9 771320 745018 1 1 i] 111 jil | i r \ 1 Kk Tjj djj 1 m ] When you kill for money there are no rules. The Psychology of the Assassin No terms, one condition COMING MAY 4* MA15+ MEDIUM LEVEL ANIMATED VIOLENCE eidos^ •-Q* lo-lnteractive Xxeox PlayStation 2 IO Interactive A S 2004.Hitman Contract* i* * trademark ofEido*. All right* tvwmtL When destiny calls... ....a legend returns. PRE-ORDER NOW AT GAMES electronics boutique then lead them home 3-life soldier experience' C^icial Australian XEox ?'amarine "The most realistic, tactical combat strategy game ever.’ 1 arp tradr-nThr arxi/or rer'irtered tracSp'nrhr of Pandemic Otudirr* LL" am! are ur.der rvrri. Ml other trade-rirhA Inroc arJ oonyrlrhto arp the ’rcrerty cf* their mr^pctive owners. 1 TIL-’htr .herrrvat PanJe'-ic®, the Parde-ic loro® and Pul’’ r^ yct r t r- loro are teaderar/.n nrd/ar rr-irtwrci trader-nrlcs cr' T?C Tnc. Ml ri PRE-ORDER NOW AT &&GAMES electronics bouiioue 62 UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004 The ultimate multiplayer first person shooter? Contents » 08 Editorial 10 News The latest updates from the wonderful world of videographic edutainment. Or something like that. 14 Interview We talk to the guys behind one of the most anticipated sequels this year - Need For Speed Underground 2 . 18 Previews The latest from Acclaim Austin, plus Tribes Vengeance, World of Warcraft, The Bard’s Tale and The Nightmare Before Christmas. 30 Interview We have a chat with Elixir Studios about their upcoming PC strategy game Evil Genius. Taking over the world has never been so much fun. 36 Hardware Our massive gamepad rundown. 42 Win Win Win 44 Reviews 72 GBA Reviews 74 Arcade 76 Net Trawlin' Ever dreamed of having your own incredibly niche website that only your friends will go to? We tell you what’s involved. 82 Classics A history of R-Type - one of gaming’s most beloved franchises. 86 DVDs & Anime 90 Subscriptions 92 Forum Will you be getting the Sony PSP or the Nintendo DS? 94 Mail 97 Games Charts 98 Next Issue REVIEW INDEX 46 Ninja Gaiden 48 Rallisport Challenge 2 50 Fight Night 2004 52 Dead Man’s Hand 54 The Suffering 56 World Championship Rugby 58 R: Racing 59 R-Type Final 60 This Is Soccer 2004 61 The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition 62 Unreal Tournament 2004 64 Sacred 66 Counter-Strike: Condition Zero 68 MX Unleashed 68 Unreal 2 68 Haunted Mansion 70 SingStar 72 Sabre Wulf 73 Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow 73 Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand HYPER» 7 8 HYPER» EDITORIAL >> With the advent of peripherals like the EyeToy and karaoke microphones, game consoles are taking another big step towards being all round entertainment machines that are just as geared towards the mainstream as they are to the "hardcore". There's really nothing wrong with this (in fact, it's probably a good thing), but it's still a little hard to know how to take it all. EyeToy, for instance, was fun for about five minutes... then we went back to our arcade sticks and Guilty Gear X2. And as for all the karaoke games that have come out of the woodwork (next up - Drunken Master Karaoke for GBA), it's taken us until now to bother reviewing one of them, and as you can see above, we didn't exactly take it too seriously. But you know what? Why shouldn't more mainstream gamers have their peripherals? We get crazy shit like the Steel Battalion controller, so really, it's just balancing things out. And sometimes it's products like EyeToy that act as a portal into gaming for casual players, not to mention functioning as breeding grounds for the future of control/navigation solutions - if the PS3 rumours are to be believed. Gaming will continue to grow, and the more choice you have, the greater the likelihood it will be a lifelong passion. So kick back and enjoy. Cam Shea >> Editor HYPER CREW MONTHLY TOP 5 GAMES Cam Shea - Editor 1. Majora's Mask - GCN "That rotten skull kid won't get away with this! R, A, D, R, A, D" 2. Ninja Gaiden - Xbox 3. UT 2004 - PC 4. Rallisport Challenge 2 - Xbox 5. Fight Night 2004 - Xbox Daniel Wilks - Deputy Editor 1. UT 2004-PC "More UT is always a good thing. PANCAKE!" 2 . Sacred - PC 3. Final Fantasy X-2 - PS2 4. Soul Calibur 2 - Xbox 5. Phone tag with banks Malcolm Campbell - Art Guy 1. R-Type Final - PS2 "Sunday Strike, Delicatessen, Hot Conductor, gotta catch 'em all!" 2. Final Fantasy X-2 - PS2 3. R-Type - PSone 4. R-Type II - PSone 5. R-Type Delta - PSone Kosta Andreadis - Some Guy 1. FarCry-PC "Currently playing it in slow motion with a GeForce 3" 2. Fire Emblem - GBA 3. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes - GCN 4. Battlefield Vietnam - PC 5. Uno! - Card Game HYPER » ISSUE 128 JUNE 2004 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: Cam Shea Deputy Editor: Daniel Wilks Art Director: Malcolm Campbell ADVERTISING Advertising Manager: David Canessa E-mail: davidc@next.com.au Ph: (02) 9699 0349 Fax: (02) 9310 2012 SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription Co-ordinator Mark Tesoriero For all Subscription enquiries phone: (02) 9699 0320 Email: subs@next.com.au MANAGEMENT Publisher: Phillip Keir Finance Director. Theo Fatseas Operations Manager Melissa Doyle Associate Publisher: Sue Ostler E-mail: sue@next.com.au Ph: (02) 9699 0346 PRODUCTION Production Co-ordinator Monique Layt E-mail: moniquel@next.com.au Ph: (02) 9699 0300 Fax: (02) 93102012 IT Support: Fahri Cantas Printed CTP by: WEBSTAR Distribution by: Gordon & Gotch Customer Service Ph: 1300 65 0666 Fax: 1300 65 0777 CONTRIBUTORS Daniel Staines, Stephen Farrelly, Brett Robinson, Ed Dawson, John Dewhurst, Eliot Fish, Tim Levy, Kosta Andreodis, Alex Andreadis, Rebecca Izard, Maurice Branscombe, D. Mannerism, Joey Tekken. All copyrights reserved by Next Publishing Pty Ltd ACN 002 647 645 ISSN 1320-7458 I Vivendi UNIVERSAL EVIL HAS ONE NAME TO FEAR THE GAME Spectacular kill moves ■ Deadly weaponry Haunting Transylvania locales • Battle Dracula, The Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolf Man and more PlayStation 2 "Van Hel&ing” interactive game c 2004 Vivendi Universal Games. Inc Van Helsmg '“in Universal Studios, licensed by Universal Studios licensing LllP All Rights Reserved "PlayStation" and the M PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc Microsoft, Xbox. and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. Vivendi Universal Games and the Vivendi Universal Games logo are trade¬ marks ot Vivendi Universal Games, Inc The Saffrre logo is a registered trademark of Saffire, Inc. www.vanhelsinggamc.coin IN STORES MAY 6 ANIMATED DVD OUT 26 MAY 10 HYPER» Tamagotchis are back! Mind controlled gaming Paper Mario 2 confirmed! Stuff gets smaller nanmsn XBOX NOW $249 Microsoft get the jump on the competition... [above] But where's the Master Chef? RS| Microsoft recently announced a price drop for the Xbox down to $249 (from $299), which makes it ridiculously good value for money. Don’t believe us? Then check out the latest shots of Halo 2 - and bear in mind these screenshots were taken WITHOUT all the effects turned on! Imagine what the final product is going to look like! We simply can’t wait for this game. In other price drops, the Halo Elite Force pack is now $299 and you can pick up PGR2 for $69.95, and Amped 2 and Counter-Strike for $49.95. Will Sony and Nintendo follow suit? Here’s hoping. In other Xbox news, Hyper staffers were on hand to help celebrate the Xbox’s second birthday in Australia. Unlike last year’s party, which was in a huge warehouse with a full beach volleyball court and skate ramp out the back, the second birthday was a smaller affair, just a few hundred people in a strip club in Kings Cross. And you guys think the life of a gaming journalist is glamorous... think again! EZEMZXiak. TINY TOSHIBA HDD in your pocket japanese electronics manufacturer Toshiba has cemented their place in the Guinness Book of Records by creating the world’s smallest HDD. The new storage devices are roughly the size of a postage stamp and can hold up to an incredible 4Gb of data. Toshiba are planning on placing the drives in devices such as mobile phones and digital video cameras, giving the portable devices more storage space than desktop computers had a few short years ago. Toshiba is no stranger to tiny HDDs - their last small drive is utilised in Apple Computer’s hugely successful iPod digital music player. The company plans on putting the drives into mass production by the end of this year so with any luck we should start seeing the first devices to utilise the tiny drives in early 2005. STEADY HANDS Job prospects for gamers Next time your parents tell you that you’ll never amount to anything if you just keep playing videogames all day, look them straight in the eye and tell them that you are training for your future career as a surgeon. A recent study conducted at the Beth Israel Hospital and the Institute of Media on the Family at Iowa