as if we're gripping the reins of jerk the controller downward) ог strafe to a real dragon. Our movements become the left (you yank the joypad іп the direc- less exaggerated. even as we pull the tion you want to juke). pad up for quick turnarounds and slam. In fact, the team is considering not sup- К to the side to dodge catapult fire and porting the analog stick for flight control ram nearby winged creatures. “Тһе level at all. ^A lot of the old-timers and hard- designers worried they'd get carpal tunnel core people came in and were like, "This [syndrome] from the controllers.” says. [motion sensing] doesn't work— want my — Eggebrecht. “By the third day, you play stick back,” says Eggebrecht. “But then they start trying it out, and it's amazing quite subtly. You don't need to do massive. motions. You look normal playing iL" > TAKING THE REINS: WE HOP IN LAIR'S SADDLE Whether you're in the air or galloping on the ground, you control your dragon in Lair the same way—by tilting the PS3 joypad in the direction you want to go. Tapping the X but- ton flaps your wings for speed boosts, while holding the ana- log triggers applies the brakes + (just like in the Rogue Squadron games). Use the Square button to launch fireballs (holding it releases a constant stream of fire). Factor 5 wouldn't tell us what the right analog stick does, just that "you'll be using it a lot.” Squadron commands, perhaps? Ili Dragon one: “Black dragons fly like this, and white dragons fly like this.” Dragon two: “It’s funny because it’s true.” Got an enemy on your tail? Shake the controller hard to the left or right to dodge its fireballs. Or yank it up to quickly loop in the opposite direction. Thrusting it down- ward gives you a turbo boost—perfect | for ensnaring enemies into your “pursuit 1 bubble." Which we'll explain next.... Once you've zeroed in on an enemy and zoomed in close, it'll fall into your pursuit bubble, a mode that shifts the game's perspective so the bogey appears in the center of the screen. You then lurch the controller in the enemy's direction to bash | him with your dragon’s body. If he’s above you, for instance, jerk the controller up and you'll ram him. Once the enemy is weak enough, your dragon sinks its talons into its. haunches, switching Lair into a full-on fighting game. You key in fight combos to bat- tle the opposing rider with your mounted warrior. Eventually, you'll have to perform a God of War-style sequence that finishes the enemy pilot in a dramatic fashion, leav- ing you to retake the reins of your own dragon and soar off looking for more victims. W Although you can wallop enemy rid- ers off their mounts via button combos, you can’t actually swipe their dragons. THE DS CAN NOW TEACH YOU HOW TO BAKE CAKES—MAJESCO ANNOUNCED THE QUIRKY BAKERY SIM CAKE MANIA FOR THE DS.... 38» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.tlPcom ИУС АСА AN ANCIENS@ ВЕТЕАҮАТ. А BATTLE То ЕМИ DIN UYD chs) IMMERSIVE BATTLES MATURE —PHANTAGRAM— A ENS. XBOX 360 ESRB CONTENT RATING WAVES Or ©2006 PHANTAGRAM CO., LTD. All rights reserved. PHANTAGRAM and the PHANTAGRAM logo are ci Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, the Microsoft Game Studios logo, Ninety Nine Nights, Xbox, the Xbox logos, > Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Softwar emarks or the registered trademarks of PHANTAGRAM CO., LTD. ©2006 Microsoft box 360, and the Xbox 360 logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of ssociation. О press start LAIR (COND) Reality sets in Lair's levels give you room to stretch your wings and check out the scenery. “You can fly 16 miles away from the bridge," Eggebrecht says of the level with the clashing armíes, *and look back and still see all 10,000 soldiers on there and every- thing. The game's just seamless." The environments (all outdoors, despite the claustrophobic-sounding Lair name) range. from jungle to wastelands to ice fields. They're believable,” he says. "They bring © It down to a level of grittiness, dirtiness, · апо nastiness of the world, where it’s not | Eggebrecht ^ says. “Well talk to [Rogue Squadron pub- fisher] LucasArts to see if they'll license it -. officially—for tradition.” He's kidding. We think. —Crispin Boyer FIVE REASONS FACTOR 5 HEARTS THE PS3... “When | heard what was going on at Nintendo, | cringed,” Factor 5 President Julian Eggebrecht says about the development of the underpowered Wii. “Its audio is rela- tively mediocre. It is essentially GameCube 1.5, which is fine, because all the motion- control stuff they're doing is pretty radical. That's precisely why the 360 wasn't exciting to me, because it didn't have the jump there, even though it had everything else." 50 what's a company famous for pushing hardware to the limits to do? Jump to Sony's ship—and here's why.... Reason 1: The Cell thingamabob The multicore processor pow- ering the PS3 is a turbo-pow- ered leap over what Factor 5 was used to working with on the GameCube. For Lair, the 4 Cell is used to govern A.l. and generate all the polygonal models in the game, from soldiers to creatures to ter- rain. “Our worlds are 32 kilometers square,” says Eggebrecht. “By contrast, the Rogue | Leader levels were 16 kilometers and every 16 meters, we had some detail in the world. Here, we have detail every two meters. It's a big “wow” in terms of how much | detail we can provide. It’s also a lot more work for us.” Reason 2: The HDMI whatsit That fat A/V socket on the rear of the $600 model PS3 gives the home-theater fanatics at Factor 5 a funny feeling in their video cables. For one thing, it’s letting them display Lair in cutting-edge 1080p, an incredibly sharp video mode they claim won't take a hit on performance. For another, Lair will support 7.1 uncompressed digital surround sound. “Once you hear it for the first time in uncompressed audio, there's no going back,” says Eggebrecht, adding that the game’s super sound is one area most consum- ers won't own the right A/V gear to enjoy. "I hope enough people put down the cash for {a compatible receiver],” he says. “Maybe we're just doing it for ourselves." Reason 3: The tilt-and-tumble controller | Eggebrecht never thought motion-sensing would make it into the PS3 controller, even | though he says he lobbied for it all along. "[Sony] had to. pay for the Blu-ray drive,” he says. “They had to pay for the Cell. So | was absolutely blown away when the motion control made it in, because that's the whole package. As for the loss of the controller's rumble feature, “ never cared for that anyway,” ШЕЛІ says. ш Although the dragons do breathe fire, 't traditional Dungeons & Dragons- style fantasy," says Factor 5's Eggebrecht. Reason 4: Those blue rays ^If people are saying it's inconsequential that they can't. © use more than the nine giga- bytes [of conventional DVDs], that's absolutely wrong,” says Eggebrecht. He points to Lair’s ultra-hi-resolution textures, which stream off the game's 25-gigabyte Blu-ray DVD to. : paint incredibly detailed landscapes, fortresses, soldiers, and creatures. Add in its ani- mations and other data, and just one level alone fills more than four gigabytes of disc space. “Which is fine if you want to make just a two-level game on the other systems,” Eggebrecht says. lancing: Mordor Nights Reason 5: Finally, online gaming After dealing with the GameCube's lack of networking abilities, just the prospect of any online system gets Factor 5 jazzed. "Sony has for its online program pretty much everything that Microsoft has, plus X," says Eggebrecht. Lair won't offer online mul- tiplayer, but it will have a leaderboard, Xbox Live-style achievements (based on the medal system that was so popular in the Rogue Squadron games), and links to “а lot of community stuff," says Eggebrecht. Downloadable content is in the pipeline, too, with Factor 5 ready to add anything fans ask for. “Hey, if they want to breed dragons,” һе = ofa ШЕ minigame, "let's breed your dragons." @% ТНЕ WII WON" TBE LONG NOW—IBM FINISHED MAKING THE SYSTEM'S CHIP BACK IN JULY, 50 THE WII SHOULD BE READY ТО SHIP SOON... ROCKSTAR GAMES PRESENTS COMING OCTOBER 2006 TO THE PSP’ (PLAYSTATION'PORTABLE] SYSTEM SENAY наты a PlayStation.Portable ® © 2006 Rockstar Gomes, х. Кодо Gomes, Rotor Leeds, Rockstar North, the у, logo, Grond Theft uf, һе Grond Theft Auto logo ond A Toke Two Company logo ore поато and/or registered trodemoiks of Toke Two есіте Software, ік. “PlayStation”, PS” Fond logo and “PSP” ше registered rodemarks of Sony Computer Entetinment Inc. Memory Stick Doo moy be required (sold separately). The tings icon is o registered подепой ofthe Entertainment Software Association. Al other marks ond trademarks ore properties oftheir respective owners. U.S. AND FOREIGN PATENTS PENDING. Aight reserved. The content of this videogame is purely fictional, ond is not intended to represent or depict олу octuol event, person, or еті ky between ony depiction in this game ond any сікі event, person, or елі is purely coincidental. The makers ond publishers of tis videogame do nat in ony way endorse, condone or encourage engaging in ony conduc? depicted in this videogame. RATING PENDING Visit www.esrb.org RP for updated rating information. CONTENT RATED BY ESRB www RedSteelGame.com | Available at Wii™ Launch ent. А! Rights Reserved ‚ biso d 4 tin the U.S. andlor othe and the trad x 106 Nintendo UBISOFT layable demos, game trailers, new multiplayer maps—Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace has quickly become the ultimate hot spot for Xbox 360 gam- ers. So obviously EA wants a piece, and, starting this fall, it'll be using its long-standing sports titles to bring in the bucks. We recently spoke to Chip Lange, the company's vice president of online commerce, who explained what EA will offer and, unfortunately, why you'll be spending extra cash for content that used to be part of the original package. EGM: So we hear you will begin charging for common stuff like extra uniforms and stadiums. This true? CL: There will be a mix of content that's out there right now—demos and such— that you'll be getting for free. And there will be content that we think is premium that we'll be charging for. EGM: OK, so what do you say to the loyal Madden player who's been buying the game for 17 years and is used to getting this *extra content" for free? Remember, he's already paying an additional $10 for the 360 version... CL: First thing I'm going to say to them is, "thanks." [Laughs] The next thing Ра probably say is, "We've heard you." Something that all of our customers have been asking for is a variety of premium ОМТ EXPECT ANY SHORTAGES FOR THE WII—NINTENDO ANN 1 the game...you may pay extra for it content with our sports games. And that content's going to take multiple forms. And then there's some of the stuff coming further down the pipe this fall, like differ- ent game modes—every game's going to have a different selection of stuff. And they're premium products, and they've got a price associated with them, and | think that's become standard on the 360. EGM: Charging for new modes makes a lot of sense, but a new uniform, for instance, doesn't really alter the gameplay... CL: Well, that's a matter of opinion. | play a bunch of these games, and Need for Speed would be a great example. That game is built on customizing the look of your cars, and part of that is custom- izing the way that your transmission and your tires work. But a lot of these games is customizing to your own particular preference. EGM: We think it’s kind of ridiculous that we have to Pay more money now for something we've been getting for free for so many years. бї: | think what you're doing is keying in on one small aspect of the entire lineup of content... EGM: OK, so will you be offering all the extra content as a package, rather than charging individually for each little thing? 44» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com E Next year: 200 points for an extra-large cup. CL: The content's going to vary by sports title. The development teams have been cranking on this for a month now, to figure out how many different types of content and what we think would be the coolest stuff that they could get to. Now we've got a team working on next year's Madden, and we've got a secondary team that's also sitting there cranking on all kinds of new content to keep Madden current and fun. So that's more content for Madden fans, and if you're a diehard, the reaction we've gotten is, "That's great." EGM: When next year's game comes out, will people have to buy things like jerseys and stadiums all over again? СІ: A lot of the details aren't fully firmed up yet. The reality is that it's a new thing for a lot of people, and we're leading the charge on new content for sports. So, what it means for Madden NFL 08? We've certainly talked about it and thought about it, but we're not sure at this point. EGM: Can we expect EA to support the PlayStation 3's and the Wii's online services, too? CL: If there's a system that supports it. | think what you're hearing is that EA Sports believes in continuing to support our products beyond the launch, with all kinds of cool incremental content. And we'll make sure that content's made available wherever there’s an appropriate system to deliver it to our customers. ж Hear it! ED IT'S STILL SET TO SHIP 6 MILLION SYSTEMS BY MARCH 2007... ‘Goal by Beckham. Body бу milk. Heads up. The protein i mill 19 uscle and some es suggest teens who choose it tend to be leaner. Staying active got milk? www.bodybymilk.com DAVIE U ЖЕП HEN WEY WB NH nas tan | tnn | \ LESE] EB ERU пва m HALFPIPE DREAM Meet a player so good at his favorite game, he got hired to make it... he story is the basis for count- T less daytime TV commercials: | Two guys are playing a game when one of them says, "Hey, 1 could make a better game than this." The pitch is usually for some game-design college that may be your nonaccredited path to living your dream of designing games as a career. For at least one level designer at SE M 1 You can check out 46 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com Gentile’s work in Tony Hawk’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series developer Neversoft, though, the path from couch to designer didn’t involve college—it just involved playing one game really well. Andy Gentile was a major Tony Hawk's Pro Skater fan from the moment he got his hands on the game's first demo in 1999. From then on, he played the games obsessively, racking up monster scores Жш and posting videos of his 15 million-point combos online. He also posted often at the Delphi forums for the game—a haunt- ing ground for members of the Neversoft team—and hung out with the developers when playing THPS3 online. So when a player with the handle “AndyTHPS” ran into a group of Neversoft developers trying to manual down a tricky, Project 8 (for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this November). The school and slums are his areas. wavy staircase in the Los Angeles level of THPS3, he wasn't exactly a stranger. Still, when it took Gentile only two tries to com- plete the task the developers had been at for over an hour, they were impressed. When a game tester position came up at Neversoft, Gentile’s skills came to the front of the developers’ minds. So, in 2003, at the ripe old age of 16, Gentile headed from his home in Houston to Woodland Hills, CA, to spend the sum- mer before his senior year of high school helping Neversoft test out Tony Hawk's Underground. “| remember waking up that morning not knowing what time to actu- ally come in,” Gentile says of his first day at the office. “1 got in an hour early and walked around aimlessly. | was extremely ecstatic just seeing all this skateboarding memorabilia on the walls, seeing all this technical equipment everywhere, and walking past the conference tables that I'd seen the employees of Neversoft skate on during the in-game credits of THPS3.” After a second summer testing out THUG2, Gentile had his foot firmly planted in the door with a full-time testing posi- tion. From there, he took the initiative to make the jump to level designer. “Опе day I walked into [THPS Lead Designer] Alan Flores’ office and said ‘Hey, I’m gonna >> ROLE-PLAYING GAME PUBLISHER ATLUS IS EXPORTING YET ANOTHER BIZARRO JAPANESE ADVENTURE. IT ANNOUNCED THAT ETRIAN use this time | have to learn 3D Max and build levels for the дате,” Gentile says. Flores agreed, and Gentile was on his way, despite having no formal game- design education or experience, and the self-admitted fact that he "hardly knew anything about the game as far as devel- opment goes." Gentile chalks up his survival as a rookie designer to his deep knowledge of the game and the supportive environment at Neversoft. “1 had made а lot of friends working with the people at Neversoft and some of the closest ones were in the design department," he says. "They're always willing to help anyone if they need it and are totally positive.” The help let him flourish into a designer of levels that Flores says appeal to the “broad spectrum of experience that players of our games have.” But then, Gentile is a player himself. Despite his path to success, Gentile is quick to recommend that others who want to follow in his footsteps should stay in school. “You can take the initiative and learn all that stuff on your own,” he says, “but of course it’s a plus to have a college diploma under your belt.” Flores agrees, calling Gentile the “exception rather than the rule,” and noting that “for every person in the game industry who hasn't gone to college, there are another 50 who have.” Good advice, but take it from us—do the extra work and spring for a college that doesn't advertise on daytime TV. — Kyle Orland “ under your belt." 4 «Ats a plus to have a college diploma —Neversoft Level Designer Andy Gentile г Master of his domain: We snapped pics of amateur skater turned pro designer Andy Gentile, then inserted him into a level he made for Tony Hawk's Project 8. Now that’s meta! ALSO LIVING THEIR DREAMS... баре end Tycho ~ Penny Arcade In 1998, these two lifelong gamers started a gaming webcomic in their free time (www.penny-arcade.com). Now with over 2 million page views daily, they make their living writing and drawing about games. Jess Cliffe and Minh Le = Valve This pair of programmers designed and built the Counter-Strike mod to Half-Life on their own time during College. After the mod’s explosive success, they were hired by Valve as designers in 2000. Michael Adzijevic - Video бате Buddy In 2000, after five years on Wall Street, hardcore gamer Michael Adzijevic quit his big-money job to start his own game store—Video Game Buddy in Astoria, NY. Now with two locations, Adzijevic's dream is still going strong and ing the huge, it -stori ins. йй defying the huge, corporate game-store chains. ODYSSEY—A DUNGEO RAWLER DIRECTED BY THE DUDE WHO GAVE US TRAUMA CENTER—WILL HIT THE IN 20 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 47 DEAD OR ALIVE: Boy toys of summer eam Ninja may make awesome, balls-to-the-wall action games like Ninja Gaiden, but over the years, the developer has received much more press for showing skin... of its game characters. That came to a head with the 2003 Dead or Alive spin-off Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox, which Team Ninja front man Tomonobu Itagaki described to us as “a unique, easily approachable, and—in a sense—not as serious style of game.” The sun-splashed sequel heats up the 360 this November, and even though it keeps pushing the sexual overtones, Xtreme 2 has more to it than a bunch of pretty faces. Whereas volleyball acted as the main venue in the first game, Jet Ski racing fills that role here—girls hop atop big engines and hit magnificently rendered (and realistic) waves to run races and perform stunts. The controls are smooth and simple, but you'll still find а good amount of depth; successfully negotiat- ing a sequence of flags nets a crucial bit of boost, yet the shifting surf can make things stressful. Itagaki quickly reminds us, though, that relaxing remains the overall goal. “There are no real penalties or restrictions on the races,” he says. “So if you don’t care about getting first and just want to ride around, you can.” This laid-back approach extends throughout each of the game’s other events, too. Volleyball returns spiffed-up and sporting a new camera, and activi- ties such as Butt Battle, Tug-o-War, and the Pool Hop are easily accessible tests of reflex, nerves, and (surprisingly) strategy. Newcomer Beach Flag, though, is more of a button-mashing competition with an emphasis on rhythm in which the loser of the race eats a face full of sand. Yet whichever activities you choose, it's always key to respect the girls for their Publisher: Tecmo Developer: Team Ninja Release Date: November 2006 Yeah, the view looks good from uj >> BROADBAND BEACHCOMBERS WILL BE HAPPY TO HEAR THAT LIVE SUPPORT IS SLATED FOR ONLINE JET SKIING AND VOLLEYBALL ACTION.... >> 48» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com ULTIMATE AGILITY DEAD OR ALIVE: XTREME 2 со minds as well as their bodies. For instance, while an aggressive nature might make for a better partner at volleyball, coyer gal pals are more likely to let go—instead of violently tug—their end of the rope. Although this DOA offshoot may The ever-candid Tomonobu Itagaki, head of developer Team Ninja, takes time to ruminate—and illuminate seem out of tune with Team Ninja's more brutal offerings, Itagaki's own informal rules of game design argue otherwise: “First, a game must be so appealing that you immediately want to play. Second, once you play it, it’s fun. And third, once you're enjoying Anytime you make something out of nothing—a game or anything else—there are hundreds of decisions you have to make. Depending on whether you picked choice A or choice B, you end up with a totally dif- ferent product. There's always the “what if?” in looking back—that just comes with the territory. My personal philosophy is that | make decisions on the run. A lot of people spend too much time thinking about which foot to put forward. I’m constantly moving—l've got to make decisions as 1 go. It’s precisely because | have that style that Dead or Alive is the series it is 10 years later. [Long pause] The only good thing about Tekken is the title—it's short. Microsoft needs to make a good impression with how it presents the 360 in Japan. From a purely technological and pricing standpoint, it's the best choice you can possibly make—there’s no reason not to buy one, in terms of what the machine can do. But the impression people have is that it's not something they can easily go out and buy and hook up in their living room. Over the last couple of years, I've probably bought eight Canon cameras, but not a single Nikon. Why is that? Neither brand is inherently superior; they're both good cameras. But I've never had any incentive to switch brands— 1 just like Canon. Microsoft needs an image that makes a Japanese person say “Hey, | like the Xbox 360. I’m comfortable with this brand." Games are all about input from the player and output from the game. Obviously, increasing the number of inputs increases the number of possibilities. What makes video- games fun is that the output the game gives you is many more times more impressive than the input—you push one button, and your character does amazing things. it, it's so fun, you can't stop." Only a closer look under Xtreme 275 hood will reveal whether this beauty proves to be a keeper, but already Itagaki and company have got the first two points well in hand. —David Chen tor Krome 2 mustve been real tough on Маракі That formula starts to break down as the inputs get greater. If you have to shake the controller madly, you're upping the input for the same output. When you get to a point where the balance favors the input, and the output