INSIDE: BEHIND THE SCENES ON EPISODE III FOR PS2 & XBOX 


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World's first pics and 
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We head to the bright 
light city to see Midway's 
latest. PLUS: L.A. Rush! 

FERST AUS REVIEW! 


I Our first look at 
A this twisted title 


Making you an offer 
you can't refuse on 
consoles and PC 


The fighting game King returns on PS2 


MAGAZINE 


Hot new screens of the 
next Zeldaqame! 


A consummate sim? w: ’ 
Or the ultimate let-down? 


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€> 2005 Sierra Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. Empire Earth, Sierra and the Sierra logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Mad Doc 
Software, Mad Doc®, the Mad Doc flask, and the Mad Doc logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Mad Doc Software, LLC. All. rights reserved. Portions of this software are included under license. 

€> 2005 Mad Doc Software, LLC. GameSpy and the “Powered by GameSpy” design are trademarks of GameSpy Industries, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft 
Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. Pentium and the Intel inside logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United 
States and other countries. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA Logo, GeForce and “The Way It's Meant to be Played" Logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation In the United States and other countries. 

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Contentx» 


14 STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT II 



06 Editorial 
08 News 


12 Subscriptions 

14 Star Wars Battlefront II 
revealed! 

World exclusive first look! 

18 Episode III 

Behind the scenes with The 
Collective. 

22 Bright Light City feature 

The latest crop of games from 
Midway - and they're looking 
really good. 

26 LA Rush interview 

The team behind LA Rush tell us 
Rush will never die. 

30 Condemned Xbox 2 
gallery 

And you thought Xbox games 
looked good! 

32 Previews 

The Godfather, Lego Star Wars 
and more! 

38 Fallout feature 

A look back at one of the coolest 
PC series' ever. 

42 Hardware 
44 Reviews 
76 Handheld Reviews 
78 Arcade 
80 Japan-o-phile 
82 DVD Reviews 

85 Anime 

86 Win Win Win 
88 Classics 

90 Mail 
96 Charts 
98 Next Issue 




Review Index 

46 Tekken 5 

50 Gran Turismo 4 

54 Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory 

56 Star Wars Republic 
Commando 

58 SWAT 4 

60 Playboy: The Mansion 
62 Cold Fear 

64 Champions: Return to Arms 

66 Empire Earth II 

67 Brothers in Arms: 

Road to Hill 30 

68 Altered Beast 

69 Otogi 2 

70 La Pucelle Tactics 

72 Dead or Alive Ultimate 

73 Rugby 2005 

74 Fight Night Round 2 

75 FIFA Street 
75 Robots 

75 MVP Baseball 2005 

76 WarioWare Touched! 

77 Sprung 

77 DK: King of Swing 


HYPER» 5 













EDITORIAL 

Another month, another crop of bumper games. 

Is anyone else out there beginning to think that 
game developers and publishers around the world 
have made a pact with the devil? How are we meant 
to keep up? It's bad enough trying to find time to 
enjoy the latest PS2, Xbox, GameCube, GBA and PC 
games, but throw in a compelling selection of PSP 
and DS titles, and the threat of new consoles on the 
horizon and it's nothing short of overwhelming. Bring 
on cloning technology I say. I need at least three or 
four iterations of myself dedicated to different games 
at any one time. 

Speaking of overwhelming, it's hard to know where 
to start with this issue. We've got the Worldwide 
Exclusive for the announcement, first details and 
first images for Star Wars Battlefront II, as well as a 
behind the scenes look at the making of the Episode 
III game. Both games promise to offer heaping gobs 
of Star Wars goodness. 

Daniel went to Vegas to see Midway's latest batch 
of games, and get this - they've got a really strong 
lineup! Not least of which is the return of the San 
Francisco Rush series in the form of L.A. Rush. Good 
to see Midway back in form. 

We've reviewed some absolutely massive games this 
month too. Our long awaited Gran Turismo 4 review 
is in the Hyper house, as is Bryce's hardcore rundown 
on Tekken 5. Then there's the latest Splinter Cell, 
SWAT 4, Cold Fear, Brothers in Arms and the kooky 
cool La Pucelle Tactics to name a few. 

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but 
it really is a good time to be a gamer. Enjoy! 



[above] Yes, we're back on Mashed again... 


Cam Shea >> Editor 


HYPER CREW monthly Top S Games 


Cam Shea - Editor 

1. Ridge Racers - PSP 

"Reiko and Ridge Racer come storming 
back! So damn good/' 

2. Lumines - PSP 

3. Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition - Xbox 

4 . Brothers In Arms - Xbox 

5 . Soul Calibur II - PS2 

Daniel Wilks - Deputy Editor 

1. Fight Night Round 2 - Xbox 
"Taking Vanilla Ice to the top of 
featherweight is a dream come true." 

2. Lumines - PSP 

3 . Ridge Racers - PSP 

4 . DOA Ultimate - Xbox 

5 . Otogi 2 - Xbox 


Malcolm Campbell - Art Director 

1« Ridge Racers - PSP 

"Welcome to Driftasia" 

2. Lumines - PSP 

3 . FIFA Street - PS2 

4 . Nanaca CRASH!! - Flash 

5 . Sonic Mega Collection Plus - PS2 

Mikolai - Writer Guy 

1. Captain Tsubasa 3 - Super Famicom 
"Shaolin Soccer meets card battling. 
Weird, but it works" 

2. Tee Off - Dreamcast 

3 . Skies of Arcadia - GameCube 

4 . Paper Mario: 1000 Year Door - GCN 

5 . Fight Night Round 2 - PS2 


HYPER » 

ISSUE 139 

MAY 2005 


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: Matt Tang 
E-mail: mattt@next.com.au 
Ph: (02) 9699 0367 
Fax: (02) 93102012 

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 
National Sales Director: Lynette Rochford 
E-mail: lynetter@next.com.au 
Ph: (02) 9699 0305 

PRODUCTION 

Production Co-ordinator: Leiani Reardon 

E-mail: leianir@next.com.au 

Ph: (02) 9699 0356 

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 

Kosta Andreadis, Michael Camilleri, Seamus 
Byrne, Alexander James Burke, Bryce 
McDonough, March Stepnik, Amos "not Wong" 
Hong, Ed Dawson, Roland Flanagan, Tim Levy, 
Anthony Corbett, Steve Farrelly. 

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


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MARKET 

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IN THE NEWS: Amos retires as Hyper mascot / Flat Stanley sues Paper Mario / Bryce moves back to Oz, Kosta says "it's on" 



XBOX 2 SPECS 
REVEALED! 

No Need For a Witty Header! 


After long months of 
speculation the semi-final 
specs (they are still subject to 
change) of the Xbox 2, Xbox Next, 
NeXbox, Xenon, Xbox 360, whatever 
the hell you want to call it have been 
revealed and boy-howdy is it an 
impressive sounding bit of kit. The 
guts of the machine outdo those of 
the original Xbox by a huge margin. 
This is what we know so far: The 
Xbox 2 will contain three 3.0GHz 
PowerPC cores. This may sound a 
little extreme at first but you need 
to consider that the cores are not 
three full separate CPUs, rather three 
components in the CPU. That said 
it still easily outdistances the CPU 
of the Xbox which ran at 733MHz. 

The GPU will be based around the 
next generation of ATI processors 
and will run with around a 500MHz 
clock speed. In practical terms the 
GPU will be more powerful than 
anything available on the market 
at the current time but we should 
be seeing real technology from the 
next generation within six months. 
Along with the two core elements, 
the Xbox 2 will have 256Mb of 
system RAM. If you think it sounds 
low then you have to consider the 
power of the original Xbox - it’s 
still something of a beast and only 
has 64Mb. Interestingly, the Xbox 
2 will do away with a conventional 
audio chip and will instead do 
all of the decompressing through 
hardware and processing through 
software, using X3DAudio. 

Probably the biggest bone of 
contention so far has been whether 
or not the Xbox 2 will contain a HDD. 
It has been confirmed that the drive 


will be optional and used primarily 
for storing downloadable content 
as well as caching games. Instead 
of the HDD, the Xbox 2 will instead 
rely on memory cards ranging in 
size from 64Mb to iGb. The exact 
format of these memory cards is 
not yet known. As was suspected, 
the Xbox 2 will not be utilising 
Blue-Ray or HD-DVD as an optical 
format and will instead continue 
to use dual layer DVD, giving them 
up to 7Gb of storage space per 
disc. Surprisingly it has also been 
announced that the console will 
come with a USB digital camera 
capable of taking both still photos 
and video for use in games and 
player profiles. So far it has not been 
announced as to whether the camera 
will have Eye-Toy like capabilities 
but it is a fairly safe assumption. 

Now is where things get seriously 
sexy. Microsoft have openly stated 
that the Xbox 2 (or whatever it 
will be called) is going to be the 
pinnacle of home entertainment 
and they are making a few demands 
on the hardware and developers 
to make sure this becomes fact. All 
games for Xbox 2 are required to 
have a 16:9 option for aspect ratios 
and the baseline for resolution is 
high definition 72op (1280x720) 
as well as having mandatory 5.1 
sound and antialiasing. All games 
will also allow players to rip and 
use their own custom soundtracks 
with ANY game. If you’re rubbing 
your hands together in anticipation 
at the news then you know how 
we feel. With any luck we’ll bring 
you a hands on impression in our 
E3 issue. Not long to wait now. 



Next Generation Xbox Guide: Home 



The Guide Is an entertainment gateway that instantly connects 
players to some of the magic behind the next-gene ration Xbox 
experiences- your games, your friends, and your music. 


Next Generation Xbox Guide: Gamer Profile 



The Gamer Profile sums up all of a gamer’s information, settings, 
and game play experience, and lets every player create a unique 
next generation Xbox identity. A player's Gamer Profile includes all 
their Achievements across all games, online and offline. Your 
Gamer Profile is presented in several ways, such as your Gamer 
Card in the Guide and more expansive views in game invite and 
matchmaking scenarios. 


Next Generation Xbox Guide: Achievements 



With online and offline Achievements viewable by everyone on 
Xbox Live, you can compare yourself to other gamers for bragging 
rights and inspiration 


8 HYPER» 
































FUNKY PACKS 

Take your DS on the road 

We were recently sent a 
couple of officially licensed 
Nintendo DS bags to try out. They 
come in two varieties - a Carrying 
Case and a Backpack (pictured). The 
Carrying Case is quite compact, with 
three compartments. The DS slots 
neatly into the lower rear space, 
leaving a compartment above for 
CBA cart and the front section for 
DS carts (it has nine slots for easy 
access as well as a mesh section 
for any extras). Construction is 
sturdy and with the included strap 
you can sling it over your shoulder. 
Nice. The Backpack is a fair bit 
chunkier, but still only the size of a 
mini-backpack all up. With three 
compartments it’s also pretty cute. 

We were also sent a DS Extras 
Pack from learners. This nifty 
little pack has a car adapter for 



staying powered on the road, a 
device that will let you run your 
DS on AA batteries if it runs out 
of power on the lithium, a funky 
silver case for the DS itself, as well 
as a lens protector, headphones 
and a metal case for carts that 
also houses a spare stylus. 




BULLETPROOF 


Gaming goes 
ghetto style 

It’s official, Hip Hop is the new 
black - no racial slur intended. 
Everything nowadays seems to 
have to be ghettoed up, made more 
street, more urban or more bling. 
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 
Vivendi Universal and rapper 50 
Cent have recently announced that 
they will be teaming up to make a 
game titled 50 Cent: Bulletproof. 
Taking the real life incident in which 
the music mogul was shot nine times 
and survived as a jump off point, 
Bulletproof will see 50 Cent fighting 
to take revenge for his attempted 
murder, taking on the largest crime 
syndicate in the city and along 
the way uncovers an international 
conspiracy. We’ve only seen the 
trailer so far but it does look pretty 
damn cool with a buff and cranky 
looking 50 taking on half a dozen or 
so Mafioso looking white guys over 
a mysterious briefcase. The trailer 
highlights both gunplay and martial 
arts so we should be able to expect 
vast quantities of both in the final 
product. 50 Cent: Bulletproof will 
be officially unveiled at E3 this year 
so expect some more info then. 



NINJAS 

ATTACK 

Anti-Super Happy 

The Japanese are usually 
quite polite to each 
other in business terms, never 
openly commenting on each 
other’s practises or making fun 
of competitors. This is why the 
following quote from Tomonobu 
Itagaki, the creator of Dead or 
Alive came as such a surprise. 

"First they put in all of these 
half-finished "features", then 
they take them right out again. 
Tag fights, elevation differences, 
walls. I don’t know if it’s because 
they’re impatient, or because they 
lack the ability, but no matter the 
reason those guys are a pretty 
weird bunch. Any of those things 
would have become a bonafide 
feature if they took the time to 
do it right (laughs). Oh, and 
come on guys, let’s quit trying 
to hide the prehistoric nature of 
the main product by tacking on 
some absurd "bonus game.” I 
have been saying this for 5 years, 
haven’t I? If you have the time 
to make an action-style "bonus 
game", why don’t you create an 
honest-to-god action game and 
sell it as a standalone product? 
Oh, and if you’re going to bother 
including such a "unique” form 
of ball play, you should do a 
beach volleyball game instead 
(laughs). Oh, that’s right, I 
forgot something important. 

You guys did do a "bonafide” 
action game, didn’t you? What 
was it called again? Oh yeah, 
NINA: Death by Degrees.” Ouch. 






H MC NINTEND 


m 


So sexy it's scary 


CAPTION THIS! 


Come on, make us laugh. Just send 
your funny screen captions to us at 
captionthis<g>next.com.au with 
Caption This Port 66 in the subject line. 




Q-TER QD? 

Yet another shot at it 

mmm Some people just don’t 
► know when to quit - 
they’re willing to keep flogging 
the dead horse until there is 
nothing but bones bleaching 
under a harsh sun. Nokia, we’re 
looking in your direction. Nokia 
have announced that they will 
be structuring a price cut for 
the N-Cage QD within the next 
few months to hopefully spur 
on the lacklustre sales. They 
also announced that they would 
be "looking at new colors, a 
new look and feel for the QD in 
the next few months”. It seems 
that Nokia fail to understand 
that the games console/phone 
hybrid isn’t failing because it 
doesn’t look right, it’s failing 
because the system is incapable 
of playing anything other than 
the most basic games and there 
are no truly great titles for the 
format. Of course Nokia have 
also announced that a complete 
redesign of the N-Cage is in 
the works - with any luck the 
next one will work, because the 
potential for a phone/handheld 
convergence device is huge. 


WINNERS 

HYPER 137 

SNOWBOARD 

- T. Grant, Mona Vale, NSW 


AVP DVDS 

- Daniel Jordan, Ryde, NSW 

- John Wheeler, Frankston, VIC 

- John Dean, Nth 
Melbourne, VIC 

- Robert C. Haynes, 

Port Kennedy, WA 

- K. Hosken, Geraldton, WA 

- Brendon J. Bridle, 

Mudgee, NSW 

- Jarrod Howard, Latrobe, TAS 

- Richard Manley, 

Bracken Ridge, QLD 

- Sam Batty, Diamond 
Creek, VIC 

- Tom Beaumont, 

Brisbane, QLD 

ASTRO BOY: 

OMEGA FACTOR 

- Niklas Hammarstrom, 

Eden, NSW 

- Lewis Powell, Bermagui, NSW 

- Peter Jenkins, Pearcedale, VIC 

- Jeremy Kupsch, Balwyn, VIC 

- Ashley Walker, Sheldon, QLD 

- Jamie Gosson, Bribie 
Island, QLD 


- Zone McGeary, Howrah, TAS 

- Th Phan, Sunnybank 
Hills, QLD 

- Robert Folak, Parramatta, NSW 

- Brendan Newham, 

Elanora, QLD 

- Anne Humphries, 

Narrogin, WA 


HYPER» 9 











ZELDA SCREENS 


This game just keeps 
looking better 


■■ In the Nintendo keynote 
►V 1 speech given by Satoru 
Iwata at the Came Developer’s 
Conference in San Fran, a number 
of exciting points were laid 
out to the thrall of press and 
games developers on hand. 

Firstly, the next gen console being 
developed under the code name 
Revolution will feature backwards 
compatibility as well as built in 
Wi-Fi. The heart of the machine 
will be comprised of two chips, an 
IBM developed processor dubbed 
"Broadway” and a next gen ATI 
GPU going under the working title 
of "Hollywood”, both of which are 
being designed to offer "game 
experiences not possible to date”. 

Announcements about the DS 
were also forthcoming with Iwata 
stating that Nintendo will soon offer 
a free Wi-Fi service to DS owners. 
Although it hasn’t been openly 
stated it is commonly believed 
that the DS Wi-Fi and Revolution 
Wi-Fi services will be compatible 
allowing games heretofore 
unseen interaction between their 
handheld and console. Concurrent 
to the announcement, Iwata also 
mentioned that a new Wi-Fi Animal 
Crossing game is in the works. 

Finally Iwata gave the crowd 
what they had been waiting for 
- new footage of the as yet untitled 
new Zelda game for the Cube. The 
game is set for release late 2005 
and is expected to be one of the 
most sought after games of the 
year. It looks AMAZING. Just check 
out this new batch of screens. 








10 HYPER» 



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WIN A SLIMLINE 
PS2 AND EVERY 
PLATINUM GAME! 

Just subscribe for your chance to win! 




One of the sexiest pieces of equipment you could have under your TV these days would have to be Sony's 
redesigned PS2. It's sleek and tiny, and sports network connectivity out of the box. But hey, what good would 
a gorgeous new slimline PS2 be without some games to play on it right? Well, thanks to our friends at Sony 
Australia, in addition to a slimline PS2, we have the entire platinum range to give to one lucky subscriber. That's 
22 games! And with gems like Final Fantasy X, Tekken 4, GT3, Jak II, Ratchet & Clank 2, Kingdom Hearts and 
WRC3 it's a good looking group! Even if you already own a PS2, this is your chance to get your mitts on the latest 
and greatest version, as well as flesh out your game collection with a host of classics. Best of all, you'll be saving a 

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entries completed with these terms and conditions will be eligibleA 3) Entry is by subscribing from this issue only. 4) Competition begins 9om April 5 and entries dose at 6pm May 18. 5) In determining eligibility 
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10) One winner will receive a Slimline PS2 (RRP S249.95), and the entire 22 strong Platinum range of games (RRP $49.95 eoch). Totol first prize value is SI 348.85. 11) The promoter is Next Publishing Pty Ltd 
ABN 88 002 647 645 of 78 Renwick St, Redfern NSW 2016. 


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HYPER» 


HY0139 




















































[above] Spaced, the final drug tier 


[above] Wow, Wicket really beefed up 


from the latest movie, Star Wars: 
Episode III Revenge of the Sith. We 
will also be visiting some locations 
from previous movies, such as the 
initial battle aboard Princess Leia’s 
blockade runner from Star Wars: 
Episode IV A New Hope, the Tantive 
IV. And we’ve got quite few others 
to talk about at a later date. :) 


Can you tell us more about the 
space battles in Battlefront II? 

Space is a big addition to this 
sequel. You’ll be able to fight 
amongst the stars and dogfight 
other starfighters. Or, you can stay 
onboard your capital ship and man 
one of its turrets, or even jump 
on a transport ship and board the 
enemy’s capital ship and fight 
from within. Star Wars Battlefront 
II will give you the ultimate space 
experience where you can be 
fighting out in space or within the 
capital ship all in the same battle. 


The first game was very much 
about the six films. Will you be 
drawing more on the expanded 
universe for the sequel? 

We’ll be drawing some stuff 
from the Expanded Universe, along 
with creating some new Star Wars 
lore. We’ll also draw a lot from the 
latest movie, which had just a brief 
appearance in the original Star Wars 
Battlefront. 


Available on PS2/Xbox/PC ■ Category: Online shooter ■ Players: 1-32 ■ Developer: Pandemic ■ Available: TBA 


T he original Star Wars Battlefront certainly highlighted the boundless 
potential in taking the Star Wars franchise online. Since its release, 
epic battles have raged on Hoth, Tatooine, Endor, Yavin 4 and Naboo 
to name just a few, with players manning AT-ATs, AT-STs, X-Wings 
and speeder bikes... all in the name of victory for their faction. More 
online Star Wars action could never be a bad thing, and we were lucky 
enough to chat with Dan Pettit, one of the game's producers, and 
get the gaming world's first look at Battlefront II. On with the questions! 


The Executive Producer on the 
first Battlefront, Greg Borrud, 
stated that the goal was to 
create "the ultimate Star Wars 
fan's dream". Do you feel you 
achieved this, and if so, what's 
left for the sequel? 

We still have plenty of dreams 
to fulfill. With Star Wars Battlefront 
II, we’re giving the player the 
opportunity to take the battle into 
space. We are also introducing the 
ability to play as jedi so that you 
can use a lightsaber, block enemy 
fire and use Force powers against the 
enemy. The team is working hard 
on delivering a strong, engaging 
single-player experience as well. 
Plus, we’ll be including a bunch of 


new classes, vehicles and locations, 
many of which will be drawn from 
the latest movie, Star Wars: Episode 
III Revenge of the Sith. 

Tell us about the initial planning 
stages of Battlefront II - the 
elements you wanted to change, 
the elements you wanted to 
keep, the elements you wanted 
to refine and the new features 
to be included. What factors 
influence these decisions? 

The team spent a lot of time 
reading the various Battlefront 
forums for all three of the platforms. 
Listening to what the community 
liked and disliked had a definite 
influence on some of the things being 


done for Star Wars Battlefront II. The ‘ 
community also brings up tons of 
additional features they’d like to see, 
so we’ve been working on addressing 
some of those things as well. 

A simple example is adding a 
’’sprint” ability. For Battlefront II, 
people will be able to sprint for a 
certain amount of time. Much of 
this decision came from community 
feedback. We also heard from our 
fans how much they wanted a 
more story-driven experience. So, 
although there will still be "Instant 
Action" and a MUCH enhanced 
"Galactic Conquest” mode, we will 
provide a much stronger story- 
driven single player experience. 

We will also incorporate clearer 
objectives for the player. And during 
the battle, we’re making sure that 
it’s the player who is making the 
true impact during the battle. 

Also, the Battlefront team 
spent a good amount of time just 
playing the game online with 
the community. How the game is 
played in the real world can be 
much different than how you could 
ever plan it. This has helped define 
some of the gameplay adjustments 
we’ll be making for Battlefront II 
to improve the balance between 
classes, vehicles and factions. 

We are also adding a few 
multiplayer modes based on 
community interactions, as well 
as adding a few cool multiplayer 
features and a ton more options for 
people hosting the game. Lastly, 
like any other game, there winds up 
being ideas that are considered for 
the first game but never make it in. 
Many of those ideas are going to be 
incorporated into Battlefront II, but 
we’ll talk more about those later as 
we solidify the details. 


The original Battlefront took us 
to a host of classic Star Wars 
locations and put us behind the 
controls of a range of classic 
vehicles. What's in store for us in 
the sequel? 

We’ll be delivering even more Star 
Wars movie locations than before, 
including several new locations 


IflTERUIEUJ 


14 HYPER» 








































































4 


1 j 


1 1 






IflTERUIEUI 







to destroy the opposition’s Star 
Destroyer. While the Imperials have 
their own TIE fighters trying to fight 
them off, at the same time, a few 
Imperials stay on board to man the 
turret guns on the Star Destroyer to 
shoot down the Rebel ships if they 
get too close. The Rebels may then 
have another small group board a 
transport ship and actually dock 
onto the Star Destroyer. Players 
can try to destroy the turrets from 
the inside or weaken the ships 
shields from within in order to 
make it easier for their teammates 
dogfighting out in space. 

Something we’d really like to see 
in Battlefront II is an advanced 
clan and stat system. Is this 
something that’s going to be 
included? 

Another thing we got from 
the community is the desire to 


have improved functionality for 
communicating and playing with 
their friends. In Battlefront II, we’ll 
be introducing many new features 
that will help people quickly find 
their fTiends and play with them 
online. We are also working on 
taking that notion a step further to 
incorporate a system that groups 
of players can use to organize their 
Battlefront clans. We will also be 
enhancing and/or adding persistent 
stat tracking for people who play. 

Design elements like needing 
both a pilot and a gunner in a 
snowspeeder on Hoth in order to 
take down AT-ATs was fantastic 
and really encouraged teamwork 
in the original. Do you have more 
elements like this planned for 
the sequel, and if so could you 
outline a couple for us? 

We definitely will have new craft 
that support the ability for multiple 
people to work together that will 
(when executed well) create a 
more menacing and powerful unit. 
Sticking to the space idea, people 
could get in a transport that moves 
more slowly but carries a group of 
people. By itself, or with two people, 
it has little protection. But add a 
few others to man various guns and 


Forget jeep jumping - it's 

all about Stormtrooper 
physics experiments now 


How involved are LucasArts in 
the development process? 

Pandemic is definitely on the 
forefront of the game design. They 
are laying out every little game 
detail from how many letters your 
character name can be to playing 
the game online across the world. 


Separatist Battle Droids, with 
around 20 unit types. What’s 
changed for Battlefront II? 

There will still be the four main 
playable factions. We are adding an 
additional class for each faction, as 
well as adding the ability to play as a 
jedi. For one, as we’ll see in the new 


Their artists, engineers and designers 
are the ones building the game. 

LucasArts is involved from a high 
level: reviewing design, mission 
plans, game features, story, script, 
etc., as well as proving sound, voice 
and quality assurance. LucasArts 
also works closely with Lucasfilm to 
make sure the game properly ties in 
with the Star Wars universe. 

The four factions of the original 
were the Rebel Alliance, Galactic 
Empire, Republic Clone Army and 


movie, the clone army's appearance 
has changed a bit. As a result, we’ve 
rebuilt the entire Republic faction 
to meet this new look and feel. And 
of course, there are jedi. We can’t 
talk much in detail about them yet, 
but there will definitely be light and 
dark Jedi that will have a variety of 
different abilities, play styles and 
Force powers. 

One of the strengths of the 
original game was the fact that 
in addition to 16-32 human 
players you could also add bots, 
which resulted in epic feeling 
battlefields. Will battles in the 
sequel get even bigger? 

We are definitely looking to make 
the battles bigger, both in terms 
of raw numbers and gameplay. 

The ultimate example of this will 
be the epic battles in space. For 
instance, you’ll have a group of 
Rebels fighting out in space trying 


“BA1TLEFR0HIII WILL GIVE YOU 
THE ULTIMATE SPACE EXPERIENCE 
WHERE YOU CAN RE FIGHTING OUT 
IN SPACE OR WITHIN THE CAPITAL 
SHIP ALL IN THE SAME BATTLE” 


16 HYPER» 

















it gives it a much better chance to 
reach its destination. There are a few 
cool weapons from Episode III that 
lend themselves well to team play 
in vehicles which we’ll be happy to 
chat about very soon! 

How have the game modes and 
in-game objectives changed? 
And how will this relate to the 
single player game? 

In multiplayer, we will be adding 
objective-based gameplay modes 
to give more variety to the type 
of multiplayer experiences people 
can have while playing Star Wars 
Battlefront II online or splitscreen 
with their friends. 

Single player is definitely one 
of our top priorities with this 
game. The team has been working 
diligently in making sure to deliver 
a solid, compelling single-player 


experience. Many new features have 
been created specifically to enhance 
this area of the game. One of the 
many things they’ve been doing 
is incorporating objectives into 
the gameplay. This will help give 
better context to what the player is 
doing in the mission and will help 
in conveying the bigger story we 
are trying to tell this time around. 

At the same time, though, we use 
the objectives in such a way so that, 
although it will be clear to the player 
what they need to do and why they 
are doing it, we’ll still be giving 
them the freedom to play it any way 
they want. 

Given that single player is a 
significant priority for the 
sequel, what steps will be taken 
to improve the Al? We felt that 
the Al in the original’s single 


player game was probably one 
of its weaker aspects. 

A better Al system is definitely a 
necessity in order for us to deliver 
on the enhanced single-player 
experience that we are looking to 
deliver for Battlefront II. Al has been 
getting significant attention thus 
far, and we definitely saw the need 
to make the Al more robust and 
exciting for Battlefront II. Plus, the 
addition of a more objective-based 
experience during Battlefront II 
meant we needed to give the Al the 
ability to do more than just take and 
defend command posts. They now 
need to think about the strategy for 
the current objective(s) and react 
to them as well as react to what 
the player is doing, whether the Al 
is the enemy or the player’s ally. 
Also, the objective-based system, as 
mentioned earlier, is an important 


addition to the game. A simple 
example of this would be where the 
clone army must secure the landing 
platform and then fight off the CIS 
attack until the consulate’s ship can 
flee to safety. 

There are still significant 
differences between PC and 
console gaming, not least in 
terms of input devices and 
gaming cultures. How difficult is 
it to create a game with a unified 
design that will work on both 
consoles and PC? And how much 
time is spent tweaking the way 
the game plays for each system? 

Pandemic has a group of people 
who work solely on the PC version. 
They work on tweaking the controls, 
interface, options S multiplayer as 
well as balancing individual units 
and maps to make sure we deliver a 
solid PC game experience. 

Is Battlefront II also in 
development for any next 
generation systems? 

We haven’t announced plans 
for a Battlefront II next generation 
game. At this point, we’re 
really concentrating all of our 
development efforts on the current 
machines so that we’re giving fans 
of the first game an even better 
Star Wars Battlefront experience. 
However, we’re definitely thinking 
about and coming up with ideas on 
where we can take the Battlefront 
franchise. So stay tuned! :) 

Thanks for your time, and good 
luck with the game! << 






HYPER» 17 



























HYPER» 


JTAHWAItf _ 

EPISODE 


REVENGE OF TE 


The Collecti 


With all the hype surrounding 
Episode III, it’s no surprise that 
LucasArts have a game brewing for 
PS2 and Xbox. Two weeks before 
Episode III hits cinemas in May, 
gamers around the world will get their 
hands on Episode III the game, and be 
able to experience the fall of Anakin 
and his showdown with Obi-Wan in 
an interactive environment, linked 
together by footage from the film. 

Development duties on the game 
have been given to The Collective, 
which in our minds is a very smart 
choice. Not only are these guys 
experienced in crafting solid 
license-based titles such as Buffy 
and Indiana Jones, but in Buffy 
they also demonstrated a knack 
for creating compelling combat 
situations, and putting options in 
the hands of the gamer (see our 
Q6A boxout). The Collective also 
know that this doesn’t need to be 
a game that will change the world. 
Episode III is going to be a straight- 
up action game and an interactive 
companion for the film. In keeping 
their game focused on compelling 
action and an authentic Star Wars 
experience, they may just be on 
the way to crafting the definitive 
lightsaber swinging videogame. 

The creation of the Episode 
III game has thrown up some 
interesting challenges for The 


Collective. As opposed to creating 
a game based on say, one of the 
original trilogy, where you have the 
completed film, expanded universe 
material and so forth to work from, 
for Episode III the game and film 
were being made in tandem. This 
meant that although The Collective 
had ground-floor access to reference 
material from ILM, they’ve had to 
constantly cross reference to ensure 
everything is up to date. 

Although plenty of development 
teams develop in tandem with a film, 
for Episode III the fact that so much 
of the film is digital - environments, 
characters and effects, meant that 
the look of the film was constantly 
evolving, and The Collective had to 
keep up. The intense collaboration 
with ILM, Lucasfilm and Skywalker 
Sound has also had its advantages, 
firstly in staying true to the ambition 
of the film, and secondly in having 
the most authentic assets possible 
to work from right from the start, 


- \ (A#*' 


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TH 


VfiB ; ^ 

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whether they be 3D models, 
characters, animations, sounds and 
edits of sequences. The Collective 
were even able to meet with George 
Lucas to talk about the story before 
he’d even finished the first draft 
of the script, and his involvement 
continued throughout. 

Of course, creating an interactive 
retelling of the events of the film 
also opens up opportunities for 
exploring certain aspects of the film 
in greater depth. As Justin Lambros, 
the game’s Associate Producer says: 
"Our game follows the plot of the 
film very closely, but it really focuses 
on - and in many cases expands 
- the central characters Obi-Wan 
Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker and 
their developing conflict. So, we 
really concentrated on bringing 
their key action moments to life in 
the game. Our game runs the full 
spectrum from re-creating action 
sequences blow for blow and room 
for room, to delivering the full 
impact of sequences that are just 
introduced, or hinted at, by the 
film. In fact, we’ve actually included 
levels based on scenes that were 
written and shot for the film, but 
won’t make the final cut.” 

Beyond the storyline, however, 
the game will live or die based on 




FOOTAGE 

Since the game will be out two 
weeks before the film, giving fans 
a chance to see footage early, we 
asked Justin Lambros just how 
much footage from the film will 
be included: "There's over 12 
minutes of Episode III footage 
in the game, a pretty substantial 
preview. These sequences are 
used mainly to set the stage for 
the environments and major 
character moments that we mirror 
from the film. In the single player 
story mode, 15 of the 16 missions 
begin with a clip of Episode III 
footage, and several of those have 
ending film sequences as well. But 
the majority of the moment-to- 
moment storytelling in the game 
is done with in-game cinemat¬ 
ics to maximize the gameplay 
throughout the levels. We focus on 
a narrow slice of the total Episode 
III film experience - the relation¬ 
ship and actions of the central 
characters, Obi-Wan and Anakin 
• so in order to really deliver on 
that, we've created lots of in-game 
cinematics. Some cinematics were 
made to mirror sequences from 
the film, but most were expansions 
on themes and situations intro¬ 
duced in the film but applied to 
the interactive medium of games." 
















its gameplay, and more specifically 
its combat system. This is something 
that The Collective have pulled 
out all the stops on. The whole 
process kicked off with a lightsaber 
workshop with Star Wars stuntman 
Nick Cillard. He took the team 
through stances, attacks, defense 
and the philosophy of fighting with 
a lightsaber. There’ll be over one 
hundred unique character abilities 
available in the game, covering 
saber techniques and force powers. 
More importantly, each character 
you’ll be able to play as will be 
very distinct in style. Obi-Wan and 
Anakin, for instance, are obviously 
coming from very different places. 
Anakin knows he’s the most 
powerful )edi in existence, and 
fights with efficient brutality and 
arrogance. As he turns towards the 
dark side, you’ll unlock powerful 
signature attacks known as "fury” 


the film in the game, it was really 
important to us to remain as faithful 
as possible in both theme and spirit. 
It was not possible to keep those 
close ties to the film with a game 
that featured cooperative play 
throughout.” 

