<> DESTROY ALL HUMANS 2 El Plà /**ation YOUR #1 PLAYSTATION AUTHORITY M AGAZI NE ITAGAKI ~ | Ж SPEAKS ‚ TEAM NINJA'S ы! LEADER TALKS NEXT GEN Cup i IT'S непе SPECIAL world-exclusive PS3 game review \ fi А , | E a5 . 3⁄4 | (OSISTANCO: „е FALL OF МАМ: “Qo; WE РОТ INSOMNIAC’S FIRST-PERSQN EPIC THROUGH ITS PACES аы DON'T HIDE. RESIST. The year is 1951. Europe has been overrun by the Chimera. U.S. Army Sgt. Nathan Hale stands in their way. Welcome to the disturbingly real world of Resistance: Fall of Man. The PlayStation.3 system's advanced microprocessor, the Cell Broadband Engine; thrusts you into battlefield chaos as vicious creatures swarm from all directions. And with a powerful arsenal of weapons that fire around and through obstacles, hiding isn't an option. Go it alone in the harrowing single-player campaign, play with a buddy in co-op or enlist with up to 4O players online. PLAY ЕЗШШ Үү СОГЫ Resistance: Fall of Man is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Developed by Insomniac Games. ©2006 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Play B3yond is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. ©2006 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. All other names, brands and associated imagery featured are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. Blood and Gore Intense Violence Strong Language PLAYSTATION. = L PLATFORM SPECIFICATIONS Ф GAMECUBE. NINTENDO 9S GAME BOY ADVANCE бә | | Visit www.esrb.org for updated rating information. mountain air, tire smoke and nitrous | With cities cracking down on street racing and the once-underground drift scene sliding toward sanctioned respectability, the corest of the core are heading for the hills. Or, more accurately, the canyons, where it all began decades ago in the Japanese touge. A perfectly executed drift is a marvel of physics and a thing of beauty on a track, but on a plummeting mountain turn, the stakes — and the adrenaline levels ~ are higher: In street racing, a bad night ends with the police impounding your ride and crushing it. In the canyons, a bad night ends with a 200-foot drop into а ravine — and your ride crushing you. THERE ARE Raw skill wins races. Recruiting a rock-solid crew paves the road to world domination. drafter Purist. Team player. Creates the aerodynamic draft that slingshots you to the front of the pack. / scout Knows the map — and what's not on the / map. Sees around corners. Finds shortcuts. / blocker / Rough. Aggro. Makes life hell for your / / opponent. Opens the road wide for you. / / fabricator / Master of mods — adds body panels, roof / scoops, tall wheels, exhaust kits, wings. / mechanic / Has skills to boost your ride's juice and / i x я / connections to get discounts on cars and parts. fixer / Keeps the heat off your back — and gets / 8 you extra money when you win races. / \ / CREATIVE CLOSE-UP, ЕЯ TE u СРЕЗЕ 2096000000 primer, bolts and welding burns Like a lot of us, Andy Blackmore draws cars — except he does it really, really well. Blackmore; a designer at the EA Black Box studio in Vancouver who once worked for McLaren, spends his days putting down ingredibly detailed visions of American muscle, tuner imports and exotics — freehand, no less. In Need For Speed Carbon, Blackmore has added 200 new works of art to the game's lineup In:the Need For Speed Carbon shop, players who love to get their cigs, -hands-dirty can use the revolutionary new Autosculpt™ toolkit to Weak body shapes, hoods, intakes, vents and every other detail of the masterpieces created by Blackmore and fellow designer Mike Hayes. Or they can build eye-popping whips of their own. The best part of working in the digital realm, as Blackmore puts it: "In the real world, you have to worry about legality.” Editor's Choice Awards = Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, IGN, GameSpot, Team Xbox, GameZone “Superb... A remarkable achievement” — GameSpot “An Absolute Masterpiece” — Official Xbox Magazine “If any game is worth thé "price : Er of фе PS3/ Oblivion iS It. Д — Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, November 2006 PLAYS ТЕТ 1 OMN 5 Blood and Gore Le» п М anguage Sexual Themes e ) OE BETHESDA Bethy odd X 2 ME STUDIOS а ZeniMax Media company Use of Alcohol Violence ESRB CONTENT RATING —— www.esrb.org ОО OES оо e CMT 020960. Coming November to PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion? © 2006 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. The Elder Scrolls, Oblivion, Bethesda Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax and their related logos аге registered trademarks or trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 380, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are red trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Y... TAS 5 SIN CIT T TO GE Master counter-terrorism techniques like inverted rappelling, window entry, demolitions, and more. € № MES Las Vegas, Nevada. It used to be America's playground. Now it's a battleground. Use tactical planning to compete in split-screen or online multiplayer matches. WWNW.RAINBOWSIXGAME.COM | | PRODUCTS RANGE FROM 7 — RATING PENDING ro TEEN pG 4 w CONTENT RATED BY CD-ROM E SR == ° Visit www.esrb.org for updated © 2006 Ubisoft Entertainment. АИ Rights Reserved. Ubisoft, Ubi,com, the Ubisoft logo, and the Soldier icon are tr " h " of Red Storm Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries, Red Storm Entertainment, Inc. is a Ubisoft Entert rating information. registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo" may be required (sold separately), Ді, Legend tells of a time of dragons and Dragon Riders who brought peace and prosperity to Alagaésia. Now, in a time of darkness under the villainous rule of Galbatorix, destiny has chosen a new hero. The legend will live again. Fulfill the legend of the Dragon Rider. Mild Langu PC р PlayStation*2 computer entertainment system X Viol 9 PSP" (PlayStation*Portable) system ence CD-ROM хвох ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrb.org (SOFTWARE) Overpower foes with a deep combat system, featuring grapples, combos and devastating magic attacks. Combine forces with Brom and Murtagh any time in two-player, drop-in/drop-out, co-op mode. B playstatio| eragongame.com See the Movie — Only in Theaters NINTENDO $, GAMEBOYADvaNcE ETE Eragon " & © 2006 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Twentieth Century Fox, Eragon and their associated logos аге registered trademarks or trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film, Corporation. Sierra and the Sierra logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc. in the US. and/or other countries. PlayStation’, "PS" Family logo and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony. Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US. and/or other countries. Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2004 Nintendo, All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. super power full | It takes a documentary, produced every week by an in-house video crew, to help EA producer Jeff Peters keep track of the huge array of powers and attack combinations that the 140 developers working on Superman Returns™: The Videogame have put together. "Metallo, for instance, is 60 stories tall," he says, "so you might want to fly around the city a little bit, maybe down to the | port, and find something really massive — a ship, for example — pick that up and hurl it at him." Each villain has different strengths — and unique | vulnerabilities — so attacks that devastate one enemy won't necessarily work against another. “With a villain like Riot, you may want to keep your distance," he says. "You could do something like grab a fuel truck, throw it toward him, then blow it up with your heat vision just before it hits him." If the ensuing explosion happens to set an apartment building on fire, Peters suggests leaving the fight for a moment to airlift a fire engine to the scene so it can douse the flames, then rejoining the battle. "There are so many different things you can do," Peters says. "It all adds up to this amazing feeling of freedom." мімтемоогуб, САМЕ BOY ADVANCE, ЕД METROPOLIS 80 square miles of... PLATFORM SPECIFICATIONS INTERNET CONNECTION requi imperiled victims flight manifest | When he was 13, EA level designer Zach Wilson used to blow his entire $10-a-week allowance on Superman and other comic books. For the last two years, he's been tights-deep in processor cycles and aerodynamics with the rest of the team working on Superman Returns, giving life to the Man of Steel with his own personal branch of physics — from takeoff to 800-m.p.h. flight through the densely packed streets of Metropolis to midair hand-to-hand combat. “The hardestthing with flightin a 3D environment isto make itlook realistic and make it easy to learn at the same time." EA's state-of-the-art development methods gave Wilson & co. the tools to nail that balance between realism and playability. "Gamers can be so skeptical," Wilson says. “I understand – | used to be those guys. That's what motivates us: to prove to the world that we can pull it off." B Ç Violence CONTENT RATED BY | ESRB see SUPERMAN RETURNS. THE VIDEOGAME new world mortar А Before EA concept art director Phil à Straub and his team could construct ] Metropolis in the game environment | of Superman Returns, they needed a | map. Building on 2D maps supplied by DC Comics, EA created a detailed 3D representation of the city — first on paper, 1 then in clay, then out of papier-máché and wood and finally out of bits, pixels and y polygons. Eighty square virtual miles of | playable space. And playable means seriously playable: 4 billboards, fire hydrants, cars and tractor- trailers, lamp posts - you can use nearly every element in the environment as a shield, a weapon — or, in Metallo's case, a toothpick. lurking villains А $ This is the game. ~ To sel the tone for the n it bear th КЫА ууетайї of these he о pectations? id ; 32 DESIROY ALL HUMANS 2 Plà'**ation la," zaon РАШ OF MAN n _ e 110 20N In which you write long, sprawling epistles and we mock you 30\\> The wonderful, wacky world of TGS. '34\\> PS3 M the new Р52. = eee Itagaki goes all Sony on us ОИЕ 42\\> When you're not playing games 44\\> Stuff happens. Find out when 53\\> At long last, the wait is over 56\\> Ten pounds of burning love 62\\> Music, movies, Web browsing -what can't it do! 64\\> Finally, you can 68W What you can play now 84\\> MGS4, DMC4, and all sorts of other fun letter-number combos 104\\> That Blu-Ray drive cost you $600; get all the use from it you can 101\\> 116\\> 118\\> 119\\> 119\\> 120\> 122\\> D 123\\> 124\\> 126\\> 126\\> Ira 128\\3 Kil 130\\> 130\\> 130% 132\\э М 134% 134% 134\\> 136\\> 136\\> | 136\\> Ko ue 142N Sony's done this before-has it learned {гот past mistakes? 148\\> The (mostly) awesomeness that is the music of Guitar Hero Il. 150\\> NCIS' Pauley Perrette loves to Crash. 154N Welcome to a microtransacted world PLAYSTATION 3 Can't wait a month? Then come to the dark side, also known as the beautiful time-wasting Internet. There you'll find videa footage of all the hottest new games, editor blogs, extra screens and info that aren't in the magazine, and fancy new stories. And it's all right there on the Web, Where at any second your favorite editor might be on the other end of the connection, waiting for you Why yes, you can. In fact, you can hear us in а brand-new podcast every Thursday, available at the following fine locations. iTunes” Yoo! N X 22215) (ve v 2/2Xvov/242080'00 7 OS3 110\\> 97\> 78\\> 97\\> 0 97\> 98\\> 72\> 102\\> 79\\> 102\\> 74\\> 70\\> ( 70\\> 9в\\> 72\\> 9в\\> 94\\> 93\\> 72\\> 102\\> [ 93\\> 98\\> 0 9в\\> 052 CANSA t 119\\> 74\\> 99\\> 120\\> 99\\> 12г\\> 124\\> 7в\\> 123\> 72\\> 126\\> 99\\> 100\\> 126\\> 100» 116\\> 100\\> 118\\> 100\\> К эг\\> 119\\> 74\\> Madden! 126\\> 70\\> jus OSO 79\\> 130\> 130\\> 86\\> 134\\> 78\\> 130\\> 79\\> 134\\> 74\\> 136\\> 74\\> IA 102\\> 136\\> 79N» 132\\> 88\\> ja G 134\\> 82\\> Каі 5 136\\> OOM.1UP.COM 15 Сое DVD » CONTENTS DVD 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's disc takes you back to the hippie days of the '605 as Crypto 137 tries once more to wipe out humanity in Destroy All Humans 2. You can also see what Lego antics Traveller's Tales has FIFA 0 / been up to since build- ing Star Wars brick by brick. But that's not all! Check out the other cool games on this month's disc and see if you can find our special hidden demo. So, what are you waiting for? Grab the disc and get to your PlayStation 2 а OPM December SOCCER Lego is teaming up with Traveller's Tales to invade your console once more— but with another of Lego's popular brands this time. In this sequel, Furon scout Crypto 137 returns to Earth to finish off the human race. Join him on his psychedelic trip with this demo. Join The World as Haseo, a player of the Adept Rogue class, and enjoy the revamped battle system and advanced Al. Check out various leagues and manage your team before kicking off the 2007 season—hone your mad footballin' skillz. Call in dragon strikes as you take on enemy soldiers in this demo based on the movie inspired by Christo- pher Paolini's fantasy novel. Play as Kim or Shego in this platformer and utilize your acrobatic finesse to save the day. A preview mode show- cases other levels. This month's disc features another hidden surprise. Press the buttons to unlock a treat, then you can feel the beat. Er, you get the idea. COMPUTER a Check out your favorite Lego characters, each with their own unique abilities, and see if you have what it takes to become a Bionicle hero. Sonic invades your PSP with this racing-platform: featuring classic 2D gameplay mixed with 3D environments. ortabli Snake will soon be with us—but until then, here's another trailer from Konami showcasing more about this killer game for your PSP. Hero ЇЇ? Yeah, neither can ме! So до behind the scenes with the master- minds at RedOctane. Get the scoop on the new game from the team that brought you The Getaway and learn more about this war on the London streets. Demo Disc Producers Gary Barth, Cori Lucas, Manuel Sousa, Chris Tan Marketing Team Steve Williams, Eric Lempel, Jesse Caid Executive Producer Peter Dille QA Sam Bradley, Edward Тоту Account Coordinator Justin Flores Programming and interface artwork by Lifelike Productions, Inc. Lead Programmers Wiliam 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 DISC PROBLEMS? Did you buy a copy of our magazine that did not contain a demo DVD? Simply send the receipt in an envelope marked “OPM 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, unreason- able 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 war- ranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights that vary from state to state. “both games are unique іп á style and play, you might “Seven want to pick both up.” -IGN brought to life by the creative minds of Q Entertainment. СОМРЕҮ” is re-imagined as two unique interpretations of | dazzling music, color and frenetic action - each custorn tailored йг for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and Nintendo DS" Ў Pick up this modern classic just in time for the holidays! Connect lines of various shapes т never ending combinations! Unlock 40 vibrant skins and pulsating music tracks! Six modes which include Challenge, 10x10, Time Attack and Wireless. PRODUCTS RANGE FROM EVERYONE то EVERYONE 10+ de Humo P EE = NINTENDOS, CONTENT RATED ey PlayStation Portable Gunpey™ & © 2006 BANDAI. © 2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. NAMCO BANDAI Games logo is a trademark of NAMCO BANDAI. Published and distributed by NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. "PlayStation", “PS” Family logo, and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately). Licensed by Nintendo. Nintendo and Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2004 Nintendo, The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association, All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. IAN TON IS AAAF "Giancarlo CHE OOM FOMILY. “Joe Rybicki "Thierry Nguyen spent so much time is sad to say that the playing Guitar Hero И best thing he saw in this month that it's Tokyo was NOT the PS3 entirely possible he's {although that and its permanently damaged slate of 2007 games his left hand. It's even are high on his list hard for him to give of awesomeness), it Alejandro the finger! was this bizarre Ewok Let this be a lesson drawing on a $5 copy of to you, people: Always Shadows of the Empire take breaks! for the №64 Tom Byron Jongewaard has immersed herself pretty thoroughly in the world of Bullworth Academy this past month, which prob- ably explains why she's started randomly throwing dodgeballs at people who pass by her in the hallway. ` LEM e 2 Ryan Vulk finally—five years after getting out of col- lege—is going to break down and get rid of his rusty old graphite Mac. So what will the many Benjamins he's throw- ing down get him? A Mac Pro with that sexy time with the family's smooth flatscreen porous, aged-looking, pet pukeko. Shame. monitor. Mnmmmm pretty faces. "Alejandro Chavetta spent two days taking pictures of every single person from the staffs of OPM, EGM, GFW, GameVideos, and 1UP. Now when he closes "Logan Parr won't be heading Down Under for the holidays this year, which is a pity as the beaches in New Zealand are fabu- lous as summer kicks into high gear down there. This also means he will miss spending Varanini is so very excited about the launch of the PlayStation 3. So very excited, in fact, that he plans to sit down and eat some potato chips on November 17 because he refuses to wait in line for a con- sole launch his eyes, he sees many faces. 500000 many Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (ISSN £r1094-6683) is published monthly by Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals Postage Paid at New York, NY 10016 and additional mailing offices, Ride Along enclosed in all U.S. copies. Single-issue rate: 8.99. Subscription Rates: One Year (12 issues and 12 demo discs) $49.97 0.5, $65.97 all other countries. Ride along enclosed, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, PO. Box 55362, Boulder, CO 80322-5362. For Subscription Service Inquiries call us at 800-627-6458 U.S. and Canada, or 303-604 7445 all Other countries. Fax us at 850-683-4094 U.S. and Canada, or 302-604-0518 all other countries, or visit our subscription website at sorvice.playstationmagazine.com. Back Issues: Back issues aro $8 each in the US, $10 each elsewhere (subject to availability. Prepayment is required. Make checks payable to Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. Mail your requests to: Back Issues, Ziff Davis Media Inc., PO. Box 53131, Boulder, CO 80322-3131. Mailing lists: We sometimes make lists of our customers available to mailers of goods and services that may interest you. If you do not wish to receive their mailings, please write to us at: Official U.S, PlayStation Magazine, PO. Box 55362, Boulder, CO 80322-5362. Copyright © 2006 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine is a regis: tered trademark of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. Without limiting the rights under copyrights reserved herein, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored іп or introduced into a retrieval sys- tem, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written notice of Ziff Davis Media Inc. The editors and publishers are not responsible for unsolicited materials. For permission to reuse material from our publications or websites, or to use our logo, contact Ziff Davis Media's Rights and Permissions Manager, Olga Gonopolsky, at permissions@azitfdavis.com. For article reprints and e-prints, contact FostoRoprints, 866-879-9144. TM & © for all other products and the charactors contained therein are owned by the respective trado- mark and copyright holders. All materials in this magazine are subject to change and the publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. The Canadian GST registration number is 14049 6720 RT. Publications Mail Agreement №. 40009221. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B are. Printed in the USA. Editor-in-Chief Tom Byron Managing Editor Dana Jongewaard Senior Editor Joe Rybicki Previews Editor Thierry Nguyen News Editor Giancarlo Varanini Art Director Ryan Vulk Associate Art Director Alejandro Chavetta Disc Producer Logan Parr Issue Contributors Robert Ashley, Robert Coffey, Patrick Joynt, James Mielke, Jeremy Parish, John Scalzi, Paul Semel, Greg Sewart Copy Chief Jason Wilson Copy Editors Kaitlen Jay Exum, Andrew Fitch Production Manager Monica Brent President Scott C. McCarthy Senior Vice President and General Manager, 1UP Network Ira Becker Senior Vice President and Editorial Director John Davison Senior Vice President of Publishing Scott McDaniel Vice President of Sates Marci Yamaguchi Vice President of Marketing, Research and Events Rey Ledda Group Creative Director Simon Cox Vice President of Sales Marci Yamaguchi Senior Vice President of Publishing Scott McDaniel Territory Managers and Account Executives Gaming Northwest Key Accounts National Advertising Director Amy Mishra Account Executive Mac O'Rourke Account Coordinator Stephenie Bryant Gaming Southwest Key Accounts Regional Sales Director Leslie C. Gelfand Gaming-West Coast Regional Sales Manager Rita Kline Gaming & Consumer-East Coast Regional Sales Director Andrew Reedman Account Executive Jessica Reback Consumer Print & Automotive-West & Midwest Senior Director of Consumer Advertising Sales Marc Callison Automotive Accounts-West California Advertising Director Richard Taw, II Online Sales Senior Director, Consumer Online Rick Rizzo. Director, Gaming Online Brent Martyn Regional Sales Director, Consumer Online Laura Hill Account Executive Stacy Cohen Senior Advertising Coordinator Tipler Ubbelohde Administrative Assistant Lynn Fortunato To contact sales and advertising, please call 415-547-8000 Editor-in-Chief Sam Kennedy ‘Senior Manager of Ad Operations Adam Carey Audience Development Manager Nopadon Wongpakdee Advertising Campaign Coordinator LeAnne Hsu Vice President of Marketing, Research and Events Rey Ledda Research Director May Tong Senior Promotions Manager Wendy Donohue PR Manager Jason Freidenfelds Marketing Coordinator Vanessa Alvarado Promotions Coordinator Tiffany Orf Marketing Graphic Designer Drew Hathaway Promotions Graphic Designer Robin Uyeno Chairman & CEO Robert F. Callahan Chief Financial Officer Mark Moyer Executive Vice President & Chief Content Officer Michael J. Miller Executive Vice President, Licensing & Legal Affairs, General Counsel & Secretary Gregory Barton Presidents, Scott C. 