remains the same, "well, if 1 have to do all this jumping around, then | might as well ride a real Jet Ski." My daughter still comes up to me all the time and asks when I'm going to make a DS game, because she's still young enough to think that a game is something you can make instantly... Right now, Team Ninja's working оп a DS game. It's an action game. Yes. This is why | said what | said earlier about the input/ output ratio. I've been thinking a lot about the DS—just because you have touch-pad technology doesn’t mean you have to use it for everything. You'd asked earlier if | could go back ten years in time, what would | change? There was a time in my life when | was thinking about getting out of the game-design business. | was working on the PS2 port of DOA2, and | was really unhappy with it. A PS2 launch title in three months? | should never have contemplated that—I needed four. >> EACH DOAX2 GAL WILL HAVE 30-PLUS UNIQUE SUITS, FOR А WHOPPING TOTAL OF OVER 300.... >> 50 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com NOW SHOWING @ Turn off the vapid, jailbait musings of preteen video bloggers and tune into www.GameVideos.com/egm, where you won't find any monologues about how cute Liam in geometry class Just a collection of the greatest game-related clips in the history of the Internet. —Demian Linn WIF The Loneliness | of Pyramid Head This short film by “CreativeGuy” chronicles a day in the life of Silent Hill’s Pyramid Head. It ain’t easy being evil personified. The lawn still needs mowing, for one. OMG A different stroke Okami didn't always have its stylized cartoon look—check out this exclusive Clip of the early, “realistic” version of the game's intro compared shot-for-shot with the final edition. LOL Mario Bros. vs. Evil Ken and Ryu Mario and Luigi get no mercy from Ken and Ryu in this cross- franchise battle for the ages. Made wi Mugen, a PC 2D-fighting-game engine that lets you create your own characters and stages (search for “mugen” on GameVideos.com for more). ИНН Ка — -om mo ecce КП! 1337 Dead Rising Secrets From the submachine gun hidden in a palm tree in the entrance plaza to the elu- sive and lucrative frying-pan bonus, we've got the skinny on Dead Rising's most arcane seeeecrets. ULTIMATE WEAPON LICENSE TO BUZZKILL Five reasons games based on movies, toys, and TV shows almost always suck... Which of these things is not like the other? Er, none—they're all proof that licensed games and characters may induce vomiting. ou've heard the horror stories: landfills piled high with Atari E.T. cartridges, Superman 64 ruining the value of your DC Comics collection, and the mere mention of entering a *matrix" inciting seizures. Licensed games' sordid past is enough to make any gamer think thrice about playing anything tied to a hot property. But as development costs rise, such games are an appealing safety net for publishers who can count on licensed content for easy profits. Let's hope the publishers pay attention to these reasons licensed games so often go Wrong... --Магу Jane Irwin As Scott Rogers, creative manager at THQ, explains, the target audience of these games is made up of fans who buy the toys, the clothing, and the shampoo, 50 licensed games are often treated as mere marketing extensions of a parent product. Peter Wanat, an executive pro- ducer at publisher Vivendi Games, adds, "[Developers know] that if we [have] the license for X property, we're going to be able to sell a certain number of units because we'll put it on TV. We'll market it and we'll target it to kids because you know they are far less discriminating." When a game is tied to a movie, the developer is encouraged to ship by the film's theatrical release. "You've got to hit your ship date because you're depending on the marketing push of the movie—that window of buzz,” says Cam Weber, senior producer at Scarface developer Radical Entertainment. On such tight schedules, developers are forced to choose between fixing bugs and adding features. Neither choice benefits the consumer. "You're cut- ting quality," Weber says. "You're cutting depth and features to try to make a date." When you're in charge of a licensed game, you're caretaking someone else's intellectual property. Whether dazed by Star power or intimidated by the power tie, developers are frequently compelled to comply with the suits' wishes, even at the detriment of the overall product. "Producers are so anxious to just please their counterparts on the Hollywood side that they basically get bullied,” Wanat says. “Then the game comes [out], and the producer is caught like a deer in head- lights when he realizes he way overprom- ised what he can deliver.” These days, it seems like every other game is modeled after Grand Theft Auto. In the world of licensed-game production, borrowed gameplay mechanics are even more commonplace. “You don’t have time to innovate,” says Weber, “so what you get is a lot of very safe, very tried-and-true features that are either copies from other games or stuff that the team has done before with a license slapped on top of it.” Consumers buy licensed games because they offer an extension of a beloved property's universe—an experience that goes beyond what the camera captures. But more often than not, this concept translates into experiencing exactly what you've watched at the theater or on TV. “You saw the f***ing movie,” Wanat points out. “If you play a game where you saw the movie already, you know how it ends. What f***ing fun is that?” д GAMER EQUATION Batter up о CREEPED-OUT PC FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER FE.A.R. WILL LAUNCH ON THE PS3—WITH NEW SINGLE-PLAYER CONTENT—IN NOVEMBER.... 52» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com RG 252 rD‏ کک کنر e 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. WWW.MARVELULTIMATEALLIANCE.COM Fall 2006 %; веемох шады PRODUCTS RANGE FROM EVERYONE 10+ ro TEEN ACTIVISION. activision.com MARVEL, and all related character names and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc, and are used with permission. Copyright 6 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. www.marvel.com. This Interactive game is produced under license from Marvel Characters, Inc. Super Hero(es) is a co-owned registered trademark. Game © 2006 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. 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 registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US. and/or other countries. TM, 9, Game Boy Advance, and Wii logos are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo. All rights reserved. PC CD-ROM logo TM 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, г DON'T JUST WATCH IT... LIVE IT! AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 14 y а зум xs B I 6 i AR | ED JU З | LIKE P THE S OWN HANDS мати NEW - Р OW! ANDS WI Е ІМ 20 ыз % INTO YOUR OWN HANDS W ANBAN ENVIRONME NTAL HOTSPO TS 1 ALL-NEW FIGHT ING AREA IN THE XZ ! HUSTLED, ! TRAINE ! FOUGHT, І CONQUERE NOW, ONLY ONE THING одвратат САМ CONTROL ME WITH ANALOG CONTROLS AND ALL-NEW : anes ULTIMATE CONTROL MOVE YOU. | ) СЭГ de. BROADBAND ONLY Available on PlayStation*2 computer entertainment system and PSP® (PlayStation*Portable) system. http://www.svr2007.com http://www.myspace.com/svr2007 The names of all World Wrestling Entertainment televised and tive programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans and wrestling moves and all World Wrestling Entertainment logos are trademarks which are the exclusive property of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. © 2006 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Ай Rights Reserved. Language © 2006 THQ/JAKKS Pacific, LLC. Used under exclusive license by THQ/JAKKS Pacific, LLC. JAKKS Pacific and the JAKKS Pacific logo are trademarks of JAKKS Pacific, Inc. Пей орей by ҮЙКЕ 5 Co., Ltd. ҮЙКЕ 5 Co., Ltd. and its logo are Suggestive Themes trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ҮШКЕ 5 Co., Ltd. THO and the THO logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THO Inc. All Rights Reserved. А! other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective Violence ‘owners. Online play requires internet connection and Memory Card (8MB)(for PlayStation 2)sold separately) The Online icon is а trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America inc. "PlayStation", the “PS” Family logo, and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live одо аге either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Developer: Ninja Theory | Publisher: Sony CEA | Release Date: Winter 2007 Тһе PlayStation т 5 angelic face i is quite the ball-buster wo minutes. That’s all it took positively dreadful) project. The d the combat arona with a whack to the the arena? How smart are these bad for developer Ninja Theory to (ето shown this past spring featured | family jewels. guys? And what's this about Gollum prove that its supremely styl- Нагіко, the game's redheaded leading Still, 120 seconds of gameplay . helping make it? Tameem Antoniades, ish action-adventure game Heavenly lady, displaying her stellar acrobatic еб potential PS3 owners with a lot Ninja Theory's cofounder, provides the Sword wouldn't һе another Kung Skills, big, bad weapons, and uncanny of questions: Is this just Goddess of answers on its first next-gen entry. Fu Chaos (XB), its previous (and knack for ending her enemy's day in War? What's the game like ласа of —Bryan Intihar TAM AMA Ain't No Copycat Antoniades doesn't mind that people are already mentioning his game in the same breath as the PS2’s titanic hit God of War. "To be compared favorably to one of the best games ever made isn't a bad thing," he says. “Having played both games, though, | don't see that much of a similarity, other than the fact that they are both combat- focused adventure games. The gameplay experience and the emo- tional journey in Heavenly Sword are very different.” > >> THIS FALL, SA 56-«-ЕГЕСТЕОМІС GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.comi 3 x М S Sisi N һе aga ig of ess to Game Invasion" and exclusive content from gives you an incredibly fast connection and content you Mong with lightnit as, clips and t і news. Comc e else, so you play better. C! Upgrade today and game like you mean it. That’ a comcast.com/8Mbps comcast. © press start The Bigger Picture 3 Even though Heavenly Sword's demo was effective, its brevity and limited scenery shouldn't be mistaken as the full scope of this game. “The demo was a confined space, which was just a tiny part of а much larger roaming landscape," explains Antoniades. "There is a range of gameplay going from 1-on-1 boss fights to fighting against whole battalions of enemies, featuring a medley of weapons at your disposal—from dead bodies to explosive firework-propelled bazookas that can take out huge swathes of enemies." The game will also have апу platforming segments here. After climbing God of War's utterly а good thing. some adventure aspects (details are still unknown), but you won't find if | frustrating columns of blades, keeping Nariko grounded is definitely Even though we've seen Nariko easily wipe the floor with her foes, Antoniades promises that not every — encounter will be so one-sided. “When you are fight- - ing against a group of enemies, they coordinate their attacks into what we call ‘group combos,” he says. "It's an Ал. system that tightly choreographs individual | enemies into a group intelligence that can adapt to how you play. Our focus is to create, above all, fun А. that reacts to you in a believable way. So enemies will cheer, jeer, and taunt you as you fight. Morale also comes to play as you do things like kill an enemy's best friend,” 3 Я Guest Developer: Gollum Actor Andy Serkis, who's best known as Lord of the Rings’ “precccious” star, Gollum, is getting really involved in Heavenly Sword's development. In addition to doing the motion capture of the main villain, “һе has directed the dramatic elements of the game,” ‘says Antoniades. “We worked with him on initial technology tests, the direction of scenes, putting together a truly talented cast, editing, writing, and even music,” 4 58 « ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com Fantasy Violence mJ Mild Language кеш» ESRB CONTENT RATING wwwestb.org Wireless Multiplayer Тша Full Campaigns NINTENDOGS, $i umos виза; аса Five Playable Races j CBS Сато @ OS Pree "Bethes а ZeniMax Media company, Rights Reserved. DE ale Paramount Pres. Al Aigh түне "PS" Family logo and "PSP" ara registered trademarks of Sony Compute Nintendo DS and the Official Seal are trademarks of Nime Blood Crude Humor Language қ Available for the PlayStation® computer х Mild Violence entertainment system, the PlayStation®2 ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrb.org computer entertainment system and the Xeox PSP® (PlayStation * Portable) system © 2006 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark and Project 8 is a trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Tony Hawk is a registered trademark of Tony Hawk, Inc. АП rights reserved. Developed by Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. Activision makes no quarantees regarding the availability of online play, and may modify ог discontinue online service in its discretion without notice, including, for example, ceasing online service for economic reasons due to a limited number of players continuing to. make use of the service over time. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. "PlayStation", "PS" Family logo and “PSP” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association, All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. PNE. | NAIL THE TRICK | An entirely new way to play the game, Nail The Trick mode gives precision control over how you move your feet to flip the skateboard. Using dual analog stick motions, you can create your own unique skate tricks - even during a combo - as you watch the action unfold in PaulRodrique nollie 360 flip ШҮ Yeah. It's that real. Му Т www.! HP8.com ACTIVISION. Konami lays off the acid and gives gamers a Snake suitable for a plane on't worry, Metal Gear Solid fans—this new PSP Gear isn't another confusing, card-based strategy title like those pesky Metal Gear Ac!d games. Nope, Portable Ops is the genuine article—a legitimate single-player MGS stealth-action adventure, augmented by an all-new squad-based online multiplayer mode. Fans should prepare for a virtual MGS family reunion, as you recruit, control, and wirelessly trade a huge cast of series stars. Filling in the blanks Despite the fact that it’s not a proper, num- bered MGS title, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (MPO) fits snugly into the series’ over- arching story line. The story kicks off roughly Six years after MGS3's climactic finale—you once again play as Naked Snake (aka Big Boss), the genetic father of MGS hero Solid Snake, At the game’s outset, he awakes in a military prison located deep within a South American jungle. After a hasty escape, you're briefed on the true crisis: His former allies, the FOX unit, have stolen nuclear warheads from the CIA and plan to start a war by MPO lets you trade сһаг- acters via Wi-Fi, so we're offering up MGS3's һагеіу- there weapons expert, Sigint. Any takers? aiming them at the U.S.S.R. Oh, and they're building a new Shagohod (the massive Metal Gear prototype from MGS3). Gee, some friends they are. With the help of a young Roy Campbell (Solid Snake's commander in MGS1), Snake sets out to stop his renegade comrades by amassing a new team of operatives called FOXHOUND (sound familiar?). It's certainly. an intriguing setup, and one that should finally patch some big holes in the overall MGS narrative. How does Big Boss go from. Stoic patriot to power-hungry despot? We should finally get some solid answers here.... Welcome to the team At first glance, MPO seems to play exactly like MGS3: You're snapping necks, shimmy- ing through air ducts, and busting out brutal close-quarters combat (CQC) maneuvers like a pro. (Squeezing the complicated control scheme onto the PSP wasn't easy, though— scope the sidebar.) That familiar lone-wolf gameplay quickly subsides, however, as you realize that Snake must draft other soldiers into his regiment in order to succeed. Whoa—Col. Roy Campbell sure. rocked the Andy Gibb look іп 1970. GEAR SOLID: Here's where things get interesting—you can recruit random grunts after interrogating them, woo major characters that appear in the single-player game (Eva, Major Zero, Ocelot, and Raikov are among the confirmed guest stars...with a massive cast of familiar faces expected), or download special сһаг- acters from specific Wi-Fi access points. What remains to be seen, however, is just how this squad-based combat plays out in MPO's single-player game. (So far, we've only had hands-on time with the decidedly familiar multiplayer action.) Offline, Konami promises that you'll be able to place your troops at various locales on the map, switch between them on the fly, and issue rudi- mentary commands. How will this gel with Snake's army-of-one MO? “I think you can come up with some interesting scenarios of how Snake will not go on to fight alongside soldiers but to lead a nation of them!" says MPO International Producer Ryan Payton. Group dynamics Luckily, Snake's personal army enlistment drive serves a dual purpose. ^We've inte- grated the single and multiplayer modes so you can recruit comrades in story mode and then take them online for battle,” explains Payton. MPO's six-player online matches provide the perfect showcase for your per- sonalized collection of swarthy FOXHOUND troops. For better or worse, these matches closely mimic the Metal Gear Online mode included in this year's MGS3: Subsistence— smallish maps, quirky capture-the-frog objectives, and the same slightly wonky close-quarters gunplay. This time, though, who you choose to fight as makes a more substantive difference—every character has distinct abilities and advantages, so playing as a sniper, medic, or engineer completely alters your gameplay style. Be careful, though: MPO takes Pokémon's gotta-catch-’em-all mentality to a crazy new level by making your troops distressingly disposable. Any character who dies in battle is gone for good (which could mean trekking back to a Starbucks Wi-Fi spot to download him again.) —Shane Bettenhausen 7 ELES MGS3's grizzled mission 7 commander, Major Zero, f delivers justice AARP-style. EEL УС... СИТТ Publisher: Konami Developer: Kojima Productions Release Date: Winter 2007 THE HARDEST BUTTONS TO BUTTON — y Critics who faulted MGS3’s controls for being overly convoluted will likely also scoff at MPO's subtly reworked scheme—the loss of two buttons and an analog stick forces some creative remapping. The Circle button now brings up the new quick-change menu (pictured here) for swapping between four weapons; the Square button performs melee attacks/close-quarters combat; Triangle executes context-sensitive actions like climbing; and X still makes Snake duck or dive. The Right trigger fires your weapon, while holding down the Left trigger switches to a first-person view. Plus, you can move the third-per- son overhead camera with the D-pad. Easy, right? 4%. Who do we have here? Meet newcomer “Null” who looks an awtul lot like Gray Fox (aka MGS1's cyber- netic ninja). ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 63 (>) press start E LeFeuvre's Mortal Kombat fatality: Fun for ages 27 and up. | ee жы B Й М Ж LEGO MARI You've heard of Lego Star Wars, but Lego...Castlevania? We challenge a real Sir Bricks-a-Lot to build us three game-inspired masterpieces... m hen they weren't choking us during \ Д childhood, Legos proved to be one L of our coolest toys. Fortunately, fanatics like 28-year-old Ronn LeFeuvre never outgrew them; he spends his spare time re-creating screens of videogames past and present. “It began as a project in col- lege,” says the Los Angeles-based programmer. “We wanted to either do a stop-motion-video thing with Legos or a Grand Theft Auto parody" He did both. In the innocent world of Legos, where plastic bricks normally build cute little pirate ships or a home for SpongeBob, LeFeuvre's twisted mind had him clicking together classic GTA scenes of car bombs and street shootings (check out www.brickflick.com). When players exposed the scandalous Hot Coffee sex mod, however, LeFeuvre was done with his G7A phase and didn’t feel the need to build hot brick-on-brick action. Instead, the masterful toy-block architect decided to throw together screens of old games, such as Duck Hunt (far left) and Contra (left), and post them online—instantly gaining fame in the blogosphere. We decided to put him to the test, giving him a month to build three games: Castlevania, Mortal Kombat, and— because we're sadistic bastards—Shadow of the Colossus. Check out the results above, then heed his five tips for doing your own Lego thing... Al Avoid high-maintenance games | “| was surprised that G7A was emm» easier than my Nintendo stuff," LeFeuvre says. "Old Nintendo games are hard because they pack so much detail in low-res screens. It's hard to capture a friggin' icon, for instance. Stick with more modern games; they're easier. Nintendo's Bionic Commando cmm is a different story ИГ | (right). It ended up being 2-and. half feet tall when it was done.” 64» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com "КЕ DYING TO PLAY AS DEVIL MAY CRY’S DASHING MAIN CHARACTER DANTE IN DEVIL MAY CRY 4, YOU MAY BE IN FOR A DISAPPOINT- Set up your artist's palette с "Sit down and start sorting. You're going to need a huge set of Legos. Organize them by colors and shapes. Not every piece exists in every color; it's a lot of give and take. Try to find the textures and what matches the best. For some of my Mario sets, | used bricks backward...because it resembled the original Nintendo art. Pull up. the screenshots and sprites on a laptop or print them up for reference.” Put together a blueprint "Nintendo stuff works out well scalewise. Typically, Nintendo breaks things down into 8-pixel blocks—1 translate each one of those into a 2-by-2 Lego block. Sometimes, when you can't figure out if something's going to work, a computer-aided drafting program helps. [That's] the way the Mortal Kombat one worked out (upper right)—1 wasn’t sure how well the entire thing would jell. 1 ended up using a [com- puter-aided design] program. But normally, I snap things together and see what works. LeFeuvre's Shadow of the Colossus took hundreds of pieces. “I ended up buying $50 [worth] of gray bricks for the thing," he says. Know that gray, brown, and green blocks are really common. For example, Castlevania’s all gray, and Contra’s all brown." PLAYERI ENEMY ЖАҚ = SCORE 004100” TIME "0140: STAC Wipe out your social calendar L| “It took me about 20 hours to get the Colossus built from noth- ing. For Castlevania, | finished a rough at around eight hours and then refined the model over a few separate weekends. | spent four hours just f***ing around on the bat. The most difficult [parts are] smaller and detailed things. | mean, that thing had eyes.” = 407 Р=0:4 Don't be a cheating bastard “M don't manipulate the pieces ог cut them, and | don’t glue anything. | ignore the crazy pieces that are newer. Stick with the basic bricks, plates, et cetera... Limit the use of minifigs [the yellow figu- rines], Even though | have three people's sets, | don’t have enough, and I’m still buy- ing bricks all the time. It’s definitely not the cheapest hobby to have.” —James Lee If they build it, you will come www.saber-scorpion.com cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f2139679 LeFeuvre isn't the only blockhead on your block. Check out... ША collection of Lego-ized W This Lego master has con- IW This dude built a ready-to- IB And finally, a guy who сап figures and more from Resident ‘structed Legend