METROID PRIME 3 SKATE ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS DECIPHERING ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY GAMES Е FIRST SCREEMWS = INFO = Can THQ’s gang take this series out of GTA’s shadow? Exclusive Previews! Vin Diesel also takes a crack at GTA Never-before-seen screenshots ee Wii Crap -- Why bad games are flooding the system Things you didn't know about the hottest upcoming videogames SUE vus Sc pc ust ye ui. — 4 E mre : сч Е " - е irkof SonpCompl pe. All rights reserved. "PlayStatior [ "PS" Family lego are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Engine; ““SIXAXIS” arg trademarks of Sony Computer. inment : isc” and." Blu-ray Disc" logo are trademarks. = - неч Laer Р > - а Ue _ i, a 0 WHATISFEAR.COM RATING PENDING e . Visit www.esrb.org "m 4 4 360 for updated rating information. DVD-ROM = Rae PERO DTIMEGATE | © 2007 Monolith Productions, Inc. А rights reserved. Published by Vivendi Games, Inc. under license from Monolith Productions, Inc. ה‎ R.: Extraction Point for Xbox 360 developed by Day 1 Studios, LLC. FE A R.: Perseus Mandate for Xbox 360 and ЕЕ A.R. Extraction Point for the PC developed by TimeGate Studios, Inc. FEAR. is a trademark of Vivendi Games, Inc. Sierra and the Sierra logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc, in the U.S. and/or other countries. MONOLITH and the MONOLITH Logo ™ & © Warmer Bros. Entertainment Inc. The NVIDIA logo, GeForce and "The Way It's ‘Meant To Be Played" logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. XPS is a registered trademark of Dell Inc. The Creative logo, Sound Blaster logo, X-Fi logo, EAX logo, EAX ADVANCED HD logo are registered trademarks of Creativ Ltd. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. technology А am ALONE Doris x С H OOS E 4 TT. ` YOUR EOMPLETE STANDALONE FEAR SE oo] Sa WEAPON. FEAR FEAR Å PERSEUS MANDATE STAND-ALONE THE COMPLETE STAND-ALONE EXPANSION PACK EXPANSION PACK SERIES INCLUDES EXTRACTION POINT AND PERSEUS MANDATE MATURE 17+ Blood Strong Language A BEAUTIFUL DEATH NOVEMBER 2 D 0 7 © 2007 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. SING R E 357 PASSASSINSCREED.COM Z UBISOFT Alcohol Reference Animated Blood Crude Humor Fantasy Violence Language jetand Clank is a registered trai "PlayStation; "PLAYSTATION" and the “PS” Faft EntertainmentAmerica Inc. "SIXAXIS" isa trademark rai ata ica Inc. Developed by Insomnia] Games. ©2007 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. fered trademat inm ‘Of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “Play B3yond” is: lemark of Sony Computer Ine. Videooutputin HD require езам isplay, both sold separately. | c | № $ ex MN КЕН O LANK FITUE a IUDA TPA ESA GML When an alien tyrant driven by hatred for Lombaxes attacks Ratchet and Clank's home, the duo embarks on a mission to unlock one ofthe universe's biggest secrets. Their journey hurls them into vast, unexplored worlds, where Ratchet discovers that the mysteries of his past are the key to the galaxy's future. SIXAXIS" WIRELESS CONTROLLER Control Ratchet and his arsenal like never before as you guide his weapons to their targets, fly freely through expansive new worlds and outmaneuver ever-growing danger. HIGH- DEFINITION VISUALS* Explore a highly detailed world, where blockbuster graphics and cinematic camera angles combine to create a living, breathing galaxy rivaling today's most sophisticated CGI movies. PLAY SS rr OnLY on PLAYS TATION. = Half-Life’ 2: Episode Two Team Fortress 2 7 жь - = The Orange Box *Five Games. One Box. &xeoxseo ^ EM ----7---- iay of gam пе. Puzzle. Action. Adventure, — The Orange Box a a aks ne + Available October 7 www.whatistheorangebox.com © 2007 Valve Corporation. Valve, the Valve logo, Half-Life, the Lambda logo, Team Fortress and Portal are trademarks or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation inthe U.S, and/or other coun d trademarks or registered trademark of ic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. “PlayStation”, Ie PLAYSTATION" and he " a ed trademarks of Sony Computer Entert soft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos ATi V A L V Е are trademarks of the Mi 1 а er trademarks are the property of t sper wners. INTERNET CONNECTION required for online play. Rapeon е on al работе, See produ for details. Copyright 2007, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AT, the ATI logo, Radeon and = EEE DVD-ROM Online play may not be combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Release date subject to change without notice. \ Ga TH VY n n МАКОТО ASA ayasa FROM pd POWERFUL AND RESPECTED NINJA EE Lis: ה‎ NS. T : ITS SURROUNDING Lear VILLAGE AND ENVIRON, Emo RECREATED STRAIGHT FROM THE ANIME, N ru 50 7 9 Suggestive Themes EEE лок b Nune used ond distibuted by Ubi пе a als A reserved. Published ond distributed by Ubisoféntada B ` (шой, Y Yoox 360, Xx LIVE, xtA sal) йш digat group of corps: m um Execu GONT! TE HAND SIGNS WITH You R uNLEASH YO ) ROLLER'S STICKS AND UR FAVORITE ATTACKS, 124 Train A А WITI CHAK H KAKA RA hie AAA SENSEI AND TRIEVAL Ыы LIKE TREE T ME IONS AND c MORE, THE че > issue 221 ° november 2007 Nintendo's poor quality control a a | E L4 i ^ Cover Story: Saints Row 2 ° THQ's gangbanging sequel returns to streets paved by Grand ч Diesel burns Theft Auto, but is another road-raging knock-off such a bad thing? in Wheelman 56 Take This Job 103 NBA Live 08 Thi : mili i 23 Opening them is only half the battle le month military adviser 104 John Woo Presents Stranglehold 58 Тһе Ex Games Add third-party exclusives to the growing 105 NHL 2K8 32 Quality Control list of endangered species 107 FIFA 08 Much like our own personal hygiene, 64 Afterthoughts: Heavenly Sword 108 Skate Nintendo’s standards seem shoddy lately Apparently length was not the development team's bi t 111 FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage 36 Foreign Object apana a 66 All Work, All Play 112 Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck 38 Preview: Wheelman hp s Read about how videogames are leveling Your exclusive first look at Midway's up the boring work environment 114, The Lepani of Zelda, Diesel-powered ride Phantom Hourglass 72 Rumor Mill ^ " 44 Afterthoughts: BioShock Viva Pifiata, coming to a Wii near you? Мө: Final pañu sy таенов: We hack Ken Levine's brain to find out how The War of the Lions he laid the foundation for his underwater city 74. Seon 118 Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow 50 Online Scene e š 120 Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles Robotron rip-offs are so hot right now 96 Reviews Intro 122 Star Wars: Battlefront— 52 Preview: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune 98 Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Renegade Squadron We dig up the PS3's latest adventure to see if it's really a treasure 102 Mercury Meltdown Revolution 123 Hot PXL ZIFF DAVIS M! ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA GAME GROUP HEAD HONCHOS Director of Finance, SALES Client Servi nior Vice Presi Vyshalee Joshi Senior Vice Presid s, Tipler Ubbeloh ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY Vice President of Marketin COPY DESK National Advertising Director, TERRITORY MANAGERS AND Shane Bettenhausen MANT ° Research and Events, dda Copy Chief, Jason my Mishra ACCT, EXECS. Managing Editor DESIGN s Vice P of Product Copy Editor, Director, Gaming Online, Jennifer Tsao Art Director ven Van 2909 Marketing and CTO, Copy Editor, Kai Brent Martyn Regional Sales Director, Founder Senior Director of Promotions, Leslie C. Gelfand Assistant Art Director E ent, Content, PRODUCTION Torn Byron Account E; Production Manager, Promotions Manager, Account Coo Editorial Director, Shelly Reime T Naya Echiribet Jan "Shoe" Hsu Promotions Coordinator, Art Intern Joy Fremont G MONTHLY * E 1UP.COM ING YOURSELF EVEN FURTHER. START HIGHER. Ww START REACHING DEEPER. START DISCOVERING NEW TALENTS. START OUT ON TOR. START STRONG. There's strong. Then there's Army Strong. Army ROTC supports and pushes your strengths even further by providing leadership development both inside and outside the classroom. Upon graduation and completion of Army ROTC, you can earn a commission as a Second Lieutenant - making you an Officer responsible for leading Soldiers and a key decision maker in the U.S. Army. You can also ° receive a full-tuition, merit-based scholarship. Start with a strong foundation. ARMY ROTC Find out more at goarmy.com/rotc/startstrong. ARMY STRONG. © 2007. Paid for by Army ROTC. All rights reserved. >A) Da 124 Reviews Wrap-Up GAME OVER 130 Seanbaby’s Rest of the Crap Mr. Baby investigates the handheld crap that's smelling up Nintendo's DS Retr ly Plotlines Starting with the inscrutable Xenogears, we kick off a series on absurd plotlines Seek and Enjoy: Halloween edition Can you find all 20 videogame references hidden among the ghastly ghouls? Grudge Match Next Month Hsu & Chan Account Coordinator, Regional Sales Director, dervilyn Jaramillo Nick Geist. Senior Account Executive, Jessica Reback Account Coordinator, Senior Director, Consumer Sales, Rick Rizzo Account Executive, Raymund Bautista. Stacy Cohen Director, Consumer Sales, Leah Cook Regional Sales Director, Account Executive, Meredith Stowe Missy Rounthwaite Account Executive, Account Coordinator, Stephenie Bryant Adrian Frieg 1 California Advertising Director, І Editor-in-Chief, Sam Kennedy 1 Director of Ad Operations, THIS MONTH'S EGM EXTRA: EGM.1UP.COM Videos: Saints Row 2, Wheelman, and Uncharted See trailers and gameplay footage, plus interviews Seek and Enjoy: Halloween edition Suffering from brain strain? We’ve got the answers Abundance of SuperGuides Metroid Prime 3, Stranglehold, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and Half-Life 2: The Orange Box B And check out our podcast on EGMLive.1UP.com and our message boards at boards.1UP.com. Advertising Campaign Marketing Coordinator, Manager, Mac O'Rourke Vanessa Alvarado 1 Richard Taw II ‘Audience Development Marketing Graphic Designer, Manager, Nopadon Wongpakdee Wiliam Buffington Advertising Campaign Coordinator, Stephanie Lee Marketing Graphic Designer, Robyn Uyeno Vice President of Marketing, Research and Events, Rey Ledda Adam Carey Research Director, May Tong PR Manager, Nikki Flynn Vice President of Audience. Development, Steve Suttor Associate Director, Circulation Development, Jamie Ойге 20 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM A New Era John Davison is leaving us, yet we're still getting Mr. Bean movies? All things British seem to be going wrong for us right now. Mr. Bean is easy enough to ignore. But John Davison? We're really going to miss our second-favorite British import (sorry, John, the Beatles are still tops)—our former editorial director is leaving the company to form a new, family- focused media group. John has been with us for so long now, it feels like he arrived with the other survivors of the Titanic. But in reality, John left England back in 1998 to join us as the editor-in-chief of EGM. He was also editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Official PlayStation Magazine and eventually made his way up to editorial director of the Ziff Davis Game Group (now also known as the 1UP Network). He’s provided ideas, leadership, vision...as well as an extra syllable in the word “aluminum.” It’s hard to believe he won't be around our offices anymore—we'll miss that boisterous laughter down the hall—but luckily for all of us, he'll still be a regular on the Review Crew and on the 1UP Yours podcast (podcasts.1UP.com). So who's replacing him? A guy who seems to get his kicks from knocking down Mr. Bean shows (even though he's never seen one): me. l've taken over the role of the 1UP Network's editorial director, which means I'll be watching over editorial coverage across a whole lot more than just the pages of EGM, from 1UP.com to Games for Windows: The Official Magazine to GameVideos.com to MyCheats.com and more (podcasts, blogs, etc.). That's a lot to manage! Good thing this is one cakewalk of a job: All our properties are run by some truly creative, ambitious folks. | know | don't have to worry much about the 1UP. Network with such talented people (and great friends) taking care of the day-to-day content, so all І can really do is to continue John's great legacy and provide help, support, and direction where needed. Oh, and I'm still acting editor-in-chief of EGM, so sorry to say, you're still stuck with me for some time to come! —Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Editor-in-Chief ‘SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE Circulation Development Manager, Kim Trotman Billing and Retention Manager, Development Tracy Chan Assistant, Jarrett All content copyright © 2007 Ziff Davis Media Inc. Reproduction, modification, or transmission, in whole or in part, by any means, without written permission from Ziff Davis Media Inc. is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved. эр: IUE r | Meet Vann. att.com/digitalworld What's in your digital world? ServiceprovidedbyAT&TMobility.«:2007 AT&TKnowledgeVentures.Allrightsreserved. AT&TandtheAT&Tlogoaretrademarksof AT&TKnowledgeVenturesand/orAT&T affiliated companit LETTERS у gaming with two x chromosomes, the role of previews, and something about gravity This month's EGM question: Who's the patron saint of accountants? E-mail the answer to EGMaGziffdavis.com (subject head: Trivia: EGM #221) for a chance to win something potentially awesome. biam ri For writing this month's winning letter, Stacy gets a copy of Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses...or maybe something else we have lying around. Letter of the Month Lady joins boys’ Band | just read both Chad Johnson's let- ter regarding Rock Band (*The day the music died," EGM $219) and your response. [“When your guitarist's wife starts trying to break up the band... you can drop 'em without a second thought...."] Guys, | have a shocker for you: I’m 30, and as of last Saturday, a wife (with two X chromosomes and everything). I’m very much looking forward to drumming, strumming, and singing my heart out in my very own Rock Band. | realize that perhaps my high estrogen level will cause a band breakup, especially when | have a massive PMS fit because my husband is playing games when he should be fawning over me and spending every night rubbing my feet while | watch Steel Magnolias. But l'm giving it a shot, and the consequences be gosh darned. Welcome to the Brave New World, guys. Some of us Yoko Onos are actually gamers in our own rights. 1 do have one question for you, though: Should | buy lace doilies or a copy of BioShock with our wedding gift certificates? —Stacy Wood How do you have time to play games and still finish your womanly duties? Do you have one of those under-counter TVs in your kitchen? That’s why we call them previews, you know | have an issue with your Lair review— and no, it is not because of the scores given [6.0, 5.5, 5.0]. | think that most of the people who were upset [with your review] would not be if EGM had not hyped Lair so much. Granted, EGM is not the only responsible party, as Lair has been featured on maga- zine covers, in preview features, on TV, and so forth. Why so much hype for a game that ended up blowing more than a prostitute grandmother? [What? —Ed.] Doesn't EGM bear some responsibility for featuring this game so much? | doubt that there would have been as many upset gamers otherwise. Didn't EGM know that this game sucked from the beginning? Why did you hype it so much? | know that your score only reflects the opinions of the EGM editors, and that is fine. If the game sucks then, well, it sucks. But why did you get gamers' hopes up for a game that you had played before and therefore had to have known was not gonna be all that great? —Matt Lorenz First off, our Lair scores hardly equate to suckage, as they fall squarely in the *average" range. But more importantly, your letter inspires us to wax philosophical about the preview process a little bit. See, when we look at a game before release, we're usually look- ing at a version that has a long way—sometimes a very long way— to go before it's ready for prime time. So we know there are always issues in the version we're playing that won't be in the final game...only > HOW HARDCORE ARE ® Lair, Lair, pants on...er, fair? sometimes they do make it into the final shipped product (sometimes in spite of the developers’ assurances to the contrary). That’s one part of the equation. Another part is the simple fac- tor of time: Play a game for half an hour at a trade show or press event and you may not pick up on issues that may become painfully apparent when playing a game all the way through for review. Plenty of other factors come into play as well: Sometimes the person writing the preview and the person writing the review may have honest- ly differing opinions on the game; sometimes something that feels new and fresh in a demo or preview may become tiresome when spread throughout an entire game; some- times the designers even make Quz Your proudest gaming moments The first contestant in our monthly harder-core-than- thou competition comes to us via the 1UP boards.... "Every year | hold an ultimate LAN party. Last year we had two HDTVs, a 5.1 surround-sound speaker system, two minifridges (one for each team, because we didn't want to get off our lazy asses to get drinks), two Xbox 360s, two copies each of Halo, Halo 2, and Gears of War, and Guitar Hero II (with two controllers!). It was pretty much the greatest thing ever. Maybe this year I'll even have a jukebox." —DrPantsPhD ims... 8 Needs more Glade. Want to see your own story in this space? All you have to do is tell us how hard-eff- ing-core you are. Dish up the goods on what makes you more into games than anyone else and send it to EGM@ziffdavis.com, subject head: "I Am Hardcore." Remember, it doesn't count if you can't prove it, so send photos, too! ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM • 23 ш A Slime appears! changes that make the game worse between the preview version and the final version. So yes, sometimes we can get excited about a game that turns out to be pretty mediocre. Truly, no one is more disappointed when this happens than we are. But with all the things that can change between a preview and review version, we're actually pretty damned proud of the fact that we get it right as consis- tently as we do. On a more alarming note, what the hell was that bit about the prostitute grandmother? Seriously, what's wrong with you? The great battle over random battles Why is it that role-playing-game ran- dom battles are looked down upon? I don't see the appeal or the challenge of knowing exactly where a monster is when | am exploring a dark dungeon or world map. Why would | want to touch the graphic of an enemy so a battle screen appears that contains more than the one enemy that was on the map? Then again, why should | have to touch an enemy so a battle Screen appears in the first place? In real life, if | were to go on an adventure in a deep cave or in a rain forest, | would have no idea when a serious situation would come up. So, | would have to prepare for the unknown and stay on my toes at all times. That would be part of the excitement. In a cave or forest in an RPG, I should prepare for the unknown. Did | take enough items into the cave? How many enemies will | run into? What combinations of enemies will be there? Will | survive knowing that foes can appear at any time? | believe the level of accomplish- ment that you get from beating a ran- dom battle videogame far outdoes any 24 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM nonrandom battle game (excluding action-RPGs). Therefore, | had a hard time liking Chrono Trigger, Lunar, and many more. Random battle games are about preparing for the unknown and having the feelings of relief and accomplishment afterward. —Alex Walenty In real life, if we were walking down the street and were sud- denly ambushed by a grinning, blue, ambulatory globule of slime, and transported to a tiny arena in which we had to wait for everyone else to do something before we could do anything—well, we would be alarmed. Confused, even. So let's not take these "in real life" comparisons too far, hmm? “Моге realistic" does not always equal "better." Oh, Halo... | don’t think I'm the only one ecstatic about Halo 3. | didn't realize until now that there are books that fill in the gaps between the games. In what order do the books and games go? | want to read/play the story of Master Chief from beginning to end. —Onigiri Man We'll answer your question, Mr. Man, only because we're so relieved that this wasn't another e-mail freaking out at us for covering Halo 3 so much. The chronological order of the plots of the books is as follows: Halo: Contact Harvest (due in October), Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood (a retelling of the plot of the first game), Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. A graphic novel, cunningly titled The Halo Graphic Novel, was also published. It includes four stories: “The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor" and "Breaking Quarantine," both set alongside the events of the original game; *Armor Testing," which takes place between Halo and Halo 2; and “Second Sunrise over New Mombasa," which is set alongside the events of Halo 2. As of this writing, two additional novels have been announced, and Marvel has just released the first issue of the new Halo: Uprising comic, set after Halo 2. ...is it me you're looking for? Do you think EGM could cut one of the monthly 20-page Halo stories down а bit and use the space for a game that doesn't get covered on every website and videogame maga- zine ad nauseam? What would be nice is using some of that space for games that probably won't do well because they get no coverage (Persona 3 comes to mind). | don't expect you to not cover Halo—it sells mags and probably will be a Game of the Year contender in most circles—but І, and just maybe a few others, would enjoy a little freshness now and then from a multiplatform magazine. —lan Lyon Dammit! Back in the saddle again I'd like to know if there are going to be sequels to Gun, Crackdown, and Gears of War. | have thrown away too many hours of my life playing these games and might kill myself if they don't get sequels. —Nedward Gears of War, definitely. Crackdown, almost definitely. Gun? That one's a toss-up. It did OK, and Activision has hinted at the possibility of a sequel, but we're guessing devel- oper Neversoft will be too busy with Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk to take a trip down that only marginally rewarding trail again. Hopefully that'll be enough to keep you from taking a long walk off a short ledge. Now that's just mean | have owned many consoles in the past. | have no patience, and for that reason | must get them at launch. | hear all of these stories about how the launch consoles break early, but 1 beg to differ. | have owned a launch Nintendo 64, PS2, Xbox, and, most recently, Xbox 360—none of which has broken or needed repair. The red ring of death is what | commonly hear about, but | have yet to discover that misfortune on my launch console. | am writing to rub that in the faces all the gamers who have paid $400 for a 10-pound strobe light. My console is as healthy as the day ! got it, and | am proud of that. —Brian Ayers Wow, Brian, you're a pretty big dick, aren't you? Skate or die of boredom | just finished reading your short article “Skate or Fly” in EGM #219. To be honest, | just don’t think realism in the skateboarding videogame world will work very well. One of the things that makes Tony Hawk my favorite sports franchise is the fact that it’s ridiculous—popping 900s over roller coasters and shooting fireballs out of To end his thirst for blood, you must develop one of your own. The Dracula X Chronicles” Coming October 2007 ^t long last the Beaumont family's quest to destroy Dracula is here for the PSP. This time it's a double curse eaturing Symphony of the Night and the first ever U.S. release of Rondo of Blood. The Dracula X Chronicles will let you drink up new game modes, items and enemies in gruesome 2D or blood-curdling 3D graphics. ©1986 2007 Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ld. “CASTLEVANIA is a registered trade- mark of Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd “CASTLEVANIA: The Dracula X Chronicles” is а trademark of Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. “KONAMI” is а registered trademark ‘ot KONAMI CORPORATION. Ай trademarks used herein are under license from their respective 0) N А МІ . ommers, “PlayStation, "PS? ату logo and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony Computer e <> E Entertainment Inc., PSP G - Memory Stick Duo?" may be required (sold separatal) The rating ESRB CONTENT RATING _ www.estb.o ^ PlayStation.Portable icons are trademarks of the Entertainment Solare Assocation: www.konami.com AKATE mo DESTROY * ^ 9 PlayStation] > . ш Falling: an all-too-common occurrence in the obnoxiously realistic Thrasher. your skateboard is exactly what | love about it. Realistic skateboarding in a videogame sounds like it'll just make for some very trying gameplay. Gravity sucks. I’m open to being proven wrong, but in the meantime I’m stick- ing with THPS4. There's nothing better than shredding Alcatraz. —Stephen K. Hey, let's not forget that a realistic skating game has already been done. Thrasher Presents: Skate and Destroy (1999, from Rockstar) actually required you to tap the X button in order to push your board, remember? You don't? Exactly. WRITE We're looking for interns and free- lancers who are strong, creative writers, detail oriented, and hard workers able to meet tight dead- lines. Is that you? Interns: You must be local to our San Francisco offices and be willing to work for less than what it takes to live well in this pricey city. Send résumés and raw (unedited) writing samples to EGM@ziffdavis.com with the subject: | want to be an ЕСМ intern, please (Your Name). Freelancers: If you're local to SF, you're more likely to get some work from us—but if you're a good writer from elsewhere, we still might be able to use you. Send résumés and raw (unedited) writing samples to EGM@ziffdavis.com with the sub- ject head: I want to freelance for EGM, please (Your Name). We're looking for the best writers around, so if your samples read like cookie-cutter clones of stuff you can find everywhere else, don’t bother! Thanks in advance. 26 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM Doesn't that have something to do with apples? In EGM #219’s Letters you responded to a concerned gamer about the А.