GET 4 ISSUES OF THE NEW EGMi DIGITAL MAGAZINE! eb: | E EGMNOW.COM М DE EPT -— EXCLUSIVE PIX OF — ^$ EVOLVED - 2 BE AFRAID. ef ° | ALA MAFIA ` __ | FINDING NEW Да аы | HUNTED & MORE ` | UFEINOLD GAMES аб KBOX360 / PLAYSTATION / Wii / PSRF)S FPC iPHONE ВАС: THE STREET BRIGHTER LEGACY, The Creative Minds Behind Street Fighter IV; Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive, Tekken, Soulcalibur and More Discuss the Influences of the SF Series and the Future of the Fighting Genre $699 US/CAN | 51> 0” "7099206960" "6 | SF Champs Dissect SupegStreembiqhite mi LIVE INALFEAPTASYXII.COM OI @ L Suggestive Themes Violence 2 > © 5 2 s 3 = = THE BATTLE WITHIN BEGINS PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SENIOR EDITOR: 5 MANAGING EDITOR: \ NEWS EDITOR: ч REVIEWS EDITOR: REVIEW CREW: Da Casey Loe. Bryn PC EDITOR: John Keefe iPHONE EDITORS: Arnold Kim. € Patterson. (www.TouchArcade.com) SAN FRANCISCO EDITOR: Jo UK EDITOR. Brun W VIDEO EDITORS: Ryan 0 00 Matt Chandronait (www.AreaS tv) CONTRIBUTORS: Da Bates. Aa ian Linn. В © Ford. Jason W y. Cesar Quir 1 Bertrand. n (Area5tv) COPY EDITOR: Alexandra Hall € € ART DIRECTOR: Michael Hobbs nece I 33; ADDL DESIGN: Micha -Super Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori O “Any piece of art, any piece of entertainment, isa reflection of the team that creates it...” INSERTCOIN LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LOGIN PRESSSTART NEWS FLASHBACK REVIEWCREW RED STEEL 2 SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV JUST CAUSE 2 MONSTER HUNTER TRI CAVE STORY / INFINITE SPACE COMMAND & CONQUER 4 IPHONE / MOBILE GAMING y EGM SPRING 2010 May contain content inappropriate for children. Visit www.esrb.org for rating information. FROM THE MAKERS OF GRAND THEFT AUTO RED DEAD REDERPTION ROCKSTARGAMES.COM/REDDEADREDEMPTION Mess % @хвохзво WR PlayStation.Network ©2005,2010 Rockstar Games, Inc. Rockstar Games, the R, logo, Red Dead Redemption and all related marks and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. in the U.S.A. and/or foreign countries. Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks and “PS3” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The PlayStation Network Logo is a service mark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other marks property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. P dee FEATURES 2D GAMING EVOLVES THE DLC DLEMMA j МАМЕ ALAN WAKE H NAUGHTY BEAR TRANSFORMERS AFIA2 STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC VILIZATION V ЛЕ OVE] 1 ` O SEANBABY God of War/Twisted Metal Creator David Jaffe EGM MEDIA, LLC 8840 Wilshire Blvd., Third Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 www.egmmediagroup.com FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT ASST TO THE PUBLISHERS: NEWSSTAND DIRECTOR: SUBSCRIPTION DIRECTOR: INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INQUIRIES: LEGAL COUNSEL: ACCOUNTING: NEW SUBS: www.egmnow.com/subscribe AD ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: ADVERTISING SALES: ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: TRAFFIC MANAGER: BRAND MANAGER: Digital Technology Powered By Screenpaper Media, LLC Addl Website Development: twas a little more than a year ago that an unsolicited email popped into my computer containing an unexpected proposition: Did | have an interest in reacquiring the publishing rights to Electronic Gaming Monthly? That message would reshape the next year of my life. For those who don't know the finer intricacies of EGM5 history (which, for those who care, is laid out in a piece that begins on page 24 of this issue), | was the publisher of EGM prior to its sale to Ziff Davis Media in 1996. | operated a company called Sendai, that produced EGM and many “sister” magazines over the years like, Super NES Buyers Guide, Mega Play and Computer Game Review. | was also EGM5 first Editor-In-Chief, shepherding (with the assistance of many talented writers and gamers) many of the familiar sections and editorial elements that survived right up and until the magazine was shuttered, during the first week of 2009. So, as you might expect, this opportunity held a different meaning for me than it might for someone simply looking to trade on the name of a once proud publishing franchise. Before acting on the offer, however, | did my research. | met with many people—including former editors and those who had helmed the magazine or contributed in senior positions prior to the 20/060 purge—to get a sense of whether or not a market even existed for EGM. | heard many different opinions, but one in particular stuck with me. James Mielke, who had edited the magazine up until it suspended publication after the January, 2009 issue, expressed his belief that EGM was still a valuable brand—and ripe for a relaunch. It was that conversation, more than any other, that convinced me that resurrecting EGM was a risk worth taking. Now, that's not to say that there weren't detractors (there were). Many told me that bringing a magazine back to life in the same format as before was contrarian, а fool's errand. | agree with those people wholeheartedly. Because what few knew, when the announcement of EGM's return was made on the eve of the 2009 E3, was that it would be something different than before. Something that takes advantage of new technologies and acknowledges The Only Constant 15 Change the world in which we now find ourselves. The industry insiders who warned me that getting into print, at precisely the time when most were scrambling to get out, would have been correct in their conclusions if my idea was to bring EGM back in the same form. Especially with the same business model that has proven to be so difficult for other publishers in the magazine space over the past few years. There is still a market for print. But I'm also not trying to convert anyone who prefers to find content that is indexed on a website or presented in a digital format, on the iPad or a computer. You can make money in print provided you don’t make the mistake of giving your product away (or, worse yet, newsstand) you can enhance your digital experience by inputting the special iPASS code (emailed directly to subscribers or found on the bind-in card located in the middle of the magazine if you bought a single issue). This service brings you more content, more video and more special features that readers of the basic version of EGMi won't be able to access. Of course, the best publishing brand in the world—even with the fanciest technology—is worthless without editors and writers who can give ita true voice. In that regard we have assembled a group of veteran gaming journalists that includes EGM alumni like Dan “Shoe” Hsu and Demien Linn, Michael Donahoe, Ryan O'Donnell and Matt Chandronait, as well as new faces like Brady Fiechter Many told me that bringing a magazine back to life in the same format as before was contrarian, a fool's errand. | agree with those people wholeheartedly. paying for people to read it—standard operating procedure for years in the magazine business) in exchange for heady circulation numbers that don't ultimately benefit the magazine or the advertisers that support it. We're taking a different approach, by producing a high-quality product for those that enjoy the experience of turning a paper page. And we're focusing on what print does best by playing to the strengths of the medium. Our plan also integrates digital and print in a brand new way, using technology that allows us to present content on computers and tablets that is not just linear, but also has depth that you can control, to dig into the areas of a story that interest you most. Our digital companion, EGMi: The Digital Magazine, uses new technology that literally brings pages to life and allows us to present gaming information in brand new ways. Another way we're integrating EGM in print and EGMi digitally is Ма a new feature called the iPASS. With every copy of the print magazine (either as a subscriber or when you purchase a copy on the (formerly EIC of Play magazine), Mark Bozon (former editor at IGN), John Keefer (formerly EIC of Crispy Gamer), Arnold Kim and Eli Hodapp (operators of the popular TouchArcade.com), and many other names you'll recognize and respect. | plan to continue the same editorial philosophy that has served every one of the 25+ magazines I've launched in the past well: Know your audience and write for them. Now, as was the case in past iterations of EGM, you the reader are the audience we will cater to without exception. If we succeed in that regard everything else will work out fine. Finally, before | let you crack open the first issue of EGM you've seen in awhile, Id like to extend a very special “thank you” to everyone who has offered encouragement, and sent letters of support. | really appreciate all of the kind words that have poured in from the thousands who have followed my Twitter and Facebook announcements over the past months. Your continued interest and enthusiasm are very much appreciated. Enough of my rambling on. | hope you enjoy the new EGM. Dig in! — ЕСМ SPRING 2010 Journeymen К seems only fitting that Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono's latest chapter in this seminal Fighting game series paints the cover of our relaunch issue. lectronic Gaming Monthly's been 20 tself. on quite the journey these pas years, not unlike the game biz I was gearing up for my last year of junior high when EGM launched in the summer of 1989. Videogame magazines at the time were... I don't even really remember what they were, other than nothing much what I wanted out of a magazine dedicated to covering my growing interest in all things Sega and Nintendo. But then along came this awkward, earnest, awesome love letter to the fledgling games industry, giving it the new and ех iting voice it deserved. A few years later life took a strange and unexpected turn, forcing me to sell off every last game in my collection. (Curse you McVan’s Video Game Trader!) As issues of М continued to roll in, I remember ca- sually flipping through a holiday issue and came across 1992% game of the year, Street Fighter II. Something about the images of Capcom’ infectiously colorful fighting game prompted me to take whatever rce money I had, speed to Kay-Bee Toys, and purchase a Super NES and a copy of the game that would bring my withered obses- sion roaring back to life. "Ihe pages of life keep turning, and here we are at the rebirth of Electronic Gaming Monthly, with a massive Street Fighter cover feature standing at the heart of the issue. Street Fighter debuted just two years before EGM, and they have quite a storied history together. Their influences have touched а long line of gamers and game makers alike, so it seems only fitting that Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Onos latest in this seminal fighting game series paints the cover of EGM 238. ‘This feature is an example of the kind of coverage you'll find in the new EGM. Introspective, retrospective, and defini- tive features on games and the people who make them are at the core of what we hope to accomplish within these pages. You'll find evidence of this approach on page 64 . There you'll read the first in our series of interviews with the people behind the biggest games, beginning this month with a profile of David Jaffe, the guy who created God of War and Twisted Metal. He talks about his new game, past mistakes, and how he got his first industry job thanks, ıe of EGM. Every month well bring you a similar in part, to reading an iss interview that looks beyond the basic details of life on the job and deeper into what makes a particular game maker tick. Of course we're also sticking to all the stuff that you've come to love about EGM over the years. Everything from the Review Crew to Next Wave to Seanbaby's The Rest of the Crap, which wraps up the issue on page 97. You'll also see some new and expanded sections that reflect the changing nature of the games industry and how we think it should be covered. More commentary and opinion, more features and interviews about the games and game creators who breath life into your favorite titles. ‘The stories in this special issue reflect the spirit of big comebacks. Like the 2D Revival feature, beginning on page 56. Dwelling in the past and enjoying nos- talagia is alwasy fun, but looking forward is what our industry is all about. The way were presenting coverage is all about letting the games show themselves off while offer- ing up the kinds of insight and opinion that you've come to expect from ЕСМ. Among the titles we're profiling in this issue include Alan Wake, which you can read about on page 72, as well as new information on a slew of others. Our plans are to always high- light the big games you're interested in, as well as smaller titles deserving of attention. As our editorial calendar catches up with ired that these game releases you can be ass well have detailed coverage on the games that matter most to you. ‘The new адаг types аге disintegrating all around us, giving {GM steps into this climate of 'ssive change, where old media arche- way to awesome new prospects like the iPad. As a gamer who is intrinsicly drawn to evolving technology, it’s exciting to say the least. Theres a wider variety of people playing a wider variety of games than ever before, and making a little sense of it all is where we come in. The issue you hold in your hands is the warmup, but know that as we cement our return its only going to get better. J UNLIMITED FREE PLA www.RunesofMagic.com Extensive dual class system rsatile spells and attack combinations _* Enthralling background story < Unique dual class character progression + Extensive character upgrade system * Dynamic character customization features + Guild and player housing * Frequent content updates * Thousands of quests, monsters and items + PvP arena battles and guild wars Fragrrer “© Radiant Arcana is the copyright and trademark of Runewaker Entertainment Corp. All rights © Runes of Magic published by Frogster America Inc. All rights reser го jau'mouwsa C) 3 ks N | B E] Questions, answers, and wanton debauchery Playing Games With DLC (BELATED) LETTER OF THE MONTH: ever wrote a letter to you, but | have Delayed Gratification been a longtime follower. | was so happy Do game publishers assume gamers have to see you return, especially with some wallets filled to the brim with disposable ^ old faces. When | found out about your income? Apparently so, if the recent demise | was crushed, | did not know rash of releasing downloadable content what | would do, or what | would read merely one week after a game release is ^ while-ahem taking саге of business. So any indication. For example, was there | (regrettably) subscribed to a competitors any reason the DLC for [games like Super ^ magazine and every day while reading Street Fighter IV] should not have been it on the throne | felt lost, and confused, included in the actual game itself? Yes, knowing it wasn't the same. | even felt it was because Capcom knew gamers like | was cheating on you. But, lo-and- would shell out extra cash for it. behold, you are back! | subscribed the Sadly, it seems to me that the only way DAY the subscriptions came up and | can developers will stop doing this to gamers not wait to have the first issue in my hand! is if gamers stop letting them. Gamers (And check out EGMil). must stop gobbling up the DLC released — Daniel Riegel immediately after a game. Because videogames exist for the sole purpose of EGM: Where's Joey Greco when you making money for videogame companies ^ need him? (what else?), the only thing that really talks to developers and publishers is the almighty dollar. Oh, sure—they say they take gamers' suggestions into consideration for future development. And sometimes, they really do consider them. But if they really were interested in what gamers want more than they were interested in profits, they would stop this nonsense with DLC that should have been in the game. —Matthew Millsap EGM: We wrote a response to this letter, but it’ll cost you 80 Microsoft points to read it. For a different take on the issue of DLC turn to page 62. All Hail EGM... Hello EGM! | am glad to be talking to you again! This is the first time | have Review Crew Rewind Since you’ve been gone for awhile | thought I’d ask you for review scores on a game that was released when ЕСМ suspended publication. What are you thoughts about Wheelman? —Jeremy Smith EGM: Seriously? You get one shot at this and you ask about Wheelman? Dr. Evil Would Be Proud The Nintendo DS has sold like a billion units worldwide. It's a no brainer that Nintendo will keep making offshoots of the DS, but can they ever go back to a single screened system? If they could, would they? Also, will we ever see the Game Boy brand ever again? —Andrew Davis ЕСМ: It’s doubtful we'll see another Game Boy anytime soon since the DS is still about 875 million units shy of your billion mark. You Got Some Explaining To Do | was once a subscriber їо the former EGM. | wasn’t a long-time subscriber; about 5 years I'd say. However, | thoroughly enjoyed each issue. But | don’t quite understand how it wasn’t possible to simply re-subscribe everyone (if they so choose) to the new EGM. Surely the list of subscribers still exists. The fact that we were sent Maxim magazines proves this. Why wasn’t this possible? You’ve stated you weren't able to get the list of subscribers (or something to that effect). Why not? —Evan EGM: We'd like to give out free magazines, but that strategy doesn't seem to work so well if you want to stay in business. All kidding aside, Evan, when the rights to EGM were acquired, the subscriber list had already been sold. The list existed, but was no longer available. The best-selling portable game system in history-but that's still not good enough for some EGM readers. í BACKGROUND An unexpected Showtime marathon of the Martin Scorcese mob classic, lused to think | was NOISE Casino, played during the writing of this section. Hammers to hands, dangerous with a heads in vices and exploding cars. It's a wonder why they never adapted pen until | saw Pesci it to gaming. Fallout: New Vegas will have to suffice for now. in Casino. You Talking To Me? Take It Off USED GAMES As a longtime reader of your publication Гуе got to say that I’m extremely disappointed by the overly negative tone in your review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack that appeared in the December, 2009 issue. You harp on the fact that TMNT doesn’t take advantage of certain features found on the DS. Well, excuse me—| didn't realize that you HAD to use a stylus in every game for it to be considered worthy of your praise. Does Street Fighter IV use a stylus? How about Halo, any touchscreen-action there? | don't remember choreographing attacks with a small plastic faux pencil in Final Fantasy XIII, do you? | suppose those games suck in your book too. —Jerry W. EGM: Sorry to be the one to clue you in on this Jerry, but EGM never produced a December, 2009 issue. | think you've got us confused with someone else? Games are certainly not as tame as they used to be. Grand Theft Auto has just about everything a Scorsese film does: dirty language with constant F-bombs, unyielding violence, sexual themes, and so on. But what's up with the "partial nudity"? I have yet to see a mainstream game that bares all. Is this the hurdle developers aren't willing to jump? Although GTA4 has almost-visible sexual acts and nearly nude dancers, the nudity is never in full. Do you think it'll happen eventually? It'd be nice not to have to switch over to Cinemax at midnight while gaming. —Devin T. EGM: Not likely. At the moment, the console manufacturers have final say about what's released for their respective systems, and none of them have any interest in their machines being perceived as a porn haven. And the Cinemax comment? Ew. Please spare us the mental image. , 319% The increase in used game sales between June 2008 and June 2009, according to gamesindustry.biz. $2934 Billion Total revneues reported by Gamestop from the sales of used games at their stores. oy ue ВУТНЕ NUMBERS. 73,000,000 HDTV sales, in dollars, directly attributable to the XBox 360, according to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). 92,300 Average annual salary, in dollars, of a direct employee in the computer and video game industry (ESA). DID YOU KNOW: Sega was in negotiations with Atari to release their 16-Bit Mega Drive system in the U.S.under the brand name ‘Tomahawk’? An Atari producer, inspired by Star Trek Il: The Wrath Of Khan, suggested the name that Sega would eventually go on to use: Genesis. GET 12 PRINT ISSUES AND 52 DIGITALISSUES FOR THE LOW PRICE OF SUBSCRIBE www.egmnow.com/subscribe 1-800-829-7830 EGM SPRING 2010 SAVE POINT: 3 Questions With EGM Publisher Steve Harris... You founded EGM in the 805. What's different about (re)launching it this time? It's actually more similar than different. The industry has changed in many ways, but | still. see a lot of the same faces and franchises. It obviously helps that we're starting with a brand and writers that have а legacy with which gamers are familiar. a es yi ame voti What's been up since you sold EGM to Ziff? 1 continued to launch magazines through 2005. | then started producing and selling feature films and television. The last publishing project | worked on was with KISS bassist Gene Simmons. Called “Gene Simmons" GAME." His idea was to create sort of a Maxim meets gaming with himself as the frontman. But his TV show blew up and his energies went there. You've been working on movies? Any we've heard of? We developed a 3-D Amityville film starting soon, a sequel to Neil Marshall's werewolf flick Dog Soldiers, and a paranormal pic set on a submarine, with a director who recently wrapped a movie based ona gaming franchise. It's a fun industry but l'm taking a break to work exclusively on EGM. Where You Been? Having been a reader since issue #1, Рт curious, what the hell has Steve Harris been up to since he sold the mag, and what prompted him to buy it back for the relaunch? —Jimmy Webb EGM: He bought it back because his lawyers told him that relaunching the magazine without doing so was a good way to get sued. As for what he’s been up to (in areas other than weight), check out the ‘3 Questions’ to your immediate left. EGMi Want More | read the first issue of EGMi and | thought it was pretty good. | like the way it’s setup to be similar to a real magazine, but with some animations. Га like to have a way of downloading so i can archive it for myself. Also, I'd love to see digital versions of past EGM issues going back as far as possible. —Brian Agatonovic EGM: We’re toying with a way to allow you to download future issues of EGMi. The capability is there, but we want to make sure that certain performance standards aren’t lost in the transfer. As far as back issues are concerned, we plan to offer a fully searchable archive of every page of EGM every produced, probably for iPASS users, in the near future. Stay tuned. That Pesky Extra Chromo | was disgusted when | read the letter in by Sarah М. ["Girl, disgusted"]. Where was the sarcastic comment at the end that | so looked forward to reading? Sarah's statement that “Roughly half of the entire gaming population is female”set you up perfectly. Proclaiming that 50 percent of the gaming community is female is just ridiculous. | went to the midnight release OUR FIRST LOOK AT THE BIG GAMES OF 2010 of Halo 2 and GTA4. The crowd was full of smelly, sweating, heavily breathing males all talking about how when they go home, they’re all going to play online until the next morning. | saw only a single girl at both releases, so it’s asinine to say that half the world’s population of videogame players is female. —Aaron Tessler EGM: Trouble is, the crowd at a midnight launch isn’t exactly YY b representative of the population of gamers as a whole. It’s pretty much just the hardest of the hardcore who are willing to make those kinds of time investments. And the seriously hardcore are still, for whatever reason, mostly male. Make sense? Core Competency The terms “hardcore game” and “hardcore gamer” are both idiotic. So-called hardcore gamers seem to call themselves such because they have nothing better to do in their spare time than play games. And so-called hardcore games don’t xist. If | play Halo or GTA once or twice а week—i.e., casually—then it's a “casual game.” If Joe Lunchbox buys Cooking Mama, takes two days off work, and doesn’t bathe or talk to real humans in order to play the game for two straight days, then Cooking Mama could be considered a hardcore game. The term is meaningless. Any game can be as casual or as hardcore as the player makes it. If you play videogames, you're a gamer. End of story. Calling yourself hardcore doesn’t make you sound cool; to the rest of us normal people, it makes you sound like you need to leave your mom’s basement and do something else with your spare time. —Brian Di Cesare ЕСМ: You'd probably feel differently if you were more hardcore. Mission Accomplished I'm excited to see the new EGM in action, but I'm also a little disappointed. You see, it's my life's dream to work for you. To review new games and represent EGM at E3. | know | have what it takes to be a part of your magazine, and would do almost anything to contribute to my favorite gaming publication. Seriously, I'd eat both shoes if | could just see my name in the pages of EGM. — Tomas Rodriguez EGM: Need salt with those shoelaces, Tomas? Starting Over | have a question about the issue numbering. Why did you decide to continue the numbering of the old magazine instead of starting from issue #1? — бат Irizarry ЕСМ: We did start over at #1, Sam. We just decided to skip the first 237 issues. I Like It Hard | have a drawer riddled with broken controllers. Twisted, bent, mangled, all in the name of gaming. For me, a game isn’t fun unless it’s hard, not hard enough to make me turn it off, but hard enough to feel satisfied once it’s over. Most games, Гуе found, are either mind numbingly easy or throttle a kitten hard; all lacking a middle ground of torment and virtue, perfectly intertwined. Yes, | could just Photo courtesy Tracy Baran change the difficulty setting, but who is content with steamrolling through something on easy? | know I'm not. Plus, games hardly ever have an achievement/ trophy for beating them on the lower difficulties. | feel like games nowadays get caught up in the size of explosions and lack the attention to playability they so desperately need. —Joey Paysinger ЕСМ: | wouldn't hold my breath waiting for publishers to add ‘Mediocre’ to the difficulty settings anytime soon. Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = ? Your article [“10 Things We've Learned From Our Xbox Live Headset"] is a perfect illustration of why | do not usea Andy Baran, 1974-2009 Last July | got the very sad news that Andy Baran, a longtime EGM contributor who was part of the core group responsible for giving the magazine avoice during its earliest days, had passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was only 35. To say word of his passing was sudden isan understate- ment. Though time and geography had pulled us apart, | had traded emails with him less than three weeks earlier and, while confronting a difficult prognosis, he remained upbeat when speaking about his time with the magazine. The one request Andy made in that email was that he be mentioned in the pages of EGM one more time. And while this short amount of space could never adequeately capture who Andy was or what he represented to so many, it does provide the op- portunity to let those who didn’t know him understand what a talented individual he was, and how his dedication to life lifted everyone around him. He is sadly missed. = Steve Harris headset while playing on Xbox Live. In fact, | turn down the TV sound and turn up the music coming from my stereo to drown out the insults, background noise, and stupid comments. If | want to listen to the other guys I’m playing with, РИ haul my PC to a LAN party. The members of those clubs, for the most part, are more respectful of their fellow members than the dregs of society you sometimes run across on Live. Part of that civility might have to do with actually being in the same room as the person they are considering “dissing;” it’s not so tempting to be a major jerk when the people you’re considering acting that way toward are right there—and could physically throw you out of the room if you go too far. — John Enfield EGM: Wait, you mean it's possible to not be a complete douchebag when playing games with other people? Who knew? Playing Favorites What is the best issue of EGM ever released? —Jon S. EGM: It’s hard to pin down just one. I'd have to go with 11, 79, 127, and 201, but not necessarily in that order. It Burns! I'm the editor of the yearbook at my school, and | would like to know how EGM handles writers who like to procrastinate, ignore work, and hide during deadline weeks. What do you do to get the troops motivated? — Matthew Moore EGM: Threaten to put them on Letters. EJ CONTACT EGM bye l Ч letters@egmnow.net by snail 8840 Wilshire Blvd Third Floor Beverly Hills, СА 90211 sub help: egm@customerserviceemail.com 800.859.7830 ЕСМ SPRING 2010 Reviews aggregator Metacritic has become the arbiter of "quality" in the games industry. How it impacts the games you play and how publishers are trying to hijack its influence... By he reviews aggregator site Metacritic was launched in 2001. It has steadily grown in popularity over the past nine years and has effectively become the epicenter of game criticism on the Web. It pulls together reviews of games (along with music, movies, TV shows, and DVDs) and designates each and every title a numerical score, whether or not one is provided by the reviewer In our increasingly time- strapped culture, it has become the quick-and- dirty way of figuring out whether or not something is "worth buying." And while the site began as ап attempt to provide consumers with a snapshot of how a game, movie, or album was tracking critically, it has since become something of a barometer of a product's quality —one considered not only by consumers, but also by publishers, developers, and financial analysts. This is especially true in the games industry, where committing to a product is a significant investment in both time and money (roughly $60 and 10+ hours for a game, versus, say, $11 and 2 hours for a movie), and reviews are more often than not presented as a form of "Consumer Reports" for the medium. Essentially, aggregator sites attempt to turn the rather unscientific process of reviewing a creative work — ultimately one's personal opinion based on his or her own experience with the product— into a scientific formula. If the role of criticism is to give art form, the role of Metacritic is to give it a numerical value. Nuts and bolts Metacritic's scores derive from the weighted average of reviews from hundreds of outlets across the media spectrum, hand-picked by its founder, Marc Doyle. For those sources that don't rate on a 100-point scale, he translates а score: An "A" becomes 100%, “3/5 stars" becomes 60%, etc. For those outlets that eschew scores altogether (often the case in movies and music, less common in videogames), Doyle and his team actually assign a score based on what they infer from the review text. Scores are weighted as well: Those from major publications may have a greater effect on the average than smaller ones. Though it has been a source of controversy, Doyle refuses to reveal how this weighting system works: "You'd just get arguments," he says. "We've taken the time to research our stuff and to know what are the most respected publications, So we want to keep it a bit of a mystery there. It's basically our secret sauce." Of course, Metacritic didn't invent the notion of “scoring” creative works. Ask any critic worth his or her salt (in any medium) what part of the review process irks them the most, and they'll almost always point to the grade: Trying to sum up one's impressions of a wide-ranging, multi-disciplined experience with a number or letter can be incredibly difficult, often feeling arbitrary at best or undercutting at worst. What does the score even mean? A game can provide a technically superb but emotionally shallow experience or vice versa. It may be made by a team of four trying to express a complex idea or by a team of 400 trying to make your id say "uncle." It can succeed at being interesting but fail at being fun—or it can be something you enjoyed immensely but have no interest in keeping on your shelf. Not every videogame is the interactive equivalent of a Van Gogh, certainly, but it still begs the question: Can you imagine looking at a painting — be it realistic, abstract, or surrealist — and then attempting to give it a number score? The more historically significant the art form, it seems, the more pronounced this absurdity becomes. Having said that, Michelangelo's Pietà is definitely a 97. From reading the site and speaking to Doyle, it's clear that Metacritic has an interest in proper criticism. (From the site's “About Us” Metacritic attempts to create a uniform reviewing | standard with mixed results. page: "Personally, we at Metacritic like to read reviews, which is one of the reasons we include a link to every full review on our site... we want you to read them too!") But look a bit closer and you'll also notice some curious editorial absences from Metacritic, including the reviews of G4/X-Play, which are no longer factored into the site's Metascores. X-Play uses a 1-5 point scale for its reviews, which doesn't translate very well to Metacritic's 100-point scale. "When, for example, a 3 was becoming a 60 on Metacritic, we realized it wasn't accurately representing our feelings about the дате,” says Adam Sessler, G4's Editor-in-Chief and co-host of X-Play. “We did reach out to Metacritic to see if they’d follow our own table—where a 3 would translate into something in the 70s, namely the C or ‘average’ range— but we were met with resistance and told that evaluating our own scoring system was not valid.” Sessler had been approached by a very upset “high-level game developer” who informed him that X-Play’s translated grade of his game (a 2/5 had become a 40% on Metacritic), in fact, bumped his own game's Metascore out of the range in which » "We realized [Metacritic] wasn't accurately representing our feelings." 