State University showed that doctors who played videogames using gamepad style controllers were 37% less likely to make a mistake and 27% faster than doctors who didn’t play games during the practice of laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic surgery involves the making of a tiny keyhole incision into which is placed a small camera and tools that are remotely controlled with thumbsticks. [left] Hercule Poirot - fantastic mustache SWISS ARMY GEEK MP3s and knives. Yay! A generation ago it was a sign of supreme coolness for any kid to have a real Swiss Army Knife, the original multi-tool folding knife with accessories ranging from nail files to wood saws and wire cutters. Swiss Army Knives are still in hot demand due to their small size and incredible usefulness but soon it looks as though the venerable blade may become the height of geek chic. In addition to a knife blade, screwdriver and the like, this year’s model of the knife will come with a variable size USB thumb drive. A spokesman from Victorinox, the company responsible for making the knives stated that they were having a hard time looking for new attachments for the knives but are happy with the trend of miniaturisation in technology - god only knows what next year’s model will surprise us with. WHO¬ DUNNIT? Christ(ie) on a bike TAMAGOTCHI: THE REVENGE Get on the Bandai-wagon When it comes to best selling authors and books, two stand out above all, the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare, a man who wrote some pretty nifty plays but could never be sure how to spell his own surname. That may not come as much of a surprise but how many people know who the third most popular is? Agatha Christie, the now dead author of the Hercule Poirot mysteries (amongst others) wrote 79 books during her long career that have collectively sold over 2 billion copies. 2 billion copies - by anyone’s estimation that is an absolute shit-load. Now the grand dame of mysteries books (or some of them at least) are to be transformed into games. There are no details as yet as to which of the novels or short stories will be used and what form the games will take but mystery fans and fans of adventure gaming should rejoice. just when you thought it was safe to go back into a public place and not be assaulted by the myriad annoying beeps of small virtual pets, Bandai, the makers of the phenomenally successful Tamagotchi virtual pets are on the verge of releasing a second generation time waster. The Tamagotchi II is for all intents and purposes just like the original with one important difference - an IR port that will allow the little bastards to communicate with each other. The new virtual pets will be able to make friends, play, give each other gifts and, heaven forbid, even breed with each other giving birth to genetically mixed offspring. Bandai expects to sell around 2 million units in the first year. Whilst this may sound like a huge number it’s nothing compared to the 40* million original Tamagotchi (not including cheap imitators) sold. SAGA OF STUPIDITY Internet cafe death trap Barely a month goes by without someone in one of the Asian nations keeling over dead after playing a marathon session of some game at an Internet cafe. Before anyone starts looking towards Korea (again), this month’s victim of stupidity comes from China. The unnamed 31-year old man was found dead in his favourite Internet cafe in Chengdu after a marathon 20-hour session playing a popular MMORPG called Saga. Apparently the man had begun playing for ten plus hours a day more than three months ago but employees at the cafe found nothing wrong with this behaviour. There are no indications on file as to why the man passed away aside from his marathon gaming session which leads Hyper to believe that Saga itself was the cause - we’ve played games bad enough to cause serious physical pain before but never one bad enough to kill us, but with the number of games we play it’s only a matter of time... HYPER» 11 12 HYPER» NEWS » BSEESIZEk MIND GAMES Cranial balancing act A group of researchers have come up with a nifty little game called Mind Balance which revolves around players directly controlling a tight-rope-walking creature with their mind. When the player first starts the game (and are fitted with the specially designed headset) they are asked to concentrate on different images in screen to calibrate the machine before launching into the game proper. The actual gameplay