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Maximum violence. Matrix-style 

2 i 


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MEDIUM LEVEL 
ANIMATED VIOLENCE & 
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MUSIC COMPOSER 


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€> CAPCOM CO., LTD 2001 © CAPCOM U.S.A. 2001 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CAPCOM and the CAPCOM LOGO are registered trademarks ot CAPCOM CO. LTD. ONIMUSHA is a registered trademark of CAPCOM CO.. LTD. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED M, and “PlayStation" are registered trademarks ol Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. 









CAPCOM 


COMING TO a PlayStation^ NEAR YOU 

CAPCOM WWW.CAPCOM-EUROPE.COM 

Available now at 








4 »HYPER 




64 Game Boy 
:::: Advance 
= Reviews 

Bomberman Tournament 
explodes onto the GBA! 




Baldur's Gate: 
= Dark Alliance 


The PlayStation 2 gets equipped 
for a brand new adventure... 

























!*V ; Our Game of the Month will 
you away... with two barrels! 



Digimon World 


06 EDITORIAL 
08 NEWS 

The latest on GameCube and Xbox. 

14 EYE CANDY 
16HIDEO KOJIMA 

"I don't really feel like a star...” 

20 IN SIGHT 

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and more! 

36 NET TRAWLIN' 

Aliens Versus Predator 2 

40 WIN WIN WIN 


REVIEW 

INDEX 

PC 

Max Payne 

Anachronox 

Arcanum 

The Moon Project 

Baldur’s Cate: Throne Of Bhaal 

PS2 

54 NBA Street 
Extreme-G 3 



72 Win 


= PS2! 


Just subscribe 


to our brilliant 
magazine to 
go in the 
draw for this 
sweet prize! 


Onimusha Warlords for PS2 and CBA 
games. 

42 REVIEWS 

63 READER REVIEW 

64 GAME BOY ADVANCE 

66 REVERSE ENGINEERING 

Feeling "Keen” for some retro gaming? 

68 HYPERVISION 
72 SUBSCRIPTIONS 

74 READER ART GALLERY 

Our Alone In The Dark winners shine. 

76 HYPER FORUM 

If Hyper Changed One Thing About The 
Magazine... 

78 MAIL 



57 UEFA Challenge 

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy 

PSONE 

Atlantis: The Lost Empire 
Digimon World 
World’s Scariest Police Chases 
Spec Ops: Covert Assault 

NINTENDO 64 

Mario Party 3 

The Return Of Bowser’s Lunch 

GAME BOY ADVANCE 

Bomberman Tournament 
Earthworm jim 

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure 
S5 Pinobee: Wings of Adventure 






















6 »HYPER 



ISSUE 

96 

OCTOBER 

2001 


WRITE TO HYPER! 

78 Renwick St, Redfern 

NSW 2016, Australia 

Ph: (02) 9699 0333 

Fax: (02) 9310 1315 

E-mail: freakscene@next.com.au 



EDITORIAL 

Editor: Eliot Fish 
Deputy Editor: Cam Shea 
Art Director: Malcolm Campbell 
Publisher: Stuart Clarke 


ADVERTISING 

Group Advertising Manager: 

Simon White 

E-mail: simon@next.com.au 
Ph: (02) 9699 0346 

Advertising Manager: Matthew Warren 

E-mail: matthew@next.com.au 

Ph: (02) 9699 0349 

Production Co-ordinator: Emma Beck 

E-mail: emma@next.com.au 

Ph: (02) 9699 0300 

Fax: (02) 9310 2012 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 

For all enquiries phone: 1300 36 11 46 
E-mail: subs@next.com.au 
Fax: (02) 9699 0334 

MANAGEMENT 

Chief Executive: Phillip Keir 
Finance Director: Theo Fatseas 
Operations Manager: Melissa Doyle 
Circulation Executive: Karen Day 
General Manager Online: Leonard Howell 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Contributors: Kevin Cheung, Dan Toose, 
James Cottee, Tim Levy, George Soropos, 
Steve Polak, Victoria Flanagan, Derek dela 
Fuente, Theodore the Shambler and the 
departure of the Wild Goose. 


Printed CTP by: PMP Print 
Distribution by: Gordon & Gotch 
Customer Service Ph: 1300 65 0666 
Fax: 1300 65 0777 

All copyrights reserved by 
Next Publishing Ply Ltd 
ACN 002 647 645 
ISSN 1320-7458 


HYPE IT UP 





V 








Role Playing Games - this month we're swamped by 
them! Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Anachronox, 
Arcanum, Throne of Bhaal... and at a stretch, Gauntlet: 
Dark Legacy! There are also a whole swag of really 
promising RPGs on the production line - Elder Scrolls 
III: Morrowind, Pools of Radiance, Knights of the Old 
Republic, Neverwinter Nights... yes, the list goes on. 
And that's not even including the Massively 
Multiplayer ones. Hell, that's not even 
including the console RPGs on the 
way! The next few years are going 
to be great for gaming, there's no 
question about that. But they are 
going to be especially good for those 
of us who love to completely immerse 
themselves in the complex layers of 
a decent Role Playing Game. 

Of course, if you'd prefer to shoot 
at something rather than talk to 
it, you might be turning straight 
to our Game of the Month this 
issue, Max Payne. Pain to the 
max. The only game that lets 
you leap down a flight of 
stairs in full dramatic slow- 
motion, with double pistols blazing John 
Woo style. It's corny, it's gratuitous, it'll 
have conservative leaders calling for the 
mass burning of all video games, and 
it's hella fun. 

Personally, I think it's the Role Playing 
Games that concerned parents should be 
more worried about. I mean, do they 
realise their kids are living a virtual life 
dressed in chainmail underpants and 
cavorting with short, bearded men? 

Be afraid. 






















YET TO BE 
CLASSIFIED 


COMING 26 Dct 

WWW.RDCKSTARGAMES.CDM/GRANDTHEFTAUTa3 


PlayStation 2 



TAKE2 


‘PtayStation* and the 'PS' Family logo are registered trademarks ot Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings Icon is a trademark ot the Interactive Digital Software Association 0WA design and the 
DMA Oesign logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. Rcckstar Games and the Rockstar Games logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc © 2001 All rights reserved 
Note: Rockstar will he following IDSA guidelines for M rated games in the marketing of this game. 

This game contains violent language and behavior and mav not be approjnate for persons under the age of 17. It is a comic interpretation of gangster activity and the story, names and incidents portrayed 
herein are fictitious. No identitlcation or similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is intended or should be inferred Any resemblance is coincidental. The makers and publishers of this 

videogame do not in any way endorse, condone or encourage this kind of behavior 


GEZ3 














I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 







IN THE NEWS 

• XBOX & GCN launch 
details 

• GBA Doom, Spyro 
and... Tekken! 

• Warcraft III delayed 

• The return of TRON 



Nintendo's 
GameCube will 
kick arse. The 
Japanese units are 
only weeks away! 


Xbox will also kick 
arse! Oh geez, it's 
a tough decision... 
get them both if 
you can! 


Xbox & GameCube attack! 

As the launches get close, the rumours heat up 


The big N forecast that they just 
might ship a whopping four million 
GameCubes by March 2002 


intendo have confirmed that 
the GameCube will only be 
available in the colour 
purple at the japanese launch on 
September 14. Okay, now that we’ve 
got that out of the way... let’s talk 
numbers! Nintendo of Japan plan on 
having 500,000 GameCubes 
available on launch day, with 
900,000 units rolling out over the 
rest of the year. In the USA, 

Nintendo plan on having 1.1 million 
GameCubes in stock from the month 
of November — not necessarily all 
available on day one of their US 
launch on November 5th. The big N 
forecast that they just might ship a 
whopping 4 million GameCubes by 
March 2002 - and that’s before it’s 
released in PAL territories. 

Oh, and by the way, if you want a 


japanese GameCube in any colour 
other than purple, you’ll have to 
wait. Yes, there will still be other 
colours, but Nintendo want to 
slowly filter them through sometime 
after the initial launch. 

Meanwhile, Matsushita have 
announced plans on releasing their 
DVD player/GameCube hybrid 
machine sometime in 2002 or 2003 
in the USA, which could mean a long 
wait for an eventual Aussie release, 
if we get it here at all. Naturally, it 
will be quite an expensive machine, 
but it’s gotta be one of the sexiest 


pieces of hardware we’ve seen in a 
long while. 

X MARKS THE SPOT 

Meanwhile, in Bill’s backyard, 
Microsoft have repeatedly stated 
that the Xbox will not slip from its 
November 8th US launch date, 
regardless of the GameCube launch 
only 3 days before it. Microsoft are 
so confident, that they plan on 
having 800,000 Xbox consoles 
available on day one. 

Recent Xbox news also confirms 
that final tweaking on the controller 


has been finalised, and that 
Microsoft are now hard at work on 
some expensive TV commercials 
(that will no doubt do their best to 
shed that corporate image and make 
Microsoft look "cool”). 

There’s even a nasty rumour that 
Microsoft are planning on playing 
hardball with Nintendo and 
launching their Xbox console on 
November 1st — a full week ahead of 
schedule - to get the jump on the 
Nintendo GameCube! As far as we 
see it, chances are this will turn out 
to be false - the result of pure 
rumour mongering. But as we get 
closer to the US launch for both new 
consoles, the media blitz is going to 
be absolutely sensational. Prepare 
to have your socks blown well off. it 
won’t be long now... 
































































Doesn't 1 
look much 
better on 
my PIII-733 


* 


■ * - 


METAL CUBE SOLID? 

H ideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, has recently 
been quoted as saying ”1 personally have high hopes for the 
GameCube. I would like to make a game for GameCube.” 

This was in retaliation to certain US publications that quoted him 
(actually, he was most probably misinterpreted) as saying the Nintendo 
GameCube was for kids and immature people. So, does Kojima’s new 
enthusiasm for the GameCube mean we’ll see Metal Gear Solid 2 on 
Nintendo’s next console? Well, not exactly. Konami, the publisher who 
handles the Metal Gear Solid license, have not announced any new Nintendo 
GameCube software yet, and Kojima did make a point of saying ’personally’ 
in regard to his hopes for GameCube. However, it could simply be that 
Konami don’t want to announce it at this point in time. There could be 
something in the pipeline, but we shouldn’t pin any hopes on it happening. 

In other GameCube software news, the cool-looking Action/RPG from 
Retro studios, Raven Blade, has been cancelled. Some staff have been 
layed off, and the remaining members of the Raven Blade team have been 
ved onto Metroid Prime. Raven Blade was actually looking pretty good, 
this is certainly disappointing news. However, the bright side of the 
ory is that more person-power has been put into making sure Metroid 
rime is a killer release. So you gotta be happy about that. 

Stay tuned for some great Nintendo GameCube news next issue once the 
f dust settles from Nintendo’s very special Space World show in Japan. Oh, 
and when you receive your next issue of Hyper, the Nintendo GameCube 
will have been released in Japan! Just think! We’ll be grabbing one of those 
babies and giving it a thorough work out. Ahh, the trials of games 
journalisism. Heh heh heh. 


O d Software’s First Person Shooter classic. Doom, has found its way 
to Nintendo’s pocket wonder, the Game Boy Advance. Doom, 
which was released in 1993, changed the face of PC gaming, and 
now you can carry it around in your top pocket... freaky, eh? 

Doom may be known as a classic, but unfortunately the marketers still 
needed to try and explain the game on the box as ”On-the-go intense 3D 
action”. We’ve never heard of a shooter being termed "on-the-go" before, 
but whatever. The good thing is, by the looks of these screenshots, Doom 
for GBA is going to be astoundingly faithful to the original. Pixelated imps! 
Exactly how the original Doom looked when it was released. We can all look 
forward to blasting away Cyberdemons "on-the-go” sometime in October. 

In other GBA news, the once Sony-only mascot, Spyro the Dragon, is 
set to appear in his first Nintendo game. Entitled, Spyro: Season of Ice. 
the game uses an isometric 3D view for the platforming, and third- 
person 3D flying sections for some aerial dragon fighting. 

Oh, and what was that? GBA •cough’ TEKKEN ’cough’? Yep. 



cnPTinn this! 

Our monthly Caption This competition has made it to 23! Send all entries to 
captionthisa>next.com.au. You must write CAPTION THIS PART 23 in the subject 
line, or else your caption may go unnoticed. Come on, folks. You still haven’t 
made us belly laugh yet. And we really, really, need a good laugh. Please. 


□ 

m 

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m 



<0 


I 

I 

I 



Come on, send in something funny! 




















OVERFLOW 






WINNERS 
HYPER » 94 

EMPEROR: BATTLE 
FOR DUNE 

1. Lineman, VIC 

2. G. Harvey, NSW 

3. J. Gray. QOLD 


Don't 


ick up 


the 


soap 


CAN YOU 
SMELL WHAT 
THQ IS 
COOKING? 

Oncoming to the PS2 just in time 
vv for Christmas this year will be 
WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It!, the 
third game in the Smackdown 
series. The game is being developed 
by the Japanese team, Yuke’s, along 
with WWF: Raw is War for the Xbox (look out for an inside 
look at this game in the next issue of Hyper). Yuke’s are the 
developers responsible for Sword of the Beserk and Royal 
Rumble on Dreamcast and 
the original Smackdown 
games for PlayStation, so 
they’ve had plenty of 
experience with fighting 
games. Smackdown 3 is due 
in November. 


A pre¬ 


wrestle 


massage 


TRON... OH, 
THE IRONY 

A new game based on the 80s 
Vv movie about being trapped 
inside a videogame, Tron, is 
underway for the PlayStation 2. 
Disney Interactive have the rights, 
with plans to incorporate a fairly 
important online aspect to the game. 
Apparently there is a deal with Sony 
online to make the game exclusive to 
their network. Will we see light 
cycles? Those deadly frisbees? Jeff 
Bridges? Only time will tell. 


Me Kane 


SUPERCAR 

SUPERSTAR 

The next game in the 
(// on-going TOCA series 
has been announced by UK 
developer, Codemasters. It’s 
called V8 Supercar Race 
Driver, and it will be an all¬ 
original TOCA experience 
that strives to re-invent the 
driving game, rather than 
just upgrade an old engine 
with new bells and whistles. 
As series producer Gavin 
Raeburn stated, "It’s no 
longer sufficient or exciting 
to deliver a new edition of a 
best-selling franchise that 
just recreates previous 
editions on a new format.” 

V8 Supercar Race Driver 
(called TOCA Race Driver in 
the UK), will include a 
character and plot driven 
narrative to take us beyond 
the typical "career mode”, 
making for a far more 
compelling racing game. 

You will take the role of 
aspiring driver, Ryan 
McKane, and experience his 
high-speed life - on and off 


the race track. The game will 
also introduce the Finite 
Element Modelling damage 
system, or FEM for short. The 
FEM damage model 
simulates the deformation of 
a car’s structure over the 
duration of an impact, 
calculating how both the 
internal structure and outer 
bodywork of the car twists 
and breaks. This physics 
based approach gives 
different impact results every 
time depending on the exact 
conditions of the crash. 

Codies already have 45 
people on the dev team, and 
will deliver to the PC, PS2 and 
an unannounced platform. 


Word has it that Raven, the developers of the 
upcoming Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, are also 
hard at work on Quake 4 for id Software. 

Torn, the anticipated RPG that was in 
development at Black Isle, had been officially 
canned. Apparently, not only was the Lithtech 
engine simply not turning out to be appropriate 
for the game, but the rumour is that staff were 
moved onto the development of Icewind Dale II. 

After just three days on sale in Japan, Final 
Fantasy X sold 1.8 million copies, totally 
smashing any previous records - it is now the 
PlayStation 2’s first double platinum game. 

LucasArts confirmed that the Nintendo 
GameCube will see a Star Wars : Episode II game 
announced in 2002, the year of the movie’s long 
awaited release. Oh, and Jar Jar apparently only 
has about five minutes of screen time. 

The sequel to Shogun: Total War is coming... 
Crusaders: Total War has been announced by 
Electronic Arts. Set in Europe during the 
Middle Ages, a period of 400+ years when all 
of Europe was in a state of almost constant 
warfare and violent upheaval. This is the 
period from the First Crusade to the Holy Land 
of Jerusalem, to the fall of Constantinople and 
the Spanish Reconquista. 

Eidos recently took out a full page in the French 
paper Le Monde to apologise to French 
archaeologist Jean-Yves Empereur. Apparently a 
character in Tomb Raider IV who also bears the 
name Jean-Yves and who works as an 
archaeologist in Egypt (much like the real life 
Jean-Yves Empereur) is a little too close to home 
for the real deal. The real Jean-Yves says that the 
whole thing is more than coincidence, and we 
tend to agree. 

Activision have obtained the rights to develop, 
publish and distribute games based upon 
Steven Spielberg’s upcoming sci-fi film, 
Minority Report. The movie stars Tom Cruise 
and is scheduled to hit cinemas in 2002. The 
games will appear on the PS2, PC, GBA, Xbox 
and GCN. 

According to researchers from the Harvard School 
of Public Health in the USA, the American 
Entertainment Software Rating Board is giving its 
’E’ rating (similar to our G rating) to games 
containing a significant level of violence. Three 
out of five games rated suitable for children as 
young as six reward players for injuring or 
killing characters, according to their research. 
Geez, before we know it, you’ll need to be over 18 
to buy games... sigh. 

The multiplayer component of Return To Castle 
Wolfenstein will be developed by another 
company other than Grey Matter, the folks 
behind the game, id Software have employed 
Nerve Software to handle the frag-fest portion 
of the code. Unsual, but there you go. 



ALONE IN THE DARK 

Winning submissions 
published on page 74! 




























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ONIMUSHA 

LOCALLY 

RELEASED! 

After some serious confusion 
Vv regarding the fate of game 
developer Capcom’s distribution 
here in Australia, we're pleased to 
report that THQ Australia will be 
releasing the Capcom PS2 games, 
Onimusha and Devil May Cry, 
amongst other future titles. The first 
game out will be the awesome 
Onimusha, which we reviewed in 
Hyper a few issues ago, scoring a 
whopping 90%. Co crazy kids! 


BUZZARD 
FINE TUNE 
THEIR CRAFT 

Blizzard have confirmed that 
(£/ their 3D RTS sequel, Warcraft III, 
will not see the light of day until 
sometime in 2002. The reason? Well, 
whilst not exactly specific, the press 
release stated, "Our goal at Blizzard 
is to make the best games possible. 
This means that we will not release a 
game until it’s ready. While we 
could release an inferior product to 
meet a specific date, we instead 
choose to polish our games until 
they meet the superior quality that 
we know Blizzard gamers and our 
development teams expect.” 

They proceeded to promise, "We 
firmly believe that this additional 
development time will prove 
invaluable, ensuring that Warcraft 
III will expand upon the legendary 
gameplay experience previously 
found in the critically acclaimed 
Warcraft series.” Good on them. 

















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Command & Conquer: Renegade 

PC WESTyVOOD 

e:ccme to ground zero im*ne wa* between GDI 
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lUjP just weren't "In your face" er.cugh for you, 
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the popular structures and units from the RTS games! 








NBA Courtside 2002 

»snmeeuBe ea sports 


N BA Courtside is one of the first 
GameCube games we’ve seen 
that attempts realistic 
looking players and animations, and 
boy does it do it well! The gameplay is 
smoqth, and the players all have fluid 
and believable movements as they 
dunk their way to victory. It looks like 
EA have a real handle on GameCube, 
and we can’t wait to see more. 




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IflTERUIEW 









hen it comes 
down to 
credentials, few 
game designers have as 
much clout as Hideo 
"Metal Gear Solid” Kojima. 

The man was at this year’s 
E3 expo, and Steve 
Polak managed to snag 
the only interview he 
granted with the 
Australian press. 

Like many Japanese 
developers, he’s a very 
quiet individual and finds 
his global status as a videogame 
superstar somewhat bemusing. 
However, he does acknowledge his 
superstar status, even if he doesn’t 
quite buy into the hype. 

Kojima: I don’t really feel like I 
star. I live a normal life I have a 
family and I don’t think anything 
has changed since the game (Metal 
Gear Solid) became so successful. 

HYPER: But you are a star to some 
extent, and this is largely because 
of those games. Why do you think 
they have been so successful? 

Kojima: The game has been 
successful because it delivers 
suspenseful action, and this 
transcends language and different 
cultures. The stealth element is 
obviously a big factor too. Elements 
like the plot and the graphics have 
also been major reasons why the 
game has been so 
popular. 

HYPER: What new 
elements will Metal Gear 
Solid 2 feature? 

Kojima: We have new 
elements like location 
specific damage. When you 
fire a sleep dart it is more 
effective if you hit the person 
on the neck. The new camera 
system is also a major 
change, and we have put 
more work into the 
interaction with the elements 


- steam, water and the like. Also, 
guards are much smarter and will 
hunt you in groups, or run when 
they are caught by you. 


HYPER: So will the game make its 
release date this year? 

Kojima: Because it is the year of 
the snake (astrologically) we are 
going to release the game this year 
no matter what. (Recent news 
unfortunately puts this into 
question. - Ed.) 


HYPER: The video trailer of the 
game is awesome. Can we really 
expect the gameplay to look this 
good? 

Kojima: The video trailers are 
actually showing real interaction. 
That is me playing the game, so you 
know that what you’ll get in the 
finished version will look at least as 
good as this. Hopefully better. 

HYPER: How much of the PS2’s 
ability have you exploited with the 
game? What percentage of the 
machine’s power would you 
suggest you are tapping into? 
Kojima: With this, what you get is 
always the struggle between the 
amount of time you’d like to take to 
make a game, and the deadline and 
need to release it. If we had more 
years to complete MGS2 then the 
game would be a better game and 
use much more of the PlayStation2’s 
power. However it would also 
possibly cost a lot more and maybe 



inTERUIEUl 


























inTERUIEUJ 



challenge for the player. 

HYPER: How many polygons will 
character models be composed of? 

Kojima: We don’t want to say, but 
there have been many 
improvements. 

HYPER: Onto something more 
controversial. Much criticism has 
been levelled at the previous game 
in the series because it featured 
characters that smoke. What would 
you say in response to this 
criticism? 

Kojima: I don’t smoke. Neither do I 
say to the player that they should 
smoke. We included it in the game 
because we thought it would add 
character to the game, and we feel 
that sometimes people have taken it 
the wrong way. We do often say that 
smoking is bad in the game, so it 
should be obvious what our position 
is. Also you see smoking in movies 
and TV but don’t go blaming the 
director of a movie for putting it in 
their work, so why feel differently 
about a game? 

HYPER: What has been the 
biggest challenge in making 
MGS2? 

Kojima: The greatest challenge in 
developing the game has been 
meeting the expectations of players 
from around the world. We feel the 
pressure is on to make something 
truly world class, and this is an 
enormous responsibility! 

HYPER: Is it fair to say there is a 
sequel in the works? How will you 
be involved? 

Kojima: Good question! (laughs) I 
will possibly submerge after the 


We feel the pressure is on to 

make something truly 
world class, and this is an 
enormous responsibility! 


99 


He may be cool, 
but he won't 
bring back the 
headband look. 


wouldn’t be worth the effort. We 
need to strike a compromise and 
release the game that is as good as 
possible in the given time. The 
companies that do this best have 
more successful games. 


HYPER: What is the key thing 
you’d like to say to the many keen 
gamers about MGS2? What will be 
the most exciting aspect of the 
experience, and what do you think 
they should be expecting? 
Kojima: The main thing I would 
say to the player is that we want 
them to feel like they are infiltrating 
a big organization and that they are 
very outnumbered. We also want the 
player to feel that there are lots of 
intelligent enemies out there, and 
that these must be dealt with using 
your brain and not always just 
shooting an enemy the first time you 
see them. We like the idea of using 
stealth very much indeed. 


HYPER: There has been little 
discussion of the narrative and the 
new player character what can 
you say about this? 

Kojima: There will be a new 
character, the lady Ninja (Olga) and 
lots of new situations. The game 
features lots of possibilities and 
decisions for the player to make. The 
story is something you’ll have to try 
and work out by playing the demo 
(laughs). 