І. in the upcoming Splinter Cell game. You then proceeded to try to explain a perfectly elastic collision (i.e., the bullet hitting the table) using simple Newtonian gravitation. While the attempt was admirable, a few ideas were overlooked: A key feature in Newtonian gravitation is that veloc- ity is independent of mass, whereas acceleration is not. The perfectly elastic collision that gave the bullet its kinetic energy (the hammer hitting the firing pin) imparts an acceleration on the bullet such that the amount of force (a force, by definition, causes acceleration) that the rigid table would have to apply to stop the bullet's acceleration is equal to the amount of force generated by the explosion that put the bullet in motion (conservation of momentum and energy). So the table breaks. In other words, ladies and gentleman: If | am to believe that the table is going to save my ass from a bullet, then | have to believe that the table can "push" on the bullet with as much force as the bullet “pushes” on the table. And that's a big no. As far as the inverse square law is concerned: If you, for some unimagi- nable reason, wanted to measure the gravitational attraction (or elec- tric charge) between the bullet and the table, then the inverse square (one divided by distance squared) approaches zero as the distance approaches infinity, and vice versa. —Abdel Mohamed You done? We stepped away for a minute to watch YouTube videos of fat people on trampolines. Have you tried...ducking? | consider myself a hardcore gamer. My main poison is first-person shoot- ers (or third, like Gears of War). Now that | have several of these games under my belt, | have a severe con- cern: Many of these games have computer-controlled characters that work alongside you. But to my dismay all these characters end up being morons. | have no problem with the fact that they hardly help you through the game, but what | do hate is that they constantly get in the way. In Gears they block your line of sight and prevent you from advanc- ing. In Perfect Dark | have been killed because | cannot see enemies and even shot up my own group when they jump in front of me while I'm shooting! The only game with smart computer characters is Ghost Recon. To any developers who may be listen- ing: You have billions of bytes to work with in these games. Please, could you invest more than one byte in these characters to at least get them out of my way? —Matthew Hamel You said it, Matthew. We under- stand that creating smart A.l. is one of the biggest challenges in creating a game. It's an enormously complex feat, involving behavior modeling, pathfinding, and simple common sense that's very difficult for a computer to replicate. But, damn. If we hear one more cry of “Рт taking fire!" from a teammate who doesn't have the basic wits to step out of the way of the freaking bullets, things could get ugly. Like, lead-pipe ugly. Goddess of wardrobe Heavenly Sword seems like a big- budget rip-off of God of War. My biggest complaint about it, though, is the main character, Nariko. She was probably the character designer's first wet dream. She is just demeaning to all women everywhere. And don't give me that “but she empowers women by being a hero!” crap. If she really is supposed to be an empowering, respectable woman, she would wear more than a Smurf's bedsheet over her body. You can say all that crap about allowing flexible movement by lack of clothes, but look at Ryu from Ninja Gaiden. He is a friggin’ ninja, and he is fully clothed. Put him in a loincloth and I'll stop complaining about Nariko's appearance. —Ben Jaberg Funny thing about Heavenly Sword: One of the primary people behind the game is a woman. Ninja Theory co-founder and “Chief Development Ninja” Nina Kristensen has been the game’s most visible spokesperson, and she’s actually rather proud of Nariko. In fact, we sat down with her for an Afterthoughts chat on the game (pg. 64). Where is your righ- teous indignation now, Ben? h CONTACT EGH Е‏ ב EGM Letters 101 2nd Street, 8th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 Web: www.zdmcirc.com Phone: (800) 779-1174 "HORROR THAT WILL HAVE YOU SCREAMING FOR MORE" ^ —Tony Timpone, Fangoria OWN IT ON DVD OCTOBER 2 to гип, Ө хвох ה‎ information. Visit www.esrb.org for updáted rating NINTENDOS R SOFTWARE Cum INSTORES 11.14.07 Language Violence _ They claim your partner is a double agent. 8 They've destra Жы 8 Sal Battle the enemy in deadly underwater missions. Fi sert: Neutralize opponents with a surprising new array of. re combat techniques. a n Play with up to 8 players online and find out who among you is the master spy. s Nan cis о, Somewhere within the fears of your enemies lives the _ world’s deadliest Precision Strike Operative- Agent ` Gabe Logan. In this sequel to the critically acclaimed Syphon Filter“: Dark Mirror, Logan finds himself alone - in a battle where no one can be trusted. He must fight his way through a world so full of betrayal it could only have come from the mind of best-selling writer, Greg - Rucka. So get ready to discover why your enemies are afraid of the shadows. - : ff, amer am =e Pu PlayStation;Portable ₪ = =TART > features, previews, bald movie actors, and other stuff While Sega used to put quality seals on their games, neither Sony nor Microsoft currently has an "official stamp of approval." Quality Trash is piling up on Ni bulldoze through the junk to find ou NINTENDO ISN'T JUST SWIM- MING IN CASH—they’re practically drowning in it. Ever since the Wii and DS caught on with the "casual crowd," one thing's become quite apparent: Mommies and daddies now dig games as much as you. In fact, Nintendo's done playing with you, losers. Now they're focusing on the next stage: turning uneducated newbies into sudoku superstars. But Nintendo isn't the only one with this plan—third-party publishers are also looking to milk the mas and pops. And that's a problem for us hardcore gam- ers. You see, Nintendo is superlenient about what makes it onto their sys- tems, meaning publishers and devel- opers are now releasing more junk 32 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM than gems. Looks like this trend isn't going to end until Nintendo decides to stop releasing the schlock. But how exactly did the company get to this point? Nintendo won't say (they had no comment for us). So instead, we decided to find out for ourselves why the Wii and DS have become shovel- ware dumping grounds. Seal of disapproval Bad games aren't uncommon on any system. Hell, for every Halo on Xbox 360, you're going to get sucky soft- ware like Vampire Rain. But back in the NES days, Nintendo used to trick gamers into thinking every title was good. Sounds silly, but consumers really bought into Nintendo's Official Render by Chuck Ernst ndo's systems, but why? We By Michael Donahoe Seal of Quality—an insignia placed on the front of each retail box let- ting buyers know that Nintendo had “approved the quality of this prod- uct.” In a way, they weren’t kidding around—during the early days of the NES, publishers were limited in the amount of games they could release each year. Some companies, like Konami, actually had to create a sub- sidiary group under a different name (in their case, Ultra Games) to get around this strict rule. But shortly after the NES met its “game over” screen, Nintendo realized they could rake іп a lot more money by allowing publishers to release more games per year. Although Nintendo loosened their grip on publishers, they still kept the Official Seal of Quality intact...until the summer of 2003, that is. From this point on, Nintendo decided to ax the one word that made the seal worth- while in the first place. Not sure what that word is? Well, here's what now appears on the box of every Nintendo DS and Wii title: “Official Nintendo Seal." As you can see, Nintendo opted to take out "quality," rendering the seal almost pointless. Just looking at all the recent poorly made DS and Wii titles proves this. Still, this doesn't fully explain why these games are in stores to begin with, but Nintendo's approval process does. Easily approved Wait, did we just say "approval pro- cess"? Our bad. "Nintendo does not have a formal concept-approval pro- cess," says Majesco Senior Product Manager Liz Buckley. "It's very struc- tured for Sony and Microsoft." This means it takes a wee bit more effort to get a game approved with Nintendo's competitors. "If you want to get a game green-lit for Sony or Microsoft, you have to do a concept submis- Sion," explains Buckley. "You have to submit your game-design document, technical-design document, and pass a review committee." You see, unlike Nintendo, both Sony and Microsoft have dedicated review committees set up for one sole purpose: keeping crap games off the shelf. Does it always work? Of course not—it just means Sony and Microsoft are more con- scious about the kind of content that makes it onto their consoles. Sony, in particular, is serious about the approval system. "| man- age what is known at SCEA as the product-evaluation group," says Sony Computer Entertainment America Product Evaluation Manager Mark Vitello. “It’s a small group of expert gamers and designers who evaluate all of the third-party game proposals and work-in-progress games for all the PlayStation platforms." Along with evaluating titles early, the team also works closely with developers. Not so much to change ideas (these guys aren't developers, remember), but to help understand certain aspects of the proposed games. “Оп paper, rolling a ball of garbage around that other garbage PAGE Preview: Diesel on the wheel sticks to doesn’t really sound like so much fun,” says Vitello, referring to the seemingly unworkable concept of Namco Bandai’s Katamari Damacy. “When you sit down and talk to the developer, it can suddenly all come together, and you see that vision and realize you're looking at a really awe- some game. That's the fun part for us—sitting down with the developer to hear their ideas directly." That doesn't mean Sony tries to sabotage the making of games, either. For years, Internet nerds have speculated Sony does not approve 2D games—that's obviously not the case. "The biggest [myth] is that we don't like 2D games and will just reject them outright," says Vitello. "If you look at all our games, that's clearly false. We don't restrict our approvals to a set number per year or by genre or art style or anything like that." 4 After- thoughts: BioShock And just because Vitello works at Sony doesn’t mean his team doesn’t check out the competition. "We play everything, and 1 really mean every- thing, that comes out on 360, Wii, DS, and PC to stay on top of the competi- tion," explains Vitello. "We all know what it feels like to buy a bad game and feel ripped off, so we work hard to get every PlayStation game to be worth a player's time and money." A noble effort on Sony's part, but no amount of hard work could have possibly repaired the mess that was Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (PS3). Still, at least Sony admits they try to keep consumers from wasting dough on duds, something Nintendo doesn't seem too concerned with. In fact, it seems Nintendo doesn't even minc when developers blatantly borrow—-or, in some cases, steal—their ideas. For example, publisher DreamCatcher just PAGE Feature: Life meets games > Nintendo does not have a formal concept-approval process. —Majesco Senior Product Manager Liz Buckley NINTENDOTIS _ i Nintendo may make good games, but it also lets a lot of crap appear on its systems. Here's a sample: (clockwise from top left): Ninjabread Man (Wii), Escape from Bug Island (Wii), AniMates (DS), end Chicken Shoot (Wii). ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM • 3 released a DS game entitled AniMates that—get this—centers around cutesy critters that you train to become stronger. Sound familiar? Well, if you've played that popular game known as Pokémon, you might think So. If not, the box art will probably catch your eye: Along with a bunch of pokéclones on the cover, the title's font even rips off Pokémon. Gotta сору it all, indeed. It's obvious Nintendo doesn't mind companies imitating their intellectual properties, but what about Sony? “1 think because we do have our quality standards, you don't see many games like [AniMates] on a PlayStation plat- form,” says Vitello. “They usually are of such low quality that they don’t even come close to our standards.” Standards? Bah, who needs 'em? Obviously not Nintendo. It doesn't take much to get a game published on the Wii or DS. Damien Sarrazin, product manager at publisher Game Factory, explains why making games for Nintendo is a simple process. "Nintendo is actually very easy to work with if you compare them to other first-party [hardware makers]," he says. "They have very defined rules and guidelines, but they can also be very flexible." How flexible? Let's just say Jean-Claude Van Damme would be jealous of Nintendo's ability to kick crap like Chicken Shoot onto the market. Not only is the title ridiculous, but so are its origins: It's a port of an Internet Flash game that then got ported to the Game Boy Advance that then got ported to the Wii—ouch. Yes, this is the kind of content Nintendo is letting publishers put out. Sure, that's only one example, but now that the Wii and DS are hot, we'll likely be seeing more bad games since everyone now knows Nintendo is the place to go to make easy scratch. Bet Nintendo doesn't mind, though. “If consumers are apt to buy a lot of Wii/DS games per console, Nintendo stands to benefit from royalties," says Martin Shkreli, a hedge-fund manager at Elea Capital. “So Nintendo might be betting that the casual gamer will buy more frequently than the hardcore gamer, who probably values replay- ability, detail, and game length." This strategy may be working right now, but what if these casual new- comers get pissed after they play these terrible games? Well, Nintendo may change their tune in the future. “| think Nintendo has [no concept- approval process] in place because they were fearful of a lukewarm recep- tion to Wii prelaunch," says Shkreli. "Now that it's clear consumers love it, they'll probably tighten standards to protect the image of the console." Though it does seems rather depress- ing, it is possible to see some positives in Nintendo's questionable ways—if you look hard enough. "When you have cheap, crap games, that's a sign of a healthy system," says EE Fund Management President Ted Pollak. "There's so much inter- est in making games for [the DS and Wii] that out of every five or six games, there's going to be a gem." Pollak does have a point—it may be extremely easy to get a title approved on a Nintendo system, but that also means publishers and developers can take a lot more risks when making something completely new. Still, that means wading through tons of terrible software in order to find one title (if you're lucky) that may not totally suck. Well, at least one thing will always stay the same: Nintendo's first-party- developed games will continue to be the best releases you'll find on the DS and Wii. 8 When you have cheap, crap games, that's a sign of a healthy system. Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck Puzzle Quest: The New York Times Crosswords. Cooking Mama series Trauma Genter series 34 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UPCOM —EE Fund Management President Ted Pollak Whar's the difference between Fusion Power and МАСНЗ? Eight years of shaving innovation. PowerGlide" Blades- with less irritation and more comfort Enhanced Indicator® Lubrastrip~ 5 Blade Shaving Surface contains aloe, vitamin E & natural oils for the most comfortable shave ever Precision Trimmer- for those tricky places Comfort Guard- sets up your beard for the world’s best shave While you've spent the past eight years enjoying the best shave you ever had, Gillette has found ways to make Fusion Power even better. 0 hd. E š On-Off Switch- Pick up Gillette | 5 with automatic Fusion Power I Š On-Board shutoff—water tight Phantom today. Ü Microchip- and shower safe f E: optimizes 9 power = performance E = © The Best a Man Can бе?” > FRAR-OUT FANS Solid sketcher: Anyone can whip up some video- game fan art, but not everyone is talented enough to create art that isn't abominable. Katie Middleton, a recent Pratt Institute graduate, is no scrub. She recently showed off Metal Gear-inspired paint- ings (above) for her senior thesis. Even crazier? Her fab DS PictoChat draw- ings (below). Check out www.kati- emiddleton.com for more geeky pics. EGM: Why’d you choose Meta! Gear? Mario not mature enough? Katie Middleton: | got sucked into the story—it's so good. It's probably my favorite story out of any movie or book I’ve read. EGM: What's up with the PictoChat pics? Do you not own games? KM: [Laughs] It was actually when my I'm really sorry, but another club has made me an offer and s a Де ne Dean I've decided I'm going to be playing with them next season. was like, “Wow, this is so cool!” So Ри à that was more just for fun. i L1 EGM: How long did it take you to z = כו‎ F: =I ארי‎ CE: JE c ד‎ ral JA FA ч perfect the pint-sized drawings? KM: Probably 15 minutes? SOCCER TERN! EGM: Wnat? Are you serious? Soccer turned downright loony KM: No, | swear! EGM: So you're just insanely tal ented then? KM: [Laughs] Of course! [short pause] Just kidding. EGM: What did vour professors think of your nerdy paintings? KM: They had no idea where [Metal Gear] came from, and instead, talked to me about the actual painting. EGM: Now be honest: Do you undersiand the Metal Gear story? KM: I'm trying to think of a good answer for this because | can't just say "yes." Um, to the best that | can? 36 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM Produced by &Еогсе "Four original storylines Combine weapon attribute ‘ing Orochi has shattered time and space to 6 ainsthistory's mightiest warriors, and now : AVAILABLE NOW - 0 Wn in history is about to take place! .koei.com/whoisorochi. ¿ Mild Language ë - $ ° IDOLE Š Mild би oS Themes IU poLBY 1 60. pa DOLBY וטו‎ IGITAL ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrh.org Screens are from the PlayStation 2 development version. Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, Warriors Orochi and the KOEI logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of KOEI Co., Ltd. ©2007 KOEI Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. “Dolby”, “Pro Logic”, and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. Platforms: PS3/XB360 Publisher: N De' Midway Newc Release Date: 2008 The avel-voiced actor (Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious) has been actively involved in the biz since he founded production company Tigon Studios in 2002, which had a hand in creating surprise Xbox hit The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (a remake is headed to PS3 and 360 next year). And Midway's Newcastle studio knows driving games. The developer has pumped out a smattering of rac- ers, from the 2002 PS2 incarnation of Test Drive to the more recent L.A. Rush (PS2/XB/PSP). Put the two together and you get Wheelman, a story of “а good guy lured into a bad situation," in the words of Midway Executive Producer Shaun Himmerick. Based in a lovingly re-created Barcelona and starring the voice and likeness of Vin Diesel, Wheelman has serious ambitions. But big production values and a big-name headliner only go so far. By Joe Rybicki Going Hollywood “It’s all about the driving,” says Himmerick. He says it repeatedly and fervently throughout our demo, attempting to underscore what he hopes will set this game apart from open-world epics like The Getaway or True Crime franchises. Sure, Wheelman is set in a real city. And yes, you do engage in some less- than-savory activities, from general traffic-destroying mayhem to very cool-looking midair carjacking (think PSP's Pursuit Force, only better). But, Himmerick contends, where those games try to be jacks-of-all- trades, Wheelman is starting with a solid base of Hollywood-style chase Scenes, then layering extras on top. To demonstrate, Himmerick grabs the controller and speeds us through a mission. Diesel doppelganger Milo must chase down and disable a car carrying a local tough guy, protected by a crew of lead-footed hench- men. As he tears down the streets of Wheelman's star risks bodily harm to drive...a Pontiac? Really? Barcelona, lampposts go flying, café tables disintegrate, and oncoming traffic is shrugged off, tumbling away in explosions that bring Burnout to mind. Aside from buildings, Milo finds few obstacles between him and his prey that he can't plow through. Road rage As Milo approaches his target we come to the meat of the game: driv- ing, at ridiculous speeds, through complex roadways while attempting to take down enemies by way of wits, copious bullets, and Detroit steel. Milo grabs a handgun and starts firing out the window at a henchman's car. He closes the distance, and the game begins offering targets: rear tire, pas- senger, driver, gas tank. A tap of the targeting button switches between the different options; a quick squeeze, and the front tire goes...and so does henchman No. 1. For his next trick, Milo tries some- thing with a little less finesse: He ВОМС GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM • 39 pulls up next to the enemy and gives him a nudge, and a shoving match ensues. As this enemy gets knocked into a building, Milo's own ride starts to show signs of damage. So he leaps to the next available car: Time appears to slow slightly as the virtual Vin floats toward the unlucky civilian's car. He lands on the trunk, leaps in through the passenger-side window, and kicks the driver to the curb. This car won't be pristine for long, though, as Milo shows off his most spectacular move: the Cyclone. Pulling in front of his next target, he suddenly yanks up on the emergency brake. Things slow down dramati- cally as he spins the car 180 degrees, pulls out his gun, and fires a carefully 40 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM 8 Vin runs into some trouble while driving to the set of his next film, The Pacifier 2: Still Sucking. WIM IS ІН Diesel takes a hands-on approach 1 Sure, Hollywood action hero Vin Diesel lends his voice and likeness (as well as his stunt double for motion capture) to Wheelman. But how much is he involved, really? "Literally every line, every scene, every cut-scene, he's going over," says Midway Executive Producer Shaun Himmerick. “Не also has his people going over all the story- boards, all the cinemas—literally every one. He's a very big gamer, and he reviews the game and gives comments. “This is something new, | think, to videogames. We're starting a franchise with Vin and Tigon, but we’re making the game first and the movie second. Normally it’s either the other way around or at the same time. So the benefit that this offers is that we don’t have the time constraint of the movie launch date. And as we all know, [a hard launch date] has messed up a lot of games by being forced into that time frame.” aimed shot through the windshield. The driver of the enemy car doesn't just slump in his seat—that would be far too mundane. No, the enemy car explodes in an unlikely fireball, flipping 10 or more feet in the air and doing who knows how much collat- eral damage. Spectacular, yes, and supremely satisfying, sure...but could it get old after the 10th or 20th time? Let's not rule that out. Beyond the drive Fortunately, the designers plan to have more than one trick up Milo's sleeve. Take the Missile, for example. "You can bail out of a car," says Himmerick, *and you'll have a time frame where you can shoot the gas tank of the car, and it'll explode, keep rolling, and take out [a huge group of enemies]." Then he. hints at another move in the works. "We're not sure it’s going to happen, but we love [the action game John Woo Presents] Stranglehold, and we love its Tequila Bomb," says Himmerick. "If we can find a way to make that [360-degree move] functional in a car, we're gonna do it. Maybe we'll put doves in. We'll see." With all this over-the-top driving madness, the on-foot segments are almost a letdown. The gunplay is entirely adequate and we like Milo's ability to automatically take cover behind nearby scenery, but it doesn't quite match the scope and style of the driving. We're talking about a small segment of the game, though— perhaps 20 percent at most. So it's not much of a concern at this point. ытын ЕАЕСЕЦОНА Fit for the road ahead Barcelona may not be as iconic a city as. The Getaway's London or True Crime's Los Angeles/New York City, but the developers of Wheelman found it perfectly suited to their needs. "Barcelona has a very diverse road system on its own. We didn't have to fake a lot," says Midway's Himmerick. "There are four-lane roads, a lot of narrow alleys, tunnels, a lot of winding roads—things you naturally want for your gameplay they have built in already.” As a result, around 75 percent of the metropolis made it into Wheelman. Much more intriguing is the prospect of taking this cinematic driving-combat experience online. Most of Wheelman's Internet fare sounds pretty standard: races, time trials, capture the flag, and such. But add in the prospect of jacking competitors' cars and things get more interesting. "There are a lot of driving games where if that guy has that car, you're never going to beat him in that race," says Himmerick. *Here, every car will have its own advantage, so everyone will have their favorites. You may have the best-handling car, but | have the best top speed, so | can get up right behind you, carjack you, and you're out of the car." On top of these combative modes, Wheelman will offer the ability to add human players into single-player sce- narios. "We'll let the players online be the cops,” says Himmerick. "You'll have seven guys who are cops, and you're the bad guy trying to pull off the mission. 42 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM ш Some "wheelman"—he can't even parallel park. We're really trying to bring some of that Hollywood cinematic style we have in the game online." Narrowing the focus This all sounds interesting enough, but it’s hard to hear the words “carjack” and "free-roaming" and not think of Grand Theft Auto. Himmerick insists, however, that Wheelman is its own creature. "We're not trying to make a ‘sandbox game,’” he says. “The games that are trying to do the sandbox, they don’t have the time [to focus on driving], because they’re focused on millions of things. We're trying to focus on over-the- top movie moments. We're not trying to do what they do." Or as Himmerick put it earlier: "It's all about the driving." ri EGM Extras: Now that you're done reading about the game, head to for exclusive Wheelman videos. Ken Levine's resume is as elite as it gets— at fabled developer Looking Glass, he worked on Thief and Ultima Underworld. At Irrational, he’s been behind System Shock 2, Freedom Force, and SWAT 4. And he kills at gin rummy. KEN LEVINE MIGHT HAVE NITRO- GEN NARCOSIS, aka “rapture of the deep,” a deep-sea sickness that causes your brain to go fuzzy. The creative director of critically acclaimed 360 shooter BioShock and president of developer 2K Boston (previously Irrational Games) actu- ally—gasp—admitted to his game’s problems during our recent interview. Rather unusual when most people would prefer to put a positive, sales- salvaging spin on any negativity. Bubbleheaded developer? Or a true industry luminary who really gets it? Ken Le! : [Laughs] Whenever there's trouble, having enough 44 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM alcohol around always acts as a little bit of an accelerant. But hey, this is a very free society. It also probably got a little dull down there at the bottom of the ocean. People need something to occupy their time. But yeah, they had a fair amount of booze down there. And booze stays a long time. KL: | would blame that on sucky writing, not on any intention. At the end of the day, there’s a lot more interesting things to say about participating in a society BioShock Going deep with the games creator rather than destroying it. | think the endings, to some degree, reflect that. One ending is about a guy who's interested in exploiting and controlling, and the other one's more interested in building. KL: | think it's a little brief. That was a function of production resources. We actually realized we wanted to have two endings really late in the [development process]. I'd never done multiple endings before—we used to have one twice-as-long ending, because you build those things based on the time you have. If it’s twice as long, it generally costs = Ра always rather piss off the gamer than the character. —BioShock Creative Director Ken Levine HELLGATELONDON,C vM ШЕШ Visit www.esrb.org for updated rating information. Games à N- pis for Windows E d London O 007 Нәрдр Sudos Ie Al ts Reserved. EA and e EA ogg are ademas or regjstered ademarks f Electronic Аде Ic abe US ar other cours Fgship Studs, te Надр Studas logo, Helge , e std trademarks of Водар Ses Inc. throughout the work Licensed by NAMCO BANDAI Games America Ic. NAMCO BANDAI Games logos a vatem of NAMCO ks ol intel Corporation or Rs subsites inthe United States and other countries. The Way rs Meant to be Played logo and other КАША marks are vadenarks ol tered trademarks or trademarks ol Micra Coporaten the Unted States and/or other countries and Games for Windows andthe Windows Vata start buton Jogo ae used under сете rom Microsoft Ping and the PingDkhgo ate trademarks andr restored кабела of Pa LC throughout the warid. A other trademarks, egos and сорунун are the propery ofthe respectwe owners ELLONE T AFPTERTHOUGHTS: EIOZHUÜICZKE (cont) twice as much to build those pre- rendered sequences. The very end isn’t my favorite thing. But | like where [the good end- ing] ends up. | like that you end up becoming a family with [the Little Sisters]; there’s a meaning to you saving them beyond just “you rescue the princess” and that’s it. You actu- ally are a part of their lives forever. | like the emotion. | just think we could have spent a little more time on it if we had the resources. Honestly, | don’t think the final boss battle was necessarily the best call on our part. It was our first console game; we felt like we had to have a big boss battle at the end, you know? Because that’s just what you do. | don’t think we even really needed it, necessarily. | think the escorting the Little Sister sequence is a lot more emotionally powerful. Going back to it, I’m not sure | would have done it the same way. I called my dad, who was a young man in the '40s and ’50s. It’s not Elvis Presley and stuff | became familiar with in the early stages of rock—this is really pre-rock: Johnnie Ray, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Django Reinhardt, Billie Holiday... We mixed some of the really classic stuff with the sort of crap pop of the time, what we consider pop music, like Patti Page, which holds up more for its nostalgic value than for being great music. I did a bunch of my own research, and thank god for iTunes, that’s all РІ say, because you can go listen to 30 seconds of pretty much any song ever made. Or | would research on Wikipedia or talk to my dad, and then I would go and listen to little snippets, and I'd ask myself, “Does this feel like it belongs in Rapture?” [Dealing with this era of] licensed music...is a very complicated process, because generally you're dealing with people who are dead and their lawyers are dead. The rights are often very complicated, and so a lot of times we’d want a song and we wouldn't get it. We'd have to find another person who performed it, or another version of 46 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM the recording or something like that. We had to be fairly flexible. You know, there is a notion of free will in games—but you don’t really have a lot of free will in games. You get quests. Somebody tells you to go do this thing, and if you want to succeed in the game, we very naturally give up free will [to do so]. That's what a quest is. | thought it would be really interesting to play on the very notion of what it is to be a gamer, to go through this experience, that when you were going about these quests, your character, and by extension you, was actually being deprived of the free will to do those things. In retrospect, you are a little pup- pet in videogames. | said, “Well, let’s turn that into the narrative.” Because Га always rather piss off the gamer than the character. I'd always rather insult the gamer directly. If you have a villain, make it personal, make the gamer feel like the villain’s bitch, not the character. When we came up with this notion, that you can sort of have the villain manipulating the player, to a degree that when the player finally realizes it, he’s already been manipulated for quite a long time, and then sort of realizes that this is what happens in every game, but you don't even think about it... | thought it was a nice little way to comment, not just on BioShock, but to make gamers think about their experience of free will when they play games. $h SHOCK BioShock Creative Director Ken Levine's top 5 cultural references that helped him shape the world of Rapture... The Shining “Мо doubt, the most influential work of horror fiction on me in my Make sure to check out the November issue of Games for Windows magazine and 1UP.com for additional BioShock interviews. lifetime. It’s impossible to walk the halls of Rapture without getting a bit of the Overlook Hotel. Though he’s become an icon, it’s easy to forget that Stephen King completely redefined horror fiction in the modern age.” Miller’s Crossing “The Coen Brothers’ best film and my favorite piece of moviemaking. You can watch it 20 times—and | have!