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TM 
GODFATHER.EA.COM y 





HOW WILL YOU PLAY THE GODFATHER? 03.2006 


et 
; 1 
2 3 
4 i 
NS 
RVIACOm COMPANY " 








SEEING IS ВЕМЕУІМС 


COMING SOON 


Language 
Suggestive Themes 


Violence 





CONTENTS 


#03 m 





















үл 


БЕ 211 

PRETTIER IN 
ШЕТПЕ | 
GENERATION.” B 








zy 


B | DAT Are 


Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence 


4 Ii TL IT 


15 INPUT 
You talk too much—but we love you for it. 


^ HYPE 
22 ROYAL TREATMENT 


The Prince of Persia team moves on to the 
PlayStation 3. 


28 THE OPM INTERVIEW 
Psychonauts' Tim Schafer is a rebel with 
a cause. 


54 PS3 PREVIEWS 
Smokin’ hot previews of three more 
PlayStation 3 games! 


Tekken and Killzone get shrunken down, and 
Konami tries out some comic innovation. 


58 PS2 PREVIEWS 
Japan's answer to Grand Theft Auto, Окаті'ѕ 
exclusive demo, and Ballers goes Hollywood. 


а ЧЕ ЛЕНІ 


Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence 
FIFA Street 2 

MLB 06: The Show 
Torino 2006 

Fight Night Round 3 
Drakengard 2 

Sonic Riders 

Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 
24: The Game 

25 to Life 

Beatmania 


Final Fight: Streetwise 

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: 
Contents Under Pressure 
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams 


Metal Gear Acid 2 
Pursuit Force 

WRC: FIA World Rally 
Championship 


Exit 

Fight Night Round 3 
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max 
Street Supremacy 
Samurai Warriors 

Untold Legends: The 
Warrior's Code 
Generation of Chaos 


ИЕН pv 


100 TALKING BLACK 
Insight into the exclusive PS2 demo straight 
from the guys who made it. 


104 PLAYSTATION TACTICS 
There's more to tactical gaming than the world 
of Final Fantasy. 


1056 WIRELESS COUCH POTATO 
Too lazy to look all the way across the living 
room? Then watch TV on your PSP instead! 


108 WAY OF THE GUN 
The best—and worst—games for you to 
practice your lightgun skills on. 


ors. 


110 IN MY DAY 
Believe the hype. 


Ps3 


ца 
ва 
62 
su 


The Darkness 

Medal of Honor: Airborne 
Stranglehold 

Untold Legends: 

Dark Kingdom 


24: The Game 

25 to Life 

Beatmania 

Black 

Devil May Cry 3: 
Dante's Awakening 
Drakengard 2 

FIFA Street 2 

Fight Night Round 3 
Final Fight: Streetwise 
Kingdom Hearts 11 

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: 
Contents Under Pressure 
Metal Gear Solid 3: 
Subsistence 

MLB 06: The Show 
NBA Ballers: Phenom 
Okami 


Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams 


Sonic Riders 

Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 
Torino 2006 

Yakuza 


AAAI | 


ESP SEES 


go Exit 
90 Fight Night Round 3 
a5 Generation of Chaos 
вз Killzone: Liberation 
вв Metal Gear Acid 2 
55 Metal Gear Solid Digital Comic. 
ва Pursuit Force 
эч Samurai Warriors 
вв The Silent Hill Experience 
ао Street Fighter Alpha 3 Мах 
Street Supremacy 
Tekken: Dark Resurrection 


А FW 
h 


е 


ач Untold Legends: The 
Warrior's Code 

ва WRC: FIA World Rally 
Championship 





| CONTENTS 


WELCOME TO 

OUR WORLD 

One of the things we 
pride ourselves on is 
bringing you the latest 
and greatest demos the 
gaming world has to 
offer. That is one of the 
benefits of reading the 
Official U.S. PlayStation 
Magazine, which you 
are holding right here in 
your hands. 

This month we're 
excited to bring you the 
amazing demo for Black, 
so you too can share 
in the love of guns. 
Then delve deep into 
the world of Japanese 
myths, legends, and 
calligraphy with Okami 
before making your 
way through the ‘70s in 
Driver: Parallel Lines, 
complete with proper 
attire, vehicles, and а 
nice mullet. Or perhaps 
taking to the skies in an 
F-15C Eagle or the F/A- 
18C Hornet is more your 
style? Ace Combatwill 
let you do it. 

It's all here, so what 
are you waiting for? 
Grab the disc and get to 
your PlayStation 2. 


10 | => 


DASD) 


IMMANDOS 


Get a feel for how 
this game plays with 
these two levels, or 
view the trailer for 

а sampling of com- 
mandos in action. 


TROOPER 
Longtime fans of 
2000AD comics will 
remember this one. 
Check the trailer to 
see how well the title 
translates into the 
gaming realm. 


Picture this: You are 
a god in the shape 

of a wolf and you're 
hanging out with a 

fairy while using cal- 
ligraphy to make the 
world a better place. 

4 


TALES OF 

LEGENDIA 

Did you know this 

game features art- 

work by Kazuto Naka- 

zawa, best known 

for his animation 

sequence in Kill Bill? 
4 


Parallel Lines shows 
you how nothing 
beats a good set of 
wheels as you escape 
the strong arm of 

the law. 


PlayStation. 


SHAD 

Л THE f 

D 

Shadow Hearts 
includes stuff you 
won't remember from 
history, but don't let 
that keep you away! 


Frei 


PlayStation.c 


GENJI: DAWN OF 
THE SAMURAI 
Sample what it's 

like to be a samurai, 
ready to defeat a cor- 
rupt clan that rules 
Japan and to restore 
honor to your family. 


Go behind the scenes 
and get a closer look 
at this beautiful, 
hand-drawn world 
where calligraphy 
can be your powerful 
weapon of choice. 


BLACK 


Sample the story 
mode or try the new 
“test of valor"—either 
way, you'll have all the 
action-packed game- 
play you could want. 


BEATME 
Let your inner DJ 
loose with this demo 
for Beatmania as you 
drop beats and create 
the pulsing energy 

of a club in your very 
own home. 


PlayStation. 


m > 


ONIMUSHA: 
ПЕ D 

Last month you got 
the demo. Now find 
out more about Dawn 
of Dreams from the 
team behind the 
game. 


AN nae 
Videogame air 
superiority has been 
achieved. Sample 
the demo here on 
this disc. Go on, you 
know you want to. 


Find out how adept 
you are at solving 
logic problems in the 
brain-challenging 
PSP game РО. 














COMING 


PLAY IT! 

TOMB RAIDER: LEGEND 

FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 3 

ARENA FOOTBALL 

PLUS: A SPECIAL COLLECTION OF 
MUSIC-THEMED DEMOS 





Take a moment 


to see how well the series is doing with this month’s 


demo for The Belkan War, which takes place some 
15 years prior to the events of the last game. This is 
standard fare for the Ace Combat series, but don’t 





read that as a negative thing, as jumping into one of 
the many craft—including the F/A-18C Hornet in this 


demo—and loading up on some powerful missiles 


just never gets old. By the way, while the F-15C Eagle 


is a more well-rounded aircraft, the Hornet is better 


for the ground-based objectives of this demo mission. 
Remember to load up on some air-to-ground missiles 


such as the SOD to make things a little easier, too. 


NExT MONTH 


WATCH IT! 
ROGUE TROOPER 

THE GODFATHER 
HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY 
APE ESCAPE ACADEMY 
DAXTER 

BAND TOGETHER 


















Demo Disc Producers 

Gary Barth, Cori Lucas, Manuel Sousa, Chris Tan 
Marketing Team 

Steve Williams, Eric Lempel, Jesse Caid 
Executive Producer 

Andrew House 

QA 

Sam Bradley, Edward Toomy 

Account Coordinator 

Justin Flores 








Programming and interface artwork by 

Lifelike Productions, Inc. 

Lead Programmers William Bohan, Ron Midthun, Avery 
Lodato 

3D Artists Jason Robinson, Philip Williamson, 

David Hayes 

President Katherine Williams 

Technical Director Tim Edwards. 


Maimoona Block, Kirsten Costello, Christine DeNezza, 
Tom Gillan, Gerald Martin, Sean Thomas, Jim Williams 


4 


ISC PROBLEMS? Ў 


Did you buy a сору of our magazine that did not contain a 
demo DVD? Simply send the receipt in an envelope marked 
“ОРМ Replacement Disc" to OPM Disc Producer, Ziff 
Davis Media, 101 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, with 
the name and address of the store plus your phone number 
and address and we'll send you the disc. Make sure you 
specify which month the corresponding disc belongs to in 
order to ensure you get the right one. 

If you have a malfunctioning or nonworking demo disc, call 
EDS at 1-800-627-6458. They will provide instructions to 
obtain repair or replacement services. 

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) warrants 

to the original purchaser of the Official U.S. PlayStation 
Magazine that the demo disc included is free from defects 
in material and workmanship for a period of ninety (90) 
days from the date of purchase. SCEA agrees for a period 
of ninety (90) days to either repair or replace, at its option, 
the SCEA product. You must call EDS at 1-800-627-6458 to 
receive instructions to obtain repair/replacement services. 
This warranty shall not be applicable and shall be void if 
the defect in the SCEA product has arisen through abuse, 
unreasonable use, mistreatment, neglect, or breakage 
during shipment. THIS WARRANTY IS IN LIEU OF ALL 
OTHER WARRANTIES AND NO OTHER REPRESENTATIONS 
OR CLAIMS OF ANY NATURE SHALL BE BINDING ON 

OR OBLIGATE SCEA. ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES. 
APPLICABLE TO THIS SOFTWARE PRODUCT, INCLUDING 
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR 
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE LIMITED TO THE NINETY 
(90) DAY PERIOD DESCRIBED ABOVE. IN NO EVENT WILL 
SCEA BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL 
DAMAGES RESULTING FROM POSSESSION, USE, OR 
MALFUNCTION OF THE SCEA SOFTWARE PRODUCT. 
Some states do not allow limitations as to how long an 
implied warranty lasts and/or exclusions or limitations of 
consequential damages, so the above limitations and/or 
exclusions of liability may not apply to you. This warranty 
gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have 
other rights that vary from state to state. 





атат 1] 











LL TOM BYRON JOE PYBICK!I 
25 JONGEWAARD has PlayStation knowl- 
was very excited to go edge that is unparal- 
A leled, plus he's an 
astounding writer (his 
[Г] new column is already 
a hit). In appreciation, 
LLI we've tapped him to 
ДЕ write next month's cover 
story. (Shh, don't tell him 
- yet. We don't want to 


ruin the surprise.) 


to Sweden for the first 
time to see The Darkness, 
even though Sweden in 
February is very, very 
cold. But after asking the 
locals, "Ursákta, kan jag 
fa lite öl?” she was able 
to battle the chilly winter 
elements just fine. 





TT “23 ? 
HIEI2I2v GIANCARLO 
NGUYEN YARANINI 

seen a bird! And by bird, wants to say "congratu- 
we mean a new baby lations” to Heather this 
daughter, as opposed to month for rocking the 
an old baby daughter. business at SC, and no, 
The long nights of play- he doesn't mean Soul 
ing games will now be Calibur. You're the best. 
accompanied by the In other news, seagulls 
cries of an infant and are annoying and gang 
people finally realizing up on other birds to steal 
that Scooter's a dad. food. That sucks. 





ALEJANDZO 
CHAYETTA 
wants to toast to all of you 
for making this moment 
(amongst others) possible 
at the 1UP awards party. 
And yes, he and Ryan 

do look quite hot in this 
picture! (Although he is 
hotter thanks to his very 
snazzy sweater vest.) 
Uchaim! 


тт 
PYAN чик 
would like to give a 

big shout-out to the 
Memento crew. There 
are too many names for 
him to throw out all at 
once, but you know who 
you are, sportin' the very 
sensual pink pearl above 
your heads. It's a tal- 
ented crew that's above 
the rest. Word. 


LOGAN Раве 
is addicted to Chinese 
food. He is scouring 
San Francisco for the 
absolute best and spicy 
Hunan food he can find. 
Do you have a recom- 
mendation? Catch his 
blog at logans_run.1UP 
.com and let him know 
во he can compare your 
findings to his own. 





CONTRIBUTORS 
EDIT 

Robert Coffey 
Brian Intihar 
Chris Kohler 

= б Jane Pinckard 
GREG SEWART Ryan Scott 
hails from the same ART 

country cold comes from: 
Canada. He worked for 
OPM's sister mag Elec- 
tronic Gaming Monthly 





Í 
NICH 
MARAGOS 
moved to San Francisco 
for the high-flying, laissez- 
faire life of a videogame 
freelancer. Recent deficits 
in the high-flying and 
laissez-faire departments 
have made him reconsider. 
debaser.1UP.com 





GREG FORD 
was recently named the 
copy chief for the Ziff 
Davis Game Group. But 
he even more recently 
quit that job to go work 
with his buddies over at 
EGM. Drop him a line of 
congratulations! 

egm ford.1UP.com 


ROBERT 
ASHLEY 

comes from Texas, 
where they grow their 
game reviewers tall and 
snarky. He also makes 
music in not one, but 
two different bands. He's 
multifunctional like that. 
robertashley.1UP.com 


Martin Adolfsson 
Yanick Dery 
Merkley??? 
Mark Wasyl 

for years before joining, FONTS 


CommunityService, 
Unfinished 
by YouWorkForThem 


and then leaving, the 
game-design community. 
stewy.1UP.com 





























Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (ISSN #1094-6683) is published monthly by Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, Now York, NY 10016. Periodicals Postage Paid at New York, NY 10016 and additional 
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Official U.S, PlayStation Magazine, РО. Box 55382, Boulder, CO 80322-5362, For Subscription Service Inquiries call us at 800-627-6458 U.S. and Canada, or 303-604 
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please write to us at: Official U.S, Playstation Magazine, РО. Box 55362, Boulder, CO 80322-5362. Copyright © 2006 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine is a registered 
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Mail Agreement No. 40009221. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON 148 «86. Printed in the USA. 











Editor-in-Chief Tom Byron 
Managing Editor Dana Jongewaard 
Senior Editor Joe Rybicki 
Now Dad Thierry Nguyen 
News Editar Giancarlo Varanini 
Art Director Ryan Vulk 
Assistant Art Director Alejandro Chavotta 
Dise Producer Logan Parr 
Editorial Contributors Robert Ashley, Robert Coffey, Greg Ford, 
Brian Intihar. Cris Kohler, Nich Maragos, Jeremy Parish, Jane 
Pinckard, John Scalzi, Ryan Scott, Greg Sewart, Andrew Vestal 
Copy Chief Greg Ford 
Copy Editor Susie Ochs 
Senior Production Manager Anne Marie Miguel 
Production Manager Monica Brent 
President Scott C. McCarthy 
Vice President of Sales Scott McDaniel 
Senior Vice President and GM Online Ira Becker 
nt and Editorial Director John Davison 
nt of Marketing, Research & Events Rey Ledda 














Vice President of Sales Scott McD 
Senior Director of Advertising Sales Marci Yamaguchi 
GAMING ACCOUNTS—NORTHWEST 

Regional Sales Director Amy Mishra 

Account Executive Brent Martyn 

SOUTHWEST Southern CA, AZ 

Regional Sales Director Leslie C. Gelfand 

Account Executive Rita Kline 

EAST AL AR, СО, CT, DE, FL, GA, А, 10, IN, KS, KY, LA, МА, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, 
MT. NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, ОК, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, 
WA, WI WV, WY, Canada 

Regional Sales Manager Andrew Reedman 

Account Executive Jessica Reback 

CONSUMER ACCOUNTS 

Senior Director of Consumer Advertising Sales Marc Callison 
West Regional Sales Director Laura Hill 

East Regional Salos Director Bruce Kaplan 

Account Executive Jessica Reinert 

‘AUTOMOTIVE ACCOUNTS—DETROIT 

Regional Sales Manager Ken Stubblefield 

Promotions Manager Wendy Donohue 

ing Coordinator Tipler Ubbelohde 

Assistant Lynn Fortunato 

Sales Assistant Tiffany Orf 

To contact sales and advertising, please call 415-547-8000 
Editor-in-Chief Sam Kennedy 

Senior Manager of Client Services Alex Jakovleski 

Senior Manager of Ad Operations Adam Carey 

Audience Development Manager Nopadon Wongpakdee 
Advertising Campaign Coordinator LeAnne Hsu 

Research Director May Tong 

PR Manager Jason Freidenfelds 

Marketing Coordinator Vanessa Alvarado 

Marketing Graphic Designor Drew Hathaway 

Chairman & CEO Robert F. Callahan 

inancial Officer Mark Moyer 

ive Vice President & Chief Content Officer Michael J. Miller 
Executive Vice President, Licensing & Legal Affairs, General 
Counsel & Secretary Gregory Barton 

Prosidents 

Scott C. McCarthy (Game Group) 

Sloan Seymour (Enterprise Group) 

Jason Young (Consumer Tech/Small Business Group) 

Senior Vice Presidents 

Kenneth Beach (Corporate Sales) 

Jim Louderback (Editorial Director, Consumer/Small Business Group) 
Angelo Mandarano (Sales & Marketing, Internet) 

Martha Schwartz (Custom Solutions Group) 

Elda Vale (Research/Market Intelligence & Corporate Marketing) 
Michael Vizard (Editorial Director, Enterprise Group) 

Vice Presidents 

Aiden Colie (CTO, Ziff Davis Internet) 

John Davison (Editorial Director, Game Group) 

Sara DeCarlo (Consumer Marketing & Database Management) 
Aaron Goldberg (Market Experts) 

Barry Harrigan (Internet) 

Kristin Holmes (International Licensing) 

Michael Krieger (Market Experts) 

Rick Lehrbaum (Internet) 

Carlos Lugo (Production) 

Eric Lundquist (Editor-in-Chief, eWEEK) 

Chris Maginn (Internet) 

Jim McCabe (PC Magazine) 

Scott McDaniel (Sales, Game Group) 

Paul O'Reilly (Event Marketing Group) 

Ellen Pearlman (Editor-in-Chief, CIO Insight) 

Beth Repeta (Human Resources) 

Stephen Sutton (Audience Development, Consumer/Small Business Group) 
Stephen Veith (Enterprise Group Publishing Director) 

Monica Vila (Event Marketing Group) 

Randy Zane (Corporate Communications) 
























IT West Coast. 
Senior Technical Analyst Bill Schmelzer 
Desktop Administrator Nick Kalister 








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To subscribe online 














12 | DORIT Ae: 





2006 





What Dank Beast Lurks Within You? 





Immerse yourself in an epic storyline Experience five chapters of stunning Hack, slash and morph your way 
brought to life through dramatic new levels rendered in exquisite through the game with the help of 
in-game cinematics and voiceovers. graphical quality and enhanced detail. the superior combat system. 


Pre-order now at WWW.UNtoldlegends.com 


Animated Blood T 
Fantasy Violence — — a — — 


ESRB CONTENT RATING www.estb.org ENTERTAINMENT 








PlayStation.Portable 


BEAUTIFULLY 








RATING PENDING pamu 
Б Visit www.esrb.org 


R for updated rating 
information. 


CONTENT RATED BY 
ESRB 












| "27 4 Е 
(c) 2006 10 Interactive A/S. Hitman, Hitman Blood Money, Eidos and the Eidos logo are trademarks of the SCi Entertainment Group, All rights resdrved. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered Iraemarks bI a> 
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logo, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S, and/or in other countries and are used under Ё 
license from Microsoft. The rating icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. 






қ SPRING 2006 
MH ITMAN 
BLOOD Z MONEY 


www.HitmanBloodMoney.com EEE) 4 





$6 | н- Шин E | | E 











i LIT 


THE МПГЕ OF THE РЕОРІЕ..О2 WHATEVE 4 








It doesn't exist, but in my mind it does, 

and | am frequently creating games for it. 
It's really cool because all the things | hate 
about some games or wish for in others... 
well, all | have to do think up that game that 
1 would like to play. It is a nice feeling of 
oppressed power. | call the system the Vid- 
ball. І also created a handheld system called 
the Vidpad because | couldn't resist. 


га CAST GREAT Р52 GAME? 


ONTACT OPM 


OPM 

101 Second Street 

8th Floor 

San Francisco, CA 94105 


and check us out at 


or call 1-800-627-6458 


FUMITO 
SUS DIRECT! 


One day | thought up my own game system. 





Throughout the Devil May Cry series, | have 
always found the best character to be often 
the most overlooked one by fans: Sparda. He's 
the man who kicked the ass of hell all by his 
lonesome. He's the father of the series' hero. 
He left the legendary weapons that ran amok 
іп DMC3. And upon playing DMC3: Special 
Edition, | have found the closest thing to prov- 
ing to you how unbelievably awesome of a 
hero he is: Super Sparda. That was the series" 
highlight for me. Sparda: Best DMC character. 
Сап get a "Hell yeah"? 





1. Love the new format for the 100th issue. 
Well, that's great. Thanks! We do, too. 

2. What's up with all the late demos in Issue 
#101? 

It actually takes longer to put together the DVD 
than it takes to put together the magazine, and 
sometimes demos don't make our deadlines. 
Sure, we'd love for all our demos to be timely, 
but we also think demos are cool no matter 
when you get them. 

3. Could you do the "Track Gran Turismo 4" 
thing for Tourist Trophy? This game needs 
hype. 

We're pretty sure anything that comes from 
Polyphony is going to do well. 

4. Ever thought of collecting the best demos 
and shoving them all on one demo disc? 

Yes, as a matter of fact, we have! Wish we 
could say more. 

5. With regard to Gamers Are Talking About 
[a sidebar in Input] in Issue #101, can | get a 
trip to ChickenNext's house to try to dethrone 
the so-called biggest Tony Hawk game fan? I 
would put up a challenge. 

ChickenNext, what say you? 

6. When is GT4 Mobile coming out?! 

That's an excellent question. 

7. Can you put this e-mail in your mag so | can 
brag to all my friends how I’m in a magazine 
and they're not? l'Il give you a dollar. :) 
Yes—now pay up! 

Keep up the good work. Ever since Issue #19 


(my first), l've been hooked on OPM. It's a 
drug... 
Just say no! Er, scratch that. 





Гат а longtime reader of your magazine and 
love it. | just wanted to say | love your new 
sections like In My Day and love what you are 
doing for the gaming community. Can't wait 
for the next issue; you give me something to 
look forward to every month. 


Thanks! In My Day is senior editor Joe 
Rybicki's new monthly column found on our 
PS. page at the end of every issue. You can 
contact Joe and any of OPM’s columnists 
through OPM@ziffdavis.com. 


1. Can you make Kingdom Hearts Il the cover 
of OPM again and have about a 20-page 
review of it? 

Sorry, no more covers, but you can bet KH2 
will get a feature review in an upcoming issue. 
Word from Square Enix is that the game hits 
stores March 28. 

2. Is there going to be a playable demo [of 
КН2І on any future OPM DVDs? 

Sadly, no. According the Square Enix, no 
demo is in the works. 

3. Is there someone at OPM who can translate 
Japanese and will be willing to come to my 
house and sit for countless hours while | play 
КН2 and translate the Japanese version for 
me? Or do | have to wait a big two months for 
it to come out? 

No, but March 28 is coming sooner than you 
think. 

Thanks. OPM ROCKS!!! 

We can't say no to that. 


I've been an OPM subscriber for more than 
five years now and really enjoy it. But | take 











AAI 





pL E? 


Is the PS3 really coming this year? 
Seems like only yesterday that the PS2 
entered our lives. In the thread entitled 
"| want the PS3, but there are so many 
games | still haven't played for the PS2," 
Itchybrowndog's not sure he's emotion- 
ally ready for the next generation: 

"| can't wait for the PS3, but | love 
my PS2—it goes everywhere with me. It 
almost feels like I'm cheating on my PS2 
when I think of the PS3. Does anyone 
else have this problem, or is it just me?" 

"You're not the only one," agrees 
shibbydashang1. "When the PS2 was 
released, there were still so many PS1 


GAMES ARE TALKING ABOUT 


STRAIGHT FROM THE OPM MESSAGE BOARDS (BOARDS.1UP.COM) 








games that | wanted to play before 
moving on. So | waited a year and half 
to get a PS2. In that time, | was able to 
play the PS1 games | wanted and got 
a PS2 when its priced dropped from 
$299 (plus, | didn't have to buy a buggy 
first edition)." 

Botkiller, always the pragmatist, 
offers some accidental comfort: "Call 
me crazy, but | don't see a problem 
playing current and next-generation 
games at the same time." 

Knight cloak isn't worried: “І have 
plenty of games for my PS2 | could play 


for the next five years and not be bored." 





jp 


FROM МЕ TO YOU 


Dear Everybody, 

These Input pages may not reflect it, but our February cover story featuring Hideo 
Kojima stirred an enormous reader response and debate. At center was Kojima- 
san's feeling that games are not art. He couldn't possibly have known the beehive 
he would stir. 

But it was a beehive with bit of honey. The games-as-art debate took on a life of 
its own, arguments flying back and forth like at a pro tennis match. The liveliness and 
spirit of the dialogue was invigorating, intelligent, articulate, and well thought out. 
Sure, the occasional “That's just your opinion, and like derrieres, everyone has one” 
or some similar attempt to shut people up slipped in. But it was to no avail. 

That's what rigorous discussion is all about: People having insights, taking posi- 
tions, challenging each other, and making the rest of us think—a good break from 
the usual “When's GTA4 coming out?" questions we normally get. Thanks for all your 
letters and e-mails regarding the Kojima interview. It's gratifying to know OPM read- 
ers can be so passionate and articulate. 


SUBSCRIBERS! HERE'S SOMETHING YOU MAY NOT KNOW 
Here's something subscribers may not know: You can log on to 


address, report missing issues or other problems, and even pay for or renew a sub- 
scription. Neat. 

Take care, 

Tom Byron, Editor-in-Chief 








PENNY ARCADE 


PENNY-ARCADE.COM 


80, Penny Arcade (5 
realigning its resources. 
From now on, you'll be getting 
your resources in a line 
downtown. 


You're Piring 
me? 


I've got а studio x 
006 oF Korea willing to draw 
all this Por PiPty cents Д 

a Strip. 


= 
I own half 
the company! 


Actually, I 


acquired your half in 
a hostile takeover 


What hostile 
takeover? 








2¢ гит 





offense at your decision to run [web comic] 
Penny Arcade uncensored. 1 do think that 
Penny Arcade is a funny strip and have 
enjoyed it in the past. But OPM is a magazine 
for all kinds of gamers and people. There are 
parents who would never let their kids watch 
an episode of South Park but who get their 
kids subscriptions to your magazine with a 
certain trust. Unlike videogames that have a 
rating on the front, there is no indication that 
OPM would not be suitable for kids. | work 
with teenagers at my church and | would 
normally not have a problem letting them 
borrow my copy of the magazine, but [foul 
language] is not a necessary part of a video- 
game magazine. 





I'm all for innovation, as | am all for interna- 
tional understanding and friendship, both of 
which are exemplified by online gaming. | am, 
however, concerned that developers will even- 
tually forget that there are those of us that do 
not participate in online gaming, not because 
we dislike the games or we can't afford the 
subscription fees, but because we are antiso- 
cial. And when 1 say antisocial, | mean genu- 
inely antisocial, not Goth-style, Ally Sheedy- 
in-The-Breakfast-Club types, those who say 
they're antisocial only so that other "antiso- 
cial" people will hang out with them. There 
are those who actually do dread existing in the 
same tangible reality as other people but don't 
have the strength of will to end it. 