revolves around keeping the on screen character balanced by concentrating on coloured boxes on the left or right of the screen — if the frog-like alien, dubbed Mawg starts leaning right then the player has to concentrate on the left hand box and vice-versa. If this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea then don’t worry because you won’t be seeing it on shelves any time soon. The technology has been developed for research into spinal/brain injuries that hinder movement and will hopefully be a first step to helping those people move again. WINNERS Hyper 126 ARMED & DANGEROUS First prize winners: Don Hua. NSW Michael McAtee, QLD Kevin Willett, NSW Carla Lewenhoff, WA Stew Colman, ACT Runners-up: Chris Skevofilax, VIC Carmen Cerada, NSW Alex Campbell, WA Tim Paladin, QLD Lauren Wood. TAS TENCHU Gene Megaritz, VIC Chris Nicoll, NSW Jason New, NSW 28 DAYS LATER Joseph Bell, NSW Tanya Cupper, NSW Merrin Westlake, NSW George Watson, VIC Alexandra Kilby, NSW LIFELINE Talk your way out of trouble Some people say that talk is cheap but in the PS2 game Lifeline it is anything but. Players take the role of a security guard trapped inside their control room guiding a young woman named Rio through a space station after a disaster. Whilst the plot may not sound too novel, the actual gameplay mechanics definitely are. The player watches Rio through the security monitors of the station and tells her what to do through a USB headset - that’s right, players literally have to tell Rio what to do. The game is built around a voice recognition middleware program developer by ScanSoft that can recognise around 5000 individual words and up to 100.000 phrases. In practice this basically means that Rio has a good chance of understanding anything that the player says to her as long as it is within context. There are no indications of the game being released in Australia as yet but even so, Lifeline is a tantalising glimpse into the possible future of interactive games. Bnnk NEW BILL Putting a sting on socially unacceptable games Amazing as it may seem, the highly popular GTA: Vice City and the craptastic Postal 2: We Still Think Gary Coleman is a Selling Point, have come under fire for being harmful to children. Assemblyman Leland Yee of San Francisco has singled out these two games as prime examples of harmful games in an effort to push a bill through legislature with the purpose of prohibiting the sale of such games to minors. Yee has no problems with adults playing the games themselves but he does not want children to have access to such antisocial or violent titles. His bill, AB1792 will level hefty fines at anyone caught distributing the games deemed harmful to underage audiences. Bravo Leland Yee — it’s about time someone approached the subject with an open mind and a good idea instead of simply trying to ban games outright. Bad Cop No Doughnut DANIEL WILK?^THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS DEPUTY EDITOR Like many other people I took advantage of the after Christmas sales and bought myself something I really couldn't afford. It probably comes as no surprise that I am something of a film collector with a current stash of around 1000 videos, 300 or so DVDs in my living room and a heap of old film reels gathering dust and possibly sentient Hollywood flavoured mildew in storage. I bought myself what I thought was a great, beautiful looking high definition widescreen TV. I saw the beauty on sale for 2g's off due to the fact that the company no longer manufactures models in that colour (nice shiny white). It's a mistake I don't know if I'll live to regret. Ever since getting the box home I have been plagued with problems - only small ones mind you but things that irk me nonetheless. The image shows a pixel sheen for the most part that causes fine textures to tear and for some reason the refresh rate seems to drop dramatically when playing games, making everything look, for want of a better word, shit. I did some Internet research and discovered that many other owners of this TV suffered from similar problems but had found ways of fixing it by contacting their local service department. I called the manufacturer and their helpful advice was that I had a faulty model and that I should call a technician. I called said technician who said there was no problem with the TV itself and that I would have to call the manufacturer to get debug codes to fix the problems internally. On my second call the