of Zelda charac- | mount 3D duck from Duck Hunt: turn any game controller into an Evil (above) to Halo: ters: www.brickshelf.com/ mathaeis.livejournal.com/ oversized Lego model: 613572.html nathanbrickartist.com 9%. MENT. CAPCOM'S UPCOMING PLAYSTATION 3 EXCLUSIVE PUTS YOU IN THE KILLING BOOTS OF NERO, DANTE'S DEMONIC TWIN BROTHER... >> ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 65 “ Mt, N NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH BOTH SINGLE-PLAYER AND ONLINE GAMEPLAY! * Fantasy Violence www.esrb.org Mild L f ie ни ре Тһетеѕ р | ау5 га 4 0 П ® с ITENT В Р 3 INGLE-PLAYER THREE EXPANSIVE WORLDS TEEMING ADVENTURE AC S 12 CHAPTERS. WITH OVER 70 ENEMY SPECIES. JOIN THE BATTLE AT www.PHANTASYSTARUNIVERSE.COM www.sega.com ЕШ Preview: excusive screens & ІМҒ0 lick, and then bite down hard to get to Vegas’ multiplayer center ultiplayer may not be the whole Rainbow Six M enchilada but, like so many of Sin City’s buffets, it's the part that has people coming back for more. And according to Lead Designer J.P. Cambiotti, you can expect an even grander meal this time. So put on your lobster bib as Cambiotti offers this peek at Rainbow Six Vegas’ fine multiplayer spread. --Еуап Shamoon >> FEEL THE BURN (AGAIN) IN 2007 —EA HAS ANNOUNCED THAT THE FIFTH EDITION IN THE CRASH-EM-UP SERIES BURNOUT WILL HEAD TO THE PS3 68» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY » www. 1Р сот CHARACTER CREATION, Thrace : y OUTFITTING Lp ARMOR ce (or keeping it safe), or no one game in particular that was used as says Cambiotti. “One team has an obj , while ion of Lockdow (PEC), your personalized characters whose you gain rank. “There on that character layer games, you don't get any abilit ich Cambiotti new equipment is not m s. "This ы [ simply offers you more choices — ming home with a new an | that discrepancy. “Тһе comm jat th for everyone," says Cambio! we're taking ides to prev ing and ensure the integrity of the multiplayer experience." As mentione the entire Persistent Е ion mode has been overhauled, so as your progresses, he no longer becomes statistically more of Xbox Live is also a boon to de an even playin ДАЦ on customization and in-game accomplishments have been longtime ге hardcore games like lainbow Six community, and "this is exactly what we did," says Cambio “You can change the type of scope for every weapon and modify other aspects of your weapons. We've also now got lots of Xbox 360 achievements in every mode of play, зе, adv This ensures the the BIG ones They'll come out...eventually PS3 * Konami • Fall 2007 Hideo Kojima just loves screwing with us. The series creator slyly left old fart Solid Snake completely out of the latest MGS4 trailer (peep it at GameVideos.com). Instead, the footage shows a bunch of Middle Eastern soldiers in a nasty shootout with some dudes in modern mili- not so sure about these machines and their bowel movements. tary garb, and concludes with those odd Gekkou robots kicking the snot out of the locals and celebrating with a group-wide shart (no joke!). Is this a sneak peek at the game's multiplayer mode? Possibly...but we're Wii е Nintendo * Fall 2007 Mario versus Sonic—it's the matchup we've all been asking for. And apparently, so has legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. During a recent interview, the man behind Mario, Zelda, and several other Nintendo classics said that Sega's hedgehog would be the perfect addition to Braw/’s cast. Now use your power and make it happen, Shiggy. XB360 • Microsoft • Fall 2007 Halo 3 information continues to trickle out, as one member of developer Bungie mentioned how the anticipated first-person shooter plays, in some ways, like No. 1. "There's lots of the feel of the original Halo,” said Frank O'Connor on bungie.net. “You'll find yourself in a huge (dangerous) and intrinsically fascinating environment and will just want to go tool around and check things out..." He also mentioned that several of the campaign mode's battles are “оп a significantly bigger scale than in Halo 2” Bigger battles? Sign us up (just no more Libraries, please). Wii/GC • Nintendo * Fall 2006 Phantom Hourglass (DS) may have slipped to 2007, but Twilight Princess is still on track. Yet we've got some ominous news coming out of Hyrule: You won't be able to use the GameCube joypad when playing the Wii version. And to top it off, Link's sword will now be controlled with the Wii Remote, meaning that every time you stab, swing, or swipe, you'll have to make the motions in real life, too. With Twilight Princess said to be of epic length, that's a whole lot of swinging for your little girly arms. PS3 • Square Enix * 2007 Sorry, nothing new on the FFXIII front this month, but here are some other franchise-related bits: Although Square Enix may appear to be firmly entrenched in the Nintendo DS camp (the DS remake of Final Fantasy Ill recently sold like mad in Japan, and new Dragon Quest and Chocobo DS games will debut there by year's end), the publisher hasn't abandoned Sony's PSP. The mysterious FFVII prequel, Crisis Core, should finally materialize in 2007, but that's not the big news—we hear that remakes of all of the old-school Final Fantasys (I-V) will make their way to the PSP next year. It's currently unclear whether they will be sold separately or in collections... б 70 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com >> EVEN HO-HUM DS GAMES ARE POPPING OUT THE SEQUELS—AN UPDATE TO THE SPACE SHOOTER NANOSTRAY IS IN THE WORKS.... >> TAKE CONTROL ПЕ THE SKIES The Ace Combat” level of excellence returns in an all-new game designed specifically tu take advantage uf the PSP® (PlayStation Portable) system. Enter into an entirely new highflying action-packed story that will challenge your abilities in new ways as you take on the role of an ace pilot defending the country of Aurelia. Ace Combat® X Skies of Deception brings all the realistic aircraft and combat to a new level providing intense action to any gamer on the go. STRATEGIC Al SYSTEM THAT CHANGES REAL LIFE AND ORIGINAL TUNABLE 2-4 MULTIPLAYER WIRELESS ACCORDING TO YOUR IN-GAME DECISIONS AIRCRAFT TO PILOT INTO BATTLE BATTLES IN VARIOUS MODES Visit www.esrb.org тм | | і BANDAI ® МАМСО 5 PlayStation. Portable Games for updated rating information. ACE COMBAT@X ©2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. © GeoEye © JAPAN SPACE IMAGING CORPORATION LOGRREEDI MARTIN F 22 Raptor, associated amblems and logs, and hody designs of vehicles are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Lockheed Martin Corporation in the USA and/or other counties, used under license by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. Al trademarks and copyrights associated with the ШЕШЕ АИ, models, rade names brands and visual images depicted in this game aro the property of their respective owners, and used with such permissions. "PlayStation", the "PS" Family logo and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo A ms NA ire Gold separately). The rei icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. © press start FOR JULY sales charts 2006 TO P 10 BEST-SELLING GAMES ТОР Y XBOX 360 d B. 574 НОЛА Football 07 Chromehounds 3 LOTR: Battle for Middle-earth I 4 Prey 5 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 6 FIFA World Cup 2006 Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 8 Fight Night Round 3 9 Over 6 Fighters Call of Duty 2 NE Football 07 • PS2 • EA Sports |1 NCAA И NCAA Football 07 + Х8360 * EA Sports [3| New Super Mario Bros е DS е Nintendo ПП Grand Theft Auto: Liberty city stories + PS2 • Rockstar В NCAA Football 07 > хв + EA Sports ИСЕ û | 6 EERE GTA: Liberty City Stories ! Cars 7 | Brain Age: Train Your Brain In Minutes A Day! • DS е Nintendo ^ FIFA World Cup 2006 У Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Я» Brain Academy • DS е Nintendo ? Star Wars Battlefront Il Guitar Hero EL cars + сва + THa God of War 9 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 0 Midnight Club 3: DUB Ed. Remix [ОР 10 PORTABLES} | ТОР 10 MOBILE ERU 1228] |10] Chromehounds е XB360 * Sega Source: NPD TRSTS Video Games Service. Call (516) 625-6190 for questions regarding this list. TOP 10 XBOX % s om « = 1 NCAA Football 07 New Super Mario Bros. е DS 2 FIFA World Cup 2006 2 Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door Brain Age е DS Ms. Pac-Man 3 Halo 2 Naruto: Clash of Ninja Big Brain Academy • DS Pac-Man Star Wars Battlefront Il Super Smash Bros. Melee Cars е GBA Bejeweled 5 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 5 Mario Kart: Double Dash!! i Super Mario Advance • GBA 5 World Poker Tour Texas Hold “Ет 6 Cars 6 Lego Star Wars Mario Kart DS • 05 Jewel Quest 1 Fable Super Mario Sunshine Animal Crossing: Wild World е DS Downtown Texas Hold “Ет 8 NFL Head Coach 8 Teen Titans 3 NCAA Football 07 е PSP. 8 JAMDAT Mahjong 9 Hitman: Blood Money 9 Dance Dance Revolution: Mario 9 Cars • DS Space Invaders 10 Midnight Club 3: DUB Ed. Remix Need for Speed Underground 2 10 Pokémon Emerald е GBA Tetris Deluxe >> 2K GAMES ANNOUNCED THE FAMILY GUY GAME WILL FEATURE THE ORIGINAL VOICE CAST FROM THE SHOW, THOUGH THAT WAS A GIVEN.... >> 72% ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com shed а 5 е! кї Co., Ltd. Import Tuner Challenge, Ubisoft, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entert m NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD. RECARO is a trademark of RECAR( CARO GmbH & Co. KG. Any other trademarks, design patents al property rights are used under license from each company. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either re of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. и i=} [| 5 a FT ©2006 Genki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Insider's Guide to Video Game Careers Improve your spatial reasoning every time you head to the fridge for some munchies with these Tetris-inspired magnets. They're a bargain at $7.04 for a set of seven (available at store.artlebedev.com), and actual Russians make them. It's glasnost in action! [7] ROCKSTAR GAMES PRESENTS ` COMING OCTOBER 17, 2006 WWW.ROCKSTARGAMES.COM/BULLY Visit www.esrb.org Й шнын Ріау5 га ti 0 n.e ЖҰ ESRB ® © 2006 Rockstar Games, Inc. Rockstar Games, the б logo, Bully and the Bully logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. "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. All other marks and trademarks are properties of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved. The content of this videogame is purely fictional, and is not intended to represent or depict any actual event, person, or entity. Any similarity between any depiction in this game and any actual event, person, or entity is purely coincidental, The makers and publishers of this videogame do not in any way endorse, condone or encourage engaging in any conduct depicted in this videogame. shack// б x / Rebirth nw CUSTOMIZABLE WEAPONS WHATIEDUR СТОМ > БЕ -——— 5 v | ^w E | ғ Something strange JS occurring іп the online video game “Тһе " | | The World that go against in-game laws. Players who die in the game are feeling the effects in reality. Scalvenger не 1 Assume the гпів nf asen, a d starta dangerous journey to uncover the truth. Fight Player Killers, create parties, join guilds, and develop new hacking skills. Find the mysterious Tri-Edge, seek revenge, and reveal the truth. | x: Ғы % | A о F Eae 1070. 86 191. : ت‎ You are Haseo, The Terror of Death. EUST Welcome tn The World. HEART-STOPPING BATTLES гч In Stores OCTOBER цанаамалел гїї aeu NEW GAMEPLAY FEATURES hack into www.dothack.com/gu/ Fantasy Violence 2 ber X <> PlayStation. et осо Games Cyber C. chack® //6.U.™ & © 2006 NAMCO BANDAI. © 2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games. Vol 1: Rebirth is a trademark of NAMCO BANDAI Games America. NAMCO BANDAI Games logo is a trademark of NAMCO BANDAI. Published and distributed by NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. .hack and related characters, names, logos, distinctive likenesses, drawings and other images contained in this product are the exclusive property of NAMCO BANDAI. Used under license from NAMCO BANDAI. All rights reserved. "PlayStation" and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks and trademark names are the properties of their respective owners. © press start overheard Sound bites that bite back CARL LEARNS A HARD LESSON ABOUT HIS BLACK MARKET PS3 ©2006 Jeremy "Norm" Scott | W If publishers like «' pE shift their focus Fto DS, will the PSP be all washed up? “We were excited by the [PSP’s] technology, but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun. We must never forget that what we need to focus on is fun, so S pt ( $t с<--апа creative ones s that really take advantage of the hardware. | don't think Sony can afford to sit back. They still have things they can do with the price and perfor- mance of the machine—things that they need to address." —David Gardner, Electronic Arts' executive VP and COO of worldwide studios, weighs in on the portable gaming war “Our fundamental approach [to online] is different from Microsoft's. They name it Live and it's | a big to-do. We look at it the other way: There's m entertainment experience, what you have in the box, all those good things, —Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Kaz Hirai explains his company's low-key approach to PS3's online plans “If you're on top, you get spoiled and surrounded by cheerleaders. A few years ago, people were saying that Nintendo had slipped [out of] top place. ;this offered opportunities to the one who noticed first.” — Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto offers insight into Nintendo's new direction while delivering an ever-so-slight dig at rival Sony Look! A Prinny! Can I keep hin? Can you keep “In places like a basketball court, football stadium, or roadside in a racing game, » —Chip Lange, Electronic Arts’ vice president of online commerce, explains how EA's deal with Massive Inc. will “improve” gaming with real-time in-game advertising via Xbox Live your demon penguin? No. PENNY ARCADE WWW.PENNY-ARCADE.COM They're exploding Come on. Look murderers. That ів at that Pace! Look ав worse than a regu that evil Pace. Murderer. 1 shouldn't have to say why. $ s i] 2 Oh, alright. But the Pirst time he Slits our throats and then blows up, he's outta here. © 2006Mike Krahl QUOTATION SOURCES (COUNTERCLOCKWISE, STARTING WITH OUR PSP BATH TIME PAL): MCV, WIRED, U.S, NEWS & WORLD REPORT, NINTENDO DREAM 78» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com >>XMAS COMES LATE FOR XBOX 360 THIS YEAR, А5 PLANNED FALL RELEASES FORZA 2, TOO HUMAN, AND CRACKDOWN SLIP INTO 2007. f Steph Cashier Accountant www.guitarherogame.com bsol PlayStation.2 ->| ABiViiow. HARMONIX nm > Guitar Hero Il ™ & © 2006 RedOctane, Inc. RedOctane® is a registered trademark of RedOctane, Inc. and Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. Game code © 2005-2006 Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. Developed by Harmonix Music Systems. Protected by US Patent No. 6,429,863; patents pending. Gibson®, S.G.", and the shapes and design elements of the SG Controller and the guitars are trademarks of Gibson Guitar Corp. under license by RedOctane, 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. All rights reserved. © press start rumor mill Teasing the truth n just one month we'll all be going gaga over the PlayStation 3 and Wii. Did I say we all would? My bad! Unlike some of you dollar-burning moneybaggers out there, most of us don't swim in a sea of cash. Yep, we penny-saving peons will still be breaking our backs trying to come up with enough dough to cover the steep price of next gen- eration “fun.” But, while І may not be able afford two new consoles without donating a few dozen organs, | do have enough dirt to bury the current-gen systems for good—get a load of this month's heap. —The Q Sure shot Sega isn't just known for Shilling Sonic games; the former gaming giant used to whip up some inventive arcade games. OK, so maybe Sega's games were inventive, but the titles sure weren't— Virtua Fighter and Virtua Cop both sound like they came out of a last minute brain fart. Silly names aside, Virtua Cop helped shoot some life into the arcade light-gun genre. And since Virtua Fighter is still alive and kicking, Sega is apparently thinking about reloading the Virtua Cop series onto the PlayStation 3. Think it'll be a light-gun game? Nope! Try a first-person shooter. Old games, new life People like to crap on EA's creativity, but most jaded folk tend to forget the super publisher also created several cool series way before the hairy-footed hobbits and superspies took over its imagination. And since EA is focusing less on licensed games, I've heard new versions of the motorcycle brawler Road Rash and the helicopter shooter Desert Strike are coming to next-gen consoles soon. Different (key) strokes So astute rumor readers should remember | mentioned a while back that the insanely popular massively multiplayer role-playing game World of WarCraft is likely coming to next-gen consoles. Well, | happened to hear some gossip that supports my original claim—it appears Microsoft has 80 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com En dete mii т World of WarCraft been working on a keyboard peripheral for the 360 as a way to woo devel- oper Blizzard to make WOW a console exclusive. Oh, and if that works out, | hear it'll also be making a time-machine peripheral to help players recover from loss of girlfriends, social lives, and jobs... sold separately, of course. Simplified Sims Sometimes living your own life can be fun, but for.some reason living the lives of others seems a helluva lot more excit- ing...especially when you can kill peeps just as easily as you can make them fall in love. The Sims enabled you to control virtual lives, and now you'll apparently get to do so with the Wii Remote—looks like a new version of The Sims is in the works, but this one is being made specifically with the Wii in mind. > TIME-SHIFTING FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER TIME SHIFT IS COMING OUT A LOT FURTHER IN THE FUTURE—THE GAME'S BEEN DELAYED UNTIL 0; 18 Seems The Sims are prepping to Populate the Wii. Q-TIPS Football freaks who are sick of Madden may want to huddle up for this one—1 hear 2K is look- ing to score on a new next-gen football game. How so? Well, apparently the game isn’t going to feature new stars, but, instead, legends of the past. Developer Harmonix is readying to rock gamers with Guitar Hero Il, but I've already caught wind of its next gig—the next game will feature multiple instruments and will be playable online. The 360 version of The Godfather may have hit stores last month, but | already got the dirt on its sequel—my sources tell me a sequel to The Godfather is already in the works, but I wouldn't expect an| offer until some- time in 2008. 4 р PRIMA АМЕ} Comprehensive walkthroughs for the PlayStation"2, . Ninten o GameCube", PC, and Xhox 360" versions Maps 106 “all solo missions with foes ; - and pickups labeled. | ‚== Use the new Trust Level system to convince either the government or the terrorists which side you're on. E ү / Strategies to take down or evade every іш апа obstacle іп every solo and co-op mission. iy Get the drop on the competition with our expert tips and suggestions. UBISOFT = шы ы: ыш шы шш шш шш шш шы ка шы шы шш к. ы. ы. шш шы шш ма шш шш J Cut along dotted line and take to store. 1 f $5.00 OFF jy 45100079"34818" "6 Coupon Sku- 7934818 UPC- 400079348186 Disclaimer: [| Offer not valid in combination with any other coupons or offers. Limit 1 ner customer: Good at Best Buy stores in the USA only. Markdowns taken trom regular prices. Not valid on prior purchases. Valid in-stock items only. І Excludes special order, clearance, demos, and open-box merchandise. Selection varies by store. No rainchecks. No dealers please. Coupon must he presented at time of purchase. No copies. Cash value is 1/100th of 1 cent. Coupon valid 9/12/2006-10/28/2008. Sony Computer Entertainment America takes no responsibility for this offen. Cashier instructions: Scan coupon UPC. Scan qualifying product UPC's. Scan all the other product(s) being sold. TurnOntheFun Press "total". Write "Void" on the coupon and place in the register coupon теша file. Besffioyconm mas жа ық шш ша ша шы ып ша юш ша жы ма ма ша юш ша ша шы шы шы ша шш La © 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. Б "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Online play requires internet connection and memory card (8MB) (for PlaySt: (each sold seperately). The Online icon is а trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. TM, ® and Nintendo Gamecube are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2001 Nintendo. Місі 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 one 35 4 © press start coming soon Offering thanks to the best month in gaming P n WWE SMACKDOWN! VS RAW 2007 — 7 XB360/PS2/PSP е THQ Layin' the smack down will be easier in 2007, as all of your |. grapple moves іп the console editions аге now mapped to the right analog stick. Expect a lot of drama, too, thanks to " 4... the developers putting more emphasis on the story mode. Тоо | bad they aren't as concerned with how these grapplers walk {they still move around like stiff action figures). TONY HAWK'S PROJECT 8 жду ue NAVY SEALS COMBINED ASSAULT PS3/XB360/PS2/XB/PSP • Activision After last year's s***y port of American Wasteland to the 360, the Hawk finally looks and plays the next- gen part with much prettier visuals and all-new controls that enable you to slow down the action while in midair and use your feet (via the analog sticks) to kick the board in all crazy directions. The best of the best return to battle with a four-player online cooperative mode. The remaining upgrades, though, are fairly minimal: smarter enemies and back- ward compatibility with SOCOM 3's online maps. Hmm, seems like someone's saving the really good stuff for the first PlayStation 3 mission. a c NFL STREET 3 PS2/XB/PSP * EA Sports Big This edition of EA's Street-ified gridiron actually has you soaring well above it—you'll now jump into the air to collect point bonuses and move modifiers. If % - SIMPLE the new mechanic looks as silly as this screenshot 4 Aa i MEET ЕН implies, then we'd say the franchise, even after only "T M ы; tof у = three installments, is already jumping the shark. А = | KILLJOY. >> GABE AND TYCHO FROM THE POPULAR WEBCOMIC PENNY ARCADE ARE EXPANDING THEIR SATIRICAL SHTICK FROM COMICS TO —BELIEVE 82 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY е www. 1UP.com PORTRAIT OF RUIN DS * Konami Once again, Konami strikes a delicate balance between giving fans what they want (another Castlevania game in the spirit of legendary PS1 effort Symphony of the Night) and what they think they want (something besides another SOTN retread). Portrait of Ruin alters the formula with an unexpected setting (Europe during WWII), new level structure (you warp to bizarre locales via magic paintings), and an inventive dual-character system. FE.AR. | PS3/XB360 • Vivendi Games Don't let the name of this first-person shooter fool you; ҒЕ.А.