That's why videogames are so much fun: 
They're not the reality we're used to; it's fil- 
tered, improved, exaggerated. And the even- 
tual domination of online gaming has the 
ability to force some, the ones who still play 
videogames alone in dark rooms with only 
an Elliott Smith album and Big Gulp of Sprite 
as company, to face other people in the ways 
we so despise. | have a hard time asking 
convenience store clerks for change or calling 
tech support when my crummy Internet ser- 
vice goes out. But when I'm playing a game 
and happen to miss a shot or fail to capture 
a certain flag and some loudmouth named 
SeXMachine69 calls me an "F-ing noob," it 
only helps to solidify my desired avoidance 
of humanity. 

І don't expect developers to cater to a small 
demographic of emotionally stunted consum- 
ers, but | hope that good single-player games 
don't fall by the wayside as the tide of MMO- 
RPGs or online sports games takes over the 
industry. Maybe one day, when | pull myself 
out from my well of self-pity, | can jump on 
the online bandwagon and totally change my 
tune. Until then, all | want is to be left alone 
with a fun solo game in which to get lost. 




















THE PARTY: 





























| have been a huge fan of the SOCOM 
series since the first game. | have always 
enjoyed the realism of lying in wait for 
enemies, etc. | have to disagree with you 
on SOCOM 3 being the best of the series. 
The online portion of SOCOM 3 is the best, 
hands down. But the single-player por- 
tion suffers greatly from the technique of 
“dumbing down" the game. The actions 
that you can get your team to do have 
decreased in number. A command as sim- 
ple as "lead to" isn't included in this install- 
ment. I'm also disappointed that you can't 
send your team to [certain areas to have. 
them perform] specific actions in the field. 
І understand the need to make the online 
portion better, but the core game shouldn't 
suffer at the expense of making the game 
more mainstream. 


READE 
SCORE 


MULTIPLAYER 


457 


SINGLE PLAYER 


“Now, here's the kicker. Ready? You are 
actually going to want to play the single- 
player campaign, too! І know that may be 
hard to believe for longtime SOCOM fans, 


but it's absolutely true." 


OFM 
SCORE 


Want to have your say about a recent game? Thin 


review (don't forget the score!) to ТӨРІ ЕД 























AN ГӘМІГЕ: 
WILLD ARMS 4 


Wild Arms has always taken a backseat to 
grander RPGs, but it's always been able to 
please both its fans and newcomers that 
are drawn into the series. But seeing the 
horribly biased review of Wild Arms 4 by. 

a Final Fantasy fanboy wasn't what 1, or 
many other fans of the series, expected in 
OPM [Issue #101]. Though the game is very 
linear and does focus a little too much on 
RPG clichés, its battle system is exceedingly 
pleasing and a nice change from other stan- 
dard RPGs. 

Your reviewer must have not even 
played more than four hours of the game, 
and after looking at his page on 1UP.com, | 
must say his collection is centered on Final 
Fantasy. If the game were called Final Fan- 
tasy Arms 4, l'm sure it would have gotten 
a 5 out of 5. | feel Wild Arms 4 is really 
well done overall. You will be hooked by 
the game's beautiful environments, great 
customization of characters, and wild 


Sols 


"The Wild Arms series has gone from 
merely banal to actively irritating. With such 
a wealth of RPGs getting translated and 
more companies eager to get into the act, 
it'S about time this appendix was removed." 


La. 


you can do better than us? Send your 
n with the subject "READER REVIE! 


READE 
SCORE 


OPM 
SCORE 





Leonora is a hardcore 
RPG gamer, having put 
in over 40 hours on such. 
classics as Suikoden 

11, Suikoden IIl, and 
Shin Megami Tensei: 
Nocturne. In her latest 
posting, she weighs in 
‘on the RPG game-length 
debate: 

"| noticed while 
wandering around 10Р. 
that many people have 
the opinion that an RPG 
with a main quest that 
lasts 28 hours is ‘short.’ 
Then | came upon this 
quote іп 1UP’s Grandia 
111 review: 

“That must be the 
cardinal rule in the RPG 
handbook; “Games 
should take no less than 
50 hours to complete.” 
l'm fine with that rule, if 
there's actually compel- 
ling content for 50-plus 
hours. In the case of 
Grandia, it's closer to 35, 
but it's a pretty brilliant 
35 hours overall, making 
up for the remaining 
lacklister 15. 

"| think this rule is a 
major problem in RPGS 
right now, and | agree 
with [1UP reviewer 
Jane] Pinckard that 





games should reach or 
surpass this length only 
when there is a real 
reason for them to." 
Leonora 


Tomb Raider and Lara 
Croft fans will find kin- 
dred spirits here at one 
of the hottest clubs on 
1UP. Angel of Darkness 
fans welcome, too. 


tombraider-club.1UP 














Experience the untold story 


beteen Seasone ата З An adrenaline rush of espionage, 


Interrogate and conduct gunfights and car chases 
surveillance on suspects 


Utilize your elite Counter Terrorist Unit 
(CTU) training in over 50 missions 





ARE YOU READY FOR THE MOST THRILLING DAY OF YOUR LIFE? 
THE CLOCK IS TICKING... j 


| www.24-thegame.com | www.fox.com/24 | All new episodes only on FOX | Available Now | 
Mondays 9/8с 


ЕЗ PlayStation.c 


241! & © 2006 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, All rights reserved. Twentieth Century Fox Television, 24, and their associated logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Take-Two 
Interactive Software, Inc. 2K Games, the 2K logo, Take-Two Interactive Software and the Take-Two Company logo are all trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Developed by SCEE Cambridge Studio. "PlayStation" and the "PS" 
Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All rights reserved. 





ESRB CONTENT RATING 


cambridge 





THE FAT] 8 


шин HAN 


H4 





Ф” - 








Perlect SP 


THE RING IS BACK. 


The danger is on your turf now. The Shadow Hearts series 
comes home, bringing the adventure to familiar locations like 
New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas. А shape-shitting bounty 
hunter and other unlikely heroes are your sole allies. Your only 
hope of stopping body-snatching demons is to harness the 
power of the Judgment Ring. Make the most of new abilities, 
double moves, and double combos. 


This land is your land. For now. 


www.shadowheartsnewworld.com seeD 


GAMES 


Crude Humor 





Mild Language 

Suggestive Themes 

Use of Alcohol and Tobacco 
Violence 


www.xseedgames.com 





PlayStation. 


CONTENT RATED BY 
ES 





























$ | AYA uz 





“Ж” 


Expectations: Sometimes they can be unreasonably high. But at other 
times, they can help to motivate a group or individual to go above 
and beyond the call of duty. With the excellent Prince of Persia: The 
Sands of Time under its belt, among other games, Ubisoft's Montreal 
studio is currently facing such a situation. How do you live up to such 
high expectations when you're working with a brand-new property, 


PPeEEVIEINS AND NEWS [же Бә] ү THE WOLD called Project Assassins, on a brand;new System? “It's a very expe- 
ПЕ PLAYSTATION rienced and strong-headed team,” says executive producer Yannis 


Mallat. “The pressure comes from the pedigree of the team. My job 
here is to make sure that we don’t have outside pressure, because the 
team itself always tries to break the rules and cross frontiers—it has 


its own pressure coming from the inside." 

"It is internally driven," says Jade Raymond, the game's producer. 
"The two main lead guys defining the main character, the assassin, 
created all the moves for the Prince, and they have this vision of what a 
next-generation character is going to be like and the amount of control 
the player has. They set the bar really high for themselves." 


Even with the internal challenges the team has been giving itself 
in the development of Project Assassins, jumping from the PS2 to the 
PS3 presents its own unique set of hurdles. "From my perspective, | 
Т H E D а е К N E S S think it's riskier because of the scope and money involved. We have to 

be sure and more confident about where the money goes, and we also 
PS3 BLACK MAGIC! have a lot more people,” says Mallat. “On the creative side, nothing is 
E really different. Since we don't have that many constraints, we have to 
give ourselves our own constraints because whatever the RAM budget 
is, whether it's 32MB or 512MB, it's still a limit." 

“We're kind of lucky, because | inherited the core team that shipped 
28 PSYCHONAUT 42 CALENDAR The Sands of Time,” says Raymond. “We have people who have seen 
Tim Schafer spills the beans. The month for you and your PS2. many different consoles, so they've been through the challenges of 
new technology. Also, they've all been creating games for a long time 
THE [2E TLII2N 44 PS3 PREVIEWS and they all have an idea of what ‘next generation’ 

John Davison on the PS3. The games are coming! But it's not as if the Montreal team isn't familiar with challenges 
| or taking risks. In fact, much of what the team learned from its time 
PSP PREVIEINS working on Prince of Persia has been applied to the development 
Can you say "Killzone"? of Project Assassins. "Most of the things that went well are on the 
human and philosophical aspects," says Mallat. "The team loved the 
PS2 PREVIEWS philosophy of the engine—in terms of how we work with it and the 
Wolf gods and celebrity. ballers. level editor, it's a global creation where everyone participates. It gives 
more time for back-and-forth to check ideas and it fits with this team. 
Project Assassins we've kept the same processes that we had on 












гч 































PAUSE 
When you're not playing games. 












(шин! 
Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo. 








TAEEN T= 


Sands of Time by giving the team enough preproduction time to be 
able to test the ideas within the gameplay or within playable versions 
of the game.” 

That wasn’t the only way the team benefited from working on The 
Sands of Time. Despite the struggle against Ubisoft management at 
the time, the end result afforded the team a great deal of respect in 
the company, which has given it much more freedom in the devel- 
opment of Project Assassins. “| was a producer on Sands of Time,” 
Mallat recalls. “I had to struggle with upper management and had to 
tell them, ‘I'm not done with preproduction, even if this is the best pro- 
totype you've ever seen. If we rush into production, we're going to get 
screwed.' Ultimately, what's right for the people is right for the com- 
pany. We have more freedom in terms of creativity. Obviously, we're 
dealing with a new IP and we've had more time and that's great. But 
we also need the challenge." 

Ubisoft Montreal is not only taking on that challenge, but also 
defining what that will mean for other developers on the PlayStation 
3. “I've asked the team to create an entirely new next-generation 
engine, and this is where the challenge is going to be," Mallat says. 
“You might find next-generation games on the market, but they're 


“YOU MIGHT FIND NEXT-GEN GAMES ON THE 


E MONTIZEAt 


MEN AT NORK 





& T EJDICT, шаны) 














ЕЛЇЕ! 











BF ШЕ 

















ЕТ“ EIVIHI2E, 








TACKI 














SS 





JE IE 











PMENT 





MARKET, BUT ТНЕУ РЕ USING OLDER-GEN ENGINES.” 


using older-generation engines. But when you're talking about real 
next-generation engines, this is where our game really profits, and 
we'll be showing that soon." 

"We knew that we were going to leverage the graphics potential to 
get a new level of realism, but we're also leveraging the Cell architec- 
ture to get more Al, smoother animation, and all this stuff," Raymond 
explains. "We're really focusing on crowd АІ and creating new types of 
gameplay with crowd interaction. Some of that is really hard to get to 
work off the bat because sometimes the simulations can take on a life 
of their own and produce something you weren't expecting. We have 
many different layers in the crowd Al system because we're trying to Yannis 
build a sandbox where you can interact with the crowd when you're =o 
not on a mission. We also want to have a lot of level-design compo- ac 
nents where the crowd [will behave accordingly]." Frankly, we can't 
wait to see all of this in action. 


@ 
АШАЙ 














ТЕ ЕС 


CRTs are the standard TV sets you see in most households and сап 
come in projection and standard display modes. While they can offer 
a very clean, vibrant, and crisp picture, many are not HD capable. 
They're also incredibly heavy and expensive compared to front- and 
rear-projection TVs powered by LCD and DLP technology. 


This high-definition technology is essentially an evolution of LCD 
technology. In most cases, it provides a more vibrant picture with 
better color display (most LCD TVs have problems displaying black 
colors as truly black). DLP offers all of the other benefits of LCD tech- 
nology as well, but some consumers have noticed a rainbow color 
effect on some DLP TVs that could be potentially distracting. 


While LCD technology was severely lacking in quality in previous 
years because of blurring problems, recent advancements have 
made it the most affordable and reliable technology. Plus, you don't 
have to worry about burn-in and you get a really amazing picture 
with minimal blurring. 








THE HIGH-DEFINITION EVOLUTION 


Avoid it. Plasma TV technology is way too expensive and touchy 
to really make it worth your time. Yes, in many cases it can provide 
an amazing picture, but there are far more reliable and inexpensive 
technologies that can provide you with a great HD experience. 


NS ANS 


RESOLUTIONS 


қ” АА “соо 






It's the lowest progressive-scan resolution out there and is available 
on most TVs, but it is not considered an HD resolution. 


This is the main HD resolution and probably the one that most Play- 
Station 3 games will be coded for. Surprisingly, a lot of early-model 
HDTVs don't display 720p natively; such sets would have to convert 
the signal to another resolution in order to display it properly. 


It's the highest resolution of most currently available sets, though 
many can only display up to 1080i since 1080p sets have just started 
to hit the market. 


pue 




















POGES- 
SINE US. 
INTERLACED 

















You might have heard 
people talking about pro- 
gressive and interlaced 
when referring to resolu- 
tions. It's simple. Progres- 
sive is the better option 

in most cases because it 
draws the entire image 
on the display at once 
instead of every other 
line, which is what inter- 
lacing does. However, 
there's some debate as to 
whether or not something 
like 720p is better than 
1080i, because the former 
option gives you progres- 
sive scan while the latter 
gives you a higher resolu- 
tion that's interlaced. 
Ultimately, it comes down 
to your own taste. 


GET 
INNEL'TED 
The Р53 will have a con- 
nection port called HDMI 
along with the standard 
audio/video jacks. You 
can hook up a PS3 
through standard audio/ 
video jacks by using com- 
ponent cables, which are 
usually sold separately. 
However, HDMI is a 
better alternative to com- 
ponent cables because 
there's less degradation 
in the image quality; you 
just have to find a TV 
that has an HDMI jack. If 
your TV has DVI, which 
is essentially the same 
as HDMI but without the 
audio component, then 
you can purchase an 
adapter to make it work. 









































IN COMMAND. IN CONTROL. ON THE MOVE. 


3 | 
STRATEGIC MILITARY 
WARFARE IN THE PALM 
OF YOUR HAND. 


E 
x Ж 


Ж. A 


x FIELD» - 
COMMANDER 


JOIN THE RANKS AT 
IITA WWW.FIELDCOMMANDERGAME.COM 










Turn the Battlefield to Your Advantage in 30 


Wage War Multiplayer Style, in Ad Hoc, 
Single-Player Missions. 


Infrastructure, Hot Swap and Transmission Modes. 





Blood 
Violence 





гэ >, 


PlayStation. Portable 





ESRB CONTENT RATING _www.estb.org 


Game experience may ENTERTAINMENT: 
change during online play. 





© 2006 Sony Online Entertainment Inc. SOE and the SOE logo are registered trademarks and Field Commander is a trademark of Sony Online Entertainment Inc. "PSP" is a trademark and “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family 
logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. АЙ rights reserved. 


2 HWwBE IIBENDSPUITTEIZ 


Pretty much all of us expected popular PlayStation franchises to appear on the PSP at some 
point, but what surprises us most is the incredible surge within the last few months. It makes 
sense—if you want a game to sell, be it portable or otherwise, a familiar name can go a long 
way. After all, look what it did for the president of the United States, and he's not even a video- 
game—though he does occasionally stutter like a poor framerate. Anyway, here's to the influx of 
big names on the PSP and the inevitable lack of creativity to follow! | 


E 
МЕЙ 


TOM CLANCY’ 
SPLINTER CELL ESSENTIALS: 


TEKKEN S: 
DARK RESURRECTION 


HE NE 
STREET FIGHTER 
ALPHA 3 мах 

a 


SYPHON FILTER: DAXTER 


DARK meer 


> 














While we all eagerly await Sony СЕА5 
official pricing announcement for the 
PlayStation 3, we can try to get a good 
idea as to what it may cost by looking 
at its individual components, or at least 
speculate how much of a loss Sony is 
willing to absorb on each PlayStation 3 
sold. In early January, Pioneer revealed 
that it'll be releasing a $1,800 Blu-ray 
player. Samsung announced plans for a 
$1,000 player. It's highly unlikely that the 
PlayStation 3—which also serves as a 
Blu-ray player—will cost over $1,000, 
but you can bet that Sony will try to 
reinforce the idea that you're paying far 
less for something that normally costs 
over a grand. That's all well and good 


for the hardware, but what about pric- 
ing for the Blu-ray discs? 

Interestingly, Sony Pictures 
announced that it will charge retail- 
ers only $23.45 for every new-release 
Blu-ray movie disc, which is about a 20 
percent markup over DVD technology. 
Movies currently available on DVD 
that are rereleased on Blu-ray will be 
sold to retailers for $17.95. Sounds like 
а deal, but don't expect this pricing 10 
come into play for PlayStation 3 games, 
as most retailers, including GameStop 
and Electronics Boutique, expect them 
to retail for approximately $60—the 
same price as most Xbox 360 games, 
which are on regular DVDs. 


WHAT WE WANT ON THE PLAYSTATION: CONDEMNED: CRIMINAL ORIGINS 


It's interesting how one of the most popular franchises on television, 
CSI, has yet to have any sort of adequate game based on its premise. 
Who wouldn't want to play as an investigator at the scene of a grisly 
murder, attempting to find clues and capture the killer? Condemned: 
Criminal Origins (Xbox 360) not only puts you in that role, but takes 
it one step further by making it as creepy as possible. Seriously, 
playing this game with the lights off and a 5.1 system cranked up 

is akin to walking on a narrow wooden bridge on top of a cliff with. 
alligators in the river below waiting to munch on you (thanks, Temple 
of Doom!). Plus, there's something special about smacking a drug- 
crazed hobo over the head with a lead pipe that you ripped from the 
wall—no other game really lets you do that. 




















rhe Battle for an ancient 
кейс Begins U with the Hunt 
foc the “Merines”.. 


adrift on an endless, caging ocean, senel 
coolidge and his sister shirley find 
themselves drawn ashore a mysterious 
ship. known as the Legacy, it is an ancient 
relic that conceals countless dangers — 
including those who lie in wait for shirley. 


то save his sister, senel and his party 
uncover the deepest secrets of a legendary 
ship, and in the process, discover the ties 
that bind them all. 


Take strength from friendship. таке pride 
in love. rake everything that you believe 






In and turn it all ro power. 






























> Anew cost of endeacing 
characters in о stunning throw mossive en 
Зр setting. the first Hi 


Fantasy Violence 
OFFICIAL 


Mild Language Ч 
Suggestive Themes Á STRATEG 













د 
НЕВЕ INTEPUE/A‏ | $ 








DOUBLY FINE 





3| DAM 






TRAVELING THOUGH 





He's the closest 


THE MIND OF TIM SCHAFEIZ 





OFM Most people know about your roots as a PC adventure-game 
developer for LucasArts, but can you tell us a little more about the time 
before that? Where did you grow up and how did you get into games? 
| TIM SCHAFER | grew up in Sonoma, which is about an hour 
north of [San Francisco] in wine country. It's really a tranquil, idyllic, 
Leave It to Beaver kind of town. As a kid, | always thought it was kind 
of boring, and we were always left wondering what we were going to 
do. | remember [when] my dad brought home an Odyssey—it had car- 
tridges you could plug in, and they were all basically versions of Pong, 
but you had these plastic overlays you could put over the screen. There 
was this submarine game, or at least they said it was submarine game, 
but it was really just the Pong paddles that moved around a maze. | 
loved that thing. There was this target game where you just shot the 
Pong paddles as they moved around. Everyone in my family played 
it. Then my dad brought home an Atari, and | freaked out over that. | 
played it, played it, and played it. | would even sit there and watch the 
attract mode of Combat with the biplanes flying through the clouds. 
Then | played Adventure, and | just loved the castle, and the dragons 
that looked like ducks, and the bats that looked like an H. 

My brother, who is about nine years older than me, was in college 
at the time. He had a Teletype and some Teletype games. He would sit 
there and type his name and password to get into a mainframe, and 
everything about it seemed so cool to me. | thought it was exciting that 
you had to type in a username and password. 

So | ended up going to school and getting into computers. Even- 
tually, | was at UC Santa Cruz, and it had a pretty big effect on me 
because | was able to take a wide range of classes. Actually, it was 
all of the classes outside my major that [I found most interesting]. 
There was one class where we studied these people who would have 
problems in their lives. These problems would manifest themselves 
into dreams--so they'd see an animal or a lake or something crazy like 
that, and a lot of that is in Psychonauts. | thought it was really cool that 
people who weren't poets and writers could come up with stuff that 
was so abstract. 

Eventually, | transferred to UC Berkeley. While | was there | took a 
lot of English classes, and that's where | started to read a lot of inter- 
esting stuff, like Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. | also loved 
my anthropology class and folklore class. We studied folklore from all 
around the world. | learned about the modern stuff, urban legends, and 
that's where І learned about the Day of the Dead, which became the 


inspiration for Grim Fandango. That's also where | learned the impor- 
tance of knowing how to write. These folktales all have these really 
imaginative things that people have passed down, and every culture 
has them. It's а great place to rip things off. [Even things like Star Wars] 
are so heavily based in folklore. 


OPM UC Santa Cruz and the surrounding area are kind of unique. 
It's pretty isolated. What did you think of the people there? 
| TS | remember when | went there, | didn't leave campus for three 
weeks because it's so self-contained. It's nice when you're a freshman 
because you don't have to get an apartment or figure any of that other 
stuff out. But we weren't really accepted by the town. One time we 
were riding the bus to the school from town, and this lady got up and 
told all of us, "Please don't vote. You're only going to be here for four 
years, so you'll mess up everything for the people that live here." I 
didn't buy that. But anyway, | was at the art college, Porter, where our 
first class was an overview of all this stuff—architecture, poetry, and 
music. 1 still ended ир in computer science, but it definitely helped 


Хат ШС BERKELEY, | LEARNED ABOUT THE DAY OF 
| THE DEAD, WHICH INSPIZED GEIM FANDANGO.” 


broaden my horizons, which is good when you're stuck underground in 
a computer lab. 


OPM Because of your experiences at school, did you ever think that 
you didn't want to do the whole computer programming thing? 
| TS Originally, | wasn't really aiming to be a designer because it 
didn't occur to me that you could make a living in the game industry. 1 
knew there were companies that made the games, but | never thought 
"а get a job at one of them. | thought I'd get more and more into 
writing and less into programming. Plus, you always heard about the 
boring programming jobs. When you were looking for jobs, you never 
saw one for games, but you always saw listings for database work and 
things like that. 


OPM How did you go from being a programmer to designing your 
own games at LucasArts? 











Q | HTAE__INTEPJIEN 


TS Well, a group of us were thrown into SCUMM University, 
because all of the LucasArts games used SCUMM [Script Creation 
Utility for Maniac Mansion]. The four of us were messing around with 
it, writing our own dialogue. They gave us some old art to work with, 
so we were just writing goofy stuff and joking around, trying to make 
each other laugh. | think LucasArts was watching us the whole time, 
and they picked me and one other person out and said that they liked 
the writing so they put us on the Monkey Island games. We were just 
So excited to be at Skywalker Ranch and to be around Star Wars before 
the Episode | stuff. | felt really lucky to be right out of school and going 
to a company like that. 

Also, the old LucasArts team had like 40 people, and | thought they 
were all geniuses. They were all talented and always dedicated to 
doing smart and original stuff. And getting hooked up with Ron Gil- 
bert—he was our mentor and | learned a lot from him. | also learned 
how to be creative and to not be afraid to throw around new ideas. | 
wrote this one joke thinking we were going to take it out, and he told 
us to run with it. That's when | learned to not be afraid, because some- 
times your own self-censorship can be your worst enemy. No idea is 
too strange or too goofy. 


ОРМ Would you say that your experience at LucasArts was positive 
on the whole, or were tl things that were pretty disheartening? 
TS | learned good and bad things, definitely. One of the hard lessons 








LUCAS, 


THE MAIN 


is learning how easy it is to be in a creatively driven environment and 
not be really worried about money. It's much harder [now] to do what 
we did in the old days—now we have to find that interception between 
what we think is cool and what will work for the audience. [As far as 
good things go], | had this standard set because of all the people there 
like Ron—that whole studio was about quality. Nothing got watered 
down. Plus, we had some advice from George Lucas. He didn’t come 
around a whole lot, but he came around a few times. For Monkey 
Island, we didn't have a name for the main character. We just called 
him "Guy" because he was a guy. Anyway, George came around and 
explained how [important the main character is] and how you can put 
all of your eggs behind the main character and build everything else 
around that, make the whole story be that person's story. 


OPM Is that how you design your games? 

TS I've done both. I've heard that the Japanese developers make 
а cool character that works really well, then they think about the envi- 
ronment they can drop it into. It's different from the American design, 
where they build this huge crazy world, then [create] the characters and 
hope that it works. For Grim Fandango, | definitely wanted to bring this 
world to life and have all of these cool skeletons walking around. Then | 
thought about who would be the best character for the Land of the Dead. 
Conversely, Full Throttle was a story about a biker, so we thought about 
what kind of world we can we fit him in. It can go both ways. 





“ЛЕ HAD ADUICE 
ЕІ20М БЕО2БЕ 


HE -Ex PLAINED 
HEIN AMICI T ANT 


снавастЕг: IS: 









\ 


It's like free cap day 
without having to go to the stadium. 


PlayStation.e 
X 


EVERYONE 














LIVE IN YOUR W2RLD. 
PLAY IN URS 





“FREE with game purchase. Details inside specially marked packages of MLB ‘06 The Show or visit playstation.us.com/mlb06 for details. Offer expires 6/17/06 or while supplies last. Selection of team based on 
availability at time of redemption, Major League Baseball, Hall of Fame and Minor League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc., and the National 


Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., respectively. Visit the official Web site at MLB.com. ©2006 MLBPA, Official Licensee-Major League Baseball Players Association. Visit the Players Choice on the Web at 
www.MLBPlayers.com. ©2006 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “Live In Your World. Play In Ours.” 
is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment of America Inc. 









AMERICAN PLATEFORME GHABACTERS 





FEEL LIKE THEY UE BEEN LISED шр» 


МІ E-S TED. *. 


tte, 


ОРМ People have said that about Psychonauts—that it has a Japa- 
nese design sensibility, in that the world was built around the character. 
| TS Well, it was definitely influenced by a lot of Japanese games, 
starting with Zelda, Mario, and Mario 64, which was a huge influence, 
as was Skies of Arcadia. 105 not like we were ignoring Japanese games, 
because a lot of the games we admire are Japanese. For American 
games, | was not inspired by the shadow movement, or the movement 
to darken games. These developers think that [the old style] won't sell, 
so they ask how we can make our characters dark, and they just say, 
“Well, let's just throw him in a jail and have him be there for a long 
time." It seerns so cheap. And for American platformer characters, 
which started off being so happy, it feels like they've been used or 
molested. They've been perverted and turned into these dark, suppos- 
edly more marketable, violent characters. 


ОРМ Is that the biggest problem facing the industry? Everyone's out 
to make money and no one cares about the actual games? 
| TS 1 don't know. I'm not a marketing genius; otherwise, Psychonauts 
would've sold a lot more than it did. I'm worried about the superficial 
interpretation of [the audience]. If you hear опе kid say, "I wish | had 
more guns," then all of a sudden all kids want to use guns. These kids 
aren't game designers. I'm not saying their opinions don't matter. I'm 
saying the obligation of game designers is to come up with something 
that's challenging and entertaining. They shouldn't just get a list of 


32 | CTI Ara. 2006 





impressions from a focus group and go with that. | mean, it's like with 
Tomb Raider. No focus group sat around and said, “We want Raiders 
of the Lost Ark, but with a girl.” | just wish we had the luxury of having 
game design where you [the game designer] think something will be 
popular so you fight for it. People may not understand it, but you have 
to give them the chance to like it. That gets harder and harder. 


ОРМ Is there anything you would've changed during the develop- 
ment of Psychonauts? 