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U.S, AND FOREIGN PATENTS РЕ |, 0? is a trademark of Q ENTERI LUMINES: Š Nominee, Bert Puzzte/Trivio/Porlor Game : one Ct Nominee WINER EUM E. TE ШИ? 7 (257600 | wuww.luminesEEE.com UJUJUJ.bvg.com "E. CONTACT орм ОРМ 101 Second Street 8th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 opm(@ziffdavis.com and check us out at opm.1UP.com subhelp(üplaystation magazine.com or call 1-800-627-6458 gI December You're Welcome. Now Take a Shower! So т sitting here reading my Official PlayStation Magazine, and the respectable leader of my domain [Dad] comes through the front door with the rest of the mail in his hand. Since you already know that | am reading the magazine, you can probably guess that it was the first thing that | yanked out of the mailbox before he got home. “Hey, dude, did you pay for something with our credit card?" he asks with a puzzled but stern look on his face. | sat there staring at him with a more puzzled but less stern look on my face. Seeing as | don't know what the credit card number is, and seeing that | am inches away from punishment for an act that | am not guilty of, | decided to tell the truth for a change. “No?” | didn't mean for it to come out as a question, but seeing as my save point was four hours before this event occurred, it was too late to turn back now. He gracefully threw a white envelope with a clear plastic coating and a bill-like message on the cover at my head. | tore it open with my sweaty, shaking hands, thinking to myself, “Oh, god—I just got my videogames back! What'd | do this time? Goodbye, LocoRoco, goodbye, Lego Star Wars, and goodbye any hopes of ever playing Grand Theft Auto before I’m 17.” | read the letter. It involves a lot of “blah, blah, blah,” but it eventually gets to the point. Гуе got to pay my fees for next year's subscription to OPM. | breathe a sigh of relief, and thank the lord that | have my gaming privileges still within my grasp (at least until the next report card). | quickly get my parents to stuff the envelope with 0, and | drop it off at the nearest mailbox. Thank you, OPM, for scaring the crap out of me Daniel Speer Via e-mail The Pwnee Pwns the Pwnr Dear Mr. Kon: If OPM will allow it, I'd love to respond to your letter (Input, Novem- ber 2006) concerning the errors in an earlier letter | had written (Input, Sep- tember 2006). Firstly, and least impor- tantly, the $70 Xbox Live subscription I mentioned, but didn't specify, is the one that includes the headset. Which, at the time my first letter was written (late May/ early June], cost $70. While not an error in numbers, it can certainly be argued that one might not need to replace a headset every year. The point being that whatever the sum of subscription cost may be, it is not a cost that a PS3 owner will incur. Secondly, 1080p resolution and HDMI are burgeoning technologies, yes, but do you really think you should gauge the impact of this technology based on an unspecified sales statistic referring to a period of time that is prior to the release of the PS3? Or widespread Blu- ray movie distribution? Or HD-DVD mov- ies for that matter? Fifteen percent? Talk to me in a year. Or maybe you're right, and this whole "high-def" thing will just blow over. Thirdly, you are not an Xboxer. You're writing a letter to OPM. Fourth, as one who realizes "good games are good games," what part of "defending a great library of PS2 games" offended you? The fact that a great game can overcome technological boundaries was exactly the point, Michael. Please, my friend, try to see the forest for the trees Guitar Hero Worship | never in a million years thought | would see а demo of Guitar Hero ІІ on one of your discs (OPM, November 2006). If | hadn't had company when | opened up the magazine, | would have rushed upstairs to play it that very moment. When l couldn't contain myself any lon- ger, | finally did sneak up to try it out because | couldn't wait to at least see ШШШ Blood and Gore Strong Language Strong Sexual Content Use of Drugs Papuan Intense Violence = gem PlayStationePortable ® ^ © 2006 ови Gomes, nc. обо Gomes, Rockstar Leeds, Fodor North, бе Fl logo, Grond Thef Ало, бе Grond Theft Auto lopo ond A Take wo Compony logo ое trodemarks ond/orregstrd tdem of ke o tercie Softwore, Ic "Slot", “PS” Family ogo ond “PSP ro registered nodes of Sony Computer Entertinment Ic. Memory Stk Duo™ may be required бой sete). The tings kon is o registered rodeo of бе тепте Sofheoro Association. A ой marks ond odemrks ое properties of бей переть owners. U.S. AND FOREIGN PATENTS PENDING. А у reserved, The content of fis videogames purely fictional, ond isnot intended to represant or depict ony oct vet, ion, Ar епу. Any similarity between ony depiction in hs оте ond ол atl event, person, or ent is purely coincidental. The makers ond publishers of this videogome do not in ony way endorsa, condone or encore engaging in any conduct depicted in this videogame, Inout 638906 С E what songs you were able to get your hands on, and | was pleasantly surprised that not only were there four songs on the demo (| would have been happy with one or two], but they were some of the best songs on the partial list we've seen thus far. Huge kudos for what is now my favorite demo disc ever. = Grand Theft Cuthbert That little article about Elisha Cuthbert ("Your First Time," OPM November 2006] has a misplaced picture, or so | think. Where it says Grand Theft Auto III, there's a picture of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas instead. Now, it’s not a big deal, but I'm just pointing it out Thanks, -and, gosh, you're DID run the wrong image. Here's the cor- rect one. The PS3 Will Play PORN?! Regarding the “Thanks for the Memories Sony formats guide (October 2006, page 100), Sony and Philips codeveloped the compact disc, not the DVD. DVD was a collaboration involving Sony, Philips, Toshiba [Sony's main rival in the current Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD thing], and several other companies. And while Sony and its audio/video formats have tended to be insular, Betamax machines were offered by several manufacturers. The guide neglects to mention a couple of important reasons for the failure of Betamax: The format initially allowed only a one-hour recording time per cassette (Sony refused to compromise the recording quality with options for slower tape speeds, but this also meant that early adopters couldn't fit a feature-length film onto a Betamax tape), and there was no Betamax porn [Sony wouldn't license the format to por- a OPM December N nographers, so the pornographers went with VHS]. Sony seems to have learned its lesson as far as the porn is concerned, since there have been porn UMDs in Japan, and I'd be surprised if porn doesn't eventually show up on Blu-ray. - GPSP? | was searching the Web, and | found some news that Sony is planning опа GPS for the PSP. Has there been any official news that you guys have heard of, or is that just some crap? | also read that people have modded their PSP into a GPS, so it is possible. Nick, you're in luck—almost! Japanese website ITmedia [plusd.itmedia.co.jp] recently reported that GPS attachment for the PSP will bi mber, though only in Ja has not been set and Sony is not saying if it will even be available here. The MAPLUS [we prefer the catchier GPSP mainly because we made it up] will not only help you find your w: luding points of interest, it reportedly will work with games, including Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, providing location-specific maps to find enemies. The GPS will be updated through the Internet with data stored on the memory stick Sounds like we might have to find one of these for ourselves. Now, if only we had а GPS. Putting Basic Needs Over the Е PS3? Madness! This is in reply to Bill Lipp's letter in Issue #109 (October 2006], particularly the line: "Adults with real jobs should not even complain—they probably make about $500 in a week." Well, dear Bill, I'm one of those $500/ week complainers. Got a news flash for you, Billy Boy: In addition to a real job, | also have real bills, something | don't think you have at your wise old age of 15. But here's a sampling of what you have to look forward to in a couple of years: ° Rent ° Electricity ° Heat e Car payments e Internet ° Cable ° Phone ° Credit cards And oh, yeah—a little something called food. While you're working for a videogame system, your parents, who are spending much of their $500/week to support themselves and you, are support- ing your entire life More than half of my weekly salary goes to pay those expenses listed above so yeah, a $500 videogame system is a big pill to swallow. As of right now, there's no way | can afford it. | have other things, like a eating and putting a roof over my head, that come first. | hope | meet you someday in about eight years, when you have a real job and real bills, so | can ask you about dropping over half a grand for a new system TOKYO GAME SHOW POP You need to tell me why I Should get a Playstation 3. big brand. Metal Gear Solid is a pretty How about this? Have you seen Level 55 q № White knight? < х 7 On, right. The new Ч Uh huh. Should I get the one without any сагв, on the one without any tracks? Resistance? I'm resisting AN Gay DA = ў one пав robots with shapely legs that Se and моо. „А I wonder ір you can still play 86 a Web, naked СР NETWORK BEHIND THE SCENES AND BEYOND THE PAGES OF THE OFFICIAL U.S. PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE radiopm.1UP. com It's the most popular podcast in Tom Byron's office: radiOPM, serving up deli- Clous views qnd diologue from the OPM editors every Thursday after- noon. Recent episodes have been rife with talk of the PS3 as the November T7th launch date inches nearer and nearer. Guest Mike Gallo, producer or Sega's Full Auto 2, revealed some juicy details about how the game will run online. Plus, we got more PS3 hands- on time at Sony's Gamers’ Day. Check out all the radiOPM fun at radiOPM.1UP com. WHAT IF YOUR ACTIONS IN A GAME CHANG ED TH E Something strange is occurring in the online video game "The World.” There are phenomena occurring in The World that go against in-game laws. Players who die in the COURSE OF YO U R REALITY? game are feeling the effects in reality; Assume the role of Hasen, and start a dangerous journey їп uncover the truth. Fight Player Killers, create parties, join guilds, and develop new hacking skills. Find the mysterious Tri-Edge, seek revenge, and reveal the truth, You are Назео, The Terror of Death. Welcome to The World. нь 1070 _з” 191 wr BRI SP BA HEART-STOPPING BATTLES shack // G.U. PCE неш Games ол TEs жанч. chack® //6.U.™ & © 2006 NAMCO BANDAI. © 2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. Vol 1: Rebirth is a trademark of NAMCO BANDAI Games America. NAMCO BANDAI Games logo is a trademark of NAMCO BANDAI. Published and distributed by NAMCO BANDAI Games America inc. hack and related characters, names, logos, distinctive likenesses, drawings and other images contained in this product are the exclusive property of NAMCO BANDAI. Used under license from NAMCO BANDAI. All rights reserved. "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 other trademarks and trademark names are the properties of their respective owners. k Alcohol Reference Fantasy Violence Mild Language Partial Nudity Suggestive Themes ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrh.org PlayStation.2 ППБогЕу | WD. All Rights Reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN: Akihiko Yoshida. FINAL FANTASY, SQUARE ENIX, and the SQUARE ENIX logo are коз A/S lation" and the “РЗ” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertai nment Software s Dolby. РТ gic, and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. | trademarks or trademarks DISCOVER THE SECRET THAT WILL UNRAVEL AN EMPIRE. IN STORES OCTOBER 31, 2006. PINAL FANTASY ЇЇ www.FINALFANTASYXII.cOmM 1 Г í қ «SAY HELLO TO THE SEASON'S FIRST FALL BLOCKBUSTER...” - ” 88 тн ter TA пат у MATURE p) Blood and Gore = Intense Violence | | Г m Strong Language | < | в ESRB CONTENT ТШТ Fa capis ae и s= el [суп |i L kya А ла а MUR "V > 4 А Д э \ , mis COD iE “CONSOLE-ONLY GAMERS WHO LOOK JEALOUSLY UPON THE PC’S BOUNTIFUL FIRST-PERSON FRUITS WILL HAVE ONE LESS REASON TO COMPLAIN THIS NOVERIDERUS - YN ы TUUM м jaa M e. 4, тм 4 ә ® МЧ, FIRST ENCOUNTER ASSAULT RECON 3 € х Він Gov Commandments т Thou shall гасе all offroading vehicles: ATVs, bikes, buggies and trophy trucks. Thou shall do sick freestyle tricks off jumps. Thou shall not mud pants while getting big air. ` ` Thou shall customize vehicle to make faster. Thou shall race in all terrain: snow, dirt, sand, forest and especially mud. Thou shall not wash ALV unless thou washes it with mud. Thou shall strive to become a pro racer. Thou shall feed on adrenaline for breakfast, lunch and dinner. кР k Thou shall honor all commandments АТУ. Offroad Fury: 4 Now гасе with MX bikes; buggies and trophy trucks өп over 70 new tratks; Live the life en of a rookie rider in Story Mode, and. customize your own tracks-with Track Editor. The Dirt Gods are pleased. ws * Mild Lyrics ATV Offroad Fury ©/©2006 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Developed by Climax Racing. "Blaze Your Own Trail” is a registered trademark of Sony" Mild Violence Computer Entertainment America Inc. Onlineicon isa trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Online play requires Internet connection, Network Adaptor (for, PlayStation@2) or PlayStation? with internal network connector, and Memory Card (8MB) {for PlayStation®»2) (each sold separately). “PlayStation ` v€ * 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 America Int: The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. 4777 (IT I IM OI. FLILL Ал YOUR OWN TRAM _ PlayStation.2. » > | IV zy ahd, ounds, | of course, 125 He Эр раб те = Of Our rabje 2. memor — This year's show: E ОЮМ December This giant cat is clapping with delight at the thought of getting to murder the person responsible for putting him or her in a giant cat suit. 2 0 mighty wall chocobo, why do you look so forlorn? Is it because of the PS3 auctions on eBay? It's OK, buddy—we understand. 3 Ah, yes—what would a TGS be without the cosplayers? А crappy TGS, that's what. Still, some of them could've picked better characters to portray. 4 This may look like an ordinary bowl of ramen, and it is indeed an ordinary bowl of ramen. OPM's TGS coverage: powered by ramen! 5 Our fearless leader with Sony's fearless leader. What you can't see here is that Tom is wearing shorts and holding a 40 in his right hand. 6 Sony Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison gets mobbed by the press at Sony's headquarters in Tokyo. 7 If you're wondering how packed TGS was this year, this was the stage show for Hiroyuki Kobayashi of Capcom. It was impossible to walk through. 8 Now, that's more like it. A cosplayer dons the Old Snake costume, but we're pretty sure Snake doesn't need floaties to swim. 9 Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani explains to the audience that he once ate а sand- wich “this big.” Nobody believes him. One more cosplayer picture to show that the Japanese do the whole cosplay thing better than anyone else on the planet. A.1UP.COM 31 tudio desig Clover Studio—a subsidiary of Capcom—will be shut down as of March 2007, as Capcom decided that consolidation of properties would be the best approach to move forward into next-generation development. Clover Studio had three major creative minds; two Atsushi Inaba 10 is he? Former CEO of Clover Studio and producer ее for Viewtiful Joe and Steel Battalion fw There's already speculation that Inaba will simply form anoth- er new studio € do: Given that Inaba has experience as a studio head, it's likely that he'll form his own development house—unless he can find a similarly high position elsewhere. Unfortunately, it's become harder and harder these days for an independent studio to get up and running, and we'd hate to see Inaba go through another studio closure, so we can only hope that he ends up at a place where there's plenty of job security and plenty of freedom to let the man create whatever he wants. Such a place might be Yoshiki Okamoto's Game Republic. Okamoto's a former producer at Capcom and the creator of Street Fighter Il; his development team worked on the original Genji with Sony's internal teams. EX OPM December ‘Talented оле Designers of them decided that they wouldn't be rejoin- ing Capcom, while the third will remain at the company on a contracted basis. But with so much talent, we can't help but speculate where these free agents should go and what positions they're best suited for. nidek Kamiya ? Former director at Clover Studio and the man behind some of Capcom's big- gest games, including Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 2, Okami, and Devil May Cry. Rumors of where 19: He might fol- low Inaba to a new studio or wait some time before jumping back into game development w want him to do: Kamiya likes to stay out of the. spotl ight, even though his previous work suggests that he should be hogging it. As such, Kamiya likely won't form his own studio, so we could see him easily joining one of the bigger companies. One that jumps to mind is Konami, where Kamiya's talent for creating memorable characters and equally memorable gaming experiences would prob- ably be put to good use. Just imagine Kamiya working on Zone of the Enders 3 or a new Silent Hill. Yeah, we think it's a good fit, too. Shinji Mikami ? Currently a contracted employee at Capi who has served as producer on God Hand and director on Resident Evil 4 imors of wl s going: Nowhere, for now— -Mikami has chosen to remain as a con- tracted employee of Capcom. Honestly, Mikami needs to stay with Capcom. While some big-name producers such as Keiji Inafune (creator of the Mega Man series] and Hiroyuki Kobayashi [producer on Resident Evil 4, cur- rently working on Devil May Cry 4] remain at the company, Mikami brings an attitude to game development that other members of the Capcom staff could learn from. Still, we hope that Capcom gives him an opportunity to continue working on brand-new properties and that he won't be stuck doing Resident Evil games for the rest of his life. Playstation Bits Rockstar won't be bullied anymore. A judge in Florida's Third District Court of Appeals ordered Rockstar to show him Bully before it shipped to stores in order to determine if it should or should not be released. After sitting down with a Rockstar representative and watching various portions of the game, the judge decided that “there's nothing in the game that you wouldn't see on TV every night," and that Bully's arrival in stores could go ahead as planned. Game Envy Grim Рапдапос The point-and-click adventure дате had its shining moments back in the '90s before it shriv- eled away into oblivion. The highlight of them all was Grim Fandango, Tim Schafer's mas- terpiece for LucasArts. The дате stars Manuel “Manny” Calavera, whose job as the Grim Reaper has him selling afterlife travel packages. However, he soon realizes that someone is Warriors PSP Rockstar takes the Con Island cuties to handheld Rockstar Games takes the PSP seriously, as the company has proven with the two GTA games it's crafted for Sony's handheld. Now Rockstar is bringing its critically acclaimed PS2 adventure-brawler The Warriors (OPM scored it a 9/10] to the PSP. Watch for the game sometime in December. Elsewhere, if you wanted to рге- order a PS3 at EB or GameStop, you're out of luck. Preorder sales have been sold out, so you'll have to hit up one of sev- eral other chains if you want a piece of the action on launch day—not bad for a system that's supposed to be too expensive for {Не masses. Lastly, Sony says that a drop on the PSP's $250 price tag won't happen anytime soon. Instead, you can expect to see more bundled deals in the coming months. tampering with the system and heads off to figure out what's afoot. The excellent story, beau- tiful design, and film-noir atmo- sphere all combined to make this one of the best games ever. And we figure that if the PSP is going to be a dumping ground for ports, why not actually start porting over some good games that would translate well to the PSP's control system? free MP3 player give it. Go to napster.com napster. ©2003-2006 Napster , LLC. Napstor, Napster To Go and the Napster logo are trademarks of Napster LLC, "An active subscription Is required to play tracks downloaded from Napster To Go. Offer avallable while supplie: Back athe of launc a, I've been root- ing through old articles on my hard drive this past month, and | stumbled upon all the files from the November 2000 issue of this very magazine. Why is that significant? Well, it was the issue that served the same purpose as this one for the previous genera- tion: namely the big arrival declaration, plus plenty of vindication for early adopters thanks to Sony's vigor- ous assertions about its vision for the new platform. Lots of things have changed for us in the media in the past six years, particularly when it comes to the breadth of options that gamers have for sourcing information, but it seems that the PlayStation mes- sage is actually still very much the same. A quote from SCEA boss Kaz Hirai opened our big launch feature that month. “PlayStation 2 is the future of entertainment,” he said boldly, announc- ing the central theme of the coverage that we would consequently provide. “Since it was first shown in Tokyo,” our editorial lead continued, "Sony's decision makers have been keen to stress the system as a ‘computer entertainment’ box.” “Aside from being a powerful games system,” we continued, “the long-term intention seems to be to push it further, to make the system your way of interacting with all kinds of entertainment, from the obvious, like the games that we feature [...] to DVD movies and eventually to online content that will allow you to take part in live game shows, online tournaments and huge interactive worlds. The next five years or so will see Sony push its ‘digital enter- tainment’ strategy through the PS2. We'll see the system driving all manner of entertainment forms and once broadband Internet connections become more widespread we'll see it as a hub for download- ing all manner of content from the Web. It’s no secret that entertainment visionaries like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have been paying close attention to the PS2, and in the years to come we'll see the fruits of their visions.” It all sounds very familiar, doesn’t it? In fact we could tweak a few words and pass it off as coverage A РЬ tha BS? — uw = = of the PS3 without anyone batting an eyelid. We've often joked around here (and | think Joe mentioned something along these lines in his column a few months ago) that the promises of a new system are never delivered on until the following generation launches, and the PS3 could very well be the ulti- mate expression of that. The PS3 is certainly in a much better place to be more of a digital entertainment box than its pre- decessor, and it will no doubt finally deliver on the more connected experience that Sony discussed six years ago, but that's not what makes it a “next-gen” box. To be honest, | don't think it's really the graph- ics it pumps out either. MotorStorm and Lair and Devil May Cry 4 and Ridge Racer 7 are all beautiful games-— but are they really “next-gen” experiences? No, probably not. They have the pretty stuff nailed, but where's the meat? For that we need to return to another set of promises from the early days of the PS2. When the PlayStation 2 launched, Sony Computer Entertain- ment introduced a new concept it called "Emotion Synthesis.” According to SCE, Emotion Synthesis “allows the system to simulate not just how the images look, but how the characters and objects in a game think, act, and behave.” Amid the “power of a supercomputer” hype, we were led to believe that the PS2's Emotion Engine CPU was so mind-bogglingly potent that дате characters would display discern- able behavior patterns and even simulate emotional responses. While it arguably never fully delivered on the promise, it does provide a glimpse at what may very well be the single most important thing about the PS3 and its generation. The boss of a very well respected game studio told me recently that the new generation "isn't about pretty graphics or the HD generation or any of that stuff. It's about content." When | pressed him, he explained that it wasn't building a huge environment and filling it with stuff, it was filling it with charac- ters and making them believable. It was telling a great story and being able to convey emotion. While the PS2 wasn't ready to deliver on this, the PS3 is, and while games that truly represent this genera- tion aren't available at launch, they are going to come sooner than you think. As ever, to see the true potential of a new system, we have to look back at the promises of its predecessor. E" OOM December EVIL KNOWS THE HELGHAST ARE BACK Жо- "mos - 07 prat And they're taking hostages. Now you, Templar, must set out on an impossible mission to id save them. Use the terrain to your advantage, as you navigate the battlefield from a new third- person perspective. The Killzone war rages on and the fate of mankind lies in your hands = | в Е H А T | О N =r. PUTET 357 7 [ » Portable Language Violence OPM INTE VIEW TECMO'S MASTER NINJA Yes, that’s right—Tomonobu Itagaki is gracing the pages of OPM. While his studio, Team Ninja, is known for Xbox-centric titles like the Dead or Alive series and Ninja Gaiden (which is often cited as the best action game of the current generation), Itagaki has often com- mented that he wants to develop games for powerful systems, and it seems like the PS3 has met his approval (check out our Ninja Gaiden Sigma preview on page 88). One thing you'll notice about Itagaki is that he’s not like most Japanese developers. He's not afraid of speaking Щ OOM December TOMONOBU ITAGAKI his mind (he says, "| am now in a position where people want to hear what | have to say, and it would be a dis- service to not be honest with my thoughts"), he dresses like a rock star, and he even controls his interviews (he'll often take the questions and answers along his own train of thought—and he sometimes flat-out refus- es to answer questions he thinks are dumb). We didn't talk much Ninja Gaiden, but we did get to hear about his work ethic and how he's preparing the next generation of designers at Team Ninja. incerview 1.1UP.COM 37 tation 3 ITAGAKI INTERROGATES OPM Itagaki is some- thing of a camera nut, as he's admit- ted to buying no less than eight Canon cameras in the past two years. And in an example of how different Itagaki is from other Japanese developers, he started asking us questions at the beginning of the interview. | T! Hey, what kind of camera is that? | OPM It's a Panasonic Lumix. | TI Lumix? Ah. Why are you using Panasonic? | OPM Oh, because of the good Leica lens in it. | Tl 1 see—so, about $300, $400? | OPM Yeah, | paid about $350. | Tl Carry on. | OPM What got you into making games in the first place? | TOMONOBU ITAGAKI |! ve always liked creat- ing things. Back when | was in elementary school, we had this project in one of the classes where we had to imagine an island, and we had to write a story about what hap- pened on this imaginary island. At the time, | was really into books like Robinson Crusoe and Lord of the Flies, so it was interesting for me to think about what would happen then. And that has continued to this day. At the time, | wrote about 100 pages for that story. It was a direct copy of Robinson Crusoe— but still, | wrote a lot. And no, there were no girls with large breasts in that story. | OPM So you're handing over the reins of Ninja Gaiden Sigma to