1 h d ЕСМ ‹ 18| PRESS START "All | want is for Metacritic to preserve the meaning of our score." LUP Editorial tor Sam his team would receive its bonus payment. The experience brought the issue closer to home. “Metacritic has fostered this demented logic in the brains of a lot of the readers of gaming websites and magazines—that somehow this is mathematical,” says Sessler. “If | could do away with reviews, | would. But | can’t, so we minimize them with our 5-point scale. When people complain to us about scores on our website, it’s with this presumption that there’s an inherent value, that the value is universal. And | think Metacritic furthers that unhealthy way of thinking.” 1UP editorial director Sam Kennedy has similar issues with his site’s standing on Metacritic, after unsuccessful attempts to convince Doyle to allow him to “more accurately” translate 1UP scores to Metacritic’s 100-point scale. “All | want is for Metacritic to preserve the meaning of our score,” says Kennedy. “С is average, B is good, A is excellent. | want those translated properly. If you look on the site, though, a C is translated to a 5096. If I'm saying average, | want it to communicate average. And no gamer views 50% as average — nobody is going to buy a 5096 game." Kennedy says he fields calls all the time from publishers about 1UP's scores as they appear on Metacritic and believes that, as it currently stands, there's not a publisher in the industry that doesn't have a problem with Metacritic's system. "I've heard complaints from every single one." Doyle is aware of the nature of this imperfect system and notes the challenges inherent in translating all of the diverse scales to that of Metacritic. But he argues that Kennedy consistency essentially levels the playing field. “Аз long as an individual publication is internally consistent with their own scoring" — he points to the UK's Edge magazine as an example, which is known for its consistently tough Scale— "then as long as they review a representative number of games, when you have some tough graders and some easy graders, it all comes out in the wash, and the Metascore gives you a good idea of whether one game is better than another game." Metacritic is also something of an easy target for publishers looking for good press. Of course, public relations departments have attempted to positively skew reviews of their products since well before videogames even existed; movie studios would commonly invite only “select” critics to pre-release screenings of their films, in the hopes of creating positive buzz. A videogame PR department can, of course, send out reviewable products to whichever outlets it so desires—and in whatever order it chooses. The advent of Metacritic did not invent this practice, but it has certainly made it more effective. “It is absolutely standard procedure for us PR folks to get our games’ Metacritic rankings as high as possible, as early as possible,” one PR manager, who wished to remain anonymous, told us. “There’s a lot of pressure from up above to get this done, so there's really no way to avoid it.” As they did in pre-Metacritic days, companies will stagger their mailings of reviewable code to critics, rather than send the code to every outlet on the same day. Which means that Metacritic scores often start higher More New Releases Prison Break: The Conspiracy ce What me Cites ме than they ultimately end up: By choosing outlets or individual reviewers that the PR representative deems to be either a fan of the series, developer, or style of game— or worse, outlets that may be in their pockets for all intents and purposes— publishers can significantly boost the ratings of their games in the crucial early stages of release (the “opening weekend,” so to speak). “I generally try to get my games in the hands of reviewers | think are going to like it first,” another PR manager at a major publisher told us. “And sometimes | know they’re going to like it. If an editor s**ts on a game in their preview, we won't send them review code." Perhaps the most widely publicized instance of this sort of PR misdirection came with the release of Tony Hawk: Ride. The game's publisher, Activision Blizzard, told editorial outlets that in order to review the game, they'd have to come play under the supervision of both Activision PR and Tony Hawk himself (and alongside the public, which would also be in attendance as well). Nearly all invited outlets declined the offer, deciding instead to wait to buy their own copies of the game and take the time to review it on their own terms. Some, however, including websites GameZone.com and GamingTrend.com, jumped at the opportunity: Having the first review provides obvious financial incentive, including click-throughs to the site from Metacritic visitors. Both outlets gave the game a 9296, which is where Ride's Metascore stood for the first crucial days after the game's release. As more reviews trickled in, however, the game's Metascore evened out at a rather icy 4696. "| don't regret any opportunity to get time with a game prior to it being released," says Michael Lafferty, editor-in-chief of GameZone, also adding, "The job of a reviewer is not to follow popular opinion, to follow the herd mentality, to wait until everyone has published an opinion, divine the middle ground and then write something safe. We play games and write what we think." But could the circumstances under which the reviewers had to play the game have unfairly influenced the scores? "In retrospect, yes, | do regret accepting the offer to review on-site," says Mike Dunn, Gaming Trend's reviewer on Ride. "We discussed it internally and our decision was to put the disclaimer describing the circumstances of the review and reserving the right to revisit it later. When | finally got my hands on a personal copy of the game there were several issues that just didn't come forth when we played it that first time, and | was intending to make adjustments to my review, but by then things had kind of blown over and none of us really wanted to go and stir that pot up again. Now, the review that | wrote? That enthusiasm was genuine— we had a great time playing the game." Doyle, conversely, believes Metacritic protects the consumer from this sort of foul play. "The great thing about an aggregator is that when it's all said and done, when all the reviews come in, that score ain't gonna lie—at least, that's our take on it," he says. "If [publishers] think they can game the system, more power to them. But hey, I’m in control of the system, and I'm keenly aware of all of these things." According to Doyle, however, no outlets were removed from Metacritic after the Tony Hawk: Ride incident. From speaking to journalists around the industry, it's clear that it has become common practice for PR departments to allow them to break review embargoes if their score falls in a range the publisher deems acceptable. Kennedy recalls a situation regarding the first Assassin's Creed: “The PR team had said, ‘If you're giving the game above a 90%, feel free to break our embargo.’ The entire week before the game came out [the Metacritic score] was at a 98, and the day after it came out and the embargo for everyone else was lifted, the score dropped to an 83.” Again, this is not rare: This type of “conditional embargo” has become a standard issue PR tactic. All of this can have a rather insidious trickle-down effect as well, catalyzed in part by poor journalistic ethics. Many in the industry know that Critic-Schizm | Give Aggregate Sites a 20% By John Keefer in my side when | was editorial director at GameSpy, particularly when those sites take a 5-star system and rigidly convert it to a percentage (“3 stars is NOT 6096") . Then try having a conversa- tion with the game’s publisher who only looks at the score on those sites: Publisher: “You gave our game a 70!” Me: “No we didn’t. We gave it 3% stars. That means it is a good game. Did you read the review?” Publisher: “No, but | saw the score.” Me: “Where did you see it as a 70?" Publisher: “GameRankings said you gave it a 70." Sigh. When publishers and even readers put so much emphasis on scores and don't even bother to read the words associated with the review, then something is wrong with the systet And | believe that the aggregate sites are at the core of the problem. It’s all about the numbers and not about the meaning or the context. When | started the ill-fated Crispy Gamer, | wanted to try to get т п around that. When а read- US IN their er looks at a review, what metric do they what to know? They want to know if they should spend their money on it. If you are creating a site for the reader and want to be useful, then get them talking about the review and not the score. Crispy's Buy/Try/Fry system was a simple guideline that was clear on what the site thought of the game. No arguments about a 72 versus a 77 and how the reviewer arbitrarily came to that number. And | really didn't give a rat's ass whether the ag- gregate sites included us in their metric. In the end, it was probably a bit idealistic. It's always about the eyeballs but, while the site gener- ated a fair share of traffic and chatter, we couldn't put enough of a dent in the existing mindset. | still believe that the scoring system is broken and top-heavy with scores from 7-9 (7096 to 9096 for the aggregate impaired) and it is the emphasis on the aggregate sites by fans AND publishers that keep it from being fixed. Unfortunately it will take more than a few isolated voices to change it. (3 imeRankings and Metacritic were thorns | really didn't give arats ass whether aggregate sites included 20 | PRESS START "IF [publishers] think they can game the system then more power to them." -Metacritic Founder Marc videogame critics — particularly those who write for *mainstream" outlets existing predominantly outside of the games industry — often look to Metacritic for their own opinions. Need to write a 250-word review of a game and assign it a number Score, but you're only getting paid $50 to do it? The choice for some critics between spending the required 20 hours to properly play and evaluate said game or to simply sponge Metacritic for prevailing opinions and a score from the critical consensus often becomes an easy one. "| do it myself all the time, and | would call the practice pervasive in the mainstream media," says one freelancer journalist who wished to remain anonymous. This does not necessarily reflect a fault of Metacritic: For its own sanctity, it's clear that it does what it can to properly vet the outlets it chooses to include on its site, and there is ultimately no way to “prove” that any particular outlet is on the take. But it does point to the holes in what often has the appearance of a scientifically sound, bulletproof system: The distillation of game criticism into aggregated scores means that a snapshot of multiple reviews from multiple outlets can often be misleading — exponentially more so than the odd disreputable review. Because of Metacritic's success in counseling consumers' relationships with their wallets, it has become a major focus of attention for the industry as a whole. Publishers across the board use Metacritic as a significant indicator of the success and/or competence of their development teams, stock Doyle analysts reference Metascores on investor conference calls, and as Sessler learned (and subsequently shared with an audience in a *GDC Rant" at 2009's Game Developers Conference), a game's performance on Metacritic can directly affect a developer's pocket. And the numbers game, some say, can be a dangerous one. "[Metacritic] can have the added side effect of enticing publishers to produce table wine rather than Cháteau Lafite," says one high- level publisher. “If a game's going to be summed up in a single number, rather than fairly critiqued on its various attributes, it's easier to incorporate ‘crowd pleaser’ elements of a game —such as focusing on the graphics or number of vehicles/weapons, etc.—that take time but less effort, than to work on more esoteric, less easily quantifiable quality issues like narrative, gameplay, and accessibility.” Issues upon which many believe the industry needs to focus its resources, if it wants to bring videogames out of their persistent cultural isolation. Doyle’s weighting of the outlets also has an effect оп a game's Metascore. “Не could be giving, say, 1UP far more significance than Eurogamer," says another industry insider, who has worked both in marketing and as a member of the press. "And if that were accurate, given Eurogamer's consistently harsh scoring, that would have a significant effect on the final, mean MC score for a game." Finally, Metacritic can include multiple versions of the same site. “I’m sure they'd protest otherwise, but part of the franchising agreement of any site from the parent company is to be roughly in step editorially," says our insider. “So having the UK, Italian, French, and Dutch version of the same media organ in Metacritic as separate entities inevitably also skews the results." Complicating things even further, movies and games are rated differently, and Metacritic, as well as its closest competitor, GameRankings, are both owned by CBS Interactive and sit under the same corporate umbrella as GameSpot — whose reviews are regularly included in the weighted aggregate scores. It's tough to argue with Metacritic's convenience, certainly, but the same thing could be said of McDonald's. Certainly, many games are in fact simply the interactive equivalent of a Happy Meal: licensed, interactive schlock serving little purpose other than to boost a licensor's bottom line— and treating them as such doesn't seem inappropriate. But many other games are decidedly not that; the real crime is that aggregator sites like Metacritic undermine the art of games and foster an implication that a number can encompass the "quality" of a given title. The notion of deciding whether or not to buy a song or an album based on the aggregated scores from a bunch of critics seems ridiculous, and at least for the crop of titles that aspire to be more than crass commercialism, one can hope that this perception carries over to games. If we ever want our often-pined-for Citizen Kane, perhaps a change in our perceptions of the critical process is in order. Ë Development bonuses can be tied to an aggregate score leading some to believe that “crowd pleaser” element will win ou over less quantifiable features. Gaming Gets Lost in the Clouds Why Streaming Videogames Will Have a Tough Time Changing the Way We Play he BBC is calling it a “console killer.” PC World thinks it could “upend video games as we know it.” Forbes magazine predicts it will make “games on DVDs and consoles like the XBox ... as old hat as a Blockbuster store.” “It” is the concept of streaming video games over the Internet, an idea now being pursued by three different companies that want to revolutionize the way you access and play games. Some of the details of how these services will work are still shrouded in secrecy, but the general idea behind each is simple: Games will run on powerful remote servers, which will take input from the player and return streaming game audio and video over a high-speed Internet connection. In addition to eliminating the need for expensive, high-powered hardware on the user's end, this model theoretically fixes a lot of problems with current game distribution, including inconvenient brick-and-mortar stores. lengthy downloads and easy piracy. There are concerns about lag and bandwidth requirements, of course, but live demos for each service have shown streaming games to be at least playable, if not yet perfect. And besides, proponents argue, such concerns will likely melt away as bandwidth and processing power increase in the coming years. The first game service claiming to have licked the issues of latency, server capacity and consistency of delivery is upstart OnLive. Planning to launch on June 17 (after several delays), the hope of streaming gaming is finally on the verge of going from idea to reality. But will these services truly be the “console killers" they've been described as in the press? Is the current generation of traditional consoles the last Internet-connected gamers will ever need? “Games in the cloud, if proven that they offer a compelling user experience to a mass audience, have the potential to change the market," said Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian. "But it's also a capital-intensive service and difficult to manage on a large scale, so | don't expect a big direct impact on the console market in the near-term." One of the main obstacles to challenging consoles in the short term, of course, is the money players have already sunk into their favorite systems. "For Sony and Microsoft, consumers have made investments in those platforms, and are going to favor those platforms this cycle over paying another $15 a month to access games on another platform," Sebastian said, referring to the monthly fee OnLive plans to charge users before they're allowed to buy full games on the service (OnLive says a free companion service will let players rent games and try demos). This kind of monthly fee doesn't have to be a barrier to entry; OnLive competitor Gaikai has said they won't charge any regular fee for their streaming games. Instead Gaikai, which has not reà SLIP-STREAMING: Is the oft-delayed OnLive finally dy to deliver? announced a firm launch date as of press time, will reportedly cover its costs through advertisements embedded within games and demos, which could themselves be embedded in websites or even show up on other Internet-enabled devices, like cell phones. "We're not trying to replace the consoles," Gaikai's David Perry told Gameslndustry.biz, adding that he would be happy to stream his service through existing consoles or even Internet-enabled TVs, if possible. Moving the currently PC-focused streaming services to the living room HDTV in such a manner will be crucial to getting console gamers to try out these new services. OnLive has announced its "Streaming is not a business, it's a technology." intention to provide a MicroConsole that will do just that, but pricing and launch dates will reportedly be announced “later in the year." Game streaming company Otoy has shown demos with the service running through a laptop hooked up to an HDTV, but this solution seems impractical for most living-room users. Regardless of the screen they're used on, it's clear that these services will live or die not only based on their ability to overcome some monumental technical challenges, but also the support they attract from publishers. Streaming movie. services like Netflix have caused a ripple. but not an earthquake, in the movie rental market, said streaming and online video analyst Dan Rayburn, primarily because movie studios have imposed high licensing costs. "Streaming is not a business, it's a technology," Rayburn said. "It's all that it is. A lot of people confuse that, say we're а streaming company. If that’s what you are, you'll go bankrupt. You can't make money from streaming; it's just a platform. You make money from the content." enn Taking (Motion) Control Can Microsoft and Sony Convert Skeptical Gamers to Go Alon lashback to early May 2006. Mario creator and legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto walks on the stage of the packed Kodak Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, wearing a full tuxedo and holding a prototype of the still mysterious (and recently renamed) Wii Remote. With a maximum of fanfare he proceeds to enthusiastically conduct a virtual orchestra of Wiis in a rushed version of the familiar Legend of Zelda theme. The tempo stutters a bit as Miyamoto's rhythm falters (or perhaps it's the other way around), but the song ends to a round of deafening applause from the audience. "What we're unveiling is the next leap in gaming," Nintendo President Reggie Fils- Aime says minutes later. The age of motion control has arrived. Fast forward to October 2008. Wii Music, the game inspired by that E3 conducting demo, launches to mostly negative reviews. Critics cite the game's limited song selection and largely shallow, directionless gameplay, but also deride the revolutionary new motion controls that were shown off to such strong effect at that E3 press conference just two years before. "Poor controls will have many players quitting the band before its first real gig," wrote GamesRadar. “The controls aren't particularly intuitive, but gimmicky,” said IGN. In a financial briefing months later, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata admits that the game "has not achieved its true potential." The story is illustrative of a common theme in the motion-control era thus far— lofty promises followed by a flood of disap- pointingly shallow final products. While the Wii—along with pack-in Wii Sports —has found purchase with many consumers who hadn't traditionally played videogames, those who grew up playing with standard controllers have generally been less than impressed by the kinds of titles the motion- control revolution has brought about. “The Wii benefited from bringing the novelty of motion control to new audiences, and that allows Wii game designers to get away with a lot," said Concordia University Associate Professor and human-computer interaction researcher Bart Simon. “Gim- micks work with the Wii the same way they worked with the EyeToy for a time... What seems different is the market —there are now more folks that want more games they can play quickly and with friends. Multiplayer mini-games hit that spot." Enter Microsoft and Sony, whose camera-based Natal and Move controllers are being positioned to spark yet another motion-control revolution upon their re- lease later this year. Both companies argue that their camera-based controllers will fulfill the squandered promise of the Wii by offering more precise, accurate, full- body motion-sensing through 3D space. Demos for the controllers have included the sorts of multiplayer mini-games that have become almost synonymous with the Wii Remote, but also games like Burnout Paradise and SOCOM 4 that have typically been controlled with buttons and joysticks. The promise of this new technology has already generated its fair share of hype: Lionhead's Peter Molyneux has compared the effect of Project Natal to the impact the mouse had on personal computing. Sony or The Motion Control Ride? CEO Jack Tretton said his company's Play- Station Move will “create franchises that nobody has ever heard of or envisioned.” But this sort of hype might be funda- mentally incompatible with what many gamers expect out of motion controls. “A lot of my research is focused on this and | specifically talk about the disjunction be- tween the expectation set up by the hype and the play experiences players report,” Simon said. “Hardcore gamers are savvy folks who tend to find flaws in overall game design pretty fast.” "IF Gears 3 or Halo: Reach only work with Natal, a lot of hardcore gamers will buy and use Natal." -Wedbush Morgan a Michael Pachter lyst Simon isn’t the only skeptical observer. Jesper Juul, Game Center Professor at NYU, agrees. “Traditional gamers will probably remain skeptical about motion controls for the time being,” said Juul. “The original Wii controller certainly had the problem that it is quite imprecise (apart from the screen pointer)—this is something that gamers pick up quickly. With more precise controllers and some ‘gamer’ games to go with it, that skepticism may go way. It comes down to someone demonstrating that the motion controls can contribute something to an established genre.” Even if the new camera-based control- lers are more precise than the touchy Wii Remote, Simon argues, they can’t compete with the more direct, cause-and-effect rela- tionship gamers are used to with traditional controllers. “Since the motion-control reso- lution will never be one-to-one, it becomes tricky for the player to understand the relation between what they are doing and what is happening on the screen,” he said. “Button presses on traditional controllers are different because you need to train your body to do something specific that the software/console wants you to do rather than the other way around. My suggestion is that greater bodily freedom will actually mean less control, and that should open up new avenues of game design that have yet to be explored.” Indeed, on the Wii, traditional games that require a certain level of precision often include support for the system's Nunchuk analog stick and face buttons, or even support for the old GameCube controller, as a concession to gamers who want more direct control. Even games that do use the system's motion- sensing capabilities often just substitute a quick jerk of the Remote for a button press, rather than requiring full-body movements. "The motion controller invented by Nintendo was a solution in search of a problem," said Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. "Most gamers didn't appreciate why they needed to spin Mario in Super Mario Galaxy in order to break up rocks, as they had been accustomed to using a combination of buttons to do the same thing in the past." Sony, at least, seems to recog- nize this potential reluctance among traditional gamers to accept motion controls for some types of games. "[With] SOCOM 4, the approach that we've taken ... is that for those hard- Core, skeptical, bitter gamers who say ‘ah, I’ve seen this already,’ they can play this game the way they’ve always played it, on the DualShock,” Sony Worldwide Vice President Scott Rohde said in an interview with Kotaku. “But on that same disc 23 you're going to get a new control scheme. Sony and It's going to allow those people to try Mic it and see if they like it better, and I’m promise to convinced that some percentage of those hardcore gamers may actually like this controller better. You're also going to get a group of new people who perhaps were intimidated by the DualShock. So I think we have the best of both worlds there." The question, then, is whether tradi- tional gamers will be willing to invest in a new, unproven technology when traditional controls are still an option. "I think that hardcore gamers will continue to think that the new motion controls are stupid, and most won't use them unless the game requires it," Pachter said. *That will limit use to mini-games or to controlling the dashboard. | suppose we'll see, as the software that comes out will largely deter- mine acceptance. For example, if Gears 3 or Halo: Reach only work with Natal, a lot of hardcore gamers will buy and use Natal. | doubt that either game will require it, but I'm just saying..." Cue angry online petitions from hard- core Halo fans in 3, 2, 1... EJ roso pand on the 'S success but is it little, too late? too THE LAST WORD ON VIDEO GAMES he only constant in the videogame industry is that it’s always changing. First the games came on cartridges, then on discs, and now they’re streaming through the Internet. Sony and Microsoft, known mainly for the Walkman and Word respectively in 1989, have both become billion-dollar gaming kingpins. And it’s no longer considered cool to play driving games with a Power Glove. Steve Harris, EGM founder and charter member of the U.S. National Video Game Team (which held tournaments in arcades nationwide and also included Donkey Kong savant Billy Mitchell), spends time after his day job as a producer at Atari Games to launch Electronic Gaming Monthly nationwide, debuting with a Holiday Buyers’ Guide in late 1988. EGM's layout, comprised mostly of text and small screenshots, is awash in rumors of the Super NES and other upcoming 16-bit consoles, including the never-to-be- released Konix Multisystem. G 1 МОЕО GAMES DISPLAY UTI MARCI an, poo 9377 74 эв CANADA TS ANNUAL ‘S GUIDE Twenty years after it launched under the Sendai banner, Electronic Gaming Monthly is one of the few constants the industry can rely on. Few gaming moments — from the rise of Mario and Master Chief to Trip Hawkins trying to convince us that buying а $699 3DO system was a good idea— have gone unreported within its pages. But the magazine itself has also undergone massive changes over its two decades, going from a garage operation run by Six months would pass between the first two issues of EGM, an unfortunate reality for a magazine with the word "Monthly" in the title. Alas, this trend of semi-monthly releases would plague the magazine throughout it's early issues. Nintendo continues to usher in a gaming rennaissance as coverage slowly migrates away from the NES and Sega Master System and the term 16-Bit enters the publication's lexicon EGM's multiscore Review Crew makes its debut, although it's still a little rough at this point— Editor-In-Chief Ed Semrad gives 8-bit role-playing game Hydlide a 6 even though he "can't remember what this game was about." | Ican'tremember what this game was about. That's about all | can say about Hydlide. EGM puts a topless Fabio on the cover of Issue #3. We'd comment more about it, but every joke possible about this cover has already been made so we'll pass up the opportunity to pile on. suburban-Chicago fanboys to one of the most prestigious publications in the entire industry. And as the magazine business finds itself slowly, inexorably dragged online, the evolution's happening more quickly than ever before. How about we take a moment to catch our breath and reflect back on some of the best and worst moments from our first ten years of publication before plunging forward again with the new issue you now hold? It's a tumultuous time for games—the NES is still king, but Sega's Genesis and NEC's TurboGrafx-16 are threatening to break the market wide open. EGM responds by transforming itself into a screenshot-laden mag specializing in previews. Sushi-X also debuts in the Review Crew, dispensing his anti-Gameboy vitriol. Harris secretly arranges to grab footage of the Batman NES game with the help of a Sunsoft producer. Shuttling camera equipment in and out of a darkened hotel room prompts the manager, fearing the group is filming a porn video, to cut the session short. Sunsoft will subsequently threaten a lawsuit over the cover before ultimately backing down. Harris features the back-glass image from The Simpsons' pinball machine (the first-and most assuredly the last-instance EGM gives it's cover to a pinball machine) to circumvent a competitor's exclusive on Acclaim's Simpsons NES game. Why he would go to such lengths remains a mystery. Inside, Quartermann speaks out against Nintendo’s Dr. Mario and its casual portrayal of pills, calling it “a terrible case of bad judgment.” 