HYPER: What has the power of 
PlayStation 2 made easier in the 
game? 

Kojima: The PS2’s power has made 
it easier to include all sorts of visual 
effects. We can also put more 
soldiers on the screen to provide a 















HYPER: Like? 

Kojima: I’m not sure exactly. I'd 
like to do something really 
innovative like work on a robot you 
can control which sees the real world 
and you have to guide it through 
challenges. This is just my pet idea. 
This is because I’d like to make 
games for the real world. No matter 
how realistic you make graphics the 
player will always know that what 
they see is on a screen and not 
real. With a robot it would be real 
and that idea excites me because 
it would be more fun. In Japan, 
robots and those sorts of things 
are becoming very popular. 


game is released, and work on 
something fresh that isn’t Metal 
Gear. If there is a sequel (wry smile), 
I’d rather work as an executive 
producer and let someone else drive 
the creative vision of the game. I 
have other ideas I’d like to follow. 


HYPER: How do you feel about 
living in Japan? 

Kojima: I like Japan in many ways, 
but I don’t feel the education 
system is fair. My son’s education is 
a problem. In Japan they 
concentrate too much on the 
average abilities of the student. I’d 
like to see better students given 
more challenges. 


HYPER: If you could have any 
single thing happen in life what 
would your dream be? 

Kojima: My dream is to go into 
outer space with my son or to shoot 
a film from space. 


HYPER: Thank you very much for 
your time, Kojima-san. 


0 , 


The 

mysterious 
Olga strikes a 


Lara just 
called. She 
wants her 
thigh holster 


Snake realises 
he shouldn't 
have accepted 
a job on the 
Titanic. 


Snake vents 
his frustration 
on a copy of 
Who Weekly. 


Have at you. 
Solid Snake! 











20 »HYPER 



JLE* SAWYER from Interplay 
leads us out of the dark-. • 
















HYPER: It’s quite a pretty game. The water 
effects in particular are very cool. 

n Oh yeah. It’s a nifty engine. It’s got 
really nice heat distortion and real-time lighting 
effects. And all the changes that you make on 
your character are viewable in the world. 


Sawyer: 


Sawyer 


HYPER: How does the magic 
system work on the PS2? 

Winstead of using the 
spell memorisation system that 


HYPER: So, can you 
give us a quick run¬ 
down on the game? 

Baldur’s 
Gate: Dark Alliance 
has been developed 
by Snowblind 
Studios, and 

published by Black Isle and 
Interplay. It’s going to be 
exclusively for the PS2 and has 
been in development for abo 
a year and a half. It uses a tile 
based 3D engine that 
Snowblind have developed 
from the ground up. It’s a very 
action oriented title. It’s 
similar in its setting to Baldur's 
Gate and Baldur’s Gate II but it 
doesn’t otherwise tie in to the 
storyline. It’s set in the city of 
Baldur’s Gate and uses the third edition DSD 
rules adapted for the console. 

You have a choice of three players - a human 
ranger, a dwarven fighter and an elven sorceress. 
You can play single player or two player co¬ 
operative - same screen. The rules are somewhat 
simplified, the interface is simplified - just to give 
it a shallower learning curve for beginning 
players. A lot of people are turned off the DSD 
games because of the system. Even the third 
edition rules can be a little 

daunting. So the interface is 
fairly streamlined... 
equipment is very quick 
and easy to go through. 


HYPER: So, this an 
all new Baldur's Gate 
tale? 

It’s a fairly 
simple story, your character 
came to Baldur’s Gate seeking fame and adventure. 
They get ambushed as soon as they reach the city 
and left for dead. In the course of trying to find out 
what happened to them and get enough money 
to survive, they become involved in a much 
larger plot that threatens the city. 

It does retain dialogue elements and 
puzzles just like any other RPG, but 
the emphasis is obviously on action. 
All the characters that have dialogue 
have lip syncing and voice overs. 




you find in DSD, all spells derive power from their 
mana source. Mana is in the upper left corner 
and you can replenish it with rejuvenation 
potions. 

We’ve tried to implement as many of the third 
edition rules as possible, including the cold 
subtype, fire subtype elements, so if you attack a 
frost giant with fire I believe he’ll go down faster. 


Yes, it 

automatically happens for 
dialogue, but rarely in other 
situations. Normally it just 
keeps that aspect ratio. 


Sj HYPER: Will the engine be used for any other 
games? 

W We hope so! People really like the 
engine. Graphically, it’s very nice and apparently 
it’s pretty easy to work with as well. 


IlfYPER: So how big is 
this game going to be 
ffompared to the PC 
Baldur's Gate titles? 

Probably a little more brief - 
30 to 50 hours gameplay, about 50 
levels, hopefully around 40 monsters, 
and 20 to 40 spells. Most of the 
monsters are just classic D6D - 
rats, plenty of the undead, 
zombies, skeletons, knolls, 
bugbears, Kobalds, beholders, 
white dragons, displacer beasts, 
frost giants, yetis, golems, dark 
elves... can’t forget about the 
dark elves! 






HYPER: How about the 
environments? 

Yeah, all your 
classic environments - old 
cellars, sewers and crypts, 
a thieves guild, mountains, 
passes, swamps, castles, 
abandoned temples... 


It’s a third person 
...isometric view, but 
you can rotate the 
camera with the 
right analogue stick, 
f while movement 
is with the left 
analogue. 


IRUIELU » HYPER 21 









































inTERUIEUJ 



Tr^3qo;rs] 


tuu - . 


Why don't you 
undead just 
stay dead for 
goodness sake? 




Mm 




v 


HYPER: What kind of polygon 
counts are there on the bigger 
beasts? (The dragons have to 
be seen to be believed — Ed.) 

I don’t know off the 
top of my head but I believe 
several thousand. 


HYPER: It seems like the game can 
handle a lot of action on screen. What’s 
the largest battle scene you can have? 

Well it’s hard to 
say, but you can definitely 
have quite a horde. You can 
get up to several dozen 
creatures on the screen. 

HYPER: What kind of 
puzzle elements can we expect in 


the 


the game? 

Fairly simple 
ones. There are some 
areas with traps, and C ± 
a little bit - but 
not too much - 
platform jumping. 

You’ll get a few puzzles like that. But 
they’re randomised, which frustrates 
me because each time I go through it 
gets more and more difficult! 

HYPER: The emphasis is very 
much on hack’n’slash action... 

Yes, very much on 
physical action - not a whole lot of 
stuff to figure out! 

HYPER: Will there be any party 
play in the single player game? 
Will you be travelling with NPC 
companions? 

No, it’s focussed on just 
he one character. But you can play 
two player cooperative. 

PER: Could you tell me about 
history of the team who 


worked on the 
game? 

Snowblind are 

made up of a bunch of console 
veterans from other projects and 
teams. They only have one other title 
under their belt which, I think, was a 
racing game for the N64. 

They’re based in Oregon. It’s 12 guys - 3 
programmers and 9 artists, and they’ve done all 
this in a year and a half. 

HYPER: How has the team found the 
PlayStation 2 to work with? 

Apparently they liked it a lot. They 
worked on the N64 before, then moved to 
PlayStation 2 and apparently they just love it. 

HYPER: Is it possible that Dark Alliance will 
make its way to other platforms? 

There have certainly been a lot of 
questions about that but there aren’t any 
planned ports at this time. But people have been 
very enthusiastic about the title, so we’re 
expecting it to sell pretty well and we’re hopeful 
that they can go on to make more. 

HYPER: Thanks for your time. 

































Ahh monsters! 
Beam me up 
Scotty! 


Meet the locals 
and fix their 
predictable rat 
problem. 








-.■$ . ;■ 11 -^ ■ 

I 

♦ t v **-/ 


¥ 


V ^ M 
m aMjsfe 

• * ; -iu 2 *- •; 










Guess who 
just ate the 
Hot 'n' Spicy 
pizza? 




% 














i vy* 


OPINION 


HYPER'S HANDS-ON 


PS2 owning gamers are 
if f finally seeing some real life 
breathed into the console. With 
ames like Gran Turismo 3. 
Onimusha, Crazy Taxi, and Half-Life 
oat now, and with Wipeout Fusion, 
Silent Hill 2, and now Dark Alliance 
coming later in the year, it’s 
looking very appealing to be a 
PlayStation 2 gamer. Those of you 
looking specifically for the RPG 
experience can now look forward to 
a true ADSD game on their shiny 
black box - the perfect companion 
until that other great RPG, Final 
Fantasy X, arrives in March 2002. 


THE EVIL WITHIN 

The adventure begins in the port 
town of Baldur’s Gate on the Sword 
Coast, familiar to some, but a 
mysterious place to all. This 
particular adventure, however, is 
not related to any of the previous 
games on the PC. This is an all-new 
story, exclusive to the PS2. 

On your way through the woods, 
you and your family are ambushed 
by evil brigands, and your sister is 
abducted by lowly thieves. As you 
set out to rescue her from a 
possibly gruesome fate, you enter 
Baldur’s Gate, only to become 
wrapped up within a greater quest 
for good. Over the course of three 


acts, your human, elven or dwarven 
character, each with their own 
abilities and spells, will grow in 
strength and wisdom, until you’re 
prepared to face the evil within and 
claim your bittersweet vengeance. 

After a few hours at the Interplay 
office, we were convinced that Dark 
Alliance is going to be a truly great 
fun game. Great care has gone into 
creating a believable and 
atmospheric representation of the 
Advanced Dungeons 8 Dragons 
world, and you won’t be 
disappointed with the amazing 
detail that has gone into the game. 
The incredible water effects, the 
high-resolution textures and 
incredible dungeons are simply 
gorgeous, and when we slapped our 
eyes on the White Dragon, we were 
truly impressed. The animation was 
astounding - the tendons and 
muscles in the dragon’s neck ripple 
under its shiny scales. Another boss 
that had us agape was the very cool 
Beholder, with its big gooey evil eye 
and slimy tongue writhing around 
in its mouth like a snake. There’s 
certainly a lot of cool factor in Dark 
Alliance. Stuff that’ll have you 
running to get your friends so they 
can take a look. Whilst your friend is 
there, they could even join you in a 
two-player co-operative quest 


mode! If he’s been playing Dark 
Alliance at home, he could even 
save his character onto memory 
card and bring it over to join you in 
your game. 

As you would expect from a good 
RPG, there are tonnes of weapons, 
armour types and magical items that, 
once equipped, will display on your 
character in the game world. 

There are even cool magical 
swords that ignite when an 
enemy is within range, and a 
whole set of spells for you 
to cast from a very easy 
menu system which works 
on the fly, even whilst 
you’re hacking away 
with your sword. You 
could draw some 
comparisons to Diablo 
II when it 
comes *, 
down to 
the combat- 
this is very much an 
action-based RPG — but 
there are still some interesting 
conversations with NPCs and there’s a 
true sense of exploration. 

The diagnosis is good. Baldur’s 
Gate: Dark Alliance is a game to 
definitely look forward to, and as 
soon as we can score it for you, we 
will. < 








"Vf •*>£>*> 



















Revolution, and already it's 
3pf»icj touted as thejbtjjH 
ga|rre^2Q0V Derek; 


REPUBLIC: THE REVOLUTION 


2 > 


CATEGORY: Strategy/Sim >> PLAYERS: 1 
PUBLISHER: Eidos >> AVAILABLE: 2002 


WOW-O-METER 




Elixir Studios, he 

Demis Hassabis (the co 


| 1 | j | hgrj) cjt work on their fif«l 

. title, Republic: The 


ela Fuente was able to 


set wilnwdmis to •fin 


hai it take^to bsfclrfie 


world leader... 


role of a faction leader. At the same 
time as you are tryingfto get control 
of the country, there are 16 other 
factions, all vying for power as well: 
all trying to remove the same 
President and put themselves in his 
place. 

HOW THE HELL DOES THIS 
WORK? 

Novistrana has 16 towns, four cities 
and a capital. You start off the game 
with a small power base in a little 
inconsequential town and must 
work your way up the power ladder. 
This will involve moving through a 
number of towns, making it to the 
capital, and then taking on the 
President himself. There are five 
major means to power - political, 
military, criminal, business and 
religion. Demis explains, "The five 
ways/actions came about after a lot 
of background work and research 
into what the team felt were the 
major regimes around the world. We 
do not make any judgement about 
this fact but are merely creating this 
realistic scenario for the player, 
which allows them to play the game 
in any manner they wish. The ways 
to achieve power and total rule can 
harness good and bad and we have 
tried to create the same settings and 
eventualities that would happen in 
real life. You can even combine a 
number of methods, which I am sure 
happens in real life, for any dictator 
to assume power. 

"Depending on what kind of 
people live in a town or city we have 


EL.IXIF* 

STUDIOS 






Q he concept of Republic: The 
Revolution (R:TR) is that 
you are a political leader 
whose main goal is to become 
President of a country. Elixir are 
aiming to create and simulate a 
whole country with a million living 
breathing people, all of whom have 
their own opinions, beliefs and 
individuality. The player, through 
the use of lead characters, must 
persuade the people to elect you to 
power. Mad, eh? 

The game is set in Russia in the 
early 1990s - pretty much present 
day - the focus being on a small but 
fictional country called Novistrana 
(meaning new country). Novistrana 
is based on an Eastern Ex-European 
Soviet block republic, where there is 
a dictator in power just after the fall 
of the Soviet Union. You assume the 






















Jake the Peg 
attempts to 
conceal his 


giveaway 
"extra leg". 


worked hard to create an exciting 
look,” added Demis. "The graphics 
in the game, as you will see, are 
pivotal to creating the right 
backdrop for the players. The 
graphics engine we believe is far 
ahead of the competition. Republic 
is full 3D and we have our own tools 
and engine which will help us create 
large and detailed cities." 
Berrysceno, the demo city, was small 
in area but impressive in terms of 
gameplay, being 2 kilometres 
square (final cities will measure up 
to 4 times that size, with the capital 
being X 16) but with a bustling 
game world. Within this one city are 
up to 10,000 citizens! "Every citizen 
has their own beliefs, be it political 
leanings, religious preferences and 
their own opinions on every major 
issue. They are, in fact, your judge 


PULLING THE STRINGS 

"At the start, you have only one key 
character, which is your right hand 
man. This character is an all- 
rounder and can pretty much do 
most things. As you move through 
the game you recruit other key 
-specialist characters to your 
faction.” With so many people in the 
Republic you will only find a 
handful of thBSe that are important 
characters, including police chiefs, 
judges, and businessmen - people 
who have influence, money and 
power. If you recruit them to your 
cause you can ensure their influence 
and actions are specifically for you 
and your cause - like organising 
rallies and setting up businesses. 

Also worth noting is that the 
character you play is actually part 
of the living world, so you must take 
care of your persona for he can be 
injured or killed. An example of one 
of the first situations/conflicts you 
could undertake after you have set 
yourself up as a nasty fascist leader, 
is where the opposing faction in the 
city is a religious force trying to win 
over the populous. By moving 
around the city you can pick up info 
- for example each day a speech is 


made by one of their religious party 
members which appears to be 
influencing the people. The player 
can actually view this speech and 
watch the effect it has on the 
audience. The more skilful the 
narrative, the more people will 
stand and watch. Now if this is 
happening daily at varying locales 
then your power base could well be 
being eroded by these events. More 
speeches, more townsfolk changing 
alliances - the upstart is you will 
need to stop this. There are all kinds 
of ways to implement this action. 
What quickly becomes apparent is 
that this is a game of immense 
possibilities and eventualities. There 
is so much to do to change and 
create situations that even at the 
start of the game you can see 
something special in the making. 

It goes without saying that the 
events, situations and 
confrontations are tailored within a 
superb Al engine (based on the 
theories from a book, Crowd of 
Power, regarding the reaction and 
behaviours of crowd masses) which 
will makes Republic stand out. 

Events in the game will not always 
go the way you planned and that is 
merely reflecting real life. 

"All of the characters have their 
own Al stats which vary enormously 
and the player will be able to get 
character breakdowns via a number 
of ingenious methods including 
being able to run opinion polls!" 

The one thing running through 
the whole of Republic was that every 
action could be broken down into 
smaller components and to 
document them all would take many 
pages. Indeed the Elixir game 
design manual was massive. One 
simple assassination could involve 


and jury and watch the actions you 
carry out in their world and will 
decide whether they will support 
you or not. This is gauged on where 
you fit into their line of thinking. In 
essence it is a question of trying to 
portray yourself in the most 
attractive way to these people." 


many characters and events before 
the dastardly deed was done. The Al 
also has some nice random touches 
that give Republic true credibility. 
For instance, the hired hit man could 
miss and botch the task, and this 
would have many knock-on effects. 


THE HAIRY PATH TO SUCCESS 

The major events are superbly 
viewed onscreen via a number of 
intelligent cameras (you can 
bookmark cameras for quick 
reference and movement to 
locations). As well as being able to 
move cameras along rails (this 
needs to be seen to understand its 
clever adaptation) and pre¬ 
scripted animations giving the 
game a true cinematic feel. "The 
camera scripting tool we have 
innovated is very powerful and will 
target the current actors in the 
game and display the best possible 
view to the player to immerse them 






inEIEHT »HYPER 25 
























26 » HYPER IflSIEHT 



in the story. Although Republic will 
be viewed as an intricate strategy 
game it relies on the player finding 
out what actions can be used - and 
these open up as you play - as well 
as needing to try and explore 
ideas, in some instances 
unsuccessfully, before you can gain 
success. You could well finish a 
game only using 50 actions, 
ensuring you will come back and 
play the game differently next 
time. Picking the right town to 
overthrow, getting to certain 
locales first, picking up the best 
characters to join your side, 
knowing which way to approach 
the game - be it aggressive with 
military force or a religious 
approach — these are all just a mere 
handful of ways to tackle the game. 
"Varying and mixing the strands 
and approaches to the way you play 
is the neatest aspect of Republic. 
From a religious leader to a business 


mogul, events may warrant the 
change in stance. Going from a 
violent leader to a pacifist may lose 
you some support initially but in 
the long term it could be beneficial. 

'Yd like to describe this as a cross 
between strategy game (loads of 
visual interactive stats and tasks) 
and a sim (real creation of events) 
and would like to call it a Sim 
Country (social network of people) 
game. To make it to President — and 
there are six final ways to achieve it 
- you will have ventures through 
many gaming ideas, some pretty 
unique, and that is what I hope will 
entice people to play this.” << 


But can you 
perve on the 
neighbours 
across the road? 


f I'd like to describe this as a cross between a strategy_ j 

game and a sim, and would like to call it a 
Country (social network of people) game. ^ ^ / 


"Sir, the Wobble 
Board is down. 
Repeat, Wobble is 


green 


going to help 
gain admirers. 


















SPEED 
CAMERA 
IN USE 


SLIPPERY 
VWHEN y 

^WET Ak 


ONLY 


SPEED 

CAMERA 

USELESS 


'ONLY' 


BETTER 

.WHEN. 

SkW ETA 


The Ultimate Racing Simulator, suitable for PS 1 & PS 2 

Includes SAITEK RX400 Wheel and pedals, adjustable racing frame, 
and seat, (seat cover sold separately) PC Version also available. 




ORDER FORM 


DESCRIPTION 

QTY 

PRICE 

TOTAL 

HYPERDRIVE 
Playstation version 


$249.00 


HYPERDRIVE 

PC version 


$249.00 


SEAT COVER 


$49.95 



POSTAGE 

$29.95 


TOTAL 



PAYMENT BY CHEQUE / MONEY ORDER OR CREDIT CARD 

PLEASE MAKE CHEQUE OR MONEY ORDER PAYABLE TO "HYPERDRIVE" 

ALLOW 10 DAYS FOR DELIVERY 

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CHEQUE / MONEY ORDER FOR $IS ENCLOSED OR BILL MY... 

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or nn/'i iit rr»nnT urMnnKi c a cn-i A 



























































inSIEHT 



58 


r *tfi , 


detriment of the experience 
Originally, all the characters, items 
and speech were going to* be in 
japanese, but that has bee ’ sea eei 
back to a nice balance between 
authenticity and understardab 
The storyline is centered around the 
rise of a Dark Shogur Warlord, his 
slaughter of almost all the ; y m 
inhabitants of the 'and, and the 
fight by the survK no tour Paimyos 
of the region to stop him a-'i his 
army of undead m •' ons s ou play 
as the surviving sever samurai of 
one of the Da>n\os. ea-h skilled in 
different d so;*o re> The seven 
samurai 'are. ? 

Berserker: ' v melee king and 
maste' ot t-e oouble sword 
techr quo. 

Brick: : : uilt like a brick shithouse, 
Brick > tne strongest of the samurai 
and can break down walls and 
barricades. 

Ninja: The ultimate intelligence 
gathering source. Poorly armoured, 
but fast and able to sneak into 


His Colgate 
ring of 
confidence 
gave him that 
extra boost. 


Before too 
long, everyone 
was doing it. 
How trendy. 


flaming ring! 
It burns! 

It burns! 


The Bonsai 


pruning club 


regularly. 




Action/RPG 
^Sierra 5 


1 fl 35 ^ 

Late Sept^iber 


»/v 

™- ^ ^ 

The A v 55 * 1 ^ 'km | 

onsequence ft \ . % ^ MA 

>f eating too v' 

luch Wasabi. - j, ^ _ 


The 

consequence 
of eating too 
much Wasabi. 


fter the original Diablo was 
finished, two members of 
the team - Ben Haas and 
Doron Gartner - left Blizzard to form 
Click Entertainment. Since then, their 
small but dedicated team have been 
hard at work on - what else - a 
Diablo killer! 

So how exactly does one go about 
creating a Diablo killer? Well, Click 
seem to be making all the right 
moves. To start with, they’ve left 
behind the somewhat cliched dark 
fantasy world in favour of the 
twisted and rich muse of japanese 
mythology. It’s part Ninja Scroll and 
part Akira Kurosawa’s Throne Of 
Blood -a combination that is hugely 
appealing and rich in possibilities. 

SEVEN SAMURAI 

v ^ To bring this setting to life, 

9 Click have built their own 
proprietary graphics 
engine. On the plus side, Click’s 
engine runs in 16-bit colour (as 
opposed to Diablo ll’s 8-bit 
palette), supports anti-aliasing on 
the characters, and has hardware 
supported effects like coloured 
lighting baked right on in. On the 
negative side, the game is limited to 
a resolution of 800x600... but it still 
looks damn nice. 

Click have gone to great lengths 
to immerse the player in the world 
of feudal Japan... but not to the 










































FEASTING ON INTESTINES 

As per normal, slaying monsters will 
reward the player with monster 
pa rlsTwCapons. armour and gold. 

Gold can be offered to the gods at 
certain shrines in exchange for 
spells. Spells am divided into Jour 
basic types, each with its own 
patron god. Water (Susano-o), 
l ightning (Raiden), Fire (AmateTasu) 
and Earth (Okuni-nushi). All spells 
us<’ ki energy, and there vulill be '^Srpft'hs with unique attributes, 
around 30 spells per element, with All the enemies in the game are 
each samurai having a largely based on Japanese mythology and 

unique set of spells to master. look truly freaky. From giant 

In the course of the game, there dragons and possessed samurai 

are two NPCs that will be throuqh to Kappa small child sized 

indispensable. First up is the water spmts with shells who attack in 

Blacksmith. Unsurprisingly, his basic mobs, overwhelming the victim then 
skills are the creation, repair and feasting on their? 1 ntestines. Yummy, 
upgrading of items. The Blacksmith Throne Of uarknas promises / 
is also able to combine items with to offer a£ai T amount of replay 
monster parts to create a custom value too. In the single player Jr 

weaipon or piece of armour. The game each of the four clans ^„ 

oth^r invaluable Npc is the Priest. has its own unique set of 

He’S the potion master, the Priest quests, many of which 

biews up a variety of medicines for can be solved in 
curing injuries, curses, poison and multiple ways. The multiplayer 
reviving ki energy, as well as angle should be cool too. offering a 

offensive potions. Both the new take on the king of the hill 

Blacksmith and the Priest Can level playmode, with up to 35 
up along with the playable simultaneous p layers. This mode 

characters. seesthftfcNg clans, each with even 

Each character will be able to use at samurai, trying to defeat the Dark 
least three types of weapon. Some of Warlord with his seven lirntenants 


enemy encampments. 