manufacturer flatly denied that there was any such thing as debug codes and told me to call a technician. The saga continues... JUST ANNOUNCED! Far Cry Instincts Xbox, PS2 Developer: Ubisofl Montreal In great news for Cube owners, both Paper Mario 2 and a Fire Emblem title have been confirmed for the system. Woo Hoo! Both games are in development at Intelligent Systems (y’know, the guys that did Advance Wars and Fire Emblem), so you can rest assured they’ll be grade A gold Jerry. Both titles look to pick up where previous games in the series left off, and Paper Mario 2 in particular looks to have some inventive and playful elements, such as Mario folding himself up into a paper plane to get around. Here’s hoping we get a hands on with both games at E3. John Woo has optioned the rights to the Metroid franchise. Yes, you read right. One of the only people in Hollywood that could do Metroid justice may not only co¬ produce, but possibly direct a film adaptation of the origins of Samus. Apparently the plan is to have the film ready before 2006. Legendary Japanese developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi has hinted that his next game may be a spiritual sequel to the funky Rez, and he’s considering doing it on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. If you didn’t already know, Mizuguchi left Sega around six months ago to start his own development house — Q Entertainment. Apparently he wants more freedom to be creative. Sounds good to us. Although we weren’t exactly clamouring for a sequel, here it is - Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict is in development on Xbox at Epic and will be out later this year. What’s interesting about it? You can switch to third person and indulge in some serious melee moves... including defensive parries. Take that rocket and shove it! Those of you with Amped 2 and Xbox Live will be pleased to hear that Microsoft have recently delivered three new courses for the game - Pioneer, Sky, and Slopestyle 2003. Cotta love the powder. Holy voice overs Batman! Ubisoft have incorporated voice-overs for NPCs in Everquest II. It’s the first ever MMOG to do so, with a staggering 130 hours of dialogue... let’s hope they get it right. Our State of the Consoles feature will be in next month’s Hyper... HYPER» 13 JA M eed For Speed III Underground really tuned m wm in to the current interest in street racing, capturing the speed and the culture of the scene. It represented a rebirth for the series as a whole too, and we’ve been frothing at the mouth thinking about what the next step might be. To find out, we spoke to Chuck Osieja, the Executive Producer for the Need for Speed Franchise. discovery of the tuner scene. The player isn’t handed every race. They have to go out and find them. This year the world is huge and it’s all interconnected. You can literally drive from one end to the other and to anywhere that you can see on the map. The first Underground was really a collection of tracks that were in the same world but you could only drive on one at a time. This year you can drive from a circuit event to a drift event to a drag event without ever leaving the world. You can be racing in a point to point race and drive right past an area where a drift event is taking place. The world is alive and things are happening as you drive through it. You also drive to all of the tuner shops in the world. In order to get the parts in the game you’ll have to find out where they are by talking to other drivers and then finding them in the city. Inventories change and new parts and options arrive all the time so knowing where the best shops are is really an advantage. We’re really building on the idea of that once the player is in the Underground 2 world they never have to leave. It’s a much more organic approach to the game this year. PS2 XBOX GCN DETAILS CATEGORY: Street Racing / PLAYERS: 1 -Multi / DEVELOPER: Black Box / AVAILABLE: TBA / HYPER: What's your main goal for this sequel? What elements from the original did the team think could be improved, and what opportunities are you looking forward to pursuing this time around? Chuck: The vision has been from the start to take Underground 2 to a whole new level in terms of the experience and how the player interacts in the world. The first Underground allowed us to introduce the player to the tuner culture and allow them to discover what tuning is all about. We really wanted to nail the idea of giving the player enough customization options to build the car that they really wanted. This time out we’re expanding that idea to the world and focusing on the idea of _ Hello Homer, it's me, KITT, from TV's Knight Rider... 