The greatest danger for the 
gameplay will be falling into 
simplistic button mashing patterns 
for lightsaber combat. The Collective 
are taking several steps to avoid this. 
The first and most obvious is simply 
putting a huge number of combos 
and acrobatic saber moves at your 
disposal, so you’re not forced to rely 
on the same attack patterns over 
and oveT. The second is in facing 
off against varied enemies that 
will require a variety of strategies 
to take down. Taking on a battle 
droid, for instance, will be very 


moves. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, 
is graceful, flowing and calm, and 
unlocks "focus” moves which are all 
about speed and precision. 

The game sees you alternating 
between playing as Obi-Wan and 
Anakin. Unfortunately, there’s no 
co-op for the main single player 
mode, as justin Lambros explains: 
"There is an unlockable co-op mode 
in the game which you gain access 
to as you play the single-player 
story mode. This mode has several 
different missions of cooperative 
play. When telling the story of 



straightforward, whereas clone 
soldiers will have heavier firepower 
and fight more strategically. 
Obviously Sith Lords will be the most 
challenging, and you can bet that the 
final confrontation between Obi-Wan 
and Anakin will require every ounce 
of strategy you’ve developed over 
the course of the game. Speaking 
of the final fight, The Collective are 
really excited about bringing what is 
destined to be one of the most epic 
lightsaber duels ever from the big 
screen to the small. As justin Lambros 
says ”it won’t just be watching it up 




STUNT BONUS 


The stunt coordinator/fight 
choreographer for Episodes l-lll, 
Nick Gillard, played an integral 
role in getting the combat in the 
Episode III game rolling, and in 
helping The Collective under¬ 
stand the rationale behind each 
character's fighting style, and 
behind Jedis in general. He spent 
a fair bit of time with the team, 
taking them through practice 
sessions with three of the stunt 
lightsabers - Anakin's, Obi-Wan's 
and his own, that were used on 
the film. Not just to give the team 
an authentic prop to use but also 
to show that each lightsaber is 
unique, and has its own weight, 
length and thickness. As Anthony 
Doe put it "It was a kind of mod¬ 
ern-day Jedi training". 

Hayden Christensen also 
came along for a day to help 
out. As Doe said: "Together 
they showed us not only some 
of the brilliant Episode III fight 
choreography, but also acted out 
custom content for the game! 

All of this will show in the final 
product. The influence of Nick 
and Hayden will be seen in 
every swing of the player's light¬ 
saber. You can't help but feel it 


when you play the game." 

Nick was quite excited to be 
involved with the game, relish¬ 
ing the freedom of what can be 
achieved, and also the fact that 
he could help ensure that the 
characters had the kind of move 
set he'd want if he were playing 
the game. But Gillard wasn't just 
hired to consult on big flashy 
moves. It's just as important 
to get the grounding right. As 
Gillard said: "in the games I've 
played, the character movement 
seems to be incorrect, and I 
know that the people here were 
keen on how they could fix that. 
So we're working particularly on 
the footwork - how exactly they 
move. How their wrists move 
when they turn, that they turn 
the right way, that the blocks 
and grapples are correct. We 
spent a lot of time showing 
how Count Dooku walked, how 
Anakin walks now as opposed 
to how he walked in Episode II- 
which is different - and why Obi 
is so bouncy and jolly." 

Gillard plays a small role in the 
film as Cin Drallig (get it?) an in¬ 
structor who's killed by Anakin, 
and he's also in the game. 


19 






MACE 

JL ▼ i M u. ^-| J *■ -i y 

DOOKU 

AND THE CREW 


Playing as Obi-Wan and Anakin 
will be the core of the game, but 
who else will we be able to play 
as? We asked Justin Lambros: 

"We knew that people were going 
to want to play other characters 
besides just Obi-Wan and Anakin, 
and, in fact, many people on the 
team felt the same way. Again, 
we kept the single-player story 
mode firmly connected to the 
heart of the film, but we then used 
our unlockable bonus missions 
(single-player, co-op and versus 
modes) to feature some of the 
coolest characters from not only 
Episode III, but you might also find 
some from other Star Wars films. 
You will definitely get to play as 
all the characters from the major 
boss battles of the game, including 
Mace Windu, Count Dooku and 
General Grievous. In addition to 
that there are other characters that 
are playable in both the single- 
player and co-op bonus missions. 
You may even find yourself in 
control of the toughest, and small¬ 
est, Jedi of them all, in one of 
those levels. 

"Going back to the versus mode, 
though, don't be surprised if you 
spend hours playing as the other 
characters there - these duels are 
incredibly fun. Just imagine mixing 
up the excellent swordplay that 
Episode Ill's stunt coordinator Nick 
Gillard helped develop with Force 
powers, whether you're shoot¬ 
ing lightning at your opponent as 
Dooku or lifting him and throw¬ 
ing him through the air as Mace. 
There's also a lot of tension during 
those moments where your sabers 
lock - it really tests your Jedi skills." 




on a screen, it’ll be reacting to Obi- 
Wan or Anakin’s fighting and feeling 
their attack and feeling the ebb and 
flow of the battle. That’s what I’m 
really excited about. We’ll hopefully 
not only match the intensity, but 
then bring it up another level 
through interactivity.” 

The final step to keep gameplay 
interesting will be the wealth of 
Force powers included in the game. 
As Anthony Doe, the Lead Combat 
Designer/Scripter on the game 
enthusiastically explains "The Force 
is your special sauce in combat 
- your personal can of whoop-ass. 
Whether you are good or evil, you’ll 


be able to use the Force in fun and 
destructive ways. ’’ You can get 
creative and fling objects at your 
enemies, give in to the dark side and 
electrocute your enemies Palpatine- 
style, or kick it old school and Force 
push droids out of your path like 
insignificant motes of dust. You can 
Force heal, saber throw and even 
use an old jedi mind brick to force 
enemies to fight on your side. As 


you play through the game you’ll 
gain access to more and more Force 
powers, and the distinction between 
Anakin and Obi-Wan will grow 
greater and greater. Indeed, you’ll 
be able to customise your Force 
powers as you progress, broadening 
the scope of combat even further. 

Character development will play 
a huge role in this game. Anakin’s 
descent, after all, is one of the 
focal points of the film and game. 

As justin Lambros explains: "The 
evolution of Anakin as a character in 
the game is going to be one of the 
most dynamic and exciting parts of 
it. You’ll start working side-by-side 
with Obi-Wan Kenobi as you have 
been for years in the Clone Wars, 
and you’ll be very similar. You’ll 
fight together as a team, you’ll 
use your lightsaber similarly, and 


20 


Ail imoges © Lucosfilm Ltd & TM All Rights Reserved Moce Windu photo by Sue Adler 










collective 


WITH THE COLLECTIVE 


(VP and Creative 
Director) and (VP of 

Development) from The Collective 
were kind enough to answer a 
few additional questions about 
the making of the game and 
development in general. 


HYPER: Buffy the Vampire 
Slayer for Xbox was a 
fantastic adaptation of the 
show. What did you learn as 
a studio from Buffy (and Indy 
as well) about working with 
licenses? 

Thank you! Our 
first step is always to identify the 
key elements of the established 
world that have great potential 
for gameplay. We then take these 
elements, modify or build upon 
them, and then weave in unique 
gameplay features that still seem 
appropriate to the fiction. This 
establishes our gameplay vision 
for the title. First and foremost, 
our goal is always to create a 
fantastic game that will be fun 
whether somebody is familiar with 
the license or not. In addition, 
the team spends a lot of time 
researching (absorbing!) all 
available reference materials 
to ensure our story elements 
(including new characters and 
locations), artistic direction and 
gameplay elements feel authentic 
to our audience - in particular, the 
fans. In other words, we watch a 
bunch of films and television! 


scenarios that are only briefly 
depicted or implied within the 
film itself. Conversely, there are 
many plot points and sequences 
that will only be revealed in 
the film. In this way, we feel 
the game and film are highly 
complementary - you won't have 
seen or experienced it all if you 
miss either of them. 


WHAT WE'D LIKE TO SEE: 

Playable Yoda of 
course! And not a 
Gungan in sight. 


Is Episode III running on an 
evolved version of the Buffy 
engine? If so, what changes 
have been made to it? 

Episode III is 

running on the Slayer Engine, 
so called because it was created 
initially for Buffy the Vampire 
Slayer. This engine has been 
effectively in development and 
evolving for six years and has 
been used to drive all of our 
titles since Buffy. Slayer is used 
in conjunction with our game 
construction tool SlayEd and 
forms the foundation of our game 
development suite that covers the 
creation of games for PlayStation 
2, Xbox and the PC. We made 
several technology enhancements 
specifically for Episode III to be 
able to render the incredibly 
detailed environments, handle the 
sheer number of Al opponents 
engaging the player at once, 
and create a more cinematic 
experience with a new camera 
system and seamless integration 
of clips from the movie. Slayer is 
also being used as the foundation 
for our next-generation game 
engine that we're currently 
developing for our future titles. 


you’ll kind of be the standard jedi 
heroic general that fought in the 
Clone Wars. But as it progresses and 
Anakin gives into the dark side, then 
he’s able to tap into a whole ’nother 
side of the Force, and he’s able to 
use powers that are much more 
dynamic and powerful and sinister 
and deadly. And so, as he evolves in 
the game, he ends up being much 
different than Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan 
stays true to the light side of the 
Force, and Anakin then becomes 
the maelstrom of power that we 
see in that is feared throughout the 
galaxy. ” 

This is a game that promises to 
be that rare breed of third person 
action game - a game where you 
actually care about the characters, 
and where you get to play as both 
sides of a divide that threatens to 
tear apart the galaxy. And of course 
there’s the added appeal of playing 
through to where Episode IV starts. 
As justin comments: "When Darth 
Vader and Obi-Wan meet on the 
Death Star for their famous duel in 


How different is it developing 
Episode III around a very 
definite sequence of events 
(and someone else's vision), 
as opposed to something 
like Buffy, where although 
you're trying to stay true to 
a property, you have a large 
role in developing the story 
in the first place? 

Richard Hare: There's 
definitely an added challenge 
when a game must follow an 
established story if it is lacking 
a wide variety of locations, 
characters or action sequences. 
Thankfully, in Episode III, there 
is no shortage of spectacular 
locations, awesome characters 
and truly impressive action 
sequences! Nonetheless, we still 
spent a significant amount of 
time and effort expanding upon 
the events of Episode III, which 
will allow players to experience 


the first Star Wars film, Darth Vader’s 
you know famous line is "the circle 
is now complete." Well, we’re now 
going to be able to see. and actually 
live, the completing of that circle. 
The events that led up to this fateful 
duel and all of the emotion and 
baggage that comes with that, we’re 
going to actually be able to not only 
show that onscreen but live that." 

With deep combat and a wealth of 
Force moves at your disposal. Episode 
III has the potential to give the 
player the kind of freeform attacking 
options that a Jedi should have. The 
ultimate jedi sim? Let’s hope so. 







{{ as Vegas has no need, nor 
right to exist during the 
23**22 day. To see the city in the 
light of the sun does it a massive 
disservice as all you see are the 
towering palaces of vice and the 
bleak landscape surrounding. You 
see the poverty and the desperation. 
When darkness falls these flaws are 
hidden, not by the darkness itself but 
by the blinding light of neon that 
emanates from every stable surface. 
Signs advertising girly shows, penny 
slots, $4.99 prime rib and lobster, 
people who used to be famous, 
people who are famous in Vegas but 
unknown everywhere else and people 
who are not famous, never were but 
have enough money to afford a sign. 
Vegas is testament to the strength 
of the American people, testament 
to their firm belief that as Americans 
they are capable of doing anything 
- like build a Mecca of rampant 
greed and decadence in the middle 
of a bloody desert. Vegas is also 
testament to all that is bad about 
i the United States. There, possibly 
k more than anywhere else in 

L the country with millionaires 

Hk numbering in the millions, 
R* can you see the vast 

^ divide between the 


haves and the have nots. Within 
100 metres of a hotel with rooms 
numbering in the thousands you can 
find a slum and someone living out 
of a cardboard box. There are more 
slot machines in Vegas than 
permanent residents. J &rm 

As soon as you get 
off the plane in Vegas 
you are hit by the sights 
and sounds of gambling 
and entertainment. The 
airport is full of slot 5 

machines chiming away ^ 

in that simultaneously 
annoying and alluring 
way of theirs. Huge screens display 
everything that the various casinos 
with enough money to afford the 
advertising space have to offer. 
Unfortunately I was in Vegas with no 
money in my pockets and an agenda 
so there was no time to sample the 
simple delights of losing all of my 
money and looking at attractive 
and very flexible women dance sans 
brassiere - all in the best possible 
taste of course. I was in Vegas to 
gamble, not with money but on the 
future of Midway, a veteran game 
company but one that has had a 
rather lackluster output over the last 
few years. Do they have what it takes 


to make a comeback? That’s what I 
was in Vegas to find out. 

Off the plane and straight to the 
hotel, the cavernous Mandalay Bay 
Resort and Casino, a complex big 
enough to house Star City 50 times 
over and have some room left 
over for the dancing girls. Check 
in, get changed, go to a 
show. Cirque du Soleil 
are in constant rotation 
|j^R 3 in Vegas with at least 
four different shows 
running at one time. 

After two hours of people 
defying gravity it’s time to get some 
eats. Harley Davidson Cafe. The very 
name conjured up manliness, large 
bikes and big things throbbing 
between your legs. You walk 
into a Harley themed restaurant 
expecting a soundtrack of classic 
rock but instead we were greeted 
with a medley of new romantic and 
80s dance tracks. Odd. Never be a 
vegetarian in the US. You’ll starve 
to death or else be smothered in the 
world’s worst Caesar salad, a dish 
that apparently only consists of 
lettuce and cheese. Five pounds of 
slow cooked pork later it’s time for 
a walk down the strip to admire the 
lights and then off to bed. 


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Developer: Midway San Diego 
Platform: PS2/Xbox 


. -. 


Due: Late 2005 
■ If you want to get Cam all 
nostalgic and excited about an 
old game all you have to do is 
mention San Francisco Rush. At 
the very mention of the game he 
will get all hot and bothered in 
a quaint but disturbingly quasi- 
sexual way. He’ll go on at length 


f 

Developer: TBA 

Platform: PS2/Xbox 

Due: Late 2005 • • 

■ There seems to be a law in the 
games industry nowadays that 
dictates that all new IPs need to 
have some type of urban flavour. All 
we got to see of Fear 6 Respect was 
a trailer but that was enough to get 
the assembled throng of journalists 
cheering. Think of GTA: San Andreas 
set in the modern day, make it a 
little grittier and third person action 
oriented and you have some idea of 
what we saw. To ensure it hits the 
right notes it’s being developed in 
collaboration with director/writer 
John "Boyz N The Hood” Singleton. 
That was not what had us cheering 


ll 

u 


though. What had us excited was 
the fact that the lead character is 
modeled on and voiced by none 
other than Snoop Dogg. If playing 
as Snoopy D, 0 double gizzle ain’t 
urban we don’t know what is. 


about the sense of speed and the • 


cool shortcuts and the ridiculous 



jumps. Then he usually curls up 
with a contented smile and falls 
into a half sleep. I, on the other 
hand didn’t play SF Rush nearly 
as much but after seeing a bit of 
the spiritual successor, LA Rush 
I can safely say that I will be 
reacting the same way to the new 
game some time in the future. 

LA Rush has moved into the full 
3D realm with a vengeance and 
will present players with around 
350 miles of LA to drive around. 
Although the game now looks 
more like GTA than Rush the sense 
of speed is still very palpable and 
there are massive jumps galore. 

In fact the game will ship with 
a specific jump mode that will 
charge players to jump through 
rings scattered throughout the 
city to unlock new content and 
for the sheer thrill of jumping a 
car a long god-damn way. Check 
out our interview on the pages 
that follow. 


• Developer: Midway San Diego 
Platform: PC/PS2/Xbox 
Due: Late 2005 

■ It’s amazing that Midway is willing 
to tempt fate again with the Gauntlet 
series after the abominable Gauntlet: 
Dark Legacy. It’s more amazing 
that Midway have hired everyone’s 
favourite middle aged hair model 
with a Romanian internet bride, John 
Romero to head up the project. More 
amazing still is that what we’ve seen 
so far looks pretty good and not 
at all what we would expect from 
a dead franchise and Mr. "Suck it 
Down”. Gameplay so far seems to 
resemble such games as Champions 
of Norrath or Baldur's Gate: DA but 
screenshots and footage point to it 
looking a whole lot better. Could this 
be the shot in the arm that Gauntlet 
so desperately needs? Only time and 
some playable code will tell. 


;• Developer: Midway Austin 
| Platform: PC/PS2/Xbox 

• Due: April 2005 J J 

■ Due out really soon now (probably ^P? 
by the time you’re reading this), 

Area si is shaping up to be quite a 
decent little FPS. The game will be 
available on PS2, Xbox and PC with f 
the PC version playing best so far. 

Weapon balance is good, levels 
appear well designed (at least those 
we have seen so far) and enemy Al 
should make for a decent challenge. 


23 






























i-f sSE5 £ F ail 

Developer: Stainless Steel Studios 
Platform: PC 
Due: Late 2005 
■ It’s going to be hard to 
top Rome: Total War as far as 
historical RTS/Strategy goes 
but Rise 8 Fall: Civilisations at 
War could be that game. Rise 8 
Fall will allow players to choose 
from one of four major races and 
present them with some epic scale 
battles. More interestingly. Rise 
8 Fall will allow players to jump 
into a hero character from each 
race (such as Alexander the Great) 
and play them in first person to 
turn the tide of the battle, delving 
deep into the fray or using missile 
weapons to take out archers 
and the like. Whether or not the 
formula will work is still up in 
the air but early footage and 
screenshots show us some truly 
spectacular looking battles. 


WAKE UP CALL 

There is no better way to wake your¬ 
self up for a day of work than to jump 
on a roller-coaster or some other 
form of adrenalin-pumping ride. One 
wake up call was made with the New 
York, New York casino coaster - a 
track measuring around 1 km that you 
hurtle around with neck jarring speed 
in about 40 seconds. That was pretty 
intense first thing in the morning but 
nothing compared to the Big Shot, 
the morning ride for the day of the 
press conference. The Big Shot rests 
on top of Stratosphere, a casino/hotel 
shaped like Centrepoint Tower. To 
get to the ride you have to take an 
elevator up 109 floors and get out 
onto the roof. You are then strapped 
into a seat and cranked down on a 
hydraulic piston. After a few seconds 
you are flung another four or five 
stories up, the free fall a few stories 
down. At the top or the ride you can 
no longer see the roof so you feel like 
you're falling 115 odd floors above 
Vegas. If that can't wake you up then 
you're already dead. 


Developer: Surreal Software 
Platform: PC/PS2/Xbox 
Due: Mid 2005 

■ The Suffering was something 
of a sleeper hit - a cross between 
action game and survival horror 
that actually managed to be action 
packed and terrifying all at once. 
Ties That Bind sees the improbably 
named anti-hero Torque away from 
gaol and back in his home town 
of Baltimore. All is not wine and 
roses however, as the demons of the 
prison have escaped into the urban 
landscape, mutating into new forms 
that echo urban blight rather than 
execution methods (as seen in 
the original game). The action 
has been ramped up a bit in the 
sequel and rather than detract 
from the mood of the game it 
serves to draw players further 
into the world of demons and 
a man with a dark past. New 
game elements include the 
addition of Torque’s dead 
wife serving as something 
of a spiritual advisor (with emphasis 
placed firmly on spiritual), multiple 
beginnings (to reflect the multiple 
endings of the first game) and 
two rage forms, one to reflect an 
essentially "good” Torque and one 
who has embraced his dark side. 
From what we’ve seen so far. The 
Suffering: Ties That Bind will, if 
anything be a superior game to its 
predecessor. We can’t wait. 


• Treasures 3 

« * # Developer: Midway 

• Platform: GCN/PS2/Xbox 

f/g J*, . • • Doe: Mid 2005 

//y ■ 0K, so a new arcade compilation 

* * isn’t something to write home 

page space on it aside from to say 
i^^l^od ^thdieesei that Arcade Treasures 3 is shaping 

S P tC y ra *Ch drossmrt _- A _ I a I I A _ L aL _ l_A All 


up to be the best of the lot. All 
of the games contained in the 
third compilation are racing titles 
and include such classics as San 
Francisco Rush, Rush the Rock and 
Hydro Thunder. 


If you ever get to the US be sure and eat at one of 
the many Australian themed restaurants. Just make 
sure that you're not too easily offended. Apparently 
Australians eat Kookaburras, think everything is 
Bonza and smother our French fires with Monterey 
Jack cheese and Bacon. Reckon! 




























mortal HiuiTiOst 
Sfiaolin monks 

Developer: Paradox 
Platform: PS2/Xbox 
Due: September 2005 • • 

■ A new Mortal Kombat action game 
has its work cut out for it considering 
the terrible games that have come 
before it, most notably Sub Zero 
and Special Forces. Shaolin Monks 
is looking like the game that could 
actually, well, work. No playable 
code was available at the event but 
what we are given to understand 
is that Shaolin Monks will utilise a 
multi-directional combat system 
along the lines of Rise to Honor or 
Death by Degrees, as well as integrate 
the well known moves of the two 
main characters, Liu Kang and 
Kung Lao. Also in keeping with the 
Mortal Kombat franchise, the two 
characters will have access to at least 
10 fatalities each as well as Multalities 


and Brutalities, the latter two being 
room clearing attacks and just plain 
nasty respectively. As an action 
game, Shaolin Monks will include 
a lot of environmental interactivity 
ranging from simple wall running for 
movement through to area specific 
attacks and fatalities. Players will also 
be able to customise their character 
through experience gained during 
combat. As could be expected, 
Shaolin Monks will feature both 
single player and cooperative game 
modes. We’ve been saying for a while 
that we want to see a good action 
game come along that utilises both 
thumbsticks. All signs so far point to 
Shaolin Monks being that game. 


filsja ' i.Esl |4i_siiiiL53ia 
DiBiEIiBP'tiOil 

Developer: Midway • • 

Platform: GCN 

Due: Never • • 

■ We’ve finally had a look at the 
GameCube code of Deception and 
it looks exceptional - probably 
the best of the bunch with some 
sumptuous graphics and two bonus 
characters - Shao Khan and Goro, 
available to play. Unfortunately we 
also discovered that it will not be 



•v 


released locally so any of you Cube 
fanciers will have to import a copy 
from the UK if you want your share 
of MK goodness. 



Marc 

Developer: Point of View 
Platform: PS2/Xbox J* 

Due: Probably never • • 

■ Otherwise known as the game 
that will never, ever get released in 
Australia. Narc is a remake of the old 
Midway arcade game that features a 
hyper-violent Narc shooting people, 
getting bitten on the arse by crack 
dogs, collecting drugs for points and 
sometimes blowing shit up with a 
rocket launcher. The new version has 
gone full 3D and presents a game 
similar to True Crime but with one 
significant difference. Players in 
Narc can use drugs to gain special 
abilities for a short time. Sure, the 


game has an "Addiction Meter” to 
show how bad the player is hooked 
on drugs and they can be kicked off 
the force for their habit but we have 
a funny feeling that the censorship 
board may have some problems 
with a game that encourages 
experimentation with drugs. 



WELCOME HOME AND BY THE WAY, F**K YOU 

The best part of traveling for me is coming home. The knowledge that 
tonight you will be sleeping under familiar skies in your own bed is the 
most wonderful welcome home. I'm sitting on the plane, recently fallen 
into what I like to call an "ennui coma" - the state you fall into when 
you are so bored you can't be bothered keeping your eyes open - when 
the PA comes on and the pilot informs us that due to "extreme weather 
conditions" in Sydney the Airport is closed and we will have to divert to 
Brisbane. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when you discover you 
can't go home. It's kind of like betrayal. It hurts and puts a dampener on 
the mood. Eventually we get into the Brisbane airport - the Casino decor 
a pale imitation of our point of origin. I wait at the carousel for my bags, 
listening all the while to a bored sounding woman on the PA telling us 
not to leave the baggage collection area until they inform us where we 
will be staying for the night. I wait for my bag a little more. The carousel 
stops. No more bags come. I ask at the baggage claim desk about my 
luggage. They tell me that they have no idea where it is but if I ask at 
Sydney they might know. I ask if they can give me a toothbrush and some 
toothpaste so I can at least brush my teeth. Apparently that is beyond 
the purview of the people who lost my bags. Another hour and a half 
later (around 11:30pm) we are shuffled out to the buses to take us to our 
hotels for the night. An hour later we arrive due to the fact that the bus 
driver decided to go to the wrong 
hotel first, showing us parts of the 
outskirts of Brisbane that only exist 
during the witching hour. 

Hotel - too late to get food, no 
point in having a shower to get 
back into clothes you've been 
steadily marinating in for the 
last 20 hours but I do so anyway. 

Sleep. For at least 20 minutes 
anyway until I get a call from 
reception telling me that the bus 
to take me back to the airport in the morning will be leaving at 6am. I 
order a 5:30 wake up call. Ten to six I get my call. No time for a morn¬ 
ing shower. Back into stinky clothes and onto the bus. It only takes us 
20 minutes to get back to the airport where we discover that our plane 
doesn't leave for another three hours. Red Rooster for breakfast is not 
good, no matter how you look at it. 

Finally Sydney and I line up with all the other shmoes who had bags 
go missing. There's about three dozen of us. I get a polite "we have no 
idea where your bags are but if you wait for a few days we can prob¬ 
ably find them"; the baggage guy also informs us that LAX keeps them 
in business - without them bags would not get lost. Stupid LAX. Home, 
shower, brush teeth. Coma. Two days later I get my luggage delivered 
at work. I love Sydney, I really do but I think I may have done some¬ 
thing to piss her off. Time for some groveling. 



•Red Ant is exempt from any blame given for the disastrous flight back home. 
The blame lies firmly on the shoulders of the weather, the airlines and Bris¬ 
bane. Just because I hate Brisbane. 



























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Available on PS2/Xbox Category: Arcade racing 6 Players: 1 -Multi ! Developer: Midway San Diego I Available: Late 2005 


>•* 




an Francisco Rush was one of the original band of brash 
arcade racers. While hightailing it through San Fran, excessive 
speed was your friend, shortcuts were plentiful and the massive changes 
in elevation meant that you spent almost as much time in the air as you 
did on the ground. It was a truly great arcade racer, and several sequels 
were released. But then Midway let the Rush series lie for a while, lurking 
in the shadows of a generation of gamers' minds, waiting for a chance 
to be reborn. It's been a long wait, but now Rush is back, in LA no less. 
To find out more about bringing the series screaming back to life, we 
spoke to Pall Palsson, a developer from Midway. 


HYPER: The Rush games are 
renowned for their speed, 
wild shortcuts and big air, all 
wrapped up in a straightforward 
arcade framework. With LA Rush 
it sounds like you’re taking the 
series in a slightly different 
direction with the inclusion of 
a story mode and open course 
design. Tell us about what’s 
changed for LA Rush, and the 
reasoning behind the changes. 
Pall Palsson: We believe that 
LA Rush is following the very same 
direction as the classic Rush games, 
the design has simply been updated 
to include some of the cool "Rush" 
things we can do on modem consoles. 
Racing games have matured a lot 


I [below] This is for 
rejecting my script 




since we made the last Rush game. 

The consoles are so powerful now 
that they have handed all genres a 
whole new set of tools to create the 
best gaming experience possible. 

For racing games in particular this 
has made it possible for us to create 
realistic and vast open cities, create a 
deep cinematic storyline, accurately 
model licensed vehicles and portray 
visual and performance upgrades 
to those very same cars. Along with 
all the classic Rush style game play 
(big jumps, cool shortcuts, track 
exploration and crazy stunts) we 
think these new additions are very 
much in keeping with the spirit of the 
classic Rush games. 

What will make LA Rush a 
quintessential^ "Rush” game? 

LA Rush captures the spirit and 
feeling of the classic Rush games 
in style. We have the cool shortcuts 
and the huge jumps, the over the 
top cars, the forgiving physics and 
the race course exploration that 
made the Rush games so popular 
in the arcades and on previous 
consoles. The sensation of speed 
in Rush is greater than you find in 
any open city racing game that I’ve 
seen to date so we are definitely not 
lacking in the speed department. 
These things combined with the 
open city and the new "rush 
moments” that happen during races 
are going to make LA Rush first and 
foremost a worthy resurrection of 
the Rush franchise and a fun arcade 
racing game. 

The arcade racing genre is in a 
renaissance period right now, 
with the likes of Burnout 3, Ridge 
Racers, Midnight Club 3 and 
NFSU2 all doing great things. 

How much attention do you pay 
to the competition? What will 
make your game stand out? 

To make a great game you have 
to look to the competition and see 
what they are doing well but more 
importantly how you deliver an even 
better gaming experience in your 
product. LA Rush does its own thing; 
it’s not a "clone” of any other product 
currently in the market - it’s simply 


"Rush”. It features Rush style arcade 
game play that blends competitive 
arcade racing with a moment or two 
that will make your heart stop. All 
this mixes into adrenaline packed fun 
that we think will carve its way into 
the hearts of fans of the classic Rush 
games as well as the fans of arcade 
racers in general. 

The Rush series already has its 
own distinct style, but with the 
inclusion of customisation and 
"bling” you seem to be bringing 
it more into line with the other 
popular racers at the moment. 
What’s the reasoning behind the 
change? Are you prepared to risk 
alienating Rush fans? 

We don’t want to alienate the Rush 
fans, as a hardcore Rush fan myself 
I can tell you we are keeping and 
enhancing the things that made the 
classic Rush games so great at the 
same time as adding new things that 
we were simply not able to do in the 
past but are in essence very Rush 
game mechanics. The customisation 
in the game is very easy to do but 
at the same time visually impressive 
and has a positive impact on the 
performance of your car. The "bling” 
is something that ties very well into 
the story and all the Rush elements 
we have in the game. 

How much of a role will 
customisation play in the game? 

Every car in the game can be 
taken to WCC and the guys there will 
upgrade the car for you. This is not 
something that the player needs to 
do to complete the game but does 
make it easier. We did not want LA 
Rush to be another car tuning game 
and in all honesty I can’t think of 
anyone who I would rather have 
upgrade my rides than the guys at 
WCC... it is after all what they do for 
a living! Having your car customized 
gives it a visual and performance 
upgrade that will come in handy 
when you need that extra burst of 
speed to do the huge jump that’s 
going launch you out of 2nd place, 
over the line and ultimately to 
immortality as the best street racer 
LA has ever seen. 


































to either re-buy or repair the 
vehicle? 

Every car in LA Rush has a 
realistically detailed damage model 
and throughout a race your car will 
pickup damage. LA Rush is above all 
else arcade style game play so we 
did not want to frustrate the player 
by forcing him to repair his vehicle 
after every race... there is a lot of 
cool stuff to crash into and through 
in the game and we didn’t want 
there to be any financial drawbacks 
to enjoying that so the car is 
automatically fixed and reset if the 
player takes too much damage. 
During a race, this obviously incurs 
a time penalty. 




Los Angeles is a pretty flat place 
- does this make capturing the 
adrenaline the series is known 
for more difficult than when you 
had San Francisco as a setting? 

We wanted this re-birth of the Rush 
franchise to have its own unique feel 


THE "BUNG" IS SOMETHING THAT TIES 
VERV UJELL INTO THE STORV 


* W Can you tell us which car licenses 
^ A will be included in the game? 

And how about aftermarket 
£ w parts manufacturers? 

? ^ At this time I can not give you 
^ t a definitive list of the car licenses 
* and aftermarket parts that will be 
featured in the game. Rest assured 
that there will be a lot of licensed 
cars and the West Coast Customs 
guys can’t work unless they have 
access to the very best of aftermarket 
parts. In the weeks to come we will 
t^P release more news of the car licenses, 
celebrity talent and aftermarket 
parts featured in LA Rush 


while still keeping all the elements 
that made the classic Rush games so 
great. In keeping with that we didn’t 
want to set the new Rush game in a 
city that has already been featured in 
the Classic Rush games. Los Angeles 
is a great city to set a racing game 
in for various reasons and it’s also a 
city that many people are familiar 
with. San Francisco is a great setting 
for a Rush style game and perhaps 
the franchise will return to its roots 
at some point in the future but at the 
present time we are very excited to 
be featuring Los Angeles. LA is, like 
you said, a pretty flat place and we 
have gone to great lengths to keep 
the real-life feel of Los Angeles while 


Variously we’ve seen LA Rush 
described as being a free 
roaming living city with 350 
odd miles of road and being 
comprised of 50+ unique tracks, 
how does the game contain 
both? 

All the races are set in the city 
and creating so many races and 
missions out of 350 odd miles of 
road is extremely challenging. The 
challenge was also making sure 
they were all adrenaline packed and 
very, very, Rush but I think we have 
£ Will there be damage modelling? accomplished that goal and I can’t 
And if a car is damaged in a race wait for people to get their hands on 
mP or jump will players be forced the game. 
























at the same time making sure that can take your revenge out on your 
the races we set are packed full of nemesis for the grief he caused you. 

excitement. Luckily we have very The story is non linear so once you 

gifted level artists who have by clever have raced a few races in the first 
modelling of buildings and other area you can either finish that area 

geometry carved LA into a place (to make sure you have the best 

where the adrenaline packed Rush possible car to tackle the next area) 

moments are never far away. or move on to any of the four other 

areas that are featured in the game. 