Swordsman: Intelligent and 
incredibly deadly, the Swordsman is 
a strong all round party member. 

Archer: A master o? Kyudo, the 
Archer can disable foes from a 
distance allowing melee fighters to 
swoop in and clean up the mess. 

He’s also skillecLwith the shuriken 
(ninj.i -tar), kabutowarr(helmet 
cracker) and kunai (throwing knife). 

Mage: Skilled in the art 0) 
"bandaido”, he can heal pnirty 
members, cast protective spells, 
cur.es and ranged combat spells. 
Very powerful. 

Leader: The master swordsman 

and strategist, the Leader 
coordinates the group s actions. 

You can only have four of the 
seven samurai out on the quest at 
any one time. Fortunately, you can 
teleport characters in and out of 
battle, but of course tins will cost 
you ki energy, so it’s not a move 
that can be used, all the time 
However, teleporting badly injured 
characters back to the castle 
automatically heals them, so you 
may be taking on wave after wave 
of hellspawn, but at least three 
party members will be able to rest 
up at any given time. 

What’s most appealing about the 
four person party is that you’ll have 
a great degree of control over each 
of the four samurai. While you only 
actively control one samurai at a 
time, you can swap between them at 
will. In the heat of battle 
however, this is 
obviously going to get 
clumsy, so Click have 
implemented "play BbBBBS 
calls"— and this is one - 

of the very cool new 
elements that Throne Of 
Darkness brings to the 
genre. In the tactics menu you’re 
able to assign 12 predetermined 
commands/formations to hotkeys. 
These can be as simple as 
commanding your party to attack 
whoever you attack, through to 
specific battle formations. You can 
also command party members to act 
as a sentry or guard significant 
points. There are over ,>o of these 
plays available, and not only will 
they be integral to getting the most 
out of the game, but once 
comfortable with them, they’ll put a 
huge amount of power, flexibility 
and strategy m the player’s hands. 


"Frank, these 
threesome 
rendezvous 
can't go on." 


Hadoken 
at you! 




That throne 
must be so 
dark, they 
can't find it. 


V 


































30 »HYPER inSIEHT 





CRASH BANDICOOT 

The Wrath of Cortex 


CATEGORY: Platformer >> PLAYERS: 1 >> 

PUBLISHER: Universal Interactive >> AVAILABLE: November 


WOW-O-METER 


hilst there has been much 
talk of Crash Bandicoot 
debuting on other 
platforms, the PlayStation faithful 
will be pleased to discover that the 
bandicoot’s first next-generation 
adventure will hit the PS2 before any 
other console. Before the year is up, 
the PS2 will be the platform for the 
fifth game in the series - and who 
knows when the Xbox or CameCube 
games will arrive. 

So, how has our marsupial 
matured? Have Traveller’s Tales (the 
UK-based developer taking over 
from Naughty Dog) remained 
faithful to the original concept of a 
wacky, crazy, cartoon platformer? Is 
it really going to be any good? 

CRASH, REBOOT 

To be honest, the original Crash 
Bandicoot games were a love or hate 
affair. Some gamers despised its 
linearity and restricted gameplay, 
whilst others thoroughly enjoyed the 
silly humour and solid platforming. 


If you’re wondering whether Wrath 
of Cortex may or may not be the 
animated platformer you’ve been 
waiting for, let us entice you with 
some details. Without a doubt this 
will be a polished product, and you 
just might fall for Crash for the very 
first time. 

For starters, Traveller’s Tales are 
fresh to the ’coot and their 
development team is pumped full of 
enthusiasm, which is already 
apparent in the detailed, polished 
graphics. These visuals will be the 
best yet, retaining the original’s 
style, but giving just about 
everything a face-lift. There’s better 



animation in all the characters and 
enemies, larger and more populated 
environments, wider actual playing 
areas and it all rocks along at a solid 
60 frames per second. 

The game is simply one 
of the spunkiest looking 
platformers yet devised, 
with more variety than 
any previous Crash 
Bandicoot adventure. There’s plenty 
of eye candy here. But whilst all this 
cartoony splendour is wonderful, the 
more important question remains... 
have they evolved the gameplay? 
Well, yes and no. 

ROAMING FREE 

Wrath Of Cortex offers us the most 
freedom of play than any previous 
Crash game, thanks to larger more 
explorable 3D landscapes and a 
serious injection of variety in game 
styles throughout the adventure. 
However, at the heart of it, this 
game still centers around the same 
Crash game mechanics - spin and 


smash crates, collect the fruit etc. 

It’s just done with so much more 
style and variation this time around. 

Traveller’s Tales are also piecing 
together plenty of mini¬ 
games to make the entire 
experience far more fun 
for those of us with short 
attention spans. What was 
I writing... ? Oh yeah, 
Crash will pilot an aeroplane, 
amongst other vehicles, and some 
levels will require far more thumb- 
pad skills than the usual platformer, 
like rolling a huge ball around icy 
landscapes trying to avoiding 
plummeting to your death. You’ll 
also be given control over Coco 
(Crash’s girlfriend) to explore the 
game, complete with her own unique 
levels, with her own unique abilities. 

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of 
Cortex is turning out to be the 
prettiest and most enjoyable Crash 
game yet, and the prospect of more 
lush platformers on the PS2 is A- 
okay in our book. 



WHAT WE'D 
• > LIKE TO SEE: 

The banishment 
of frustrating 3D 
jumping puzzles. 

































THE SIMS: HOT DATE 

m —CATEGORY: Sim >> PLAYERS: 1 >> WOW-O-METER y 

PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts >> AVAILABLE: November 


ow that we’ve tried "livin’ 
large” and had a "house 
party" or two, the time is 
right to send our sims out into the 
wilderness of the dating game... 

Yep, The Sims: Hot Date is the next 
expansion pack for the best-selling 
PC game of 2000 and 2001, The Sims. 
Just think Sex in the City, but with 
sims. Sim in the City, if you will. 
Anyone want to start making their 
little virtual Sarah Jessica Parker? 
Hmmm... we get the feeling that 
maybe many of you have already. 

DIM SIMS 

At any rate, Hot Date gives us a 
chance to get back into the "swing of 
sims”. before we launch ourselves 
into The Sims Online or Simsville. And 
who wouldn’t want to have a go at 
trying to get into bed with our 
polygonal pals? Is it any surprise? 
Like everyone, even the sims are 
looking for luuuurve. 

Hot Date takes the level of voyeurism 
in the Sims to its next logical 


conclusion - letting us peer into the 
awkward, nervous, sweaty-palmed 
social situation that is known as the 
"date”. But this is far beyond just 
inviting your neighbouring sim over 
for a piece of cake or a dip in the 
swimming pool. Hot Date is all about 
the hardcore dating scene. Yep, 
we’re talking nightclubs, bars, 
cafes... just about anywhere you 
would maybe expect to meet your 
Sim soul mate. 

Hot Date will feature an entirely new 
downtown area for your Sims to 
explore and socialise in, 
including all these funky 
new venues where you can 
woo your prospective 
partner. It actually sounds 
like a bit of a rehearsal for 
the real-life match making that will 
inevitably take place with The Sims 
Online, but at least Hot Date will let 
you practise on computer controlled 
characters so you can get your moves 
right before you make a jackass of 
yourself in front of a real player. 


EA plan to include over 100 new 
items, including a picnic basket you 
can take to the park for that 
romantic roll in the grass. There will 
also be an in-game dating service 
you can get your Sim to use if 
hanging out at the local shops 
doesn't seem to get you any action. 

Best of all, there will be a whole 
swag of new actions to try out on 
your companion in Hot Date, from 
playing "footsies” under the table 
at dinner, to making a passionate 
pass at them on the couch. Many of 
you might be hoping to 
witness some jiggity, 
dancing dooner action, 
but Hot Date won’t quite 
go that far. Heavy 
petting is about as 
"hot" as it will probably get. At 
least in Hot Date you don't have to 
worry too much about what the Al 
will think of you in the morning. 

Although, we gotta say, there’s 
nothing quite worse than when a 
computer chews on your hard disk/ : X 



O WHAT WE'D 
LIKE TO SEE: 

An adults-only 
user-mode mod... it'll 
happen, no doubt. 



insiGHT »HYPER 31 







32 »HYPER inSIEHT 



SPY HUNTER S)PS5 

CATEGORY: Action >> PLAYERS: 1 >> 

PUBLISHER: Acclaim >> AVAILABLE: October 


ny gamer over the age 
of 25 will probably 
remember the original 
Midway arcade game, Spy Hunter 
- that top-down fast and furious 
car romp accompanied by the 
slinky Peter Gunn theme. The aim 
was to go as fast as possible down 
a stretch of road, bonnet- 
mounted machine guns blazing, 
dropping oil slicks at your 
pursuers, whilst avoiding the 
enemy vehicles intent on seeing 
you burst into a fiery ball of scrap 
metal. You could even roll up into 
the back of a truck ala Knight 
Rider and have your chassis 
repaired - all at high speed. 

Midway have taken this very 
cool game and transformed 
it into glorious 3D. Hour upon 


hour of playtesting here at Hyper 
HQ can attest to the fact that 
they’ve done a remarkable job of 
re-creating the original game 
quite authentically, yet with the 
depth of a modern action game. 

The car handling is great, 
with powerslides a plenty, and 
there’s a stack of crazy 
weaponry to unleash upon your 
environment as you go 
speeding by. Multiple paths 
have been built into each 
mission, as well as an objective 
point system to ensure that 
there’s tonnes of replayability. 

Spy Hunter is a blast, and we’re 
looking forward to reviewing the 
final product very soon. 


WOW-O-METER 




EUROPEAN-- v ■■ 

SUPER LEAGUE GBR 

CATEGORY: Sport >> PLAYERS: 1-2 >> 

PUBLISHER: Virgin Interactive >> AVAILABLE: October 


hile we patiently wait for 
Konami to bring us 
International Superstar 
Soccer for the GBA, we can meanwhile 
waste copious sets of batteries on this 
tasty looking football sim from 
developer, Virgin Interactive. 

Featuring sixteen fully licensed 
teams (which means full kits, players 
and stadiums), European Super 
League sports a familiar looking top- 
down perspective that will delight 
fans of that sexy little soccer game of 
old, Sensible Soccer. There will also 
be an alternative isometric camera 
perspective for those gamers who 


appreciate at least some vague 
attempt at a third perspective. 

Naturally, with a link cable, 
European Super League has the 
potential to be one of those great 
simplistic and yet utterly addictive 
multiplayer soccer games. Although 
there is no confirmation yet of a 
possible four-player link up mode, 
we’re hoping that two-player link-up 
is a no-brainer feature. 

European Super League will be out 
before we know it, so we’ll grab it and 
kick off a review real soon. European 
Super League is also set to appear on 
the Psone, PC, Dreamcast and GBC. 




The red and the blue. Now that was a cool show. 



JURASSIC PARK III: 
SURVIVAL 

£>PSB 


CATEGORY: Action >> PLAYERS: 1 >> PUBLISHER: 

Universal Interactive >> AVAILABLE: November 


ith Jurassic Park III 
coming to cinemas this 
Christmas, it’s no surprise 
that a bunch of new Jurassic Park 
video games are popping up on 
the release schedule. Well, if 
they’re anything like Dino Crisis 2, 
then we say bring it on. 

The first game is the PS2 action 
title, Jurassic Park III : Survival, 
which has an all-original plot that 
doesn’t tie in with the new film at 
all. Instead, it revolves around a 
character and scenario created 
specifically for the game. You play 
a respected member of an elite 
scientific team who becomes 
stranded on the deadly dinosaur 
infested island, your mission being 


to get off the island to safety and 
stop a bunch of DNA stealing 
terrorists along the way. 

This is third-person, combat- 
focused action incorporating 
Resident Evil style puzzles and item 
collection with Tomb Raider-ish 
action and gunplay. The baddies 
include some truly terrifying 
dinosaurs, including the big new 
baddie from Jurassic Park III, the 
Spinosaur — bigger than a T-Rex, 
and twice as pissed off. You’ll also 
be up against the raptors, the good 
old T-Rex and some nasty terrorists 
who are looking to pop a cap in 
your scientific arse. This is solid 
stuff, and we can expect it in mid 
November. 






































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ADSTRAIIA'S BEST DVD MAG! 



ISSUE 13 -SEPTEMBER 2001 


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8480 







Aliens Vs Predator 2 


»cnm 5her 


HTTP://WUJW.5IERRR5TUDia5.[=nM/EFIME5,-"Fll_IEN5M5PHEDRTCIRa 


L ife is little more than a series 
of questions that more often 
than not can’t be answered. 
Why can’t relativity theory be 
reconciled with quantum mechanics? 
Why does Hyper feel thinner than 
normal? Where have all the spitoons 
gone? In this world of queries and 
quagmires at least there’s one thing 
j" that we can find out for sure-what 
“ would happen in a fight between 
J humans, aliens and predators. 

C Sure, it’s not our favourite kind of 
□ threesome (we’ll leave the cross- 
a species fetishism to the staff of 
JJj PCPP), as frankly we’d prefer to 
> know what would happen in a cat- 
5 fight between Buffy, Willow and 
^ Cordelia, but when it comes to war, 
jO this is a bitchin’match-up. 


CRACK MARINES 

The original Aliens Versus Predator 
game was developed by Rebellion, 
but the sequel is being handled by 
Monolith Productions, a 
development house with a bit of 
experience in the art of the first 
person shooter. Their list of games 
includes Blood, Blood 2, Shogo and 
No One Lives Forever. More 
importantly, David Stalker, the 
original game’s producer, is back to 
look after this second game and 
ensure it’s of the highest quality. 

Running on a modified version of 
the Lithtech 2.5 engine, AvP2 won’t 
just look a lot better, but it’s going 
to be a better game all round. The 
storyline is going to take a Half-Life 
(and its various expansion packs) 


approach, weaving in three 
completely different sets of missions 
for each of the species - alien, 
predator and human (if you can call 
marines that) in the same place and 
timeframe. Although missions will 
intersect at various points, no 
missions will be shared between the 
species — only events. This means 
that each set of missions can be 
designed from the ground up to 
take advantage of each species’ 
abilities, rather than the other way 
around. Thus, the marine’s jetpack 
and predator’s grappling hook 
won’t be in this game, as they were 
only included in the original as a 
way of allowing the marine and 
predator to reach areas that the wall 
climbing alien could. 


The game is set shortly after Aliens 
on the planet LV-1201. It seems there 
has been an alien hive there for an 
indeterminate number of years, so a 
slightly batty(boy) scientist named 
Eisenberg establishes a research 
center... with predictable results - the 
aliens escape and run amok. But 
adding to the cultural melting pot, it 
seems this planet is a favoured 
hunting ground of those interstellar 
tramps (come on, all that fishnet?) - 
the Predators. A crack squad of crack- 
head marines is sent in to crack down. 

XENOMORPH CARNAGE 

Monolith’s aim is to keep the pants- 
wetting fear of the original at the 
same time as taking the missions 
somewhere new. So there’ll be more 











You really 
should get a 
tradesman in 
to fix that. 


Well, that's 
one way to 
"enlighten" 
somebody... 


C 



Versus Mode 

Games we'd like to see in the 
spirit of AvP: 

Mr T Vs The World 
Kosta vs Bryce 
Big Gay Al vs Smithers 
Buffy vs Charmed 
Nintendo Gamer vs Hyper 
Conan O'Brien vs Jay Leno 


variety in AvP2 than just the dank 
claustrophobic corridors 
synonymous with the Aliens films. In 
addition to the research base, the 
alien hive and a space cruiser, some 
of the missions are even set in the 
great outdoors - on the surface of 
planet LV-1201 itself. It’ll be 
interesting to see how well this works 
in the single player game, but the 
multiplayer game should benefit 
greatly. Indeed, it’s the multiplayer 
game that has us the most excited 
(hence the game’s appearance in Net 
Trawlin’). Pitting the three enhanced 
(from the original) species against 
each other in multiplayer 
deathmatch will be awesome — each 
is strong in their own unique way, 
and the potential depth of strategy 
that comes from having such 
radically different abilities sets 
opens the door for some of the best 
multiplayer combat ever. Plus, the 
sheer atmosphere of the game 
transforms what is just a game into 
terrifying and exhilarating warfare 
on an alien planet. 


There’ll be 12 multiplayer maps, 
including species-based team maps. 
There will be ten different characters 
to choose from in multiplayer mode 
- presumably this includes several 
specialised variants of humans. 

Think how brilliant teamplay will be 
in this game - setting out with a 
team of humans on a mission to wipe 
out all the aliens, but knowing that 
they will have positioned themselves 
strategically throughout the map. Or 
playing as the solitary stealth-based 
predator up against an entire map 
swarming with humans and aliens. 
It’s going to be matching wits with 
other humans that will rock the 
hardest in AvP2. 

The graphics are looking a whole 
lot better than the relatively 
primitive original as well. The 
atmosphere is going to be even more 
intense with more realistic looking 
characters, and effects like real-time 
lighting on the marine’s shoulder 
mounted torch through to animated 
light maps and huge outdoor areas. 
We’re really hyped about this one... 


Radicalism... 

MARINE - The marine character has lost the jetpack, but now has 
a kit to hack computer systems, a welding device that can cut 
through doors as well as seal them, and a shoulder mounted torch. 
In the weaponry department, a shotgun has been introduced 
(phew!), as well as a knife and a few new ammo types. 

The marine's storyline is a team-based affair, so there are a few 
different types of marine - Colonial Marine (these are then further 
split into specialist groups), Technicians (wussy scientists). Synthetics 
(perfect for parties and bahmitzvahs, these guys can do nifty tricks 
with knives), Combat Synthetics (a new illegal breed of robot highly 
skilled in combat). Mercenaries (Eisenberg's own crack troop - 
willing to kill anyone or anything they come up against). 

PREDATOR - The Predators will come in two distinct types - light 
and heavy. The best new addition to its arsenal would have to be 
the net weapon that can be used to pin opponents to the wall. It 
also now has a doubled bladed spear that can fire dart-like 
projectiles, as well as a portable device to recharge weapons. 

ALIEN - In addition to using your tail, claws and secondary jaws, 
the aliens will now have a pounce attack. Essentially though, the 
alien's abilities remain unchanged - it's all about speed, running on 
any surface, and brutal close quarters combat. There'll be the full 
complement of aliens to<$- from Facehuggers to Chestbursters, 
Runners, Drones, Warriors, PredAliens and the Queen. 


□nuriE »hyper 37 








Linus 



POOR NASUBI! 

www3.tky.3web.ne.ip/%7Eediacob/ 

nasubi.html 

> > Okay, so it’s quite a convoluted URL, 
but this is compulsory reading for anyone 
interested in, or scared by reality television. 
We won’t give it away, but let’s just say that 
our darkest fears about where reality 
television may be heading are pretty much 
"been there, done that” in Japan. Truly scary 
stuff... His official site is also at 
http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/luck/ 



FAT BUDS IN DA HOUSE 

www.viewaskew.com 

> > Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is heading to the 
cinemas later this year and it’s looking hella-funny. 

We’d put the trailer on our cover disc... except we no 
longer have one, so you’ll just have to go and download 
it yourself. Viewaskew.com is Kevin Smith’s own site, and 
there’s a heap of stuff for fans of Clerks, Mallrats, 

Chasing Amy and Dogma to dig, including behind the 
scenes pics, movies, interviews and much more. 


Is Smith really 
the Phantom 
Editor...? 




2*c.«i*SV. .iE5S^-./E.E.eVii.E.A,a-U*\V.:iO'>-«H^.<eth> 

’35‘u-TTB 


,A.tf.E,»,ruJ‘6.*.i.A.A.±,sf.’,^,M.A.<. 10’B 




PEER GROUP 
PRESSURE 

www.openp2p.com 

> > Napster’s corpse may be stinking up 
the net, but the peer-to-peer (P2P) 
movement continues unabated. For up to 
date news, information and intelligent 
commentary on what’s happening in this 
arena, check out OpenP2P.c0m. It’s an 
excellent place to start for newbies, and a 
great site for experienced P2Pers. 


FERIC 

www.leric.com 

> > If you’re looking for something slightly left of centre 
and yet utterly brilliant to look at, then you must check out 
this artist's website. This is the warped mind of digital artist, 
Eric Feng, a designer and compositor at SquareUSA, who 
worked on the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. This, 
his online portfolio, is an incredible display of imagination 
and creativity. Sign up and obtain access to more of his art. 


































































iwnuu«KS’ SBU,tW * V 


i.wownun.o*" 


mm 


HIIHUJMIUIIUA The Full 

Final Fantasy meets Bladermmer Version! 

UfllfC (010NU1L T 011 Mil HI 

mUllO - rRONTlINK f MCE THE OKU & ClIHTlBSTIlKi T1.2 


=rr. 

v l 
















40 »HYPER 



Back in our May issue we reviewed 
Onimusha and proceeded to tell you just 
how damn good it was - it received our 
coveted Came of the Month stamp, and scored a nice 
fat 90%! You NEED Onimusha — it’s one of those great 
PS2 games that you can get your hands on right now, 
and thanks to THQ Australia, this Capcom delight 
could be yours. We have five copies to give away to 
the readers who can correctly answer this question: 

» What does Onimusha mean? 


Put your answer on the back of an envelope with 
your name and address and send it to: MUSHY FOR 
MUSHA, Hyper, 78 Renwick St, Redfern, NSW 2016. 


Bomberman Tournament on the 
CBA is an absolute riot - this is 
a must-have GBA game! Pinobee 
is a cute platformer that you’ll 
need to play, just so you can give 
your link cable a rest from all that 
Bomberman! Thanks to Activision, we have 
five copies of each game and five awesome 
Bomberman mugs to give away to five 
incredibly lucky readers! To win, you’ll need 
to do thusly: 

» Write us a short rap about 
Bomberman. 


Put your rap in an envelope with your name 
and address and send it to DA BOMB, Hyper, 
78 Renwick St, Redfern, NSW, 2016. 


igGyii 

■ 


/V 

-ill ’ 

jjljj 




































HAWK'S 
BACK! 1 


POKEHON? 




Australia's Unofficial llintendo magazine 


Issue 2, September 2001 AUS S6.90 ind.osiNZ $8.90 inctesT 


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REUIElil 



* p44 Max Payne 


No Payne, no gain! Take 2 Interactive 
have the remedy for your shoot 'em up 
cravings. 















HYPER #96 

REVIEW INDEX 


PC 


44 Max Payne 
48 Anachronox 
50 Arcanum 

52 The Moon Project 

53 Baldur’s Cate: Throne Of Bhaal 


PS2 


54 NBA Street 

56 Extreme-G 3 

57 UEFA Challenge 

62 Gauntlet: Dark Legacy 


PSONE 


58 Atlantis: The Lost Empire 

59 Digimon World 

62 World’s Scariest Police Chases 
62 Spec Ops: Covert Assault 


NINTENDO 64 


60 Mario Party 3 




EKSzna 

64 Pinobee: Wings of Adventure 

64 Earthworm Jim 

65 Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure 
65 Bomberman Tournament 


dr 



CREW'S TOP 5 

Eliot Fish - Editor 


1. Onimusha - PS2 

"A must play PS2 game for Survival 
Horror fans." 

2. Arcanum - PC 

3. Max Payne - PC 

4. Dark Alliance - PS2 

5. Deus Ex SDK-PC 

Cam Shea - Deputy Editor 


1. Office Cricket - Hyper HQ 

"If only I had time to play video games!" 

2. Mario Kart Advance - GBA 

3. Max Payne - PC 

4. Paper Mario - Nintendo 64 

5. Bomberman Tournament - GBA 

Malcolm Campbell - Art guy 


1. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - GBA 
"Almost as good as Symphony of the 
Night. The DSS card system is brilliant." 