Yousuke Hayashi. What made you think it was time to do that, and what made you select Hayashi as your pro- tégé? | TI First of all, this is the tenth anniversary of Team Ninja, timed from the first Dead or Alive game. So these past 10 years, my philos- ophy has been, "| want to have complete con- trol over everything. And | want to be involved in every decision and know exactly what's going on." And with that philosophy, we've managed to put out approximately a game a year. Which, considering the quality, is pretty fast-paced. But there's no way, really, for us to exceed that for these past 10 years. And 10 years going forward, for games that | am personally supervising, | don't intend to change that philosophy whatsoever. I’m going to still keep my hands on everything, make all the decisions, and do all the direction, so | can guarantee a good product. And that's not going to change, going forward. So that's the most important thing, that my philosophy hasn't changed whatsoever. That being said, there's this new platform, the PlayStation 3, out in the marketplace, and it's time for us to examine: "Well, now that there's another piece of hardware capable of doing the kind of quality games that we put out, is there a need or a market for our games on that platform?" So l'm going to continue doing the work and put my heart and soul into every game | make going forward. But, at the same time, if a young director on our team comes to me and says, `l want to expand what we're doing and include more people; | want more people to experience our game," and he wants to do that with a game that's been out for more than two years but is still well known as one of the best games in that genre, then that's Гуе chosen this person; if the results aren't there, then it's meaningless. It's not that he's replacing me by any means; it's not like he's becoming the new boy or new face of Team Ninja whatsoever. But, ultimately, he's going to have to prove himself with what he does, and he has to be the spokesman for his own creation. And | believe he has the capacity to do that, and that's why | chose him, which | will further explain now. My reason for choosing Hayashi to lead up this project is simple. It took us four years to make Ninja Gaiden. That's a long period of time. Within four years, you have some people get married or have kids; for whatever reason, they leave the company. I'll say something here that Гуе never said before: Almost half = “It’s not that I ‘chose’ him. You can't just ‘choose’ people for greatness.” something that has to be considered. Every artist begins learning how to draw by imitating other artists. Hayashi, acting as project lead for Ninja Gaiden Black, was able to, in a sense, “copy” what | made with Ninja Gaiden and understand what makes it tick. And now this is his chance to use that knowl- edge and create Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which is not a mere copy; it is an extension. And it needs to be better than the original. And you asked, "Why did | choose Hayashi as my suc- cessor?” It's not that | “chose” him. You can't just "choose" people for greatness. If Ninja Gaiden Sigma turns out well, then he will have proven himself as a next-generation game creator. It doesn't matter how much | say that of the team that was working on Ninja Gaiden quit before they could see its completion. | OPM How did it get finished? | Tl There was a period in its development where even the people that were still there started to lose faith in it ever being done. And that's when | stood up and yelled at the entire team, and | said, “I don't саге how many corpses | have to walk over; l'm going to make this game the best it can be, and I'm going to put it out there. Those of you who want to come with me can. Those who don't, you're free to leave anytime." And the first person to raise his hand and say that he was with me was Hayashi. So it just goes to show ITAGAKI ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH SONY "The relationship with Sony has been _ great. They're very excited that Team Ninja has decided to broaden the scope of their titles for this product. As before, the relation- ship with Microsoft is awesome. We > had some visitors from (Microsoft headquarters in) Redmond, WA, yesterday and, as always, we're very passionate for each other when discussing all the possibilities." how weak humans can be, and how as soon as something doesn't go their way, they give up and move onto the next thing. Hayashi is the kind of guy that never gives up. So, while he has а long road ahead of him, I'm confi- dent that he's going to do what's right. | OPM Sounds like you were trying to moti- vate the team. | TI It's important to stick with what you promise that you want to do. | wouldn't have stood up and said those kinds of things to my team if | thought that it wasn't their fault. If it’s because of bad leadership, that's one thing. But when you have people that are complaining, despite the fact that they lack ability and get into petty bickering, | have no problem with telling those people to get lost. And that's why I think Hayashi was a good choice: because he's a real man; once he says ll do something, he'll follow through If there's one type of [person] | can't stand, it's guys who lie, who make excuses, and who are weak. And if you do any of these things, you can't fulfill your obligations while working at a development studio such as Team Ninja. As a leader, you have to make a decision about who has those qualities and who doesn't. That's the long and short of it, and | believe Hayashi possesses qualities and has the ability to discern those who do and don't. Are you guys convinced that | made the right choice? | OPM 50 far, from the NGS footage and our talk with Hayashi, it looks like you made the right choice. Earlier, you talked about who you can't stand. On the flip side, is there any par- ticular person that you do respect, then? | Tl Just to clear up any confusion, | said that | don't like people who lie and make excuses, but that doesn't necessarily mean that | love — people that don't. It's only natural that when you're working with somebody, you shouldn't z^ lie or make excuses. It's just a logical matter. son would you respect, and why? | Tl Ah, hmm. I'd have to say that people | respect are people who create something amazing. Something that | wouldn't be able to `ç do is worthy of my respect Speaking industrywise, the reverse of that S is—as far as the type of games Team Ninja N makes—there isn't anybody like that. We're — aiming to be No. 1. That then means that, of the people making games that are outside the genre we work in, there are definitely people that | respect. | OPM Well, to clarify a bit further, what per- С | OPM Is there a game that you wish that you had made? | Tl. No. | haven't looked much at the past; it's کے‎ all about the result. You look at what's come Жж out, and you just think, "Hmm, l like this game" or, "Hey, this is a piece of crap." You just look at the result. You don't think back — and go “Oh, | wish | had made this game." OPM So which game do you look back at and just say, “Oh, this is a piece of crap"? TI Well, yeah, there are a lot of games that | think are crap. But the only one | think I'm able to say out loud is Tekken. OPM If you went to a bar right now, what would you order as your drink? TI Beer. OPM Any particular beer? TI Whatever. Next-Gen Cinemotion graphics and presentation are hot enough to melt ice. No game brings you inside the hard-hitting, руда fast world of pro u^. like NHL 2K7. а EVERYONE 10-- EJ reprdaced ү Та aly rod Pref бе IU IP, Ñam lirio поре Poe Associaton ani e MAPA logo re trademarks of the NHLPA and are шей undr censa by 2K Sports. “According to GameRankings.com average scores of 2003 - 2006 hockey video games. for me to be having with Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki dur- ing the week of this year's Tokyo Game Show. The fiercely independent, pro-Xbox developer was discussing Team Ninja's announcement to bring the Ninja Gaiden franchise to the PlayStation 3 (Ninja Gaiden Sigma, in case you haven't heard], a significant event, consider- ing the developer hasn't put a game on Sony hardware since DOA 2: Hardcore back in the fall of 2000. The decision to develop for the PS3, he says, arose when one of his team (partly responsible for development of Ninja Gaiden's battle system) came to him and suggested creating the ultimate version of the game for the PS3. Itagaki agreed, mostly because it could be done with a new, internal extension of Team Ninja, without detracting from Xbox 360 development Personally, | think this kills multiple birds with one stone. First off, Team Ninja can get to grips with PS3 development without hav- ing to design an all-new game from scratch. While the team's creating an entirely new graphics engine for Sigma, the level design, principal boss battles, overall battle system, plot, and dialogue are already in place. This fee) OPM December saves Team Ninja from having to conjure up a wholly original game while the developer's big guns finish work on Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 for the Xbox 360. That's not to suggest that Sigma will be half-assed. Far from it. Although it might be hard to imagine a game looking much better than Ninja Gaiden Black, Sigma definitely does the trick. Now everything looks like it's nearly CG quality, and that's say- ing something. Plus, you can factor in stuff like new enemies that attack you from atop motorcycles, real water battles (Ninja Gaiden protagonist Ryu runs and fights on water now], new bosses like Garnov, and—best of all—a playable Rachel, who now earns her keep instead of just standing around in bond- age gear. After our interview, Itagaki and | went out to grab a bite to eat at a local spoon near Tecmo's Tokyo offices—our meals consisted of hamburger steaks seemingly drowned in butter with potatoes on the side. The man scarfed his food down with alarming speed, but he's so slim, I’m not really sure where it goes. | think his mouth is actually a gateway to an alternate dimension, a galaxy filled with myriad things, including buttery hamburger steaks, chewed up and stored as fuel to be used at a later date. That must be why he can work such long hours as he does [he usually gets into work around 5 p.m. and leaves at 7 a.m., or something like that) But, Ninja Gaiden is coming to Sony's con- sole, and PS3 owners will undoubtedly be getting the most insane version yet—that's one more reason for me to buy a PS3. Itagaki also did a podcast with Metal Gear Solid direc- tor Hideo Kojima at TGS where the two talked about all kinds of things, like Itagaki asking (perhaps jokingly) if he could borrow MGS Raiden for an appearance in Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Now wouldn't that be something? Tomonobu Itagaki with former XBN editor David Chen, a random woman, and James "Buttery Steak” Mielke. If you can't get enough of the inimitable James Mielke-and frankly, we're pretty sure you can't-head on over to milkman. 1up.com to hear more about his zany adventures in Japan, his life as a model, and his musical tastes. Be sure to take special notice of his unbridled hate for San Francisco, as well. PlayStation.2 en C rse Strikes спе / 66! "p ting that tk Daunte Culpepper Quarterback, Minnesota Vikings Madden NFL 2002 cover athlete What happened: Daunte Culpepper's punishment for being the Madden cover star wasn't so bad, considering the season he had. He threw for over 2,500 yards and had com- pleted 235 passes before suffering from a knee injury that knocked him out near the tail end of the season. However, the Vikings’ overall record at that time was 4-7—that, com- bined with the injury, heralded yet another storm of Madden Curse controversy. Marshall Faulk Running back, St. Louis Rams Madden NFL 2003 cover athlete What happened: Marshall probably felt the effects of the Curse more than any other player. Not only did he get hit with an ankle injury that season, which caused him to miss a few games and only start in 10 of the 14 contests in which he played, but he also rushed for less than 1,000 yards— and hasn't rushed over 1,000 yards since 2001, the season before he was Madden NFL 2003's cover athlete. Michael Vick Quarterback, Atlanta Falcons Madden NFL 2004 cover athlete What happened: Vick's problems with the Curse are prob- ably the most notorious due to the huge amount of hype behind him as a player. Unfortunately for Vick, there wasn't enough hype to heal a fractured right fibula that caused him to miss most of the season. The rest of the Falcons didn't fare much better. The team went 5-11 in 2003. Ray Lewis Linebacker, Baltimore Ravens Madden NFL 2005 cover athlete What happened: For Lewis, it seemed to take a little while for the Curse to kick in. He didn't have a terrible year in 2004 by any means, but he did receive a wrist injury late in the season. The Curse seemed to have more of an immedi- ate effect on the rest of the team, with the Ravens missing the playoffs. However, Lewis would suffer a far more seri- ous injury in the 2005 season Shaun Alexander Running back, Seattle Seahawks Madden NFL 2007 cover athlete What happened: Alexander was injured in the first game of the season. He was initially diagnosed with a chipped bone in his foot, but this “chipped bone” was later revealed to be an outright fracture. Though we have to give props to Alexander, who initially tried to fight off the injury before being shelved, the power of the Curse is just too great. NEXT-GEN S Signature Style, that is. Every NBA baller plays with his own unique style of play with true-to-life moves and skills for unmatched Next-Gen authenticity. Ж RATED NBA GAME “~ NBA.COM The NBA and individual NBA member team identifications used on orin his product are trademarks, copyrighted designs and other forms of intellectual property of NBA Properties, c and te respective NBA member teams and may not be used, in whole or ia part, without the prior written consent of NBA Properties, nc. © 2006 NBA Properties, c. A rights reserved. “According to Dəmeñantings com 2003-2006 average review scores of NBA simulations. When you're not playing games Tesla Roadster Tired of paying $80 to fill up your car? If you drove the Tesla Roadster, those days would be over, because this car is electric. And unlike most electric cars, it has power under the hood—it can go from 0 to 60 in about four seconds, and each charge lasts for 250 miles. It doesn't really matter that the price tag is $100,000, because the first batch of 100 (slated to come out next spring] has already been sold. You just have to find one and then carjack it, which means it's effectively free*! *"Free* does not take into account the potential price of a prison stint for grand theft auto. BigDog It's official: The human race is now obsolete. At least, that's our reaction on seeing BigDog, the latest robot developed by Boston Dynamics. This four-legged robot is kind of like a pack mule of death, able to walk across all kinds of ter- rain—including snow and mud—with ease. It even videos of it in action, and then figure out a plan for how we're going to overthrow these things after they rule the world. FE OOM December remains upright when someone kicks it. Check out Construction Ah, the soothing sounds of big cranes and excava- tors as they pound giant rocks and l-beams into bits right in your backyard. Take it from the staff of OPM: This ambient noise is beneficial no matter what you're doing, whether it be composing a 1,000-word manifesto on the glories of American-developed fighting games a decade past their prime or sneak- ing a midafternoon catnap. Go find a construction site near you and experience it for yourself. Yo La Tengo We were drawn to this prolific band's latest album for the title alone—/ Am Not Afraid of You and l Will Beat Your Ass—so the fact that it's a really great set of tunes is a bonus. Although that's not surprising, given Yo La Tengo’s intelligent, lo-fi, Americana-ish vibe. These 15 tracks see them returning to a more-rock- less-pop sound than their albums of the previous few years. We recommend it for a good road trip—peppy enough to keep you awake and happy enough to help dial back the road гаде. Criminal This new comic series from writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips, the creative team behind Sleeper, focuses on criminals in the real world. The first story arc is a mix of Heat and The Grift- ers, centering on the classic "retired master thief gets pulled into one last big score” formula; there are enough subtle twists for the story to feel fresh. While each arc is a complete story, the series draws on its own little universe to tell many stories, much like James Ellroy or George Pelecanos. For Your Consideration Christopher Guest's delicious mockery of humanity had us at This is Spinal Tap, so we're superexcited that he has a new movie out. This film's target is the awards mania that sweeps the movie industry every year; in addition to featuring regular cast members such as Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, and Eugene Levy, For Your Consideration also intro- duces new faces, including OPM fave Ricky Gervais, god of all things Office-like. We rate this movie 11. Buy! Buy! Buy! Unfortunately, a small portion of the people who marched out to preorder PS3s did so for the sole purpose of turning around to auction them on eBay for a hefty profit. While we don't officially condone or condemn the practice, we have to admit that it'd be a little weird to shell out $1,500 for what amounts to a piece of paper and someone's guarantee that you're getting the system on November 17th or thereabouts. + Ж 5 hup: //cgi.ebay.com Y С Getting Started Latest H nes E.GG. Logoff © home pay register sign in | site тар [Start new search — Search | b ТТІ) Sell | MyeBay | Community | Help Advanced Search Ф Back to li ite! Listed in category: Video Games > Systems MAKE ME RICH QUICK, PS3 RESERVE! DONT HAVE A JOB, SO I CAN WAIT IN LINE!!! Seller of this item? Sign in for your status Starting bid. US $3,300.00 Place Bid > | ‘BuyltNow price US $3,300.00 Buy It Now > | End time: Oct-26-06 6:35:00 PDT (6 days 23 hours) seller for details Worldwide My parents basement 0 bids You can also Watch this item Get alerts via Text message, IM or Phone са! Sell one like this Listing and payment details: Show Description Item Specifics - Video Game Systems Platform: Sony PlayStation Condition: New YUR BIDDING ON A BRAND NEW Check item description and payment instructions or contact Watch this item in My eBay | Email to a friend Seller. Feedback: 100* Positive Member. since Sep-24-00 in United States Read feedback comments Ask seller a question Add to Favorite Sellers View seller's other items Buy safely 1. Check the seller's reputation Score: 1| 100% Positive Read the comment trom my mom 2. Learn how you are protected Shop without sharing your financial details Learn more Format: Bundled Items: | WAITED IN LINE FOR 8 DAYS EATING NOTHING BUT HALF-EATEN BURRITOS THAT | FOUND IN THE DUMPSTER I WAS SLEEPING NEXT TO! | WILL SHIP IT TO BUYER PROMPTLY AFTER RECEIVING PAYMENT. PLEASE WAIT 12 TO 13 WEEKS BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANY GAS IN MY PINTO. XBOX SUX LOL:P Shipping, payment details and return policy Services available Check item description and payment instructions or contact seller for details == [=== x Coaches preach it, champions If you want to taste The Tournament, you'll chemistry. Without it, RATED COLLEGE — 43 your bubble hursts. RATING PENDING WR P Visit www.esrb.org exhibit it-7eam Unity. have to master team 7 Ww for updated rating ESR information. NCAA ¢ ў дд Tie iab Осе Сове Рабо d is the ору sl De ayia сод Company Пе “Соар ass Proc lois be property ol be dependent bel Gro Al ames кез шат зиз. d naso assocated wil Be NCAA vers and conferences ат toca propery le respective instigis, NCAA, бе САА lop ond NOM Botella тайтай ой trademarks o be Naina Collegate Ae Associaton. “Nunaq a балей cm 2002-208 average ei ses (зіңе Batata үйе games. QOeceMoOer 2006 Its that time of the month! MONDAY 4 Just because Led Zeppelin broke up 26 years ago doesn't mean you can't have a "Whole Lotta Love" for them. 25 Sadly, your naughtiness or niceness is going to factor a whole lot less into whether Santa brings you a PS3 than your parents' ability to wait in lines for many days. TUESDAY 5 Slap that camouflage skin on your PSP, and get all military with Brofhers in Arms and Rainbow Six Vegas. 19 The holiday break kicks in next week, so stock up your PS3 library with | today's release of NBA Live 07. 26 Celebrate Boxing Day by indulging in a little Fight Night Round 3. WEDNESDAY 6 The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in 1768; one | day later, the first school paper was | copied from it. 20 Bend a spoon in honor of Uri Geller, who turns 60 today. THURSDAY 14 Here's hoping that eight crazy nights | (which start tomorrow) include a PS3. 28 Go Hawkeyes! lowa celebrates its 160th year of being the 29th state. FRIDAY 8 Let the tradition of crappy video- game-based movies continue with this week's release of DOA: Dead or Alive. 22 Want to see an actor desperately try to reclaim his youth? Go see Rocky Balboa! 29 Satyrs, evil stepfathers, and crazy magical kingdoms are plenty to get us excited about Pan's Labyrinth. SATURDAY 9 Yesterday's date has proven to be a grim one in the history of rock 'n' roll: John Lennon was assassinated, Dime- bag Darrell was killed on stage, and the Eagles released Hofel California. 16 It's Chocolate-Covered Anything Day; pets and small children, beware. SUNDAY 3 Giancarlo wants you to know that he will be making his world-famous clam chowder for lunch today, and no, you can't have any. 24 Ultimate comic book writer Mark Millar turns a marvelous 37. “ December PRODUCTS RANGE FROM RATING PENDING To EVERYONE 10+ = > F” L. FT ЕЗ TFI TI O r Zn е This title is not yet concept approved by Sony Computer Entertainment America. The Diss Licem legte Pc Bel fe ck property o! [ls gate Lo Company, The "olet cred Poul бе property of be dependet здің Croup. AJ ames agos, team rs and mascots associato wi бе CAA uiis, and cons we fe cci prop ol бе respective institutions- NCAA, the NCAA logo, nd NOAA Basketbal are roles vitre deas ol Mala legit Aes Асс, NHL and bo Stellar registred demas йе Naina Hack Lame, AN HHL рут; and пыз and aq ots and marks depicted berein are the property ol he NHL and he respective toes and gay tat be reproduced wit е prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, LP O 2006, A rights reserved. O NHLPA. NIL Ж] 5 sa 06сайу Licensed Produc ol бе ВРА. NHLPA, National Hockey League Ple Association and бе N РА are Бабай ot th NHLPA and are used der |ебе ZK Spots. The NBA andl NEA mone team stis used on w б рәйес ав tadenaks, copyrighted designs and other forms directo pony of NBA Properbes c and бе especie NBA веда teams ші may not be saik, in whole or in part vb pin witen consent of NBA Properts, ік. © 2006 NBA Properes, lx. A rights reserved. © 2008 [ge he berate Slr and its saris. Af aits reserved. 2 Sports, Ве 2K Sports logo, and Take- o Interactive Software are ай поболе waders of Take bro Interactive Software, be. Mise Xbox, Ont 360, Xbox Live, fe Xo logos, and йе Xbox Live bp axe ейе керлері trademarks ar обета of МЕлізі Corporation p йе US. l/r other uates. “PlayStation” and te PS Foi logo are rogi vader ol Sony Computer Entertainement Inc. THE LAST THING GOING THROUGH YOUR 4 p, THE ULTIMATE NEXT-GENERATION ACTION-RFPG EXPERIENCE. Engage your senses in a world so immersive that it blurs where only you can end the long-standing oppression the boundaries between gaming and reality. Brought to of a tyrannical king. Get ready to experience Untold life through true HD graphics, heart-pounding combat Legends Dark Kingdom - the ultimate next-generation and in-game cinematic storytelling, players will find action-RPG. A game that will lead you so far into themselves in a world of beauty, betrayal and deceit, the darkness, you may never want to find your way out. p3 PLAY STATIO ДГ Е 23 © л Go online agi and play cooperatively with Devastate enemies with chained Embark on а fantasy your’friends or acquire melee attacks, mind-blowing spells adventure as it unfolds in additional game content and powerful special attacks true high-definition www.uldarkkinodom.com '006 Sony Online Entertainment LLC. SOE, the SOE logo, Untold Legends and Dark in the United States and/or other countries. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo an mare regi ed trademar red trademarks or trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Al rights reserved. Blood SONY ONLINE Violence ENTERTAINMENT Game experience may change during online play. THIS TIME NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH BOTH SINGLE-PLAYER AND ONLINE GAMEPLAY! TEEN " Fantasy Violence Mild Language Mild Suggestive Themes PlayS ta tion 2 ESRB CONTENT RATING — www.esrb.or Universe ere either registered hoor ie or Lese of SEGA Corporation. from PeerSec Networks Inc. http;// ты ‘PlayStation’ Ente г П internet connection and Memory Gord (8MBYfor Peyton 2) l эш арау pu r l: Xbox 380, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, end the Xbox Live h Xbox, are countries. The ratings loon ls a tredemark of the Entertainment are ا‎ id WO R Жее DN: <) eter Oe oo om RE N т RPLANETARY SINGLE-PLAYER THREE EXPANSIVE WORLDS TEEMING HUGE VARIETY OF ONLINE QUESTS ADVENTURE ACROSS 12 CHAPTERS. WITH OVER 70 ENEMY SPECIES. FOR A PARTY OF UP TO SIX PLAYERS. f Playstation.2. r N STOW JOIN THE BATTLE AT 7 www. PHANTASYSTARUNIVERSE.com Mi ^ www.sega.com GREATEST HITS BEST-SE playstation GREATE очы ж mon PRODUCTS RANGE FROM EVERYONE ro MATURE ® - CONTENT RATED BY = ion. ayia pa am lail them, and the gamers cherish them. Now's your chance to the best-selling Greatest Hits for only $19.99.