Z> ZIFF DAVIS | N GS D E: 5< S TRI CKS PS2° ht cnadtirenamonet’ irate ienleceminaceze Meandhaldestrceuacie EVECTRON ™ FINALLY, AN UPDATE ON THE YEAR'S mail AND MOSI MYSTERIOUS GAME wg ‘a NINTENDO 5 ( bameLube! » New Screens » Secret Info > Plus: creator Hideo Kojima comes out of hiding to talk to us hid about GameCube, a Metal Gear af MM movie, bouncing breasts and why =, WA Japanese gamers hate him REVIEWED INSIDE: | _A TALE OF Two VAMPIRES: , | VUL AL 4 v ER l » Madden 2002 » Pokemon Crystal » World series Baseball 2K2 : are here. We take a look at the er — k new school af portable gaming. c REL | » Ace Combat 4 a. ea October 2001 $4.99/$6.50 es > Tony Hawk 3 Be > Silent Hill 2 > Grand Theft Auto III > PaRappa the Rapper 2 uta ne DISPLAY UNTIL OCTOBER 2 THE REVOLUTION iS HERE “THE FUTURE OF FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER GAMES IS SITTING ON STORE SHELVES IN A PACKAGE MARKED RED FACTION? —Associated Press GEO-MOD" TECHNOLOGY ‘THE NEXT STEP IN THE For the first time ever destroy and EVOLUTION OF VIDEOGAMES?» alter the environment in real-time! immed anni st first person shooters by opening up a whole new level of strategy: —Game Pro Magazine “Ts GAMES LIKE THIS YOU BOUGHT A PLAYSTATIONe2 FOR? —Electronic Gaming Monthly “RED FACTION IS ONE GAME THAT EVERY PLAYSTATIONe2 OWNER SHOULD OWN? —New York Daily News Don't fight the convoy...just destroy the bridge. THE VEHICLES MULTIPLAYER YOUR ARSENAL Unleash 15 weapons of mass destruction. Hijack 5 fully armed land, Wage war in 2 player split sea and air vehicles. screen death match! Use infra-red weapons to blast enemies through walls! ALSO AVAILABLE ON: WINDOWS°95/98 Violence Blood and Gore CD WINDOWS °ME www .redfaction.com . Red Faction—Game and Software © 2001 THG Inc. Davaloped by Volition, inc. Red Faction, Volition, Geo-Mod, THQ and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. Al Rights Reserved. “PiayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment inc. Mac and the Mac logo are trademarks of Appie Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. _www.thg.com SP Riphnreblenaenmnnnnannnniy _— uu = S - Lu = Lu ninniinncrneinreinn nett enemas POR cen en nea os m NOE AR, OPO Sehr, RODIN nN een ate NCC tay ‘ a Te ibis a: m A/C ™ When car shopping, some people will tell you to look for safety. Whatever. It’s all about the options, baby! Like, for example, air conditioning. And koopa shells. “te And lightning blasts on command. Introducing Mario Kart™: Super Circuit™ for “s" Game Boy® Advance, a no-holds-barred race with all your favorite characters and over 20 new tracks. And with 4-player action off one game pak, say goodbye to those annoying backseat drivers. | LIFE ADVANCED™ EDITORIAL Cover Happy (or, “How many times can | use the word ‘cover’ in one paragraph?”) ast month, our cover story was on Final Fantasy X, one of the most anticipated PlayStation 2 games of next year, and our cover art was drawn by famed FF artist, Yoshitaka Amano (for a few limited editions, any- way). This month, our cover story covers (sorry, left my thesaurus at home) one of the most antic- ipated PS2 titles of this year, Metal Gear Solid 2. To help celebrate that, MGS artist and character designer Yoji Shinkawa graced the cover with a piece he designed just for us (well, for you, real- ly). That means the book you are holding in your hands is another collector’s edition, with MGS2 art you won’t find anywhere else. So please don’t hand this issue to your greasy-pawed little broth- er when you’re through with it. That’s not even the best part. Hideo Kojima, the man who’s reaching superstar status in our industry along the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto (father of Mario) and Yuji Naka (Sonic’s papa), granted us a world-exclusive interview, even though he’s “underground” and not speaking to any press. Hey, we must be doing something right if Metal Gear’s creator and director is willing to give us an update on his now-secretive game when he’s turned down Newsweek, other gaming mags and sites, and...well, everyone else in the world so far. Read all about the man, his private life, “the game,” and more, starting on page 118. So what are we doing right, exactly? It’s no secret, really. We report on games and the gam- ing industry with absolutely no fluff, no bias and certainly no BS. A lot of Net folks with nothing better to do than to bitch and whine all day long just love going on message boards and claiming that our reviews are catered toward our advertis- ers. OK, whatever. Chris Baker questions for us? Just ask! Kevin Gifford news site www.video-senki.com. By Dan “Shoe” Hsu ¢ shoe@ziffdavis.com This month, Chris contributes another head-scratcher for our award-winning series, Ever Wondered. Got any more Kevin, who penned this month’s wire- less gaming feature, works on transla- tions for Japanese games and runs the TN OI NIN Electronic Gaming Monthly has a proud tradi- tion of staying editorially independent of any and all things having to do with ads. | remember a long time ago, Acclaim pulled spots from the mag because they were p-o’ed at my review (5.5 out of 10) of Turok for the Nintendo 64. You know what? Our publisher and sales team never said a single word to me about it. No pressure to apolo- gize, change my score, or give favorable coverage later. | only found out about this loss of ads a couple of years later, by accident. Other major advertisers have pulled ads from us for this rea- son or that (one company because we didn’t like their rehashing of certain zombie games, another because we mocked a certain toy soldier fran- chise). It don’t bother us none! They can leave, they can come back...we will continue to be hon- est and straightforward with our readers, even if it means losing all of our advertisers in the process and going out of business. For EGM, integrity is paramount. Speaking of being up front with you, in this issue, we’re covering some games with which most parents won’t want their kids to be involved (Silent Hill 2—page 74, Grand Theft Auto IIl— page 70). We support and encourage parents’ rights to monitor the media their kids are exposed to, so I’m giving you that warning now, before you reach those pages. ..! Eat My Shorts! Look around this issue for quotes from The Simpsons or a famous movie. Find one, e-mail it to us at EGM@ziff- davis.com (subject: Eat My Shorts— October Issue), and you may be one o five lucky winners (chosen at random who will win a copy of this month’s Review Crew Game of the Month. Some quotes/references from Sept. issue: e“ is a perfectly cromulent word.” (Simpsons, pg.22) e“ hiding in his ‘Hidden Fortress’...” (Hidden Fortress, pg. 140) e“If you miss this, you better be dead or in jail.” (Simpsons, pg. 156) Winners from the August issue: eLon Diamond—Encinitas, CA eSteve Karig— Bridgewater, NJ ¢Donnie VandenBos—Great Falls, MT eJose Acero— Goodyear, AZ eArtie Vierkant—Boise, ID No purchase necessary. For full legal crap, go to www.egmmag.com ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY (ISSN #1058-918X) is published monthly by Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals Class Postage Paid at New York, NY 10016 and additional mailing offices. Single issue rates: $4.99. The one year (12 issue) subscription rate is $24.97 in the U.S. and $40.97 outside the U.S. Checks must be made payable in U.S. currency only to Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Electronic Gaming Monthly, P.O. Box 55722, Boulder, CO 80322-5722. For subscription service questions, address changes, or to order, please con- tact us at: Web: http://service.egmmag.com (for customer service) or http://subscribe.egmmag.com (to order); Phone: U.S. and Canada (800) 779-1174 or (850) 682-7624, elsewhere (303) 604-7445: Mail: Electronic Gaming Monthly, P.O. Box 55722, Boulder, CO 80322-5722 (please include your mailing label with any correspondence as it contains information that will expedite processing); Fax: U.S. and Canada (850) 683-4094, elsewhere ((303) 604-0518; E-mail (please type your full name and the address at which you subscribe; do not send attachments): egm@neodata.com. The editors and the publisher are not responsible for unsolicited materials. Without limiting the rights under copyrights reserved herein, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the the prior written notice of Ziff Davis Media Inc. To reuse any material in this publication, obtain a permission request form at www.icopyright.com/ziffdavis/, or have a form faxed or mailed to you by calling (425)430-1663. Copyright © 2001 Ziff Davis Media . All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part with- out permission is prohibited. For permission to reuse material in this publication (or on this Web site) or to use our logo, contact Ziff Davis Media’s Rights and Permissions Manager. For reprints, contact Reprint Services at 800-217- 7874. Olga Gonopolsky, Ziff Davis Media Inc. 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016. Tel: 212-503-5438. Fax: 212-503-5420. olga_gonopolsky@ziffdavis.com. Electronic Gaming Monthly and EGM are trademarks of Ziff Davis Media Inc. TM and © for all other products and the characters contained therein are owned by the respective trademark and copyright owners. All materials listed in this magazine are subject to manufacturers’ change and the publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. The Canadian GST Registration number is 140496720 RT. Printed in the USA. Audit Burra of Groulations ELECTRONIC Number 14.10 GAMING —— MONTHLY October 2001 Editor in Chief : : Dan “Shoe” Hsu * shoe@ziffdavis.com | Managing Editor : : Dean Hager * dean_hager@ziffdavis.com | Executive Editor : ; : Mark MacDonald ¢ mark_macdonald@ziffdavis.com | | Features Editor oe : : i Geno Boyer ® crispin_boyer@ziffdavis.com | News Editor Chris “CJ” Johnston © chris_johnston@ziffdavis.com | Previews Editor : : Gree Sewart * greg_sewart@ziffdavis.com Senior Associate Editor : : : Kraig Kujawa ® kraig_kujawa@ziffdavis.com Associate Editor : : : Jonathan Dudlak ejonathan_dudlak@ziffdavis.com Associate Editor/Art Director. : _ Jeanne Kim ¢ jeanne_kim@ziffdavis.com Tricks Editor . : : : Terry Minnich ¢ tricks@ziffdavis.com West Coast Editors. : : James Mielke © james_mielke@ziffdavis.com Che Chou ¢ che_chou@ziffdavis.com : Contributors: — : 4 Chris Baker, Kevin Gifford, Ethan Einhorn, Dan Leahy, | Shane Bettenhausen, Gary Mollohan, John Ricciardi | japanese Correspondent Yutaka Ohbuchi eurgpeat Correspondent Axel Strohm Senior Art Director : : Cyril Wochok @ cyril_wochok@ziffdavis.com Art Director. i : ‘ : Mike Reisel ¢ mike_reisel@ziffdavis.com Managing Copy Editor jennifer Whitesides Manufacturing Director Carlos Lugo Senior Production Manager Anne Marie Miguel Pre Media Manager Dave McCracken Pre Neate Technician Mike Vallas Assistant Production Manager Teresa Newson Project Leader Mark LeFebvre ¢ mark_lefebvre@ziffdavis.com Customer Support Analyst : : Peter Felonk ¢ peter_felonk@ziffdavis.com Vice President/Game Group Dale Strang Business Director _ Cathy Bendoff Circulation Director _ Joan Mcinerney Circulation Director Shirley Viel Senior Newsstand Sales Manager Don Galen ALLOA NCONS NORCO LOSES LOSE LEELA INCL EEE EE ANNO ABCC EEL ERLE CNL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE NUMBER: WEB SITE: h rvi | PLEASE SEND ALL SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS TO: DO NOT CONTACT THE EDITORS RE: SUB. PROBLEMS spat ee Inquiries Contact: ame Grou 9 Baa ath floor, Reh Francisco, CA 94105 elephone: 415-547- Group ubheeet ia Lee Uniacke ; : : FR OD i tela ae ahd Suzanne Reider @viffdavi 415-357-4915 ® suzie@ziffdavis.com. Regional Sales Manager/ East Coast Territory | : B30 8a Saas ¢ marc_callison@ziffdavis.com Dey i fice Representative /Last Coast Territory allie Fishburne 617-354-0284 ® tallie_fishburne@ziffdavis.com Account Aecutive/East Coast Territory 415-357-5226 « emily olman@ziffdavis.com = | Regional Sa ep Manager/Pacific Northwest & Bay Area Peninsula | 415/957 Ades, 8 an singel Oza oe Ae ecu ivée/Pacific Northwest & Bay Area Peninsula | r : 415-5 7 B82 * mary_ gray@ziffdavis.com ; 1S Regipnat pales Mahager outhwest Territory 760-942-6277 ® karen_landon@ziffdavis.com Senior Account Fxecutive/Southwest Territory 415-54 ‘Boe: © linda. hilapil@ziffdavis.com ace e aes eee exas, Washington, | Marci Vamaguchi ih : i 415-357-4944 * marciy@ziffdavis.com | Scapa y | Meighan O’Rourke : : Sonnet ae * meighan_orourke@ziffdavis.com | Rey Led i / e ey Ledda : : 415-547-8775 ¢ rey_ledda@ziffdavis.com Marketing Coordinator Annie Lipscomb : : 415-547-8248 © annie_lipscomb@ziffdavis.com | Advertising Coordinator Tipler Ubbelohde : : 415-357-4930 ® tipler_ubbelohde@ziffdavis.com Sales Assistant Kristeen Laut ; : : i 415-547-8778 ® kristeen_laut@ziffdavis.com | Sales Assistant Cheryl Farrell : : 415-547-8783 © cheryl_farrell@ziffdavis.com | Founder Steve Harris ing Manager & Creative Director MIDWAY www.midway.com COMING THIS FALL. PlayStatione2 NHL® Hitz™ © Midway Home Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. HITZ is a trademark of Midway Home Entertainment Inc. MIDWAY and the Midway logos are trademarks of Midway Amusement Games, LLC. Used by permission. NHL, the NHL Shield and Stanley Cup are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. Ali NHL logos and marks and team logos and marks depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. © 2001 NHL. All rights reserved. © NHLPA. Officially Licensed Product of the NHLPA. NHLPA, National Hockey League Players’ Association and the NHLPA logo are trademarks of the NHLPA and are used under license by Midway Home Entertainment, inc. NINTENDO GAMECUBE is a trademark of Nintendo, © 2001 Nintendo. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft ie ahah fist A ah In i} i AR Hea) ii aan ; aiid Mt NK Sa a he _OMLBPA- Official Licensee, Major League V i il! Dele ie if proms : f ? —_— Aunty i ea ne your vi GOOD HEDGEHOG ‘paniasay sIyBlY |I¥ WVAILOINOS / VDAS ‘1002 ‘000ZO ‘uoNesodioD YWOAS Jo sysewepe.} pasajsiBe1 10 syreWapes) oe eIN|USAPY a1u0s ‘Boyebpey eu d1U0S ‘WOaS ‘ofo) jseoweeig aU) ‘IseoWweRaIG ‘WOIAS ‘Sedljo yweWepeL Pur JUs}eY ‘S’f BU) Ul paJaysiBel si YWOIS S aan; i SS = @® = SS Q = Ae) ~Y S + a = es oo S = S bo —< = WY > wa S S Q | = DS — = S Y —/ OS — S Se, = SEGA.COM/SONICADV2 me lay as Shadow -© Dreamcast. 12100 106) iy ane YSBOLe@i() | 40 : OGIO) 40 PuRWapesy 10 Ke] AzBiD pub obo; jseowR@ig ay a ' : ’ ¥ . ~ 3 a wee i y ; z : yi Ba , i if a ‘ so1uA] P|! @0U8}01A PI! u ee ee CONTENTS RET RTD RRO RDI OHI NTY MONRO OIIOTY Advance Wars Alien Front Online Armored Core 2: Another Age Batman Vengeance Bomberman Online Capcom vs. SNK 2 Capcom vs. SNK Pro Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix Dead or Alive 3 Digimon Digital Card Battle Doom Dragon Warrior VII Ephemeral Fantasia ESPN Golf Extermination Gradius Galaxies Grand Theft Auto III Guilty Gear X Hot Shots Golf 3 Jade Cocoon Il Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy Lady Sia Last Blade 2: Heart of the Samurai Le Mans 24 Hours Ka Kessen II Kingdom Hearts Madden NFL 2002 Mario Kart: Super Circuit Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX Maximo: Ghosts to Glory Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo MotoGP 2 NFL GameDay 2002 NHL Hitz Okage: Shadow King Ooga Booga Outtrigger Pac-Man Collection Pokémon Crystal PaRappa the Rapper 2 Piposaru 2001 Propeller Arena Rune: Viking Warlord Shaun Palmer’s Pro Snowboarder Shrek Silent Hill 2 Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette Smuggler’s Run 2 Soul Calibur 2 Spider-Man: Mysterio’s Menace Syphon Filter 3 Tales of Destiny 2 Tekken 4 Test Drive Off-Road—Wide Open Tetris Worlds Time Crisis 2 Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2X Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 Twisted Metal: Small Brawl Victorious Boxers World Series Baseball 2K2 Yanya Caballista City Skater RRR MUP NO NPD EN NPPPONON I PP MN PN NI IONE October 2001 Issue 147 OOOO NOHO Metal Gear Solid 2 When Konami announced that Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was “submerging” and thus refusing to grant interviews, there was only one thing we could do: infiltrate Konami HQ in Japan for the full scoop. After we got stuck in his office air ducts for the sixth time, Kojima admired our persistence and granted us this exclusive look at his PS2 masterpiece. Page 118 Will Grand Theft Auto III Kick You In The Ass? The game that politicians love to hate is back. This ambitious and gratuitously gory gangster simulator is Senator Lieberman’s worst nightmare come true. Check out the ol’ ultra- violence on page 70. Soul Calibur Slashes Back At long last, Namco’s landmark fighting game is back! Order up your arcade fighting sticks and tighten up your gi to prepare for EGM’s tantalizing world-exclusive first-look at this amazing sequel. Page 34. Heartless and Soul With not one but two vampire sequels in the works from Eidos and Crystal Dynamics, who can tell these blood brothers apart? We expose the jugular on Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 and Soul Reaver 2. The bloodletting begins on page 140. Wireless Gaming !n Japan and Europe, gamers are already playing on-the-go versions of Resident Evil and Dance Dance Revolution on their cell phones, but when will we get to dial up these games in the good ol’ USA? Please hold while EGM investigates. Page 132 staadaaasnpnaanacaneasananancasauaantiaey RON RMON PHN MOE LNA IHD PIN POPP RIO PA HO I NP I I EP NOP INN POI ARAN ND RON DPMP IMA MOI Editorial 6 Letters 9 Press Start OQ Maro Gass A: 3 “3 a Tricks @ The Final Word 20 od Got storage space? We find out if the PS2 hard drive is all it’s booted up to be. Also: We answer more of your burning questions in Ever Wondered? And what drives GT3 boss Kazunori Yamauchi? xg Previews 66 This month we take Tony Hawk for a grind on the PS, PS2 and Xbox. For those of you who crave a little more blood than action-sports provide, check out Silent Hill 2 or GTA3. If you simply want to beat your enemies into submission, Capcom vs. SNK Pro on the Dreamcast is where it’s at. Review Crew 144 Gamers have some tough decisions to make. Should you buy Madden or GameDay? Is Time Crisis 2 or Silent Scope 2 the best shooter? Is online play enough to save World Series 2K2? And the toughest of all—is Pokémon Crystal worth buying? We have answers. 162 168 The Crew ponders how they’re going to find the cash to buy all the new systems and games coming this fall. i == PlayStation 2 GameCube | Xbox | Dreamcast PlayStation Nintendo 64 Game Boy Advance Game Boy Color Arcade eooreoseeounenranaea naomory & PlayStation.c ¥ wv A HL snapmintenitcecneeinncs sag geer 1 % i N Std Het CW Aree iry MA puarie Wrivert, Res OY thus Pani! SSscnedt Ae © 2001 Geoffrey, Inc. : . : 3 teamed with AMAZON.COM ———— TAKING OVER ALL SYSTEMS| Pa aps SF eptey 9 tinh, Ws, ie Rg 2s Ta. Cyr HYD in Rabin ianecichear terete rina ag Se X'S TOP PROS: ~KOWALSKI/ MCCOY — NASTAZIO / ROBINSON \ TABRON / THORNE PENNYWISE AGENT ORANGE i mee bined NE) a "tne best BMX game on the market.” -gamespot.com, May 01 "ts a blast and it lures me back time and time again...” -PlayStation Magazine, June ‘01 ug, Animated Blood Mild Animated Violence t “This is pick-up-and-play at its finest...” - Official PlayStation Magazine, May ‘01 © 2001 Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. Published and Distributed by Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Developed by Runecraft, Ltd. Developed by HotGen Studios Limited. Activision is a registered trademark and Activision 02, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX and Pro BMX are trademarks of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Mat Hoffman is a trademark of Mat Hoffman. The ratings icon is a trademark of the {interactive Digital Software Association. Licensed by Sony Computer Entertainment America for use with the PlayStation game console. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Licensed by Nintendo. Game Boy Golor and Game Boy Advance are trademarks of Nintendo. All rights reserved. Sega, Dreamcast and the Dreamcast logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Sega Corporation. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. “eww _ “MAT BUSTIN’ HI DROPPING IN THIS FALL GAME BOY ADVANCE GAME BOY CO LO << PlayStation — Dreamcast. } SPORTS REVOLUTION } i j ee ACTIVISION®2.COM noid oemynrdien, ney ge agi , on : Re ee en ees a hha hth whendee ae j - : Tt 3 oi oto ig gi soltaigack aoe ical - Ee os. eran ees RY acitendee fe sg apealieg LAER TMAEARBRE Hc: ee oes ky \‘ 44) : preg : Pe, eo Ee bey oma Br ekg: cg ee ee ae Te ee he — vie he. + te Se Ae a — = ; ee ee Se rer eee eee eae SR AS Gee ee ye Fee. a <2 Si sis thane oleate apeieahe tye ts Peni if SE SR EMR Sangam gt gi, Segal nl arate i eager, Sich) ean th, SS Se 2 gee ae * ROE Ba o. SS Se aes ea aie ees S a Pt A ah Al BPD PENS RAL AE REE SET 9 ba tae ge Paper eR SRE RS SR Site Se SS a Ee Sige RNIN ect i Ce Ai eal ad AE NAB ecg Nag “ amg. He te oie + ol ST ee ee Re ee aye ee gee: He oy Se aie * * Boies Det at aS ey ee Pe ee ee ee ee ae eee i hs nga ¥ ii ee ? « ee ae PR TR PE oli ates ig es RL he + ay NS land WE $23 stick go qi ree Se ee ere ae ee , rs es ee i ice fete ile re ’ ee Ter ee om tm >. Oly Skis ee sole My “ey on Mt wh a Ajnabee ¥ pew - > > See . . ge et a HN NN ’ ee ae - — * . ~~ > yi i a Ste ee til. ial ete igh i a a Wess Pe il ‘nap: Ps . 4 mite ye Bp toan eae ig, i Rei a ete oie arm thy baht i . iy Ae me Bo ei 8 we Sa . , . -* ee Waa we recvgly a, Caret. eh PARE LA fate A Why En. ; : PG Pn as ime nee Age x oe oe 2 eee Be li, laa stag Hm BPR i RDA Hoa a whey bess im i i ‘hl “ we Me % - ~ vere | Sek a a, Ween. aida Has ay Ean n ‘ vty cs ie NS a =. Fie Raita Sg St TH ——— — SS ae ee ee ee ee SR es ee eS eS a a=) pes eam e NGDS HA pe el Be ana a ate aa Mia ee a a Pena aes r ne We Bs age vise tied rib as be ie Mi) a wane Se ig a Oe on Me de aie ee ee % a As Peng Og: ™ “ee “Oe 2 Pe © we Pe eI Pe Rene ih NE uty Sede sts a je * ‘4b sia a a i ew rg * * < - < — PR ey C)- — . . i. for more info. veloped oy Core Desig. Thu os Interdctive ond'ine Eldbs thteracive town # d tegitered ira Kk of tt igiial Sofware Assonigtion, lid) Core Design, Core, the Core logo and telited churacters ate all frademar Design, b ; Utd: Eidos, tid dd srodemarks of fic lve, Ihe: s interactive, Inc, “PlayStation and the PS: Family ioe ate registered! $0) sony Computer Enlertainnie 10s PlayStation.c SW. AW. MAREE OON PATON rea ReTOT ENTE TOTRa POTEST ESPEN TAT M FO EHO HEMT HM ees neteeteterts Rae a HATA a datonsieiunt oahu Ra i sisi Wao ht ae i Ma Mt EAS REARS SG! Sa Aiea a aa Gh ma Hi ai it Hy) i t ce Daan a ie i Het iat i aie “a Se aa ke ie Tp ae fe ‘ Ml wie a i Py : it Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 for more info. CONTENT RATED BY ESnAG 100% GAMES _ e.. f * Bia. 2 ] ; : : = ; ’ ih a ae eh ¢ ee pe S ae 1999, 2000, 2001. [ecmo® is aregistered trademark of Tecmo LID: Tecmo, inc. PMB#5553.21213-8 Hawthorne Wa, Torrance, GA 90503 (310) 994-5005 71310) 946-3344. ~ Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Osta either registered trademarks of trademarks of Microsoft Gorporation if the US. and/or in other cauntties and are us@d@ under license from Microsoft. The ratings icomis a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software ssotiation. a we Dead tr Nivg'3™, DOA2: Hardcorel™ and Dead or Alive@ Tecmo, {TD.