The story mode sounds 

interesting - could you tell us How much of the game will the 
about how it will be structured story mode comprise, and what 
and what kinds of missions we other modes will be available? 
can expect? We want Story Mode to be the 

The basics of the story are that heart and soul of LA Rush. It’s where 

you are a top street racer in LA you Tegain your stolen vehicles, 

and your nemesis, a semi-legit your dignity and ultimately your 

businessman, has stolen all your dominance over the LA street scene, 

cars to make sure you don’t win all The game will also feature a Quick 
the cash he has put up for a series Race option for those that just want 

of high stakes street races. As you to sit down and get a quick fix of 

progress through the story you will Rush as well as some additional 
have access to races that are free or fun packed game modes that we’ll 

have a low entry fee and those races announce in the coming weeks, 

will help you build up your cash for 

the high stake Cross-town races that The ring mode will see players 
drive the story progression. Mixed in travelling across the city looking 
with the races are Acquire missions for unique jumps. Can you tell 
where you regain your stolen cars us how this will work and what 
and retribution missions where you type of rewards players can 


expect from making all of the [above] "Pull the car over. Your ride 

jumps? isn't bling enough for our town" 

When the player is driving around 

the city he will spot markers that at implementing more game modes 

indicate the start of an adventure at the moment but I can’t give any 

(ring) sequence. The player then details on them at this time, 
has to figure out how to reach that 

marker, it may be floating in mid air Will LA Rush feature an online 

indicating that the player has to find component? If so, could you give 

a jump to reach it. When the player us some details on the modes 
manages to hit the marker the game and how many players will be 

will pause and proceed to show able to race concurrently? 

the player the location of the next The online component of LA Rush 

marker in the adventure sequence. is still being looked at so I can’t at 

When the player hits the last marker this time comment on the extent we 

in the sequence he will be shown will implement online play. We will 
the location of a hidden reward... feature multiplayer split screen, 
and that reward could be one of 

the awesome concept cars featured What graphics engine is LA Rush 
exclusively in LA Rush. running on, and what features 

will make the visuals distinct? 
Will all of the game components LA Rush is running on a 
(story mode, ring mode and free proprietary graphics engine created 

roaming) be integrated into the specifically for LA Rush. It has a lot of 

single player game or will they interesting features that allow us to 
be different game types? reproduce the city with lots of detail, 

These will all be part of the single an incredible draw distance and lots 
player game but if you have finished of special effects that all help bring 
a race or acquired a car in the Story the city to life and give players the 

Mode that car and those races will best possible game play experience, 

then become available through the 

Quick Race option. We are looking Thanks for your time! X 


















Available on Xbox 2, PC Category: First Person Horror Players: 1 Developer: Monolith Productions Available: TBA 


You really need to get some sun 


The Sega brand has become 
pretty battered over the years. 
Once the epitome of cool, Sega now 
faces an uphill battle for the hearts 
and wallets of the modern gamer. 
These are the guys that have been 
unfortunate enough to play Crazy 
Taxi 3 and other dross that they’ve 
brought out since becoming a third 
party publisher. But hey, the good 
news is that Sega know all this, and 
are setting out to broaden their 
portfolio and essentially reinvent 
themselves in the eyes of the 
Western gamer. 

Case in point, Condemned. In 
development for next gen systems 
and PC at Monolith Productions, 
this is definitely one to look out 
for. Monolith, after all. are the 
studio behind the excellent No 
One Lives Forever franchise, one of 


our "greatest games you’ve never 
played” - Tron 2.0, and they’re also 
currently working on one of our most 
anticipated games of 2005 - F.E.A.R. 

We don’t know a great deal about 
Condemned as yet, other than it’s a 
"first person psychological thriller". 
You play as FBI agent Ethan Thomas, 
a member of the Serial Crimes Unit. 

In Condemned you’ll be on the trail 
of a brutal serial killer, a pursuit that 
will take you through a variety of 
decaying urban environments - the 
kinds of places that even the most 
brave and foolhardy fear to tread. 
And then there's the population. From 
the Silent Hill-style macabre and 
twisted freaks with deformed limbs 
and bodies that have wasted away, 
through to more traditional teen 
slasher flick enemies, Condemned 
has got all bases covered. This is 


a game that’s designed to screw 
with your head, in a constantly 
unsettling world with enemies that 
behave intelligently. In addition to 
the combat that we all expect from 
the horror genre, players will also 
have forensic tools at their disposal, 
which will hopefully make the game’s 
puzzles a little more believable and 
appropriate. After all, how many FBI 
agents need to find the jade dragon’s 
eyes in order to open a door? 

As our exclusive Xbox 2/Xenon 
screenshots attest, the look of the 
game is nothing short of stunning. The 
look is realistic and gritty, with some 
heavily Sin City-inspired elements, 
such as the inspired use of negative 
space with arcing splashes of red. It 
looks disturbing, it looks bloody and 
it looks amazing. We’ll have more on 
Condemned after E3. 



I'd wager that he's a bad guy... 



Thankfully Bunnings sell spiked bats 


30 HYPER» 









TH€ LOOK IS RCRUSTIC AND GRITTY, 
UJITH SIN CITV-INSPIRCD €L€M€NTS 





-.-i 

> 9 








PREVIEUI 




WHAT WE'D LIKE TO SEE: 

The idea is to create 
a gameworld with a 
memory. Let's hope they 
do... cos we'll remember 
it if they don't. 


% 


V 

VI 



TH€ GODFATH6R 


Available on PC/PS2/PSP/Xbox Category: Action adventure Players: 1 Developer: EA Redwood Shores Available: Late 2005 


~ ^ Based on the book by Mario 
Puzo and directed by Francis 
Ford Coppola, 1972's The Godfather 
is a classic, there’s no two ways 
about it. References to sleeping 
with the fishes, waking up with a 
horse head in your bed and making 
people offers they can’t refuse have 
permeated pop culture to the point 


where everyone knows about it, 
even if they haven’t seen it. 

Mind you, if you haven’t seen 
The Godfather, then it’s about 
time you did. It’s a great flick, but 
what’s interesting about the idea 
of a videogame translation is that 
it’s not exactly action packed. It’s 
very much a film about characters 



and family, about manipulation 
and negotiation, about respect and 
loyalty, and about the ethics of mob 
business, rather than about shocking 
violence or fast paced action. Thus, 
there’s really no way a straight-up 
action game or GTA clone would cut 
it with The Godfather license. To stay 
true to the property, EA are going to 
have to tread very carefully. 

Rather than simply following the 
events of the film, the game will 
weave itself in and around them, 
fleshing out side stories and the 
wider machinations of the Corleone 
family. Thus, you won’t be playing 
as any of the main characters from 
the film - although your path will 
most certainly intersect with theirs 
on numerous occasions and in 
pivotal moments from the film. 
Instead, you’ll create your own 
character who’s just a small-time 
crook at the beginning of the game, 
before being accepted into the 
Corleone crime family and working 
your way up through the family by 
succeeding in missions and earning 
respect and greater influence. 

Set in 1945-1955 in New York, The 
Godfather is going to have a very 



The first one to blink gets shot 



Let me help you with that tie 


distinctive gameworld, but perhaps 
what’s most interesting about it is 
the goal that EA Redwood Shores 
have set themselves - that the 
player’s actions will be remembered, 
and matter. This doesn’t just go 
for the big confrontations either. If 
you punch someone randomly on 
the street, the idea is that they’ll 
remember and either fear you, 
respect you, try and get you back or 
all of the above. It’s a lofty ambition 
and should certainly be taken with a 
big grain of salt, but this is after all, 


32 HYPER» 













DIPLOMACY CAN AC JUST AS 
POWERFUL A UJCAPON AS VIOLCNCC 


DEEP POCKETS Other exciting news for Godfather fans is that James 
Caan and Robert Duvall are lending their likenesses and voices to the game. 

As Sonny Corleone and Tom Hagen respectively, they were two of the most 
important characters in the film, so that's a big plus. Marlon Brando was also 
set to be involved, recording some dialogue and granting EA use of his likeness 
before his death. It wouldn't be The Godfather without Don Vito. Whether the 
likes of Al Pacino and Diane Keaton will be involved hasn't been revealed yet. 

Another element that will help make this game feel like an authentic journey 
in the universe of the Godfather is the iconic Nino Rota score. Imagine taking 
a stroll through Little Italy once you've reached the level of Godfather with the 
film's score playing in the background. 


running around doing things that 
are bad for business or bad for the 
family, your rivals and your crew 
will turn on you. 

You can probably already guess 
what kinds of missions will be on 
offer - drive bys, hits, extortion, 
bank heists and so on, but you 
can also imagine the shift that will 
occur as you move your way up 
through the Corleone ranks. The 
Godfather doesn’t get his hands 
dirty - he looks at the big picture, he 
coordinates, he pulls the strings. If 
it’s done right, there’ll be a palpable 
feeling of power and respect as you 
advance in this game, until you 
reach the position of Godfather, 
with territory, money, officials in 


your pocket and the respect of 
the city. But that’s not the final 
goal - the ultimate in this game 
will be becoming the Godfather of 
Godfathers and controlling not just 
the Corleone operation, but all the 
five families. 


Extreme dentistry 


a game about figures that would be 
known and feared throughout the 
community - you should be noticed 
and your actions remembered. 

The dev team are also being very 
careful to offer the same kinds of 
choices and framework that was 
so important in the film - that is, 
diplomacy can be just as powerful a 
weapon as ruthless violence. In fact, 
resorting to violence Sonny style 
can often be the most destructive 
option. In the game, there will 


More tie problems to solve 

always be options in how you 
respond to certain situations, and 
there will always be several potential 
outcomes. Do you intimidate, 
negotiate or just resort to violence? 
Or do you go for a mix of the three? 

The aim for this game is to put 
your fate in your hands. You’ll 
have to make smart choices, and 
consider the potential ramifications. 
You can’t just go around killing 
everyone. Business is the bottomline 
in the Godfather world, and if you’re 


Get me a poison canoli! 




& ® 


HYPER» 33 



















WHAT WE'D LIKE TO SEE: 

Actually, they've already 
implemented it. Lego 
Star Wars has some of 
the best "spin physics" 
we've ever seen. Just try 
jumping and spinning 
in this game - spin 
physics on two axis. It's a 
revolution! 




a 





"Want to build a fort?" 


l€GO STAR WARS 


Available on PC, PS2, Xbox Category: Plastic Action Players: 1-2 Developer: Traveller's Tales Available: Very soon 


characters, with just about anyone 
who played a role in the three new 
films being featured... as well as 
multiple iterations of many of the 
most popular characters. Some of 
the standouts for us would be Darth 
Maul, who looks like a kid dressed up 
for Halloween in his Lego incarnation, 
and Yoda, who has a surprisingly 
unblocky head but still looks cool. 

The game takes you through 
a simplified retelling of Episodes 
Mil, and the entire game is played 
with two characters - whether Al 
controlled or a friend, meaning that 
a second player can enter and leave 
the game at any time. There are some 
puzzle-lite elements introduced 
here. Armidala for instance, has a 
grappling hook that can be used in 
certain points to access areas the 
other player can't. You’re also able 
to take over control of some other 
characters, with R2 units and protocol 
droids available to be jacked and 
used to get through locked doors 
and the like. And then there’s the 
comedy value to be had from slicing 
and dicing up a C3PO look alike, 
eventually leaving it with a solitary 
leg to hop around on. 

Another cool element in the game 


is the ability to ’’use the force”. You’ll 
frequently see glowing objects which 
you can interact with through the 
force. Most of the time they’ll just 
give you trinkets or move something 
around, but it’s a nice addition - 
especially in combat, where you can 
force push enemies until they’re piles 
of Lego scattered to the wind. 

In addition to third person light 
saber action there are also a few on 
rails action sequences, such as pod 
racing on Mos Espa which serve to 
break the action up and show off a 
few more Lego-styled vehicles. 

As you’ve no doubt gathered, 
Lego Star Wars is a game that’s 
aimed primarily at a young 
demographic, but despite this, like 
a Bizarre-O-Jar Jar Binks - it’s full of 
character and a lot of fun. 


Lego has had a long association 
with Star Wars nerds over the 
years. And these nerds have proven 
time and time again that pretty much 
anything that they can dream of can 
be built with Lego. Apparently they 
don’t dream of women, and instead 
have fashioned life size models of 
R2-D2 and the like from everyone’s 
favourite plastic building block. 

Now Lego are set to give something 
back to all the Star Wars fans that 
supported them, in the form of Lego 
Star Wars: a game where absolutely 
everything contained within is built 
from virtual Lego. 


DISGUSTINGLY CUTE 

Not only does this approach make 
Lego Star Wars look nice and unique, 
but it also has an intentionally 
comical side effect. It’s absolutely 
hilarious seeing a Republic Cruiser 
modeled out of Lego soaring through 
space at the beginning of the first 
Episode I level, and the characters 
are disgustingly cute in Lego 
form, with their stubby little 
bodies and "painted” facial 
animations. Pretty much 
everyone’s in there too - there’s 
a massive roster of unlockable 


34 HYPER» 













COLLEC-TtAU 


©Target &U<tvd ^ 


0a JE ; IX 


Visit our website at www.mraentertainment.com 

itertainment Group Pty Ltd. 5 Dr/tdend St Mansfield. OLD. AUSTRALIA 4122 PO. Box 703 Mt Gravatt OLD, AUSTRALIA. 4122. Ph: (07) 3849 6020 Fx: (07) 3349 8806 sates@mragroup.oom.au 
© 2004 LAYOUT AND DESIGN MRA ENTERTAINMENT GROUP ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © SONIC Project. Ail rights reserved. JET1X name and logo © and TM Disney Enterprises. Inc. 


MRE<3? 


SAN TV 
















D€RD TO RIGHTS II 


Available on P52/Xbox Category: Action shooter Players: 1 Developer: Namco 


On the surface the original 
Dead to Rights looked very 
much like a Max Payne clone, thanks 
to the third person perspective and 
bullet time gunplay, but digging a 
little deeper revealed some decent 
hand to hand combat (including 
some very cool disarm moves) and 
being able to call in lead character 
Jack Slate’s dog K-9 to tear at the 
throats of enemies. 

The sequel is all this and more. 

Jack Slate and K-9 are both back, and 
this time they’re embroiled in a tale 
of crime, corruption and betrayal. 

Or so the press release would have 
us believe. We actually don’t know 
a great deal about the story as yet, 
with all the footage we’ve been lucky 


enough to see revolving around 
action and lots of it. Jack’s arsenal 
is certainly beefier this time, with 
brutal weapons like land mines, 
flechette grenades and shotguns 
with incendiary shells. He’ll also get 
to use heavier artillery like shoulder- 
mounted RPCs and mini-guns. 

What we’re most looking forward to 
checking out are all the disarm moves. 
There are now 25, and they range 
from basic grapples to elaborately 
cool - such as Jack gracefully 
spinning around an opponent, 
snatching his weapon, taking him to 
the ground and breaking his arm all 
in a couple of swift motions. K-9 will 
also play a greater role in combat and 
you can use him to retrieve items. 



Available: Soon 



SMRRT BOMB 


Available on PSP Category: Puzzle Players: 1-4 Developer: Core Design Available: At Oz launch 


Puzzle games don’t often tell 
MM much of a story. A game of 
Tetris once told me a tale but that 
was after a seriously long sequence 
of play and I think I was probably 
hallucinating. Smart Bomb, on 
the other hand, has what could be 
described as a serious attempt at a 
story, but then, it’s a game with a cool 
enough premise that it may work. 

The world, you see, is in 
grave danger from a network 
of sophisticated Al bombs. As a 
member of the Bomb Disposal Unit 
it’s up to you to use a prototype 
virtual reality system to get inside 
the bombs and defuse them. The 
basic idea seems to be that your 


PSP represents that prototype, and 
Smart Bomb is the software that lets 
you get inside the network of bombs 
to try and disable them all. Not a 
bad idea. 

There will be over one hundred 
puzzles to solve, and Core Design 
are really working hard to make 
the player feel as if they’re under 
pressure, with the weight of the 
world on their shoulders. We’ll find 
out shortly whether they succeed 
or not, but Smart Bomb certainly 
looks like an interesting take on the 
puzzle genre. 



Available on GCN/PS2/Xbox Category: Action Players: 1 Developer: Creative Assembly Available; September 


Sega recently acquired the 
MM fantastic development house 
Creative Assembly, makers of the 
Total War series. The first fruits of 
this partnership will be Spartan: 
Total Warrior, which will be on 
shelves in September for CameCube, 
PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Rather than 
making a console adaptation of one 
of the Total War games, Spartan 
will take the massive battles the 
company is famous for and put 
players in the middle of the action. 

Set in the ancient world, Spartan 
will draw from both real world 
history and mythology as the player 
fights against the Roman Empire, 
culminating in a showdown in the 
Coliseum in Rome. Battles will be 


epic to the point of ludicrous, with 
legions upon legions of warriors 
fighting tooth and nail across huge 
maps. Like the Total War games, 
fighting will feel dynamic with 
realistic looking clashes between 
fighters, resulting in a battlefield 
that’s organic and constantly 
changing. 

In terms of combat you’ll have 
a wide range of moves at your 
fingertips, including melee and 
ranged attacks, a host of weapons, 
combos and special moves, as well 
as blocks and dodges. We’ll have 
more on this one after E3. 


SPRRTRN: TOTRL UURRRIOR 


36 HYPER» 




























MORE MAGIC ON ! 


FROM 


Tf-fE 8 


KA? 




Returns 


NAUSICAA 

DF THE VALLEY DF THE WIND 
Travel with Princess Nausicaa 
on her quest to ensure a 
brighter future far her world. 
A beautiful tale starring a truly 
inspiring heroine! 


PDRCD ROSSO 

When "Porco" annoys a band 
of sky pirates with his aerial 
heroics, the pirates seek their 
revenge! A fabulous flying action 
adventure you will never forget. 


THE CAT RETURNS 

When Haru saves the life of an 
unusual cat, she embarks on a 
journey more magical than she 
could have imagined! 


Exciting, 


Sydney Morning Herald 


From the Academy Awa: 


creators of SPIRITED AWAY 


IAUSICAA 


vSlEYOF THE WIND 


iEHEK* 1 - 


www.madman.coiii.au/studioghibli 























1 

ifi 


1 S' II 

« 

i. M 

* 




.0 _ M Jia 


IS 

4 S/*- V»/Vi [ /’ 

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I t’s been a long time coming 
- after so many stops and 
starts. Fallout has well and truly 
returned. Bethesda Softworks, 
developers of the outrageously 
successful The Elder Scrolls III: 
Morrowind, have announced 
that they will be taking the 
wheel from Black Isle Studios and 
Interplay to drive one of the CRPG 
(computer role-playing game) 
market’s funniest, most original 
and popular series back into pole 
position. 

1997’s Fallout created a world 
that was unique to the RPG format. 
Inspired by films such as Mad 
Max and Dr. Strangelove, nuclear 
paranoia, 1950s disinformation, 
and Area 51, Fallout was primarily 
influenced by Wasteland, a game 
developed in 1986 by Brian Fargo 
for the Commodore 64 and the 
Apple ][. 

Much like Fallout, Wasteland 
was a post-apocalyptic RPG. 
Despite the simplicity of the 8-bit 
colour, it was an engaging and 


Burns’ heart. 

The people weren't 
much cheerier, either. m 

As soon as you plodded 
off to the town of Shady 
Sands, you were greeted 
by extravagantly ugly 
faces, bitter dispositions, 
religious zealots, and 
jumbo scorpions (that 1 .ft 

is, if you hadn’t already 
been attacked by a band 
of mutated freaks). Now, 
whilst this may sound 
a lot like a One Nation 
Convention, Fallout 
added an extra ingredient to the 
mix: laughs. 

Fallout’s distinctively black 
humour was its most shocking 
element: never before had a 
courageous RPG hero found himself 
sodomised - by Francis the super¬ 
mutant, no less - or sharing a war 
story and a few bottle-caps with 
a guy who looked like something 
out of Night of the Living Dead. 

All the darkness of the Fallout 




[above] If it's all the same 
to you, I think we might just 
skip the whole "repopulating 
the Earth" thing... 


publication has at some 
point acknowledged Fallout’s 
brilliance: the game won Black 
Isle OCR’s "Game of the Year” 
and "RPG of the Year” from PC 
Gamer, Computer Gaming World, 
GameSpot, Adrenaline Vault, 
Games Domain, and GamesMania. 
Truly passionate players consider 
themselves "Fallout Scholars”, 
and dedicate themselves to the 
series, exploring miniscule side 
quests and quirks, and immersing 
themselves in the game’s buttload 
of post-modern esoterica. 


plays and ends”. 

An integral part of this 
universe’s creation was Steve 
Jackson Games’ GURPS rules engine 
- Fallout was the first computer 
game to implement it. In using 
the GURPS engine. Black Isle 
had created a title that was not 
only unique in content but also 
in gameplay. Even when AD8D 
(Advanced Dungeons 8 Dragons) 
was the best-known game, Steve 
Jackson Games continued to 
produce GURPS supplements - in 
particular, genre-based GURPS 
sourcebooks - and was thus able 
to stay in business. Reynolds 
explains the engine’s importance: 
’’It showed that mechanics-based 
games - as opposed to games 
with simpler/looser mechanics, 
like the Storyteller system games 
from White Wolf - didn’t have to 
be AD8D and didn’t have to be 
fantasy, either.” 

Black Isle’s post-nuclear 
gem gained cult status. Nearly 
every videogame 


GARDEN OF EDEN 

With Fallout 2’s release in 1998 
- along with the much-lauded 
Baldur’s Gate series - Black Isle 
cemented itself as one of the most 
acclaimed RPG developers. In the 
series’ second round, the player 
was cast as the Vault Dweller’s 
grandchild - yep, you were now 
officially your own grandpa (or 
grandma... or both). 


universe was anthropomorphised 
in Pip-Boy, the game’s perky little 
mascot. If you ever felt oppressed 
by the weight of the post-nuclear 
world, you could simply turn to 
pictures of Pip in the process of 
evisceration or barfing after severe 
poisoning, and remember that, 
well - life wasn’t so bad after all. 

The game’s comedic kick 
masked darker truths, reflected 
in the sobering and cinematic 
opening sequence (war never 
changes, innocence is always 
war’s first casualty). This is 
perhaps why the series resonated 
with so many gamers: while most 
RPGs are based on fantasy. Fallout 
was based on reality. The Fallout 
universe was strewn with the ashes 
of propaganda posters, decaying 
military bases, and cities obviously 
modelled on post-war Hiroshima. 
Sean K. Reynolds, a former Black 
Isle employee, believes the series 
stood out because of "smart 
writing, humor, a good storyline, 
fun gameplay, and character 
options that affect how the game 


complex game. When Black Isle 
released their take on post- 
nuclear role-playing eleven years 
later. Wasteland fans dubbed it 
an unofficial sequel (although 
some complained that it dumbed 
down the gameplay). Either way. 
Wasteland’s "unofficial sequel” 
brought the post-nuclear setting 
into spectacular 16-bit colour, the 
likes of which Wasteland could 
never have managed. 


SCORCHED EARTH 

The instant your feet hit Fallout’s 
charred ground, you knew that 
this wasn’t an RPG of the swords 
V sorcery variety. The game 
began outside Vault 13, where the 
most blessed of Earth’s population 
sought refuge during and after 
nuclear attack. The traditional 
quest, experience, and item¬ 
grabbing of classic RPGs was 
intact, but Fallout’s world was 
immeasurably different. No longer 
lush and green in the fashion of 
fantasy RPGs, this isometrically- 
viewed land was as arid as Monty 





w/i wnmnnuj 


[above] Reno 

always did feel a little post-apocalyptic 


Fallout managed; the characters 
seemed real, rather than digital. 

After Fallout 2, Interplay 
released Fallout: Tactics. As a 
squad-based-strategy-shooter. 
Tactics was most assuredly not 
your daddy’s Fallout. Interplay 
promisingly described their latest 
title as "a quest to reawaken 
long-dormant technology in 
order to defeat a powerful enemy 
in the one-of-a-kind Fallout 
Universe”, but it did not sell well. 
Tactics lacked the immersive 
quality of its RPC brethren, and 
as a result, was not placed on the 
same pedestal as its ancestors. It 
seemed the age of Fallout was at 
an end; Tactics’ release spoke of 
a stronger focus on throwaway 
action rather than character 
development. 


Buren being abandoned. With 
some anguish, Reynolds reveals 
the extent to which the game had 
reached completion: "Every area 
had a detailed area description 
with character and quest info 
and a general map. Several areas 
- somewhere between three and 
five, about a third or fourth of the 
areas in the game - were almost 
completely finished and were 
just waiting on certain engine 
elements to be built and scripts for 
the creatures. If I recall correctly, 
we were hoping to get the game 
on the store shelves by Christmas 
2004.” 

Reynolds had publicly stated 
that Interplay’s survival would 
be extended by working on titles 
that didn’t need large teams. 
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of 
Steel was thus released to a console 
audience. Reynolds explains that 
this is primarily due to the fact 
that "designing for consoles in 
some ways is easier as you don’t 
have to worry about a hundred 


The story was vastly different to 
that of its forerunner. Rather than 
beginning in ye olde vault, the 
player was chucked smack bang 
into a tribal village called Arroyo, 
and the journey began when 
it became necessary to trace a 
Carden of Eden Creation Kit. 

The player found locations 
both familiar and altogether new. 
Fallout’s original capital city, the 
Hub, was replaced by Vault City 
and its clean-limbed, upstanding, 
true-heart residents. There were, 
of course, conspiracies here and 
there, but the city itself was a 
lot more open and inviting than 
any 0} Fallout’s locales. Overall, 
Fallout 2’s landscape created the 
impression that the human species 
was beginning to re-establish 
civilization. 


How? Well, that’s where the plot 
came in. 

Size was the biggest surprise. 
Fallout 2 was significantly larger 
than the original, and stuffed 
with sparkly characters and 
brilliant side quests. It also 
added a sorely-needed element 
that its predecessor attempted 
to implement but eventually 
abandoned: sidekicks. Sure, it was 
possible to waddle around with 
flabby, lifeless NPCs in the original, 
but you had to micromanage them 
and couldn’t share anything - all 
had to be bought or stolen from 
them. They also weren’t much up 
to conversation. In the sequel, 
this was remedied by introducing 
myriad buddies with whom the 
player could maraud. This gave 
the player a stronger sense of 
immersion in the narrative than 


A HELL OF A VAULT 

Excitement rippled when news 
of Black Isle’s new project 
(codenamed Van Buren) 
circulated. Now, this would have 


FAItS SHOULD f XPECT FALLOUT 3 
TO REMAIN TRUE TO ITS 
PARENTS VERSATILITY 


been a big bag of Ruffles had 
it not been accompanied by 
interesting screenshots. Unless you 
had issues with depth perception, 
they showed an unmistakably 3D 
engine rendering what looked a 
hell of a lot like a vault. 

This was good news. This 
was a glimpse of Fallout 3. 

The bad news? After an 
excruciating wait for Van 
Buren, Interplay declared 

S bankruptcy in 2003. Knowing 
that salary costs would far 
exceed their budget. Black 
Isle decided to dissolve the 
developer. The dissolution 
resulted in all work on Van 


different system configurations. 
Console games tend to be a 
little shorter, too. Because of the 
storage limitations, you can make 
the game in a shorter amount 
of time, and that means smaller 
development costs." 

If Interplay was going to do 
this, it needed money. Big money. 
Interplay had already sold the 
Baldur’s Gate license to Atari. Now, 
it needed to sell Fallout. 

Troika Games and Obsidian 
Entertainment (both developers 
that employed ex-Black Isle vets) 
were the most obvious candidates 
for the Fallout license, but 
Bethesda Softworks won the rights 









(although Interplay keeps the 
rights to produce a Fallout online 
RPC). The news dismayed many, 
who feared their favourite series 
would devolve into "Morrowind 
with guns”, and that the darkly 
comic undertones of Fallout and 
Fallout 2 would be lost. 

Bethesda’s executive producer 
for Fallout 3 and all-round 
iiber-sexy guy, Todd Howard, 
has promised that Fallout 3 will 
retain the gallows humour of its 
predecessors. 

A true Fallout fan, Howard 
loved the two games because they 
"really let me choose to play a 
certain character, and the level of 
immersion was outstanding. I was 
that guy on the screen, wandering 
the wastelands trying to survive 
and helping humanity survive. And 
you could play it so many times 
and in so many different ways. The 
character system and the choices 


its parent’s versatility. 

There are also concerns that 
Bethesda’s love of multi-platform 
games will lead Fallout 3 to be 
simplified so as to comply with the 
mass-market console industry. 
Howard replied by recommending 
that Morrowind should first be 
played on PC, and then on Xbox. 
"Anyone who says a console game 
can’t have depth hasn’t played 
enough of them,’’ he continued. 
"The platform is 100% irrelevant.” 

Reynolds admits that Obsidian 
would have done a good job. 
Nonetheless, he is "reasonably 
optimistic" about Bethesda’s 
handling of Fallout 3 simply because 
he knows they’re doing it out of 
love rather than for money. "The 
Fallout name wasn’t strong enough 
to send copies of Fallout: Tactics and 
Brotherhood of Steel flying off the 
shelves,” he says wryly. 


Bethesda 

handled the Elder Scrolls license 
with infinite tenderness - fans 
loved Morrowind and Daggerfall. 

It seems unreasonable to expect 
that they shouldn’t take the same 
care with Fallout. But have they 
asked Fallout’s creators for any 
advice? Surely Black Isle has some 
part in the game? Well, given 
that Howard has announced that 
all work on Van Buren is to be 
scrapped in production of Fallout 
3, it appears that they’re doing 
it on their own. "I don’t know if 
they’ve talked to anyone from the 
Van Buren team about Van Buren 
or their ideas about the series,” 
Reynolds remarks. "I’m sure the 
execs at Interplay wouldn’t know a 
thing about what made the games 
successful or good.” 

His suggestions for the Fallout 
3 development team? "Follow 
the genre,” he 


[above] Post apocalyptic bling 


RPC, Arcanum, and the recent 
Vampire: The Masquerade 
- Bloodlines) was founded by ex¬ 
members of the original Fallout’s 
development team. 

Not content to let sleeping pups 
lie, Troika has announced that it 
will produce a post-apocalyptic 
RPC of its own. According to 
Boyarsky, the as-yet-untitled 
game is to be played from an 
isometric perspective utilising a 
swank new 3D engine. Boyarsky 
feels that this RPG has not yet 
been picked up by a publisher 
because they’re "looking for 
successful titles in terms of sales 
and not just positive reviews, and 
fantasy genres are favored over 
non-fantasy. Most, if not all, of 
the successful CRPCs have been 



in a fairly narrow category. Being 
original is risky”. Unfortunately, 
since speaking to Boyarsky, Troika 
Games has closed its doors. Let’s 
hope the team can realise their 
post-apocalyptic dream elsewhere. 

Much has changed since 1997, 
when originality won Fallout so 
many accolades. This world of 
wars is conservative. Similarly, 
the gaming market seems to be 
closing the door to innovation 
- games are shorter, and 
most publishers are investing 
money into already prosperous 
franchises. The prognosis for 
unconventional titles ain’t too 
chirpy. But, much like your 
encounter with Francis the super¬ 
mutant, all you can do is hope 
and pray that it’ll all be over soon. 
Hopefully, with Bethesda’s take on 
Black Isle’s revered franchise, we 
may once again see true love for 
games triumph over profit. « 


v - ^ says. "Don’t make 

in-jokes or Monty 
R* Python references. No 

supernatural elements 
- no ghosts, no 
gremlins. Stick closer 
to Fallout than Fallout 
2 for the theme and 
feel of the game. ” 
Whilst gamers may 
dfm £ be disappointed that 
Bethesda has been 
® chosen to carry on 
the Fallout series, the 
ex-Black Isle crew was absolutely 
crushed. Leonard Boyarsky (now 
of Troika Games) admitted - with 
a dash of hyperbole, perhaps 
- that losing the Fallout license 
to Bethesda felt like "someone 
had kicked me in the nuts and 
kidnapped my daughter”. Few 
could argue that his misery was 
unwarranted given that Troika 
(developer of the innovative 


you could make were fantastic.” 
Given that Morrowind (for which 
he was project leader) is certainly 
not lacking in multiple character 
options, fans should expect Fallout 
3 to remain true to 


41 








D-LINK WIRELESS MEDIA 
PLAYER DSM-320 . 


+ 




~r 

RRP: $329 • URL: wvAv.dlink.com.au 


+ 


_ 


- 


bh With a format list that includes 
► >] but is not limited to MP3, JPG, 
XVID, DIVX, MPEG 2 and QuickTime as 
well as running on the latest wireless 
technology, you’d think the DSM- 
320 would be the perfect device for 
download junkies everywhere. With 
the advent of broadband, unlimited 
downloads and large storage devices 
who wouldn’t want to stream all 
that "backed-up” audio, video and 
images straight into their living 
room. But looks and product spec 
sheets as they say can be deceiving 
- almost ridiculously so with D-Link’s 
first foray into the media player 
market with the DSM-320 Wireless 
Media Player. If ever there was a 
product rushed to the market place 
then this is it, but thankfully after 
some downloading, the firmware 
upgrades and new media server 
software actually make this unit a 
very promising if flawed device. 

Yes, the unit is practically 
useless straight out of the box, a 
firmware update (released almost 
three months after its US release) 
is required. Here are some of the 
additions from the latest firmware 


version: ability to change aspect 
ratio of image (say what?), ability to 
select audio and video output (oh so 
that’s what those component plugs 
are for?), fixed video out-of-sync 
issue (you know, so you can watch 
video files) and improved MP3 
playback (so you can listen to more 
than three songs before it crashes). 
It’s a pretty extensive list and it’s 
no wonder the unit was only just 
released here in Australia, because 
if you can’t control the aspect ratio 
and video/audio output signal out 
of the box you’ve got problems. 

But enough bitching, there are 
actually some great things to say 
about the DSM-320. Let me think, 
oh yes, it looks quite sleek and it, 
well it has a nice colourful menu 
- maybe that’s why the unit won so 
many consumer electronic awards. 
Ok, so maybe that’s being too 
harsh because the device does work 
extremely well with certain video 
and audio codecs like MPEG 1, 2, 3 
and DivX. The unit only seems to 
grind to a halt with certain MPEG 
4 and XVID files. The DSM-320 
seems to be quite picky in what it 


wants to play, and even then, play 
without a constant stuttering image. 
But this may partly be due to the 
fact that the XVID codec is open 
source, meaning there are countless 
versions out there, and being the 
codec of choice for downloaded 
media it’s not like the blame can be 
placed on D-Link for its mediocre 
support. But once you know which 
codecs work well and which don’t 
(QuickTime support still hasn’t been 
implemented) a simple re-encoding 
of your problem media files and 
you’re all set to go. 