TS I just wouldn't have been late. And there are lots of things | 
couldn't have known. | brought some key members on late in the proj- 
ect, when they probably should've been on the whole time. There was 
a lot of turmoil in getting a team together, but now it's like a well-oiled 
machine, and that's the great thing about starting on this new project. 
15 like you're starting with a dream team. 


OPM Will Double Fine be supporting multiple systems this time 
around and not developing primarily for one platform? Can you tell us 
anything about this new project? 
| TS Our engineering is much more platform agnostic, so yeah, we're 
not going to be tied to one system. The new project is different from 
anything l've done before, but it's something l've wanted to do for 
a long time. We're all very excited, and we've all had a ton of fun in 
designing it and doing a mock-up of it. 








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PS3 PI2EDIC TONS АМО PUNDITUDE 


Tom asked me to begin my first column by 
introducing myself to you all, and then pro- 
vided the vague direction that he wanted 
"something interesting and/or funny." 
Some of you may have some vague recol- 
lection of my ugly, hairy mug from my pre- 
vious incarnation as the ringleader around 
these parts. Before taking up my current 
position as Tom's boss, | was the editor-in- 
chief of this magazine for five years. Previ- 
ously, Га been steering EGM's fortunes. 
through the PS1 and Dreamcast years, and | 
hopped over to take the rudder on our Offi- 
cial PlayStation ship a few months before 
the PS2 was launched. Looking back, there 
are a lot parallels between what was going 


on back then and what we're seeing now in 
the run-up to PlayStation 3. 

So, with part. опе of Tom's request taken 
care of, here's my crack at the second part: 
some predictions! 

І should preclude this with some sort of 
disclaimer, | guess. What follows is simply 
unabashed punditry, and despite being pre- 
sented with a certain amount of conviction, 
it's by no means fueled by any under-the- 
table note passing at some sort of execu- 
tive level. In short, l'm guessing. They are 
educated guesses extrapolated from his- 
torical precedent and current information, 
but...yeah...l'm pretty much winging it here 
in an attempt to provoke some debate. 











I'm going to say November in the United 
States, and I’m going to say that it won't 
be a penny more than $399.99. Why? 
Because Sony really can't afford 10 

be more than a year behind its main 
competition, and Microsoft has set a 
pricing precedent that only a crazy 








person would break. You can't turn up 
to the party late, demand more cash, 
and just keep your fingers crossed that 
everyone's dumb enough to tolerate that. 
The guts of the PS3 may well be made of 
magic beans and alien technology, but 
the Xbox 360 has set the price point. 





We've all looked at the prototype 
boomerang banana thing and probably 
wondered what the hell Kutaragi and 
his cronies have been smoking. This 
was more than likely a case of them 
sticking something different out there 
to see how much change we'd tolerate. 
Judging from reactions after E3 last 
year, "not much" seems to sum that up 
quite nicely. Consider this, though: The 
banana is as small and slender as young 
Scooter's well-manicured fingers, but 
it's also supposed to be wireless. If it's 





going to use Bluetooth, it's going to need 
juice, and for that it needs somewhere 
for the batteries to go—probably some 
kind of receptacle that can accommo- 
date a couple of AAs. So unless Kutaragi 
has found a way to make it run on magi- 
cal fairy dust, that prototype version isn't 
go to work unless it's connected with a 
cord. My guess? The DualShock 3 will 
look an awful lot like the DualShock 2 
with an unsightly bulge on the back. 

In fact, it may look remarkably like 
Logitech's delightful wireless pad. 








THE LINEUP 




















There probably won't be very many 
games on day one, and much like we 
saw at the PS2 launch (and, indeed, the 
360 launch), very few will show the true 
potential of the system. Coupled with the 
inevitable hardware supply problems 

in November and December, this will 











fuel pretty much the exact same media 
coverage that we saw with the 360 over 
Thanksgiving last year. Warhawk may 
make the “launch window” and will 
hopefully be spectacular, but the real 
jaw-droppers on the system aren't going 
to be shown until ЕЗ in 2007. 








rise 





From of hero 









registered trademarks of Sony Computer E 









a 









Switch between 4 Lay waste to entire armies nnihilate enemies 
characters with unique on the ground and in the air. with more than 60 weapons 
weapons and abilities. in over 90 missions. 


£9 PlayStation.e SQUARE ENIX. UBISOFT’ 





We're not recommending any spe- 
Cific brand of cowboy hat, but you 
should really go out and get one. 
Not only will it protect you from the 
sun's harmful rays while you're out 
wrangling some cattle or shopping 
for Dr. Pepper, but it will also make 
people think you're Walker, Texas 
Ranger. Really, you can't go wrong 
either way, unless you try to rope 
cattle while drinking Dr. Pepper, 
because that's just asking for all 
sorts of trouble. 














WHEN v EILITHE NOT 
PLAYING GAMES 





Carl Zimmer 


Actually, this is the last thing you 
want to go out and feel. This wasp 
controls the movements of cock- 
roaches, which it needs to lay its 
eggs, by jamming its stinger into the 
roach’s brain and searching for the 
part that controls movement. Once 
found, the wasp “guides” the cock- 
roach to go back to its lair, where 

it begins the whole egg-laying pro- 
cess. Nature is totally screwed up 
and scary, and these kinds of things 
freak us out! 





WORD BY CHUCK KLOS 


гам 8-ЕТ 
Jon M. Gibson 


Videogames may not be 
art to some, but surely art 
inspired by videogames 
is still considered art. / 
Am 8-Bitis a collection 
of paintings, drawings, | 
and other forms of artistry | 
that focuses on various 
videogames, ranging from 
Super Mario Bros. and 
Metroidto Mega Man and 
Dig Dug. A lot of the art in 
here is pretty damn cool 
and may actually surprise 
you, particularly the image 
of Link from The Legend 
of Zelda standing with 

his mouth agape and a 
cigarette sticking out to 
one side. 


BY JON M. GIBSON f 














David Hasselhoff 


Dachshunds, angels, motorcycles, the Hoff—words 
simply cannot describe how these elements come 
together in a sweet symphony of blue screen effects 
and complete crap. Seriously, Hasselhoff, what the 
hell were you thinking? Sure, we've all imagined 
what it would be like to fake-snowboard down a 
mountain, only to take a bite out of an enormous fake 
salmon. Or hey, how about looking like a complete 
jackass jumping next to footage of the Masai war- 
riors from Africa? Do a search for “Hooked on a 
Feeling” at Youtube.com to check it out for yourself. 











Imagine if all of the dudes in the Killers were actu- 

ally not dudes, but women instead, and you'd have 
Von lva! OK, so maybe that's not the most accurate 
description since the Killers are a bunch of sellouts. 

A better description would bethis: Imagine badass | 
girls who play 10 times better and 10 times harder | 
than the Killers making some crazy electro-blues 
shenanigans with so much energy that your head 

will explode. 


The Black Mages д 


It's not thatthe Black Mages аге new or amazingly 
good, but the fact that the Black Mages are headed 
by Nobuo Uematsu—the man behind the music for 
the Final Fantasy games—makes the band notewor- | 
thy if you've never had a chance to check them out. 
The Black Mages perform rock remixes of various 
Final Fantasy songs, which you can now download 

on iTunes along with all kinds of other Final Fantasy 
music, including orchestral versions of songs! 























mma] 













ЕСЕ. STRIKE FIRST. <=" 


Ч = 


WWW.COMMANDOSSTRIKEFORCE.COM 
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Blood 


rt. | 1 13 : 
а a PlayStation 2 Saree 












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The rating icon is a registered 


¢ | HTAE_NENS 


GOD OF WAI 2 


Representatives from Sony CEA have indeed confirmed that a God of War sequel is on the 
way, which shouldn't surprise anyone who finished the original game. Many of the unlockable 
extras found in God of War hinted heavily at a sequel, to the point that it seemed as though a 
follow-up was right around the corner. Indeed, it seems some aspects of the original game that 
the developer axed (and also featured in the extras), such as the Icarus wings for Kratos, have 
a strong chance of showing up in the sequel—we're anxious to see how much of that content 
makes the transition. 

While the sequel will still be developed at Sony's Santa Monica studio, David Jaffe, who was 
lead designer on the original God of War, isn't the one directly in charge, since he's currently 
busy working on HL for the PSP. Whether or not this will affect the overall direction, gameplay 
mechanics, or other aspects of the game remains to be seen, but either way, God of War 2 has 
some very high expectations to live up to. | 


PLAYSTATEØN BITS 


If you can't get enough of Hideo Kojima 
and his Kojima Productions studio (and 
we know you can't), then you'll be 
happy to know that Mr. Metal Gear has 
started an audio blog, or podcast if you 
will, in which he will more than likely 
discuss a variety of topics ranging from 
whatever he ate last night to the cur- 
rent state of gaming... Elsewhere, the 
perpetual delay facing Square Enix’s 
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will 
end—in April. The holdup seems to 
stem from a variety of issues ranging 
from lackluster reviews to rampant 
Internet downloads and extras that 


IT DOES MORE THAN PLAY GAMES 


Art director at Starbreeze Studios, 
currently working on The Darkness. 


I just recently bought the PSP and 

а copy of GTA: Liberty City Stories. “ 

| really want to play The Sims 2, but 
the reviews for the PSP version have 
been a big turnoff. | just want a good 
turn-based sci-fi RPG such as Fallout 
or UFO: Enemy Unknown. Seems like I'll 
have to wait. 


2005 was an unusually horrible year at 


haven't been finished... On our side of 
the pond, Electronic Arts has reportedly 
laid off a sizable portion of its Redwood 
Shores studio, according to 1UP.com. 
This studio is currently working on The 
Godfather and other versions of From 
Russia With Love, so maybe that's not 
such a bad thing... Lastly, in the "here 
we go again” category, Rockstar is 
being sued for the umpteenth time. This 
time, it's coming from a Los Angeles 
attorney who claims the company 
withheld key information that would've 
prevented San Andreas' appearance in 
stores. Yeah, take a number. 


the movies. The only film I'm looking 
forward to is Brokeback Mountain, 
which I'll acquire at first opportunity. 


Gearing up for the new Tool release 
by listening to their previous albums. | 
think their upcoming record is going to 
be the greatest work of art humanity 
has ever mustered. Also listening to 
Tomahawk and Meshuggah. 


Currently researching the Panasonic 
AG-HVX200. It will rule the indie film- 
making world. 





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Recently, the tracking moguls at the NPD Group released data show- 
ing 2005 as the best year for videogames sales on record; the $10.5 
billion in sales represented a 6 percent increase over 2004's numbers 
and the highest since the NPD started tracking this information. 
Things are looking up—in America, at least. But in Japan, the industry 
continues its slow decline. New iterations of popular franchises sell 
fewer and fewer copies, and the overall size of the industry has signif- 
icantly shrunk from the PS1 glory days. Where did things go wrong? 

Here's one theory: Grand Theft Auto. Each of the GTA games 
has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide—but only 250,000 
of those copies in Japan. That's a reasonably good showing, but 
nowhere near blockbuster status. Missing out on GTA isn't necessarily 
the end of the world, but Japan missed out on the series' aftereffects, 
too. The countless clones, for starters. Some copied the free-roam- 
ing gameplay (Mercenaries, The Simpsons: Hit & Run), while others 
mindlessly aped the urban style (50 Cent: Bulletproof, 25 to Life), but 
all attempted to deliver something different from what gamers got 
from the original blueprint. But it was the GTA entries' strong sales 
numbers, not their gameplay, that had the strongest aftershocks. The 
top-selling series of this generation is M-rated and extremely graphic? 
You'd better believe the moneymen noticed. The age of the average 
gamer had been increasing for a while, but GTA3 marked a paradigm 
shift in the industry's perception of the market. Adult gamers were 
now the most powerful force around, and developers shifted the tar- 
get demographics of their titles to match. 

Except that none of this happened in Japan. Grand Theft Auto sold 
reasonably well, but it ended up only a midrange hit. The Japanese 
market blithely trundled on, continuing to focus on the same eternal 
demographic: the lucrative but limited shonen market, consisting of 
boys ages 8 to 14. Think about it: How many RPGs have you played 
with plucky teenage protagonists? More to the point, how many 
more do you want to play? It's a well-known fact of marketing that 
demographics only scale in one direction: Kids desperately want what 














the adults have, but adults leave childish things behind. And by not 
expanding its "acceptable" demographic range, the Japanese market 
is letting older gamers slip away. 

However, some Japanese developers have finally started going 
after this "forgotten" older market. In fact, the Nintendo DS is trounc- 
ing Sony's PlayStation Portable not because of traditional Nintendo 
franchises but thanks to the million-selling Brain Training series 
and foreign-language learning dictionaries. And while these are not 
traditional "games," they still cater to a neglected market niche that 
needed addressing. 

Sega, meanwhile, has published a small gem called Ryu Ga 
Gotoku, or "Like a Dragon." The game's genre defies description— 
essentially, it's a yakuza simulator. As the game begins, ex-yakuza 


LIFE OF CRIME 
Want to learn more 
about Sega's wild 
yakuza simulator? Be 
sure to check out the 
preview on page 68 
for more details on 
what you can do in 
this Grand Theft Auto- 
inspired game with a 
Japanese flavor. 








€—— 





THE JAPANESE MARKET BLITHELY CONTINUES TO 
FOCUS ON THE SAME ETERNAL DEMOGRAPHIC, 





protagonist Kazama Kiryu has just served 10 years in prison for a 
crime he didn't commit. The game follows his search for answers 

as he fights to understand how the world has changed during his 
absence. In sharp contrast to the explanation-heavy dialogue of most 
shonen games, Ryu Ga Gotoku features a script by a professional 
novelist, and the story feels like a Beat Takeshi-penned drama, not a 
"programmer plot" that merely strings together set pieces. 

The game's presentation is also uniquely serious: The overworld is 
nothing but a few bustling blocks of a fictional red light district, metic- 
ulously modeled down to every faded sign and broken bike frame. 

It's a dark, violent, and truly mature game. Fortunately, it's not only 
selling well, but selling consistently, and it's still in the top 20 after 
two months of release. Hopefully, its critical and sales success will 
encourage other developers to seek out the adult Japanese market. | 











i play. i win. i gloat. i kick back. i catch a movie. 
i hear some tunes. all thanks to one little card. 


Turn your PSP" (PlayStation? Portable) handheld entertainment device into a fully loaded multimedia machine. 
How? With a SanDisk? gaming memory card. It gives you the power to play music, view pictures, watch 
movies and of course save countless game data, all with one little card. Also available for PC gamers — the 
new Cruzer Crossfire" USB Flash Drive. It lets you take your game demos, trailers, game saves and casual 
games with you wherever you go. The Cruzer Crossfire carries music and photos for Xbox 360" users. 


WWW.SANDISK.COM/USPLAYSTATION 





Cruzer Crossfire" USB 
Flash Drive 


8 
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Memory Stick 
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an са 


Ї 


1 


AHAL OD 


THE MONTH AHEAD FOR YOU AND YOUR PLAYSTATION 


SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 


NEW GAMES NEW GAMES NEW FLICKS 


Twinkies (one of 
Your PSP can finally /, gaming's great 
load up on the snacks) were 
games with Metal invented in 1930. 
4 Gear Acid 2, Тһе So far their shelf. In addition to sav- 
OPM's favorite Е “Р” Getaway, and Mor- life is 76 years and ing the world on 24, 
master of cuisine, I Kombat: Decep- CN 1. counting. Kiefer Sutherland Insert April Fool's 
lovingly nicknamed tion all available. = - also appears in joke here about 
"the Mario of Iron The Wild (opening Sony handing out 
Chefs,” turns 64. --- today) and Тһе PlayStation 3 con- 
Happy birthday, IBM's first laptop A Sentinel (opening soles today. 
Hiroyuki Sak was released in ١ next week). 
RE 1986. What would Show-off. 
you pay for a 13- 3 
pound 4.77MHz 
processor with 
256KB of RAM? Will Lara let us down 
again? Tomb Raider: 
Legend shows up on | 
store shelves today, { Harry Potter's 
so you can find out | Че. Emma Watson 
for yourself. | turns 16, which 
Н ч means she is old 
P A Show some love enough to drive but 
2 to the god of war— still not old enough 
Wi d it's David Jaffe's for you to think of 
birthday. 


That kid who could 
see dead people 
(and who is also the 
voice of Kingdom Aeris fans, rejoice: Celebrate making 
Remember when Hearts’ Sora) turns Final Fantasy: it halfway through The computer Could it be that the 
Max Headroom was 6 Advent Children Consumer Aware- mouse, which seeming impos- 
the coolest thing should finally be ness Week by was introduced by sibility of a good 
ever? New Coke available on UMD. treating yourself to Xerox, is a quarter videogame-based 
debuted 21 years some new games. of a century old. movie has hap- Pull out the dance- 
ETSI Rr EVA ОБ UNACUM Ё 22! pened? We'll know pad and bust a 


TT РРР today when Silent move—it's Interna- 


Hill comes out. tional Dance Day. 





NEW GAMES i. МЕЛІ FLICKS 
[Igne ng Ane Aw SSCs CSE Ae EEE 








14 HSE, TOU “TOME STE 2Y — o ç< I SM Y NN M ay ui 


% 





хе | s] - 2008, 


MA 


Jackie Estacado is in a 
bit of a bind. For one 
thing, his Mafia boss 
uncle wants him dead. 
And then there's that 
little matter of being pos- 
sessed by an unknown 
evil. And he's not quite 
sure what to make of 
these demon heads 
sprouting out of his 
shoulders, either. 

But the news isn't all 
bad. When you look as 
pretty as the screenshot 
on these pages does, it 


makes you feel all warm 
and fuzzy inside. And 
it's not every day that 
a videogame character 
gets his premiere on the 
PlayStation 3. 
5 
IN 
ШИО) 
ШИ 





НІНЕ _COUEle STOPY 











WHAT 
MAPPII 
ИОА 

A very simplified 

explanation of normal 

mapping is thatitis a 

technique that allows 

developers to take very 22 . 
high-resolution figures: 

like these darklings 5 T 
here—and convert them 2d 

with specialized software 

into figures that use a lot — : 2 
fewer polygons. Fewer 2 
polygons mean system 
hardware doesn't have 
to work as hard, which in 
turn means you're able 
to have more happening 
without sacrificing the 
quality of graphics or the 
game's framerate. 






















DARBHTESS: 
THE MDE 




















While The Darkness 
was optioned as а 
movie not long after 
Starbreeze signed on 
to do the game, the 
two projects are not 
related aside from 
ы тиши their common source 
ШЕГЕ Т IE NEST GENERATION After Riddick, Starbreeze began looking for a new project to work material, the Top 
It's not much to look at: just a big, perforated silver box with some on; eventually their search led them to The Darkness, a comic from Cow comic. Brothers 
outputs in a black panel. If you saw it next to some outdated stereo publisher Top Cow. The story follows Jackie Estacado, an orphan Oxide Pang Chun and 
equipment on a shelf at Goodwill, you wouldn't give it a second glance. adopted by a mob boss, his uncle Paulie. On Jackie's 21st birthday, he Danny Pang, who have 
"That's our fourth version," says engine programmer Jim Tjellen, becomes possessed by an entity called the Darkness, which grants him made films such as 
nodding to the PS3 development kit on the table. "It showed up on enormous powers that he's not quite sure what to do with. And then he The Eye and Bangkok 
Wednesday." and his uncle have а falling-out, setting the stage for the game's events. Dangerous are signed 
Jens Andersson, lead designer for The Darkness, picks up the PS2 We're now in a room looking at some of the characters that will pop- опао ас те movie. 
DualShock that's plugged into the dev kit and starts maneuvering ulate the game world; right now a hulking monster with a huge fanged 
around the onscreen alleyway. The next generation may not take us to 
completely realistic graphics, but if you let your eyes go slightly out of 


focus, you'd never know it when looking at this game. Andersson plays ATHE ENGINE WE USED ON IDDICK WASN'T SUITED 
with the light source, dragging it around to demonstrate how the shad- FOR TE4EKCISIBEEINT GENERATION OF HARDWARE.” 


ows shift in real time. The future is looking really freaking awesome. 
Starbreeze Studios, located 30 minutes north of Stockholm in the mouth and giant arms that reach to the ground is twirling around in a 


university town of Uppsala, Sweden, wasn't much more than a blip on New York City subway station. Г 

the radar in North America until 2004, when the company released The "[The engine we used on Riddick] wasn't really suited for the current 

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay to critical acclaim. Of generation of hardware," says Andersson. "This is our next genera- 

particular note was that every single review mentioned how impressive — tion—our second title with that sort of technology, which gives us a big Г 
the graphics were. What made Riddick look so awesome was the дате advantage. With The Darkness we started with tools that were already 


кў * 


engine that Starbreeze built in-house, which is one of the first to make developed for the core part of the technology." 

use of normal mapping (for an explanation, see above sidebar). In fact, Next up are some human models, including a cop, a punk-looking 
the engine demonstrated normal mapping so impressively that it was girl, and a meaty dude wearing a bloody apron. "Since the game takes 
the subject of its own article in The New York Times. place in New York, we really have to find a lot of different ways to 


46 = 


z + ШИНИ 
PRESENTING 6 1 Raid ШШШ 


STARBREEZE 
Four of the main 
players from 

The Darkness 
team, from left: 
Jens Andersson, 
lead designer; 
Lars Johansson, 
producer; Johan 
Kristiansson, CEO; imes m 
Jens Matthies, art : 
director. 


12122 


терек UOP Onal 
V 7 





ALTURE 
PAGE 

This is a wall of concept 
art posted in one of 

the offices. One of its 
functions is, of course, to 
provide inspiration and 
guidance to the team 

as they're working, bi 
this art will live on within 
the game as well. Some 
of it will be included as 
unlockable extras (think 
the cigarette packs that 
you collected in Riddick); 
other pieces may be 
repurposed as art in the 
game, such as film post- 
ers and billboards. 


ER E E 
HEEE ІТ 
LELEL 


This is a shot from the 
level editor that the 
programmers work 
with. It's really crucial 
that everyone involved 
with the game knows 
the levels by heart. 
Matthies explains, 

“If a guy says, ‘You 
go by the side door,’ 
he makes a gesture 
to it. That means you 
have to know what the 
level looks like, where 
the guy is standing 

in relation to where 
he's pointing. If you're 
on the ball, you can 
infuse the acting with 
these details, which 
helps believability 
and navigation of 
gameplay.” 





Ша BENS 1 
® | WYRE гг STORY 
































THE 
SE TAI 


One of the things Starbreeze was most excited 
about was getting to use New York as a setting for 
a game—the city’s grittiness was a great match 
for the aesthetic the studio likes to work in. But 


getting the feel of the city had its challen 
“We did a lot of research there, a 
trying to get the right feel of the city,” says art 
director Jens Matthies. “There are so many 
details. The way a garbage bin looks in New York 
is different than the way a garbage bin looks 
in Los Angeles or in Sweden, so there's a lot of 
documentation. We were running around and 
photographing everything really carefully.” 
Lead designer Jens Andersson adds, 
“And that was trickier with the city's security 


regulations. 


Matthies laughs: “We have police officers in 
the game, but we couldn't take direct pictures 
of them. | have a lot of candid pictures of cops, 
where | had the camera down by my wa nd 
| would look the opposite way before taking the 
picture. So there're a lot of photos in which the 
heads are cut off and they're all blurry.” 





populate it," says Andersson. "And as with every next-generation title, 
content production is key. It takes longer to create each individual part 
of the contents since it's so much more detailed." He zooms in close on 
а man with a 5 o'clock shadow, and we can actually see his pores and 
the hairs sprouting out of the follicles. 


T AEKNES 

Andersson tells us, “This game is about Jackie taking back control, 
both over his life, since he is possessed by this entity, and over his 
family, since his uncle is trying to get him killed.” Right now, we're 
looking at a level set in a gritty alleyway in New York City. Jackie has to 
shut down a drug nest that his uncle Paulie has set up here. 

Most of the game is set in first person, although some events (such 
as when Jackie is climbing a ladder) will cut to show him in third person 
(much like in Riddick). The team wants you to feel in control of Jackie 
throughout the whole game, which is why they are planning not to have 
cut-scenes breaking up the action—in fact, there is only one planned for 
the entire game, and that is at the very end. 

I'm told to disregard Jackie, as his character is still placeholder art. 

At the end of the alley is a jumpy homeless-looking guy, from whom 
Jackie needs to get a password in order to get into the drug den. 
Andersson says, “In Riddick we learned how much the movement of 
characters and the specific voice acting gave them personality.” 

As soon as Jackie approaches the man standing in the alley, he 





starts making small talk. “That coat sure looks warm,” the guy says as 
Jackie walks up. 

“Part of making characters believable is having nice-looking anima- 
tions, but another part of it is in behavior,” explains Andersson. “We 
have really tried to make dialogue be interactive. In The Darkness, you 
can move around while you're in dialogue and walk away from him, 
and he should respond [to that slight].” 

Producer Lars Johansson demonstrates this by making Jackie walk 
away. The man in the alley yells after us, “Hey, it only takes a second to 








DEVILS ON YOU 
SHOULDER 
ja 
The twin demon heads 
that you see on screen 
when employing Jackie's 
Darkness powers 

have been internally 
nicknamed Huginn 

and Muninn by the 


2 





НЕ 











be polite, you little prick!" Johansson then steers Jackie back down the 
alley and starts a conversation. 

While the game is built around a very structured set of events, 
Starbreeze has tried to build a lot of freedom into that framework. For 
example, Jackie needs to break into the drug den in order to progress 
the story forward. But there are a lot of different ways he can get into 
the den. He can have a conversation with the guy in the alley and get 
him to give up the password willingly. Or Jackie can pull a gun on him 
and extract the password by force. Or, if the player chooses, Jackie can 


OMS IN CLOSE ON а MAN WITH агт Оск 
SHADOW AND WE CAN ACTUALLY SEREK P 





























PES. 





development team. In 
Nordic mythology, Huginn 
(which means "thought") 
and Muninn (which 
means "memory") are 
the two ravens that sit 

on the shoulders of 
übergod Odin 

















2455 | 


nse y | 
(Oc КЕТШІ 





New York City, 1978. You were the fastest wheelman on the street. You were a legend. 
You were money. Until they set you up and sent you down. Twenty eight years inside for 
someone else's crime. Now you're getting out. Guess whatP You got a new job... 


n a| 
A IVER 


It's called revenge. 





ATARI 


PlayStation.e 


It Reserved. Designed and developed by Reflections Interactive Limited, an Atari development studio, Atari and the Atari logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their 
Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, and Xbox logos are either registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation іп the U.S, and/or in other countries and are used under 
he ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. The Empire State Building design is a trademark of Empire State Building Company LLC. and is used with permission. ©2005 Glu Mobile. АП rights reserved 


Driver Parallel Lines © 2006 Atari Inc. All Ral 
respective owners, „иии аш the “PS 
license from Microsoft. 


























4&1 НЕЕ _cquee STOZY 


LEBTHE E 
EXE وی‎ 


THE EXT STEP TOWARD REALISM 
 IQGAVES. 


“One of our strong visions in this game is to really 
have believable characters,” says lead designer 
Jens Andersson. “A lot of this is done by voice and 

[ animation, but the biggest thing is something that 

ll we call vo-cap, which is basically simultaneous 
recording of voice and full-motion capture, including 
facial capture. And to my knowledge, it hasn't been 
done in a game yet." 

Art director Jens Matthies chimes in, “Yeah. 1 
don't think anyone else is stupid enough to do it." 

Starbreeze conducted five weeks of vo-cap 
sessions, recording more than 500 lines—with both 
voice and motion capture—per day. So it faced not 
only the challenges of grueling recording sessions, 
but also those related to staffing. Matthies explains, 
“You can't double up in the same way that you can 
normally. Instead of hiring a really talented voice 
actor who could do seven or eight roles, we tended 
to lean toward one actor doing one role. So you 
getthe variation, and you tend to feel that every 
character is very unique." 