1 MONTHLY The SNES finally gets released in America, but the hottest Japanese games just aren't getting translated into English fast enough! (The idea that a non-Asian company could produce a fun nonsports console game wasn't en vogue for another few years yet.) Responding to demand, Sendai launches spin-off mags Mega Play, | Super NES Buyer's Guide, and Electronic Gaming Retail News and comes close to purchasing upstart competitor Game Informer from that magazine's parent company, Funcoland. EGM was the mag for Japanophiles at this point, its pages filled with coverage of games months before U.S. release and ads for 1-900 game-news hotlines and Japanese importers—some of which had their advertising revoked after ripping off readers. And this was before Street Fighter II even appeared... EGM publishes its first developer interview—in the way that we understand them nowadays, at least—depicting the staff of Sculptured Software as they discuss forgotten NES game Metal Mech. The National Enquirer profiles Harris as the videogame geek who became a rich magazine publisher. After reviewing yet another crappy portable platformer, Sushi-X cracks and admits, that “1 don't think ГИ ever really like a Game Boy game.” Е EL Street Fighter Il, Street Fighter Il, and more Street Fighter Il—that sums up 1992 іп EGM land. Capcom's arcade sensation dominates the letters and strategy-guide | sections of every issue, with hopeful readers crying for info on the million-selling Super Nintendo port and then cheats and codes to unlock boss characters and other extras after its release. Street Fighter II and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog were the two console smashes in an otherwise disappointing year, with the Sega CD add-on proving to be a useless space-age gadget (no Sega CD game averages over 7.0 in the Review Crew in '92) and Q-Mann's constant rumormongering over Sony and | Nintendo's SNES CD-ROM attachment amounting to jack. py == Harris, supported by YeLECTROMIC GAMING — MONTHLY data showing sales dipping up to 100,000 copies when the cover fails to mention a fighting game, issues a decree to the art designer to highlight one on every issue. It's slightly embarrassing, in retrospect, how many Mortal Kombat covers EGM did. Sorry about that. Putting 3D holograms on the cover becomes an extremely short-lived fad among game magazines. EGM obliges with a semiunfocused Road Rash II sticker on the front of its holiday issue. Everyone's trying to get a piece of the gaming pie, from 300 and SNK to Commodore, whose (032 barely hits the marketplace before the company goes bankrupt. EGM, ballooning ü to over 300 pages per issue, becomes thicker than most rural phone books. Having to deal with 40 games a month, the Review Crew expands to more than four people. SF2 strategy guides give way to Mortal Kombat blood codes. Ahh, a simpler time indeed! "Trickman" Terry, lord of the cheats section, has a rough summer: His car's damaged, his insurance's revoked, and he's evicted from his apartment. "Please, send in more tricks," the editors write. “We are getting very tired of seeing him sleeping in his chair.” The N64's revealed for the first time. In one of THE POG GRAZE! many Review Crew 5 controversies, sleeper ike ‘rian Sand, Ookiand, СА Genesis hit Zombies Ate My Neighbors outscores the Game Boy's The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. EA includes a free pog with every copy of NHL '94. Both EGM and the game industry hit critical mass this year, with over a dozen active platforms to cover—and the December issue broke the 400-page mark. Mortal Kombat 15 blood became "sweat" in the SNES port, dominating the minds of gamers even as the U.S Senate had a cow about Night Trap and people's spines got ripped out. Not into violent FMV games? EGM was loaded with Saturn and ^PS-X" information as well as accusations that Nintendo's "Project Reality" was nothing but vaporware. Sendai takes EGM bi-weekly with the launch of EGMe, a sister mag specializing in strategy and arcade coverage. It eventually morphs into Expert Gamer before suspending B publication in 1998. TOMMY TALCARICS Game musician Tommy Tallarico makes a pose юга soundtrack-CD advertisement that he likely still regrets to | this day. The Nation of Slovenia (invented by Al Gore in 1999) The idea we needed more Star Wars films - AM Presidents Named Bush (Either of them) Killed т Concept EGM's always been known for blowing the doors open on new hardware long before it’s officially announced. We've successfully predicted what the next generation would look like many times, but some of the artist's concepts that we've published, er, didn’t quite pan out. A few of our concept masterpieces: Sega CD, 1990 Justas bulky and ominous- looking as the real thing. Well done. Accuracy: A Super NES, 1991 Where does the cartridge go? We must've thought thered be a toaster-style insertion process, like with the NES. Accuracy: D+ | N64 (Project Reality), 1994 From color to shape to number of controller ports, we couldn't possibly be more incorrect. Shame on us. Accuracy: F Sega Nomad,1995 This amateur-hour render is loopy, yes, but Sega's portable Genesis doesn't look too far off from this blocky concept. Accuracy: B- Xbox, 2000 Damn! Except for the protruding, trayless CD drive, we got this one pretty close. And our controllers more compact, too! Accuracy: В PSP, 2003 We channeled the Game Boy Advance SP for this one because that’s the only way we figured dual analog sticks would be possible. Sony surprised us by including zero analog sticks. Never mind! Accuracy: D Nintendo DS, 2004 If this turned out to be real, Nintendo would've gone bankrupt on the warranty service for all the broken controllers and buttons. Accuracy: C- The first real "transition" year in EGM's history—and it showed in the magazine, as news of the Saturn's surprise early launch backfiring and the PlayStation’s subsequent domination loomed larger than any software released. (There was also the Virtual Boy, but nobody was really paying attention.) The editors took advantage of the lull to spruce up the magazine a bit—fanzine-like layouts finally gave way to professional-looking art design, although the extreme fonts (who knew you could go wrong with a typeface called "crackhouse") still look a little too “mid '905" to our virgin eyes. ЕСМ starts allowing half- point increments in their review scores, giving readers yet more to complain about online. Rumors abound about Final Fantasy VII's Ultra 64 debut. Sendai launches NUKE.com, a very early game-news website. Later, an internal debate about whether or not to withhold TGS coverage from the website so it can first appear in print offers a hint of greater changes to come. The first Electronic Entertainment Expo is held, and a small, surprise shipment of Sega Saturns land in stores. Q-Mann (who's gotten a lot more intelligent over the years) analyzes how much of a total money loss it proves to be for Sega—and a victory for Sony. The Saturn and PlayStation easily dominate the year's software as the 300 and Atari Jaguar fall by the wayside— but all EGM talks about in the news section is the newly rechristened Nintendo 64. When's it coming out? How much will it cost? How many times is Nintendo going to delay the damn thing? It was a mixed blessing when it finally hit stores—Super Mario 64 was great, yeah, but after that, the system faced a software drought that should be well familiar to Nintendo console fans by now. Steve Harris sells Sendai to Ziff Davis for an undisclosed sum. Ziff eventually closes most of Sendai's non-EGM ventures, including NUKE, so it can concentrate on GameSpot.com (which we owned at the time—it's kinda complicated). Accolade puts a quote from EGM's preview of Bubsy 3D on the game's front cover that makes it sound like writer Chris Johnston gave it Game of the Year. Sushi-X gives the grinning bobcat a 2.5/10 beatdown a month later. 6.5 With EGM now in Ziff Davis' hands, longtime Editor in-Chief Ed Semrad leaves his post to take on a correspondent role. He leaves behind an editorial crew that a lot of readers should recognize: John Davison, Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Shawn Smith, Chris Johnston, and Crispin Boyer, all of whom helped contribute to what the mag is today. In the fall, Final Fantasy VII redefines what we all expect from RPGs, and Tomb Raider creates the greatest demand for a nude code since that sword chick from Golden Axe. EGM touts Star Wars: Masters of == Тегаѕ Kasi in the August " issue—it’s up there with m State of Emergency and South Park (N64) as the worst games to ever score a cover story. After celebrating its 100th issue, EGM spends four pages in December on an exhaustively researched essay devoted to the mystery of Toad's gender. The conclusions drawn from the piece: inconclusive, sadly. The Very Best... “Forget everything you know about the term ‘interactive movie.’ That tired, perennially negative concept has been single-handedly redefined and made respectable by Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear —Crispin Boyer, Solid—easily the most cinematic masterpiece of game design оп any system еме! December 1998 “I can't say I’m surprised in the least at how incredible Zelda: Ocarina of Time turned out to be. Гуе always had extremely high expectations for the Zelda games, and I’ve never been let down once. Once again, Shigeru Miyamoto and the wizards at Nintendo have delivered a truly epic gaming experience that no one should be allowed to miss." — John Ricciardi, February 1999 “Holy f***ing s***. (Sorry...l'm swearing a lot more now because of [Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas].) | can't wrap my head around how much stuff is packed into this one disc. It's grand, it's ambitious, and funny as this may sound, it's legendary." —Dan Hsu, Holiday 2004 "Plenty of other games make you think. But for all of BioShock's technical triumphs, the real reason to love it is that it's one of those rare games that make you feel." October 2007 Pokémon! Metal Gear Solid! The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time! These three titles, along with Half-Life on the PC, arguably did more to define modern videogames than any other—and they all came out in the fall of 1998, which made Davison and his EGM cronies elated. and their families despondent. MGS is the first game in EGM history to earn straight 10s, a feat that seemed impossible to achieve back then, but it's something that happened a bit more regularly after this hurdle was cleared. EGM spends all spring and summer reporting on the 64DD disc-drive expansion for the Nintendo 64, a peripheral that ultimately comes out only in Japan and dies a quick death. That hype's soon supplanted by word of Sega's Dreamcast, which hits Japan late this year Frustrated at the quality of videogames that aren't Zelda or MGS, Davison writes in his editorial, "If | see another crappy 3D run-around-jumping-and- shooting game, | think I’m going to puke.” You don’t want to know how many airsickness bags he managed to fill in the ensuing six years. —Andrew Pfister, Sega's Dreamcast comes out nationwide on September 9, 1999, but in many ways, it's doomed before it ever leaps from the starting gate. Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's Dolphin were already laid out in Quartermann's column by the time Sonic Adventure hit readers' living rooms, and Microsoft's "X-Box" was the subject of a special two-page Q column in December. And we haven't even discussed the Game Boy Advance yet.. EGM modernizes its design for its 10th anniversary, dropping longtime (and only semi- anonymous) contributor Sushi-X from the masthead in the process. Che Chou (now a community manager for Microsoft) has the misfortune of joining EGM right afterward and, because he is Asian; is subsequently accused of being Sushi by the readers for the rest of his magazine career. Hsu and Chan kicks off its nearly nine-year run within EGM's pages. Remarkably, no game that the comic's Y freelance designer heroes produce ever becomes an EGM Game of the Month. Or even reviewed, for that matter. ...And The Very Worst “A lot of bad fighting games are out there; | can say without hyperbole that [Mortal Kombat Advance] is a million times worse than all of them put together. MKA is the most incomplete, half-assed piece of (insert any expletive here) I’ve ever had the misfortune of playing." —Dan Hsu, March 2002 “Here’s the situation: You desperately want to see women’s breasts. First, you can type the magic word ‘breasts’ ito Google Image Search. Or you can buy an issue of Playboy—for nonclassy ladies, Swank, If you're a life-hating masochist, you can waste $40 on The Guy Game, spend countless hours answering dumb trivia questions—and guessing if vapid skanks can answer dumb trivia questions (usually not)—and then...maybe see breasts.” апе Bettenhausen, November 2004 "What's next on THQ's DS agenda...Clock? Seriously, Ping Pals attempts to replace Nintendo's own packed-in-for-free PictoChat but fails to offer any incentive for users to choose it over what they already have. An abysmal failure.” — Shane Bettenhausen, January 2005 It was the best of times (for Sony, whose PS2 launched in time for the holidays); it was the worst of times (for SNK's American division, which folded after their NeoGeo Pocket Color portable faltered). Sushi-X may have been a defender of all things hardcore, but he definitely got one thing wrong: Nintendo proved the The Game Boy was here to stay, selling an incredible 100 million in hardware sales this year. EGM may have built its reputation over getting the latest arcade info and fighting- game move lists to readers, but by 2000, even it couldn't polish a turd, publishing features like “Is Pinball Really Dead?" Nearly a decade later, things haven't improved much—unless you're into Skee-Ball and plush cranes. Is т pinball really dead? EGM publishes a massive buyers’ guide for the PlayStation 2 launch even as it gives straight 10s to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, a rating that causes the mailbox to fill up with irate reader mail for weeks on end. The next phase in EGM's evolution begins under the direction of its founder. Promising to deliver the respected voice you've come to count on for more than 20 years, in a brand new format that integrates print, digital, and online. Get the inside story on EGM's second decade in the April 26th issue of EGMi: The Digital Magazine—available FREE to iPASS users! го no co DEVELOPER UBISOFT PARIS PLATFORM T - TEEN RELEASE DATE 3.23.2010 —Ç Ubisoft's Wii-exclusive Shooter is Reborn. Don't Bother Calling it a Sequel 4 t he original Red Steel held It took over three years, but that infinite potential. Here was a mature third-party game that would launch with the Wii, promising sword fighting wrapped inside an “East meets West” motif. The final game, how- ever, fell far short of the glory it was experience has finally arrived. Red Steel 2 delivers on its title with a story of redemption, casting play- ers in the role of the last Kusagari, a clan of samurai gunslingers that have walked the world for generations. Seemingly out of nowhere these Jedi- E a = u o £ 5 ЦЕ striving to achieve, bogged down like protectors have been all but wiped by a mix of slow camera movement, out, and it's up to you to dole out ven- imprecise dueling and sluggish firing ^ geance. Armed with a legendary blade that left fans wondering if such an and cache of guns, you set out to find experience could work on Wii. those responsible for the slayings. BRADY FIECHTER MARC BOZON DANNY BOUTROS CASEY LOE | Love Lamp I Left IGN For This? 1 Am Not Bob Eubanks Decaying Organic Matter А rabid NFL fan and voracious movie watcher, Brady ruins relationships even when he’s not playing games Liking: Heavy Rain Not Liking: Achievements and spring and AT&T—all at once. Future Plans: A microbrewery— only if the games industry fails, of course. Credited on 24 games before mov- ing to journalism in 2005. No one has the heart to tell him it's supposed to work the other way around Liking: Monster Hunter Tri Not Liking: PR people who hate on his scores Currently Working On: A book of haiku about his Call of Duty killshots Dan mostly plays fighting games, indie games and games his girlfriend likes to watch him play so he can avoid boring couple stuff. Liking: Bioshock 2 Not Liking: Anything with pickles. Fun-Fact: Enjoys frankensteining foods like the choco-bacon, cheese on chicken. Mmm. When Casey isn’t driving game таза zines to ruin, you can hear his thoughts via the bi-monthly “Warning: A Huge Podcast” on iTunes Liking: Heavy Rain Not Liking: Spring Seasonal Beers— always the worst beer season Working On: A machine that lets you hear thoughts on iTunes Still Needs Sharpening Red Steel 2 is a great offering, but there are still some places for improvement. Hiding loading times away in doors worked for Nintendo’s Metroid Prime series, but like Corruption, there are a few pesky places where you wait an extremely long time for the next areas to open. Really? The all-powerful Kus- agari just cut a dude to pieces, but he can’t open a door to a saloon without bashing it a half dozen times? That just doesn’t seem right... Other additions could have also made a world of difference. With no overall map the game’s upgrade system feels a bit too guided. Chances are if you've got $200,000 to spend you'll cash it all in at the next story- guided area, rather than backtracking to find the last store you passed by. And this battle mechanic just screams multiplayer. Red Still 2 is the rare sequel that takes an established foundation and improves it across the board, even re- working it when necessary. The world of Red Steel 2 has gotten a complete overhaul with Japanese architecture, music and weaponry blended with an Old West feel. You'll traverse ghost towns and storm blazing fast trains while learning how to brandish your blade. There’s even a futuristic thread woven through it all, tossing cyber- punk ninjas and robotics into the mix. The fighting style is given plenty of space to develop. You can explore and master the shooting and melee combat at any time, giving off a “gun kata” feel to the entire experience. Rather than mimicking countless other western or samurai media, Red Steel 2 incorporates countless influ- ences, yet it all feels distinctly natural. It’s really all about the gameplay though, and for the most part Red BRYN WILLIAMS Is It Atari-Compatible? Bryn's hot for racers and shoot- ers and isn't offended by certain MMORPG titles either. Liking: Metro 2033 Not Liking: Intrusive DRM. I don't like your server and it doesn't like me. Top Secret: Bryn's a born-again hardware nerd, which means he's perpetually broke. Steel 2 has nailed it. The game requires Wii MotionPlus, so you'll need Nintendo's add-on to even see the title screen. The team's put it to good use though, adding in motion- based safe cracking, switches, and of course sword combat. The swordplay Still isn't perfect, at times missing or misinterpreting a swing, but most of the time it's spot-on and feels great. Outside of Condemned on the 360 I'd rank Red Steel 2 as one of the better first-person brawling experience l've had. It just works. Red Steel 2 enjoys the same level of customization as fellow Wii shoot- ers Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and The Conduit. You can change the bound- ing box, turn speeds, and even swing power needed to execute weak or strong slashes. | found the game far too archaic on its default settings, but with a little tweaking it controls almost perfectly. Once the controls are dialed in it's time to buckle up; Red Steel 2 seems to offer something fresh around every corner. The linear story branches out quickly with a nice mix of side quests to earn extra cash. Busting wanted signs, sabotaging weapon caches, and hacking into communication towers are just a few examples of reward-driven alternate missions, and while you'll see repeats in the mix, these bounty-driven challenges give the game a nice RPG-lite feel. Nearly every box, barrel, and in-level object is destructible, and most contain piles of loot that can masks can be purchased to give you an edge against specific enemy types, and carrying an ace in your hat will revive you should you fall in battle. Extras aside, it's what is at Red Steel 2's core that makes it one of the best third-party games on the Wii, and a must-play for any hardcore ac- tion fan. The sheer amount of moves keeps even the lackluster battles en- gaging, and the finishers ensure that you feel like a complete badass at the conclusion of every bout. There's even a distinct change in feel when battling multiple enemies versus the more epic one-on-one duels. The visuals are some of the best on the system. The game runs at a near-locked 60 frames per second with only minor drops, and everything from shooting to swordplay feels natural and exciting from start to fin- ish. Red Steel has, quite simply, been redeemed. [5 ш a (=) 2 Ф BRADY FIECHTER 15 the platform because | still, despite all the шш e e D E THE GOOD 1gave up on the origi- š nal Red Steel midway Beautiful style through, appreciating and refined its intentions but never fully engaged by gameplay the control scheme and flat presenta- THE BAD tion. While I’m still not fully sold on the Motion oddities traditional first-person shooting action in THE UGLY Red Steel 2—that goes for any FPS on "Hidden" load times at doors tweaking, don't gel with the Wii Remote in certain situations—! really appreciated the balance the melee combat brought to the concept. Wielding a sword is an obvious be exchanged for a surprisingly vast amount of upgradable content. Each of the game's four guns can be upgraded a half-dozen times, ending with a weapon-specific skill such as ricocheting pistol rounds or armor- piercing shots. Plates of armor and health upgrades can be added, enemy JOHN KEEFER You Can't Handle the Truth As ЕСМ” resident PC gaming expert Keefer has racked up thousands of hours on RPGs and strategy games. Liking: Dragon Age: Origins Not Liking: Romance novels, hockey, and romance novels. Call Joey Greco: Keefer occasionally cheats on his WoW mistress with Civilization 4 or Mass Effect. SUSHI-X Don't You Know Who | Am? EGM's resident ninja returns to the Crew after a ten-year hiatus. Living with the monks finally got boring. Liking: Street Fighter IV on the iPhone? Blasphemy! Not Liking: Facebook gaming. Hating: People who measure their worth based on the number of pigs they have in Farmville. inclusion for a gameplay device, and here it’s plenty satisfying, settling nicely within the themes of the narrative. But the real attraction is the game's fantastic art style. | absolutely love the Old West influences. This may be a minor thing to some, but the push to keep the framerate high really sells the action in Red Steel 2. Not bad for a sequel at all... ELI HODAPP Who Took My Book? Eli has been obsessed with mobile gaming his entire life. From the Tiger Electronics handhelds to the iPad— and everywhere in between. Likes: Doodle Jump, even after play: ing it for a solid year. Dislikes: Quicktime video events Untrue Rumor: Hodapp won't work on iPhones because he's flash-based =o! © PUBLISHER’ CAPCOM DEVELOPER DIMPS+CAPEOM PLATFORM pG3/5 By Daniel Boutros | think Street Fighter IV’s excel- The old spirit of 1-on-1 arcade lence surprised a lot of people, fighting competition had returned, but | wasn't one of them. Аз аап back with the series that started it who held the classic formula in in the first place. And the flawed- high regard, | found it relatively easy to but-workable online play was good pick up. The slowed-down pace and enough for those who wanted to stripped-down move lists encouraged smash faraway faces from the com- a greater sense of thoughtful and fort of their living rooms. tactical gameplay. The new, highly Unexpectedly, another class of nuanced focus attacks and a compila- player was taken by surprise. Buzzed tion of "best of" features from past from the visual previews of the Street Fighter games made for a su- game and its obsessively detailed, perb fighter that partially reinvigorated ^ beautifully stylized cartoon 3D in a 2D America's competitive arcade scene. plane, the modern gamer who only knew of Hadoukens through watch- ing their elder siblings had something new to see in these old-school con- ventions. A hairy were-beast being "jabbed" out of a high-speed body- launching attack...? By a school girl? There’s no resisting. Enter Super Street Fighter IV. One year after its re-entry into old-school 1-on-1 fighting, Capcom has repack- aged, polished, tweaked and added to the already-sturdy roster in play. Featuring fan-favorites Cody, Guy and Adon from Street Fighter Alpha 3, Makoto, Dudley and Ibuki from Street Fighter Ill: Third Strike, T. Hawk and Dee Jay from Super Street Fighter 11 Turbo and newcomers Hakan and Juri, the roster gains a richness of variety that makes the sensation of playing Street Fighter IV feel that much richer and more complete. Clearly taking notes from fans, one of the most significant changes comes to the online side. With new "Endless Battle" tournaments, "Team Battles," and the well-worn "Ranked Match" options, players now have more socially enjoyable ways to experience the game at home. Most notably, Team Battle allows for two teams made up of two to four play- ers, which then go head-to-head in lobby tournaments. | can't properly comment on lag and other issues as no journalists were present to share an online battle at time of press. Regardless, the true test occurs once you've got the game in your own hands and the world is online to battle it out. The replay channel is another fan-friendly improvement. Here, the player can navigate a range of carefully categorized match videos uploaded by players from around the globe. This is an excellent way to turn a voyeuristic eye toward some inspirational, high-level play when YouTube's not handy. Super Street Fighter IV is an incredibly generous package for $40. As with all fighting games, its true value lies in the multiplayer aspect, and the sad rule for most fighters is that the best battles can only be fought offline. If you have a group of friends who love to battle locally —and are willing to invest in the appropriate joysticks—then this is an essential purchase. You feel like you're playing Street Fighter Alpha 2 all over again. There’s more charac- ters than | think | can be bothered to master, but that’s not a bad thing. They all feel like they’re meant to be there, even Makoto, and there’s very little if any of that “he’s like this guy, mixed with that guy.” It’s all destined to make for some interesting match- ups. There’s definitely a richer sense of fun and playfulness in Super Street Fighter М — К really does feel like a labor of love to a greater degree than Street Fighter 4. More characters and variety Can't block dull shoto players. online Old school SF ain't for everybody DIRK GEMEINHARDT 0 When Capcom up- graded Street Fighter Il to “Super” status back in the day they also brought with it major improvements worthy of a new release. But the enhancements made to SSFIV can’t be considered as сотрага- ble as past iterations. Why? To start with the unspectacu- larly staged rival fights (how about more meaningful conversation in the future?), and the return of Seth, also known as the most frustrating SFIV end-boss, in Arcade Mode, are evidence of an unmotivated update. Even the returning car and barrel smash events aren't true highlights because both failed to get a true 2010-style makeover. If you already own SFIV the minimal upgrades that are present in Super Street Fighter IV will probably leave you feeling more critical about the game then someone who doesn’t own last year’s edition. The roster of new char- acters is a welcome addition, of course, and Super Street Fighter IV is still the best fighting game available at the mo- ment, but my expectations for “super” improvements just weren’t met. ЕСМ 32 | REVIEW Mark Bozon n Just Cause 2, players take on the role of Rico Rodriguez— aka Scorpio—a badass agent sent out to peruse the island of Panau in search of a rouge agency officer named Tom Sheldon. Caught in the grips of political turmoil, this ecological marvel becomes a playground for Rodriguez as he attempts to woo rouge factions, uncover a hidden plot, and pull off all sorts of secret agent kick-assery in the process. Everything from over-the-top action sequences to hilariously bad voiceover work plays a part in shaping the world of Just Cause 2. Unfortunately, most players familiar with the open world formula will find the trip to this virtual Eden worthy of more than a stopover. It becomes instantly apparent where developer Avalanche spent it’s time almost from the moment the sequel begins. The island of Panau is simply stunning, and while some model work with secondary characters and smaller villages isn’t quite up to par, the overall landscape is a feast for the eyes. You have nearly 400 square miles of jungle, desert, and snow- capped mountains to explore and destroy (expand that number if you include the airspace above your head), and a nice blend of land, sea, and air-based vehicles to accommodate your every whim. In addition to vehicles—which have been improved over the original, but still lack some fine-tuning in the control department —Rico's grappling hook can be combined with Just Cause’s trademark parachute for some nice emergent gameplay. You can hook onto cars for easy hijacking, slingshot yourself into the sky at any time and use your chute to glide or tether two objects together for whatever mayhem suits your interest. The entire island is open from minute one, and it’s up to you to decide how to make use of it. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long for these exciting features to become monotonous and mundane. Thrown in-between three warring factions and a corrupt government, you'd assume there'd be no shortage of action waiting to find you. Once the missions begin, however, your primary discovery is just how repetitious the basic gameplay is and how hard it is to stay motivated in what should be more engaging. If you aren't storming a compound or planting charges within quick- time events, you're most likely out to retrieve a random vehicle, assassinate targets, or escort a few armed buddies while they carry out their objective. There simply aren't enough unique missions here that haven't been seen time and time again in other open-world games. For a game that's all about chaos, the amount of actual destruction is a bit behind the curve. Just Cause 2 also suffers from an overall lack of polish that further distracts from the core mechanic. Visual pop-in not only cheapens the experience but can actually get in the way. There's also seldom any visual or audio cues when Rico takes damage, so you'll need to keep your eye on the health bar or endure unexpected deaths. Just Cause 2 is plagued with everything from dead Al that stands idle in the default “T” position to an imbalanced lock-on system when shooting from the hip to a lack of ledge grabbing for easier platforming. Using the game’s black-market system can also be a chore, as prices are too abstract (assault rifle ammo costs more than most vehicles?) and load times get in the way of what should be a seamless experience. Spend a pretty penny on an ATV or spy boat and you'll be lamenting that Rico’s parachute is already faster and more versatile (without dropping $30К). The same holds true for most of the game’s other vehicles. In the end, the level of entertainment you get from the game is directly proportionate to how willing you are to find your Love or hate the missions, there’s no denying the fun of Rico’s grappling hook. own fun. If you get your kicks from exploring hundreds of locations and base jumping for hours on end then you’ll get your money’s worth. For everybody else, know there are open world games that do it better than Just Cause 2. © x 6 D MARC CAMRON a, THE GOOD Just Cause 2 offers r , a huge, diverse Gigantic landscape filled with open world people to shoot and stuff to explode. playground Never did | grow bored figuring out what HE BAD to do next. | enjoyed the primary focus: Generic, of causing chaos, the game forcing repetitive me to explore and experiment before bes handing me the next story mission. It missions gave the game a more organic feel, as if THE UGLY Rico was in Panau to do more than run Every line of from point A to point B. There are still a voiceover few hit-detection issues, and the wonky camera still hasn’t been perfected, occasionally resulting in a “which way is up” feel. But neither of these issues was annoying enough to make me put down my controller. Those who like sandbox games will love the overarching freedom Just Cause 2 offers, and will spend hours trying to figure out badass stunts. to impress their friends. Definitely one of the best open-world games with Grand Theft in its title. ЕСМ SPRING 2010 З | Ву Mark Bazon = REVIEW CREW Massive ай M co rier Tri is not youpaverage Wii game. |п ап ancient world " ,atichored by a primitive ' hunter/gatherer society, you'll take up arms against some of gamedom's fiercest fantasy creatures. Huge hulk- ing beasts lumber through deserts, winged reptiles dominate the sky, while sea monsters lurk hidden beneath the ocean's break. If you want to survive and reap rewards, it’s up to you to take down these hulking behemoths one-by-one, and prosper a off every kill. With a tried-and-true loot-based formula that dates back to the series’ PS2 debut, as well as enough online and offline content to last completionists well past the 500-hour mark, the question isn’t whether Monster Hunter Tri delivers, but rather if you’re up to the gigantic undertaking it presents. During its evolution from Play- Station 2 to PSP, and now onto Wii, the Monster Hunter series has remained relatively unchanged, and that’s either a good or bad thing depending on how dedicated you are to the franchise’s longstanding design. You are dropped into a world where everything — we're talking health boosts, weapons, armor, and even basic food rations—is entirely dependent on your skill and know- how. Unfortunately for newcomers, Tri throws you into the mix with very little front-end tutorial, having you explore the introductory quests and cut your teeth on some basic hunting and gathering. Gone is the full-on tutorial/lesson mode, instead tossing waves of information at you within the in-game hunter guide. If you're new to Monster Hunter you're going to be confused and, at times, frus- trated. Of course the payoff is huge when you tackle a hunt that stumped you for hours on end, but you'll need patience and a thick skin to really thrive in a series like Monster Hunter. Nothing is handed to you. Monster Hunter Tri may have a steep learning curve, but it's also packed with extremely rewarding content. You can scavenge supplies by hand, mine ore with pick axes, slay beasts for meat and rare item drops, go fishing, combine items to create new materials, and spend hundreds of hours upgrading the same weapon as it evolves down its class-specific tree. Your home base is a small ocean- side town, and while it isn't more than a couple screens in size the sheer amount of potential is daunt- ing. You can, of course, snag quests from the guild (the primary objective), buy or craft your own weapons and armor, and even gain some extra help in offline quests via an upgrad- able ally. On the battlefield you won't find enemy health bars or any mon- ster indicators outside of the game's behavioral Al — just another reminder that you're playing a big boy's game. A hunt may seem impossible, but then you'll discover a monster's tell, an inkling you didn't notice before, and the battle will be on. It's this subtle, intricate gameplay mechanic that truly defines Monster Hunter. New to 7ri is the inclusion of underwater hunts which, combined with plenty of other mission variants, add some new wrinkles even series vets will find fresh. Underwater bat- tling is nearly identical to on-ground combat, but with stunted control. There's no way to raise or lower yourself while keeping an eye on your target, so navigation is clunky and can become a bit awkward. Then again, humans don't belong 100 feet below the surface chasing down sharks with a dagger, so if nothing else it's true-to-life. Even the most seasoned hunters will prefer the ground controls over battling it out in the deep, though. Persistent variations keep the game fresh despite its daunting ean length. Day and night constantly cycle, with clear visibility eventually giving way to a moonlit darkness, streams of meteors raining down in the distance. Some areas, such as the Sandy Plains, even feature envi- ronment-specific effects. During the day the world is blazing hot, forcing you to bring along cool drinks and recovery items or stay entirely in the shade to avoid loss of health. During the night the world cools, exhibiting the reverse effect. You may spend dozens of hours taking on hunts just to gain new loot, but Monster Hunter Tri is filled with plenty of eye candy along the way. Although there is much to praise, Tri isn’t perfect. While the game is visually stunning and hands-down the deepest experience you'll find on Wii, it doesn’t really make use of the console’s advantages. Sim- ply put, waggle sucks. Even the pointer, which is used at times for in-game monster-tagging (sort of a prehistoric Pokedex, if you will) is ignored for the main menu interface, and the bowgun class requires aim- ing with an analog stick cursor. This game is better served with a tradi- tional controller and Capcom knows it, having teamed with Nintendo to add the new Classic Controller Pro into the package for only $10 more. It's a great value, and the best way to play Tri. Another downside for longtime fans is that Tri is more a reboot than a sequel. With a monster list similar in size to the original game, it isn't the largest title in the bunch. Weapons like the dual swords, bow, and hunting horn have also been removed (Capcom? DLC?), though it does feature the new switch axe, which is a beast. Yes, there are other downsides to this Monster Hunter package, but there's simply no way to ignore the game's place at the top of the Wii pile either. The offline mode alone will run most players a minimum 50 hours, and that's just the beginning. After a few dozen single player quests you'll find nearly 100 online exclusive hunts built specifically for co-op. Time sen- sitive weekly quests will keep even the most dedicated hunters com- ing back. And, not to worry, both keyboard and Wii Speak support is included for friend-based play. Massive depth spanning single and online modes Not noob- friendly Widescreen leaves black sidebars If keeping the action local is more your thing you can hook up with a friend in splitscreen mode, and even send your ТИ data to your Wii-mote’s on-board memory and bring it over to another Wii system. It may have a steep learning curve, but if you’re a veteran of the series or willing to make the com- mitment required to pick up its play mechanic (and the subtle intrica- cies that go with it), Monster Hunter Tri will reward you with one of the deepest console RPG experiences available on any system. BRADY РЕСНТЕ Is there a little Shadow of the Colos- sus in this Monster Hunter Tri? Well, maybe it’s a bit of a stretch to compare the two games, but there were times in Monster Hunter Ти, invading a giant creature’s home turf, when | got flashbacks of what | found compelling in Team ICO's cult classic. There’s nothing much elegiac about the monster slaying here; sure you continually scavenge loot in and around the giant, indigenous creatures you dominate, but it’s more of a sense of accomplishment after a trying quest than regret for being a brutal killer. At its best, the game grabs you with its incredibly long, dedicated quests that recall the grinding nature of a classically spun RPG. | can see how someone mis- matched to its demands may find the gameplay tedious at times, but there’s a payoff to utilizing weapon types and gear that rewards diligence. he state of WiiWare has been pretty grim as of late. It’s not often we get a title that makes a splash. Enter Cave Story—a classic indie game that feels like it was pulled directly from the golden era of gaming, and hands-down one of the best reasons to head over to the Wii Shop Channel in a long, long time. Cave Story first emerged in 2004, when Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya released the original game as a free PC download. It took five years to create, was an instant hit, but only reached a niche audience. That has all changed now. Upstart developer Nicalis has teamed with Pixel, and are now delivering a comprehensive, definitive package, mixing options for not only Infinite Space nfinite Space may be the most offbeat entry in the DS's RPG library. While the vast majority of Japanese role- playing games have been born from the usual genre touchstones of Dragon Quest and Wizardry, Infinite Space finds its inspiration in a long-abandoned genre of exploration/simulation games—think Wing Commander: Privateer and Uncharted Waters. Attractive, anime-style graphics and an engaging space-opera storyline do an excellent job of making a complicated game accessible and engaging. Instead of a world map, players get a list of planets linked by dotted space routes, and instead of a party, they have a fleet of battleships enhanced by Tetris- piece modules and a hand-selected crew. The customization options are fantastic (if poorly explained), and it's fun to recruit a large crew of characters that have actual 2 297 PIS [® original music and art, but upgraded, interchangeable art and soundtrack options. It's the same great indie game, now supercharged for WiiWare. Pixel’s sidescrolling classic is as much an homage to greats like Metroid and Mega Man as it is its own vision. It’s not just an old-school look either. Cave Story’s pacing is undeniably retro, constantly giving you a barrage of new weapons, health and missile increases, and plenty of enemies to blast away at. Dying comes frequently, but the game is phenomenally paced with plenty of save spots, ammo caches, and recovery beds. Multiple endings are also included, the best of which will push your 2D prowess to its limits. As if an already impressive lost indie Except Credits 3216565 personalities and backstories instead of just numerical stats. But bringing your carefully customized fleet into battle is far less satisfying; the rock-paper-scissors battle system offers some interesting strategic elements, but too few meaning- ful decisions to justify its sluggish pace. The game's high level of challenge is welcome, but the drawn-out boss fights game wasn't enough, Nicalis is going one step further with a last minute decision to include all would-be DLC as part of the core price. This turns a no brainer purchase into a must-own package, with a new boss rush mode, time challenge, and an alternate character playthrough with story changes. The only real downside to Cave Story's WiiWare release is that the original game is already offered free of charge online, and this upgraded "special edition" is late to the game. With that being said there's simply no reason any self-proclaimed 2D fanatic should pass this one up, as it's packed to the brim with new content and easily one of the best games on Nintendo's download service. are a chore to replay. Infinite Space also suffers from some crude 3D graphics, an often-clumsy interface, and a soundtrack marred by shrill sound effects. But it's easy to forgive Infinite Space's flaws, as in the DS's vast universe of generic sword-and-sorcery JRPGs, there's simply nothing else like it. PUBLISHER DEVELOPER PLATFORM MODES ESRB RELEASE DATE 32 Classic 20 style and gameplay Original version is free online Your 20 street cred if you pass this up PUBLISHER DEVELOPER ATIN PLATFORM MODES |-РЕАУЕВ ESRB RELEASE DATE Unique and engaging structure Sluggish combat Eardrum- shattering warning alarm ean Command & Conquer 4: Campy Kane Can't Save COCA as there ever been a main- stream RTS series that's as weird, wild and downright strange as Command & Conquer? This grande dame of RTS has been with us since the earliest days of the genre, but despite its age CC'S never seemed content with the status quo, much less playing it straight. Unfortunately that tendency toward experimentation's results in a less- than-perfect finale with Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. Kane, the Brotherhood of Nod’s maniacal and scenery-chewing leader, makes an enigmatic return as the proverbial cat on his ninth life as the factions of Nod and GDI square off once again. The look of the game is familiar and impressive, and the music properly sets the mood whether you're preparing for battle or engaging in it. The similarities end there. Trying to invigorate the series for one last hur- rah, EA Los Angeles tossed out many of the conventions that have kept C&C fans enthralled over the years. Base building and resource management are out and micromanagement and com- mand points are in. If you aren't famil- iar with games of this style it can take some getting used to, as the learning curve makes the AI seem unforgiving on anything but the easiest setting. At least micromanagement isn't as complicated given the game's smaller armies— you rarely have more than 20 units to control at any one time. The AI is pretty smart about making the units behave properly when your attention is elsewhere, but pathfinding problems emerge when moving large groups that tend to get hung up on smaller units and terrain. Speaking of big changes, did I mention that Ce*C4 is a purely online game? Like it or not, you need to be connected at all times, even during single-player. Twice during the mis- sions an Internet hiccup disconnected me. The game warned me that I'd lost my connection but the mission continued as if nothing had happened. After completion I was awarded the expected promotion and achievements but they apparently didn't save, as I was forced to play the mission again. The game also crashed while start- ing up, and on another occasion, when I had to alt-tab, gave me the old blue screen of death when I popped back in. Infuriating, to say the least. C&C4 shows some events from both Nod and GDI perspectives, and Joe Fe make focus microm d eng Co-op multipl wer units for more ed combat and extra anagement uring the agements. play. ayer and skirmish modes Online connection required to play single- some t problems А (005 to a de player. echnical ending cent series story line PUBLISHER RONIC ART DEVELOPER PLATFORM MODES RELEASE DATE Kucan continues his masterfully cheesy portrayal of Nod's fanatical leader Kane. But the story builds anticipation for a climax that's as barren as Kane's head. With all the effort placed on the plot, it's sad that, instead of tying the series up neatly, it leaves the door open for another sequel, should EA be ina milking mood. Despite its many flaws, C&C4 does shine in multiplayer. The addition of co-op to the traditionally single- player missions adds replay value and the ability to test unique roles and strategies. And skirmish mode is still intense, with an unrelenting AI Tiberian Twilight tries to take the series to another level but it just doesn't cut it. While the story and multiplayer aspects are entertaining, the online requirement, technical glitches and blasé ending combine to leave a gaping, mammoth-sized hole in а once-quality franchise. It's time to let this grande dame retire in peace. El BRYN WILLIAMS ND OPINION Forget about the fact that EA's еа with the series’ basic mechan- ics. Stuff the fact that the game's stupid “must be online to play” DRM exists. Instead, think about the fact that C&C4 is actually a good-looking, competent strategy game. Seemingly like most games these days, the RPG-style pro- gression system adds value. The single- player story is daft, but where C&C4 really wins is in its co-op and multiplayer partitions. Hooking up with a friend and decimating enemy units is a lot of fun, so while purists will balk at this final C&C effort, newcomers and the open-minded should like what it’s offering. 39 ЕАМ Favorite iPhone Games By Е! Hodapp TouchArcade.com ZombieSmash! PUBLISHER GAME DOCTORS This castle-defense style game puts you in charge of protecting a house from an onslaught of zombies. Utilizing something the developers are calling the “Splatter Engine,” all of the zombies in Zombiesmash! are physics-powered ragdolls that spew tons of blood with each impact. There are over 20 different in-game weapons ranging from grenades to boulders to fend off the zombies. ZombieSmash! also forces you to defend both sides of your house, delivering a sense of urgency not found in other castle defense games. Best yet, when you are finishing off the last zombie per wave, the game enters a slow motion zoomed-in kill-cam mode where you can see every gory detail of the final undead's demise. Game of the Month Since the advent of thir ys on the iPhone there nes where Tilt to Live someho have been tilting your devic: than all of them. In the u control something on screen manages to bi ате you play ite arrow avoid- . Those pellets may simply ing constantly spawning red ао! Г her to form orgar float around but can ant use of a variety of slowly unlocked you touch a red dot the game is over, but death cally follows a sei of adrenaline-building narro escapes before you are complet erwhelmed. Street Fighter IV PUBLISHER CAPCOM If you're at all interested in fighting games, Street Fighter IV is the iPhone game to have. While touch screen controls can't be as precise as playing with a real arcade stick, once you get used to them, you won't believe you're playing this game on a mobile device. Eight classic Street Fighter characters are included, with full in-game listing of all of their moves. There's even WiFi multiplayer if you have a friend nearby who also has the game. The graphics and sound are phenomenal, and Street Fighter IV even runs great on the entire iPhone and iPod touch product line. Ragdoll Blaster 2 PUBLISHER BACKFLIP STUDIOS This sequel to the extremely popular Ragdoll Blaster has the same goal as the original: Fire ragdolls out of a cannon to hit a bull's-eye. Of course, it isn't as simple as it sounds. Before you're even finished with the tutorial, you will encounter puzzles that require activating Switches, engaging moving obstacles and platforms, as well as many other challenges. You are scored by how few ragdolls you use on each level, but there is no upper limit. So, if you're stuck you can often brute force your way through, though your score will suffer. Having played the first Ragdoll Blaster isn't required, but if you like the original, you'll also enjoy the sequel (and vice-versa). Vector Tanks Extreme PUBLISHER BLIPTIME STUDIOS Styled after the 1980 arcade classic Battlezone, the original Vector Tanks was а retro gamer's dream with glowing vector graphics that made the iPhone's screen feel more like an Atari Quadrascan than a 3.5" LCD. Vector Tanks Extreme takes this formula and turns up the volume with even faster action, more glorious retro vector graphical flare, and both multiple game modes and difficulty settings. Tons of different weapons and power ups quickly become required to stand a chance against the brutal in-game Al. If you at all consider yourself a retro gamer, Vector Tanks Extreme needs to be on your iPhone. Cubetrix 3D PUBLISHER MOBICLE CO With how many color matching puzzle games there are on the App Store, it really takes something special to stand out amongst the sea of similar titles. In Cubetrix 3D, instead of swapping pairs of blocks, you control one block that moves around the perimeter of a grid of differ- ent colored cubes. When you slide this block into the square, another is pushed out the other side. Rows are cleared by lining up like colors. As you progress, new block types are introduced including bombs, stationary blocks, and numbered blocks. Each level is set against a timer, So it takes some quick thinking and fast action to clear the board before your clock expires. ЕСМ SPRING 2010 ЧО | COVER STORY | SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV ; PUBLISHER САРСОМ DEVELOPER DIMPS#s@&PCOM ab PS3/X 2-PLAYER/ONLINE ESRB “€< N RELEASE DATE | ХЗ de NN 04.272010 AS 3 a For us, succeeding was not the | goal. In my personal opinion, the market came | Waaa 055 Ono, Producer, SSFIV ere comes a new challenger! Pfft—yeah, right! Don’t believe that iconic on-screen prompt— sure, new fighting game challengers always appear, but none of ’em have what it takes to dethrone the real king of fighters: Street Fighter. For almost two decades now, Capcom's prizefighter has dominated outdoor, public butt-kickings with dozens of quarter-munching (and console) I iterations. It didn't just win the fight either—it started it. Hell, without the sonic boom success of Street Fighter II in the '90s, we wouldn't have any of SF's biggest competitors: Fatal Fury, World Heroes, Fighter's History, and, well, basically any other fighter that came out in the early '90s. STREET FIGHTER LEGACY — ОМО INTERVIEW NEW CHARACTERS But why exactly did this arcade hit consume quarters like an E-Honda buffet binge? Something obviously clicked with gamers. Which is why it’s shocking to think that the series almost retried years ago due to all- too-similar updates and fear of the fundamentals of counting. And its home turf didn’t help either—when arcades couldn't continue its fight with home consoles any longer, SF’s success needed a new home off the streets: your living room. Street Fighter III tried to fight its way in, but couldn't quite bust through the door. That is, until last year’s too-long-in- the-making Street Fighter IV. With a back, quarter-circle kick of old-school gameplay and a down-forward punch of freshness, Capcom once again proved hand-thrown fireballs will never fizzle. And with Super Street Fighter IV heating up both the PS3 and the 360 in a few months, it’s obvious the series is still alive and kicking. All thanks to its special attack — nostalgia. Though many fighting game freaks consider SFIII to be the best, punch- for-punch entry in the series, it failed to resonate with casual buttkickers. SSFIV producer Yoshinori Ono knows this all too well: "Since [Capcom] needs to make a profit, SF/// was maybe a failure," he says. "But there are fans that just love SFIII and play only SFill, so | don't think it really failed at all.” True, but SFIII's hardcore nature may have pushed the series too far in the wrong direction. So when Capcom creative head Keiji Inafune finally shined the green light on SF/V, Ono had to ironically pull the series back instead of push it forward. "When working on SFIV, we had to come back to the most beloved series title, SFII, to reestablish the foundation that was neglected in SFIII,” says Ono. Makes sense—if the gameplay still works, don’t reprogram it. But he must have felt the pressure of not only pleasing fans, but also Capcom with a sales success. “For us, succeeding was not the goal,” says Ono. Or not. “In my personal opinion, success in the market came second,” he explains. “| just simply wanted to revive the excitement that people experienced during SFII and possibly establish SFIV to be the nuts-and-bolts of next-generation fighting games.” Reviving the excitement certainly sounds easy, but if you look at Capcom’s failed attempt at a Bionic Commando reboot, it’s obvious that sometimes nostalgia doesn’t always hook back those fond memories. So when you distill the SF// magic, what does this punchy elixir taste like? John Tobias, co-creator of Mortal Kombat, thinks fun: “I believe SFII's success came from pure fun factor and brilliant game design,” he says. “Which arguably is 95% of why anyone plays a game.” The other 5%? Easy, it’s...actually, he didn’t tell us. But our educated guess? Innovation. Sure, SFII didn’t invent the fighting game genre—it is a sequel, y'know. But it did do something special. And for some, like Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki, it even made them feel, well, special: “SF// and Virtua Fighter were true innovations," he explains. "An innovation of a narcotic kind, that is." Ah-ha! So that's why all arcade games had that A Pee PLAYER 1 "Winners Don't Use Drugs" start Screens. Itagaki does have a point, though —SFII did innovate the 2D fighting game genre, just like Virtua Fighter did in 3D. Not surprising, both Soulcalibur IV director Katsutoshi Sasaki and Tekken series project director Katsuhiro Harada agree. “The SF franchise pioneered and laid the groundwork for the fighting game genre,” says Katsutoshi. “A lot of people have enjoyed the series due to its fun and straightforward gameplay.” Harada, however, thinks the innovation comes more in the form of the iconic characters: “Simply put, the characters are charismatic, original, and memorable,” he says. “They have unique names and their moves have such visual impact that it leaves an impression.” It’s true, really. Everyone knows and remembers Ken and Ryu based off one silly-sounding word: hadoken. And who can forget Zangief's burly build, Dhalsim’s stretchable limbs, SFII and Virtua Fighter were true innovations... An innovation of a narcotic kind, that is. or Blanka's shocking green skin? Hell, Chun-Li is probably 99.896 responsible for the creation of the Thighmaster. Sure, we all remember how these characters look. Or how they play. But do we really recall their backstories? Unless you relive the key moments of their lives via the now-defunct SFII-themed GI Joes, no, you probably don’t. Which is somewhat interesting considering SFIl’s biggest 2D competitor, MK, built the success of its series on its mystique-ridden storyline and characters. Oh, uh, and the blood, too. But if we liked a character in SF, it wasn't because we were dying to see his or her ending, it was because we (hopefully) didn't suck with them. Or so says Tobias: “There wasn't a real story associated with the original SFII," he explains. "So if a player found himself attached to a particular character it came purely from his ability to play well as that character." We agree. Though, we've always wondered why these world warriors feel the need to kick the crap out of clunkers. Seriously, guys— what did that car ever do to you? Jerks. Story, while certainly there, seems to have never mattered. "In the world of SF, the background story has always been somewhat ‘homespun’ or not too significant for that matter," says Ono. "And there are many things to pick on (in a joking way perhaps) once you start looking into details." No, Ono— we're serious about that car discrimination! But maybe not knowing why these fighters are cold, heartless car murderers is what makes SF special. “I think by having something too serious or mysterious in SF, the STREET FIGHTER LEGACY — ОМО INTERVIEW NEW CHARACTERS ЕСМ SPRING 2010 Sn COVER STORY g^ EI E SAll got rocked with a hurricane of developed characters for Tekken.” playbook verbatim. Most were just, some form.” Sasaki may not b -~ well, let's say, heavily influenced. what inspired him, but nob d - а Jokes: "Cony katsu SFiliginnovation arid accessible ` gameplay led too things: Л) Маа success, and 2) Inevitable imitators. example the-stoic martial artist, e sense. Every popular is such a'tool character таве slew of wannabes. But has served as a réference when ме, me greatly,” Не continues. “Рой cheap knockoffs. Not that any of Soulcalibur seems less, likely to be them:came close to matching the influenced by SF, what with the popularity of SFi/. But that didn't heavy emphasis of weapons-based stop Capcom from suing Data East combat, but maybe Sasaki knows over copyright infringement for the something we don't. "No [specific ` probably-never-heard-of-it arcade influence] comes to mind at the № dud Fighters History. And losing. But | moment,” says Sasaki. “But I’m sure not every game tried to pilfer the SF ` | was influenced by the SF series in How much so? Well, we did does: “I did sample КОР)” he à ' find it odd that while preparing for “But not really from SFil.” * this story, the two developers who That only leaves SFil’s м: declined interviews happened to arcade competitor: MK. Despite the ^ ^ =m be the ones who make games that fact that both fighters battled for the look and play а whole lot like that belly of our piggy banks in the earl SF game we keep blabbering about: '90s, Mortal Kombat actually Беда Arc Systems Works (known best development around the time SF/ for the Guilty Gear series) and. SNK жн arcades. “I believe SFJI was Playmore (known, of course, for Ше released i in U.S. arcades during ` KOF series); Hmm = —мо а KS development,” says `... declined? Too busy? Yeal "Tobias. 