Я. sadly keeps the p: scares to the minimum. Still, this PC n to consoles with exclusive single-pi that reveal more about the game's line, plus new in-game abilities like al-wielding. и” a % PS3/XB360 е Sega 4| In his next-gen debut, the blue blur shares the spotlight with two other "hogs, gun-toting Shadow and psychic newcomer Silver. And when the trio isn't fulfilling a need for speed (and falling to their doom thanks to crappy camera | angles), they'll be exploring areas à la 71 Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast). MORE NOVEMBER RELEASES BIONICLE HEROES PS2/GC/DS/GBA • Eidos BLADESTORM: THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR PS3 • Koei CALL OF DUTY 3 PS3/Wii/XB360/PS2/XB Activision DEAD OR ALIVE XTREME 2 XB360 • Tecmo DRAGON QUEST SWORDS: THE MASKED QUEEN AND THE TOWER OF MIRRORS Wii е Square Enix ELEBITS Wii * Konami ERAGON XB360/PS2/XB/PSP е Vivendi Games FATAL INERTIA PS3 е Koei FIFA 07 PS3/XB360 • EA Sports ІТ ОК NOT—VIDEOGAMES. NEWCOMER DEVELOPER HOTHEAD GAMES WILL BRING THE COMIC DUO ТО NEXT-GEN CONSOLES.... FINAL FANTASY Ill DS • Square Enix FULL AUTO 2: BATTLELINES PS3 е Sega GEARS OF WAR XB360 • Microsoft GENJI: DAYS OF THE BLADE PS3 Sony CEA GUITAR HERO II Р52 • RedOctane MADDEN NFL 07 . PS3/Wii е EA Sports MARVEL TRADING CARD GAME PSP/DS е Konami METROID PRIME 3 CORRUPTION Wii • Nintendo MOTORSTORM PS3 • Sony CEA NBA 07 PS3 • Sony CEA NEED FOR SPEED CARBON ` PS3/Wii/XB360/PS2/XB/GC/PSP/ DS/GBA * EA Games RAINBOW SIX VEGAS PS3/XB360 • Ubisoft RED STEEL Wii • Ubisoft RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN PS3 е Sony CEA SEGA GENESIS COLLECTION PS2 • Sega SOCOM: U.S. NAVY SEALS FIRETEAM BRAVO 2 PSP е Sony CEA STAR TREK: LEGACY XB360 • Bethesda SUPER MONKEY BALL: NARUTO: UZUMAKI CHRONICLES BANANA BLITZ PS2 • Namco Bandai Wii е Sega THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS Wii/GC « Nintendo THE SOPRANOS: ROAD TO RESPECT PS2 e THO THRILLVILLE PS2/XB/PSP • LucasArts TONY HAWK'S DOWNHILL JAM Wii/DS/GBA * Activision TRAUMA CENTER: SECOND OPINION Wii e Atlus UNTOLD LEGENDS: DARK KINGDOM PS3 е Sony Online WII SPORTS Wii • Nintendo YOSHI'S ISLAND 2 DS e Nintendo ж ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.cem • 83 * Run all your gadgets quickly, seamlessly and simultaneously. * Run all your applications at the same time with increased performance. * AMD PowerNow!™ technology for longer battery life. * Enjoy эм video playback, edit videos on the fly and deliver Su ast graphic performance - all while on the go. = NVIDIA® nForce? 570 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard - GENUINE Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP 2 -~ NZXT A! Gaming Case | | AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core Processor || 5000+ Sodetamz) 51149 4600+ (Socket AM2) $1089 4200+ (Socket AM2) 51019 - 3800+ (Socket AM2) 5999 Моше АМО Athlon™ 6АҒХ-62 (Socket AMZ) 51739 - 1 ABps Network Adapter BATALLION S550 TURBO Ж 15.4° Wide Screen 16:10 WXGA TFT LCD 1280x800 Display GENUINE Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP 2 AMD* Turion" 64 Mobile Technology -AMD* PowerNow! Technology - HyperTransport Technology - Enhanced Virus Protection Technology Mobile ATI® Radeon™ X700 128MB DDR Video 1024848 DDR-400 Memory Removable 8х DVDsTUSRW/CD-RW Drive. 80GB 5400RPM Ultra-ATA100 Hard Drive маен 602.19 ЗаМВре Min PCI Network 211g i-PCI Networ 4x USB 2.0 & 1х Fitewire IEEE-1394 Ports AMO Turion” 64 Mobilelechnology MT-34 Processor 3-in-1 Build-in Media Card Reader AMD Turion™ 64 MobileTechnology MT-37 Processor High Performance Li-Ion Battery AMD Turion" 64 MobileTechnology MT-40 Processor. Free Deluxe Carrying Case AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile! ML44 Processor zgaT 2222222 15.4" Wide Screen 16:10 WXGA TFT LCD 1280x800 Display GENUINE Windows* XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP 2 AMD® Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology -AMD* PowerNow! Technology + HyperTransport Technology - Enhanced Virus Protection Technology Mobile nVidia Geforce" 7600 256M8 DDR Video 512MB DDR2-667 Memory . Removable 8x DVDSR/«RW / CD-RW Drive 40GB 5400RPM Ultra-ATA 100 Hard Drive 10/100/1000 MB Ethernet LAN & 56K Modem a ICQ l Tx Firewire IEEE-1394 Ports 4-in-1 Build-in Media Card Reader AMD Turion™ 64 X2 MobileTechnology TL-52 Processor High Performance Li-ion Battery AMD Turion™ 64 X2 MobileTechnology TL-56 Processor Free Deluxe Carrying Case | AMD Turion™ 64 X2 MobileTechnology TL-60 Processor nd Speakers ' ee Order Toll Free 888. 462. 3899 ус == аа. CÓ BARGAIN 6ч + NVIDIA® nForce™ 4 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard. = GENUINE Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP 2 7 NEXT Tiny Mid Tower Case +See Through Window + Neon Light = Corsair 512MB DDR2-800 Memory = SeriaATA-} 160GB 7200RPM 3 Gb Hard Drive = 16x Double Layer DVD+R/+RW Drive — = NVIDIA® GeForce™ 710065 256 MB 16X PCL ers Cr z 8 Channel Surround 3D Premium Sound / = 10/00/1000 MBps Ethemet LAN | = 600Watt Surround Sound Speakers = Logitech Deluxe Keyboard & Optical Mouse — - Add ViewSonic? VX922 19°LCD — Xtreme 2ms video forultimate gaming 2 $299 AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core Processor 5000+ (Socket AM2) $775 4600+ (Socket AM2) $715 4200+ (Socket AM2) $655 3800+ (Socket AM2) $635 AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-62 (Socket АМ2) $1335 «Тһе world’s ultimate processor for PC enthusiasts. * Discover the true potential of your PC. Break the speed limit. POWER We Build It, You Play It с VALUE ULTRA Corsair 1024MB DDR 2-800 Memory - е = 16xDouble Layer DVDIR/#RW Drive | = NVIDIA® GeForce™ 790065 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card ~ 8Channel Surround 3DPremium Sound — = 600Watt Surround Sound Speakers -10/100/1000 MBps Ethemet LAN | 517 Viewsonic? Q78 LCD Monitor = Logitech Deluxe Keyboard & Optical Mouse AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core Processor 5000+ (Socket АМ2) $1159 p———— Cm Ш cGanhnmer SLi NVIDIA® nForce™ 570 SLI Chip Dual PCI Express Motherboard || GENUINE Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP 2 IBüypower* CPU Liquid Cooling System = Corsair 1024MB DDR 2-800 Memory > Serial-ATA- 320GB 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive = 16x Double Layer DVD+R/+RW Drive; 16x DVD-ROM Drive + QRNVIDIAS Geforce"! 7050GT PCI Express 512MB Video Cards- SLI Enabled j| > 8 Channel Surround 3D Premium Sound = Creative Inspire 8 Channel Surround Sound Speakers = 10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet АМ * Logitech Deluxe Keyboard; Optical Mouse ~ Free Wireless 802119 54MBps Network Adapter AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core Processor 5000- (Socket АМ2) 51689 4600+ (Socket АМ2) 51099 4600+ (Socket АМ2) $1609 4200+ (Socket AM2) $1039 4200+ (Socket AM2) $1559 3800+ (Socket AM2) $999 3800+ (Socket AM2) $1529 AMD Athion™ 64 FX-62 (Socket AM2) $1749 AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-62 (Socket AM2) $2279 5 iBUYPOWER RECOMMENDS * Enhanced Virus Protection, enabled by Microsoft? Windows? XP SP2. * Cool 'N" Quiet technology means whisper quiet operation and signicificantly reduced power consumption. WWYVWW_ ЕЗУ POWER- CON, WINDOWS® XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION ж» ргелеш feature: * control issues See how the Wü and the PS3’s motion-sensing joypads are changing the way we play 0 yourself a favor and look inside one of your game cases. Now, see those bound pieces of paper? That's called an instruction manual. Yeah, it's been a long time since we read one of those, too. But this fall you actually might start referring to these game manuals again. 86 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com Nintendo and Sony—and their respec- tive motion-sensing controllers—are changing the gameplaying formula (obviously, for some software more than others). Just take a look at how these dozen Wii and PS3 games are using this funky new feature... —Bryan Intihar, Shane Bettenhausen, Greg Ford, and Paul Semel “Sounds that are heard on the field will be part of that experience," says Line Producer Jason Armenise, regarding Madden NFL 07's use of the Wii Remote speaker. MADDEN NFL 07 Electronic Arts may sell, like, a gazillion copies of Madden every year, but you'll still find a bunch of gamers out there who feel the blockbuster series has become too complicated. And who can argue? The last two major features added to Madden, lead blocker and the passing cone, are anything but accessible (especially the latter). But thanks to the Wii's unique play setup, the developers are aiming to simplify the virtual gridiron experience. “Ош goal from the first day has been to make Madden's controls as intuitive as possible for new users,” says Line Producer Jason Armenise. "To that end, we quickly developed the idea that, in general, the Wii Remote [below on the left] should be the ‘hands’ of the player and the Nunchuk [below on the right] the ‘body.’ This plays out repeatedly in the controls." Man, he ain't kidding— pulling back on the Wii Remote hikes the ball, moving it forward (plus pressing the D-pad) throws the ball, and swing- ing it left or right delivers a stiff arm. As for the Nunchuk, while its analog stick con- trols the player like in any other version of the game, physically moving the peripheral in various directions will perform jukes. Some onfield actions even require swinging them around simultaneously. “When you want to put a big hit on someone, you jam both controllers forward," says Armenise. “It’s the same if you're on offense when you want to power up and attempt to push through a defender." And here's something for all you showboats out there: Flailing both controllers above your head will have ball carriers high-steppin' (or performing other taunts) on the way to pay dirt. Nice touch. 7 Throw TONY HAWK'S DOWNHILL JAM The Wii's doing more than just making developers control-happy; it's also forcing them to alter the MOs of some well-known franchises. And that's just what's happening to Tony— instead of another open-world skate-a-thon like the upcoming Project 8 (PS3/XB360/PS2/ XB/PSP), Downhill Jam goes the way of a racer. You'll go around the globe participating in more than 100 events, most of which are built on speed and discovering shortcuts. The mechanics are fairly straightforward: Hold the Wii Remote horizontally like a standard con- troller, and tilting it left or right makes your skater turn in either direction (pressing the A button will make you power slide). Now, say during a race you take a nasty digger? Not a problem—shake the controller as fast as possible to get your guy or gal back on track. And just because Downhill Jam stresses checkered flags over flash doesn't mean you won't find opportunities for gettin’ tricky. A small number of challenges are all about accu- mulating points, and the right combo of D-pad and button presses will have you bustin’ out some killer moves. GREED |с. your ass he Elegant Sorry, no online races here, but 1 Downhill Jam will include a four- player splitscreen mode. (Not much of a consolation, if you ask us.) ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 87 » preview feature: % control issues CALL OF DUTY 3 Naturally, the Wii version of CoD3 doesn't come close to matching the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions’ spectacular-looking warzones, but at least how you fight the good fight should feel fresh here. Pointing the Wii Remote at the television screen targets ene- mies, while moving the Nunchuk left changes weapons and jolting it upward reloads. The game also changes the feel behind CoD3's wheels. “Using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as a steering wheel held vertically at three o'clock and nine o'clock respec- tively,” explains Executive Producer Marcus Iremonger, “the player can ‘turn’ the wheel as he races down bombed out streets avoiding German tanks and infantry attacks." 7... Reload and switch weapons SUPER MONKEY BALL: BANANA AP Sega's quirky combo of plastic balls and sim- 3 a )02'30"83) 202 50 634 ians became a monster hit on the GameCube, AU MEE "eer. Nace ^M | sun: E +i SS — < 2 | — per rm EL n and unsurprisingly, Monkey Ball feels well- suited for the Wii. Gently tilting the controller moves your ball-bound monkey through the levels with stunning precision, while flicking the controller executes a hop (perfect for last- ditch saves and attacking bosses). As fun as the main game may be, Banana Blitz's true draw lies in 50 wildly diverse minigames. Returning favorites like Monkey Racing, Bowling, and Golf receive full control makeovers, using the motion-sensing wand precisely how you'd expect them to. But not everything is quite so predictable: Monkey Darts pulls off a shockingly accurate simula- у Фф 1 vk Uhh...well, you'll tion (hold the controller like a dart, and thrust Extra incentive: Plowing through the solo campaign is the only way to unlock all of Banana figure it ош it forward while releasing a button to throw). Blitz's minigames, including this four-player, space-age take on bumper cars. MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE Anyone who has spent a day (or more) in Underoos has probably acted out sling- ing Spidey's webs or throwing Captain America's shield at imaginary enemies. Well, this particular version of the superhero-heavy action-role-playing game should help bring you back to the good ol’ days of sporting unflattering, brightly colored underwear. The simple act of flicking the Wii Remote forward, backward, left, or right with a press of a button will perform superpow- ers like those we already mentioned. The Nunchuk, as you might expect, is used for moving your onscreen characters (via the analog stick) and adjusting the camera (via tilting the peripheral). Blade takes a break from his new | (and surprisingly successful) TV series С / to hang with his fellow do-gooders. Access superpowers 88 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com па YEAR MY RIVAL | OBE BRYANT ККА we MAN BAY Fest of d Like to say conevatibtions 1e you Kobe, for ROBBING, НЕ. of the cover for МЕД O7 the ШЕ №2. 2+5 A GREAT GAM «се BEENMe he hep = : | ыты scenes соме. ЋЕТЕ, Fu No hey ate ton Kobe, Now yeuregotng { have. y Edi MAM d ШЕ the cover of «v А GREAT SANE, halen noticed а E ne MONGOOSE ох. soue фен $ котон iv bas VEA IS during ALL STAR break, T might ео lek you shoot for. Таке ой U might play 62. GAMES a season, WY 49656 what Mam BA’ js Vie balls year vewdl// // телин 05. бом luck trying Б dép f gonna be tough since we're only playing 6 ТА Bil А former бш Ura Saga “ће ‘goose is Loose’ FEATURIN! NBA ота быз (5 ABIES RESELL d hy ie інге GMM! He APHICS, T 50 кейі. Шы; беле ПОЛЕ SHAMBA ейтен and since Fe т SA gur биін £ play ie KID "GIG XT Helps He prepae ос myteal-life Rivalry (174 come VISIT My WE BLAIR © mamba v5 tongdose.coy PlayStation. 4 2 NBA.COM 5 Жа! | г jv € тере. carae LIVE IN YOUR WXRLD. PLAY IN URS? e The NBA and individual NBA member team identifications reproduced on this product are trademarks and copyrighted designs, and/or other forms of intellectual property, that are the exclusive property of NBA Properties, Inc., and the respective NBA member teams and may not be used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of МВА Properties, Inc. ©2006 МВА Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. (92006 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. "PlayStation"and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "Live In Your World. Play In Ours." is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Online icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Online play requires Internet connection, Network Adaptor (for PlayStation«2) and Memory Card (8MB) (each sold separately). жӛ” Preview feature: * control issues Scrub up: Repairing broken bones and organ transplants are some of the new surgeries you'll perform in Second Opinion. y TRAUMA CENTER: SECOND OPINION The cult DS hit Trauma Center: Under the Knife gave wannabe surgeons a chance to test their abilities on the operating system without actually making a bloody mess. This 3D remake (or what Project Lead Tomm Hulet refers to as a "Wii- make") now brings the virtual human carving to the big screen, and it really seems like a perfect fit for Nintendo's new console and remote controller. *The Nunchuk's analog stick serves to select your tools, and the Wii Remote and its but- tons actually control it,” says Hulet. “So if you need to disinfect and then cut someone open, you select the antibiotic gel, move the pointer along the incision, then select the scalpel and move back. This is a lot faster than having to select tool icons from the side of the screen in the DS version." Sadly, though, you won't hear any weird noises coming out of the Wii Remote's speaker as you poke and prod patients. "Since we are trying to make launch, there were just some features we didn't have time to implement, even though they would have been cool," confesses Hume. "The speaker is one of them." ELEBITS Rather than grace Nintendo's new console with one of its established fran- chises (c'mon, wouldn't it be fun to swing a whip in Castlevania?), Konami has instead decided to debut this all-new property on the Wii. Meet the elebits, cuddly Pikmin-esque critters who work behind the scenes, secretly providing the electricity to power our appliances. The energy crisis has never been so...adorable. The gist of the game couldn't be simpler—use a gravity gun (think Half-Life 2, only for babies) to find the elebits hidden throughout various environments. You view the action from a first-person perspective, aiming the gun by pointing the Wii controller, and holding down the A button to activate the tractor beam. It's remarkably simple: You grab various objects (everything in the level is fair game, even big stuff like refrigerators) and toss them around, causing our ІР! electric buddies to scurry for cover. Zap enough of them with your gun before the time limit expires and the level's over. A few clever twists keep it from being more than just a hotel-room- trashing simulator. First off, many of the environmental objects can be combined to reveal elebits. For example, move slices of bread to the toaster, activate it, and watch the critters fly. Also, you can find power-ups that transform your gun into a rapid-fire, homing laser, briefly transforming the game into a frantic, fast-paced shooter. And although we haven't seen it in action yet, Konami promises a competitive four-player mode that should add an extra layer of depth to the otherwise straightforward proceedings. BLAZING ANGELS: SQUADRONS OF WWII This Dubya Dubya Two dogfighter didn’t convince many 360 owners to fly through its danger zone, but Ubisoft hopes a few new control alternatives will attract people to its PS3 cockpit. “The control schemes that use the PS3 motion sensor are based on two classic schemes: arcade (up means up, down means down) and simulation (up means down, and vice versa),” says Project Manager Florin Sanda. “In both cases, the player can maneuver the plane just by moving the controller, without making use of the analog sticks.” 2 E | (ЖА. "Hw p Pitch & Yaw From the battlefield to the j chiropractor іп one full swing. | || ыы. я GENJI: DAYS OF THE BLADE As Onimusha-esque hack-n-slashers go, last year’s Genji: Dawn Of The Samurai (PS2) was like a plastic kiddie pool: a bit shallow. Its sequel is shaping up to be more like an Olympic-sized pool, thanks to developer Game Republic smartening up the enemy A.l. and doubling the amount of missions. As for Days of the Blade’s control specifics, the tentative plan calls for you use the PS3 motion-sensing func- tion to dodge attacks via pulling back on the joypad. Dodge The Thing gets a little too ‚ aggressive during Saturday morning’s snowball fight. ае. MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE Just as with the Wii version of Ultimate Alliance, you can expect a pretty good workout with the PS3 edition—moving the controller in various directions accesses special powers. The game also takes advantage of the controller's built-in feature at specific moments. During the Galactus boss fight, for example, shaking it frees you from his grasp, and tilting it guides the Silver Surfer around his massive cosmic girth. С Be super ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 91 ы » preview Feature: % control issues UNTOLD LEGENDS: | DARK KINGDOM With the PSP's Untold Legends franchise PS3 bound, the developer's looking to get rid of some of the micromanagement that bogs down most action-RPGs while mak- ing limited use of the controller’s new shake-n-bake support. So instead of collect- ing scores of weapons and armor (that you inevitably end up hawking) like in past games, you now have set item archetypes you can modify with enhancements. And rather than juggling potions, you pick up life-replenishing orbs. As for the motion-sensing controller, says Producer Andy Sites: “We actually have a number of ways that we would like to integrate the motion sensitivity into Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, such as allowing the player to dodge enemy attacks by tilting the controller left, right, forward, and backward. By offering this as an option, it allows the player to keep their hands on the combat controls, while evading an attack becomes more of a subconscious reaction.” Provided the gameplay does enough to keep us awake, the control addition, though simple, is something we can definitely get behind. Evade 92 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com A hard turn of the controller your rider to do EERSTE Prettier, faster, bigger—these are just some of the words in the “next-gen” dictionary. MotorStorm adds one more: vulgar. “Riders and drivers will now flip you the bird when they get cut off,” says Producer Nigel Kershaw. “The PlayStation 3 allows us to really breathe life into racing, with riders and drivers that interact with the player and each other. They really feel like they are people rather than shop-window mannequins.” Now, if you don't want А.І. grease monkeys shooting you rude gestures, you bet- ter get acclimated to this off-roader’s motion-sensing mechanics, which turn the PS3 controller into a glorified steering wheel. Possessing quick reflexes is also essential, as these down and dirty tracks are always changing—even during the race. “You can really take the environments apart in MotorStorm,” says Kershaw. “There are plenty of things to smash and a deformable landscape to churn up. In gameplay terms, this means that you need to always keep your wits about you, as the gameplay changes from lap to lap. Sure, the route is the same, but the progressive destruction means that each lap is a new challenge.” Not to mention, this ever-shifting terrain offers even more opportunities to piss off the competition. cm Steer сопе 07, threatens the Сарйа!% survival, it takes.more than your average private Densely populated environments put you into Taisho- ега Japan! dA ТО wINI: i Р 27 Үйі atlus.com/dev -atlus. сар Да MN by and énter-towwin a limit eisonally signed айй ograph from renowned px * pes Blood Sexual Themes ep PlayStation.? tlus USA SHIN ME: per SMT and Devi ler are registered trademarks of Atlus USA. © 2006 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. "PlayStalibn" and the "PS" Fanllly $90 are registered tradgmarks ofSony Computer Entertainment Inc. The rating icons are trademarks of the Entertainment Software Association. WWW.ATLLUS.COM “вәшедйшоо әлдоәдвә: 1194} jo Auedoid au} әле syıewepeı} 19470 һү ‘penıasay SI iy һү Зиәшшенәші иоѕрпн 9002 © шоэ`5$ә[әлмиогипәл је Sdew % suonejiui әбезәлоо ‘Ajdde ѕәәј 19440 9 әшгигү :MON 1| 199 5 Ё $ E TERRAIN EFFECT. 