All in all, though, it worked out incredibly well for 
the game. “We had ап extreme amount of freedom 
to cast,” says Matthies, “so we picked the actors 
that we really felt were the best for the parts. Not 
necessarily actors that would help sell the game, 
but [ones] that are truly excellent.” 


just kill the man on the spot—but that means he'll have to figure out an 
alternate way into the den. 

“We try to encourage exploring and adventure,” explains Anders- 
son. “If a player wants to go through the game shooting things, he can 
do that. But players who want more of the story can take the time to 
talk with characters and explore.” 





As fans of the comic know, Jackie’s Darkness powers are a key part of 
who he is, and those powers will be a key part of the game as well. 
Art director Jens Matthies says, “The game isn't only about shooting 
things, so we're keeping the weapons few but fairly refined. We wanted 
to encourage the use of Darkness powers." Darkness powers can be 
used only in the dark, but Jackie will often be able to manipulate the 
game's lighting by breaking bulbs and turning off switches. 

In first-person games, players are used to having the physical 
manifestation of their weapon in front of them, which is why the team 
wanted a representation of Jackie's powers: hence the demon heads. 
When in Darkness mode, you'll see the demon heads on the bottom 
right and left sides of the screen. The demon heads have powers, but 
they also have personality. They look around on their own when at 
rest, and they might occasionally pick a little fight with each other. But 
don't be fooled by the playfulness: "These are basically the primal kill 
beasts," Matthies says. 


EDINARD:-SHeOTE 


Players will unlock Darkness powers throughout the game, and the 
process for doing this is by devouring. Devouring is exactly what it 
sounds like—once you've killed someone, the two demon heads swoop 
in on the body, and by the time they've finished, there's a nice puddle 
of blood on the ground. Devouring lets Jackie extract powers from 
people, and evil people give more bang for the buck. 

Andersson tells us, “We don’t want the Darkness powers to com- 
pete with the weapons—guns are pretty efficient tools of destruction 
already—so we really want to complement the guns.” One of the pow- 







THE BUTCHER 


ІШІНІГІТ 
ITI mT 
” 


At one point in the 
level, we pass by 
a television, which 
Jackie flips on. One of 
the cool side features 

| that Starbreeze 

| wants to work into 

| the game is fully 
functional television, 






































“THE DEMON HEADS AGE BASICALLY THE” Siem 
PRIMAL KILL BEASTS.” 
| complete with actual 


ers is called creeping dark. (Check out what the power looks like in the 
story's opening screenshot on pages 44-45.) Creeping dark is primar- 
ily a scouting power—Jackie sends out a tentacle that can snake into 
places he can’t go. Johansson shows it off by using it to sneak through 
а vent above a door in the alleyway and look around inside. 

Another power is the demon arm, which is a long appendage that 
Jackie can use to grab, lash out, and even impale. The team’s intention 
is for it to be a very destructive power, which Johansson demonstrates 
by reaching out and driving it straight through the alley guy's heart. Не 


programming. "There 
are movies, TV shows, 
even commercials in 
«the public domain,” 
| says Matthies, “So 
you can, in theory, 
emulate real TV, with 
channels.” à 





























Jackie will always 
have his own persona 
guns handy (two 
handguns that were 
handcrafted by 
darklings centuries 
ago), but he'll be able 
to pick up other guns 
that people drop and 
use them as well, as 
shown in the screen 
on the right. And of 
course, he has those 
awesomely crazy 
Darkness powers to 
use as well—below 
left, you can see how 
the demon arm can 
punch through people, 
and below right, 
witness the suction 
power that the black 
hole exerts. 


screams and falls to the ground in a puddle of gore. (“Blood is prettier 
in the next generation,” Andersson smiles.) 

The last power we get to see is the black hole. After entering the 
drug den courtesy of the password we extracted from the alley guy, 
Jackie opens fire on the men in the room. He makes quick work of 
most of them, but one guy is hiding and we can't find him. So Jackie 
uses the black hole, which is a portal that starts sucking the contents 
of the room—chairs, tables, sofas, anything the last enemy might be 
hiding behind—into a void. The enemy is quickly exposed and then 
neatly dispatched. 

When you're using the powers, you'll hear the voice of the Dark- 
ness itself occasionally talking in your ear. It's eerie, and it gives you 
the sense that just because Jackie has the ability to use these powers 
doesn't mean that it's necessarily a good thing for him to be doing it. 
But at least the Darkness also provides him with a few friends to keep 
him company. 





[| SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIENDS 
In the comic, Jackie is often accompanied by small, gremlinlike crea- 
tures that are basically henchmen of the Darkness. These creatures are 
known as darklings, and they're assistants that Jackie will be able to 
call on for help. 

Darklings originate from people, and each has his own personality, 
one that somewhat reflects his former human persona. For example, a 


darkling who was an uptight, suit-wearing guy before death still carries 
some of those qualities with him, albeit in a darker, more perverse form. 

The first darkling the team shows has a saw strapped to his back. 
Players can direct darklings to do Jackie's bidding, but they can also 
opt to let the darklings do what they want. They'll goof around and 
entertain themselves, but they'll also attack anyone who is threaten- 
ing Jackie without being told to. In this case, we watch as the darkling 
kills an enemy and then happily makes short work of the body, cour- 
tesy of his saw. 

You'll unlock new darklings throughout the game. The processes for 
this and for summoning them are still being worked out, but it’s obvi- 
ous that the team has been having fun endowing these creatures with 
a twisted sense of humor. As we watch, the darklings onscreen keep 
hopping around and making little comments to Jackie about what's 
going on. And each comes equipped with his own (usually lethal) 
accessory: One carries a sledgehammer, another swings a baseball bat, 
and a third wields a golf club. 

Using the darklings is almost like solving a puzzle. You'll need to 
figure out the right type of darkling to use at the right time. One cat- 
egory of darkling is known as an activator, useful if Jackie needs to flip 
switches that are out of his reach. Another carries an eight ball with 
him that he likes to smash against things to turn them on or off—he's 
almost like a remote activator. And another, the electrifier, fulfills a simi- 
lar function, but he uses electrical impulses to do it instead. 





game's main character, 
is being voiced by Kirk 
Acevedo, best known 
for his role as Miguel 
Alvarez on HBO prison 
drama 02. 





THE D is voiced 
by Mike Patton, formerly 
the lead singer for Faith 
No More; more recently, 
he has collaborated with 
artists such as Bjork and 
John Zorn. 





THE DARKLINGS are 
voiced by Richard Steven 
Horvitz, who also voices 
the title character in 
Invader Zim. He has done 
other videogame work, 
most recently the voice 
of Raz from Psychonauts. 





JENNY, Jackie's 

best friend from the 
orphanage, is voiced by 
Lauren Ambrose, who 
recently wrapped up her 
run as Claire Fisher on 
the HBO show Six Feet 
Under. 


PAULIE, Jackie's 
adoptive father and 

the head of the Mafia, 
is voiced by Dwight 
Schultz, a videogame 
veteran whose other 
credits include Gun, 
X-Men Legends II: Rise 
of Apocalypse, Killer 7, 
Destroy All Humans!, and 
Psychonauts. 





AUNT SARAH, the 
unofficial head of the 
Mafia, is voiced by 
Norma Michaels, who 
most recently appeared 
in Wedding Crashers. 





THE BUTCHER, the guy 
who helps Jackie, um, 
clean up after some of 
his jobs, is voiced by 
Mike Starr, who has done 
work in films such as 
Goodfellas and recently 
voiced Lou in the game 
Fight Club. 





the corrupt chief of 
police, is voiced by 
James Mathers, who 
has had guest roles in TV 
shows such as JAG and 
Cold Case. 























u 
ш 
а 
ш 
= 
о 
= 
o 
o 


Darklings can also be used to fetch things. Jackie can't climb up 
walls, but darklings can, so he can use them to grab things that are too 
high up or even have them help out with grabbing collectibles through- 
out the game. 

The darkling with the sledgehammer at his side goes crazy on 
another victim. After the man is left in a bloody pulp on the floor, the 
darkling leans over him. "My regards to your family," he cackles. The 
voice sounds kind of like the caterwauling of an alley cat. 

Matthies smiles fondly. "They're funny, but they're evil funny." 


AIS ING THE BAR 


"Starbreeze is a technology-driven company," says Andersson, "so 
being out early in the platform cycle is what we strive for." The studio 
has been working on The Darkness since the summer of 2004, long 
before next-generation development kits were anything more than 
a concept. But their prior experience has already put them one step 
ahead of the competition. Andersson tells us, "In Riddick, the technol- 
ogy was focused on researching this new engine, but [in this game] 
we're focused on making everything work on the next-generation hard- 
ware." While the team size is about 25 percent larger than Riddick's, 
he says that the additional staff is primarily to help produce the game's 
increased content rather than work on technical issues. 

So what's been their experience on the PS3 so far? "It's complex 
hardware," says Andersson. "If you want to take advantage of it, 


OTHERWORLDLY 


The majority of the 
game takes place in 
New York City, but 
Jackie eventually has 
to face the Darkness 
where it resides. That 
place is a nameless, 
fantastical world that is 
home to a never-ending 
battle—modeled after 
World War I—and 
populated by soldiers 
condemned to fight 
for eternity. Matthies 
explains: “The idea 
was that you would 
have these soldiers 
that basically can't 
die, so they're forced 
to relive this battle 
over and over again, 
but their bodies will 
take damage from 
it. So they'll have 
been crushed and 
burned and shot so 
many times that their 
faces will have been 
destroyed and healed 
and destroyed and 
healed. And eventually 
it's just this healed-up 
mush.” Above is one 
of the soldiers, whose 
gas mask has morphed 
you've got to rethink how a lot of stuff works. But for every revision to become part of his 
Sony sends, the tools and technology are more mature. And when we face. 
develop technology internally here at Starbreeze, we tie it really closely 
to game design. That's the advantage of an in-house engine—we know 
what kind of game we're going to do, what types of technologies to 
create to make the game benefit." 

Andersson says the game will definitely have an online component, 
but until they know more about the network structure, they can't say 
for sure what it will include. "We still don't know much about Sony's 





ІЛЕ БЕ FOCUSED ON MAKING EVERYTHING Ran, v; 
ON THE NEXT-GENERATION HARDINARE.” 


® > 
online plans," he says. "I think they have big hopes, and we know ` ё) 


there's something coming, but we don't know to what extent that will 
be. We'll need to rethink the size of online whenever we get that info." 
What does the future hold for Starbreeze? "Technologywise—where 
we'll end up in five years, | can't say," Andersson says. "There are some 
limitations in the next-gen hardware on the graphics sides. But we are 
really striving for realism. | don't think we'll ever stray from that path." 
He pauses, then adds, "For me, that's what next generation is 
about—making everything that's onscreen as believable as possible." | 





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САЗА: CHANIPLOG 


ХӨ ОО 


Hungry, cold and broke. On their search for the “samurai that 
smells of sunflowers,” Mugen, Jin and Fuu’s hunt for food ends 


up costing them more than they bargained for. 


COMING THIS APRIL 
www.NamcoBandaiGames.com • www.SamuraiChamplooDVD.com 


As seen on 


(5 бепеоп [adult swim], 
adultswim.com 





ed trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. 





atio 
The ratings icon is a registered tr. 


rk of the Entertainment Software Association. ADULT SWIM and the Adult Swim logo are trademarks of and © 














006 Bandai. SIDETRACKED is a trademark of Bandai. BANDAI logo is a registered trademark of Bandai. All Rights Reserved. 


Cartoon Network. 








COMPLETELY ORIGINAL STORYLINE 
AND MUSIC TRACKS 





жол е қозы 


MORE THAN 50 WEAPONS IN 
THE CHAMPLOO STYLE 





NE i 
! 223 E 


UNIQUE COMBO-SYSTEM FUSING 
HIP-HOP WITH SAMURAI SWORD ACTION 








А " х 3 3 

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Ss 27 nm 
PLAY AS MERCENARY MUGEN, THE MORE 


TRADITIONAL JIN OR THE MYSTERIOUS 
GAME ORIGINAL CHARACTER! 


PlayStation.2 














& | AYRE pz PrReeEVIEWS 





When we asked why 
SOE chose to bring 
Untold Legends to PS3 
rather than Champions 
of Norrath, Senior 
Brand Manager Chris 
Sturr told us, “Untold 
Legends was wildly 
successful on the PSP 
as a launch title, so we 
wanted to capitalize on 
that as a launch title for 
the Р53. The UL engine 
and property were 
done here internally 

by SOE—Champions 
of Norrath was done 
outside by Snowblind. 
We wanted to leverage 
our expertise and our 
engine and technology 
here for PS3." 





2 Sony Online Entertainment Sony Online Entertainment PS3 Launch фф When it comes to hack-n-slash, Sony Online has shown 
it knows how to get gamers on board. Its Champions 
of Norrath games were big sellers on PS2, and Untold 
Legends was one of the best-selling PSP launch titles. 
It's no surprise then that Sony Online has chosen to 
bring the Untold Legends series to the next generation. 


lagi] THE = s TOLD AGAIN ггггүг7 








БОЛ | OAM Are. 201 





те” 
GOOD AND EVIL 


ONCE UPON А TIME... 


Every dungeon crawler needs a tale of extreme 
woe that befalls an innocent region and which 
can only be removed by a lone, brave warrior. 
(For more info on the story details, turn to page 
56; to avoid spoilers, skip to the interview with 
Dark Kingdom's producer, Andy Sites, on page 
58.) Surprisingly, the plot is not contiguous 
with the previous games in the series (hence, 
it's not being titled Untold Legends 3); rather, 
the team is using the same basic setting but 
allowing themselves to skip around within the 
overall time line of Untold Legends lore. Sites 
promises, “Our story line is going to be a lot 
more immersive than people typically associate 
with action-RPGs.” 


1022222222222 
CAUEMAN 


THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN 
YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD 


At present, the team plans to let people 
choose from three playable characters (and 

it might add more). The brute (pictured in 
screens here) is, as you would expect, one 
who has the distinct tendency to depend on 
his fists when dealing with baddies. Others are 
the mage, who will rely on his magic attacks, 
and the knight, who will probably be an in- 
betweener who fuses the brute’s fisticuffs with 
the mage’s enormous brain. Everyone knows 
that skeletons are a staple of any hero's com- 
bat diet, but the team is hiring designers to 
create a slew of other enemies for the heroes 
to battle against. 


2 Яя 
HIGH-TECH НГ 212012 


BETTER DYING THROUGH SCIENCE 


While development has a way to go, the 

team is excited about using the multiple Cell 
processors to add a level of detail that prior 
titles haven't been able to provide. When you 
smash those ubiquitous skeletons, you'll be 
able to watch their bones ricochet individually 
off the stone walls (let's call that "tibia bounce 
mapping"), and enemies that sport flesh over 
their frames will slump realistically thanks to 
rag-doll physics. And some of that Cell might 
will be used to power fancy-shmancy effects, 
such as white-hot lightning or glistening great 
balls of fire, which you'll be able to hurl with 
the greatest of ease. All of it, of course, will be 
displayed in glorious 1080p. 


AAAI 





“НІНЕ P3 PIBEUIEUNSS 


Sag -ER 
ALEAT! 


cx ED 
ALEAT! 
SADLER 
ALERT! 


Sag Е-Е 
ALEAT! 
ЗИ ЕУ 
ALEAT 


TELLING THE LEGEND 


EXCLUSIVE STORY DETAILS—ONLY HERE! 


IF YOU LIKE YOUR PLOTS FRESH AND 
UNSPOILED, PLEASE STOP READING. 
BUT IF YOU LIKE A GOOD MORALISTIC 
FANTASY TALE, READ ON. 


King Halaskar, the ruler of Dureth, has been 
your boss for a while now; while he's been a 
good guy in the past, you and your buddies 
from the Dragon's Shade (think a black-ops 
team, but with knives and olde-time words 
instead of guns) are starting to think that 
maybe he's going over to the dark side. He 
suspects this and packs you off to fight in 
distant lands. 

When you come back, your worst sus- 
picions are confirmed—the king has been 
torturing and killing innocents. Yikes. The only 
solution is to take him out (this is a certified 
technique for climbing the corporate ladder, 
by the way), but Halaskar, suspecting the plot, 
foils your plan. You manage to escape in your 
airship, only to crash-land a short while later. 
Fortunately, your Dragon's Shade buddies 
have an underground hideout that you can 
escape to. There you find out that Halaskar 
is getting advice from an ancient spirit called 
the Tower Elder (no relation to the Tower 
Younger), who lives in a, well, tower in the 
kingdom. You fight your way to see this spirit, 
who tells you that the king is getting his pow- 
ers from another dimension in the universe 
that thrives on the pain of others. 

By traveling to other parts of the kingdom 
and liberating people from the torture of 
places such as the Sunken Cathedral, the Cliffs 
of the Fallen, the Kiln, and the Grinder, you are 
able to debilitate Halaskar's power. However, 
in your battle against the Princess of Anguish 
(who is no longer on speaking terms with her 
cousin, the Duchess of Solace and Maths), you 
become corrupted by her sheer evil. Never- 
theless, you hang on to your goodness long 
enough to find King Halaskar and finish him 
off. But then you realize that the whole thing 
may have been an elaborate setup.... 


STORYTELLING 
WIZADREY 








1 5 а D x Official Stacked Sit а и i " 
"Halo with chips ЕТ етегі Hesda СЭ Genius. 
) 


- Maxim magazine musi eut - Xbox.com 










y ©/ 


2 7 
саг Ir Te. 
BROADBAND ONLY) 





Simulated Gambling} 


X PC Crude Humor 
Mild Language 
CD-ROM! 





© 2006 Myelin Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Stacked’ is the trademark of Myelin Media, LLC. The Myelin logo is the trademark of Myelin Media, LLC. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logo, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Cor 
poration in the United States andlor other counties and are used under license Hom Microsoft. "PSP" is a trademark and "Playstation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment nc. Memory Stick OuoTM may be required (sold sepa 
rately). Online play requires internet connection and Memory Card (SMB) (for PlayStation 2) {each sold separately). The Online icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (C)2005 MTV Networks. All Rights Reserved. MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION and all related 
titles and logos are trademarks of MTV Networks. A Division of Viacom International Inc. The ratings logo is the trademark and property of the Entertainment Software Rating Board. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 








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І OPM You're working with a team with a variety 
of development experience—EverQuest, EverQuest 
Il, Untold Legends. Is the PS3 difficult to develop 
for—any more so than the other platforms you've 
worked with? 
| ANDY SITES No, | wouldn't say it's necessarily 
more difficult. It definitely provides new challenges for 
us. Physically, with most PC and past-generation con- 
sole development, it's all had a similar hardware and 
programming structure. And the PS3 is the first time 
we've had to make a programming and art mind shift 
that requires treading on new ground. For example, 
the cel-shader system is something that technically 
was capable on very, very high-end multiprocessor 
PCs but never has been available or financially feasible 
to regular retail gamers. This is the first time we've 
really been capable of running multiple threads off of 
multiple processors, which in turn means better visu- 
als onscreen, better game mechanics, and so on. 
From an engine standpoint, we're capable, finally, 
on consoles, of using rendering engines that are more 
shader based. Typically, in the past, it was model your 
creature, then texture it, then animate it, and you're 
done. Now it's many more steps—you also create the 
bump map and you create the specular map and you 
create all the additional layers that not only make it 
look better, but make it much more lifelike. 


I OPM Does this mean you have to work with a 
larger team than in past games? 

1 AS Үеаһ—!"а say that's really been the biggest 
change. The budget and the team size have been 
required to increase quite a bit on the art side and the 
code side as well. 


1 OPM How do you develop for hardware that, іп 
some respects, isn't even finalized yet? Do you just 
plan and hope for the best? 

| AS That's the beauty of working with an experi- 
enced team. You use your best estimate of where 
things are going to be six months from now, 12 
months from now. You just draw that line in the sand 
and hope that you're right. 


І OPM You're working with a team that has a lot more 
experience in online than the average console team 

has. Can we take this to be an indicator of online plans? 
IAS Um...yes it is, but | can't discuss specifics. We're 


БТ GENERATION м 


| OPM What do you think is the paramount thing for 
teams to keep in mind while developing for the PS3? 
1 AS | would say that it's keeping up with the latest 
high-end rendering techniques. Gameplay is game- 
play—if you actually go back and look at games from 
the early "805 and early ‘90s and today, they all һауе 
similar elements. It's just the graphics and what the 
games have been capable of and what's been able 

to be rendered in that game. Really, it's technology 
that has been driving the visuals, which in turn drives 
the gameplay elements that are capable of being 
rendered onscreen and that are being conveyed to 
the player. 











Е PS3 IS THE FESI 





TIME 





UN 



































GRAMMING AND РШ 





not making an MMO, but we're definitely leveraging 
our online programming and design resources. 


| OPM Do you think developers have an increased 
responsibility to continue pushing the boundaries of 
gaming as we move into the next generation? 

1 AS Absolutely. | think a lot of that isn't just their 
personal desire to do 80-4 think the consumers are 
going to require that. There are going to be two types 
of games. There will be the games that have the expe- 
rience and talent and budget, like companies like SOE 
have, where we can put all of that into the develop- 
ment of a single game. And it's going to make it more 
difficult for the smaller companies to deliver a title that 
can compete with us. 





MIND SHI 





| OPM Do you feel a responsibility to the player to try 
to break some of those consistent elements? 

1 AS Absolutely. There's one thing that, personally, | 
like to do with game development: We like to evolve 
games. There are evolutionary games and revolution- 
ary games, and I'd say we definitely make evolutionary 
games. We want to make a game with those elements 
that are proven and fun to players, and then we want 
to improve that and take the system's capabilities 

so we can really turn it up a notch. In this case, we 
wanted to take that hack-n-slash gameplay and turn it 
up. It's more than just hitting the X button. Now there 
are combos and more visual flair and variety. But it's 
more than we can convey over an interview—we can't 
wait for people to see it and check it out. | 


winback2.koei.com 


® 
www.koei.com 


PROJECT POSEIDON 


for 2 


Language 
Violence 




















PlayStation.@ 


WINBACK and the KOEI logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of KOEI Co., Ltd. ©2006 KOEI Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. 
Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. "Dolby", "Pro Logic" and the double-D symbol 
are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. 


Ф 








V | НЫЕ >< ЕЧ == 





ий. OF HONOR: ый 721 


с. HALLOWED WORLD WAR I FPS SERIES TURNS THE PS3'3 GAZE SKYWARD 





БО | OAT дра. 2006 

















12 








LINES FROM ABOUT 1,000 FEET. 








ШІ 





УЛ. PARATEOOP BEHIND ENEMY 





TAKE TO THE 
SKIES ONLINE 





It should come as no surprise that Electronic 
Arts is bringing a new installment of Medal of 
Honor—its celebrated series of World War II 
first-person shooters—to the PS3. What might 
come as a surprise is that the company is tak- 
ing the opportunity to introduce some major 
innovations to the series, the kinds of inno- 
vations few would expect from the gaming 
behemoth anymore. 

The MOH franchise debuted in 1999 for the 
PS1 and was inspired by Steven Spielberg's 
grittily honest and detailed portrayal of World 
War Il in his film Saving Private Ryan. Spiel- 
berg's DreamWorks Interactive initiated devel- 
opment of MOH, though the game was turned 
over to EA when DreamWorks' software arm 
closed. And at its release, MOH was lauded for 
its excruciating detail and immersive sense of 
combat. Executive Producer Patrick Gilmore 
says this quality and eye for detail isn't likely 
to end with Medal of Honor: Airborne, which 
continues the evolvement of the series' open- 
ended gameplay (a structure introduced in 
2005's Medal of Honor: European Assault for 
PS2). “Тһе PS3 lets us do many things we 
couldn't before, starting with [being able to 
create] more realistic locations. Instead 
of fighting in levels, you are now fighting in 
real places, real locations," says Gilmore. 
"Europeans Assault's open-level design was 
one of the best-received features of that game, 
and because of it, our understanding of the 
benefits of open and realistic level design is 
more refined. In [Airborne], we plan to take it 
a step further." 

Typical of the MOH series, Airborne's action 
starts in dramatic fashion, this time in the 
sky. You play as Pfc. Boyd Travers of the 82nd 
Airborne Division, and your first view is from 
a plane as you look down at the European 
landscape from about 1,000 feet, waiting to 
paratroop behind enemy lines. After hearing 
the order to jump, you do so, and then you 
must control your parachute to guide yourself 
down to the designated jump target. Once you 
make it to the ground, your mission begins. 
The point at which you land will affect the 
story. (Sicily and Germany are among the 
campaigns you'll tackle in Airborne.) "The 
significance of your own tactical decisions 
takes center stage and becomes immediately 
obvious once you play a real drop zone," says 
Gilmore. “Тһе easy confidence of constantly 
running in the direction of live bodies, pres- 
ent in the past game and within the WWII FPS 
genre, quickly disappears." 

The PS3's power naturally means that strik- 
ingly realistic characters populate the game, 
but to Gilmore and the MOH team, more real- 
ism presents a new set of challenges. "You'll 
see much higher emotional fidelity in the 
characters. They have become so lifelike that 
the emotional performance will need to be 
balanced so that the tone of that performance 
has an appropriate level of violence," says 
Gilmore. "We are finding it possible to deliver 
world-driven Al. The Germans and Allies in 
the game respond to their environments, not 
just to the design abstractions of path nodes 





and cover points." | 











СОН AYRE pz PIPEUIEUNS 


























STRANGLEHOLD 


Before making guilty pleasures (Face/Off, Paycheck) and plain crap 
(Hard Target, Mission: Impossible Il), John Woo made some pretty 
impressive action movies. Two of the best are The Killer (where Chow 
Yun-Fat plays a remorseful, yet badass, assassin) and Hard Boiled 
(where Chow Yun-Fat plays an unremorseful, yet still badass, cop). This 
is significant because while many games are adaptations of movies, a 
scant few (we can think of only Tron 2.0 for PC/Xbox and the upcoming 
Scarface) are actual sequels to established movies. Stranglehold is not 
only one of Midway's initial offerings for the PS3 (in addition to Unreal 
Tournament 2007), it's also a bona fide sequel to Hard Boiled. 

Go ahead, snag a copy of Hard Boiled—we'll wait. Recall that crazy 
gunfight at the end when Chow Yun-Fat takes out a bunch of bad 
dudes in a hospital with an infant in his arms? Now imagine that sort 
of gunplay and editing, but done on the PS3 and controlled by you. 
That's Midway's aim with Stranglehold. 

The two principals of Hard Boiled, John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat, 
are both involved with Stranglehold. Chow Yun-Fat reprises his role 
as badass supercop Inspector "Tequila" Yuen and lends both his like- 
ness (carved in scary PS3 polygonal power form) and his voice. Woo's 
involvement comes in the form of cut-scene direction and overall 





TEQUILA ULD BE ABLE D 
PAZY STUNTS LIKE PUN UP WALLS. 

































































story—which means that no matter how the game turns out, at least 
we know that the cut-scenes won't be boring instances of characters 
nodding their heads at each other while talking. 

Besides the Hollywood treatment, the core game will be a third- 
person action title, replete with guns, bullet time (er, called “Tequila 
time” here), and even vehicles. In true John Woo fashion, Tequila 
should be able to do crazy stunts like run up walls, perform back flips 
off chandeliers, or (via Tequila time) aim and shoot while driving. 

Additionally, thanks to the power of the PS3, not only do the gun- 
fights look slick, but the environments are also, in theory, completely 
destructible. A key point the development team (which, interestingly 
enough, is the same team behind that fine mental action-shooter, Psi- 
Ops) emphasized is destroying the enemy's cover. Imagine the environ- 
mental chaos of games like Black or Red Faction, but powered by the 
PS3, and you have a good idea of what the team is aiming for. 