16 HYPER» INTERVIEW » HYPER: How much more detailed will the tuning options be? We’d love to see a more intricate engine, suspension and aerodynamic tuning. How about damage to parts and cars, such as wear and tear on the engine? Chuck: Oh yeah. One of the focuses of the game this year is to have a deep performance customization aspect to the cars. We’re not changing the kits and packages that we had last year but instead we’re adding the ability for the player to buy and tune individual performance parts. Gear, shocks, torque curves, and much more will all be there for the player with enough car "know how” to squeeze that little extra out of the parts that they put on their car. Not only will you be able to tune individual parts on your car but the player will also be able to save multiple set-ups and then load them before each race. At the same time we don’t put the player who doesn’t have a lot of tuning knowledge at a disadvantage because they can still buy and apply the kits and packages and get great performance upgrades to their cars. HYPER: How hard is it balancing visceral arcade thrills with the attention to detail that gearheads want? What are the tradeoffs [above] Just a few of the fully sick rides you'll be able to race with in Underground 2. involved with ensuring that almost anyone can pick the game up and play it? Cliuck: It is exactly this balance that the Need For Speed franchise has targeted. Our physics engine delivers this by being forgiving to the casual gamer while at the same time rewarding the more seasoned drivers. We’ve also found that Incorporating things such as Nitrous Oxide provides a thrilling element to a gamer at any level, but also resonates with the hard core enthusiast who is looking for authenticity. HYPER: How much more dynamic will the new game structure be? Will there be any new events in addition to street racing, drift and drag? This is one of the focuses for Underground 2 - let the player determine their experience. We’re designing an event system that allows the player to play only the events that they want to play and still make it through the game. If you love drifting and circuits you can become great at those. If you prefer drag or one of the new modes that will be in the game play those. There will be over seven different race modes in Underground 2 so I think that everyone will find enough events that they want to play, and they won’t be forced to play the ones that they don’t like. You don’t have to finish all of the events in a region to move on either. Earn enough cash and reputation and new areas of the world will open up to you. We’ve also designed the events so that you can go back and play any event over again. The goal is to give the player as much freedom to customize their game experience as possible. HYPER: Tell us about the environments that we’ll be racing through in NFSU2. And what challenges are involved in designing city-based courses without covering the same territory as the last game? Chuck: Underground 2 will take place in a metropolitan area with a city-core and a variety of distinct neighborhoods. We are building a larger interconnected world that will be fully drivable. The whole thing will be tied together with a pretty intense system of freeways. The player will be able to drive from one end of the city to the other once they’ve unlocked all of the areas. HYPER: Will police play a role in the sequel? Or sunlight? Chuck: There will be no police in Underground, it is not an option given the scope of the project. Because this is a game about underground racing, we are staying with a night-themed environment. We will however have a range of evening light from sunset to sunrise. Also new to Underground 2 will be dynamic weather effects that will dramatically change while you are driving, adding to the visual variety. HYPER: Will we be able to drive V8s and other popular street cars in NFSU2? How many licensed cars are we likely to see? We’ve already settled on our car list and I think players will be happy with the choices that we’ve made. We’re still in negotiations with some of the manufacturers so I can’t mention the cars right now, but it will definitely be a broader selection of vehicles than what we had last year. If you’ve