2. Final Fantasy IX - PSone 

3. Final Fantasy VI - SNES 

4. Max Payne - PC 

5. Street Fighter III: Third Strike - DC 


Kevin Cheung - Reviewer 


1. Final Fantasy X - PS2 
"Lulu is a babe." 

2. Max Payne - PC 

3. Mario Kart Advance - GBA 

4. Diablo II: Lord of Destruction - PC # 

5. Tech Romancer - DC 


THE HYPER 
SCORING SYSTEM 

The Overall Score - what’s it all about? 


90 + 

Excellent and worthy of a 

Big Rubber Stamp. Buy it! 

80-89 

Very good. This is a quality 
game, but not perfect. 


70-79 

Good, verging on average. 

Try before you buy. 


60-69 Average, verging on bad. 

This game is badly flawed. 


50-5 9 Bad game design and possibly 
not even worth renting. 

0-49 These games simply suck. 

A total waste of money! 


3 

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44 »HYPER 



Max Payne 

CATEGORY: 3rd person shooter > > PLAYERS: 1 >> PUBLISHER: Take 2 > > PRICE: $89.95 


RATING: MA 15+ >> AVAILABLE: Now > > REQUIRED: Intel/AMD 450, 92MB RAM, 3D card 


CAM SHEA, mob deep and all that... 


3 

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ax Payne is a very cool 
game. It’s also a walking 
cliche, observing all the 
established rules of the action 
genre, without pushing any 
boundaries in particular - aside 
from going for the "game that pays 
the most homage to John Woo and 
The Matrix’ award. This isn’t 
necessarily a bad thing mind you. If 
you’re a fan of Martin Scorcese’s 
mob films and John Woo’s Hong 
Kong action flicks, or if you’re just a 
fan of glorified violence in general, 
then Max Payne is the game for you. 

BLOOD DRENCHED 



According to the hype, the big 
drawcard for Max Payne is the bullet 
time effect. This is definitely the one 
"big new thing’’ that Max Payne 
offers to the genre, and it’s an 



excellent addition, 
but it’s certainly 
not integral to 
the game. Its 
value is very much 1 
cinematic, rather 
than tactical. This is 
actually a very 
positive sign for the 
game, as the vanilla 
Max Payne is a damn 
solid game on its own, with all the 
bullet time shenanigans acting as 
the icing on an already blood 
drenched cake. 

Bullet time allows the player to 
slow the action down to a crawl. 
Everything is running in slow motion 
-Max, mobsters, bullets, 
explosions, the whole works. The 
advantage being that you can still 
move your sight at the normal 


speed, so Max has the jump 
accuracy-wise... plus it just 
looks so damn cool. You 
can walk around 


past your ears, fire off one shotgun 
blast in the air 


1 


and another as 
you hit the 
ground.Even 
cooler, if you 
get surprised 
on a stairwell, 
simply throw 
yourself 
back a 


capping capos ( 
in bullet time, 
but even more 
fun is pulling 
off some of 
the more insane 
moves. You can 
dive into a room 
in slow motion, 
enemy bullets whizzing 

















MC Bullet! It's Bullet Time! 


down the stairs in bullet time, firing 
the whole way down. 

You can play through the entire 
game without using bullet time at 
all, and in many situations it’s 
actually a hindrance more than 
anything. The standard "run for 
cover, pop out, shoot, 
pop back" is 
generally far more 
effective than diving 
out from behind 
cover getting a couple of shots off 
then leaving yourself exposed - 
especially on the higher difficulty 
levels. Even so, as far as garnish 
goes, bullet time is an awesome 
effect, and a huge amount of fun to 
experiment with. Bullet time isn’t the 
only frill that Remedy have 
introduced to the genre. The camera 
also does a nice slow-mo pan around 
certain kills, and even follows 
headshots from the sniper rifle. 


JUNKIES SUCK ARSE 

Max Payne comes packing a 
storyline straight out of a HK action 
film. Three years before the events 
in the game, Max’s wife and baby 
are killed, most probably by 
junkies on Valkyr - a destructive 
new drug on the streets. 
Max joins the DEA and 
goes deep undercover in 
a quest to discover which 
crew are running the 
drugs and to avenge the deaths in 
his family. Of course, he’s framed, 
so both the cops and the mob want 
him dead. 

The storyline is told through 
Max’s own very film 
noir/hardboiled/ex-detective 
narration, complemented by some 
very cool graphic novel art - frames 
and all. It’s an engaging technique, 
and you can almost forgive how run 
of the mill the story actually is. The 


Max Poyne has 
been patched 
• • • Grab it 

From http://www.remedy.fi 


art is stylishly illustrated and even 
the voice overs are well done. Max 
(whose voice sounds remarkably like 
J.C. Denton from Deus Ex) is a 
walking cliche but the dialogue is 
slick and well delivered. Most of the 
supporting cast hold their own 
too... although there are some areas 
that could have been improved 
considerably - like the dodgy junkie 
scream. The game’s score is 
appropriately dramatic and tragic, 
setting the mood nicely when used. 

The narrative sets the tone of the 
game well and certainly gives the 
player more of an insight into the 
senseless violence than your average 
action game. Remedy have obviously 
tried to establish an empathetic 
connection between the player and 
Max — a necessary device for true 
immersion in the gameworld, but 
whether they’ve succeeded or not is 
debatable. The whole storyline 


^Much has been made of Max 
Payne's visuals, but in the years 
between first being wowed and 
the game's release, standards 
have risen considerably. Max no 
longer looks "photo-realistic", 
falling more into the "badly- 
digitised-one-expression-face- 
on-a-low-poly-head" category. 
Indeed, most of the facial 
textures, polygonal builds and 
animations are a little behind the 
times, whilst the environments 
look fantastic. Max in particular 
looks like he permanently has a 
carrot stashed in his date. At 
i; least you'll be able to get it 
running nicely on even a 
relatively modest system. 

V II 


V There's a huge amount of satisfaction 

■" m a to be had from attempting gunfights over 
and over, using bullet time in every possible way. 


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A.I. A.I. Oh 


Enemy A.I. is a mixed bag. 
Although it seems impressive in 
the heat of battle, the flaws in 
the A.I. can easily be exploited if 
you play the game in a more 
patient mindset. Watching the 
enemies roll one way and then 
the other over and over is 
comical... and a little sad. That 
said, there are huge numbers of 
guys to kill, so maybe it's a good 
thing they're not too smart. 


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revolves around the death of Max’s 
wife and child, and the demons that 
plague him. In order to make Max 
more than a one dimensional 
character, Remedy have tried to 
provide a window \ r 
mental state at variou; 
throughout the game. 

The two most 
significant examples 
of which are 
when Max is 
unconscious at 
the end of both 
the first and second 
parts. He finds 
himself running 
through his old 
house, hearing the 
screams of his wife and 
gunshots going off. The 
visual effect is very cool, 
each room has its own 
tone thanks to subtle 


manipulation of colours and an 
expanded FOV which makes 
everything look out of 
perspective and surreal. Max 
even seems to move 
differently, running as if 
underwater. In both 

he then finds 
himself in a dark world 
with narrow paths 
marked in blood 
and deep red 
falling. 

This bloody 
winter 

wonderland is 
undoubtedly a 
stunning visual 
scene. The problem 
is Remedy just 
don’t do enough 
with it, reducing the 
gameplay to finding 
the correct path in the 


maze. It feels half finished, with no 
real introspection. The second time 
around you find yourself in a 
repeating room where Max’s 
drugged subconscious tells him he’s 
in a computer game! This 
contradicts the purpose of the 
dream sequence entirely, jolting the 
player out of their immersion in 
Max’s headspace and back to the 
reality that it’s just a game. It’s not 
like it’s that bad an idea, but the 
execution was clumsy. To pull off a 
surreal and somewhat cheeky scene 
like this requires a delicate touch in 
the script and direction - a touch 
that simply wasn’t there. Indeed, at 
this stage in the game I’d noticed 
that the script in general was 
slipping marginally in quality, as if 
time was short and the developers 
didn’t have time to polish the 
dialogue and narration to an 
appropriate degree. 


ILLUSION OF OPTIONS 

Another downside often inherent in 
story-driven action games is that 
they’re incredibly linear. Max Payne 
is no exception. There’s the illusion 
of options but in reality there’s only 
one way through each level. This is 
mirrored in how non-interactive the 
environments are in general. Sure, 
you can shoot an attache case filled 
with money and the money will go 
flying, or you could press the button 
on a vending machine, but it’s all 
very superficial. Similarly, the 
puzzles are very simplistic. 
Fortunately, although repetitive, the 
action is compelling enough that 
you probably won’t care. And the 
movie influences really add to the 
game’s enjoyment. One gets the 
feeling that every action sequence is 
an elaborate set piece from a film 
that must be executed perfectly. 
There’s a huge amount of 




















,- U ^ Max ' n pcirticular looks like he permanently 

i a ■" has a carrot stashed in his date. 


satisfaction to be had from 
attempting gunfights over and over, 
using bullet time in every possible 
way, attempting every strategy 
until you execute the perfect kill 
and the whole scene appears 
seamlessly choreographed. 

An element of the gun battles that 
people will either love or hate is the 
collision detection on the scenery. 

On one hand, it’s quite realistic in 
that you can use the scenery as 
cover and your shots can miss if 
even a smallish object is in the way. 
On the other hand, the mobsters 
don’t seem to have this problem, 
and your shots can miss even when 
the site seems to be on someone’s 
head just because of the way the 
perspective works. Regardless, you 
get used to it, and the aftermath of 
a gun fight is something to behold, 
with walls riddled with bullet holes 
and bodies in grotesque positions. If 


only we could add in some GeoMod 
goodness for a real Matrix gun 
battle where chunks are getting 
ripped out of walls, we’d be in 
heaven. Max Payne 2 perhaps? 

PAYNE KILLERS 

One area that we do have a major 
gripe with, however, is the 
technique that Remedy use regularly 
throughout the game where the 
player is dumped from a cutscene 
straight into a major gunfight. Since 
the cutscenes are unskippable, 
you’ll hit autosave as soon as you’re 
back in the game, only to die a split 
second later. Very annoying. 

Max Payne is also lacking in 
longevity. The entire game can be 
completed in around eight hours. 
What Remedy have done to give the 
player extra value is in the 
difficulty settings. On a fresh 
install, you only have the easiest 


difficulty setting available. Once 
you’ve beaten that, the next 
difficulty level opens up. So it may 
be possible to blast through the 
game on easy in a few hours, but 
rest assured the higher difficulty 
levels won’t be a walk in the park. 
Even so, we’d have preferred the 
game to be longer in the first place, 
as there’s only so many times that 
people will want to play through 
the same missions. Plus, you still 
can’t skip the in-game cinematics 
second time through. 

. Even though it doesn’t herald the 
dawn of a new gaming age, Max 
Payne is a very slick and hugely 
entertaining action game. Not only 
is it one of the first action games 
where the third person perspective 
really works, but it’s also the 
ultimate mobster-film fantasy 
game. Forget Kingpin, Max Payne is 
the shiznit. << 



VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

89 86 88 

OVERALL 

89 


It may not change the world, 
but it will rock your world! 


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48 »HYPER 



Anachronox s>pc 


CATEGORY: RPG/Adventure >> PLAYERS: 1 >> PUBLISHER: Eidos >> PRICE: S89.95 >> RATING: M >> AVAILABLE: Now >> REQUIRED: PII-266, 64MB RAM, 3D card 


UJ 

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DAN TOOSE wonders if his PC is impersonating a console... 


THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR 
WALKING 

Our story starts with a thug beating 
the crud out of a private investigator 
by the name of Sylvester Boots. This 
washed up investigator is in debt, and 
out of work, and is forced to scrape 
around the city of Anachronox in 
hopes of getting himself back in the 
black. His first job ends up leading 
him on an adventure that spans across 
six worlds, hooking up with a group of 
would be party members, giving him 
far more important issues to deal with 
than his black eye and bank balance. 

To give you an idea of how long 
Anachronox has been in the works, you 
only need to know that it runs off a 
modified version of the Quake 2 
engine. This leaves us with a means of 
moving around the various areas in a 
first person shooter style of control, but 


in the third person (like in Heretic 2 for 
example). Of course, the Quake 2 
engine is not cutting edge these days, 
and although poly counts for both the 
characters and the environments aren’t 
that impressive, Ion Storm have done a 
great job at designing interesting 
levels. Add to this the humorous 
animations and facial expressions of 
the characters, and you’ve got a pretty 
decent looking game. 

While the combat mechanics are 
very much a take on the console RPC 
format, something that stands out in 
Anachronox is the fact that the 
dialogue in the game is quite 
detailed, and often quite hysterically 
funny. A great deal of effort has gone 
into making encounters with other 
characters amusing, and it’s odd to 
be playing a Japanese style RPC, that 
has so obviously been created with 


S or those who haven’t spent 
time playing both PC and 
console RPCs, it’s quite 
easy to point out the major 
difference between the two. PC 
RPCs traditionally have a complex 
combat engine, often real-time, 
quite unique to that game. Console 
RPCs almost invariably use a turn- 
based system, where you tend to 
choose an action, and watch to see 
what the result is, with each 
character taking their turn. With 
the growing popularity of 
franchises such as the Final Fantasy 
series, it’s always been a matter of 
time till we saw a console style RPC 
on a PC that wasn’t just a port of a 
PlayStation game... Ion Storm are 
the ones responsible, delivering 
their very Japanese-esque RPC, 
Anachronox. 























^J’When you go to use one of 
your characters' non-combat 
skills, you are essentially 
presented with a mini-game, 
which you have to complete to 
execute the skill successfully. 

For example. Boots can pick 
locks, which involves using a 
kind of hot/cold meter on a 
combination lock. His trusty 
robot "PAL" can hack into 
computer systems, which 
involves choosing a series of 
tiles to connect two sides of a 
grid that has hidden bad spots. 
It's not mind blowing, but it's 
more interesting than a random 
check against a statistic. 






-/ 


Zoom zoom zoom... 



a m a Unfortunately if you need to travel to the far 
■" ■" side of the "world" you're in, then that 

means walking back the whole way. 


the English language in mind. Not 
only is the dialogue funny, but 
there’s also a tonne of voice acting, 
which is of a very high standard, 
something that a lot of RPGs lack. The 
music and sound are also quite nice, 
with the variety of ambient tunes 
suiting the game perfectly. 

If you really crave lots of combat in 
your RPGs, then Anachronox will feel 
like an adventure game rather than an 
RPG, because there are no random 
encounters to be found anywhere, and 
the planned encounters are few and 
far between. Most of the game is spent 
solving puzzles, through talking to the 
inhabitants of the places you travel to, 
or by using the special skills of your 
characters to dig up information out 
of things in the environment. 

COLOURED BUGS 

When you have a game where you 
have to travel back and forth through 


an area to find the people or items you 
need to complete your current goals, 
being able to backtrack quickly is 
something we’d hope to 
see implemented. 

Unfortunately if you 
need to travel to the far 
side of the ’’world” 
you’re in, then that means walking 
back the whole way, with different 
sections loading up, and basically 
having you bored out of your brain. 
Some shortcuts to reach places you’ve 
been to would have been very 
welcome. This is a particular pain once 
you have more than three characters in 
your party, because you can only take 
three out at a time, and if you need 
the skills of someone you left back at 
your base of operations, then you have 
to waste time travelling to get them. 

Further traits of Anachronox that 
scream ’’console RPG” include the 
Mystech "magic” system, which 


utilises a variety of coloured bugs. 

This is extremely similar to the materia 
systems in Final Eantasy, or the magic 
experience of Skies of 
Arcadia. It’s not bad, 
it’s just not original. 
The equipment for 
each character is also 
very console-orientated, with just the 
basics of weapon, armour, mystech 
(magic), and two auxiliary items for 
each character. Finding equipment 
upgrades aren’t common 
occurrences, so if you crave statistical 
character development, this one 
might not be your cup of tea. 

If you’re a PC gamer who’s never 
played a console RPG, or if you hate 
random encounters, then 
Anachronox will be a breath of fresh 
air for you. However, it hardly brings 
anything new to the style it has 
taken on, and in that sense, could 
have been a much better RPG. 


in 


Anachronox is the finol 
game from the Ion 
• • • Storm Dallas studios. 
Looks like Daikatona hurt. 



PLUS: Excellent dialogue. 
Genuinely funny. 


MINUS: Very light on combat. 

VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

79 84 79 


OVERALL 



A console-style RPG that is light 
on combat, heavy on comedy. . 


JO 

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50 »HYPER 




Arcanum 


CATEGORY: RPG >> PLAYERS: 1-Multi >> 

ELIOT FISH likes 


magine a small, hairy dwarf. 
Now imagine a small, hairy 
dwarf with a double-barrelled 
shotgun. The question here is which 
would you rather be? It’d be fair to say 
that no one really wants to be a 
stumpy, hirsute stone cutter, but as 
soon as the double-shottie enters the 
equation it suddenly becomes all the 
more appealing, doesn't it? Or maybe 
that’s just our twisted, RPC-exhausted 
brain kicking in... Gaming brains 
starved for a fresh new twist on a genre 
currently swamped with product. 

Okay then, imagine an entire 
fantasy world at the time of the 
industrial revolution — a world bustling 
with many, many dwarves, ores, ogres, 
elves and halflings, except they’re 
brandishing rifles, wearing top-hats, 
appreciating fine art, and building 
crazy steam engines. Yes, this is the 


world of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and 
Magick Obscura, a refreshing take on 
the quest-drenched RPC. 

HAGGLE YOUR WAY TO VICTORY 

Arcanum is an RPG in the truest sense, 
with a character creation and 
development system that is one of the 
most open-ended, interesting and 
satisfying ever devised. There are a 
number of classic races to choose from 
(this isn’t just an aesthetic choice, as 
you will be treated differently in the 
game depending on your race), and a 
plentiful number of back-stories that 
you can apply to your character during 
creation. The back-story you choose 
will change your starting skills and 
stats slightly, for instance, choosing to 
begin as an ’’escaped lunatic” gives 
you increased resistances but no 
money and a negative reaction 


PUBLISHER: Sierro >> PRICE: S89.95 >> RATING: Ml 5+ >> AVAILABLE: Now >> REQUIRED: P200, 

to wear nothing under his armour... 


modifier, or choosing to have 
grown up with a magick allergy 
prevents you from using 
magic items but a 10% 
head-start in 
technological aptitude. 

In a way, the varied 
character creation is 
reminiscent of Fallout 
(which is no surprise 
considering that Tim Cain, 
who worked on Fallout, was 
also behind Arcanum). It’s 
quite staggering how many 
character paths Troika games 
have catered for, as dialogue and 
quests will all change depending on 
your sex, race, looks and intelligence. 
This is a game you’ll want to play 
through a second time, just so you can 
see how different the experience is 
from playing as a half-ore female 


technologist to 
playing as a 
magick using male 
elf thief, or any other 
crazy combination 
Because magick 
technology are at 
opposite ends of the 
spectrum, you really need 
focus upon one of the other to 
be able to develop your 
characters strengths to the fullest 
possible degree. It’s within this 
great conflict that the world of 
Arcanum thrives and jostles, 
facing you with many a crucial 
decision and moral dilemma. 

A technology loving dwarf 
gets very little benefit from magickal 
items, and a mage isn’t going to be 
able to fire a gun to save his life, as 
these sides of the coin virtually cancel 










Eider is staying at tin imi next 

My Hood! Do you t eali/t tlv« you ac 10 ***'k**' 

naked, young man? j 


f ve jjsi been in the most terrible blimp crash, sir! 
Might I ask who you are, sir? 

1 must go. 




"You have not yet completed your 'training', my apprentice. 


Vj a * a See how different the experience is from playing 

■■ ■" as ◦ half-ore female technologist to 

playing as a magick using elven male thief! 


each other out. It’s even true to say 
that a magical spell used offensively 
on a technologist would have 
nowhere near the effect intended, 
and a bullet fired at an elven wizard 
would be brushed off like a flea. 

The complexities that arise from the 
combination of sub-quests, the 
customisable nature of your 
character, and the fact that all of this 
is somehow managed within an epic 
storyline, rich with history and 
mysterious twists, makes Arcanum so 
intensely playable and memorable. 

DODGE DODGE DODGE 

The combat system is complete with a 
broad magic system, traditional melee 
fighting set-up and more advanced 
technological weapon system that 
includes firearms, traps and the like. 
With the option to play either turn- 
based or real time included, combat 
can be enjoyed in many different 


ways. You also have NPCs to travel 
with you, much like in Fallout, who will 
generally look after themselves and 
maybe throw you the odd healing 
spell when needed. It’s also possible to 
be scarred in combat, 
which can adversely 
affect your stats. Whilst 
characters can only 
make it to level 50, 
combat is still enjoyable after the thirst 
for experience points is quenched. 

Some gamers might be initially 
disappointed with Arcanum’s 
seemingly dated graphics engine, 
but it certainly has a style of its own 
that grows on you as your adventure 
expands. Animation is fairly basic, 
but the voice acting is generally 
very good and the character depth 
and story are so engrossing that the 
game really comes alive despite its 
limited character art (not everything 
your character wears is represented 


visually in the game world). It must 
be said, that the wealth of items, 
weapons and armour in the game is 
almost overwhelming. The local 
general store has everything from 
headache tablets to 
shovels, boots, 
cameras, top hats 
and many, many 
more diverse and 

useful items. 

Don’t for a second be put off by 
Arcanum’s threading of traditional 
fantasy through this industrial 
landscape. Not only is this a welcome 
relief from all the other medieval, 
fantasy and sci-fi tosh out there, but 
it achieves the same kind of lush 
game world that was once 
experienced in Fallout and 
Planescape Torment. It’s not without 
its share of bugs, or niggling 
gameplay faults, but it is by far the 
best RPC we’ve played this year. <X 


in 


You con create your 
own custom character 
• • • portrait! Just go to 
www.sierrastudios.com/ 
games/orcanum for details. 



PLUS: Massive game world, world 
editor, and multiplayer. 

MINUS: A few general bugs, and 
your character maxes out too soon^ 


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The Moon Project g>p c_ 

CATEGORY: Real Time Strategy >> PLAYERS: 1-4 >> PUBLISHER: Pier 57 >> PRICE: $89.95 >> RATING: M >> AVAILABLE: Now > > REQUIRED: Pentium 200 # 32 MB RAM >> 



CM 

to 


JAMES COTTEE I aunches his own Allan Parsons Project... 


ou’ve gotta love those 
krauts. While the rest of the 
RTS industry are barking up 
the trees of irritating voice samples 
and 3D graphics for their own sake, 
German software houses are pushing 
the envelope of just how much 
complexity you can fit in a game 
still playable by human beings... 
failing that, Germans. 

BLACK HOLE SUN, WON'T 
YOU COME 

Topware Interactive have won critical 
acclaim for their Earth: 2150 franchise, 
and The Moon Project is the third and 
latest in the series. It follows the 
adventures of our old chums the 
Eurasian Dynasty and the United 
Civilized States as their jostling for 
Earth’s post-apocalyptic resource 
base is complicated by the 
intervention of the Lunar Corporation. 
These three factions are all eager to 
start afresh on another planet, since 
the nuclear exchange of their last war 
knocked the Earth out of its orbit, on 
a collision course with the sun! 

Of course, explosive force of that 
magnitude would render the planet 


uninhabitable, but in the RTS genre, 
realism oft takes the back seat. As a 
field commander for one of these 
factions, you must build bases and 
units like you would expect, with a 
few gameplay features ignored by 
the designers at Westwood and 
Blizzard. Most significant 
of these is the support of 
a custom scripting 
language, where you can 
combine some simple 
programming skills with your grasp 
of tactics to automate your war 
machine. 

By scripting the more mundane 
aspects of running your burgeoning 
empire, you can free up your 
tactical brain cells for abstract, 
strategic tasks. This is assuming you 
don’t map out every aspect of your 
conquest in advance, a tempting 
task for the code cutters amongst 
us. Apparently this is a popular kind 
of Teutonic death-match, and at the 
very least adds value to your 
purchase. After you’ve beaten all 
the missions, you can then see if you 
can do it with your hands tied 
behind your back. 