—and still not pick up all of its nuances. The unique cant of their crime world inspired me when | was trying to construct the Rapturian dialogue of the gam The Fountainhead “Many of [in-game Rapture founder] Andrew Ryan’s big ideas are inspired directly by Ayn Rand. It's easy to hate her, but it’s impos- sible to deny that Rand's ideas about freedom and the power of humans have changed the nature of the dialogue about people and their governments.” New York City "The visual direction in Rapture started with the day my wife and I spent at Rockefeller Center in New York City, disposable cameras in hand. We took photos of everything: floor tiles, lighting fixtures, door handles.... We ended the day at the Empire State Building. There’s something about the look of art deco that always fascinated me.” La Mer “The music in the Lighthouse is Django Reinhardt’s ‘La Mer.’ | first [learned of] Reinhardt in a Woody Allen film called Sweet and Lowdown, and | also grew an attachment to the style while listening to the car radio in Illusion Softworks’ Mafia. That song became the audio touchstone of the world of Rapture for me.” E + odybymilk.com "т ae A Y 2 à EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF THE DRUG NECTAR AS YOU PLAY AS A HIGH-TECH MANTEL TROOPER. m— FURIOUS ONLINE MULTI- PLAYER BATTLES WITH UP TO 24 PLAYERS. PLAY THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN IN CO-OP WITH UP TO 4 OTHERS - SPLIT-SCREEN OR ONLINE. AS A CUNNING REBEL, USE WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED AS A MANTEL TROOPER TO FIGHT e RATING PENDING Visit www.esrb.org for updated rating < ecd, information. RADA < p CONTENT ATED BT ESRB . PLAT STATIaon = © 2007 Ubisoft Entertainment and Free Radical Desion Limited All Rights Reserved: Haze is a trademark of Ubisoft Entertainment and Free Radical Design. Free Radical Design and its ас Ж ЙЕ ego mre. trademarks of Free Radical Design Limited. Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft loge are registered trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. Developed by Free Radical, Design Limited. "PlayStation"; "PLAYSTATION". and “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc; 2 E GAM E ^ dee -CAM UBISOFT Robocopied Ranking the roboclones Downloadable Robotron: 2084 rip-offs may all look different, but they all pretty much play th same. So we decided to rank the five best ones on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. Blast Factor s j = The hook: Motion controls Highest score on PSN: zeus666 Everyday Shooter (94,975,855, as of August 30) The hook: Combo variety Highest score on PSN: N/A The PlayStation Network’s first shooter didn’t exactly launch with a bang, but it did launch with Everyday Shooter may be a one- some moves—the Sixaxis controls make this otherwise ho-hum man development effort, but the game pretty fun. i game sure ain't simple—combo chains (and enemies) that i change with each level make it our winner. Mutant Storm: Reloaded The hook: Adventure mode Super Stardust HD Highest score on XBLA: The hook: Robotron meets nfrared2yaHead (214,133,740) Asteroids Highest score on PSN: Rdin10 It's not as addictive as Geometry (1,228,885,255) Wars, but Mutant Storm isn't that «УЗ bad. Plus, the Adventure mode's 89 Originator: Robotron: 2084 The hook: Saving humans rooms gives this game some depth. z Highest score on XBLA: AlexTron (99,999,175) Super Stardust HD is the first PSN game that made us combo crazy. But its homage to the arcade clas- Sic Asteroids shoots it to second. The blast-em-up that started the simplistic control setup that's still copied today: move with one joy- Stick, shoot with the other. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved The hook: Old-school simplicity Highest score on XBLA: KiLLerToKer420 (500,684,945) Though recent games have zapped this twitchy king off its throne, it’s still a classic. Too bad the new Geometry Wars in Project Gotham Racing 4 isn’t a true sequel. Lame. 50 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM STOP THE CRUELTY D ב וי א‎ A 4 ו I pledge to buy Viva Piñata and provide hundreds of abused piñatas with a safe place to live. Name: Every year hundreds of piñatas are subject to horrific torture at the hands of adults and children alike. It is our goal to stop this brutality. Do you have what it takes to look after abused piñatas? Do you have the time to nurture and protect these poor neglected creatures? Will you attend to their individual Address: needs and set them on the road to rehabilitation? Every piñata deserves this chance. Please, do what thousands have done ZIP: EVERYONE before you and create a better E world for piñatas. vivapinata.com Mild Cartoon Violence Comic Mischief Unregistered charity no.: 9687 н RL) we receive no government funding. € Games for Windows > PREVIEW: EXCLUSIVE SCREENS AND INFO ve | By Bryan Intihar Platform: PS3 Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Developer: Naughty Dog Release Date: November 2007 Game Director Amy Hennig of developer Naughty Dog (Crash Bandicoot, Jak series) learned a very valuable lesson when researching the treasure-hunting genre: Everyone steals from everyone. "There are scenes in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that are straight out of the Saturday-morning serial Jungle Girl and the movie Gunga Din," she says. "You realize that there's a very established tradition that you're working in. You have to know the conventions and then lovingly re-create them within your own context." As the game name implies, the questionable history of Sir Francis Drake provides the "context" here. While the early press on Uncharted has pegged it as a journey to see whether its leading man, Nathan Drake, is a descendant of the famous explorer, that's actually just a secondary goal. The leg- end of El Dorado is what really leads Nathan (as well as other—and much shadier— treasure hunters) to this mysterious island in the middle of the Pacific. "This treasure was brought to this island that remains uncharted 400 years later," says Naughty Dog Copresident Evan Wells, “and you'll learn that El Dorado causes weird things to happen to whoever comes across it." So are there mysterious forces hard at work in Uncharted? “Опе of the challenges in trying to tell a contemporary adventure story is that if you go without restraint in the direction of the supernatural, you lose people a little bit," says Hennig. "People want to understand how something can be grounded in truth, reality, and science, but at the same time still be amazing and mystical. You don't have to choose one or the other." We'll take that as a yes. 52 ° ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM One look at Uncharted's protagonist (simple wardrobe, slender build, Supercuts 'do) and it's hard not to think of him as just another average Joe. But that's exactly how Naughty Dog wants you to think of Nathan Drake. "Our industry is still so much about that superheroic aspirational fantasy," says Hennig. "The characters are as burly or as clever as they can be. We're not making a James Bond here—that's a different genre. You need that vulnerability in this genre and the humor that comes along with it. While in the midst of peril and danger, you have to be able to make funny com- ments." Unlike several other games, Uncharted's real- ism extends well beyond its hero spouting smart-ass remarks during a cut-scene (been there, heard that). It shows up throughout gameplay: He'll barely grab the ledge during a big leap, wince and duck whenever he's running and under fire, and lose his footing for a second after slamming into cover. Also, thanks to the game's huge catalog of animations, Nathan looks awfully good when he's acting...well, average. E — Ou That look of disappointment can only mean one thing: Nathan is missing yet another sale at the Gap. - Up until now, even Naughty Dog would agree i that Uncharted's shooting and hand-to-hand fighting haven't exactly been worth their i weight in gold. But what a difference a month °7 makes—since our last time playing the game, both aspects of combat have been dramati- cally improved. For starters, it no longer takes a ridiculous number of clips to kill enemies, and targeting specific body parts is now a breeze (racking up headshots with the new sniper rifle felt as good here as in any top-tier first-person 2 i shooter). As for the fisticuffs, the developers smartly ditched the rhythm-based mechanics ) (which basically led to everyone mashing but- tons) and instituted a simpler control scheme Luckily, Elena—Uncharted’s documentary in which light and heavy attacks are mapped to : А filmmaker—rarely gets іп the way during shootouts. the Square and Triangle buttons, respectively. - The new setup makes it much easier to pull off some of Nathan's more spectacular moves, such as neck-breakers and punches/kicks to the junk. We were also surprised to discover that the combat actually has depth to it (something you don't always expect from a title that's more about exploration than explosions). The game encourages you to combine your trigger finger and knuckle sandwiches, as you can injure a foe with a few blasts and then cap it off with a running haymaker (it works in reverse, too). The environment affects how the battle plays out, as well. For example, if you clock a guy in the jaw and he falls back against the wall, your finishing blow will be different than if he were just stand- ing toe-to-toe with you. It's refreshing to see that, with a li’l tweaking (and developers willing to listen to complaints), Uncharted's biggest weakness has become one of its biggest strengths. Nope, those aren't the jewels you're looking for. | PI tweaking; Uncharted's big- gest weakness, combat, hes become 4 No treasure hunt would be complete without some stunning | | environments to traverse. Uncharted has plenty, even if its devel- ` oper hasn't always been very willing to display them. "A lot of the early press for this game was focused on our jungle environ- ment," says Wells. "And while the jungle is all over the island and even the monastery, with overgrown trees and hanging vines, there is a lot of variety in terms of the locales you'll visit. The jungle is only a small part of it." During our trip to Naughty Dog's office, we finally got to see some of the game's more exotic backdrops, including the flooded Spanish colony located in the center of the island, a dimly lit but wonderfully detailed monas- tery, and booby-trapped caves (think The Goonies). So, yes, the variety in scenery is definitely there. Also, from the realistic-look- ing foliage (no cardboard cutouts here) to the beauty of the archi- tecture, Uncharted’s set pieces are definitely some of the best we've seen during this console generation so far. Uncharted's pirates may be pesky foes, but the real challenge comes when facing the game's latest enemy class, mercenaries. EGM Extras: Head over to EGM.1UP.com for exclusive videos of Uncharted, which includes the first-ever footage of the game's Jeep chase through the jungle. Remember earlier when we mentioned that in this genre it's OK to rip off oth- ers? Uncharted continues that trend d with Sir Francis Drake's diary, which Ly |i bears a striking resemblance to anoth- er treasure hunter's personal memoir. "|t acts a lot like Indy's Grail diary [in Last Crusade]," says Hennig. "It exists as a story element—it ties you back to Sir Francis Drake, exists in the cut-scenes, and helps us learn things about the adventure." Most impor- tantly, the diary (with its masterfully scribbled drawings and diagrams) is the key to solving puzzles, which Wells admits they made Slightly more challenging because of the clues that its pages will provide. This approach (rather than going with the clichéd route of multiple camera pans as hints) also makes Uncharted's brainteasers feel much more woven into the narrative. 4 FT š , 1 ИЙ | d d arm ی‎ рм | | l І! d [ 2 ve —-— | \ | 7 ” | v j UC | й” ДА 3 4 { f . 3 — а 3 54 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY . EGM.1UPCOM ADVERTISEMENT Ted Krinshaw 15 Tallahassee, Florida InverteBOJIG rocks! | recommend bein n amped-up ant co ntula. Game over, off ranks of army aniacal mayflies, and пе Баа mother sucker, the has ffulti-function modes of y, fem one- and two-player free-for-all bug- ex rgshing C st cote u) outsi nd all QN “Sweet. sH | teh «А п t cre ion o Lifelike graphi page, Inver реті . If a enough computer А н let you level a city block with- ras m : nojo Visia y Ç SS "4 out feeling too bad. And with future world m ike ecome mod- à independent controlling options eled ойе lent ого піѕтѕ on Бад: 5 ‘ n | | that allow you to move each t; ih JA ET ugs. TechniXoskeleton superbilbs wj пгт and leg individually, it's not est of mechanical mandibles п Купен г | ЕЕ וש‎ mankind. And you're behind 0ה!‎ Т. А ҮКЕ ES 2 ER Бей an кк RSEN ONES ads ari WE шп. че ой. > BIZ. MATCH Homegrown Revolution Bee de Funny thing about game-biz compa- nies: Although composed of hundreds of professionals themselves, they often forget that gaming’s all about the individual. We’re hoping Sony’s PlayStation Home online service (hit- ting the PS3 this fall) offers a reality check—even if all it reminds us is that software publishers need to stay more in touch with fans. You know the score. The service isn't just a 3D chatroom-cum-virtual world where digital avatars mingle and casually game free of charge in cus- tom-decorated public/private spaces. It'll also potentially captivate the social butterfly in us all, making PlayStation 3 your second-ever go-to platform (the first being the Xbox 360) for cavorting with friends or finding new pals to play with. More important is the message being sent: specifically, that industry Military Adviser leaders are finally realizing gamers ^ y realizing Our monthly look at the industry's most trol. Translation: Instead of being told | interesting gigs By Evan Shamoon what’s cool (N-Gage, anyone?) or force-fed complete crap, you will be able to make up your own mind about virtual experiences. Note to CEOs: Enthusiasts actually like chilling with similar-minded people, freedom of choice, and value for the money. In other words, before long, you'll define the boundaries and context of any interactive adventure, including whom you speak with, where you go, and even core goals and motivations. And if that means spending hours romancing pixelated babes or just finding a platform to showcase your colonoscopy videos versus defeating evil aliens or slaying the dragon, so be it. Game designers won't be craft- ing linear stories anymore. Instead, they'll create open-ended frame- works wherein you dynamically paint between—and outside—the lines. y В Scott Steinberg is manag- æ\ ing director of game industry =й P consulting firm Embassy X Multimedia Consultants ( ) and author of Videogame Marketing and PR ( ) 56 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM CALI-DUTY MILITARY ADVISOR Hot shot: Keirsey's century-old pistol was passed down from his granddad. > BY THE NUMBERS Banana Business 1,050,200 Current top score held by Billy Mitchell in the original arcade Donkey Kong Millions of copies the best-sell- ing Donkey Kong game, Donkey e Kong Country (SNES), sold Number of Donkey Kong games > OVERHEARD "| don’t want to live in Utah. | grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Utah very much reminds me of Birmingham, Alabama. It has to do with the fact that | already grew up in a medium-sized town. | like being in Southern California. | like the weather. | like the liberal attitude. I’m a very liberal person. | would have a real hard time raising my kids in an environment that is as conservative as Birmingham or Utah.” —God of War creator David Jaffe disses the home state of his new development studio Eat Sleep Play...in its local newspaper. Yep, he’s still a dick. 2 e 5 a Б ° š š 5 2 g 3 8 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM * 7 ВЕРЕ] £ 1 Our guess for the next "exclusive" to go multiplatform: Xbox 360's Ace Combat 6. Microsoft paid for this Sony-loyal franchise to land on 360 first, but we expect it to hit PS3 next spring. The Ex Games Third-party exclusives have a past and a present, but do they JRG N—hell hath no fury like a fanboy scorned. Ask Capcom. When the company announced that its formerly PlayStation-exclusive Devil May Cry series was going multiplatform, Sony-loyalist gamer Derrick Hall took his disappointment to the people, starting an online petition that got more than 12,000 signatures. “We find it absolutely demoralizing for not only the gamers, but also Sony itself,” he wrote. Maybe Hall should pick a less depressing hobby, because the days of third-party exclusives—games you could count on to hit only one system—are numbered. To find out why, we delved into the business of game publishing. This isn’t a topic you read about often—execs are usually reluctant to address the mat- ter, what with confidentiality clauses, contract negotiations and the like. But we got several sources to talk to us about gaming's evolution from one game series for one game sys- tem to today’s era of multiplatform Grand Theft Auto and Devil May Cry. 58 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM. 1UP.COM ave a future? In the early '90s, PC-game developer Trilobyte created The 7th Guest, one of the first CD-ROM titles. After the developer started work on a sequel, The 11th Hour, Nintendo offered the game's publisher, Virgin Interactive, $1 million to license the title. The contract specified that the game couldn't be licensed to competing platforms, specifically naming the just-launching Sega CD. Trilobyte and Virgin agreed. But it became clear that Nintendo had no forthcoming platform that would be able to play the game. Nintendo had simply licensed The 11th Hour as a maneuver to stop Sega from releas- ing it for the Sega CD. Today, such preemptive deals are nonexistent. Straight-up cash pay- ments between a hardware maker and a publisher or developer to lock down hot-commodity titles—popu- larly known as “moneyhats” on online forums—are unusual “but not a myth," says Jason Rubin, who cites the changing nature of platform exclusives as one of the reasons he left Naughty Dog, the PlayStation- friendly developer he cofounded. Recent examples include Microsoft's ludicrously high $50 million advance to Take-Two Interactive to secure Xbox 360-exclusive downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV. Instead, most modern exclusiv- ity agreements involve lower roy- alty rates for the game (money the publishers pay the hardware maker for each game sold). Oftentimes, hardware makers will comarket an exclusive, helping cover the exor- bitant costs of premium placement > There’s no reason to do an exclusive. There’s a big financial disadvantage. —Јаѕоп Rubin, cofounder of Sony-loyalist developer Naughty Dog -"mmmmmm- LIGHTS; CAMERA, ACTION 9 il mo STARRING SOON IN A LIVING ROOM NEAR YOU. The blockbus the same one tv All of which can turn your next party into an epic premiere. THE €x BAME ¿on within retailers, media events, and TV commercials, as well as ad place- ment within magazines—all of which add up to a larger bottom line for the game publisher. "It's kind of like sell- ing your soul to get money to market the title," says Rubin, *and then when the title comes out, they don't make as much money because it's only on one platform, but it was the only way they could afford to pro- mote the game in the first place." Paying hard to get From a hardware maker's standpoint, the stronger a game is, the more they're willing to cut a good deal with the publisher. A hot exclusive, after all, can move hardware. Look at Final Fantasy VII, a major con- tributor to the original PlayStation's success (and note it was originally a Nintendo 64 exclusive before devel- oper Square allied with Sony). “Some deals we complete in weeks,” says Michael Shorrock, Sony’s director of third-party relations. “Some we have worked on for a number of months.” It may take the lawyers a while to ink a handshake deal, and because it takes more than two years to bring a triple-A title to market, the discus- sions start early. “We're already look- ing out to 2009,” adds Shorrock. On the game publisher’s side, exclusivity terms hinge on many factors. “As a publisher or devel- oper," says Makoto Iwai, executive vice president and COO of Namco Bandai America, “we have to think of the installed base of the console.” The more hardware units in gam- ers’ homes, after all, the larger the potential audience for a third-party game. “In the early transition to next gen, no one platform has enough units out there [to justify exclusiv- ity],” says Josh Resnick, president of Mercenaries developer Pandemic. Relationships are important, too. Soon after he joined the company, Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime had a one-on- one talk with Ubisoft exec Laurent Detoc; this chat led to new games, such as the Wii-exclusive Red Steel. “| do believe that conversation helped sow the seeds for a much better relationship that we have...with Ubisoft," Fils-Aime told Newsweek in April. And last November, Newsweek reported that GTA publisher Take Two wanted to do a timed PS3 exclusive of six months to a year for Grand Theft Auto IV, while Ubisoft wanted a full PS3 exclusive 4 2 ₪ Not just for Sony's systems anymore (clockwise from top left): Assassin's Creed, Devil May Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (a sequel that was originally announced only for the PlayStation 3). for Assassin's Creed. But former PlayStation chief Ken Kutaragi had yet to finalize the business terms for independent publishers on the PS3. That delay allowed Microsoft to swoop in and persuade Take-Two and Ubisoft to back away from mak- ing GTA4 and Assassin’s Creed into PS3-exclusive games. Not only are the titles now for PS3 and Xbox 360, but versions for both systems will ship on the same day. Dealing and schmoozing may buy a console a timed. exclusive of up to a year (although never longer than that), but the rising costs of game development mean most third-party publishers and developers will even- tually need to spread their big games to other platforms. One insider told us that doing an additional version of a game adds just 10 to 15 percent to the original development cost. That makes breaking even on a cross- platform title easier. And today's publishers have to consider the M word: merchandising. Limiting a franchise to one system, after all, cuts down the audience for that series' comic books, mov- ies, soundtracks, action figures, and other peripheral profit centers, not to mention its overall buzz factor. “If | have an opportunity to reach a couple million more users,” says Rubin, “that’s a couple million more users that might buy my T-shirts or my music and are going to make the overall notoriety around the franchise that much bigger. What's the 10-year cost of giving up 2 million users today on a growing franchise? It’s hard to quantify.” 