Stranglehold plans to use whatever mythical online abilities the PS3 
has, as it will have an online multiplayer mode. Everything in single 
player—the environment battering and crazy gunplay acrobatics—is 
supposed to make the transition to the online play. Of course, this is all 
dependent on Sony's yet-to-be-revealed online strategy, but it's nice to 
know that the team is hoping to let you wield dual pistols while flipping 
off walls, all within the wonderful world of Internet gaming. 














ease Summer 


Pus. Namco oeu Namco се. 


IN THE PALM OF YOUR IRON FIST 


ч 


It's surprising that the PSP hasn't already been 
bombarded with fighting games, but the gates have 
opened and many are now making their way over, 
including Tekken. Thankfully, Namco recognized 
that people don't want mere ports of PlayStation 
2 games on the PSP, so the PSP version of Tekken, 
called Dark Resurrection, isn't just a port of Tek- 
ken 5. It has two completely brand-new characters 
named Lili and Dragunov, as well as a huge cast of 
returning characters from previous Tekken games, 
such as old favorites Heihachi and Jin Kazama. 
Dark Resurrection also has 19 stages with some 
interactive objects that you can smash should you be 
fortunate enough to pummel your enemy's face into 
the dirt near such an item. Additionally, some of the 
customization features from Tekken 5 are included, 
So you can add different items to your character and 
then take them online in ad hoc mode to show your 
opponents. There are twice as many items in Dark 
Resurrection as there are in Tekken 5, but they cost 
money that you earn by playing through the main 
portions of the game. The only other new feature 
is the addition of minigames—because you can't 
release a PSP game without minigames; they scream 
"portable fun!" At any rate, the game is looking 
good and Tekken fans will finally have a portable fix 
beyond the lackluster GBA version of the series. | 





Sony CEA Guerrilla Winter 


KILLZONE: 


esses TE 


A TACTICAL MOVE 


























The PSP is often called a portable console—and it does provide 
more console-comparable graphics than any handheld yet—but 
the truth is that some types of games just work better on it 
than others do. Because of this, developers Kojima Productions 

| changed up the Metal Gear series when it went portable, and it's 
encouraging to see that Guerrilla has opted to do the same іп 
bringing Killzone to PSP. 

Killzone: Liberation is set just a couple of months after the end of 
the first Killzone. Playing as Jan Templar, you'll be tasked with fac- 
ing off once again against the evil Helghast, and in particular Gen. 
Metrac, who has taken a group of hostages in an attempt to cement 
his power. 

| While the story line, characters, and weapons will be familiar 
| to players of the first game, there are a lot of changes being made 


| to gameplay. One of the first and most obvious ones (which you'll 


have already noticed if you looked at the screens below) is that the 

| game uses a third-person view this time. While Killzone fans may 

| find this a travesty, we're somewhat relieved, as we've yet to see а 
great game on PSP that uses a first-person perspective. The other 
major change is that the gameplay will be a lot more tactical. You'll 
be able to survey the scene, and then, based on what you see the 
Helghast doing, make choices about the best ways to save the hos- 
tages from Metrac's clutches. 

There's no official word from Guerrilla yet on multiplayer, but 
our prediction is that it will be for up to four players, and our hope 
is that it will offer gaming via infrastructure mode rather than just 
ad hoc. Whatever the case, we're excited to see what else the game 
has in store—stay tuned for a hands-on in the coming months. 
































ED WITH 





























HE EVIL. 

















Rumors continue 
to fly around about 
the possibility of 

a Killzone movie, 
including the 
chance of it star- 
ring Will Smith, but 
so far, nothing has 
been confirmed. 


=Т= | 55 































I'M LIKE 
YOU. I1 HAVE 
NO NAME. 





















Konami Kojima Productions Spring 


METAL GEAL SOLID DIGITAL COMIC 


SNAKE BREAKS NEW GROUND 

















so obvious when you think about it: 
а comic for the PSP, enhanced with sound, 
motion, and, most important, interactivity. But 
Konami is the first publisher to explore a new 
way to extend gamers’ experiences with a cult 
favorite. Drawn by artist Ashley Wood, who 
has worked on the print Metal Gear comics, 
and written and produced by Hideo Kojima 
and Noriaki Okamura, the story is a retelling 
of the first Metal Gear. Does it sound a little 
cheesy? It actually works surprisingly well, 
thanks to the sharp art direction and polished 
pacing. Sounds of gunfire, for example, are 
accompanied by a frenzied flurry of classic 
comic “rat-tat-tat” text. 

Beyond the great narrative is another 

layer: a sort of collecting game that subtly 
introduces new story hints. Players will be 
able to scan each panel for more clues to 
deepen their understanding of the narrative; 
scanned elements will pop up, and by clicking 
on them the player can add those clues to the 
“library.” Each collectible item is another piece 
of Snake's story, unlocking more hints about 
the character, his backstory, and his family 
and relationships. Frankly, we were universally 
impressed; if Konami starts a trend with this 
experiment, which comes out this spring, 
we're all for it. 





Konami Konami Spring 


THE SILENT HILL. ЕәІРЕІМЕМГЕ 
FROM GAMES TO BEYOND 


not only an all-new, high-quality, superbly drawn digi- 
tal interactive comic, but also a collection of content that spans all four 
Silent Hill games, clips of interviews with the director and composer of 
the upcoming Silent Hill feature film, as well as other extras related to 
what has been called the scariest series of all time. That is The Silent 
Hill Experience, and it is yet another promising Konami experiment in 
the medium. The story is written by Scott Ciencin, whom fans already 
know for his other Silent Hill comics; the art, which has an edgy, 
Sketchy style, is by Steve Perkins and Alex Shibao. 

As in the Metal Gear comic, hand-drawn, still images are deftly 
manipulated to create motion and depth. Pieces of art are layered 
over each other to create a 3D effect, sometimes elements are 
pushed around to evoke motion, and sound effects add a critical 
component. Stylistically, alternating uses of close-ups and panoramic 
panels create drama. The total effect of what we've seen so far is 
dynamic and visually arresting—not to mention exquisitely creepy— 
and it seems pretty much just like what you'd expect an animated 
Silent Hill comic to be. More like this, please! 




















Ф. 


THE PLAYSTATION UNDERGROUND: 
ARE YOU MISSING SOMETHING? 


No matter what you're into, the PlayStation? Underground" is where you'll hear about it first—from 
the latest tips and tricks to the hottest releases on the horizon. But if you haven’t provided us with a 
complete member profile, you’re missing out on: 








* SPECIAL SAVINGS on stuff gamers crave, including game coupons and offers for other 
cool PlayStation® premiums 

* INSIDER INFO from PlayStation, including a monthly email newsletter and special 
surprises via email and regular mail 

e SERIOUS ACCESS to the gaming scene—with tips, tricks and forums to help you take 
your playing to the next level 

* ADVANCE NOTICE for upcoming beta tests, cool promotions, or when your favorite 
franchise is launching a new title, and more 


Visit our one-stop MY ACCOUNT section at 
www.us.PlayStation.com/myaccount and access these useful features: 


* PROFILE: Update your current contact information, personal details, and more 

* PREFERENCES: Tell us what you're into so we can customize your communications 
* REGISTRATION: Let us know which PlayStation products and peripherals you own 
* MY GAMES: Manage your library of PlayStation titles in the MY GAMES section 


GO EVEN DEEPER: THE GAMER ADVISORY PANEL. 


With a. complete member profile, you'll increase your chances of being asked to join the elite 
Gamer Advisory Panel. G.A.P. members get: 


* Invitations to participate in beta tests 

< Q&A sessions with game developers from Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Zipper and others 
* The chance to attend E? (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) in Los Angeles 

* Invites to special press conferences, and other exclusive events 

* Advance purchase tickets for concerts and sporting events 

The opportunity to work in the PlayStation booth at hot happenings across the country 


тм 


(Dew? Action Sports Tour, Vans Warped Tour,” Ozzfest and many more) 


MAXIMIZE YOUR MEMBERSHIP AND 








| Н: Е: PEZ PIBEUIEUNSS 





RELEASE 


DEV, 








Grand Theft Auto could 
be a little more...Asian? Did you kinda 
like Shenmue but wish you were 
doing something more substantial 
than looking for sailors in a meticu- 
lously modeled 1986-era Tokyo? Well, 
someone at Sega listened, because 

in Japan, the company made Ryu Ga 
Gotoku (which translates to “Like a 
Dragon"), often described as "Shen- 
mue featuring yakuza, with a dash 

of GTA." Sega recently announced 
the game's name for its U.S, release, 
the bold and simple title of Yakuza. 
So how do the yakuza roll? Here are 
some snippets from a typical day. 



































A piece of the opening movie, which helps establish 
that "authentic Tokyo feel" that Yakuza is going 

for. While Yakuza takes place in a fictional part of 
Tokyo, these screens make us feel like we're walking 
around in the Kabukicho district. 





A scene from the first chapter of the game, in which 
the main character, Kazuma Kiryu, is collecting some 
money. The president of the Peace Finance Corpora- 
tion is saying something like, “So honored to meet 
you!" Kazuma replies, "Cut the bulls*** and hand 
over the money." Kazuma's curt manner earns him a 
fight sequence. 





This is Kazuma walking around with a suitcase full 
of money that he just collected. Some fool bumped 
into him on the street, and Kazuma is telling him to, 
er, make haste with the departure, to put it in more 
polite terms. 





This is a high-end hostess bar where Kazuma's best 
friend, Nishkiyama, hangs out. The hostess whom 
Kazuma is talking to will play a key role in the story. 








AARI 

















Another shot in the same bar where Kazuma and A quick example of Yakuza's combat system. The 
Nishkiyama hang out. The girl in the middle is Yumi, development team at Amusement Vision built the 
a childhood best friend of both Kazuma and Nish- combat engine from the ground up, and it's loosely 
kiyama. This is Yakuza's version of a "best friends modeled on the Virtua Fighter engine. Note the fact 
4-eva!" moment. that Kazuma is wielding a beer bottle in this fight. 





Kazuma and Nishkiyama hang out and enjoy (crime) Kazuma demonstrating a finishing move, which is, as Here's a fight sequence in which Kazuma uses some 
life at the hostess bar. Hostess bars are places in you might have quessed, an übermove that usually scaffolding to fend off some other bad dudes (dem- 
Tokyo where guys hang out and drink with pretty ends a fight. onstrating how the environment can be used during 
girls, who are hired by the bar. combat). The top yellow bar is Kazuma's health, the 


middle bar is a sort of experience meter (you can 
upgrade skills when that bar is full), and the bottom 
light-blue bar is your "heat gauge"... 





Shimano, one of the leaders of the yakuza clan, is Look at the man in the middle facing the left. That is This is a demonstration of one of the special moves 
now yammering about some missing money and is Kazama (not to be confused with our man Kazuma), that's tied to your "heat gauge." When your heat Yakuza are members 
really having a fit. A key plot point in the game. who is the overall boss of the yakuza clan. This is a gauge is full, you can pull off slick moves. Note the of traditional Japanese 
big yakuza meeting, blue halo circling Kazuma as he smacks the crap out | ШШШ whieh 
of this dude. are often compared to 


the Mafia organizations 
of Western culture. 
Roughly translated, the 
term means “good for 
nothing”; it originated 
from oicho-kabu (a 
Japanese card game 
much like baccarat) 
and refers to the worst 
possible hand in the 
game 





This is a plot point: The girl asks Kazuma for some This girl's scam demonstrates that while people gen- 

"help from a stalker,” except that the "stalker" erally respect the yakuza enough to ask for help and 

behind her is actually her pimp. They're both trying to protection, some people use that token of respect as 

jack our boy Kazuma. part of a con job. ГР 
2222 

















V |H*HEIE PS PIBEUIEUVUSS 


рын Capcom реч. Clover Studios ize. ease May 


If you've been following Okami's development 
at all over the past year, you already know 
how the game's unique style provides it not 
only with a distinct look, but with some inter- 
esting gameplay elements as well—namely 
the calligraphy. What's cool about this par- 
ticular aspect of the game is that it applies to 
so many things within Okami's world. You 
can use it to help townspeople, solve puzzles, 
defeat enemies, and do all of the other things 
that apply to being a god in dog form. 

But you can't magically wave the brush 
like Picasso and have masterpieces suddenly 
appear. In fact, you have to earn the ability to 
perform certain kinds of strokes. For example, 
you won't earn the cutting stroke—which is 
useful for attacks, as well as cutting boulders, 
wood, and other such objects in half—before 
you solve the puzzle with the statue holding 
the broken sword. You complete this puzzle by 


70 | DAM Apa 2006 


drawing the broken part of the sword on that 
statue. Now you can go back to the beginning 
of the demo and cut the peach down from 
the massive tree and watch the colors wash 
over the once dark world. It's worth pointing 
out that other puzzles are pretty straightfor- 
ward—you'll have to look into the stars and 
complete constellations by adding a single 
drop of paint, which is easy as can be. 

It's at this point that the townspeople start 
to need your help as life resumes its course. 
Some of the things you can do with the brush 
may not be so obvious, but they can go a long 
way toward improving your status around 
town. For example, you can draw a drying 
pole between two sticks so that Mrs. Orange 
can dry her clothes. There are plenty of tasks 
such as this awaiting you, designed to make 
you explore and try different things with the 
brush. Try them out for yourself in the demo! | 


ІТ [LLLI 


[| 


ч 213 





Hollywood Ж 
MONDAY | 


XT 
- 
- 


AHARI 


Midway oeu. Midway Chicago 

5 April 
NBA BOLLEI2S: 

d to find a genre that Rockstar's 
übersuccessful Grand Theft Auto franchise 
hasn't so wonderfully corrupted. Now the 
idea of a go-anywhere, do-anything envi- 
ronment heads to the sports department 
(of all things) in NBA Ballers: Phenom. 

Here the entire city of Los Angeles acts 
as your court, which includes downtown, 
swanky Beverly Hills, and star-studded 
Hollywood. Also, expect La La Land to be 
one happenin’ place. “The game is set 
during a fictional NBA Finals week, so 
everyone is there, including the ‘who’s 
who’ of NBA athletes, music celebrities, 
coaches, agents, and media,” says execu- 
tive producer George Gomez. “You сап 
walk around L.A. neighborhoods and inter- 
act with people, stores, and vendors.” 

But it ain't just about getting up close 
and personal with these bigwigs; the 
metropolis is also jam-packed with side 
events not related to basketball. We're 
talking about snapping photos of NBA 
players, attending concerts, and helping 
out the Laker Girls with a celebrity car 
wash (think of a Dance Dance Revolution- 
like minigame, but with more soapy-suds). 


Doing these side events can earn you 
extra cash to buy gear and even increase 















































E N TH LACKT OP 










































































MATCHUPS. 





I PHLEPLAv! 


There’ ser Apti- 


lar to what y 
[Xbox] roli 


some of your stats. Additionally, the type 
of events you participate in will greatly 
affect Phenom's final outcome. Start tak- 
ing on more roundball-focused events 
and you'll probably wind up the next 
No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Spend more 
time with the celebs, however, and watch 
your character build the foundation for an 
entertainment empire à la P Diddy's. 

And, oh yeah, you'll still be play- 
ing some actual basketball. The biggest 
changes on the blacktop are the addition of 
2-on-2 matchups (the first Ballers only had 
1-on-1 games) and the ability to equip your 
character with gear that can both improve 
and hinder his stats. “Not all of it is ben- 
eficial,” explains Gomez. "Shaq's Diesel 
sneakers increase the player's shot block- 
ing and low-post offense but reduce his 
long-range shooting attribute." We wonder 
if Shaq’s kicks make you miss every free 
throw (and despise Kobe), too. | 








22 | DAIT aea. 20086 
ІНЕ | 






Mach LLM 
























1 Square Enix 


Square Enix г 


KINGDOM ара 


know that Kingdom Hearts II 
is almost here? Because we just loaded a 
fresh new copy that Squenix sent us, and 
Donald Duck speaks English! No more weird 
Japanese Donald! We can (mostly) under- 
stand what he’s saying! That means that 
we're just one issue away from reviewing a 
crazy big action-RPG that fuses light shows 
(Tron), stop-motion animation (The Night- 
mare Before Christmas), animal Hamlet (The 
Lion King), and Keira Knightley (Pirates of 
the Caribbean)! Here's one more last pretty 
image to tide you over until our review. 








Some of us are givers. 
Some of us аге takers. 


Filefront.com serves both. 





Unlimited uploads, unlimited downloads, unlimited bandwidth. 
The latest PC gaming patches, drivers, demos, tools, and videos...free. 


| LJ 

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF JEFF GREEN? www.filefront.com 
! CHECK OUT HIS СО 
— What's New in PC Cuba 


Е A B Only on filefront.com геј alive 4 it out! 





Св 
NETWORK 











- 








АЛГА <=: 


SUBSISTENCE 


4 











No more blargs, octagons, or whatever you've called them—now we're sticking 
with straight-up numbers. And any game that receives five of 'em is something 
truly special that deserves a spot in your collection. On the other hand, a 2.5 is 
merely mediocre. And a 0.5? Well...at least they're fun to rip apart. 








INSIDE 


E 
нг 
нг 
во 
78 
79 
нг 
вз 


78 
B5 
ва 
B0 
78 


24: The Game 

25 to Life 

Beatmania 

Drakengard 2 

FIFA Street 2 

Fight Night Round 3 
Final Fight: Streetwise 
Marc Ecko's Getting Up: 
Contents Under Pressure 
MLB 06: The Show 
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams 
Sonic Riders 

Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 
Torino 2006 





en 
so 
as 
нн 
ва 
эч 
so 
аг 
Su 


ва 


\ 





B MAKING THE WORLD А BETTE PLACE, ONE-GAME ATA TIME 





Exit 

Fight Night Round 3 
Generation of Chaos 
Metal Gear Acid 2 
Pursuit Force 
Samurai Warriors 
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max 
Street Supremacy 
Untold Legends: The 
Warrior's Code 

WRC: FIA World Rally 
Championship 


ut 


























3. Konami 1. Kojima Productions Eses M mser $39.99 


АЛ 


LSE bel | се 









While Нідео Kojima and many other designers аге trying to make 
games that either emulate or even elevate themselves over what Holly- 
wood produces, they're also starting to adopt one of Tinseltown's more 
annoying attributes: the double dip. Just as new versions of cult films 
like Evil Dead seem to pop up every year or how a crazy 72-disc ultra 
boxed set follows a single-disc DVD just four months later, so have 
games started to be rereleased with extras. Fortunately, games like 
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition and Ninja Gaiden Black (on Xbox) offer 
some pretty good improvements to the original release, but they pale 
compared to what Kojima and his team have done with Metal Gear 
Solid 3: Subsistence. 

The biggest change is the addition of a new, Splinter Cell-style 3D 
camera that is movable via the right analog stick. Snake Eater is an 
awesome game despite the fact that the MGS series’ traditional bird's- 
eye view often limits visibility, necessitating the player to switch to the 
first-person view just to spot enemies. With Subsistence's new, closer- 
to-the-ground camera, the game instantly looks and plays a lot better. 
Environments actually seem more impressive and lush, and scouting 
an area becomes much easier. In fact, this change has made several 
boss battles significantly less difficult. Previously, the challenge of 
tranquilizing (not killing) each boss proved quite difficult, but now it's 
easier to see where they are and trang them. The best example is the 
fight against The End—a tense sniper battle spanning multiple maps 
that took me over 40 minutes to complete in Snake Eater. Now, with 
the new camera, | can easily scan the horizon to see where The End is 
hiding and then aim and shoot; the fight takes at most 20 minutes to 
finish. Also, an incredible chase sequence near the end of Snake Eater 





that uses a fixed camera looks kind of odd in Subsistence because you 
can move the camera to show angles that were previously unseen. 
Despite the boss battles and this chase, the camera doesn't make the 
game exploitatively easy (à la the changes made to the original MGS 
in MGS: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube). After all, if you feel the 
game is too easy, there's always European Extreme mode. 


ONLINE CANGES FROM SOLID MULTI- 
PLAYE FARE TOA TOTAL BLAST. 


Besides the new camera and some quirky new camouflage, the 
core Snake Eater game is still the same. That's disc one. On disc two, 
you have extras, such as some very funny parody movies, duel mode 
(in which you can play individual boss battles, some with special 
rules), and ports of the first two Metal Gear games. Playing these 
games is quite amusing, as you'll notice that Metal Gear's basic 
gameplay principles haven't changed too much during the span of the 
series, from its days on the MSX gaming system to the recent PS2 
installments. But the most significant addition that disc two brings is 
the online multiplayer. 





The finally realized Metal Gear Online (as Kojima calls it) ranges from 
solid multiplayer fare to a total blast. The three teamplay modes— 
team deathmatch, Capture the Kerotan (frog), and Rescue the Ga-ko 
(duck)—resemble the teamplay options of other games. The maps 














жж 


Ж 


2 


2222 


DIRE 
HIDEO KOJIMA „а 
It couldn't handle more than three 
enemies on screen with bullets flying. 


A 


Th aga союза close with the sixth 
and final chapter in the story of Solid Snake: 


AAAI | 


kkk ko 
CHAPTER; нова 


the player — alongside young Raiden — 





If you were smart enough to preorder your copy of Subsistence, 
then you get an additional, limited-edition disc: Metal Gear Saga 
Volume І. This is a 28-minute documentary about the Metal Gear 
universe (spanning from the two Metal Gear titles to the Metal 
Gear Solid trilogy), in which Ryan Payton, international manager 
at Kojima Productions, gets to run around with a camera and 
have Kojima himself explain some of the concepts and backstory 





ideas for the franchise. For example, Kojima explains that MGS3 
is focused on “maternity” and how he originally thought that 
Boss would have a cobra tattooed on her breast. When her 
chest is exposed in battle, the snake would appear to “laugh” 
due to her body moving as a result of recoil from her gun. This 
would tie in to a legend that says, “If you saw the snake laugh- 
ing, that means you are about to die.” 


Though that tattoo ultimately didn't make it into the game, it 
makes us think that maybe Kojima is a fan of the manga Lone 
Wolf and Cub; in it, a certain female assassin has a tattoo of a 
demon and a suckling babe on her breast that intimidates the 
men she kills. Anyhow, this is just one crazy Kojima nugget, and 
you'll find plenty more in this documentary, which you'll get if 
you preordered the game. E 




















MAT 301055 


are decently designed, with some best suited for eight-player (which 
is the limit) fragfests and others better suited for matches with fewer 
players. 

What elevates the online component from entertaining to awesome 
is the rescue mission mode. Think of it as a variant on Splinter Cell's 
spies-versus-mercs mode—except it has up to seven soldiers facing off 
against one badass (Snake). Playing as the soldiers requires clear com- 
munication and decent teamwork. Playing as Snake requires knowing 
how to use your gear (such as regular camouflage and a battery-pow- 
ered cloaking device) and your skills (close-quarters combat) to maxi- 
mum advantage. A bad Snake player can be caught pretty easily, but a 
good опе can do slick things like stun multiple soldiers via СОС, drop 
magazines to delay pursuers, or simply disappear and lie in wait for 
someone to take out. Whoever "kills" Snake will get to play as him in 
the next round, so make sure your host sets the rules to allow for more 
than two or three rounds in rescue mission mode. 

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that the online play is very 
MGS-centric, meaning those who know MGS will have an easier time 
than those who don't. To elaborate, the MGS franchise is one of the 
few that can get away with keeping the Circle button as "Yes" and the 
X button as "No" for menus and the like (this is often one of the earli- 
est changes in localizing a game from Japan to the United States); it's 
also a franchise in which you fire your weapon with the Square button. 
So if you've played a lot of other action games that use the triggers 
for firing weapons, the whole "Square button, not R1" thing can take 
а while to get used to (and you can't change this). You also cannot 
move and shoot at the same time in first-person view. If you've been 


playing single-player MGS, this isn't a difficult transition. But no mat- 
ter whether you know the MGS controls or not, the fact that the Select 
button is used for voice chat is actually quite annoying—you basically 
can't move and talk at the same time this way. 

If you've already played and finished Snake Eater the first time it 
came out, there is, honestly, enough extra stuff to warrant the double 
dip. The whole package (meaning the three-disc version, of which 
disc three is a three-and-a-half-hour 653 movie composed of the 
game's cut-scenes reedited into one continuous story, plus the bonus 
disc detailed in the "Snake Saga" sidebar above) has enough content 
to justify snagging it. Now, if you've finished Snake Eater a couple 
of times, don't have your PS2 hooked up to the wild and wonderful 
Internet, and are tight on money, that might be worth reconsidering. 
Otherwise, though, Subsistence has succeeded in making a great 
game even better. | Thierry / better. | Thierry Nguyen | 


ИИИ 


VERDICT The gold standard for future potential double dips. 


_ §5 


mmm LL” 22222222 


SCORE 


SECRET THEATER 
Perhaps our favorite 
extra is the secret 
theater, which is made 
up of zany movies that 
Kojima Productions 
made for fun. We 
particularly like the 
one about The End 
falling in love with Eva, 
and the one where 
the director of the CIA 
gets payback for being 
snubbed by Snake. 











З | ШЕШ PSZ 








FIFA STREET 2 
A SPORT YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT, 
URBANIZED. AGAIN 

Грув. EA Sports beu. EA Canada exea Е mser $49.99 





ке worth recapping for а second and 
acknowledging the problems with the 
original FIFA Street. Although very success- 
ful and a noble attempt at broadening the 
appeal of soccer games around the world, 
it was, at best, boring. The gameplay lacked 
depth, and it wasn't really much fun. It was 
fine for a quick five-minute kickabout, but 
beyond that, it was just dull. 

Enter the sequel, along with lots of EA 
bluster about "arcade action blended with 
the passion and flair of real street soccer." 
It's essentially the same as the original, 
though, only now it comes with more bells 
and whistles to keep you occupied when 
you're not scratching around looking for 
some substance on the pitch. Build a charac- 
ter with the now-familiar EA doohickey, play 
a little dress-up with licensed duds, and then 
work your way through a reasonably well- 
paced career mode that's absolutely soaked 
in contrived urban 'tude. Additionally, there's 
now a pitch creator, which uses similar mor- 
phing technology to the character gizmo, 
and a reasonable amount of enjoyment can 
be had building the skankiest, dirtiest-look- 
ing urban soccer hole imaginable. 

However, the real meat of the game 
still suffers from the same issues as the 
original. Although there are plenty of tricks 
and right-stick shenanigans to be had, the 
whole soccer-that-feels-a-bit-like-basketball 
thing just doesn't feel right. It’s substantially 
more enjoyable when playing against a 
friend (as all soccer games are), but the 
pitches feel too small, and the action is just 
too fast. Adjusting to the notion of soccer 
being a fast-paced, end-to-end game is 
hard, and frankly, it doesn't work any better 
this time than it did the last. On-pitch game- 
play is supplemented with tricks challenges 
to keep things varied (a lot like the juggle 
challenge in FIFA 06 on PSP), but at the end 
of the day, despite all of the effort clearly 
put in to make it otherwise, Ғ/ҒА Street is 
still boring. | John Davison 








but it's still not that great. 





TORINO 2006 
HOPE YOU LIKE SKIING 


ı Pua. 2K Games oe. 49Games esee Е mser $19.99 





АД 


Аһ, the Olympic Games, where the world's 
best athletes gather to represent their coun- 
tries in the spirit of friendly competition. A 
competition—according to this game—in 
which you do almost nothing but ski. 

Torino 2006 technically features 15 dif- 
ferent Olympic events. But you can actually 
boil them down to five categories: downhill 
skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, 
speed skating, and bobsled/luge. So you've 
got 10 different skiing events and a handful 
of other stuff. It's worth noting at this point 
that developer 49Games is known for its 
skiing titles. 

What's here is quite good, honestly. Each 
event controls a bit differently, and the stra- 


tegic, timing-based scheme for cross-country 


skiing and speed skating, in particular, really 
requires a bit of skill. These events balance 
out the more simple sports, like luge and 
bobsled, where getting a good start and 
keeping off the walls are really all that's 
required to get a medal. 