* With over 170 Greatest Hits titles to choose from, you're bound to find one right up your alley. 5 Come and play what everyone's been talking about. => LIVE IN YOUR WXRLD. PlayStation.2 PLAY IN DURS: Lh. Эм as Y Fang Blade $ A TALE OF HONOR AND SACRIFICE, DUTY AND CHOICE, pu , WHAT IS WRITTEN AND WHAT WILL BE. Saik Luke fon Fabre, sole heir to a family of aristocrats was kidnapped seven years ago, and the shock left him with no memories of his life before. He has since led a quiet, boring life within the family's residence, learning little of the world beyond the palace walls. Suddenly thrust into y x the outside world, Luke is caught in the workings of the Order of Lorelei, keepers of the prophecy Y k known as the Score. No longer sheltered by the palace, Luke must get along in the confusing 4 Ë Вы " тм u Alcohol Reference Fantasy Violence BANDAI Language NAMCO Simulated Gambling ESRB E Themes Games Tales of the Abyss "02005 NAMCO BANDA! Games Ic. “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 ther trademarks and trade names are the i properties of their respective owners. S HYOS Launch GulDe From the editors of ° The System Ta The Games xps The Network Тре Movies -1UP.COM 53 нуое PS3 LAUNCH слое Magnificently messy. That's one way to describe being in the delivery room to witness the birth of a baby. There are horrific moments that make you feel like you've stepped into a John Carpenter film—but by the end, when you see the newborn teeming with life, it is one of most deeply profound moments one can experience in this world. And so it has gone with the PS3. Since Sony first officially announced its new machine at E3 in 2005, the gestation period has been a little messy. The high price, the decision not to include force feedback, release-date changes, reports of manu- facturing problems, early looks of next-gen games that elicited only shrugs, and just a general lack of information have contributed to a rough labor. АЦ that is [mostly] about to change. The PS3 is here folks, really and truly—and what a baby! Weighing in at a healthy 10 pounds, we predict a long, healthy life. Just a quick glance at what we've assembled here in this special PS3 launch guide bears witness to the birth of something big. At this year's E3, Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Kaz Hirai proclaimed, "The next generation doesn't start until we say it does." Consider November 17 the official start- ing line. — Тот Byron, Editor-in-Chief ЁШ OOM December ГЕЈ ГТ 23 HACDWA(e 56NNƏThe ins and outs of the PlayStation 3 hardware, including what kind of memory cards you can use and how the controller interacts with the system. ONLING 64\\> Looking to go online right away? It's really easy with the PS3- and don't forget to check out the PlayStation Store. LAUNCH 79\\> Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII 70\\> Call of Duty 3 72\\> The Elder Scrolls №: Oblivion 82\\> F.E.AR. 74N Fight Night Round 3 78N Full Auto 2: Battlelines 72\\> Genji: Days of the Blade 74\\> Madden NFL 07 70\\> Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 79N Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire 78\\> МВА 07 79\\> МВА 2K7 74\\> NBA Live 07 74\\> Need for Speed Carbon 79\\> NHL 2K7 82\\> Rainbow Six Vegas 68\\> Resistance: Fall of Man 78\\> Ridge Racer 7 72\\> Sonic the Hedgehog 74\\> Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 70\\> Tony Hawk's Project 8 72\\> Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom сеһесве 97\\> Armored Core 4 97\\> Battlefield: Bad Company 98\\> Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War 98\\> The Darkness 96\\> Def Jam: Icon 94\\> Devil May Cry 4 98\\> The Eye of Judgment 98\\> Fatal Inertia 99\\> Final Fantasy XIII 99\\> Formula 1 Championship Edition 99\\> Gran Turismo HD 100N Half-Life 2 100\\> Harker 100\\> Heavenly Sword 100\\> Hellboy 92N Lair 84\\> Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 86\\> MotorStorm 102\\> Ni-Oh 88\\> Ninja Gaiden Sigma 97\\> SKATE 102W Star Wars NextGen 102\\> Stranglehold 93\\> Virtua Fighter 5 102\\> Virtua Tennis 3 93\\> Warhawk MOVIES 104\\> If you want to take advantage of the PlayStation 3's movie-playing capabilities, you'll need to pick up some movies that will be available at launch. .IUP.COM 55 нуре 0S3 LAUNCH GUIDe | 29.9 M CENTO? The PlayStation 3 makes its debut to the world 4 offers tons of functionality simi lar to that of a PC, but it’s all incred ibly easy to use and you should have no trouble jumping right in Finally. The Play- Station 3 is just about ready to мемопу take a spot in your home theater OPTIONS setup. Pictured on this page is the Underneath the flap on the front of the 60-gig version of 60-gig version of the system you'll find the PS3, which three memory slots for three different features Wi-Fi, a kinds of memory cards: Compact Flash, bigger hard drive Secure Digital, and Memory Stick. АЦ than the 20-919 three formats can be used to transport PlayStation 3, video, music, and pictures to your PS3. and chrome trim, Just plug them in while you're in the as well as addi- user interface and, depending on which tional memory section of the user interface that you're card slots found in, you'll immediately see what's on underneath the them. It’s worth pointing out that USB flap. But 20-gig memory devices such as flash drives owners will still can also be used for memory storage have access to for both the media listed above and USB memory game save data. devices. WHAT ABOUT PS2 MEMORY CARDS? Sony already revealed the PS2 memory card for the PS3. This USB device will let you use your PlayStation 2 saves on the PS3 while you're playing PS2 games. It doesn't come in the box, so you have to shell out $14.99 to get a hold of one on November 17. i'll cost you $49.99. OrHen QenioQHenALs Since the PS2 and the PS3 both use USB ports, you're probably wondering if any of your PS2 USB devices will work on the PlayStation 3. The answer is yes. The EyeToy is completely compatible with the PS3 and will even be used for video chatting. USB devices, such as a keyboard and a mouse, can also be used as long as they're both standard—a mouse or keyboard with fancy features that you wouldn't typically find on such devices probably won't work properly. The same applies to headsets and microphones. Of course, after you get your PS3 rigged up to your TV, you're probably going to want to plug in a controller. You may be asking, "Why would l plug in a wireless controller?" As of press time, we were told that you have to plug in the control- ler using the USB minicables (included in the box) at least once to register it with the system. You can also use this cable to charge your controller simply by plugging it in to one of the USB ports on the front of the system—a single charge will last for a generous 30 hours. You'll notice that the controller itself is similar in design to the DualShock 2, but there are a few differences. The Sixaxis PS3 controller does not have a vibration feature, but it does have motion sensor control as well as refined R2 and L2 buttons that now feel much more like triggers as opposed to flat buttons, giving even greater analog control. THE ‘HOME’ BUTTON Any time you want to register one or more controllers with the PS3, all you have to do is press the button with the PlayStation logo in the center of the controller. One of the red lights on top of the controller should light up to indicate that the controller has been success- fully detected. It will also tell you which number it’s been registered as—wheth- er it's the first controller or the fourth. Additionally, the horne button lets you power off the system, exit a game, or turn off a controller by simply holding it down. Then, you'll go to a menu where you can select either option. еш ж ODM.1UP.COM 57 HOOKING IT UO 4 Get your PlayStation 3 up and running but many of the PS3's best fea- tures are powered by the ports you see here. The back of both models of the PlayStation 3 is identical since Sony decided to include HDMI functionality on = P ы T = к "ите төне the back of both a. units. тне DOX you'll find in your PlayStation 3 box when you pick it up on November 17: the system, one Sixaxis controller, an AC [power] cord, USB mini-cable, an Ethernet cable, and multi-AV composite cables. The first 500,000 units sold will also include a Blu-Ray copy of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. мрео Connecting your PlayStation 3 to a television is just as easy as connecting your PS2 was to it. If you have a stan- dard-definition TV, then you can use the standard composite cables (included], as well as S-Video and component. However, high-definition TV owners can also use the component cables as well as an HDMI cable to view PlayStation 3 content at HD resolutions— 720p, 10801, and 1080p. The HDMI cable uses its own separate port since the signal is com- pletely digital, unlike that carried by the other cables. You'll also have to venture into the display settings portion of the PS3 menu to tell it that you're using an HDMI cable, standard cables, or one of the other variants. AUDIO If you're an audiophile, chances are you have a nice 5.1 system or better to hook your PS3 up to, so, thankfully, all you need to do is plug an optical cable from your receiver to the back of the PlayStation 3. Next, you can go into the audio device settings option and tell the PS3 3 that you're using the opti- cal out on the back of the system and you're done. It's important to point out that, with HDMI, the audio signal is sent through the cable along with the video signal, so if you're wondering if you still have to plug in the standard audio cables if you don't have a 5.1 setup— well, you don't. But you can still use the optical out in conjunction with HDMI. NETWORKING It's pretty simple—just plug an Ethernet cable into the back of the PlayStation 3 and you're pretty much good to go, assuming the other end of the cable is plugged in to a router. Those who pur- chase the 60GB model of the PS3 won't even have to worry about that if there's a Wi-Fi network in the area since that model comes with Wi-Fi capabilities built in. The network settings area in the user interface should display whatever networks are available. Owners of the 20GB model will have to buy a separate wireless device (a wireless router] for the same functionality. NOISE REDUCTION If you're wondering if the PlayStation 3 will make а lot of noise when you turn it on-wonder no more. The PS3 is really quiet, only creating 22 decibels of sound while the unit is. powered on. Sure, it doesn't sound like а big deal at first, but if you've ever been in the vicinity of an Xbox 360, you know it can be rather loud. حو OPM.1UP.COM IN STORES HOLIDA y 2006. | Www.sega.com Z WWW. ال‎ COM/SUNICNEX: T w a / ЖАҚЫ ~ / b ° " № PA E Өзі Gm in tho WLS, ӨЙ? ӨЕП, trademarks of SEGA Corporation: өкі SEGA. All 5, ап he Xbox Live ACTUAL SCREENSHOT EVERYONE 10+ Fantasy Violence O ESRB CONTENT RATING www.esrh.org ws aA B TV Ое ДӘ TO THe OAN Diving into the Cross Media Bar 4 [XMB] inter face the PlaySta- tion 3 uses should be familiar to PSP. owners as well as owners of other modern Sony elec- tronics. There are plenty of things you can do with it, but here are just a few of our favorite features within the Cross Media Bar. This is where you can set up multiple profiles for your PlayStation 3. Essentially, any changes made to the PS3 or any games saved under a certain profile will only appear when that profile is logged in to the system. Other information, such as your PlayStation Network logon and the data associated with that, such as downloads from the store, will be tied to your profile as well. One of the things you'll prob- ably want to do before anything else is jump into the settings area of the Cross Media Bar and see what kind of stuff you can mess around with before play- ing any games. Naturally, this is where you can change audio and video settings as well as select options for some of the other features of the PS3 Cross Media Bar. And, of course, you can also change some settings for the Blu-ray player and set up security options in case you want to prevent anyone from using your PS3. A photo mode may not seem like such a big deal, but there are some cool things you can do with it on the PlayStation 3. First, you can load any pictures from a storage device, whether it's Compact Flash or a Memory Stick. You can either sort through them manually or put them into a standard slide show. The PS3 will zoom in on the pictures and slowly dissolve to the next photo. In addition, you can also use the music option to play any tunes during the slide show, but the coolest feature in this mode is the photo album. The PS3 will look at all of the photos you have and then ren- der them as actual photos that get dropped onto a virtual table with the date that they were taken shown next to them—a fun way to display photos. ғ 7 10/18/2006 6:02 РМ 1'28" МВА 07 10/18/2006 6:03 РМ 1'07'" | PlayStation. 3 Software 10/18/2006..6:03.PM- 9*6" A major part of the PlayStation 3 experience, the PlayStation Store is where you can do! load new demos, original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, movies, music, and more. For a more in-depth look at what you can do online, look no further than page 64. Internet Browser PWAYETATIO! — Much like the photo area, the video mode lets you view any videos that you have stored on the PlayStation 3 or any of your memory devices. There's really not a whole lot to it, but videos do play while you're just looking through the list of videos that you have. Plus, the sound will actually play on the video that you currently have highlighted. It's a neat little feature, to be sure, and it makes searching through your videos a little easier. The PS3 plays all major MPEG formats, up to and including MPEG 4. FRICNDS Your PS3 friend's list displays any friends you've added on the PlayStation Network. You can view a list of who is online, users that you've blocked, and a list of people that you've met while playing a game. The best feature about the PlayStation 3’s music-play- ing capabilities is that you can import audio CDs directly onto the PS3 hard drive. Interestingly, it also lets you encode these songs in three different formats: AAC, MP3, and ATRAC. You can even deter- mine the bit rate if you don't want these files taking up a huge amount of space on your hard drive—you will sacrifice audio quality, though. And, if you're wondering if you can cre- ate playlists, you can't at the moment, but you can sort the music by artist or by the name of the album. VISUALIZATION What would any audio function in a console be without some kind of visualization to accom- pany the music? Thankfully, the PS3 offers a few different cool looking visualizers that move and jump around depending on the type of music you're playing. Browsing the Web is pretty sim- ple with the PlayStation 3 con- troller, but if you feel the need to immerse yourself more in the experience of browsing vari- ous sites, then you can plug in a keyboard and a mouse. If you see anything interesting in your travels across the Interweb, you can save it as a bookmark or save individual files (movies and images) on the PS3. CHAT SETTINGS You can mess around with the EyeToy by testing the video quality and the microphone. You can also use the camera to take a picture to use as an avatar for your user profile, and you can send videos to other PlayStation 3 owners, too. Now you have even more of a reason to hold onto that PSP. Sony's handheld can wirelessly connect to the PlayStation 3, allowing you to navigate thri the menu to access movies, music, and pictures that are streamed directly onto the PSP. Pretty soon, you'll be able to access your PS3 from any Wi-Fi hotspot around the world just by turning on your PSP. САМЄ This is pretty self-explana- tory, but this is where you'll see what game—PS1, PS2, or PS3—you've inserted into the PlayStation 3 as well as any game save data, which you can manage from this menu as well. Also, just like the PSP, the PS3 will display a "poster" of the game before it starts up. À еам ODM.1UP.COM 63 IHVOS PSS LAUNCH GUIDES It’s time to go online! The Play- Station Store is undoubtedly one of the biggest new features in the PlayStation online universe, and reg- ular online gam- ing will be much easier than it was on the PlayStation 2 thanks to some unifying features, such as a single user ID, that Sony has built into the system. OLAYSTATION STONG The PlayStation experience redefined Sony Online Enter- tainment CEO John Smedley demon- strates the features PAYING UO ofthe Playstation Store at a recent Some of the content, such as trailers press event. and demos, in the PlayStation Store is ntent requires pay- u want to download it. When omething in « on it tc sts and then If you've ed online before, the exp is nearly identical But how do you g on — count? - = D Demos T Downicadable o ` ا‎ -- 9 using either а preexisting credit card number or a PlayStation Card (with a fixed amount of money] that will be available at various retail outlets After adding money you ca 2, and purch. the content, check out, and then download it. ed R1: Next Blast Factor (right) and flOw (below) are just two of the games that you'll be able to download from the store on November 17. = iTUNeS It's worth noting that when you pur- chase something in the store, you can redownload it at any time. In fact, you can even download it on up to five dif- ferent PlayStation to show a friend a new game that you recently bought, go right ahead and download it on his or her PS3. THROUGH THO AISLES It's pretty easy to get through the store to find what you want. You'll immediately be greeted with the top download of the day, but there are several other areas to explore. To the right of the screen you'll see some of the most downloaded items as well as a list of the newest items added to the store with the corresponding cost next to them. You'll also see that there are several categories at the bottom of the screen. Here you can go directly to the content you're looking for, whether it's movies, game demos, or music. x Жа 0200 ' 216 Е 73 7 443 X 20 There will be a surprising amount of content available for download from the PlayStation Store around laun Here are some games and demos you can look forward to. We don't know the final pricing for some of the full games, but we do know that all of them will cost around $14.99 and less. DOOnSs орем MotorStorm (PlayStation 3 demo) Blast Factor Crash Carnage Chaos Criminal Crackdown flOw Go! Sudoku Go! Swizzleblock 2 GripShift Lemmings 2 Wheel of Fortune AN ACCOUNT with the PlayStation 3 isn't nearly as complicated as going online with the PlayStation 2. In fact, Sony has addressed many of the issues PS2 owners had with the online service, starting with the single login. There are now two differ- ent types of accounts that you can create—a main account and secondary accounts that you will see when you connect to the net- work via the PlayStation 3's web browser. A master account can essentially access all facets of the PlayStation Network, including the PlayStation Store, but with an associated account, you can implement controls and various usage restrictions. This will come in handy when you don't want someone—basi- cally your children—abusing your account by continually purchasing games or other forms of content. FRIENDS the PlayStation 3 Network gives you the ability to add or block other network users оп a friends list. This list lets you view who's online at any given time, and, naturally, it lets you message them as well by using either the software keyboard or a USB keyboard. You can also find a list of people you've played online games with if you wish to add them after finishing a game. Unfortunately, the current version of the interface doesn't let you check messages while you're playing т а game, so you'll have to jump out and view them within the PlayStation 3's user interface, but you still receive new message notifications. Future software updates, which will be rela- tively frequent, could easily fix this issue. Perhaps the st important feature of the PS3's online capabilities is gaming. The good thing is that it’s free. The bad thing is that developers can use a wide variety of tools to get their games online, so you might see one game using GameSpy while another uses Xfire—both of which can tie into Sony’s serv- ers for the purpose of stat tracking. So there doesn't seem to be a central area for every- thing related to online gaming quite yet. ODM.1UP.COM 65 RIVALI RY°AT ITS тете nd only one will emerge victorious! With mega Sonic and his top rivals gö Boosts and a bag full of Pos, they launch Fireballs, zap each other with Confusion, or vault over each other as they bolt for the finish line. Compete in multiplayer mode against your own rival to prove who is best! WITH SPECIAL ATTA KS! MASSIVE BOSSES! IN SPEEDY 2D ACTION! EVERYONE Visit www.esrb.org for updated rating information. — | — ESRB CONTENT RATING _ www.esrb.org ° PlayStalion.Portable нуре PS3 LAUNCH GUIDE Р we know that the PS3 is a hefty chunk of change. We also know how disap- pointing it is to spend that money on some games and then go “that's it?” when playing them. So we've compiled this list of launch games, give you the basic facts [Sixaxis, resolu- tion), and whether it's a must-buy when you pick up your PS3, or if you can wait until you get more moneys. РЖ OOM December | Sonu CER Insomniac | (SSIS TANCE. FALL OF МАМ NOT FUTILE With only 400,000 units available on launch day, and likely not more than a half million units total on shelves by the first of next year, November 17 has always been less about the PS3 and more about Resistance: Fall of Man for Sony in the States. After all, Sony CEA wants to sell the epic sci-fi first- person shooter to every single person who is lucky enough to buy the system, and there are plenty of good reasons to support this goal: crystal-sharp graphics, intense story- driven gameplay, 40 players online—all this and more from one of the most reliable and respected developers in the games biz, let alone for the PlayStation. Resistance is also the first PS3 game to use the Sixaxis motion sensor for more than just turning. And we can also promise you that the first first-party game out the chute is a polished, solid work— for all the details, check out our exclusive review of Resistance on page 110. 