watched the tuning scene over the last year, and lord ONCE THE PLAYER IS IN THE UNDERGROUND 2 WORLD THEY NEVER HAVE TO LEAVE 1 1 1 \ \ iPi*. V a i and do anything different. We’re seeing the same thing now with Underground. We knew it was going to happen but here come the "street racing games with rain slicked roads”. Whoo-hoo, can’t wait for that (sarcasm). As a gamer I play as much as I can and I think that my tastes are as discriminating as anyone's. I’ve only got so much time to dedicate to my gaming so I want my experience to either be "tried and true” with a brand that I know consistently delivers, or, I want it to be something new and "fresh" that challenges my skills. I want to get my $50 worth every time. Beyond that we’ve been working really hard on two or three additional products that we think will help further define where racing goes in the next few years. I think we’ve got some really cool technologies that we’ve developed available to us that will allow us to realize some of the ideas that we’ve had for a few years but just couldn’t get to work until now. Y'know, I don't much like U2's music... but it looks to be a damn fine racing game. Underground and the CT series have proven that players really want the ability to customize their racing experience. Whether it is with a wide selection of visuals and performance, like in Underground, or with a wide variety of cars, like in CT, I think that’s the "cost of entry” now. As a player you need to be able to express yourself and your personality through the car you're driving or through what you’ve done to it. Unless it’s a "pure” arcade experience I think that any time you’re asking a player to invest significant time you need to give them enough choices to really personalize their game. The biggest problem that I see is a lack of creativity. It’s rare that I pick up a mag and see a racing game and say "I can’t wait to get my hands on that”. There is way too much "me too" in the industry and consumers are too smart to fall for it. Look at all of the CT clones that shipped in the last few years. They didn’t even try rn [above] Concept sketches hint at a Los Angeles type of setting, with overposs freeways, docklands, industrial area and snobby Mulholland Drive downhill section, the latter featured in a lot of the screenshots knows I’ve been to enough car shows, the types of vehicles being tuned is really starting to run the gamut. Things you wouldn’t think of as being tuned last year are showing up all tricked out this year. The majority of the list will still be hard-core tuner cars. We had a long list last year and we had to make some pretty painful cuts to the get the cars done. We’ll be going back in time for a couple of older models and we’ll also be looking into the future at a few cars we think will be big on the scene in the next year or so. HYPER: What changes will be made to the technology behind the game? Chuck: I’m not giving away any secrets this year! We’ve got a few more visual techniques that we’re planning to add into the mix to crank up the sensation of speed a few more notches, but after seeing some of the driving games that are going to ship later this year it’s obvious that they’ve learned a few things from Underground that they're applying. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I shouldn’t be surprised that camera shake and wet streets are already showing up. HYPER: The possibilities for developing an online street racing community based around events and challenges is very enticing. What will NFSU2 offer for online gamers? Chuck: I’m really stunned at how many people are playing online. I’ve played some other racing games online and after a week you’ll be lucky to find anyone to race against. Underground has really struck a chord with online gamers. We can’t give away our plans but you know we’ll step it up this year. HYPER: Looking beyond NFSU2, where do you see this sub-genre of racing going in the next few years? What opportunities will the next generation of hardware bring? Chuck: I think that games like Kctoim cort'"*** nic book corn P ^ h , T library). and to have access 'o je has be en ng so ACC ' alTn h ^ esN comic sensation ilaboratwg v/i'h hjt set ies, too ullets, to an a |j a ir ol sexy 9 ^ he results atea ^ t y breaks (they ead olay. intangible story t0 | d ), stylised 'something ^^'oVable level design. But Visuals and 9 ue f° d of ourselves. 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