Regardless, these problems are 
common with most ’Media Center’ 
devices on the market, but with a few 
more firmware updates the DSM-320 
could be the product of choice or at 
the very least actually do everything 
it says it can on the box. Finally, in 
regards to the wireless portion of the 
device a word of warning to those 
without a wireless infrastructure - 
’stick to wired mode. Save yourself the 
anguish, because without the latest 
wireless router or access point you 
won’t get a decent or steady signal. 

Kosta Andreadis 




-h 


+ 


+ 


-f 







42 HYPER» 















TWO BROTHERS. ONE MISSION. 



"Entertaining and 
thought-provoking. 
One of - if not the - 
greatest anime ever, 
Anime Insider 


Brothers Edward and Alphonse are two 
kids with a secret; they practice the 
mysterious science of alchemy. 

Join Ed and AI on their mission to find 
the hidden stone that will amplify their 
powers beyond their wildest dreams! 


5 LUCKY READERS WILL Win 
THIS AMAZinG PRIZE PACK: 
1 x FULL METAL ALCHEMIST VOL 1 DVD 
^^with Collector's Tin 8t Soundtrack 
• 1 x inUYASHA VOL 1 DVD 
* 1 x Madman T-shirt 
10 RUMMERS-UP WILL WIH: 
• FULL METAL ALCHEMIST VOL 1 DVD 

Competition closes 1st April. 2005. 


GAMES Q 

****** ***** ^ .cotn.au 

and leading anime specialists! 


©Target. 



1 


1 






0 



Tekken 5 


The King of Iron Fist returns 






Review Index 


Tekken 5 

Gran Turismo 4 

Splinter Cell: Chaos 
Theory 

Star Wars Republic 
Commando 

SWAT 4 

Playboy: The Mansion 
Cold Fear 

Champions: Return to 
Arms 

Empire Earth II 

Brothers in Arms: Road 
to Hill 30 

Altered Beast 

Otogi 2 

La Pucelle Tactics 

Dead or Alive Ultimate 

Rugby 2005 

Fight Night Round 2 

FIFA Street 

Robots 

MVP Baseball 2005 
WarioWare Touched! 
Sprung 

DK: King of Swing 






Reviews 



Game Theory 

SEAMUS BYRNE 

The Noughties are the new Thirties? 


Games, movies... movies, 
games. The content has 
flowed to and fro since 
the early years of gaming, 
but the games industry 
itself has never looked 
more like the film industry 
than it does right now. 
Sadly, what it's looking 
like is the heavy-handed, 
protectionist regime of the 1930s Hollywood 
studio system. 

At that time, Hollywood was hitting its 
stride. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and 
Sciences had been formed to promote the US 
filmmaking industry and the business of cinema 
was emerging from the silent era to become a 
major force in public entertainment. While the 
industry grew in confidence, the major studios 
moved to protect their interests, looking to 
secure their dominance through contractual 
agreements - agreements with the talent, from 
directors to actors to crew. Sounding much like 
the modern game industry? 

Clearly, the major game publishers are 
the studios of this industry. Their control of 
the talent of this industry - the developers 
and their creative works - allow them to 
choose what the public gets to play and they 
set the tone for what is available on stores 
shelves. Ultimately, this sets the tone for a risk 
averse industry rather than one that delivers 
originality and pushes the boundaries of what 
gaming can offer its audience. Sequels and 
licenses are becoming the staple diet. 

No doubt publishers would like to argue that 
sequels and licenses allow them to support 
more innovative work that may not meet with 
as much financial success. Critics argue the 
publishers have little incentive to be creative. 
Few challenges are genuinely taken on as they 
only detract from the bottom line. 

If we look to the movie industry, it is 
unquestionable that the studio system was 
a help rather than a hindrance for the 


sake of a professional and well organised 
industry. But once that system moved to one 
of protection over advancement, it required 
something separate from the studios to 
shake things up and get things moving 
forward again. In their case, the talent 
finally challenged their contracts as unfair 
and moved the system to one where studios 
bargained with them on a film-by-film basis. 
This combined with the rise of independents 
helped make for a vibrant industry. 

The big fear for the future of independent 
games is the cost of developing a hit title. The 
majors pour tens of millions into a big release, 
so how can the small developers compete? 

Well how did independent filmmakers compete 
with the major studios? By focusing on what 
they do best - staying focused on originality 
and creativity with the budget available. 

Independent gaming, just like indie film, is 
not about the 'event' release like the majors 
are. Indie releases are out there for the long 
haul and it has never been easier to find the 
audience you're looking for - the audience 
will even help spread the word when they 
like what they see! Good games rise above 
the noise and independent developers can be 
rewarded for their efforts without the need for 
a major publisher. Irrational Games, maker of 
Freedom Force, is just one good independent 
developer being rewarded for their highly 
original work. 

Industrial maturity is at a similar stage to 
1930s Hollywood, about thirty years after the 
arrival of the medium itself. It took another 
thirty years for the studio system to break 
down in the film industry and a powerful 
independent cinema to arrive. Interesting 
times may be ahead, but there is no need 
to believe the game world will collapse due 
to big bad publishers. Be optimistic that the 
independents already at work will help keep 
original ideas arriving on our consoles and 
desktops in the years to come - and support 
that work when you can. 



THE HYPER SCORING SYSTEM The Overall Score - what's it all about? 



What went wrong 
here? Pretty much 
everything. Avoid 
like the plague 


50-59 


Avoid like a 
medium level 
plague. Still quite 
dangerous 


60-69 


These games 
have more in 
common with the 
flu. Won't kill you 


70-79 


Playing these will 
make you feel 
content, but a 
little woozy 


80-89 


Like drinking 
from the bountiful 
fountain of 
gaming vitality 



Playing these is 
like striking oil in 
your backyard... 
only better 


HYPER» 45 
















TEKKEN 5 (import review) 

BRYCE MCDONOUGH haha stepped back to Australia to do this review 


■■ When it comes to the 
r/i PlayStation generation, few 
games are as iconic as Tekken. 

Being the definitive fighting game 
on the PSone and an arcade smash 
throughout the mid to late nineties, 
the series has taken somewhat 
of a backseat to Virtua Fighter in 
recent years. Now that the latest 
instalment is ready for our grubby 
little hands, Namco themselves 
must know that this one has to be a 
killer if they intend to reclaim their 
crown atop the 3D fighter heap. And 
in this, Tekken’s 10th anniversary 



[above] Kangaroo Jack hits back at critics 


46 HYPER» 


year, it is only fitting that Tekken 
5 hit homes with a serious punch. 

ANYTHING'S BETTER THAN 
TEKKEN 4 

The key to Tekken’s success has 
always been killer graphics, a 
large roster of cool characters, 
a remarkably intuitive control 
system and, above all, accessible 
gameplay. The previous game 
on PS2 had an incredibly slick 
presentation, however for each 
innovative change to the game or 
its engine, an equally glaring issue 
detracting from the game could be 
found. Memo to Namco: position 
change = good, only one standard 
throw = bad. Walls and terrained 
arenas = evolution, infinite combos 
= broken. However perhaps the 
most unforgivable oversight would 
be Jin and his 'One move to rule 
them all’. A single character who 
is simply unbeatable is always, 
always a bad idea. The good news 
is that Namco read their memos. 


Tekken 5 is very much a return 
to the classic gameplay of Tekken 
3 or Tekken Tag - so much so that 
this game feels a lot more like what 
Tekken 4 ’should’ have been. Where 
Tk4 forced us to slug it out in a 
jab fest, Tks has given us back the 
movement of older Tekkens, with 
up returning as jump and down 
as crouch (Tk4’s sidewalk is still 
available with double taps ala Soul 
Calibur). The position change is 
gone too, which means that more 
attention must be paid to your 
environment in order to avoid being 
cornered. The walls and obstacles 
of Tekken 4 have been simplified 
too, with walls on most arenas (no 
more obstacles) but varied sizes 
and shapes, none of which allow for 
infinites anymore. Also, the inclusion 
of a few infinite arenas has been 
another popular feature among 
old-school fans. What new features 
does the game offer us? Well, the 
two most important are the new 
’crush’ system, and the long-range 














I Every character 


in the aame has the 


throw. The long-range throw is 
exactly as it sounds - input forward 
plus your standard throw command, 
and the reach is truly monstrous. 
This is a much better solution to the 
runaway tactics that dominated TTT, 
allowing the game to flow quickly 
and freely but also making sure 
you have options even when your 
opponent is a turtling biznatch. 

Perhaps the best new feature in 
Tekken 5 is the fantastic ’crush’ 
system. It is not a revolutionary 
new idea - it’s not even new to 
Tekken, however this time around 
it has been incredibly fleshed 
out and sharpened, and made 
an integral part of the game, 
and your game too if you ever 
intend to win (see boxout). 


JACK'S BACK 

The roster this time around is 
definitely worthy of special 
mention. After 20* characters in 
Tekken 2 and 3, then over 30 in 
Tekken Tag, Tekken z/s return to 
just 20 characters was somewhat 
of a letdown. On top of this, many 
old favourites were nowhere to 
be seen, resulting in even more 
disgruntled fans. Not this time 
though, with a complete crew of 30 
characters available. Mere quantity 
alone would never have made us 
happy, but the amount of work that 
has been put into even the most 
novel of characters is great - every 
character in the game has the ability 
to win against any other (though 
some do have to work harder than 
others). Returning faves include 


a genetically modified kangaroo 
from Tk2, an oversized robot who 
was inexplicably absent from Tk^, 
Bruce, the king of Thai Kickboxing, 
and even a jun clone in the guise of 
a new character. Apart from Asuka 
(cute young Japanese girl - but 
aren’t they all? - who plays like jun) 
the two genuinely new characters 
Raven and Feng are simply fantastic. 
Raven is the spitting image of 
Wesley Snipes in the Blade movies 
but for an X-shaped scar which 
dominates his face. His Ninjitsu 
fighting style brings an entire 
new flavour to Tekken, which 
is most welcome. Feng Wei, the 
second new addition, is a Chinese 
Kempo fighter who killed his own 
master and has been travelling 
around China challenging other 
dojos. His fighting style is great to 
watch and he is actually one of the 
strongest characters in the game. 

The arcade version of Tekken 5 
has been floating around arcades 
attracting all sorts of attention for 
several months now, and one of 
the reasons is the customisation 


options we’ve been given. In the 
arcade version, purchasing a small 
credit card sized piece of plastic 
lets you save your customised 
character costume and colours, plus 
it keeps track of your win-loss ratio 
as well. You also improved in rank 
from measly ’Beginner’ right up to 
’Tekken Lord’ which told everyone 
else around just how shit-hot (or 
just shit) you really are. A very nifty 
feature, and one we can enjoy at 
home without the pesky cards. As 
long as your memory card is tucked 
in nicely in slot 1, you can use all the 
gold you amass in Story and Arcade 
mode to deck out your characters 



[up] Making Blood & Bone for the garden 

HYPER» 47 


CRUSHINETICS? The new crush system is quite simple really - crouching 
moves have a crouch-status and jumping moves have a jump-status. Predicting 
your opponent's high move (or a throw for that matter), you can perform a 
high-crush move such as Marshall Law's sweep-kick, which will completely 
dodge the high move every time. Alternatively, your cheap friend dog who does 
nothing but low kicks? Let him try as you hop-kick over it and send him flying. 
This system is excellent for people who want to outsmart, not just out-mash, 
their opponent. Finding out what moves your character has to evade high and 
low, and then using them effectively in a match is such a rewarding feeling you 
are unlikely to ever get sick of it. 

































CHRIS' 


Law and Lee foolishly stray into penguin territory 



[above] Is that PCPP's Yellow Boots? 

as you please. Think Kaz would 
look better in a yellow suit than his 
standard purple? Spend the dosh 
and it’s yours. And colours are only 
one aspect - the list of accessories 
for each character stretches from 
pink sunglasses and a lasso for 
julia to a huge Chinese broadsword 
across Law’s back, a Shaolin shaved 
head for Feng, or even a nurse’s 
cap and giant syringe for Nina. 



[above] Flipping out and killing someone 

The possibilities are as twisted as 
your imagination lets them be, 
although to be honest a whole new 
set of console-only accessories 
would have been a nice inclusion. 
Also, for some reason, the ranking 
system has stayed, but the win- 
percentages are gone, and both of 
these are completely unaffected by 
challenging your friends. Since this 
was simply the best way to enjoy the 


arcade game (Ranking Matches are 
always the most exciting and tense), 
this seems like a pretty strange 
oversight to have been made. 

THE USUAL ARRAY 

So on our Mode Select screen, 
joining ’Customise’, we have 
your usual array of play modes, 
including Story Mode, Arcade 
Mode, Vs, Team Battle, Survival 
and Practice. There is still no online 
mode, though we debate whether 
the PS2 network could actually 
handle Tekken Vs-play online. 
Non-inclusion is better than an 
unplayable version, but with DOA 
Ultimate on the market showing 
it can be done, it seems they may 
need to slot it in for Tekken 6. 

Story Mode replaces the standard 
Arcade mode, giving us each 
character’s background for joining 



the tournament. Like Tk4, the story 
is narrated by a scary man with 
a strange American accent and a 
penchant for overly loud background 
music while anime slides... erm... 
slide across your screen. Some 
of the stories are good, some are 
woefully bad. In general it is nice 
to see this approach being taken 
with the series as we can now learn 
more about our characters as we 
go instead of searching the net and 
finding nothing but weird fan-fics. 

Arcade Mode is NOT a chance 
for you to play through the game 
as you would on your own, but 
is instead a simulation of sitting 
down at the arcade and having a 
succession of people challenging 
you. This is the only mode where you 
can improve your character’s rank 
(and an endless supply of gold for 
your accessories) so you’ll probably 
find yourself spending hours trying 
to work your way through the 
ranks with each of your favourite 
characters -1 know I did. The Al 
in this mode is acceptable, easily 
the best that Tekken has offered 
us so far. Also, all the ’people’ you 
play have real names, and it even 
says what country they are from if 
outside Japan, leading to a slightly 


THE SCENE Tekken is burning its way through coins in arcades all over the 
world at the moment, not only in Japan, but I was also impressed to see how 
solid the local Aussie scene is. So once you put some hours in with the home 
version, go get yourself an 1C card and meet some real players. It'll only cost 
you about $4-5 at most arcades, and the thrill of playing real people is well 
worth the price of admission. Can't find people? Then check out the local sites 
- Arcadepimp.com for Tekken and Ozhadou.net for all fighting games - and 
introduce yourself. 


48 HYPER» 










































Seriously: penguins. They're the Antarctic mafia 




Tekken History contains arcade 
perfect emulations of Tekken 1 -3 


AVAILABLE ON: 


PS2 


DETAILS 


more authentic feeling. It still could 
have been done a lot better though, 
and this particular area of the game 
is where we had our biggest gripes. 

AND IT'S FREE RIGHT? 

An awesome addition though is 
’Tekken History’, which contains 
arcade perfect emulations of Tekkens 
i, 2 and 3, all packed in and as 
fun as they ever were. Considering 
each of these games sold over i 
million units each on the PSone 
console, the inclusion of them 
here free is a bonus for hardcore 
fans and newbies alike. Plus for us 
PAL territories, playing Tekken 3 
at 6ofps will finally be a reality. 

In terms of graphics, Tekken 5 
is as pretty as you could possibly 
expect from a PS2 game. Namco 
has always had an amazing CC 
team, and this game showcases 
their talents with a great intro 
movie and excellent ending movies 
for each character. Some parts of 
the cutscenes in the Story mode 
are done in-engine, and up close 
you can see just how much polish 


there is in the game. The sprites are 
larger than in Tekken Tag though 
not quite as large as Tekken 4, and 
are slightly less cartoony than Tk4 
as well. The arenas are all simply 
fantastic to look at, though the 
final stage can make things a 
little hard to see sometimes. The 
breaking of the ground and walls 
as you crash into them is a little on 
the exaggerated side, but then so 
is everything else about Tekken. 

The sound effects rock, thoroughly 
convincing crunching sounds 
come with every big hit, and the 
soundtrack is much better than 
the muzak we were abused by last 
time and much more in keeping 
with the Tekken atmosphere. 

Tekken was the undisputed King of 
fighting games until Sega went multi¬ 
platform and Virtua Fighter 
ended up battling it out ^ p 
on Sony’s system. Is V. ^ 

Tekken 5 good enough 
to reclaim its former 
glory? The judgement 
here is a resounding 
'Hell yeah!’.« 


CATEGORY: 3D fighter 

PLAYERS: 1 -2 
DEVELOPER: Namco 
PUBLISHER: Sony 
PRICE:STBA 
RATING: TBA 
AVAILABLE: TBA 


HYPER VERDICT 


PLUS: Tekken at its best ever. 
Awesome fighting game engine. 

MINUS: Incomplete Vs mode and 
arcade modes. 


/»RO 



HYPER» 49 



















































GRAN TURISMO 4 


his hands and sings hallelujah in the church of GT 


MARCH STEPNIK raises 

One particular standout 
Gran Turismo 4 moment 
early in the piece is the second 
last International A License Test; a 
one-lap high-speed test drive of the 
German Nurburgring Nordschleife 
course, also affectionately known 
as One Of The Most Challenging 
And Difficult Tracks In The World. 

At 20.8 kilometres long, to earn a 
bronze medal (the minimum pass 
mark in GT4 - don’t even think 
about a gold medal just yet) the 
requirement is simple: complete 
the track in 10 minutes. Snaking 



[above] Hooray for more car captions! 

50 HYPER» 


through three villages and vast 
stretches of gorgeous German 
Schwarzwald scenery, the trick is 
that a single lap of Nurburgring 
consists of 176 turns (of which a 
good proportion are completely 
blind), seemingly innocuous climbs, 
teasing drops and a whole lot of 
uneven, less than pristine road. 

The rule of thumb in this test 
is to remember to brake at the 
turns (easy in, fast out, as they 
say) and to absolutely floor it on 
the straights - of which there are 
also many - and ensure you don’t 
drift off the road. If you do kiss the 
dirt, it’s instant disqualification. 

As you hit speeds close to 
20okph on the straights, with the 
crisp and lush scenery absolutely 
screaming by, you realise that what 
little control you do have of the 
circumstances is at the mercy of 
the track itself; pocks and uneven 
slabs of tarmac threaten to launch 
your car only centimetres into the 
air, snatch you back down again 


and send you into a skid or a spin. 
Your white knuckles clutching the 
controller (or if you’re lucky, the 
beautiful Logitech GT Driving Force 
Pro steering wheel), you’d do well 
to remind yourself to simply relax. 

It’s a race; not against other 
cars but against the clock 
- it’s absolutely exhilarating, 
and absolutely beautiful. 

THE REAL DRIVING 
SIMULATOR. WORD. 

If there’s one crowning achievement 
of Gran Turismo 4 it’s that in many 
respects it’s the most exhilarating 
game in the series. Forget that 
there are over 700 cars (ranging 
from museum pieces to prototype 
concept cars) and 50 tracks to play 
with and on, or that this is the first 
game to use the second layer of a 
console DVD (which isn’t a modest 
call either; things had to be cut 
out of GT4 for it to make it under 
the 8.5GB of data mark). To steal 
a popular marketing sound byte 




[above] Kicking it Sega Rally stylee 



[above] Wilks loves a big rear end 










11 


Hong Kong's neon graffiti lined 
streets make for a fantastic backdrop 


from the hyping of GT4, if you 
were to take each car in the game 
for a spin on every course in the 
game, you’d have to play the game 
over 120 days, 24 hours a day. To 
put it another way, that’s 2, 880 
hours of straight driving - and 
that’s not even touching the other 
modes on offer in the game. 

Nope, Gran Turismo 4 represents a 
more subtle yet significant evolution 
of the series. Even with the new 
modes to play with GT4 is in most 
respects the same game as GT3; 
apart from the plethora of cars 
available and a handful of new 
secondary modes the real change 
has been to the driving itself. For the 
first time since 97’s Gran Turismo 
the driving model has been given 


a major overhaul, and it shows. 

Its subtitle of ’’The Real Driving 
Simulator’’ is an important 
disclaimer to GT4. Although its 
clear Yamauchi and his team at 
Polyphony Digital haven’t set out 
to deliberately trick their loyal 
fanbase, it’s hard not to feel just a 
little cheated by what Gran Turismo 
4 isn’t. It simply isn’t a very good 
racing game. Where other driving 
games since the original GT have 
come and shown just how valuable 
damage modelling is in imparting 
a sense of vulnerability of a vehicle 
over the course of a race (thank you 
V8 Supercars) and the competitive 
spirit given by Al that doesn’t 
behave like cattle (thank you V8, 
again, and Project Gotham Racing 


too), Gran Turismo stubbornly 
clings to its primitive roots. For 
whatever the reason, competitor Al 
still virtually ignores you; you can 
still bump off competitors going 
into a turn, gaining speed and 
position in the process; and you 
still finish the race even after the 
aforementioned silliness with a car 
in pristine condition. You can quite 
happily take short-cuts across the 
dirt of the track without penalty 
too, and the only real result for 
crashing heavily into a barrier is 
the shake of the screen and the loss 
of a few seconds on the lap time. 

Instead, it seems that Polyphony 
Digital has pretty much ignored 
the racing side and focused almost 
exclusively on the driving model, 
pouring an incredible amount of 
detail and polish into it. Nothing 
matches GT4 for its driving engine; 
creating the sensation that you are 
indeed hurtling down a gorgeous 
track at break-neck speeds in a 
machine you’d have to mortgage 
your own house to own. Cars 
seem to react realistically to the 


smallest change in road surface 
and elevation - more so than ever 
before, making for some truly 
immersive driving. This is the 
real magic behind Gran Turismo 
4; something no other driving 
game has really come close to. 

POSEUR 

There have been other changes, of 
course. The most obvious is the front 
end of Gran Turismo mode. Known 
as Motor Resort City, it’s basically 
an expanded version of the GT3’s 
Gran Turismo main screen. Rather 
than a cascading menu system 
coming from the handful of play 
option icons in GT3, Motor Resort 
City breaks things up in a more 
logical and real world manner. With 
a stack of options from the main 
screen - around 40 icons to explore 
- the not-so-subtle hint with Motor 
Resort City is that there’s a helluva 
a lot to do. As for navigation, 
it’s not the nightmare it could 
potentially be; after only basic 
exploration of the screen you’ll be 
instinctively and quickly navigating 


B-SPEC MODE B-Spec mode is driving a car in Gran Turismo without actually 
driving it yourself. Instead, you view the race from either the driving or broadcast 
views and issue commands to the driver Al to win a race. It's selected at the 
beginning of every race, where normally you'd proceed to A-Spec racing mode. 

As a diversion or a preview for a more difficult race, B-Spec mode offers some 
basic value. Apart from placing more relevance on car setup than in A-Spec 
mode races, B-Spec lacks the depth needed to make it a serious alternative to 
the main mode. 

We find its real value to be as a cheating aid; for some easy cash, choose 
an easy race, set the Al and leave the room, returning only to restart the race. 
You'll amass the riches needed for the serious toys in GT4 in no time. 


HYPER» 51 









Yeah, but can you boat stack? We don't think so. 


There is damage modeling you know, we just drive really well 


The bridge over the river Kutaragi 


to the area of your choice. 

From here, it’s Gran Turismo as 
we know it and love it. First it’s the 
license tests, which features one of 
the handiest innovations yet; gone 
is the school mistress narration of 
GT4 Prologue and instead we have 
regular pace-car lap tests. The idea 
is simple - keep up with the pace 
car; follow its line and brake when 
it brakes - and is the most valuable 
and holistic method of teaching 
high-speed driving on difficult 
courses the game has to offer. 

Completing license tests earns 
you access to new courses and 
cars, which you can then take 
and use in regular races where 
a placing will earn you money. 
Money is then spent on upgrading 


your car as well purchasing 
brand new ones, and so on. 

New to the series is the 
questionable B-Spec mode (see the 
boxout for more), and Mission Races 
(which also earn you money on 
successful completion), which play 
more like racing-specific license 
tests. The idea behind Mission Races 
is simple: to cut to the chase and 
put players in tight racing scenarios 
without having to create them 
yourself in the main racing modes. 
Photo mode is pure indulgence, 
however is surprisingly addictive. 
After all, these gorgeous machines 
are designed to be drooled over. 

The new collection of courses are 
also stars in their own right. The 
previously mentioned Nurburgring 


represents one of the most 
challenging and subsequently 
rewarding courses in the game, 
while the city based courses offer 
some gorgeous eye candy. Hong 
Kong’s neon graffiti lined streets 
make for a fantastic backdrop to 
some tight races, as do the New 
York and Paris based events. Other 
favourites include the European 
villages - Citta di Aria and Cote 
d’Azur offer some exceptionally 
thrilling races - where fantastic 
scenery and architecture lining the 
narrow streets impart an incredible 
sense of speed and danger. 

There’s also the new snow and 
ice tracks - which apart from 
offering a fantastic visual change 
from the norm, takes the sliding 



[above] Last minute gaffa tape repoirs 


and drifting nature of rally driving 
and cranks it up a notch or three. 

Of course, there’s a reprise of a 
handful of tracks from earlier GT 
games, albeit with graphical and 
presentational face-lifts. Speaking 
of graphics, GT4 is a clear cut 
above GT3 and a testament not 
only to the power of the PS2 but the 
technical savvy of Polyphony Digital 
in squeezing out such impressive 
visuals. Nothing out there on 
any system comes close to it. 

THE BAD... 

There is one inherent flaw in Gran 
Turismo 4 which makes the lack of 
damage modelling seem trivial. 

It’s race balancing. In a game 
where it’s imperative to buy and 
upgrade your car to win races, 


PHOTO MODE From either replay saves or one of several photo-mode specific locales from 
around the world, happy snaps of your pride and joy can be taken and saved for all to see. 
Except they're not just happy snaps - from viewing angles to all manner of manual camera 
modes there's a surprisingly deep amount of control in the composition of a photo. 

Post-production support is also impressive - photos can be saved onto USB thumbdrives 
as JPEGs and ported to a PC with ease, allowing you to further enhance the images, grace 
your desktop with customised scenes from the game, and print them out at will. You can even 
hook up a USB photo printer - like the Epson Picture Mate we tested - directly to the PS2 for 
immediate high-res prints of your favourite photos. 

Apart from taking the car-worship that underpins the GT series to another level, it's a 
surprisingly addictive diversion. 



52 HYPER» 













Just one of the seventy billion cars in the game 


Insert rally bad pun here *fnaar" 


They're listening to Uptown Girl you know. 


Polyphony has yet to come up with 
a solid solution to the problem of 
car power in races. In Gran Turismo 
4 you're either going to win the 
race by the first three turns or be 
relegated to race trailer in the same 
distance. It’s rare to find a truly 
competitive race; in most cases in 
GT4 it’s a race against yourself. 

Gran Turismo 4 does lessen 
restrictions on types of cars 
allowed in a race, introducing a 
points system based on the level 
of competition faced. The trouble 
is that this system is a tad arcane; 
it’s never clear just which car 
upgrade will propel you into a new 
class altogether, taking you from 
leader of the pack back down to 
dunce in the matter of moments. 

Indeed, the inclusion of the 
aforementioned Mission Races 
and the more thrilling License 
Tests (apart from introducing 
beginners to the more thrilling 
side of the game earlier) seem to 
be an admission on Polyphony’s 
part of the problem in balancing. 
Thrilling license tests and mission 
races are all good and well as 
standalone events, but they’re not 
a substitute for the real thing. 



No other driving game features 
such a perfect learning curve 


PS2 


EEHIB k 


SWEET, SWEET CAR LOVIN' 

Ever since producer Kazunori 
Yamauchi pitched Gran Turismo to 
Sony by saying he wanted to be 
able to drive the TV, Yamuachi has 
succeeded in building a series that 
celebrates the driving of luxury and 
everyday cars in a way no other 
series has. Gran Turismo 4 is the next 
evolutionary step in the series and 
an unreservedly beautiful game. 

Still, it’s far from a complete 
experience. The problems of race 
balance and lack of a robust racing 
model mar an otherwise exceptional 
title. These are compounded by 
the fact that the online mode was 
dropped from GT4 for reasons 
unknown. Its inclusion would have 
been an ample antidote to the 
racing blues, around the online 
clock. As it stands its split-screen, 
same room racing, or Ethernet 
LAN play serve as the ways to 
satiate the real competitive urge. 

These issues can ultimately be 
forgiven due to what GT4 instead 
so near-perfectly does: no other 
driving game features such a perfect 


learning curve that’ll have you 
thinking and talking like a pro in no 
time (although you’ll have to work 
for your successes in GT4, this game 
is absolutely beginner-friendly), 
nor offers such fantastic breadth. 

The ability to discern the difference 
between a 700kg, medium horse¬ 
power leopard of a car and a two- 
tonne tank on the race track is deeply 
rewarding. Being able to complete 
a course in an 8okph top-speed 
consumer car first then a 38okph 
super car second, where the road side 
screams past you so fast as to almost 
cause nausea, is simply thrilling. 

Still, we look forward to where 
Polyphonic Digital will take us with 
the next in the series. Gran Turismo 
5: The Real Driving and Racing 
Simulator? Now that would 
indeed be something 
really special. As 
it stands, Gran 
Turismo 4 is 
an essential 
experience for 
car enthusiasts 
until then.« 



C*- - 
> aio •© . 

* v^b***-» 

>R07 


CATEGORY: Driving 

PLAYERS: 1 -6 (LAN) 

DEVELOPER: Polyphony Digital 
PUBLISHER: Sony Computer 
Entertainment 

PRICE: S 99.95 
RATING: G 

PLUS: Stylish and mossive, fantastic 
driving model, so many cars & tracks. 

MINUS: Rccing elements are 
incomplete and lacking, no online. 


GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

93 85 92 


OVERALL 

90 


It's Gran Turismo taken up 
another level. Enough said. 


HYPER» 53 

















SPLINTER CELL: Chaos Theory 

ED DAWSON is a member of the Mandelbrot Set 


As our latest Tom Clancy title 
begins, Japan’s leadership is 
defying the looming gaze of hostile 
neighbours by creating a new branch 
of its military, the Information Self- 
Defence-Force (l-SDF). This triggers 
the ire of nearby governments 
who claim the move contravenes 
Japan’s post-WWII pacifist 
constitution, which prevents the 
creation of a military force capable 
of striking beyond its borders. 

KOREAN FOOD 

This diplomatic protest suddenly 
escalates. A Chinese cruiser and a 
North Korean destroyer aggressively 



blockade the Korea Strait, boarding 
a Japanese cargo ship and taking 
the crew hostage. This act is 
rationalised as a legitimate response 
to the potential or perceived 
remilitarisation of Japan. Tensions 
are rising, electronic warfare in 
the region is reaching fever pitch 
and the USA decides to lend 
some surreptitious assistance to 
their Japanese friends - the USS 
Walsh, a ship decked out with 
communications spying equipment 
and the cauliflower-eared but 
deadly Sam Fisher on board. 

The first thing you’ll likely notice 
about this new Splinter Cell game 
is the obvious graphical overhaul. 
Sam himself has never looked so 
good, while his environment just 
drips with finely rendered details 
that all add to the already heavy 
atmosphere of the game. Bump 
mapping and per-pixel shading, 
among other enhancements, bring 
new polish and shine to the Splinter 
Cell world, which was otherwise 


beginning to look a little tired. 

The name Chaos Theory refers 
to the mathematical method 
of finding order in seemingly 
random systems, that is often 
summarised in the possibility of a 
butterfly’s flapping wings creating 
a typhoon on the other side of 
the world, through an escalation 
of wind energy - created by a 
freakish combination of random 
interactions in the atmosphere. 

In this case, the flapping butterfly 
is a genius computer engineer called 
Bruce Morgenholt, who finds trouble 
in Peru, captured by a separatist 
group called "The People’s Voice". 

As the information Morgenholt 
has inside his head could 
compromise UN military systems, 
our butterfly has the potential of 
sparking a nuclear conflict - so 
the best of the best - that is, Sam 
Fisher, is sent in to save him. 

Good ’ol Sam is back in black 
again, putting on the freaky 
three-dot night vision goggles 



[above] Sam wanted to be Oshi... 


and doing his usual tricks of silent 
insertion, scaling walls, snapping 
necks, climbing on the plumbing 
and playing tricky games with 
gee-whiz spy-tech gadgets. 

Your now requisite Splinter Cell 
tools are at hand, such as heat- 
vision, night-vision, EMF vision 
and sticky cameras. Sam can 
split-jump in corridors, that old 
trick where you climb a narrow 
area by maintaining pressure on 
opposing walls with your feet. 

There is some good interface 
streamlining going on, such as the 
"interact" button which launches a 
context-sensitive menu - allowing 
you to crawl into spaces, grab 
enemies, lock, bash or spy through 
doors, sometimes carrying out 
one-time or mission-unique actions 



54 HYPER» 











He could so take a dump on his head... hehehe 


11 


You end up feverishly whispering 
and hissing orders and warnings 


that help break up the monotony. 
Crabbing an enemy, you can now 
interrogate them - often resulting 
in a short and darkly humourous 
conversation between Sam and 
the panicking enemy. You’ll often 
get key information this way. 

Stealth in Chaos Theory is the 
usual spectacular Splinter Cell 
affair, shooting out lights and 
throwing empty bottles to create 
diversions, with lively brightness 
and stealth indicators - showing 
you exactly how sneaky you’re 
being and whether you’re likely 
to evade your foes. You can even 
use your own voice with the Xbox 
communicator to make a sound 
to attract a guard - as long as 
it isn’t too loud, which would 
allow him to zero right onto you. 
This is a very cool feature and a 
tricky little exercise in controlling 
the volume of your own voice, 


that is surprisingly entertaining. 

It’s especially fun if you make 
whimsical insults a part of your 
distraction process, leading to 
a guard’s snapped spine. 