720p : Yes Yes Yes Resistance is also the first PS3 game to use the Six- axis motion sensor. LAUNCH GAMeS If you think this mechanized walk- ing thingy looks a bit familiar, well, go back to Ratchet: Deadlocked and its landstalker. COVER STORY! Go check our very own Joe Rybicki's take in our first PS3 review! It's already devising ways to kill you. The PlayStation.3 system can perform nearly two trillion calculations per second. And its Cell Broadband Engine; with its one Central Processing Unit (CPU) plus 8 Synergistic Processing Units (SPU), is capable of processing a multitude of tasks in parallel. The result of all this digital horsepower? A.I. becomes smarter. Everything becomes more real. And your untimely demise becomes that much more believable. rademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Ameri roadband Engine: “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Play B3yond is lated imagery featured are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. Tony Hawk’s Project 8 ою. Dev. Neversoft is bringing рем. If you're going Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Duo. Dev. As any OPM е It dreams іп Blu-ray. With 10 times the storage capacity of standard DVDs and true 1080p image potential, you'll see levels that are truly massive, environments that are more complex and movies that are absolutely dripping with vibrant detail. Kind of makes you wonder what its nightmares look like. Video output in HD requires cables and an HD-compatible display, both sold separately. Copy-protected Blu-ray video discs can only output at 1080p. using an HOMI cable connected to a device that is compatible with the HDCP standard. HDMI cable not included, Additional equipment may be required to use the HDMI connector. "PlayStation" and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony: Computer Entertainment inc. Play B3yond is a trademark. of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc, All names, brands and associated imagery featured are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion ою Dev. Imagine a place Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom Duo. Dev. Dark Kingdom 8 : Š 3 3 š Genji: Days of the Blade очо. Dev. Out of the box, Sonic the Hedgehog QUO. Dev. On one hand, ZN OOM December = >< их >< <=" NTROLLER Tilt. Pull. Thrust. Pray. The SIXAXIS" wireless controller utilizes sensors that are designed to read when a player angles, tilts, thrusts or^ pulls. Which means it feels more like an extension of your body, allowing for a more intuitive and immersive experience. Someth i za g to ponder the next time you're in a tailspin, one second from hitting the ground. “SIXAXIS” isa trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "PlayStation" а a stered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Play B3yond is a trademark of Sony Ссл z Y3 puter Entertainment America Inc. All names, brands and associated imagery featured are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. “® Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 Ud. Dev. Much like NBA Live 07 (98 е) Dev. At press time, Madden NFL 07 [oU o] Dev. This perennial Fight Night Round 3 [99 өл Dev. Out of all of ZW OOM December PLAYS TATION. = When you combine the blistering processing speeds of the PlayStation.3 system's Cell Broadband Engine the massive storage capacity and higher-definition capability of Blu-ray, you get the future of gaming. And that future is now with over 20 titles-spanning a wide range of genres available in the coming weeks. Of course, games aren't all this machine plays. It also plays music CDs, DVDs and, of course, higher-def Blu-ray movies. Add to all this its “built-in” online connectivity, and you can see why the PlayStation.3 system is, well, beyond any console you've ever experienced. Learn more at playb3yond.com. PLAY BS yon PRODUCTS RANGE FROM EVERYONE to MATURE ot a Е ntertalnmentinc. Play B: yoni isatrademarkot Sony Computer Enten tainment д d are trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners, The NBA and indi- vidual NBA member team identifications re duced on this product are trademarks and copyrighted designs, and/or other forms of intellectual property, that are the exclusive property of МВА Properties, Inc., and the respective МВА member teams and may not be used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of NBA Properties, Inc. ©2006 МВА Properties, Inc. АЙ rights reserved. pud b DELTA FORCE split-screen. Nu ü d RAMP UP THE CHAL Lead To Giera coc Army Ranger, | SAS officer and a D Troop Com ili хазар рша шәш abc through. Iranian oil | "ЙА Ni s and тоге. i mn i RE a Pons, mur and IMS Sniper, rifle: GET THE MOBILE GAME vgmobile.com Mild Language Violence. Blood А M (Эрн A PlayStation.2 ESRB CONTENT RATING www.estb.org тару ë © 2003-2006 NovaLogic, Inc. NovaLogic, the NovaLogic logo, Delta Force and Black Hawk Down are registered trademarks of NovaLogic, Inc. Team Sabre is a trademark of NovaLogic, Inc. “PlayStation” 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. АИ other trademarks and logos are property of their respective owners. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 2006 www.teamsabrethegame.com N 0 VA | Ü | | 0. ue р ) d a I с DELTA FORCE, m É PLAYSTATION = ESRB RIDGE RACER: 7 ©2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. "PlayStation" and the"PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Vivendi Universal Вау 1 Studios ЕЕА 3 With smooth-as-silk controls, Al that actu- ally deserves that second letter, and freaky, Ring-like moments that would scare John Carpenter, the addictive FE.A.R. is yet another reason why the PS3 is going to be good for first-person shooter fans. With only a few situational puzzles and a lot of increasingly tough bad guys, ЕЕ.А.В. is decidedly more in the run-and-gun vein, though it does let you pull off your best Neo impression with some Matrix-like slow-mo. And if that doesn't work, you can hit guys with your gun or kick them like someone who's seen too many Jet Li movies. In fact, the only thing that isn't ex Т "я : tional about FE.A.R. is the array of multiplayer —" 2, im modes—Capture the Flag? Again? Really?— Р қ d though they are still fun, with three of the 13 à XX | Melee is useful! А maps being exclusive to the PS3 ша желп 5. Р" pretty cool мау to take out bad dudes 108 Yes 4 is to jump in the air, Undetermined eh 4 slow down time, and then connect your foot to their face. | Ubisoft Ubisoft Montreal 8 Rainbow Six Vegas Let's pretend that Rainbow Six Lockdown didn't really happen and that this is the first Rainbow game since Rainbow Six 3. Seems like a worthy hei far: fantastic graphics, inter- esting missions, lots of new toys to play with, and the chance to go online with your bud- dies to take down terrorists at the Bellagio or some such. Plus, we like that this is a first- person game that isn't painted in brown or gray, but rather in crazy-looking neon. The main thing holding this back is its mul- tiplatform nature. It feels like a damn good game, but with the real difference between this and the Xbox 360 version g support (tilt to move the "snake cam" around], you should focus on spending your limited launch money on more PS3-centric title pick this up if you either have loads of are a tactical-shooter junkie. 720p 2 5 š 3 Nintendo. SUSHI SIE BLS “ЕН! ‘HAL ALLIANCE .swiethalalliance.com ЕТ LUCASARTS UBISOFT | Konami Konami Productions METAL седо SOLID JL: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS КОЛМА SHOWS GAMEPLAY DETAILS! інуое 0S3 LAUNCH GUIDe Ld you which launch games we thought were must-buys, and which ones you can wait for. We all know that launch titles don't take full advan- tage of a system's potential, and that it takes at least another year before you see some amaz- ing games. So to help you feel better about your purchase, here's a rundown of some of the most excit- ing games we're looking forward to that are coming out in 2007 and beyond... " because the newest trailer showed more than Old Snake pontificating on his miserable life or action scenes that looked staged for cut-scene coolness and not for gameplay. There were clips of Old Snake sneaking around, shooting baddies (with both a first-person view and an over-the-shoulder perspective à la Resident Evil 4), and using his Octo-Camo to be sneaky [since the Octo-Camo mimics whatever Old Snake touches, we assume it's not menu- based like Metal Gear Solid 3's camouflage]. On the other hand, the trailer didn't feature a heads-up display—and it was still a trailer, so we'll probably have to wait until the middle of next year for true gameplay details. We also spotted some potential uses for the Sixaxis’ tilt sensor in the trailer, such as Old Snake rolling around in a barrel (he Seems to have expanded his repertoire of "things to do while hiding in a container"], Old Snake rolling on the floor to evade a Metal Gear, and Old Snake quickly leaning from side to side while aiming in first-person. Oh, and the end of the trailer had a “WTF” moment of Old Snake, after hiding from some soldiers, taking off his mask to reveal... Young Snake! Our random pet theory (which is dif- ferent than the kids on the Internets who say that Old Snake is using the Octo-Camo to make his face look young): You only play as Old Snake for act one, then he dies and you play as Young Snake for the rest of the game [echoing the "Tanker/Big Shell" and "Virtuous Mission/Snake Eater" structure of MGS2 and MOSS, respectively). Young Snake is either a new clone or a clone with memories downloaded from Old Snake (hey, it worked in Venture Вгоѕ.!). .1UP.COM 85 Sonu СЕЯ Evolution Studios MOTORSTORM GETTING DIRT ON OUR PS3 AND LOVING IT OK, we're just going to flat-out say it: If one vehicular racing title justifies the PS3's price tag, it’s this one. Yes, we also love Ridge Racer but that’s a traditional arcade car-racing game. MotorStorm, meanwhile, focuses on crazy off-road racing, with deformable terrain, over-the-top physics, tight controls (at press time, the team was still debating the final use of the tilt sensor; it currently works for steer- ing, but that might change), a large variety of vehicles both standard and atypical (dirt bikes and giant trailer trucks are both raceable], and gorgeous graphics from our playtime, we already have a tip: Play it in first-person. Tearing through the mud and tumbling around is much better viewed through first-person eyes rather than from the third-p n view of someone riding a bike or an ATV or a truck. OK, it won't really help you garneplaywise, but it’ jreat way to show off both your shiny HDTV and the visual power. title If one racin justifies the PS3's price tag, it's this one. Skies of Deception TAKE CONTROL ОЕ THE SKIES The Ace Combat® level of excellence returns in an all-new game designed specifically to take advantage of the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system. Enter into an entirely new highflying action-packed story that will challenge your abilities in naw ways as you take on the role of an ace pilot defending the country of Aurelia. Ace Combat® X Skies of Deception brings all the realistic aircraft and combat to a new level providing intense action to any gamer on the go. STRATEGIC Al SYSTEM THAT CHANGES REAL LIFE AND ORIGINAL TUNABLE 2-4 MULTIPLAYER WIRELESS ACCORDING TO YOUR IN-GAME DECISIONS AIRCRAFT ТП PILOT INTO BATTLE BATTLES IN VARIOUS MODES Alcohol Reference لسم | لم‎ BANDAÎ Mild Language ° NAMCO Violence s PlayStation. Portable Games ACE СОМВАТЕХ ©2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games Ic. © GecEya ® JAPAN SPACE IMAGING CORPORATION LOCKHEED MARTIN, F-22 Raptor associated emblems and logos, and body designs of vehicles are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Lockheed Martin Corporation in the USA and/or thor countries, usd under license Бу NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. А! trademarks and copyrights associated with the manufacturers, aircraft, models, trade names, brands and visual images depicted in this game are the property of their respective owners, and used with such permissions, "PlayStation", the "PS" Family logo and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Dua TMA may ba required (sold separately): The ratings icon is a registered trademark of tha Entartsinment Software Association. RUE " | Тесто bev. Team Ninja NINOACAIDON SIGMA BLACKER THAN BLACK У revease 07 ғ —T Yes, the greatest action game to grace the Xbox (and, arguably, the current generation of cons: ] is now making an appearance on the PS3. Then again, Ninja Gaiden was supposed to be a PS2 launch title, so we're treating this as a belated makeup on that original promise Except it won't just be a Ninja Gaiden port Ninja Gaiden Sigma is considered a remake, or an "extension," of the original game. From the trailer and a short interview with director Yousuke Hayashi, the basic rundown of new additions to NGS are: superspiffy graphics [in fact, there are no more FMVs—everything in the game is rendered in real time], new areas and levels (including locales cut from the original game], a bevy of new weapons (we're all about dual-wielding katanas), and playable Rachel (protagonist Ryu's fiend- hunter acquaintance]. The greatest current-gen action game is appearing on the PS3. After seeing glimpses of Rachel swinging her crazy hammer around, we asked Hayashi for more details on how Rachel's gameplay is integrated into the story. Essentially, every time Ryu meets up with Rachel in a cut- scene, the story will jump back a bit, and then you'll then play as Rachel to experience her perspective (Rachel's view will help fill in the gaps in Ninja Gaiden's plot). We asked Hayashi about what it's like to play Rachel, and he coyly mentioned, "Well, Ryu is a master ninja, so th his gameplay. Rachel's gameplay will be that of a master fiend hunter." As expected, Ninja Gaiden Sigma will include everything from Ninja Gaiden Black (new difficulty levels, weapons, costumes, and 50 on]. With all of NGB's content, plus the new stuff, it looks like the PS3 will have the rnost ultimate version of Ninja Gaiden to date. ODM.1UP.COM 89 Alcohol Reference Blood Crude Humor Language Mild Violence ESRB CONTENT RATING — www.esrb.org StevieWilliams m " ر [NAIL THE TRICK ] Ап entirely new way to play the дате, Nail The Trick mode gives precision control over how you move your feet to flip the skateboard. Using dual analog stick motions, you can create your own unique skate tricks - even during a combo - as you watch the action unfold in slow motion. Yeah. Its that real. www. T HP8.com ACTIVISION. activision.com Sony CEA Factor S LAIC WE'RE HOPING FOR A SEAN CONNERY CAMEO On first appearance, Lair seems like any other Factor 5 title (the developer for games like Star Wars: Rogue Squadron]: a pretty game where you fly around and shoot things. What makes Lair stand out from other titles in the company alog is that it u the tilt sensor in the Sixaxis controller as a core gameplay mechanic So while you'd expect to use the analog Sticks to guide your dragon around, you actu- ally steer by tilting the controller: Tilt it toward you to "pull up"; tilt it away to "dive down." Lock onto an enemy dragon with the R1 but- ton, and then either jab the controller forward or hit X to close in. Once you're "dragon y dragon,” keep “jabbing” the controller to amous ber make the beast slam into your op when you close in for the kill, you continue to shake the controller to perform kill moves [ог be boring and use the face buttons]. Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht commented that the use of the tilt sensor was somewhat inspired by watching gaming newbies swing- ing their controllers around as they play—the company decided to make turn those motions into actual play m Besides flying around, you can your dragon and wreak havoc by running around and breathing fire on hapless soldiers. At this point, the only other thi want is for one of the dragons to talk with a Scottish brogue. What makes Lair stand out is that it uses the tilt sensor as gameplay... Sega Sega-AM2 Virtua Fighter 5 EXCELLENCE IS A VIRTUE Sony CEA Incognito Warhawk A REMAKE MAKEOVER For old-school PlayStation aficionados [we're talking 1995], the news that Warhawk was being remade for the PS3 brought an instant nostal credibility to Sony's new machine. The origi- nal flight action-adventure has become a cult classic, and the fact that its creator, Incognito (Twisted Metal: Black, War of the Monsters], is behind its development n encouraging sign. The even better news is that not only is Warhawks basic formula not being mucked with, it's going far beyond what anyone probably X ed from a remake. Not limited only to air combat, Warhawk PS3 introduces huge open battlefields in which you control your player on ground, in tanks and a slew of other vehicles and, of course, in hoverjets. Graphically, Warhawk is no dazzler [more cartoony than realistic), but that probably won't matter if the gameplay stays con- tent with what we've seen so far. In a recent play ion, we battled it out online with a total 16 players [the ultimate online count hasn't been finalized] and found the numerou ons (rocket launchers FTW!), huge maps, and vehicle control smooth and, we'll say it, a lot of fun. Warhawk has become the PS3's po child for the Sixaxis motion sensor and, while we think Lair might lay better claim to that hon we actually liked flying the hoverjets this way. Warhawk is still several months away, but we think it'll set the tone for online play in 2007. We'll say it: Virtua Fighter 5 is one of the best PS3 games ОРМ has gotten its dirty mitts on so far. Sega claims the console version is a perfect re-creation of the arcade game that is currently not available in the U.S. Hey, we'll take their word for it. Side by side, the two versions look identical, and with the inclusion of the arcade stick [also sold by беда), VF5 even plays like the arcade version Just one look at VF5's visuals will have you sweating for more. At 720p, they're color- ful, realistic, and as fluid as mercury. As has always been true of the series, gameplay keeps to the more technical side of fighting, and even the early rounds require precise moves and combos rather than button mash- ing. OPM h en and played the two basic game modes, arcade and versus, but you should expect to see a longer list of standard modes, including training and quest, when the game releases in the spring. АЦ the familiar characters from VF's long history appear, with the addition of newcomer libre v ler, and Eileen, a monkey kung fu st Journey to the West) master. Unfortunately, Sega has shelved online play, saying it isn't yet able to achieve an acceptable framerate. Multiplayer will be limited to two players OQOMI.1UP.COM | Capcom Capcom DOVIL MAY СГУ Lı BIG UP TO YOUR SLAMMIN' BEAT, BOSS! Нуре 055 LAUNCH GUIDe y Last issue, we let slip that the main character of Devil May Cry 4 wasn't usual protagonist Dante, but Nero, some new kid who looks a lot li Dante [but dressed in blue instead of red, which means he takes fashion tips from D. broth- er, Vergil). Alas, further details about Dante's role in the game [he shows up in trailers and art] and Nero's reason for being the main dude aren't yet available, and a demo we played was about Nero kicking all sorts of demonic derriere in a fancy-looking garden that led to a run-down warehouse and then some doc Gameplay felt just like previous Devil May Crys, with the exception of the Circle button; ins of being a "style" button, it triggers the "Demon Bringer." At first, this just seerns like a big fiery fist that hurts baddies, Nothing too special. Except the Demon Bringer also snatches the The main char- acter isn’t Dante, but Nero, some kid who dresses like Vergil enemy. The first tactical application is to simply use it to close the ance between you and the foe by grabbing them toward you. Another tactic is to use it at the end of a traditional juggling combo. You know, when you're juggling a baddy in the air with a combo that uses both your guns and your sword, and you hit him so hard that he sails through the air? Just use the Demon Bringer to yank him back and beat on him some more. All this with the same goofy words of WIRT acclaim for pulling off cool moves ("Big ups!" or м — ІІІ | И 1 ‘Slammin’ beat!"] and the same smooth controls 1 ‘= USS "| | at 60 frames per second в í З 1 АШ DMC4's biggest problem at the moment? That it's not done, and that it gloats about it. Our play session ended with a massive boss that either says “See you in hell!” or “Coming soon!” before the demo abruptly ends OOM.1UP.COM кааш: ФЕИ vias. — tim ШТ ре PS3 LAUNCH GUIDe Нм | Electronic Arts EA Chicago DOF BOUNCE TO THE BEATS E y Now in the hands of EA's Chicago studio—the same team responsible for the Fight Night series, Def Jam is going in for a bit of an over- haul. Naturally, since the series is making the leap to the PS3, this means that the graph- ics are getting a huge makeover. АЦ of the characters, including famous hip-hop artists such as Big Boi, Ludacris, and the recently announced T.l., are now rendered in incred- ible detail. Likewise, the environments have received an enormous face-lift as well. In fact, the environments play a bigger role in Def Jam: Icon than they have in previ- ous games. Not only do objects such as skyscrapers bounce around to the beat of the music in the stage—think of it as in-game representation of an equalizer—but they also crumble and fall apart as fists and feet start connecting. This also applies to objects in the immediate area—when they start crumbling, you can use them as weapons against the character that you're fighting The connection between the music and the environment extends even further than that. Since each level responds to the song being played, certain events will only occur based upon the type of song and its pace. Basically, some environmental hazards trigger depend- ing on the song; if you have intimate knowl- Not only do objects bounce around to the beat... edge of a particular tune, you can use that to your advantage. There's even a “DJ Міх” ele- ment to the gameplay where opposing players can attempt to change the song while they're duking it out [using the triggers or bumper keys]. On top of all that, the fighting mechan- ics are being tweaked and seem to be a little different than those found in previous games, focusing more on hand-to-hand fighting. оом December < ...ОВ DIE! | to Electronic Arts Dev. ER Black Box r Hey, you remember the Tony Hawk games? Remember how that series hit its peak a few years ago? Yeah. Anyway, Electronic Arts has decided to jump back`into the skating world with the cleverly named SKATE. Not much is known aside that the control scheme will be a little different than what we're used to `. and that several professional skaters have been enlisted already. Too bad they didn't just decide to call it Skate or Die—that'd be rad. Armored Core 4 YAY, MORE ROBOTS! | oio. Sega Dev. From Software Boftilefield: Bad Company BAD COMPANY WITH BAD BOYS | OUO. EA Games Dev. ER DICE There might be more single-player this time! .1UP.COM 97 Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War MEDIEVAL WARRIORS | Koei Omega Force The Darkness BLACK MAGIC! | ок Games Starbreeze ë 3 : 4 3 š The Eye of Judgment MAKE LOVE TO THE CAMERA 1 Sony CEA Sony CEI Lom 5 Fatal Inertia SPACE RACE | Кое! Кое! Final Fantasy XIII WELCOME BACK, KITASE! | Square Enix Square Enix Formula 1 Championship Edition REARVIEW PSP | Sony CEA SCEE Liverpool Gran Turismo НО A REST STOP BEFORE GT5 | Sony (ЕЯ Polyphony Digital OQM.1UP.COM 99 Нагкег (working title) TIME TO STAB DRACULA AGAIN l The Collective сем TBA Heavenly Sword GODDESS OF WAR | Sony CER реу Ninja Theory Hellboy THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM | Konami Krome Half-Life 2 PC GOTY ON PS3 OMG!!! | Valve/EA Valve • FULL 1080P HIGH DEF PICTURE • SUPERIOR SOUND QUALITY PLAYSTATION 3 COMPATIBLE Star Wars NextGen (working title) A VERY, VERY STRONG FORC l LucasArts LucasArts Virtua Tennis 3 ARCADE-PERFECT POWER SMASHING | беда Sega-Hitmaker JIFILM Ni-Oh GAME AS x DRAMA Stranglehold VERY HARD-BO NOT OVER EASY Midway Midway PS3 Afrika Alone in the Dark 5 Army of Two Assassin's Creed Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Burnout 5 Clive Barker's Jericho The Club Coded Arms: Assault College Hoops 2K7 Dark Sector DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road Dirty Harry Eight Days Flow The Getaway Gran Turismo 5 Grand Theft Auto IV Haze Heavy Rain Hot Shots Golf 5 Indiana Jones 2007 Killzone L.A. Noire Lord of the Rings: The White Council Makai Wars Medal of Honor Airborne Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Monster Hunter 3 Monster Kingdom: Unknown Realms NBA Street Vol. 4 Ratchet & Clank: Next Resident Evil 5 Sega Rally Revo Stuntman 2 Tekken 6 Turok Unreal Tournament 2007 White Knight Story CALLDUTY3 $ d Of course, you couldn't forget that the PlaySta- tion 3 also plays Blu-Ray movies. You're going to want to check out some of the films that will Бе avail- able by the time the PS3 launches. Some of the older films may not look great in HD resolutions, but anything with CG or anything made within the last few years should look crystal clear on your HDTV. If you still have an SDTV, then Blu- Ray movies aren't so relevant, but they serve as an excellent excuse to upgrade. SCHWARZENEGGER TERMINATOR 2 JU MENT DAY SCHWARZENEGGER TERMINATOR HOUSE or FLYING DAGGERS LAUNCH GUIDG А 1 Еуегу pack of Magic: Тһе Gathering, - ° ` ° -| Comes:With 15 Cards. “And Endless Possibilities.” When you open a pack of Magic, you're opening a world of options that go far beyond a mere game. You hold the keys to a community of players just like you. The ticket to play in tournaments in town and around the world. And the chance to grab your share of over $3 million in cash and prizes, handed out every year. Find out what over 6 million Magic players already know: It's one game with many opportunities. Download a demo at 2 Wow. = playmagic.com А. The Gathering” ere Ign MNA (TRADING CARD САКАЕ:) Animated Blood Suggestive Themes Violence ESRB CONTENT RATING — www.esrb.org Я NUCLEAR-ARMED ROGUE ARMY THREATENS TO TURN THE COLD WAR INTO A BLAZING HOT ОПЕ. PETE Ria Tie S Em Fi СИН DISMANTLE A MECHANICAL MONSTER. TAKE SNARE ОП (S Зе ~ ПІ5510П IN THE SEQUEL ТО MGSss: SNAKE EATER OR BATTLE YOUR FRIENDS ONLINE IN EXCLUSIVE MULTIPLAYER MODES. KOJIMA PlayStation Portable META j / TN, = L GEAR SOLID PORTABLE 0?P8 =-= aT А N ЕЕ -— T KONAMI www.konami.com 4 = ® 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 * 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: i TNE, GAMER ADVISORY PANEL. With a complete m profile, А, increase your chances of being asked to join the elite Gamer Adviso у Panel. G.A.P. members get: * Invitations to participate in beta tests e 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 (Dew? Action Sports Tour, Vans Warped Tour,” Ozzfest and many more) « PLUS the chance to Ë use your knowledge and Wee to help shape t the future of the industry. LY ХА MAXIMIZE YOUR MEMBERSHIP AND COMPLETE YOUR ONLINE PROFILE TODAY! ( COVICW eo 3 An improvement on the original? Preposterous! But true... | | 4 More puzzle love from the makers of Lumines. | e Ó 110\\> В c zone: L 2 130\\> Ace ( oS 130\\> Death, - 116\\> № Carbon 130\\> а 118\\> Shin Megami Tensei 132\\> Medal of Honor Негое Devil Summoner 134\\> Dy 119\\> .hack//G.U. Vol. 1// 1342 Rebirth 134\\> Ро Collection 119W Tales of the Abyss 136\\> ( 120N Bully 136\\> Lumines |! 