60 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM. 1UP.COM Endgame That's not to say that exclusives will die out completely; Nintendo's Wii will get games only its motion-sens- ing interface can support (although the Wii's getting plenty of crap ports, too—see page 32). "The choice of a platform has a direct [effect] on our content and the production pipeline," says Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat. And some develop- ers are so tied in with the hardware makers—receiving advanced tech support—that it’s hard to imagine their games ever going multiplatform. “With Resistance: Fall of Man, we had a very good idea of what the PlayStation 3 would be able to do well before it was manufactured,” says Insomniac head Ted Price. Still, today’s more evenly powered PS3 and Xbox 360 make simulta- neous development easier than in the old days, when porting a game involved extensive reprogramming. “Dumbing a game down to get it across all systems does not hurt your game like it used to back when los- ing a few thousand polygons meant the difference between a 3D game and one that wasn't," Rubin says. So where does that leave the demoralized Derrick Hall and his fellow 12,000 signatories? If they’re serious about boycotting Devil May Cry 4, it looks like they'll be the only ones losing out. "We're not denying [Devil May Cry 4] to anyone who was already going to get it," says Christian Svensson, senior director of strategy and research at Capcom USA. “It really is the best decision for the company and for consumers." #h NOBODY EVER PLAYS — A PAUNCHY, BALDING — MIDDLE-MANAGER FROM M A MIDWESTERN PAPER — SUPPLY COMPA axo WIZARDS, COM/DND ° All trademarks are property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ©2007 Wizards. CLIVE BARKER'S (C “A BLUR OF SPILLED BLOOD AND BULLETS.” y) yos P ok’ ) I DOWNLOAD THE DEMO NOW _ Pd UNLOCK THE SECRET HORRORS OF JERICHO AT WWW.JERICHO-GAME.COM Song Language ^ XBOX 3600 == 5 Games for Windows Blood and Gore Intense Violence RE LEAD A STRIKE TEAM TRAINED IN occult МАВРА ALL-ACTION FPS COMBINED WITH THE DARKEST HORROR SWITCH BETWEEN, CONTROL, AND PLAY ALL SIX SQUAD | EACH WITH UNIQUE ABILITES MEMBERS AFIERCELY ORIGINAL, HIGH DEF REALM OF EVIL FROM CLIVE BARKER 3 PLAYSTATION 3 E ۵ codemeastens* Developed by Mercury Steam Entertainment Inc and published b is, the Windows Vista Start button, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE. and the Хо PLAYSTATION > THAT'S COOL FORMER EGM EDITOR Shawn Smith used to write about video- games, but now he's helping make one. The multitalented man is help- ing to create a DS title based on his cutesy toy line Shawnimals. The fall 2008 game, Ninjatown, puts you in the sneaky shoes of several ninjas who must band together to battle some bastard named Mr. Demon. Hop over to www.shawnimals.com to see the toys the game is based on. MOVE OVER IPHONE—the next wave of cellular competitors promises to pump up the gaming quotient. First up, Nokia plans a third assault with its N-Gage brand this fall, but this time it's a GameTap-style subscription service for all Nokia phones. We're slightly more stoked for the official PlayStation-branded phone from Sony Ericsson, rumored to hit this holiday. Heavenly FD What's after the afterlife? By Shane Bettenhausen SEEMS EPIC GAMES is “too busy" to make console demos—Vice President Mark Rein recently said his i | Sy company doesn't have enough time to : y 14 make a PS3 demo of this fall's Unreal `: Tournament 3. Too busy our asses. Sounds more like “too lazy" to us, since the PC is getting one. SONY IS BROADCASTING something sweet over in Europe—it recently announced PlayTV, a i гай at surface inline’ doohickey that connects to your Н PlayStation 3 and allows you to record į Nina Kristensen: television shows like TiVo. Too bad the service isn’t ready for prime time here in the States, though.... 64 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM EGM: It's certainly a lot more you guys revi ambitious than your team’s eat hi T previous game, Kung Fu Chaos. NK: A EGM: And we bet you'd like to thank Dramatic Director Andy Serkis and the guys at WETA for those killer cut-scenes, too.... :אא EGM: Despite that effort, we feel mplis!‏ that HS is just too short.... exceeded m‏ NK: ЕОМ: OK, so what's up with Nariko’s hair? Were there no stylists in her village or what? NK: EGM: We'd love to see a sequel, but there aren't many survivors. NK: EGM: So wait, it won't star Kai? We all love her around here. NK: EGM: More criticisms: All the ground kills hurt the game’s pacing, and the bosses are too tough to topple.... EGM: How old is she? And what NK: does “Twing Twang” mean? NK: > THE GAME OF LIVES 5 Lives: CliffyB It doesn't take much to get Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski's attention. US Hell, the man is a self-proclaimed atten- tion whore. So when we asked him to fend off our five questions, he of course took time off from making this fall's Unreal Tournament 3 to play along. Yes, Cliffy really is that easy.... Cliff Bleszinski: | believe that would be the surrealist musician Yanni. EGM: Correct. CB: He has a pure awesome mustache, too. Lives remaining: eeeece CB: That would be Bucky O'Hare. EGM: Correct. Lives remaining: 200 CB: Well, Lord British is Richard Garriott. Isn't Gooch another word for "taint," which is that area between the genitals? | got nothing, dude—l don't know my peers. | feel like a horrible industry veteran. EGM: Incorrect. Gooch is Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and IGA is Castlevania director Koji Igarashi. CB: Man, | was totally expecting Shiggy! We gotta be getting Shiggy with it here. EGM: Sorry. Lives remaining: COCER CB: I'm going to have to go with [Ninja Gaiden director Tomonobu] Itagaki-san. EGM: Incorrect. The correct answer is you. Lives remaining: сеек CB: Due to legal reasons, | cannot discuss any of that. If that's not the right f***ing answer, | don't know what is! EGM: Correct. Lives remaining: еее Game Over: Hmm. We thought you'd do better, Cliffy. Maybe next time ask Gears co-op pal Dom for help. ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM • 65 Not to be confused with Shenmue, the Grand Theft Auto series, or any other games that put your character to work, this story is about real-life jobs that are turning into game: > WORK TIME FUN | KELLER All Work and All Play How games are infiltrating the office and powering up the way we work By Robert Ashley WHERE TEACHERS AND PARENTS FAIL, VIDEOGAMES SUCCEED. They turn Ritalin-popping channel surfers into Zen masters of concentration, C-students into mindful accountants, and 20-something slackers into mod- els of Protestant work ethic—albeit in the trades of gathering virtual wealth, fighting virtual wars, and solving virtu- al problems. How many human hours have been spent perfecting expert- level Guitar Hero solos? How many were invested in creating the ultimate Oblivion character? What if gamers spent as much energy and effort in their day jobs, taking on the challeng- es of the working world as they would Halo 2 capture-the-flag? The irony is that work and play are strangely similar. In games, we endure endlessly repetitive tasks (shoot the Covenant!), manage com- plex resources (mind the salary cap, coach), overcome seemingly impos- sible challenges (hard mode), and team up with (at least in online games) incredibly annoying people—and we 66 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM do all this with smiles on our faces. In fact, we even pay for the privilege. The makers of business software have begun to take notice. If games feel a lot like work, these companies reason, then work might be made to feel more like a game. If they succeed, you may someday get to play games for a living. Try, fail, try again "The whole thing started when we imagined trying to find a way for a fairy to get through a forest with the least amount of damage and come out the other end having discovered a new way to design a computer chip or load a UPS truck," says Byron Reeves, Stanford University psychol- ogy professor and cofounder of the gaming-inspired business software developer Seriosity. From their offices in Palo Alto, CA, the company studied the inner workings of game design and found striking similarities between playing online multiplayer games and doing computercentric office work. "We spent a couple of years looking at complex, collaborative multiplayer games, realizing that a lot of the activity that was being done in those games, while for entertainment pur- poses, really resembled information work," says Reeves. "We're trying to take what's fun and engaging in those games and put it into actual business practice." That's a pretty hefty challenge. What > Let's build World of WarCraft for salesmen in the real world. That's kind of the Holy Grail. —Seriosity cofounder Byron Reeves ALL РСА" (cont) is it about games that makes us try, fail, and then try again? What makes them so engrossing in spite of frustra- tion and repetition? Amy Hennig ought to know. A longtime game designer and member of the team at developer Naughty Dog, she’s currently direct- ing the upcoming action adventure Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. “To be fun, repetition has to have some reward,” says Hennig. “In a well- designed game, the reward is usually just the satisfaction you get from per- forming a task with increasing skill.” She might as well be describing a good job. Through the course of per- forming a job, after all, you naturally become more skilled in its execution and feel a certain satisfaction in being good at what you do. Unfortunately, that satisfaction only goes so far. “Ultimately, repetition without variation is a killer,” says Hennig. “As players advance through a game, they’ve got to feel like their skills are being chal- lenged in new and complex ways, otherwise it quickly becomes boring.” Finding the flow This is game design’s motivational secret. Great games are built around steadily increasing challenges that throw just enough new stuff at you to keep you interested. Most jobs, unfortunately, don’t follow that flow: A graphic designer’s workday may be hectic Tuesday (when a project’s deadline approaches) and slow to the point of boredom on Wednesday, while a new level in a game will pre- dictably be a degree more difficult than the one before it. Psychology has something to say about that difference. In his 1990 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Hungarian-born psycholo- gist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Say it like “chick-SENT-me-high”) describes a state of mind that should be familiar to any gamer. Flow, or what an athlete calls being “in the zone,” is what hap- pens when other concerns melt away and you find yourself able to concen- trate easily on the task at hand, be it saving the world, winning a death- match, or clearing as many Tetris lines as possible. Csikszentmihalyi attributes this higher gear of mind power to a perfect meeting of skill and challenge. In other words, it’s all about doing something that is neither too easy nor too hard. The designers at Seriosity are well aware of this idea. “There are two kinds of jobs that game sensibilities might address,” says Seriosity product designer David Abecassis. “The first is that some jobs are too difficult and too complex. The second is that some jobs are too easy.” Seriosity, hav- ing studied the way gamers manage complicated goals and inventories in massively multiplayer online games, focused their attention on adding fun to complex real-life busywork. Taking a look under the hood of corporate America, they saw a possible fix for the overwhelming tide of e-mail flood- ing the inboxes of office workers. “What you're seeing in the workplace is that we're getting inundated with massive amounts of e-mail," says llan Frank, director of product manage- ment at Seriosity. *That information is sometimes relevant and important to what you're doing, and sometimes it's just a distraction." And so Frank and company took a page directly from online role-play- ing games, designing an e-mail client called Attent that adds virtual money to the mix. But instead of being used to buy magical armor, Serios—as the currency is called—are used to buy attention. It works like this: Every week, Attent users receive a certain amount of Serios. Workers are free to attach Serios (in whatever denomina- tion) to their e-mail as an indication of their communication's importance. Nagging messages about cleaning out the ancient takeout containers in the office refrigerator, for example, would receive few or no Serios. If you want- ed to tell your boss about an earth- shattering new idea, however, you would want to get his or her attention by attaching a sizeable amount of the currency. On the receiving end, you're able to quickly determine which mes- sages in the e-flood are important by simply checking their value, indicated in the subject line. And as you open your mail, the attached Serios accumulate in your account, just like real money. Eventually, such a system might be related to a worker's real pay, reward- ing efficiency with cold hard cash. "That's absolutely the goal," says Professor Reeves. "We're not there yet, in terms of your salary being pegged to your Serio count. We have a slight inflation problem right now." Attent also copies another gamer favorite, Xbox Live Achievements, in the form of badges. “You earn badges for playing the game—for using Attent well," says Frank. Users earn badges for things like trading Serios with a large number of coworkers or for achieving a favorable ratio of Serio- attached e-mail to normal mail. "Each badge has been designed to award 68 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM your use of Attent,” says Frank, “but in the future, the thought is that com- panies could actually set up their own custom badges." It’s not exactly something you'd play at home, but Seriosity intention- ally started with a small, attainable > WORKER'S COMPUTATION W ipod3 JRWIGGINS messforcetwo ted „today’s gamey business software and the best graphics since Zork II. m "brings you even closer to the action..." IMMERSE YOURSELF Gamer Squad. Enhance your gaming, movie watching and web experience with a truly immersive image that you can escape into for hours. ji * ,.an immersive video experience worth waiting for..." Yahoo! Tec “...like having a big screen TV without losing wall spac Mac Life. With pixel perfect viewing and dynamic sound quality, the HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System works with game consoles, PC, Mac, DVD players, iPod, mp3 and other media storage devices. now available exclusively at personal cinema system ALL FLAY cont) goal. “Our first thought was, let’s build World of WarCraft for salesmen in the real world,” says Reeves. "That's kind of the Holy Grail, where we expect all this to go, but it's an incredibly difficult place to start out with." Level 20 used-car salesman New York-based software developer Entellium is attempting to start with just that. The company's Rave soft- ware is best described as a no-frills role-playing game for sales depart- ments. Competing in an office soft- ware category known as “customer- relationship management," Rave tracks a salesperson's efforts (for the boss to monitor) and keeps tabs on potential customers. “If I’m a sales- person, right now I'm basically being forced to use software by my manager so that he can determine whether or not I'm doing my job efficiently," says. Dave Scott, Entellium's senior VP of sales and marketing. "The manager wants to know how many customers you called today, and if you didn't make enough phone calls, he's going to reprimand you. When it comes to the carrot versus the stick, it's all stick. Compare that to Zelda on the Wii. That's all carrot-based. | know that if 1 go through tasks A, B, and C, I'm going to get the sword or the shield or the boomerang. I’m incentivized to work harder, faster, more efficiently." To make the road to reward more apparent, Entellium is building in а level-up system along the lines of a role-playing game. "50 when you first start out, you're a level-one user," says Scott. "You're only going to be able to see the basic activities and the basic reports. But when you master that level, new reports appear. Rather than overwhelm you when you first begin to use the software, we're going to allow you to receive new functional- HING — pe L em mmt 'aderboard [Companies] are really into using the sensibilities of games in creating and designing work for this new generation. ity as you master certain aspects of the software." Rave incorporates a System of experience points that dic- tates how fast you level up, affording competitive salesmen bragging rights that extend outside the office break room. "It's an objective analysis of how good that salesperson is," says Scott, "and they can take it to their next job. It's like you walk into your next campaign already a ninth-level Paladin." If that's not nerdy enough for you, Rave and Attent also maintain Xbox Live-style leaderboards to track the top employees in the company. Neither Rave nor Attent looks like a videogame; you probably couldn't pick them out from any other office program. They feature no characters or 3D environments, no office-chair races or first-person stapler shoot- outs. It's unlikely that this kind of work will ever happen within an immersive game world. "| don't think that in [the office] environment we're going to see a lot of graphical complexity," says Seriosity’s Abecassis. “Those jobs are already very difficult to do. We want to reduce the headaches as much as possible." It's the jobs that are too аг —Seriosity’s Byron Reeves easy or slow—things like security guard work, data entry, and over-the- phone customer service—that might benefit from an all-out videogame makeover. “That’s where the extra spice of adding complexity—adding graphics or team play, things beyond what are required—would work,” says Abecassis. “That’s where you may start seeing things that look more like games for entertainment.” If it seems unlikely that your boss would ever look to videogames as a model for your job, consider the multiple generations of young work- ers raised on a diet of interactive entertainment. “There are a lot of big companies that are [catching] on to the success of these games and look- ing at them to figure out what they can use,” says Seriosity’s Reeves. “Companies are hiring people that come from a gaming environment. They're really into using the sensibili- ties of games in creating and design- ing work for this new generation.” And if you “work” hard enough in this new game-inspired office space, maybe someday you'll become your company's final boss. ri El awareness of (and job intensity for) their guards by installing a system of speakers and motion detectors. The speakers would, once in a while, emit a suspicious noise, while the motion detectors would record whether the guards inspected the area, scoring them on their response times. inspector Thanks to a newly passed law, inspectors will soon have to sift through 100 percent of the shipping containers arriv- ing at U.S. ports. That grueling task could be made more efficient and fun with an old-school role-playing-game trick: the random bonus. In these games, careful dungeon explor- ers are rewarded for their effort with treasure chests full of loot. By attaching a $100 bonus to one in every 1,000 ship- ping containers, inspectors might be motivated to be just as thorough. s driver The bus is always late. Sure, traffic has a lot to do with it, but bringing out a bus driver's competitive instincts might go a long way. Buses equipped with GPS devices could be tracked in real time as they hit their stops, while—back at headquarters—that data is compiled onto a leaderboard of the most prompt drivers. Each bus could display the rank of its driver in the electronic destination sign, giving good driv- ers public bragging rights. courtesy Harrisonburg Transit Night watchman Patrolling the halls of an empty building at night is the kind of job that can bore the clock to a stop. Museums and busi- nesses that require maximum security could increase the 1 Hail to the bus driver. 70 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM The Locust Horde has emerged on the W fin platform. And they bring forward a new enemy to help them ravage whatever is left of mankind. The Brumak—a relentless, soulless‘tower of terror. eS All is not lost. Three new multiplayer maps have also been,ugearthed, along with five new single-player chapters—whieh 4 à Mare than 30 Bame nf the Year awards dn с" N 9⁄9 0/10 Gamespy 2 ПХМ Blood and боге Intense Violence bids hace um premson gamesforwindows.com/gears for Windows MILL‏ הפו Sweet and tangy scuttlebutt ce than Civic or Corolla! the of 33 mpg;* a Bluetooth» Hands one Sy n't and tl ty of . And starting out at $1 e information, visit NissanUSA.com. Жыры г Mercenaries 2: World in Flames PS3/XB360/PS2 * EA Games This long-awaited follow-up to 2005's open-world blockbuster finds the same three soldiers-for-hire fighting for private military companies in war-torn Venezuela. And those titular flames actually play a big role—brandishing your handy Zippo can lead to strategic immolation of enemy structures. Plus, the addition of online co-op lets you and a pal tackle oil-greedy tyrants together. Fire Emblem Wii e Nintendo This installment of Nintendo's popular tactical role-playing series has much in common with its Cube cousin Path of Radiance—familiar grid-based combat, an epic storyline, and, well... GC-quality graphics. You can even transfer your old saves from POR to import your beefed-up heroes. Speaking of characters, as in previ- ous games, don't get too attached to anyone in your party. Why? Once they die, they're gone for good. E Geometry Wars: Galaxies Wii/DS > Sierra Sure you could plop down a few Xbox Live Marketplace spacebucks and get your fix with Retro Evolved, but for the rest of us this new Geometry Wars itera- tion breathes fresh air into an already overly addictive top-down shooter. Grids now span multiple galaxies, and all-new enemies await your untimely arrival. You can also customize your battle drone with weapons and abilities, or chal- lenge friends in the multiplayer mode. The price tag remains our only concern: $50 seems a bit steep. 74 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM = жш) А November to remember Army of Two PS3/XB360 * EA Games BlackSite: Area 51 PS3/XB360 • Midway Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway PS3/XB360 • Ubisoft Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare PS3/XB360 • Activision Haze PS3 • Ubisoft Kane & Lynch: Dead Men PS3/XB360 • Eidos Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Wii/DS * Sega More November Releases E Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Wii/PS3/XB360/DS • LucasArts Nobody expected these family-friendly, blockified takes on the Star Wars saga to be its best videogame adapta- tions in years, but pick-up-and-go gameplay, a ton of playable characters, and cuddly Lego visuals made ’em smash hits. This new collection combines both games to span the whole six-flick series, sprinkling additional characters and levels throughout. Mass Effect XB360 • Microsoft Game Studios NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Wii • Sega Rock Band PS3/XB360/PS2 • EA Games/MTV Games Soulcalibur Legends Wii e Namco Bandai Super Mario Galaxy Wii > Nintendo Uncharted: Drake's Fortune PS3 > Sony CEA Unreal Tournament 3 PS3 e Midway ж CONQUER THE EARTH hoosi rom three custom factions Command all of human history Battle across the globe їп your ith unique units and technologies. and beyond. quest for world domination. for updated rating information. 7 PIREEARTH.COM — Coming November 2007 EET To Games for Windows y 5g All rights reserved. Empire Earth, Sierra and thelr respective 10805 are either. registered trademarks Or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Mad Doc flask, and the Mad Doc logo are either regi jemarks or trademarks ofMiad Doc Software, LLC. All rights reserved. The NVIDIA logo, GeForce and “The Way It’s Meant To ‹ trademarks or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation inthe Upited States and/or other cogiitries. Windaws and the Windows Vista Start button logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries and “Games for Win the WinddWs Vista Start button logo are used under license. Intel isa trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries: Certified on the XPS 720 & M1730. XPS is a registered trademark of Dell In t tcAciemarks are property of their respective owners. 5 12 Шу) -50 THINGS TOLJ DIDH'T RAO 76 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM Rett THE NEW TUROK FEATURES DINOSAURS?! The next Call of Duty takes place in the present day?! Rock Band is about putting together...a rock band?! We can probably guess what you're thinking right now: "Well, duh." So instead of wasting your time with another stack of by-the- books previews like the other guys, we've dug up 50 juicy (and sometimes quite unusual) bits of info on several of the most anticipated games. PS3/XB360/PS2 * EA Games/MTV Games * November 2007 => ROCK BAND = f ! az SO THIN > METAL GEAR SOLID 4: + DEVIL MAY CRY 4 GUNS OF ТНЕ т. HE зя 7 PATRIOTS PS3 * Konami Spring 2008 = MASS EFFECT XB360 * Microsoft Game Studios « November 2007 0 EIMIH.I 05 EGM Senior Editor Crispin Boyer's cousin ECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP. fey ea, SER is AMA Hillclimb champ Tiger Strank. =) HALO 3 XB360 * Microsoft Game Studios * September 2007 az THIH n ш => ARMY OF TWO PS3/XB360 * EA Games * November 2007 Editor-in-Chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu once rearranged all the letters in our office building's lobby directory. The other tenants didn't find their new business names of "Porn USA," “Real A** and T** реек fac * and "Orest for Dickdna® ac cool ae Wo did ASSASSIN'S CREED PS3/XB360 * Ubisoft « November 2007 20. INSPIRATIONAL BATHROOM BREAK This stealth-action game's complex crowd system was born from a trip to the crapper. "| was trying to get there as fast as possible before the beginning of the second period [of a hockey game]," says Creative Director Patrice Désilets. “I asked, 'What would happen if I started running through [all the people], pushing them to the side?' | didn't try it that night.... | made a game instead where you play my fantasy." 21. GRUMPY OLD MEN Listen carefully and you'll hear lots of funny one-liners from Creed's crowds. Désilets' favorite? When an elderly citizen spouts, "You should have seen me in my younger days!" + GUITAR HERO וו‎ LEGENDS OF ROCK 'SS/XB360/PS2 • Activision • October 2007 24. ROCKIN' REMAKE Vibrant hard-rock band Living Colour is the master of its own track "Cult of Personality." Unfortunately, the group was unable to locate the original master recordings to use for the game. Instead of panicking, Living Colour geared up to rerecord the hit—complete with a new guitar solo. 80 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM — 22. SHY GUY << Forget about getting a good look at the mug on Creed's 8 deadly warrior. Désilets says only Altair's prey will get close pe שי‎ enough to see whether he looks like a hero or a zero. 23. A BORN HIGH FLYER No wonder Altair doesn't get scared whenever the "job" requires him to swan-dive off a tall building—his name means "the flying eagle" in Arabic. => GRAND THEFT AUTO IV PS3/XB360 * Rockstar * Spring 2008 25. FREE ROAMING Everyone's made a big deal about Niko's prolific cell phone and texting use in GTA4, but mobile phones and pagers have been a series staple (though now you can initiate those inter- actions) since its inception in the late '90s. Managing Editor Jennifer Tsao speaks Russian. She studied in Leningrad during the last days of the U.S.S.R. UC =) THE SIMPSONS = GAME | Wii/PS3/XB360/PS2/DS * EA Games * November 2007 | z 1 А ye OLDE CHOCOLATE SHORE si THING: їй KANE & LYNCH: DEAD MEN PS3/XB360 * Eidos * November 2007 During his early days at EGM, Previews Editor Bryan Intihar was up for the title role in ABC's reality show The Bachelor. SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL Wii > Nintendo * December 2007 IMTHL OS == 32. NEWCOMERS GALORE Brawl adds several Nintendo characters to the roster. Fanboys are most excited for the return of Kid Icarus (NES) star Pit, but Diddy Kong and Wario might actually make 3 more ostentatious debuts with their respective banana-gun } and toxic-fart attacks. Newbies such as Fire Emblem's Ike ^^ and weirdly generic "Pokémon Trainer" seem less thrilling. ₪7" ull 33. THE MAN BEHIND THE SMASH Smash Bros. creator Sakurai got his start in the game biz with Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy), a title he designed ы 30. FRIENDS OPTIONAL In addition to the four-player bouts, Brawl has a fleshed-out solo mode featuring side-scrolling action levels, boss fights, and individual storylines for each character. 95 31. COMMUNITY OUTREACH If you haven't checked out Smashbros.com yet, prepare for when he was only 19 years old. Sakurai left his longtime an overabundance of info—Braw/ Director Masahiro Sakurai employer HAL Laboratory in 2003 to form his own develop- updates this official website almost daily with new screen- ment studio, but Nintendo President (and ex-HAL honcho) shots and exclusive intel. Satoru Iwata eventually lured him back to helm Brawl. = HAZE PS3/XB360 * Ubisoft « November 2007/Spring 2008 34. MONKEY BUSINESS Soldiers hooked on Nectar (Haze's performance-enhancing drug) won't be the only fodder here. Also be on the lookout for primates, which are an obvious nod to developer Free Radical's other first-person-shooter series, TimeSplitters. 