4 don't remember i| 9 right— probably that. having а direct influence, ` The other fighting game pros... other than maybe weren't afraid to admit whether or demonstrating that a not Capcom's fighter left any marks fighting game had the in their creations. Even though — potential to earn well п p 3D fighters are obviously Вуз the arcade.” And, of differently due to that extra “D” it Course, that arcade = T popularity was the main reason why та both SF2 and > MK dominated д the coin-ops. Ay Мої тапу ›_ т A 160) AJ we know this, but that fanfare may have been started from a risky decision of allowing the winner of a player-vs.-player match to continue without paying, something the MK developers were afraid to implement. At first, at least. “One debate | recall was whether we should incorporate a ‘winner stays, loser pays’ method,” Tobias explains. “Back then, everything was about maximum coin drop — literally, how many coins were dropped into the machine per minute." So, for a game like SF, if a dominant player keeps winning, good for them, bad for business. But that obviously wasn't the case. In fact, it made the game even more money. *SFII proved that out for us, and ‘winner stays, loser pays’ became the standard for fighting games in the arcade,” says Tobias. Thus, we learn SFil’s unknown secret to success: Getting your ass kicked by some loser with way too much time on their hands and wanting way too much to get revenge. Ah, it all makes sense now. SNOIdIAVHO 1VNd313 Kicking the genre up a notch We can't deny SFIl’s influence on the fighting game genre. And it's obvious that SFIV revived the fandom that got beat down with the death of arcades. But we can admit that SFIV’s back-to-basics approach really didn't push the genre forward. Instead, it caressed it, gave it a kiss, „aq and presented £ | p it flowers. Understandable, too, especially when you realize Capcom wanted to invoke nostalgia instead of true fisticuff innovation. “I think the problem is that as players we pick up a controller with certain expectations and publishers and developers are averse to doing anything that would upset those expectations,” says Tobias. “There’s a reason why every fighting game released today is a sequel,” he goes on to explain. “These games have almost 20 years worth of iterations behind them. Trying to compete with that in an 18-month development cycle is not easy.” Itagaki also agrees it's hard to ignore negativity when thinking about the future: "It's probably quickest to talk about the problems with this genre,” he says. “Many fighting games are static and too digital. It is about time We find out just how strong the World Warriors really are. SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV PRODUCER YOSHINORI ONO "| talked about this with the project leader of the Tekken team, Harada-san. Who is stronger? That will definitely be the Street Fighters like Ryu and others. They even fought the world’s greatest X-Men, and I think all the Street Fighters fought pretty well, don’t you think? They fought a Sentinel, Magneto, and Wolverine. | have never seen any martial artist who can guard Wolverine's claws with their bare hands.” WINNER: STREET FIGHTER MORTAL KOMBAT CO-CREATOR JOHN TOBIAS “The cast of Street Fighter would hold its own against the cast of Mortal Kombat—until of course the fatalities. Then it would get ugly. No contest.” WINNER: MORTAL KOMBAT SOULCALIBUR DIRECTOR KATSUTOSHI SASAKI “1 place my bet on the Soulcalibur cast. ‘ou know why? Because they've got weapons! [Laughs].” WINNER: SOULCALIBUR Street Fighter may dominate the fighting game genre, but can its cast of ass- kickers take on the brawlers of Mortal Kombat? Or Tekken? Or even Soulcalibur? In real-life fights? No, of course they can’t (stupid reality!). But, say, it was possible. Who would win? We asked the men behind of each game to find out. DEAD OR ALIVE CREATOR TOMONOBU ITAGAKI “Well, at least in terms of appearance, the female characters of Dead or Alive win 100 to 0 [Laughs]. Other than that, they will just have to fight it out. WINNER: LOOKS: DEAD OR ALIVE ACTUAL FIGHT: UNDECIDED KATSUHRO HARADA TEKKEN PRODUCT DIRECTOR “In a real life fight, | doubt that the cast of Tekken could compete with the cast of Street Fighter, who has fought the likes of the X-Men as equals. | think Jin Kazama would panic if he saw the inhuman power of Ryu's Shinkuu Hadouken. In addition to simple hand to-hand combat, | think the Tekken characters would use other means to fight. For example, they may resort to the use of military forces and weapons, money, or political power. They would soon realize that the Street Fighter cast is all very formidable fighters that command respect.” WINNER: STREET FIGHTER OK, 50 we all know the Street Fighter games are good. Really good. Err, well, except for Street Fighter: The Movie—that Mortal Kombat wannabe is terrible. Really, really terrible. But, for the most part, the Street Fighter series doesn’t have too many stinkers. That can't be said for the fighting game genre, however. With so many god-awful fighters out there, we took the time to pick five of the worst. And even asked a couple of our friends to pick theirs, too. eon" PICKS 4. Fighter Maker (PSX) You know a game Champion (NES) You punch dudes into a manhole. is bad when the Talk about dirty developer wants work. you to create it. Good luck with that. ind LZ X 2. Violence Fight (Arcade) With a title like that, we had to include it. Better than the original name: GOGON! BOGON! 3. Survival Arts (Arcade) Would have been areal Mortal Kombat-killer if the fighters were all artists. Hey, it worked for the Ninja Turtles. 1. Strip Fighter 2 (PC Engine) Not as good as the first one. Wait, there isn't even a first one. What do they take us for? A bunch of boobs? ^| доп“ mean to deny the hard work that the Tekken staff have put into their games. However, there is no way this hate list will ever; ever change. Ever" Tekken 6 (PS3/XB360) Tekken 5 (PS2) Tekken 4 (PS2) Tekken 3 (PSX) Tekken 2 (PSX) Tekken (Arcade) Time Killers (Arcade) Proof that blood and gore doesn't equal a good game or success Blood Storm (Arcade) Because they didn't learn their lesson with Time Killers Kasumi Ninja (Atari Jaguar) Why do I remember this Atari Jaguar game? Oh yeah... it scarred my retinas. Shaq Fu (SNES/Genesis) The name says it all Tattoo Assassins (Arcade) OMFG this game is the all time S-U-C-K leader. that the developers and players realize that this confined playability is narrowing the possibility of fighting games.” Not everyone is so pessimistic, however. Both Tekken and Soulcalibur's directors both believe the genre still has some fight left in it. "The games where you face off against a human opponent, and the fighting genre as a whole, will continue to maintain a certain level of popularity for at least the next five years," says Harada. Sasaki see innovation more as an on-going battle with fun: “I think the words ‘innovation’ and ‘fun’ have different meanings and trying to satisfy There's a reason why every fighting game released is a sequel... John Tobias both aspects in terms of game development is difficult,” he says. “The fact that we, as developers, have been challenged to add both into a game has helped the continuous evolution of the fighting game genre—so, | always try to incorporate new ideas into a game. Ono also hopes to incorporate new ideas, well, eventually. But at least he’s thinking past minor updates: “| think that there could be more innovative systems or tools for battling players in different skill levels,” he says. “In the future it will be fun if we could add a feature that would ultimately be a threat to all the hardcore gamers, so the casual gamers can play the game as good as the hardcore gamers and both can enjoy the game equally.” Sounds great! Maybe we’ll see that in Street Fighter V. That is, if Capcom doesn’t take another ten years to smack out a sequel. Not that they really have to worry too much about competition in the meantime. Because, when it comes to blows, SF’s biggest competitor isn’t a rival series, but its own success. Fhe n Fighter [ramerise рюпее6 the | aichting game genea Soulcalibur IV Director Katsutoshi Sasaki 50 | uking it out on fictional streets may sound tough, but try winning a real fight: Recapturing the magic of a once-insanely popular videogame series. Not as easy as throwing a few fireballs, huh? Well, unless you're Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono, that is. With the help of developer Dimps and the support of Capcom, Ono won his toughest battle yet: making Street Fighter relevant again with last year’s Street Fighter > № And he’s back at it again this But he now faces anew year with SSFIV. challenger: our hard-hitting questions. Let's see how he handles the attack. EGM: Developer Dimps did a helluva job with SFIV considering they were working on such an important title. Did they ever feel the pressure of living up to the legacy of Street Fighter? Or did they act as stoic as Ryu after а hard-fought victory? Yoshinori Ono: Nishiyama-san, a head of Dimps, is actually a creator of Street Fighter l. He is someone who | looked up to for a long time. | think he is the person who established today’s fighting game standard. The staff who work for Nishiyama-san had no problems working with Capcom since they strongly inherit Nishiyama- зап’ “working-style genes." All of our Capcom workers carry the important Capcom history with us. We worked closely with Nishiyama-san and his creativity, and also worked with former SNK staffers. Looking back, we all knew what has been done and what went right. We were able to work within this friendly competition, which was great. EGM: Now that we know SFIV is a success, are you worried that gamers will experience déja vu with SSFIV, in the sense that it’s a minimal update (like the past Street Fighter И upgrades) instead of a full sequel? YO: SFIV was made based on the idea to recall fans’ fond memories of SFII. In SSFIV, we want to recapture the remaining portion of goodness that was left out, but was requested from fans in the original SFIV. We want to bring back more fans of SF by completing the form of the original game. So instead of it just being a minor updated version, this SSFIV will be a game with major additional content and changes. It’s not too much to call it Street Fighter 4.9. EGM: In SSFIV, you’re adding new ultra combos and characters. Apart from those (and minor gameplay tweaks), there aren’t a lot of new gameplay features. Are you afraid to mess with the SF formula or are you saving any innovative ideas for potential sequels? YO: To speak about features as a tool, every tool has its purpose of use. You probably wouldn’t need to add any other function to a hammer if you just want to master how to use a hammer. New function isn't always a good thing unless it is necessary, | think. EGM: It's very cool the bonus stages are coming back. Was there ever any talk to create new ones? Or atleast tweak the existing ones? Like, say, allow the fighters to beat up a truck or bus? YO: | wanted to implement the bonus stages in the original SFIV, and | said | would, but unfortunately it didn't happen. People called me a liar back then. [Laughs] So, this time we've decided to have the Car stage and Barrel stage based on the idea to recapture the original bonus games. My idea for the future is to have H Visit EGMNOW.com and unlock the benefits of iPASS membership... pass 11198529051 YOUR PASSPORT El Vii | isit www.egmnow.com online TO A WHOLE NEW El Login with your User Name and Password OR WAY TO READ EGM Register for your own EGM account (it’s FREE) Е] Click on the iPASS button EJ Enter the iPASS code (the 11-digit code above) www.egmnow.com IT CAN ONLY BE USED ONCE FOR ONE ACCOUNT | E] Enjoy 31 days of premium access to ЕСМ! * Terms and Conditions Apply players complete а! the bonus stages from the past series, which will then unlock the original bonus stage as a mini game. | might incorporate the idea of destroying trucks or buses like you suggested. EGM: Even though SF4 recaptures the magic of SF2, it failed to incorporate the iconic background stages that fit with each specific character like in SF2. And it appears as though the stages aren't changing much in SSFIV. How come it seems less attention was paid to this? YO: We have thought a lot about the stage background implementation. It was a discussion between whether we design stages for each character or not. In the original SFIV, we've selected stages based on the game itself and not the characters. However, we later discovered that people were hoping for more character stages. In SSFIV, even though we weren't fully able to add stages based on requests, we did add a few stages that were inspired by certain characters. | hope you enjoy the change! EGM: EGM covered SF2 and Mortal Kombat more than any other game in the early ’90s. Tell us: Have you ever played any of the MK games? If so, what did you think? YO: We played a lot of MK. | think it’s really an entertaining fighting game, where SF is more like a fighting tool to me. Almost all the elements in MK represent quality entertainment in my opinion. Although, the game is not aiming for the same direction as SF or Tekken. EGM: It took over 10 years for Capcom to make a sequel to Street Fighter IIl. Are we going to have to wait another 10 years for Street Fighter V? YO: Perhaps. [Laughs] Well, SSFIV is really closer to Street Fighter 4.9, | think. So we might need some days off before SFV. | personally feel that 10 years might be too long. Like Gouki says, “I slept really well for too long,” and there are consequences for being left out from the rest of the world like him. That might not be fun... so | will try to get back to it sooner. STREET FIGHTER ONO INTERVIEW ps NEW CHARACTERS Juri's Pros JW: Juri is new and she has very safe specials—her movements are really quick and she does a ton of damage. Juri's Cons JW: Juri’s only weakness is that she has very bad defense. Juri Strategy JW: A lot of pressuring and using her Feng Shui Engine Ultra to overwhelm my opponent. Will Juri replace his default character? JW: Yes, | can see her as my new main character. Guy's Pros JW: If you can land his combos, they do a lot of damage. Guy's Cons JW: Problem is, it's hard to land his combos. Guy Strategy JW: My strategy would be to take all the risk | can to land that one hit for that big combo. Will Guy replace his default character? JW: probably wont use Guy because he is too high-risk for not enough reward. Dudley's Pros SK: Dudley has a lot of strengths—he's got big combos, a lot of ways around fireballs, a decent anti-air uppercut, interesting tricks and setups, along with good damage and at least one highly versatile Ultra. He's easy to lode to, Py and hard to beat, though he may have some challenges ү V against characters with big jumps or long-ranged moves, that can keep him outside. Б Dudley's Cons SK: Honestly, Dudley has no real weaknesses. Dudley Strategy SK: Dudley's strategy will depend a lot on which character. his opponent is playing. He's best at middle-to-close ranges, so most of his matches will be a tug-of-war to try and maintain that position. If he can stay in there, he's got a powerful answer for almost anything you can throw at him. P Will Dudley replace his default character? SK: Definitely. He's really versatile, so he'll suit a lot of different playstyles, including mine. He's also just got so many fun options, l'm sure I'll be playing him as a secondary at least. Adon's Pros JW: Adon's main strength is that he has good normals. Adon' Cons JW: Adon's main weakness is that his combos are very hard to land. And he has no good jump attacks. Adon Strategy JW: I'd probably use a lot of fake jaguar kicks to make the opponent dizzy, and from there, punish them since his combos are very limited. Will Adon replace his default character? JW: | probably won't because he is too weird. T.Hawk’s Pros Justin Wong: T.Hawk's pokes are good, like his standing roundhouse or even his low strong. His command throw leads into a perfect mix-up for him to do it again or go fora cross up. He also has a good dragon punch-move (Tomahawk Buster) and a safe vertical air dive, which leads into more tricky mix-ups. T.Hawk's Weaknesses JW: Hawk's weakness is that he needs to take a lot of risk and he also cannot focus cancel out of his Tomahawk Buster. T.Hawk Strategy JW: My strategy would be to play the mix-up game, and in crucial situations, rely on my good poking game to deceive my opponent to gather the win. Will T.Hawk replace his default character? JW: Probably not, because | don't use grappler characters. They revolve too much on the command throws for me. Cody's Pros JW: Cody's main strength is that he has a solid cross up into nice combos, and he has good pokes. To top it all off, he also has a way to deal with fireballs. Cody's Cons JW: Cody's main weakness is that he may not do that much damage just because his other moves are really good. Cody Strategy JW: | would try to play Cody very annoying; hit here and there and try to frustrate my opponent by throwing rocks and knife projectiles. Will Cody replace his default character? JW: Maybe, because he was the first Street Fighter Alpha 3 character | used. Ibuki’s Pros SK: Ibuki has dangerous attack options at virtually every range so you can never relax when you're facing her. While she does have good ranged moves, doing big damage with her requires her to be in your face, so don't play hard-to-get for too long. Ibuki’s Cons SK: Ibuki’s major weakness is how easily she takes damage. She can dish it out, but she can't take it, and she has one of the weakest defense ratings in the game, so either keep rushing them down or stay far away. Ibuki Strategy SK: Ibuki can pretend to play runaway with her kunai knives, but they're a little too slow to keep an opponent out forever. Once they do get in, she also takes a lot of damage, so winning with Ibuki is going to require using some offensive tricks. Fortunately for her, she does have a ton of really sneaky setups that can lead to big damage, so frustrate the opponent from far away, then when they come after you and let their guard down, let the tricks begin! Will Ibuki replace his default character? SK: Possibly. Ibuki is very stylish, but I'm more of a "get-in- your-face-and-bash-you" kind of a player. | don't know if l'm elegant enough to get wins with her. Deejay's Pros JW: Deejay has a good poking game and a nice fireball. Plus, he has many links into some good, damaging combos. Deejay's Cons JW: Deejay's weakness is his inability to have a proper comeback strategy, meaning if Deejay is down on life, it's harder to pull off a win. Deejay Strategy JW: My strategy with Deejay is to play really cautious so | can always have the life lead. And I'd do that by throwing fireballs and keeping the opponent annoyed. Will Deejay replace his default character? JW: He will not, because | am not a charge character-user—I prefer motions. EGM SPRIN 56 | FEATURE Gr While the gaming industry is looking for the next big thing, =- n^ " сл NI Art Credit: Mikael Orioto, http://twitter.com/Orioto some developers are finding success by living in the past. > ЕСМ SPRING 2010 verything old has а good chance of eventually being new again, assuming it’s beloved by enough 18-35-year-olds (even magazines!). That's no surprise to gamers who grew up seeing their favorite 2D mascots and series reinvented with each new console generation, but a growing trend reverses that progress by booting updated franchises back to their 2D roots. From New Super Mario Bros. Wii to Street Fighter IV, Bionic Commando: Rearmed to Mega Man 10, 2D gaming isn't just back—it’s acting like the last 15 years never happened. Sega is the latest on the time-traveling bandwagon, with Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 set for release this summer. Sonic 4 is a typical example of what you could call the “2D revival? It features a classic character, old-school 2D gameplay, modern 3D graphics, tons of fan service, and—the key distinction Git's not just any "new 2D Sonic” but the canonical sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 3. "With Sonic 4, the approach we're taking is, if we were doing new Genesis games today, what would they look like?” explains Ken Balough, Sonic brand manager at Sega. “If we kept that formula going, what would they feel like? And essentially that's where we get Sonic 4. It's 2D, but it's got that modern look to it” Although Dimps (makers of the Sonic Rush games for the Nintendo DS) is co-developing Sonic 4, a few Genesis-era staffers are on the project to help capture as much of the 16-bit spirit as possible, including a level designer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the original music m rioto р Art Credit: composer for the Genesis Sonic games. "We don't want all of a sudden for Sonic to have rock music or something—we want to make sure Sonic 4 feels like a thre Sonic genuine extension of the firs games,’ Balough says. “If you're a long- time fan of the Genesis days, when you play Sonic 4, I think you'll be like, ‘Holy crap, I remember when that thing came out’ or ‘I remember that and theres a new twist on it” This fan service will even include a classic character not seen since the Genesis days, although Balough is keeping its identity a closely guarded secret. “When you get to the very end of the game. you're going to be seeing the return of a character that you haven't seen in a very, very long time,” he сл c ОЗО assas * explained. “Its a character fans have been asking us to include in Sonic games for as long as I can remember, and we will be bringing that character back” But Sega isn't the only company listening to fans and putting dollar signs to nostalgia— Capcom using the same strategy with a slate of 2D revivals. As three of the five games mentioned near the start of this article show, it's a trend Capcom helped pioneer. "Our digital strategy has been a lot about fan service and trying to imagine if the arcade still existed —what would arcade games on current hardware look like?" explains Christian Svensson, VP of strategic planning and business development at Capcom. That strategy Sonic 4 is the direct sequel to Sonic 3, released more than 15 years ago. began modestly with a port of Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting for Xbox Live Arcade in 2006, and its success paved the way for ambitious remakes (Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Bionic Commando: Rearmed) and full-blown sequels (Mega Man 9 and Street Fighter IV). "What we're learning is, for fans of the Contra/Castlevania games and brands we have here, they're eager for a new twist on something they already know and love,” says Svensson. “And for the people who aren't familiar with these brands, theres a timeless quality to the gameplay that a new audience is ready to accept. One consistent “twist” in these 2D revivals, “Nostalgia is a draw for some gamers, but | think ultimately an appeal of a game comes From how good it actually is." Pac-Man CE Shadow Complex though, seems paradoxical to the stated intent: If the goal of these games is to stick as close to the originals as possible, why are so many going the “2.5D” route—using 2D gameplay with 3D graphics? In fact, Sonic 4% 3D visuals already got Sega in trouble with some superfans who complained Sonic’s running animation in the teaser trailer looked slower compared to his speedy strides in the original Genesis games. “The running animation that was shown in the trailer wasn’t exactly taken from in-game, because we were still tweaking the game at the time,’ Balough explains. Bionic Commando Rearmed Mega Man 9/10 "But I think once you see the final running animation, most fans will be happy with what was polished? And Balough maintains the 3D visuals are necessary to making Sonic 4a successful revival: "I think that's what's really essential —keeping that core gameplay element but really modernizing the graphics. I think, personally, that's essential if you want the brand to keep going forward? But according to Svensson, time and manpower can factor just as much as customer expectations into a games graphical style—and the upswing in 2.5D. "For us to do a new costume in a 2D game, you have to redraw the entire sprite set,” says Svensson. "That's not as easy, quite frankly, as swapping a model and using the existing character animations. So what using 2.5D allows for in, say, Street Fighter IV is very rapid and frequent updates to costume looks and balancing’ This isn't without a downside, though: Despite making parts of the development process easier, it turns out 3D still costs more money, “That's not to say sprites aren't expensive these days, too, because that's definitely a lost art” Svensson says. "But 3D generally means a larger budget and bigger risk on a project as well. Street Fighter IV was not an inexpensive game to make by any stretch.” Games like Mega Man 9, which appeal to nostalgia with deliberately ancient 8-bit-style graphics, are on the opposite end of the spectrum. The risk there, though, is in alienating younger gamers who dont have a built-in appreciation for pixelated blue booties. “A friend of mine whos a prominent executive at a major hardware company sat down with his kids to play Mega Man 9,4 a Mega Man fan,’ says Svensson, dipping into an anecdote. "He's probably about, say, 45 years old, and his kids just didn't get it—they didn’t understand. They just looked at the graphics and instantly tuned out. Whereas he was just overjoyed and in little nerd heaven.” What allow Capcom to continue with such niche projects is that making a small group very happy may be all that the company needs. “We don't necessarily have to line up 2 million units of something for it to be strategically valuable,” Svensson says. “As long as а project helps push the brand forward and keeps it cool and relevant to an audience that's large and lucrative enough to keep making more, that's good enough for u: For Sega, the generational split is at least partly why it’s making Sonic 4 to begin with. "This is sort of recognition that Sonic is a brand that has a wide variety of fans in a wide variety of age groups,’ says Balough. "We have a fan base that's very young, and they want a little more of a Loony Toons-ish kind of gameplay" Balough compares this to the “werehog” levels in Sonic Unleashed, which he says kids enjoyed but older gamers hated. "But we also have an older fan base who liked Sonic as he was in the Genesis days,” he continues. “And if we want to keep that fan base happy, we should provide games that cater to them as well. So it's more of a splitting a little bit of the brand? Another question, though, is whether developers can keep even older gamers interested once the novelty of the nostalgia begins to fade. Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst at KBC Securities Japan, thinks it's a danger that publishers must consider. "Although the casual gamer market may find 2D gaming easier to get to grips with, adopting 2D for the sake of it does not make зепзе he sa "Nostalgia is a draw for some gamers, but I think ultimately an appeal of a game comes from how good it actually i Io that end, Kamide believes maintaining interest in 2D revivals is just like any other video game sequel: create appealing, new features while maintaining a consistently high quality. "Making novelty and nostalgia as the key selling points would not work. It depends how good the games are, how well they can keep people entertained.” Despite such reservations, though, Svensson sees plenty of mileage still left in this trend—and not just for Capcom ing up some of the secret sauce, I think it’s a huge opportunity for the industry that most are overlooking. If I had advice for other publishers, I would look at your back catalog, see what has a fan base, what your fans are asking for” So hey, Nintendo, how about that Kid Icaru. sequel? Strider Gunsmoke Spy Hunter Shinobi Ice Climber Honorable Mentions... c 6 e How the Future of Downloada ince the launch of the current generation of consoles, the notion of downloadable con- tent has become as much a part of modern gaming as high scores, extra lives and headshots. At one time it was impossible to imagine that a game could continue to change and adapt after leaving the store shelf. Now the opportunity to access extra levels, new vehicles, bigger guns and entirely new chap- ters post-launch is not only the norm, it's expected. In fact, it's getting more likely that the most-anticipated, high-profile games of the near-future will be choking to death on their own bloated DLC rollout plans long before the titles are even announced. On the surface DLC sounds like a great idea—the ultimate service plan to keep your investment in games and characters and storylines from ble Content Could Deception? ever dying. Unfortunately, the power to unlock additional content also pro- vides the ability to lock any content and, according to some, that may be the ultimate goal. An example of this reality surfaced when 2K Games announced its first round of DLC for BioShock 2. The problem stemmed from the fact that the data being touted as “download- able” was, in fact, already stored on the retail disc. Put simply, if you bought BioShock 2, you technically already owned the DLC. 2K defended its $3 tariff to “unlock” the DLC by saying that it wanted to make sure the game’s multiplayer user-based didn’t get split up. Three bucks for a 100k unlock file? For shame. But profits, while understandable, need not be the only goal of the DLC promoters. One reality that has plagued publishers for years is the Reshape Gaming F burgeoning market for used games through retailers such as Gamestop and Blockbuster. Among the first, and most widely reported, warning shots came from Epic Games president Michael Capps in an interview with the industry web- site Gamesindustry.biz. He made his disdain for rentals and used games crystal clear. “The secondary market is a huge issue in the United States,” Capps said. “Our primary retailer makes the majority of its money off of sec- ondary sales... we don’t make any money when someone rents [our games], and we don’t make any money when someone buys [our games] used—way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it.” Capps’ received special criticism for openly discussing developer conversations regarding the use of tactics to force renters and second- hand buyers to fork over money directly to the publisher as well. If a player wanted to fully experience a product, some reasoned, then limit- ing access for anyone other than the original purchaser was not only fair, it was a right that publishers should exercise. Ultimately Epic, and other publish- ers, have opted for a softer approach that stops short of rendering a game unplayable or incomplete, but the drum beat is growing louder. Issues related to Digital Rights Management, and the need to have a persistent connection to a pub- lisher's servers — even in single-player mode—have become more common- place in the PC gaming business. Many now fear that console game publishers will follow that lead using DLC as their DRM Trojan Horse. EA employed a technique with Mass Effect 2 that rewarded those who bought the game new with "free" DLC from day one, while those that seek out cheaper used copies are charged to access the same content. Although this leads to the same frustrating conclusion for frugal gamers that can't keep up with the glut of great releases during tough economic times, it also incentivizes and even rewards those who do buy without punitive effects. Provided the bonus content holds real value for the player it can Still work as intended—as a bonus that has perceived value. Examples of DLC that lives up to the promise of enhancing the overall experience include Soul Calibur IV, which drew praise by offering players access to play as both Darth Vader and Yoda (depending on which version you owned). It proved for many to be one of the game's biggest draws. The coming years will present the gaming public with a critical test of just how far players are willing to be pushed to get more from their favorite titles. DLC is definitely here to stay, The games that have gotten the spirit of downloadable content rig Burnout Paradise [EA] Team Fortress 2 PC (Valve) The Bad And the games that should be ashamed for getting downloadable content all wrong: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision) The Elders Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda) Beautiful Katamari - (Namco Bandai) Street Fighter IV (Capcom) but what form it takes — especially in high-profile, big-budget games — will go a long way towards determin- ing just how high publishers can construct the DLC walls around their intellectual properties. El оз BlgDodcy04 (ist) Winterbioster22 D D By Brady he cramped Peruvian restaurant almost worked, but after way too much coffee and a need to take in an ocean view, David Jaffe and | found a pizza spot overlooking the Pacific in Del Мас What unfolded was a revealing conversation with the creator of God of War and Twisted Metal about his next project, finding a career in the pages of EGM (while on the toilet, of course), and realizing that, at age 38, he has yet to truly arrive. (=) о o E o کو‎ а. You'll be pleased to know that you've already made a contribution to the new EGM. I just had a conversation about how we're going to handle the use of the word “f**k” in the magazine knowing I would be interviewing you. [laughs] Well yeah, I assume a PG-13 rating will do. Do you remember the first time you used that word? It must have been a glorious day for you. Oh man. Maybe I was like 10 or 11? And now it's commonplace in gaming. Yeah, you know, every day we're at this point where, how do we push it so our game still has some teeth? It's tough, be- cause at least with the kind of game were doing now, that T rating really makes a difference. Do you see that side of your personality in the games and characters you create? Yeah, to an extent. But then in some ways, its becoming less and less true. Games are getting so big and its now more team- centric. Where I’m working right now, I wouldn't say that’s the case because of the type of game we're making. I imagine a David Cage looks at Heavy Rain and [sees] his spirit is in that game. So ГИ agree with that. We've argued that before; that you don't see much of yourself in your games. Well, OK, if you're talking about Gears of War, and God of War, and Twisted Metal, and Halo, anything [like that] you do is going to be a reflection of who you are. That's true of the games you design to the characters you create to how messy your car ends up being. How messy your car is? People say you go into someone car and if it’s a total mess or if it's tot pristine, that it’s a reflection of their spirit. Who they are and how they see themselves. I remember the first time I got in your car it looked like a tornado had hit it. Well, that was probably more of a reflec- tion of where I was with work. I like a clean house, I like a clean car, but it's an issue of priorities. Sometimes I have other things going on and can't keep up. I love to ех Why? Becaus higher on my list. Writing a story ise. Do I do it enough? No. I have other things I put creating a game, working with the team, taking a walk with my kids, whatever. And in games you can certainly say that as well. But yeah, I'm definitely reflected in my games. But I dont know. I do think about that, but I dont have answers. Maybe it’s not for you to decide. Yeah, I think that's the better way to think about it. I certainly have an attachment to my games. They are very personal to me. And you could say, well, Twisted Metal, how could that be personal? Because it is, that’ he way I see the world. I've had peo- ple say about God of War, they kind of say it mockingly, that it’s like a 14 year-old- I think when you become less afraid, you become more honest with what you want and what you need. As I get older, / I get less afraid. » ЕСМ SPRING 2010 There are some publishers you hear about that do things that sound pretty f**king negative and shady, but that hasn't been my experience. fantasies. I like that, I still like that. I boy was listening to a song by Nickelback and it totally hit those same notes in my brain That kind of junior high-school energy, angst drive. Thinking girls were cool but at the same time thinking dragons were cool under a black light at Spencer's Gifts at the mall What were your earliest memories of gaming as a kid in Alabama? I was at [this year’s] DICE awards, with David Crane, and we were going back- stage together. They were going to present an award, and were flashing up on the screen all the [art from the games] he had done. And one of the games was called Outlaw, which was an Atari 2600 [title], with two really awfully pixilated cowboys, standing face-to-face. Basically you could move left and right, and up and down, that was it. I remember when I saw Out- law after a baseball game. I didn’t want to play baseball at the time, but [my father] said “If you play ГИ buy you a game; or something. I remember seeing just the box, it evoked such a sense of adventure. If you play this game, the promise of it was this big adventure you're gonna have. That was really the first memory I have of being wowed. I remember salivating over Odyssey’s Quest for the Rings too. It was that promise of adventure, especially as a kid—this idea that you're gonna buy this product and escape. Did you need to escape as a kid? I had a very loving, but at the same time tumultuous homelife. And yeah, maybe there was more of a desire to go to those places and get away from that. I really did want to go to those fantasy worlds. Or there was this game called Black Tower, the Milton Bradley game, it was j promise to escape and go to these amaz- a ing worlds where you can be a star. I loved it. I just loved it. Did anything else fuel that fantasy? Give you that escape? Did something come before gaming that hit you in that way? When you grow up in a house with a lot of fighting everything is an escape. Comics, books, movies, Lucas, video games, Spiel- berg, arcade games, all that stuff. So you grew up surrounded by conflict? Oh, it was like WWE It wasn't abusive, but it was just a lot of arguing. My parents argued a lot, and when you're a kid that stuff is very scary. You know, I’m a pretty even tempered, even keeled person. And I was at Disneyland with my kids the other day, and it starts raining. And I told my oldest, “OK, put this poncho on? She's a very spirited kid, thank God. And I had it on her and she was yelling and crying, and finally I just got really mad, and I said “f**k it” and I grabbed it and just ripped the poncho apart. It was one of those cheap things you get at Disney Land, but you can tell she will never forget that now. I apologized, I sat her down, and I said “Sweetheart, I am so sorry.” It wasn't that I was being [like] my parents, but I'm so sensitive now to any kind of outburst as a parent that when you see it affecting your kid, I stop, pause, and make it clear that sometimes grown-ups have outbursts too. You know, you created Kratos, ripping that poncho apart... [laughs] Yeah, yeah, exactly, you're the minotaur. I saw this little circle above my daughter's head and I had to do it. How has that dynamic of growing up in a home filled with conflict impacted you later in life? As much as my parents argued and fought, and that house was a very loud house, they were tremendously support- ive. And tremendously loving. I would not be doing what I'm doing without them. I remember when me and a design partner at Sony, the first year we were there as testers, had gone in and taken LEGO blocks—this was before 3D modeling— and we were building levels out with LEGO blocks. Wed taken over the entire conference room, and this guy comes up and goes, "Why do you think you're going to get to be a designer?" I don't remember my specific words, but I remember the intent behind the words: why would I ever think I wouldn't? That I get from my parents, the idea that you really can have anything you want. I know you have to work hard, you have to be smart. My father was the same in that regard. I still remember when he brought home a ColecoVision and we lost the entire weekend together. Yeah, my dad brought home the Atari [2600], and I remember being excited the whole day, looking through the Atari cata- logs with my buddies. We were flipping through all the games we were going to get. When he brought it home that night, it was for my birthday party, my sister got me a game called Flag Capture, which I loved. As a child, going back to that beautiful box art, really painted the expe- rience. I got Superman, Combat, and Space Invaders. 'That was the first batch. I totally remember waking up at 5 in the morning before school so me and my brother could play. Its funny though, I’m getting older, ГЇЇ be 39 next year, and a couple years ago, those memories were still so powerful and fresh. They drove me, they did something to me. Now when I talk to you about them, they're still very warm, but they seem like they've crossed some threshold. Its almost like they happened to someone else. I think in some ways, me making God of War was making something that paid homage to those memories. And now I've been on this quest [to discover] what inspires me now. What motivates me now? I'm kind of glad to be done with those early memories and not have them motivate me like they used to. Have you replaced them with something else? I just don't need them anymore. I have enough of a mastery of the world I live in now—not a lot, but enough—I don't need to run to those memories and think "that's when things were safe.” You've told me in the past about your desire to be as vocal as you are, wanting to be as honest as you can. That comes from your youth and growing up? Oh yeah, hell yeah. All of that [traces] back to growing up. You grow up in very conservative Alabama and my family is Jewish, with very liberal parents. They started out with a lot of money, and they lost a lot of money. So I got to see both sides. We lived in a pretty ritzy area of town, and I remember that being re- ally important to everyone. I’m painting everybody with the same brush, but there was a sense of money and status. [I saw] my parents go through a phase where they didn't have any of that. It certainly made me very liberal and very protective of peo- ple who weren't like everybody else. I have a brother who is gay. He didn't come out until he was out of high school, but there was a sense that he was different. There was a sense of protectiveness about that as well, not wanting to see him get hurt. I had very good friends who were African- Americans and [1 saw] the racism that was happening toward them. You were either going to conform to that system, or take up arms and fight. I fought. My arms were my logic and my voice and my ability to not care what the consequences were. I was going to stand up for all of that. What were your personal goals through high school and into college? What did you want to be when you grew up? I grew up wanting to be a poet. Not a poet like a poet laureate, but I could rhyme. Shel Silverstein kind of stuff. Then I wanted to be a writer, and then I wanted to make movies, and it’s only recently that Гуе gone, “ОК, 40 is coming up, are you doing what you really want to be doing?” I love making games, but I also do think I'm getting interested in some kind of fiction. Video games are one of two things for me: they are either the path I should be on, and I am on, and I'm grateful for, or this thing that allows me to express my creativity, pay off my student loans, buy a house and have some sort of notoriety, that at a time was really important. It was really easy, very seductive, to say that's my path and to leave behind that desire to create fiction. This path came into focus as a teenager? No, I was a terrified teenager who hid behind my ambition. I was going to be the next Steven Spielberg come hell or high water. And I used that to define me in my relationships with other people. And that was safe. So you didn't want to be a doctor or an astronaut? You wanted to be Steven Spielberg? I didn't even want to be a filmmaker. I wanted to be Steven Spielberg. If I'd had seen a shrink at the time, they would have been like, "OK, you have dementia. We have to work with you on this.” It was a protection mechanism for what was hap- pening in my life and growing up. I don't want to paint my childhood as this hor- rible experience, because I had many great moments, but there were times it was really rough. But those rough points could h 67 | WES | m JJ = < < RAPHY 1994 Mickey Mania SNES Genesis/SegaCD Sony Imagesoft 1995 Twisted Metal PS SCE 1996 Twisted Metal 2 2001 Twisted Metal Black Р52 SCE 2001 Kinetica P58 SCE 2005 God of War Sony SCE 2007 Calling All Cars PS3 SCE 2008 Twisted Metal Head On: Extra Twisted Edition Poe SCE RANDOM ACCESS EGM: Do game publishers get a bad rap? DJ: Some of them. | think they’re an easy target because they have the money. Any developer worth their weight is gonna want more money, just like every publisher...worth their weight wants to give less money. There are some publishers you hear about that do things that sound pretty f*cking negative and shady, but that hasn't been my experience. EGM: Where do you see the industry 5 years from now? DJ: Continued diversification. A whole array of price points, game types. From Facebook games to 100 million dollar console games and everywhere in between. | think that kind of fragmentation is only beginning. It's not dissimilar to what you saw when cable came along, and suddenly you went from three major networks and PBS to 800 channels. And the audience for those channels got smaller and smaller as everybody found their own niche that they liked to watch. The good news is that's still bringing in new gamers. ЕСМ: What's the one thing wrong with the gaming press? DJ: Hyperbole. be so bad, you get to a point that the only light you can see to escape the box you are in is this thing out there called fame and fortune and success. As a teenager, it was really a psychological cocoon I was wrap- ping myself in. To the outside world I was going to be this great filmmaker. My films were terrible. There was no indication I had any skill or talent, but under all that fighting and desire for success, under- neath all that remains a very pure, creative force. That's what I'm trying to reconnect with. I think m getting to an age where I see the pure part of that. It’s interesting to hear someone with outward success question themselves. You really do question yourself? Oh hell yes. Because I don't fit in with other designers. I went out to dinner the other night with a group of designers I know, we talk on the Internet all the time, but this was the first time wed gotten to- gether for dinner. And some of the names are... [pauses] OK, you know who these people are. I've never felt at home talking traditional design. I feel at home talking about my designs, but when you sit me in a room and say, "lets talk about the economic system of Farmville and how psychologically that system creates a play mechanic loop that does X, У, Z” I can follow it, and I can contribute, but that's not my where my spirit goes. It requires some effort on my part. These guys, it just comes so natural to them. They are à better fusion of creativity and math. In most cases they're like 70 percent math, 30 percent creative. I tend to be more like 90 percent creative, 10 percent math. When I sit down with other designers, there's re- ally a sense of not fitting in with that. Now when I sit down with the writers I work with, I feel much more even. I feel like I can carry on a conversation. Let's get back to your roots for a mo- ment. At what point did you decide game design would be your career? "Ihat was totally accidental. I remember when my dad called me in college, I was using one of the phones, I think in Taper Hall at USC. It was basically my senior year, last semester, and there were one or two classes I still didn't have. I kept drop- ping out of this one class, I hated this pro- fessor they kept assigning me. I was a ter- rible student and I was out of money. The student loans were up, the grants were up, [and he said], “We can't afford to send you another semester.’ I was terror stricken, what am I going to do? I had put all my eggs in this basket. Someone was going to come along and make me a filmmaker. And I remember reading an issue of EGM actually, sitting on the crapper. The one that had Dracula on the cover. You can mock prayer, and God, and [the motiva- tional book and video] “The Secret,” and New Age stuff all you want. Maybe it’s just the way the brain finds patterns in chaos. I don't know and I don't саге. But somehow in this magazine, in the back of it, was [an advertisement from] the only game com- pany [Sony Imagesoft] in Santa Monica run by this guy Rich Robinson. I had no money and no prospects. I heard about video game testers and I called them. I started making 20 thousand dollars a year. I was like, “that’s like a real f**king job” I couldn't fathom that. Immediately that same type of drive kicked in as a tester. Some were testers for life, some waited for someone to come and pull them out. For me, I remember waiting at the cafe at Sony and I was reading Variety, and this pro- ducer came up to me, she said, "You're not like normal testers, what are you doing reading Variety? Most of them are reading fan magazines or whatever" And her thoughts were, you know, most of these guys aren't giving thought to their lives and careers five years from now, they're just smoking out and having a good time. But it was clear to me that I could use my desire to be creative and do it here. On the one hand I was phenomenal, and on the other hand, had I been a little less fearful, I wouldn't have walked away entirely from more linear media. I may never get back there, but I'm starting to become more aware that I did walk away from it, and thats the start. What did you start testing on? ‘The first game was Hook. 1 remember walking in and all I had was a Genesis in my apartment. And I remember looking at the SNES controller and saying, Oh my God, look at all these buttons! The SNES had the four face buttons and the two shoulder buttons. Even the other testers went to Rich Robinson and said, "Don't f**king hire this guy. Hes intimidated by a f**king SNES controller" But for whatever reason he hired me, thank God he did. So I tested Hook, Last Action Hero, and we did Dracula and we did Three Ninjas Kick Back, which was the sequel to Three Ninjas. And we did Ground Zero Texas. At that point I had pitched Mickey Mania with my partner Mike Giam, who went on to do Jet Moto, now he’s at Free Realms. They had promoted us pretty quickly out of test and into these assistant producer roles. And from there it was all drive and ambition. Mickey Mania was your first game? ‘There were four designers. There was me and Mike from ImageSoft, and there were the guys from Traveler's Tales. This was our very first experience. I'm grateful that my ideas and Mike's ideas got into that game. It was a really tough game. The pro- ducer at Sony was caught in the middle. ‘The head of Sony had promised us that ‘if you get this deal from Disney, you can be the designers’ The guys making the game were like, who are these punks who have never made a game in their lives, telling us what to do? I mean, we co-designed it, but I wasn't going out to England to do pick- ups. It was more high level. Heres what a level could look like, heres a mechanic, heres this rough idea. Then, two months later, wed get back a build that had that reflected. It was really a lot of high level— with a little bit of low level—design. Then off you went to Twisted Metal? Well, it led to a couple of other things. My design partner and I were getting an awful reputation. We were doing stuff with Mali- bu Comics, like the Strangers and stuff like that. We thought we were the s**t. [Our attitude was like] we were movie directors, and you're just a f**king programmer—do exactly what I tell you or shut the f**k up. Not even [an established] movie director on a set acts that poorly, but we didn't know, we had never really made a game. You thought you were a badass. Oh yeah, no question. I remember being called into Rich's office after he had found these sim guys from the military who wanted to go off and do games, which ended up being SingleTrac. I remember the conversation, he said, “We found a [team to do this], and my feet are to the fire on this. You have to get your s**t together. You can't just go in there and be assholes.’ So I shifted my [mindset] and now my busines s partner is the guy I was working with back then on the first Twisted Metal. But it could be said that one person's asshole is another person's perfection- ist. Do you still catch yourself being a bulldozer when it comes to design? Yeah, ГИ give you an example. We're working on a game now, and multiplayer isa big component. You have three kinds of multiplayer people—you have the people who love what's already out there and who want to emulate it or improve it, and that’s the majority of people who work in games. They love what's already being offered. They love Modern Warfare 2, and they love Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and they love Mario Kart on the Wii. And I like and respect a great amount of a lot of those games, but then you have the kind of people who just don't get online multiplayer. Then you have people like me who see something there that's really appealing, but you don't want to go down the path that’s already laid out. When I sit down with other designers, theres really a sense of not fitting in... Not because you want to be different, but because there's something there that's not being done the way you want to do it. It was the same thing when we did God of War. People were saying, "Just make it combat-centric, make it like Ninja Gaiden, make it like Devil May Cry." No, no, no. I want to blend some things together. Those things are great, but they're not giving me personally what I want out of the experience. I’m having those same argu- ments and debates now with people on the team and people at Sony: what does a great multiplayer online title need? How much [do you dwell on the] stats and meta game? We have a mode in the game And so were making a lot of choices where that I really want to be team-centric. some of the team comes back to me and challenges, saying, “nobody uses head sets for that kind of stuff” But for me to do this mode, I want to build it around the assumption that the audience that wants to play a team mode and play it as a team will really show up for each other. So we have a mechanic— [ГИ describe it] in the abstract, because I know this interview will be coming out before we really an- nounce the game—in one of the modes you have to transport this thing from A to B. I designed with Scott Campbell, my design partner and co-owner of E; Sleep Play, these units that will aid in that transportation. It requires some coordination, getting on your headset and planning that, and a lot of people [claim] no one likes to do that. Everybody just likes to do it on the fly. I don't want this game to fail. I don't want it to fail for me personally, for the team, for Sony, but I'm not interested in just making what already works. Again, its not because I want to be so original, its because if I liked what already worked, I wouldn't be making this. Because it’s already out there. So when I say I don’t really fit in with other designers, there is that sense that 9 out of 10 designers I talk to would look at what Modern Warfare 2 is doing or whatever, Team Fortress, and say let’s do that and give it our own twist. Knowing what you're talking about I can safely say that if you nail it, you're gonna make a lot of people happy. You know, it’s kind of like anything else, you have visions of your ultimate goal. I have visions of people on headsets, having those little neurons firing in their brains. Like in the A-Team, you love it when a plan comes together. The same thing goes with our version of Deathmatch, which I can speak about more specifically. I keep wanting to up the hit points on the char- acters and some people are like, “I f**king hate that. I wanna just КШ а s many people as I can, and I want four or five shots and they're dead and I move on.” That's how most shooters are and I hate that. I just hate that. I hate it because I want an online game to give me the same kind of feeling I got when I was playing split-screen games. Where I really can form a relation- ship with someone. I could chase them, and they could chase me, or we could be running toward the same power-up and [whoever gets] it is going to turn the tables. When youre killed in four or five shots, or one single head shot, that kind of relationship can't happen. It happens at à much quicker level, and it happens on a meta level, because it's you versus 30 guys over the course of a minute and a half. I'm trying to kind of bring that into it, and there is resistance to that. Because people are used to what they like. I think many gamers will welcome this. It gives them a reason to be there. I agree, and it may not work for everyone, and it may not work at all. Its easy when it's one-on-one, but nobody's gonna buy a one-on-one multiplayer. Well, they will, but not enough to justify the budget. If you've got 32 people in there, or 18, or 16, you get into this challenge of how do you create meaningful relationships with all these people you come across and, at the same time, you don't want to make the match last forever. For me, I'm just looking for something different. So far we've only become good at eliciting a very id 69 ) INTERVIEW narrow spectrum of human emotion with our games, but even within that narrow spectrum its an amazing feeling when they work. Nintendo has been the best at it. It's just [working] pleasure centers, like a reward to a rat in a maze. I was playing the latest Mario and Luigi RPG on my DS, and the screen they designed when you rank up and after a fight, with that flag go- ing up the flag poll is just an