122\\> Destroy All Humans 2 136\\> 123\\> Justice League Heroes 124\\> Guitar Hero II 126\\> Mortal Kombat Armageddon 126\\> NBA Live 07 126\\> WWE Smackdown vs R .1UP.COM 109 reviews OS [MEWS А "ООМ December d dade. This is The n everyo ДҮ weight o expeciations? This is it. This is the game Sony's been talking about, the flagship first- party title for the launch of the PS3. This is the game that’s intended to usher in the “HD Era,” the marquee title for the new system. This is the game everyone's looking at to set the tone for the PS3. Of course, it's not at all fair to lay this heavy a trip on a single game— but fair or not, Resistance is the first-party game Sony's pushing the hardest for launch, and that means it has a great deal to live up to. Now the ques- tion is: Can it bear the weight of all these heavy expectations? The answer is a reasonably solid “yes.” But before | go into detail, let me tell you what Resistance isn't. It's not the greatest first-person shooter ever devised, nor is it a revolutionary leap forward in technol- ogy. Its graphics won't make your brain explode, nor will they make you think you're living in the fourth dimension. What Resistance is, though, is a really excellent, story-driven FPS. It's a marked step forward in the genre, bringing together elements from some of the best shooters on the market, infusing them with t nit ps3 m ОО Өх С TANCO FAU OF MaN EPIC, ATMOSPHERIC, AND ENTERTAINING | очо Sony CEA рем. Insomniac esro M Msrp $59.99 i$ lookin e tone Юг ear Те ‘these heavy Insomniac's insane ability to craft unconventional weapons, and wrap- ping them up in a beautifully presented package. From previous coverage of the game, you may think Resistance looks like а World War II shooter. Seeing other screens, you may think it looks like a sci-fi horror game in the vein of Half-Life or Doom 3. You'd be right on both counts. The game takes large-scale, cinematic action that's reminiscent of epic band-of-brothers WWII shooters and fuses it with claustrophobic, edge-of-your-seat horror segments where it's just you and whatever horrible thing lurks around the next corner. And both elements work really well. One of the most impressive things about Resistance is the very topmost level design. I'm talking about basic pacing, balance, sound design—that sort of thing. These elements all mesh to draw you inexo- rably into the game. Here's an example: l'm working my way through the streets of Manchester, England with a group of my fellow soldiers. We're slowly advancing on a fairly well-entrenched company of Chi- OQM.1UP.COM 111 & 5 ë mim 70 mera. We move from cover to cover, popping out and taking potshots at any goon foolish enough to show his face. As we move on, the enemy forces grow more and more dense, until the air is thick with bullets fly- ing from both sides. It's a madhouse, but we keep relatively cool; a few comrades go down, but our losses aren't too high. Gradually, we clean out the area...and it goes quiet. Too quiet. Suddenly, there are no bullets flying, no explosions, not even any stirring martial music playing in the background. It's just our footfalls and the distant sound of pigeons. We know there are more Chi- mera hiding out somewhere, but we have no idea where. So we move into a narrow street, checking windows and doorways as we go. The tension grows. A house sits open to the elements; | dash in with a fresh clip, expecting to find a raging Chimera kegger going on inside...but it's silent, save for the creak of floorboards. Back out on the street, we advance slowly, ever more slowly, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. We hear the sounds of a deserted city, but nothing else. After a few more moments, | start to relax, figur- ing we've passed the worst of it. We're just nearing the end of a deserted street when all hell breaks loose. Chimera jump out from behind abandoned cars and open up full bore on our squad. | literally jump, open up with machine-gun fire, just spraying wildly in the Chimera's general direction; all my squadmates do the same. It's pandemonium, I've lost track of which way we were heading, and all I'm thinking is that I've got just one bar of health left and nowhere to hide to recharge it if | get nailed. Picture the scene in Aliens where Vasquez finally loses her s*** and just opens the throttle of that waist-slung machine gun all the way, screaming and swiveling. It's kind of like that. When the dust settles, | take stock of our kills: two. There were only two Chimera hiding on this street. But | was so high-strung from the emptiness before that the encounter was as threatening as if I'd faced а whole squad. This effect wouldn't have worked if all the elements hadn't come together just right. But the combination of the long, empty pause, the effectively minimalist (almost Kubrick-like] sound design, and the depleted health from the previous firefight made this extremely minor encounter into one of the more memorable moments in the game for me. That fine sense of high design extends into level structure as well. All of the settings in Resistance—11 separate areas divided into about 30 chapters—exhibit impressive variety; you move from tightly enclosed spaces to wide-open fields of battle and back again. And while the levels are actually fairly linear, clever design tricks make them feel extremely open. At the end оға deserted street, all hell breaks loose. And that openness is a good thing, since it gives you a nice, broad arena in which to make the most of the game's really exceptional weapon lineup. As | mentioned previously, we learned from the Ratchet games that Insomniac can whip up some truly odd weapons, and they make good use of this ability here. It's toned down a bit, to be sure—you won't find any black-hole launchers here—but it's clear the developers were thinking outside the box. Take, for example, the Bullseye. This snazzy little number lets you ODM.1UP.COM 113 гемеми м reviews Хе Жар | Resistance's multiplayer send out a “tag’ that future bullets will all home in on. Guy around the corner getting you down? Pop out, tag him, and then duck back behind cover and let loose a stream of homing bullets to finish him off. Or there's the Arc Charger, which links enemies in a sizzling jolt of shared electricity: Zap one guy, and when you hit someone next to him, he takes additional damage. Ог the Hailstorm, featuring ricocheting bullets [that actually increase in power after bouncing off surfaces) and alternate fire that creates a whirling turret of doom. That openness is а good Thing. Even traditional weapons get unusual treatment here. The sniper rifle in Resistance boasts an interesting feature, for example: When looking through the scope, you can slow down time to let you get the perfect head shot. And the rockets for the rocket launcher feature an innovative air brake: Squeeze the alt-fire button and the rocket slows to a stop, allowing you to guide it by hand after launching. You can even have it tag along behind you like a faithful retriever. A retriever that explodes. You know, whatever. With a generous amount of variety in setting and tone, Resistance does a nice job of keeping things moving; the 12 or so hours it took me to finish the game on medium difficulty seemed to fly by. And those 12 hours are just the beginning; there are significant reasons to play again. First, the game includes four weapons and one grenade that can only be accessed on your second playthrough. Second, the higher difficulties offer a legitimately new challenge in the form of more enemies (often placed in areas that were quite safe the first time through) rather than just more difficult ones. And finally, there's delivers hot 40-way action WEAPONS OF MASS DISI ACTION Each of the weapons in Resistance has at least two different abilities, allowing for fairly advanced tactics, especially in multiplayer. In addition to these fire- arms, the game includes four different grenades (one of which is unlocked only in the second playthrough), from the basic frag grenade to the devastating air fuel grenade, which emits a cloud of flammable gas and then ignites it. stopping power. „МЭ AUGER „УЭ. MSA2 FOLSOM CARBINE у: 9 се head-sho' action. Primary: Your basic medium-range machine gun. More accurate at a dis- tance than most other weapons in the game. Alternate: Grenade launcher. Provides endlessly entertaining examples of the game's modified rag-doll physics. of time. „XZ L209 LAARK Primary: Launches rockets. Alternate: Pressure-sensitive air brake for rockets. rimary: Shorter-range energy-slug machine gun. Alternate: Sends out "tags," which suc- cessive primary-fire shots will home in оп. Alternate 2: Tag ап inanimate object to create a swarm of shots, which can be detonated by holding down the alt- fire button. Multiplayer feature: If another player tags you, you can dislodge the tag by shaking the controller. from an air-braked rocket. „МЭ SAPPER rimary: shots. NS HAILSTORM Primary: BUE each successive carom. Primary: Well, it's a shotgun. no way in hell you'll get the whole story your first time through. And that leads me to Resistance's most significant flaw. While the alternate-history backstory provides exceptionally fertile ground for both the setting and the story, the story itself ends up feeling surpris- ingly thin. It's told in an unusual style, and it certainly goes beyond the FPS standard [which is, basically, no story at all), but it fails to expand far beyond the fairly traditional alien-invasion or viral-infection trope. There are sig- nificant reasons to play again. Here's the interesting thing, though: While playing straight through gives you this somewhat thin story and surprisingly weak ending, Insomniac allows players to flesh out the story in unusual ways. For one thing, scattered throughout every level are intelligence docu- ments—primarily journals of the recently departed—that occasionally offer hints for upcoming segments, but more often deliver tantalizing glimpses into a broader story, a story that seems to extend far beyond what the main story line delivers. Beyond this, though, is the game's website, which features an extensive timeline of events leading up to the game. And furthermore, the game itself will offer clues that can be used to explore the website more thoroughly. It's an interesting experi- ment, employing an element of the alternate-reality game (like the / Love Bees ARG designed to promote Halo 2] to make sense of the main story of the дате itself. Alternate: Two shells at once for beast- Primary: Shoots powerful energy bolts through obstructions like walls and floors. Alternate: Creates a temporary energy shield in the environment. Alternate: Slows down time temporarily. Multiplayer feature: No slowing down Alternate 2: Fires homing minirockets hoots organic mines that Stick to enemies or the environment. Alternate: Detonates targeted sapper ires high-powered, ricochet- ing bullets that increase in power with Alternate: Discharges the remainder of the current clip, creating an autotar- geting, hovering turret. Unlocked in second playthrough only. Primary: Fires right-hand pistol. \ ays MSA2 FOLSOM Қ BULLSEYE Alternate: Fires left-hand pistol. If you fire at one enemy and then move the target, one pistol will stay trained on the first enemy, allowing for dual targeting. № AU in second playthrough only. Primary: Shoots bolt of electricity. Alternate: Tags enemies; successive shots will jolt tagged enemies in vicinity. \\> L23 FAREYE SNIPER RIFLE Multiplayer feature: If another player tags you, you can dislodge the tag by shaking the controller. “Unlocked in second playthrough only © = NV SAPPER Primary: Flamethrower. Throws flame. Alternate: Charges up huge blast of flame that sticks to the environment like napalm. „МЭ. SPLITTER, (NOT PICTURED) Unlocked in second playthrough only. Primary: Shoots out rockets en masse. = Hold down button to direct fire pattern. Alternate: Splits shots into a station- ary wall of mini-rockets, which can be (Ys L11-2 DRAGON maneuvered into enemies. It's nice to see developers thinking outside the box a bit, but | couldn't help feeling like it would have been better to have a satisfying story in the game and then more stuff to find in addition to that, rather than having to do detective work to fill in fundamental holes in the plot. Perhaps l'm lazy. This is a fairly minor gripe, though...as are most of my other gripes. For example, | found the humanoid Chimera hybrids—by far the most numerous enemy in the game—to be a little too similar; while there's a nice variety in enemy types overall, more often than not you're encoun- tering minor variations of the same type, which can get a small bit monotonous. | also found a couple of the weapons to be significantly less useful than the others, but of course that could just my particular playing style. Another complaint is that, while the дате features an extensive competitive online component [for details, see the Unfriendly Competi- tion sidebar on the left]], co-op play is splitscreen only. The designers insist that co-op is more fun in person, but for those of us who do most of our multiplayer gaming online, the lack of online co-op feels like a significant omission. To me, though, these are minor quibbles. The bottom line is that Resistance is a truly excellent FPS, rich in variety, atmosphere, and sheer entertainment. With a launch game this good, | can only imagine what untapped power lurks in the PS3's innards. | Joe Rybicki VERDICT A supremely competent shooter that excels at top-level design. A few minor flaws hurt the overall score, but not much. ODM.1UP.COM 115 reviews ps2 y № reviews eed for Speed Carbon Fighting for familiar territory | Quo. Electronic Arts Dev. ER Black Box еѕго Е10+ мего $39.99 Need for Speed continues its Fast and the Furi- ous-inspired ways with yet another game full of hardcore pretty-boy racers, way too much neon lighting, and cars that have been so tricked out you'd have to look up the VIN to figure out what the heck you're driving half the time Carbon is actually the first story-based Need for Speed sequel. Here, your character returns to the city he ran from in Most Wanted, tries to right the horrible wrongs he apparently committed, win back the smoking-hot woman he left behind, and rule the streets. Yawn Carbon is just like Most Wanted in most ways. Roam around the city looking for races—or tan- gling with the local five-o—to earn cash, pimp your ride, and take back the streets. Carbon runs on a turf-based system rather than last year's Black List of bosses. Win races in each area of the city in order to rule that particular turf. Take over one of the four main quadrants and an opposing gang leader will challenge you to a can- yon duel, the other main focus of Carbon Canyon racing is made up of two events. In the first, you have to chase your opponent down a twisting mountain road, earning points by stay- ing as close to them as possible and not sliding [8 OPM December off any of the dangerous drops around the curve. In the second event, your opponent takes points back by doing the same to you. It sounds very dramatic on paper, but it's actually very boring in its execution. Otherwise, we've got almost all the great race modes from the previous games here and a few of the not-so-great ones. Drifting still sucks, with a unique physics model that just isn't any fun to play. And the excellent drag-racing event of previ- ous games has been excised this time around But everything else is fast and fun, and thankfully, you can get through the game without completing every single event on the map. The other major improvement is the use of wingmen during races. Take a blocker, scout, or drafter into an event with you to tip the odds in your favor. Except that more times than not, these guys will randomly brake-check you in an attempt to make sure you stay out front and win each race. Again, it's a very cool idea in theory that doesn't really work out when you're out on the virtual blacktop. Visually, Carbon delivers. The city looks great las long as you like darkened skies and lots of streaking neon lights], the cars look even better, and the new autosculpt option lets you custom- ize your ride like never before. Now, when you bolt on certain parts, you can actually mess with their various design aspects. Make the grille a bit larger, flare the skirt a bit more, make that scoop in the hood obscenely huge. It's a really nice feature that makes your car truly your own. It's just too bad you can't get online and show off your design talent The same excellent game of years past is still there somewhere under all these new features, so Carbon is generally a good time. It desperately needs some sort of online mode and a more satisfying free-roam mode that actually rewards exploration a bit more. But still, it's a solid racer despite the problems. Another solid game, but the whole NFS Underground vibe is starting to lose its luster. score 75" One area where PlayStation 2 gamers are being robbed is in the online arena. More specifically: Carbon doesn't have one. The multiplayer modes EA's been crowing about for months now are not included in the current- gen game, instead being confined strictly to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. = uwu.destroyalfhumansgame.com Crude Humor Sexual Themes www.thg.com Strong Language d. Violence www.esrb.org | 22006 THO int. Ait Right Reserved. Developed by Pandemi egistered trademarks of Pandemic Studios, LLC and ate reproduced und a only, THO, Destroy Al A 0 Humans and their respective logos are trademarks andlor regione “Family logo ane registered trodermarks ol Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Mi Xbox and tha Xbox logas 3 " y A arê ether registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Col ë co топ Maro An other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. € vo Е № reviews d тінін: Mephistopheles, | choose you! | Quo. Atlus Dev. Atlus OK, if the title Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Sum- moner wasn't already wacky enough, the sub- title (which was too long for us to print above] is Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army. In a franchise that's had pixies fighting alongside Hindu deities or player characters that need to eat other characters, it takes something pretty darn special to say, "Yeah, this is the weird one of the bunch." It's not just the setting, which is "Taisho period Japan" [aka the 1920s], or the storyline lyou play a "devil summoner" detective who's investigating a mysterious and zany kidnap- ping]. In fact, it's the gameplay structure that earns this one its crazy distinction. In terms of gameplay, the last three SMT titles for the PS2 were pretty straightforward RPGs: SMT: Nocturne was a rnassive dungeon crawler with a crazy postapocalypse/Paradise Lost story, and the two Digital Devil Saga games were normal plot-driven RPGs stapled to abnormal tales of creation and hunger. What Devil Summoner has done is not only have a more lighthearted storyline, but it's broken away from the tradi- tional RPG formula and has instead created an adventure game with action-based combat and RPG mechanics. There's no more turn-based combat, although the frequent random encounters are E OPM December Still present. Instead, the combat feels a bit like Devil May Cry on superwimp difficulty. You control Raidou as he runs around the field, and can alternate between swords and guns (which have interchangeable bullets). Besides some basic combos, Raidou's other method of damaging baddies comes from summon- ing demons. After summoning, you can then issue basic orders, but otherwise, your little buddy acts on his own when it comes to cast- ing spells learned through either combat or fusion [ап SMT mechanic where you combine two demons in a lab in order to produce a more powerful one]. Like in previous SMTs, you'll want to exploit weaknesses in enemies, both in what bullets you use and the spells your demon casts. In addition, when an enemy demon is weak enough, you can walk up to it and try to capture it in a tube (a kind of precur- sor to the Ghostbusters' proton packs). Once you've captured a demon, you can use him both in and out of combat (different demons have different abilities to help with certain puzzles] and build up your demon's loyalty to both ensure better combat performance and that he'll let you perform a demon fusion. Combat is fairly frequent, but in those 10 to 15 seconds in between battles, you're doing things that you'd find in an adventure game, like talking to people, delivering things, or fig- uring out minor puzzles to help people reach their own goals. There is a pretty solid adven- ture title for fans of the genre buried under- neath all the combat. While the rest of the SMT franchise is nigh impenetrable for anyone except hardcore RPG players, Devil Summoner provides a quirky entry point for gamers wondering what the fuss is all about. Experienced veterans might be a bit miffed at the reuse of enemies from previous titles and the sudden drop in difficulty. One can find fault in that each subgenre within Devil Summoner (action, RPG, adventure] is a bit weak and simple, but when combined, they all make Devil Summoner one of the more unique and all-around good titles out in a mar- ket filled with too many typical RPGs, action or not. A somewhat schizo- phrenic game that can't decide between adventure, action, or RPG, but still a good entry for SMT newbies. Grigori "Mad Monk" Rasputin shows up asa villain in both SMT: Devil Summoner and Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Apparently, when it takes a poisoning, several gunshots, and a drowning to kill you, that makes you a tough enough dude to be a cool villain to the Japanese. — Survive the first 10 hours for a great reward! | Quo. Namco Bandai Dev. Namco Bandai esro T Msrp $29.99 Tales of the Abyss starts off as a carbon copy of every RPG ever made. Whether you've played a Tales game or any Japanese-flavored RPG before, the sword-wielding noble child, his streetwise friend who isn't allowed in the pal- ace, and wise-but-suspicious mentor who is a master swordsman will only be the first of a long series of suspiciously familiar stereotypes. Seven years prior to the game's beginning, your character [the redheaded noble child) was kidnapped so hard that he got amnesia. That ultimate cliché is really a good thing, though: It's actually a symbol of everything that Abyss does right. The game takes trite RPG stan- dards, makes you sit through about the first 10 hours hating yourself for buying another game with a cute girl who can control monsters and a mysterious prophecy (called "the Score," fahgawdssakes], and then starts the payoff: an amazingly told and utterly fantastic story. It's almost impossible not to write off the bratty, metrosexual, amnesiac main character at the beginning. He's a bratty, metrosexual amnesiac! But then he calls the other charac- ters on their casual murders of enemy soldiers during a routine combat. His amnesia turns out to be more than just a lazy backstory. He's actually an amazing character study on loneli- 5 s ness, power, and what it means to grow up. Every stereotype is there to sucker you into dismissing the various characters, so when their stories starts to unfold, they hit you like a blindside from an IED-packed Hummer. PlayStation. If Tales were a novel, then this score would sh =k [| inrecrron , probably be much higher. A boring soundtrack complements graphics that barely look fine. The real-time, control-one-party-member combat is still too frenzied to allow for real tactics. Pick this one up for the story, not framerates or tactics, and you'll be in for a great trip warm orach came Repeat History Solid Eastern roleplaying with a great cast of characters Cookie-cutter gameplay and medio- cre looks, the world map's framerate Й не 323 8ғ 78. ЖӨЖ нғ 424 _в 80 -hack//G.U. Vol. 1//Rebirth | очо. Namco Bandai Dev.Namco Bandai его т мего $39.99 The .hack games are meant to feature players in an online game emoting to each other, so the cut-scenes should come off as a bit unpro- fessional—that's how people sound in MMOs. But do you really want to listen to people whine online when you're not actually online? With the release of the first volume of .hack//G.U., you once again have the chance to play a game about a character playing a character in a game. If you have experience in the massively multiplayer games, the characterizations of people in this one (The World] will hit uncannily close to home. Player killers, people who think PKing is wrong, extensive message-board threads with idiots debating both sides...the whole thing achieves a level of eeriness and immersion that the original .hack series tried for but never quite reached. Extensive out-of- game options like newscasts and forums are swamped with information to peruse. If you haven't played an MMO, the whole experience is like going to a zoo and being able to see the wild MMO animals without running the risk of being devoured. Foremost among the animals is your character, Haseo, the archetype of an irritating, rash, rude pro- tagonist...but, like he asks an exceptionally kind character, “Are you like this in real life, or is it just