35. BUY OR SELL? Need the current stock price of Haze's fictional mega-corpo- ration? Free Radical has gone and created a freakishly legit-looking website for this mass producer of Nectar (it's even got employee testimonials and job listings). Check it out at mantelglobalindustries.com. News & Features Editor Michael Donahoe once 82 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM S " 1 ב‎ 0 ES сы appeared naked on G4's Attack of the Show. TUROK . PS3/XB360 • Touchstone * February 2008 Eo e > FINAL FANTASY וווא‎ LOS ANGELES PS3 ° Square Enix • Fall 2008 PS3/XB360 * Rockstar * Spring 2008 Executive Editor Shane Bettenhausen once shared an elevator with comedy writer and Hollywood Squares:fégular Brugg Vilanch. EO THING: UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3 PS3/XB360 * Midway * November 2007/Spring 2008 m a “ I н = m m + NIGHTS: JOURNEY + GRAN TURISMO 5: OF DREAMS PROLOGUE Wii • Sega * November 2007 PS3 ° Sony CEA * Fall 2007 84 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE PS3/XB360 * Activision * November 2007 THINGS = > HALO WARS | XB360 • Microsoft Game Studios • 2008 p | № Growing up іп Kauai, Hawaii, Editorial Intern Brooks Huber was one of only 13 students in his high school’s freshman class. struts the line between inspiration and grand-theft game idea, but it's hardly the first attack of a clone... By Robert Ashley in camos and boots, searching for a suitable ride. He finds it—a red convertible cruiser—at a busy intersection, rips open the driv- er's-side door, smashes the driver's head against the steering wheel, and throws him onto the pavement. Pedal to the metal, our thug fidgets with the car stereo before settling on a blowhard conservative talk show. He plows through pedestrians with- out remorse, sometimes on purpose. When he reaches his destination, a rival gang's stronghold, he lets loose a shower of Uzi bullets, piling his enemies into slumped-over heaps. If asked to identify the game this scene describes, most players would answer Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the ubiquitous go- anywhere, do-anything, pop-culture landmark. But these events could’ve just as easily gone down in last year's Xbox 360 game Saints Row— or, for that matter, its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sequel, Saints Row 2, due next year. The upstart series is unshakably attached to San Andreas, having borrowed not just that game's infamous urban-chaos gameplay, but also its subject matter (a marginal- ized street gang on the rise), sense of humor (adolescent-male booby fetishes, jabs at corrupted-by-power politicians and businessmen), and taste for a sprawling game world filled with distractions, moonlighting jobs, and minigames. It's a similarity that the game's creators, Шіпоіѕ-раѕеа Volition, don’t dispute. “The GTA franchise has obviously had a very big impact on open-world games,” says Saints Row 2 Designer James Tsai. “We have lots of respect for them. I’ve owned the games, and I’ve learned a lot from them. We know they’re a beloved franchise, but we think we have a lot to offer, too.” Saints is not alone. As in the past when new genres changed the gam- ing landscape (see: fighting games in the 1990s), many developers stepped into the post-Grand Theft Auto fray hoping to catch a piece of the action. Just look at Scarface: The °> ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM • 87 88 • ELECTRONIC G жр World Is Yours, the True Crime and Getaway series, and The Godfather. Of these games, Saints Row stayed closest to the source. It was also one of the best. All artists and craftsmen build their works on the foundations of their creative forebears. Game designers have, since the dawn of interactive entertainment, openly borrowed ideas from their colleagues and com- petitors. But where is the thin line between imitation and innovation, and on which side of that line does Saints Row 2 play? Knock it off Game developers are all too famil- iar with charges of imitation. In the years that followed the release of id Software’s genre-defining first- > Were making an effort...to give the franchise its own identity. person shooter, Doom, the gam- ing press labeled every game that followed in its corridor-treading footsteps a “Doom clone.” Saints Row and its ilk have received simi- lar treatment with the “GTA clone” label. Harvey Smith, creative direc- tor of Midway’s upcoming sci-fi first-person shooter BlackSite: Area 51, detests this mindset. “I hate the term “clone,” he says. “Usually, the people using that term are just envi- ous.” Obviously, when game players (as opposed to creators) lambast a game for borrowing excessively from others, the motivation is differ- ent. “People often do cry foul when a game comes out that’s too similar to an older game,” says Smith. “I believe it offends their sense of justice.” But is it really unfair? Does —Saints Row 2 Designer James Tsai GTA lose something when other games plunder its ideas? Smith believes quite the opposite, that these exchanges are crucial. “I think the gamer benefits from competition and creative evolution. It’s better if everyone loosens up a bit.” That competition and evolution stretches back centuries before the beginnings of videogames, back to games played in boring old reality. Mark.Nau, creative director at Edge of Reality—a studio whose current project, Cipher Complex, borrows from stealth-genre touchstones Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell— points to an archaic board game called chaturanga. "It's an ancient Indian game that's a precursor to chess,” Nau says. “It’s extremely similar: eight-by-eight board, king KING OF THE CLONES Four other knockoffs that rocked Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (ripped off Metal Gear Solid) A perfect example of how design- ers can borrow without stealing, Splinter Cell took the core idea of Metal Gear—the silent, violent agent—and created a new experi- ence. Splinter Cell's behind-the- spy view worked so well that the Metal Gear series later borrowed it. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (ripped off Super Metroid) Underneath the obvious story and style differences between Castlevania's gothic horror and Metroid’s alien sci-fi lies the same compelling idea: a 2D world where weapons and special powers open new areas to explore. It's a formula that still works today. Okami (ripped off The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker) Okami earned critical acclaim for its ink-and-paper art style and innovative paintbrush mechanic, but anyone who'd set foot in a Zelda game could spot the similar structure: a wide-open world of epic scale, punctuated by dun- geons, puzzles, and boss fights. Super Stardust HD (ripped off Asteroids and Geometry Wars) Stardust looks pretty, but obses- sive-compulsive types were spend- ing their afternoons cleaning up meteor showers way back in 1979. Asteroids loses out to Stardust's rock-paper-scissors weapon swap- ping and use of color. As in, it's in color. Fancy! k that moves one square, pawns that march forward, knight that jumps over pieces. But that form of the game is almost completely unknown today.” Through the organic evo- lution of game rules and player strategies, chaturanga later became shatranj, which then evolved into the chess we know and play today. “Chess is a much better game than shatranj, even though the differences are slight,” Nau explains. “That grad- ual design process, building on les- sons gleaned from previous designs, did us a great service by creating a great game.” Saints Row borrowed heavily from its predecessors, but it contributed new ideas to the creative conversa- tion. In particular, the game’s well- executed free-aiming controls made Grand Theft Auto’s clunky lock-on system feel outmoded. “I have a low bar for how much you have to change before | call your work 'inno- vation’ instead of ‘plagiarism,’” says Nau, "because changing a few ele- ments in minor ways can have great effects. Those few changes can make all the difference in the world." If it only takes a few changes to. make a game different, then perhaps Saints Row 2 will be an entirely new experience. Using the usual sequel metrics, however, it looks to be the very definition of an update—a fresh clip reloaded into the still-smoking barrel of the original. In fact, the production of Saints How 2 began months before the original was fin- ished. It was a gutsy move for an untested game (which later went on to sell 1.5 million copies), but one that reveals the kind of raw com- mercialism that drives Saints. “Due to marketing studies about what consumers liked at the time, we'd actually written [Saints Row] as a tril- оду,” says Producer Greg Donovan. “It was planned to be a franchise from the very beginning." When Donovan talks about Saints, it's usually in the language of busi- ness jargon and meeting-speak. He's *advantageously leveraging" the experience of his team by “cross- sharing studio knowledge.” He speaks of his audience as “consum- ers,” his game as “a refined, polished product.” Nobody is confusing Saints Row with art, but in treating their > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM • 89 games as simple consumer goods, Volition passes up the opportunity to create something with heart and soul. In place of that kind of prog- ress, they're plugging away at the task of beefing up features and expanding their game world. "We're definitely making an effort in Saints Row 2 to give the franchise its own identity, to really take a step for- ward," says Tsai. "We've got a lot of unique features. Our combat system was widely praised in the first game, and we're trying to give the player more fighting options, more weapon choices, and things like that." “Моге” is definitely the operative word. Where Saints expanded on the genre's stupid-simple combat by encouraging players to take cover and giving them the freedom to aim for themselves, Saints 2 is bulking up on options. You can now take an enemy gang member hostage as a human shield, forcing his or her friends to cease fire. You'll lose that 90 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM > Shooting guys in the groin is always a good time. sense of safety, though, when you (inevitably) decide to throw your hos- tage off a roof or into oncoming traf- fic or through a plate-glass window. For extra protection in such a case, be on the lookout for a spare pistol or submachine gun; you can now fire two single-handed weapons at the same time, Halo-style. Other notable additions to the Saints offense include satchel charg- es, remote-detonated explosives that stick to whatever surface you want: vehicles, people, or structures. And a new rocket launcher lets you unleash impromptu airstrikes. You can aim it after firing, allowing you to shoot the rocket straight into the air, then laser-guide it down toward some innocent bystander. Such ruth- less activity will bring out the fuzz, of course, with retooled A.I. for more aggressive law enforcement. Luckily, Saints 2 introduces a number of new getaway options, from nimble motorcycles to car-crushing monster —Designer James Tsai - hi щ k m hi - ы -2 trucks. More significantly, planes and helicopters will open up the airspace, while boats will expand the domain of street gangs into the water. When you tire of the stresses of criminal life, the game provides what the developers call “diversions,” which are basically the crazy things you already do in an open-world game when you get bored: causing major traffic accidents, destroy- ing private property, and practicing random acts of violence. This time, however, you'll be rewarded for your efforts with cash and respect points, the game's version of experience. New diversions include car surfing (riding the hood of a car like a skate- board) and testicular marksmanship, wherein your relentless below-the- belt machine-gun fire triggers a pain- ful-looking animation. “Shooting guys in the groin is always a good time,” says Tsai, offering a universal truth confirmed long ago by America’s Funniest Home Videos. `> Finally, a mobile game for gamers. Play on your phone or play online. “Will keep both hardcore players uns and newcomers glued to their screens (both of them) for months to come. Download it today.” _ IGN.com WORLD POKER TOUR | ULT ב‎ * Full multiplayer or solo gameplay * Set up your own private table * [Jse your same login & bankroll on your phone or online * Regular tournaments ° IM style buddy lists with chat * Over 100 avatars Get the game for as little as $3.99.* WPTMobile.net text keyword WPT to 46966 TEXAS HOLD ‘EM 2 / TEXAS HOLD 'EM 2 your phone. MOBILE. = WPTMobile.net HANDS-ON MOBILE Dez \ Type in the 2 Send to 3 keyword WPT E and - lur on | for the game wnload 4| || 6 y S CP 92 * ELECTRON ^ This game is...much meaner and more sadistic than the first one. —Designer James Tsai “Brand new every time” Many of these features and ideas have appeared in other games (Scarface, for example, once had the market cornered on nutshots). But gamers are accustomed to retread- ing previously explored ground. That wasn’t always the case, according to Mark Cerny, an industry vet who now works as a game designer/consul- tant. “When | joined Atari Games in 1982, the philosophy there was pret- ty simple,” says Cerny, who created the arcade classic Marble Madness at the age of 19 and has worked on recent titles such as Resistance: Fall of Man. “A game had to be a brand- new experience. And by that, | mean, if some other company had previ- ously released a fighting game, you couldn’t make a fighting game, as GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM that would be overly derivative.” Before you give in to rose-tinted nostalgia for the old days, consider the financial havoc that this strict “originality first” approach reaped. “Our success rate with these games was one in three, roughly,” says Cerny, “meaning that only one in three games could earn enough quarters to justify manufacturing it. Unfortunately, you had to finish creating the game to find this out. As a consequence, Atari Games had severe financial issues during my three years there.” Even the grumpiest, most jaded of gamers will agree that profit- driven familiar games are better than no games at all. “An ‘ivory tower’ perspective only gets you so far,” advises Cerny. “In order to be able to continue making games, you must make games that are commercially successful. So the ‘brand new every time’ attitude has to be tempered a bit. If someone has made a fighting game, it really is acceptable to make one yourself. Just try to add some- thing new....” By this measuring stick, Volition is on track. They don’t pretend that they’re making an earth-shattering game—just something that people want to play. “Gamers enjoy innova- tion,” says Tsai, “but they also enjoy familiar experiences as well. And if they have a great time playing one type of game, and another game comes out and improves upon that, then I think they're going to enjoy that game just as much. It's going back to what they know. Saints Row 2 is going back to what it knows: Specifically, the fictional city of Stilwater, inspired by such varied metropolises as Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Instead of packing up and leaving for a new locale, the team chose to modify and expand on what they'd already creat- ed. Tsai insists that it has nothing to do with laziness and everything to do with the Saints, the game's improb- ably multiethnic street gang. “It was definitely not a time-saving decision for us,” he says. “The decision to go back was that the game is about the Saints. We just couldn’t put the Saints in Dallas or San Francisco. This is their home, and we really want to show what it has become.” What it has become is noticeably larger. With the help of boats and bridges, new water-locked areas— including an elaborate Alcatraz-like prison island—help fill out the edges of Stilwater. Meanwhile, the pass- ing of a few years has transformed the appearance of much of the city. "We're doing ‘comic book’ time,” says Tsai. “In terms of the story, it's just been a handful of years, but we're packing 20 years of develop- ment into that timeframe. The entire Saints Row district itself is no longer a dilapidated old neighborhood. It's this gleaming metropolitan area with massive towers and rich people drinking lattes all day long." It won't be completely unrecogniz- able, however. Players of the original Saints will be able to pick out the game's old headquarters. "At the DIY DILEMMA Be whomever you want, but can a freak tell a decent story? As in the original, Saints Row 2 forgoes a defined hero for whatever you make in the game’s character editor. The creator now allows for nearly endless possibili- ties, from tweaking cheekbone struc- ture to effecting full-body changes like age and gender. But can a game tell an effective story when so many details of its leading lady/man/manlady are up for grabs? “It’s totally difficult,” says Head Writer Steve Jaros. “You can’t have a character say ‘Hey, man,’ 'cause it might not be a man.” Also troublesome: The editor lends itself to the creation of monstrosities (such as this cover story's author, seen in the screen above), potentially turning the plot into a joke. "If a player wants to let their artistic side out and make a freak, then more power to them,” says Designer James Tsai. “If seeing that character in cut- scenes enhances the experience for them, then | think that’s great.” very center,” says Tsai, “there’s this really familiar-looking church that’s been cleaned up and preserved as a historical monument.” These changes to the Saints’ home turf are representative not only of what Volition is doing with the rest of the city but with the series itself: grafting a layer of new material onto some- thing comfy and familiar. "We're striving for a sense of familiarity," Tsai explains, “but not for déjà vu." Elsewhere in Stilwater, what once was an empty waterfront is now a gentrified marina complex with upscale restaurants and a boardwalk. A section of old piers is now decrep- it, serving as a handy stunt park for watercraft. A newly uncovered sub- city cavern attracts tourists with its rock formations, while elsewhere, > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM • 93 HETWORK HENS Online Saints offerings pick up the slack game at any point and join the story. Missions / Ё requiring both a driver and a gunner will split the * duties, encouraging close teamwork—or arguments over whose turn it is to drive. Co-op Crackdown, a futuristic open-world game on the Xbox 360, turned heads with its no-frills online co-op play. Saints Row 2 aims to go a step further, allowing you to drop in on a buddy’s Versus multiplayer Saints Row 2's most interesting feature is also its most mysterious: a competitive online mode vastly different from any of the original's multiplayer versus games. “All of the elements of single-player are going to be a part of this online game,” says Producer Greg Donovan. “There will be missions. There will be activities. There will be diversions. We're not talking about deathmatch.” What they are talking about, it seems, is a mission-based, online gang war. And, according to Donovan, it will take place in a designed-for-multiplayer version of Stilwater. Sounds like a fun place to visit, but you wouldn't want to die there. an underground ruin provides a home for vagrants and a little-known street gang, the Saints, now on the rebound. Saints Row finds its balls How the up-and-coming gang from the first game managed to lose their status and end up on the bottom again is a potential spoiler for any- one still making their way through Saints Row (so skip to the next paragraph until you catch up): At the end of that game, your character—a player-created custom gangster—is blown to bits by a boat bomb plant- ed by one of your own. “At the start of Saints Row 2, you wake up ina prison hospital bed and remember that not only did your boys try to kill you and leave you for dead, but that your balls are floating somewhere in EGM Extras: Our Saints coverage marches on at EGM.1UP. com. See videos of the game in action, along with interviews with the development team at Volition. 94 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM. 1UP.COM the water,” says Tsai. "You're going to have to choose if you want to be a man or a woman. Needless to say, you're f***ing pissed." Out for revenge, you take to the streets of Stilwater with, perhaps, a greater sense of purpose. The game's designers are aiming for a darker tone, a concession to the lack of gritty authenticity in the original. *This game is about anger and revenge and is much meaner and more sadistic than the first one," says Tsai. Not that Volition is shooting for ОР Dirty Bastard-level credibility. “Our game doesn't try to take itself too seriously," says Tsai. “Saints Row 2 is not striving in an way to be an authentic gang experi- ence. We're going for a tongue-in- cheek, yet still intense, kind of story." Thus far, Saints Row 2 looks like the work of a developer unwilling to take big chances and break the mold. Like the original, it has no ambitions beyond being a good time. But sometimes, a good time's all we want. As it’s been throughout gaming history—all the way back to chess (what a chaturanga rip-off!) — Some games are about making other people's ideas work better. “You can see similar things in consumer prod- ucts,” says Edge of Reality’s Nau. “It’s great to have some brand-new gizmo that nobody has seen before, but it's also awesome to get a famil- iar tool that's been elegantly refined over several iterations. The iPhone doesn't have anything that hasn't been seen before, but it's all put together in a great overall design. Sometimes, all you really need is a better mousetrap." $h 505 505 "DILEMMA" DOESN'T BEGIN TO DESCRIBE IT. k Y ү lI — f MASS EFFECT Saren's forces are spreading. And their goal is clear: the extermination of all organic life. How do you decide who to save? Who to let perish? ) BioWARE Life and death decisions await at every stop as you scour a universe of gameEtudios* CORP over 32 stars and planets. Don't forget your map. xbox.com/masseffect ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrb.org > body checks, massive wrecks, broken necks, and a hot exoskeleton EE METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION (GAME OF THE MONTH, TIE) 98 Metroid Prime 3: Corruption 102 Mercury Meltdown Revolution 103 NBA Live 08 104 John Woo Presents Stranglehold 105 NHL 8 107 FIFA 08 108 Skate 111 FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage 112 Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck 114 The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass 116 Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions 118 Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow 120 Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles 122 Star Wars: Battlefront— Renegade Squadron 123 HotPXL Reviews Wrap-Up ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS (GOTM, ТІ E , exiting Reviews Editor Demian Linn (as surly and lovable as ever at GameVideos.com) gave me a warning 1 never forgot: Testing multiplayer sucks. And he's right. Setting up sessions with the developer to play a game to its max number of players can be a pain. You know, because people have busy schedules. But we do it because it's a big part of many games. What's discouraging is when we try to set something up and are told other magazines are "fine" not participating (which happened this month). Not only does this make it harder for us to fill a session, it also makes us wonder how much faith we can put in reviews that ignore that part of the equation. Rest assured we check all features or let you know if we can't. But enough bitching. Instead, enjoy this month's three Game of the Month winners! —Greg Ford, Reviews Editor 96 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM You can also find the lead EGM review on 1UP.com. The second and third reviews—you'll find those here. We dole out awards to games based on their scores. Platinum: all 10s; Gold: 9.0 average and up; Silver: 8.0 average or higher. Game of the Month goes to the highest-scoring game with unanimously *Good" scores, and Shame of the Month is the reverse. Simple. RÉVIEW «CREW Dan “Shoe” Hsu Ed.-in-Chief/Ed. Director PSP's Final Fantasy Tactics has revitalized Shoe's love for strategy-role-playing games. He wants to replay Disgaea 2, Phantom Brave, and others, but who has time with Halo 3 back to 1987. If so, he's totally — 1UP.com coming out? gonna mack on Ally Sheedy. Now Playing: BioShock, Now Playing: Virtua Fighter 5, Garnett Lee. Call of Duty 4, FF Tactics Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Е саша Editer Blog: egmshoe.1UP.com Jennifer Tsao Managing Editor Senior Editor 1UP.com This time of year is deadly for Cris cared diddly about college 1 0 5 AS Matt Leone game-magazine editors. With all football until his backwoods Previews Editor the good titles coming out, you alma mater Appalachian State 1UP.com really can't afford to get behind. So why is Jennifer spending her weekends on an almost-10- year-old PC title? Two words: BioShock obsession. Now Playing: System Shock 2 Blog: egmjennifer.1UP.com Bryan Intihar Previews Editor Sorry, ladies—by the time you read this, our Bryan will be a married man. Hopefully for him, that doesn't mean less game- playing and more Saturday- afternoon outings to Bed Bath & Beyond. Now Playing: BioShock, Madden NFL 08 Blog: egmbryan.1UP.com Michael Donahoe News/Features Editor Dressing up like a doofus is one of Michael's daily duties in the office. So to celebrate reviewing Star Wars: Battlefront — Renegade Squadron, he THIS HONTH'S REVIEW CREM So easy even nine cavemen (and one cavewoman) could do it Shane Bettenhausen Executive Editor With a Zelda, a Metroid, and a Castlevania all on his review docket, Shane wondered if he'd somehow ripped a hole in the space-time continuum leading Blog: egmshane.1UP.com Crispin Boyer upset Shoe's vaunted Michigan Wolverines. Now he's digging up any artifacts of school pride he can find. Hot, hot, hot! Now Playing: Skate, BioShock, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Blog: egmcrispin.1UP.com Greg Ford Reviews Editor Greg recently took it upon himself to completely master BioShock's fathomable labyrinths. Sure, netting a perfect gamerscore impresses those around him, but it also raises ethical questions like, "Dude, do you have a life?" Now Playing: Halo 3, BioShock Blog: egmford.1UP.com Mark MacDonald Director, GameVideos.com Unceremoniously dumped from this page over a year ago, Mark knew that, sooner of later, EGM would come crawling back like a pathetic ex-girlfriend. A cheap, The Review Crew is transformed into Darth Lamer. pathetic, sorry-ass ex-girlfriend the ТОР Network's Now pray he's not your father. who really needs a Metroid ensemble cast of Now Playing: Halo 3, Rock review. You know the type. writers from all of our publications, both online and in print. We believe that games are more than the sum of their parts, so we tack- le them subjectively, as репе рсе: Shadow, Fitchy now fancies some family-friendly start-up, ₪ FO 5 himself a suave superspy. Either we freaked...until we realized DT that or he's hiding from the he'd still be writing for us. Now to meet all of the 1UP A М 5 frighteningly frustrating Mercury we have our go-to guy for every Network's expert Š И š Meltdown Revolution. Hannah Montana review. reviewers. And check у нё ו‎ Now Playing: Persona 3, Brave Now Playing: BioShock, Glory ec de jeg Story, Jeanne d'Arc Days 2, Warhawk bte car 0 Blog: copydesk-fitch.1UP.com Blog: jwhdavison.1UP.com time or room for. Band, Metroid Prime 3 Blog: egmhoe.1UP.com Andrew Fitch Staff Reviewer After playing through the superbly stealthy Logan's Now Playing: Metroid Prime 3 Blog: mark.1UP.com John Davison Outgoing Editorial Director When we got word that the head cheese was leaving us for PAGE PAGE PAGE Strangle- Skate: Or Castlevania: hold: Chow die over the Dead and down realism loving it James “Milkman” Mielke Executive Editor Andrew Pfister Reviews Editor Jeremy Parish Features Editor 1UP.com Jenn Frank Community Person 1UP.com Demian Linn Managing Producer GameVideos.com Brooks Huber Editorial Intern Gord Goble Staff Reviewer Joe Rybicki Staff Reviewer Greg Sewart Staff Reviewer Nick Suttner Staff Reviewer Todd Zuniga Sports Guy Staff Reviewer ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM * 97 METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION BW Publisher: Nintendo ₪ Developer: Retro Studios ₪ Players: 1 ₪ ESRB: Teen Re- vamped controls, breathtaking art Power cell fetch quest, dull A.I Scan for hint at upcoming Metroid Dread (DS) Back to the future In my review of the original Metroid Prime in the fall of 2002, | said "it's [as if] the best title from six years in the future fell through a time warp." The funny thing is, playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption almost six years later, it often does feel like the same