Oh, Torino also loses points for not 
including the most interesting events in the 
sports that are here—short-track speed skat- 
ing and skeleton (where fools hurtle down 
the luge course headfirst). 

The whole thing is so watered down. 
Even the multiplayer mode won't hold your 
interest for long, since there's no real event 
variety. And you don't get any of the pag- 
eantry to go along with the greatest sports 
spectacle in the world. I’m not saying | want 
parades or an Olympic Village drinking 
minigame, but at least getting to hear my 
national anthem when | win a gold medal 
would be a start. 

It would have been great to take an entire 
team to the Olympics and partake in every 
event from start to finish. Unfortunately, 
that's just not possible with Torino 2006. 
There's a Jamaican bobsled team joke in 
here somewhere, but I’m too disappointed 
to figure it out. | Greg Sewart 





222277 Ұ? ИЯ 
VERDICT А good time for 20 bucks, but it 
should have been a much better game. 








“SCORE 22 ЕШ |S 


“SCORE 


САВ 








4 





4 


SPORTS WE 
WANTED 
Snowboarding would 
have been really nice. 
Hockey would have 
been just as good. 

Or how about figure 
skating or curling? 
Don't laugh—Konami's 
excellent ESPN Inter- 
national Winter Sports 
2002 featured those 
last two events. 












MLB 06: THE SHOW 
BEST OF THE ALSO-RANS 


ı PUE. 989 Studios DEV. 989 Studios Е sep $39.99 


ж“ “% Ұ 
Vou know those ball clubs 


І Greg Ford 





entry to the baseball-sim lineup. 


“SCORE 1 = = 














ірив. EA Sports реч. EA Chicago esee T msep $39.99 


With this, its third iteration, the consistently 
excellent Fight Night series comes face-to-face 
with challenges every sports franchise grapples 
with: How do you keep a game fresh when 
you're essentially offering the same product? 
And can you avoid making serious design mis- 
steps in the process? 

For the most part, Fight Night Round 3 acquits 
itself well. The basic game—which was great 
to begin with—is still there, delivering gripping 
fights jam-packed with bone-jarring hits and sud- 
den turns of fortune. The excellent total punch 
control system is back, with the addition of two 
new and completely inconsequential super- 
punches. The training minigames are back, too, 
but thankfully, they take place in an actual gym 
and not last year’s Moonraker cocktail lounge. 

So, what's new and notable? You could point 
to the Rivals mode that lets you relive great box- 
ing rivalries, but the really key things are more 
subtle. Most important, the Al has been signifi- 
cantly improved, making each fight much more 
of a contest and, consequently, much more likely 
to go the distance than those in the knockout 
simulator that is Round 2. Round 3's custom- 
izing options are also much improved over last 
year's, letting you choose (and unlock) a variety 
of stances, defensive styles, punching specialties, 
and more. As a result, fights are much richer, 
tactical experiences. 








Round 3 sounds like a no-brainer pickup for 
Fight Night fans, but it's not. You need to use 
your brain because some of the choices EA 
has made detract significantly from the experi- 
ence. The rankings sheet is completely gone, 
thus robbing you of the satisfaction of work- 
ing your way up to a title shot; instead, you 
have a vague feeling of progress tempered 
with confusion. Not so rewarding. Worse, 
not only does a potentially lethal injection of 
commercialism subject you to literal in-game 
commercials, but most of the trophies are 
corporate sponsored, meaning you can win 
the pointless Burger King trophy but not one 
for being Knockout King or Fighter of the Year. 
That just sucks. 

In the end, the good outweighs the bad, 
but next year's model really needs two things: 
zero sponsors and the horsepower of the PS3 
so that it can match or beat this year's supe- 
rior Xbox 360 game. | Robert Coffey 


OEE 
VERDICT Just better enough than last 
year's game to warrant a purchas J 


SCORE e] | > 


EEE 


Ж” 
SMACKTIME 


E T SQUARE ENIX 


New allies 








З | БЕШЕШЕ= PSZ 








SONIC RIDERS 
PORCUPINE RACETRACK 

рин. Sega peu Sonic Team Tokyo Software 
esee E10+ $39.99 








Putting Sonic the Hedgehog into a racing 
game always makes sense on paper but 
never seems to work. Sonic Riders, in which 
the spiky blue thing and his posse jump onto 
hoverboards and shred gnarly courses, does 
not break this trend. 

Different characters can make special use 
of different track features. “Speed” charac- 
ters like Sonic can ride rails. “Power” char- 
acters like Knuckles can bash through bar- 
riers. “Fly” characters like Tails can launch 
themselves into aerial sets of rings that let 
them bypass tricky sections of track. 

Again: sounds good on paper. But Sonic 
Riders fails for a variety of reasons. You 
never really feel like you're controlling the 
racers, but rather just making suggestions 
that they follow or ignore at their leisure. 
And the single-player game is extraordinarily 
difficult from the onset. The main game fea- 
tures only six racetracks, and you'll spend lit- 
erally hours playing the same race over and 
over as you get mauled by the computer. 

You can follow along in an enemy's 
wake, or "turbulence," and do a few basic 
snowboard-style tricks to boost your speed. 
But let's say you're heading into a hairpin 
turn that you have to take perfectly or else 
you'll fall off the track and go immediately, 
irreversibly into last place...and then another 
racer leaves a turbulence trail. Now you're 
sucked into his wake, which conveniently 
disappears halfway through the turn with no 
way for you to stop. 

If you do complete the story mode, you'll 
unlock alternate versions of the stages, more 
racers like Cream the Rabbit, and a minichal- 
lenge-filled mission mode similar to Crazy 
Taxi's Crazy Box but harder and not fun. The 
multiplayer modes range from boring to 
unplayably bad—my friend and | eventually 
just gave up on the battle mode when we 
weren't able to hit each other. | don't even 
think he's my friend anymore. | Chris Kohler 





PROS It's not Shadow the Hedgehog 

CONS Shoddy controls, excruciating dif- 
ficulty, a focus on memorization over skill, 
"turbulence" effect hurts more than it helps 


"SCORE 2 = 












DRAKENGARD 2 
MIXED-BREED DOG 


1Pu& Ubisoft oeu. Cavia exea M mszp $49.99 





7 


Imagine if Panzer Dragoon and Dynasty 
Warriors had a child, but it was a little on 

the slow side. That'll give you an idea of 
what the Drakengard series is all about. One 
minute, you're flying above the clouds, strug- 
gling with the controls as you attempt to take 
down griffons and zeppelins, and the next, 
you're mindlessly whacking away at the X 
button for minutes on end as you mow down 
fields of soldiers. And some missions com- 
bine the two—during a ground fight, you'll 
occasionally be able to hop onto your dragon 
and rain down death from above. 

You're not just running around slashing 
up hordes of identical enemies, though. 
Quite often, you'll find yourself in mortal 
battle against a particularly strong creature 
or two that need to be handled with more 
strategy—parrying, blocking, sidestepping. 
Unfortunately, the camera system that works 
fine for mindless hacking and slashing is 
garbage for close-in combat. 

In fact, it's quite easy to get cornered by a 
couple powerful enemies during a midboss 
battle and die almost instantly, which makes 
the lack of midmission checkpoints a real 
pain. Some missions are brief, but some 
can last for quite a while. At least you get to 
keep all your experience points when you 
continue, so it's never a total loss. 

And it certainly doesn't help matters 
that Drakengard 2 is an ugly, ugly game. 
The aerial battle sequences all look identi- 
cal—generic, featureless landscapes against 
an empty sky. On the ground, things aren't 
much prettier—barren towns, blocky brown 
mountains. 

Drakengard 2's concept is still unique 
and clever; that can't be denied. And the 
story, while hackneyed, is translated well. 

It will find its share of cult fans, but even 
they will have to cop to its laundry list of 
failings. | Chris Kohler 


PROS Unique concept, you get to keep ХР 
when you die 

CONS Graphics are ugly, flying sucks, cam- 
era sucks, gameplay is boring 


SCORE 


2-1 











2006 





























4 






TOKYO XTREME RACER DRIFT 
MORE LIKE AN APOLOGY THAN 
ATITLE 


үглэн Crave Entertainment =. Genki 
esee E msee $15.99 


— 








has taken the battle off the 
Tokyo highways and into the hills for the 
latest slip-slidin’ automotive adventure in 
the series. Too bad all the same issues still 
plague this sequel. 

Drift has a two-tiered approach. Run 
sanctioned events during the day in order to 
build your reputation and earn cash that can 
be spent on upgrades for dozens of licensed 
cars. Upgrade the engine, the suspension, 
or just the look of your ride with body kits, 
paint jobs, and so on. 

At night, it’s time to enter the underworld 
and make your name as an illegal street 
racer on the winding mountain passes. Taste 
victory in head-to-head hill climb and down- 
hill events as you wrestle your way around 
the sharp curves and steep inclines. 

The title “Drift” is appropriate, but mostly 
for the wrong reasons. The cars in Tokyo 
Xtreme don't so much break traction during 
a slide, since they never really feel like they 
have any traction at all. Even going down 
the straights, the cars feel floaty and tend to 
weave as you struggle to get them pointed 
in one direction. It's the same problem that 
every other Tokyo Xtreme game has suf- 
fered from, but exacerbated by the super- 
sharp turns and narrow roads found in Drift. 
At least on the other games' wide highways 
you had room to correct yourself and slide 
out a bit in the turns. Here, when you've 
only got one lane between you and a guard- 
rail, the experience is that much worse. 

Tokyo Xtreme aficionados will probably 
cry foul on this. If you already have a han- 
dle on TXR's, er, handling, then maybe Drift 
will be pretty playable. Considering how far 
racing-game physics have come, though, 
it's sad that the Tokyo Xtreme games still 
make you feel like you're driving on a sheet 
of ice. 


Up until now, all of the 
games in the Tokyo. 
Xtreme series have 
been based on Genki's 
Japanese Shutokou 
Battle series. Driftis 
the first in the series 
based on Genki's Kaido 
Battle games, which 
are all about racing 
over mountain roads. 


iM Cavi 
ALZEADY 
Drakengard 2 devel- 
oper Cavia will join 
forces with Hironobu 
Sakaguchi's company 
Mistwalker to create 
an action-RPG for Xbox 
360 called Cry On. 
Published by AQ Inter- 
active, the game tells 
the story of a young girl 
and a giant monster 
made of sand. 





PROS Narrow, winding roads take TXR's 
already bad handling and make it feel that 


much worse. 
SCORE 


= 











2K Games Studio 


s the usual FCC standards 
apply, Jack Bauer is probably the most badass 
character of all time, but in the wider pond of 
videogames, he's got a lot of competition. Once 
you've seen Solid Snake single-handedly take 
down a Hind-D attack chopper, what's left for 
Bauer to do? 

Hint: Jack doesn't get a missile launcher. 

24: The Game is a generally successful badass 
simulator in which developer Studio Cambridge 
astonishingly managed to replicate the intense 
feeling of the show while not watering down 
Bauer's character. You will storm a terrorist base, 
escape, and then go back in again to rescue a 
friend before everything blows up; you'll do it 
without even a bulletproof vest for protection; 
and you'll do it NOW because millions of inno- 
cent lives are at stake. It's fantastic. 

The gunplay is the main attraction here, and 
the developers were smart enough to give play- 
ers the benefit of the doubt. If the aiming controls 
were off (usually the chief bugbear in third-per- 
son action games; see Dead to Rights and Grand 
Theft Auto for more), Bauer would feel a lot less 
cool than the player knows he is after seeing him 
unhesitatingly kill every terrorist in a room before 
one can even unholster his weapon. But it's dead 
on, allowing you to instantly switch back and 
forth between targets from a cover position. 





Not quite as dead on are the driving 


sequences, which would have benefited 
from some kind of Burnout-like retaliation 
option. Instead, you're forced to take the 
buffeting you get from enemy vehicles en 
route to your next destination while trying 
not to crash. The game handles the CTU 
analysis segments—a collection of tense 
minigames—better. If the action lets you feel 
just like Jack, the analysis stuff lets you feel 
just like Chloe (for better or worse). 

The game's story, written by the show's 
writers, is also top-notch, with the requisite 
last-second plot twists. All the major charac- 
ters are represented, and if they don't look 
entirely natural, it's at least the best the 
PS2 could have done. Play this game, or the 
terrorists win. | 

се 


2 


500 Awkward driving scenes, occasionally 
eerie character models 


4 кы; гаг 
ү o8 шашин... 
jecscs—EEFEIM 


taal 











AR AIL | 


PALMER LITE 
Since the story line takes 
place after season two, 
President Palmer isn't in 
the game much. While 
that does mean a dearth 
of Dennis Haysbert's 
awesome portrayal of 
the fictional president, 
on the bright side, it also 
means Sherry Palmer is 
completely absent from 
24: The Game, which 
almost earned it another 
half-point. 







E, Y SQUARE ENIX 
















Ш | EXELIIELLIES PSZ 








Curious if Beatmania is 
your cup of tea? Check 
it out for yourself on this 








po мл... month's disc. 

25 TO LIFE BEATMANIA - ^ FINAL FIGHT: STREETWISE 

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE DO NOT TAKE ME TO FUNKYTOWN WHY MUST YOU RUIN MY MEMORIES? 

ірин. Eidos Avalanche Software Konami Konami E $59.99 ірін, Capcom DEu Capcom Mr $39.99 
M 539.99 7777 Ds 


achievement іп 
incompetence the likes of which we may 
never see again. This run-and-gun shooter 
plays as if it were designed by a team of fur- 
tively posturing 13-year-old suburban white 
boys. As a result, everything is overplayed 
into caricature—the swearing, the music, the 
'tude, the prolonged death sequences, and 
more. Not overdone: the art direction, which 
is so rudimentary that it seems cribbed from 
the back pages of one of those boys' social 
studies notebooks (I guess it was either this 
or a game pitting dragons against WWII 
fighter planes). You could shake a box of 
rocks and do a better job approximating the 
human form in motion than 25 to Life does 
(though, I confess, the choice to suddenly 
put one character's head on backward for an 
entire level is perversely inspired). 

Could 25 to Life do more things wrong? 
Short of infecting you with cold sores, no. 
The graphics, interface, and targeting reticule 
conspire to make the action unplayable, abet- 
ted in part by a damage model that somehow 
equates "bare-chested bad guy" with "bul- 
letproof bastard." Forget about the alleged 
opportunity to choose to play as a gangster 
or a cop; in reality, you march through a 
crappy story as three different characters: 
Freeze, the antihero of the game who's try- 
ing to quit the gang; Detective Lester Wil- 
liams, a cop who attended the same police 
academy as Steve Guttenberg; and a vicious 
gang leader with the thrillingly lethal name 
of Shaun (just like Shaun Cassidy, singer of 
“Da Doo Ron Ron" and Matlock guest star). 
My only hope of pleasure in this game was 
some sort of Warriors-inspired gang theme 
for Freeze and Shaun's 22nd Street D-Boys. 
But instead of a tribe of chest-implant-sport- 
ing trannies, | found myself gunning down 
hordes of bandana-wearing clones. 

When the game ends after four or five 
hours, you could play multiplayer. Of course, 
you could hand-clean a turnpike rest room, 
too. They're a pretty even match in terms of 
enjoyability and effort. | 








Insert "cruel and unusual punish- 
ment" or similar prison-term jokesterism 
here. Bonus points for working in the words 


"salad" and "toss." 


SCORE 


= 


pretty much boils down 
to this: You will either love it or hate it 
depending on your taste in music. If you're 
expecting some rock, which you shouldn't 
be considering what the peripheral looks 
like, then you're going to be sorely disap- 
pointed. Most of Beatmania's soundtrack is 
composed of dance music along the lines of 
trance and techno, with a few classic tracks 
thrown in. Even if you're a fan of those 
particular genres, you may find some of the 
selections a little lacking, either because they 
are just bad songs to begin with or they're 
not very well known. 

You'll go through the soundtrack in the 
main part of the game pretty fast. Beatmania 
tries to dilute this problem by offering a 
couple of different modes, including a two- 
player battle mode as well as a mode that 
lets you use two tables at once. It has doz- 
ens of options that let you change the rules 
of a particular song. This will keep you play- 
ing a little longer for sure, but (again) how 
long depends on your taste in music. 

In any case, playing Beatmania takes a 
little more skill than your typical rhythm 
game, but perhaps not so much more than 
something like Guitar Hero. The Beatmania 
peripheral—a mini DJ table—has seven, 
keys, plus a disc for scratching at various. 
points during a song. The regular mode uses 
just five of the keys, while Beatmania ПОХ 
uses all seven. Interestingly, the seven-key 
mode actually seems a bit easier than the 
five-key mode at times, simply because the 
added keys seem to be more of a natural fit 
with each song, whereas the five-key mode 
seems to skip a few beats, making it a little 
harder to really get in rhythm. 

People who like rhythm games will 
undoubtedly like the challenge offered by 
Beatmania's harder difficulty settings and 
the cool peripheral. But Beatmania doesn't 
really offer the same visceral thrill as some- 
thing like Guitar Hero or even any of the 
DDR games.| 





Streetwise includes 

a lot from the original 
Final Fight. Cody, Mike 
Haggar, and Guy are in 
the game, as are many 
of the sound effects, 
such as the whistle that 
calls over additional 
bad guys. You'll also. 
notice some familiar 
locations. But sadly, the 
emulation of the origi- 
nal Final Fight, which 
you can unlock, is 
absolutely terrible, and 
the fact that you have 
to buy a ticket to ride 
the subway instead of 
jumping the turnstile is 
an affront to gamers, 





















The Beatmania series 
has been around for 
a pretty long time, 

at least in Japanese 
arcades, To date, 
there have been over 
13 releases, including 
appearances on the 
original PlayStation 
and even Nintendo's 
Game Boy. 





Cool peripheral, offers a great chal- 
lenge in the hardest difficulty settings 
Soundtrack is lacking, most modes 


are relatively easy 


SCORE 


2 
There's something strangely 


І Giancarlo Varanini 





Good voice acting, somewhat enter- 
taining story and fighting mechanics, nods to 
the original Final Fight 

Terrible graphics, feels tedious at 
times, cheap Al, not too different from most 


د 


other recent beat-em-ups 
SCORE 















AAAI | 


Фар Т SQUARE ЕМІ» 











IF YOU AREN'T COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR 
COMBAT SKILLS, YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO PICK 
UP WEAPONS AROUND THE LEVEL. 






New adventure: 











ents Under Pressure probably О. (i hich parts of your piece still 
ng anyone to the graf-wri fork. 
84 news is...well, you can р) | Getting Up's most serious prob- 
this is going. : 1 so damn serious. There's none 
is good, but it isn't fun. It's d 70) i joy found in Jet Set Radio; 
that involve acrobatically па) onsist of vicious rival gangs in 
ау around tricky environment эи | grousing public transit workers 
al crews and police through һап! еер the cars clean. Even when 
bat, and writing graffiti, and the g K police come on the scene 
ll of these things well. Combat at fi u 4 gue like "Art is a crime!" it 
istinct and arbitrary, but once you gi © Ecko and co. have begged the ques- 
and timing of it, the hits feel solid а : Jr this even qualifies as such. 
unlike in a lot of street-brawling дага ession, and Getting Up truly 
ame’s Al is pretty good, too; if you're є 3: writers' soul, they may 
, enemies will gang up on you rather 6 1 Шу made the best case not to 
/ Бу to attack you one by one. : | 
Ih better than the combat are the contra 
е regular exploration part of the game, 
are intelligent and intuitive. The Collecti 
ed hard to make sure players never have 
у ї the controls to get where they're going; пој 
7750 easy is figuring out your route. ® t 
And this is where the game starts to falter. БЕЛЕТ i$ off, making the 
| “Май character Trane's "intuition" power is e citi Gould be 
‘decent, but the spotty camera frequently fails 3 
o show just where those bright glowing mark- 
ers he's supposed to head to are—this can be 
" especially disastrous in timed levels like a train- 
jumping sequence. The actual tagging controls 





E, Y SQUARE ENIX | 








SQUARE ENIX. 


www.kingdomhearts.com 
Published by Square Enix, Inc. (—— 
EVERYONE 10+ 
Mild Blood 
Use of Alcohol 
Violence 








PlayStation.2 2 











y | HEELS PS2 














матен IT 


Watch the Dawn of 
Dreams trailer on 
this month's disc 
to see the action 
for yourself! 










/LISHA'S STORY SCENES АРЕ OF UARVING QUALITY: SOME ARE TOLD WITH WELL-DIPECTED 
IMATICS, BUT SOME SIMPLY FEATURE SCROLLING TEXT ON A STATIC BACKGROUND. 





Capcom M $49.99 


1 Capcom 


Ind o: DAAN Es DIZEAIVIS 





Dawn of Dreams is the first Onimusha game that I've 
been able to play for more than a few minutes. The 
character-locked control scheme is what always killed the 
series for те- didn't like it in Resident Evil 10 years ago 


and | hate it now. But it’s a new era and a new Onimusha, 


and the natural, cameracentric controls help make Dawn 
of Dreams an enjoyable reinvention. 

The concept hasn't changed that much: Slash your 
way through feudal Japan, slaying endless waves of 
demons and collecting their souls as you watch beauti- 
ful, cinematic scenes. The presentation is exquisite; 
though many cut-scenes are rendered in real time, they 
are directed quite well. The English voices are decent, 
but | appreciate the fact that you can flip on the original 
Japanese track. 

Throughout most of the game, you'll play as Soki. 
But you'll also collect four new playable characters 
along the way, each with unique weapons and attack 
styles. At certain times during the adventure you'll head 
out with a partner; pressing L2 will let you change the 
character under your control. The ability to revisit old 
levels, bringing new characters back to get items that 
you couldn't reach the first time through, means you'll 
always have a lot to do. 

New RPG elements have been added, so characters 
gain strength and new abilities as they rack up kills. And 


all that killing feels perfect; combat is tight and satisfying, 
especially once you begin to master your MP-consuming 
special moves. Having to constantly move the camera to get 
the best view of the battles is annoying, though. 

If anything really drags DOD down, it's the boss battles. 
Some of them are done right—you need to be smart 
enough to figure out the weak point, then quick enough 
to exploit it. But often, | found myself unable to do more 
than a few points of damage at a time, chugging health 
potions for minutes on end as | chipped at the boss’ mas- 
Sive health bar. 

Luckily, the forgiving continue system lets you start any 
battle over with no penalty. This makes DOD's challenges 
more addictive than frustrating, and it's hard to see any 
action fans being disappointed. 





Control system finally overhauled, beautiful pre- 
sentation, solid combat 
Occasional camera issues, boss fights can drag the 


fun down 
Чэ 


SCORE 
iid, 








1 Pus. Capcom реч. Capcom eses M mser $19.99 








рде =, 





So IF YOU LET OTHER PEOPLE, PIECE BY PIECE, 
MAKE YOU INTO WHAT THEY WANT, EVEN IF IT'S 
STUPID, WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU? 






MH petite 


OFFICE or NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY/PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG-FREE AMERICA 


ee ie E 
— % 








Ш | БЕЛЕ PSP 





Chaigidiel 


The fertilization is almost 
complete. 


І Копаті Kojima Productions M $39.99 


METAL GEA? ACID 


Hey, guess what? Metal Gear Acid 2 is still a turn-based card game, à 
la Metal Gear Acid! Don't skip this review quite yet, as it's not only for 
fans of the previous game. MGA2 has enough changes and tweaks to 
make it a bit more palatable to gamers who were put off by the card- 
slinging nature of MGA. 

The first thing you'll notice about МСА2, besides the crazy colorful 
cel-shaded graphics, is that it has an actual tutorial. No longer are play- 
ers just thrown into the game and told, "Yeah, go be Snake, except in 
a turn-based manner and with a deck of cards." Done in a style similar 
to the VR missions of past Metal Gear Solid games, these training mis- 
sions make MGA2 a whole lot more newbie friendly. Adding to this аге 
the tweaked controls; the D-pad lets you directly move Snake square 
by square (rather than merely designating where you want him to end 
up and watching him go), and the face buttons help you do things like 
crawl on the ground, brush up against walls, and use close-quarters 
combat on nearby enemies. The overall pacing is actually improved, as 
the game gradually introduces new strategies and concepts, like deck 
editing, equipping weapons, and controlling multiple characters. 

You don't even need to know what happened in the previous game, 
as the story starts off with Snake being grabbed by the ЕВ! and coerced 
into infiltrating a defense contractor's headquarters. In fact, the whole 
plot is a lot more normal and easy to digest compared to the first 
МСА5 story about puppets hijacking airplanes. 

While МСА2 is a lot more newbie friendly, it still requires a fair bit 
of strategy. Like in a normal MGS game, you'll need to observe your 
enemy for movement and vision patterns, and figure out the best 
cards (out of a staggering 500 or so) to use. A significant improvement 
over MGA is the introduction of "linkage" cards—cards with special 





4 


attributes. You can't use them by themselves, but if you use any sort 

of weapon, all the linkage cards you have in your hand are activated at 
once. It's pretty cool to save up four different linkage cards, use them 
all with, say, an AK-47 card on a strong enemy, and get effects like 
additional damage, knockdown, armor piercing, and arc fire in one hit. 
On top of linkage cards, there is the additional strategy of upgrading 
individual weapon cards (for example, making a gun fire armor-pierc- 
ing bullets by default). And you have to cope with new card effects, like 
being covered in oil and hence unable to see your cards for a while. 
Metal Gear Acid 2 is a good blueprint for how to make a sequel, as 

it expands its audience (by making it easier for newbies to get into) 
while providing significant improvements to the core gameplay. Plus, 

if you're into that kind of thing, you can ogle 3D videos of Japanese 
models fondling weapons with the bundled-in Solid Eye 3D goggles. 
Um, hooray mammaries? 


Slick look, revised controls, better pacing, lots of gameplay 
improvements over original 
Still plays a bit too slow, and it's still not the action-packed 


portable Metal Gear that most people want 
| . = 


SCORE 













































2 2 T 
Just how is it playing with the 
Solid Eye goggles? Cool at first. 
Its neat to watch cut-scenes 
from previous MGS titles and, 
yes, the videos of girls in bikinis 
messing around with knives and 
guns, all in 3D. It's also neat to 
see things like stairs and rail- 
ings and security cameras "pop 
out” in 3D. Just not for a very 
long time, as playing with the 
goggles gave me a nasty head- 
ache and an unhealthy dose of 
eyestrain. But that could just be 
my aging peepers. 





PlayStation. 





WRC: FIA WORLD RALLY 
CHAMPIONSHIP 


SPUTTERING TO THE FINISH 


! Namco Bandai Traveller's Tales 


E $39.99 





You may never have 
heard of the WAC 
games, but the United 
Kingdom has seen about 
five of them so far on 
the PlayStation 2, Now- 
defunct publisher Bam. 
actually released the 
first WRC game here in 
the States back in 2002. 


[GavenseapHy | 
| Though Pursuit Force | 
is Bigbig Studios' first | 
game, the studio was | 
| 

| 

| 

| 





| founded by former 

| Codemasters employ- 
ees. Their credits 
include the widely 
acclaimed Colin McRae 
Rally and TOCA series. 


A decent racer that doesn't come | 
close to fulfilling its potential. Still, it's cur- 
rently the only choice for rally racing on 

„the PSP. Jj 


SCORE 


















1 Sony CEA 


ESL LET. ЕШӘГЕ 


Bigbig T $39.99 


of Pursuit 

Force, | thought there was no way in hell the 
designers could pull it off. A game in which 
you jump at will between moving cars, bikes, 
and boats while shooting at bad guys—well, it 
just sounded a little too complex to work. So 
it was a nice surprise to learn that this funda- 
mental game mechanic works amazingly well. 