your character?” Taking a step out Crumple Tree — HP 450 of The World, the “real” Haseo you play can be charming and sweet in e-mails and greetings to in-game rivals. The combat is still simplistic, but choices like team-based super attacks, plenty of cool skills, and your Chosen One special powers mix it up. But really, this is the biggest disap- pointment with the new series—combat is just OK. It's improved, but it's still not great The interface for the out-of-The World operating system you use is amazing, though Hyperstylish, surreal character designs and equipment compliment the silvery-slick OS. But the real draw here is the weirdness of playing a character playing a character inter- acting with people—who are just PS2 data— playing characters in a game. It’s too bad com- bat wasn't given even more improvement, but this is a solid restart for .hack PROS CONS .1UP.COM 119 гемеми ps2 y `, reviews Classes Attended: Successful Dodgeball Hits: Distance Traveled on Lawnmower: Mascot Dances Attempted: Firecrackers in Toilets: Rubber Bands Collected: Successful Lock Picks: Stink-Bomb Accuracy: Times Kicked in the Nuts: ы // » Spud Gun Fired: Kisses Received: Escaped From Authority Figures: Bully School for scoundrels | OUD. Rockstar Games СОТ MSE $3999 Dev. Rockstar Vancouver Beloved as the СТА games are, | have a hard time getting excited about playing them, mostly because they're just so damn huge. It's daunting to start up a game and know that it will take at least 20 hours before you've made any sort of dent in the story. Which is why | found Bully so refresh- ing: It takes that same GTA structure but gives it a fresh setting and story that's focused to a much more manageable size. As the game begins, main character Jimmy Hopkins is being shipped off to his seventh boarding school by his serial marrier of a mother. The main story revolves around Jimmy's interac- tions with the various cliques at the school—the nerds, the jocks, the bullies, the preppies, the townies, and the greasers. Jimmy himself isn't too interested in allying with one group ог another; his primary concern is looking out for himself, so throughout the game, his status with the various groups is constantly changing. Get on a group's bad side, and when you enter their stomping grounds, they'll gang up on you, mak- ing it a lot more difficult to complete a task. And that's actually one of the things | found disap- pointing about the game—it had been implied that your choices in the game would affect your status with the various groups. As far as | could EJ OPM December tell, however, Jimmy's status was only affected by the story missions [which have predetermined outcomes] rather than random fights or favors you might do outside the story arc. It would've been nice to be able to choose to be "bad" or "good." In addition to the main story items, you ve also got your responsibilities as a student to fulfill; if you're skipping out on a scheduled activity or out after curfew, authority figures will hunt you down on sight. There are benefits to going to class, though; for example, once you've aced your chemistry class, you'll be able to replenish your firecracker, stink bomb, and itching powder stashes with the use of the set in your room. And as always in Rockstar games, there are tons of side quests: You can hunt for the various col- lectibles in the game, do odd jobs for money, perform tasks for random denizens, compete in races, play arcade machines, visit the car- nival—and on and on. It's always fun to look at the stats page, which tracks all sorts of random information about what you've done, and in some cases, gives you an idea of some of the things you can try out One of my favorite things about the game is. the dialogue, which is incredibly well written and funny; in fact, the writers' ability to include juve- nile remarks that are disguised social commen- tary reminds me a lot of South Park. You can even get insights into some of the influences on this game if you listen closely enough—l was running past a bystander and heard Вит say, "Stay gold, Ponyboy!" And all of the dialogue is strengthened by the excellent voice acting. Bully stirred up a lot of commotion before its release, but in my opinion, the controversy was incredibly misplaced. Yeah, you're misbehaving, but | can tell you as a former ninth-grade teacher that what goes on at most kids' real-life schools is worse than most of what you do in this game. No one at this school—students or teachers—is perfect, but even the characters that are parodic representatives of their social groups have their sympathetic side—much as you might find in real life. An excellent antidote for the bored of education. Score 910 A NATION DIVIDED Md ci HE INTENSITY, CARNAGE anp CHAOS or THE WAR THAT DIVIDED A NATION! Tm h i я IVILWAR CIVIL 7 ESRB CONTENT RATING. www.esth.org ACTIVISION. activision.com (92006 Activision Publishing, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. and its affiliates. The History Channel and the 'H' logo are registered trademarks of ASE Television Networks. Published and distributed by Activision Publishing, Inc. and its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. PC CD-ROM logo TM & (c) IEMA 2003. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox Live logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. reviews PSE y № reviews Desiroy All Humans 2: Маке War Not Love Anal Probes R Us | очо. THD Dev. Pandemic Studios esro Т мер $39.99 Developer Pandemic has this free-roaming war-game thing down to a science. What with games like Mercenaries and Star Wars Battle- front on the résumé, it's easy to assume that Destroy All Humans 2 is gonna be just as solid as either of those two titles. And it is, mostly. ^ lot of the stuff folks found annoying in the first Destroy All Humans has been fixed. Main alien Crypto's flying saucer, for instance, was almost an afterthought in the first game— something you messed around with just to kill time. Now it's an integral part of the game; not only is it required to complete certain missions (blow up gas-filled balloons over Bay City), but it's the only way to abduct humans for the sake of gene splicing and earning new abilities. Vets of the first game will notice slight overhauls like that all over the place. Unlike the first game, Destroy All Humans 2 doesn't hold the player's hand so much. Sure, the towering purple "objective" lights still guide you to your next goal, but you're not constantly bombarded with tip windows and insultingly easy tasks to complete Crypto can interact with just about every- thing, right down to possessing the hairless [3 OPM December monkeys of Earth and using them to gain valu- able information on the whereabouts of his next target, or taking the heat off when, say, the National Guard's been called out to exter- minate his alien ass. Not that you'll want to avoid combat alto- gether. DAH2 features a nice set of great weap- ons, all of which can be upgraded to some degree. You'll find yourself wreaking havoc on the local populace just to see what each of your new toys actually does, be it probing their nether-regions or just disintegrating them, Mars Attacks!—style. Actually, it's the game's tongue-in-cheek humor that will keep most people interested long after the various fetch-questing mission and weapons begin to get stale. The great voice acting and hilarious dialogue [a nice mix of commie-crazy McCarthyism and hippie weirdness] is worth getting to the next cinema scene. Just as long as it doesn't bug you that, at its core, just about everything in Destroy All Humans 2 is one big dick joke Issues still abound, though. As mentioned before, the missions can get a bit repetitive. You'll go through a lot of "find this, now this, and then bring this here" type of mission structure right off the bat. Side missions don't offer much reprieve either. And, while the main characters themselves look great, the various levels suffer from a lot of pop-up and very basic-looking nonplayer models. Where ПАН2 shines in its musical and vocal presentation, it shows real chinks in the armor on the graphical side of things. But as the PlayStation 2's days as the console of choice wind to an end, Destroy All Humans 2 is one of the more worthwhile action games you'll find on the system. It's definitely worth playing, but it could have been better with more mission variety and more powerful hardware. However, we won't be surprised to see THQ clone Crypto once again on the PS3 A step up from the original game with lots of room for improvement. The jokes still make the game. score 7119 Crypto's full name is actually Cryptosporidium 138. In the real world, Cryptosporidium parvum is the name of a single- cell parasite that can be transmitted through contaminated food and water, and generally causes diarrhea. Yeah, we just thought you'd like to know that. — — ONE OF THE TOP FIVE GAME-DEGREE PROGRAMS — Electronic Gaming Monthly ААА. Justice League Heroes Zap! Ka-Pow! Fizzle... By the final levels of Justice League Heroes, your team Combat is pretty routine but mostly satisfying. Some of muscle-bound do-gooders will feel appropriately of that satisfaction comes courtesy of game environ- über. Superman is a punishing brute with devastating ments packed with destructible, interactive objects. heat vision, Zatanna is a fireball-spewing jugger- It's a lot of fun to watch your enemies bust open a fire naut with awesome healing powers, Green Lantern hydrant as they're knocked back from a mighty blow. а Real World Education. is blasting vicious plasma bolts and creating brutal It's even more fun to pick up an armored car and beat ant green sledgehammers, and the Flash...well, hes them over the head with it. still a complete w: . It doesn't help that the battle- You won't get to pick your team members for mis- impotent speedster looks excruciatingly constipated sions until you're halfway through the game, and that School of in every cut-scene. Good luck offloading that stack of just sucks. Thankfully, a decent dose of roleplaying cinderblocks, Speedy. keeps you engaged in the game when it actively tries The path that you travel to get to that sense of to drive you away. Not only can you level up char: School of late-gan uperpoweredness is about as linear and ters’ individual powers, you can also slot “boosts” into by-the-book as they come. That doesn't mean it's them to pump up their damage, extend their range, bad—it's just not inspired. Dynamic duos of Justice and so on. League members bash their way through a series My suggestion: Get the most from this game by of levels packed with evil robots, evil gorillas, evil playing with your own superfriends. Like everything clon il interdimensional five-eyed mushroom from vivisection to white-collar crime, it's just more men, and evil other stuff. Moral ambiguity is nota big fun with a buddy. | Robert Coffey feature here. Neither, for that matter, is big drama The henchmen-level enemies are pretty uninspired and the bosses—the so-called supervillains—are VERDICT 3300 University Boulevard pretty limp as well. Who the hell is the Key and why Winter Park, FL 32792 should | care? Brainiac and another big name make an appearance, but it'd be nice to dig up some otl 6 5 10 Financial aid available to those who qualify big DC universe high profilers to give this Gauntlet-in- Career development assistance andex some more flavor. Accredited College, ACCSCT ireviews ps Painfully good | QUO, Redüctane/Rctivision Dev. Harmonix esr Т Msro $49.99 (579.99 with controller) Improving on one of the greatest games ever is no easy feat. But Guitar Hero Il manages the job with apparent ease, tweaking the basic gameplay, refining the interface, and adding some seriously rawking new features. The most significant change is to two-player co-op. Rather than simply alternating pas- sages in two-player mode, the game now adds a fully fleshed-out second section—either bass or rhythm guitar—to each song. This makes an astonishing difference when playing with a friend; the experience now feels less like a game and more like a band. To make the most of this new setup, the developers make some really interesting choices for the song list. Yes, you've got your classic rock, your nu metal, and your grunge, but there are also a few bass-heavy songs obviously chosen for the two-player glory. The most challenging of these are, without a doubt, Primus’ “John the Fisherman” and Rush's “YYZ.” They may seem а little odd in single-player, when you're just play- ing lead guitar (sadly, there's no single-player bass or rhythm except in the practice mode— more on that later], but as soon as you fire up the bass parts, you know why they're there. As for the rest of the list? It is—dare | say?— finer even than that of the first game. Just taking three examples: Foo Fighters’ "Monkey Wrench" is simply a stellar example of chord-heavy play, while the Stones’ "Can't You Hear Me Knocking” hits all the right blues notes, and Lamb of God's "Laid to Rest” provides the totally freakin’ metal finger workouts. But don't think these three songs repre- sent the whole spectrum of tunes here; in fact, the lineup is almost startlingly diverse, including surf rock, hair metal, and even light alterna-pop cour- tesy of Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend." Just as important as the strong soundtrack is the fact that almost all of these songs are sim- ply a blast to play. And, unlike in the first game, they're not just a blast on hard or expert difficulty; this time around, there are far more occasions to feel the rush of playing a really difficult passage, even when what you're actually playing isn't that tough. l'm sure that part of the improvement is that hammer-ons and pull-offs—by far the tough- est sections of the first game—are much more forgiving here. That's not to say that the game as a whole is more forgiving, however. Now the higher levels are really, really, really tough. When playing on expert—and even some of the later songs on hard—your hand will be in pain. You will be weep- ing like a little girl. You will cry for your mother. Do not be ashamed; you will not be alone But you won't be weeping forever, since the game now includes an extraordinarily robust practice mode that lets you play any section of any unlocked song without fear of busting out. You can even slow down the speed to nail those really tough segments. In case you haven't gotten the point by now, Guitar Hero Il rocks. It rocks hard. It bests the original in nearly every way, and that's a damn hard thing to do. VERDICT Two of these way, way up: \m/ 10 10 If you ever felt cheated in the first Guitar Hero's face-off mode-you know, where the other guy got all the easy passages- you'll be pleased to know that you can unlock "pro face-off" mode in Guitar Hero ІІ. In this mode, both players play the exact same lines. Also, don't overlook multiplayer in general; you can unlock things in two-player that you can't in career mode. — 7 OPM December THE TRACK LIST "Shout at the Devil" - Métley Crüe "Mother" - Danzig "Surrender" - Cheap Trick "Woman" - Wolfmother "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" - Spinal Tapt "Strutter" - KISS! "Heart-Shaped Box" - Nirvana "Message in a Bottle" - The Police "You Really Got Me" - Van Halen "Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas "Monkey Wrench" - Foo Fighters "Them Bones" - Alice in Chains "Search and Destroy" - Iggy Pop and the Stooges "Tattooed Love Boys" - The Pretenders “War Pigs" - Black Sabbath "Cherry Pie" - Warrant “Who Was in My Room Last Night?“ - Butthole Surferst rlfriend" - Matthew Sweet "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" - The Rolling Stonest "Sweet Child O' Mine" - Guns N' Roses "Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine "John the Fisherman" - Primus* "Freya" - The Sword "Bad Reputation" - Thin Lizzy "Last Child" - Aerosmith "Crazy on You" - Heart "Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart" - Stone Temple Pilots "Rock This Town" - Stray Cats "Jessica" - The Allman Brothers Bandf "Stop" - Jane's Addiction* "Madhouse" - Anthrax "Carry Me Home" - The Living End "Laid to Rest" - Lamb of Godt "Psychobilly Freakout" - Reverend Horton Heat "YYZ" - Rush "Beast and the Harlot" - Avenged Sevenfold "Institutionalized" - Suicidal Tendencies "Miserlou" - Dick Dale "Hangar 18" - Megadeth “Freebird” - Lynyrd Skynyrdt Guitar Mania Freedom V Wireless Guitar Controller Manuraccurer The Ant Commandos Msoo $5499 "Raw Dog" - The Last Vegas* "Arterial Black" - Drist*t "Collide" - Anarchy Club* "Elephant Bones" - That Handsome Devil* "Fall of Pangea" - Valient Thorr* "FTK" - Vagiant* "Gemini" - Brian Kahanek*t "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" - Bang Camaro* "Laughtrack" - The Acro-Brats*t "Less Talk More Rokk" - Freezepop*t "Jordan" - Buckethead* "Mr. Fix-It" - The Amazing Crowns* "The New Black" - Every Time | Die* "One for the Road" - Breaking Wheel* "Parasite" - The Neighborhoods* "Radium Eyes" - Count Zero* "Red Lottery" - Megasus* "Six" - All That Remains* "Soy Bomb" - Honest Bob and the Factory-to- Dealer Incentives*t "The Light That Blinds" - Shadows Fall* "Thunderhorse" - Dethklok* "Trogdor" - Strong Bad** "X-Stream" - Voivod* "Yes We Can" - Made in Mexico* When you're at the store picking up your copy of Guitar Hero Il, you might see these wireless controllers sitting there on the shelves. And you may wonder if they're worth picking up over the $40 SG controller made by RedOctane. The answer: Uh, maybe. On the plus side, well..i's wireless. Wireless is good. Wireless makes for easier (or at least safer) jumps, kicks, and splits. And the Guitar Mania's brand of wireless seems utterly lag-free; | was able to pull off the lead run in Dick Dale's "Miserlou" from a distance of about 20 feet. Also in the plus column is the fact that the fret buttons have а smaller area of travel, making it a tad easier to pull off intricate ham- mer-ons and ры ной$, and also helping to reduce папа fatigue. But the button construction also makes chord changes a little more difficult; | found my fingers had a tendency to catch on the buttons since they stick out a bit more on the neck. And that's not the only ques- tionable design decision: The Start button, for example, is pretty much exactly where you're likely to rest the heel of your picking hand. | also found the tili-sensor to be extremely sensitive; more than once | set off the Star Power just by hitting the whammy bar a little too hard. Another problem is that the original (blue) version of this guitar does not appear to work with Guitar Hero Il at all. So be careful you grab the right one. Those gripes aside, though, it's a wireless Guitar Hero controller that works as advertised. And that's definitely a good thing. Get 'em before the RedOctane lawsuit drives 'em off shelves. 719 OOM.1UP.COM 125 revews ps2 4 № reviews | Quo, Midway Dev. Midway esro M Msro $49.99 Mortal Kombat is like that dog you've had for something like 15 years. He's old, he has hip problems, he has trouble seeing, and couldn't hear a shotgun blast even if it was two feet away, but you don't put him out of his misery because you just don't want to let go. You're in denial that the dog has any sort of problems because you're scared of what life would be without him. You remember all of the good times, like the first day he came home and all of the crazy habits he's developed as a result of being a part of your fam- ily. You're too afraid to even consider the notion of putting him to sleep, but at some point you realize that his misery outweighs your selfish desire to keep him alive and that the deed must be done. It's time for Mortal Kombat to go. And Armageddon is the final ailment that will push you over the edge to end your relation- ship with the series. The fighting mechanics are clunky and outdated to the point where the game almost feels unplayable, or at least, very ama- teurish. It's almost like Armageddon's ипгереп- tant thirst to display as much gore as possible has totally overridden any desire to make a fun fighting game. Granted, the gore is probably the only reason why anyone under the age of 15 will give Mortal Kombat a shot while fighting aficio- nados will look on in horror—not at the guts and blood spraying about the screen but at how flat- out terrible the game looks Actually, in some ways, it seems that even the development team feels similarly about the state of Mortal Kombat—to the point that they wanted to include a half-assed kart-racing mode featuring super-deformed versions of popular characters. Then there's the Konquest mode, seemingly Mortal Kombat's answer to God of War, but with awesome Dreamcast-quality graphics and gameplay mechanics from 1998. To be fair, the Konquest mode is actually more fun than any other part of the game. But there's no reason you subject yourself to either form of torture regard- less. Konquest mode was fun at first, online play, 50 characters Everything else стаг È E OPM December Live doesn't live up to 2K7 | Quo. EA Sports рем. ER Canada esro Е msrp $39.99 For ages NBA Live has been the arcadey basket- ball alternative for those who weren't able to excel at NBA 2K's masterful simulation. But this year EA slapped handcuffs on gamers trying to shoot over 50 percent from the field. The game defaults to the All-Star skill level, so even if you work your tail off to get open shots, it won't matter—you ll still clang the rim more times than not. It's the height of frustration. You could, of course, drop down a skill level, but then your shooting will go from anemic to sensational, which is equally not fun The shooting issues will have you forgetting any attempt at 15-footers and instead focusing on either long-range bombs or shots from the paint While you'll be lucky to sink 25 percent from out- side the arc, there's a dedicated dunk and layup button to help you in the lane. But while it's nice to know you can attempt a dunk with a button press, many times you won't be in perfect position so you'll end up tossing up a lazy layup that will ride the rim before slipping off To aid the missed shots and flubbed dunks, the superstar mode—the game's gimmick/sav- ing grace— gives elite players access to special moves to make them unstoppable. Which is your only chance against the CPU as it plays lockdown defense, but shimmies past you without too much effort. However, while dunkers and sharpshooters earn their paychecks, the passing element doesn't fool defenders and is just for show. Players won't slide around anymore— unless they're taking a charge Shooting is tough, dedicated dunk but- ton needs tweaks, $10 more than 2K7 5110 The Iceman During the 2002- 2003 season, the NBA compared current stars to past greats. NBA Live 07 cover athlete Tracy McGrady drew comparisons to finger-roll maestro George "The Iceman" бегут. Get Out the Vote In one of the more bizarre pairings we've seen, the WWE's Smackdown Your Vote campaign featured conversations with Senate majority leader Bill Frist and RAW wrestler Val Venis. Uh, OK. AKA WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 | QUO. THQ Dev. Vuke's езго T Msrp $49.99 | can barely believe it. For the first time in | can't remember how long, the yearly WWE game is actually fun to play! And it's all thanks to a much-needed control overhaul of the franchise Button mashing isn't completely a thing of the past, unfortunately. If you happen to be on the losing end of a severe beatdown, you'll still find yourself jamming on the controller until your fingers are bleeding, willing your wussy super- star back up on his or her feet. But in general, controlling the action in the squared circle is now all about timing, location, and strategy. Well, the first two, anyway. Along with standard and strong grapples with which to set up any number of moves [all done with the right analog stick, thank you very much], players also have the freedom of special moves and location-specific attacks that they can control directly via various stick waggling. Pull your adversary over to the ropes and throw him on for a bit of nad bouncin’, or drag him to the turnbuckle and nail him with however many face- crunchin' punches you like. It's all so easy to do, and it's so satisfying. And it's all fully reversible, too, if you can get the timing down SmackDown vs. Raw still has some issues, of course. Most of those have to do with brain- dead tag-team partners and the inability to interrupt hold and grapple moves as the third man-they're the same issues that have plagued this series for years now. But it finally seems as though developer Yuke's is serious about fixing this franchise, and it's got the most important step out of the way. | actually feel like I'm controlling the action in the ring now, and | have so many interesting ways of beating the crap out of my opponents. Hopefully, the last of the major issues will be corrected in next year's iteration. But until then, SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 is a decent way to pass the time Holla! 3 e "EU AN ZEE. ] va B www.guitarherogame.com ACTIVISION. HARMONIX TW N ATE ESRB CONTENT RATING — www.esrb.org Guitar Hero II ™ & © 2006 RedOctane, Inc. RedOctane® is a registered trademark of RedOctane, Inc. and Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. Game code © 2005-2006 Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. Developed by Harrmonix Music Systems. Protected by US Patent No. 6,429,863; patents pending. Gibson, S.G.