The complexity of regular human 
play is well served by the interface, 
with tabs for selecting any building 
or unit. The skill of the programming 
team is manifested most visibly in the 
graphics engine, which is forgiving 
on low-end hardware. Open GL is 

supported at the top end, 
for all the crispy textures 
you can handle. Many of 
the buildings and units 
look very similar, but the 
three sides can be differentiated 
easily. Gameplay exists in three 
dimensions, with deformable terrain, 
and even tunnel systems you can 
build beneath the Earth (or moon). 

A SEMI-REALISTIC STAB 

The Moon Project is a semi-realistic 
stab at a war of tomorrow, with 
skilled Al, customisable weapons 
platforms, and even true line of 
sight (if your men can see a flag, 
their morale and performance will 
improve. How patriotic!). Sure, it’s 
difficult, but if you just want to tank 
rush then you can play Emperor all 
day. This is a deep game that 
rewards the time you invest in it. « 



I B B Specking of 
| | Black Hole 
• • • Sun, Chris 
Cornell has joined Rage 
Agoinst the Machine! 



VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 


OVERALL 

88 


Epic strategy, but only for the 
hardcore. 























^ - 


£ • 3W# 


Anyone bring the dragon repellent? 


BALDUR'S GATE II: 


Throne of Bhaal 


CATEGORY: RPG >> PLAYERS: 1-4 >> PUBLISHER: Interplay >> PRICE: $39.95 >> RATING: M15+ >> AVAILABLE: Now >> REQUIRED: Baldur's Gate II >> 


GEORGE SOROPOS gets out his +4 mouse and 


keyboard... 


he demon hordes burst 
through the barred doors like 
a tidal wave, almost 
swamping our position. A faint rustling 
in my trousers told me that one of our 
mages had just cast Ottoluke’s Super 
Absorbent Panty Shield to protect us 
from any unfortunate accidents during 
the heat of battle. While our other 
mage, Mad Cyril, was busy preparing 
his trademark Bigby’s Well Lubricated 
Fist. Old Cyril didn’t like to hurt things 
much, but he could sure surprise the 
heck out of them. 

BHAAL ME OVER 

And so begins the final chapter in 
the saga of the children of Bhaal. 
Interplay’s landmark series finally 
comes to a close, sort of, with 
Throne of Bhaal (TOB) and fans 
won’t need too much convincing to 
go out and grab it. If you play BG2 
online you’ll want this just to get 
the improvements to the interface, 
the new character class and spells. 

The Wild Mage is the new character 
class and their ability to channel and 
manipulate unpredictable energy is 
their key ability. Of course to use one 


you’ll have to start a new party, 
whether at the beginning of BG2 or 
TOB, and if you’ve managed to keep 
your group intact from the very first 
Baldur’s Gate this may not be an 
appealing option. If a mage or cleric 
in your party has foolishly filled their 
book with spells at a 
particular level and can’t 
learn any more they can 
now permanently delete 
some from their book to make room 
for more useful magics. Another 
useful feature allows you to disable 
pausing on the map screen for single 
player use, making it a bit easier to 
traverse long distances. 

The most important new stuff 
however are the spells and high level 
abilities available to your party. One 
of the problems with taking a game 
based on the AD£D rules this far is that 
once you are over 20th level you are 
considered almost a demi-God and 
the rules don’t allow for much growth 
beyond that point. To try and make up 
for this, Black Isle has included new 
special abilities for non-magic users 
and 10th level and Quest level spells for 
mages and clerics respectively. 


A KICK IN THE BHAALS 

Speaking of levels, TOB has an eight 
million experience point cap which 
means that most single class 
characters can go as high as 40th 
level. But those eight million points 
are very hard to find. Your party 

starts the game with around 
three million per character 
and by the end ours only 
had about six. 

The designers of TOB have also 
been good enough to put some great 
humour in the game, one dungeon 
section plays like an old school text 
adventure and in another section 
you get to send a party of low level 
adventurers on a quest for you as a 
send up of the way most people play 
computer RPGs. 

On the minus side of things, early 
on you are given access to your own 
'pocket plane’ of hell, basically a 
place where you can retreat to with 
the press of a button whenever you 
like. Being able to run away and heal 
takes some of the challenge out of the 
game, but TOB is still not easy. This 
game has the nastiest monsters yet 
seen in a Black Isle game! 



A satisfying conclusion to a 
fantastic RPG series. 



in 


Neverwinter 
Nights is the 
• • • next RPG to 
come from Bioware. 


2 

m 

c 

m 

E 


»HYPER S3 
























isi 

gfni 


*■ 

to 


NBA Street 

CATEGORY: Arcade Basketball ' PLAYERS: 1-2 > - PUBLISHER: EA >> PRICE: S89.95 

GEORGE SOROPOS is hip to the 


f you ever wanted to hit the 
mean inner city streets of 
Pittsburgh or Chicago and 
take on the best ball players around 
while dodging drive bys and drug 
dealers then this is the game for you. 
EA's ’BIG’ line of games got off to a rip 
roaring start with SSX and the sports 
giant has kept that momentum going 
with the release of NBA Street. Street 
follows the tradition of Midway’s NBA 
jam series of games and is designed 
around the concept of over the top fun 
rather than accurate simulation. It’s a 
three on three contest with the winner 
being the first to clear out by two 
points upon or after reaching 21. It’s 
mean, it’s dirty and it’s fun, fun, fun! 

BIG AIR SLAM DUNK 

Circuit City is the name of the main 
game mode and it lets you take a 


team across several regions of the US 
and a bunch of different street courts. 
You start the game only having 
access to the standard NBA teams and 
Mr Michael Jordan. It’s odd that the 
best player in the NBA is available 
straight away but there you go. 

When you grind another team into 
the dust you can actually grab one of 
the five players available in that team 
to improve your roster or you can 
choose to use more development 
points for your created character. 
When you’re finished with Circuit City 
you can move on to Hold the Court, a 
sort of survival game that rewards 
you with more player creation 
options like new skins. You can also 
learn the basics in Street School, a 
helpful and brief tutorial of the game. 

As we said before, Street is part of 
EA’s ’BIG’ range of games, like SSX. Of 


RATING: G > > AVAILABLE: Now 

street. Maybe. 


course, real life basketball and 
snowboarding don’t have a 
lot in common, but these two 
games share similar control 
schemes, relying on the four 
trigger buttons as a means 
to pull off tricks, or in this 
case, amazing moves. 

The stronger the tricks 
and the sweeter the combos 
you manage to complete, 
the faster the ’Gamebreaker’ 
meter fills up. What does 
the ’Gamebreaker’ do? It 
breaks the game open of 
course! If you make a 
Gamebreaker shot you’ll 
gain a point or two and your 
opponent will lose a point or 
two. Close games can be 
turned around quickly 
using the Gamebreaker. 


Another aspect of NBA 
Street that helps it stand out 
from the pack is the way 
that it handles blocked 
shots. In most basketball 
games, especially 
arcade-style ones, the 
most exciting aspect is the 
slam-dunk and these games 
are almost always much 
more enjoyable when you 
have the ball in your hands 
rather than when you’re 
playing on the defensive. In 
NBA Street, blocked shots are 
a very important part of 
dominating the court, and 
coming up with a huge 
intercept or goal tend is 
every bit as 

enjoyable and 
rewarding as 




















\\lf you've beaten every basketball 

■" ■" game and think that there's nothing left to 
offer you a challenge, NBA Street should surprise. 


getting a big air slam-dunk. 

That's not to say that dunks no 
longer have any impact, the dunks 
NBA Street delivers pack a lot of 
punch and players will be able to do 
everything from two-handed reverse 
slams to big dunks and even pass it 
to themselves off of the backboard. 
The game also features a very simple 
ally-oop system where teammates 
will run for the hoop whenever they 
have an opening and all the player 
has to do is time the pass to the 
player. Getting a first-rate ally-oop 
is not only rewarding in itself, but 
when done with special moves can 
boost up that Gamebreaker meter 
more than anything else. 

RUN RAMPANT 

If you’ve beaten every basketball game 
out there and think that there’s nothing 
left to offer you a challenge, NBA Street 
should pleasantly surprise you. While 


it’s easy to run rampant on the "easy” 
setting, this certainly isn’t the case 
when you crank up the difficulty. When 
playing against strong computer- 
controlled opponents on the harder 
levels the computer will 
play much more 
intelligently and will try 
and boost up their 
Gamebreaker meter 
every bit as hard as you do. The games 
are extremely competitive and almost 
all of them come down to a tight finish. 

Another great feature is the create- 
a-player function, one of the best 
you’ll find in any sports game as 
created players can be edited and 
changed at any time. Players are given 
the chance to upgrade their created 
player after each victory if they choose 
not to select one of the players from 
the team they’ve just beaten. What’s 
more, the number of attribute points 
that can be won is directly related with 


the number of trick points that the 
player earned while playing. 

One of the only complaints we can 
make about NBA Street is that it only 
supports one or two player action. 

This is one game that 
would have revelled 
in a four player mode 
and it’s hard to see 
why one wasn’t 
included. Even so, two player games 
are huge fun and easily the best way 
to play NBA Street. 

NBA Street is still a bit limited in 
certain areas. You can’t change the 
number of points you need to win a 
game or play with a different number 
of guys per side. The game could also 
benefit from player-specific moves, as 
the only thing that differentiates one 
guy from another is his look and stats. 

When all is said and done, NBA 
Street is easily one of the most 
enjoyable basketball titles out there. 


Ill 


You con also ploy os 
a female bosketball 
• • • player in NBA Street - 
which is a welcome addition. 



PLUS: Big fun gameplay, great 
moves, well polished. 


MINUS: Only one or two can 

VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

85 85 90 


OVERALL 



Brings back memories of NBA 
Jam... lots of fun! 


»HYPER 55 














































56 »HYPER 




Extreme-G 3 /V^®ps 2 


CATEGORY: Futuristic Rocing PLAYERS: 1-2 >> PUBLISHER: Acclaim >> PRICE: $89.95 >> RATING: G > AVAILABLE: Now >> 

CAM SHEA tries 

D he first thing you'll notice 

when perusing Extreme-G 3’s 
menus, teams, dispassionate 
female voice-over and then racing 
action is just how much this game 
wants to be Wipeout Fusion. It really, 
badly, desperately wants to be 
Wipeout Fusion. And who can blame 
it? The Wipeout games are among the 
most seminal of the "next generation” 

(now "last generation”) machines, 
and really set the benchmark for 
funky futuristic racing. 

A HALLMARK MOMENT 

Acclaim’s Cheltenham Studios have 
done a good job with Extreme-G 3. 

Many of the hallmarks of the last two 
games - fogging, bouncing from wall 
to wall thanks to restrictive courses, 
and an appalling frame rate are 
things of the past. Of course, that's to 
be expected moving from the N64 to 
PS2, but it’s just so satisfying 
cranking along at 50/60 fps (well, 
most of the time) with 11 other racers 
on the track and a view distance that 
allows you to see the entire course. 

Extreme-G 3 is a pretty game in 
some regards - the course suspended 


a 

UJ 

i> 

til 

tr 


to put Extreme-G 

above the water is very cool, with far- 
off hi-tech castles and a nice 
underwater section. In fact, the 
environments are the visual highlight 
of the game. Closer to the action it’s a 
slightly different story. Some of the 
weapon effects are awesome, as is the 
sonic boom, but a fair 
amount of design 
mediocrity creeps in too. 

The headlight effect for 
one is perhaps the worst we’ve ever 
seen, consisting of a fuzzy white haze 
that doesn't illuminate the 
surroundings, and is more likely to 
impair your vision than enhance it. 

The track design is very much in 
the same style as Wipeout Fusion’s - 
loop the loops, corkscrews, split 
paths, snake runs etc. There are some 
breathtaking moments, but also some 
infuriating aspects to the track 
design and the handling mechanics 
that should have been identified and 
improved during playtesting. For 
instance, every second course or so 
has a section where you drop down a 
stepped section of track. If you’re 
slightly off course (and this is easier 
than you’d think given the twitchy 


2 out of his mind... 

handling) you’ll land outside the 
course and die. No, you’re not placed 
back on the track ala Wipeout, it’s 
game over. Very frustrating for a 
momentary loss of concentration. 

WE CAN REBUILD HIM 

Acclaim have made some 
interesting changes to 
the overall layout of the 
game. There are your 
standard arcade and league modes, 
as well as different speed classes, but 
what’s really intriguing is the bike 
modification system. By winning 
races in the league mode you earn 
money that can be spent on 
improving your bike’s components, 
including both defensive and 
offensive weaponry, engine power 
and various utilities that allow you to 
carry more weapons, shields etc. This 
is a nice addition and works well. 

For those after a game to tide 
them over until Wipeout Fusion, 
Extreme-G 3 is a good option. It’s 
hardly a classic, but is challenging 
enough, and most importantly, 
entertaining enough to be worth 
consideration. 



PLUS: Much better than the first 
two in the series. A good challenge. 


MINUS: A few small changes 
would have made it much better^ 

A 

VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

80 79 77 


OVERALL 



A step up for the series, but 
still room for improvement. 


I I Sony's Wipeout 
A I Fusion is 
• • • scheduled for 
November! Drooool. 









































MINUS: Slow controls can be 
really frustrating. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

80 80 75 

OVERALL 

78 


PLUS: Realistic overall feel, with 
teamplay being most important. 


r—T- 


CATEGORY: Sport >> PLAYERS: 1-4 >: PUBLISHER: Infogrames >> PRICE: $89.95 >> RATING: G >> AVAILABLE: Now 


GEORGE SOROPOS gives this game a yellow card... 


nfogrames took the bull by 
the horns when they decided 
to take on the combined 
might of EA’s FIFA and Konami’s ISS 
series with UEFA Challenge. Trying to 
find an edge over the competition 
they have enlisted the help of nine of 
the "best football players in Europe" 
as advisors to the game’s 
development and come up with a 
package that tries hard to offer a real 
alternative to the old guard. 

SLICED ORANGES 

Unlike other titles, UEFA Challenge 
focuses more on passes and dynamic 
play rather than skill moves. In other 
words you won’t be able to hog the 
ball, do twenty stunning moves to cut 
through your opponent’s defenders, 
and then run around the goalie for a 
point. As in the real game you must 
be able to pass the ball with enough 
timing and skill to get around your 
defenders. On top of that, your passes 
are not always perfect, sometimes 
they will go straight to an opponent 
or go too far ahead of your team mate 
or off the field altogether. Because of 
this it is also important to keep an eye 


on the radar to see where your players 
actually areas they will try and run 
into open space whenever they can. 

UEFA’s officials are also a bit more 
wary than in other games. Try playing 
loosely and you will pay the price. 
Almost any kind of sliding tackle will 
bring a penalty. If anything, UEFA 
Challenge’s officials are stricter than 
the real thing and they are 
very effective at keeping 
the player honest. 

In terms of 

appearance, UEFA isn’t 
the most attractive Soccer title on 
the PS2, but it does boast a very high 
level of detail on the player’s faces, 
complete with dirty looks and toothy 
grins. Though, a few mistakes have 
been made concerning the racial 
characteristics of a few players (ie 
wrong coloured skin!) 

The field and stadium both boast 
high levels of detail complete with 
lights, security guards and TV 
Cameras, not to mention the waving 
fans and team flags. Weather effects 
are a nice touch too; snowflakes float 
over the camera and rain and hail 
barrage the players on the field. You 


may also notice that the field even 
experiences wear and tear 
throughout the game! 

SENSATIONS ON THE PITCH 

Sadly where UEFA fails to live up to the 
real challenge (the one against FIFA 
and ISS), is in the all-important area of 
control. UEFA’s response time to 

commands is a little slow 
which can make playing 
the game an exercise in 
frustration. Sometimes 
your players will sit back 
from the ball and wait for the 
opposing player to snatch it away. 
Your players' reactions after changing 
who you control are also too slow. 

According to Infogrames, nine 
players from the UEFA League helped 
out with the game by "describing 
their sensations on the pitch” which 
the developers then apparently used 
to "reproduce these feelings in the 
game”. So if your jockstrap starts to 
itch badly during the first half or if 
you feel like running off to the south 
of France with one of the Spice Girls, 
don’t panic, it’s all part of the 
game. ‘ : X 


| | Bring on FIFA 
| | 2002! That's 
• • • what we really 
want boyeeee. Oh, that 
ond a GameCube for it. 


»HYPER 57 

































58 »HYPER 



AHantis: The Lost Empire 



hen it comes to 
videogames, Disney 
Interactive has rightly been 
at the butt end of many jokes. Its 
archaic marketing structure seems 
to think it can indefinitely drag out 
the life of its movies by delaying the 
release date of a game; that the 
appeal of its characters are so 
timeless that it can release a game 
over a year after the movie’s 
theatrical release; and that kids can 
be repeatedly duped into buying 
any crap as long as a picture of 
Mickey is slapped on the cover. 



PUSHING A CRATE 


UJ 

D 

UJ 

E 


But now Disney seems to have wised 
up, and appears to be trying to 
make a serious name for itself in the 
videogames market. One need only 
look to the strategic alliances it’s 
made over the last 12 months, like 
collaborating with Rare to make 
Mickey’s Speedway USA, or teaming 
up with Squaresoft to create 
Kingdom Hearts. Disturbingly, the 
latter game actually looks like 
something worth paying good 
money for. And here’s where Disney 


is correcting another one of its 
mistakes: Atlantis is actually coming 
out perfectly in time with the movie. 

Don’t start reaching for your 
wallets just yet, though: while 
Atlantis has the look and feel of a 
very decent game, it’s still just a 
game for small children. 

You’ll gather this much 
from the long and 
unavoidable tutorial that 
goes through how to jump, punch, 
duck, and search - actions that 
require the push of only one button. 

Atlantis is an action/adventure 
game, putting you in the role of the 
film’s main characters as you go in a 
submarine and dive in search of the 
fabled sunken city. The core of the 
gameplay is formed by a need to 
periodically switch characters, as no 
one individual has the combined 
abilities of climbing a ladder, pushing 
a crate, flicking a light switch, or 
igniting an explosive fuse. In other 
words, Atlantis will pose challenges 
that can only be handled by one of 
the team members, much like 
Paradroid, Evo’s Space Adventure, or 
even Donkey Kong 64 - only easier. 


SPOON-FED 

But like one of those infuriating little 
brats who spoil everything for you 
by trying to show off his l33t 
gaming skills, Atlantis spoon-feeds 
you the solution to every new puzzle 
you encounter. Keys, trinkets and 
magic books are often 
cleverly hidden face-up 
on a table or in the 
middle of the floor 
space. Courteous reminders that you 
shouldn’t turn off the power before 
opening the main escape hatch will 
likely be followed by "Shut up, I 
might’ve derived some enjoyment 
from figuring that out myself". 

But if an audience with an IQ of 
less than 50 is what Disney is aiming 
for, then one can’t really complain. 
Atlantis wasn’t designed with 
mature gamers in mind. At least 
mature gamers who still cling on to 
the hope that Disney will produce a 
game that does supreme justice to 
the heroes of their childhood 
memories will know what to 
recommend if a young, 
impressionable child is in need of a 
new game. 


in 


Kingdom 
Hearts for the 
• • • PS2 just might 
be the Disney game we've 
all been hoping for. 



PLUS: Rock solid graphics and 
controls. Just like the movie. 

MINUS: Reveals the answers to 

VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

83 80 70 


OVERALL 



Kids who loved the movie have 
every reason to buy this game^ 


# 


sJ 


















I 



Digimon World ®P5one 


CATEGORY: Pet Breeding >> PLAYERS: 1 >> PUBLISHER: Bondai >> PRICE: $79.95 >> RATING: G8 + >> AVAILABLE: Now>> 

KEVIN CHEUNG experiments with bad parenting... 


hile Nintendo reaps ail the 
profits and kudos from 
Pokemon and finds new 
and better ways to milk it for all it’s 
worth (as you would), one has to 
wonder how Bandai is feeling. You 
see, long before Pokemon ever 
existed, a Darwin Award actually 
went to a female driver who killed 
herself and her passenger because 
she answered the feeble calls for 
food from her egg-shaped virtual 
pet - which was attached to her car 
keys. No, it wasn’t a Togepi that 
was responsible for the mishap. 

Back in those days, the virtual pet 
craze had only just started, and 
they were called ’Tamagotchi’, 
made by Bandai. 

POCKET MONSTERS 

Digimon can literally be thought of 
as Tamagotchi 2.0. Instead of taking 
place in a fictional fantasy world, the 
human characters have actually been 
sucked into Earth’s digital world, 
kind of like in Tron. The Digimon 
(short for Digital Monsters) are the 
animals that inhabit this digital 
world. Like Pokemon, you can own 


them (but you can only use one at a 
time) and they can be trained to 
fight. They can even transform into 
larger, more powerful versions of 
themselves. However, if they get tired 
or beaten up, you don’t just teleport 
them into a pokeball and run away 
to the local chop shop. That’s the 
beauty of this RPC simulation - they 
follow you around like a real pet, and 
you actually have to feed 
them, nurture them, 
praise them and scold 
them in real time. 

Digimon World assumes you’ve 
never seen the cartoon before (which 
incidentally is miles more interesting 
than Pokemon), putting you through 
the long-eared introductory motions 
of an FMV that shows how you were 
sucked into the digital world. You then 
name yourself, then your pet, then it’s 
off on your quest to win the favour of 
all the Digimon on the island. 

KICK AND BITE 

Being an RPC, the presentation is 
(surprise, surprise) just like 
Pokemon, except in 3D. You wander 
around a world map from a mostly 


top-down perspective, find your 
way between different locations, 
carry out sub-quests and mini¬ 
games, and with any luck it will 
culminate in completion of the 
broader mission at hand. 

There are no separate turn-based 
battle screens. Everything happens in 
real-time on the world map, so if you 
chance upon a wild Digimon, you 

have to prepare your pet 
then and there for battle. 
As they kick and bite 
each other, you can even 
take manual control to tell your 
Digimon what to do in its next move. 

If you win, experience is gained, your 
town gains a new ally, and your 
Digimon becomes stronger. 

Despite the cheap looking fonts 
and grating sound effects, Digimon 
World does suitable justice to the 
television series. It’s not a good 
thing that it’s so similar to Pokemon 
on Came Boy, especially since the 
PSone is easily capable of so much 
more, but escaping this inevitable 
comparison would’ve meant 
(gasp!) coming up with brand new 
game concepts. << 



in 

• • 


Digimon World 
2 is already out 
overseas, but 


we'll have to wait for it. 



PLUS: Mostly faithful to the 
animated series. All in real-time. 

MINUS: The game runs along at 
a snail's pace. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

71 64 68 

OVERALL 

70 


A quirky yet forgettable RPG. 
Only for fans of the show. 


V 

f 


b 

m 

c 

m 

E 


»HYPER 59 


















60 »HYPER 



Mario Parly 3 $s>nbm- 

CATEGORY: Mini games > PLAYERS: 1-4 » PUBUSHER: Nintendo » PRICE: $99.95 >> RATING: G >: AVAILABLE: Now 



CAM SHEA bel ieves that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind... 


O ou know, Mario holds like, 
the lamest parties. The 
music is always midi based, 
there’s no alcohol (or disco 
biscuits), and the only food served 
is cake. Plus, they’re the same theme 
every time - dress like an idiot. 
Mario always comes as a plumber, 
Peach as a princess, and Waluigi as 
Hamburgler. just for once we'd like 
to see Mario let his hair down and 
go a little bit silly... which is exactly 
what he doesn't do in Mario Party 3. 

LEVELS. IT'S ALL ABOUT 
LEVELS. 