amazing way to make people happy. Given your creative drive, I wonder what would have happened if you had gotten into film school. Think you would have been Spielberg by now? I wanted to be Steven Spielberg. I actually met him at USC. My freshman year he had come with Lucas. They were doing some sort of dedication, I don't remember exactly. So he shows up as I was directing a film. I never got into film school, but I had all the keys to all the buildings because I worked there. So we had taken over a bunch of the rooms to shoot our If youre honest with yourself, you will never feel you ve fully arrived... movie, unbeknownst to USC, and when we found out they were there, me and my f**king producer made a b-line to the re- ception. We just went up to him and said, “look, we're shooting a movie, it's been a really long couple of days and it would be really great for the crew if you came by and said "hey" I don't know what the f**k we were thinking, but he said, "Sure, ГИ come by” We ran back from there to our set so fast! Lo and behold, Spielberg and Lucas showed up on my set about an hour later! I literally was in а daze. I had built him up in my mind, well beyond the man that he was. I mean, he was a force, he was а God, he represented everything. So to meet him, and to speak with him, for him to ask, "What's your movie about? Walk me through the shot you're setting up” my brain couldn't process what was happen- ing. He wasn't just someone coming up and saying, "Hey, I liked your movie? He represented that scape from the life I was trying to get away from. And he was the first person Id met at that level. That’s pretty awesome. Yeah, it was а huge deal. Lucas wasn't that big of a deal. He was kind of an asshole. Yeah, Star Wars was great, but he just didn't represent who Spielberg was to me. Since then I've bumped into [Spielberg] а couple times, he doesn't remember me and I didn't talk to him. He doesn't hold that sway over me like he used to by any means. But at the time? Just amazing. Now you're the one inspiring people. Which is amazing. Because it doesn't feel like it at all. I don't buy that. No, it's true, At some point you realized you had arrived. Oh, I haven't arrived, I've never said that. Not even to yourself? I've never said that. No, I've never felt that. ГИ be 40 in less than two years. I'm very aware of that. Гуе never felt that. I was getting a drink at 7-11 over the weekend and noticed Kratos on the Slurpee machine. The Slurpee machine. God of War 3, it’s a great achievement, one of the best games I’ve played in a long time. I still recognize very much what I brought to that world, and that game and that formula. I definitely look at it with a sense of pride, a lot of me is still very much in that franchise. I love seeing that stuff. Love seeing Slurpee cups, that’s what I saw growing up. Burger King and the Empire Strikes Back cups. It feeds into popular culture. When I was at my daughter's school a couple nights ago, there was a little kid, prob- ably a 4th grader, running around with a [Kratos] Slurpee cup. Now that’s not good, because he’s way too young, but the fact that the work I've done and the team has done is permeating popular culture is à great thing. Would you allow yourself to say you've arrived in that regard? Your creations are on billboards, they're mainstream. Here the cliché. The cliché you hear from people who do things in any industry, certainly the creative industry, is "Oh I'm just a fraud waiting to be found out" I genuinely [believe] it's been luck. If you're honest with yourself, you will never feel you've fully arrived. Over the holidays I went through my office and took all the aw rds we had won, and put them in the garage. I took my Kratos statues, my Sweet ‘Tooth action figures, I just got rid of them all. I didn’t throw them away, they’re in the garage, but I loved that I got rid of them. Your life’s work? Tossed away? Just like that? I had this epiphany a year ago. I was kind of like an actor, [thinking] “Whats my motivation. Why am I doing this?” Yeah Id like to make a lot of money—but beyond that? For a while I was having this thought that I want to do this for people, to bring them happiness. I want to have this vision of people setting in front of games I've worked on and they're laugh- ing. Things like me and my girlfriend playing Calling All Cars brought us closer. Or we played Calling All Cars together and that makes me think of him. Yes, that had this friend, he’s dead now, and moves you. But the epiphany was, that's a bulls**t, dishonest motivation. The motivation has to be personal, what am I getting out of this? What pleasure am I getting from this creativity? I wanna be good to people to make myself feel good. I'm becoming less afraid and I think when you become less afraid, you become more honest with what you want and what you need. As I get older, I get less afraid. I want to go back to what I might have walked away from [in the past]. Do you find that element of your per- sonality in the games you make? Well, Kratos, Sweet Tooth, they are violent, angry killers. They are not nice people, they are killers. I think I'm a pretty nice guy, but I do carry a sense of aggres- sion and drive and ambition. F**k these rules, l'm gonna do it my way. F**k it. It also helps to carry a nice supply of f-bombs to get the point across. I told my daughter the other day that shes spending a lot of time combing her hair. -old, and I'm like “Dude, your hair is beautiful, you're a beautiful little girl, let's go to school” [She says,] "But sometimes people make fun if your hair looks bad” So I pulled her over and She's si -yeai I said, if somebody ever says that to you, tell them to go f**k themselves. Her eyes got really big, and she said, they'll put me in time out. I said I don't care, tell them to call your dad. Td rather you get a time out and shake these little f**king six-year-olds to their core with a really well-placed "go f**k yourself" than allow them to treat you or your friends in any way that doesn't show you the respect you deserve. El = о eu ce = tr [m [207 = Я Ш hy should you care about Alan Wake? Sure, it’s creators have promised an amazing, perhaps even groundbreaking, experience that will redefine the idea of a video game “thriller”. They’ve even gone so far as to reveal a few glimpses here and there, most recently to yours truly. Not often does a game come along that holds the possibility of creating an entirely new genre of gaming. Even less often does talent come together around a project that makes you believe there’s a chance they might pull it off. In the case of Alan Wake, and the development team at Remedy, a group that has toiled on the intracacies of Alan Wake’s play mechanics for years and worked to develop a decidedly complex Stephen King-inspired storyline, the answer appears to be encouraging. Having experienced the game firsthand | can say that Alan Wake is on a trajectory to deliver. Alan Wake begins with the title character arriving in the Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls. The reason for his arrival provides hints of the experience to come (and the adult tone that its creators hope to capture). Wake is trapped By Brady Fiechter A tortured writer attempts to mend his fractured marriage in а peaceful Pacific Northwest town. But when his latest manuscript turns into a nightmarish reality, a new Resident Evil is born. by writer’s block, struggling in a marriage on the rocks, and troubled by a hardcore case of deja vu. This small wooded haven represents his last, best chance to address these demons (real or imagined). This may all sound like familiar territory, but before you go and ask yourself if Microsoft somehow managed to screw up the video game rights to The Shining or Twin Peaks, understand that there are many unique elements interwoven into Alan Wake. They represent both the opportunity and the challenge for a product that is more than half a decade in the making. 03 PUBLISHER MICROSOFT DEVELOPER REMEDY PLATFOR XBOX360 MODES SINGLE PLAYER ESRB M-MATURE RELEASE DATE 0518.2010 я etsi. SPRING 2010 А | МЕХТ МАМЕ Alan Wake, at its core, is а mystery that begins with a disturbing entry point for a greater thriller: His wife, Alice, suddenly goes missing, events from his latest novel seem to be seeping into his reality, and, most unsettling of all, the inhabitants of Bright Falls are turning into deranged killers, possessed by some sort of demonic being. Managing director Matias Myllyrinne is glad to finally be able to shed light on his game. “Hopefully we're building a real psychological thriller,” he says. “A game where uncovering secrets makes you feel. We really don’t want to fill in too many of the blanks, but what we have introduced is an everyman being pushed into an extreme situation. Without going into too much of the fiction, it’s about an artist’s work coming to life, and what it would be like if your imagination started to manifest around you. There are obviously both good and bad things about that.” The duality of good and bad, light and dark, is the tapestry that drapes DISSECTING TEE and Xbox 360 at ЕЗ. Alan Wake is announced for PC | Trailers hint of a sandbox vibe. So what is Alan Wake? Screenshots show a sunnier side; little is revealed. every corner of Alan Wake’s world. “Light and darkness was really something we wanted in the fiction. We wanted to do [it] in the gameplay, we wanted to match those up. We were inspired by classic literature—lines like, ‘some were born into endless night...’ And we were building [on] our inspirations, thinking we could really tap into that. One poet said —l'm paraphrasing— ‘don’t go into that gentle light.’ We started playing around with those ideas, and we thought, ‘yeah, yeah, we can go here." Development continues full force, focused as a more linear, directed thriller. 75 “We've been іп the lucky position where we've been able to pursue our vision." The Night Shift | The brakes are put оп PC version. | You are about to find out if the wait | | | | was worth it... ЕСМ SPRING 2010 © | NEXT WAVE ie points out tha TV and film often graphic areas, where the ns during varying times of d THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST INTERACTIVE The Alan Wake team is com- prised of 43 rojecting its confusion on all who core members “wander near. Remedy has spread across E i ten nationalities. Uu recognizable, doni * reality a reference to the middle o There аге design- ‹ teal world that’s been eee u ‘Gye w =, ers with unique sketched through a balance of backgrounds, from psychology striking technical and creative to drama. The animations and artistry. The early payoff is the _ um d stunts were done atmosphere alone: “We're playing EK With real actors with that fine line between subjective чы ге _ апа objective,” says Myllyrinne. “Is it brought in for happening, or is it in his head?” consistency of Alan narrates the events in the past = environments so tense. “Someone must have left this а sawmill will box here.intentionally,” he observes | s. y оаа | ina detached tone. It reinforces | O mbar anû ihe - the curious mystery unraveling topography will (foreshadowing, perhaps?), thats 7 | ave height maps | sticks under your skin. : and be "geologi- — “It's funny you point that не out,” EAD hasa | laughs Myllyrinne. "But its not...et's background in ust leave it at that.” architecture so — — — the buildings and _ urban environ- ments are real а: ben ç and structur- 7 >s an oblique to Alan ally sound. nels Resident Evil. Remedy have also taken over 60,000 source photographs in _ the Pacific North- _ west, authenticat- _ _ ed soundscapes id dread are clearly : t Remedy hopes to — with real record- Ze _ ings of owls and ee Wake. ` f Из, | ambiant sounds, = ing to previously explored _ . and claim to have ` I the entrenchment. ` [even gone so far _ “| think environments [are like] the OIE at two sides of the coin in many ways,” _ the stars and Е ACA i537 | constellations are | Says Myllyrinne. “Large epic vistas ` in the right place. are cinematic and awesome. Yet for a evoke in Alan Wake READ OUR FULL REVIEW ` MAY 18th ON EGMi expresses discomfort the first time Internal struggles fractured by player chi lost games goes Remedy's argumei focus on the aggressive hero and his In the end, it was Rt dominance of the external. choice to take almost six ` “The outward : and inward,” reach their personal gc e. "They are kind of that kind of freedom, no mat lected on each other. There are outcome, is something th { retations we bring to the table, taken for granted. my feeling is, in дап 5 mindset, “With that kind of liberty, have a responsibility to yourse and the audience,” says Myllyri “But especially to yourself, to ве! things through, and to do them ri _ And you can't really justify cutting ers. [After years of work] yo _ can get to this point, where you just want to make things work. It’s easier Alan Wake has suffered a notoriously said than done, but we had to wipe off, blowing limbs off, the graphical prolonged production schedule, the slate clean. Even if you're talking Side becomes the focal point says even grinding to a halt when Remedy six months’ work, a lot of money, Myllyrinne. “I think you can have decided that slotting a thriller into and a lot of emotional investment — visual impact, you can mix styles, a sandbox setting just didn't work. those hard decisions are what make and especially now that we're playing I their eyes, the larger emotional you strong in the end. around with light and darkness, you beats can't be adequately controlled “Any piece of art, any piece of fight with light, why not make that when the player is allowed too much entertainment, is a reflection of the cool and unique? Nobody else is freedom to bend the narrative and team that creates it. We've been doing that. | like horror. But when you controla scene. in the lucky position where we've think of a thriller, there is something Myllyrinne makes an analogy to been able to pursue our vision. To more cerebral." 1 an open coffin attracting grieving create a game that we would want In contrast to those well-worn attention at a wake: "There's to play, to tell a story that we wanted archetypes, Alan is obviously -. always going to be that player who to tell. And you can't take that kind vulnerable; his animations show wants to jump on the coffin, just of liberty for granted. It's not terribly him stumbling, he fatigues easily, he because they сап.” The emotional common in games these days." ЕСМ SPRING 2010 he state of dungeon crawlers these days is—dare I say it—a little on the abysmal side. Everyone seems to be waiting for Blizzard's up-and-coming Diablo III while getting their loot-based kicks by firing off a few thousand sniper rounds in 2K's Borderlands. I'm right there with you. Diablo looks great, and Borderlands will more than suffice for the time being—odd as it is to refer toa game as a "loot-based shooter. " Whatever happened to the good old days when stat-grinding hack-and- slash games were a dime a dozen? PUBLISHER DEVELOPER PLATFORM MODES AY ESRB RELEASE DATE Enter Bethesda's latest acquisition, Hunted: The Demon's Forge. Developed by inXile Entertain- ment, Hunted: The Demon's Forge is a two-player co-op action/RPG that blends the co-op style and attitude found in modern action shooters like Gears of War and Army of Two with an old-school feel, relying on team- based combat and plenty of spells, weapons, and stat upgrades. While our first look at the game showed a lot more of the action elements at the forefront, fans should whole- heartedly keep the faith, as Hunted seems to be in the right hands at inXile. For some gamers the name Brian Fargo speaks for itself. For everybody else, rest assured know- ing that your next big dungeon crawler prospect is being crafted by the mind behind Baulder's Gate, The Bard's Tale, and Fallout. How do you bring the classic dungeon crawler genre to today's average gamer? We caught up with Fargo to get his take on that very challenge: “Nobody has gone back and said, ‘What would that kind of gameplay look like with today’s technology, using the Unreal En- gine, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and a really high-end PC?’ So | wanted to bring back that experience to today’s gamer, and today’s gamer is very different then they were back then. Hunted has been geared towards a more Gears of War kind of audience.” Our hands-off demo of the game followed Hunted's two main characters, and we're told that the game will stick to that twosome for the duration of the adventure, with players able to switch their current character at will. For ranged players the femme fatale E’lara combines both a hearty mix of magic and long distance prowess to the battlefield— cover system and all. If your battle savvy finds you rushing the front lines more often than not, the hulk- ing brute Caddoc will be more your style. It’s all about playing the game how you want, and Fargo reinforced that point, stating that “Even the melee has range, and the range has Hunted blends a mixture of classic dungeon crawling with modern-day shooters. melee. So ultimately, you do get a bit of that choice. To me, good games let you sort of decide your gameplay style anyway, so each experience feels unique.” The game has been crafted entirely with co-op in mind, so if you don’t have a friend to lend a hand you'll be waging war with an Al- controlled partner at your side. inXile assured us, however, that their Al is no slouch. Computer controlled partners know to scout out sniper positions, actively heal and resurrect you, and know their way around the advantages each player relies on. As for what you can expect within the forgotten ruins, dank dungeons, and demolished towns, Hunted blends a mixture of classic dungeon crawling with modern-day shoot- ers. E’lara’s bow aiming resembles the often-emulated Resident Evil 4 camera, complete with a tacti- cal zoom, while Caddoc sticks to amore traditional behind-the-back view for melee-based offense. Outside of their expected weapons both E'lara and Caddoc can master different sets of magic, use either to blast enemies with a pulse of fire or electricity or, instead, “battle charge” their team-mate, resulting in an elemental-based attack buffer. Fargo elaborated on the impor- tance of team-based spell casting, stating, “I think that with any good action game or RPG, you want to feel like your character is growing in power. So you get swords that are better and better throughout, you get arrows that can shoot further than before, and that kind of classic damage stuff. But the main focus is on the spells.” It isn’t just about offense either. Downed teammates can also be resurrected with ranged spell cast- ing, streamlining the experience and ensuring that as long as you have line of sight you can act as one cohesive unit. Even the demo’s final boss battle highlighted the game’s distance co-op theme. E'lara first battle charged Caddoc, who then ran in for a killing blow. With the de- mon on the outs, the hulking warrior held its head in place, creating the perfect target for a bullet time bow shot from across the arena. Most of Hunted's level-up and interface system has been left behind the curtain thus far, with the short demo instead focusing on in-game combat and magic use. Fargo did mention, however, that there’s plenty of customization to be had in the magic and skills department, and that players should never shy away from hooking up with friends online to take to the haunted depths as a newly geet of jokingly call it the Single White Barbarian’ mode.” forged team. Random partners can be found online, but not before a quick questionnaire about play style and skill level is set up. If you’re a speed player and don't want to spend time looking for the game's massive stash of secrets, you'll be paired with a like- minded buddy. If you plan on scouring the area and taking things slow, inXile hopes to find you the right co-op part- ner for the job. “I sort of jokingly call it the ‘Single White Barbarian’ mode,” stated Fargo. “Co-op can be great 8l Bethesdas demo stage took us into a world that seemed to mix the best of fantasy and dungeon crawling with lush environments normally reserved for "tiles like Unchártéd 2 or the Tomb Raider series. After following a ñetwórk of dark caves the world opened up into some sort of forgotten ruins, with rock structures and looming statues bathed in dense jungle foliage. inXile looks to be using the Unreal 3 engine tg its fullest, mixing in plenty of visual effects and lighting with natural, lush environments. when you find people, but if they don’t really play like you, if they want to ex- plore, and you want to run forward, it’s kind of frustrating. This helps bridge that problem.” Teaming the intensity of a mod- ern-day shooter with the addictive nature of hack-and-slash dungeon crawling is no easy task, but from our initial look at the game inXile and Bethesda Software are making a promising go at it with Hunted: The Demon Forge. Scare f 8: И Frightensthe other bears. enough and: еу'11 do ho among us hasn’t daydreamed about hit- ting the gas and splay- ing the old lady in the crosswalk across the hood? That's the wicked sensibility at work in 505 Games’ Naughty Bear. The game follows the exploits of a good teddy bear gone bad, as he romps about Paradise Island. This beautiful pastel world is reminiscent of an old Saturday morning cartoon show, filled with stuffed (don’t call them Care) bears who run around in fields of flowers. Naughty, how- ever, doesn’t quite fit in. Each of the game’s nine episodes hosts a half-dozen or so chapters in which the title character is pushed over the edge, Falling Down style, leading him to wreak havoc on anyone who gets in his way. Beneath its seemingly childish exterior, Naughty Bear holds a heart of darkness. There’s not a drop of blood to be found throughout the game, and the entire tone is puppy-kickin’ cute, but you can bet its darker nature will draw the ire of a few cultural commentators on v Devices 0/3 release. That's partially. due to the fact that Naughty Bear’s not just out to kill the residents of Paradise Island — who return with nothing but smiles despite the carnage inflicted upon them —he wants to really screw. with their minds in the process. Each level is an open sandbox of possibilities, whether you're taking a baseball bat to another teddy's head, setting up bear traps to inflict psychological damage on the poor plushies, or purposefully ending one of the resident's lives in front of the others. Naughty Bear is a little RELEA‘ 06.08.2010 ^ Sick, but it gleefully falls back on extended plays. Give a cuddly bear a its "no gore" safety net. Deliver a light whacking on the knees and he'll well-aimed crotch-shot with your crawl around, scaring other bears as pistol and stuffing will flow from he begs for help. Pushbears too far the wound — pure, white, innocent and— brace yourself —they'll even stuffing. It's an approach that the kill themselves in gore-free, cute designers get away with in spite of and cuddly ways. Maybe they knock the over-the-top application. themselves in the head with a bat Once you get a handle on the one too many times, or decide to do controls it's all about adding your themselves in with a revolver. Either own style. You can run around kill- way, that kind of sick triumph scores ing everybody if you want, but that you huge points and pumps your won't raise your mayhem-based multiplier, which in turn rockets you score multiplier. The different traps, up the game's online leaderboards. sabotage items, and circumstances Is it brazen? Sure. But it makes good | help make the game feel unique over оп its goals—and then some. EJ 4 ` etidu - 4 111 370 000431 685. g EJ Cross the Bridge to the Disco © Points to go: Completed! E Optional: Destroy Badges 0/6 NEXT WAVE ` 84 | By Brady Fiechter hat does it feel like to get into a turret as a Transformer?” asks game director Matt Tieger, demonstrating the answer by guiding his giant robot onto the loading pad—: and it becomes the turret. In Transformers: War for Cyber- tron, there's plenty of shapeshifting going down, in all the ways you’d imagine in a game based off the Transformers franchise. But the most aggressive transformation.is behind iil the scenes, where developer High n" Moon Studios has been granted great liberty apply their own per- spective on the established universe populated by Autobots and Decep- ticons. They've created a shadowy 3D Oybertron as the centerpiece for their design. Inspired by the iconic cartoon (and not the Michael Bay films), the artists brought their own angle to the character designs, mod- ernizing Bumblebee as a concept car—streamlined and rounded — competing with the aggressive muscle-car motif of a Decepticon. High Moon reveled in the opportuni- ty to graft their personal imagination PUBLISHER \ T ACTIVISION DEVELOPER STUDIOS RELEASE DATE" . 06.22.2010 onto the Transformers homeworld. Hasbro established guard rails, *and we definitely bumped up against those, but we always came back," expresses Tieger. The campaign follows separate story paths, switching between the Decepticon and Autobot stories at midpoint. We are not on earth; in ` fact, in the War For Cybertron, the title says it all, predating the fiction before humans Were even in the picture. Cybetron is envisioned as a robot sanctuary. ^We wanted it to be a utopia of its time," says'Tieger. See More Transformers: War For Cybertron Concept Art In EGMi: The Digital Magazine Transformers But it’s also a planet littered “withsecrets. In one of my favorite тотеп ло! the demo, an in-air battle a: aes the Cybertron underground, revealing a network of tunnels neither side has been to before. The enemies here are like deep-sea creatüres, evolving in this place of eternal darkness. It's a nice touch that invites exploration. Once you lock into your character of choice— pick from any three per mission —you can load out a pair of weapons and abilities, choosing, for example, to combine a hover with: за shockwave to dictate your style Of play. It works to some degr ransformations from -foot Сап happen at any time" (ES uptOyou to discover the proper mode for the situation). Transformers sticks the two. unselected Autobot and Decepticon buddies by your side at. imes. This is a pure-bred co-op action experience, during which fri s-can drop in and out on the fly. “We had multiplayer on the brain from the ; we really want you to sink your th into it," says Tieger. While this is an action experience rounded in moments of spectacle, it'š not just a game of incessant war. High Moon is pushing the Да» myegy forward by.showi first time. The level аа plays to these а witha Story split into two parts (you Blay half as the Decepticons, then try to sayethe day as the Autol E four levels each. : — Despite some r edgés that Tieger promiséd would be fixed in the final а, he'remains confident in я 2# Work know this game is good.” tl 86 | NEXT WAVE ere’s a very good reason A why Italian-American Mafioso movies, TV shows, and vid- eogames are so popular. The deep, compelling, and often operatic world of the mafia is still ripe with engaging stories. That's why after sell- ing more than 2 million copies of the original Mafia nearly 10 years ago, 2K Czech is composing the sequel to its original Mafia ensemble. Mafia II starts where you'd expect it to, at the end of World War II in a fictitious metropolis called Empire Bk Visit to La Famiglia City, based on Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Just like the first Mafia, 2K Czech is putting an em- phasis on storytelling and cinematic flourishes. Techniques such as foreshadowing, character develop- ment, and real repercussions to your actions resonate in this sandbox-style game right from the beginning. (The trademark cigarette smoke will make its return, too.) “With Mafia Il, we're very focused on getting the music, the weather, the true-to-life essence of the time right," PUBLISHER 2K GAMES DEVELOPER 2К CZECH PLATFORM PS3/XBOX360 MODES SINGLE PLAYER ESRB M-MATURE RELEASE DATE FALL 2010 aid Senior producer Denby Grate. " ie mood is important, and the story illed with scripted events that-ere=— ate motivations for these characters.” jacking up that statement, 2K Games has carefully littered key en- vironments with officially backdated issues of Playboy Magazine with the real McCoy inside. The girly maga- ines do capture a time and а place, and they're both risqué and a little cheesy. Sonically, the game is less scandalous, but just as relevant. Each time you hop in a car you'll find the x radio blares originally licensed tunes from the likes of Little Richard (Long Tall Sally) to Chuck Berry (No Par- ticular Place to Go) to Fats Domino (Blueberry Hill), and more. You'll follow the exploits of an Italian American, Vito Scaletta, who leaves active duty due to injury. You begin when he takes his first dark step down the crime-ridden road to lift his family from debt. A nuanced cutscene portrays how Vito is welcomed home by his widowed mother and young sister. The mother scolds Vito for not saying prayer before dinner, and afterward his sister explains how they owe $2,000 to a loan shark left unpaid by their recently deceased father. Shortly afterward, Vito’s friend, Joe Barbaro has just the remedy—selling illegal smokes in an empty parking lot—which just happens to be in an- other gang's territory. The rival gang (which loves its juiced up hot rods) arrives, warns them off, and quickly torches their truck with a Molotov Cocktail. Barbaro returns the favor with a gunshot to the gang leader's face, and the situation instantly ig- nites. The game takes place on both foot and in vehicles, which feel mark- edly faster than the rickety old boats from the original. Yes, you'll drive big, Slow Buicks and some forgettable sedans, but you'll have easy access to any car in the game, including Convertible T-Bird Coupes. And, after you face off with the hot rod gang on their turf in a heavy gun battle, you'll get their expensive jalopies. True, this isn't Grand Theft Auto IV. There is no multiplayer or online mode, and it doesn't take place in the present. This is a classic mafia tale told much in the vein of Francis Ford Coppola's movie, The Godfather, the movie that started it all. When you think about it, it's not such a bad place to re-start a series. El | THE OLD REPUBLIC |5 the Force With It? By John Keefer f any game has a chance of carving into World of Warcraft's massive fanbase it's this one. Melding the storytelling chops of BioWare with the tremendous wealth of back-story created for the Star Wars universe, Star Wars: The Old Republic could end up the blockbuster that Star Wars Galaxies never was. But so far, I’m not seeing