Too bad you just know there's a “but” 
coming up, don't you? Well, here it is: The 
mechanic is good, but the rest of the game 
doesn't work nearly as well. Oh, it starts 
off great. You're driving a slick speedster 
down a highway, and as you get near enemy 
vehicles, a little icon pops up; tap Circle and 
you'll leap effortlessly onto the hood or the 
back of the other car, from whence you can 
use your trusty sidearm to dispatch the driver 
(and any passengers) and take control of the 
vehicle. It's very simple and very satisfying, 
and there's enough strategy involved to keep 
things interesting. 

The issues arise in, well, just about every 
other aspect of the game. For example, while 
the cars are great, certain segments require 
you to drive boats or motorcycles, both of 
which handle like complete crap. Even worse 
are the on-foot segments, which offer up a 
nice diversion but are absolutely horrendous 











НІШ. 


TOPPING НА 
JJPSELF ONT 





in the control department. Difficulty imbalance 
hurts the game just as much as the controls: 
Some missions (especially boss battles) took 
me hours upon hours to complete...and then 
I'd beat the very next mission on the first 

try. Some missions have checkpoints, some 
don't—a fact that seems to bear no relation- 
ship to the mission's length or difficulty. I'm 
a big fan of variety, but it's present almost 

to a fault here; | kept hoping for more driv- 
ing-jumping-shooting gameplay that never 
materialized. 

So it's a testament to the strength of the 
game's fundamental premise that in spite 
of these major issues, Pursuit Force is still 
a pretty darn good time. It's not a classic by 
any means, but it's certainly a solid addition 
to the PSP's fairly skimpy library of original 
games. 








222 


While pretty seriously flawed and : 
diverse almost to a fault, Pursuit Force is 


AB 


„solidly entertaining at its core. 
SCORE 








oamiLib.com| 89 
ак 


FIEULIIELLIE PSP 
















ACNE ITT L 








2222 
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3 FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 3 EXIT 
MAX THE POUND-FOR-POUND CHAMP POLL 
THAT'S A LOT OF STREET FIGHTING 1 PUE. EA Sports EA Chicago 1- Ubisoft =_ Taito 
І Сарсот Сарсот IT: $39.99 E $39.99 
T $39.99 





Ї et Fighter series were to ever have 

a swan song—yes, we all know it won't— 
then surely Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max on 
the PSP would be it. Not only is it just an 
excellent port of an arcade game, but it also 

| one of the best rosters of any fighting 

` game to date, along with enough extras to 

_ Keep any sort of fighting fan busy for hours 
on end. And yes, in case you're wondering, 
it is almost too good to be true. Alpha 3's 
only downfall is the PSP itself, or more spe- 

‘cifically, its D-pad, which doesn't really offer out developer Kudo 

_the total precision needed to execute moves Tsunoda’s blog at 

у that а game like this requires. fightni JUP, 

5 з not to say that jumping ог half-cir- com, 

cle motions are totally impossible, because 

they're not. In fact, most middle-tier players 

| probably won't even care, but if you're one 
of those people who wants to really master 
the game, then it'll prove to be endlessly 
frustrating. Even things as simple as jumps 
or three-quarter circle motions hit a snag 
every once in a while just because the D-pad 
requires a little bit of extra finesse than what 
most people are used to. 

Purists probably won't be able to quite let 
(80 of that, but for the rest of us, it's still one 
of the best renditions of any Street Fighter 

‘game. It has enough entertaining modes— 
icularly the two kinds of dramatic battle 

| options, one of which lets you tag in and 
out with a second fighter—to choke a don- 

| кеу. And although online play is ad hoc 
only, it runs incredibly smoothly, which is 

“crucial for a fighting game that requires 
precision timing. There are also three new 
available characters (taken from the GBA 
version of the game), and all of them look 

ау spectacularly. 

Street Fighter ports were done with 

of care and effort, people would 

а much harder time claiming Capcom 

s trying to milk its fighting games 





Want more Fight. 
Night insight? Check 















Fighter Alpha 3 Max 
through Capcom's 
website, then you 


If you preorder Street 












"t let the “Rori title fool you—this 
is essentially last year's Fight Night Round 
2in a handheld form. And you know what? 
That's just fine. In fact, while it. doesn't fix the. 
shortcomings of that game, find it a more 
exciting, more involving boxing exper ince 
than this year's PS2 game. SN 

The bad news is old news. You can nurse 
along a career winning fights on points by 
relying heavily on incessant jabs and relent- 
less body work. It's hard to understand how, 
in the year since Round 2 came out, the 
designers have been largely incapable of 
programming opponents who will, at the 
very least, just cover up their guts should 
you stay crouched down and cracking their 
ribs and livers. Tactically, this is a weaker 
game than the PS2 version. 

That said, the action is as fantastic as 
ever, if not better. The colors are deliciously 
rich, the controls remarkably effective, the. 
customization as deep as in the console 
game, and the fighting brutally satisfying. 
Best of all, the trophies you win aren't all 
corporate-sponsored crap. Yeah, you can 
win a Dodge Caliber trophy, but you can also 
win trophies based on actual achievements, 
like knockouts and stellar defense. Another 
great feature from Round 2 is the rankings 
sheet, which not only lets you follow your — 
progress toward a title shot, but gives you 
the opportunity to contro! your career path 
to some extent as well. : 
Round 3 would've been gre 


you attempt to repeat or change box 
history—provide an outstanding alteri 
play mode. Trying to survive badass Joe 
Frazier as a beat-up Ali from the 








receive a special D-pad 
attachment that sticks 
to the top of the PSP's 
regular D-pad. It does a 
decent job of minimizing: 
the problems with the 
PSP hardware, although 
they're still somewhat 


ҒҒ ; 
A fun distraction for the PSP 


Slow and repetitive, sometimes to 
the point of boredom. Just keep the ses- 


с | гү SCORE == г 


к 


Excellent visuals, sound, and game- 
play mechanics; plenty of extra modes 
The PSP's D-pad isn't the most 











As juicy and satisfying as a chunk 
„ of Evander Holyfield's ear. 


SCORE 


¿accommodating 
SCORE 


noticeable. 


215 














4 

































A QUEEN MAY GOVERN 
PEIS CAND: 








ВОЛ ТОО ALONE RULE 
AR Se DESTINE 


With the queen in danger and your homeland under siege, you as the prince must 






gather the 108 stars of destiny and defend the crown you will never wear. Welcome to 
Suikoden V, the epic adventure where the fate of an entire world awaits your command. 
Р » 






































60+ PLAYABLE 20» STRATEGIC 
COMPANIONS BATTLE CONDITIONS 


Ей 0 4 
e. www.konami.com/gs 











Mild Language 
Use of Alcohol 
Partial Nudity 
Violence 


ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrb.org 








WIN А 60 GB 


VIDEO IPOD! i 














GOOD LUCK, SOLDIER. 





000:000000 


RECORDA 967997888 | ШАР оз'зг"ѕоо (SECTION 


The most important thing to know about 
Street Supremacy is that it is a portable Tokyo 
Xtreme Racer. Despite the name change, the 
game looks and plays exactly the same as the 
TXR console titles. 

The cool thing about the portable version is 
the RPG-like turf war setup, in which you and 
your team attempt to dominate every area of 
the Tokyo highway system by challenging and 
defeating other teams. Lose your turf and your 
group disbands. In the meantime, you have 
to battle your teammates in order to move 
up the internal ranks and eventually take over 
your team. It's a very cool setup. 

And of course, you can use money won to 
upgrade your collection of licensed rides with 
everything from better engines to funky vinyl 
and carbon hoods. The custom bodies, in 
particular, are important when you have a PSP 
game that looks this nice. 

But eventually, you get out onto the high- 
way and try to take you first turn. It's at this 
point you realize you might as well be driving 
on ice, because no matter what you do to 
your car, it will never grip the road to the point 
that you have any semblance of real control 
through the turns. Now consider the fact that 
making too much contact with retaining walls 
and other cars is actually one way to lose each 


Caffeine Times Three 





1.0 1'38” 
281751" 
380782 
4.— 


PARHING AREF 


Select Route 





Back to баға 


m 


Select а route. 


race (even if you're leading by a mile), and 


you're in for one frustrating experience. 
The long-running Tokyo Xtreme series is 


based on a fantastic idea. But you'd think that 


after so many games, developer Genki would 
at least attempt to fix the physics problems 
that have been plaguing its racing games for 


years. TXR buffs will likely be able to deal with 
this stuff, but everyone else is better off avoid- 


222777 
22 
' UERDICT The best ice-racing simulator 
for the PSP. Too bad there's no option for 
winter tires. 


SCORE 


Ж 
%% 


[4 152,888 CP 


NanelessNewbie 


*"*^'Shiba Park 





ОКТ BACK = PROFILE 


77272 
FIGHT 


Street Supremacy's 
| races don't feature a 
| finish line, but rather a 
"life bar." Like in any 
fighting game, when 
a player's life bar has 
| depleted, that player 
| loses the race. Your bar | 
will go down if you're 
| running second or 
you hit another car ог 




















eee 


й tt 


LS 





COMMAND A WIDE RANGE OF SQUADS UTILIZE REAL-WORLD COMBAT TACTICS 8 UNIQUE MULTIPLAYER LEVELS/MODE:S 
US Light Infantry, US Special Forces. Outthink, Outmaneuver, Outgun Enemies Through Co-op and Coalition Vs. Opposition Forces 
Multi-National Coalition Forces Over 12 Levels of Intense Combat 


The way it's 
{ут А 
meant to be play ed. 


ı POWERED BY 


WWW.FULLSPECTRUMWARRIOR.COM COMING SOON. 





MATURE 17+ 










Blood and Gore 
Strong Language 
Violence 








PlayStation.2 





| www.thg.com 





‘CONTENT RATED BY | 
ESRB 


© 2006 Pandemic Studios. LLC. All Rights Reserved. Pandemic @, the Pandemic logo @ and Full Spectrum Warrior" are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Pandemic Studios, LLC and are reproduced under license only. Exclusively licensed by THQ Inc. 
HQ and the THQ logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All rights reserved. Microsoll, Xbox, Xbox Live, the Live logos and the Xbox logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsolt Corporation in the United States and/or other 
countries and are used under license from Microsoft. "Pl. ion" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Online play requires internet connection and Memory Card (8MB) (for PlayStation 2) (each sold separately). 
The Online icon is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. GameSpy and the "Powered by GameSpy" design are trademarks of GameSpy Industries, Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. АП other 
trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA Logo, GeForce and “The Way 115 Meant to be Played” Logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and other countries. 






























Mı | БЭЕЕ-ШЕ Ш5 PsP 





(722272: 22222107 


While a good story always improves a game, 
it certainly isn't a required component for 
enjoyment. Sometimes you just want to shoot 
or fight and not have to think. But if a game 
doesn't have a story, the onus falls on the 
developer that much more to make the actual 
combat fun. And if combat isn't there, well, 
things get boring pretty fast. 

The big problem with The Warrior's Code 
is that the combat, while decent, offers no 
challenge. Monsters might come in different 
shapes and sizes, but it's easy to dispatch 
them with some casual ax swings. It doesn't 
matter if you rush blindly into a horde of ene- 
mies, because nine times out of 10, you'll kill 
them all easily. Bosses are also depressingly 
simple—you сап beat most of them on the 
first try, with little to no strategy required. One 
of the things touted about The Warrior's Code 
is the incorporation of special attacks, but 
when you don't need to use them, it makes 
them a lot less exciting. Again, it's no fun to 
win when there's no challenge involved. 

Also frustrating is that it's not always 
clear where you need to go—l spent a good 
20 minutes wandering around an endlessly 
branching dungeon trying to find the correct 
door because there isn't a full-sized map to 
refer to. The story, which is generic fantasy 
fare, doesn't add any spice to the game. It's 








another tale of absolute evil taking control, 
with you being the lone hope of all that is 
good and right. 

Some things have improved from the last 
game. Load times are thankfully a whole lot 
shorter than they used to be, and the graph- 
ics look better, too. The game runs pretty 
smoothly, but it did have points of lag. Nor- 
mally, this wasn't too much of a problem, but 
in timed events | found myself rubbing my 
thumb raw on the analog stick as | tried to eke 
a little more speed out of my character. 

Ultimately, we've seen this situation many 
times before. People don't play a game 
because it has pretty spellcasting effects or 
40 different monster types. They play games 
to be challenged—the entertainment comes 
from figuring out how to overcome that 
challenge. Here's a challenge to the develop- 
ment team: Step outside of your formula 
and think about what makes a game worth 
playing. | Dana Jongewaard 


VERDICT Formulaic and unchallenging. 


ж= 7 ЕЕ 


2 


























SAMURAI WARRIORS: 
STATE OF WAR 


FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT 
рин. Koei оч, Omega Force exea T mser $39.99 


than 20 versions of DW on at least 
ent platforms, and it should come a: 
prise to exactly no one that Koei is woi 
“on a DW for the PS3. But ultimately, 


| DW. spin-off Se Warriors оп 


offers an excellent example of ke: 


PS2 games. 

The game begins on 
grid of squares; your goa 
entire board. When you | move i 
square, State of War pro} 
thumb-mashing battle th 
dozens of enemies at a time, The К 
is timed and goes in brief bursts; whe 
you're finished fighting, уои" re Back 
game board. 

- There's a surprising strategi 


| State of War. On the game board, you’ 


able to enact a bevy of charms that 
won in your victories, charms that 
used to breach walls, poison enemie: 
your soldiers, or burn down enemy f. 
State of War's action sequences lack а! 
real detail, but that's probably to keep 1 
framerate high. 

For fans of Dynasty Warriors and | 
Samurai Warriors games, State of Wa 
а no-brainer must-have. The game's n 
balanced mix of strategy and action 
it one of the best overall | action-strate. 
games for the PSP. | be у Г 








VERDICT An excellent action-strategy fix 
„ for the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors fan. д 





‘SCORE с | | 5 














то 
£144 6/ 27.00 





Portable RPGs always seem ideal. In our busy 
lives, it's refreshing to take a break from the 
mundane to thwart the obligatory bad guy 
while in transit or pilfer goods while waiting 
for the bus. Generation of Chaos sure looks 
like it has all the right features, too: cutesy 
anime fighters, a complicated story you pre- 
tend to understand, and enough battles to put 
you into a coma. Unfortunately, behind the 
pretty looks lies a vast wasteland of boredom. 

Chaos tries to capitalize on the success- 

ul strategy-RPG craze, and at first glance, 

it appears as though fans of Disgaea and 
Phantom Brave may have another reason to 
hole up. But part of the joy of playing those 
games is mastering their intricate combat 
systems. Sadly, Chaos' battles are the equiva- 
lent of a summer blockbuster: all flash and 

no substance. Sure, they look impressive—60 
warriors duking it out at the same time is quite 
a feat, especially on the PSP's modest screen. 
But once you get over this fact (and | give you 
five minutes at the most), you'll realize there's 
not much to do while attacking except watch 
the madness run amok. 

The problem is that you have little control 
over the combat. You have one main com- 
mander, who you can move during the skir- 
mishes, but aside from that, you're crippled in 


Add a new dimension 


TO YOUR LIFE. 


deciding any sort of strategy other than clos- 
ing your eyes and hoping your warriors took 
their vitamins. For an RPG that emphasizes 
generations of chaos, it's a shame the actual 
battles aren't more enjoyable. 

When you're not fighting, the object is to 
acquire loads of land on a main map (which 
is formatted similarly to a game board). Each 
chapter ends when you are able to defeat the 
main commander on the map. Sounds easy 
enough, but like Monopoly, it can takes days 
(or in the game's case, months) before you get 
anything accomplished. 

Honestly, there are better ways to waste 
your time, but if you're really itching for a por- 
table ponderer, grab yourself a lawn chair and 


ID, 


take a rain check from life. | Michael Donahue 


704 м 
1223 corn 


ЭХЭ 


IS 
TRANS 
бей 


VERDICT Like that hot chick at the bar— 
good looking but boring after five minutes. 


SCORE c C g 


CLE, 


Your passion. Our profession. 


Collins College offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Game Design and 
a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Arts with a major in Game Art. 


Main Campus - Tempe, Arizona >> West Campus - Phoenix, Arizona 


OR VISIT www.CollinsCollege.edu 


Collins College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT). Financial aid is available for 


those who qualify. Career services assistance. Collins College West is a branch of Collins College. Not all programs available at all locations. 








М, | REUIEWS MOYES 





[Zach Braff, Joan Cusack |) 


CHICKEN LITTLE 


SK 


If you want to know why Disney just paid through the nose to 

buy Pixar, you need look no further than Chicken Little, which was 
Disney's homegrown attempt to capture some of Pixar's computer- 
animated magic—and its extremely high grosses. It failed оп both 
counts. Well, “failed” is probably too strong a word. It's a cute 
enough little film, a nice story about a bunch of misfit kid animals 
trying to save their world from alien invasion and whatnot, and it 
did reasonably decent business in the theaters. But, see, the film ° 
was designed to show that Disney (which is in the middle of its ówn 
creative slump with its animated film division) didn't need the high- 
octane story, money, and merchandising boost that Pixar releases 
offered the studio. And yeah, it really didn’t do that. 

Why? Because the film's got no balls. The film is, in fact, depress- 
ingly safe—it's the same bland, inoffensive, middle-of-the-road formula 
Disney's pounded out since it chickened out of risk-taking after The 
Lion King more than a decade ago. Pixar, on the other hand, has balls , 
aplenty: Just look at The Incredibles—for my money the best super- 
hero film yet—which is as thematically and referentially rich as any 
film has been in years. Pixar is making world-class films, not just really 
good animated films. There’s nothing wrong,with Disney making just 
a decent animated film for kids, mind you, but it can’t compete with 
Pixar that way. Disney and Pixar aren't playing in the same league and 
haven't been for years. 

So Disney bought Pixar and put Pixar's people in charge of its ani- 
mation studio, and as a result | expect you'll see Disney's animation 
suddenly becoming relevant again. So take a good look at Chicken 
Little—in its way, it's now an endangered species. 














= 




















ICAPOTE 


Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener | 4 








Before James Frey lied his ass off on Oprah, 
there was Truman Capote, who went to Kan- 
sas to cover the murder of a family and made 
the first “nonfiction novel” out of it (and did 
a better job telling the truth than others did 
covering up their lies). This film covers that 
chapter in Capote’s life—and the moral com- 
promises the author took—brilliantly. It’s a 
character study of what real writing can actu- 
ally require of someone's conscience. 


SCORE 













HARRY POTTER AND THE 
GOBLET OF FIRE 


Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson 





At this point in the Harry Potter series (the 
books or the movies), | wonder just how 
many people think it's all going to end on a 
high note. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, 
has been caught openly wondering if Harry's 
gonna die at the end, and while | don't think 
it'll be as bad as all that, as the story goes on, 
things just seem to get darker and darker. 

This is not a complaint, however, and 
Goblet of Fire demonstrates why—because as 
the series gets darker, it also gets more excit- .. 
ing and (trimmed down as the story must be 
in the films) much more intense. This time 
around, Harry has to compete in an effects- 
laden tournament and along the way deal 
with the evil, mostly dead Voldemort, who has 
returned in surprisingly nasty form. In a word: 
excellent. I’m in for more darkness. 














IDERAILED 


Jennifer Aniston, Clive Owen | 4 





Jennifer Aniston tried to put a little tarnish 
on her good-girl image with this little thriller. 
Does it work? Eh. When you're trying a 
career rehab, it helps if the film you're in 

is actually one that works with you in your 
cause. As far as this flick goes, it's not help- 
ing out much; it’s a bit flabby іп the suspense 
department. But if all you’re looking for is to 
admire Aniston's and Clive Owen's charms, 
you're golden. 














IGET RICH OR DIE TRYIN’ 


50 Cent, Terrence Howard | Р 








Rapper 50 Cent is trying to take a page from 
Eminem's winning 8 Mile formula by having 
his film shot by а real director (Jim Sheridan) 
and by fictionalizing his own troubled life 
story. It worked for Eminem, and it works 
here, too, only not as often and not as well. 
Part of the problem is that this story’s already 
been told too much recently (see: Hustle & 
Flow), which is ironic, all things considered. 50 


Cent does well, though. P 




















BELEOSE 
IJARHEAD ad 
[Јаке Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx | S Al March? 22 
War is hell, as the saying so famously goes, Harry Potter and the 
but loitering around on the edge of a war is Goblet of Fire 
no great picnic, either. Jarhead is a war film Jarhead 
with not so much war in it; instead we get March 14 eee 
Gyllenhaal and his solider buddies slowly Good Night, and Good | 
going mad in the intense heat of the Middle Luck. | 
East while waiting for action in the first Gulf A History of Violence 
War. Do they ever see any? And would it Ма! тз 





Сар! z 
Chicken Little 





matter if they did? Yep, those are things to 
ponder, all right. 





4 
Derailed 
score scoee 
22 10222050 ЕСІ 
= - | March 28 








{GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK 


| David Str „ George Clooney | 4 


Undoubtedly the best film ever directed by 
aman who once played Batman. OK, that's 
snarky, but the snark takes nothing from this 
film, which is a smart slice of broadcast his- 
tory, in which a respected journalist (Edward 
R. Murrow, played by Strathairn) locks horns 
with a demagogue in the U.S. government— 
and his company gets his back (mostly). A 
welcome reminder that newsies need to stand 


up for more than “shareholder value.” 5 





IA HISTORY OF VIOLENCE 


Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello] 4 





David Cronenberg shows why he's one of the 
most interesting directors working these days 
with this little tale of love and violence, in 
which a small-town diner owner stops a rob- 
bery and in the process appears to reveal that 
he's not who everyone thinks he is. Cronen- 
berg understands the romance of violence 
better than nearly any other filmmaker, and 
with Mortensen as his hero, he’s got someone 
who personifies both its appeal and danger. 














Get Rich or Die Tryin 

















| 
| о 
|“ЕГЕС5Е | 
ITHE SQUID AND THE WHALE „л 
[Jeff Daniels, Laure Linney] 4 | Boyz Nthe Hood — 
This is one of those films in which no one is | Harry Potter and the | 
particularly пісе or admirable (the two adults, | Goblet of Fire 
both writers, are divorcing badly, and their Jarhead 
kids are screwed up in weird ways of their | March 14 22-21 
own), so it has to get by through being well American Psycho 
acted and sharply observed. It manages this 


very well—it's a good film—but speaking as a 
writer myself, | think everyone in this movie 

needs to have some sense slapped into them. 
Writers, man. 


А 4 





| Ice Age 








гп 
гип 
гип 
гп 





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ct. НЫН 


[2E IINE UP THE PLAYSTATION WAYBACK MACHINE 











TALKING BLACK 


THE DEMO, THE RUSSIANS, AND SHATNER'S FLAP A 








TACTICAL ePOS, 


FF TACTICS AIN'T THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN 

















INSIDE 


If gaming is about obsession, then tactical RPGs are the 
purest, most distilled expression of the art form. 


106 
For the low, low price of $350, you too can watch TV on 
your PSP. Call now! Operators are standing by. 


108 E 
Our point-and-shoot guide to seven PS2 games that make 
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A | REPLAY 





TALKIN 


A) 


фт 





PRODUCER/DIRECTOR TIPS AND COMMENTARY ON CRITERION'S PAEAN TO FIREARMS 








100 | OFM aea 2005 
| E | 11 a 





API | 





E 


This issue's DVD contains an electrifying playable demo of Black, the 





WANTED ТО GIJE PLAYERS THE IMMEDIATE FEELING OF 
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO SHOOT AND BE SHOT AT.” 


| “THE DEMO STARTS IN A BIG EMPTY ROOM BECAUSE WE 





first-person shooter developed by Criterion (creators of the Burnout 


series) and published by EA Games (reviewed last issue), Here, we 


mix in some playing tips by design lead Craig Sullivan with insights 


and commentary into some of the demo (and game) design decisions 
from producer Jeremy Chubb. 


CRAIG SULLIVAN The biggesttip | can give is, don't be scared to pull 
the trigger. Shoot—everything. Black is different from other FPSes. We 
give you lots of bullets and lots of enemies to shoot at. We also try to 


make sure that anything in the world you'd want to shoot, you сап. 


Explore the world with bullets and see what you can find. 


The Rock, The Matrix, and True Lies. What makes these movies so 
much fun is the shooting and destruction. When Arnold enters a room 
and sprays it down with bullets, the bad guys don’t just die—windows 
shatter, sparks fly, smoke fills the air, and the ceiling literally comes 


т 


+ 


JEREMY CHUBB Black was inspired by Hollywood blockbusters like 





/ 





/ 


СОЛК МММ: 


[ va keVS—SHOOTING IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET THROUGH A Done 


ШИ М” Хы 


crashing down around the enemy. 


The demo starts in a big empty room because we wanted to give 
players the immediate feeling of what it's like to shoot and be shot at. 
Smash the glass in front of you, shoot up the wall! We start you off 
with a shotgun because we wanted to teach you early on [that] there 
are no keys in the game—you just blow off the hinges if you want to 


get through a door. 


grav 


‘CS Open fire, assess target, move to cover, open fire: This basic 
pattern is key to getting the most out of B/ack, especially in tricky 
situations. Most encounters are designed around the premise that 
at least one of the combatants (you or the enemy) is either near or 
behind cover, so firing into a position then advancing or retreating 
based on the outcome is a great tactic to use—youll see enemies 


doing this also. 


ос We wanted Black to give players the sensation of being in a 
real firefight. Sound is very important for this—we wanted the guns 


X 


| FIRE, ASSESS TARGET, МОЧЕ TO COVER, FIRE. REPEAT AS NEED! 












\ 
\ 





| DN i 


стиш сот | 101 
Ape 


+ 





UHT 
Ей кыгы 





According to Jeremy 
Chubb, the choice of 
Russians as the main 
enemy force came down 
to needing believable 
modern-day locales in 

a world of counterter- 
rorism. To clarify, it's not 
specifically Russia, it's a 
previous Soviet state; all 
the voices are.genuine 
Russian, though. “We 
sent one of our audio 
guys to Moscow and sat 
down with some former 
special-forces guys, so 
everything you hear the 
enemy say in the game is 
really a smart response,” 
says Chubb, “Like when 
you hear them yell /em- 
onka, that's for lemon, 
and it's their nickname for 
grenade, like ‘pineapple’ 
is used in the States.” 










A | REPLAY 





+ 






RAUT 
THROUGH 
SHATTERS 
i 





^ 14 


4 


TUE ENSIIPCINIMIEN TS. SOMETHING FUN TO TRY SHOCT 


a 
PLAVERS SHOULD HAYE FUN WITH BLACKS INTERAC 
A NEW NORD. 


DONN THE LETTERS TO MAKE 





to sound amazing and had to trick the PS2 into doing some things it 
doesn't normally do. Overall, the sound was heavily influenced by 
Indiana Jones' punches in Raiders of the Lost Ark; we love that when 
he punches a guy, it's like a howitzer going off. It's not a punch at all; 
it's like this massive, booming explosion. 


IES Cover plays a big part in Black, but not in a way most players will 
be used to. Cover—and the environment in general—becomes part 

of the action. Cover is erodible—it can be blown up, injuring or killing 
anyone nearby (including yourself), or it can be something that falls 
down to crush the unwary. If you find yourself in a firefight with more 
than one enemy, look for a quick way to even the odds. If you think 
something can be destroyed, it probably can. 

Firing "full auto" at long range sprays bullets everywhere—it's a lot 
of fun but it's not always the best way to take out that enemy hiding 
behind cover. Most weapons іп the game have alternate fire modes 
that let you fire bursts and single shots as well as full auto. Experiment 
with different weapons to see what's best for each situation. 