On pretty much every level Mario 
Party 3 is a little too similar to both 
the previous games in the series. 
Well, it actually looks a little 
different, taking more of a Paper 
Mario 2D cel shaded approach. The 



biggest drawcard for the game is 
that there are now 70 mini games 
to play as you progress through the 
game, which is a hefty number to 
be sure. Unfortunately, the game is 
still no good if you have no friends. 
And no, imaginary friends are no 
good. Nor is that cute girl that you 
met on the net, that in all 
likelihood is probably a member of 
NAMBLA. Indeed, amassing three 
friends (and the requisite 
controllers) to play the game in the 
first place is probably the stiffest 
challenge for most gamers. 
Fortunately, we had no problem, 
since we work in the same office as 
PC Powerplay, and for some reason 
those guys love console gaming as 
much as we do! Weird. 

In any case, whether its through 
the dark arts, personal ads in the 


local paper or having 
Catholic parents, 
once you’ve gathered 
four people round 
yon TV set, you may 
well think the effort 
wasn’t worth it. 
Especially so if 
you’re not yet of 
drinking age. 
Drinking definitely 
makes this game 
more fun. But then 
again it also makes 
Worms more fun, 
and that was 
damn fun 
to start 
with. 


INTENTS AND PURPOSES ARE 
ALL WELL AND GOOD... 

Let’s assume that Mario Party 3 is 
your only gaming option, and 
that you’re not drinking. 

Now, in this alcohol-free, 
worm-less clarity, what 
will you find? Well, as 
mentioned above, you’ll 
discover 70 mini games. For 
most intents and purposes 
they’re probably the best 
collection cobbled together 
so far in the series. 
Unfortunately, many of 
them still don’t make any 
sense and still 
aren’t much fun. 
Some of them 
are just plain 
stupid... 


J 


































s 



) 



Obligatory 
storyline boxouf 

>> Mario Party 3's story 
will keep you 

engrossed to the A 

bitter end. The ^ 

whole game is 

a fight to win 

the millennium 

star - an ultra rare 

star that fell from 

the sky and is 

only made every thousand 

years... meaning there's only 

around 15 million of them 

already. In any case, whoever 

possesses the latest of the 15 

million becomes the superstar 


knock the Ktis on the 
shelves to the floor. Try to 
return all the to 

oper spots. 


1 their 


The usual suspects. 


Ml 


The lovechild of Toad and Rayman. 



fli 




- > 


of the Universe! The game is 
actually set inside a toybox of 
the star's creation. How the star 
managed to be uncoordinated 
enough to fall out of the sky, yet 
can still craft a toybox is beyond 
me. Nintendo logic I guess. 


The biggest drawcard for 
the game is that there are 

now 70 mini games to play 

as you progress through the game 



aside from the one where you’re all 
on spacehoppers and you have to 
knock your opponents off the... oh 
no wait a second, that one was 
stupid too. ■ ■ ■ 

New characters for 
Mario Party 3 are Waluigi • • • 
and Daisy, with Mario, 


DUEL MODE 

One of the new additions in Mario 
Party 3 are the five Duel Maps. These 
are one-on-one affairs, and a nice 
Bern story mode new gameplay variant 
to get your to play when you’re 
chorocter's tired of Battle Royal. In 
Duel Mode, stars aren’t 


heod on Mt Mariomore! 


Luigi, Wario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi 
and Peach returning. There are five 
different themes for the game 
boards covering all the basic cliched 
categories (with the ice level being 
the exception... never seen one of 
those before!). 

Cameplay-wise, there aren’t 
many surprises. The item system is 
pretty cool, allowing you to buy 
items at certain spots on the maps, 
which can then be used to set traps 
and enhance your abilities, among 
other things. 


the focus - battles and control of 
the map are. The 
first person to 
land on a normal 
space then owns 
that space, so if the 
other player lands 
on it, they must 
pay a fee. You even 
hire computer 
controlled partners to 
help. With a little 
strategy, they’ll 
stand between 


you and your opponents, 
preventing you from taking 
damage, and dishing out attacks on 
your turn too. The catch is that 
these partners need to be paid a 
salary, so if you can’t afford it, bad 
luck. Duel maps also have plenty of 
two player mini games and kooky 
random events to round the 
gameplay out. 

Unfortunately, winning or 
losing still feels very random, so 
^ N no matter how good you are 
at the mini games, there’s 
I still an incredible amount of 
sitting around waiting. 

Enough with the 
^waiting! 

I Maybe it’s 
time for a 
change, 
Nintendo. 



PLUS: Perfect if you're a Siamese 
twin and so is your best friend... 

MINUS: Does the world really 
need another Mario Party? 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

73 73 73 


OVERALL 

73 


iuE 

E3 


Above average, but this series 
is losing its appeal rapidly. 




»HYPER 61 






























62 »HYPER 




Gauntlet: 

Dark Legacy 

CATEGORY] Action PLAYERS: 1 -4 
PUBLISHER: Midway PRICE: $99.95 
RATING: M AVAILABLE: Now 

ames from the 1980s seldom make for 
decent titles in today’s videogames 
landscape. Like the N64 outing not so 
long ago, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is just the same 
top-down shooter of old wearing polygons 
instead of sprites. Sure, there are a couple of new 
characters like the Jester, but the differences are 
quite token and aesthetic. 

What’s more, you can get away with simply 
mashing away at every button through the entire 
game. Never mind that health meter that’s 
flashing at the bottom of the screen: provided 
you collect everything in sight, you’re not all that 
likely to die no matter how many times you get 
hit or inflict damage on yourself. 

The game’s not all that impressive to look at 
either. It basically looks like an N64 game 
running at high resolution, and the characters 
have possibly the most retarded animations seen 
on the PlayStation 2. The sound effects are also a 
little tacky, though many are meant to have been 
sampled from the original Gauntlet. 

However, as Hyper’s lone defender of Robotron 
64, and in deference to the game's faith to the 
original gameplay, this reviewer isn’t going to 
judge Gauntlet: Dark Legacy on the basis of 
aesthetics. Although I finished the game wholly 
prepared to write the game off as utter nonsense, 

I realised that I’d actually burned through a large 
number of hours, which can only mean that it’s at 
least worth considering for a rental to entertain a 
bunch of drunken friends. 

Kevin Cheung 






VISUALS 

75 


World's Scariest 


Police Chases 


CATEGORY: Rocing/Driving PLAYERS: 1-2 


PUBLISHER: Activision PRICE: $79.95 
RATING: G8+ AVAILABLE: Now 

hen you steal a car and take a joyride 
you’d better beware that the long arm of 
the law is reaching out to take you down. 
Cons, crooks and car thieves are out of control 
and it’s up to you to take them down in a 
desperate, dangerous and deadly show of force. 
I’m Sheriff John Bunnell and in the next half hour 
I’m going to show you that crime, corruption, car 
theft and crazy behaviour don’t pay. 

Activision’s wild, wicked, way out and wacky 
new game is based on my experiences out on 
patrol on the roughest, toughest, meanest, most 
outrageous streets in America. Ride with me as 
we chase down gang bangers, car jackers, joy 
riders, booze hounds, drug runners and ball 
room dancers who will find out, one way or 
another, that no one escapes the long arm of the 
law. Play in the style of Driver and Driver 2 as 
you search the streets of America for those 
people whose crazy antics and reckless 
behaviour endanger the lives of all Americans. 

Sadly the designers of WSPC have made one 
fatal mistake - and that's all it takes on these 
mean streets to mess up your day. Your police 
cruiser is too fragile and you take too much 
damage from the environment making it very, 
very hard to play the game without wanting to 
get tanked up on happy juice and tear through a 
few red lights. 

George Soropos 



Spec Ops: 
Covert Assault 


CATEGORY: Soldier Sim PLAYERS: 1-2 
PUBLISHER: Take 2 PRICE: $59.95 > > 

RATING: M AVAILABLE: Now 


O f you’ve been hanging out for a game like 
Spec Ops: Covert Assault on your 
PlayStation, I feel really, really sorry for 
you. Why? Because it’s such a pale imitation of 
all the great "soldier sims’’ available on the PC 
(SWAT 3, Operation Flashpoint, even Counter- 
Strike). The attempt to achieve the same kind of 
game with the limited technical abilities of the 
PlayStation is just a bad idea. It just can’t be 
done very well. 

Okay, so Spec Ops: Covert Assault is quite 
playable, but it’s a pretty feeble gaming 
experience. Characters look basic, blocky and are 
animated quite poorly. The environments also 
look flat, bland and are hardly convincing. In 
terms of actual gameplay, it’s possible to 
overcome the games shortcomings and enjoy a 
tense bit of action, but something will tell you 
it’s not really worth struggling through this game 
all the way to the end. You can employ some 
basic tactics, but most of the time you’ll be 
playing it as if you’re a lone soldier, sneaking 
around the environment and getting the jump on 
the mostly brain dead A.I. enemies. 

If the PlayStation is your only gaming platform 
and you love this kind of Tom Clancy style of 
gaming, then Spec Ops may bring you some 
enjoyable hours... or minutes. If you can avoid it 
though, your money would be best saved for 
something else. 

Eliot Fish 


1 VISUALS 1 

SOUND 

GAMEPLAY 

OVERALL 

g£J 

62 

60 

65 



















































Dubya keeps Kyoto protesters at bay 


Still 2D, and irs hardly 

original. 




VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 


89 88 91 


OVERALL 


For C&C fans. 3D RTS gamers 
might want something more. 


ny doubts you may have had 
in Westwood’s ability to give 
us a quality RTS title after 
their ordinary effort with Tiberian Sun 
can be quickly erased after a few 
minutes of loading Red Alert 2 on your 
hard drive. Red Alert 2 is what Tiberian 
Sun should have been, and then some, 
and it is probably the last of the great 
2D RTS titles we’ll ever see on PC, with 
3D strategy titles becoming the future. 

WELCOME BACK COMMANDER 

The CSC series are all about two sides 
fighting it out, and RA2's story is quite 
fun and entertaining to watch (albeit a 
bit goofy looking). All the missions in 
RA2 are seamed together with slick and 
well produced FMV, whether it be 
Romanov barking orders, the President 
giving speeches around the globe, or 
even the luscious Agent Tanya clad in 
snow gear (one of the finer moments). 

RA2 is the first game in the CSC 
series which is actually nice to look at, 
although it’s still 2D. Unlike Tiberian 
Sun’s tiny and dark units and barren 
landscapes, the developers have really 
put some time into making sure RA2 
looks lush and more to scale. Instead 
of just barren rock landscapes and flat 
snowfields, there are towering cities, 
bridges, and even real city locales, like 
Washington and the Kremlin. 


Lighting is also used to great effect 
v/ith explosions, night missions and 
nukes (giving a lush green glow on the 
surrounding landscape). Units are also 
easier to see, and are all a bit more to 
scale, as well as being animated very 
well. On the audio front, RA2 excels in 
giving the game far more character and 
personality, with each unit having a 
distinctive voice. Tanja’s ’’shake it 
baby” and Yuri ”1 know your thoughts” 
are fine examples of this, and great to 
hear amongst all the action. Cun fire, 
explosions and screams of 
agony all sound 
satisfying, as well as the 
cool ambient environment 
sounds like the car horns 
and traffic in the cities, or 
the wind in the snow 
peaks add sustenance. 

A POWERFUL NASTY SHOCK 

Although most of the units you will 
already be familiar with, there are a 
few new and powerful units for each 
side. The Allies have light technology, 
harnessed in such weapons as the 
devastating Prism Tank, and the 
Chronoshpere, which has been 
developed for the Chrono Legionnaire, 
who literally warps units or building 
'out of time’. The Soviets are also well 
equipped, having greater numbers, 


superior firepower, and also Yuri, a 
powerful troop who can use his mind 
to take control of most allied units 
making them yours instantly. Also, the 
awesome Tesla electricity technology, 
placed on a Tesla coil or Tesla troop, 
gives a powerful nasty shock. There 
are other new combinations in RA2, 
including the allied IFV, which is an 
anit-aircraft tank that changes roles 
depending upon which infantry you 
place in it. An engineer in an IFV 
makes a repair IFV and so on. 

Garrisoning is a new 
feature, which allows 
further strenghtening of 
positions by getting your 
troops to hide inside 
buildings, safe from 
harm. Neutral tech 
buildings such as 
airfields and hospitals can be captured 
giving you extra features such as 
paratroopers etc. Capture oil derricks 
for extra cash, even repair facilities. 

The interface has had a few minor 
tweaks. Unit queuing is now infinite, 
and there are now 4 separate build 
tabs, as well as a functioning 
waypoint system and the ability to 
deploy units, such as the allied Cl. 

On the whole, RA2 is easily 
Westwood’s best RTS title so far, 
with loads of explosive fun. 


m We look forward 
to reading more 
9 9 O of what YOU 
think. Keep sending your 
reader reviews to 
freakscene@next.com.au 
with READER REVIEW in 
the subject line. 


Red Alert 2 


RTS 1 -8 

Pll 266, 64MB RAM, 3D card (optional) 


Now 


Westwood 


















HnnDHELD 



VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY OVERALL 


Pi nobee: Wings Of Advent 


CATEGORY: Plotformer >> PLAYERS: 1 >> PUBLISHER: Activision >> 
PRICE: S79.95 >> RATING: G >> AVAILABLE: Now >> 


Q n the hallowed Japanese 
tradition of storylines that 
don’t make any sense, 
Pinobee hits the mark beautifully. 
Taking a little from Pinocchio and a 
lot from Wu Tang Killa Bees, 

Pinobee is the tale of a robot bee 
who desperately wants to be good, 
but is genetically predisposed not 
to be. You see. Pinobee is missing 
something... a heart. Tragically, his 
creator was kidnapped before he 


could complete little Pinobee. And 
without a heart, Pinobee is, err... a 
bit of a bastard. Thus, Pinobee 
must set out to rescue his creator 
(that’s Grandpa Bee to you young 
whippersnappers), and to get some 
heart, literally. 

Pinobee has a cool, and somewhat 
fresh set of abilities - including the 
bizarre dash move where Pinobee’s 
head blows up like a balloon. He can 
also hover, auto target enemies and 






climb walls. As I 
you play 

through the I % 
game you’ll 1 ' 

collect various *. 
hidden cards. 

Complete a set and you’ll earn a 
new ability. These range from 
giving Pinobee more dash moves to 
decreasing his damage when hit. 

The levels are quite cool, and 
you’ll come across a number of 
videogame staples such as cannons 
(ala Donkey Kong Country), bouncy 
mushrooms, bubbles and 
teleporters, but in combination with 
Pinobee’s native abilities, it all 
combines into a fun platform 
experience. Plus, levels are huge and 
packed with secrets, so there’s some 
replay value on offer. Pinobee is one 
of the more under-rated GBA titles. 
Yes, it is just another platformer, but 
it takes a different tack than most. If 
you’re after a game to tide you over 
until Klonoa hits GBA, Pinobee could 
be just the ticket. 

Cam Shea 


□ 

m 

j 

j 

m 

m 

□ 

m 


o. 

>» 


o 




Earthworm Jim 

2 $> 


CATEGORY: Platformer >> PLAYERS: 1 >> PUBLISHER: Majesco 
PRICE: $79.95 >> RATING: G >> AVAILABLE: Now >> 


S orry guys, as much as we 
wanted to enjoy the old 
school antics of Earthworm 
Jim, it just doesn’t hold up that well 
after all these years. If we were to 
over-analyse the reasons why, we’d 
say that the problem goes to the 
very core of the game design. Let’s 
take a game from the same time 
period and overall genre like Super 
Mario World. SMW is still hugely 


playable today because Mario/Yoshi 
have a very finely honed ability set 
that gave Nintendo tremendous 
scope for gameplay. The level 
design was so elegant that it’s 
timeless. Earthworm Jim, on the 
other hand, derived its core 
gameplay from gimmicks, quirky 
scenarios and lush animations. The 
reason it was such fun was because 
there was nothing else like it and it 


was 
packed 

with offbeat humour... not because 
it had great gameplay. 

So in playing Earthworm Jim 
again, most of the advantages that 
the original had have been lost, and 
we’re left with a mildly entertaining 
game that doesn’t really add 
anything to the GBA’s lineup. 

Further compounding things, this is 
at best a bare bones port. There 
aren’t many levels, there are no 
interesting new playmodes and 
Earthworm Jim has lost one too 
many frames of animation in the 
transition. Oh, and a password save 
mechanism should be mandatory in 
this day and age. 

Frank Dry 



VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY OVERALL 

□ 

ffl 

□ 

m 

□ 

r 

“ID 































s> 


CATEGORY: RPG/battle >> PLAYERS: 1-4 >> PUBLISHER: Activision 
PRICE: S79.95 >> RATING: G >> AVAILABLE: Now >> 



ight here baby - this is what 
the CBA was built for. 
Multiplayer shenanigans, 
and plenty of 'em. It may be old 
school, but Bomberman is as much 
fun as ever. But first, the non-multi 
part. Now I must admit that I never 
bothered playing the single player 
components on SNES, so I have no 
point of comparison, but we were 
pleasantly surprised by what 
Bomberman Tournament (BT) had to 


offer in that arena. It’s hardly a 
quest of Zelda proportions, but 
there are enough good elements 
that you won’t feel ripped off. 

As we mentioned in the preview 
last issue, Hudson have thrown in 
creatures called Karabon that you 
can build up and use to battle other 
creatures. They come in four basic 
attribute types (although you can 
cross breed), and the whole thing is 
very similar to Pokemon... except 





without the depth. The Karabon 
even look like Pokemon, and the 
first one you pick up (Pommy) also 
has a nasty habit of saying "mew” 
which is a little too close to the 
pokebone for comfort. 

BT is, of course, a multiplayer 
purchase first and foremost, and the 
multiplayer angle doesn’t 
disappoint. There are eight arenas to 
bomb it out in, and all the classic 
items from past games have made it 
in - fire up, speed up, slow down, 
bomb kick, bomb up, punch, hellfire, 
line bomb and power glove. It’s all 
good. Plus you only need a single 
cart! Get some friends together 
because this is the best multiplayer 
game on GBA at the moment. 

Cam Shea 



VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY OVERALL 







Looks like he fell Into a pit. 


Pitfall: The Ma yan Adve nt 


CATEGORY: Platformer >> PLAYERS: 1 >> PUBLISHER: Majesco >> 
PRICE: S79.95 >> RATING: G >> AVAILABLE: Now >> 


Q itfall Harry... now there’s a on the basic concept of a man 

stupid name for a videogame running from left to right avoiding 
hero. He sounds more like the various pitfalls, such as falling into 
lead character (played by Chevy pits, PTMA innovates in several 

Chase, or perhaps Steve Martin) in important areas. First of all, it stars 
some dodgy eighties comedy, as Harry’s son, the imaginatively named 

opposed to being taken literally - ie. a Professor Horatio Hufnagel (and his 
man named Harry who falls in pits. contrabulous fabtraption), err... no, 
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure sorry I read it wrong - Harry Jr. In 

(PTMA) was the i6bit sequel to the any case, he’s certainly an 
classic Atari 2600 game. Expanding evolutionary step up from his dad. 


possessing the 
ability to take 

multiple paths, ||pP* 

climb ropes. 
use weapons 
and oh so much 

more. The terrain he finds himself in 
too is much more complex. There’s a 
wide variety of animal and plant life, 
including monkeys whose brains can 
be feasted upon while still alive, 
snakes that can be used as fetching 
headbands, and pits that can be 
used as forts if you wish. 

This is all well and good except 
that in creating a realistic, lush jungle 
environment, the developers have 
forgotten that it’s no fun being 
forced to guess where to go. This is 
Pitfall’s chief problem - levels are 
multi-level maze-like paths through 
the jungle and there’s a lot of 
guesswork required to make it 
through - not fun with limited lives 
and no password system. Even so, 
Harry Jr’s animations are excellent, 
and on the whole PTMA looks better 
than most of the other GBA 
platformers currently on the market. 

Cam Shea 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY OVERALL 







HHnDHELD 































































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■ 


■ 


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■ 


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V 


KEEN ON GAME BOY? 

>> It's been years since Keen 
disappeared from the PC bargain l 
but he's now available on Game B 
Color! Commander Keen on the G 
is a decent translation of the Keen 
formula to the world's favourite 
handheld platform, with striking co 
and unlimited blaster ammo. On tf 
minus side, the levels are 
much more linear than 
the PC counterparts, and 
one can't help but feel 
that Keen would have 
been better ported 
straight to the Game Boy 
Advance. Keen on the 
GBA would be about as 
cool as getting Anno 
Kournikova for Christmas. 



verybody is familiar with id 
Software and games such as 
the classic Quake trilogy and 
the seminal shooters Doom and 
Wolfenstein 3D. But it may surprise 
some readers to learn that the crew 
responsible for some of the most 
violent and vulgar video games ever 
devised also created the most 
innocuous franchise ever to grace the 
PC. Commander Keen has been a fan- 
favourite for years, and through a 
fanatical user base, has made 
something of a comeback. But just 
who is Keen, and what is the source 
of his appeal? 


ECEEN AS A BEAN 

The first Commander Keen game was 
coded by a trio of hotshot Texan 
programmers way back in 1990. 
Written in the spare time from their 
day jobs, it took only two and a half 
months to create a platform 
sensation. In a world where gaming 
power had swayed towards the 
Amiga and the 16-bit consoles, Keen 
delivered an unprecedented 
platform experience to gamers who 
might otherwise be bashing away at 
the forgettable Captain Comic. 

Running smoothly on a 286, Keen 
delivered crisp 16 colour graphics 
and a unique gameplay style. Each 
level was vast, and populated with a 
wide variety of monsters. Keen could 
navigate his environment by 
jumping, or use his pogo stick to 
trade off maneuverability against 
jumping power. Once the game 
engine was in place, the first test of 
it was to plagiarise Super Mario Bros. 
Apparently the id boys submitted 
the code to Nintendo, and it was 
even played by Miyamoto himself, 
but since Nintendo didn’t touch the 
PC, they ignored it... 

Keen’s setting was a breath of fresh 
air when compared to the stale, 
serious gaming matter of old. 
Commander Keen was the secret 
identity of eight year-old Billy Blaze, a 
genius grade schooler. He built his 
spaceship out of old soup cans, hence 
its name: the "Bean-with-Bacon 
Megarocket”. The parts were pillaged 
from around the house, hence the use 
of a Nintendo joystick for the controls, 
and his mum’s vacuum cleaner for the 
ion drive (with variable pile control). 

The first Commander Keen story arc 
was the archetypal shareware trilogy. 
Episode one could be freely copied or 
downloaded from your local BBS, but 
volumes 2 and 3 could only be played 
with a clear conscience after handing 
over around US$20 to the good folk at 
Apogee. In part one of the Invasion of 
the Vorticons trilogy, Marooned on 
Mars, Keen must recover four stolen 
parts from his spaceship and fend off 
hordes of alien nasties. 

Part two, The Earth Explodes, saw 
Keen board the Vorticon mothership, 
where eight powerful ray-guns were 



pointed at the Earth’s most precious 
tourist spots, including sunny 
Sydney! The presence of baby 
Vorticons, complete with space- 
nappies, suggested that perhaps the 
Vorticons themselves were not the 
real enemy, but that a sinister Grand 
Intellect was pulling their strings 
from behind the scenes. 

Part three, Keen Must Die, was the 
climax of this epic saga. Your task 
was to guide Keen on a single- 
handed invasion of the Vorticon 
homeworld, where you had to 
destroy every barracks, apartment 
block and kindergarten in your 
path. After butchering hundreds of 
the furry dog-creatures, and 
balking at their shocking taste in 
wallpaper, you came face to face 
with the Grand Intellect himself. 

Who turned out to be... another 
eight year old kid! Mortimer McMire, 
AKA the Grand Intellect, was also the 
principal schoolyard foe of Billy Blaze. 
While Billy had an impressive IQ of 
314, McMire’s 315 meant he always had 
the edge over our hero, not only in 
mental arithmetic but in planet- 
destroying plots! Destruction of his 
ridiculous giant robot scored Keen the 
eternal praise of the Vorticon people, 
but was McMire truly vanquished? 


TO EGA - AND BEYOND! 