it. | recently got some extended hands-on time with the new Trooper class, a level-6 pre-built model that the press got to mess around with at LucasArts’ San Francisco offices. Given all the hype—not to men- tion my own Star Wars geekdom—| was interested to see how this fully voiced, story-driven MMO was shaping up. Upon starting my 30-minute session | was tasked with finding a quest-giver’s missing partner. At least, | think that was the idea— the quest-giver talked so fast she sounded like a disclaimer for a pharmaceutical commercial. Once | got the hang of the controls (hot keys to fire, launch grenades, throw stickies and smack someone with my rifle butt, with some attacks using a combo point system), | proceeded to wade through at least 50 Impe- rial troops, which came in groups of twos and threes. As long as | healed after every few fights | had nothing to worry about. | even picked up another quest, to blow up an under- ground generator, which | wasn’t able to complete in the time allotted. | finally found the missing partner after killing about half of the troops Bioware and LucasArts have ions to live up to. huge exp protecting the base | needed to infiltrate. There was a hint of storyline involving switched loyalties, and my next quest was to retrieve two pro- paganda disks. | did so fairly quickly, but by that time my session was over. Verdict? Aside from being in the Star Wars universe, all | saw was more of the same. Yes, | got to see a few of the fully voiced cut-scenes, but what I'm really craving is a compelling Story. Ever since The Old Republic was announced it's been touted as a story-driven MMO, which wasn't much in evidence during our playtest. The CG trailers have been glorious, but | really need to see how the game will take MMO storytelling beyond the basic level seen in WoW. That's not to say | wasn't enter- tained, as there's definitely some- thing amusing about watching an enemy frantically try to brush off a Sticky grenade. But BioWare and LucasArts have huge expecta- tions to live up to, and | want to be impressed as well as entertained. Maybe the purpose of these pre- view sessions is to leave me wanting more. If so they've succeeded, as | really want more. Much more. ` but the fact i : One unit per hex (top), and leaders in their familair : surroundings (bottom). p ] ins that a bunch of fea- ures that @ivilization IV players took for granted аё bein, improved or outright changed г Civilization У. с Pulling from his love of the old SSI game Panger General, lead designer Jon Shafer isffrading in map squares for map : Вехезй Ве idea is to give a more refined eéf'to the terrain, and to let the lay of the land play a bigger role in strategy. The demo we saw offered a small glimpse оЁ -how this might play out, with a spearman unit stationed іп a mountain pass holding ` off push after push by their enemies. It was a Civilization version of 300. , Also gone is the massive unit stack that could sweep across the field, wiping out everything in its path (including those damn Spartans in the mountains). Now the rule is "one hex, one unit" and players will need to be more judicious in planning attacks. For example, you'll need to support warriors with ranged units several hexes away, or move spearmen to the front lines to counter mounted units. City-states add another new foible. Befriending a city-state through the donation of gold or units can provide a civilization with buffs or extra resources. маг Fo жеге! planning on waging, . ProTips like “use your units to explore leaders in their native environments. - agendas. While Gandhi may be all'about CS ` Diplomacy is | going to play a bigger patt in-the new game as well. Advisers of- fer more advice (including mind-blówing the map"—uh, what are we paying that uy again?) and you'll find. yourself hav- : interactions with other civilization ` 1 the demo Washington spoke to me m his office ue D von Bismarck - s own distirict play style, ahd he leaders раке) their own passive resistance, don't be surprised if he threatens to nuke you back to the Stone Age if you don't play your cards right. | Finally, the designers wanted to further embrace the mod community, so the game will feature more acces- | sible tools that let upload and download mods within the game itself. An in-game browser is also being added so that play- ers can visit forums or chat within the confines of the game. Having played Civ IV so much that “just one more turn” became a standing joke, I'm anxious to get my hands on Civ V to see all the changes in action. They make sense in concept, but given that these are changes to an already-great game, I’m hoping I won't end up wishing Fir xis had left well enough alone. SVU АМУ | du 518.2010 perceived in the world. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe Dead to Rights: Retribution Nier Record of Agarest War FIFA World Cup 2010 Super Street Fighter IV 04.272010 05.01.2010 Ninety-Nine Nights 2 Dance Dance Revolution 05.04.2010 LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Picross 3D 04.272010 Iron Man 2 05118010 3D Dot Game Heroes Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 3 Skate 3 Lost Planet 2 Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY 3D 0518.2010 Split Second Pure Futbol Alan Wake 4 Red Dead Redemption Shrek: Forever After Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands All Star Karate 05.23.2010 Super Mario Galaxy 2 05.25.2010 ModNation Racers Blur UFC: Undisputed 2010 Sniper: Ghost Warrior Backbreaker 05.31.2010 Green Day: Rock Band Plus 06.01.2010 RUSE. Alpha Protocol Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Hot Shot Tennis Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels The Sims 3: Ambitions Expansion Max Payne 3 Swarm After more than four years in development, Rockstar Games marries their RAGE engine with the Old West in Red Dead Redemption. The open world environment provides plenty of opportunities to pick a fight, or you can focus on your character's morality to change the way you're PSP. Multi Multi 360 Multi Multi 360 Multi Multi 05 Multi PS3 PSP Multi Multi Multi Multi Multi 360 Multi Multi Multi Wii Wii Multi Multi Multi Multi Multi Multi Multi Multi 360 PSP 05 РС Multi 360 SCEA Namco/Bandai Square/Enix Aksys Games EA Capcom Konami Konami Warner Nintendo Sega of America Atlus Namco/Bandai EA Capcom Warner 5.23.2010 SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 Disney UbiSoft Microsoft Rockstar Activision Ubisoft THO Nintendo > SCEA Activision THO Navarre 505 Games EA UbiSoft Sega of America Southpeak SCEA Nintendo EA Rockstar Games 505 Games 06.08.2010 QUANTUM THEORY 06.08.2010 07.01.2010 NAUGHTY BEAR CRACKDOWN 2 0615.2010 07.06.2010 x TRANSFORMERS: KANE & LYNCH 2: 1 WAR FOR CYBERTRON D06 DAYS 06.22.2010 METROID: OTHER M 06.272010 08.24.2010 FRONT MISSION: EVOLVED DEAD RISING 2 06/30/2010 08.31.2010 SINGULARITY 1 06.29.2010 | The Halo saga continues in this unfolds on the planet Reach. YEARSAGO (May, ony Hawk takes flight on the cover of issue 130 with an expanded preview of Pro Skater 2 (a game that would later go on to earn a coveted Platinum Award). The shifting winds in the console wars took center stage this month with confirmation of Microsoft's mysterious “X-Box” project, and new details on Nintendo's "Dolphin," — which would go on to become the GameCube. This issue also saw the departure of Dan "Shoe" Hsu (who would return to the position of EIC a year later). (May, 1990) uper Contra graces the cover of EGM #10, a benchmark issue that shows the results of our (sometimes misfortunate) first steps of going completely digital with the design. Trust us, the large pixelated screen shot looked great on the computer monitor. Inside, Super C garnered straight 8's from the Review Crew, Quartermann dished on Nintendo's follow-up to the NES and questioned its 16-Bit credentials, and we offered up the first detailed preview of Mattel's imperfect motion controller, the Power Glove. he golden age of video gaming began this month, thirty years ago, with Namco's unveiling of the original Pac-Man (entitled Puck-Man in Japan). The game would find its audience (and a new name— coined by executives worried that vandals would be tempted to alter the first letter of the original Japanese title) in the US courtesy of Midway and ultimately spawn more than a dozen spin-offs. It took nearly twenty years before King of Kong star Billy Mitchell ‘beat’ the game by playing through to the infamous split-screen without losing a single life. YY) The Case NSH ‚ЗОНЫ, МУП Against The Gaming Press ut of the 1,765,356,198 other careers in the world, I can think of maybe three that Id enjoy more than what I do now. I'm not cool (or good) enough to be a professional snowboarder. I don't have the physique to be a football player for the University of Michigan— plus that's not a paying gig anyways. The third option...wouldn't be appropriate for me to say out loud. 12:21» June 17, 2010 DUDE! That leaves 1,765,356,195 occupations I would like a lot less than my current one. I believe most of them are featured regularly on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs. So games journalism it is. I love my job. I knew I would the first day I stepped into EGM'S original offices in Lombard, Illinois for an interview. I didn't spot one suit, tie, penny loafer (this was back in the '90s), spreadsheet, binder, nameplate, time-punch clock, ® ce Montblanc pen, or "hang in there" motivational poster (though if there were one, itd be for ironic purposes). Instead, I walked into Willy Wonka's Dream-Job Factory. Cubicles housed action figures, game posters, and most awe- inspiring: televisions, PlayStations, Saturns, Super Genesis systems (it was the '90s, remember?). People were playing video games at their desks. Video games! Suddenly, my old job intendos, and checking people in at Enterprise Rent-A-Car seemed like a cruel joke designed to make me extra- appreciate what EGM was offering. The next few years of my new career were simply amazing. I got to play Mario 64 before any Americans even got to touch the radical new N64 controller. I saw Street Fighter 3 while people were still duking it out in Alpha 3 in the arcades. I got to experience the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Wii, etc. etc. months before they hit stores. Yeah, I love my job. Believe it or not, however, m not actually writing all this to make anyone jealous or to piss off Enterprise Rent-A-Car employees. Гуе been in this biz for 14 years now, and I still can't believe how fortunate I am—and I know most of my peers feel the same way. But what I don't get is this rising trend of "journalists" who don't seem to give two craps about their roles in this industry. Case #1: A press guy going on a rant, upset that a company wouldn't give him a special, limited-edition console for free because he came from afar to cover their event. He didn't seem to care that they needed to give the one system they had on hand away to a consumer for a contest. Case #2: I’ve seen people rudely ignoring the producers that are talking directly to them during private demos and presentations, because they couldn't be pulled away from texting their friends at that very moment. Case £3: I've seen journalists abuse their positions to get all their personal friends into press events — ones outsiders have no business being in. Perhaps they don't see the harm in that, but it’s costing someone money to host these additional heads at any rented venue. Неге a hot tip: Pretty much no one enjoys having uninvited guests at their party. Case #4: I’ve seen journos beeline it to the open bar and spend the entire night drinking and taking pictures with geek- or Internet- famous personalities, never once bothering to check out or learn about the games in attendance. The resulting coverage is more suitable for Facebook than any gaming website. Hey, if the products aren't worth covering, they're not worth covering. But I’m pretty sure these writers wouldn't even know, as all their hands-on time went to booze. Case #5: I know media who have slept with developers—not so much to get information out of them (hmm... wonder if Id be more forgiving if that were the case), but because they're star f***ers. Yes, some people are that enamored with highest-pecking geeks in our industry. Sad, huh? Case #6: As bad as those real-life examples are, the worst may be the ones who have somehow fooled themselves into thinking the world must bow down to their self-entitled asses. I've seen "famous" journalists dismiss fans and normal people, as if they were Hollywood stars. I've literally heard, “Ро you know who I am?" used on more than one occasion by different editors. One 93 even followed that up with, “You'll never work in this industry again!" during an altercation. Wow... are we really that big of a deal? Answer: nope. These guys and girls need a serious reality check. We're in one of the coolest industries imaginable, and we're lucky to have access (not that kind of access, case #55) to these game makers and to be able to share our supposedly fair and unbiased thoughts with the world. Shouldn't we be doing this because we're curious and passionate about games—and not because we want to socialize, avoid paying for stuff, and exert power over others? Look, I'm no role model of a journalist. I get plenty of free games, systems, and extra- extra-large t-shirts. And I don't want to give the wrong impression that this is an out-of-control and widespread problem —the vast majority of my peers are on the up and up. But every time I attend a press event, I see a few more examples of this behavior, and that should concern everyone associated with this field. It should certainly concern anyone who relies upon coverage from these offenders. Yes, this is a multibillion-dollar business, and our words can alter analyst projections and move stock needles. But maybe if these few journalists-gone-wild would remember what working life was like before getting into this business, theyd get those egos down to a more manageable level and remember how good we have it here—and why we shouldn't take advantage. © . What | don't get is this rising trend of "journalists" who don't seem to give two craps about their roles in this Industry ЕСМ SPRING c | СОММЕМТАВУ >В МНОГ x Your Game Can Go To Hell hen I was a kid I had a hell of a vivid imagina- tion. I could be a soldier rescuing princesses, and have a squadmate that had three heads and peanut butter for blood. Id swing my grandfather's cane like a sword and use tubes of wrapping paper as rocket launchers. There were no bounds to my imagina- tion. I think that's why I eventually gravitated towards games, because they had a way of taking me places that I imagined as a kid. when IL comes game worlds and indigenous peoples, But the more I play games these days, the more I realize that the games are not keeping up with an ever-changing imagination. Games keep revisiting the Greatest Hits of Imagination Past and it's becoming a tired refrain. Characters both futuristic and (sup- posedly) fantastic need a new coat of mental imagery. Worlds ostensibly far removed from Earth offer voluptuous females with two slender legs and ample breasts, and denizens with two eyes, a nose and a mouth. No matter what color the skin or how misshapen the ears, these are all recognizable human character- istics. Where are the characters that see with their hands, grasp things with their minds and make love by rubbing elbows? We have games set in space, hell, the future, the past, the Wild West, bad neighborhoods, and fantasy worlds with ores and elves, or variations thereof. Is there anything left to explore? My buddy Gus Mustrapa recently bashed Dante’ Inferno for being derivative. But these days, when it comes to fully envisioned game worlds and indigenous peoples, everything is derivative. Maybe there are no game worlds left to imagine. Maybe it is a matter of taking existing worlds and reimagining them and forcing the player to experience them in different ways. Assassins Creed and its sequel forced us to explore historically familiar cities and landmarks as a way to achieve goals in the game. I have to admit that I got a bit of a chill when wandering the streets of Renaissance Italy and interacting in а way that textbooks could never allow. And there was a certain excitement at having Leonardo da Vinci as my collabo- rator. Granted, the game has à futuristic back-story, but the gameplay experience was invigorating. I would have loved to be in the meet- ings where Disney decided that a darker version of Mickey Mouse should actually be greenlit. Epic Mickey, in the capable hands of Warren Spector, looks to take characters and environments we are all too familiar with and set them on their large rodent ears. Who wouldn't want to play an angry, possibly deranged Mickey? It's easy for me to sit here and pontifi- cate that designers need to be more cre- ative in engaging gamers in their worlds. Yes, you still need the gameplay to back up the imagination, but there also needs to be more creativity from the outset, and you can build the gameplay and story off that. Honestly, why are space marines al- ways our last line of defense? How often can you save a lost love from pirate ninja zombies? And why must our heroes look like Megan Fox and Matt Damon instead of Jack Skellington? More Sackboy and Oddworld would not be a bad thing. And neither would a character who bleeds peanut butter. Just sayin. @ to fully envisioned everything Is derivative. eq Please find my payment for the subscription duration that | have selected below: 6 PRINT ISSUES 12 PRINT ISSUES 26 DIGITAL ISSUES 52 DIGITAL ISSUES $14.99 (US Funds) $24.99 Funds) anada AC anada Add $10. State IP Cod ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY P.0. BOX 433132 PALM COAST, FL 32143-9859 SIVI | IM МАЯ | Motion Sickness ey Nintendo, whatever hap- pened to us, man? Whyd you have to go and get all crazy on me? There was a time when 1 worshipped the very ground you walked on. You remember that, right? Y'know, when I bought my first SNE and we rocked Super Mario World and F-Zero? And what about the time we nailed Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye on my Nintendo 64? Surely you can't have forgotten all those hours we spent with Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube? st of all, why the hell are you making me get up off my ass? That: not cool, man. I mean, I can appreciate the mind-boggling motion-sensitive technology that you've jammed into those little white remotes, but have you seen what you've inspired the other guys do? Yeah, Sony and Microsoft are whipping themselves up into a frenzy to try and compete with your wiggly wand. Soon they're going to release their own motion-sensitive controllers for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360... two more machines that I happen to own and love, by the way. So now what? I'm going to be forced to plug a little black camera into my 360 and then act like a demented mime ? The only reason this horrifying scenario is trying to steer an imaginary ce even a possibility is because you had to go and show that money could be made off of forcing people to move around when they play a game. I know, I know, it was a LOT of money and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, to be sure, but I just want to play some friggin videogames, man! Not act them out! And oh boy, Sony wants me to buy a camera AND a new controller! How much is all that gear gonna cost? Sony's Move controller looks like a giant s cary lollipop, and I do not want to drain my taquito fund риге lollipops. What I do want is games like God of War 4 and Killzone 3 to be left the hell alone, and for that all I need is my ing giant scary DualShock 3. And some taquitos. See what you've done, Nintendo? How long will it be before I'm running fake marathons in front of my TV instead of "playing" the new Track & Field. Whatever happened to a guy sitting down on his couch with a few beers, a wireless game pad and some spare time to waste? Now it’s no longer a case of just playing Super Mario Bros.—I've gotta jiggle my controller like m having a seizure just to pull off a spin attack. What And something tells me that if I want to play your new Zelda game later this year Tm gonna have to pay for one of your Wii MotionPlus doo-dads. I get what you're doing, I really do. It's great that you've captured the hear of millions of octogenarians, but do you know what it feels like to have your own Whatever happened to a guy on his couch with a few beers, a wireless game рад and some spare time to waste? parents snatch a controller out of your hands just so they can throw a friggin’ Frisbee to a big-eyed dog? Not good, Mr. N. Not. Good. I guess I'm really just pissing in the wind at this point. Even when you finally get around to tellin’ me about your next console none of this will have sunk in, will it? Is there really any way that the Wii 2 or whatever you're going to call it won't have waggle-based controls? I know, I know, you occasionally make concessions to your hardcore loyal fanbase, and for that I should be grateful, but have you seen the amount of shovelware third-party crap that’s hitting your console from all angles? What happened to the cute little Nintendo Seal of Approval? Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just not able to move on from the past. I guess, maybe, you're looking to the future while Im stuck in the past. Ahh, screw it... Pm givin’ you one more chance. The DSi XL looks pretty cool, and I've been looking for a reason to blow my cash on something—y' know, retail therapy—so yeah, Гта give us one more shot. Maybe ГИ еуеп try to bond a bit more with that dust-trap of a waggle box that’s sitting in my kids bedroom. Just promise me you won't do anything "new" for awhile that revolutionizes the games industry and forces everyone else to follow your lead. Healing takes time, you know. EJ sitting down NINTENDEF3& The realism of child rearing is captured on the Imagine Babysitters box. When 1 Barbie meets 3 Musketeers, the next thing you're going to need is 1 DNA test. You start the game as a girl named Corrine, not Barbie, because people who buy games like this deserve to be lied to. It's a platform game with boredom elements like constant backtracking, pacifism, and featureless plastic crotches. Crappiness of Gameplay: I've played many Barbie games and the unifying theme among them is that everything hates Barbie. Normally harmless animals and objects will defy every law of nature and science to kill her. This game is no exception. Mice, bats, falling fruit, scarecrows—they want her dead. You will too, but she's virtually impossible to kill. It takes a simple rat so long to chew you to death in this game that Barbie fans will be on their fourth teen pregnancy before they see a Game Over screen. or several years, I headed up EGM's bad games department. If a game was about Sea Monkeys or Burger King, it was my job to play it. There were consequences. I found my Gameboy with a gun in its mouth every morning, and my XBOX 360 took enough anti-depressants to cheer up a septic tank prisoner. Since ЕСМ was cancelled I’ve learned that it's possible to play Nintendo without screaming, but that's just me being selfish. The world needs The Rest of the Crap. This column is the last line of defense between your video game system and Thats So Raven. Do you realize Imagine Babysitters came out and it went entirely unmocked? Not anymore: Why make a game about something as dull as imaginary babysitting? Was imaginary oatmeal holding out for too much money? Mission accomplished. As a welcome back to ЕСМ, the sadistic editors of this magazine, in coalition with the ghosts of evil scientists, have given me a pile of impossibly bad games, es mostly to see if ТИ survive. If they're wrong and I live, three Nintendo DS ews he should be below. All review scores will be measured on a scaléfof one to five In Babysitters baby heads: the baby head so cool it has sunglasses d Even the bottomless pits scattered throughout her own barn can't kill her. Her immortality spits in the face of three decades worth of video game science! Its as if the game designers have you on suicide watch, knowing youd run Corrine’s face into the first dangerous thing you saw. Maybe it's easy because it's targeted at attention deficit, flipper-handed children, but if that's the case, why are all the puzzles complicated 12-step procedures of switching to a kitten and navigating mazes to flip switches? You don't design puzzles like that for children. That's like making a kid eat with a pulley system because they can't be trusted with a fork Crappiness of Graphics: О There is an extra frame of animation as Corrine turns from side to side. It adds a realistic inertial effect to her swinging NINTEND BTS. on tt bosom, but it makes it extremely difficult to change directions and jump. Any complicated maneuvering feels like a passive aggressive argument between you and the controls. You might want to jump across a gap, but Corrine' chest animation would rather dive into the bottomless and harmless pit. It’s a visual metaphor to let kids know that luscious, swinging breasts win almost every argument ЛАУЯМ 3o ЕСМ SPRING 20 If you're already operating under the pretense that talking candy products are on an adventure, you can literally make their game about anything. Cowboys, dinosaurs, late onset diabetes... anything. So with an entire world of possibility and fun open to them, what's the plot to their game? Buckle up. Here's the plot: A spoof of the Y2K bug called the M&M bug just that funny—caused some kind of yes this game is problem in their office buildings candy storage and you have to collect 120 misplaced candies. It's like they asked a janitor in 1999 to list his worst possible Y2K scenarios and then they made а game based on his 40,578th choice. This is horrible. The only way you can have less fun with chocolate is to feed it to your dog. Crappiness of Gameplay: 0108181818. Most of your “Adventures” involve crossing empty rooms and trying to remember to breathe. Because there is so little stimuli in M&MS Adventures that your body will start to mistake itself for dead. If you can tolerate the crushing bleakness and four-second loop of xylophone music, and feel free to stop here because you won't, you may run into a few videogame-like elements such as coin trails and floating platforms. These are only sad reminders of the actual games someone else might be playing while you're stuck in a bad 1990-era 3D platformer dressed as a commercial. And it even fails at being a commercial—after playing this for several hours, all M&Ms taste like fish Crappiness of Graphics: QOO Aside from the gameplay, the graphics are so dated that your hair will feather itself. I don't think this was even meant to be a game. It probably started off as a 3D video on clinical depression that the Mars Corporation showed to its employees. It’s that bad. If an M&M ever asks you to go on an adventure, kill it and stay home. Jonas This game is about, and I quote, "what it's like to be fabulously popular rock stars... WHO ALSO HAPPEN TO BE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS!” You know how they say there are no bad ideas during a brainstorming session? They invented that saying before the brainstorming session for Jonas. No ideas were thrown away here. Just as the Native Americans in Dances with Wolves took away the top of every soldier they scalped, the Jonas team used every part of every stupid idea that came off the top of their heads. ГЇЇ explain below. Not teen rock star enough for you? Well, you get past every obstacle by playing guitar at it. Note: That's not an adaptation ofanything. That's vomit from a designer's brain that immediately gave up when it was told to think up a Jonas Brothers videogame. Also, to say Jonas has the worst guitar mini game ever is completely inadequate. I had to invent an entirely new term to describe it: “Bargain Diarrhea Cancer” Or put another way: if someone attached electrodes to your genitals every time someone playing this game and smiled, it would put electrode companies out of business. Crappiness of Gameplay: 666660 ‘The first mission you go on is called “Keepin It Real,” but it gets worse. You explore a giant closet to change outfits. Crappiness of Graphics: 60608 The graphics are competent, which only adds to the tragedy because it means there were talented artists involved in this interactive violation of the Geneva Convention. The game design sucks like an octopus in a Japanese love story, and the writing is so bad that it wouldn't have surprised me at all if one of the Jonas Bros. suddenly said, “I hope this message reaches someone. Help. The zookeeper forces us to write videogames at night” In fact, I think it would have helped the plot. I know these games sell even when they suck, but it seems inhumane. Why not make poisoned Jonas fruit drink and then sell tweens the antidote? Or you could design a Jonas hammer and attack birthday parties. All Tm saying is that theres got to be a less evil way to steal money from children. E Kevin? Good morning, fellow bandmates! what a beautiful morning! AN EPIC STRATEGY RPG SOUL BREEDING V Р - Experience over 80 hours of tactical E o the ladies, choose a bride, and gameplay through 5 generations об — ® ч th to the hero of the next heroes! generation! w ITHE ENEMY WITH EXTEN DED ATTACKS your forces on the battlefield ing together massive combo using multiple party members. — Att THE REALLY NAUGHTY LIMITED EDITION © 26" X 20" YEARNING ELLIS PILLOWCASE 1 f © 8%" X 10%" SENSUAL “3D” VIRA-LORR MOUSE PAD © ® ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK CD WITH 26 TRACKS — ` 8 fw | Alcohol Reference XBOX COMPILE HEART © \ antasy Violence Р. + КЕТҮ @ хвох LIVE ESR т Suggestive Themes If, DEA FACTORY AKSYS WWW.AKSYSGAMES.COM © 2010 COMPILE HEART / RED Licensed to and published by Aksys Games. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Civil War rages across the six continents on EDN 111, how will you respond? Team up with 4-player co-op and battle colossal Akrid, hordes of soldiers, and mechanical Vital Suits. Jump online and battle for territory in 16-player versus modes, and devise new strategies to fight as a squad. Enormous Bosses • 4-Player Co-op Customizable Arsenal • Immersive Environments www.laoastplanetZgame.com m i XBOX 360 LIVE CAPCOM CO., LTD. 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks and “PS3” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are ‘trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. The ESRB rating icons are registered trademarks of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. ТЕТЕ Made with love’ by: