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FALLOUT 3

No, this isn't the late great Black Isle Studios' triumphant return. In some ways, it's even better: proven next-gen RPG developer Bethesda and its crew of self-proclaimed Fallout nerds are finally ready to pull back the curtain on the rebirth of this storied franchise. We have the world- exclusive first look at the direction this post-apocalyptic, tongue-in-cheek, open-ended role-playing game is taking. We think that you'll be as excited as we are once you lay eyes on these luscious details and images.

departments

STAFF Read the team's latest favorites

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DEAR GI Your chance to fire back at us!

CONNECT Where news, talk, and technology collide

INTERVIEW We have an extra-large direct interview with Sony Computer Entertainment's president of worldwide studios, Phil Harrison. What more is there to say?

8 GAME INFORMER

GEAR Geeky gadget stuff for the masses

OPINION E. Daniel Arey, industry veteran and president and CEO of VisionArey Entertainment, talks about new control schemes and what they mean to gaming

CALENDAR Get hip to this month’s happenings

PREVIEWS Riddick is back! Get the good word on his move to next-gen systems, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Project Gotham Racing 4, and more in this month's preview section

ALTERNATE REALITY GAMES

A mixture of various media, ARGs have been gaining popularity. But what are these odd things, really? Are they websites with obtuse clues, or is there more to it? We answer all these questions and more in this in-depth look at the phenomenon.

CHANGING THE GAME We all love disaster movies like War of the Worlds and Aliens, but no one’s really

1 done right by this genre in the gaming space. The people behind Earth No More want to be the first to do so, and maybe change the way games are made while they're at it.

ROCK BAND The brilliant minds behind Guitar Hero's massive success are ready to talk about their next project: a co-op music game that lifts the genre to the next level. Developer Harmonix and its newfound alliance with MTV and Viacom me are the next larger-than-life 8 supergroup, and we have all the details inside.

REVIEWS Game of the Month: Odin Sphere for PlayStation 2

CHARTS Retail Sales Data and the СІ editors’ Top 10 Games

SECRET ACCESS Codes, strategies, and passwords

CLASSIC GI Reliving gaming's greatest moments

ONLINE See what's happening at Game Informer Online

GAME OVER The end...or is it?

GAME

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0 f Alcohol ©2007 Disney. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. зе о! Аюопо тм, ©, Nintendo 05, and the Wii logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 "Playstation", "PlayStation", "PLAYSTATION", Violence "PS" Family logo and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. PSP" system - Memory Stick 4 A E Duo™ may be required sold separately. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association i S ESRB CONTENT RATING — wwwesrb.org All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. STUDIOS

"PRICING/AVAILABILITY- Prices, speci ility and terms may change without noli Home Systems For hard drives, GB means 1

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People Who Actually Get Paid To Play Video Games

ROCK OPERA

ANDY McNAMARA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Like the rest of the world, | just can't stop playing Guitar Hero. It's so amazingly addictive. Not only can it draw a crowd at a party, but there is some- thing to be said for turning it up to obscene levels when you have the house all to yourself – striking the classic rock pose by propping your foot up on the nearest ottoman (or monitor, as | like to call it) and rocking out like you have never rocked out before. Of course, you must complete the package with head-banging, tongue-waggling, and classic metal hand gestures.

Like the artists whose music shot the game into super-stardom, the companies behind the magic are experiencing their own rock star tale. The game's developer, Harmonix, and the game's pub- lisher, Red Octane, have since split. Red Octane — along with the Guitar Hero name - has joined forces with Activision. Television giant MTV/Viacom went out and picked up the developer Harmonix. If this isn't a VH1 special in the making, | don't know what is.

Activision and Red Octane handed the reigns of Guitar Hero over to Neversoft, the developer best known for its massive hit Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. MTV and Harmonix teamed up to create a new property in Rock Band (see page 62 for our exclu- sive hands-on look).

All these developments just beg the question: are we experiencing the classic rock break-up where the lead singer and the band break up, and neither are ever the same again? Or will this split create two new supergroups that give gamers even more ways to rock their socks off?

We will know the answer to all these ques- tions and more (I've always wanted to say that) once these two games battle it out later this year in a classic East Coast (Harmonix) vs. West Coast (Neversoft) showdown. Let's just hope we don't lose talent like Biggie and Tupac in the process.

Andy >> andy@gameinformer.com

Handle: The Game Hombre Expertise: RPGs, Action/Platform, Driving, First-Person Shooters Interests: Dreaming Of The New Guitar Hero And Rock Band Songs, The Police Reunion Tour (Now If | Could Get The Archers Of Loaf To Reunite), Samsung's Blackjack, Muse Dislikes: The Passing Of Kurt Vonnegut (He Was One Of My Favorite Writers Ever And The World Is Worse Off Without Him), The Ending Of Heroes, Blizzard's Relentless Quest To Make Shaman The Most Worthless Class In The Game (So Say-eth The Enhancement Shaman Who Wants Equal Footing In PVP) Current Favorite Games: World Of Warcraft, Call Of Duty 4, Pokémon Diamond, Guitar Hero Il On Xbox 360

12 САМЕ INFORMER

Reiner >> reiner@gameintormercom

Handle: The Raging Gamer Expertise: RPGs, Action, First Person Shooters, Strategy, Sports, Fighting Interests: Breaking 30K Gamerscore Deep Storm By Lincoln Child, Pursuing A Pilot's License (Thank You For Flying Air Reiner), Ladder Golf (A Game So Good That It's Gotten Me Outside For The First Time In 15 Years), My Wife Getting Addicted To Guitar Hero Dislikes: Publishers Still Shunning Summer For Game Releases (Hello! People Buy Games Year-Round!), The Undenwhelming Graphics In The Halo 3 Beta Current Favorite Games: Grand Theft Auto М, Forza Motorsport 2, Spider-Man 3, Earth Defense Force 2017, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

Matt >> matt&gameinformer.com

Handle: The Original Gamer Expertise: First-Person Shooters, Action/Platform, Action/ Adventure, Action/Sports Interests: Going To Seoul, Korea, Nintendo DS (| Probably Would Have Hanged Myself In The Plane Bathroom Without It), Summertime, Joni Mitchell, The Tourmaline By Paul Park, Korean BBQ Dislikes: 15-Hour Flights, Storms, Sitting Next

To Crazy Militia Members On Planes, Staying Awake For 30+ Hours In A Row Current Favorite Games: Tetris DS, Brain Age: Train Your Brain In Minutes A Day, New Super Mario Bros., Hot Shots Tennis

Kato >> kato@gameinformer.com

Handle: The Game Katana Expertise: Sports, Racing, Action/Adventure, Action/Platform Interests: The Alec Baldwin School Of Parenting (Tell It Like It Is, My Man!), Hamentashins, Lesbian Wednesdays - The Original Title Of Arctic Monkey's Favorite Worst Nightmare, Amy Winehouse, Paris Hilton Going To Jail (She Could Use A Good Shiv) Dislikes: Braun Shavers (Where's The German Engineering?), Maroon 5 (First They Sound Like Super- tramp, Now Disco. What's Next? Bread?) Current Favorite Games: Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, NCAA Football 08, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Pain, TimeShift, Fallout 3

Adam >> adam@gameinformer.com

Handle: The Alpha Gamer Expertise: RPGs, Strategy, First-Person Shooters, Fighting Interests: iPods That Actually Work, Running A Raid That Actually Downs Bosses (No Scrubs Allowed Here!), Seeing How Far | Can Push Joe, When MMO Community Managers Tell The Trolls To Shove It Dislikes: Wiping On Maiden (Seriously, Healers, Wake Up), Looking Up Hopelessly From Fourth Place (C'mon, Twinkies!), Subwoofers, Crappy Teamspeak Codecs Current Favorite Games: The Lord Of The Rings Online: Shadows Of Angmar, World Of Warcraft, Catan, Deus Ex, Diablo II, StarCraft 11 (World Of StarCraft? As If)

Ј0е >> joeGgameinformer.com

Handle: The Real American Gamer Expertise: RPGs, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle Interests: The StarCraft ll Announcement (My Life For Aiur!), Romantic Zombedies, Getting The 24 Monkey Off My Back, Veronica Mars’ Cancellation (Take That, Everyone Who Recommended It To Ме) Dislikes: Cleveland Spielbergs, No More Gilmore Girls (So What If | Watched? Wanna Fight About 12), The "Fight" Between Peter And Sylar (| Waited All Season For That?) Current Favorite Games: Odin Sphere, The Lord Of The Rings Online: Shadows Of Angmar, Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic Il: The Sith Lords, God Of War: Chains Of Olympus

Miller >> mileragameinformercom

Handle: The Once And Future Gamer Expertise: RPGs, Action/Adventure, Platform, First- Person Shooters, Music, Puzzle Interests: Jim And Pam's First Date, The Rock Band Drums (Once You Start Down The Drum Path, Forever Will It Dominate Your Destiny), The Newly Beefed Up Assault Rifle Dislikes: Long Waits For TV On DVD From This Season, How Similar All The Airports Begin To Look After Awhile, The Insidious Parasitic Alien Force In My Backyard That Masquerades As Common Ferns Current Favorite Games: Fallout 5, Rock Band, Halo 5, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords

Bertz >> mattbertzagameintormer.com

Handle: Lord Gamington 1 Expertise: First-Person Shooters, Sports, Action, RPGs, Strategy Interests: Adrian Peterson: Newest Minnesota Viking, Randy Moss Shunning Green Bay (Suck It, Cheeseheads!), 1st Annual Game Informer Paintball Competition (Primary Target: Ben), Miller Vs. Amy McNamara: Eat-Off 2007 Dislikes: Halo 3 Graphics (Come On, Microsoft, 175 Your Flagship Title!), Ben's Brick Tamland Impressions, Having Comcast Yet Still Not Receiving NFL Network (It's Craptastic!), Mass Effect Delay Current Favorite Games: Guitar Hero II, GRAW 2, Rainbow Six Vegas, NCAA Football 08

Ben >> ben@gameinformer.com

Handle: Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamer Expertise: Action/Adventure, Action/RPGs, Platform, Survival Horror, First-Person Shooters Interests: Chocolate Fountains, Writing Deadpool (l'm Serious, It Would Be Great), Asking People "So You're Still Fighting This Guy?" Dislikes: Andrew J. Baker For Rubbing It In, Readers Featuring Me In Their Write In Captions Last Month, The Thomas Jane Incident (1 Asked One Question!), Being Hassled About All My Good Questions Current Favorite Games: Final Fantasy XII, Spider-Man 3, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Rock Band, The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

Bryan >> bryan@gameinformer.com

Handle: The Gamer's Advocate Expertise: Action/Adventure, RPGs, Survival Horror, First- Person Shooters, Rhythm Interests: Frank Miller's Will Eisner’s The Spirit, Getting My Hands On Rock Band (Damn You, Limits Of Time And Space), Nick’s New Middle Name: “Balls On Ice,” Defeating Ben (Of Course Thomas Jane Was In The Punisher Before Arrested Development!) Dislikes: The Phrase "Does That Make Sense?", Miller's Cheap Bat Tactics At The End Of Double Dragon Current Favorite Games: Rock Band, The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Beautiful Katamari

GAMEINFORMER,

JULY 2007 Volume XVII • Number 7 * Issue 171

PUBLISHER

Cathy Preston EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Andrew McNamara EDITORS

Executive Editor Andrew Reiner Senior Editor Matt Helgeson Senior Associate Editor Matthew Kato Associate Editors Adam Biessener Joe Juba • Matt Miller Ben Reeves • Bryan Моге Content Manager Matt Bertz Mascot Arthur

PRODUCTION ‘Art Director Thomas Blustin Production Director Curtis Fung Production Assistant Rachel Nimerfroh CONTRIBUTORS Photographer Ness Sherry

GAME INFORMER ONLINE Managing Online Editor Billy Berghammer Online Production Assistant Nick Ahrens

Associate Online Editor Jeff Cork

ADVERTISING SALES

MINNEAPOLIS Rob Borm Associate Publisher (612) 486.6155 • Fax: (612) 486-6101 rob@gameinformer.com WEST COAST Damon Watson West Coast Advertising Director (810) 450-3260 • Fax: (310) 450-3571 damon@gameinformer.com EAST COAST Suzanne Lang East Coast Advertising Sales Director (718) 8325575 • Fax: (718) 8325569 suzanne@gameinformer.com MINNEAPOLIS Ату Ато!

Advertising Coordinator and Online Sales (612) 486-6154 * Fax: (612) 486-6101 amyGgameinformer.com Matt Edgar Advertising Assistant (612) 4866152 * Fax: (612) 4866101 mattedgar@gameinformer.com

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Manufactured and printed in the United States of America The Editor welcomes company product infomation for all video games. Such materials shouid bo addressed o Editor, Game Informer Magazine, 724 Noth First St, 4 Floor, Minneapols, MN 55401. Unsolicited manusoripts cannot be retumed or acknowledged. Entire contents copyright 2004. Game Informer Magazine. AI rights reserved; reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Game Informer is a trademark of GameStop, Inc. Products named in these pages are trade names, or trademarks, of her respective companies, PUBLISHER LIABILITY FOR ERROR The publisher shall no be fale for sight changes ог typographical errors that do not lessen the value ot an advertisement. The publisher's bit for other errors or omissions in connection wih an advertisement is ited lo republication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue or the elund of any monies pad for the advertisement. INDEMNIFICATION. The advertiser andor Advertising Agency agrees to defend and indemnity the publsher against any and al abi, loss, or expense arising rom dims o el, unfair competiton, unfair rade practices, infringement of trademarks, copyrights, trade names, patents, or proprietary rights or violation o rights of privacy, resulting from the publication of the Advertisers statement.

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IN ANY DTHER BAME, THIS MIGHT ACTUALLY HELP YOU.

When death can come from anywhere, it can make even the mast unflappable near-future warrior a little jumpy. In Shadowrun, good brains matter as much as good aim as you ditch the usual run n gun to outwit and gutgun your enemies. You're a deadly combination of firepower and mystic powers as you tele- port, see through walls, and even turn to smoke to put the bad guys

in a state of permanent relaxation

The bad news? Your enemies can

too. Better keep your eyes open

ee SHADOWRUN +

MATURE 17+

Intense Violence = ^ Microsoft

ESRB CONTENT RATING wwwesthoy| УЗ т? (2 fasastudia]

€ for Windows

Candid Photos From The Seedy Underbelly Of The Video Game Industry

1 Adam gets that crazy look in his eye whenever Flagship's Bill Roper and EA's Andrew Wong come to town 2 Jon Heder takes some time off from play- ing Napoleon Dynamite in every movie he's ever made to get some free stuff

at a Halo 3 party in Hollywood 3 When Bryan and Billy whipped out the GI Spy cam, somehow Ubisoft's entire PR team appeared out of the woodwork 4 Kato and Miller join EA's Brooke Cahalane, Tyrone Miller, and Abby Topolsky for

a breathtaking view of the local ware- houses 5 Miller teaches Harmonix's Mike Dornbrock, Alex Rigopulos, Daniel Sussman, Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom,

and Helen McWilliams about the cen- terpiece of every rock wardrobe: the polo shirt 6 Kato learns a new secret handshake from Colin Bennett, a gamer who scored access to Sony's San Diego event 7 Reiner hangs with THQ's Craig Mitchell, Dave Adams, and comic book legend Joe Madureira 8 Everyone knows that Joe gets to keep the hands of those unfortunate enough to wander into his lair. We guess Ubisoft's Adrian Lacey didn't get the memo

"T

14 GAME INFORMER

Mild Lyrics

Mild Suggestive Themes |

CONTENT RATED BY

ESRB 2/2007 Plato. All Rights Reserved, on "Sing & Play DS Guitar M-06," of Ubisoft Entertainment in the

COMING armate

The Readers Strike Back

It's not very important to me. However, it does make the expe- rience a іше better, but | could live without it. It's all about the experience of the game for те. Wii, Master.

but they'd totally benefit from it. SvenHudson

While I like icons like Mario and Sonic as much as the next guy, 1 find that ат nowhere near as connected to а predefined character as | am to one that | created. But if you are going to have a character editor, do it right or not at all. We need tons

Do you want to make your voice heard? Weigh in with your opinion at www gameinformer.com/forums.

16 GAME INFORMER

AMMUNITION IN 15 YEARS

1 love your magazine! This is my son, Blade. He's two years old, and he

loves your magazine, too!

Jesse Nunez

Via Email

Okay, everybody at once: "Awwwww!" What a sharp kid! Even if he can't read, he still knows how to assume the standard maga- zine-reading position.

A LITTLE EARLY

| just wanted to preemp- tively email you about your score for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. I'll be mad if this game gets a good score. | bought it several days ago, and it's essentially a rip-off of WoW.

David Hickenbottom

Via yahoo.com

Huh. Every month we get letters from readers who disagree with our scores, but this is the first time anyone has complained without even knowing what the game got. We're kind of at a loss for words. Wait, no we're not! We've got lots of words in the (quite positive) review on page 105. Check it out and see why we disagree with David.

GROW SOME FOOTBALLS

After reading your article on All-Pro Football 2K8, | realized something that has been wrong with Madden games. Even though EA Sports has the NFL license, they are limited to what they can do. You mentioned restrictions like toned-down injuries and the removal of trash talking. Rather than actually playing football, we've been play- ing a watered-down, family-friendly version. It's like we're watching Scarface, but it's been edited for the Disney Channel. This is the main rea- son | think that All-Pro Football 2K8 will smash Madden; it's recapturing the essence of what

it means to play football, even if all the names aren't familiar.

Romell Meeks Chicago, IL

We're glad you're looking forward to 2K's new game, but predicting its dominance over longtime leader Madden is a bit premature. Remember that not everyone is playing for the sheer love of the game. A large portion of gamers enjoy guiding their favorite team - with an accurate roster - to the Super Bowl. Even though 2K8 is missing that aspect, its stable of legendary players could make up lost ground. Hopefully it's enough to recap- ture a fan base after the series' hiatus. For a more in-depth look at the game, turn to our preview on page 82.

NETHACK > .HACK

| was pleased to see your Mod World article plugging Nethack in a recent issue. It always pains me when younger gamers haven't even heard of this classic. I've been playing off and on for 15 years, and | have yet to ascend (win). While I'm sure this says something about my skills, a single game that can remain entertaining for the span of several console generations is worthy of attention. Hack on!

It's true that Nethack is one of the classic dungeon crawlers. Even more impressive than the fact that people are still playing the original is that the core design concepts are still being used - even recent DS games like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon and Izuna The Unemployed Ninja. In those cases, the problem is that the gameplay is a little less charming when it's a blatant copy of a 20- year-old ASCII game. If games are going to copy from Roguelikes (the general term for this kind of dungeon crawler), why can't they follow Nethack's example and imple- ment character classes like Archaeologist, Caveman, and Tourist? Bulbasaur just doesn't cut it.

GOING INTO SHAAK -

In your Star Wars: The Force Unleashed article, you guys said that Shaak Ti is one of your

Syndney Ashcraft Via email

UNSURPRISING RESPONSE

| really want to put my two cents in about what Anthony Jacobs said in issue 170 about women being less capable gamers than men. Generalizing all girl gamers based on only his girlfriend is not only idiotic, but plain ignorant. |, being a female gamer, love games no matter how complex the controller setup. Just because his girlfriend can't deal with more than three buttons doesn't mean that other girls can't. Since she's with him, though, she might not be too bright.

Becca Dobbs Via hotmail

Dear Mr. Jacobs: My male friends will not play against me unless | am drunk; it is the only chance they have of fragging me. Maybe you should try that every once in a while. It sounds like you desperately need to be fragged. “Typhoid Erin" via yahoo.com

| am a 27-year-old female who is - and has been for decades now — an avid gamer. Morrowind, Grand Theft Auto, Soul Calibur, Mortal Kombat, Castlevania, Legend of Zelda, and all my other favorite games...imagine my surprise when | learned | was incapable of play- ing them! Thank you, Mr. Anthony Jacob Jr., for showing me the error of my gaming ways. Also, thanks for the laugh. Christin Reid Via gmail.com

| am a girl, and I've been gaming ever since | was five. So | would like to say a few things in response to Anthony Jacobs: Yes, | am a girl (in case you missed that part). Yes, | do play video games. Yes, l'm probably better than you. Veronica Eckl Via gmail.com

enemies in the game. | hate to break it to you,

but if you watch the deleted scenes for Episode Ш, then you'll know that General Grievous kills Shaak Ti. Someone at LucasArts needs to do their research. lan Schlueter Via aol.com

Good point, lan. A quick glance at Starwars.com gives the current official story behind Shaak Ti's fate: “She was in the Jedi Temple the night that Darth Vader descended upon the sanctuary with a phalanx of clone troopers...Shaak Ti was believed to be killed in the onslaught.” It seems that since the scene depicting Shaak Ti's death never made it into the final cut of the movie, it isn’t consid- ered canon. In other words, it never happened. Why anyone would cut that awesome scene from a movie and leave the “1 love you" “No, I love you!” exchange in is beyond any of us.

Send your comments to Game Informer. Snail Mail: Game Informer Magazine е Attn: Dear Gl е 724 North First St., 4th Floor е Minneapolis, MN 55401 Email: deargi@gameinformer.com

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In the words of Scott Bakula т Quantum Leap: "Oh, boy!" The sheer volume of female gamers who wrote in to express their shock and disbelief at Mr. Jacobs' comments was overwhelming. The letters systematically and hilariously tore the argument apart so well, we're starting to think that we should print something ignorant and inflammatory in every issue. Did you know that elephants are 10 times smarter than the average teenager?

GRAND THEFT ALIENS

Randy Pitchford, with his we're all just stealing from Aliens" comment, summed up what | sus- pected all along: The vast majority of developers, Enter the Game Informer

ч s к: Reader Art Contest. All you especially American developers, lack any real peed ta d5 ШЕМ рай,

creative vision. It shouldn't be that hard to come scratch, spit, or carve the best up with themes or ideas that are different and darn art you can think of and original. Maybe, if these companies start employ- send it to ү pienso без ing people who have artistic ambitions instead of TA Rd tf youre focusing all their efforts on physics and dull real- the monthly winner, we'll ism, we wouldn't have a glut of games we've seen feature your work іп СІ and

you'll receive a video game prize from the Game Informer Erin Hoffman vault. All entries become the

too many times before

St. Paul, MN property of Game Informer and can't be retumed. We're going to let you in on a little secret: Send to: Media is influenced by other media. This Game Informer sharing of ideas helps to refine them and Reader Art Contest move them forward, both as entertainment 720189 г and as art. Some elements of popular games Mpls, MN 55401

may be familiar, but it is unfair to accuse developers of lacking vision. Perhaps there are certain mechanics you've seen before, but if you can't see that every game has something that makes it unique, then you just aren't looking hard enough. Oh, and before you generalize about American devel- opers, remember that for every Okami or Shadow of the Colossus, there's a handful of Dynasty Warriors and Tales Of games.

LEFT BEHIND

| own an Xbox and a PlayStation 2, but l've been searching game stores recently only to find a lack of new releases for these systems. Why aren't developers coming out with more Xbox and PS2 games? I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan, and | was incredibly disappointed to find out Final Fantasy XIII will only be on the PS3. I'm starting to feel like all developers care about is making games for the newer consoles, leaving their last-gen sup-

IZZAT AL-JUMAIE ; MICHELLE FRASER PAUL ANDLER

porters behind. This would be a great postcard. Even the less glamorous parts of video You know who's way cooler than Leah Houser "Greetings from a destroyed wasteland!” games deserve some art! Zelda? Sheik. That guy could totally New Brighton, PA beat Zelda in a fight!