Episodes four through six kept the 
same play style, but enhanced the 
graphics into a pseudo-3D oblique 
view. Episodes 4 and 5 curtailed 
another McMire plot, this time to 
destroy the galaxy. Part six, "Aliens Ate 
My Baby Sitter”, was a race against 
time for Keen to rescue his sitter from 
the ravenous Bloogs of Fribbulus Xax. 
While new gameplay heights were 
reached, some of the colour schemes 
were questionable at best. 

The final installment of Keen on 
the PC came out in ’93, and was a 
classic product of contractual 
obligation. "Keen Dreams” was a 
rush job produced for Softdisk, the 
previous employer of the id crew, 
and sported patchy level design, 
dodgy animations, and a sketchy 
premise. Keen had to liberate a 
dream realm dominated by nasty 
vegetables. Instead of his ray gun, 
Keen threw glowing rocks that would 
turn his enemies into flowers (?). He 
didn’t even get to use his pogo stick! 
It was the beginning of the end. 

Commander Keen changed the 
course of gaming history. Without the 
proceeds from his first adventure, 
Carmack and co. may never have had 
the cash to start up id Software. But 
now that the original id crew has fallen 
out, each pursuing their own vanity 
projects, the chances of a full-scale 
revival seem distant at best. Tom Hall, 
the man who came up with the Keen 
concept, is eager to bring Billy Blaze 
into the world of 3D. If only the rest of 
his homies were a little more... keen. 


































































































































HVFERUISinn 



CL 

>- 


oo 

o 




C onsidered one of 
Stanley Kubrick’s 
greatest works, 

2001: A Space Odyssey 
chronicles the 
development of human 
civilization through 
different stages in time. 

Each stage presents the 
alien monoliths that have 
been watching over us, first 
discovered at the dawn of time, then 
in 1999 on the moon, and then in the 
year 2001 by the crew of the SS 
Discovery. Since the film’s first 
appearance in 1968, these themes 
have been analysed, documented 
and satirised most notably these 



days in random episodes of The 
Simpsons. 

This two-disc set is a real beauty 
for collectors, but not for any 
abundance of extra features. The 
second disc contains a digitally 
remastered musical score. The film 
on the movie disc is meticulously 
cleaned up, displayed in the 
original 2.21:1 aspect ratio, and the 
soundtrack remastered into Dolby 
Digital 5.1. The box set also comes 
with a collectable senitype 70mm 
film strip from the movie. 


1=9/10 


r /10 



universal, rated m 

Dude, Where's My Car? 


weet Cod, this movie 
sucks. Out of this, 
American Pie , Road Trip 
and Tomcats, Dude, Where’s My 
Car? is the weakest link in this 
latest resurgence of the teen titty 
flick. Ashton Kutcher and Seann 
William Scott (who was 
incidentally in American Pie and 
Road Trip) are a pair of mindless 
hash fiends who lose their car after 
a night of wild partying. 

As they retrace their steps, they 
come across one big-titted fantasy 
after another, including a 30 
second breast-groping scene with 


Kristy "I was the original Buffy” 
Swanson. Unfortunately, the jokes 
are all lame, repetitive and 
unfunny. 

Perhaps the best feature of all is 
the commentary, where the two 
stars go absolutely ape-shit 
pointing out the tits on every 
actress on the set and how much 
arse they got to grab. They did not 
take the movie seriously, they 
knew it was trash, and they’re 
actually good value for treating it 
that way. 8/10 if you’re bent. 






































nbreakable stars Bruce 
Willis, and was written, 
directed and produced by 
M. Night Shyamalan - the same 
man behind The Sixth Sense. But if 
you pop this disc into the player 
expecting a follow-up to Sixth 
Sense, you will be in for a huge 
disappointment. 

Unbreakable follows in the 
traditions of real-life superheroes 
as portrayed in comics like Marvel. 
It’s a character driven tale about a 
lowly security guard (Willis) who 
slowly comes to accept his 
superhuman powers. His road to 
discovery is peppered with 
subtlety, weaving a plausible 
theory of hope and salvation into 
an all-too familiar world. With the 
help of a comic book enthusiast 
played by Samuel L. Jackson, the 


movie culminates in Willis taking 
his first steps towards righting 
society’s evils. 

Unbreakable is a slow paced, but 
very well scripted story. The disc 
comes with loads of extras — 
deleted footage, interviews with the 
cast and crew and so on - but it’s 
missing the most basic feature most 
fans would be wanting: director’s 
commentary. 


Unbreakable 


"But Dad, I wanted a PS2." 



E verything went downhill 

for Superman after the first 
movie. Although this 
sequel was shot concurrently with 
the first, director Richard Donner 
was dropped in favour of 
Richard Lester mid¬ 
production. Lester's difference 
in style is quite obvious, and 
not strong enough to suspend 



belief in what’s already a fairly 
ridiculous story. 

General Zod and his cronies (who 
we saw imprisoned in the Phantom 
Zone in the first Superman ) arrive on 
Earth. Their plan is to 
conquer the planet, 
but once they learn the 
son of Jor-El is in their 
midst, they stop at 
nothing for revenge. 
Conveniently, this all 
happens at a time 
when Superman falls in love with 
Lois, reveals his identity, and turns 
himself into a human (presumably, 
to borrow a line from Mallrats, so he 
doesn’t blast a hole through her 
back when he blows his load). 

Apart from the theatrical trailer, 
there are no extra features 
whatsoever. None. And the movie’s 
not even in Dolby Digital 5.1 - just 
plain stereo. Hugely disappointing. 



iui;M3 7 /10 esse 


L 


L 


1/10 




8 


/10 


1/10 


mDUIE: 


Rowrl. 


True Lies 

COLUMBIA TRISTAR, RATED Ml 5+ 


□ ne of the last great action 
flicks from big Arnie before 
his career started to go 
pear-shaped. Schwarzenegger plays 
secret agent Harry Tasker. He’s a 
member of a government agency 
that has license to do just about 
anything. As far as his wife’s 
concerned, he’s a computer 
salesman. Things get turned upside 
down when Harry suspects his wife 
of sharpening another man’s pencil, 
and then unwittingly gets her tied 
up in a terrorist conspiracy. 

It’s a shame The Last 
Action Hero was panned 
outright by critics, 
because like that movie, 


True Lies is just a barrel of explosive 
fun with Arnie taking the piss out of 
himself. The film also has 
some excellent comedy 
performances from Jamie 
Lee Curtis as Mrs. Tasker 
and Bill Paxton as the 
‘other man’. Also watch out 
for vampire-slaying babe, 
Eliza Dushku, who is almost 
unrecognizable as Arnie’s daughter. 



HVPEFzuisinn 













































HMPERUIBinn 


1 




ony Soprano is a man with 

a lot on his mind. Apart ^ 

from his two teenage H Kd|Q 
children, domineering mother and i Qjt£jl j[ : "k 

the usual mid-life crisis concerns of "I 
the average 40 year-old male, Tony 
also has to deal with the pressures 
of his "other" family - the Mob. 

The Sopranos is an outstanding 

television production, easily frequently engages in brutish acts 0 

outshining the majority of other violence. He also, however, cares 
programs currently on offer. With deeply for his family, is troubled by 

its acerbic scripts, which are the immorality of his violent actions 

shrewd, often confrontational and and is capable of conveying a sense 

always laced with an ironic sense of of vulnerability (through his weekly 

humour, The Sopranos depicts an sessions with a psychiatrist) that is 

American underworld that is irresistibly charming, 

engrossing and compelling. If you only buy only one DVD 

The performances are first class, boxed set this year, make it The 
particularly that of James Candolfini, Sopranos . 
who brings a rare complexity to the Victoria Flanagan 
character of Tony Soprano. Tony is a 1 ^ 1 PSSIIEjn JL 

man of questionable ethics who 0/10 


COMPLETE FIRST SEASON 


'Oh you're closed? Sorry. 


mnuiE: 


Listen, Telstra, and listen good. That 3 Gig cap is pissin' off 'the boys' 



The Usual Suspects 

COLUMBIA TRISTAR, RATED MAI 5+ * 


T he Usual Suspects is an 

intriguing and challenging 
film that cleverly 

manipulates the ideas of "truth” and 
"reality”. It opens with an explosion 
upon a boat docked at San Pedro 
(incidently also the name of our 
favourite cactus), just south of LA, 
which is believed to be carrying an 
’8os party load of cocaine. The only 
survivors are a badly burnt Hungarian 
man, and "Verbal” Kint (brilliantly 
played by Kevin Spacey), a crippled 
thief. Verbal is taken to the DA’s office 
and interviewed about the explosion 
and events leading up to it, taking on 
the role of narrator for the film. 
Weaving in and out of the past and 
present, the non-linear construction is 
sharp and beguiling, and its final 
twist is guaranteed to leave you 
gasping for breath. Directed by Bryan 
Singer (X-Men) and featuring an 
outstanding cast - Gabriel Byrne, 
Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollack, Pete 
Postlethwaite, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin 



Spacey and Stephen Baldwin, this 
double-Academy-award winning film 
is an absolute killer. Although the DVD 
is relatively lacking in extra features, 
it does include an audio commentary 
from director Bryan Singer which is 
lively and informative. 

Victoria Flanagan 


mnuiE: 


0/10 T3/10 i 


Vertical Limit 


COLUMBIA TRISTAR, RATED M 


I f a quote can sum up the 
essence of a movie, then this 
line from Vertical Limit does 
the trick: "Did you think the mountain 
was gonna lift up her skirt and pull 
down her panties?" As you may have 
guessed, Vertical Limit is an action 
flick about mountain climbing. 

Set on K2, the world’s second highest 
mountain, it’s the story of a climbing 
expedition that goes wrong, and the 
rescue mission to save the three 
surviving climbers. Vertical Limit 
doesn’t exactly have the most 
complex of plots, but if you like 
seeing massive avalanches and 




stunts then you’ll find lots to enjoy. 
Keep an eye out for Australia’s own 
Ben Mendelsohn playing a larrikin 
climber. His performance is one of 
the film’s highlights. In terms of 
extras, this DVD is well-endowed. It 
includes audio commentary from 
director Martin Campbell, a 24- 
minute behind-the-scenes 
featurette, 7 Search-and-Rescue 
featurettes, as well as a National 
Geographic feature on mountain 
climbing. If only all DVDs could be 
this comprehensive! 

Victoria Flanagan 


e 


no 


8 


no 



"Ooh, I shouldn't have gone dunking for those paddle pops." 



I 


) 































HTOTTIE 


All import Anime supplied by 

THE CARTOON GALLERY 

QVB, Sydney 

www.ca r toongallery.com.au 
Ph: (02) 9267 3022 


Blood: The Last Vampire 

CATEGORY: ACTION, SCI-FI K \ 1 . CTO '« XtvP A.' , : CTODUCTION I.G. DISTRIBUTOR: AV CHANNE. I 


CATEGORY: ACTION, SCI-FI PS1* JCTO 1 * jjvPa.ny PRODUCTION I.G DISTRIBUTOR: AVCHANNE, 

Q f Buffy the Vamz re S.'s?e? produced in Production l.C. (bott^^^^ 
were ever an an me * -; - d known for Ghost In The 
look something <e : Stood the Las* f&mBre js messed with great 
tells the story of a girl named !i ; dJwho direction and cinematography, which 
works with an undercove * ;v to produces a thick and watertight 
seek out and terminate v^pires and atmosphere that commands the full 
demons. She poses as a scho: z * at an attention of your eyes and ears 
American military base c* Yckca but Numerous subtle elements like shadows 
without her special kata r a CTe : *:'ced snide looks, and even just plain silence 

to make do against the F z \: .-.easts, are used to reveal a rrracF? deeper world 

jj^bioodlust. This is punctuated with ct 
BLOOD LUST some excellent action scenes 

Blood is a dark and gru€:;~e arair, Sadly, Blood■ the Last Vampire is 

tastefully animated with more extreme*/ short - times out at an 

computer graphics than p re. / oDen-ended 45 minuees. Whether - 5 

seen in any other anime Sore meant to be a complex f^m or a 

portions of the film almcCT appear to precursor to a TV series. Blood, ’he 

be live footage, but that s until the Last Vampire lacks a definitive stcr. 
characters start moving around. The arc that would've given it a more 
effect is surreal and mesmerising - call satisfying sense of closure, 
it a mix of Serial Experiments Lain and 
the Samurai X OAV. 

Directed by Mamoru Oshii and 


Liza Minelli has had to resort to this? 


RnimRTian: 


Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water 


CATEGORY: ADVENTURE, COMEDY, DRAMA 
PRODUCTION COMPANY: GAIN AX 


L oosely based on jules 
Verne’s 20,000 Leagues 
Under the Sea, Nadia is the 
story of a boy who helps a mysterious 
girl find the location of her 
homeland. The only clue they have is 
a trinket she wears around her neck — 
the Blue Water - which a trio of 
conniving and well- 
funded thieves are 
constantly trying to steal. 

MECHA ME HAPPY 

The series is set in the 
late 1880s, a period 
where every engineer 
worth his salt was trying 
to invent something new 
and unusual. We’re first introduced 
to flying machines, then to moving 
stairs. From there it isn’t a big step 
to jetfoils and a gigantic 
amphibious mecha equipped with a 
hot air balloon. 

It’s this method of half-heartedly 
suspending belief through mild 
progression that Nadia bears close 


resemblance to Miyazaki classics like 
Laputa: City in the Sky. The 
characters are endearing and the 
settings are fascinating and fun to 
absorb. 

Interestingly, Nadia is one of the 
earlier works of Hideaki Anno of 
Neon Genesis Evangelion fame. But 
don’t let the shadow 
of NGE have any 
bearing on your 
expectations for 
Nadia. It’s nowhere 
near as emotionally 
charged, and is 
probably closer in 
terms of production 
values and style to 
the Lupin films. 

It’s also been claimed in various 
circles that Disney’s latest film, 
Atlantis, has some uncanny 
similarities to Nadia - the design of 
the main character for one. This will 
be interesting to keep tabs on, 
especially after the dodgy 
Kimba/Lion King affair. 



RnimRTian: 


L 


9/io “8 


/10 


JHPRn-nE55 


Low 



-< 

-0 

m 

70 


H¥PERUI5inn 
















72 »HYPER 5UB5CRIPTinn5 


PlayStation® 20 


Subscribe to 
HYPER for your chance 

to win a PlayStation2! 

and Baldur's Gate: ] 11 
Dark Alliance! I 


01 





W 




Subscribing to Hyper is cheaper than buying the magazine at the 
shops and you get it delivered straight to your door. Get your 12 
issues of Hyper cheaper and maybe even win this fantastic prize! 


1. Entry is open to residents of Australia except employees and immediate families of Next Publishing and its agencies associated with the promotion. 2. Only entries completed with these terms and conditions 
will be eligible. 3. Entry is by subscribing to Hyper from October 2001 issue only. 4. Competition begins 9am 21st August and entries close at 6pm 10th October. 5. In determining eligibility the judge's 
decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. 6. The winner will be drawn at 9am 12th October at Next Publishing Pty Ltd 78 Renwick St, Redfern, NSW 2016 7. Prizes must be taken as offered 
and are not redeemable for cash. 8. The promoter is not responsible for misdirected or lost mail. 9. The winners will be notified by mail and results published in Issue 99 (January) on sole 28th November 2001. 
10. One winner will receive a PlayStation 2 ($749) and a copy of the game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance ($99.95). Five runners-up will also get a copy of the game. Toto 1 prize value is S1,348.70. 11. The 
promoter is Next Publishing Pty Ltd A8N 88 002 647 645 of 78 Renwick St, Redfern, NSW 2016. 
















check out our website at 

http://publishing.next. 

com.au/subs 


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subscription coupon becomes o 
tax invoice. Please keep a copy of 
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Subscribe now! 

The debut of the Baldur's Gate series on console is an 
important one. Now PlayStation®2 owners everywhere can 
explore the Dungeons & Dragons based world that exists in 
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. This is one of the most 
gorgeous looking PS2 games yet, and our advice is to turn 
off the lights, turn up the sound and lose yourself in this 
fantastic fantasy land. Of course, Hyper and Interplay 
would like to offer you the chance to win Baldur's Gate: 

Dark Alliance and your very own PlayStation®2 to play it 
on! All you have to do is subscribe to Hyper this month to 
go in the draw to win! Don't miss out! 

ONLY $50 FOR 1 2 ISSUES! 

DO THE MATH! _ 

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cut along dotted line 


Interplay pack contains: 

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- worth $99.95 
Five runners up will also each 
win a copy of Baldur's Gate: 
Dark Alliance. 


5UB5CRIFTian5 » HYPER 73 

































74 »HYPER 



Back in issue 94, we challenged 
you all to send us some artwork 
depicting what you would find if you 
were “alone in the dark”. The 
winners recieve a copy of the game 
for PC and a t-shirt. Top stuff! 


MAT BRADY from 
HAWTHORNE, Old 

Long time Hyper reader, Mat 
Brady, claims first prize with 
this simply incredible piece of 
original art inspired by Alone 
in the Dark: The New 
Nightmare. 

He draws, he scores! 


RUNtyER-UP 

ASHLEY LAWSON from 
FERNY GROVE, Old 

Ashley's gruesome creation won us over for 
its gratuitous use of bloooooood. 

Gooey. Ooey. Icky. 






























RUNNER-UP K 

BEN WATERS 
from 

WARNBRO, WA 

What can we say 
about Ben? He's a true 
freak, and he made us 
laugh all the way to 
the scanner. 


RUNNER-UP 

ANNETTE 
BISHOP from 
YINNAR 
SOUTH, Vic 

Annette Bishop's 
skillful pencil work 
was a nice change 
from the plethora of 
violent entries. 


ANNETTE KWOK from 
MOUNT COLAH, NSW 

Another Annette wins a prize! This piece of 
semi-digital art came second to only Mat 
Brady’s immense work. Great work Annette! 




L | 





B ' 

1 

r' 7 ■1 1 


CCimP5 »HYPER 75 
























76 »HYPER 


B HYPER FORUM: 


78 Renwick St. Redfern, NSW 2016 Australia 
E-mail: freakscene@next.com.au 


SB ^ovv ro 


Me/*.. 


Q. IF HYPER CHANGED! 
ONE THING ABOUT 
THE MAGAZINE, IT 
SHOULD BE...? 

This month we thought we'd give you, the reader, the opportunity to 
mouth off about what you don't like about Hyper and what you think 
you would change given the opportunity. Of course, none of you ever 
will get that opportunity, so sit back and fantasise away, suckers! 



F'dFJLI/JJ 


Everyone has a different 
opinion and the Hyper Forum 
is where you can get your 
thoughts out of your head 
and onto the page for all to 
see. Don't forget that we have 
a new topic every issue! The 
next topic of discussion... 

■h "Is piracy 
■J destroying 
■ the games 
industry?" 


Responses will be printed in 
Hyper 98. 

E-mail: FREAKSCENES>NEXT.COM.AU 
with Hyper Forum in the subject 
line, and the topic of discussion at 
the top of your response. Please 
note that very long contributions 
may be edited. 


MAKING A SCORE 

Hyper, 

You know how you only ever find 
games rated 70-97? Or for really 
bad ones, 3-10? The rest of the scale 
doesn’t get used, right? You could 
make the scale logarithmic, 
meaning that as you got higher, 
the ’goodness’ rating gets farther 
apart. For instance, there would be 
more difference between a game 
that gets 93 and a game that gets 
94, than there would be between a 
game that gets 13 and a game that 
gets 14. Let’s face it, you only ever 
give scores under 70 to games that 
are incredibly bad, and they end 
up getting scores like 13, or 
something else. I’ve enclosed a 
graph of how the rating system 
could work. See if you can figure 
out what’s going on, ok? 

bill 

Peepagea)senet.com.au 



POSTER CHILD 

Hyper, 

Well, if something was changed, I 
think it should be the CD-Rom. 

Okay, so maybe it has changed, I 
mean like issue 94 had the last 
demo disc, and that’s it. But now 
you can go back to the good old 
posters! The disc was like a free- 
special, right? Now that it's no 
longer going to be here, you can 
put free posters in the mag again. 
So I’ll put it straight for you, ”No 
More CD = Lots Of Posters!” 

That’s what I think, and that’s 
what everybody wants! 

Anthony Palmer 

apalmera) Vanuatu, com. vu 


DOG DAY AFTERNOON 

Hyper, 

Well, I just think that if there was 
something you changed it should 
be throwing out the 
gaming charts as they 
serve no purpose for 
anyone whatsoever. 

You should also put out 
the Reverse Engineering as 
I don’t see the point in 
knowing about stuff that is 
older than me and most 
other Hyper readers. 
Instead, put a few more 
links into the Online 



section of your 
mag. 

I think that most Hyper readers 
would agree with me on this, please 
don’t stop giving us those great 
discs, as I use them for playing 
with my dog. 

Sincerely, 

Oscar 

YolipilicDoptushome.com.au 


STICKY TRICKS 

Hyper, 

You know the strips of sticky stuff 
holding the CD on to the front 
cover? Every month I buy a new 
Hyper magazine and read it cover 
to cover. After I’ve finished, all 
that’s left to do is peel off the sticky 
stuff, roll it up in a ball and flick it 
at my monitor. It’s so exciting 
watching it unravel and roll down 
the screen. Hours of office fun! But, 
if you’re a shocking shot like I am, 
you sometimes miss the screen. 

Even from a foot away! If the gooey 
missile flies past your desk and 
lands on the carpet, it’s all over. 

No more stick... No more fun... 

So, Hyper, we need more sticky 
strips. End of story. 

Kevin 

kevin.barnesa)dct.com.au 


FRERK5CENEQNEXT COM.RU FRERK5CENEQNEXT.COM.RU FRERK5CENEQNEXT.COM.RU FRERK5CENEQNEXT.COM.RU 








































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The Hyper crew rant about 
what they don't like doing... 

• Capturing endless screenshots. 

• Writing epic playguides. 

• Packaging up comp prizes. 

• Filtering endless email spam. 

• Restricting office cricket to 5pm 

• Having to play crappy, buggy, 
preview code! 


x \ u. A 


*1 - *, *•< 

t y j 

5 


NAKED MODELS 

Hyper, 

There is one thing you should 
definitely change about your 
magazine. There should be a section 
in the middle of Hyper devoted to 
half-naked models. I’m being 
completely serious, every time I read 
your mag this is the only thing 
missing. It may have nothing to do 
with gaming, but who cares? 

There are a whole heap of reasons 
to do this. First of all think of how 
many more people would read your 
mag. I guarantee that your readier 
base will at least double. You would 
also hold the title of being the only 
magazine in history to have readers 
that buy a magazine for the articles 
as well as the pictures. 

I’d enjoy Hyper a whole lot more 
as well. It would also be a money 
saver for people that buy men’s 
magazines for the pictures. You’ll 
also be the only gaming mag (that I 
know of) to do it so you’ll have the 
edge over your rivals. Just make 
sure that you don’t show any nudity 
'cause that will wipe out the 


younger demographic and I won’t 
be able to buy it, on the other hand 
it’ll only be a two year wait, so I say 
go for it. 

The only other thing I could think to 
change about Hyper is to make it 
cheaper, but that probably isn’t 
possible. Anyway seriously consider it. 

Nick 

Hammstanra>hotmail.com 


MORE PINEAPPLES! 

Good question. Although mighty 
hard to answer considering the 
current standard of the mag (that’s 
a compliment). 

As I look over to my dilapidated 
pile of Hyper mags going right back 
to the SNES and Megadrive days, 
most without covers (of course it 
wasn’t my fault. What are you on 
aboot?). The first suggestion that 
springs to mind is that Hyper needs 
to be bound. 

After a quick check through my 
collection I’ve found that most of 
the recent issues are intact, BUT 
strangely enough, the Hyper 5th 


Birthday issue - which is bound - is 
still as new. Cue eerie music... 

I did have a second suggestion, 
but it came to me, an entire feature 
on Pineapples may not cater to 
everyone’s tastes. 

So fare thee well. 