Jeremy Chubb brings us 
into the inner workings of 
Criterion: "At its highest 
point, Black had like a 
hundred people on the 
development team. To 
manage this, we had an 
army of dev managers 
organizing and schedul- 
ing everything. That job's 
a little dry, so they find 
ways to spice it up. It's 
common for programmers 
to ‘break’ the game on 
the internal server, and 
when that happened, the 
game would hang and the 
entire team had to stop 
working until there was 

a fix. As ‘punishment,’ 
dev managers made first- 
time offenders wear the 
Sombrero of Shame. A 
second-time offender got 
the Monkey of Shame on, 
their desk, and for third- 
time offenders, we had 
this big standee of Wil- 
тат Shatner, and [they] 
had to crawl under it or 
"through his flap’ in public 
humiliation.” 

























Ше This is a good time to mention that we love the AK-47, and we 
love it so much, we made it available early in the game. The AK is a 
better-suited gun for this part of the game because of the distances 
involved. The AK is useful at [distances of] 30 to 40 meters [about 100 
to 130 feet]. Note: The word on the building is Russian for “police 
station.” You can shoot off all the letters. 


IES Exploding cars are effective weapons. I’ve waited a long time 
to shoot at a car and have it react like something from a Hollywood 
movie. In Black, a firefight near a car can pan out in lots of different 
ways because of the way the car reacts—the tires can be shot out, 
the windows can be smashed, the doors can be shot off, and the car 
can be completely destroyed in an explosion that kills anyone nearby. 
There are also weak points on the car that trigger the explosions 
quicker than just by firing blindly at it. See if you can find them. 
Ammo crates explode when shot, so they are worth looking out 
for. They kill anyone nearby and can also destroy fences, statues, 
columns, signs, and bits of buildings. Use your bullets and grenades 











ES 
MBS 
Шие voue BeENADES то TOPPLE THIS BUILDING'S PILLARS 


gms mo d RINSE 








102 | DAM аға. 2005 
| m | ГЕ! B | 9 











to find them and even the odds. Grenades in Black are real action- 
movie stuff. When they explode, they blow out nearby windows and 
send enemies flying through the air. They have an effective blast 
radius of almost eight meters (about 26 feet), so they're great for 
situations where you face more than one enemy. My favorite use of 
the grenade is throwing it through a window and watching all the 
glass and any enemies get blasted out. 


LAC In the full game—unfortunately, not in the demo—you can shoot 
a grenade in midair. This becomes useful in later levels as the enemy 
Al gets smarter and learns to run fast from grenades. 


[BET & HEAD 

ICS Ahead shot is the quickest way to take out an enemy, but it also 
requires accuracy. | prefer to use a handgun when I'm going for head 
shots, but if the enemy number increases, | switch to an automatic or 
there's big trouble. One final tip: If you find yourself surprised by an 
enemy up close, take him down with a weapon butt to the face. This is 
much more effective than backing off and firing at him. | 


Exe = 2227 m НЫ > À 100 
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LIBERATION: 





Although FFT is often praised for giving birth to the tactical RPG 
genre, that PS1 masterpiece would never have existed without this 
classic pair of Super NES ports. They have not only a good amount 
of gameplay in common with FFT, but staff as well—most notably 
their director, Yasumi Matsuno (Vagrant Story, FFXII), who created 
the Ogre series for Quest before moving on to the more lucrative pas- 
tures offered by Square. 

Ogre Battle is a more sweeping take on the concept, giving play- 
ers indirect control of entire armies of fantastic creatures. The player 
is more of a battle coordinator, selecting combat units and issuing 
orders—not to mention managing all the army's mundane details. Sim- 
ply winning battles isn't the point, though; the real goal is to win well, 
fighting nobly by using "good" units and never beating up on weaker 
armies. Players are judged оп their morality and sense of justice, and 
the best ending is difficult to come by indeed. 

Tactics Ogre, on the other hand, could well be FFT’s ugly twin 
brother. While it lacks some of the later game's technical niceties, like 
rotating battlefields, the differences are largely cosmetic. In some ways, 
TO is quite a bit more sophisticated than its more popular relative; 
battle parties are capped at 10 characters rather than FFT's five, and the 
challenge level is considerably higher. Defeated units are more likely 
to stay dead, and no one gets a health recharge between consecutive 
battles on a single map point. 

More importantly, TO spins a spectacular tale. Though the plot is 
cut from the same cloth as FFT with its two young friends who find 
themselves at odds in the midst of an epic war, Ogre gives players the 
freedom to choose their own destiny. Should you uphold your oath of 
loyalty and slaughter innocent villagers on your lord’s command? Or is 
it better to follow your sense of justice and rebel? Whatever the choice, 
players get no easy victories—but the excellent gameplay and gripping 
story make every grueling fight worthwhile. 


















Atlus, 1998 








WEM gre 
! 1 3 | HP 
| 


3! PS 

















Kartia's big selling point was that it features art by Yoshitaka Amano— 
you know, the guy who did Final Fantasy's artwork before the PlaySta- 
tion era—and it's clear that Atlus was aiming for superhardcore Square 
fans who had been disenfranchised by the anime-inspired look of FFVII. 
In fact, Kartia's two main characters, Toxa and Lacryma, look exactly 














| 4 like clones of FFV/ characters Саи and Celes. 
A E Beyond the superficial similarities to more popular series, though, 
y 4 4 Kartia is its own creature. Far more straightforward than the competi- 
4 
104 | OFM Aree 2005 ж 
E I I EE | n 











tion, it is nevertheless an engrossing game whose battles stand out 
thanks to their reliance on “phantoms,” summoned creatures that 
can flesh out a party and help even the odds. Phantoms are no match 
for the human combatants, but against their own kind they're incred- 
ibly effective, especially when used in the proper rock-paper-scissors 
combinations. 

Another unique facet of Kartia is that it's divided into two chapters, 
each starring a different character. Only by completing the game from 
both Toxa’s and Lacryma’s perspectives does the full tale unfold. Unlike 
most other PS1 tactical games, Kartia sells for reasonable prices these 
days—so it's definitely worth tracking down. 


FRONT ГГ Б ГГ 








The Front Mission series has been around for a while, but it wasn't until 
the third chapter that it arrived in America. This is your quintessential 
tactical roleplayer, but its futuristic setting gives it a different feel than the 





TS AN ENGEOSSNE GAME 
UNHETESE BATTLES STAND 


usual fantasy fare. Its complex story line is augmented by the ability to 
research on the Internet—and best of all, the stars of the game are giant 
robot suits. Of course, the pilots are at the heart of the story, but they’re 
mostly on hand to advance the plot (and get squished when they're 
forced to eject from a ruined mech suit). FM3 can feel a little drawn out, 
but fans of hulking battle bots will be too blissed out to notice. 















































ШЕ: 


4 











BHAE S00 
Atlus, 2000 








Attack 
Hern 


Iter 





Escape 


In all fairness, Rhapsody isn't quite "great." The gameplay barely 
qualifies as tactical, the quest is brief, and the difficulty is practically 
nonexistent. It mostly sells on its novelty—what other game stops for 
Disney-esque musical numbers and lets you annihilate enemies with a 
full stack of pancakes? But what makes it truly valuable is the fact that 
it was the first Nippon Ichi game to come to the United States. Those 
brilliant PS2 RPGs like Disgaea and Makai Kingdom have their roots 
here...in fact, Phantom Brave even has some Rhapsody cameos. Rhap- 
sody briefly commanded insane prices on eBay, but a recent reissue 
has helped tone down the gougery. Which is good, since it's a charm- 
ing little RPG but hardly worth a hundred bucks. I 





Qum 


[EPS 


VANDAL HEARTS | 5 I 
Konami's Vandal Hearts 
netted a fair amount of 
attention by virtue of being 
the first PS1 tactical RPG 
to reach American soil. 
While the graphics are 
absolutely god-awful, 

the action is pretty solid, 
falling firmly into the mold 
cast by the Shining Force 
series. The sequel isn’t 
quite as good of a game, 
but it is much easier on 
the eyes. 


HOSHIGAMI : RUNING 
BLUE EARTH 
Hoshigamiis Japanese 
for “star god,” just like 
Stella Deus is the Latin 
translation. It's not a 
random coincidence—the 
two games are incredibly 
similar, having come from 
the same creators. Reac- 
tions to this one tend to 
be mixed, but it's worth 

a look if you dig its PS2 
counterpart. 


SAIYUKI 

Another game based 
loosely on the Journey to 
the Westlegend, Saiyuki 
mercifully has nothing 
whatsoever to do with the 
pretty-boy anime by the 
same name. It's generic 
but reasonably entertain- 
ing. 


VYANGUAD BANDITS. 
This unusually ho-hum 
game from the late Work- 
ing Designs is far from 
worthless, but it didn’t 
really stand up to its com- 
petition. 


ARC THE LAD 
COLLECTION 

The Arc games straddle 
the line between standard 
and tactical RPGs, but the 
second game in the series 
is so fantastic that we're 
going to allow it. And 
since you can now buy 

it as part of a package 
deal that includes both its 
predecessor and sequel, 
it's hard to pass up. 


ETERNAL EVES 
Sunsoft released this one 
as part of its $10 software 
line, and it plays exactly 
like you'd expect а 510 


RPG to. Avoid it! 
SS 








AAAI | 


% 22 


PS1-DEI2 


TACTICAL RETREAT 
|^ ار‎ 


к. 











By Jeremy Parish 


When he's not trying to reclaim his vanished youth with 
obsolete games, Jeremy works as 1UP.com’s features 
editor and charming mascot. Check out his blog at 


toastyfrog.1UP.com. 





There’s just something about videogames that seems to light the 
fires of obsession in people. The madness has been built into the 
medium from the start: the drive to master Pac-Man patterns, to 
burn every bush in Hyrule, or to just finally catch ‘em all. 

But there’s something about tactical RPGs that really brings out 
the compulsive side of gamers. Aside from maybe massively mul- 
tiplayer games, nothing the industry can throw at us has the power 
to take control of lives like the word “tactics.” The current cham- 
pions of the genre are the fine folks at Nippon Ichi, whose cult hits 
include Disgaea and Makai Kingdom—each seemingly predicated 
on the idea that it should be the only game you have time to play 
in a given year. 

The “tactical thinking” thing has been around for a while, but it 
didn’t really catch оп until someone slapped the Final Fantasy name 
on it. Final Fantasy Tactics was the world’s first widely successful 
tactical RPG, though plenty of other games tested the water first. 
FFT owed a serious debt to Sega (Shining Force) and Nintendo 
(Famicom Wars and Fire Emblem), not to mention Quest, whose 
Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre were kissing cousins to Ramza Beoulve 
and his god-slaying crew. 

Regardless of the game’s lineage, a whole generation of gam- 
ers—myself included—discovered the joys of number crunching 








THING TAKES CONTIe 
LIKE THE NEE “ТАГТІ 





















































with FFT. Suddenly, finishing an RPG was no longer a matter of lin- 
ing up and trading hits! You had to worry about location, movement, 
and altitude. You had to pay attention to the order in which your 
characters moved and how long it took to perform a complex action. 
You had to worry about your characters’ faith in magic, their jobs, 
their skills, even their birth sign. 

Suddenly, commanding your warriors was less like an adventure 
and more like picking up someone at a bar. 

All these added layers of complexity meant more for gamers to 
obsess over. As if FFT's intricate (and confusingly translated) story 
weren't enough to fixate on, its varied character-building options 
inspired countless fans to explore the game’s depths in almost 
pornographic detail. When FFT arrived, | spent two weeks doing 
little besides playing the game and going to classes. (Although | 
was less aggressive about seeing to my classes.than | was about 
liberating Ivalice.) That was a lot of time to spend sitting in front of 
a TV screen crunching numbers, but it was nothing compared to 
the extremes others went to. 

Within weeks of the game's release, players had found novel 
ways to exploit the math that provides Tactics’ foundation. Want 
to bend the magic system to your will? Or find a way to tweak the 
random elements of the immense Deep Dungeon bonus mode in 
your favor? Or poach every secret item? The FAQs to do it are out 
there—and then some. When breaking the game got boring, some 
gamers turned to creating insane challenges for themselves, like 
beating the game with only the main character or without learning 
any alternate jobs. 

If gaming is about obsession, then tactical RPGs are the purest, 
most distilled expression of the art form. At the very least, FFT intro- 
duced us all to a good way to kill some time during those long, long 
months of periodic unemployment that are all the rage in America 
these days. | 


оет ZI 





























NYS LEICATIDINFTBEE ADD- 

















N LETS У 


N THE PSP! 











LI WAT 





H TAI 











For tech-heads who get hot and bothered thinking about the media 
capabilities of Sony's portable platform, the 2.50 PSP firmware upgrade 
contains a little-publicized piece of software that supports the compa- 
ny's latest high-tech doodad: the LocationFree Player Pak. 

For the low, low retail price of $349.99 (which is only a mere $100 
more than the PSP itself!), the LocationFree Player Pak turns your 
PSP—and if you're so inclined, your home PC—into a wireless TV 
tuner. Just jack the LocationFree Base Station into your Internet router, 
connect it to a television, cable box, or other external video device, and 
tinker with the PSP's built-in LocationFree Player software (see below 
for details on how to get things all set up). You'll be enjoying the new 
episode of Lost from a table at your friendly neighborhood Starbucks 


As cool a concept as it is, untethered TV doesn't come without its 
downsides. Assuming you can deal with the fact that you're watching 
it on a relatively tiny monitor, the picture quality isn't bad—but don't 
expect UMD-caliber output either. Also bear in mind that the broadcast 
lags by a good three seconds or so...and don't be too shocked by the 
occasional stutter. 

Even with its relative few shortcomings, the LocationFree Player Pak 
does an admirable job of wirelessly streaming audio and video to the 
PSP. Should you spring for it? The answer basically comes down to 
whether you can afford it—$350 is no small chunk of change. With that 
kind of cash, you could buy a new TV. Or a plane ticket to Hawaii. Or, 
one of these days, a PS3. Rich couch potatoes, rejoice—everyone else, 
stick to UMDs for your on-the-go video fix. 


before you know it. 


/ 


INTERNET ROUTER | 


ХҚҚ 


The LocationFree PSP quick-start documen- 
tation found on Sony's support website 

(products.sel.sony.com/locationfreetv/own- 
ers/documentation.html) can be a little hard 


to follow, so we've put together our own: 


1. CONNECT EVERYTHING 

Plug the Base Station into an outlet, hook it 
up to your Internet router, connect it to the 
AN output on one or more video devices 
(using either a coaxial cable or a red/white/ 
yellow A/V cable), position the Base Station's 
IR blaster near your video device's infrared 
receiver, and hit the power button. 


FIGURZE THE Ps LOCATIONF 


Make sure your PSP's wireless LAN switch 
is on and boot up the LocationFree Player 
found in the PSP's Network menu. Hit the 
setup mode button on the back of the Base 


LOCATIONFI2EE PSP PO DUMMIES 


@ 
| 
: 
| 
| 
| 
/ 
| 


RASE STATION 


NIPELESS 
SIGNAL 


Station and follow your PSP's onscreen 
prompts—this should create a new “Loca- 
tionFree AP” network connection. Once the 
LocationFree Player syncs with the Base Sta- 
tion, cycle through the available video inputs 
(using the Select button) until you find the 
one that your device is hooked to. 


T LIP THE ГЕ E CONTROL 
Now comes the tricky part. You can con- 
figure the LocationFree Player to recognize 
a variety of set-top boxes from several 
different manufacturers. The trouble is, 
this remote control data doesn't come 
preloaded—and unless you've got а wire- 
less router, the documentation provides no 
direction as to how to install it. If you can 
download it directly, great; if not, hop onto 
a PC, browse to remote.locationfree.sony 
-net/psp/download.cgi, and grab the remote 


control data file (Ifrmc us.Ifr). Open up your 


PSP in USB mode and copy this file to the 
PSP\SYSTEM\LFPLAYER folder (if this path 
doesn't exist, just go ahead and create it 
yourself), then start the LocationFree Player 
up again. Presto! Now select your video 
device from a list of manufacturers, which 
enables you to change channels, navigate 
DVDs, and even power your set-top box on 
and off. 


4. TU ON THE GO 
Select the Base Station Settings option 
from the LocationFree Player's Settings 
menu, log in using the default username 
(Ifx) and password (printed on the Base 
Station’s side), then carefully follow the 
instructions in the Easy Setup menu to 
fetch a unique dynamic IP address for your 
Base Station. Congratulations—you can 
now watch TV from any wireless access 
point your heart desires. 





= 


106 | DAIT aec 2006 





















ONE OF THE 
TOP FIVE 


GAME DESIGN 
SCHOOLS 


- Electronic Gaming Monthly 


JUST THINK OF ALL THE WAYS 
TO USE THIS TECHNOLOGY! 
* Since the Base Station comes with mer 
three input devices (one coaxial à ag 
and two A/V), you can jack in your ii 
TV, cable box, and DVD player. With 
some careful positioning of the IR. 
blaster, you could have yourself a Student Artwork 
handy universal remote. илэг 
* Got a DVD player with a multidisc P 
changer? Pop in some music CDs, 


set them to shuffle, and your PSP 
suddenly becomes a streaming | | | [7 
audio jukebox. 
* Imagine all the possibilities for = S 
annoying Internet hoaxes! Just 
hook the Base Station into your PS2, LL 91| 


fire up your copy of Shadow of the Real World Ed ucation 


Colossus, and have a digital camera 
ready to capture the “evidence.” 


School of 


School of 


800.226.7625 
fullsail.com 


3300 University Boulevard 
Winter Park, FL 32792 


Financial aid available to those who qualify 
Career development assistance 
Accredited College, ACCSCT 


A | REALAN 


ЕТ input devices aren't created equa 
While joysticks, D-pads, analog sticks, 
and buttons get the job done, they 
are all far removed from the actions 
they trigger in games. (Case in point: 
Pressing a button to punch someone 
in the face is nothing like actually 
punching someone in the face.) 

But with a lightgun, you know 
exactly what to do: Just point the gun 
and shoot. The simple fun offered by 
the light-gun genre has kept it around 
(though its entries are dwindling) in 
this era of controller complexity. Plus, 
sometimes you just wanna shoot 
stuff up. Here's the scoop on what's 
out there for the PS2. 











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RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM 

The mutant offspring of intergenre breeding, Dead 
Aim is a bizarre combination of Resident Evil's well- 
worn survival-horror formula and cap-poppin’ light- 
gun action. Unfortunately, the game leans heavily on 
the survival-horror side of its family tree; the zombies 
are scarce, and the ammo is scarcer. Worse, narcolep- 
tic puzzles interrupt the action. The last thing anyone 
wants from a light-gun game is to push around Ming 
vases. The game's weird control scheme, which uses 
the D-pad on the back of the gun to move your charac- 
ter, is all kinds of clunky. 


VAMPIRE NIGHT 

Game Designer A: “How about a zombie shooting 
game?” Game Designer B: “It's been done.” GDA: 
“Werewolf shooting game?” GDB: “It’s been done.” 
GDA: "Vampire shooting game?” GDB: "Now that's 
fresh!" Yes, it's yet another creepy-creature-filled 
shooting gallery, but this one has a stellar pedigree. 
Put together by a team of Sega and Namco light-gun 
aficionados (the two companies are synonymous with 
sore trigger fingers), Vampire Night is a polished and 
tuned-up shootin’ machine. It might not bring any 
spectacular new gimmicks, but it's perfectly paced and 
blessed with good looks. Unlike many shoot-em-ups, 
Vampire Night emphasizes sharpshooting by creating 
pinpoint weak spots on enemies that require a sniper's 
steady hand to hit. And the game may just have the 
worst voice acting ever put to disc, a real feat. 


DINO STALKER 


See Resident Evil: Dead Aim above. OK, now replace 
the zombies with dinosaurs and the semicoherent 
zombie-plague plot with some nonsense about a time- 
traveling WWII soldier. Dino Stalker is another failed 
experiment in mixing light-gun shooting with a fully 
controllable character. The idea is promising, but the 
follow-through leaves much to be desired. 


NINJA ASSAULT 


Ninjas, those ambitious upstarts intent on spreading 
their stealth-killing ways into every game genre, have 
finally stalked their way into a light-gun game. What's 
next, ninja basketball? Apparently, they've revised 
the curriculum at ninja college, as these ninjas forgo 
throwing stars in favor of pistols. Aside from the nov- 
elty of the premise, Ninja Assault is a run-of-the-mill 
arcade shooter that's on rails and out of ideas. And 


boy is it ugly. 


TIME CASS Il AND TIME CASIS 
The big problem with light-gun games is the gun itself. 


With both hands on a pistol, you've got no way to 
control what happens onscreen (other than blowing 


Amm 





2777 


10 


SLEHOOL 





AARI | 


stuff to bits). Because of this limited interactivity, 

gun games always roll along on autopilot, whisking 
you down a roller-coaster track of scripted events. 
The Time Crisis series cleverly broke that mold with 

a simple tweak: the ability to take cover. By using a 
button on the side of the gun, you can dodge anything 
(bullets, grenades, the occasional overpass) thrown 
your way. Time Crisis avoids the canned feel of its 
peers while throwing in some of the most exciting and 
creative action sequences in the genre. 


И B 
а r, 


TIME С2І55: CeiSiS ZONE 

Crisis Zone utilizes the same "duck" button feature 
found in Time Crisis and Time Crisis ІІ, but the game is 
a whole different beast. Here, a machine gun takes the 
place of the usual pistol, a big addition that turns the 
entire game into a machine-gun fetishist's destructive 
fantasy. The depth of previous Time Crisis games is 
sacrificed for the pure thrill of shooting up everything 
in sight, including а video store, а mall food court, 
and lots of heavily armored dudes. The arcade game 
came strapped with a heavy machine-gun controller 
that recoiled like a jackhammer, adding a real visceral 
thrill. But when you play at home with the lightweight 
plastic gun, your attention quickly turns to how ridicu- 
lously easy the game is. 


ENDGAME 

In the limited world of the light-gun genre, the greatest 
sin a game can commit is blandness. It needs vam- 
pires, zombies, or ninjas...anything but nondescript 
dudes with guns. Unfortunately, Endgame goes the 
generic route with a steady stream of vanilla-flavored 
levels, characters, and situations. Not recommended. 


om 











E 











J 









Е [2 VESIC KI 


d over his 














him a 


y 


opmQGxziffdavis.com. 


Memory is a thin, fragile thing—especially for gamers. We get so 
hyped up on the newest or the next that we forget our history. Even 
recent memories get carried away on a wave of ever-improving tech- 
nology. Don't believe me? Hit any gamer message board and look for 
comments on the PlayStation 3 demos that have been shown so far. 

From the moment these demos were shown, we jaded, forgetful 
gamers have been hunting for every little crack, every little weak spot, 
to jam home the crowbar of skepticism and tear the whole unbeliev- 
able structure apart. "We know games," we say to the world, "and 
these cannot possibly be games. These must be tricks, manufactured to 
lure us close enough for the killing stroke of disappointment. After all, 
remember those PS2 demos!" 

You see that a lot: "Remember the PS2 demos?" There's rarely 
elaboration; it's assumed that all are in agreement that the demos 
of PS2 technology in the lead-up to the system's launch promised 
а quality—at least graphically—that was never delivered. Because 
we've forgotten. 

Or perhaps it's better to say we've embellished our memories. We 
remember not the actual appearance of those demos, but the way they 
made us feel. We remember the wonder more than the reality. Look at 
these images. There's not a single one that the PS2 has not matched— 
or surpassed—in a real, live, running game. 


10 | OFM Aper 2006 
Е ГЕН! a 





Perhaps we also remember too well the disappointment of the 
very first round of games and the complaints of “jaggies” and poor 
framerates and all those things we didn't think we'd have to deal with 
anymore. We would have been justified thinking at the time that those 
tech demos were so totally faked up. But eventually, they were proven 
legit—conservative, even. 

We remember that disappointment, | expect, and want to protect 
ourselves from that kind of emotional trauma. So we build our walls 
of skepticism. But | want to believe. I’m looking for something to blow 
my mind, and I'm willing to accept that game designers don't want to 
mislead us about what to expect on PS3. Now, of course I’m not saying 
that every demo shown so far is of actual in-game footage, nor do | 
expect that every game demoed will turn out exactly the same as what 
we've seen. And | certainly don't think we'll see the best the PS3 has to 
offer right out of the gate. d 

But l've heard things, promising things, from people who have had 
firsthand experience with the system. l've heard some of the most 
impressive demos described as "totally attainable." And l've pored 
over those demos of the PS2—which now look so very quaint, however 
mind-blowing they may have been at the time—and compared them 
to the very real appearance of games like Prince of Persia: The Sands 
of Time or Metal Gear Solid 3 or Black. | want to believe, and | think 
there's reason to. But | dunno. Maybe I'm forgetting something. 


r 
ADVERTISER INDEX 


2K Gan 














www.2kgames.com 
19 


2K Sports 
www.2ksports.com 
33 


Atari 
www.atari.com 
49 


Capcom USA Inc. 


www.capcom.com 


112 


Colli 





College 


www.collinscollege.edu 
95 


s Interactive, Inc 
www.eidos.com 


6-7, 14-15, 37, 50a-50b 








World 


ducation 





www.fullsail.com. 
107 
www.koei.com 
59 





Konami America 
www.konami.com 


91 


Midway Gan 2 
www.midway.com 








www.mtv.com/games/ 
holdem/stacked/ 


57 





www.namco.com 
demo, 27, 53 








www.sandisk.com 
41 





www.scea.com 
2-3, 31 


www.sonyonline.com 
cover poster, 15, 25 





www.square-enix-usa.com 
79, 81, 83, 84-85 


www.thg.com 
92, 93,111 





www.ubisoft.com 
EJ 


Command 
'WWW.goarmy.com 
43 





www.xseedgames.com 
20-21 






DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. 


To those parties attempting to recreate the stunts contained in the new MX vs. ATV: On The Edge we offer this message: DON'T. While that seems fairly 
obvious to most, you'd be surprised how many people will contemplate emulating its dangerous intensity, vis-a-vis the realistic head-to-head racing 
experience. Ergo, THQ and Rainbow Studios put forth the following caveats to all parties: Do not attempt to make a golf cart do 70 mph, nor launch a 
sand rail over a moving plane. Moreover, do not undertake the recreation of any and all stunts from MX vs. ATV: On The Edge in order to replicate its 
realistic rag-doll physics. The insane stunts and fierce racing is intended for the sole intent and purpose of an intense gaming experience, not for the 
discovery of clever ways to inflict bodily harm. Case in point, THQ and Rainbow Studios offer this photo as reference of the projected outcome of ignoring 
this warning. Honestly, what was this guy thinking? Said driver wasn’t anywhere close to successfully completing the jump, nor is the other side of the 
canyon he was attempting to reach even in the afor tioned photo. In summation, MX vs. ATV: On The Edge is not real, don't attempt to make it real. 













A scone 
SS 
айтар LEY 
PHM RAVER c. 
"mem Choose any vehicle and 
unleash it in 4 player 


Wireless Ad-Hoc. 


New ATV models, redesigned monster 
trucks and new pimped out 4x4 golf karts. 


Rugged new outdoor environments. 


mg usw (к) rainbow 





EVERYONE 
® 











PlayStation. Portable STUDIOS www.thq.com 





o 
g 
5 
8 
E 





learn more at 
Logitech.com/Capcom 


GREAT GAMES • GREAT GEAR • GREAT DEAL 









PRODUCTS RANGE FROM 
RATING PENDING ro TEEN 











d 
Y Г GANT OT 
ЕСЕН ЖЫ == ==. 

= Logitech E PlayStation. Portable www.capcom.com 








©САРСОМ CO., LTD. 1987, 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MEGA MAN, VIEWTIFUL JOE, CAPCOM and the CAPCOM LOGO are registered trademarks of CAPCOM CO., LTD. STREET FIGHTER® is a registered trademark 
of CAPCOM U.S.A. INC. MAVERICK HUNTER is a trademarks of CAPCOM CO. LTD. “PSP” is a trademark and “PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory 
Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. 


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