Welcome to last-gen. Population: You. Most developers actually are focused pri- marily on games for newer consoles. As the next-gen hardware from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo gains momentum, you can expect to see support for the old models drop off entirely. The GameCube and Xbox are already effectively dead, and while the PS2 is currently supported by a few solid new games (like God of War ІІ and Odin Sphere), it won't be long until we don't even see ports of crappy licensed games on these consoles. Don't feel bad - it happens with every generational transition. Unfortunately, CALEB UPAH

if history holds true, the only solution to DaVinc's long- PATRICK TOSA your problem is to save up and get with the lost "Bounty Wait a second...isn't times...or just play PS2 and Xbox games for Hüte dto bi the rest of your life. PETKO, Ryu supposed to ве Space” the good guy?

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tarCraft is big everywhere, but in South Korea it's a national obsession. S Professional gamers who are good at the game are treated like idols.

So when Blizzard held the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2007 tourna- ment in South Korea — an event so big it was held in the Olypmic Gymnastic Stadium and even included concerts by pop acts — Game Informer was there

to see the festivities and catch the unveiling of StarCraft II

Blizzard showed off a trailer for the game and talked at length about its philosophy. StarCraft Il will contain the franchise's three factions: Terran, Zerg, and Protoss. The single-player story takes place four years after the Brood War expansion pack, and all of the factions’ main characters will be included, with Blizzard saying that the mysterious Xel'Naga race will be key to the plot.

Rob Pardo, vice president of game design, says that large-scale battles with

BLIZZAR D D ISH ES RTS D TAI 1$ mass armies will Бе the focus of StarCraft Il, so there will be no hero units

or selection limit. These battles will feature as many as 300 units onscreen

20 GAME INFORMER

= Sik * die | 2-2. connect

EAPONS ОҒ WAR

E Protoss Immortal tank units possess a strong

force shield that only ctivates when hit by

ie № Protoss Colussus units sweep out these ground forces with ease

Blizzard says that it is evaluating all the units from the original StarCraft, and has yet to determine which ones will be brought for-

ward into the sequel. Some will even be changed. For example, the old Protoss Zealot unit is returning, but it now has the ability to charge across the map and quickly close distances between its foes. Here's a brief selec- tion of just some of the new units that Blizzard unveiled at the event. The company says that it doesn’t just want to create new units and copy them across each faction; instead, it

%

lie

№ When Zerglings attack

sible with more tech tree options available early on. In a demo of the game, Blizzard talked about the title's countering 1 using some of StarCraft 115 new units (see sidebar for more), and the company says that terrain bonu are being modified so that units not only get an attack bump for attacks from higher ground, but they will also be shielded by the maps' fog of war.

The most telling element of the presentation was close StarCraft 11 stays to its predecessor. From the many returning units to the onscreen UI itself, this is one apple that doesn't fall far from the tree. This is unsurprising given the decade-long popularity and competitive scene sur- rounding the original, but the exte à

Blizzard says that the beta program, as the company has don its other games, will be closed to the public and invitation only. As for StarCraft's final

e date, the company is — of course — leaving that up in the air.

wants to keep abilities distinct.

PROTOSS

Blizzard's event showed off more new Protoss units than for any of the other factions, and what they showed was pretty impressive.

Stalker

This ground unit can attack air and ground units and also warp across short distances to locations within its line of sight.

Phoenix

Befitting its name, the Phoenix is a fast airborne scout/combat unit. It has the unique overload attack that fires on all nearby foes. However, this renders the unit temporarily helpless afterward, making the timing on these overload attacks key.

Colossus

This tall, spider-like unit has giant legs that enable it to move over other units and terrain features. It also has a powerful sweep beam designed for talking out large swaths of weaker ground units.