game. Fortunately, that's a compli- ment: This first-person adventure franchise may have lost its spot on the bleeding edge of modern gaming, but what changes Corruption makes to the series' rock-solid core still add up to something special. As with many Wii games, the biggest adjustment is the control; Corruption shakes up (or waggles side-to-side) Prime's previously dumb- ed-down scheme, using the Wii-mote both to aim and turn your view; the 98 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM Nunchuk’s analog stick moves your hero, bounty-hunting space hottie Samus Aran. After a few hours of adjusting (and tweaking menu options—“advanced” sensitivity helps a lot), frustration melts into appreciation for what this new setup makes possible: kick-ass combat. As always, enemies and the excellent bosses require all of Samus different abilities (props for creative use of the grapple beam this time), but now you also need steady nerves and quick reflexes to aim your shots. And that’s nothing next to the game's greatest accomplishment: the graphics. Or should | say the artwork. After a few relatively simple early areas, Corruption blooms, exploding into colorful, elaborate designs, thick with atmosphere. The game can’t always mask the hardware’s techni- cal limitations (pixelation every time you're up close waiting for a door to open, for example), but in most cases the lighting, attention to detail, and wonderfully cohesive and imaginative art direction more than make up for the Wii's lack of raw horsepower. Put it this way: | found myself wandering through rooms two or three times just to look at them. How many games on any system can you say that about? While neither Corruption nor its Cube predecessor Echoes impresses quite like the original Metroid Prime—a daring, beautiful game that pulled off a flawless Super Mario 64—style 2D-to-3D gameplay DON'T JUST RIP UP THE TRACK. TEAR IT A NEW ONE. - Plow through uncharted mud, ` 86 - jo š but beware of its unpredictability. E : 9 predictability: =. m sae ااا ےج‎ Actual in-game screenshot. GeoDeformation" is here—an earth-pulverizing technology that makes each lap more torn up than the last. Other games have promised it, but Sega Rally Revo delivers. Combine that with a slew of erratic weather conditions and track surfaces, and you'll never know what's around the bend. Check out the groundbreaking off-road racing at www.sega.com/segarally. SEGA ==" COMING OCTOBER 2007 Gy Games‏ א e mm 3 %) XBOX зво“ ' for Windows‏ Available on PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and the PSP" (PlayStation Portable) system. e © SEGA. NI rights reserved, SEGA is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. SEGA, the SEGA lago and SEGA RALLY REVO are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SEGA Corporation. AJ trademarks used herein are under license fom their respective owners.” PlayStation”, “PLAYSTATION”, "PS" Family logo and -PSP" ae registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. PSP - Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). Microsoft, Windows, the Windows Vista Start button, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies, and ‘Games for Windows’ and the Windows Vista Start button logo are used under license from Microsoft. SEGA RACING STUDIO www.sega.com Battle of the Planets SPOILER WARNING: In a Metroid series first, Samus’ quest spans several different worlds in Corruption. How do they stack up? More like “Snorion.” Besides one brief morph-ball battle with Ridley, this world is as dull as its name. Worth a return visit late in the game for those last few missile containers, though. Now we're talking. Excellent vari- ety—from blazing lava pools to deso- late frozen canyons—makes it easy to remember the map layout, plus it has awesome gigantic golems and a fasci- nating backstory. Bryyo bry-ings it. Mixed feelings on this one. We love the intricate designs and clockwork mechanics, but the interchangeable connecting trams are confusing as hell. Also, “Skytown”? People get paid to name this crap, right? Corruption saves the best for (almost) last: the best designs, lighting, and overall graphics; the best plot nuggets as the few remaining gaps are filled in; and the best boss battle, topping the actual (pushover) final encounter. Its unique look and interesting game- play twist make it a worthy final level, despite being too short and way too easy. When did Dark Samus become such a wuss? metamorphosis—it's encouraging to see the series benefit from landing on the Wii. Sure, it takes an hour or so to fully acclimate to the new Wii-mote ח'‎ Nunchuk configuration (mapping mis- siles to the D-pad and visor-switching to the minus button doesn’t help), but the addition of independent shooting and aiming transforms combat into a far more engaging, visceral experi- ence. Problem is the А.І. simply isn't up to snuff—enemy reactions (or lack thereof) quickly become predictable, and the game often falls back onto the crutch of infinitely respawning enemies that require little strategy (but a helluva lot of shots) to dispatch. Thankfully, the game’s plentiful boss encounters pick up the slack, thrust- ing the player into expertly crafted, multipart Zelda-inspired duels that force players to think creatively. Although the new controls are ulti- mately a boon, the other tweaks to the established Prime formula—more cut-scenes, voiceovers, and the ability to planet-hop in Samus’ ship—have surprisingly little impact. The Wii's last-gen graphics put a damper on the otherwise aesthetically lovely visuals, the plot's awfully predictable, and spreading the adventure across smaller planetoids serves only to subtly remix the game's flow...you'll still find plenty of traditional Metroid re-traversal here. After Echoes failed to hit its predecessor's high standard, | felt a bit of Metroid dread about Corruption—but Retro redeems itself with a great adventure whose graph- ics make all other Wii developers look like incompetent amateurs. (Yeah, 100 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM even Nintendo.) Metroid Fusion's concepts—Samus as a walking bio- hazard, bossy computers telling you what to do every step of the way— work wonderfully here. Yes, when it’s being Metroid, Corruption is great; unfortunately, it also wants to be a fast-paced, scripted shooter. Between its pathetic A.I., limited weapon selec- tion, and lopsided difficulty— well, it's no Halo. Worse, the brilliant control scheme brings to light the fact that the Wii-mote sucks for hardcore games. Its awkwardly placed buttons and unergonomic shape left me with hand cramps that'll last longer than my memories of the game. Still, it's a solid end to the Prime trilogy. ж EGM Extras: Trying to find all those pesky power cells? Head to EGM.1UP. com for our SuperGuide and boss strategies. ° A www.koei.com ee Real-time Medieval Action! Massive armies collide in unprecedented scale. Alcohol Refe Mild Langua: m | PLAYSTATION. = %) XBOX 360 pq perey ESRB CONTENT RATING — www.esrb.org BLADESTORM and the KOEI logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of KOEI Co., Ltd. ©2007 KOEI Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. "PlayStation", "PLAYSTATION", and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. The ratings icon is а registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. "Dolby", "Pro Logic", and the double- D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. MERCURY MELTDOWN REVOLUTION ₪ Publisher: Ignition ₪ Developer: Ignition Banbury ₪ Players: 1 ₪ ESRB: Everyone Use of Wii-mote, cheap! Crazy-hard later stages, lack of multiplayer Savable ghost runs? Great balls of mercury The Mercury series has been trying to incorporate motion control since the PSP original (the enabling peripheral was canceled), and it's finally clear why: It's simply the most enjoyable and intuitive way to navigate your shiny blob around the game's many mazes and obstacles. Revolution's level design is surpris- ingly clever—many stages have you simultaneously controlling disparate bits of goo—so it's as much about puzzle-solving as it is about raw Skill. And unlike in Monkey Ball and Kororinpa, you're controlling your mer- cury directly—not the stage itself. The camera has an unfortunate habit of zooming out to give equal attention to bits of mercury that are too far gone to rescue, and the game could certainly 102 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM have used some midlevel checkpoints on the more challenging stages. Still, $20 for a meaty (minigames, 150- plus levels), exclusive Wii game with motion controls that complement the experience seems like a solid buy. Yeah, Nick, the $20 price is a plus—but I think the need to Stock up on Excedrin cancels that out, dude: Revolution holds the ignominy of being one of the few games to literally give me headaches! The level design, puzzles, controls, and objec- tives all get way too complex far too quickly, and the game never really builds a foundation to help improve your play—many of my successes stemmed from sheer luck. A shame, since some cool minigames and clever brainteasers hide within this otherwise too-frustrating package. Unlike Nick, | didn't mind the camera. In fact, my usual beef with “marble puzzlers” is that you can’t see around corners (I’m looking at you, Kororinpa), but in Revolution, you can niftily rotate the playing field and zoom in and out. The teeter-tot- ter controls seem a bit too loose, and | am no fan of Revolution’s visual style—the original PSP Mercury had a harder sci-fi edge, but this sequel has kid-friendly primary colors and spar- kles galore. Aesthetics aside, this is no ordinary marble game: It’s deeper, tougher, and generally pretty great. Pop some popcorn and pass around the controller. жй NBA LIVE 08 ₪ Publisher: EA Sports ₪ Developer: EA Canada ₪ Players: 1-8 ₪ ESRB: Everyone Still in the rebuilding process If you thought the Dallas Mavericks' playoff meltdown was the low point of the 2006-2007 NBA season, you obviously didn't play EA's basketball sim— what a mess. Luckily, NBA Live 08 goes a long way in righting several of those wrongs. This one is...well, actually playable, thanks to a vastly improved default camera perspective, legit low-post moves (big men finally play a role on the offensive end), and the added abil- ity to pressure ball handlers. Still, the more time | spent with 08, the more | felt like the developers played it too safe—you really won't find anything on this hardwood that you haven't seen before. Also, this series continues to have some nagging problems, including little off-the-ball move- ment, the occasional wonkiness when shooting right near the rim, and the inability to explode to the basket after getting your defender in the air. So even though Live is lookin' better, the series could use more time in the gym. Low-post play In what's a no-doubt good move, 08 has gone the franchise-restart route. That means we have beefed-up graphics, on-the- fly subs, and FIBA inclusion! Of course, that also means we get a few hang-ups, like some phantom foul calls (did someone pay off these virtual refs?). What irked me most, though, was tossing up crazy, lverson-style shots when | just wanted to stop and pop, and how getting to the hoop for a dunk or layup is way, way too easy. Still, 08 looks fantastic, is way more realistic than previous Lives, and puts the series back on the road to Wellville. While 1 agree with Todd and Bryan on 08's technical problems, | have no problem paying for the show it delivers on the court. The new implementation of the right stick makes breaking down defenders off the dribble flow smoothly. The defensive assist makes a big difference in that you can stay manned up on the guy you're covering without worrying about making a slip. Also, turn- arounds have a more natural rhythm to them. Yeah, the franchise mode feels like work, but with the melting-wax men from last year gone, this Live looks and flows like a pro game. Takes no chances with the gameplay Trying the slam-dunk contest—it's terrible Come get your geek on. ommunit Sionate ruth in an h DIGITAL ANIMATION DIGITAL ART AND DESIGN DIGITAL VIDEO NETWORK SECURITY GAME DESIGN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING ARTIFICIAL LIFE PROGRAMMING WEB ARCHITECTURE COMPUTER FORENSICS ROBOTICS GAME PROGRAMMING NETWORK ENGINEERING www.uat.edu > (also on PS3) JOHN WOO PRESENTS STRANGLEHOLD ₪ Publisher: Midway ₪ Developer: Midway Studios Chicago ₪ Players: 1-6 ₪ ESRB: Mature Deliciously destruc- tible environments Uninspired level design, camera John Woo has a cameo in the unlock shop Prepare to be Wooed Sometimes the best you can hope for with a game this ambitious (note director John Woo's and actor Chow Yun-Fat's involvement) is that it be entertaining in spite of its preten- sions. And this Stranglehold delivers, largely due to its tech: Being able to destroy nearly everything in this action-shooter's world never gets old. The debris-splashed graphics and clever writing don't hurt, either. But Stranglehold is choked by some mediocre level design, unreliable controls, and a point of view so tight on the creepy virtual Chow Yun-Fat that it feels almost claustrophobic. His special moves add some variety, as do the opportunities for stylish rail- slides and environmental attacks, but 1 couldn't help but wish for more than 104 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UPCOM a series of cookie-cutter levels, waves of faceless enemies, and only the rar- est deviations from either of these. It's mindless, destructive fun—with a bit of strategy if you're willing to look for it—but little beyond that. For me, the disappointment isn't that you face enemy waves, but how those waves show up—often from out of nowhere, right behind you, and in clown car-style closets. Beyond that, it's easy to nitpick (see: the sometimes amazing/some- times awful visuals, the awkward platforming) but the destruction and gunplay are so good (just try not to get excited when special-move time comes around) that the game suc- ceeds without a ton of polish. Rarely do | consider it a good thing for a game to take a mere seven hours to complete, but with Stranglehold, it hits the sweet spot. Any longer and its cocktail of enemy waves, Mexican standoffs, and special moves wouldn't go down so smoothly. Like a good action movie, this game entertains greatly while it lasts, but the thrills run shallow. That said, | had higher hopes for the online play, which offers standard six- player deathmatches. It boils down to whittling away too-long life bars and jumping incessantly until the others give up from damn annoyance. #% EGM Extras: Need help putting those guitar cases in the right spot? Hit EGM.1UP.com for our SuperGuide. (also on PS3) NHL 2K8 ₪ Publisher: 2K Sports ₪ Developer: Visual Concepts/Kush Games W Players: 1-6 ₪ ESRB: Everyone Out of control For the past two years, l've ripped this series for being the frozen pond's ugly duckling. 2K8 is definitely much prettier (the player models are on par with EA's skaters), but beauty only runs skin deep. The new con- trol scheme is, quite frankly, an utter disaster. From the game's ineffective puck mechanics on the right analog stick to the awkward but- ton-mapping for shooting/passing, | feel as uncomfortable on this ice as ! do in real life. Even taking a simple slap shot requires mul- tiple button presses—it’s not a fighting game, people! Now I could switch back to 2K7's setup and have more fun. But | could also just play last year's edition, update the rosters, and save $60. And the problems don't stop there. The checking is excessive, plus players skate from goal to goal at ridiculous speeds. NHL 08 is the winner of this hockey season, no contest. Eh. Someone please hit reset on this once great franchise. My first game (default settings) against the com- puter: a 7-1 rout with 48 checks. The checking button may be easy to find, but otherwise, I'm with Bryan—NHL 08's elegantly simple control setup really exposes 2K8 for the mess it is. Stuff like a shoulder button for turbo and a face button for sprint and arcane "superstar move" combos where you hold the left trigger and then hit multiple face buttons to pull off a canned deke...ugh. It has some decent ideas (faceoffs are more interesting this year, and the simulation set- tings option is way better than the arcadey default), but 2K8's fundamentals are flawed. | would actually recommend NHL 2K8 to those who want a more arcadey hock- ey experience, where the sheer speed and intensity is gained by giving up the ability to really create a play. This is end-to-end, crash- the-net hockey. A game where just getting in front of the net (or even in it) and repeatedly jabbing the shot button is more effective than trying to score realistically. I'm not as hardcore about my hockey as these guys (ironic as I'm the Canadian here), but 2K8 just feels too sloppy to be a real contender. Finally looks like a next-gen hockey game Impossible control scheme Pulling off any of the superstar moves REAMERS WANTED. © E E] m m o 2 o ° = = = 5 3 > 2 = > = ב‎ = v ב 5 = > = > E]‏ == ₪ LJ‏ o‏ m‏ 2 s‏ z‏ v‏ 2 E m = = > = = т = E] © = © 2 m рд [2 v = Y ° > = m © т = m © = = 2 Ej v E] m 3 © = Г 2 5 > E] = a v a = © = E = © ri = 5 eu s z go ב‎ s ]- = 2 5 SCHOOL OF 800.226.7625 : зо TI Boulevard * Winter Park, FL 32792 d School, ACCSC Financial aid available to those who qually * Career development assistance = Ac А1 Real World Education ONE OF THE TOP FIVE GAME-DEGREE PROGRAMS IN THE WORLD — Electronic Gaming Monthly © 2006 Full Sail Inc, All rights reserved. Preparation. Power. Protection. Perfection. Fusion" HydraGel- Hydrating emollients and lubricants form an invisible layer for protection from the first stroke to the last. Fusion Hydra Soothe Designed with hydrating emollients to soothe your skin after every shave. Fusion Power Phantom Soothing micro-pulses help you reduce friction and increase glide. © 2007 P&G тнє MONTH PS3/XB360 FIFA 08 ₪ Publisher: EA Sports ₪ Developer: EA Canada ₪ Players: 1-10 ₪ ESRB: Everyone Goal! Goal! Goal! + TODD: I'm in shock. FIFA, which I’ve found to be a glossy disappointment for years, has completely impressed me, a tall order see- ing as Winning Eleven has been my favorite game for five straight years. Not only has FIFA 08 corrected everything | complained about last year (and even some things | didn’t), it’s outdone my high expectations. It now has never-ending league licenses, a tournament creator, online leagues, loads of goalkeeper animations, fluidly moving players, and natu- ral-feeling collisions. And that’s just what they brought up to the gold standard. It also has the inventive Trick Stick addition that lets you go tiber-Ronaldinho on defenders. The subtle workings of the game are fantastic: Exerting your authority against a lesser team, wearing them down, and creating scoring chances is abso- lutely rewarding. I’m not sold on the aerial game, ‘TODD: though, as corners don’t feel threatening. Still, I'm ° thrilled for soccer fans EXCELLENT: who don’t have to watch the clock waiting for the 9:0 next Winning Eleven. EXCELLENT: THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10) ANDREW. Р: The Good: New superstar moves W.ROONEY | 10 | I | W Watch out, Winning Eleven. These guys have been practicing. + JOHN: As Todd and | played more and more games together, we started to describe the strategies we were employing as though we were discussing a game of chess. That's not something that F/FA has ever provoked before, and it's a testament to the huge raft of improvements developer EA Canada has made to this year's version. More than ever, you feel like you have the time to make deci- sions and really control the ball. While the on- field action feels sluggish and unresponsive at first, you soon learn to work with the pace of the game and play it like you would the sport, rather than just the videogame. + ANDREW Р: And if you've ever played the Sport yourself, you'll likely enjoy FIFA the most by hitting the “Ве A Pro" mode, where you play only one position for the entire game. It brought back varsity-team memories, mostly involving me being way out of position. Along with its involving Manager (i.e., *franchise") mode, this year's FIFA did a lot to impress me. | had issues with the defensive A.l.—players would frequently miss their marks and rarely challenge for possession—but as Todd says, the soccer field is competitive again. Д GOOD The Bad: Corner kicks are still goofy No Need to Wait For: Winning Eleven 2008 dirt dit oil oil de ой 8 oil din Shave gel with aloe + skin cleansers ч Remove more than just stubble. Fusion" HydraGel" Clear Skin is formulated with skin cleansing ingredients that start removing dirt and oil before you shave. e © Gillette ———' MA The Best a Man Can Get" lNE239 2 p ₪ FORWARD a Net | Mader ^ Manar семе Market SKATE ₪ Publisher: Electronic Arts ₪ Developer: EA Black Box ₪ Players: 1-4 (PS3), 1-6 (XB360) ₪ ESRB: Teen Supremely realistic „which isn't always such a good thing Sixaxis motion control in the PS3 version This is skateboarding, for better or worse Skate succeeds as an unapologetic simulation, offering a fundamentally different take on a subgenre that’s been monopolized for ages by that Tony Hawk dude. Built around utterly convincing physics— with character movement on the left analog stick and board control on the right (whereby tricks are performed through flicking motions)—Skate feels completely different from anything else out there, not just the competition. The learning curve is steep but rarely unfair; some challenges take dozens of retries, but the satisfaction of truly learning a complex move and then executing it flawlessly is something gamers rarely experience. Dress it in a beautifully realized city to shred and online modes that are actually worth 108 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM playing (accompanied by a robust video-editing tool), and you've got an impressive foundation for a new fran- chise. The difficulty will undoubtedly polarize, but as something unique, Skate is more than welcome. Once | adjusted to the controls (which initially frustrated me, a Tony Hawk faithful), | liked Skate's linear pace: It really feels like you're learning to skate, move by pains- taking move. It sets a high bar for realistic skateboarding (except for those annoying pedestrians. | have it on good authority that in real life, bystanders stay far away from grom- mets). But c'mon, this is a game— don't make me share the half-pipe (bumping into dudes at every turn Downtown gets awkward). And while the photo and video replay options rock, aren’t skaters supposed to be hot? The ones you make here aren't. Maybe I’m too Tony-tuned, but | found that Skate’s paltry rewards never quite lived up to the hard work they require. | do like the clever cut- scene art style and the races. But not being able to get off my board to hop a curb or run up stairs frustrated me—much of my time was spent circling back, trying to find an incline. The low camera didn’t help, either. 1 understand this hardcore direction was the path to take to compete with Tony Hawk, and Skate's technically very strong. | just wish | didn't feel so bored playing it. r#h It’s Easy to Save with Vonage: Try Vonage for 1 Month FREE! see details below Get UNLIMITED Local and Long Distance Calling for 52499 per montht. Save #$300 a year on your phone bill*! Voicemail, Caller ID, Call Waiting all included — 25 premium features in all! FREE Calls to Europe”! -Italy, France, Spain, UK & Ireland Фу ES see details below for calling conditions | 9 @ M һоо! Keep Your Phone Number’. Use Your Existing Home Phone. сва 93 Е Ç ر‎ 69 Ge) Get Clear Digital Sound Quality Using Your High-Speed AUT (CA (Cos Internet Connection. = == ₪ (Ie). (8). Gene) 3 < A = 60 Days RISK-FREE“! (Hom) (Que) G) FREE ооо Phone Adapter"! p P car: 1-800-705-1557 Visit: Www.vonage.com/offer77 FREE MONTH OFFER ON $24.99 UNLIMITED RESIDENTIAL PLAN ONLY. PLAN FEE WAIVED BUT ALL OTHER CHARGES APPLY. NEW SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. = Ў v Free Calls to Europe Offer (Available Only with Unlimited Residential Plan) Does Not Apply To Certain Call Туре, Such As Calls to Cell Phones, and is Limited to Italy, France, Spain, UK and Ireland. Other International Rates May Vary. See http://vonage.com/intrates for Details. Vonage 911 service operates differently than traditional 911. See www.vonage. com/911 for details. High-Speed Internet or Broadband Required. Alarms and other systems may not be compatible. ik ates exclude: broadband service, regulatory and activation fees and certain other charges, equipment, taxes, & shipping. International calls billed per minute. Offer valid in the US only. See Terms of Service. + $300 savings claim based on 3/07 survey of competing land line service providers. For details, visit www.vonage.com/compare1. > Recovery fee equal fo the retail value of the router (phone adapter) applies if customer terminates after return period and prior to 1 year. < 60-day money back guarantee is refunded for any paid activation fee, 1st two months service charge, initial shippin charges and termination fee. Applicable only to first ordered line per account. Available only in the event of timely cancellation for subscribers who have not exceeded 500 minutes o! usage and who obtain a valid return authorization number from 1-VONAGE-HELP, and return of equipment in original condition and packaging within 14 days of cancellation. Refund will not include charges for taxes, international usage, pay pant Calls to Vonage toll free numbers and directory assistance. Offer revocable. ^ Where available. The number transfer process takes approximately 10 business days from the time you confirm your transfer request. ©2007 Vonage. SANYO 1000x MORE RESPAWNS. Wirelessly frag enemies with the 1 battery that's equal to 1000 regular alkalines* © E ° 4x more shots than with alkaline * Long storage life (exo) . © e * Recharge up to 1000 times • Recharges in most modern chargers" Think GAIA * Ready right out of the pack * No memory effect гы езп Б www.eneloopusa.com FredMeyer WALMART: amazoncom TE LN. 5 e Sanyo North America Corporation. All rights reserved. eneloop is a registered trademark of Sanyo Energy USA Corp. All rights reserved. *Estimate based on test results for battery life according to standard JIS C8708 (4.4). Actual results may vary according to use. ‘Sanyo eneloop batteries can be charged with most chargers for Ni-MH batteries. FLATOUT: ULTIMATE CARNAGE ₪ Publisher: Empire ₪ Developer: Bugbear ₪ Players: 1-8 ₪ ESRB: Teen High-speed twisted metal Anyone who's ever enjoyed Burnout needs to play Ultimate Carnage. Developer Bugbear did an excellent job with this alternate take on wrecking and racing. Streaking down backwoods and urban tracks covered with more debris than a blasting site, doorhandle to doorhandle with ferocious com- petitors that would rather wreck you than race you...yeah, it does my soul good. | got com- pletely lost in the game’s world—not so much in the car-upgrade department, but more in mastering every single track to the best of my abilities. Learning how to finesse my way around supersharp turns and how to use my opponents as bumpers was just as much—if not more—fun than winning every race. And considering you can take the whole thing online (races, minigames, and all) and it still runs smoothly, well, that just adds extra mile- age. Oh, anyone looking for an easy win online should look up ol’ Gord. | dismissed the previous FlatOuts as red- Pure vehicular mayhem neck-style Burnout knockoffs best suited for late-night, beer-fueled social-gaming situations where you could overlook the games' sloppy controls and gimmicky gameplay. Not so with this latest version, though. The cars still have a too-floaty feel, and Carnage still has the ridiculous fling-the-driver-through-the-wind- shield minigames, but it's so much tighter in every other regard. It's fun as hell, looks great, and might have the most visceral destruction- derby gameplay since those old Destruction Derby PS1 games from Reflections. Greg may be giddy that he some- how coaxed his fetid heap to the finish line before me, but his review is gratuitously glow- ing. | longed for just a few sections of open road, free of Carnage's perpetual clutter and... well, carnage. | looked for a rearview mirror or an inset cam to witness my devastation, but found only a disruptive "look back" button. FlatOut is a gorgeous smash-up derby that'll temporarily thrill everyone. But naturally, it'll satiate only “arcade” racers for the long haul, and it’s best when played online where treach- erous human unpredictability and abundant multiplayer modes add necessary octane. Too-strong rubber-band A.l. Skipping your driver across a pool ë ° Š 6 š | i 6 š š š 0 D Ф О © 6 RECHARGE. REUSE. RESPAWN. The new Sanyo eneloop USB charger allows you fo wirelessly frag enemies on the go by recharging your NiMh rechargeable AA or AAA batteries from your laptop. www.eneloopusa.com LOONEY TUNES: DUCK AMUCK ₪ Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive ₪ Developer: WayForward ₪ Players: 1-2 ₪ ESRB: Everyone Clever use of the DS, awe- some animation, genuinely funny Vague minigame directions For a surprise Poking duck Don’t dismiss Duck Amuck because of its loony license— this is a DS title done right. Most kiddie-approved fare fails to cook up creative ideas, but Duck Amuck simmers with imagination. Hell, from the start, the slobber-mouthed main character, Daffy, lets you know you’re playing a videogame. But this isn’t anormal title per se—the concept revolves around the classic cartoon Duck Amuck, where an anonymous animator screws with Daffy. But instead of an animator, the player (i.e., you) is tasked with pissing him off. The more you mess with him, the closer you to get to “finishing” the game. You rile up Daffy by hunting for different minigames. This is done in several different ways: “tearing” the 112 > ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM background with your stylus, closing the DS, or merely letting Daffy stand idle. The actual minigames are simple, too: In one, you light a match and trace a gasoline trail back to Daffy. In another, you chop veggies to cook him. Yeah, some of these time-wast- ers can be a little vague, but the ones that do work are both fun and funny. Don't get me wrong—! love the creativity at work here, and having to poke, prod, and piss off Daffy in different ways to initiate minigames is a great way to approach the concept. The games themselves can be hilari- ously self-referential (pulling out bad bits of game code, closing the DS to hunt a monster in the dark), but they can also be ridiculously unclear in their objectives; pressing pause tells you what you're supposed to do, but not always how. It's a great concept, but all the innovation and humor can't save something that you can see the vast majority of in half an hour. Like Michael, | think Duck Amuck’s great. It's like a postmod- ern, humor-filled subversion of Nintendogs, with lots of blowing into the DS mic hole. Unlike so many games that try to crack jokes, Duck Amuck is imaginative and genuinely funny. “This game is full of Bugs,” Daffy declares, as a giant image of a certain bunny appears behind him. It's not really a title to play for extended periods, but instead something to dip into for five minutes at a time. $h DON'T PULL YOUR PUNCHES. Put up your dukes! Grab your Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ and start swinging for amazingly realistic boxing control. Pick your Pugilist! Choose from 25 different fighters, each with their own style, special moves, techniques and storyline. Step into the Ring! Master a variety of fighting modes and 30+ special moves, battle up the ranks and claim the pro boxing championship! seeD www.victoriousboxersrevolution.com САМЕ$ Cartoon Violence d © Jyoji Morikawa/ Kodansha, VAP, NTV. © 2007 AQ Interactive/ Kodansha. www. xsecagames:com Developed by Grand Prix. Wii, Wii Remote and Nunchuk are trademarks of Nintendo. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association ван ө pamm @ 5 = W Don't go nuts with Link's spin attack, or he'll quickly become dizzy. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS ₪ Publisher: Nintendo ₪ Developer: Nintendo ₪ Players: 1-2 ₪ ESRB: Everyone THE VERDICTS (OUT OF 10) MILKMAN GOOD: JEREMY: 9.0 EXCELLENT: SHANE e! EXCELLENT The Good: Cuddly visuals, easy controls The Bad: Formulaic design, low difficulty Piracy: Link’s sailor buddy, Linebeck, is a blatant Capt. Jack Sparrow rip-off A touching reunion with old friends ++ MILKMAN: Known for consistently high quality and innovation, the long- running Legend of Zelda series is hard not to love. For some, Wind Waker on GameCube was a misstep because of its whimsical graphics and lack of an adult, ass-kicking Link. But that bitching notwithstanding, it was still a good game that garnered plenty of fans. And now baby Link returns in Hourglass, an all-new adventure that deftly borrows its console cousin's distinctive cartoon look, even though the game plays primarily from the traditional overhead view of A Link to the Past. As expected, Hourglass serves up the usual slate of Zelda staples—trav- eling, exploration, puzzles, and com- bat—in generous quantities, but this 114 ° ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM time everything is handled via the touch screen and stylus. Personally, being forced to adapt to this new play style irritated me at first, especially since your hand often obscures the action. But as the game progresses, moves become available that wouldn't be possible without the stylus—like drawing the boomerang's exact path on the screen—so this method even- tually proves its worth. But another Zelda basically means another carefully choreographed series of fetch quests and contrived boss battles that, if you're less romantic about the series than others, eventually start to feel like work. Also worth noting, the dialogue is solid as always, even if the story itself ends up being surprisingly insubstantial, even by Zelda's standards. Is Hourglass a solid piece of DS software? Absolutely. But we've all been there and done that before. + JEREMY: By all rights, a Zelda game controlled entirely by stylus should be a disaster, but somehow Nintendo has performed a miracle. Everything from sailing—a huge improvement on Wind Waker's sea- faring tedium—to swordplay feels perfect, and Link's usual arsenal of special weapons works in newer, more precise ways. No doubt most of the development team's time and effort went into mak- ing the control scheme work perfectly, and job well done—but the great interface comes at the expense of 1 W The seafaring in Hourglass easily. 1 outclasses the sailing in Wind Waker. эс. ээр жур | EN creativity. Hourglass barely scratches the surface of the possibilities the stylus offers, largely sticking to safe, Simple mark the map "puzzles," if you can even call them that. The formu- laic bosses and repetitive Temple of the Ocean King disappoint, too. But Hourglass is a welcome reinvention, a fulfillment of Wind Waker's promise of a new series direction. As a game, it's great; as the groundwork for even bet- ter things, it's absolutely inspiring. o TRAE Ms Ax + SHANE: All the Wind Waker fans who felt betrayed by Link’s more seri- ous turn in last year’s Twilight Princess will delight to see him back in cutesy, cartoon-shaded form in Hourglass, an effervescent, low-impact romp that directly continues Wind Waker's memorable plot and nautical themes. First-timers wary of the series' notori- ous complexity and depth should also take note: Hourglass brazenly dumps much of the franchise's established A Link to the Wi-Fi Phantom Hourglass offers a true Zelda first—online multiplayer via Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. Don't get overly psyched, though: This isn't like the madcap four-player co-op action from the underrated Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GC), but rather a tense 1-on-1 game of high-stakes hide-and-seek. The contests here take place on small, mazelike maps: One player controls Link as he attempts to carry heavy Force Gems to a goal, while his opponent directs enemy troops via stylus strokes. This mode isn't terribly ambitious, but it's a simple, engaging diversion that holds up remarkably well to repeated play. Xor a Мше wies TAPE — = tenets (no collecting Heart Pieces, no item-delivery minigames, and no Ganon!) in favor of pick-up-and-play touch-screen simplicity. Hourglass' new stylus-controlled gameplay performs admirably most of the time—in the heat of a boss battle, you may feel as if it’s imprecise and unwieldy, but actually, the combat remains shockingly easy until very late in the game. In fact, the same goes for the adventure as a whole: This is by far the least-taxing Zelda ever created. But its adorable graphics, snappy writing, clever puzzles, and addictive multiplayer mode manage to make one of gaming's perpetually recycled products feel fresh again. йй š | EGM Extras: Those temple puzzles giv- | ing you fits? Head to E 1UP.com for our solution-filled SuperGuide. Thank us later. ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM * 5 FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: THE WAR OF THE LIONS B Publisher: Square Enix ₪ Developer: Square Enix ₪ Players: 1-2 ₪ ESRB: Teen Addictive gameplay, great new translation Learning curve, dated visuals Multiple save files save lives! Still king of the tactical jungle How good is Final Fantasy Tactics on PSP? So good that | put in 70-plus hours...with the Japanese version. That’s a testament to the strength of the original’s tactical-role- playing-game design. This PS1 classic may not be perfect, but its class- based progression system is superad- dictive, offering both tons of character customization and a rewarding sense of accomplishment as you unlock your party’s skills. Portability makes it better, as do this version’s fresh fea- tures: new cinemas, characters, and classes. Also added: two multiplayer modes. One lets you compete against a friend, while the other has you team up for special co-op missions. They’re good, but not as good as if they were online. Last, the localization has been 116 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM updated, so the intricate story finally makes sense. The original game's other flaws are still present, though; the early chapters are way too hard and the end is way too easy. Plus, once you jump in, you may never want to put another game in your PSP. The dialogue from the original Tactics wasn't so much bad as it was blunt. The redone script feels like Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) got a hold of it, and that's a good thing. The plot is still ultralayered and overly dense—and will lose a lot of people along the way—but since the tacti- cal combat is so good (if slow), most won't mind. Unless you have the two versions side by side, though, you'll likely miss the PSP-exclusive charac- ters (FFXII's Balthier, etc.) and jobs, and the "different" camera angles are Still all but useless (the game needs an overhead view...badly). But Tactics is still engrossing, time-consuming fun. In about the same time it took me to get lost (again) in Tactics" still-impenetrable fiction (Jeremy must be smarter than 1), 1 got readdicted to its classic job system. How strange is this game design where | enjoy playing around in menus—growing and customizing my squat, noseless warriors—as much as | do on the colorful battlefields? The new, gor- geous, living-art cut-scenes are too rare, though. Why bother bringing this world to vivid life only once every couple of hours or so? rir FRAG AND CONQUER. "9.1 OUT OF 10” -IGN.COM FragFX (PS3) . motion level calibration . full SIXAXIS motion control . adjustable motion-sensitivity . universal PS3/PS2 game support . firmware upgradable (computer) . reconfigurable buttons (computer) . frag button (for pinpoint targeting) . dynamic mouse sensitivity adjustments . console mouse (supports PS Home and web navigation) . programmable motion override (custom motion commands) ELEVATE YOUR GAME PLAY EXPERIENCE SOME HOT THREESOME ACTION. _ Your favorite FPS, Sony PLAYSTATION 3 and the SPLITFISH FragFX. - WWW.SPLITFISH.COM SYPHON FILTER: LOGAN'S SHADOW ₪ Publisher: Sony CEA ₪ Developer: Sony Bend ₪ Players: 1-8 ₪ ESRB: Teen Diverse missions, engrossing story A.l. some- times goes haywire Also voiced FFX's whiny Tidus Finally out of Snake’s shadow With Metal Gear's Solid Snake and Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher both AWOL this fall, it falls on Syphon Filter’s Gabe Logan—forever the third wheel in the holy stealth-action-hero triumvirate—to pick up the slack. Last year's surprise PSP hit Dark Mirror proved that Gabe's more than up to that task, and Logan's Shadow cements it: This is the handheld stealth-action series to beat. Logan's Shadow augments Dark Mirror's already excellent control scheme by adding water-oriented quests and physics-based cover. While the action's a perfect mix of sly sneaking and guns-blazing shootouts, the gripping storytelling is what really sets Logan's Shadow apart: Each mis- Sion serves an actual purpose in mov- 118 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM ing the politically charged tale forward, and the game isn't afraid to make allusions to real-world conflicts, which. further ramps up the intensity. If you're a stealth-action fan who's still ignor- ing the Syphon Filter franchise, you're doing yourself a disservice. Logan certainly holds his own against the likes of Fisher and Snake. His arsenal of gadgets, such as heat-sensing goggles and a Batman-like propel system, adds an abundance of variety to the gameplay. Most rewarding though, is peering around corners for that quick one-shot kill between the eyes—it’s too bad enemies don't react accordingly to leg shots and chest hits; the stiff “ugh” doesn't cut it. Multiplayer's unique maps sweeten the deal, though, filled with turrets, zip lines, and multitiered Stages that give the game legs. "Excellent" controls? An *abundance" of variety? My copy didn't seem to contain those luxuries. The mechanics are workable once you adjust to the awkwardness of manual- ly aiming with the face buttons (N64's Turok says hello), but it's never intui- tive. And while the production values are sky-high (cinemas, pretty water, the works), the constant stop-and- pop gameplay makes it feel more like Time Crisis lite. The online multiplayer impresses, and the spy stuff is novel but packs all the political intrigue of a board meeting (sorry, Fitch). It's simply too bland to bother with. жй NEW TAG ANTI-PERSPIRANT CONSIDER YOURSELF WAR NIN G ; PRODUCTS SCENT MAY TURN ALREADY HOT HOTTIES HOTTER THAN A HABANERO. WARNED. > THE USE OF OVEN MITTS IS RECOMMENDED BEFORE HANDLING OF ANY TAMALES. CASTLEVANIA: THE DRACULA X CHRONICLES ₪ Publisher: Konami ₪ Developer: Konami ₪ Players: 1 ₪ ESRB: Teen Coveted classic, solid remake Some control jankiness Symphony's new voices still suck Better late than never Dracula X: Rondo of Blood has always been the Castlevania fan's holy grail. Released only in Japan for an obscure system (PC Engine), gamers have long lusted for a way to play the game without dropping a few hundred bucks on eBay. This opportunity alone would make The Dracula X Chronicles worth a look, but this title sports a few more surprises. It's also a comprehensive remake that updates the tight 2D, monster-slaying action with crisp 3D visuals (plus a few twists for those who know the original inside-out). The gameplay is slightly tweaked to make the characters easier to con- trol, and purists can unlock both the original, 16-bit Rondo and its sequel, Symphony of the Night. Good thing, 120 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UP.COM too, because the remake does suffer from imprecisions—like mushy hit detection—that plague 2D games with 3D graphics. Don't let that discourage you from finally getting your hands on this game, though; it's the pinnacle of the classic Castlevania formula. Konami finally exhumes this legendarily elusive chapter in Dracula's history, gussies it up with lovely 3D trappings, and then grafts on its revered sequel...yet Jeremy dares to nitpick the controls and graphics? Absolute heresy. While Rondo's gameplay might feel a tinge clunky and unforgiving by modern standards, its clever level designs, wildly different playable characters, and killer boss fights hold up remark- ably well after 14 years. And you'll find 80 much content here—those unlock- ables Jeremy mentions offer plenty of reasons to replay. | have to agree with Jeremy that the Rondo remake could be bet- ter; certain stages—especially the later levels—really come to life in 3D, but others seem somewhat empty (blame the lack of detail). And the control, while improved, still isn't up to modern Castlevania standards. But | also agree with Shane—these are minor problems in the face of an amazing overall value. Classic Rondo alone would be a great budget title for virgin Western audiences; adding a remake and Symphony turns this into a no-brainer. ёф N EXT \ WA Se TRUE. 46966 | PLAY ‘EM NOW IN (3)EASY STEPS! Ыы I ME = аы Select Pon Type in the יש‎ Send to = ( 1 | NEW TEXT ( 2 | KEYWORD 3 46966 and Ls 5 N j MESSAGE חס‎ \ for the GAME \ download the É "ws ^ your phone. ו‎ you want. М game. ACTIVISION. < © 2007 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision, Call of Duty and True Crime are registered trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Marvel, The Fantastic Four and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc., and are used with permission. Copyright © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. www.marvel.com. The Fantastic Four Motion Picture and Images from the Motion Picture: © 2007 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. The MONOPOLY, MONOPOLY TYCOON and HASBRO names and logos, the distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board and playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property trading game and game equipment. ™ ₪ © 2007 Hasbro. All rights reserved. & © 2007 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2007 Mofactor, Inc. All rights reserved. TM ₪ © 2007 Hands-On Mobile, Inc. All rights reserved. "Pricing varies by carrier and game purchase type. Additional messaging charges apply. Must be 18 years+ to order. Terms at www.HandsOn.com apply. OFF A LITTLE STEAM. HANDS-ON MOBILE STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT- RENEGADE SQUADRON B Publisher: LucasArts ₪ Developer: Rebellion ₪ Players: 1-16 ₪ ESRB: Teen Mission- based campaign, customizable classes Choppy action Answered in an in-joke cut-scene New soldiers, old problems You can add stuff to a Star Wars shooter—like the ability to fly in Boba Fett's Slave |—that would make a fan's C-3PO Underoos feel a bit tight, but the hardware can still kill the mood. Like in the last PSP Battlefront, the limited controls mean the design- ers have to let you "cheat" to make stormtroopers and TIE fighters easier to shoot down (like lock-on targeting, autopiloting, and way, way dumb А.!.). It cuts down on the frustration but also any sense of challenge. Renegade Squaaron does step it up in other areas, though. Instead of picking a preset class, you can spend a limited amount of points to custom- ize your character to create anything from a jetpack-sporting sniper to a chaingun-wielding medic. The cam- 122 * ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM paign also lets the game take a break from being a straight-up Battlefield rip-off by offering more story-driven and objective-based missions. Too bad this mode is over with so quickly. The enemies you encounter in the Battlefront series have never been too bright, but like Shoe says, they're even less chal- lenging on the PSP—in the Galactic Conquest mode, | managed to shred through the mighty Empire in under an hour. It's much more enjoyable (and challenging) when played over the Internet against real people, and that new customization system revitalizes a formula that quickly turned stale. If you missed Battlefront II in 2005, this is an improvement. Everyone else should probably wait until the entire franchise gets an upgrade. Just like you know how every Star Wars movie starts with the iconic text crawl, you'll know right away that Renegade Squadron offers merely a modest update of the previ- ous two Battlefront games. Hey, but that doesn't mean this game reeks of rancor poo. In fact, the online play is definitely worth picking up a blaster for. Not only because of the frantic fun and new maps, but also because the human-played enemies will likely attempt to dodge your bullets. But while multiplayer rocks, the appeal of the campaign and character custom- ization lasts about as long as Darth Maul's screen time. sh HOT PXL W Publisher: Atari IBI Developer: zSlide ₪ Players: 1-2 ₪ ESRB: Teen Wario's pixels are still hotter If you've ever played a WarioWare game, you'll have a very good idea of what to expect from Hot PXL: dozens of frenetic "microgames" strung end to end, taking no more than a few seconds to figure out and even less to complete through button presses and simple movements. Hot PXL pilfers the formula unapologetically, and it's still fun. Unfortunately, where WarioWare's bizarre aesthetic and creative bite-sized game con- cepts are half the appeal, Hot PXL's wackiness comes off a bit forced, owing more to bizarre PSP ad campaigns than anything particularly creative. The main game is best in short ses- sions as it takes under an hour to finish, but additional downloadable games and local multiplayer extend the experience. It was only a matter of time until the PSP caught microgame madness, and while Hot PXL can be fun, it's also derivative and insincere. Four years back, Nintendo's hyper- kinetic GBA smash, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Some clever minigames, plentiful unlockables Forced humor and wackiness, short and repetitive Don't forget to download extra games from HotPXL.com Great games starting at just FOR FANTASTIC 4: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER TEXT KEYWORD: FOUR ro 46966 Microgame$!, famously reinvented the L minigame-collection genre, and various SENS sequels have further evolved its pioneering, FOR MONOPOLY TYCOON 2007 TEXT KEYWORD: postmodern approach to game design. Too HOTEL TO 46966 bad you won't spy any of those innovations here. As Nick says, Hot PXL feels like a bla- tant rip-off. That’s not to say it’s devoid of charm—the goofy DIY presentation (complete with creator Jonathan Choquel hamming it up in copious video cut-scenes) frames 200 mea- ger diversions with appropriately quirky visuals and sounds. If you can get past how limited it all feels, you'll have a modicum of fun. If | repeated everything these guys said, and did it with a certain pseudo- street, yo-yo-check-it “flava,” that'd be a perfect embodiment of Hot PXL. But shouldn’t you offer something new? And where Hot PXL comes up short, I'll bring it. Like so many PSP games, this one suffers from too much loading. It’s disguised in hilarious cut-scenes, but it slows down the pace just enough to be annoying. And the controls seem to limit the games’ variety. Halfway through, they start to feel very repetitive. If you’re a PSP loyalist who missed WarioWare, though, check it out, yo. HANDS. MOB TEE: Get more at HandsOn.com RATCHET & CLANK FUTURE: TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION B Publisher: Sony CEA ₪ ESRB: Everyone 10+ For their PS3 debut, Sony's lovable lombax and his tin-can sidekick are going back to their roots (meaning more platforming and less shooting). It's a smart move, as this series has gotten a |i’! too trigger-happy over the years. Tools of Destruction is also quite the looker, thanks to its Pixar-inspired visuals and massive environments. Even the Sixaxis- specific mechanics (such as moving the con- troller left-to-right while Ratchet free-falls and avoids space traffic) work great here. In taking a step back, Ratchet is taking a huge step forward. HALF-LIFE 2: THE ORANGE BOX W Publisher: EA Games ₪ ESRB: Mature Like after-hours TV, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box is one "And that's not all!" after another (although Valve's PC prestige should sell itself, no motor-mouthed huckster neces- sary). Already wrinkle-proof on the art-direc- tion and design ends, HL2 looks sharper than ever after the jump to the 360. Also part of the package, Episodes One and Two scoot the sci-fi saga forward with terrific plot twists, as well as new landscapes and bogeymen. While the pitchman shouts "But wait—there's more!" we add that Team Fortress 2's whimsical take on überviolence isn't Halo 3 online by another name. 124 • ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM VICTORIOUS BOXERS: REVOLUTION B Publisher: XSEED ₪ ESRB: Teen Wii Sports may have gone a long way in get- ting Nintendo's console into the spotlight, but its boxing portion sure didn't help. XSEED's anime-based fighter attempts to fill that void, but ultimately, Revolution looks more like a pretender than a contender. While you have more punches at your disposal here (plus a story mode), matchups usually end up with people swinging the Wii-mote and Nunchuk like untrained buffoons. Another major prob- lem: Too often, the game doesn't register when you throw blows. The Wii remains in need of a ring king. DEWY'S ADVENTURE ₪ Publisher: Konami ₪ ESRB: Everyone The producers behind Elebits wanted to do more than just point and click this time around. Here, you're required to tilt the world around Dewy, a cheerful droplet. But he's not helpless—changing the air temperature allows Dewy to freeze solid and attack foes or evaporate into a lightning-zapping cloud. Once you peel away the so-cute-it-hurts epidermal layer, you're left with a surprisingly rich platformer, complete with boss battles. But with wonky fixed cam- era angles and narrow, rail-less level design, controlling the hero-drop feels more like guid- ing butter on a hot skillet. Curse you edges! PS3/XB360 TONY HAWK'S PROVING GROUND Bi Publisher: Activision BI ESRB: Teen After a few rounds with EA's realistic Skate, we were starved for the big-air antics of Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. The additions of Nail the Manual and Nail the Grab led to wicked strings of slow-mo maneuvers, and the gritty, winding storyline lets you choose your own path—and unlock gobs of create-a-skater goodies along the way. Plus, the video editor is just plain fun. After nine tries, we consider it a significant achievement that Neversoft has kept this series so fresh. + BOTTOM LINE: Fun factor alone easily keeps this an ollie above EA's supposedly harder-core competition. 27m 48: mifa | 10,000km XB360 BEAUTIFUL KATAMARI ₪ Publisher: Namco Bandai ₪ ESRB: Everyone We can almost get away with copying-and- pasting our review for the original Katamari Damacy here. Because the quirky series that started off so endearingly different on PS2 has unrolled another installment that barely breaks with the collect-the-crap formula. We suppose the "beautiful" in the title refers to the graphics, but aside from being crisper and a bit more dense, they're indistinguish- able from the first game's. New online com- petitive modes seem promising, but other- wise this "beauty" feels just about beat. + BOTTOM LINE: Not worth $40. This should have been a cheap Xbox Live Arcade game. PS3 FOLKLORE ₪ Publisher: Sony CEA ₪ ESRB: Teen We haven't had a chance to play the full game yet, but limited time with Folklore reveals a quirky action-role-playing game with pretty visuals and some really neat ideas (stealing a defeated enemy's powers for your own being the best part). Stealing souls isn't easy: You have to yank up and twist the Sixaxis controller with pinpoint timing. + BOTTOM LINE: Folklore hails from the same team as PS3 launch title Genji, but don't hold that against it. While the game's not exactly triple-A fare, its cool Devil May Cry-meets-Psychonauts vibe seems fresh and hip. Check for a review next ish. PS3/XB360 NBA 2K8 ₪ Publisher: 2K Sports ₪ ESRB: Everyone Last year, 2K's roundballer officially took over as the premier NBA sim. And the way 2K8 is shaping up it doesn't appear the series is about to give up that crown. Aside from dras- tically improved visuals (especially when you get up close and personal with these guys), the game comes to the court with brainier A.l. (lots of off-the-ball movement, they double-team big men, and so on) and simple play-call mechanics. This also marks the franchise's first stab at a slam dunk contest, which is way more intuitive than Live's. + BOTTOM LINE: 2K8 belongs on the court with the likes of LeBron and Kobe. PS3/XB360 JUICED 2: HOT IMPORT NIGHTS ₪ Publisher: THQ ₪ ESRB: Teen Emphasizing online multiplayer racing and a headset concept wherein cheers and jeers can impact outcomes, Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights sports a ton of racing formats, oodles of ridiculously tweakable cars, and the added intrigue of prerace wagering. Learning how to expertly drift through turns is mandatory, and whatever you do on the track influences your character’s “DNA,” which is then dis- played for potential challengers. + BOTTOM LINE: Without its offbeat perks and deep multiplayer component, Juiced 2 would be another tired arcade racer. Fortunately, that periphery is pretty strong. 1600 86.040, 180 SOUL NOMAD & THE WORLD EATERS ₪ Publisher: NIS America ₪ ESRB: Teen Soul Nomad is your typical save-the-world strategy-roleplayer, but with a twist: The unnamed, mute protagonist just happens to be possessed by a rude, crude centuries-old demon (the titular “soul nomad”). Parental advisory: Keep the kiddies away from this dude with a 'tude—he swears up a storm like he's at the Flavor Flav celebrity roast! + BOTTOM LINE: An edgy, adult script filled with dark comedy sets Sou! Nomad apart, but ugly, dated sprites (Odin Sphere this ain't) and complex rules of engagement make the game tough to recommend for anyone but hardcore strategy nuts. ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM • 125 m m fe] m = їл PHOENIX WRIGHT: АСЕ ATTORNEY-TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS I Publisher: Capcom ₪ ESRB: Teen Like its predecessors, Trials is a courtroom adventure game that's been ported over to DS from its Japanese GBA roots. Here, the titular defense attorney handles a third series of offbeat murder cases, matching wits against shady prosecutor Godot in order to get always-innocent clients off the hook. + BOTTOM LINE: Adventure geeks should enjoy the trail of exploration- and conversa- tion-based puzzles, though don't expect any enhanced DS-only cases like in the first Wright. Also, do yourself the favor of playing the first two games beforehand—or risk Star Wars syndrome when familiar faces pop up. FRONT MISSION 1ST ₪ Publisher: Square Enix ₪ ESRB: Everyone 10+ Turn-based strategy games work well on the DS, as Front Mission ably demonstrates. On the battlefield, the action moves along smoothly. Constantly upgrading and outfitting your wanzer mechs to develop a well-round- ed squad with long, short, and melee combat capabilities gives the game ample depth. Also, its two-sided single-player campaign provides plenty of opportunity to try out all the potential combinations. + BOTTOM LINE: Front Mission brings back a classic (from the Japan-only Super Famicom) that gives first-timers an ideal place to discover the series. 126 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UP.COM 1 o EI 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 THE SALES CHART Amazon.com's Тор 20 for August Name BioShock This shooter was a smash everywhere except at Half- Life maker Valve, where шщ Prez Gabe Newell forbade staff from playing until they finished The Orange Box. Hate the game's boring radio announcer? So did EA. The publisher has already said it's going back to a traditional broadcast team for 09. Wii Play (with Wii Remote) Madden NFL 08 Madden NFL 08 Mario Strikers Charged Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! \ | Because nothing says e | sexy like a game about 4 | shaping up sagging syn- [ ЇЇ apses, Brain Age 2 now l OQ | comes packed with a $150 | % | DS Lite in come-hither red. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Japanese gamers also got a special "Fes" edition of Persona 3 that packs 30 extra hours. of demon-bat- f tling fun. We may see it Î here if this one's a hit. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s New Super Mario Bros. Pokémon Diamond Guitar Hero II (Bundle with Guitar) Pokémon Pearl Madden NFL 08 Mario Party 8 Resident Evil 4 Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon High School Musical: Makin' the Cut Platform XB360 XB360 PS2 PS3 Wii DS PS2 PS2 DS DS PS2 DS Wii Wii DS Wii DS DS EGM Scores 10 10 10 9.0 9.0 8.5 4.5 6.0 5.0 Not Reviewed Not Reviewed 7.5 7.5 7.5 8.0 7.0 6.0 8.5 9.5 9.5 7.5 6.0 6.0 9.5 10 8.0 8.5 9.0 8.5 9.0 9.0 8.5 8.5 9.0 8.5 Not Reviewed 5.5 7.5 6.0 8.0 9.0 9.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 Not Reviewed Not Reviewed Not Reviewed Exclusive In-Game Bonus Item Only at CircuitCity.com! gara: *Exclusively at CircuitCity. com, when you pre-order and Row the Gods 8 Heroes: Rome Rising digital download you are eligible to receive a special in-game bonus item. Choose 1 of these 2 items: he Gladius Urbanus Sword or the Virga Urbana Staff - both of: which give you ап. advantage against fire. BE AMONG HE FIRST p) BATTLE! PRE-ORDER NOW AT CIRCUITCITY.COM/GAMES — Рав ily access . Pre-Order Your Digital Download - Lionhead Helm: One of 3 versions (Gladiator/Soldior, ה‎ SE, Priest/Mystic) in do corem patti Now from www.circuitcity. com/games. WV available In n / | and Prepare to enter the battle! r Name: Stake a sive i ponder 22: е: Establist 1 keyword: Gods and Heroes *Terms and conditions apply. One per account and consumer must pre-order and purchase full game software í Low and convert to active, entitled, paying subscription. Names reserved on first come, first served basis. ж Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, Perpetual Entertainment and the logos for each are trademarks of Perpetual Entertainment, Inc. 2 ©2007 Perpetual Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks or trade names are properties of their respective owners. PERPETUAL ENTERTAINMEN ASUSÓ nForce" 650i SLI™ Chipset Dual PCI Express Motherboard Intel? Core"2 Duo Processor E6550 $929 GENUINE Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6750 $949 Eagletech® Sidewinder Gaming Case + 500W SLI"-Certified Power Supply _ Intel® Core"2 Duo Processor E6850 $1039 Corsair 1024MB DDR2-800 Memory / Intel® Core™2 Quad-core Processor 06600 $1039 250GB SATA II 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive = Intel® Core"2 Quad-core Processor 06700 $1319 2X NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8500GT 512MB Video Card-SLI™ Enabled Intel? Core"2 Extreme Quad-core Processor QX6850 $1819 18x Double Layer DVD+RW Drive, 16x DVD-ROM Drive Surround 3D Premium Sound 10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN 600 Watt Surround Sound Speakers Logitech Deluxe Keyboard & Optical Mouse Free Wireless 802.11g 54MBps Network Adapter ASUS® nForce" 650i SLI™ Chipset Dual PCI Express Motherboard Intel® Core"2 Duo Processor E6550 $1039 GENUINE Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6750 $1069 Eagletech® Dragon Gaming Case + 500W SLI"-Certified Power Supply Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6850 $1149 Corsair 1024MB DDR2-800 Memory " Intel® Core"2 Quad-core Processor 06600 $1149 320GB SATA II 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive = Intel® Core"'2 Quad-core Processor 06700 $1439 2X NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600GT 512MB Video Card-SLI™ Enabled Intel® Core"? 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Core2 Quad-core Processor 96600 $1489 500GB SATA Ir TE DUREM 3Gb Hard Drive ` Intel® Core™2 Quad-core Processor Q6700 $1779 NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800GTS 640MB Video Card Intel® Core2 Extreme Quad-core Processor QX6850 $2279 18x Double Layer DVD+RW Drive, 16x DVD-ROM Drive Surround 3D Premium Sound 10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Speakers Logitech Deluxe Keyboard & Optical Mouse Free Wireless 802.11g 54MBps Network Adapter ASUS? nForce™ 650i SLI" Chipset Dual PCI Express Motherboard Intel® Core"2 Duo Processor E6550 $969 GENUINE Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6750 $999 NZXT® Hush Silent Gaming Case + 500W SLI"-Certified Power Supply Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6850 $1099 Corsair 1024MB DDR2-800 Memory = Intel® Core™2 Quad-core Processor 06600 $1099 320GB SATA II 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive | Intel? Core™2 Quad-core Processor Q6700 $1379 NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600GTS 512MB Video Card Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad-core Processor QX6850 $1879 18x Double Layer DVD+RW Drive, 16x DVD-ROM Drive Surround 3D Premium Sound 10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN 600 Watt Surround Sound Speakers Logitech Deluxe Keyboard & Optical Mouse Free Wireless 802.11g 54MBps Network Adapter Gamer Paladin 851702 — ASUS® nForce™ 6501 SLI™ Chipset Dual PCI Express Motherboard Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6550 $1239 GENUINE Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6750 $1259 bn NZXT® Lexa Gaming Case + 550W SLI"-Certified Power Supply Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6850 $1349 Silent & Overclocking Proof CPU Cooling System Intel® Core™2 Quad-core Processor Q6600 $1349 Corsair 1024MB DDR2-800 Memory Intel® Core™2 Quad-core Processor 06700 $1639 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 3Gb Hard Drive Intel® Core"2 Extreme Quad-core Processor QX6850 $2129 NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800GTS 320MB Video Card-SLI™ Enabled 18x Double Layer DVD+RW Drive, 16x DVD-ROM Drive Surround 3D Premium Sound 10/100/1000 MBps Ethernet LAN Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers Logitech Deluxe Keyboard & Optical Mouse Free Wireless 802.119 54MBps Network Adapter iBuypower recommends Windows Vista™ Home Premium = 15.4” Wide Screen WXGA TFT LCD 1280x800 Display + GENUINE Windows® Vista™ Home Premium - Intel® Centrino™ Duo Mobile Technology - Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor - Intel® 965 Chipset - Intel® 4965AGN Wireless 802.11 a/b/g/Draft-n - 17" Wide Screen WSXGA+ TFT LCD 1680x1050 Display - GENUINE Windows® Vista™ Home Premium - Intel® Centrino™ Duo Mobile Technology - Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor = Intel® 965 Chipset - Intel? 4965AGN Wireless 802.11 a/b/g/Draft-n - NVIDIA® Mobile GeForce™ 8600GT 512MB video - NVIDIA® Mobile GeForce™ 8600GT 512MB video - 1GB DDR2-667 Memory " - 2GB DDR2-667 Memory n - 120GB SATA Hard Drive Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor - 120 GB SATA Hard Drive Intel* Core" 2 Duo Processor - Removable 8x DVD+R/+RW Drive - Removable 8x DVD+R/+RW Drive = Built-in 2.0 Mega Pixels Digital Camera 17300 (4MB L2Cache, 2.0GHZ) $159 - Built-in 1.3 Mega Pixels Digital Camera 308 (4MB LACE, 20609) ל‎ < Bitten Fingerprint Securit 77500 (4MB L2Cache, 2.2GHZ) $1169 B P T7500 (4MB L2Cache, 2.2GHZ) $1499 gerpi y 77700 (4MB L2Cache, 2 4GH 24 Bungin: blustooth T7700 (4MB L2Cache, 2.4GHZ) $1589 - Gb Ethernet LAN & 56K Modem ее A) 319 - Built-in HDMI RS - 4x USB 2.0 Ports - Gb Ethernet LAN & 56K Modem - 1x Firewire IEEE-1394 Ports - 3x USB 2.0 Ports - 3-in-1 Build-in Media Card Reader ó - 1x Firewire IEEE-1394 Ports - High Performance Li-lon Battery oh m s - 3-in-1 Build-in Media Card Reader - Free Deluxe Carrying Case Tt... - High Performance Li-lon Battery - Free Deluxe Carrying Case (arie OVER * press continue for overwrought plots and a nightmare on game street See video of Seanbaby and his amazing friends as they suffer through countless no-quality games at BrokenPixels.1UP. com. Seal of Quantity These games are officially but just barely sort of approved THE OFFICIAL NINTENDO SEAL OF QUALITY is now just the Official Nintendo Seal. And if you've played Escape from Bug Island or Boogie on your Wii, you know why. Or Red Steel. Or Spider-Man 3. Or 80 percent of every game ever made for the DS. The Official Nintendo Seal is so easy to get that 137 different research foundations are working on a cure. 1 believe it goes back to the case of People v. Total Recall for the NES, when Nintendo was stripped of its right to describe the quality of anything. As part of the settlement, if Nintendo were to call something good, її would require four additional pages of documentation stipulating that their standards of good include the atrocities of Total Recall tor the NES. This is similar to the regulations on prescription-drug commercials in which, if they list which ailments their products cure, pharmaceutical 130 » ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY è EGM. 1UPCOM companies must also disclose pos- sible side effects. Which is why erec- tion commercials rely less on actual description and more on visual meta- phors like a grinning man or a hot dog being jammed into a moaning woman’s lap. If they told the viewer flat out what their pills did, they'd be required to mention such unsexy side effects as loosened stool, exploding, talking dong, and werewolf. So it’s understandable why Nin- tendo removed the word “Quality” from its seal. They could be sued by language itself. But to not replace it with anything else? That’s weak. Putting a seal on something without an adjective is like saying, “This product was noticed by us, its parent company, but please don’t make us describe it.” Even mayonnaise has the balls to say “freshness” on its seal, and if I’m not mistaken, mayon- naise is fermented chicken sperm. As a service to my loyal readers, | will be rating four awful games that made it through Nintendo's nonex- istent quality filter using Nintendo's own Seal of Sealing system. It’s on a scale of one to five Seals, and to help you understand it, five Official Nintendo Seals means that Nintendo Sealed it, and then Sealed it four more times. A score of only one Seal is one fifth as Sealed but exactly the same amount of Official. The Official Nintendo Seal is so easy to get that 137 different research foundations are working on a cure. PAGE 132 Retro: A no-nonsense approach DRAKE = JOSH: TALENT SHOWDOWN Description Rating: ® Take control of two young boys as they train for a talent show and try to deny filthy, secret cravings misunderstood by their classmates and forbidden by God. Whatever a Drake and a Josh Are, They Have a Game Rating: & ® ® ® This is a real game. Someone made this! Realism Rating: © © © © © The back of the game’s box shows everything you can do in your ad- ventures through Belleview High. And right after the first game feature, “Perform dazzling magic tricks!” it showcases that you can “Battle your way through bullies!” This sequence of events could have only been imagined by some- one who has firsthand experi- ence performing dazzling magic tricks in his high school. What Nintendo Could Have Done to Catch This in Time: It's hard to put protocols in place to prevent the making of a game like this that will never be played by anyone for any reason, including the game's quality-assurance staff. Luckily, Гуе invented a system that Nintendo's quality control can use. Step one: Put the game in its box next to any two other games. Say out loud, "Look at that thing. What kind of—look at that f***ing thing!" If nearby people know which game you're talking about, place it in the reject pile, Nintendo. There is no step two. By the way, Drake & Josh: Talent Showdown does not hold up to this level of scrutiny. ЕСОН" FRIENDS Description Rating: @ © ® ® © My favorite pony is every pony! Chore Rating: ® The manual lists three events under the heading of “Chores.” They are trail-riding, accessorizing, and, | quote, “Feeding your pony (its favorite treat)." 1 don't know where these game developers grew up, but where I'm from, accessorizing your pony is not a chore: It's the primal con- nection between a rider, his or her pony, horse makeup, and a tattoo needle. Making your pony beautiful is not a chore. Are you trying to break Majestrica Skytasm's heart? Majestrica Skytasm is the name of my pony. Boring Rating: @ ® ® ® © Pick stones from your pony's hoof. Shampoo your pony's entire body. Condition your pony's entire body. Apply fly treatment to your pony's entire body. Apply medicine to your pony's entire diseased body. If this game is realistic in any way, every pony owner in the world is clinically depressed and riddled with horse disease. My whole life | wondered why, with all our technology, we still use horses to make glue. Now | realize it's because pony owners want it that way. What Nintendo Could Have Done to Catch This in Time: Someone in quality control should have noticed that this concept only works as a fruit snack or a sparkly sticker. This game promotes the punching of ponies even more so than their stupid, punchable faces. PAGE PAGE к 134 BEI Seek and : Grudge: enjoy: A 20 Chief gets tricky treat Èa schooled NACHO LIERE Description Rating: ® ® ® © Following in the tradition of Bruce Willis in Hudson Hawk, Jack Black made a movie solely to test the understanding and patience of Jack Black fans. This is a gamelike spin-off based on that project. Gameplay Rating: @ Wrestling gameplay is marred only by unresponsive controls, frustrating slowness, terrible graphics, scratchy audio, wildly bipolar A.I., and an overall presentation that makes even the very act of choosing options suck. Luckily, the game features much of the film's humor, such as saying things with a Mexican accent. For example, "Use your eagle power!" I... I guess it doesn't work when you type it. Descriptiveness Rating: x: ® © The back of the box follows Nintendo's example by describing the action in its entirety with, "Use the touch screen to play eight themed minigames." It may not want to go out on a limb by calling anything fun or exciting, but it will say that the games might remind a consumer of the film Nacho Libre. And when you think about it, that is pretty brave. What Nintendo Could Have Done to Catch This in Time: As American consumers, many of us understand that every product comes with a small percentage of impurities. The government allows for a small percentage of cockroach eggs in our chocolate, and a trace amount of mouse droppings make it into our powdered rat feces. Nacho Libre was Mexican enough to be exempt from America's strict contamination regulations, and as such was able to be made entirely out of cockroach eggs and mouse droppings. EBUILO-A-BEARR WORKSHOP Description Rating: ecccc Assemble, stuff, and dress your very own teddy bear. Picking up. the pieces of your shattered, hopeless life not included. Concept Rating: T ₪ To many of us, a game about making toy bears is ridicu- lous. Possibly insane. In fact, take out the possibly. What was my point? America! What a Country Rating: © © © Do you think that somewhere in Taiwan, a 10-year-old child smashing teddy bear parts through a sewing machine with arthritis- curled hands knows that someone made a DS game based on his life story? And would knowing this let him finally go to bed happy, assuming of course that he were allowed to sleep? Or would he curse the imperialist pigs who mocked his pain. with giggle-fun tummy rubbing using your DS Stylus! What Nintendo Could Have Done to Catch This in Time: Take a look at the product you're licensing, Nintendo. Do you want to explain to me how a game about making teddy bears is realistic if I don't have the option of carving a hole into it and "stuffing" it myself? sh ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY * EGM.1UP.COM * 1 КЕШЕДЕ ЕР] By Jeremy Parish The Eldridge's crew decides to пике its own ship because Deus is a dia- bolical interplanetary superweapon that should never, ever be set loose upon the universe. After the crash, Deus creates Miang as a sort of Eve to populate the new world. Not out of kindness, though, but rather because it needs lots and lots of people to power its return to space. Our tale begins with the Eldridge, a starship that suddenly finds itself under attack from within by Deus, an insidious force that fills the forward screens with scripture. The crew takes the only possible course of action to such a threat and destroys the ship. The Eldridge crash-lands. on a conveniently located planet, and the only sur- vivors are a naked lady named Miang and a kid named Abel. CARRIES Krelian has issues. These lead him to team up with Miang to revive Deus, knowing full well it means the end of mankind. To that end, he even cre- ates a clone of Abel named Ramsus. Once Fei destroys Deus, Krelian real- izes that he’s been a bit of a bastard and repents, moseying along the path to divinity with the newly freed Wave Existence. All of this is actually a fairly straightforward story, but it seems a lot more confusing because the game constantly sidetracks players with silly nonsense about giant rats on crucifixes, pedophiliac priests, sandships, and Fei’s dad, Darth Va—er, Grahf. Ignore these red herrings (and pink fuzz- balls) and it all makes sense! initiates a ten millennia-long battle with Deus. DESTROYS A sort of evil version of Eve, Miang is created by Deus to populate the world with delicious death, she can possess any woman with her genetic code (which is all of them, since the entire planet is descended from her). She usu- ally manipulates history from behind the scenes, playing game, she also CREATES POSSESSES TEAMS UF WITH Fei’s love interest Elly is also the latest Antitype, a persona who (like Abel and Miang) is perpetually reincarnated as part of the struggle between Deus and the Wave Existence. Elly’s various forms always seem to die tragically, to the per- petual dismay of her Abel- descend- ed lovers— in this life, she trans- forms into Miang and is absorbed into Deus. Man, love sucks. CONFUSES 2 humans—biomass to fuel its galactic rampages. Miang is kinda like an Agent in the Matrix; upon although, this being a role- pilots a big-ass robot into battle from time to time. Fortunately for mankind, Deus' plans are undermined from within as well. The superweapon is powered by a device called the Zohar, which works its magic by tapping into a higher dimension, trapping a divine being called the Wave Existence in the process. Nonplussed, the Wave Existence makes contact with Abel, which CONTACTS APOCRYFHAL Abel is an Eldridge passen- ger who comes in contact with the Wave Existence. Doing so sparks a war with Deus, who uses Miang and others to prepare mankind to serve as sacrifices for Deus’ revival. Meanwhile, Abel finds himself reincarnated through- out history, taking a stand against Deus to help the Wave Existence break free. The main character of the game is also the final incarnation of Abel. Although he mostly sulks and mopes about not wanting to fight (when he’s not ram- paging as the. super-pow- ered being Id, anyway), Fei eventually pulls it together and pilots a god-kill- ing mech to put a stop to Deus’ ambitions and set the Wave Existence free. REINCARHATES AS | LOVES APOCRYFHAL Namco's PlayStation 2 RPG series Xenosaga was originally envisioned as a complete retelling of Xenogears that would span six chapters and finally make the whole thing much more accessible. Unfortunately, creative differences and mediocre sales saw the entire thing shortened to three entries and pretty much all overt con- nections to the original game trimmed. The resulting trilogy was actually even messier and more confusing than the game it set out to clarify. But at least they meant well! A better (and nonsense-free) expla- nation of the entire tale can be found at http:// xenosaga.wikia.com. #% ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM. 1UP.COM * 3 M By Mere Donance « Illustration ‘by Bil ШОО 2 17 How it works: Peruse the picture to discover hints that represent specific . Videogame titles. For .. example, the picture —Ç above of a dude alone in the dark is, well, Alone in the Dark. (Duh!) Now go find the rest! found all the games? Head over to EGM.1UP.COM to get the solution. 134 + ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY > EGM.1UPCOM, . 135 ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY • EGM.1UPCOM КЕШЕЛЕР] Brings years of Covenant conflict to an apparent close Advantage: Halo 3 A shot in the head is worth two in the gut Two plasma grenades minus two equals double kill Advantage: Halo 3 Xbox Live subscription is a student loan well spent Advantage: Halo 3 Grenades can give you a painful superjump Advantage: Halo 3 Winner: Hal class for Team Slayer. History General Custer ate it at Little Bighorn Biology Those feelings in your pants are totally normal Advantage: School Math Á Calculus can integrate your ass for all you care Economics Supply and demand are inversely proportional Phys Ed The teacher’s got his eye on you in the shower ) j There you have it. But hey, if anyone asks, we never told you to ditch МО Е\ВЕК 2007 МЦОМЕСЕ МЕК‏ ו וו PHIL о‏ ANDER A RAY hii www.VGXKXPO.com г] > HEST MONTH Ninja Gaiden 2 December Issue (#222) e On sale October 30 Sega Of Ame Vonage Www. wwwkoei.com .......... 25, 37, 101 WWW ו‎ E I www.vonage.com.............. 109 Milk Proc Wwww.gotmilk,com.............. 47 'splitfishicom« y eve erre TET WWW. wize SplitFish meware, Ino. 61 i T е Gi [ IKS, Ir New Line Home Entertainment Ubisoft Entertainment б.со. 10-11, 16-17, 48-49 wwwilightofthelivingdead.com ... 27 Www.ul Office tor National Drug Control Policy US Army Acces www.headplay.com ,, , www.whatsyourantidrug.com..... 55 www.goarmy.com............... 19 SSO ext" (Printed in the U.S.A. 7 HEU = CHAH IH: SIXTY DOLLARS © AN AWFUL LOT TO SPEND WHEN THERE'S STILL А GOOD CHANCE THE GAME WILL TOTALLY SUCK! !FELT RIPPED OFF SEEING, “SUPERMAN RETURNS,” AND THAT WAS JUST 1O BUCKS, PLUS MARKET PRICE FOR GOOBERS! IS THS SORT OF PRICING STRUCTURE REALLY SUSTAINABLE IN THE LONG TERM? THE DEAL, CASHKINS? Д MESE REASONS! SO DARNED EXPENSIVE NOWADAYS? THE BLEEDNG EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN EXPENSIVE PLACE, AND THE MOST ADVANCED GAMES WILL ALWAYS CARRY THE FISCAL STAMP OF THAT AFTER WORK? DUDE, I'M PLAYING IT NOW, WITH MY EREBALLS, JUST BE GLAD JOU RE NOT AN APPLE DEVOTEE! 500 BUCKS 40 | FORA PHONE! @ GOOD LORD! ANDLET US NOT FORGET — THE GAME NDUSTRY’S 5 FIGURES FOR US, LOSSES DUE TO PIRACY ARE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY ACCURATE! WELL, NO, ב‎ ACTUALLY VASTLY INFLATED, AND THEIR FIGURING TECHNIQUES ARE INHERENTLY E pon MOMS THE WALLS HAVE LAWYERS! Gash Out By Jeremy ITS THE UGLIEST FLYING SQUIRREL EVER! F COURSE I 5,900 HERETIC! y THE BUBBLE WILL NEVER 1AM CASHIKINS, THE ECONOMY SPRITE, HERE TO TEACH ЧОО THE VALUE OF YOUR GAMING DOLLAR! QEAH, BUT COME ON! EVEN LOWER-TECH GAMES ARE. SELLING HIGH NOW! Wil DESIGN DOCS HAVE. BEEN FOUND ON CAVE WALLS, AND THES STILL GO FOR 50 BUCKS! "Norm" Scott WHAT, LIKE, QEAH, Мо DUST ONE Pere DOLLAR? » АРАТ FOR ITS PRETTY INFLATION. LIVE AND LEARN, I ל‎ GUESS! GAMING IS STILL AN INFANT MEDIUM! IT DOESN'T HAVE THE BENEFIT OF TIME-TESTED, COST-EFFECTIVE PRO- DUCTION TECHNIQUES LIKE ITS OLDER SIBLINGS! UNTIL IT DOES, FLAWED PLANNING AND REDUNDANT MANPOWER WILL ALWAYS BE A CRUSTY RED SUR- CHARGE ON YOUR GAMING BILL! SO, DO MR RESEARCH, AND SPEND RESPONSIBLY. 7 655 JOST KEEP RISING? FOR A MAGICAL CREATURE, ЧОО OFFER REALLY LAME ASSISTANCE, CASHIKINS, IF 9OU'LL PAR IT, THEYLL CHARGE IT! REMEMBER, THESE ARE COMPANIES WHO SELL VIRTUAL PIÑATA HATS — SCRUPLES DON'T FACTOR! BOT TAKE HEART — CASOAL GAMING © REALLY COMING INTO ITS OWN, AND THERE'S ALWAYS THE BARGAIN Bin! LOOK, DAIKATANA, g FIVE BUCKS! GAME OVER Blood Language Violence ESRB CONTENT RATING — www.esrb.org Game Experience May - ر تر‎ E = Change During Online Play ш» В wa ЕЈ for Windows Ф) XBOX 360 ove ON NOVEMBER 9, 1989, THE COLD WAR WAS SUPPOSED TO END. IT DIDN’T. The landmarks, cities and heartland of America are now the battlefields of World War III. Lead the heroic effort to turn back the Soviet invasion and reclaim the homeland— one neighborhood at a time. WAR IS COMING HOME © 2007 Massive Entertainment АВ. А rights reserved. World in Conflict, Massive Entertainment and the Massive Entertainment logo are registered trademarks of Massive Entertainment AB in the U.S. and/or other countries. Sierra and the Sierra logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment Inc.in the U.S.and/or other countries. Microsoft Windows, the Windows Vista Start button, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companiës and Games for Windows and the Windows Vista Start button logo are used under license from Microsoft. The NVIDIA logo, GeForce and “The Way It's Meant To Be Played" logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Alienware and the Alienware logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Alienware Corporation. Software platform logo ™ and © IEMA 2007, The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners... s |‏ — } ה -ל ABSOLUTE AERIAL SUPREMACY Mild Language Violence FIND OUT AT ESRB CONTENT RATING ШҮ ACECOMBATSIX.COM change during online play. 6 XBOX LIVE MECE ОЭ (97