°1996, 1997, 1998 e # iy z ‘ # , i th EGM@zifidavis.com E-mail us your thoughts, your wishes, your gripes, your innermost weirtiness...or your pictures, crazy screenshots or photos of bizarre game-related moments. By the way, “daring” us to print your letter is the quickest way to get it thrown in the trash. LETTERS ERS RRR RHR DARROOORRT: We have it on good authority that local editor Jonathan Dudlak purchased one fuchsia GBA for a lady friend who allegedly lives “out of state” (uh-huh). He’s been prancing around the office lately asking the other editors if different shirts “make him look fat,” so we’re starting to wonder... Positively Revolting | was sitting in my room, when my mom comes up the stairs and says, “1 think it’s time to clean!” |’m like, “Noooooo!” So | thought maybe | can start a revolution. It’s time to realize the conditions in my room will not improve. It’s time to stand up and clean! Wait for my signal, then strike hard and strike fast. If you join, you have a chance of being part of the revolution! If you survive, you will go down in history forever! Bryan Danilchuk Stoneham, MA Looks like someone’s been playing a bit too much Red Faction. Though we applaud your revolutionary spirit, we can’t help but wonder if not cleaning wouldn’t be the way to go, since maintaining a spotless pad is the oppressive mandate of your motherly dictatorship. Besides, you’re bound to get more volunteers if there’s no actual work involved. Oh, and if mom finds maggots inhabiting your messy but morally justified room, you didn’t get the idea from us. Viva la resistance! Having Issues | already know God loves me, but you must love me too. On Thursday | opened up my mailbox to see if the latest issue of EGM had arrived yet. When | took a gander at the cover, PPP RRR APPR OPIATE POLE L OES ES DEE SPE ERDE SED DE SLO STEOPBERSEOSIDOODIE TOPE DSOOPPSSPESEREESELEESILES SEEEDOCCE DEEDES SOLC LCE IEIED ELE ELELELEPIER EDI EELLED PLES EDEL REPEL ELLE ELE L EAL ELLA PELE BD LLEE EDEL IEE IE EEEIR POLE LPIA LRP PELE AIL REL ELLIE TOLL ELLA OA ETE LIN ATT what did | see? The limited-edition cover featuring artwork by Yoshitaka Amano! Oh man! | must be the luckiest guy in the world. My friend got the normal cover, which still looks cool. Reggie WRITINGGUY@aol.com Truly the gods have smiled upon you, Reginald. See, everyone? Subscribers did indeed get the Amano cover (Reg, your big bag of money is on the way; thanks for covering us). We wish it could have been everyone, but if you’re clear on the concept of “limited edition,” you'll understand why it wasn’t. Divine Intervention | received the September 2001 issue of EGM today and was looking forward to reading it. As | was thumbing through it, | came upon a response to a letter on page 26. Apparently, the writer must have thought referring to a Game Boy that is sitting in the toilet as Jesus was cute and funny. However, to a loyal EGM reader who holds Jesus Christ in the highest possible regard, this is not funny and is very offensive. | would like to know what Ziff Davis will do to make sure this will not appear in magazines again. Again, | have been a happy patron of EGM and its Sponsors for years now. It appears this sort of garbage could ruin what has been a great magazine. Maybe the time has come that Ziff Davis does not care about the segment of its readers that fall into the “religious” or “Christian” category. Has it? Drew Baxter Daphne, AL Well, Drew, our intention certainly wasn’t to jest about anyone’s religious beliefs. In fact, we didn’t even think about it being in the toilet when we made the resurrection reference. The whole thing was just an attempt to find an element of youth culture that everyone could relate to. But even we slip up sometimes (especially during crazy deadlines!). Please accept our apology; we hope this hasn’t Summer’s over, so we're clearing out lots of shorts this issue. | was wondering why those Got Milk commercials aren’t in 3D? It would be cool if they made a Zelda one. Sk8board Masta That’s exactly what we’ve been saying all along!! Actually, they did make one with Mario. It was pretty cool fora — milk ad, we guess. \ "eq | object to the excessive use of the word “niggling” in your Review section. Aeneman@aol.com What do you mean excessive? We only used it once. Relax, it just means “petty.” Why don’t companies make stuff right out of games, like Sonic’s shoes or Mario’s hat? I’m sure they would _ sell. Rodolfo Lopez Memphis, TN If they sold Sonic’s shoes, he wouldn’t be able — to run anymore. | is that what you want? Is it? My mom is tougher than any game girl. youhavel Haylee Benn Age 10 When Jeanne Kim saw this, her eyes went ablaze with girl-gamer rage. Please, for our sake, don’t antagonize her! PORN ETON TEA Question of the Moment What Is Your Favorite Final Fantasy, and Are You Excited For FFX? Of course I’m excited about Final Fantasy X; it’s one-third of the way to Final Fantasy XXX. JustReg@hotmail.com No, I’m not excited about FFX. | played FFVII and it freaked me out. | had to start seeing a therapist because of it! jpeninger@msn.com My favorite Final Fantasy is FFIX because it tells the story better than any of the previous FFs. | always like each FF better than the last, so you bet I’m looking forward to FFX. Justin6121@aol.com | fondly remember destroying Chaos when | was only six, and the series has only gone uphill from there for me. Final Fantasy VIII, however, was the climax, and IX was just the cigarette after. matt@rgsd.org FFIIl was definitely the best. And X, er...| about lost interest when Square started pulling their lead characters from the boy-band reject pool. matt_e@saber.net Final Fantasy VII. Cloud was my idol; | would copy every one of his animations and basically just try to be like him. CHU5344@aol.com My favorite Final Fantasy is Tactics. What can | say, I’m a sucker for customization. With that in mind, I’m not even thinking about FFX. Now FFXI is another story... gregoryjranson@email.msn.com Final Fantasy ||| is hands down the best FF game. Any game that makes you sing opera has got to be good. pmstroud2@hotmail.com Next Month’s Question of the Moment: Do you feel like you are or will be missing out on a lot of good games this year because of Mature ESRB ratings? Send your short but sweet responses to: EGM@ziffdavis.com with the subject heading: Overrated * ¥ Toonami’s in TROUBLE and ONLY YOU can save it.. A WEEK-LONG EVENT STARTING SEPTEMBER 7TH AT Spm ET/PT SEE IT ON-AIR. PLAY IT ONLINE. nae QDEdGworRE AOL Keyword: Toonami Toonami.com ae TM & © 2001 Cartoon Network. An AOL Time Warner Company. TM, @ and the Nintendo GameCube iogo are trademarks of Nintendo. ALATLJOL _ PlayStation.2 GENT i) tt. SE ASRIVRMSA RY ERT PlayStation.2 PiayStation.c PROMe AU M IN cRRie mee NayStation.c (M) Mature Audience ©2001 Target Stores. The Bullseye Design is a registered trademark of Target Brands, Inc. All rights reserved. You can write EGIV! at: EGM Letters Please note: We reserve the right to edit any correspondence for space PO. Box purposes. If you don’t want your name, city/state or e-mail address ae B al printed, tell us so (but please include your phone number, mailing address é ak BOO - and system preference for Letter of the Month prize consideration). 0522-333 Also note: Although we can’t respond to every letter, as far as you know, we do e-mail: EGM@ziffdavis.com __ read them all. Also, everything you send us is ours to keep! lessened your opinion of the mag— we’ll be more careful in the future. Two-Gent Refund | have a Dreamcast and | buy games often. Sometimes when | buy a game, the retailer says something like, “You wasted your money” or “You shouldn’t have gotten a Dreamcast.” | think this is because Sega is not making more systems, but that doesn’t mean that Dreamcast isn’t a good system. Chris Brimer Florien, LA Chris, it’s time you learned that the world is full of ignorant people. You go on buying whatever the heck you feel like buying, even if it’s Atari Jaguar games. Well, OK, not Jaguar games, but Dreamcast is definitely in the clear. And if anyone tells you differently, you let them know that your friends here are gonna run compromising photos of ‘em in EGM. You Win! | just got your September 2001 mag, and on page 16 on the left it says, “Congratulations. You win an InterAct GameShark.” What do | do? Nobrain439@aol.com What you do, Nobrain, is go back into the mag, look above that text where it says, “Letter of the Month,” and realize that we were talking to the guy who sent in the letter. Don’t sweat it, pal, you weren’t the only one to think he had won something for nothing. Kids these days... header Fails to Read Since subscribing to your magazine, | realized this mag is all about Game Boys, Sega, etc. Do you ever review or discuss the dependable PC? jjob@mediaone.net Way to subscribe before knowing anything about the mag. We’d cover PC stuff, but all of our dependable machines have General Protection Faults and Errors Type 11. We could have sworn we heard SSX characters cursing in the game, and referenced the presumed foul mouths in issue #145’s Letters. Turns out the profanity was just Shoe losing at Street Fighter; our apologies for leading you all astray. In our review of ESPN X Games for PS2, we said that there was no multipiayer split-screen mode available. Turns out there is—it’s a bit buried under the “others” menu, but it’s in there after all. Our apologies to you and Konami for the oversight. Letter Art of the Month WINNER Chris Kau ¢ Canadensis, PA Congratulations, Chris Kau! Your prize is on the way~an InterAct GameShark for PlayStation 2, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 or Game Boy Color. AS sie " a: gat Close, but no controller Bad luck to this guy.... Better luck next time. Sol Henderson Eastsound, WA SOPOPSIOORIIRIT ONES HRNN DORIS ONAL NORIO IO AIAN AINA MIM RDN NMR ANNO GIDEA HARA MRO ONO INI NOHO RNIB PIICS Put your creative skills to the test by decking out a #10 envelope (the long, business type) with your own unique touch. Send your letter art to: EGM Letter Art, P.O. Box 3338, Oak Brook, IL 60522-3338 (or e-mail EGM@ziffdavis.com) Be sure to include a mailing address, and tell us what system you'd like your prize for, in case you win. All entries become the property of Ziff Davis Media Inc. and will not be returned! For Letter of the Month and Letter Art of the Month contests, no purchase is necessary. If you're really bored and want to read the complete contest legal rules, please visit www.egmmag.com or write us at: EGM Contests-Legal Rules Request, P.0. Box 3338, Oak Brook, IL 60522-3338, After reading the rules, please get a life. Don’t forget to tell us what system you'd like your prize for, and don't forget to give us your physical mailing address as well...or else, no prize for you! get mtol iy axa T ©2001 Target Stores. The Bullseye Design is a registered trademark of Target Brands, Inc. All rights reserved. heal ain Twisted Metal: Black ‘is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. © 2001 Sony Computer Entertainment America inc. “PlayStation” and the “PS" Family ‘ 5% ee Comic WN and Violen ere is hope. A brave young warrior Toan, armed with only a magical gem, faces Mealinnaig tah ee era of reb Iding he wo id. Ven ure with him deep underground to discover clues and gather vital elements of stad ahaa veaw Sal Fees - mes oe ee . Entertainment inc. © 2001 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “PlayStation” and “PS” oe fer he See Flee A ee oo Sa ; Family logos are registered trademarks . rescues lie before you : | i of Sony Computer Entertainment inc. The Hottest Gaming News on the Planet WORLDIEXGLUSIVE SOUL CALIBUR 2 By Chris Johnston chris johnston@ziffdavis.com & Jonathan Dudlak jonathan dudlak@ziffdavis.com The World's Best 3D Fighting Game i is s Getting a a and From the arcade version...” ~G) Nameo Limited. These scr een “shot iS are in progress. t’s not a huge secret that Namco is working on an arcade sequel to their critically acclaimed Dreamcast/coin-op hit, Soul Calibur, a title many consider to be the best fighting game ever. (The DC version is the only fighter in history to score straight 10’s from EGM’s Review Crew.) We recently “acquired” some inside info, a handful of screens and a confidential video tape that revealed Soul Calibur 2 is in the works for Nintendo’s upcoming console as well. Namco will release Soul Calibur 2 for the GameCube sometime in the spring of 2002 in Japan. No word yet on when the arcade or U.S. editions are due, or if Namco is making this game for any other consoles besides the GameCube. The three hi-resolution shots you see on these pages are from the arcade version of SC2 (and are labeled as such). The rest of the images in this story - Sri, were taken off a VHS tape, which showed actual Soul Calibur 2 gameplay running on GameCube hardware. Note, because we took the GameCube screens from a video tape and not the machine itself, those pictures are rather blah in quality. Also, it’s obvious that a lot of stuff you see here is placeholder junk (like the Mario Paint-quality energy bars and win-count circles). You can expect the GameCube version of Soul Calibur 2 to look practically the same as its arcade counterpart. Everything will get several face lifts and tummy tucks before the game gets released, Another note: Scan these pictures to put up online and we'll kill you. Then we'll force you to have a nice “sit down” with our lawyers. So with those pleasantries out of the way, let’s get on with talking about Soul Calibur 2. Electronic Gaming Monthly - 384 - www.egmmag.com (According to a long and painful staff 1. Soul Calibur (DO) “discussion” about which games we’d 2. Street Fighter Ill: Third Strike (DC) take to a desert island with us— 3. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (DC, PS) : assuming we had a TV and game 4. Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn) OP systems and electricity, that is.) 5. Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2) “ te a — ee Soul Calibur (Dreamcast) | —— From the artade version. . A ei arcade version. | —, (C) Namco Limited. These seréen shots are in-progress. ? (C) mco Limited. Thes reen Shots are in-propress. Fighting Engine What we know: SC1’s famed 8-Way Run is back. This allows full 3D freedom of movement, unlike the side-stepping Virtua Fighter or Tekken games, which are still essentially played like any ol’ 2D fighter. Also, SC2 has something called “Avoid!!” and “Break!!” These are probably temporary terms, but the word “Avoid!!” pops up when the defender makes a quick side-step and narrowly misses an incoming attack. What we don’t know: What “Break!!” is. It doesn’t appear to be the Same weapon-breaking feature in Soul Calibur 1’s predecessor, Soul Blade (where weapons can be destroyed when used to block or “turtle” too much), though it does happen when weapons clash. ra e = Be BS a E & A quick sidestep of the Sword “Break!!” seems to happen when Buster attack gives Taki (inthe red | weapons get locked then broken outfit) the “Avoid!!” message anda __ apart, but that’s just us taking a chance to give Siggy some payback. stab at this new fighting system. See the steps-and the P<. | different elevations? : oe ao an 3 j Several things, the most important one being the arenas now have walls in them. With SC2, you can avoid being cheaped out of victory via a nasty ring-out. We didn’t see an entirely enclosed stage yet, so the game still has room for characters like Astaroth to use their superior ring-out skills to force an early victory. The levels now have different elevations (like in Virtua Fighter 3), and uneven and more realistically textured floors (like in PS2’s Tekken Tag). Also, the arenas are much bigger than the small “islands” in Soul Calibur 1. What How the walls work. In the video, we didn’t see one character get knocked through the barriers. Do they break away? Do the warriors get bounced off of them? We’re not sure yet. This spacious library is one of the many new Stages. It’s clearly bigger than the previolis games’ arenas. Check out |..the-watt"of b oks We saw a lot more showy sparks and flames when the weapons clanged together. The combatants on the character select screen are now animated, and the fighters are a lot more detailed; you’ll see more realistic shadows, muscles and hair. Also, Ivy (below, left) really likes to flaunt her stuff now. How else this game improves visually over the amazing Dreamcast version. It’s hard to tell from the grainy video. When you see Siegfried’s blond locks flowing like Fabio’s mane on a windy day, you’ll thank the lord for GameCube technology. Selss START What we know: Namco’s brought the sound quality up a notch. The clanks and bangs of the weapons are more distinct now, and you can hear different effects when the players are tromping around on various surfaces. (You can tell when a warrior walks off of the cobblestones and onto sand, for example.) What we don’t know: Rumored by our sources in Japan but definitely unconfirmed, the U.S. version may have English voiceovers, So maybe we'll get to finally understand what the Soul Calibur fighters are saying. ow | oyivl) ad fb or. ’ ‘ 1 Titi’ » TIO eI F The character © select screen is -.. partially blacked out, so we can’t show you the whole crew. These are temporary names, by the way. AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL SKATEBOARD SHOP. TORIND 4 LOCATION NEAR VOU, SEE THE LATEST NEWs: TEAM INFORMATION AND SHOES, VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT WWW. DCSHOECOUSA.COM MODEL FEATURED, THE TITAN. CARL HYNDMAN PHOTOS. ROR R ONT RR OTN IDAN ETI OHI NITION | Dreamcast Newswire PSO Ver. 2 Pay2Play Debacle Good news, Sega fans. Phantasy Star ' Online Version 2 will be released in the U.S. in mid- September. But before you start jumping around with schoolgirl glee, note the fine print: To play online in Ver. 2, you have to buy a $15 Hunter’s License (via credit card) that gives you three months of play. Compare that to Japan, where you pay 1,000 yen (about $8) for the same amount of game time. Seems like a rip-off, eh? Sega wouldn’t spill the details on whether or not the game’s MSRP would be lowered (from $39.99) in the U.S. to offset the higher Hunter’s License fee. Oh, and One more thing—we wanted to review PSO Ver. 2 this issue so you’d be able to read our take on it before it’s released, but Sega’s holding reviewable U.S. copies from the press, | anew trend with the company. So look for the full review next issue. Dreamcast Price Slashed In late July, the Hollywood Reporter ran a story that the DC price would be cut to More GameCuhes Than You Can Shake A Stick At If the number of units a company Ships of a new game system is any indication on their belief it’ll succeed, then Nintendo is ready to take over the world. The company will deliver 500,000 units for the system’s Sept. 14 launch in Japan, and 1.1 million (!) for the U.S. on Nov. 5. By the end of the year, Nintendo will Ship another 900,000 units in Japan, bringing that country’s total to 1.4 million. All we can say is...that’s a lotta systems at once. JAPAN USA Cliartenanic Camime RAAR Phy Ri€citrOTic Uc Hie WIOTLAHY - 20° | per minute LORE IRESS ce The number of Game Boy Advance units continuously being sold since the June 11 launch. Also the average number of times the GBA gets cursed at due to sucky ene Reverse PBR PDE RDO PDORO DOU TOOT HP PRE NPDES IRR SRR RPE DADO S ORDO IDO HED ANA HB PO ORO DO c COO EER OHR RIEU RNR IORI LL NA TARA $79.99 (from $99.99) in mid-August. Sega wouldn’t confirm with EGM whether or not the report was true, but quotes from Electronics Boutiques and Babbage’s Etc. executives lend credence to the story. A further drop (to $49.99) is expected as early as the beginning of 2002 if hardware is still left over. Don’t have one? Go get one (or two) when the price’s right. SegaNet Closes ISP Service About a year after it started, SegaNet has closed its doors as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Its servers will continue to live on as a place to play online games, but Sega will no longer provide the dial-up access. Previous SegaNet users were shifted over to Earthlink, who will offer users Internet access at the same monthly fee ($19.95/month). If you got in on one of the deals Sega was offering (like the DC free with two years of SegaNet) you’re hereby let off the hook and can cancel the Earthlink service at any time. And you get to keep the refund check. Hooray, money! RL Rhtee tee ee eee teeect Tea teteetreeete eitentrtte ttathietnttnteneterehttentheteet tet teeteetteeeteeees OANA NSORO SSSI OSNNSLOASEOBRIARINOORESIAGSBONSENAAANAROSSOESRENNADNSAASNISANAOORSE SISTA RIND EN ATRESIA ESSENSE SIRS D OSES SNONRACLESENSERSNOOLEESIERSAASOOLLE oben Ubi Does 19 for GC Ubi Soft has 19 GameCube titles in the works. Tarzan, based on the Disney animated movie, will make it out first, with a projected December release date. Other games will follow in 2002, including Batman Vengeance, which is also coming for PS2 (see preview this issue). WWE Body Slams Cube Can GameCube smell what The Rock is cookin’? Yes! THQ is bringing the action of WWF wrestling to Nintendo’s boxy system in 2002. It doesn’t have a name yet (it might be an extension of the Wrestlemania line that started on N64), but it will be a series exclusive to the GC, like SmackDown! for PS2 and Raw Is War for Xbox. Tron Gets Back Online In 1982, Tron was the first movie to get “inside” the video game world, and in the near future we'll be able to get | Want My VGTV Video gamers will soon have their own cable channel, called G4 (Games, Games, Games, Games?). Comcast, the same group who turned E! from a channel that covered movies into Wild On Boobies, will do the honors. It’s set to go on the airona cable box near you in 2002. Electric Playground Can’t wait ‘til 2002 to watch a TV show about games? Then check out Electric Playground (Discovery Science Channel, Fridays @ 7:30 p.m.), a weekly half hour covering the latest and greatest, hosted by Victor Lucas and Tommy Tallarico (below). Photo by Dave Buzzard Photography inside the world of Tron, too. A Tron video game is being prepped for a 2003 release on PC/ Xbox/other platforms. That'll come just before the movie sequel hits theaters, tentatively called Tron 2.0. Finally, on Jan. 15, 2002 we'll see a re- release of the original film on DVD with a plethora of special-edition features. End of line... Take Lara for a Ride We know it, you know it. You’ve always wished you could take Lara Croft for a, uh, spin. And by that we mean travel with her on her adventures. Soon you'll be able to, as Tomb Raider: The Ride will hit Paramount’s King’s Island near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2002. Guest adventurers will strap in for a wild ride of deja vd as the ride re-creates scenes from the video games and the Tomb Raider movie. | H : H wool i | : | | | | | : i | | | | | | | | | H RRR HARA PEN IA PO ELA NATION GEOR ENON IH IE GEENA NEPA AARNE EON. >UTER ENTERTAINMENT’S | EOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS’ New Attacks and Combos Ac | hy ——-\e es 2 ne - # Spidey‘s got a brand new bag a t= >. oy 7 = rs : , a of tricks, including Ice and ‘ eee : EL EC TRO Taser-Webbing! SKIN | KF? srMmore sribtewaN Ss Pees i Peet Super-Villains Galore Electro has been joined by Sandman and others in a nefarious scheme to bring the city to its knees. You Are What You Wear . _ Create-A-Spider let i Spidey with the right tools for the VOU DON’T JUST PLAY IT... YOU LIVE IT. right job by mixing and matching suits and powers. ACTIVISION. activision.com MARVEL, SPIDER-MAN and ELECTRO: TM and © 2001 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. Published and distributed by Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. © 2001 Activision, inc. and its affiliates. Developed by Vicarious Visions. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners. Licensed by Sony Computer Entertainment America for use with the PlayStation game console. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a trade- mark of the interactive Digital Software Association. All rights reserved. Ail other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners. i i i i i e ee Blood and Gore Violence missing brother, | =a RISIDENTEVIL® === CODE Ver CAPCOM beers: ‘es ©CAPCOM CO., LTD. 2001 ©CAPCOM U.S.A., INC. “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are ri AFTERTHOUGHTS: In each installment of Afterthoughts, EGM takes a game that’s already on store shelves and asks the developers for their thoughts, post-release. This month, we chose Sony’s Gran Turismo 3: A-spec. After he finished meeting and greeting a couple hundred of his biggest fans at Rockefeller Center’s Electronics Boutique (NYC) for the U.S. launch on July 10, we caught up with Kazunori in a little café outside his hotel. Between cigarettes, he gave us his thoughts on his latest creation and the future of the series. Kazunori Yamauchi: Ever since GT1 we’ve never been super confident about the titles’ launch. We’ve never just thought “we’re better than so- and-so.” There’s always that little worry in the back of our heads. | don’t think that feeling will ever go away. Luckily, so far, when we’ve released the GT games, the users have caught on to what we’ve provided. KY: I’d like to in the future. There are two main hurdles we’d have to clear for that to happen. One is to obtain car manufacturers’ approval to include damaged cars. Normally, they don’t want to see their cars busted up. If they do say yes, the next problem would be that, because GT is a series that emphasizes the realism of driving and the feedback of the car, we would have to implement what happens to the car when it’s damaged. That has to be real. We don’t want cars just banged up or blowing up in the end and burning. It’s not that simple. You’d have multiple ways of destroying your car, and we’d want to simulate that. KY: As you pointed out, there is a slight “We made a new discovery that made racing on the dirt feel much more realistic and exciting.” difference. But even in the Simulation mode, as you proceed in the game there are different leagues: Amateur, Beginner and Professional. In the Professional League— probably more than halfway through the game —the difficulty level is very close to the Professional mode in the Arcade section. However, | do admit that the Al is not at a level where it’s more human. It’s not emotional, trying to block you, cut you off, whatever. That means there is room for improvement in the future of the series. That’s an area we’re obviously studying. To add to that, the level of the Al has increased incredibly in the sense that the computer cars are in the same exact environment as the players as far as road conditions. lf the car slips, they have to counter- steer and get the cars back online and on track like the players do. We know of no other game in which the computer Al calculates that far for all the other competing cars. In those terms, | think the Al has advanced quite significantly. A-spec 3 KY: Honestly speaking, it was a time aspect. In order to allow all cars to have standard and modified versions, you’d have to create double the amount of car models. We have roughly 200 cars in the game, so we’d have had to create 400 models. In future games, I’d like to bring that feature back. KY: When users buy a car brand-new and the odometer says zero, the car is not at its full potential yet. They have to break it in. So it Starts at a certain level, then gradually increases up to 100% potential. It stays there for a period of time, then gradually starts to slide down. KY: Yes. Even though we took out the used car aspect in terms of buying, the theory is still there. By adding the odometer and having to get your car broken in, users will have to decide on their own if a car is getting a little too old or has too much mileage. Then they decide if they have to buy a new one. KY: | like the Mazda RX-7, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V and the winner of Le Mans in 1993, the Mazda 787B. KY: Yes. “| was in the office testing the Rally mode heavily. Then | went and drove the actual car on the dirt and realized how close we were. Only then did | realize, ‘Ah! | finally got it.’ I'm quite happy with it now.” EGM: Is that something you meant for GT3? KY: The network issue was not in the original game plan. From my point of view, | wanted GT3 to be the ultimate stand-alone software title. EGM: That said, are you happy with GT3? KY: During the GT series, there was never a time when | was completely happy. Even with GT3, there were many issues | was not satisfied with up to the very end. So even when it is complete, there’s never a time that I’m 100 percent sure about the title. There are always aspects that I'll look back and say, “Maybe this, maybe that.” EGM: The rally racing in GT3 is noticeably better. Is that something you concentrated on? KY: Yes, we did spend a lot of time developing the Rally mode. Compared to GT2, which was based more on theory, we redesigned the physics behind the car feedback. We made a completely new discovery—| can’t give you the details—but a new discovery that, when added to the car’s feedback, made racing on dirt feel much more realistic and exciting. Later, | got a chance to drive a Lancer Evolution VII on the dirt. Before this experience, | was in the office testing the Rally mode heavily. | went and drove the actual car on the dirt and realized how close we were. Only then did | realize, “Ah! | finally got it.” I’m quite happy with it now. Start Your Engines “I’ve been in line since 8:30 last night for this game, and it was all worth it!” beamed Brooklyn’s Bill Diver as he proudly displayed his copy of GT3. Diver was the first of over 200 people to buy the U.S. version of the game on July 10 in New York City. The real treat, however, was the opportunity for gamers to meet with GT3 Producer Kazunori Yamauchi and 2001 Indy 500 champion Helio Castronevez (both pictured at right). The two Electronic Gaming Mo - 43 - EGM: Speaking of testing the cars in the game, did you actually test out any Formula 1 cars? KY: Actually | haven’t had the chance to drive one. | think that because of the physics and calculations we have for the game, it’s probably closer than any other game in terms of a Formula-type car. But, it’s probably not right. There must be something wrong with it. That’s also an area I'd like to study and improve. The current fantasy Formula models are kind of an experiment in the early stages. EGM: There was a rumor that finishing GT3 100 percent might unlock either Motor Toon or Omega Boost. Any truth to that? KY: Honestly, we did think of it. We have all the data of past games, and we can always go back and dig it up. We were even talking about adding segments of games we’ve developed to run at 60 frames per second to see what they would look like, just for fun. In the end we ran out of time. But we haven’t given up on the idea. Maybe in the future it might pop up again. EGM: How come you can’t race backward on Laguna Seca or Cote d’Azur? KY: | just wanted to pay respect to the real-life courses, so | didn’t want to fiddle with them. At a real-life course, going reverse is the ultimate taboo. So that’s why | didn’t include reverse mode for those two courses. (© CG R)) S) even put on a show for the fans when they competed for bragging rights at Laguna Seca. Yamauchi squeaked by Helio on the final turn to take the victory. Following the race Kazunori was quite pleased with the experience: “It made me realize how good the simulation in the game is. A professional driver could warm up for five minutes and have a pretty good battle with me. It’s exactly what | was aiming for in the game.” as www.egmmag.com REVIEW FLASHBACK GT was born before the PS2 could help realize Yamauchi’s vision. Here’s what we said about the first two GTs: Gran Turismo John Ricciardi said: “Get used to this quote, ’cause you’re gonna hear it a lot: ‘Gran Turismo is the best racing Erme of all time.’” Gran Turismo 2 John Davison said: “Every time you play it and try something new, it amazes you even more with its intricate attention to detail...” EGM: Did any of the manufacturers have a problem with racing on actual streets in the Tokyo Course? KY: So the players are not mislead into thinking it’s real-life street racing, there were some requests to make it obvious that although we’re in a real city, this track is designed as a race course and that blockades are clearly placed. There were fences, grandstands and billboards to make it look like a circuit that’s designed off a Street. More like the F1 Indianapolis or Le Mans. Unfortunately that’s all the space we have for Afterthoughts this month. But Mr. Yamauchi loves to talk about his game. So you can find the answers to the rest of our questions — such as why used cars were taken out of GT3 and what real-life courses might be included in GT4—at www.egmmag.com. —Greg Sewart ke piel Nh ie eM ent syste Visit www.esrb.org ime ee or call 1-800-771-3772 eee te Sor eee eae etic ne pe Ne CONTENT RATED BY ~ www.interplay.com — appeals ~ to spirits ight about the time Final Fantasy X arrives in the States next spring, Japanese gamers will be taking Square’s flagship franchise online with Final Fantasy XI. New information on the game and the PlayOnline network that will support it has surfaced in the form of a promotional disc packed in with the Japanese FFX. From the gameplay shots we saw, this sucker’s a whole new ball of wax. The most drastic change in FFXI, apart from going online, is the game’s more serious medieval style. In contrast to the fantastic Settings and cutesy characters Square is notorious for, FFXI’s world is teeming with traditional dragon-slaying knights traversing an earthy countryside. That’s not to say that Square won't have its share of oddities and abnormalities, though (take a look at the Pikmin-eating beast of blue pictured at bottom, OR EI OPP eooano0o ooo! 0 oo co ae center). However the game looks, with producer Hiromichi Tanaka (Xenogears, Chrono Cross) and FF mainstay Hironobu Sakaguchi on the project, it’s probably not going to suck. First things first. It’s tough to play Final Fantasy with your international friends without a network to support it, so Square is launching PlayOnline with FFXI. This subscriber service will allow you to hook into FF servers and perform basic functions like e-mail and Web browsing via an exclusive browser (included with the game). While Square’s original plans called for more mainstream applications as well, such as downloading music and sports scores, it now looks like PlayOnline will keep its sights on supporting the potentially huge FFXI userbase. The service will support a number of minigames, including the Tetra Master card game from Final Fantasy IX. Nice, now how about some Chocobo Final Fantasy has been around forever, and its characters | are some of the most memorable in any game series. _ Ever wonder how the team gets fresh inspiration for names and character development? Run on down to http://s3.rpgclassics.com/ffcompendium/h/ name.shtml for some oe and moe oe | st SSSOSSS SS SSOSUAMSSSS NI SSSA OSS SANSA a ge ects idskcsscanesceisinsseensisisascooniseiiol racing online? Phantasy Star Online players may be a tad skeptical—is PlayOnline going to be around long