0% ONE ELSE (® ONLY ON VERIZON ише "Get It Now" couer storu: gears 96» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com | spend a day with Gears of War, and my head explodes by Dan "Shoe" Hsu liff Bleszinski clearly likes being a dick. "Run, bitches, run!" he screams as he gleefully drags a giant orbital laser beam across the map, scorching anything that gets in its way in a multiplayer test session. “It’s the energy equivalent of the f***in’ Monty Python foot step- ping on guys," says Bleszinski, lead designer of Gears of War, the heavily hyped Xbox 360 shooter that we know you've heard of already. He adds, “I feel like the giant kid from The Far Side where І have the magnifying glass, and the one ant turns to the other ant and says, 'Hey, are you getting hot?” > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com • 97 7 > cover story: gears of War The heat of developing Microsoft's next killer app doesn't seem to be affecting Bleszinski, but maybe that's because I'm coming at it all wrong. Originally, 1 thought Gears, due out November 12, was meant to be gamers’ next *Halo"—the must-own game that would have throngs of consumers shaking fists of $100 bills at frazzled store clerks across the country, demanding Xbox 360s before supply runs out and anarchy sets in. But after spending a day at developer Epic Games, | see that Gears is less about being the next big thing and more about satisfying Bleszinski's sadistic urges. When he's describing gameplay, he loves using violent metaphors (destructible cover: “then the sofa you're hiding behind starts to crumble and pop. You pull your enemy out of cover like you're pulling a hermit crab out of its shell"). He tells stories where he’s humiliated his foe (“I'll sneak up behind an enemy, and I'll tag him with a smoke grenade. All of a sudden, he's running around the map with smoke coming out of his ass, and everyone's like, 'Ha-ha, look at the idiot"). And as you've read already, he's not shy with the swear words. The guy certainly seems more wrapped up in the game's emotional and visceral aspects rather than with any potential sales figures, and after playing the game for a few hours, | can see what his intentions are. But т getting ahead of myself here... interview With hype со n Bertra по filmed and edited the ion of this feat: id | arrive at Сагу, NC-based lazy-journalist-unfriendly hour. We sit down y rence room full of game Journalists from Europe and to work on their tespective cover stories. a work in € The game may not loi ritory. We aren't rev disclaimers make me needs to be this close to Epic Splits us up int interview with the kid with the Bleszinski meets with us at hi shrine dedicated to Optimus Prime th But the topic of conversation isn’t goit for the Autobot leader, but rather, the pa game, from him all the way to the дате! played it yet. “Have you ever seen a new [intellectual this?” Bleszinski asks me. “Halo, maybe,” | reply. 2 "Yeah, maybe, and that turned out well, гі 1 know is that the amount of hype right now is 0 says. “I Googled ‘Gears of War’ the other day, a ат, 20 million hits off it. There's a guy who got a tattoo of th le gear and skull logo, and he hasn't even played the game. I'm like, *What if you don't like it, dude?' 1 guess it'll still took РЕ соо! on him... What wouid motivate a gamer to get inked for. a game he's never played? What's driving this hype? 4 Y^ Si ho Perhaps it's the graphics. | can safely say you won't better-looking game this year. The human soldiers Scars, weathered faces, and a thin layer of grime coveri ir bodies | and armor. These guys aren’t shiny, heroic warriors of the ne future. They're grumpy, fatigued, war-torn men who look lil they'd rather be somewhere else, despite looking tough n , hell. (“They actually express how exhausted they are durin К of this,” says Bleszinski. “They just want to go home and һауе а > 98» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1 UP.com. Earth-like planét Sera have been warring an themselves for decades. But on у, the Locust Horde crawled out from Он underground lairs in a massive surprise attack ed out untold masses of Sera’s human population in fay. Unprepared to deal with this new threat, the humans laid to most of Sera’s surface in a desperate attempt to deprive the it of the planet’s natural, military, and strategic resources. Now, e_~ the people of Sera are united against a new, unfamiliar enemy. You are Marcus Fenix, ап ex- Coalition of Ordered 5 soldier jailed for leaving his post to save his paj COG buddy Dom busts you out of prison, however, you can help with the fugly Locust threat. Gears of War tells the next 36 hours of Fenix’s life (storywise, not literal game-playing time)... “ 1 - ж 7 y S WE: 7 fee Y қ d X 3 T A 3 у \ X ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY е www. AUP.com е 99 cover story: gears of war Chain saw It’s not clean, quick, and efficient like Halo 2's plasma sword, but Gears of War's chain saw (mounted at the end of the Lancer assault rifle) still obliterates enemies with one noisy melee attack, > friggin’ sandwich, right?”) These grunts also move with lifelike weight and momentum. When you slam into a wall for cover, you feel like a 250-pound, all-muscle gorilla of a man whose extra-heavy-duty (and dingy) armor would crush the average nerd who's playing this game. The city environments look just as incredible. Smoking rubble, charred concrete, and oxidized metal accent otherwise beautiful, grand structures that are based on real-life, classic London architecture. Or maybe it’s the gameplay that has people excited. Think ac- tion-heavy Halo mixed with the hide-and-seek tactical elements from Ghost Recon. You won't go running around like Master Chief hopped up on Red Bull, but you don’t have to be too afraid of sticking your neck out from behind cover, either. The game's all about big guns, big explosions, and big monsters...but if you're not careful about using cover, you'll be donating big buckets of your own blood to the cause. Or it could be the pedigree that has gamers pumped. Epic is the team behind the Unreal series of shooters, which has done particularly well on the PC side of gaming. These guys know their shooters, and they know how to make a multiplayer experience work. Nah, It's the graphics. It’s so incredibly hard not to be im- pressed with them—you won't want to touch your original Xbox after seeing this game in motion. “We want to make sure that we pass the ‘mom test,” says Bleszinski. "We want to make sure the visual fidelity is so significant that your mom would be like, ‘Wow, Billy. ІЛІ spend $299 on this system for you.” But as all hardcore gamers are fond of saying, it can't just. be about the graphics. Bleszinski, as hardcore a gamer as he is a game designer, knows this as well as anyone. "What a good shooter does: It has that core, inner loop of getting the little stuff right," he says. "Pull the trigger and the sound is perfect. The muzzle flash looks good coming off the gun. You can tell that you've shot your enemy. The controls don't feel slippery—they don't feel like you're controlling a 400-pound drunk Marine. 1 think that's something that Ha/o mastered, and it's something that we're trying to master with Gears. There are other games where, technically, they don't do anything wrong, but there's that extra little bit, that spirit, that soul, that's just missing." » “I think the graphics are 50 gccd, people will be willing tc adapt tc a slightly different style ef play.” —Gears of War Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski 100 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com RATING PENDING Visit www.esrb.org for updated rating information. ‘CONTENT RATED SY ESRB | General Surgeon 's Warning: Trauma Center and Wii are an addictive combination that may resultin prolonged fun and enjoyment for everyone. Early detection and preordering are key to achieving all the possible entertainment that these items can provide. © 2006 Trauma Center: Second Opinion is a trademark of Atlus USA. ™ and the Wii logo аге trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo. couer storu: gears of uJar > “If you just have great graphics, that's not enough,” һе continues. "You'll get bored of the game. It's like if a girl's pretty—that's fun for a little while, but eventually you sit there at dinner not talking. You need all of it with relationships, with life, with a game.... So graphics matter. Gameplay matters. Story matters, Control matters. Pacing matters. When you save mat- ters. It's all of it; it’s everything." Inspiration points Taking a look at these screenshots, you might think the game draws inspiration from such classics as Aliens or not-so-clas- sics like Starship Troopers. It's actually a bit closer to home than that. “[Other games] are always trying to be Blade Runner, Aliens, or Evil Dead, over and over and over again,” says Bleszinski. “Our game’s more influenced by CNN and Fox News. Running behind this character, it looks like footage from f***in’ Baghdad.” The developers, however, aren't just sitting around watching Headline News and jotting down notes. One of their animators is a former Army Ranger who got to experience the real-life Black Hawk Down in Somalia. “The movie apparently really glossed over how bad it actually was there, as far as guys running at you with their child in their arms, shooting you, assuming that you’re not going to shoot back,” says Bleszinski. “That whole gloves-are-completely-off element of warfare where people just don't give а s***...speaking to the war camera [like that] is what the game kinda does—just being inundated with war media, filtered and unfiltered." Of course some movies act as muses for Gears of War. We saw a little Pitch Black in this game (see sidebar, right). Then you have the execution move that inspired the screenshot on our Cover: "If you [hit X when you're over your down-but-not-out opponent]" says Bleszinski, “you essentially do that scene from American History X, which is the curb stomp." It doesn't surprise us that the developers borrowed that disturbing moment from the flick. If you've ever seen an angry Edward Norton putting his boot to the back of someone's head while it's resting (teeth first) оп а concrete curb, the image never leaves your head (and if it has left your head, you can thank us for bringing it back). Now, you'll get to do something similar to your multiplayer opponents to finish them off. Nasty. > 102 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com light,” says Bleszinski. ‘fire, push it down the e yt кы the ег around ht. Keep him lit, - ine it directly Get unprecedented gaming realism. Mitsubishi HDTVs feature 1080p MITSUBISHI DLP” imaging—the definition of high definition. And to put you even ELECTRIC eper into the action, screens up to 73 inches. I080pgaming.com DIGITAL TELEVISIONS™ DLP logo are registered trademarks of Texas Instruments, Xbox 360™ screenshots courtesy of Activision Publishing, Inc.® 2006 Activision Publishing, Inc. couer story: gears of War > A little help? But hey, lest you think Gears of War is too violent and will incur the wrath of politicians, you can help people in this game. That's something, right? Right? When your A.I. teammates go down, they don’t die right away. Instead, they’re in a near-death “bleeding out” phase, helpless but savable. If you go to them and hit X, you can bring them back to active duty. It works the same way in multiplayer: If someone drains your health with anything that’s not a sure-death hit (chain saw, sniper head shot, grenade in the lap, etc.), you'll start “bleeding out.” Your screen turns red, and you can’t move or do anything except jam on the A button to stall death for a bit. If a teammate can get to you before your bleeding-out meter runs dry, he can bring you back to full health. But if your buddy’s too late, or you get shot or executed during that phase, then time’s up, buddy. Onscreen indicators will point out where help is needed on the battlefield. Bleszinski describes one watercooler moment in a way that should put all politicians at ease (not really): “I was getting tagged by this guy...one of the level designers. He got me down and was coming over to stomp me, and my buddy came in around the corner like, ‘Here comes the cavalry’ and knocked him down. My buddy intentionally didn’t kill the guy, because he knew he was no longer a threat at that moment. He knew the more important thing was to resurrect me before | bled out. So he resurrected me, but not only that, he was a gentleman and allowed me to go over and stomp the guy who had knocked me down, as this kinda nice revenge. Right then, | literally was like, ‘F*** you!’ as І stepped on his head. It felt so good." across the Active Reload Meter. Hit the n We talk about many more things that morning, which you can - the Баг over the smaller sweet spot. (2) апау catch on the 1UP Show (you can find a link to this episode on a "perfect reload": a faster-than-normal reload | EGM.1UP.com—look for this issue's extras"). But it's time to damage (which will be toned down in multiplay see how the single-player game is. the new bullets you just added to the current clip stop the bar on the larger sweet spot (3), you'll g load but no damage boost. If you hit the button $ е meter, you'll flub it and your The Sele Game | a nger o revad, rp дот волаты to online gether and go for the normal reloa рак E Pe 2 actively looking for them Ваһу steps only once. If you nail "perfe m Віта) acknowl- After we finish up with Bleszinski, Jason and | head over to the jui llets will glow in the ammo counte à edges it will be impossible single-player demo room. The Epic developers who are т v N EN К to fully prevent cheating © Everything's cover in Gears of War: walls, pillars...even couches, which disintegrate under fire. 104 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 316 uum e i %. babysitting us tell us two things: 1) They recommend we pick the “casual” difficulty setting instead of “hardcore” (these names are subject to change, by the way), because 2) We're only going to have one crack at playing through the demo. If we die, we're done playing single-player for the day. I'm not sure why they're being so strict with us, since it's in their best interest to let us have, you know, fun while we're there, but 1 take it as a challenge. | select "hardcore" and roll my eyes at Jason when I see him picking "casual." The game begins with my old military partner springing me out of an otherwise abandoned prison (see The Story So Far Sidebar). The tutorial shows me how to use the A button for every cover or evasive move in the game, like hiding behind pillars, ducking and running (known as the “roadie run,” like you see roadies do during a music concert), “SWAT turning” across open doorways, or rolling to safety. Then it shows me how to use the Y button to automatically track things of interest, from your closest teammate (by default), to something my A.I. partner wants me to do (pick up that key, open that door), to an event happening at that moment (like that door a team of Locust Drones is blowtorching through to get to us). When the Drones finally bust through, they immediately split up to avoid clumping together and head for fallen stone columns for cover. While eyeing these guys, І notice that when І equip grenades, the game draws out a flight path for them on my screen, including any bounces and ricochets, so I try testing a few out. | also practice some blind firing, which lets me shoot in the general direction of the enemy without exposing my body. But that’s a bit too inaccurate for me (and a seemingly waste of ammo, though | discover later that the game gives you plenty of that), so | pop my head out and put my enemies in my sights. A few clips and fountains of Locust blood later, my partner and | escape the prison into open air. We join up with more soldiers to look for a missing unit (only to find out later on that they’re all dead). As we make our way through the city streets and a museum-like building, we fight more Drones that are popping out of Emergence Holes that connect to their underground lairs. If | hadn't wasted so many grenades earlier, І could’ve sealed up some of these gateways. At least these holes don't infinitely spawn Locust, or I’d have to roll my eyes at the developers, too... Several more Emergence Holes and Drones later, the > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * www.1UP.com • 105 ы. 343 umma cover story: gears of War = Shoot 'ет if you want to keep "ет: Most characters or enemies you run into in the campaign mode become selectable models you can use in multiplayer. > demo comes to an end. | really didn't notice the problems the developers were paranoid about. The game runs fairly smoothly for the most part (Epic promises it'll be even better by the time Gears ships). The graphics are just like what you see on these pages (meaning: awesome). Nothing really looks broken or incomplete. Looks like the game, at least the first couple of single-player levels, is practically ready to go. Multiplayer Finish him Epic's shuffling us over to the multiplayer demos, and 1 know my one chance this day to chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” to these foreign journalists is fast approaching. The only mode we were going to play today is War Zone: a 4- оп-4 elimination match where everyone gets one life. If you die, it's off to.the dead channel (where you can chat with other ca- sualties) to watch your teammates finish up. Two other modes include Assassination (your team wins by killing the other team's designated leader) and Execution (you have to perform a close-up execution—curb stomp, chain saw, or point-blank pistol bullet to the head—to finish your opponent, or else he'll come back into play). These are the three main multiplayer types (besides two-player co-op over Xbox Live), as Bleszinski has no interest in having people play his game the old-fash- ioned way. "No capture the flag...and | don't really want the game to devolve into a deathmatch,” he says. “If you have no fear of death, then you just run at each other, and it devolves into a Quake match. That's cool, but we're not that game." The first level we play is Mansion, which looks ridiculous... and 1 mean that in a good way. We start off outdoors, on the mansion's grounds. Rain is falling from the darkened sky; moonlight casts an eerie glow over the hedges and fountains.... It's a scene straight out of a big-budget haunted-house flick, but | feel like I'm actually there. | go inside the dilapidated house and see old rugs, rotted furniture, peeling wallpaper, and rainwater spilling in through wide-open gaps in the roof... Although my eyes are busy scanning for our foes, what 1 catch in my peripheral vision is still blowing my mind. Yes, Billy...Mom will be impressed. She will be really impressed. > 106 » ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com Achieve this! «Оп behalf of Ted Nugent, ! authorize Microsoft to incorporate the ression “ е Nuge" into its Gears of War game" So reads a legal ШІСІ the rocker/hunter/gun nut's lawyer to the Gears team. “The — Nuge" is one of the game's many Xbox 360 achievements—this one's | enough people with the Torque Bow (which fires explosive- m —think Rambo 1). Others include "Cluster — neous grenade kills) and "Is It a Spider?" е with a grenade...in reference to a joke on v Red vs. septate 100,000 online logos. “Have you e ı driving i the freeway,” asks үш “and that someb pürüp on the side of the road where they lost someone? _ like that. People sp t the Crimson Omen wherever a soldier fell. That’s , around here are COG tags of course, are the dog tags of the COG, no pun intende ` very intended. ” |f yor белі DVL 90020 THE MAKERS ОҒ TAG BODY SPRAY ADVISE THAT WEARING NEW WILD CARD AND PLAYING STRIP BLACKJACK САМ LEAD TO SEVERE NUDITY. TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T LEAD TO YOUR OWN NUDITY, USE ATTACHED INVINCI-CARD. Introducing new Wild Card from TAG; CONSIDER YOURS 3.5 ounces of Vegas in а ca ELF у. МЕР. couer storu: gears of War # While you're enjoying your blood- bath, poor Cole’s bleeding out—get to him before his meter runs dry! “I dent want te be geing arcund war zones lecking for chicken pot pies, yeu knew?” —Bleszinski explains why Gears of War won’t have health pickups. You just have to avoid bullets and rest to regain health, similar to Halo 2 > "Let's stick together so we can cover each other's backs,” | ` say to Jason as we start the War Zone match. He agrees to this in principle, but our team strategy lasts for about 10 seconds as we wander off in separate directions. It's a little bit getting used to the gameplay, a little bit learning the level, but we aren't quite ready to work as a team just yet. “Who needs him?" | think to myself as | pick up the Boom Shot, a two-shot rocket launcher/grenade launcher hybrid that ends up putting me on a killing streak that continues for several rounds...until the other team wises up and goes after the same gun on the map. Since the level's symmetrical and fairly small, our matches are now all starting off with a sprint to get the Boom Shot first. The stand- offs are intense as we use smoke grenades, cover, blind firing, and balls-out running to get into better positions for the pickup, but after a few rounds, | was wishing our opening moves didn’t feel so rehearsed. Sure, | could go off-script and do something different when the round starts, but I just couldn't stand the thought of the other team getting that power weapon first. So off I go again and again after the Boom Shot.... Finally, we get to my head exploding When the fights don't start and end with the Boom Shot, we're going at it with assault rifles and their attached chain saws (un- fortunately, the Hammer of Dawn orbital laser described at the start of this article isn't something we'd get to play with today). But the most memorable moment for me is when І charge at a > 108 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com مرا \ ^ € O32 æa Save::$300 а year with the new way to phone! Ф UNLIMITED Local апа | Long Distance Calling | Using Your High-Speed Internet Connection! Vs FREE Voicemail! 3} FREE Caller ID! FREE Call Waiting! 1-800-830-7810 FREE Call Forwarding! не www.vonage.com/join83 20 FREE Premium Features in All! Keep Your Phone Number!" Award-Winning Quality! Editors’ ч Local and Long Distance Calling Vonage #1 Rated only $2 499/ month! July 2006 Digital Phone Service FREE MONTH OFFER ONLY ON $24.99 PLAN. SERVICE FEE WAIVED BUT ALL OTHER CHARGES APPLY. FREE FEATURES INCLUDED IN SERVICE FEE AFTER FREE MONTH. NEW CUSTOMERS ONLY. Vonage 911 service operates differently than traditional 911. E911 not available everywhere. See www.vonage.com/91 1 for details. High-Speed Intemet Required. t Rates exclude: broadband service, activation, regulatory recovery fee, 911 fees & cost recovery, premium services, equipment, Vonage compatible equipment, disconnect fee, taxes, and shipping. Intemational calls hilled/min. Credit card required. Satellite TV, alarms and other systems may not be compatible with Vonage. See Terms of Service for details. + $300 savings claim based on 7/06 survey of competing land line service providers. For complete information see www.vonage.com/comparel. ^ Where available. Number transfer averages 10-14 days from customer authorization. Cnet reference used with permission from CNET Networks, Inc. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. © 2006 Vonage. couer storu: gears of шаг e Curbstemp Е Sate your inner psychopath and stomp on a downed = c] foe's head to finish him off. Close-up executions like this yield extra points in multiplayer. It also makes four out of five nerds go “аш, ц hell yeah!” AN > guy with my chain saw all revved up, thinking he will probably miss me at that close range with his equipped sniper rifle. As 1 get to within gut-tearing range, my head explodes іп а geyser of thick red life juice. I'm wrong: He head shot me at point blank with that very sniper rifle—the developers who are around us watching the match all erupt in a simultaneous “ohhh!” Now | understand an integral part of the game’s design, remembering back to something Bleszinski said earlier that day: “Because you see your head pop and explode in third-person in intimate detail, you're like, ‘Aw, you got me, but look at how ту f***in’ head just exploded in front of me. That was kinda cool’ You don't feel as bad.” | had to smile because he’s right. It is an impressive and glorious kill. There would be no "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" today... At the end of each battle, we're ranked by how many points we earn, not by the number of body bags we need. You do get points for each kill, but you also get scored for executions, reviving teammates, melee hits, chain saw kills, head shots with the sniper rifle, doing any type of damage, or grenade-tag- ging someone...something 1 couldn't manage to pull off in live battle, but which sounds plenty fun. “I’ve been playing where I'm holding the frag.grenade," says Bleszinski, living up to the “bully” label we've slapped on him, “and I’m able to hit ‘melee’ on someone and it does this ‘thuunk!’ sound. | fade away and the guy pops and it’s incredibly gratifying. But being able to do it to somebody who's helpless is incredibly enjoyable. We’ll all crowd around with smoke grenades and stick 'em on a guy who's down but not out on the other team. He's smoking, and he's like, ‘You guys are dicks—you сап kill me now. You don’t get extra points for that one, but you do get extra points for the frag grenades. But basically, we have this system that rewards players who play with each other as well as players who finish off the enemy with panache." Trading places Epic asks us if we want to switch up sides for the next map, Train Station. | quickly volunteer to join a different group because Jason hasn't been much help, contributing exactly zero kills to our team during the entire Mansion run. We find out each of the eight multiplayer maps has a certain theme to it (Mansion: destructible cover with the ratty old couches; Gas Station: explosive sections of the level; and so on). Train Station's gimmick is a speedy locomotive that bar- rels down the middle of the stage every minute or so, killing »- "Its not the deepest multiplayer. but it has fast tactics. It's tactical. but for people like me that have ADD." —Bleszinski sums up Gears of War's gameplay style — 110» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com The graphics One word (repeated many times): sick, sick, sick, sick... Wherever this game pops up, it's gonna draw big, wide-eyed crowds. Co-op It's not just that you can play two-player co-op over Xbox Live, system link, and splitscreen.... Whereas most shooters artificially inject a second protagonist into the existing single-player framework and story line when player two jacks in, Gears is co-op from the start, whether that second guy is A.I.- or human-controlled. Flanking, splitting up, working togeth- er...it's all part of the game plan. Reasens why Gears cf War WILL b next “Hale” Can Epic's latest replace the current king of shooters? your Points system Gears isn't just about shooting people; it's about shooting people then finishing them off with 4 brutal style. Oh...there’s something about earning points for saving people, too, but...yeah—brutal style. Halo 2 cheaters It'll be nice to get away from them for a while, won't it? At least until people start figuring out how to cheat in Gears of War... Better sniping This may seem like an odd one, but think about it. Sniping is one of the genre's small pleasures, right? It feels good to cap someone from far, far away. In Gears of War, everything's more visceral (not to sound too psychotic, but it feels better to make a head explode from far, far away). Not only that, but because this isn't a run-and-gun game, sniping becomes more accessible to more players because targets don't move around as much. Taking cover You need to take advantage of cover in Gears of War. Because of that alone, it won't be as mass- market friendly as less-restrictive games like Halo 2. Eight-player limit Multiplayer works well with eight players in two teams of four, but that limit will turn off shooter fans used to big-party gaming. Halo 2 supports 16 play- ers in whatever configuration you want: 16-player free- for-all, eight teams of two, 15-on-1, and so on. Modes Part of Halo 2's longevity comes from its numer- ous multiplayer modes, all fully customizable. Gears only has three primary modes designed around the two-team system, and you won't find traditional deathmatches and capture the flags here. Reasons why Gears cf War WON'T be next “Hale Why the king will remain the king Violence Gears may very well be the bloodiest game ever made, making it something a lot of youngsters can’t (and shouldn't) play, limiting its market reach. Limited maps Gears will ship with eight multiplayer maps, putting it on the conservative side of the shooter spectrum (Halo 2 comes with 12)...though this seems to be the new trend on the Xbox 360 (so companies can charge you separately for downloads—no word yet on Gears’ downloadable-content plans). Also, because Epic’s designing mul- tiplayer for two-team play, the maps are smaller and more symmetrical, leaving less room for creative, free-form designs. ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 9 111 couer storu: gears of War Sniper You might not think Gears of War’s small, designed-for-eight multiplayer levels make for good sniper battles, but as you can see from this extra- bloody screenshot sequence...they can. The game's more methodical pace (slower = easier to hit) and beefier character models (bigger dudes = bigger targets) give you plenty of opportunities to put large-caliber holes in people. > everything in its path. On this level, the Boom Shot is right on the tracks, where I’m either a sitting duck to the other team or a splat waiting to happen on the train’s grill. After a few hard- learned lessons, | choose not to go after the Boom Shot so much this time around. Train Station doesn't visually wow me like Mansion did, but its tight, symmetrical design forces lots of close-up action. Something about this stage clicks for Jason, too. Now that he's on the opposing team, | see him racking up the kills, even lead- ing his crew on several occasions. Like with the single-player demo, | can’t find much to com- plain about here (other than Jason deciding he can shoot all of a sudden when I’m not on his team). No crashes, no problems... and I don’t mind the smaller player limit, because | really enjoy the new choices 1 have to deal with. Can | save my teammate in time? Should І risk going for the curb stomp for more points? Or should | just shoot him dead from behind the safety of my cover? These decisions—call it Gears of War's multiplayer soul, if you will—keep things dynamic, rewarding, and fun. It may be tough to go back to standard ol’ deathmatch after this. I still need some time to get used to this taking-cover busi- ness, though. Maybe I’m too cocky, but | found myself charging into multiplayer battles way too aggressively—and paying for it with my lives. Who can blame me? The characters are beefy. The guns are big. The carnage is plentiful. Gears of War looks and feels like a steroid-charged, go-get-'em shooter, not a sissy-boy “hide or | may get shot!” Tom Nancy affair (no offense to Mr. Nancy)... Closing Time Our day at Epic is wrapping up, and | find myself slightly disap- pointed—not because Gears of War doesn't deliver on the hype, but because, from what I’ve played so far, it absolutely does. I don't want to leave here just yet. That time І need to get used to taking cover...can’t | work on that now? Like, today, while I'm still here? Can’t | work on getting my Boom Shot route times down? Can't | just stand around, ogling the Mansion's graphics for a little longer? Alas, no. Bleszinski politely escorts all of us out the front door and waves goodbye. But as 1 walk across the parking lot, I look back and notice him smiling at us. Wait, is that a smirk? "Oh, he knows what he's doing," I slowly realize. Today, he teased us with a brief, tantalizing taste of Gears of War—and then he cut us off, leaving us hanging and wanting more. Now, we're Gear-less until November... What a dick. 4%. 112 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com Gearin up on 1UP! Go to EGM. 10Р.сот and look for the “extras” content for this issue. There, you'll find links to The 70Р Show (we interview Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski and take a tour of Еріс 5 offices), Bleszinski’s 1 UP blog, the E! je” t (we put Bleszinski on the hot seat), and our Gears of War ontest, where you can win a limited-edition copy of the game, a Gears poster signed by the Epic team, and the E3 limited-edition Gears of War faceplate that you can't buy in stores! ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com • 113 Destroy All Humans!” 2 game on your phone! ESRB CONTENT RATING wWww.esrb.org | g © 2006 THO Inc. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Pandemic Studios, EE d x wiw.destroyallhumansgame.com a and the Pandemic logo® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Pan and are reproduced under license only. THQ. Destroy All Humans and:their respective logos are tà arks and/or registered tradernarks of THO Inc. All rightsFeserved. PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainmel Microsoff, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered F 77/74 trader or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or / i “PlayStation” and оће! untries ап йге used under license from Microsoft. All other trademarks, 1 i logos and бүру ІЛ are the property of their respective owners we ` ee www.thq.com here come the sudges THIS MONTH | 2- ІН REVIEWS... ot so surprising: The first traditional Final Fantasy game since 2001 scores Game of the Month honors. More interesting is the realization that this could be one of the last games from the current gen to be honored thusly. With the PlayStation 3 and Wii launching and development gearing up for these systems and the 360, the next-gen moniker is rapidly becoming obsolete. And, aside from choice games like Guitar Hero Il and God of War Il, the reasons for going back are | getting thin. Seems weird that our PS2s, Cubes, and Xboxes will soon be dead weight, but the march to wave-responding controllers ain't slowing. —Greg Ford, Reviews Editor DIRECTORY 118 Test Drive Unlimited 119 NBA 2K7 120 Just Cause 122 Scarface: The World Is Yours 124 Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 124 The Fast and the Furious 125 God Hand 126 Final Fantasy XII 132 Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA FINAL ҒАМТА5У All 116» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com 132 Baten Kaitos Origins 133 Bounty Hounds 134 WTF: Work Time Fun 134 Spectral Souls 135 Gangs of London 138 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 138 Scurge: Hive 139 Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis 140 Magical Starsign 140 MechAssault: Phantom War 141 Touch Detective 142 Reviews Wrap-up 144 Reviews Archive THE RATING SYSTEM & AWARDS «9 7 SHAME OF THE MONTH The lowest-rated The highest-scor- Straight 10s. For | For games with | For games with a | ing game with game with unani- games that are an average score | mean score of 8.0 | unanimously mously “bad” life-changing, of 9.0 or higher. | or higher. “good” scores. scores The ESRB's game ratings range from "Everyone" to "Adults Only." Visit www.esrb.org for the full lowdown. | THE | Screw the names...where are the scores? DAN “SHOE” HSU Editor-in-Chief It's that time of year: More work. Longer deadlines. Less sleep and exercise. Shoe’s new = nickname? Plumpkin. Now Playing: Gears of War, Dead Rising Blog: egmshoe.1UP.com SHANE BETTENHAUSEN * Exec. Editor Final Fantasy ХІІ was the 18th RPG selling turkey legs at the RenFest. A Now Playing: FFXII, Y Castlevania: POR Blog: egmshane.1UP.com Shane's reviewed this year. Next stop: JENNIFER TSAO • Managing Editor Jen released her own next-gen hardware this month, but, in true industry tradition, launch date and all other details were unavailable as of press time. Now Playing: House Blog: egmjennifer.1UPcom CRISPIN BOYER е Senior Editor Inspired by Jennifer's plot to vacation during the system launches, Crispin decided to take some “maternity leave,” too. Now Playing: Just Cause (Why? Just 'cause.) Blog: egmcrispin.1UPcom BRYAN INTIHAR * Previews Editor Man, it was a rough deadline for Bry. Just look at him: When the goin’ got tough, this big boy would curl up in the fetal position. Р***у, Now Playing: FFXII Blog: egmbryan.1UP.com GREG FORD • Reviews Editor Might Bry's hellish deadline be Ford's fault? He spent hours dreaming of next-gen games instead fE of writing previews. Now Playing: Dead Rising, Guitar Hero Blog: egmford.1UP.com MICHAEL DONAHOE * News/Features Ed. Michael likes Dead Rising...but getting eaten by real zombies? Not 50 much. Now Playing: Dead Rising, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Blog: egmiked.1UP.com MARK MACDONALD * Editor-at-Large Launch shortages? Mark cares not for these things. He's been in line for his PS3 since August... 2004. Now Playing: FFXII, Phantasy Star Universe Blog: mark.1UP.com ROBERT ASHLEY • Staff Reviewer Thanks to Scarface, Robert now has a continuous loop of famous Tony Montana lines playing in his head. Now Playing: Lego Star Wars Il: Original Trilogy Blog: robertashley1UPcom SHIVAM BHATT • Staff Reviewer Shivam recently discovered that LocoRoco plus highly turbulent travel is the fastest path to motion sickness. Now Playing: Every Extend Extra, LocoRoco Blog: talinthas.1UP.com ۹ JON DUDLAK » Staff Reviewer Everyone said Geometry Wars is easier on a small screen, so Jon bought a 3-inch screen. Turns out everyone's an idiot. Now Playing: Geo Wars ( Blog: Soon. Maybe. JIMMY LEE е Staff Reviewer Jimmy's back in the crew. After getting sick of his social life, he got back to what truly matters: videogames. Now Playing: The Guy Game, with loneliness Blog: egmwiley.1UP.com DEMIAN LINN 9 Staff Reviewer It was the best of times (Test Drive), it was the worst of times (The Fast and the Furious), it was a pretty OK time (Scarface). Now Playing: Test Drive vw Unlimited P Blog: egmdemian.1UPcom к A PATRICK MAURO • Staff Reviewer He's already got the hair, but this syndicated satellite radio guy ponders growing the Adam Morrison 'stache after reviewing NBA 2K7. Now Playing: NBA 2K7 Blog: Uh...no GREG SEWART * Short-Termer Greg bids a fond farewell to the pages of EGM this month so һе can go work for the competition, Traitor! Now Playing: Oblivion, Dead Rising, NASCAR 07. Blog: stewy.1UP.com When 1UP's writers aren't plugging holes in our reviews, they're covering even more games online. You try stopping them. ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com » 117 2 4 3 review Crew: xbox 360 | xbox 360 360 TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED Wish you were here From the opening moments of Test Drive Unlimited, when you choose your character from a lineup of model-types waiting to board a one-way flight to Oahu, it's clear this isn't the usual tune-and- tweak exoticar orgy. Test Drive is also like a ($40!) vacation on a disc. Sure, you'll shop for cars and upgrades in between lucrative trips to the races, but you'll also shop for new houses and (hellooo, product placement) clothes for your suave/sultry avatar. But maybe you don't want The Sims in your driving game peanut butter. Don't worry, it's not the hot pants that make this game special. Test Drive gives you the entire island of Oahu to explore and tear ass around, but you're not alone in a beautifully dead world—this is a console-first massively multiplayer online car дате (racing events max out at eight players, though). The roads are filled with fellow playboys and girls, ready to race or just go for a casual Sunday drive...or call you the n-word, but then that's Xbox Live for you. User-created races, clanlike car clubs (which didn't actually work out of the box, see sidebar), - мае” Good: Май, new ideas іп a driving game? Bad: If only the handling were as beautiful as the scenery Make Quick Cash: Do the delivery missions— perfectly 118 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com and multiplayer will keep you coming back, but it's the island that grabs you. The game demands you explore its highways and less-traveled byways not only to access new events and car dealerships, but also because driving around the world is just fun. It'd be more fun still if the handling were either grimly realistic or Burnout-arcadey instead of an unsat- isfying hybrid of the two, but that major complaint recedes into the distance when you gun it down the Kamehameha Highway as the evening clouds roll in. I'm pretty stoked that Test Drive delivered on the great mix of off- and online, single- and multiplay- er driving action Atari tantalizingly promised last year. Of course, | have some complaints. The handling isn’t what it should be: The cars tend to turn on a central axis rather than feel like all four wheels are contacting the ground. Also, the graphics could be better. But when you've got such a massive area to explore and the ability to jump into events so seam- lessly, it's hard to fault the presentation too much. | also love that the user-created race system rewards players who make challenges that are tough but still winnable. In fact, everything about the way the gamer interacts with the world and other drivers is designed to promote competition and fairness. As | weave through traffic on a crowded Hawaiian highway at over 140 mph, the roar of my Maserati GranSport in the surround speakers keeps me alert. Moments later, | hear two guys in my head- set wondering what top speed they can hit, quickly followed by two Ferraris blowing by at close to 200. Damn, | love this. Complete with its stunning re- creation of Oahu, Test Drive lets you live the fantasy of driving the tires off of exotic cars better than any prior attempt. Yes, it’s too bad the controls don't keep the dream going. The more proper racing events, such as the many time-based challenges in single player, expose the weaknesses handling a model designed to feel good enough to believe, but by no means to be a simulation. A shame, because | was almost fooled. THE VERDICTS (QUT OF 10) DEMIAN GREG S. GARNETT Trouble in Paradise Like the Xbox Live-intensive Chromehounds, Test Drive had its share of online teeth- ing troubles. World server crashes, the odd corrupted save bug, and a botched car club invite system were Still causing problems a week after the game hit retail. "During recent peak hours the demand on the serv- ers reached unforeseen levels," says Andrea Schneider, Atari's PR director. "We are working on increasing the server limit, as well as fixing [these] issues with an update." A patch should be available by the time you read this. Publisher: Atari Developer: Eden Players: 1 (2-8 online) ESRB: Everyone 10+ www.testdriveunlimited.com A Laker other than Kobe taking a shot? This ain’t no sim. КВА 2К7 Kinda like the Cavs—it’s gettin’ there | bagged pretty hard on МВА 2K’s 360 debut last year. “Nothing about this one screams—or even whispers—'next gen,” | said. But | can’t be so cruel this time around. Besides a few questionable player faces (the developers nipped when they should've tucked on some guys like Mavs sharpshooter Dirk Nowitzki), 2К7% visuals finally match the series’ superior gameplay. It's more than just how they look, too; from the all-new signature shots (the Suns' Matrix man Shawn Marion shoots just as ugly in the game as he does in real life) to the A.l’s point guard who nonchalantly dribbles up the court to preserve a lead, 2K7 moves better than any other baller. Just don't expect any new inno- vative features like 2K6's right analog Shooting mechanics, though. And expect even less from this edition's 24/7 mode. The ego-heavy experi- ence is now horribly story-driven (its fictional characters are so cheesy and clichéd), plus you can't control any player other than your created hoop- ster during team challenges, which leads to unnecessary turnovers and all-around messy play. Bah! You know, Gatorade and Toyota should offer gamers some sort of rebate for making them endure their logos that continually pop up during 2K7. But even though the constant in-game advertising grates, this one makes up for it with some sweet looks—it perfectly re-creates Ray Allen’s textbook form, cover boy Shaq’s hitch at the foul line, and even rookies J.J. Redick and mustachioed Adam Morrison. The game plays substantially better than last year’s 360 debut, with а greater sense of rebounds and loose balls being tipped around and more control on defense. The superfun 24/7 street mode (sorry, Bry, you’re dead wrong here) hones your skills as it teaches you the moves you'll need to THE VERDICTS (QUE OF 10) BRYAN PATRICK М. Publisher: 2K Sports compete at the NBA level. The multi- player franchise mode, smart A.l., and progressive in-season fatigue make 2К7 а must-have hoops game. With NBA 2K7 you'll encounter a handful of play- ers in need of Rip Hamilton plastic masks, as they look to be suffering from either severe facial blistering or outright deformity. These rare irregu- larities are the lone double dribble in what is otherwise a visually sparkling affair—particularly the stadiums that bustle with authenticity. The gameplay is tighter than ever, my love affair with the shot stick continues, and, though it’s an intangible feature, no other basketball game gives you the sense that every possession counts. Also, it’s great to know the A.I. is paying atten- tion to players like А.І. (Allen Iverson): After he fills it up for a while, the defense gets wise and double-teams him. Brilliant. Developer: 2K Sports Players: 1-4 (2-8 online) ESRB: Everyone TODD www.2ksports.com ONE OFTHE TOP FIVE GAME-DEGREE PROGRAMS - Electronic Gaming Monthly Student Artwork Francisco Cru; Real World Education School of Game Development School of Computer Animation 800.226.7625 [74 fullsail.com GET STARTED 3300 University Boulevard Winter Park, FL 32792 Financial aid available to those who qualify Career development nce Accredited College, ACCSCT hs e E, ta СЫМ ЫНА AES TIE M a Р ARS E MA АЕ РАНУ SIRAC TET) ЫСТЫ САҒЫЛА АЗЫ А PORE Le Ear DAT EBEN аа К S ал РАМА ЕС t dy ta Ош А review crew: multiplatform В360/Р52/ХВ JUST CAUSE Puts the “Geronimo!” in Grand Theft Auto CRISPIN: If any game's going to incite real-life copycat antics, І hope it's Just Cause, Because wow!—how cool would it be to read the obituary of some bozo who leapt out of a zooming sports car, paraglided over a cliff, grappled onto a passing heli- copter, then tried to hop through its rotor blades into the cockpit? It’s all in a minute’s work in this game, a spectacularly unrealistic collision of Grand Theft Auto's swipe-anything-that-moves sensibilities and Mercenaries’ revolutionary warfare, Your key to this salsa-flavored island kingdom is the grappling hook, which— when combined with your reusable parachute—lets you leap willy-nilly from cars to jets to boats. It's ludicrous, physics- is-for-sissies fun that complements the game's over-the-top explosions (stuff blows up big here), But even with all that free-falling tomfoolery, the missions fall flat on their face. Most involve straightforward. variations of “steal this thingie” and “shoot this guy,” as you progress through the story wreaking unrest їп а corrupt country. Side missions—which have you boosting guerrilla forces—are even less interesting (but you'll want to trudge through them anyway just. to unlock cooler weapons and vehicles). Oh, things do occasionally fall together nicely in that "emergent gameplay" kind of way. When one mission charged me with destroying an enemy heli- copter, | simply holstered my guns, used my grapple to swipe the chopper in midair, then flew it into а. mountain seconds after parachuting to safety, Now try that one at home, copycat bozos, G. FORD: Just Cause bugs me ‘cause it's a game | know I should enjoy more than | did. It gets big kudos for letting me live out that dream | never knew | had: being a regular Evel Knievel in a G7A-style open world (in this case a lush, jungle-heavy archipelago). The results deliver on the promised thrills—as Crispin so aptly described—but rarely is getting to that point so smooth. The finicky grappling hook con- trols lack the intuitive ease you'd like from such an integral control element (never mind the fact that you W All versions play the f same, but the 360 game _| (shown here) looks about ‘two times better than the Xbox one and 100 times se better than the smudgy Р52 version. can't hook onto buildings or trees...wha—?). Even by the game's end, I'd still stumble when trying to sling from car to passing helo. And besides the fun storm- the-government-barricades liberation missions, the bland side missions do nothing to offset the ho-hum main story tine. ‘1UP.COM--SHARKEY: Seems like developers are quite keen on pushing that fine line between a rip-off and an acceptable contribution to the genre this year (see Saints Row, Scarface, et al). At least Just Cause mixes things up a bit. Sure, you're still stealing cars. and capping cops, but this time it's to aid guerrillas in toppling the oppressive regime of some piss-hole Caribbean island nation. Like these other guys, 1 love using the physically improbable parachute and grapple gun for midair helicopter jacking or swinging around like a bizarro Spider-Man (grabbing objects below me), despite the quirks. Just Cause may not be a whole new animal, but it has enough novelty to keep me from blowing it off as Grand Theft Far Cry. We Ask the Gamemaker Why’s It Gotta Be Like That? and trees? ЕОМ: Why can't you use the grap- pling hook to latch onto buildings Avalanche Creative Director Christofer Sundberg: [Using] the grappling hook on objects other than vehicles is somewhat tricky...as it instantly opens up a wide range of possibilities where it could become a technical and gameplay nightmare. The alternative would have been to set grappling points,..and considering we have thousands of buildings and objects and millions of - trees, the game would release by the time we have colonized Jupiter and [сап] breathe through gills. and jungle? EGM: The game is beautiful, but why not add niore variety to the scenery instead of just buildings Good: Stupid-fun parachuting and grappling stunts Bad: Boring missions, cinch difficulty Try It First: Download the demo in the Xbox Live Marketplace 120 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY + www.1UP.com EGM: Why is the game so easy? GS: Some feel the game is way too hard and some don't. It all has to do with balancing, and we're happy with it.... Just Cause offers the ability to create your own gaming experience, and you can make it very hard and you can make it very easy. GS: The engine supports all kinds of environ- ments and | really don't see much that could have been added. Technically, it's been a big challenge to even squeeze everything in on the. Р52 [version], and variation is an issue as it's very memory consuming. si THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10) 6.5 6.5 70 CRISPIN G. FORD SHARKEY Publisher: Eidos Developer: Avalanche Studios. Players: 1 ESRB: Mature www .justcausegame.com b / / ж i LN as ) = y MORTALKOMBAT CON 3 : 4 I ag ) r JUSTICE LEAGUE HEROES h E ^ ud А МАЅСАВ К: р ESL - Š, ТЕР” м7 з. зора we PRODUCTS RANGE FROM RATING PENDING то MATURE 52/ХВ SCARFACE: THE WORLD IS YOURS Is this what it’s all about, Manny? Is this really the first time I've played a Scarface game? | could've sworn | committed virtual felonies while listening to songs from the movie's soundtrack in Grand Theft Auto ІІ. And GTA: Vice City, with its hot pink depiction of 80s excess and the Miami drug trade, is practically a parody of the 1983 film. So it's with a tall swig of irony that Scarface: The World Is Yours rips off the rip-offs, xeroxing the look and feel of Washington's favorite scapegoat. The official game, however, has one thing GTA doesn't: Tony Montana, Al Pacino's famously gutsy Cuban crime lord. The game's version of the character (voiced by an impersonator) is like a Tony Montana action figure, complete with pull-string f***-you-meng. action (via a “taunt” button). The best moments in Scarface are Tony's, his cocksure strut, laughable pickup lines, and post-head shot braggadocio. Too bad the other characters are completely forgettable. Scarface spends most of its energy tweaking the GTA formula. Better gunplay, a slick objectives system, and the ability to have your driver bring you a car are all welcome changes. The game also revises the recipe by tying progress to profit making, an interesting idea, but one that forces you to complete hours of repetitive drug deals and side missions. The question is: Now that we're free to do as we please in а game world, can designers come up with anything besides shoot-outs and car chases? Drive around, shoot other bad guys, deal drugs—yeah, whatever. This is supposed to be Scarface, Where's the epic story to justify the crime of reimagining the movie's ending (and the game's beginning—turns out Tony didn’tdie)? Tony's mom gets whacked and it’s a throwaway five-second cut-scene? What did writer David McKenna (Blow, ‘American History X) do all day? Ah well. GTA cribbed from Scarface, and Scarface returns the favor, except Scarface has better controls on-foot, in-car, and in-boat. This is a long, challenging game with some innovative ideas (taking control of Tony's henchmen, for one), but even the main story missions get repetitive, to say nothing of the side quests. Needs way more mountains of blow, too. Having a button with which to spew profanity is a welcome addition to the GTA formula. Specifically, it means that, for once, the protagonist in one of these knockoffs swears more than | do while playing. The other big addition: Scarface presents what looks like a swing meter whenever you interact with pretty much anybody. Want to intimidate someone or, hell, make a deposit at the bank? Swing meter. Every time | try to sell blow to ‘someone | feel like Tiger Woods. The mansion editor is also а nice touch if you like to dabble in interior decoration in between drive-bys, though it's mostly pointless. The only time | used it was to fill my office with Port-A-Potties. Weirdly, that didn’t reduce my respect meter. Though Scarface may not be as pretty or as technically impressive as other GTA clones, it pulls off some decent dialogue and humor while making an attempt at bringing in a little novelty. mission, have your driver deliver a car. He'll stick around and fight with you—not very well, but he makes a good bullet sponge. warp to that part of the map in your Tony Montana seems to be a crack stretch limo. Shot, even when he's behind the wheel of a fine Italian sports car. If you're having trouble clearing a particularly tough shoot-out, use your car as extra armor. The Coast Guard and rival gang boats keeping you from smuggling coke into Miami? Buy this badass superfast cruiser with deck-side machine guns to dominate the seas. дф. Buy a front in a new area as soon as one becomes available. Sure it'll add to your bottom line, but more Atthe start of a combat-heavy important, you'll be able to instantly Publisher: Vivendi Games Developer: Radical. Players: 1 ESRB: Mature THE VERDICTS (ОЛ OF 0) ROBERT DEMIAN SHARKEY б www.scarfacegame.com 122 « ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY e-www.1UP.com: МҮКО HAS YOUR XBOX 360 COVERED GAME 250FACE Mr COMMUNITY Download, upload and trade your own faceplate designs online. www.nyko.com/gamefacecommunity EVERY THING YOW NEED FOR YOUR XBOX 360 Every Xbox 360 may be created equal, but yours doesn’t have to stay that way. Surround yourself with today’s coolest accessories at www.nyko.com. powerkiT 555 NiMH battery pack and USB play and charge cable Multi Reader =? Compact multi-card reader and USB hub f NTERCOOLER QD iri. Customizable faceplate and skin kit. РТИ пЁ = EN апп = SZ INTERCOOLER 558 charges 3 М Dual port rapid battery charger Full feature learning remote Play longer at cooler temperatures satiate NIMH Bato packs review crew: playstation 2 PlayStation 2 Well, that’s half right ә” =. TIMER POSITION : 1-2 (2-4 online) ESRB: Teen 5.0255.0 GREG S. DEMIAN JOHN. www.namcobandai.com THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS ТЕВЕ ж s GREG S: Five years after The Fast and the Furious franchise first hit theaters, we finally get a game based on the license. Too bad the videogame industry's love affair wi the street racing that the flick brought to the mainstream reached its boiling point a long time ago. F&F isn't necessarily a bad game, but it doesn’t have much to it. You simply travel or warp around an almost embarrassingly small city, taking part in two different types of race events—street and downhill drifting—over and over again (against only one opponent at a time). You take the money you win to buy new parts or cars, then do it all again. Need for Speed Underground 2 did two years ago everything this game does, but with much more style and variety. F&F starts off with lots of potential, what with some pretty spiffy graphics, a metric ton of ways to pimp out your ride, and a few nods to the three films upon which it's based. But it all gets lost in the aforementioned monotony and the weird difficulty curve that normally leads to cakewalk-like boss battles. Pass. DEMIAN: Cue movie-announcer voice: “IN A WORLD...where illegal street racing takes place at night, et cetera, et cetera.... ONE GAME was bold enough to come out seven months after the last movie it draws its name from.... ONE GAME was stupid Good: Decent selection of cars and pimping options Bad: Monotonous gameplay, limited race options Would've Been Great: Back when the first movie came out (2001) enough to borrow its ‘inspit tion’ from the decidedly crappy Tokyo Xtreme Racer series instead of something decent-if-tired like Midnight Club or Need for Speed Underground.... ONE GAME hyped an ‘authentic’ and ‘revolutionary’ drift mechanic that was neither, due to a fundamentally poor physics model.... ONE GAME dared to offer four-player online racing that was tech- nically functional... ONE GAME strove to set anew standard for intolerably frequent, long load times.... And that game was—" Eh, no one cares. Parents who don’t know any bet- ter will buy this at Wal-Mart, and that's it. 1UP.COM— JOHN: It "isn't necessarily a bad дате,” Greg? Are you kidding? How about it just "isn't necessary"? Sadly, F&F adds little to the genre, except possibly the most intrusive load times of any game on the system. | haven't seen a racer that requires you to go to an option screen to change the camera (and then endure a memory card save midgame!) in a long time. The game's biggest problem is that just about everything it offers has been done far better elsewhere, be it by Need for Speed Underground ог even Eutechnyx's previous street racer, SRS. | appreciate the apparent emphasis on the drift gameplay mechanic, but like the latest movie in the franchise, the whole thing is just so contrived and uninspired. Good: Best of both action and RPG worlds Bad: Hasn't this been done before? Like, a lot? File Under: Persona (PS1) meets Pokémon PlayStation 2 SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI: DEVIL SUMMONER Runnin’ with the devils Publisher: Atlus Developer: Atlus Players: 1 ESRB: Mature www.atlus.com 124 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY е www.1UP.com © he PS2 needs another action-role- playing game like the music world needs another Paris Hilton solo album—especial- ly when we're talking about adding a new Shin Megami Tensei game to the series" already exhaustive list. And Summoner doesn't bring anything terribly different to the genre. Despite the game's shameless lack of innovation, however, it's actually pretty entertaining. Maybe it's the stylistic and gameplay similarities to the beloved Persona series that struck a chord, or maybe it's that most battles demand some strategic use of demon familiars rather than just hack-n-slash basics. | found that the care and training of your demon pen gives you enough to think about without having to get into the mind-numbing minutiae of a full-blown RPG. Plus, the little buggers serve a puzzle-solving pur- pose outside of battle, which helps distract you from the forgettable plot. Don’t expect too much of a challenge, though. Level-ups are frequent, and deaths in your demon family will be rare if you're the least bit careful. | admit it’s no blockbuster, but Summoner, like Ms. Hilton’s opus, still makes for a fine guilty- pleasure rental. aun 1 3 If you're a role-playing fan who's never taken the plunge into the SMT series, you're missing out on a gloriously gothy mix of demonic plotlines, deep character customiza- tion, and the most stylish art direction in the biz. Summoner doesn't disappoint on these fronts, and it's actually a shockingly ideal entry point for newcomers. Blending turn-based combat with mash-happy brawling makes for more dynamic (albeit easy) battles, and the narrative feels light and funny compared to the austere SMT games Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga. Sadly, the game’s prerendered backgrounds (think: Shadow Hearts) give it a dated look. 1UP,COM—RAY: While SMT games have traditionally been set in perfectly accept- able near-future worlds, Summoner’s 1920s setting works wonders. The art design and characters are great, and | was amused enough to keep playing even when the campy “Japanese detective show” music kicked in. But true to the series, it’s not as forgiving a game as Jon and Shane seem to think: You'd better be skilled at minding your hit points and managing your money, or else you could find yourself irrevocably stuck. RPG nuts won't have that much trouble, though. And while | dig the real-time battles, their excitement is what kept my attention away from my health at times. Still, detec- tives and demons haven't seen a better matchup than in Summoner. PlaySta Cool hand puke MICHAEL: God Hand sure looks like a fistful of fun...well, until you actually get your unholy hands on it. Main brawler Gene may look (and fight) like a seasoned contender, but he controls . like a washed-up wreck. You think you'd be able to move around in a cir- cle, right? If you said “yes,” you know how a good 3D game should con- trol—unfortunately, developer Clover does not. Instead, it forces you into an awkward Resident Evil-style behind- , the-back, can’t-run-in-circles, need- a-frickin’-button-just-to-turn-around setup. And for a beat-em-up in which you have to fight multiple enemies (sometimes up to five or six at a time), it boggles my brain you can't— God forbid—lock onto enemies. But for as much as | hated the crappy controls, God Hand doesn't completely fall to the punch. If you manage to master its way over-the- top martial arts, you'll be rewarded with a game that karate kicks the crap THE VERDICTS (QUTOF 10) MICHAEL MARK out of your funny bone—between unambiguously gay bosses, pro-wres- tling gorillas, and hair-sprayed heavy metal freaks, the ensemble of eccen- tric enemies will have you slapping your knee with glee...or frustration. Actually, probably both. MARK: Too bad another game already claimed the title (see page 134), because | think “WTF” would’ve been the perfect name for Capcom’s PS2 brawler here. Stark, pixelated graphics, technical glitches (walls pop in and out regularly), and completely broken camera controls from some of the greatest developers in the business? What the f*** indeed. But it’s a testa- ment to God Hand’s bizarro sense of humor and shockingly satisfying fighting system—you tailor your move set and create custom combos—that I can’t condemn it outright. Hardcore quirky-game fans will want to slow down for a peek at this car wreck (like Publisher: Capcom Developer: Clover Players: 1 ESRB: Mature A. FITCH www.capcom.com wise cool game. ` Andrew below), while everyone else is better off speeding on by. 1UP.COM—A. FITCH: God Handis essentially the whacked-out, late- night-cable version of classic beat- em-ups like Final Fight and Double Dragon. The ball-busting (literally!) move set makes spanking (again, liter- ally!) salacious succubi and demonic dominatrices a blast, and the twisted sense of humor and pull-no-punches presentation puts it over the top, with lots of laugh-out-loud moments. But like Michael says, God Hand has its issues. While the camera and con- trols never quite reach “outright mad- dening,” they're certainly frustrating at times. And are there better technical brawlers out there? Sure. But in the end, gaming's all about having fun, and | had tons of fun with God Hand. If your “inner-13-year-old quotient” is high (as mine clearly is), you'll prob- ably get a kick out of it, too. Please geek responsibly. You may speak the language, but are you geeked? Here’s a chance to prove it. www.uat.edu > 800.658.5744 Atte kG@Penelo layStation 2 HP602 833 MP10Z FINAL FANTASY XII — А daring departure for role-playing's grandest franch At long last, it's finally here (some two years later than developer Square Enix originally promised, mind you)— Final Fantasy XII arrives just in time to close the book on current-gen role- playing once and for all. And after a string of odd- ball FF offshoots (the largely recycled Final Fantasy X-2, the massively multiplayer online Final Fantasy XI, and the Mouseketeer-approved Kingdom Hearts games), series fans have pined for an epic worthy of the hallowed FF name. Well, FFXII certainly has grand ambitions, and it’s easily among the most impressive titles ever to grace the PS2, but series vets should prepare to be shocked by just how Startlingly different this quest feels from what came before. Of course, dedicated FF followers already know they're in for a shock—Square Enix bravely handed the reins to a different development team for this installment, and it shows. These guys had previously made the Final Fantasy Tactics games (along with the Ogre Battle series and PS1 126 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com cult classic Vagrant Story), and you'll instantly recognize the distinctive look and feel of those games here. The story line, art direction, character designs, and music all adhere to a very specific artistic mold—it's a highly refined, classical, and vaguely European vibe that feels completely unlike anything the series proper has ever offered. Luckily, the fantasy realm of Ivalice is a mighty welcoming place. An astounding amount of effort must have gone into rendering the colossal, sprawling cities, vast outdoor expanses, and laby- rinthine dungeons. No modern Final Fantasy (save FFXI, which doesn't really count) has offered such a realistic sense of scale, and it makes the whole experience feel totally fresh. You actually feel as if you're traversing a very real world...it's really quite compelling, and the breathtaking visuals will have you rethinking the limits of current-gen graphics. Nobody really doubted this team’s ability to craft a beautiful world (Vagrant Story still looks sweet six years later), but penning a compelling, entertaining, and comprehensible story i: matter altogether. (The team’s na record ain't so hot—FFT is borderli by its endgame.) Fortunately, FFXI’s plot d get too bogged down with confusing minutiae. a largely straightforward tale, dense with poli intrigue yet surprisingly easy to follow. Until the ending, that is—things fall apart a bit during the crucial final hours. It's vital that an RPG deliver cool characters (cosplayers gotta dress up like someone, right?), and, compared to the colorful, diverse casts of recent FF titles, your party members in FFXII seem a tad...mundane. It’s tough to even pinpoint who the main character's supposed to be—headstrong, fashion-forward orphan Уаап seems the obvious protagonist, but it's really all about Ashe, the feisty princess. Sadly, neither of them is particularly interesting, and the story as a whole lacks the emotional punch you'd expect. Uneven voice work (featuring some embarrassing mispronuncia- À ir (QUT OF I0) Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Players: 1 ESRB: Teen THE VERDICTS SHANE BRYAN ANDREW Р www.finalfantasyxii.com esses and the narrative about FFXII's gameplay? е development team's history of crafting B. complex game mechanics, the battle system feels remarkably simple. Instead of warping you to a separate battle screen for encounters, FFXII places all combat directly on the field. As enemies appear, your party engages, taking turns attacking as you run around waiting for your action meter to fill up. After FFX and X-2 took the traditional FF active-time battle in clever new directions, this feels like a serious step back. If anything, it's more like Final Fantasy XI's online combat—shallow, repetitive, and dull. Or at least it feels that way at first—as ҒҒХ/ progresses, it introduces two gameplay systems, the License Board and Gambit systems (scope the sidebar) that deepen the experience. The License Board enables you to completely customize your fighters’ abilities, but it’s nothing more than a rehash of FFX’s Sphere Grid, only far more vague and less user-friendly. The Gambit system, how- ever, feels very inventive—you're more or less programming the А.І. for your entire party with exacting detail. It's clever stuff: Once you've got the hang of the system, normal combat becomes a complete nonissue. Your preprogrammed party will barrel through enemies, stealing loot and healing itself along the way. You can quite literally put the controller down and watch your warriors plow a path to victory. In a way, that's cool—but at the same time, so much of the strategy and challenge of past FF encounters is surrendered here. Plus, the battle system's crucial weakness becomes all too clear during boss encounters. Here, you'll generally need to turn your preset Gambit strategies off, as you're again forced to micromanage your party members. And the unadulterated combat feels undercooked. Mist attacks, this game's version Calling All Hunters Even though you can plow through FFXII in roughly 45 hours, in true series form you'll find a crapload of extra stuff to do. Aside from the standard side quests and tracking down secret summons (which are called espers here), this RPG includes the Clan Primer, which enables you to go on optional hunts all across Ivalice. Obviously, with every success comes payment in the form of money and items. But unless you achieve the rank that opens up rare hunts (where the rewards are much greater), it may not be worth it. Once you sign up to take on such a task, you first have to search out the person who originally posted the job (which can be a pain in the ass if he or she is located on the other side of the map), get the final go-ahead, and then venture out (with little direction) on the hunt. Like we said, the time investment here may not equal the payoff. 555 Ws 702 of over-the-top Limit Break special moves, are terribly unbalanced: overpowered at first, yet far less useful later in the game. Likewise, sum- mon spells simply aren't worth it—their mas- sive magic point cost makes them pointless. A troublesome camera (a tragic Final Fantasy first!) compounds matters even further. If this all sounds terribly negative, don't get too discouraged. The wildly reworked combat may lack the depth of previous games, but it's so innocuous (outside of boss battles, at least) that you almost don't notice it. Instead, you can focus on spelunking the game's mammoth (100 floors big enough for ya?) dungeons and dabbling in the seemingly endless optional quests. Ultimately, no one will question the ambition that went into crafting FFXII—it's a giant, beautiful game that takes a lot of risky chances. Most of them suc- ceed, Some fans will love this new direction...but others will be rest assured that FFXIII (PlayStation 3) will be a return to classic form. Wr Mesmenir F Mesmenir E А Foes Party! Having to babysit for the camera in a Final Fantasy feels awfully odd. Expect to constantly hit the R3 button (aka the right analog stick) to recenter the view. ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com e 127 FINAL FANTASY ХІІ сом) Attack\GBalthier 140 Attack @Fran ——А!н!асК©Вазсһ Status ailments make a big return in FFXI/. Make sure you carry a vast array of antidotes, alarm clocks, eye drops, and other sundries early on in the game. Shane, you go right ahead and keep talking about how much you can't wait for lucky number 13—I'm perfectly content exploring Final Fantasy XII's wonderful world of Ivalice and everything it has to offer. And for me, it all starts with the game’s shockingly mature, politically driven narrative: Instead of focusing so much on your party members, this RPG concentrates on the bigger picture facing its feuding kingdoms and the struggles happening within them. Like so much else here, it's quite a departure from the estab- lished series norm, as you'll never connect with major FFXII players Vaan and Ashe to the same degree as with Cloud/Aerith (FFVII) or Tidus/Yuna (FFX), but it winds up being a much-welcomed change in story direction. And since these guys can't stop discussing the game's ever-controversial combat system, allow me to chime in: | guess I’m the middleman on this debate, because, on the one hand, | completely The Opening Gambit buy into this quicker style of play for the everyday skirmishes (plus I’m really glad to see FFXII ditch the whole concept of random battles). On the other hand, during boss fights | kinda miss the slower- paced, more methodical approach of the older FF games. Also, Andrew's crazy if he thinks that sim- ply switching the system from “Active” to “Wait” takes you back to the good ol’ days; while “Wait” does let you pause the action midfight, these encounters can still get out of control in a hurry (especially if that particular boss brings some backup). But if the combat is gonna be speedy, | know that, thanks to the new Gambit system, party members will make smart decisions during battle (heal, attack the strongest enemy, and so on). Now, as I’m sure that people will continue to have differing opinions on the combat, you can’t argue about how damn amazing this game looks. From its lively outdoor backdrops to the striking architecture found in its cities and dungeons, this PS2 title will even please—at least \ visually—those with next-gen FF firmly on the brain. Ya know, like Shane... In the five long years since Final Fantasy X, I've gotten hungry. Sure, | sampled a lit- tle bit of the online time sink known as Final Fantasy ХІ, but. its bland flavors weren't for me. The wait for Final Fantasy. XII, though, was like dangling a delicious steak just out of my reach...for three years. Now that it's been served and | have con- Final Fantasy ХІІ eases you into its more complex gameplay systems— the License Board and Gambit system—but it doesn't do a terribly good job of explaining them. Both are crucial to your success, however, so you'll want to wrap your head around them as soon as possible. The License Board represents your characters' growth: It allows you to master new weapons, spells, abilities, and Mist attacks while also upping your stats. It's completely up to you how you develop each character, and everyone has an even playing field with identical boards. Early on, focus on getting basic equipment, spells, and HP buffs. It's pointless to waste License points on high-end weaponry you won't see for 20 hours. As for the Gambit System, you're basically programming simple "if this, then that" statements that your party will automatically follow. As Soon as possible, be sure to create a gambit that heals characters when their HP falls below a certain level (our suggestion: 40 percent) and one that steals items from wounded enemies. Also, take care when organiz- ing your gambits—the order of operations is crucial, so place healing and reviving gambits before combat commands. F FFXII's License Board (left) and Gambit (below) systems allow for complete customization of your char- acters' weapons, abilities, and automated actions. 128» ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com THE ULTIMATE EST GIVEAWAY! Electronic Gaming Monthly is giving away GE ARS 10 Gears of War prize packs to prepare you for Emergence Day! or WAR t Each prize pack contains: “Тһе limited-edition Gears of War game for Xbox 360 “Тһе sought-after, drool worthy, limited-edition Gears of War Xbox 360 faceplate (did we mention you can buy this in stores?) * Gears of War Crimson Omen poster signed by the Epic team DON'T WAIT ANY LONGER! ENTER NOW TO WIN THE GAME, FACEPLATE AND POSTER, FREE! For full contest rules, restrictions and details, visit: http://gearsofwar.egmmag.com TO ENTER, GO TO: /gearsofuar.egmmag. FINAL FANTASY XII сом) —— 0 _ Ultima readies Redemption: ima, геа! les ou 10 Those eye-searing summon spells don't come easily in FFXII—prepare to fight each beast in a grueling (and often unfair) battle before it joins your force. satisfying Final Fantasy experience I’ve ever had. Teeming with tactical brilliance, FFXII is a rigor- ous workout for your brain. 1 have to disagree with Bryan and Shane: By replacing antiquated random battles with a faster-paced massively multiplayer online (MMO) style of combat, Square is finally tak- ing the training wheels off the series. Everything still feels like Final Fantasy (potions, spells, party formation, skill development, and so forth), but combat is a much more complex—and conse- quently rewarding—experience. In the olden days, you could take your sweet time deciding what actions to take in battle. Now, you and your party spot an enemy, advance to the attack, and reap the rewards all without pause. As a result, the pace of the game is more fluid, and you’re always con- nected to the game world. The other guys might consider the Gambit system the training wheels, What’s This DS-looking Thing? but what Square is essentially doing is spreading around the strategy to include battle preparation as well as the actual battle itself. It's not that you're merely watching the game play itself; you're analyzing your skills and gambits to look for weak- nesses or inefficiencies. Plus, having additional enemies unexpectedly join the fight or bosses doling out unwanted status effects keeps you on your toes. Being as they're not as much into ММО games as | am, | can see their argument. But by turning gambits off and switching the battle sys- tem from “Active” to “Wait,” it’s pretty much just like the old FF again, and everyone can be happy. Aside from the camera issues and largely forgettable soundtrack, Х// really hits the spot for me. A well-crafted cast of characters, an intricate and politically charged plot, and a fresh take on combat...my compliments to the chef. Nope, this isn’t a screenshot of the newly announced FFXII spin- off Revenant Wings for Nintendo's dual-screened handheld. It's actually the Sky Pirate’s Den, a submenu in the PS2 title that fills up with cutesy characters as you reach in-game milestones, such as casting magic or selling items a certain number of times. Hmm, seems like someone on the dev team is a big fan of Xbox 360-style achievements.. 130 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com got game? Compete in DigitalLife's $100,000 PRO/AM GAMING TOURNAMENT and find out. Get Tickets NOW О Ороо coce: | EGM ЗАЛА each adult ticket is only $6.00! earn it hear it try it play it rock it live it B (ЖЧ) (©, presenting tournament sponsors: ALIENVVARE 9 — xm — (D вох b Play the latest, unreleased games at the PC & console arcades and get your hands on the hottest gear before it hits the streets. Meet your favorite celebrities. Win tons of cool prizes. Don't miss the largest gaming tournament on the East Coast! october 12-15, 2006 javits convention center * new york city | ө it the ultimate consumer technology gaming and entertainment event Sey Windows*? Media Center Edition TOSHIBA C namco © UBISOFT- ls хтар ery au official launch event of FINAL FANTASY. ІІ жексен itio п PRO CIRCUIT ndi verizon www.diagitallife.com 49 review crew: pse/gc PlayStation 2 CNY) DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION SUPERNOVA More like “eh, better-than-averageNOV, emm jameCube JARED BEGINNER ESRB: Everyone 10+ www.konami.com BATEN KAITOS ORIGINS Success isn't always in the cards ЕШ ” 91 $ 338) * Өлш E Lg стот (ice Element Зааж 2 us 135 «ішке: АГ TP Bonus THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10) SHANE MICHAEL 132 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • www.1UP.com Xena 1 see. So you've been working in Alfard. MILKMAN Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Monolith Soft/ tri-Crescendo Players: 1 ESRB: Teen www.nintendo.com Good: Battle mode increases the likelihood of physical violence Bad: It's mostly just a bunch of new songs Crown Jewel: Cyndi Lauper video featuring Captain Lou Albano JON: As a guy with size 15 feet, | was forced into early DDR retirement after DDRMAX 2, thanks to a combo of my clumsiness and PS2 dancepad proportions. This is the first time I've spread out the plastic mat since, and— new songs notwithstanding —I’m surprised by how little has changed. The most notable addition is a 1-оп-1 battle mode, which works like Dr. Mario or Tetris Attack in that you can dump extra steps, screwy screens, and speed changes on your opponent by doing well. It's not executed so smoothly (the attacks are haphazard), but it's a nice addi- tion for parties and competitive pals. For what it's worth, online play is back again, as is the usual smattering of single- player modes for counting calories, running marathon sessions, and creating your own routines. Personally, | enjoyed making my own games, like trying to pass the hardest mode while watching some great throwback- video backdrops from David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper. Maybe the next release will іпсогро- rate my Video Distraction Challenge™ as а formal mode, but my big feet and 1 would be OK with Konami making SuperNOVA the DDR swan song. SHIVAM: | don't think Jon appreciates the nuances here enough; SuperNOVA is the best home DDR in years. The game sports a superlative song list full of surprising licensed "Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc. and "Let's Dance" by David Bowie—as well as some modern stuff by Franz Ferdinand and Kelly Clarkson. Better still, the game drops the Extreme games’ silly interface and returns to the superior classic DDR one. After resurrecting the series in arcades and now coming home, SuperNOVA really is a gift to the loyal fan base, myself included. Even better: The hardcore will be pleased to know that Konami has hammered out the timing issues that plagued the arcade release. 1UP.COM—JARED: Shivam, Shivam, Shivam...where to start? Missing a vast majority of the songs introduced in the arcade version of SuperNOVA somehow man- ages to be the least of the problems here. More troubling is that the game locks up a significant chunk of the goods, ensuring that casual players will only ever see about half of what SuperNOVA has to offer. And unlocking anything involves going through the new, irritating Dance Master challenge mode—do we really need a hard-to-read chart to figure out what to do? To top it off, SuperNOVA sports a horrible difficulty balance, offering а bunch of cream-puff stuff before ratcheting up the difficulty to hardcore-level extreme. What this amounts to is a classic example of how a simple yet typically enjoyable experi- ence can fall apart due to poor game design. Good: Intriguing story line, copious subquests Bad: Outdated visuals, Sound Familiar?: Guillo's actor also voiced Kratos (God of War) Assuming your GameCube still exists somewhere under that disgusting layer of debris, you might actually consider excavat- ing it for Baten Kaitos Origins. Veterans of the 2004 original will definitely want to make the effort—as a prequel, Origins does a remark- able job fleshing out the first game's already dense narrative. Then it ups the ante by juggling two parallel story lines that coalesce to reveal catastrophic plot twists that force a complete reanalysis of the whole Baten Kaitos universe. Really, it's a good story, and a well-written and finely acted one at that. , Those same returning fans may feel perplexed, though, by the reworked battle system. Whereas each character in the first game had his or her own deck of cards rep- resenting equipment, attacks, and spells, now the entire party shares one central pool. This single deck makes battles far more chaotic (a brisk countdown gives you split seconds to make timed combos) and considerably less predictable (an unlucky deal forces mass discards). Of course, proper deck construc- tion alleviates most of this drama, making the battles a speedy, strategic thrill. These other guys didn't even give it a fair shake... Shane needs to reshuffle his thoughts on the crappy card combat. Equipping armor and weapons—let alone attacking enemies—via a bunch of cards is beyond stupid. And since your characters icky learning curve for combat share one full deck in battle, | =I ended up chucking more cards than | used to make room for each character’s specific cards, which transformed simple turn-based battles into long, tedious affairs. Speaking of tedium—I sure got sick of using the same three characters for the entire game. More party members would have meant a greater variety of attacks, spells, and combos. But disregard Milky's complaints about the voice acting; it's top- notch stuff. It's just a shame the wonky battle system forces this game to fold. You guys must be season-ticket holders to the local high school’s theater productions, 'cause you obviously crave cheese with that whine. | haven't encountered so many boring prer- endered backgrounds, talking heads, bleh voice acting, laughably inept cut-scenes, and, um, card battles since...the last Baten Kaitos. As if the formula weren't tedious enough, wading your way through its convoluted plot is barely enough to keep interest high as you assemble your custom card deck. If you followed the first game, you'll undoubtedly enjoy what's offered here. (Really, do GameCube RPG fans have any other choice?) But gamers looking for ways to fill the empty void in the gaping maw of their Cubes would do well to just sit still until the arrival of Twilight Princess. BOUNTY HOUNDS Your recommended daily fill of hacking and slashing [e Et Куа Іп a few paragraphs, you'll be reading the words of a couple of guys who are far too forgivable of some seriously repetitive combat. Don’t get me wrong. Bounty Hounds— a mostly slick-looking action-RPG that skews heavily toward the alien-eradi- cating action—manages quite well by its steady shoot-em-up and melee mix. In fact, the act of cutting swaths through swarms of enemies takes on a rhythmic, almost soothing quality at first as you effortlessly dispense stat-affecting force fields while alter- nating among varied attacks. But don’t think the action stays fresh forever. By the time | was dodging and killing my thousandth one-trick extrater- restrial, the spells of boredom became а common occurrence. This is further compounded by the need to continu- ally warp back to base to sell inven- tory-filling items and modify weapons, which not only stunts the rush, but also results in plodding backtracking. Special mention goes out to the crap camera, which absolutely implodes during boss fights, and the lame one-on-one versus mode instead of co-op. You kidding me? We're talk- ing epic missed opportunity here. Hounds might label one stage “Laser Ordnance Base,” but | pre- fer to call it my happy place. Seriously, this big dork thinks plasma blasting robotic bad guys is awesome. The game doesn't require you to spend too much time leveling up and upgrading weapons (though you can certainly take your time with that)—it cuts right to the action. What | like are the numer- ous features that both keep you busy and add to the button-mashing, like putting up force fields that create a bio- sphere-like area where bad guys can become as slow as Pauly Shore. Not all the weapons are great—hell, the finicky flamethrower looks like you're offering a light instead of trying to (ОТ OF 10) THE VERDICTS G. FORD JAMES L. Developer: XPEC ESRB: Teen incinerate bad guys—but | don't have too much to complain about otherwise. Sometimes life’s greatest pleasures are the simple ones. Like hacking, slashing, and loot- ing. Kill 2.8 metric craploads of robots, take their stuff, and shoot their bud- dies with it. Between the setting and combat mechanics, Hounds may feel like Phantasy Star Online, but it's miss- ing the best part of that classic: the addictive co-op play. And most of the colors. Hounds might actually use more grays and browns than the famously überbland Quake Il. The backgrounds are drab, but the game puts a shocking number of enemies onscreen without a hitch. Now, if only 1 could figure out where all my party members go when they're not needed for a cut-scene. They always act like they were around the whole time, but they sure as hell weren't there helping with the robot genocide a few seconds prior. Publisher: Namco Bandai Players: 1 (2 via local Wi-Fi) SHARKEY www.namcobandaigames.com STERS b. | y SQUARE ENIX. CZE SPECTRAL SOULS Turn-based spectating Ice Shard (QUT OF 0) THE VERDICTS MICHAEL SHOE WTF: WORK TIME FUN Wait, the F stands for "fun THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10) CRISPIN SHIVAM K 134 « ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY e www.1UP.com Publisher: NIS America Developer: Idea Factory Players: 1 ESRB: Teen RAY www.nisamerica.com ”? pr Some of the extras—like this bikini-girl ramen timer—are more fun than many of the minigames. Publisher: D3Publisher Developer: Sony CEI Players: 1-8 ESRB: Teen АКЕМ www.Wtfisthisgame.com Two words: Disc access. I'd say more, but I think | need a little more thought on this one...could you give me a couple of seconds? Or better yet, a couple of minutes? Hell, how about next month? Oh, fine—I suppose l'Il wander into the endless waiting of Spectral Souls...after | access my thoughts. OK, I'm ready...so if you think PSP games generally have shoddy load times, pull up a seat (and a puffy pillow), because you'll be doing a helluva lot more waiting than playing. Everything (and I mean just about everything) is plagued with the dreaded "disc access" message, to the point where the game is almost unplayable...at least for those who aren't blessed with powerful patience (i.e., someone who doesn't overlook blatant prob- lems because of adorable anime chicks). Sorry, strategy fans, Souls completely misses its goal. Had publisher NIS America actually ported the PS2 version of this game, | would have given it at least two points higher (assuming the load times were fast), because, honestly, the game isn't that bad. The grid-based battle system works great, and choosing between three different armies is a cool concept. Too bad those damn two words had to suck the soul out of this game. | watched every tutorial video. | even read the manual. But throughout playing Souls, | never felt like | completely under- stood it. The game floods you with options CRISPIN: Time to fess up to a dereliction of duty: | actually tricked coworkers into play- ing this game for me. And finding willing victims wasn't hard: Who wouldn't want to play a collection of bizarre-beyond-words minigames in an outlandishly titled PSP game (WTF supposedly stands for “Work Time Fun,” but yeah, right). Why my laziness? Because some of the “minigames” here are actually mind-numb- ing tests of mental endurance, about as fun as working in an Indonesian sweatshop. (One ballpoint-pen-sorting minigame is set in a sweatshop.) But as one of my pressed- into-service coworkers says, “Playing these games is like chewing on a mouth sore: It's not pleasant, but you can't stop doing it." If these games are strangely addictive, | blame it on WTF's paycheck aspect. Every game ends with a payday based on your performance, and you use that cash to buy more minigames (40 in all). Trouble is, you purchase these games from gumball machines that spit out more collectible trin- kets than actual minigames. Nothing's more frazzling than saving up a load of money, dropping it into the gumball machine, and getting a bathroom scale. What a waste of my coworkers' time. SHIVAM: WTF manages to change the art of playing minigames into a mindless chore, much like the summer jobs 1 had throughout A and features that I never realy ES £ got the full hang of. And they want me to wade through constant loading for this? For crying out loud, the PSP has to [...Disc Access...] every line of dialogue, [...Disc Access...] each new screen, and [...Disc Access...] every single animation in battle! You know it’s bad when the PSP’s screen saver kicks in when you're in the middle of a fight. The combat system is neat (you can Stall, then unleash attacks that will combine with others to form new moves), but | have better things to do with my time than to wait for [...Disc Access...]. A game of chess could take forever, but when you pick up a piece, it doesn’t take an hour to move it. But that's what Souls’ slowdown-laden mess is like. Souls is one of the worst-optimized PS2-to-PSP ports I’ve played. Was there a QA strike? Text loads line by line, making progression laughable. The story is more “grown-up” than other strategy-RPGs (like the cutesy Disgaea), but the mechanical English translation fails to make it exciting. Souls could've been competent portable strategy: Things like the ability to switch between kingdoms and get different sides of the story is something you don’t see often, but the technical issues are huge roadblocks to anything good. high school (which may also explain its Japanese title, Baito Hell 2000, which translates to “part-time-job hell”). Consider, you start with four avail- able games and must play them until you earn enough money to try to (randomly) unlock a new game. The unlock system sucks, though: You only receive pennies for every pen you cap, baseball you catch, or log you split. Whereas WarioWare enables you to pick it up, play it, and put it down minutes later fully satisfied, WTF's extended sessions go on for what seem like full eight- hour shifts, with you checking the clock every 10 minutes, hoping you can go home. TUP.GOM-—HKAREN: Here's a game aimed at the bored-at-work generation that's set in a hellish office where. your job is to chug through minigames—seems kinda meta to me. WTF is more adult and stylish than its genre cousins, but it also suffers from the same "now what?" problem. Gamers will end up choosing probably only two minigames to play to earn in-game moolah, because WTF offers no story, drive, or reason for them to explore every crevice of the game's library. Most of the minigames are simple but delightfully absurd, accom- panied by cheeky commentaries and edgy graphics. Its greatest success: It validates that under the PSP's cold, sleek veneer is plenty of room for whimsy and loony fun. ر GANGS OF LONDON “4‏ London calling...don’t answer I've seen enough of Brit director Guy Ritchie's movies to know that people across the pond employ a variety of bizarre slang, but do gun- toting, drug-slinging British gangsters really use the word "bumclot" as an insult? According to Gangs of London, an open-world crime-sploitation game by the makers of The Getaway, they do. | guess that’s why 50 Cent, not 50 Pence, is a millionaire. Also, Gangs of London sucks ass. For any Brits who might be reading, the phrase “suck ass” is a pejorative that, while describing a heinous sex act, also implies poor performance. How does Gangs of London perform poorly? At a basic level, the game’s controls are a mess. Touchy car handling translates millimeters of analog nub movement to drastic hand-over-fist turning. And when you get out of the car, you face the opposite problem: Your little polygonal hoodlum moves like Grandpa Moses.