JUICY CARAMEL FOOD 

There are many good improvements, 
but the really juicy caramel icing 
on the Chaos Theory cake is the 
outstanding new co-op mode, 
which adds to the already engaging 
and asymmetrical multiplayer 
modes introduced in Pandora 
Tomorrow. You can play through 
the single-player campaign as a 
two-man team using brilliant new 
’’theatre sports” kind of features 
such as acrobatically throwing your 
teammate, dangling from his hands, 


using him as a human ladder or 
playing the decoy to set up a stealth 
kill, which are all excellent additions 
to the game. Countering your 
new abilities, these environments 
will challenge you with certain 
simultaneous actions you need 
to perform, such as needing to 
both access retinal scanners at 
the same time. These team-based 
objectives really spice things up. 

Naturally, you’ll want to 
constantly communicate with your 
teammate to keep things tight, 
but your raised voices project 
into the environment - and will 
attract the guards! So of course, 
you end up feverishly whispering 
and hissing orders and warnings 
to each other. This dynamic is 
unique to this game and it all adds 
to the atmosphere and tension. 
There’s even a simplified on-screen 
communication system, allowing 
the communicator-challenged to 
achieve the complex simultaneous 
co-op goals, which can be 
tough. Luckily, the Quicksave 
option is never far away. << 


AVAILABLE ON: 


PS2 / XBOX / PC / GCN 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: Stealth Action 

PLAYERS: 1 4 

DEVELOPER: Ubisoft Montreal 

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft 
PRICE: S 99.95 
RATING: Ml 5 + 

AVAILABLE: TBA 


HYPER VERDICT: 


PLUS: Visually striking, great co-op 
mode, smart evolution of the series. 


MINUS: No quantum leaps in core 
game design. 


VISUALS 

SOUND 

GAME PLAY 

91 

87 

84 


OVERALL 


89 

Classic S.C. with some cool 
incremental improvements. 


MULTIPLAYER EVOLUTION The gamble Ubisoft Montreal took with 
the complex multiplayer mode included in Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow 
has paid off in spades. Thanks to that quirky mode which pitched two very 
different teams against each other, blunt Argus Mercenaries and Sam Fisher's 
Shadownet Spies, multiplayer is now established as a key feature of the future 
Splinter Cell landscape. In this title, the multiplayer modes are fleshed out to the 
max, supporting co-op and versus via Split Screen, System Link and online. 


HYPER» 55 










































STAR WARS: REPUBLIC COMMANDO 

DANIEL WILKS wants to give Republic Commando Suvunty Sux 


When you think Star Wars, 
people invariably think of 
the same few things, Darth Vader, 
Lightsabers, Yoda, Wookiees, X- 
Wings and how much Jar-Jar Binks 
sucks. Probably the last thing that 
springs to mind is New Zealand. 
That’s set to change with the release 
of Star Wars: Republic Commando. 
There is a simple reason for this. 

As we all know from Episode 2: 
Attack of the Really Bad Film Titles, 
Republic clone troopers are copies 
of the famous and deadly bounty 
hunter Jango Fett, played by the 
great Maori actor Temuera Morrison. 
As the commander of a squad of 
elite Republic Commandos, you 
the player not only get to play 
Temuera Morrison, complete with 
NZ accent but also lead three other 
Temuera Morrisons drawn from an 
entire army of Temuera Morrisons. 

GET 'EM DED 

Strangely enough even though all 
of the units of your elite squad are 


clones of Jango Fett they each have 
their own distinct personality and 
way of speaking. Unfortunately, 
for the most part this inappropriate 
character is all that shines through 
in what is otherwise a rather 
formulaic first person shooter. Before 
going any further I will state for the 
record that SW: RC isn’t a bad game. 
It’s quite fun, it’s just nothing new 
in any way, shape or form. As the 
squad of Commandos, players are 
sent on three rather short campaigns 
and battle enemies including 
never ending waves of droids as 
well as the insect like Ceonosians. 
Although the player is given a 
limited amount of control over the 
Commandos in your squad the name 
of the game is action, not tactics. 
Every level is similar in design 
with players having to make their 
way through long linear corridors 
shooting hordes of respawning 
and stupid enemies to get to a 
specific location to either hack a 
computer or blow something up. 



[old territory] They're no Metal Mickey 


To try and distance itself from 
its contemporaries, Republic 
Commando introduces a slight 
tactical spin on the formula 
by giving the player limited, 
context sensitive control of your 
squadmates. Each of your three 
comrades in arms has a single area 
of expertise - blowing stuff up, 
hacking and sniping. Depending 
on where the crosshairs are 
positioned the player can give 
simple commands to one of the 
three. Place the crosshairs over a 
Bacta Tank (health station) and 



[groan] He's having a HUD time seeing 


give the order and the most injured 
member of the party will heal 
themselves, place the crosshairs 
over something that needs to 
be blowed up real good and 
the explosives expert will get to 
work. For the most part the squad 
Al is decent with them shooting 
the things that need to be shot, 
but occasionally they will lapse 
into a pit of stupidity doing such 
brilliant things as standing in the 
middle of a room whilst a battle 
rages around them, walking into 
your line of fire and a personal 



56 HYPER» 





m A press release we saw (from Iasi 
year) states that the game is set 
• • • from Episode I and into Episode 
II... but considering the clone army wasn't 
created until midway through Episode II 
- we think they may be a little confused. 


A scene from Republic Commando 2: Electric Boogaloo 


11 


The developers have decided to 
make death nigh on impossible 


favourite, trying to take out heavy 
combat droids hand-to-hand. 

The biggest disappointment in 
Republic Commando is the lackluster 
and unbalanced weapons. Players 
will have the opportunity to find 
the usual assortment of shotguns, 
blasters, sniper rifles and the like 
but aside from the standard blaster 
not too many of them will be getting 
a workout. They lack punch. 

Interestingly the developers 
have decided to make death 
nigh on impossible in Republic 
Commando. If one of your 
squadmates falls in battle one of 
the other members of the team 
will revive them after the battle. 
Likewise the main character doesn’t 
die when they run out of health, 
they instead fall unconscious until 


they are revived by the team. 

The only time players actually 
die is when all four members of 
the elite squad are taken down. 

This doesn’t happen too often. 
Whilst it is nice not to have to 
rely on quicksave and quickload 
to make your way through the 
game the lack of any real threat 
takes away the true challenge. 

EDUTAINMENT BE DAMNED 

Republic Commando is a decent 
looking game but quickly becomes 
rather monotonous after you’ve 
trekked through your first few levels 
of corridor/tunnel - there’s only so 


many times you can see the same 
piece of machinery, texture or pile 
of rubble before becoming a little 
blase. It is also one of the least 
Starwarsy looking Star Wars games 
to have come along (aside from the 
edutainment titles that just tack Star 
Wars onto a spelling or maths quiz). 

Aside from the jarring NZ 
accents, Republic Commando 
is a great sounding game - the 
soundtrack switches from gritty 
and militaristic to more familiar 
refrains with ease and always 
serves to suck the player into the 
world. As I said in the header, I 
would really like to give Star Wars: 
Republic Commando 76 for a score, 
mostly because it’s funny when 
you say it with a NZ accent but 
also because at heart, Republic 
Commando isn’t a bad game. It’s 
fun and distracting and not too 
hard on the eye. Unfortunately it’s 
also lazy and short and contains an 
obviously tacked on multiplayer 
element. Ultimately a score of 70 
may not sound as funny but it’s a 
fair assessment of the game. << 


rAVJi 

XBOX / PC 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: FPS 
PLAYERS: 1-16 
DEVELOPER: LucosArts 
PUBLISHER: LucosArts 
PRICE: S89.95 
RATING: Ml 5 + 
AVAILABLE: Now 


PLUS: Star Wars, Temuera Morrison, 
simple tactics. 

MINUS: Dull weapons, dull 
multiplayer, short. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

81 89 72 

OVERALL 

70 

Easily the least Staruiarsy 
Star UJars game. 


PLAYING WITH FRIENDS As is common with basically every PC shooter 
nowadays. Republic Commando comes bundled with a multiplayer compo¬ 
nent, which is, to put it bluntly, terrible. Multiplayer contains four game modes 
- Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch (arguably the same thing), Capture the Flag 
and Assault but all of them come across as being nothing more than a last 
minute inclusion to keep up with the Jones'. All of the game modes play as you 
would expect with the dull and unbalanced weaponry, aside from Assault. Don't 
get too excited and think that the mode is like Assault from UT with progressive 
objectives and vehicles - it's simply another version of CTF where you need to 
bring your flag to the enemy base instead of their flag to yours. 


HYPER» 57 





















SWAT 4 

KOSTA ANDREADIS shouts "hands in the air, douche bag" 


Sometimes one wonders 
what the cut-off point is for 
situations where regular police just 
won’t cut it and you need to call in a 
SWAT team. The situation would have 
to be pretty serious and well above a 
domestic noise pollution call. "Hello 
SWAT? Yes, my neighbour’s playing 
his stereo way too loud. And being 
late on a Sunday night coupled 
with the fact that I’ve got work 
tomorrow, well, you can see how that 
would cause a slight kafuffle in my 
planned evening of sleep.” "Hostage 
situation? No, nothing like that, do 
you think you can maybe just go 
over there and place an explosive 
charge on his stereo and maybe 
use some C2 gas on his loud mouth 
wife?’’ "Hello, SWAT? You there!?’’ 

SWAT: MIAMI 

SWAT, an acronym for Special 
Weapons and Tactics, are special 
units of the policing force (in the 
United States) called in to defuse 
delicate crisis and turmoil situations 


- because sometimes, even the cops 
have to call 911. Please note that 
delicious 911 line is from the poster 
to the 2003 Hollywood blockbuster 
film SWAT starring LL Cool j and the 
lesser known Samuel L. Jackson. 
Someone seriously needs to tell Wilks 
to be a little more discriminatory 
in the posters he decides to adorn 
his walls and thankfully, this game 
has nothing to do with that film. 
Instead it’s the latest instalment in 
a long running and very successful 
franchise from Sierra, which began 
as a spin-off to their popular Police 
Quest series. With the same heavy 
focus on realistic law enforcement 
and engagement the Quest series 
was known for. this time the focus 
was on engagement, and SWAT 
4 remains true to its original 
roots. This is a game with a firm 
grounding in reality as it provides 
numerous scenarios whereby the 
piayer controls an elite SWAT 
unit in an attempt to defuse each 
situation using real tactics and 


codes of conduct. So the objective 
is to restore the peace, and when 
the most trigger happy of you 
out there would like to hear "by 
any means necessary” the reality 
is shooting the bad guy in this 
game is a last resort - as missions 
themselves can be tackled with 
non-lethal 'bean-bag’ weaponry. 

At a glance the game looks 
somewhat similar to the numerous 
Tom Clancy inspired tactical shooters 
on the market; that is your Rainbow 
Sixes and Ghost Recons - the very 
same shooters that Tom Clancy 
himself has never actually played. 
However, what separates this title 
from the rest is a clear focus on 
keeping things simple without the 
need to dumb down the tactical 
aspect. So the learning curve here 
is very slight, controlling your four 
man unit (divided into red and blue 
groups) is never a chore. Issuing 
commands is context sensitive, so 
if you see a door up ahead simply 
select your command from a pop up 




58 HYPER» 


























The new, more militant brand of Fat Camp 


Is there any Other weapon? 


11 


The variety and detail that has gone 
into each scenario is commendable 


menu. You can issue commands to 
your entire team or the individual 
groups and if they get split up you're 
only a keystroke away from bringing 
up a picture-in-picture display of 
each member's viewpoint. It's all 
very simple to control and in no time 
at all you’ll be mirroring under doors, 
gassing rooms, clearing stairwells 
and restraining both civilians and 
perps. A nice touch which also 
incorporates the PIP interface is the 
inclusion of sniper support which 
you can control at regular intervals 
to neutralise mission objectives 
(i.e. kill fellow human beings). 

BREACH & CLEAR DOUCHE BAG 

Set in New York, SWAT’s career mode 
follows a scenario based approach 
where each mission represents a 
potential situation where a SWAT 
team may be called. From an arms 
deal at an Asian restaurant, to 
a hostage situation from a bank 
robbery gone badly, to neutralising 
a serial killer at his place of residence 
- the variety and detail that has gone 
into each scenario is commendable. 
And using the latest Unreal engine 
the visuals of SWAT 4 are certainly 
nothing to sneeze at in the detail 
department. In particular the serial 


killer scenario is exceptionally well 
thought out and executed, and 
instantly conjures up imagery from 
films like Silence of the Lambs and 
Seven, except this time the SWAT 
unit doesn’t get blown up in a 
tragic case of the serial killer being 
one step ahead of the law. In this 
scenario players must also restrain 
the killer’s deranged mother. You’ll 
find that she refuses to comply with 
your orders leaving you no option 
but to either pull out the pepper 
spray or better yet, the taser. Players 
will find that each criminal and 
civilian will act uniquely and both 
will need to be restrained in order 


for the mission to be a success. 

With the exceptional detail in 
the variety of locations on offer 
it’s unfortunate that this had a 
detrimental cost on environmental 
interaction. Apart from blowing 
open doors and using corners and 
doorways as cover there is very 
little differentiation in the overall 
set of tactics employed, and no 
emphasis on using the physical 
environment to your advantage. 

In the end the outcome will rely 
more on your entry strategy, 
caution taken and intelligent 
squad command than making use 
of your unique surroundings. << 


WE NEED TO CO-OPERATE Apart from the standard multiplayer fare 
that plays out like a confined Counter Strike, players also have the option of 
playing each of the career scenarios with a real squad of players. The co-op 
mode changes the gameplay dramatically as players will need to work as a 
squad, clear rooms correctly, and work together in the very strictest sense of the 
phrase. !n order for that to work there can only be one leader, which means 
the other players will have to follow their every order. Yeah right! Best suited to 
a LAN setting, this aspect of the game works extremely well at creating verbal 
abuse amongst players, and coupled with the custom mission editor adds quite 
considerably to the play experience. 


AVAILABLE ON:^ 


PC 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: Tactical FPS 
PLAYERS: 1 -Multi 
DEVELOPER: Irrational Gomes 
PUBLISHER: Sierra/Vivendi Universal 
PRICE: S 89.95 
RATING: MAI 5+ 

AVAILABLE: Now 


HYPER VERDICT 




PLUS: Intuitive command interface, 
varied tactical scenarios, wedges. 


MINUS: Static Environments, not 
enough use of the words "douche bag". 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

88 80 88 


OVERALL 



A fine entry in this long 
running series. 


HYPER» 59 



































PLAYBOY: 

CAM SHEA finally gets to 

Okay, so I missed out on going 
to the Playboy Mansion during 
last year’s E3. I haven’t missed much 
sleep over it, although it certainly 
would have been interesting to 
have a mental picture of it all to 
compare to this game. Or maybe 
it wouldn’t. After all, in Playboy: 

The Mansion, you’re not a visitor 
to the mansion, you play Hef. And 
although you’re following the rise of 
the Playboy empire, you’re making 
all the decisions yourself: who to 
hire and fire, who to put on the 
cover, what articles to commission 



[above] A little doll, you soy? 


The Mansion 

go to the mansion... 

and run, who you’re going to 
interview, what decorations you 
want in the grotto, and so on. 

MELONS! MELONS FOR SALE! 

As a concept, it sounds like a 
decent idea. Take The Sims, simplify 
the gameplay and inject a whole 
lot of partying, sex and stars. 
Unfortunately though, the end result 
is a game that’s definitely on the 
dull side. Without the complexity of 
interactions and time management 
focus of The Sims, the life of the 
ultimate Playboy just isn’t as 
interesting as you may have hoped. 

The game kicks off with Hef in his 
mansion and Playboy magazine just 
a sparkle in his eye. You’ll need to 
set up an office, hire a journalist and 
photographer, and sweet talk some 
pretty young thing into posing for 
the first cover. Each issue requires 
certain things - a cover shot, a 
centerfold, a pictorial, an essay, an 
interview and an article. The greater 
the star power of the people involved 



[up] Hef obviously has a lot on his plote 


in the content, the more draw the 
issue will have, but you’ll also need to 
consider the demographic that you’re 
aiming for. The areas to consider are 
TV/movies, sports, arts/lit, humour, 
fashion, music, politics, sexuality and 
tech/toys. If one of these areas is of 
particular interest to your audience 
you can focus on it, but you’ll have 
to find the right person to deliver 
the most compelling content. 

A huge range of people are at 
your fingertips, either to hire as 
staff or to invite to parties (although 
you won’t be able to invite the big 
stars until you’re more established). 
Each individual you meet has icons 
indicating their likes and dislikes, 
meters indicating physique (very 
important for Bunnies), intellect 
and charm, and of course, stats 



[below] Hef boils the disco bus 



[below] From air hockey to tongue hockey 




60 HYPER» 

















11 


This is a game that's all about 
mixing business with pleasure 



^ Blast through the burn and ride the zone 


relative to you and relative to their 
mood/goals. This is a game that’s all 
about mixing business with pleasure 
and increasing your profile, so social 
networking (ie clicking through 
conversations with guests) certainly 
comprises most of the gameplay, 
with the vast majority of magazine 
decisions being very simple choices. 


HEF HATES DEADLINES 

If it’s all sounding like there’s a lot 
to consider, well, there is and there 
isn’t. Simultaneously a strength and 
weakness is the fact that you can 
pay as much or as little attention 
to stats and the like as you want. In 
fact, it’s very easy to cruise through 
on auto pilot, holding parties and 
schmoozing the people you need 
to in order to generate content. 
There’s rarely much pressure on you 
either - just get the magazine done 
when you’re good and ready, and 
hold parties that go on until you’ve 
achieved your objectives. The only 
elements that indicate that time is 


ticking by is the day/night cycle 
and regular bills/wages to pay. 

That said, if you take the time 
to read the manual and engineer 
your social gatherings and content 
a little more, as well as spending 
more time altering the mansion 
and its decor, you’ll get more out 
of the game... although you’ll have 
to fight with the interface to do so 
- finding information you need just 
isn’t as intuitive as in The Sims. 

Despite the shortcomings of the 
game, there’s still perverse pleasure 
to be had in the way it rapidly 
escalates. Once you’ve got a few 
issues out the door, you will have 
quite a few staff members, a whole 
host of friends in your Inner Circle, 
several girlfriends and the ability to 
call on huge numbers of celebrities 
and guests when you want to hold 
a party. If mindless conversation 
path mining doesn’t bother you 
too much, there’s enough to like 
about Playboy to make it worth 
checking out. just don’t expect it 
to be titillating - the photo shoots 
are highly anti-climactic.« 


AVAILABLE ON: 


PS2 / XBOX / PC 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: Sim 
PLAYERS: 1 

DEVELOPER: Cyberlore Studios 

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft 

PRICE: S79.95 (console), $69.95 (PC) 

RATING: MA 15 + 

AVAILABLE: Now 


HYPER VERDICT: 


PLUS: Amusing sex animations, easy 
to pick up. 

MINUS: Simplistic and can be a little 
dull to play. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

75 80 73 

OVERALL 

74 

A mixed journey to the land 
either side of the silicon volley. 


TALKING SHIZZLE Conversations are broken up into three broad categories 
when talking to women - casual, business and romantic, each with a bar indicating 
how you're faring in that category, while for men only the first two categories are 
available. Of course as you talk, extra conversation options open up, from smoking 
cigars through to doing the nasty on the nearest piece of furniture. 

Whilst this is certainly a game about networking and having vast numbers of 
people as friends and lovers, it does mean that you can go from not knowing 
someone to having sex on the couch within a matter of minutes. Similarly, 
becoming best friends with a rock star is just a matter of having enough 
patience to click conversation icons a few times. 


HYPER» 61 












































COLD FEAR 

STEPHEN FARRELLY doesn't get sea sick 


Having taken control of the 
espionage market through 
their Tom Clancy titles, Ubisoft has 
opted to move into a re-energised 
genre in Survival Horror. Hot off 
the heels of one of this year’s most 
important games, Resident Evil 
4, Cold Fear pays much homage 
to the genre and its standout 
achievements and successfully 
takes more than a leaf from the 
action triumphs of the recent RE4. 

From the outset, Cold Fear’s 
setting is desperate; an incident 
aboard a Russian whaling rig in 
the Bering Sea brings the attention 
of the US Coast Guard, however, 
the first team sent aboard is wiped 
out almost instantly with no 
findings or explanation present. 
The only thing to do is dispatch a 
single Coastal Guard (obviously) 
to do what an entire team was 
incapable of, thus our protagonist, 
one Tom Hansen, is dropped on 
deck and the game begins. 


IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM 

The first thing to pay attention 
to in Cold Fear is the ferocious 
environment. Not only are you 
out at sea with a storm crashing 
around you, but the rig you’re 
on is anything but a stationary 
hub; instead, what you’re treated 
to - without warning - is an 
environment constantly tipping 
left and right and up and down, 
all while dangerously coated in 
water, fallen electrical cables, debris 
and spot fires - threat is instantly 
portentous, and we haven’t even 
come across any enemies yet. 

The grandeur of this chaos is in 
its visual presentation: Cold Fear is 
damn pretty, and violently active 
thanks to the mixed marriage of the 
game’s environments. On the one 
hand, the disruptive sea and storm 
erupting around you represents a 
live, organic presence, while on the 
other, the cold, unforgiving nature 
of the steel barge you’re alone 
and outnumbered on represents 



[fog joke] Running into an N64 game... 


a deathly embrace of solitude 
and trepidation. The dual nature 
of life and death is constantly 
around you, and you won’t soon 
forget the desperation of your 
deadly situation thanks to this. 

Moving Mr. Hansen around 
reveals a hybrid camera system 
that employs the old Resident 
Evil trickery of cheeky camera 
positioning and the action stylings 
of Resident Evil 4, however, unlike 
RE4, Cold Fear allows you to move 
and strafe while aiming, an aspect 
of the game that flows through 
to a greater emphasis on action 
over atmosphere and anxiety. 
Though this idea is invigorating, 
it is detrimental to the horror 
aspect of the game in that much 
of the desperation is lacking as 



[above] Thankfully he's not part of G-Unit 



[above] Electrocution, Texas style! 


you can always be prepared for 
anything. In fact, it’s entirely 
possible to move through the 
whole game in the ’action’ camera 
rather than the ’horror’ camera 
- an initiative that may or not be 
welcomed by punters, depending 
on what you want out of the title. 

The story, like most survival 



62 HYPER» 








HA It's entirely possible to lure your 
WM unsusoectina foes into danaer 


horror games, revolves around 
illegal experimentation, shady 
pasts, underhanded partnerships 
and screwed-up, grotesque 
monsters. Though it’s all come 
before, there is a fair amount of 
intrigue to be enjoyed throughout 
Cold Fear as the information you’re 
handed is at a slow and steady pace, 
and major events definitely drive 
the game forward, though they’re 
hardly groundbreaking in the grand 
scheme of brilliant story-telling. 

The basic idea is that a parasite 
known as ’’Exocel” has been allowed 
to host with humans, which has 
resulted in a zombie-like state for 
said hosts, and naturally the order of 
the day is to behead these symbiotic 
life forms and deal with the uber- 
zombies that are invariably waiting 
for you further along in the game. 


METROID ADVANCEMENT 

While uncovering the story at hand 
is enjoyable, it’s very easy to get 
lost on the ship, which can be 
frustrating - especially given that 
Darkworks has employed a Metroid 
idea of advancement in that many 
doors and walkways will not be 
readily available to you from the 
get-go (which makes sense given 
that most of the game takes place 
on one vessel). Remembering which 
key is for what door and so on can 
get annoying, and it’s just enough 
to derail the game’s pace and flow. 

Moreover, though the 
environments are beautifully crafted, 
the enemies and their animations, in¬ 


game cutscenes, and certain sound 
effects just aren’t up to scratch. 

Firing your vast array of weapons 
just doesn’t sound convincing, while 
the aiming system is a little off and 
the hit points for enemies is too low, 
which is all a huge let down given 
the time and care taken with setting 
up the immediate atmosphere. 

The big plus for Cold Fear 
though, is the implementation of 
environmental traps. It’s entirely 
possible to lure your unsuspecting 
foes into danger, be it a pool of 
water you can electrify, gas pipes 
you can vent or oil barrels you can 
explode. You can even lure them 
off the side of the ship when it 
violently dips one way or another. 

Cold Fear is an enjoyable third- 
person action experience and 
the horror element keeps things 
engaging, however, too much 
emphasis on the former keeps the 
latter from being what it could 
have been - there’s potential in the 
franchise and Cold Fear is a good 
beginning, but if you had to choose, 
it’s Resident Evil 4, hands down. << 


PS2 / XBOX / PC 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: Survivol Horror 

PLAYERS:1 

DEVELOPER: Darkworks 
PUBLISHER: Ubisoft 
PRICE: $99.95 
RATING: MA15 + 
AVAILABLE: Now 


ll^iViMhik 

PLUS: Wonderful environments, 
interesting plot, traps. 

MINUS: Too much emphasis on 
action, weapon sounds too weak. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

87 84 80 

OVERALL 

81 

A good leftfield entrant in the 
Survival Horror genre. 


WHERE IS BENNETT? Former Next Media employee 
Bennett Ring has been missing for some weeks, however, 
we soon discovered his position at Next was just another 
one of his "cover jobs'. It turns out he works for the CIA 
and has recently been seen trying to uncover the mysteries 
found within the Bering Sea on a particular Russian 
whaling vessel. At the time of going to print, Bennett 
"Benton" Ring (or should we say "Jason Bennett"?) wasn't 
available for comment • he is in fact, presumed dead. 



HYPER» 63 





























m Just so you know, the story picks up after 
the Champions have shattered the god 
• • • Innoruuk's body into the Shards of Hate. 

The god's followers are gathering the shards in the 
hopes they can resurrect him. It's up to you to stop (or 
help) them. Sounds like an excuse for combat to me... 


0 , Points Remaining 


CHAMPIONS: Return to Arms 


DANIEL WILKS loves a 

Return to Arms is a definite 
case of "if it ain’t broke, don’t 
fix it”. The original Champions of 
Norrath was probably the most 
successful of the action RPCs to be 
released on console as it did away 
with the pretence of being much 
of a roleplaying game and instead 
focused all of its energies on making 
the game experience both beautiful 
and action packed. Instead of a 
story, Norrath had an excuse for 
the action. Return to Arms follows 
that trend with an infectious charm, 
with each of the levels essentially 
having one major conceit to drive 
the action and little in the way of 


bit of hack 'n' slash 

plot otherwise. The Champions 
saga owes a lot more to Gauntlet 
than it does to the game to which 
it is most frequently compared, 
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. 

SLIGHTLY TWEAKED 

Set soon after the events of the first 
game, Return to Arms sees the player 
hewing their way across a number of 
different planes of existence to stop 
(or aid) the big bad. Gameplay has 
only been slightly tweaked from the 
first game with online play being 
fixed and the inclusion of two new 
playable character classes, the feline 
Vah Shir Berserker and the lizard-like 
Iskar Shaman. If anything these two 
new characters look better than the 
characters returning from the original 
game but they play much like the 
Warrior and Cleric respectively. One 
other minor change that will be 
a welcome respite for Champions 
veterans is that enemies seem to drop 
fewer items but more gold so you 
don’t have to spend all your time 


heading back to town to sell your ill- 
gotten loot. Players can also choose 
their allegiances early in the game, 
siding either with good or evil but 
this choice is by and large cosmetic, 
not affecting the game aside from 
a few rare unique alignment based 
missions. Otherwise you’ll find 
yourself fighting through the same 
level with the same objectives, 
albeit in a good or evil way. 

Champions still looks great 
with excellent character models 
and animations, highly detailed 
equipment, brilliant surface textures 
and the strangely thick water that 
flows like custard. Unfortunately 
anyone who played the first game will 
not find anything new to look at as the 
levels, though planar in design follow 
the formula of the original - there’s 
still a water level, a lava level, a big 
old sky dungeon, a musty castle and 
the like. The overall effect gives the 
player the impression that Return to 
Arms is just an expansion pack rather 
than a fully-fledged sequel. << 


PS2 

ESEElk. 

CATEGORY: Action/RPG 

PLAYERS: 1-4 

DEVELOPER: Snowblind Studios 

PUBLISHER: Sony 
PRICE: S99.95 
RATING: Ml 5+ 

AVAILABLE: Now 


PLUS: Addictive button mashing, 
looks good, less filling. 

MINUS: Samey. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

86 78 78 

OVERALL 

76 

It ain't broke but it ain’t 
enough either. 




64 HYPER» 























LIVE BY THE SWORD 


developed by 

snSwbiind 

stuai< 


£ 




matm 

KW 


> #• 


7 races & 7 classes to choose from, 
including Vah Shir Berserker and Iksar Shaman 
Thousands of arms, items and artifacts tb acqui 


Cooperative or competitive plav lor up to 
4 players online or offline with ftfuititap. 
Over 50 areas to explore and Conquer. 


t PlayStation P 


11 net plrm 


RETURN TO ARMS 


< i f 




U0I5OFT 


www.championsgame.net 


4b 

M15+ 

MEDIUM LEVEL 
ANIMATED VIOLENCE 


S«E 


SONY ONUNE 

ENTERTAINMENT 


PlayStation $ 2 

| PLAYABLE ON LINE | 














It's snow picnic out there that's for sure 


EMPIRE EARTH II 

KOSTA ANDREADIS is an imperial warhorse 


Saying that all strategy 
games are primarily about 
conquest may sound like a broad 
generalisation, but it’s hard to 
argue otherwise. Empire Earth II is 
no different; this is a strategy game 
steeped in conquest, both imperial 
and economic, and apart from being 
the sequel to a rather impressive 
Age of Empires inspired RTS game it 
also comes packing an impressive 
checklist of streamlined features 
and implementations. That said, the 
claim of ’innovative new features’ 
that has been bandied around 
in the leadup to release is a little 
misleading. You’re still in charge of a 
civilisation, building up their military 
forces and/or economy in order 
to defeat a rival played out from a 
top-down isometric perspective. 

ISOMETRASTIC! 

Almost every strategy game employs 
the same top-down perspective, 
giving most gamers the impression 
that the genre is static when in 


fact it’s constantly evolving. To 
put it bluntly the additions in EE II 
do not take the genre in bold new 
directions - this is evolution, where 
gameplay concepts are streamlined 
and established ideas are expanded 
upon. For example, take the game’s 
Citizen Manager which allows you 
to distribute your citizens to the 
various resource gathering tasks 
and construction from one simple 
interface. Then there’s the War 
Planner, which allows you to use a full 
screen map to plan attack strategies 
and paths and share them with your 
allies. Oh, and the real-time weather 
system that has a direct effect on both 
your civilisation and your war efforts. 
That’s not to forget the game’s 15 
civilisations ranging from Aztecs to 
Americans, with hundreds of distinct 
units and structures. All these new 
implementations and expansions are 
fantastic and add up to an experience 
that is well worth the time invested. 

Much like its predecessor Empire 
Earth II spans thousands of years of 


history divided into epochs, where 
each epoch covers a specific time 
period ranging from the Stone Age 
to the mid 21st century. So over 
the course of the game players can 
expect to have both spear throwers 
and advanced military robots at 
their disposal - which is a nice 
touch. The single player campaign 
is divided into 15 scenarios covering 
each epoch and covers a human 
history not unlike the one seen in the 
classic TV series Sliders - whereby 
the Aztecs weren’t conquered by the 
Spanish but instead flourished well 
into the 20th century. An impressive 
level of detail has gone into each 
of the different epochs and the 
differentiation between the various 
civilisations (which all help add to 
the numerous multiplayer modes on 
offer). Empire Earth II doesn’t break 
the mould, it simply reshapes it and 
the end result is a rewarding strategy 
gaming experience with plenty 
of depth - and there really isn’t 
much more you could ask for. « 


AVAILABLE ON: 


PC 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: RTS 
PLAYERS: 1-Multi 
DEVELOPER: Mad Doc 
PUBLISHER: Vivendi Universal 
PRICE: S 89.95 
RATING: M15 + 

AVAILABLE: April 28 


HYPER VERDICT: 


PLUS: Diplomacy & economic control 
without taking the focus off combat. 

MINUS: Epoch system is very restrictive 
in the single player campaign. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 


82 78 86 



Rewording strategy gome that 
builds on o winning formula. 



66 HYPER» 



















REUIEUI 



(in hick voice) "We're a-goin' deer huntin' right pa?" 




4 jn M 


zfg 


Where's Winters when you need him? 


BROTHERS IN ARMS: Road to Hill 30 

CAM SHEA wonders if Mark Knopfler is unlockable 


Up until now WWII-based 
first person shooters have 
largely been about the spectacle of 
the experience, with the explosions 
all around and the intensity of 
wartime obfuscating the fact that 
the gameplay itself is still largely 
run and gun. Even though you often 
play as part of a squad, the linear 
and scripted nature of the games 
has taken most of the strategy out 
of our hands. That’s not necessarily 
a bad thing, but we’re glad that a 
game like Brothers in Arms has come 
along to offer a little more strategic 
depth to the WWII experience. 

BAND OF BROTHERS IN ARMS 

You play as Sergeant Matt Baker, a 
squad leader in the 101st Airborne 
Paratrooper division. The first 
mission in the game sees you and 
your squad dropping into Normandy 
on D Day, and over the course of 
the eight day invasion, you’ll go to 
hell and back - or more specifically 
17 missions, through St. Come-du- 


Mont, into Carentan and eventually 
Hill 30. The missions are actually 
based on real battlefields, with maps 
that have been put together based 
on aerial reconnaissance images, 
photos and eye witness accounts. 

Brothers in Arms is very focused on 
telling a story about a relatively small 
group of men, and making you care 
whether they live or die. To that end, 
mission headers are minimal with 
introspective dialogue from Baker 
and there’s plenty of chatter between 
squad mates going into missions. 

Starting out with a couple of men 
to manage, it’s not long before 
you’re in charge of a full fire team 
and assault team. You’ll quickly learn 
how to move your men into position 
and lay down suppressing fire, 
enabling you to flank for a low risk 
kill. Another important inclusion is 
the ability to switch to an aerial view 
of the map, allowing you to check 
out the enemy positions and look 
for lines from which to flank them. 

As you gain more men, maps get 


a little more open and complex, 
and on the whole the gameplay 
has more in common with FSW than 
any other WWII game, only you’re 
actually doing the shooting. 

It all adds up to a completely 
different feel compared to any 
other WWII FPS. You’re constantly 
advancing from cover to cover, using 
suppressing fire and out maneuvering 
the opposition. A consequence of this 
is that battles feel less overwhelming 
as there are less men on the map, 
but you’ll be so immersed in gaining 
position and taking out the enemy 
positions that you won’t care. 

The only real issues we’ve found 
are that enemy soldiers sometimes 
have a mystical ability to detect 
that you’re creeping up on them, 
and invisible walls occasionally 
prevent you from trying more 
radical strategies. They’re hardly 
game breaking elements though 
- just minor annoyances that fade in 
comparison to all the things there are 
to like about Brothers in Arms.« 


immure 

PS2 / XBOX / PC 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: 1st person tactical shooter 
PLAYERS: 1-Multi 
DEVELOPER: Gearbox Software 

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft 

PRICE: S99.95 PS2/Xbox, S89.95 PC 

RATING: MAI 5 + 

AVAILABLE: Now 


unEsnm*. 

PLUS: More strategy than any other 
WWII FPS. 

MINUS: Can feel a little samey after 
a while. 


GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

86 86 87 

OVERALL 

87 

fl great new addition to the 
UJUIII FPS genre. 



HYPER » 67 





















m For old schoold 

Altered Beast, eBay 
# • # is your friend... 


The demon that's summoned every time a bad game is made 


Umm, Frank, you still have your watch on 


ALTERED BEAST 

rose coloured glasses in disgust 


FRANK DRY rips off his 

Back in the days when we did 
the things and the Megadrive 
was King (or Queen if you were a 
Nintendo fan) there was a fun little 
game called Altered Beast that 
allowed the player to live out their 
wildest fantasies of side-scrolling 
across various levels, changing into 
a monstrous form and dishing out 
a healthy dose of 16-bit carnage. 
Altered Beast was not a great game 
but it did keep your attention and 
distract you from the fact that 
you didn’t buy the far superior 
simultaneous release that had 
something to do with a speedy 
hedgehog. This is not that game. 

GETTING YOUR $$$ WORTH 

The new Altered Beast is a cliche 
wrapped in stereotype, wrapped 
in a formula. Players take the role 
of a formerly dead special ops guy 
brought back to life by a shady 
operation using an even shadier 
pseudo-science in the form of the 
Genome Chip, a little bit of circuitry 


that allows you to implant different 
forms you can later shapechange 
into. Naturally your memory is a 
little hazy allowing for frequent 
expositrons which inorganically 
feed you the next bit of the story. 
Finally the helicopter you were being 
transported in has crashed in evil 
mutant land of doom, scattering 
your Genome Chips necessitating 
you kill everything you encounter 
to find them to get your forms back 
so you can complete the puzzles so 
you can escape from the evil mutant 
land of doom so you can take the 
disc out of your PS2, put it in the 
microwave, watch the ensuing pretty 
light show and feel you may have 
almost gotten your money’s worth. 

Altered Beast is all about two 
things - killing monsters and 
changing forms. At least the latter is 
competent. Combat follows a simple 
two button mashing system familiar 
to those who have played Devil 
May Cry, Otogi, Blood Will Tell and 
countless others but they all have 


something in common that makes 
their combat work - the combat looks 
spectacular and you can lock on to 
an enemy. Not so in Altered Beast. 
Combat is samey and lacks any sense 
of excitement and your inability to 
lock means that most of the combat 
will be spent simply mashing buttons 
in the hope that some of the enemies 
will be stupid enough to get in your 
way. They are. The shapechanging 
on the other hand at least looks fairly 
cool, if gratuitously gory. Throughout 
the game the player can find and 
utilise multiple forms including the 
Werewolf, Yeti, Raptor, Fishman 
(not Eliot) and others. Each of these 
forms have unique skills that can 
be upgraded RPG style and need to 
be utilised to complete the various 
levels and puzzles. Unfortunately 
the combat remains as simple as it 
is in human form, just easier for the 
most part. It seems as though most 
of the effort in the game went into 
the pointlessly gory FMV that plays 
every time you change shape. « 


rAWMfllk 

PS2 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: Action 
PLAYERS: 1 
DEVELOPER: Sego 
PUBLISHER: Sego 
PRICE: $79.95 
RATING: MAI 5+ 
AVAILABLE: Now 


iiiiimmak 

PLUS: It's not a remake of a worse 
game, looks OK. 

MINUS: The game. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

79 71 56 

OVERALL 

48 

flll-Turd Beast would be a 
more appropriate title. 



68 HYPER» 





































REVIEW 



m Frorn Software also developed 
Lost Kingdoms and Armoured 
# # • Core. Excitement She Wrote! 


.The bartender's bemused, and asks if it bothers him. 


OTOGI 2 

A game that's almost as pretty as DANIEL WILKS... 

COME INTO PLAY 


There may be many games 
in the third person action 
canon but there are few as good 
looking as those in the Otogi series. 
The second installment begins just 
after the events of the first game 
with the immortal samurai Raikoh 
once again asleep in his sword 
waiting for the world to need him 
again. Need him it does, but this 
time around the threat is so great 
that five other immortal warriors 
are needed to help. Otogi 2 features 
fewer stages than the original game 
but the complexity of them means 
that veteran Otogi players should 
still be able to get a solid 15-20 
hours of fun from the title. Instead 
of simply launching into a mission, 
players are forced to choose which 
immortal hero they will try to tackle 
the level with, a choice that plays an 
important tactical role in Otogi 2, as 
the same character cannot be chosen 
immediately after being played, 
and some characters are better 
suited to certain levels than others. 


Combat remains essentially the 
same as it was in the first game 
with a light and heavy attack and 
simple combos combining the 
two as well as a magical attack 
capable of doing massive damage 
or other effects depending on the 
character. Although the combat 
mechanic remains similar across 
all of the characters, each have 
their individual strengths that 
will often come into play. Raikoh 
is a balanced character but the 
objective may be more easily 
achieved with a character who 
can glide, throw monsters or 
can string together devastating 
combos. It’s your choice. 

The visuals once again retain the 
same strangely dreamlike quality 
of the original with slightly hazy 
outlines and diffuse lighting. All of 
the levels also contain huge amounts 
of deformable objects that can be 
broken using the heavy attack. The 
debris from terrain combined with 


the clouds of sparks thrown up by 
defeated enemies can sometimes 
be a little disorienting but only 
serve to further the dreamlike, 
surreal quality of the game. 

Character models for the main 
characters are outstanding. Raikoh 
looks much like we remember him 
but some of the other generals 
are triumphs of design meeting 
mythology - Suetake, for example, 
appears to be a living, animate tree 
stump with the ability to glide and 
wields a weapon that resembles 
the wheel of a ship. Unfortunately 
the graphical splendour comes at 
a cost. Otogi 2 throws around the 
particle effects with gay abandon, 
which leads to fairly frequent 
bouts of slowdown. None of the 
slowdown we encountered was 
game killing but it was definitely 
frustrating. Soundtrack, effects 
and voice acting are nearly on par 
with the graphics. Now if only the 
gameplay were as good we would 
have a truly spectacular game. << 



CATEGORY: Action 
PLAYERS: 1 

DEVELOPER: From Software 

PUBLISHER: THQ 

PRICE: S79.95 
RATING: TBA 
AVAILABLE: Now 


HYPER VERDICT: 


PLUS: Looks amazing, sounds great, 
cool playable characters. 

MINUS: Slowdown, a little repetitive. 


GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

89 90 81 

OVERALL 

82 

Lightweight but gorgeous. 



HYPER» 69 



















V 


Culotte 1 

(2?£e 

E53 


EES- 




LA PUCELLE: TACTICS 

DANIEL WILKS used to fight for the other side 


Nippon Ichi is a strange little 
development house but thank 
god they exist. Without them the 
turn-based strategy genre may as 
well curl up its toes and die. Sure 
there are great turn-based games 
such as Advance Wars, Fire Emblem 
and Final Fantasy Tactics but these 
are more of an oddity than a solid 
output. Nippon Ichi, on the other 
hand have blessed the gaming world 
with Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, 
Phantom Brave and now La Pucelle: 
Tactics, all within the space of 12 
or so months. What is even more 
amazing than their steady output 
of turn-based strategy is that all 
of them have been remarkably 
different experiences with the 
only common threads being the 
turn-based nature and the fact 
that they are an absolute hoot. 

SNE5 IS THE NEW PS2 

You could be forgiven for mistaking 
La Pucelle for a SNES game when 
you first see it. The graphics are 


entirely 2D and low resolution, 
and animations are kept to a 
minimum. This approach, while 
a little alienating at first actually 
adds to the charm of the game - it 
looks retro enough to be cute but 
not to the point where it becomes 
distracting. Players follow the story 
of Prier and Culotte, a brother and 
sister team who work for a militant 
arm of the Church of La Pucelle 
and their teacher/mentor/guide/ 
probation officer Alouette whose job 
it is to scour the land and protect it 
from evil. After the first few hours of 
play you may think that La Pucelle 
is a fairly lightweight kids game as 
far as plot is concerned but stick 
with it - for such a cartoony and 
sweet natured looking game, La 
Pucelle has a remarkably dark and 
adult story to tell about corruption 
in the church, the fallibility of 
the human will, lust, betrayal 
and murder. Unfortunately the 
cutscenes in which this story is 
told are often about five times 


longer than they need to be, 
contain ridiculous amounts of slow 
moving ellipsis speech bubbles and 
pauses and cannot be skipped. 

Battle is the major focus of La 
Pucelle, with players opposing the 
forces of evil over a huge number 
of missions on isometric maps. 

Each of the three main characters 
has a specific set of skills learned 
through leveling up but also have 
access to the Purify skill. This 
skill forms the crux of the game. 
Purification has two purposes. 

The first and most overt is to clear 
maps of spawn points for creatures 
and create damaging lines of 
force. Each map is dotted with a 
number of portals with lines of 
energy emanating from them. 

Each of the portals will spawn a 
new enemy after a set number of 
rounds and their corresponding 
lines of energy have a different 
effect when the portal is purified. 
Through careful positioning of units 
it’s possibly to aim these lines of 




[above] The only Petit Viking EVER 



70 HYPER» 










































OH, Holy Goddess Poitreene 
Sorry 'bout that! 

There. I'm done. 


Enewy Character! 


This is the place. They said they 
saw the zombies here. 


Eringer 

jShroom $$$ 


sCfc? ofiaoo 


Element 


m This is definitely a game for the 
hardcore console strategy nuts. 

• • • Phantom Brave is more accessible. 


Exhibit A: yet more shroom love from Japanese developers I Not pictured: all the other drugs Nippon Ichi are on I Let me guess, it's an ancient Indian burial ground right? 


11 


Most enemies can be converted to 
your side by purifying them 


force at enemy units to do damage 
from a range. If the player can 
position troops in such a way that 
they can form an unbroken line of 
force around enemy troops it can 
cause massive amounts of damage 
to anything within the border. 

The other use for Purify is far 
more vital to winning La Pucelle. 
Most enemies in the game can be 
converted to join your side by first 
purifying them until you’re told 
they will join your side and then 
defeating them in battle. Players 
can have a maximum of eight 
troops at one time but can summon 
reinforcements if one troop falls so 
it’s useful to have as large a retinue 
as possible. All units gain XP from 
battle in skills determined by what 
equipment they have. Purified units 
also need to be trained between 


fights to shape the way in which 
they will gain XP. The names and 
locations in La Pucelle sound French 
for the most part but the training 
is pure Japanese weirdness - some 
of our training options include Foot 
Massage (for loyalty) and Stab 
(to improve their toughness). To 
power up items you can also send 
higher level Purified creatures into 
the Nether Realms. The back of the 
box claims that La Pucelle contains 
ioo + hours of gaming to finish. This 
does not seem to be an idle boast. 

LAUGH IT UP HAIRBALL 

The design of La Pucelle can best be 
described as quaint. The characters 


are obviously anime inspired. 

The monsters on the other hand 
are pure strangeness, including 
such greats as a cardboard box 
with a gremlin in it or balls of 
hair (created through an evil 
hair growth serum) that have the 
ability to turn you into a hairball 
for a set number of rounds. Some 
of the boss monsters are actually 
strangely affecting on an emotional 
level, such as a giant crying land 
whale thingy. Unfortunately 
whilst the voice acting is quite 
decent the rest of the sound 
stays true to the retro roots of 
La Pucelle and can get quite 
annoying after a short while. « 


MURDER FOR FUN AND PROFIT To gain the most XP, treasure and 
the best items, players will have to make frequent ventures into the bowels of 
hell to fight the toughest monsters. The easiest way to do this is to murder your 
own characters. You read that right - the best way into hell is to murder your 
own units. Once you've done this a few times on a map the threshold of dark 
energies should be reached and a portal to hell should be opened. Be warned, 
the nether realms are tough as buggery and the only way you can get out is to 
make it all the way through so you may want to wait until you're a decent level 
before making your first attempt. 



PS2 


CATEGORY: Strategy 
PLAYERS: 1 

DEVELOPER: Nippon Ichi 

PUBLISHER: Mastiff 
PRICE: STBA 
RATING: TBA 
AVAILABLE: TBA 


PLUS: Great strategy, nice voice 
acting, addictive. 

MINUS: Interminably long and boring 
cutscenes, huge difficulty curve. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

61 71 89 

OVERALL 

84 

Great strategy with a steep 
difficulty curve. 


HYPER» 71 












































Not quite what he had in mind when he suggested a threesome 


Hey, they should make a volleyball game or something 


DEAD OR ALIVE: Ultimate 


DANIEL WILKS gets his stick out 


The DOA series has a long 
history dating back nearly 
ten years but during that time it has 
always been overshadowed by its 
contemporaries such as Virtua Fighter 
and Tekken. It’s a pity that the only 
real attention that DOA has received 
had been more about the incredible 
graphics than the solid fighting 
engine because the series is one 
of the most user friendly technical 
fighters around, offering new players 
an easy in to the genre and seasoned 
fighters a great technical engine. 

SKIMPY SCHOOLGIRLS 

Dead or Alive: Ultimate is not a 
new game. What it is in fact is a 
combination of the original Saturn 
DOA and DOA 2, significantly 
reworked. The original DOA is 
a pleasant diversion but not 
something you’ll be spending too 
much time on. DOA 2: Ultimate, 
on the other hand is a marvel, 
both in looks and playability. Each 
character has access to around 


70 moves including counters 
and throws as well as a wealth of 
unlockable costumes. Fan service 
is obviously one of the priorities in 
Ultimate as evidenced by the sheer 
number of outfits available for the 
female characters with some having 
up to 20 to discover and include 
such fan favourites as schoolgirl 
uniforms and skimpy bikinis. 

The most significant inclusion in 
DOA: Ultimate is the fact that it is 
online enabled and it works great. 
There is surprisingly little lag in the 
online play making it a pleasant 
surprise, and there is a great deal of 
satisfaction to be had challenging 
people online so don’t be surprised 
if Ultimate becomes a runaway 
success. The other significant change 
to the game is that the levels are 
even more multi-tiered than before. 
Where it was possible to knock 
people from the occasional ledge 
in the previous DOA games, DOA: 
Ultimate offers multiple points of 
interaction in each stage including 



knockoff points, special throw 
locations and breakable objects. 

It’s impossible to review a DOA 
game without drooling over the 
amazing graphics and Ultimate is 
no exception. The graphics, to put 
it bluntly, are some of the best to be 
seen on the Xbox. Fighter models are 
brilliantly detailed and animations 
are superb. As mentioned earlier, 
all levels now have multiple areas 
of interaction and are, like the 
fighters, wonderfully detailed. Keep 
your eye out foT the final boss as 
he has one of the most spectacular 
moves ever displayed in a fighting 
game, in which he stamps his 
foot and creates a shockwave that 
changes the season of the level. 

It’s a breathtaking effect to top 
off a breathtaking game. << 



AVAILABLE ON 


k 

XBOX 


DETAILS: 


CATEGORY: Fighting 
PLAYERS: 1-2 
DEVELOPER: Team Ninja 

PUBLISHER: Tecmo 
PRICE: S99.95 
RATING: M15 + 
AVAILABLE: Now 


HYPER VERDICT: 


PLUS: Looks amazing, tons of 
unlockable content, online fighting. 

MINUS: Cheating game. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

94 87 88 

OVERALL 

88 

The best DOB yet. 


72 HYPER» 





























? > 


REUIEUI 



m The sound and commentary 
is top notch, with well known 
• • • personalities lending their tongue 
to give this game an authentic sounding 
experience. As is always the case however, 
these can become grating and oddly 
placed but the engrossing nature of the 
gameplay ensures you will rarely notice. 


RUGBY 2005 

Does ROLAND FLANAGAN give EA a mauling? 


Welcome to Rugby almost 
done right. For this year’s 
instalment EA have really stepped 
up a notch. For starters, Rugby 2005 
is far more visually appealing than 
its predecessors, thanks partially 
to the same technology that drives 
EA’s FIFA and NHL franchises being 
utilised, so the blocky mish-mash 
of past games can be forgotten. 

COCO THE MONKEY? 

Replacing the stock standard 
Play-Doh models of yesteryear 
are nicely rendered players from 
around the globe, from George 
Smith to Roc-a-Coco. No longer do 
scrums form with players’ heads 
inserted halfway up their mate’s 
arse. Tackling is thankfully rectified 
to no longer be a slow, two man 
wrestling match, whilst a quick 
passing game is rewarded with 
open space and room to run. 

Whilst FIFA rewarded the player 
for using the basic controls, Rugby 
2005 requires the special moves such 


as dummy pass, step and palm to 
be used on a regular basis in order 
to move the ball down the field at 
a noticeable rate. Speed is one of 
the biggest criticisms that can be 
thrown at this game. Fans of the 
sport know that Rugby can be a 
very fast paced game, but Rugby 
2005 insists on a slow progression 
where the benefits of numerous 
phases of control often result in you 
losing ground instead of gaining. 

Whilst FIFA and NHL protected the 
player from making silly passes by 
always passing to a player when the 
basic pass button is pressed, Rugby 
2005 seems to find more pleasure 
from you passing into an empty hole 
and a race ensuing between yourself 
and the computer. The controls for 
Rugby leave a lot to be desired, 
struggling to switch from offensive 
to defensive modes. Too often do 
you find yourself stuck trying to 
tackle when instead you want to 
add more men to the ruck or maul. 

And this is where having a 


friend handy helps. Kick into 
some two player and the playing 
field suddenly becomes level 
- my glitches become our glitches, 
your control difficulties become 
our control difficulties. This is 
where Rugby 2005 comes to its 
peak - this is a great game to 
hang out and play with a mate. 
Co-op is also good fun as with 
some basic understanding of 
each others playing style, cross 
field and grubber kicks can be 
used with lethal efficiency to 
out manoeuvre the computer. 

Sadly, the fact remains that Rugby 
Union is a game that has never 
transitioned to the console in a form 
that will satisfy purists. With fiddly 
controls and problems that plague 
the FIFA and NHL franchises glaringly 
prominent, Rugby 2005 falls short 
of the heights that other EA titles 
have given their fans. But this is a 
huge step in the right direction, 
and a tribute to EA’s commitment 
to its sporting stranglehold. << 


PS2 / XBOX / PC 


CATEGORY: Sports 
PLAYERS: 1-Multi 
DEVELOPER: EA Canada 
PUBLISHER: EA 

PRICE: S89.95 (console), S69.95 (PC) 

RATING: G 
AVAILABLE: Now 


HYPER VERDICT: 


PLUS: Looks amazing, sounds great, 
great playable characters. 

MINUS: Slowdown, a little repetitive. 


GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

83 90 78 




HYPER» 73 

























m As mentioned in news last issue, the 
GCN version of the game includes 
• • • Super Punch-Out!! os an uniockable! 


FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 2 

DANIEL WILKS takes Clubber Hong to the top, again 


AVAILABLE ON: 


PS2 / XBOX GCN 


CATEGORY: Boxing 


■■ When Fight Night first 
wll appeared in our office around 
12 months ago we were blown away 
with the fact that we liked, nay, 
loved a boxing game. Until that 
time there was no other boxing 
game for us other than Super 
Punch-Out!! on SNES. Now comes 
Fight Night Round 2, a significant 
reworking of the earlier title that 
improves on the boxing action and 
adds a host of new features, such 
as haymakers, cutmen, gear that 
improves stats and online play that 
make it the best boxing game ever. 


RING HOOCHIES 

Round 2 utilises the same control 
methodology as the original game 
with all attacks keyed to the right 
analogue stick but the subtlety 
and responsiveness of the control 
has been significantly improved. 
Now instead of simply having jabs, 
hooks and uppercuts available, 
players can execute devastating 
haymakers by taking a normal 


attack and winding up before 
execution. When these attacks 
connect the results are, for want 
of a better word, devastating. 

The right stick is sensitive enough 
now that it can be used to feint by 
lightly tapping in a direction and 
the enemy Al is responsive enough 
to move to counter, enabling 
quick and tactical players to create 
openings for a damaging combo. 

Unlike the original game, 
uniockable content such as new gear 
and Ting attendees now actually 
have an effect on gameplay instead 
of being simple cosmetic. New 
shoes can add to your fighter’s 
speed, foul guards to your body 
and the like. Ring girls psyche 
your fighter up and allow them to 
recover stamina faster and ring 
effects allow you to get up after a 
knockdown more easily. Players 
can also employ cutmen and 
other injury professionals to help 
with healing between rounds. If 
players are serious about stemming 


blood or taking down swelling 
they can also play a mini game in 
which they need to keel a white 
bar inside a moving target area. 

Graphically Fight Night Round 
2 leaves the original game in 
the dust. Character models are 
extremely detailed, sometimes 
to grotesque effect. Every punch 
leaves a mark in Round 2 so you’ll 
be treated to sights of swollen eyes, 
split lips, weeping cuts and noses 
being broken. The create-a-fighter 
function gives unprecedented 
control over fighter appearance and 
ranks second only to Tiger Woods for 
customisation. Sound is effective, 
if somewhat flat aside from the 
knockout replays where 
everything is slowed 
down and punches 
sound like Howitzers. 

If EA continues to 
bring out a new Fight 
Night every year 
we can’t wait to see 
what’s coming next. << 


PLAYERS: 1-2 
DEVELOPER: EA 
PUBLISHER: EA 

PRICE: $ 89.95 
RATING: Ml 5 + 
AVAILABLE: Now 


Tt ? .M* r L 

Pro: 


PLUS: Tight controls, awesomely 
customisable, brutal. 

MINUS: Cheating game, brutal. 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

91 84 91 


OVERALL 

90 


The best boxing gome around. 


74 HYPER» 























FIFA STREET 


MVP BASEBALL 2005 ROBOTS 


Following on from Urban Freestyle Soccer 
and Sega Soccer Slam before that, FIFA Street 
is EA Big’s attempt at turning the beautiful game 
into an arcade experience. Based loosely on the 
type of five-a-side street football played in parks 
and on courts across the world, the focus here is 
on footballing tricks. The roulettes, can-cans and 
flip-flops that feature so heavily in Nike ads take 
centre stage and performing them is as easy as 
flicking the right analogue stick (or 'trick stick’ as 
EA would have it) in any direction. Linking tricks 
and keeping the ball airbourne builds the combo 
meter, making shots on goal harder to stop. The 
result is Hollywood football - the ball bounces 
wildly from player to player with little thought to 
tactics and enough showboating to make Cristiano 
Ronaldo blush, before crashing anti-climactically 
into the back of the net. It’s crass, simplistic and 
flashy, but at the same time quite fun. 

Being an EA game, FIFA Street has a ridiculously 
high level of sheen on its production - a legion of 
real-life players, decent graphics with a great replay 
system to show of the mo-capped tricks, a fitting 
soundtrack and an annoying guest MC providing 
colour commentary (with a pretty good ’Blau!’ in 
his repertoire to boot). It’s a pity the gameplay is so 
terribly shallow, but watching Thierry Henry trick his 
way past two defenders then back-heel a scorcher 
into the top comer tends to make you forget that. 
Which is what EA is counting on, I’m guessing. To fill 
in the blanks for FIFA Street 2, maybe the developers 
might introduce a keepy-uppy minigame like the 
hackey-sack event in California Carnes? 

Malcolm Campbell 


To coincide with the start of the U.S. baseball 
season comes the latest release of the MVP 
Baseball series. This year’s title, like in previous 
years, features loads of new additions and 
improvements. If, like Homer Simpson, your dream 
is to own your own sports team, welcome to the 
Owner Mode. While it’s no Football Manager in 
terms of depth, this mode lets you control nearly 
all aspects of managing a ball team. Players start 
off by building a ballpark and then with the money 
in the budget, you buy upgrades and concession 
stands for the stadium. To begin with it’ll be hard 
to make any serious money, as everything you 
make will have to be put back into upgrades. 

Another new addition is the pitching and batting 
mini-games. The pitching game involves throwing 
the correct pitch at the appropriate coloured block, 
more points are gained by knocking off groups of 
coloured blocks. The batting game is pretty much 
hitting the ball where the computer tells you to, 
hitting objects on the field picks up extra points. 
The points gained from these games can be used 
to unlock old school uniforms, legends of the game 
and ballparks of the past. 

The improved player animation creates a more 
realistic interpretation of the game, which in 
turn makes it more enjoyable to play. While not a 
complete overhaul from last year’s version, MVP 
Baseball 2005 adds several tweaks such as batter 
movement and an improved pitching meter, that 
now makes throwing the perfect pitch that much 
harder, and satisfying, making it a worthwhile 
purchase for fans of the game. 

Amos "retired" Hong 


Robots is the latest platformer to be based 
on an animated film license, and is quite 
obviously aimed at a younger demographic 
than we usually cater for here at Hyper. That 
said, this doesn’t make it a bad game, and 
we’ve had enough fun during our time with it to 
make a review worthwhile. In fact, for the littlies 
there is quite a bit to recommend. Whilst not 
nearly as flash as the film, Robots is a pleasant 
looking game with well designed and animated 
characters and some nice, if somewhat drab robot 
city environments. 

Gameplay revolves around Rodney 
Copperbottom, our robotic boy hero progressing 
from level to level completing various NPC given 
tasks to unlock the next area. Most of the tasks 
take the form of collecting a number of set objects 
in a time limit and returning them to the NPC 
who gave the quest in the first place. It’s fun, 
in a simple way with elementary combat and 
puzzle solving, kind of like a Fischer Price My 
First Ratchet 6 Clank. Unfortunately, even though 
the game is based on the film license the actual 
film content in the game is quite low - after 
completing a level the player is rewarded by a 
short clip but for some odd reason (presumably 
due to license restrictions) none of the original 
dialogue is played, instead a narrator will give 
a brief overview of what has just happened 
and what is to come. There’s nothing overtly 
bad about Robots, but unless you are a littl’un 
or an obsessive fan of the film there is little to 
recommend it. 

Captain Cool 





AVAILABLE ON 


AVAILABLE ON 


AVAILABLE ON 


PS2 / XBOX 


PC 


PS2 / XBOX / PC / GCN 


DETAILS 


DETAILS 


DETAILS 


CATEGORY: Fantasy Sport / PLAYERS: 1-2 / 
DEVELOPER: EA Sports Big / PUBLISHER: EA / 
PRICE: S79.95 / RATING: G / AVAILABLE: Now 


CATEGORY: Sports / PLAYERS: 1-2 
DEVELOPER: EA Conado / PUBLISHER: EA 
PRICE: $89.95 / RATING: G / AVAILABLE: Now 


CATEGORY: Platformer / PLAYERS: 1 / DEVELOPER: 
Eurocom / PUBLISHER: Vivendi Universal / PRICE: $49.95 
(PC), 69.95 (console) RATING: G8+ / AVAILABLE: Now 


GRAPHICS 

85 


SOUND 

79 


GAMEPLAY 

60 



GRAPHICS 

76 


SOUND 

75 


GAMEPLAY 

82 


OVE 

RALL 

8 

a 


GRAPHICS 

81 


SOUND 

68 


GAMEPLAY 

71 


OVERALL 

70 



[above] No disco bus for these guys, just the show boat 


[above] Hey, someone wrote "Amos don't go" in the sky! 


[above] I think he's selling crank. Bad robots, bad 




HYPER» 75 





































HflflDHELDS 






Beat hi in down/ 


AVAILABLE ON 


CATEGORY: Mini-games 

PLAYERS: 1-2 
DEVELOPER: Nintendo 
PUBLISHER: Nintendo 
PRICE: S69.95 
RATING: G 
AVAILABLE: Now 


[below] Big, heavy, wood etc 


[above] Mr T in Aladdin 3: Pity the Fool 


WARIO WARE TOUCHED! 


Wario Ware Touched! for 
Nintendo DS attempts to utilise 
the handheld’s touch screen, stylus 
and microphone in ways you thought 
never possible - in both the strictest 
and strangest sense of the term. The 
Wario Ware series takes the simplistic 
nature of mini-games to an absurdist 
level. As players frantically try to 
keep up with the onslaught of reflex 
and button pressing challenges 
that change every few seconds they 
struggle to comprehend exactly 
what it is that they are doing. We’re 
talking slicing melons, blowing in 
somebody’s ear, cleaning windows, 
performing equations, lighting 
matches, milking cows - and all in 
under a minute. Yep, Wario Ware is 
still as crazy as it ever was, and it’s no 
wonder the original became an instant 
success - it’s an experience perfectly 
suited to the handheld format. 

A TOUCHY FEELY GAME 

Touched! is very similar to its 
predecessor, in that the game 
follows a level based system where 
every few seconds a new game will 
begin and another will end - all 
wrapped neatly between animated 


sequences featuring Wario and a 
cast of characters both old and new. 
To say that the game makes ample 
use of the touch screen and stylus 
would be an understatement, in fact 
the Nintendo DS’s d-pad and face 
buttons aren’t used at all. So if you 
can think of a creative way in which 
to use both the stylus, touch screen 
or microphone, you can be sure to 
find it here and with the mini-games 
lasting mere seconds, you’ll be 
doing everything from drawing, 
rubbing, blowing, connecting 
and controlling numerous objects 
through the many bizarre scenarios 
the game can throw at you. Bizarre 
is definitely the key word, as one 
minute you’ll be fending metroids 
off Samus and the next you’ll be 
chiselling a toilet out of a piece 
of stone. There are only certain 
things you can do with a touch 
screen and over the course of the 
game’s 200 microgames you may 
find yourself doing the same thing 
over and over (especially with the 
microphone based games), but 
the bizarre variety of it all helps 
keep things fresh. Any game that 
can provide fun from unravelling 


an entire roll of toilet paper has 
got to be doing something right, 
and thankfully the retro gaming 
moments of the original return with 
everything from Zelda to Metroid 
to Mario making an appearance. 

But much like the nature of 
mini-games themselves, Wario 
Ware Touched! loses its steam after 
a few hours. The lack of any real 
multiplayer games is surprising, 
and the unlockable features are 
disappointing, ranging from 
things like fully functioning oven 
timers, metronomes, calculators, 
wind chimes and yo-yo’s. So in 
the end you could easily plough 
through most of what the game 
offers in a single afternoon, but 
then again Wario Ware’s strength 
doesn’t lie in longevity but in the 
complete opposite. This isn’t a game 
that offers a lengthy experience 
- instead this is a game that opts 
to condense that experience 
into key moments, cut it up and 
offer each piece at random. You 
may get bored sooner than you 
think but before that happens, 
you’ll be having a great time. 

Kosfa Andreadts 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

70 80 73 


OVERALL 

79 


76 HYPER» 
































































DK: King of Swing 


Forget DK titles that you’ve 
played in the past, King of 
Swing operates on a simple, yet 
charming premise - climbing and 
swinging. Everything in this game 
is about moving hand over hand, 
and leaping from point to point, 
just like, yep, an ape. To do so, the 
game almost exclusively uses the 
shoulder buttons, representing the 
left and right hands respectively. 
You leap up and grab onto pegs 
or pads in the air, and either move 



across the array by alternating from 
hand to hand (DK will spin around 
the peg clockwise if holding with 
his right hand and anti-clockwise 
for left), or use centrifugal force 
to swing off one peg, through the 
air, then latch onto another. It’s 
a nifty little concept, allowing 
you to be as safe or as speculative 
in your movements as you like. 

Once you’ve got movement down, 
you’ll be quickly scaling great 
heights, leaping from peg to peg 
or pad to pad. Add in the ability 
to charge up to jump and attack 
enemies and you have a refreshing 
new take on the platform genre. 

In typical Nintendo fashion, the 
learning curve is spot-on, with new 
gameplay elements introduced 
steadily throughout the game. 

You’ll come across rocks and bombs 
that can be grabbed and thrown 
with one hand while holding onto 




a peg with the other, and it’s not 
long before courses are littered 
with disintegrating pegs, moving 
pegs, switches, jacks, tyres and 
conveyor belts. The life system in 
this game is also well handled. 
Collecting bananas actually has 
a point - you can use ten to gain 
a heart back, or use twenty for 
invincibility for a short while. 

The biggest question mark 
for King of Swing, however, is 
longevity. Playing through the 
single player game will unlock some 
average multiplayer games (which 
require all players to have the cart, 
which given how basic they are, 
is insane), but there’s not much 
replay value for the single player 
game, nor is it particularly hard. 

At least it’s fun while it lasts eh? 

Cam Shea 



AVAILABLE ON: 


GBA 

E531^k 

CATEGORY: Platformer 

PLAYERS: 1 -4 
DEVELOPER: Paon 
PUBLISHER: Nintendo 
PRICE: S69.95 
RATING: G 
AVAILABLE: Now 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 


70 70 80 



SPRUNG 

■■ Subtitled "A Game Where 
W] Everyone Scores’’, Sprung is 
the first DS dating simulator we’ve 
come across, and god willing it 
will also be the last. You play as 
either Brett or Becky, a couple 
of friends both looking for love 
while on holidays at a ski resort. 
Brett secretly has a half husky 
for Becky, while Becky just broke 
up with her boyfriend, and the 
story weaves around both of them 
(and their other friends) through 
a number of set pieces. Will they 
fall in love? Will Brett get his ’’tip 
wet” with a host of snow bunnies? 
Honestly, you probably won’t play 
it for long enough to find out. 

Sprung’s greatest flaw, you see, 
isn’t its writing, which has enough 
personality to carry the game. 

Nor is it its visual style, as we like 
the way the dual screens are used 
to display both of the characters 
in conversation, allowing you to 
gauge facial reactions, and the 
animations are quite cute. No, 
Sprung fails because rote learning is 
key - beating each scene is a matter 
of eventually stumbling through 
the right sequence of responses, 
rather than through puzzle solving 
or use of critical acumen. And it can 




[above] Vanilla Ice is playing? Sweet 


[above] The dev team have a meeting 



[up] You got Spruuung. It's on, girlfriend! 


get very frustrating too, because 
there’s often no way to determine 
how someone is going to respond. 
Often minor things will land you 
in gaol and force you to restart 
the scene. At other times you can 
actually take a girl back to your 
place, but fail because the mission 
is something else entirely. Sprung: 
A Game Where Everyone Scores 
When We Tell You To Or You Fail. 

Cam Shea 


AVAILABLE ON: 


DS 

CATEGORY: Dating sim 

PLAYERS: 1 
DEVELOPER: Ubisoft 
PUBLISHER: Ubisoft 
PRICE: S49.95 
RATING: M15+ 
AVAILABLE: Now 


VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 

74 70 40 


OVERALL 

41 


HYPER» 77 



































































Ghost Squad 


- SGGR 


M an. What a fool. Always at war 
with himself. We all know the 
'adult* way to deal with problems 
such as limited resources and 
religious differences is to battle it 
out on the bargaining table. But if 
the pen was truly mightier than the 
sword, and bargaining took place 
with words instead of bullets, we'd 
never have hair-trigger reflex visceral 
action video games like GHOST Squad 
(no disrespect to Infocom’s 1980 text 
adventure game Zork) 


[below] Oh shit, it's upside down 
and set to 51 seconds! 


DRUGS AND MARATHONS 

The last gen of arcade light gun 
shooters (Time Crisis, Virtua Cop, 
World Combat), although excellent 
in their own right, weren’t exactly 
stayers. After a few full games, 
they begin to get as tired as an 
87 year old man in shackles on 
Rohypnol running a marathon. 
Fortunately, Sega has combated 
this genre’s inherent predictable 
on-rail-edness by introducing a 
propriety ’I.C’ card. Purchasing this 
card for 5 bucks enables you to save 
your character’s name, rank and 
accumulate different unlockables. 

Being a member of G"H* 0 *S"T 
(Global Humanitarian Operation 
8 Special Tactics) means that you 



are kept tethered and champing at 
the bit to be released on (3) special 
occasions such as the President 
being kidnapped on his 747 Airforce 
One or when hostages need to be 
saved from a swampy jungle hideout 
or a luxurious mountain resort. 

Initially, you are armed with a 
very kool sub machine gun, with 
simulated recoil, based on the real 
life HK MP5 which has a fire selector 
switch allowing single. 3 shot burst 
or rapid fire modes. But don’t think 
you can just leave it on rapid fire 
all the time. You only have 100 full 
auto bullets in this mode per level 
and the thing is, there are a lot 
of situations in this game where 
blazing away will only kill hostages, 
which is bad for your health. In 
fact, you will need to use the gun’s 
front button to do things such as 
engage in hand-to-hand combat, 
defuse bombs (a memory game) 
and handcuff suspects/ hostages. 

At first this seems trivial, but when 
you are cuffing crazed hostages and 
then are interrupted to carefully 
(the gun is very accurate and can 
be calibrated at the beginning of 
each game) blast bad guys who are 
hiding behind hostages, the game’s 
intensity is magnified exponentially. 


As you play, you are awarded 
experience points, which increase 
not only by regular action, but also 
by doing ’head shots’ or ’quick 
shots’. These ‘G.S points’ can be 
spent at the end of each game to 
unlock: 25 different types of weapons 
(submachine guns, pistols, sniper 
rifles, a shotgun, heavy machine 
guns and even a crossbow); 14 
different outfits including a panda 
suit; and new routes. Being able to 
play the game using different guns 
really does make a big difference and 
using the shotgun or full auto sub 
machine gun are such great options 
that it makes you want to play just 
to unlock them. Other unlockables 
include night and thermal vision 
goggles and a flashlight. 

This game has deservedly done 
great things overseas, and in Britain, 
it has been reported that individual 
machines are collecting over AU$400* 
per day. So if you are a big fan of the 
light gun shooter genre, and you are 
scared that you are going to totally 
blow your weekly gaming budget, 
you can always just BUY the 2 player 
arcade console for the measly sum of 
$17,000... maybe not. 

9.S/10 


78 HYPER» 


•SPECIAL THANKS TO PLAYTIME AND LEVON. 










Games. Inc. MIDWAY and the Midway logo are registered trademarks of Midway Amusement Games. LLC. Used by permission UNREAL and UNREAL CHAMPIONSHIP are trademarks or registered trade- 
tc. and its affiliates do not monitor, endorse or accept responsibility for the content of any non-Midway website. Microsoft, Xbox.Xbox Live, the Live lo go. and the Xbox logos are registered trademarks or 
i and are used under license from Microsoft 



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LIVE "above the sky" 

Featuring The Music of FINAL FANTASY 

tUIUTM. main Sftnrd SMTitM hMctt. iMHin 2SOI. Mi 


Thf, B lac ages 


[below] Have you seen this 
man? He's wanted for say¬ 
ing he thinks FF is over-rated 



W hen most people think 
of the music of Final 
Fantasy they think of the 
stirring choral pieces or beautiful 
piano melodies of the multitalented 
composer Nobuo Uematsu. And 
indeed such people would probably 
consider being a world renowned 
composer of original soundtracks 
enough for one man. But Uematsu 
is not just one man. Deep inside 
that passive Japanese exterior lies a 
raging rock beast. 

Well maybe not a rock beast. But 
certainly a rock demigod. 

The Black Mages is Uematsu’s rock 
outlet. They’ve just released their 
second album "The Skies Above” 
and Hyper was lucky enough to be 
in attendance during their January 
23 performance at CLUB CITTA in 
chilly Kawasaki, Japan (the lengths 
we go to for you people). 

MR GOO? 

The Black Mages consist of Nobuo 
Uematsu and Kenichiro Fukui on 
keyboards, Michio Okamiya and 
Tsuyoshi Sekito on guitars, Keiji 
Kawamori on bass and Arata 
Hanyuda on drums. Performing 


rock arrangements of famous Final 
Fantasy pieces they had the rapt 
attention of the sold out Kawasaki 
crowd. They were joined on stage by 
the enigmatically named Kazco and 
Mr Coo who provided vocals. 

Beginning with "The Rocking 
Grounds” (from Final Fantasy III) 
they immediately brought the 
audience to their feet and their 
glow sticks to the ready and things 
stayed pretty much that way the 
whole night. The tracks were drawn 
mostly from "The Skies Above" 
although the band whipped the 
crowd into a frenzy with "Those Who 
Fight Further” and "Clash on the Big 
Bridge", two popular hits from their 
first album. 

Although Uematsu is the most 
famous face, all of the band 
members were given their moment 
in the spotlight. Guitarists Michio 
Okamiya and Tsuyoshi Sekito 
traded solos throughout the night 
and even drummer Arata Hanyuda 
managed to get one in that put 
Garth’s performance in Wayne’s 
World to shame. 

Dressed in costumes specially 
designed for each of them, the 


band members joked around 
with the audience and spoke a 
little of the possibility of a third 
studio album. Nobuo Uematsu in 
particular seemed to be enjoying 
himself. When the band returned 
for an encore of three songs, after 
the crowd enthusiastically called 
for their return, Uematsu looked 
positively ecstatic, saying that the 
event was like a promise the band 
had been dreaming for. 

The Black Mages were well 
supported by the composer Kenji 
Itoh, the mystery musical unit 
"muZik” and the MC "Udatsu 
Tanaka”. Kenji Itoh kicked the 
night off with compositions from 
the upcoming "Romancing Saga” 
series as well as the mystery group 
"muZik" who performed Final 
Fantasy pieces arranged to a techno 
beat. The crowd response to muZik 
prompted Uematsu to comment 
that they should release a CD so 
we’ll keep our eyes peeled for any 
developments on that front. 

Hyper would like to thank Mr 
Nobuo Uematsu, Ms Masako Miyoshi 
and Square-Enix for making the 
whole event possible. << 


80 HYPER» 










The Uideo Game 


is, Robots, ond their associated logos ore rei 
i Entertainment, Inc in the U.S. and/or other 
wners. 'PlayStation' ond the 'PS' Family ic 
icrosoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in otl 
. (§) 2004 Nintendo. 


www.robotsgame.com 




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Hang out with your favourite 
movie characters 


Speed through the city in rapid 
transport pods 


Battle evil hots with cool 
upgradeable gadgets 


PlayStation 2 


GAME BOY advance 


fk SURRA 













Bubba Ho Tep 

MAGNA PACIFIC, M 15+ 


Normally when faced with 
** a film which posits a story 
based around an aging Elvis in an 
old age home making friends with a 
black man who claims to be JFK and 
then having the unlikely pair fight 
a soul sucking Egyptian mummy 
most people would snigger and 
look for something a little less goofy 
sounding. To do so would be to 
skip over one of the most strangely 
touching films in recent years as 
well as deny you seeing one of the 
greatest pieces of comedic acting 
in recent memory. Bruce Campbell, 
best known for playing the goofy, 
chainsaw wielding hero of the Evil 
Dead films, Ash, does not so much 
play the aging and crotchety king 
of rock and roll, Elvis Presley as 
become him. Every grumpy old 
man reminiscence about better 
times or lost moments is exactly 
how you could picture an elderly 
Elvis behaving, every stiff-hipped, 
zimmer frame swagger is priceless. 
Ossie Davis is similarly good as JFK. 

Whilst the outlandish plot does 
give license to some moments 
of broad comedy, Bubba Ho Tep 
is much more thoughtful than it 
appears on the surface. Rather than 




Angel Season 5 

FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT, M 15+ 

The final season of Angel kicks 

off with Angel Inc. taking over 
the LA branch of their arch nemesis, 
law firm Wolfram £ Hart. Not only is 
this just about the biggest shakeup 
in the history of the show, but it’s 
a device used to further underline 
the fact that the line between good 
and evil is murky at best. Can Angel 
and the crew fight to make the 
world a better place from the belly 
of the beast? Or will they be too 
distracted to do so in this corporate 
environment where money must 
be made and all their enemies are 
now their clients? It’s an intriguing 
scenario, only heightened by the 
inclusion of Spike in the ensemble 
cast - if you thought LA wasn’t 
big enough for two vampires with 
a soul you’d be dead right. 

As the season progresses the 
action ramps up to fever pitch, with 
the last few episodes in particular 
making moves only a show that 
knows it’s ending are able to do. 
Great stuff. This season also has 
perhaps the greatest standalone 
Angel episode to date - Smile 
Time. Even if you’re not a fan of 
the show you really should check 
this episode out. Angel crossed 



[top] Elvis contemplates a lump on his 
pecker. No seriously, he does 


use the two main characters as 
fodder for cheap laughs, director 
Don Coscarelli (best known as the 
writer/director of the Phantasm 
films) has opted instead to 
tell the story of two wonderful 
old men, sick of their pitiful 
existences, determined to go out 
in style and recapture some of the 
greatness of their earlier days. 

Daniel Wilks 

MOVIE: 8 / EXTRAS: TBA 



[above] Angel faces the fury of the 
forgotten Baldwin 


with The Muppets ? Sweet. 

On the downside, Cordelia 
is out of the cast the entire 
season (aside from one brilliant 
episode) which is a damn shame 
considering how much Joss and 
co have invested in her as a 
character. Even so, this season is 
a fitting finale to a great show. 

Cam Shea 

MOVIE: 8 /EXTRAS: 5 


82 HVPER» 












The Grudge 

ROADSHOW, M 15+ 


The Grudge looks more like an 
. | experiment in remaking 

than an actual remake of a 
decent, if somewhat overshadowed 
japanese horror film. What makes 
The Grudge so interesting is that 
the American remake is directed 
by Takashi Shimizu, the director 
of the original, stars a number 
of actors from the original and 
reuses numerous locations from 
the original. Does it work? Nope 
- not in the slightest. There has 
been a lot of love thrown the way 
of The Grudge but most of it is 
unfounded - the story, a rather 
typical haunted house affair plods 
along with no real pacing save for 
that Shimizu seems content to try to 
fit one real scare or spring loaded 
cat (something that jumps out of 
the dark to shock the audience 
but has no impact on the plot) in 
every scene so there is no build¬ 
up or climax, save the requisite 
Hollywood knee-jerk twist ending. 
Characters are resolutely stupid 



[above] Throwing a tantie isn't really 
horror... it's just annoying 


and follow the well trodden path 
of placing extremities into dark 
recesses to investigate spooky 
noises or enter the haunted house 
even though they know that to 
do so will mean their doom. 

In amongst the self 
congratulation in the special 
features there are a few bits of 
interesting information including 
this little gem: the whole purpose 
of remakingya-O/7 for an 
American market was so people 
could enjoy it without subtitles. 
Haven’t they heard of dubbing? 

Daniel Wilks 

MOVIE: 6 /EXTRAS: 5 



Upside down face 
boy makes an ap¬ 
pearance 




Carnivale Season 1 (6 DISC BOX SET) 


Lone Wolf and Cub: baby cart on 

THE RIVER STYX / SWORD OF VENGEANCE 


EASTERN EYE, R 18+ 


There’s a strange beauty 
to the Lone Wolf and Cub 
films in amongst the over the top 
gore and gallons of disturbingly 
bright red blood that seems to be 
contained under high pressure 
in the bodies of all assailants. 

Since the release of the first Lone 
Wolf film, Sword of Vengeance 
in 1972 , the series has gone on to 
be something of a cultural icon 
- although few people know the 
series many are familiar with images 
of a samurai pushing his infant son 
around in a weapon ridden baby 
cart on his search for vengeance. 

The story of the films revolves 
around a disgraced swordsman 
named Ogami Itto and his son 


Daigoro - the only two survivors of 
a massacre that killed the rest of 
his family - trekking across feudal 
Japan selling his services to the 
highest bidder whilst searching for 
the hit squad that caused all of the 
grief in the first place. Lone Wolf 
and Cub deals with the big issues 
like honour, family and sacrifice 
in broad but strangely touching 
brushstrokes but on the whole veils 
its soft heart in extreme violence. 
Although excessive in the blood and 
dismemberment the action scenes 
are brilliant, thanks, in the most part 
to the fact that actor Wakayama 
Tomisaburo (Ogami Itto) is a real 
life master of laido and Kendo. 

Daniel Wilks 

MOVIE: 7 /EXTRAS: 4 


WARNER BROS, AM 15 + 


Repeat after me, "god bless 
the HBO". For those of you 
unfamiliar with the term, HBO stands 
for Home Box Office, a cable network 
in the US responsible for some of 
the best television programs ever 
screened such as Band of Brothers , 
The Sopranos , Sex and the City , Oz 
and the heartbreakingly brilliant 
western, Deadwood. Now you 
can add Carnivale to that list. 

Set in early 30 s heartland America, 
Carnivale leads the viewer through 
a morally ambiguous fight between 
the forces of light and dark. On the 
one side we have Ben Hawkins, an 
enigmatic and rather standoffish 
young man who takes up a position 
as a travelling carnival dogsbody. 

He can also cure the sick and injured 
but at a great cost. On the other side 


there is the evangelical Brother Justin 
Crowe, a man of the cloth with more 
than his fair share of demons. What 
makes Carnivale so appealing is 
the lack of judgement forced upon 
the viewer - most characters in the 
series are selfish, egotistical or just 
plain nasty meaning that there is 
rarely a clear delineation between 
hero and villain. They need to be 
that way to survive. Hopefully season 
2 will reach our screens soon. 

Daniel Wilks 


MOVIE: 9 /EXTRAS: 6 



HYPER» 83 














The Simpsons Season 5 


FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT, PG 

Season 5 (i993"94) was 

a transition year for The 
Simpsons. Behind the scenes, most 
of the writing staff from the first 
four seasons had left, including 
show runners Al Jean and Mike 
Reiss (who went off to make The 
Critic) and Conan O’Brien, who 
was offered his Late Night gig 
midway through the season. 

For many programs this would 
have been a death knell, but Season 
5 is a testament to the quality of 
the staff that came in to fill the 
void. Simply put, this is a golden 
season - there’s barely a dud 
episode in the bunch. Rather, this 
season gave birth to some of the 
most enduring classics such as 
Homer Goes to College, Rosebud 
and Deep Space Homer. Another 
thing to note about this season is 
that show runner David Mirkin and 
the rest of the team were keen to 
really explore the backgrounds and 
motivations for some of the other 
denizens of Springfield. Thus, we 
have episodes like Homer Loves 


Flanders, Homer and Apu, and 
Burns’ Heir, all of which cleverly 
avoid being padding and are 
hilarious in their own right. The 
season as a whole is a great blend 
between clever writing and zany 
antics, all with an emotional core. 

Once again the commentaries 
are fantastic. It’s a bit weird not 
having Al jean leading the chatter, 
but they’re as insightful and 
entertaining as always. In fact, 
listening to the commentaries, 
it’s not hard to see what’s so 
wrong about The Simpsons these 
days (from season 14 onwards 
really). The blood, sweat and 
tears that went into every frame 
of animation and every line of 
dialogue during the early years 
is palpable, and I can’t help but 
think the show just doesn’t get the 
late night sessions and right up 
to deadline rewrites it used to. 

Oh well. For fans this really 
is a compulsory purchase. 

Classic mirth making. 

Cam Shea 

MOVIE: 10 /EXTRAS: 7 




Didn't Nine Inch 
Nails write a song 
about this? 



Sonic X 



Bullshit Season 2 import review 


MRA, G 


This series sees Sonic and 
friends (and one enemy of 
course - no prizes for guessing who) 
sent through a time/space warp to 
future Earth after an incident with 
Chaos Emeralds goes horribly wrong. 

Although they are regarded as 
freaks when they suddenly appear in 
the big smoke, it’s not long before 
they find friends and acceptance, 
and plenty of big robots to 
battle courtesy of Dr Eggman. 

As is standard for so much anime, 
there has to be a character that the 
young audience that this is primarily 
targeted at can identify with, and 
that role is taken by young rich boy 
Christopher. He’s one of those wide 
eyed excitable characters that’s 
annoying but tolerable. Fortunately 
for Sonic and crew he’s also got 


a genius grandfather, a kickass 
bodyguard and a mansion for a 
house. Not a bad crib to crash in. 

Sonic X isn’t exactly brimming 
with compelling story, but the 
animation is very good, and there are 
some really nicely framed shots. We 
were won over in the first episode, 
for example, by a scene where Sonic 
is racing the S-Team. Sonic breaks 
the sound barrier, flies off a ramp 
and over a wind farm, sending the 
blades whining and resulting in the 
panorama of the night city that he’s 
above brightening from the extra 
power. It’s creative little touches 
like this that make you realise some 
love and attention has been lavished 
on the series. Even so, this is really 
only for the hardcore Sonic fans. 

Frank Dry 

MOVIE: 6 /EXTRAS: 1 


SHOWTIME ENTERTAINMENT MA 15 + 

Penn and Teller are a brilliant 

duo of entertainers combining 
Vaudeville style theatricality 
and histrionics with clever social 
commentary and cutting edge 
prestidigitation. Bullshit Season 2 
sees the illusionist team up to their 
old tricks debunking fads, theories 
and institutions they see as being 
bullshit. This time around they take 
on Recycling, PETA, the climate of 
terror, relationship counselors, the 
war on drugs. 12 -step programs 
and most controversially, the 
Bible, amongst others. 

The second season doesn’t quite 
have the impact of the first but still 
serves up a refreshingly irreverent 
look at the world and some of the 
more closely held cultural mores. 
Unfortunately this time around the 


team seem to have done a little less 
research about the subjects they 
choose to debunk leaving some 
of the arguments a little dry but 
who can fail to laugh when hearing 
hard rocking survivalist nut Ted 
Nugent having a go at PETA or not 
feel offended when a prissy anti¬ 
profanity campaigner decides that 
whilst taking the lord’s name in vain 
is horrible and should be banned 
it’s perfectly alright to use the name 
of another religion’s deity because, 
you know, they’re not real? It’s also 
a little disappointing to note that 
the anti-profanity campaigners 
that Penn and Teller have a go at 
in the show have still managed to 
leave their mark on the series - it’s 
now known as B.S. on the slipcase. 

Daniel Wilks 

MOVIE: 8 /EXTRAS: 3 


84 HYPER» 






















IE 


Paranoia Aqent 

VOLUME 1: ENTEPTLIl' SLUGGER 


PRODUCTION COMPANY: GENEON 
GENRE: THRILLER? 


It’s very difficult to write a 
review of Paranoia Agent 
without resorting to using a lot 
of words we’re not really allowed 
to print in this magazine. Now 
because the series is bad - far from 
it - it’s so bloody good that it’s 
hard not to get overly enthusiastic 
and resort to some choice four 
letter words for emphasis. Satoshi 
Kon, the director of the brilliant 
films Perfect Blue , Millennium 
Actress and Tokyo Godfathers is 
destined to become a major player 
in the world of anime if his output 
so far is anything to go by. 

Paranoia Agent, his first series 
is an odd duck, hard to pin down 
into a particular genre or style 
and focusing on one character per 
episode rather than following the 
exploits of a single person. People 
are being attacked in a sleepy Tokyo 
suburb. What makes these attacks 
so interesting is the fact that they 
are seemingly random and that 
the victims describe the assailant 
as being a male of middle school 
age wearing golden inline skates, 
a baseball cap and wielding a bent 


golden baseball bat, leading the 
attacker to be known by authorities 
and the media as Lil’ Slugger. 
Stranger still is the effect that the 
attacks have on the victims - each of 
them seems calmer afterwards, more 
at peace, finally allowed to take a 
break from the rat race. These are 
just broad brush strokes - the series 
deals with myriad characters, each 
of them a product of the paranoia 
born of 20th century living. 

Character design is sublime 
and the animation is of the same 
quality we have come to expect 
from the director. The English dub 
is superb if you’re not into reading 
subtitles and the soundtrack, as 
eclectic as the show itself is great. 
The opening track alone is brilliant 
enough to warrant a purchase, a 
chaotic and frantic 80s pop-like 
remix played over a montage of 
characters from the series laughing 
hysterically at inappropriate times 
in inappropriate places. It’s creepy 
yet uplifting - a perfect intro to 
one of the most intriguing anime 
series released on our shores. 

Daniel Wilks 

ANIMATION: 9 / STORY 10 
OVERALL: 10 




"Hey kid, you 
wanna buy 
some panties?" 


Porco Rosso 

GENRE: DRAMA 
PROD: STUDIO GHIBLI 


Porco Posso is yet another 
fantastic anime from Hayao 
Miyazaki and Studio Chibli. Set in a 
romanticised Italy and the Adriatic 
sea in the wake of WWI, Porco Posso 
stars the titular Porco. Formerly a top 
pilot in the Italian air force during 
WWI, he becomes a mercenary after 
the tragic deaths of his comrades. 
Patrolling the skies and fighting off 
any sky pirates that threaten the 
various ships in the Adriatic (for a 
fee of course), Porco’s an instantly 
appealing character - a man of few 
words who smokes too much and 
takes his curse in his stride. Porco, 
you see, is actually called Marco, but 
since the war a curse has turned his 
features to that of a pig. Hence Porco. 

The crux of the story sees Porco 
taken down by the brash American 
pilot Curtis, who’s hired by local 
pirates. Porco takes the remains of 
his plane to Italy under the nose 
of the military, to be helped by 
Grandpa Piccolo and his talented 
young designer Fio. When Fio 
returns with Porco to face off against 
Curtis he’s forced to come to terms 
with not only his experiences 
during the war, but also the feelings 




[above] Where's Sandy and Monkey? 


that the beautiful Gina (who runs 
the local bar) has for him. 

Porco Posso is essentially a 
swashbuckling story of adventure 
and romance, and is both light 
hearted and thought provoking. The 
animation is as gorgeous today as 
it was in 1992 on release, with the 
Adriatic setting creating magnificent 
backdrops for the dogfighting, 
whilst the character designs are pure 
Miyazaki - these are characters you’ll 
fall in love with. And as is always the 
case in Myazaki films, no characters 
are simply black or white - their 
motivations are their own and in 
some ways are just as valid as the 
motivations of the central protagonist. 
The final showdown with Curtis is the 
perfect example of this - it’s such a 
Miyazaki ending, and yet another 
reason why he’s one of the greats. 

Joey Tekken 

ANIMATION: 87 STORY: 8 
OVERALL 8 




HYPER» 85 












WIN FIVE HONG KONG 
LEGENDS DVDS! 

» Fact: kung fu rocks. Fact: Jet Li, Jackie 
Chan and Bruce Lee are three of the 
all-time martial arts greats. Fact: Many 
of the greatest Hong Kong martial arts 
films are finally getting a local release in 
Australia! 

Thanks to the new Hong Kong Legends 
label, steaming bowls of kung fu goodness will be 
regularly served up to Australian DVD players, and 
to celebrate we’ve got four packs of the first wave 
of releases to give away. That’s five bonafide classic 
films: Once Upon a Time in China, Iron Monkey, 
Armour of Cod, Police Story and Fist of Fury. 

To be in the running, just answer the following: 




At what age did Jet Li win his first 
national Wu Shu Championship? 


Put your answer, as well as your name and 
address, on the back of an envelope and send 

it to: Kung Fu Crazy, Hyper, 78 Renwick St, 
Redfern, NSW, 2016. 


WIN METAL GEAR 
SOLID 3 ON PS2! 

» Games that score in the high 90s are very 
few and far between here at Hyper, and 
when they do come along, they’re games to 
be treasured. Games that will be remembered 
for years to come. Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of 
those games. Last issue we gave it a rocking 96%, 
and that’s for a great number of reasons - fantastic 
characters and great dialogue, an interesting and 
comprehensible plot, gameplay that builds on 
previous iterations of the series whilst also striving in 
new directions and rewarding experimentation, and 
so much more. This is a game that is just plain cool. 

Thanks to our friends at Atari, we’re lucky enough 
to have five Metal Gear Solid 3 packs to give away. 
Each one contains a copy of the game for PS2, a 
sweet MGS3 T-shirt, pen and notepad. Note to self: 
enter this competition. 

To be in the running for one of our MGS3 
packs, answer the following: 

Name three of the bosses from 
■" ■" previous Metal Gear games. 

Put your answer and your name and address 
on the back of an envelope and send it to: 

I Love the Snake, Hyper, 78 Renwick St, 


Terms & Conditions: 1) Entry is open to residents of Australia and New Zealand except employees and immediate families of Next Publishing Pty Ltd and its agencies associated with the promotion. 2) Only entries 
completed with these terms and conditions will be eligible. 3} Competition begins 9am March 29 and entries close at 6pm May 11. 4) In determining eligibility the judge's decision is final and no correspondence 
will be entered into. 5) The winner will be drawn at 9om May 12 at Next Publishing Pty Ltd, 78 Renwick St, Redfern NSW 2016. 6) Prizes must be taken as offered and are not redeemable for cosh. 7) The promoter 
is not responsible for misdirected or lost mail. 8) The winners will be notified by mail and results published in the July issue of Hyper on sale June 8. 9) 5 winners will each receive Metal Gear Solid 3 on PS2 (RRP 
S99.95), a MGS3 t-shirt, pen and notepad. 4 winners will each receive Once Upon a Time in China, Armour of God, Police Story and Fist of Fury on DVD (RRP S29.95 each) and Iron Monkey SE (RRP S34.95). 
Total value of competitions is Sill 8.75. 10) The promoter is Next Publishing Pty Ltd ABN 88 002 647 645 of 78 Renwick St, Redfern NSW 2016. 


86 HYPER» 








a Night in Fantasia 

Studio Ghibli 


Performance 


What year was the first 
Playboy published? 


Put your answer and your name and 
address on the back of an envelope and send it 

to: The Mansion Family, Hyper, 78 Renwick 
St, Redfern, NSW, 2016. 


WIN A NIGHT IN 
FANTASIA CDS! 


» Back in October, Hyper staffers were lucky 
enough to be invited to A Night in Fantasia at the 
Sydney Conservatoriurn of Music. The Joe Hisaishi 
pieces that were played on the night have been 
released as a CD, and thanks to our friends within 
the Eminence Orchestra, we have fifteen CDs to give 
away. This is a must-enter comp for Studio Ghibli 
fans, as the music performed includes scores from 
Laputa, Totoro, Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s 
Moving Castle. However, if you want to win, you'll 
have to do something for us! The Eminence Orchestra 
are interested in doing a concert entirely composed of 
videogame scores, and they want to know what you’d 
like to hear. Whether Japanese or Western in origin, 
write in and tell us what piece(s) of videogame music 
you’d most like to hear performed by a full orchestra. 
Oh, and answer the following question too: 


\\ Name Nobuo Uematsu's rock band. 


Put the answer, plus your "most wanted” pieces of 
videogame music, and your name and address, on 
the back of an envelope and send it to: The Savage 
Beast, Hyper, 78 Renwick St, Redfern, NSW, 2016. 


WIN PLAYBOY: THE 
MANSION PACKS! 


UBISOFT 


» If wearing a smoking jacket and shuffling 
around in slippers while a bevy of beautiful 
ladies caters to your every whim is your idea 
of paradise, then we’ve got news for you - Wilks 
is already living it. But that’s the Hyper magazine 
empire for you. There’s another though... I think it’s 
called Playboy, and it’s run by this guy Hugh Hefner. 
No, we hadn’t heard of it either, but they’ve gone and 
made a game about it anyway. Playboy: The Mansion 
is all about mixing business and pleasure. You’ll be 
wining and dining celebs, commissioning writers, 
getting busy with buxom babes and overseeing 
centerfold spreads. It has everything that Tetris didn’t, 
and thanks to our friends at Ubisoft, we have six copies 
of the game on PC up for grabs, as well as a Playboy 
poster and keyring/bottle opener for each winner. 

To be in the running for one of our 
Playboy packs, just answer the following: 






Terms & Conditions: 1) Entry is open to residents of Australia and New Zealand except employees and immediate families of Next Publishing Pty Ltd ond its agencies ossociated with the promotion. 2) Only entries 
completed with these terms and conditions will be eligible. 3) Competition begins 9am March 29 and entries close at 6pm May 11.4) In determining eligibility the judge's decision is final and no correspondence 
will be entered into. 5) The winner will be drawn at 9am May 12 at Next Publishing Pty Ltd, 78 Renwick St, Redfern NSW 2016. 6) Prizes must be taken as offered ond ore not redeemable for cash. 7) The promoter 
is not responsible for misdirected or lost mail. 8) The winners will be notified'by mail and results published in the July issue of Hyper on sole June 8. 9) 15 winners will each receive one A Night in Fantasia CD 
(RRP S25). 6 winners will each receive Playboy: The Mansion on PC (RRP 569.95), a Playboy poster and a Playboy keyring. Total value of competitions is S794.70. 10} The promoter is Next Publishing Pty Ltd ABN 
88 002 647 645 of 78 Renwick St, Redfern NSW 2016. 


HYPER» 87 


















Legacy 

ANTHONY CORBCTT 


uring the early nineties it 
seemed every moral activist 
and politician without a 
campaign platform was blaming all 
of society’s ills on violent movies, 
rap music or the brand new heretic 
du jour, video games. Whilst Doom 
and its ilk would certainly provide 
fuel for their fire, Mortal Kombat was 
a 350 megaton powder keg doused 
in nitroglycerin strapped to a Bus 
That Couldn’t Slow Down. 

HEINZ BIG RED 

Aside from letting players belt 
each other with various styles of 
"martial arts’’. Mortal Kombat also 
realistically depicted gore - well, 
if you consider five pints of claret 
stemming from a kick to the ankle 
realistic. Furthermore, the victor 
of two-out-of-three bouts could 
graphically maim their opponent, 
ripping off their head or entire 
torso being big crowd favourites. 
Mortal Kombat’s other claim to 
fame was that it used digitised 
actors as opposed to sprites, though 
this was as much a gimmick as 
the murderous aspects of the title, 
the characters’ stilted, crab-like 
shufflings were as staccato as the 
brand of fisticuffs they brought 
to life, and the downfall of Mortal 
Kombat would not be militant do- 
gooders, but rather every fighting 
game’s biggest foe: mastery. If 
there’s no depth to the mechanics, 
there’s no longevity. And MK had 
no depth. It was a slugfest, with 
powerful special attacks simply 
traded over and over due to the 
relative lack of combos because 
moves rarely flowed into one 


another. Further conducive to 
frustration was the attack priority 
of roundhouse kicks and uppercuts 
- they were so freaking powerful! 
Did we mention how unintuitive it 
felt to use a block button in a 2D 
fighting game? 

Arguably what brought MK the 
most notoriety occurred as it was 
being translated to the i6bit consoles 
of the time, with Nintendo seeking 
to appease censors and "family 
groups” by removing the blood from 
the SNES version altogether. The rest 
of the port may have been handled 
admirably, with even the earth- 
shuddering sound effects making it 
across relatively unscathed, though 
it never felt quite right when Kano 
tore a lifeless grey lump owned by 
a three week old cadaver out of his 
opponent’s chest... 

But it felt oh-so-good when 
Midway unleashed their sequel, 
for Mortal Kombat 2, simply put, 
offered more. More characters 
with more moves meant a more 
strategic approach to defeating 
your foe. Only kidding. Though the 
gameplay was undoubtedly better 
balanced, the exponential increase 
in finishing moves resulted in fights 
degenerating into cheap tactics 
repetition even quicker than before, 
with both combatants desperate to 
hear the trademark "Finish Him(/ 
Her)!’’ catch-cry and celebrate their 
ignoble win by eviscerating their 
foe. Though given the neccessity 
for both pixel perfect distancing 
and the learning of complex 
commands this rarely happened, 
which resulted in more unintentional 
shin-kick deaths, ergo more 


cabinet-thumping or controller¬ 
throwing, ergo more being laughed 
at by friends and on-lookers. More, 
see. Still, perversely satisfying 
combos were obtainable by taking 
advantage of the inglorious physics 
and repeatedly juggling foes with 
special attacks - this was barely 
evident in the first installment and 
definitely perfected here. Factor in a 
stupid amount of death moves and 
the game’s kitsch brand of humour 
and you have the perfect Mortal 
Kombat. 

THE SUCKIEST BUNCH OF 
SUCKS THAT EVER SUCKED 

Mortal Kombat 3, on the other hand, 
was a menacing title which removed 
all the cornball humour that made 
MK2 so bearable - er, playable. 

The roster now housed the most 
detestable bunch of tools in gaming 
and the much touted Animalities 

- wherein your character morphed 
into a beast and gored their foe 

- bore some of the most atrocious 
animation to see the light of day. 

MK3 also premiered a hideous 
new brand of Al that had the 
ability to lock down all avenues 
of creative gameplay, emploring 
you to uncover the most repetitive 
attack commands as they were 
the only kind it couldn’t block; 
something which has sadly become 
a bit of a hallmark in titles since. 
Compounding the awkward 
mechanics, meanwhile, was a run 
button. No, really. This was the 
final straw to convince everyone 
that Midway’s one trick pony had 
finally been castrated and rendered 
undeserving the ridiculous hype. 


monthly progress report columns 
and six page previews virtually 
every mag on the planet had 
devoted to the game. 

Yet still this title would be blessed 
with two offspring - its pseudo¬ 
sequel, Ultimate MK3, adding to the 
mix delightful inventions labeled 
Auto Combos. Each character 
basically had an assortment 
of random button presses that 
mystifyingly formed a string attack 
and threw Newtonian principles right 
out the window. Just to top it off, this 
new method was also more powerful 
than the ’old’ combos. Great. 

Continuing on from UMK3 
was of course Mortal Kombat 
Trilogy, which purported to be an 
amalgamation of the three (four?) 
titles yet was pretty much MK3 With 
A Really Big Roster. By this time it 
was all so broken and tacky you 
couldn’t have paid us to care. 

After these spectacular travesties 
it couldn’t seem to get any worse 
for the franchise, yet Midway 
blighted the Earth with a scrolling 
beat-’em-up titled Mortal Kombat 
Mythologies. Its highlights included 
your dependence on pressing a 
button to make Sub-Zero (the lone 
character) face the correct way 
whenever a foe attacked from the 
opposite direction, and the ability 
to be squashed underneath a giant 
pillar simply because you were 
attempting to advance the screen’s 
scrolling. Vomit-worthy is perhaps 
the only description to do justice to 
the title, which owns the #3 spot on 
our Worst 50 Games Ever list. Yes, it 
really was that bad. 


88 




iaaa 


HALF-DECENT SEQUELALITY 

Not so Mortal Kombat 4, which can be 
summarised perfectly by one of the 
moves contained within - Quan Chi 
could tear off his foe’s leg and beat 
them to death with it! The over the 
top gore and cheese that exemplified 
the second edition was back in 
a big way, accompanying some 
pleasing (though far from ground¬ 
breaking) 3D models knocking nine 
gallons of tomato sauce out of each 
other. They could now also conjure 
weapons like broadswords out of 
the ether - hilarity and, of course, 
dismemberment ensued. Despite 
ushering the unenviable transition 
from 2D to 3 D quite respectably, 
it’s probably the most overlooked 
title in the series and whilst it was 
never likely to contest Soul Calibur, 
as a quick bash at the arcades or a 
weekend rental few games could 
make you grin with sadistic pleasure 
this much - their own leg! 

Whilst it was nowhere near as 
cheesy, MK: Deadly Alliance built 
solidly on MK^s mechanics, and the 
ability to switch between various 
fighting stances per character on 
the fly was far more enthralling 
than any disemboweling the series 
has ever dished out. Even more 


OD WINS 


SUfc-ZERO WINS 


Unsurprisingly, MK's gratuitous gore 


encouraging, the recently released 
MK: Deception follows the MK2 ethos 
of paving a likeable game atop a 
mountain of crazy unlockable shit 
- MK chess, anyone? 

Midway may have avoided taking 
literacy classes, but they have learned 
that exaggerated violence and gore 
can no longer be relied upon as a 
title’s sole selling point. Is that the 
sun peeking through the clouds? 



put it at the vanguard of gaming 
censorship debates for years, 
particularly here in Australia where 
the original's infamy accelerated the 
legislation that saw games rated just 
like other media; whereas MK4 shares 
the dubious honour - along with 
Sega's House of the Dead 2 - of being 
one of the first arcade titles to wear a 
magical curtain that protects the moral 
fiber of unsuspecting passers-by. 



89 


MMMd 









MAIL 

HYPER! 

POSTAL: 

78 Renwick St. Redfern, 

NSW 2016 Australia 

EMAIL: 

freakscene@next.com.au 


FREEGAMES AHOY 

Dear Mr. Shea, 

Firstly, I would like to commend 
you on the excellent magazine you 
run. I have subscribed /or almost two 
years - and bought in shops /or much 
longer - and have /ound Hyper to be 
the best gaming magazine available. 
However, I will get straight to the 
point o/ this letter. 

With the /orums section of your 
magazine discontinued, there are 
now two or three extra pages to be 
filled each month. Although I am 
sure this problem is already being 
addressed with an "Amos sealed 
section", a "Crushinetics liftout” or 
the like, I have my own idea, which 
you may find interesting. 

Hyper’s reputation is built on 
the fact that it is multi-platformed. 
However, I feel that there is a 
platform - maybe only a sub¬ 
platform - that is overlooked. 

This platform is the PC freeware/ 
shareware. Sure, there’s "Net 
Trawlin’’ with Kosta, and this is 
a fine section of the magazine. 
Unfortunately though, it rarely 
features any of the great freeware 
games being released on the 
net. Yes, I know you cover the PC 
already, but commercial and free PC 
games are very different beasts. 

Freegames are made primarily 
for the purpose of providing short, 
simple but ultimately satisfying 
bursts of entertainment. You 
could easily liken their place and 
popularity to the CBA in the console 
market. Also similar to the CBA, 
there is a truly enormous freegame 
library that includes many games of 
quality comparable to some of the 
best commercial games. There is also 
a large demand for freegames in the 


casual PC and console gamer 
demographic; people who are 
uncompromising in their tastes 
for high quality games, but 
who have spent all their money 
on their consoles, or whose 
computers do not have the 
specs to run today’s hardware 
intensive games. Lastly, since 
there is no pressure on the 
developers to "shift units", 
freegames provide fertile 
grounds for game developers 
to produce some of the most 
innovative and refreshing 
game experiences available 
today. For these reasons 
I feel that the freegame 
deserves its own section 
in Hyper as much as the 
consoles, handhelds or PC. 

So please don’t fill the old 
forum section with ads, because 
there is a much better use for the 
space. Sure, ads might pay for your 
trips to E3, but think of the freegame 
gems like G-Type, Cerberus, Little 
Fighter 2, and Notrium that have 
provided us all with hours of free 
entertainment. Surely they deserve 
to get their own coverage in your 
great magazine. So please, think of 
the freegames. 

Sincerely, 

Superblau (aka "danos”) 

Superblau - it's like you read our 
minds! We were already planning a 
big feature on freeware games next 
issue , and fingers crossed we'll even 
be hitting newsstands with a cover 
disc featuring the best of the best 
free games! Sweeeeet. I like your idea 
about doing coverage in Net Trawlin 
though - we'll try and do a free 
game update every few months once 
we've done the feature. 

Oh, and in place of the forum 
section we've pretty much just 
made mail bigger. 


GAMES, FOOD & 
BEVERAGE AND YOU. 

When Driving home the other 
night after picking up take away 
for dinner I had a thought about 
how food and gaming go so well 
together or at least how some do. 

So I thought I would write 
about one of my new fave gaming 
beverages only now available in my 
area (about Time!) and why it goes 
well with gaming. 

Of course there’s times when food 
doesn’t seem necessary anymore 
like when a new game or console has 
entered the family... 

The Frozen Drink AKA: Slushy, 
frozen Coke ect. (Yes that’s right 
frozen drinks are new to my area, 
Macca’s just got one installed the 
other week!) 

- Good with Gaming Because: 

Liquid/solid: It’s like eating and 


[above] Luke Woodhead mesmerised 
our inbox with this tasty pic 

drinking at the same time! 

Cold: Great for the hot headed 
gamer or for sweaty hand syndrome. 
- Preferable Attributes: 

Texture: Nice smooth texture, no 
large chunks of ice and defiantly not 
watery. 

Flavour: Great taste, must not 
have that flat taste that you some 
times get from freezing drinks. 
-Cons: 

Melts fast, occasional brain 
freeze, big sticky mess if spilt, 
condensation on cup is some times 
worse than sweaty hand syndrome... 

I’ve been buying your mag since 
I was 12. I’m now 22 so I can say I’ve 
done a bit of growing up with you 
guys (only a little bit, mind). After 
reading the first two letters in issue 
137 I was compelled to write in for 
the first time... 

What the firetruck are these 
people moaning about? Hopefully 
there are many readers out there are 
as confused as me by this negative 
feedback. I buy your mag BECAUSE 
of the humor and funny references 
to pop culture, not to mention the 
unbiased, no bullshit reviews. Now 
maybe because I’m a huge Simpsons 
fan and a firm believer that Greedo 
never should have fired first that I 
"get" you guys better than some 
readers, but you only have to look 
around the newsagents and on the 
internet to realise Hyper is where 
it’s at. 

For me you have always been on 
the money and not ones to shy away 
from taking apart a media hyped 
game, unlike some single platform 
posers. 

Keep up the good work, keep 
evolving, and keep watching the 
skiis....I mean skies. 

Robyn Grellet. 

As far as gaming beverages go, we 
don't think you can go past beer 


CAPTION THIS! 



Jackie Francis had his pickaxe in 
hand, mining the most comedy gold 
this month. 



"After being told about the possibility of a Nintendo spy, the 
storekeepers started to think they were being watched." 


90 HYPER» 















but only if you're over 
the age of 18. Now if 
we could make a beer 
slushie that would be 
gold. Gold I tells ya. 

LOVES THE DS 

To the gaming 
afficianados at Hyper, 

The Nintendo DS, 
what a beautiful 
machine! 

Yes, I was one of the 
many gamers country 
wide to put a pre-order 
on this ambitious, new 
hand-held and wait 
those agonising months 
until it finally got a 
release on the 24th of Feb. 

How amazing is this 
machine!? Nintendo 
seemed to have finally 
grown up and it shows! The DS 
is a very attractive little project, 
everything from the beautiful feel 
and position of the buttons to the 
stylized and responsive touch of 
the touch screen are all amazing 
achievements for such a compact 
and portable machine. 

Even though I am yet to get my 
hands on Metroid Prime: Hunters 
(which by the look of the demo, 
will be the handhelds major 
drawcard), I am amazed the 
way Mario 64 has been polished, 
expanded and ported. It just 
makes a classic even better. 

Nintendo have also got smart 
and started marketing with a 
series of not-too-shabby ad’s 
which will hopefully boost its sales 
early and get it a lead on Sony. 

I am just so pleased of the 
progress Nintendo have made as 
a company in the past couple of 
years, it’s fantastic to see them 
evolving. Here’s to a new era! 

Remember, It’s good to touch, 

Alex Fynes-Clinton (silentgi) 

P.S- Please print this letter 
because, like you, I use good 
grammar! 

We love the DS too but since 
getting our own PSP our love 
is divided evenly between the 
two. The DS so far is unfulfilled 
potential whereas the PSP is 
beautiful to look at and plays like 
a dream. Both systems have their 
faults but both are, without a 
doubt brilliant additions to the 
gaming arena. 

BENTON MUSIC? 

That sucks, but I’d say it’s well 
deserved. I’m guilty of starting 
my day off by checking your 
blog and enjoy keeping up with 
the latest and greatest news 
and reviews. Take care and 


[above] Daniel MacGregor's big red 
ball makes dreams come true 


hurry back, (and while you’re 
on hiatus, CHANCE THE MUSIC IN 
YOUR CD PLAYER!) lames, Norah, 
and Kenny need a break! Ryan, 

I guess I’m the other person that 
reads this! 

johnie Woods 

Ok Johnie, Benton's gone so there 
should be no more problems 
with bad music. Actually, who 
the hell is this - there is no 
Johnie at Next and as far as I 
know there has never been one. 
Did you forget to take your 
meds today? 

OLD SCHOOL GAMER! 

Dear Editor, 

I am a 61 year old console game 
enthusiast (never really been into 
PC games) and have finally gotten 
around to dropping you people 
a line. My particular interests 
are driving simulator games and 
some first person shooters and 
action adventure games. I was 
very disappointed in ’’Thief”, 
even though your magazine gave 
it a pretty positive review. Apart 
from the lack of save points and 
the totally useless maps I was 
very surprised to realise that they 
spoke with an American accent 
back in the Middle Ages! Gee, 
the things you find out when you 
start playing a new game! The 
graphics were great as was some 
of the gameplay, the potential is 
there for a really good game. But I 
found it frustrating and irritating. 



Koei 


www.koei.co.uk 

www.tacticalrpg.com 


UWlUSELLE 
CanI&iJlE RALLY 
’ WMFMiWiERl 


The KOEI logo is the regstered trademark of KOEI Co. Ltd In Japan and/or other coutfnes. ©2005 KOEI Co . Ltd. AH rights reserved 
La Pucette v : Tactics ©2005 NIPPON ICMI SOFTWARE INC La Puceftr. Tactics are trademarks of NPPON CHI SOFTWARE INC Al rights 
reserved Licensed to and published by KOEI Ltd. "PteySlabon" and the *PS* Farnrfy Logo are regsteied trademarks of Sony Computer 
Entertainment Inc PSM2 logo is The property of Future Pubtetwig THQ and its logo are regstered trademarks otTHQ. Inc AlngMs reserved 



SOFTWARE 


PlayStation 2 















LETTER OF THE MONTH 
HIS ROCKINGNESS 

To the editor, 

I am a mother of two teenage boys and every month they spend 
their pocket money buying your magazine. While I don’t read it 
personally, they talk to me about it a lot as a persuasion tool to get me 
to purchase games for them. 

I understand that your magazine is a lot of fun with all the pictures 
and colours, but I’m worried my boys are becoming hyperactive due 
to all the flashy pictures. 

Is it necessary to make your magazine so exciting-looking? Can’t 
you tone it down, craft the colours to look more mature, or even just 
make the entire colour scheme monotone like a newspaper? 

I want my boys to keep reading, I assure you, but your magazine 
has a lot of distractions. You only have to flick through issue 137 to see 
it’s too much fun to stop a child’s attention wandering. 

I admit, it’s not as bad as those other magazines with nude women 
which only exist to help dirty male minds clean their pipes, but I am 
fearful your magazine is becoming too bright and fun to be educational. 

My boys claim Evil Malky, the art director (Eh? I thought I was 
- normal Malky), is the problem - I don’t know who that is, but please 
talk some sense into him. 

Thank you, 

Frannie Myres 

Dear Frannie , 

Whilst we appreciate your suggestion that we change the layout and 
colour scheme of the magazine to become dull and monotone we regret 
to inform you that this will be impossible for us to achieve due to 
Malky's inhumanly high quotient of rockingness. His massively rocking 
genetic structure means that he is physically unable to do anything 
dull and/or monotone. We do, however, have a suggestion for you. 
Maybe you should have your children read the magazine wearing dark 
sunglasses. The effect of this should be twofold - firstly the dark tinting 
of the glasses should mute all of the colours to such an extent that 
they should no longer cause your boys to become hyperactive and rock 
out like Malky. The second result of the dark glasses should be that 
your boys become the coolest kids in school and therefore become a hit 
with the ladies. I hope this helps. 

You've won a Microsoft® 
IntelliMouse® Explorer for PC! 

Best. Mouse. Ever. The IntelliMouse® Explorer 
is an ergonomic optical mouse with five re¬ 
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Could be that I’m getting old and 
grumpy? Probably. Driver 3 was also 
disappointing to say the least. I was 
really looking forward to it. Maybe 
they’ll try harder next time. Can’t 
wait for GTA San Andreas on Xbox. 

Question: Do you think the 
graphics for GTA SA will be better on 
Xbox than what is currently on PS2? 

Enough of this waffle, what I 
would really like to know is this: 

Do you or most of your readers 
consider the Xbox controller 
superior to the PS2 one, especially 
when it comes to driving simulator 
games? Personally I do. Do you 
think that Sony will introduce an 
upgraded controller to match the 
Xbox one? Are most steering wheel 
systems for Xbox and PS2 crap? The 
ones I’ve tried are. I just couldn’t 
calibrate them successfully. Does it 
depend on the driving game being 
played? I suspect it does. Could 
your magazine do an assessment of 
the various steering wheel systems 
currently available, taking into 
consideration value for money, 
controllability and accuracy as well 
as their ruggedness. I think most 
of them are too cumbersome and 
awkward to set up. What are your 
thoughts? 

Cheats. How do they come about? 
I believe that the programmers 
and developers of the various 
games insert them for a bit of fun 
or because they’ve been sampling 
some strange chemical substances. 
But what is the route from there out 
to the public? Do some computer, 
techno nerds spend hours running 
through various controller button 
combinations till they come up 
with something or are the cheats 
unofficially/officially leaked to the 
public by the developers in some 
way or another? 

Any whisper of a Project Gotham 3 
in the pipeline? Hope so, can’t wait 
if there is. 

Thanks for your time and keep up 
the good work. 

Yours sincerely 

Renfrey G. Ansell 

Hey Renfrey 

An excellent point about American 


accents in the Middle Ages - that 
kind of thing annoys us too. Damn 
Yank-centric view of the world. In 
answer to your questions: 

-GTA will most definitely look 
superior on Xbox. The frame rate 
should be more consistent (which 
is the most important thing for our 
money), pop up should be lessened 
and character models will probably 
be more detailed. 

- The Xbox controller (Type S 
that is) is marginally better for 
racing simulations than the PS2 
controller, but that's only really 
because it has analogue triggers. 
Overall though, the PS2 controller 
is more utilitarian than the Xbox 
controller in our minds, and those 
four shoulder buttons really come 
in handy. We doubt that Sony will 
change it much for the PS3 (nor 
do we think they should - it's the 
best, most functional controller 
design since the SNES pad), but 
we wouldn't be surprised if they 
supplement it with another style of 
input. Eyetoy 2 anyone? 

- Many racing wheels are crap, it's 
true. The best one we've used in the 
last couple of years is the Williams 
Fi Team Racing Wheel, which is 
really affordable and available on 
PS2 and Xbox. We've never had 
much trouble with calibration, 
just make sure when you turn the 
console on the wheel is resting 

in the centre. Good wheels will 
have multiple sensitivity settings 
and good games will have options 
too. That said, we'll try and do a 
rundown soon. 

- Cheats are generally released to 
the public by either the developers 
or the publishers. It's a good way 
to keep a game in the public eye a 
few months after release. There are 
some games (like PC FPSs) though 
where you could conceivably work 
out the console commands yourself 

- "give health" is a whole lot easier 
to discover than X, X, 0 , L, R, Start. 
And then there are games like 
World of Warcraft, where gamers 
discovered all the emotes by trying 
commands out. 

- Project Gotham 3? Come E3 we 

should know all about 
it. We're thinking it 
will be an Xbox 2 

launch title. 


Dad walked in during a swear laden 
cutscene. He didn’t have a problem 
with me playing it, he just asked if 
there was a way to cut the swearing 
if a young, impressionable mind 
was exposed to it. Well, I searched 
and searched for a Parental Control 
option, but to no avail. Which brings 
me to my point: why don’t more 
developers include Parental Control 
in their games? Don’t get me wrong, 
I’m all for free speech and freedom 
of artistic expression, but it’d just 
be nice if the magic of more...erm... 
mature games could be experienced 
by all without any mind scarring 
experiences. 

From Robinson 

(P.S. Any word on the release 
date/price of the PSP? If it doesn’t 
come out by July i’ll just have to get 
aDS) 

There is a thing on the game to make 
sure that young and impressionable 
minds don't come in contact with 


the content of San Andreas already. 
It's called an MA rating. If somebody 
playing the game is not prepared 
for the content then maybe they 
shouldn't be playing it in the first 
place (and let's face it - swearing is 
far from the only thing that gives 
San Andreas a mature rating). If 
mature games could be experienced 
by all they wouldn't really be 
mature games then would they? 

MORE BIG UPS 

Dear Hyper, 

I’d like to start by saying to Owen 
and Misterk, what the hell is wrong 
with you!! Your complaining about 
the humour in the mag, why? Its one 
of the many reasons I buy it, a lot 
of other mags lack the humour and 
therefore are just plain and boring, 
and a lot of the time give crappy 
games good scores like that Spawn 
game on ps2. I cant remember what 
hyper gave it but another mag gave 



Michael 

Johnson expands 
the DS's horizons 


SO MANY 
SWEARS 

Dear Hyper, 

I don’t want to 
sound like a prude, but 
there is something that 
deeply concerns me 
about, y’know, stuff 
that ain’t for kids in 
games. You see, I was 
playing San Andreas 
the other day, and my 


92 HYPER» 









it 8 out of 10! I know Hyper gave it 
less then 50%, I know people have 
different opinions but its not just 
that game, it seems that official 
magazines just cant give out a bad 
review, so if u want honesty and 
fun buy Hyper, but if you want 
bullshit and boring buy OPS2M. 

But now onto something else 
that I’ve wanted to say for a 
while now, to all PlayStation and 
Microsoft loyalists: 

This was on the E3 DVD for 2004 
(I’ve only ever seen it in EB so to 
those that’s never seen it look 
there after E3 this year, its pretty 
cool) the man on the Nintendo 
DVD said and showed a chart 
showing that from 2001-2004 
Nintendo had sold more games 
then Microsoft and were closing 
in on Sony. Now, if that's not 
enough proof that Nintendo really 
know what they’re doing how about 
this: another chart was shown for 
the games industries growth and 
guess what, Sony had dropped 24% 
Microsoft hadn’t moved at all and 
Nintendo was the only company who 
caused the gaming industry any 
growth at all it had moved up by 
41%. So without Nintendo the Video 
Gaming Industry would be getting 
worse. Just have a little think about 
that before you all rush out to buy a 


PSP in March. 

Now I’m not saying that it’s a bad 
System I’m sure its great, but Sony 
concentrates more on the gamers who 
think ’WOW look at those graphics 
and the console looks so advanced’. 
But the reality is its all a disguise. Do 
Nintendo need DVD’s to sell systems? 
Nope, they rely on creative games like 
Pikmin and Paper Mario, so if you’re 
a Sony fanatic just play a Paper Mario 
game and see how different it is from 
most RPG. Just so you know I do own a 


PS2 and I love it, but they don’t have 
games like Nintendo do games that 
are so interactive you could swear 
its reality. And for all those that still 
think Nintendo is ’kiddie’ then open 
your damn eyes. Resident Evil is the 
opposite to that. Looks at other games 
like Eternal Darkness and Viewtiful Joe, 
which is now on PS2. Sure Nintendo 
adds a lot of colours into there games 
and have fire breathing dragon/turtle 
thing with spikes on its shell and little 


[above] Great stuff from Max Gibson 
No relation to Ari but they both rock 



www.blade.ee 

4/264 Old Cleveland Road, Coorparoo, Queensland 4151 07 3394 3555 








flower things you pull out of the 
ground to help rebuild a space 
ship... but it’s all just for fun so 
before you bag it try it, go into a 
shop or a friends house and play 
one for a while, just try it. 

2 more things quickly before 

1 go in issue 137 you said the 
Touch Screen was more for a 
younger audience, how can 
you say that? This opens up 
a truckload of opportunities 
for the developers and fun for 
us gamers. I’ve also noticed 
tons of games never even 
mentioned in Hyper, Zoids 
Legacy and every Yu-Gi-Oh! 
on any console as well as DBZ 

2 and 3 on PS2, Beyblade 
on GBA and GCN. It seems 
your avoiding all the kiddie 
reviews, you surely cant say 
you never got all of those games, 
now if it happened only once I could 
over look it but this man times? I cant 
blame you for not wanting to review 
Beyblade or something else you 
might think your too old for but its 
your job and obviously you got DBZ 
because you even said it’s a good 
game as a response to Aaron Nuske 

in #137. 

Not too end on a low note I really 
do love this mag and look forward to 
every issue but I really felt I needed 
to say all of that. 

Constructive criticism is never a 
low note champ. Believe it or not ., 
we rarely get sent kids games aside 
from the big ones like Robots (this 
issue) and the like. Total Gamer , our 
sister publication handles the kids 
game duties leaving us to review the 
games for an older audience. It's good 
that you've done your research but 
you should always take marketing 
numbers with a grain of salt as 
statistics are the easiest way to lie. 


A FINE MAHOCK TO ALL 

We are living in a golden age my 
friends. In my short life we’ve gone 
from the radness of Galaga to Metal 
Gear Solid. I can’t remember how 
long I’ve been playing videogames 
but I’m sure its been a decade if its 
a day. I came in somewhere around 
the tail end of the 8-Bit revolution, 
when it was Nintendo vs Sega all the 
way. I threw my lot in with the Master 
System. When I could afford it, I got 
myself a Super NES. Sega vs Nintendo 
went out the window and it was ALL 
about the games. Soon we heard 
rumours (for me, often through Hyper) 
of the Ultra 6 a and the Katana. Along 
a little thing called Playstation... 

? Start your drooling. 

So when did the folks who make 
wonderful contraptions lose 
imagination? Why does it seem 
inevitable that we will soon see 


[above] James Frith wanted a sample 
of Amos goodness 

Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s X-Box 2? 
Where did all the fun in naming your 
console go? Am I the only one who 
wants these two guys to go out on a 
limb? Respect a gaming tradition? 

Now, I am only partially a fool. I 
understand that Sony and Microsoft 
have spent untold billions of dollars 
burning their brand words into our 
cerebral cortexs. These companies 
are not Sega or Nintendo, hence 
they also have other non-gaming 
products available. This means their 
console gaming wares need to be 
immediately identifiable to us plebs 
with the 12 second attention spans 
everywhere. But I shudder at the 
thought of where it ends. 

At what point do the Sony 
marketing guys say ”Hmm... 
Playstation Seven? Maybe its time 
for a re-think...” And I think it’s 
a sure bet that our old buddies at 
Nintendo won’t be bringing the 
Gamecube successor to the table 
without a title befitting its no doubt 
zanyness. Despite my previous subtle 
claim to being an industry veteran, 

I realise this is small potatoes but its 
important to me. Bring the love you 
big clumsy corporations. 

Julbot. 

Hey dude - The new Nintendo console 
does have a great name to go along 
with the Nintendo wacky naming 
heritage. It's been dubbed the 
"Revolution". Whether or not this 
is simply a project code name or a 
final name remains to be seen but 
we're keeping our fingers crossed. 

It's not too goofy so we doubt it will 
be changed like the Dolphin was 
renamed the GameCube. Of course 
people may think that it only plays 
the crappy Aerosmith light gun 
arcade game from 10 years ago which 
could cause a slight problem. 


Amos Hong 

March T, 2005 

RE: MO more mascot ^ ^ resign ation from 
I write this spent as the 

being cool. ^ cutting-edge 

mascot for Austral ^ ^ experi ence I «tl 

games magazine helped me gr°«> 

never forget na ily. 

personally an P a big fan of 

Growing up I wa *j£talised in its pages is 
Hyper and to be> cherish . The time 

something X Wl1 J to move on as 

has come, however, tor * ds m ore creative 
Iper mascot and ">° ve sea ttle Seahawhs. 

endeavours - ^ attention they have 

I thank Hyper tor the was one of 

given me, but the tenure as mascot 

the many indications that^y^^ . lona l 

was moving towards 5 amazingly 

terms; if my ^^refaren't enough to 
handsome Korean ica i contact is 

dazzle indication that 1 m 

- -v • 

There is no bitter ^ ht be gone, 

and I know tMt °“ it „ill live on. RlwaYS 

through Hyper, y 

srsisr*-- “*• 

Hong 


You read that right. We regret to inform you that the world's favou¬ 
rite Korean everyman will be gone from the warm glowing warming 
glow of Hyper by the time you read this. This, of course, will leave 
Hyper with a serious Official Mascot Deficit. As such we need to call 
upon you, our loyal readers to help us out. We need you to vote for 
our new Official Mascot. We have looked long and hard for replace¬ 
ment mascots and cut down a long list to the following: 


1. Evil Malky 

"Let the crushing begin" 


2 . Moe "Moemar" Branscombe 

" There's mo limit" 


8 . Crate 


9. The Ghost of David Wildgoose 
"The ghost of mascots past" 


Votes or suggestions for other mascots can be sent to: 

lreakscene@next.cem.au 

We will let you know the results of the vote soon. 


7 . Little Miss Crazy Dance 

"You know, like, stuff" 


3. John "Playdate" Dewhurst 
*Tweaks nipples’ 

4. Andy "Butters" Bulmer 

"I can't believe it's not Butters" 

5. Tim Levy 

"Levy Love for everyone" 

6 . Giant Hamburger Guy 

"Does this burger make me look fat?" 


94 HYPER» 
























We play seriously 


QANTM COLLEGE 

DEGREES / DIPLOMAS / CERTIFICATES 


The experts in: 

- Games Programming 

- Animation 

- Graphic Design 

- Multimedia 

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Entry requirements apply 


ONLINE STUDY AVAILABLE 


Enquire today to discuss your career options 

Ph: 1300 136 933 
www.qantmcollege.edu.au 


Ph: 1300 136 933 

Level 13, 138 Albert St, Brisbane 

www.qantmcollege.edu.au 

enquiries@qantmcollege.edu.au 

CRICOS PROVIDER No: 02180G 













The Official Australian Games Chart 

Compiled by GfK in association with the IEAA 


TOP 

1C )J 


PlayStation 2 
Games Over $50 


W/E 6TM MARCH 
200S RET Alt. SALES 



Plus Adventure 
Playboy: The Mansion Strategy 
San Andreas Adventure 

NFS: Underground 2 Racing 

Ace Combat 5: Squdrn Ledr Simulator 
The Incredibles Adventure 

vs Raw Sports 
Eyetoy: Play 2 Pack Compilation 

Adventure 
SingStar Party Bundle All Other 


TOP 


10J 


Game Cube Games 
Over $50 


W/E 6TH MARCH 
200S RETAIL SALES 


Metroid Prime 2: Echoes 


Sports 
Adventure 

▲ Paper Mario 1000 Year Door Adventure 

Racing 

RPG 
Family 
Adventure 

Pikmin 2 Action 

ga w Drums All Other 

To O Yu-Gi-Oh Flsbound Kingdm Strategyture 



Mario Kart Double Dash 

n Colosseum 

Mario Party 5 


i~or 

ioJ 


PC Games 
Over $20 


' W/E 6TH MARCH 
200S RETAIL SALES 


1 

o 

The Sims 2: University 

Strategy 

*2 

♦ 

The Sims 2 

Strategy 

3 

▼ 

World Of WarCraft 

Strategy 

4 

A 

Half Life 2 

Action 

5 

▼ 

The Sims Deluxe 

Strategy 

6 

▼ 

Star Wars Old Republic 2 

RPG 

7 

o 

Playboy: The Mansion 

Strategy 

8 

T 

The Sims Unleashed 

Strategy 

9 

O 

Civilization 3 GNH 

Strategy 

10 

o 

V8 Supercars GNH 

Racing 


TOR 

^o) 


Nintendo DS Games 
Over $40 


W/E 6TH MARCH 
2005 RETAIL SALES 


m 


Super Mario 64 

Adventure 

2 

♦ 

WarioWare: Touched! 

Action 

m 


Asphalt: Urban GT 

Racing 

4 

♦ 

Spider-Man 2 

Adventure 

m 

A 

Sprung 

Adventure 

6 

▼ 

Tiger Woods PGA 2005 

Sports 

m 

♦ 

Zoo Keeper 

Action 

8 

♦ 

Ping Pals 

Action 




Strategy 


4 


TOR 

ioJ 


Xbox Games 
Over $50 


W/E 6TH MARCH 
2005 RETAIL SALES 


s Collection Plus Adventure 

Playboy: The Mansion Strategy 


Star Wars Old Republic 2 

12 

Fable 


Action 

RPG 

Racing 

RPG 

Adventure 

Adventure 



icy 


Game Boy Advance 
Games Over $30 


1 ▲ Finding Nemo + Monstrs Inc 

2 ▲ SpongeBob Double Pack 

3 ▼ Pok£mon Fire Red 

4 ▼ Pok^mon Leaf Green 

5 ▼ The Incredibles 

6 O Scooby Doo Double Pack 

7 O Yu-Gi-Oh Day Of The Duelist 

8 O Lizzie Mcguire+Dis Princess 

9 ▼ Potemon Sapphire 

10 T Pok^monRuby 


W/E 6TH MARCH 
2005 RETAIL SALES 


Adventure 

Adventure 

RPG 

RPG 

Adventure 

Adventure 

Strategy 

Adventure 

RPG 

RPG 


TOR 


ToJ 


All Full Priced 
Games 


W/E 6TH MARCH 
2005 RETAIL SALES 


Nintendo DS 
Sonic Mega Collection Plus PlayStation 2 
e Mansion PlayStation 2 

The Sims 2: University PC/MAC 

dreas PlayStation 2 

Sonic Mega Collection Plus Xbox 
Xbox 

NFS: Underground 2 PlayStation 2 

i Leader PlayStation 2 
WarioWare: Touched! Nintendo DS 



r MARKET WATCH 

- 1 

FEB 05 Vs JAN OS 

All Games by Platform 

RETAIL SALES 2004 



36% 


Growth 

-52% 

-64% 


-62% 

-58% 

-50% 


T 


j 


© New Entry 
♦ Non Mover 

A Up from 
last week 

▼ Down from 
last week 


GfK 


GfK's comprehensive database of online market intelligence, updated weekly 




GfK tracks the weekly sales of business and leisure technology products, and provides detailed reports to subscribers and 
retail panel members. For subscription or panel membership details phone 02 9900 2888. Copyright O 2005 by GfK. All rights reserved. 


V 











































True evil never dies 


requires Deem 3 
©U+ NSW 


A Game By 


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r E X P A N S I © N PACK N 

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idSoftware.com 


cemiNG 
APRIL 2005 


Developed By 


Distributed By 


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02005 Id Software. Inc All rights reserved 










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