Bungholio 

bungholio_69a>hotmail.com 

MORE STICKY STUFF 

Well whatever you do, don’t get rid 
of the goopy stuff on the cover that 
you stick to the CD. It’s Great! The 
Newsagents always try to hide it by 
covering the CD with sticky tape, 
but HAH they cannot fool me, I know 
them's hiding goopy stuff! I love it! 
It can be rolled up into balls and 
flicked at people, it can stuffed up 
your nostril and imitate a snot, or it 
can fall on the carpet and lose it's 
stickyness. Don’t feed it to your pet 
though, they would make strange 
goopy turds that stick to stuff... 

Yeah but apart from that, you can 
change anything, who cares! Just 
don’t stop them goopy stuffs 


coming man! 

Nathan Douglas 

dougduoa>hotmail.com 

SURVEY SAYS... 

This is a grat magazine and at first 
all I could think of was "Bring back 
the DEMO CD!!" But since there isn’t 
much to put on it at the moment 
here is my other suggestion. 

What makes this such a great 
magazine is the amount of input 
you allow readers to put into it 
(Hyper Forum, Mail 8 Caption This!) 
What I’d like to see is a poll survey 
next to these sections. A survey or 
two each issue that is multiple 
choice. Eg. Which Next Cen gaming 
machine will you purchase? 

A: Ps2 

B: CameCube 

C: Xbox 

D: All of them!! 

Also I’d like to see a bigger forum 
and Mail section. I know it’s already 
big, but I can’t get enough of it! 

Keep up the good work! 

TOMCAT 



GAME BOY 

GoLofc 


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78 »HYPER 



EVERYONE'S A WINNER 

Dear Hyper People, 

First off, I love the mag and 
especially the humour in it. I also 
enjoy reading the Reverse Engineering 
articles. Anyway could you please 
answer some questions for me? 

1. How come you don’t publish the 
subscription prize winners? In the 
terms £ conditions of each 
subscription entry it says "the 
winner will be notified by mail and 
results published in issue xx of 
Hyper”. I think you need to publish 
all the previous winners to prove 
you actually give out the prizes. 

2. Why didn’t you show any 
Dreamcast games from E3 in your E3 
special in issue 94? The DC has 
many great games and still 
deserves a mention. 

3. Is it true the Xbox will be 
multi-region? 

4. And finally, When are the Xbox 
and the NGC due for release in OZ? 

Thanks, 

Matthew 

E-mail address withheld 

Hi Matthew, 

1. If you're looking for winners... you 


just haven't been looking hard 
enough. Ahem. 

HYPER *91 

South Park - // Volumes 
Travis Henderick, Drouin VIC 

HYPER #92 

1st: Tim Whelan, Coulburn, NSW 
Runners up: Leo Phillips, Clear 
Mountain QLD 

Peter Szczepanowski, North Nowra 
NSW 

HYPER #93 

1st: Cameron Boyd, Swanbourne WA 
Runners up: Frank Hall, Hamilton, 
NSW 

Patricia Hobart, Ashtonfield NSW 

2. You'd be shocked at how many 
games are being struck off the local 
release schedule now. Most of them 
won't even be released. 

3. Very doubtfully. 

4. We're expecting them early in 
2002, but nothing is certain... 


RAMMING IT HOME 

Hyper, 

As usual, you probably won’t 
answer or print my questions. But 
this time I only have one! 

The Xbox is meant to have all these 


spectacular graphics, yet my outdated 
computer has twice the RAM! 

Is the RAM less significant in a 
console? If so, how? 

Cheers, 

Dave 

davema>austarnet. com.au 

Dear Dave, 

You would be correct in assuming 
that RAM is less significant in a 
console. Why? Because the hardware 
architecture of a console is very 
different to that of a PC. A console is 
designed purely for pumping out 
game code, and as a result, doesn't 
need as much RAM as a PC that is 
meant for multi-tasking. That's a 
very simple explanation, but 
hopefully it makes sense. The Xbox 
currently achieves more than a PC 
with a similar spec. 


SONY? 

Hi Hyper people, 

Am I the only one looking at the 
price of PS2 games and wanting to 
tell Sony to get stuffed? I mean, 
really, average games that can be 
finished in a couple of days for 
$99.00 or a half way decent game 
like Red Faction for $110.00? 

You have to wonder how much 
GT3 or MGS2 are going to cost. It 
wouldn’t surprise me if Sony set the 
price at $125.00. 

Okay, I admit it, I am waaay old 
(40) and have been buying games 
for 20 years but pricing games at 
over $100 is absolute bullshit. 

I offer Monkey Island for the PS2 
as an example. On the PC it’s 
available for $79, but on the PS2, $99 
for exactly the same game or Red 
Faction PS2 $110 (if you shop around 
real hard), but on the PC it will sell 
for around $80! Yeah, I know, the 
aussie dollar ain’t worth much 
nowdays, but that’s no excuse. 

Congrats on the magazine, been 
reading mags forever and yours is 
one of the best, "obligatory groveling 
statement as required by law”. 
Regards, 

Peter Jones 
Ringwood North, Vic 

Dear Peter, 

well, believe it or not, but video 
game piracy forces the prices of 
games up... 


COMING UP ON 100 
ISSUES 

To the Editor, 

Great report on the E3 show. First 
of all, one thing that is really 
disappointing to see in this day and 
age is people swearing allegiance to 
certain gaming companies. Those 
poor people are missing out on A 
LOT of great gaming. With all 
different and exciting games spread 
across the different consoles, you 
have to experience them all. 

Anyway, now for the questions: 

1. Around the Hyper office, what’s 
the most popular Game Boy Advance 
game? 

2. What is the most anticipated 
game at the moment around the 
Hyper office? 

3. How much is the PS2 expected 
to drop in retaliation to the low 
prices of the other consoles? 

4. Are u gonna have a real big 
issue with heaps of extras and stuff 
for the big 100th issue? 

Anyway, thanx for your time, 
Arley M 

pol I ute_the_worlda>hotmai I. com 

Dear Arley, 

1. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. 

2. We each have our own desired 
game. Personally, I'm counting the 
days to the release of the massively 
multiplayer RPC, Star Wars Galaxies, 
for the PC. As for Cam and Malcolm, 
they tell me: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 
3 on PS2 and Rogue Leader: Rogue 
Squadron II on GCN, respectively. 

3. Low prices of which other 
consoles? The Xbox and GameCube? 
Ha ha ha ha. They ain't going to be 
cheap here in Australia, my friend. 

4. You bet we will. 


MORE FANTASIES 

Dear Seafood, 

I’m a die-hard SquareSoft fan, and I 
was utterly disappointed after reading 
your review of The Bouncer in issue 
#94. It looked like such a cool game, 
especially since fighting and RPGs are 
two of my favourite genres. Ah well... 

1. Do you know any of the FFX 
story yet? 

2. I heard that FFXI will be online- 
only. Is this true, or will it just have 
the option of online play? 

3. Can you do an NTSC review of 
FFX like you did with IX? 




PART 21 
WINNER 


KUNAL 


Yes, your imaginations ran wild. 

A (aka the K-Man) is our winning 
reader caption this month. 



"WOW! WHO KNEW A DUAL SHOCK CONTROLLER 
COULD BE SO VERSATILE!" 


FRERKSCENeSMEXT.CDM.RU FRERKSCEMESMEXT.CDM.RU FRERK5CEMEDMEXT.CDM.RU FRERK5CENEBNEXT.CDM.RU 


















Connell Wood cooked up this lightsaber equipped Link. 


4. In issue #92 you mentioned 
Xenosaga. Have you heard any more 
about it since then? Being one of the 
few people who played the original 
Xenogears, I can't wait! 

5. Having been to E3, can Cam 
recommend any upcoming RPCs for 
the 3 major consoles? 

6. In Reverse Engineering can you 
write something about FFV? I’m 
playing this over again while I wait 
for FFX, and it’s a great game. It 
actually invented the AP system that 
is still used in many Square games 
today, but it never got a western 
release until FF Anthology. 

7. Will FF Chronicles be out in 
Australia? 

8. If Square decide to go ahead 
with the Xbox, will that be the end 
of Square titles for the PS2? 

9. What is the meaning of life? 
Hope you can answer all of these, 

and keep up the good work. 

Kilavere 

Email address withheld 

Dear Kilavere, 

Yes, pity about the Bouncer. They 
really dropped the ball on that one. 

1. Yes, now that we have an import 
Japanese version of the game! 
Muhaha! 

2. FF XI is definitely an online only 
game, and it will be on multiple 
consoles. 

3. We're tempted. It's great. 

4. Xenosaga is episode one of the 
Xenogears saga, of which Xenogears 
on PSX was episode five. It takes 
place 14,000 years before Xenogears. 
The game is being published by 
Namco, not Square, but the guys 
behind it worked on the original. 

5. GBA: Golden Sun £ Magical 
Vacation; PS2: Final Fantasy X, being 
the most obvious; GCN: Zelda or 
Phantasy Star Online; Xbox: 
Morrowind: Elder Scrolls III. The GBA 
PPGs will definitely give you that 
classic PPG fix if that's what you're 
after (think Secret of Mana). 

6. We may just do that. 

7. According to our release schedules, 
no, it won't get a local release. 


8 . Absolutely not! Square are 
historically a multi-platform 
publisher. 


9 . 4 - 2 - 


GCN FOREVER 

I’ll ignore the sucking up right now 
and just get right down to it. Any 
chance of a more recent console 
comparison (of course CameCube 
would have to win)? As a Nintendo 
fanboy... ahem... fangirl, I’m mighty 
impressed at all the games I have 
seen. So you lucky bastards saw 
Smash Bros. Melee in action hey? Well 
after I got over a week of weeping I 
realised something - why does 
Australia have to wait so long for 
games? I know we have to get PAL 
games, but how long can they take to 
translate some language and change 
versions to work on our TVs? Well I’ve 
been playing Tony Hawk 2 on GBA - 
have you been playing it? It’s the 
best handheld game I’ve ever played! 
Anyhoo catch ya on the flip side, 

Crystal J. 

gcfreaka>hotmail.com 

Dear Crystal, 

The reason PAL conversions can take so 
long to surface, is that all of Europe is 
PAL. This means that translations have 
to be done for every single different 
language in Europe, which can take a 
very long time, you may have noticed 
that many PAL games give you the 
option to select English, German, 
French, Italian and so on... it's easier 
for them to make one product which 
they ship everywhere, rather than 
multiple language copies. 

As for a console comparison, we 
may do something when they are 
finally all released. And yes, Tony 
Hawk 2 is the best handheld game 
we've played to date. 


WHAT IS THE THIRD 
PLACE? 

Dear crew members, 

First let me say that I like reading 
your magazine. Now to the point, 


RN BABY BURN 


I’ve been buying Hyper for about three years now and there seems 
to be no attention paid to the issue of trading burnt games. I reckon 
there has been one article about it that I have read. This is odd 
considering it is such an important part of the gaming industry. It 
effects everyone involved, from the developers down to the gamers. 

The burnt games industry is thriving in my area, although I ain’t 
saying nothing that’s going to incriminate me or anyone I know, nor 
am I saying whether I agree with it or not. For me. until the gaming 
industry is on the brink of bankruptcy thanks to piracy it doesn’t 
bother me. Buying pirated games appears to be the obvious option 
when buying games. You can either shell out close to a hundred 
hard-earned dollars or pay around ten. 

Lots of people (including me) have paid a lot of money for games 
that were worth playing for about a week. The people I know only 
care about playing quality games and couldn’t care less if the 
gaming industry suffers. 

The main problem for developers is that there isn’t anything that 
they can do. Right now developers make CDs that can detect pirated 
games but it’s incredibly easy to find downloadable cracks to make 
this problem non-existent. I heard there is new software being 
implemented to combat piracy but there will no doubt be a way 
around this as well. 

It looks like piracy will never go away, due to the inaction of the 
people in charge and the intelligence of those doing the trading. 

I’ve never heard Hyper’s opinion on the matter, so what do you 
think? 

Nick Hamm ^ 

Hammstarrd>hotmail.com _ mm # 


Dear Nick, U £ 

It's simple. The more game • |p^ 

worse games will ™ # A 

become. Why? Think ^ 
about it. If a developer 

makes an incredible game, but it gets pirated 2 

and everyone plays the warez copjt, the publisher of this 
brilliant game will not make much money and subsequently, the 
developer of the game will not be^iven any more money for another 
game. Either that or their budget for the next game is far less, and 
the next game as a result is an inferior product and so on. The less 
money publishers make on games, the less money they will put into 
making good games, and the less developers out there will get a go at 
bringing us good games. If piracy increases, so will the general 
crapness of the games available. Oh, and prices will go up. It SUCKS. 


Gamester PS2 
Dual Force 2 Wheel. 

Don't forget to mcludi your contact details in youi letter 

You've won a Gamester Steering Wheel! 



what the heck does the marketing 
slogan for the PS2 mean when they 
say "PlayStation 2: The third place.” 
I’ve asked all my friends (which is 
just 2) and they don’t know what it 
means. Are the ad wizards trying to 
convey that the PS2 is the third best 
selling machine or in third place in 
the console wars? If that’s the case, 
shouldn’t I buy the machine that’s 
in first place? 

Sebastian 

Sebastian_ramosa>hotmail.com 

Dear Sebastian, 

The concept of the "Third Place" 
comes from the mind of film director 
David Lynch, the man behind those 
bizarre TV ads. Apparently it means 


"a personal place with no rules, no 
maps, no boundaries". For a really 
in-depth analysis of the ad, check 
out this site: 

www.geocities.com/mikehartmann 
/papers/ligot.html 
Or, like you said, it could mean the 
position the PS2 will be in once the 
GameCube and Xbox are released... 


CARTOON CHICKS 

Godammit! 

I have seen people, talked to 
people and I have nowhere else to 
go. HYPER YOU MUST SAVE ME! People 
think that lately I have had a very 
bad syndrome of Animated Porn! 
What the hell is wrong with me? 


frerkbceneqnext.com.ru frerksceneqnext.cdm.ru frerkbceneqnext.com.ru frerkbceneqnext.com.ru 























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I can’t stop thinking about naked 
cartoon chicks. I even registered with 
a goddamn website and have 
downloaded a cartoon porno game 
that I can’t freakin’ stop playing! Is it 
just me who’s like this? Why the hell 
is my mind doing this to me? Oh god 
save me I’m getting nauseous. Cotta 
think happy thoughts... please Hyper 
HELP ME! From the depths I cry to you 
oh Lord Seafood, Mr Breakdancer, 
That guy Dan and Kevvy. I NEED HELP! 
What is your diagnosis? Any answers 
will be of help! Quick it’s getting me 
again I’m watching it... hurry!!! 
N 000000000000000 . 

Doggy Style 

Knob4yaa>hotmail.com 


online games? I think there are a lot 
of free online games that are worth 
being reviewed. Games such as 
Graal (www.graalonline.com), Alien 
Adoption Agency (www.web- 
docent.com), and RedMoon Online 
(www.redmoononline.com) are just 
some of those great free games. 

3. Can you review the game Graal 
(www.graalonline.com), which is 
my favourite? I think that game will 
be great to be put on the Trawlin’ 
section. 

That’s all I wanna say and keep 
up the good work guys! This mag 
rulz! 

Lord KaJne 

lordkanegraala>hotmail.com 


Dear Doggy, 

For goodness sake, get a grip. Oh... 
no hold on, don't do that... 


TRAWLIN' FAN 

I just wanna say the "TRAWLIN’” 
section of Hyper is great. I’m a fan 
of online games. I have a few 
queries: 

1. Is there an email address to 
send stuff about Trawlin’ (game 
reviews and stuff)? 

2. Can you guys also review free 


Dear K@ne, 

1. You can send Trawlin' ideas to 
freakscene@next. com.au 

2. That's a nice idea, so keep an eye 
on future issues. 

3. We'll take a look at it for you. 
Meanwhile, here's a screenshot. 


AUSSIES RULE 

G’day Hyper champs. 

I just want to start by saying how 
freakin convenient a subscription 
is. You can dream about the no 


Harvev Norman 


1 


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SAVE 
15 %* 

OFF ANY TOP 
20 GAME! 


Harvey Norman would like to offer 
readers of Hyper an exclusive discount 
offer on the titles appearing on the 
Official Australian PC, PlayStation or 
N64 Games Chart. Simply complete the 
coupon & take it into any Harvey 
Norman store to claim your discount. 


nnffl5f¥35£>sAVE 15 %' 

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• Limit of one per person Original voucher must be presented & coirpteted to claim the discount. Discount applies to regular sto r e pricing. Not 
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fuss, cheap way to get the mag, but 
until you arrive from a crap day at 
school to see an A4 sized plastic 
wrapped object in your letter box 
that doesn’t say "Open Road", you 
can’t know the joyous feeling of 
getting that unexpected delivery 
every month. 

I’m basically writing to say thank 
you, ’cos a while back you directed 
me to Game Spy for my online 
gaming woes and changed my 
outlook and respect for other Aussie 
gamers. Since then I have got a 
cable connection and a new 
computer and am ass wooping on 
American servers. I’ve played 
Aussie players and must say that 
the Americans have no idea, I have 
suffered more defeats in one 
session in Australia than in my 
entire online career. There must be 
something in the water in this 
country. I also lived in England a 
few years back and the only guy 
that could give me a run for my 
money or beat me was another 
Aussie. 

For a country with such a small 
population our gaming community 
is rock solid. Australian gamers 
deserve a large pat on the back and 
some kind of giant cookie. We 
deserve more credit from the online 
community, I get constant crap 
about having cable, with 
egotistical, patronising Americans 
saying " Wow, you have cable in 
Ostraaaliaaaa?”. They are laughing 
on the other side of their faces after 
I frag them constantly for the next 
hour. 

Good work Australia and keep it 
up, the world won’t mock us for long. 

Reggie 

Dural, NSW 



Dear Reggie, 

Mmmm... What was that about a 
giant cookie? 

ON THE HORIZON 

Hey Hyper Dudes, 

Might I start by saying ’’great 
mag". I was just wondering about a 
preview you guys did, back in Oct 
2000 on an RPG online game, 
Horizons. I have tried to contact 
their website without much success. 

I was hoping you guys might know 
how it is coming along, or if it has 
met an unfortunate demise. 

P.S. Are there any other games of 
this nature coming out? 

Thanks heaps!!! 

Ando 

shaun_andersona>optusnet. 

com.au 

Dear Ando, 

Check out the very comprehensive 
horizonsvault.ign.com. And yes, 
there are literally tonnes of online 
RPGs in development - are you nuts? 
Keep an eye on cool PC news sites 
like www.bluesnews.com for daily 
updates on games in development 
such as MMORPGs. 

Horizons is but one of many, many, 
many, many games in development. 


frehk 5 cenebnext.cdm.ru frehkscenebnext.cdm.hu frehk 5 cenebnext.cdm.hu frerkscenebnext.cdm.ru 













































The Official Australian Games Chart 

Compiled by Inform in association with AVSDA 


X 




PlayStation 2 
Games Over $50 


C 

W/E 29 JUL 2001 


A 


1 

♦ 

Red Faction 

Action 

2 

A 

Formula 1 2001 

Racing 

m 

1 

The Bouncer 

Adventure 

4 

A 

Crazy Taxi 

Racing 

HI 

▼ 

Rugby 

Sports 

6 

© 

ATV Offroad 

Racing 

m 

❖ 

SSX 

Sports 

8 

▼ 

NBA Street 

Sports 

fill 

w\ 

Tekken Tag Tournament 

Action 

10 

© 

Gauntlet Dark Legacy 

Adventure 


TOF» 

io 


Game Boy Games 
Over $40 


W/E 29 JUL 2001 
RETAIL SALES 


A 


r i 

© | 

Star Wars: Obi Wan 

Action 

2 

A 

Pokemon Gold 

RPG 

" 

© | 

Taz Dvl Munching Madness 

Adventure 

4 

▼ 

Pokemon Silver 

RPG 

OB 

m 

Shrek FairyTale Freak Down 

Action 

6 

T 

Zelda: Oracle Of Seasons 

RPG 

mm 

V 

Zelda: Oracle Of Ages 

RPG 

8 

© 

Matchbox Car Cnstrctn Zne 

Strategy 

9 

© 

|^Jjjlj3Sons Tree Hse Horror 

Adventure 

10 

T 

Donkey Kong Country 

Adventure 


TOP 


IO) 


PC Games 
Over $30 


A 


1 

♦ 

Diablo II: Lord Of Destrction 

2 

A 

The Sims 


A | 

The Sims Collectors Edition 

4 

♦ 

Diablo 2 

t 

♦ 

Operation Flashpoint 

6 

▼ 

Half Life Blue Shift 


A 

The Sims House Party 

8 

© 

Sim Mania Pack 


♦ 

The Sims Livin' Large 

10 

▼ 

Baldurs Gate 2 : Bhaal 


r 

W/E 29 JUL 2001 


Strategy 

Strategy 

RPG 

Strategy 

Action 

Strategy 

Strategy 

Strategy 

RPG 


io; 


All Full Priced 
Games 


W/E 29 JUL 2001 


m 

2 


pabloHprd Of Destret ion 

Digimon B 


r Mario Advance 


4 Q Star Wars: Obi Wan 

5 © Pokemon Gold 

6 ▼ Red Faction 

7 © Taz Devil Mnching Madness 

8 ▼ Pokemon Silver 

9 T The Sims 

10 © Shrek FairyTale Freak Down 


PC/MAC 

PlayStation 

GBA 

Game Boy 
Game Boy 
PlayStation 2 
Game Boy 
Game Boy 
PC/MAC 
Game Boy 


4 


T OP 


X 


io 


PlayStation Games 
Over $40 


W/E 29 JUL 2001 
RETAIL SALES 


i 


Digimon 

RPG 

2 

♦ 

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 

Sports 


A 

World's Scariest Police 

Racing 

4 

A 

Tomb Raider Collectors Pk 

Adventure 

«■ 

© 

Looney Tunes Double Pack 

Adventure 

6 

A 

WWF Smackdown! 2 

Sports 

mi 

¥ 

Time Crisis Project Titan 

Action 

8 

▼ 

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 

Sports 





TOP 

io 


N64 Games 
Over $40 


W/E 29 JUL 2001 
RETAIL SALES 



© 

Bokemon 

Action 

2 

© 

Mario Party 3 

Family 

€■ 

7 

Pokemon Stadium 2 

Action 

4 

T 

Conker’s Bad Fur Day 

Adventure 

* 

V 

Banjo Tooie 

Adventure 

6 

A 

Zelda: Majora's Mask 

RPG 


© 

Mario Kart 64 

Racing 

8 

▼ 

Mario Tennis 

Sports 

mm 

V 

Perfect Dark 

Action 


10 ▼ Donkey Kong 64 


A 


TOP 

IO) 


Game Boy Advance 
Games Over $40 


Adventure 


W/E 29 JUL 2001 


m 


Super Mario Advance 

2 

♦ 

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 

3 ♦ Rayman Advance 

4 

♦ 

GT Advance Racing 

5 

♦ 

F-Zero Maximum Velocity 

6 

♦ 

Pinobee 

7 ♦ 

Castlevania 

8 

♦ 

Kra/y Racers 


and Magic Gems 

Top Gear GT Champioship 


Adventure 

Sports 

Adventure 

Racing 

Racing 

Adventure 

Action 

Racing 

Action 

Racing 


MARKET WATCH 
All Games by Platform 


JUN v MAY 2001 
RETAIL SALES 



O New Entry 
♦ Non Mover 

A Up from 
last week 

▼ Down from 
last week 




nform 


Charts can be viewed at WWW.informbd.COm.au as part of 

In form's comprehensive database of online market intelligence, updated weekly 


Inform tracks the weekly sales of business and leisure technology products, and provides detailed reports to subscribers and Reseller & 
Retail panel members, for subscription or panel membership details phone 02 9264 0095. Copyright ° 2001 by Inform. All rights reserved. 






























































































NEXT ISSUE 


On sale September 26 


WWF: RAW IS WAR! 

AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK 
INSIDE THE DEVELOPMENT 
OF THIS XBOX WRESTLER 

PLUS: SID MEIER'S 
SIM GOLF \\ 

We speak to the gaming 
legend himself! 














are you hyperactive?