enough that we should invest in all the gear, or will it be the Dreamcast/SegaNet fiasco all over again? Well, Square says that PlayOnline needs 300,000 subscribers to stay afloat (PSO has 200,000), So if you consider FF’s relative popularity, it’s not time to worry yet. With all the competitive shenanigans going on between next-gen hardware makers, we may just see FFXI on a Box or a Cube, but it’s only. been confirmed for PS2 and PC so far. Let’s hope Square and Nintendo patch things up, at least, SO we Can go online with PSO2 and FFIX without everyone having to buy seven different game consoles. Meanwhile, FFX! and PlayOnline go into test this fall in Japan, so we’ll have updates as they come. Oe ooo Meet Natsumi: exciteable Japanese student and FFXI player who longs for... i det amen warn he Qed? i PROFLE DATA ~ i 001257 naleerss ool con ...their log-in screens, which is how players hook up to play FFX! after a quick... this guy, the studly young man who also plays FFX! online and works p part time.. 7) ..phone call, but ih ttle does Natsumi know the online friend she calls to set up a game is... A sorceress tries hard to fit j in with the other humans. . actually the same dude _...the from the pushcart, but neither catches on until... ..at this fast-food stand, and can somehow still afford to scrape up rent for... The Japanese Final Fantasy X comes with a pretty cool promo for Final Fantasy XI and the PlayOnline service. It tells a toucl —_ tale of love online, which we’ve outlined in the pictures and caption below. So play Final Fant pW ana thie enc asy Al, and this could nappen to ye ou! ...this swan where he retir evening to play with Natsumi and.. K ie HORSE) ...guys like this geeky y bump paths. .and our heroine Nat: sul ni makes the r refle cts on her fi: connection, the physical date with the relationship blooms... mystery FFX! man. Call it whatever you want, but Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’s Showing at the box office was less than stellar. As of this writing, FF had barely cleared the $30 million mark. Considering that its estimated production cost topped $140 million, it’s safe to say this one was a bit of a letdown. Perhaps because of the movie’s Slide down the box-office charts, Columbia will } $41.1 release it as a two-disc special edition on DVD on Oct. 23. That’s separate from the special PS2 edition of the movie, which is scheduled to hit stores next year. Final Fantasy: TSW Tomb Raider + ACQUIRE NEW SOUL ENHANCEMENTS, PHYSIC AND RELICS. ‘aie jt i “a ee RA Miia " inaisi RP or cal 1-800-771-3772 for more info. Visit www.esrb.org _ CONTENT RATED BY -ESRB ic lon shamed ce) ded Ce =~ a CQ. BYNAMICS FGM Takes Sony’s PlayStation 2 Hard Drive for a Spin On July 19, Sony CEI released the PS2 Hard Disk Drive (HDD) in Japan. Ten-thousand drives—7500 external and 2500 internal, at $150 and $145, respectively—went out to those lucky enough to place their order via PlayStation.com. Why an external model? Early Japanese PS2s have a PCMCIA card slot in the back instead of the expansion bay seen on U.S. and newer Japanese-model systems. Since our Japanese PS2s are the old type, we picked up an external drive and headed for a secluded location (my cube) to test it out. One look at the external drive and you can tell it’s going to be a tough customer. It’s big, bulky, and has another power cord that you’re gonna have to find a plug for. Thankfully, the internal model that the U.S. gets will run on the PS2’s power. It’s also heavy —the internal will add a healthy amount of weight to the system. Installing the drive was a fairly painless process. That is, once | figured out that the HDD turns itself on only after you’ve loaded up the included Utility Disc. The disc updates the Browser and system file on your memory card so that the HDD powers on when you boot up. The HDD is then visible in the Browser. OK, so what do you use it for? Right now, games like FFX, Capcom Vs. SNK 2 and some Konami music games use it for data caching; you install the game on the drive so the system reads it from there and not a CD, cutting the load time down significantly (depending on the game). Take the A-Train 2001 is the only current Japanese) release to use it for game customization and data. _ Do you wonder what a trip to EGM’s offices would really be like? Hsu _& Chan creator Jeremy “Norm” Scott recently lived that dream. And if his trip is any indication, you'll want to stay the hell away (that | means you!). You can read about Norm’s recent visit here by pointing your browser to http://www.ape-law.com/evilmonkey/hsuchan.htm § Reoceoonenensscecanoennsenansnaqsescocoocoesonsensssncconsqtondasssstedacasosassocnsaesseocecosesoscosasosanansaeacesessencbaneneeseaseoonecnnonsess ieee A big drawback is that (at this point, anyway) you cannot store memory card saves on the drive. That would’ve been nice for those of us who have multiple memory cards. As for networking abilities, the Japanese drive only includes the ethernet plug (the U.S. Network Adapter will have an additional 56k modem), which is the part of the card that Slides into the PCMCIA port. You’re also assigned a Multimedia Access Control code, which will protect your information once network gaming and browsing are available. The HDD will become a valuable tool once more games actually use it for saves and customization. Is faster loading enough of a benefit to justify the cost? For FFX, the difference is negligible (see below). The HDD will be cheaper in the U.S. since the Network Adapter is sold separately (for $40), but | hope games Start using it for more than data caching. —Chris Johnston IMAL FANTASY X official web site> wp [tp wy play uw @ 2001 SQUARE c dakcccadiibeataaasa ‘stibeaueis ania eecnceoosecadonsees SES SNE SERS Aare B= F4UF4F42I Versian 140 The HDD comes in a red box (top left), distinguishing it from the PS2 system, controllers or memory cards. You install it using the handy lil’ Utility Disc (top right). Once you boot up the Utility Disc, you can for- mat the drive, install the new browser software (so it’ll recognize it), and download the newest version of the DVD Player software. The inter- face will probably be slightly different when the drive is released in the U.S. in November. Mamie i ERE ANTES UNV ANan AH rah HL lit) Ee Hi He ae Myce nest iNET nna ' a ali h ' wy — oan HS) es piseadn ees sl iti Hina NTI Ana tt ae ui iain a Hi Pat zi =3 —— Se Pe Se = e+? HW 1 a il \ eas = a See ee f ) as 3 see SES i Hf reseed eo ee ar i il 3 { 55555, ees == = . SpPEFEs E baa! feat } ae cou il = ahah Fa = 2 3s ae == = = 5 a eo oe TRG seat: rs a toe : in : 222i es > ‘ : =u I 2 i iH) = uy os a eS Sees Se -o=e" - Fa = — It’s different down here. as y i % ee mere) Re Mm | Whe a5 : ee 6) \ aa 4 ANA Rh i UE) in wis if oN - : ee Wma Hi fails BFE se: ey = oe Gp It’s in the game: 7 oe ae sani! Soll >. “SS Se SQUARE Sia ee = - cingular recess aps }h te X It's in the game: le F, j ae ; ; } : i PY SPORTS) EA SPORTS" 2002. THE ULTIMATE ALL-ACCESS SPORTS PASS Down here, momentum swings on a pendulum. Pain is part of the uniform. And sweat is a form of currency. EA SPORTS"2002 presents unprecedented access to the wide,wide,wide-eyed world of sports This is opportunity knocking. On your forehead. With a skillet ©2001 Electronic Arts Inc. EA SPORTS, the EA SPORTS logo, “It's in the game“ and John Madden Football are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved. ©2001 NFLP. Team names and logos are trademarks of the teams indicated. All other (NFL-related marks) are trademarks of the National Football League. Officially licensed product of PLAYERS INC. The PLAYERS INC logo is registered trademark of the NFL players. www.nflplayers.com ©2001 PLAYERS INC. Nintendo 64, Game Boy and Game Boy Color are trademarks of Nintendo.. NASCAR is a registered trademark of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. ‘Jeff Gordon" name, signature and likeness; "DuPont' trademark, and likeness of #24 Hendrick Motorsports car used under license granted from J. G. Motorsports, Inc. #21: The ‘Motorcraft’ trademarks, Wood Brothers Racing and Elliott Sadler's name and/or likeness used by authority of Roush Racing, Livonia, MI #36: ©2001 MB2 Motorsports/KSR, Inc. ®"M&M's’ , “M’ and the "M&M's" Characters are the trademarks of Mars, Inc. and it's affiliates. OMars, Inc. 2001. #8: The name, signature and likeness of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. are licensed under the administration of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. #97: The Papermate, Rubbermaid, and Sharpie trademarks are trademarks of Newell Rubbermaid, Inc. or its subsidiaries and are used by permission. Roush Racing and Kurt Busch's name and/or likeness used by authority of Roush Racing, Livonia, Michigan. ©2001 license for driver, helmet, car and uniform granted by J. G. Motorsports, Inc. Chevrolet, Monte Carlo, Pontiac, Grand Prix, the Chevrolet "Bow Tie" emblem, the Pontiac "Arrowhead" emblem, and vehicle model body designs are General Motors trademarks used under license to Electronic Arts, Inc. All other car, team, and driver images, track names, trademarks, and other intellectual property are used under license from their respective owners. NHL, National Hockey League, the NHL Shield and the Stanley Cup are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. Used under license by Electronic Arts. All NHL logos and marks and team logos and marks depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. ©2001 NHL. All rights reserved. Officially Licensed Product of the National Hockey League. National Hockey League Players’ Association, NHLPA and the NHLPA logo are trademarks of the NHLPA and are used, under license, by Electronic Arts Inc. Officially Licensed Product of the NHLPA. NHLPA, National Hockey League Players’ Association and the NHLPA logo are trademarks of the NHLPA and are used, under license, by Electronic Arts Inc. ONHLPA Licensed by Sony Computer Entertainment America for use with the PlayStations 2 game console. “PlayStation’ and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. The logos and other indicia of NIKE, Inc. reproduced on this product are the trademarks and copyrighted designs and/or other forms of intellectual property, that are the exclusive property NIKE, Inc. and may not be used, in whole or in part, without their written consent. EA SPORTS™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. easports.com EVERYONE It’s In the game- PC PlayStation.e NASCAR | , ao © Each month, we solve the gaming mysteries that keep you up all night and scratching your noggin all day. It’s just like the TV show Unsolved Mysteries, except without that gravelly voiced old dude from Airplane! No-Play Zone Q: Why do I have to turn off my Game Boy on planes during takeoff and landing? A: Regulation 121.306(a) of the Federal Aviation Administration explicitly limits your right to operate “any portable electronic device on any U.S.- registered civil aircraft.” Why the airborne buzzkill? Your Game Boy emits a tiny blip of radiation that could potentially screw with the plane’s instrument systems and radio chatter with the control tower. In fact, the FAA has logged more than 45,000 mid-air anomalies— everything from phony warning lights to planes veering off course—linked to passengers fiddling with Panelists for the event, which took place at the SF Museum of Modern Art, included Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari; Will Wright, mastermind behind PC-game phenomenon The Sims; and art theorists Lev Manovich and Brenda Laurel. The discussion ranged from video games as representative of the 21St-century epic, to its lack of irony—a characteristic that’s intrinsic to modern art. Wright concluded the evening to hoots and hollers when he used the evolution of art history as an allegory for where gaming has been and will hopefully go. Afterward, we couldn’t help but feel the whole occasion was kind of like E3 meets Sprockets. And now we will dance. — Che Chou Video Games As Art? Are video games a valid form of art? And if so, where do art and games intersect? To explore these and other academic issues, the San Francisco Media Arts Council held their second symposium, titled Artcade: Exploring the Relationship Between Video Games and Art. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell gets artsy. laptops, Walkmans and, yes, portable games. So don’t ask questions; just find something else to do during those agonizing 20 minutes of gamelessness while your plane ascends above 10,000 feet, the minimum altitude at which you can power on. Why not read a fascinating article in the latest issue of EGM, available in all finer airport bookstores. Empty Pocket Q: Why didn’t the PocketStation come to the U.S.? A: After all, the little gizmo—a cross between a memory card anda Tamagotchi—was a nifty device. Sony was planning a U.S. release for March 1999, but the PocketStation was so popular in Japan that there weren’t enough units to go around in its home country, let alone worldwide. By the time supply caught up with demand and a U.S. release became feasible, the PocketStation ran into a rocky : 51 _ \ARARAS OQGOMmMao cnr _Klonoa 2 just came out for PS2, but if you missed the first | one you’re going to pay a pretty penny for it. A new or mint- _ in-box copy of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1) will run you | _ over $100 on eBay, with some auctions just for the disc | getting well over S5o. If you’re gonna bid on one, beware: SR RRO road of hurdles that doomed its Stateside chances. For starters, Sony was readying the PS2 and had other things to worry about. The PocketStation also suffered from short battery life (you’d be lucky to get two days out of it). And developer support a. ae dwindled because the gizmo had been so rare for so long. Then there was the lack of a U.S. killer app. The i. virtual-pet title Doko Demo Issho may have moveda — mountain of ’ : PocketStations in .— cH exactly the Kind of Fevitr’s Chocobo World game that would PocketStati sell big here. So ocketStation game despite support in a few U.S. games (such as Final Fantasy Vill and Ridge Racer Type 4), the little sucker never saw the light of day. Still, rumors of a color PocketStation 2 do persist... — Chris Baker Got a gaming mystery? E-mail it to EGM@ziffdavis.com with the subject header “Ever wondered?” and we'll solve it for you. Activision Publishes Report Next summer, we’ll all be enjoying the Tom Cruise/Steven Spielberg sci-fi flick, Minority Report in theaters. Soon after, we'll be able to play the game at home. Activision has landed the rights to the game, which will be published on PCs and consoles. Written by Philip K. Dick (who also penned Blade Runner), the story follows a cop who has been accused of committing a crime in the future and must figure out how it will happen so he can stop it in time and clear his name. Tomb Raider: The Apology in other news, Eidos, proprietors of the Tomb Raider games, made a public apology to French archeologist Jean- Yves Empereur for accidentally using his likeness in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. Maybe they’ll apologize for the game next. Japanese pilot wannabes who like to drive their jets with something heftier than the dual shock can spring for this special flight-stick controller from peripheral manufacturer HORI, which will be released simultaneously with Ace Combat 4. Tough luck for U.S. flyboys—the stick ain’t coming here. Namco's Photorealistic Flight Combat on PS2 rmchair jet jockeys who get their Top Gun kicks on towering PCs might look down their nosecones at us console gamers, just because our flight-combat games are heavy on arcade action and light on realism. But you know what? Screw them. We might not know a velocity- vector doohickey from an angle-of-attack whatsit, but very soon we'll have a plane game that licks PC sims in one crucial department: the visuals. Namco’s Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, due in early November for PlayStation 2, looks better than anything those PC players drive around the virtual sky with their fancy joysticks and rudder gizmos. These screens tell the tale. Fully 3D volumetric clouds billow in the sky. Lush hills and mountains roll into the hazy distance. The hyper-detailed plane models stream contrails behind them during dogfights (which are best viewed via the multiple-camera-angle replays). Sunlight glints off the ocean’s surface — and even off the glass of your heads-up display. And wait until you see the game in MACH-1 motion. AC4 delivers a smooth and speedy flight experience rivaled only by PC sims running on the most up-to-date hardware. But make no mistake: The AC series—by far the best-selling flight franchise on the consoles—still emphasizes arcade-style action over true-to-life simulation. “We believe it’s extremely fun to fly freely in the 3D environment and experience the sensation of being an ace pilot,” says Namco project director Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi, who previously worked on Klonoa for the original PlayStation and is new to the Ace Combat series. “But if we pursue this concept too far, there would be many difficult and complicated Me controls that require more skills on the player’s part, which would mean only a few people could really enjoy the game. We wanted to make sure we extracted just the fun aspect of simulators.” And basically, those fun aspects equate to lots of adrenalized dogfights and plain ol’ blowing stuff up. AC4’s 20 missions vary from simple intercept sorties (“Take out those incoming bombers!”) to deep- Kaboom! with a view: Ace Combat 4 is the first game in the series to feature a visible virtual cockpit, complete with animated gauges. Strike air raids in enemy territory. And every level features varying photorealistic terrain in all manner of weather conditions. One mission, for instance, has you screaming over an enemy beach, blasting tanks before your ally’s landing craft can reach shore. It’s set during a blinding downpour, with raindrops whizzing past your canopy. If you throttle up into a Straight vertical climb, you can break through the storm clouds into a dazzling blue sky, then rudder hard Earthward and plunge into the pea-soup storm again. Another mission is a sneak attack on oil rigs and an enemy seaport at night. It’s all similar to the stuff you did in previous PlayStation installments, except with more room to search and destroy. “The PS2 hardware allowed us to use larger amounts of aerial and ground objects,” Ichiyanagi says, “so we could feature larger campaigns.” Runway and carrier landings, used sparsely in the last two AC titles, factor heavily into the gameplay now. Any time you’re running low on weapons, you can turn tail and flee the danger zone. Every mission area offers a return zone— marked on your map by a dotted line— where you can land for re-arming and by hy PNP LD REN AME MEY ON PRM ON LOR AI NA LOLOL) ok St < repairs. Cross the line and your plane automatically drops its landing gear. Your heads-up display kicks into an instrument-landing system to help you line up with the airport runway or carrier. All you have to do is guide your plane in for a soft touchdown. Once the ground crew has done its thing, you can power up for takeoff and rejoin the battle. AC4 also features much better sound effects than any previous game in the series— mainly because the team broke out their microphones and went ona field trip. “We visited the [Japanese Air Force’s| air base to record the sounds of jet engines, explosions, gunshots, etc., Who Wants To Be A Pilot? If life really imitates art, isn’t it high time you were buzzing control towers and nude beaches in a plane of your own? Here are three ways to earn your wings... To fly small planes... The cheapest way into the mile-high club, a private pilot’s license will run you about $4,000, which covers the cost of the month-long ground school and 4o hours of instructional flight time required by the FAA. You gotta be at least 16 years old to take lessons—and you'll need to earn additional certificates to fly multi-engine planes or in bad weather—but hey, imagine picking up your prom date in a Cessna! “Allow me to tighten your flight harness, Heather.” To fly commercial airplanes... Get ready to empty your bank account if you’re really serious about this whole flying thing. More and more specialized schools—such as Comair Aviation in Sanford, Fla.—are offering what’s called “ab initio” flight-training programs, which’ll take you from a wee groundling all the way to a full-fledged airline flight captain who can point out dull scenery from 30,000 feet with the best of them. Expect to shell out about $30,000 for a pro-pilot program, which can last several years. But then some of those stewardesses are pretty hot. “My tray table’s in its fully upright and locked position, Linda.” —— Tatoo eee Cons OU A Cte PRONE, 5 4 during their drills,” Ichiyanagi tells us. On top of all the screaming afterburners and rocking explosions, the team layered an impressive amount of radio chatter. You now go into most missions with a full flight of seven or more wingmates, who bark orders, offer updates on their mission objectives, and warn you when bogies close in. You can even listen in on enemy radio transmissions. It’s the most chatter in a console sim yet, and it adds a lot to the you-are-there experience. Unlike Ace Combat 3, which packed such a complex universe and cast of intertwined characters that Namco essentially nixed the game’s entire story- line for the U.S. version, AC4 offers a streamlined plot. It’s set in the dismal near future on a fictional war-torn To fly fighter jets... | Here’s the toughest ticket of all. To turn and burn for the U.S. Air Force or Navy, your best bet is to get into their respective military academies, which ain’t easy (heck, you need a congressman’s recommendation to get into the Air Force Academy). The other route is to get a four-year college degree in a technical field, join your campus ROTC, get excellent grades, brush your teeth three times a day, keep your room tidy, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be plucked from the Air Force or Navy’s Officer Candidate School to become a bona-fide fighter jock. And chicks dig fighter jocks. “Permission to buzz your tower, Mona?” Hey, importers: All the dialog and displays in ACg are in English, in case you plan on nabbing the game when it hits Japan in September. : —- continent pocked with asteroid impacts. folks. The rest of the game’s cutscenes have the option to buy specialized You play a pilot hellbent on revenge after unfold in these paintings along with the weapons for your jet. Why not load up his parents were killed when he was narration of your character. cluster bombs for your run over enemy young, the dumb-luck victims of a fighter You start your quest for revenge in the oil fields? And in another first for the plane that crashed into their house. The clumsy Vietnam-era F-4 fighter. But as series, each fighter has its own virtual game opens with watercolor images of you progress through the missions, you'll cockpit, from which you can peer around your character watching the jet crash, earn money you can put toward more with the right analog stick. (As in AC3, then spying the plane that shot the advanced fighter jets. AC4 packs 20 holding the Triangle button will lock fighter from the sky. You vow to one day planes in all, including the brutal A-10 enemy targets in your view.) Switching kill this fighter pilot who has just, tank killer, the nimble F-16 and the on the virtual cockpit limits your view— however inadvertently, murdered your overpriced F-117 stealth fighter. You'll also especially in jets with bulky airframes — but it adds a touch more realism to the Straight-To-Video Mood Movies game (your canopy glass even filters the — 3 sunlight with a dull tinge). | Sure, you could watch Top Gun on TBS to get into the Ace Combat mood, : , q but we’re not letting you off that easy. Instead, we’ve prepared this list of Namco has Mie plans to include online +374, video-only flops that happen to involve jets shooting stuff. Why ride into modes for this installment, but the game | the crap-flick danger zone? Goose would have wanted it this way. _ will support the upcoming hard drive for faster loading times, as well asa THE FLICK... THE GIST... widescreen mode for gamers craving a panoramic view of the action. AC4 even A U.S. aircraft carrier runs into a “time storm” and is wooshed makes use of the PS2 controller’s analog THE FINAL back to the day before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. We COUNTDOWN get one nifty dogfight between our jets and Japanese Zeroes, but then the movie wusses out: The crew heads home before splashing the enemy strike force. Talk about a cockpit tease. buttons. Varying pressure on the Square button, for instance, will zoom the map, while pressing the shoulder buttons with all your might applies hard rudder for A squadron of WWII vets stage an air raid on a cocaine tighter turning. OK, so maybe the PS2 : factory in a daring mission to wipe out all ’80s movie pad isn’t as authentic as the high-end . — villains once and for all. Sounds exciting, right? So why flight yolks PC gamers use for their flight { does Lou Gossett Jr. look so unhappy on the box? Doesn’t games, but when those guys show us a he see the cool explosion or hot Rambo girl nexttohim? | —- Sim that looks this good and runs ona $300 machine, we'll shut up. se Thank goodness Hollywood listened to the tens of dozens — Crispin Boyer THE PHILADELPHIQ of the first flick’s fans and made this sequel, probably the : EXPERIMENT 2 third or fourth greatest movie ever made about a stealth fighter sent back in time and used by the Nazis to win World War II. Rapper, actor and part-time pimp Ice-T plays a Naval pilot turned mercenary who highjacks a Stealth Fighter and bombs military installations for the highest bidder. Let this be a lesson to you: Never leave the keys in your stealth fighter. DEVELOPER PROFILE Vicarious Visions Year founded: 1994 Location: Troy, NY Web site: www.vvisions.com # of people: 60 Worked on: Polaris SnoCross (PS/N64), Spider-Man (GBC) and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (GBA). Current projects: PS1: Spider-Man 2 Enter: Electro; GBA: Spider-Man: Mysterio’s Menace, Power Rangers: Time Force, Crash Bandicoot Advance and THPS3. We heard THPS2 GBA has such excellent visuals because it overclocks the system...but that this sucks the juice from the batteries faster. True? |t’s true that THPS2 GBA sucks the batteries faster than most other games, but it’s not because we overclocked it. Tony uses every last ounce of the CPU. Most games don’t do this so the power consumption on average is lower. But because Tony constantly pushes every available CPU cycle, battery power is consumed faster than most other GBA games. What game needs a 32-bit monkey buffer? (see Web site) All of our GBA games use VV’s patent-pending 32-bit monkey buffer! Monkeys make ‘em better! Will you be working on any next- generation systems like PS2, Xbox or GameCube? Yep. We’re proud of developing for all platforms. We currently have a PS2/Xbox title in the works and we're just starting up GameCube development. Which are you most excited about? Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. But many of us are looking forward to working on GC. There are some interesting gameplay possibilities with the GBA-GameCube connectivity and it’s something we'll be working on in the near future... a re sty Didn’t score one of the limited edition og Amano covers of EGM’s September ce issue? Head over to www.egmmag.com/ e Contest/ for a chance to win one of ten _ free copies. Or you can pay upwards of : | Sa5f for it on cs if you prefer Se: Quartermann - . Game Gossin 8 Speculation Welcome back to Q-Mann’s rumor confectionary. I’ve been bakin’ up some fine morsels this month, Game-oids. Time for The Q to get his groove thing on and spew forth the chewy nougat. Is this thing on? OK, here goes: ... ime to steamroll right into this month’s juiciest of rumors. Enter Xbox...publishers have __. been alerted that/hardware shipments in the first three months will be around 750,000 units, not the 1 million number being thrown around earlier. The number of games available on day one (and the exact starting lineup) is © constantly changing too. Instead of the PS2 mentality of last year (throwing as many titles as possible at the wall to see what sticks), a front tier will launch with the system; with a handful of additional titles hitting stores every week in November’s launch period.:. ...Word from deep inside The House of Bill indicates that there isn’t time to fix the problems with many.games (*cough* Azurik) © that were pushed ahead-for launch. The gold- rush mentality is apparently taking its toll on ! the development teams, who are now worried their products won't “be all they can be” come Nov. 8. The best-looking games may end up being Dead or Alive 3 and (if they make it) Sega’s titles.... An Xbox-enhanced DVD for Spielberg’s A./. that included the movie and a bunch of neat lil’ extras, which yours truly thought was fab to the max, was in the works but has been mysteriously yanked. At this | point, the release of the A.I. Xbox pate sid RRO EE TONITE NTT EL TOTNES SION TION Paging | Mr. Belmont When we previewed the import of Castlevania Chronicles (PS1) last month, we had suspicions Konami would release it Stateside. It seems our hunch was right. You can pick up the remake of the X68000 version in the U.S. in October. Also confirmed: a new Castlevania to follow up Circle of the Moon. EA Nabs LOTR Gold Electronic Arts is set to dance all over the grave of J.R.R. Tolkien. The company just signed a deal with New Line Cinema to develop multiple games based on the upcoming Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Bilbo Baggins B-Ball Mania anyone? ~~reportedly been -order to give the caliictane Cenifice (PSi) ~ also bein trouble. Let’s all be honest with each other, did the idea of an A.l. game make much sense? No...OK, don’t think it’s all bad news. We stitthave a few months to go, and just like the PS2 launch there is a handful of games tai mighty fine Malo, Munch.. .uh...yeah). ithe GBA version of Tekken that’s coming xite fall is gonna be rad. Based on the third -game and Tag Tournament, it’s\got pseudo- rendered visuals soit looks like\3D but isn’t, just like Tony Hawk. S’nicel... ToeJam & Earl HI, sequel to one of the — , | Series The Q loved on Genesis, has . pulled from Dreamcast in game life on other next-gen platforms.... Raven Blade, Retro Studios’ ambitious GameCube action-RPG, is a fresh victim of the axe. The remaining members of the development team were moved onto the troubled Metroid Prime project. Miyamoto is apparently still not'pleased with its progress; we could find out more about its fate come Space World in late August... ..and, I’m spent. Another month, another bundle o’ rumors. If you have something to say to The Q, drop me at line via e-mail at quartermann@ziffdavis.com. Until next time, : el -maniacs... er Yu-Gi-Oh h My! Every time you turn around, there’s another Japanese fad poised to possess Our young, and this time it’s Yu-Gi-Oh! Konami’s bringing the card battle GBC game to the States in November. But don’t worry—a TV show will hit Kids WB before then, as will trading cards and other merchandise. Yu-Gi-Oh! is the story of Yuugi, a spiky-haired brat who holds something called the “Millennium Puzzle.” Hide your children now and prepare for the “Yu-Gi-Oh is evil” stories. C C at istered trademark of KONAMI CORPORATION. i a tfademark of the interactive Digital Software Association. is'a‘reg ‘fhic- am s is na iyi? Wi if z * . He Ti pnts Ys h bits. fs; _ = a vy f _ te Y a \ Trad 7 ile i sore * 2 : : f mi 3 a i = : il é a Bas Ys Aid E ie ssaagpret= rE MDs has i " ff gf E suai ; S = zn j 7 pilin Pity i Paes | aga U i} q G phage? i, B:} ae a4 J E ee ats a Mae a, z! i i bi i ae winery mt iy ms sf J a ~ i s a Wey a " i sani fy 5 % 3 ; Vase 8 : i HT) ‘i iF i i rf rf x I" J a n aa . Poses . b . 2 i re ns oH , Tes mq :) 2 ‘ : His E a aes. vitt clea ; i! Hi na i f i i i, « = - ‘i ae ! farts ; ig st Ki 8 ii bi ear 2 “* Sal = ir: Mg (> i Arges Ts "2 «i Sas mi y 3 eg 3 > vi ¢ ales hs im pi itl Fail = = -) - wiry, 7 aysvesesnan OR gat Wo ¥ pHi i = Scheie Ne Wiig : 4 = . , Vf f . 3 Ris) ‘2 < < iff © at AH, HELLO, VIDEO GAMERS! I'M HSU TANAKA THAT'S MY BROTHER CHAN, WE ARE VIDEO GAME DESIGNERS, AND, DESPITE APPEARANCES, WE ARE ACTUALLY WORKING RIGHT Now! CAN'T SEE ME VERY WELL, CAN You, VIDEO GAMERS? \'M WEARING A STEALTH Suit, WHICH RENDERS ME NIGH-INVISIBLE THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THIS FIASCO WAS THE REAL- YLATION THAT, IF YOu wanTeD TO MAKE A PROFITABLE KNOCKOFF OF A TOP-SELLING, MEGA-HIT STEALTH-ACTION Game, YoU HAD To TWINK LIKE A ToP= SELLING, MEGA-HIT STEALTH- ACTION GAME CHARACTER! ARR I FEEL THE CALL TO ADVENTURE! ALL RIGHT, LAST- MINUTE creck! How's YouR EQUIPMENT? FUNCTIONAL, BUT THE DoctoR AS ' SHOULD DRINK MORE FLUIDS! Yes, WE KNOW HOW DOMB THAT SOUNDS, BUT WE HAD SOME EXTRA CASH IN THE BUDGET, $o We FIGURED WED TO THE NAKED ds EXE! ey, COMES IN REAL ANDY AROUND THE OFFICE! STEP ONE: INFILTRATE VESSEL. STeP Two: RECOVER CARGO. STEP THREE: EXIT VESSEL, WREAK HOLY HECK UPON THE MINIONS OF DARKNESS, TIME PERMITTING. ONE MORE TIME, CHAN -- REPEAT THE MISSION OBJECTIVES. GOOD SOLDIER! OKAY TIME To MOVE! THOSE ARE VERY POWERFOL : You FEELING OKAY? TRANQUILIZERS, CHAN! THEY CAN PUT A GROWN MAN TO SLEEP FasTER THAN WATCHING SOMEBODY ELSE PLAYING “TOMB RAIDER 3." pico, THEYRE NOT ESPECIALLY LEGAL, SO USE THEM ONLY AS A LAST RESORT! NO RECREATIONAL SHOOTING! yM COLD AND WET AND MY BOOTS ARE SQUISHY, GOOD ENOUGH! GO GET EM, SLUGCER! COPS! MY MISTAKE, OKAY, CHAN, FoR LACK OF “REMEMBER, CHAN! You WERE SUPPOSED To BE ON THE OTHER A BOAT, Gov SHALL NOW BE INFILTRATING THE SIMILARLY MAKITIME— THEMED STRONGHOLD STEALTH CHAN, YOURE IN move HERE-- LET NO ONE SEE YOU! THiS 15 COMPLICATE THINGS. IMPERATIVE ' “cagin BLY's SEAFOOD RESTALRANT.”’ "YOMGRY SAILOR" MEALS, AnD AN AMPLE SUPPLY oF \ THINK THERE'S Snes inte A FISH IN MY PANTS, GAMAnmMe A MINUTE., TWO "HUNGRY SAILOR" MEALS EXTRA KETCHUP! FOR THE FERN! DON'T ASK ANY -- wisyD CoT THat OvT, WOU LITTLE Poors! On, YES, 1 LEARNED THAT MAN'S DESTINY 16 HIS TO FULFILL... OR CHANGE, ANY THING we COULD Use, | MEAN. “WHAT WAS THAT SOUND? 15 EVERYTHING OKAY?” pa | SORRY 1'm LATE -- THERE WERE UNFORE- SEEN PERILS. HERE'S THE STUFF, EXCELLENT CHAN -- AND DID You LEARN JUST PANDY: ENTERING PHASE Two! \ LEARNED THAT A SOLDIER 15 A HERO ONLY AFTER THE BATTLE 1S DONE, AND THAT A BULLET KnIOowS NO ALLIES, 1 LEARNED THAT TRUE STRENGTH COMES FROM THE SOUL. DIDN'T SCE THAT comin DID You? oo! steauneny Gamer _ [amp and Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 for more info. MT. GARRICK, ONCE A PEACEFUL MOUNTAIN RETREAT. IN A STRANGE TURN OF EVENTS, THE SECRETIVE CHIEF O'LEARY HAS RECENTLY CLOSED IT OFF TO VISITORS. COMING THIS FALL... radical entertainment. ameeaynnermorapelarcieebabblaaplamaiapaaale g £ 3 z : ete ieee et eee Ce en -inpetretneatenion ens eap teenage Winbig. ose big. hat’s college football. ‘ith Re eeacReas <