# and the shapes and design elements of the SG Controller and the guitars are trademarks of Gibson Guitar Corp. under license by RedOctane, Inc. “PlayStation 7” 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 other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective омм ners. Ali rights reserved. 7 P Га) P TI АК (es "M RUDY killed himsel Liberamon Something to play when riding through the danger zone | Quo. Sony CEA Dev Guerilla Games eso M msrp $39.99 Remember when we all got excited that PSP games could look a lot like PS2 games? Yeah, so did |, until | realized that meant that most PSP titles are just ports of PS2 games—ports with different control schemes. Killzone: Lib- eration is rather, er, “liberating” because it's an original stand-alone title that embraces the PSP's control layout (юг the most part] Killzone: Liberation accomplishes this with a simple twist: shifting the game from first- person perspective to third-person isometric perspective. By making the whole game top- down, Liberation manages to maintain the feel and pacing of the FPS original [i.e., lots of shooting, shouting, and grenading—with the added bonus of occasional driving], but without the whole "Er, how do we move and aim with only one analog nub?" problem. The nub moves you around, and you simply aim in whichever direction you're facing, with the Square button being your actual trigger finger (the R button is used to crouch behind cover]. The other noteworthy control mechanism is rl OPM December that the D-pad is used to issue commands to your buddy [you occasionally team up with either Rico or Luger, returning characters from the first game). Surprisingly, the buddy Al isn't totally idiotic; comrades follow orders, do an OK job of fighting, and rarely get in your way or trigger traps. While the controls are pretty solid, they aren't perfect. It's still a bit tricky to hit your opponents; while you're swinging around trying to get a bead on the baddie, he has a pretty easy time hitting you with his rocket (which artificially ramps up the difficulty at times]. To be fair, there's a bit of autoaiming; if your gun is aimed reasonably close to the target, you might hit it. But it's kind of weird to have a lock on for objects, but not one for people—l would've gladly given up the strafe command [L button] for a target lock However, such a concern pretty much goes away once you play multiplayer. For one, the campaign is fully co-op, meaning you can go through the whole дате with a real buddy. Having a real pal alongside to shoot the crap out of Helghast soldiers takes the bite out of their uncanny accuracy. While the single-player game has a few faults (the scarcity of ammo, artificial dif- ficulty via enemies that can kill you in two hits while you need to hit them 22 times, escort missions, goofy "challenge" minigames], the multiplayer helps elevate the overall game into a pretty well-rounded product; one might be able to consider this a showcase title for the PSP. UBERATION DAY A pretty good single-player is boosted by nice multiplayer options to make a pretty PSP package. The Goggles! Probably the most striking visual in Killzone is the eerie red glow of the Helghast's goggles. Said glow is now an indication of enemy awareness; yellow eyes mean they're blissfully unaware, orange means they're suspicious, and red means they know you're out there. — PUNB y X OVER 1 60/ALU МЕМ LEVELS Ж- NEW,WIRELESS MULTIPLAYER MODES №. UNLOCK 'HIDDEN LABS 8 PARTY,GAMES 3} TUTORIAL MODE'AND PLAY GROUND) Ж- DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT, x Ж. GAME SHARE |" " * ©2006 Ignition Entertainment Ltd. All rights reserved. a. PlayStationi. PS” Family logo and PSP are registered trademarks Of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Internet ی‎ end Memory Stick DuotIM) may be required (sold separately). reviews oso № reviews Death, Jr. 2: Root of Evil Death warmed over I don't think Гуе ever played a game more almost likable than the original Death, Jr. Bridging the gap between Saturday-morning cartoon and Saturday-night horror flick, the game had a tantalizingly hip look. Under the hood, however, it lacked substance, marred by sloppy execution and a reliance on fart jokes. Like the skull-headed adolescent of the game's title, Root of Evil is awkward, almost grown-up, and, still, almost likable. Once again combining the aerial acrobatics of a platformer with the weapons cache of a shooter, Death, Jr. 2 is easily more playable than the original. A new control scheme makes shootouts more manageable [and actually fun, in proper doses]. But it suffers from the same stoner hodgepodge of aimless, seemingly unrelated levels, strung together by a few silly cut-scenes of plot. This time, DJ's soul-reaping pop has been kidnapped by a perky cheerleader who wants nothing more than to be evil. The only way to get dad back is to blast your way across barnyards, shopping malls, and, uh...the World of Waffles restaurant, before finally destroying the cursed, evil Mrs. Perfect with—you guessed it—toxic flatulence. Sigh... Silly throwaway story aside, DJ2's greatest flaw is its ham-fisted, kill-kill-kill pace. There are a few attempts at puzzles and plenty of hopping around, but nonstop firefights wear thin. Adding to the problem, DJ2 ties unlocking new weapons to finding hidden items. This may have been an attempt to create Something to do besides slaughter the game's cast of freak-show enemies, but the levels aren't built for exploration. In unlocking extra weapons, you'll be putzing around the levels long after the bullets are spent Death, Jr. 2 works best during its demented side shows, such as when DJ dodges evil waffle irons while Louie the Llama, head chef at the World of Waffles, babbles bat-s*** crazy non sequiturs like, "Babies taste better with syrup." It's a psychotic, disjointed, almost lovable mess. | Robert Ashley VERDICT Death, Jr. 2 is a solid if sophomoric attempt to fill the hole in the hole in your heart where a mindless shooter should be. я OPM December Couples Skate If you happen to have a friend with a copy of Death, Jr. 2, you сап share the love/ hate in the game's. new co-op mode. It's a buddy-buddy version of the main game, though one of you gets to play as future Suicide Girl Pandora. Don't tell her dad. Top Guns? Republican former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham pled guilty to tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, and mail and wire fraud. Of course, he was also a decorated Navy pilot, a real-life Top Gun graduate. Takes all kinds! Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception A relaxing dive into mediocrity There’s nothing wrong with the Ace Combat series that a few good drastic changes can't cure. Although it has yet to reach the self- indulgent money-cow status of Dynasty War- riors, it's hard to play Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception without feeling like Namco sort of phoned this one in, counting on the novelty of flying a plane on the PSP to carry played-out gameplay. The story is a functional tale set in a brand-new world full of real, almost real, and utterly unbelievable aircraft locked into spirals of murder with each other. In this setting, you play as an ace set to defend and liberate his home country of Aurelia from Leasath. Leas- ath conquered your home country, but as you fight for liberation a predicable deception will reveal itself. In the skies. And not to hammer home the point too deeply, but it's all about that predictable. It's not bad, but the whole experience is so deeply familiar that it's hard to muster excitement for the new PSP features. Being able to tune your unlocked planes with the unlocked parts is cool, and certainly, it's nice to be able to fiddle with the "Strategic Al,” but all of that really comes to one more hangar screen and replaying missions to make sure you kill enemies in the “win” order, not the "let the ground troops out of containment and they wipe you from the sky" order. The controls themselves are probably the only surprise, being quite passable. It would be a tremen- dous improvement if the PSP had that darned second analog stick, if only to open up some more command options, but Namco did a decent job of making the nub and button set feel like enough. But then Namco shipped it with ad hoc only wireless support. The whole thing amounts to "meh."| Patrick Joynt PROS Jets are pretty fun, aren't they? CONS More of the same from the Ace Com- bat series Gitaroo Man Lives! Before there were heroes, there was a man You might have heard of Gitaroo Man before. The game originally appeared on the Play- Station 2 in early 2002 and received a warm reception, though a limited print run made it difficult to find shortly after its release. The PSP version is essentially the same game, but it has a few new multiplayer options, includ- ing a duet mode where two separate players combine their skills on a single song. It's not really that big of an addition, but features and modes aren't the things that give Gitaroo Man its charm to begin with. More simply, it's the combination of the premise, the soundtrack, and the straightforward mechanics that make it so much fun to play. Gitaroo Man can best be described as a Dance Dance Revolution-type game, but instead of just pressing buttons at the appropriate time (уси will be doing that to defend against enemy attacks], you also have to use the analog stick to trace a line that mimics the pitch of the guitar while pressing and holding a button to mimic strumming. It's no Guitar Hero, to be sure, but it's only a matter of time before you really get into it and feel the same kind of rush. And the fact that the soundtrack features a couple of different genres of music—ranging from rock to J-pop—only makes it that much more enjoyable Unfortunately, it all ends too quickly. Gitaroo Man Lives! is a pretty challenging game, and it make take you a few tries to get through some levels, but after everything starts clicking, you'll likely blow through it in a single afternoon. Still, it has enough charm to keep some people coming back for more even after completing it, but most will prob- ably put Gitaroo Man down after that, wishing for more PROS Great soundtrack and gameplay mechanics CONS Too short, needs more multiplayer modes 2^ A |. = Ü р Е SPIKE DECEMBER 13 SPIKETV.COM GET MORE ACTION ісемеуу5 oso 4 № reviews EA's new title mixes innovation and antiquity | Guo. ER Games Dev. ER Canada esro Т MS $39.99 Even though many gamers have grown deeply weary of putting down the Axis, having the experience available on the go and specifically crafted for the portable format makes Medal of Honor Heroes a triumph. As one of three familiar soldiers frorn previous MOH games, you march across Europe, committing feats of derring-do in order to stop the German threat. Wide-open vistas, beautiful Italian villas, and somber ruins of churches provide some of the backdrops for your missions. In short, Heroes perfectly captures the unique, fun vibe of the Medal of Honor classics. Crucially, EA hasn't just shoved some МОН levels onto a UMD and shipped it. Missions might drag into the quarter-hour mark, and the more difficult areas might require a few tries, but those are the highest-end time commitments. The developers clearly expended considerable energy making sure that missions were satisfying to complete but also short enough to play through on a commuter's schedule. If your concerns are more on shooting than story, a customizable Skirmish mode will let you vanquish bloodthirsty (if not particularly intelligent) bots to your heart's delight. In a fit of brilliance, the developers included almost any control scheme you ІН ООМ December can think of—using the face buttons to turn and the analog nub to move worked for me, but it's easy to customize a layout that compliments your play style. Optional aiming and strafing assists finish up the job of making a first-person shooter not just playable but viscerally fun with the PSP's analog nub. Eight-player ad-hoc wireless is a higher bar than most PSP developers manage to reach, but EA also tacks on 32-player infrastructure play with Medal of Honor Heroes. That's a tremendous number to have running smoothly in any game, but for a PSP title, it’s spectacular. Using skins unlocked during the single-player game, you can jump into an active match to either kill some time or get really involved in the online scene, depending on your ambitions. Although some maps seem a bit crowded [in a full game, two players occasionally can spawn right on top of each other, for example], the game's online mode has raised the bar for portable multiplayer. Gremlins got into the engine, though, with soldiers occasionally running up to a wall to get to an enemy, hitting the wall, and running about halfway inside it, from which they start shooting and throwing grenades. Some other graphical issues show up as well, which casts an amateur-hour shadow on the whole game. And while your ultra-aggressive squadmates will cover you, they only do so if they're nearby—they don't really take orders or maintain unit cohesion. Despite some ugly flaws, however, Medal of Honor Heroes manages to fulfill the PSP's promise of delivering a console-level experience in a portable medium. Taking classic characters from the Medal of Honor series, Heroes creates the same sense of individual valor and, well, heroism that the MOH games have always focused on. Like Liberty City Stories and Tekken: Dark Resurrection, Heroes stands as proof that, with the right developer, the PSP is capable of creating unprecedented portable gaming opportunities. VERDICT WWII is the same as it ever was, but the PSP has another champion. The techni- cal issues should've been fixed, though. FRONT SIGHT BAYONET ‘STUD INDER FRONT: kl GUARD. STACKING Let Me Reload! Sure, it goes against most common sense. But it is physically possible to reload an M1 Garand's "en bloc" clip when it's partially discharged-pop it out and put a new one in. So why is it impossible in virtually every WWII game in existence, including this one? Free the M1 Garand! Let me reload! vl ШҮН ДШ J STRATEGIC Kalle for 7 the first imed Experience intense Metal Slug action on the Nintendo Wii™ system, PSP" (PlayStation® Portable) system, and PlayStation"2 computer entertainment system. www.snkplaymoreusa com © SNK PLAYMORE “METAL SLUG" is a registered trademark of SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION. “PlayStation”, “PS” Family logo and "PSP" ore registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick Duo" may be required (sold separately) TM and the Wii logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. revews oso , “а reviews €— B conto Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 Koei issues another notice of mediocre mastery Koei De a Force When a new Dynasty Warriors ships on a home console, technical stillness and placid- ity are expected. The home systems' technical limits have been about as reached as they're going to get for the ol’ Warriors. However, to see technical issues that plagued the first PSP Dynasty Warriors game still present in Vol. 2 (more than a year later] is absurd. On top of that, a virtually unchanged feature list is a lovely bit of insult in addition to the injury of unresolved grotesque technical problems. The gameplay's signature issue is camera problems, which the PSP's lack of a second Stick aggravates. The camera is still a wild beast in the musou, free, and multiplayer modes, leaving enemies free to snipe at you from offstage or to launch game-end- ing, unblockable combo chains from an area where they can't be seen. Enemies still seem- ingly have access to teleportation technology, as they'll appear onscreen, vanish, and then reappear where they were, or behind you, or any other place they choose, all while the PSP struggles to draw them in. And, if anything, this problem is worse in Vol. 2 than it was in the first game. On the plus side, there is a drastic reduc- tion in slowdown, but in terms of cheap deaths it's six of one or a half dozen of another. Another positive is that the branch- ing story tracks that musou mode now offers bring welcome depth, and there is some local wireless play, as ad hoc lets up to four players trade minions from their sequel-expanded officer list and battle in a few modes. Game sharing or true wireless would have made this a real feature in a better sequel but, with so little added and key technical issues unad- dressed, this is just another half-done part of a half-done game. With a full year since the original and no major changes to implement, this should have been great. Instead, it's just more Dynasty Warriors. | Patrick Joynt THE TRUTH It's possible to change up a series and keep true to it. This makes Madden's worst look innovative and fresh. Т OPM December Other Powerful Sharon Stone, actress Rolling Stones, band Joss Stone, singer Matt Stone, South Park guru Sly Stone & Family, band Stone Phillips, newscaster Damn Dirty Neutrals! Each cycle of Dynasty Warriors is even less risk-taking or imaginative than any given iteration of Madden. Just once а cycle, say every Xtreme Legends, Koei should do some- thing different and risky with potential payoffs...like fun. Now...lo...ading | очо. Capcom Dev. Capcom esro T мгр 529.99 There was no finer example of how controls can make or break a game than the Dream- cast versions of Power Stone and its sequel. The fact that they were so simple but incred- ibly responsive made both games a total blast to play, so you can imagine how slightly worse controls would negatively impact the PSP ver- sions of these games. They both feel just a little bit sluggish, which may or may not be an inherent design flaw in the PSP hardware. But it just seems like you can't move around with the same kind of precision. Still, it's not like they're totally unplayable— both games are still pretty enjoyable right from the get-go. In fact, when you actually get them going, they make for perfect pick-up- and-play games. Most of that has to do with the simple fighting mechanics where you can pull off special moves with a button press or two. Less of it has to do with the original Power Stone's small arenas, which make for fast-paced multiplayer or single-player battles. The sequel's boost in environmental interaction does the same, but the bigger arenas tend to detract a little more from the 1-on-1 action by placing more emphasis on collecting items scattered about—it's not quite as much fun. Though, in both cases, playing against human opponents is always much more fun than playing against the Al, which will take more than a few cheap shots at you to get your precious stones. However, all of this only applies if you can withstand the entire collection's terrible, terrible, terrible load times. Actually, they're So bad that they almost totally negate the pick-up-and-play aspects of the game or even the fast-paced nature of the fights—in fact, in some cases, the loading time lasts longer than the fights. But if you can get through that, you'll find fun beat-em-ups that serve as a testament to the greatness of simplicity in games. | Giancarlo Varanini PROS Great graphics, controls a bit sluggish but still good PROS Long loading time and occasionally cheap А! Guilty Gear Judgment Fighting for 2D in a 3D world | euo. Majesco Dev. Al ems Works еѕго T мгр $39.99 Guilty Gear Judgment is the kind of game that makes you say, “You can take your polygons and teraflops and cram them in the unhappy zone!” In fact, seeing how great the game looks will only make you wish that there were more 2D games like this on the PSP and that are just as much fun. Don't be fooled by the packaging, though. While Judgment could seemingly be billed as two games in one, it’s more like a game with an extra full-fledged mode added on The main game is still Guilty Gear X2, which is arguably one of the best games in the Guilty Gear series. Its frantic gameplay and easily executable combinations are perfect for those who aren't totally skilled at fighting games. In other words, button mashers won't have a hard time getting a few wins here and there At the same time, the more skilled players can learn some of the better, over-the-top, epilepsy-inducing moves and combinations that make X2 so much fun The other "mode" in Judgment is essen- tially a Final Fight-style beat-em-up that lets you use all of the moves for each character in the main game. It definitely feels like a much more polished version of a similar mode found in Guilty Gear Isuka, mainly because you no longer have to jump in between different planes of combat. That made the previous mode such a chore to play, but the revised version makes Judgment and its hordes of enemies [and gorgeous environments] more fun. The only downside is that when you lose all of your lives you start at the very begin- ning of the game, but you do get to access new characters you have encountered while playing through this mode. Plus, it gives you a chance for some two-player cooperative action. Really, it doesn't get much better than this for 2D fighting fans. | Giancarlo Varanini PROS Great visuals and audio, controls are simple and easy to use, includes Guilty Gear х CONSA little button masher-friendly, по continues in Judgment mode THE MAKERS OF TAG BODY SPRAY WILL NOT BE HELD LIABLE SHOULD YOUR HOT SECOND COUSIN TWICE REMOVED WANT YOUR MILK AND COOKIES BEFORE DINNER IS EVEN SERVED. Р № reviews ОМЕС | ouo.. 03 esro T MSO If you read the name of the game and thought “sounds like a pretty stupid gimmick,” congrat- ulations: You're right. The latest game to jump on the bandwagon of nonsensical and cheap- looking minigame collections, WTF: Work Time Fun subjects you to such thrilling tasks as chopping wood (“Lumberjack”), working at a pen factory ('Pendemonium"], and accurately counting the number of people that walk onto the screen ("Traffic Counter”). Excited yet? “Wassup! These are today's jobs! Now go work like a dog!" These words—often barked at you by a big pile of talking red slime as you choose from among WTF's assorted minigames—nicely sum up the whole experi- Қ) ence. Contrary to the fast-paced chaos present > in most games of this type (notably Nintendo's WarioWare series), WTF almost feels too struc- tured, as it forces you to repeat the same chore over and over [...and over...and over...) until you eventually either mess up or get bored enough to stop. In particular, the aforementioned Pen- demonium game—where you literally just hit a button to put caps on pens, while occasionally hitting a second button to adjust a misaligned pen—comes about as close as possible to a handheld sweatshop simulator. And, much like a real sweatshop, WTF provides little incentive to keep you going Decent performance gets you a meager amount of money to spend at one of several vending machines, which spit out additional minigames, numerous other strange applica- tions (including a ramen timer, for all you poor college students out there], and entirely useless tchotchkes. You periodically receive in-game e-mail from other "employees," who mostly just complain about their jobs or offer up other bits of completely random conversa- tion, but this—and the routinely small payoffs— makes for some pretty diminishing returns. At worst, you can force your friends to share in your misery via WTF's multiplayer option (accessible from the aptly named Hell Cantina], though all this offers is the same damn assortment of utterly dull minigames. WTF, indeed. | Ryan Scott | euo. Пасто E esro 10+ Msro No, this isn't a game about firearms and money. Instead, it's the latest puzzle game from Q Entertainment. Company head Tetsuya Mizuguchi has never made any secret about his love of music and music videos, and it's always been very apparent that his passion influences the design of his games. His latest title, Gunpey, is no exception. Like Every Extend Extra, Gunpey is actually a remake of an existing game [it was originally a title for the WonderSwan, a Japan-only hand- held console released by Bandai]. The screen is divided into five columns that are each split into a series of vertical cells, and the screen gradually slides up, revealing line segments. Your goal is to connect complete lines across all five cells, without letting any line segments hit the top of the screen; lines that use more Segments give you a higher point total It's a simple concept, and much like Lumines, it works addictively well. After a few sessions, you'll see the lines marching across your eyelids when you're trying to sleep at night. The backgrounds and music are, for the most part, excellent—but every once in a while, there will be contrast issues. Oh, and | could definitely have done without the background of the dog defecating. Yes, you read that correctly. Outside of the main challenge mode are a number of other variations— 10x10, which doubles the width of the grid; quick timed ses- Sions, where you try and get as high a score as possible in 60, 90, or 120 seconds; and single- skin mode. The most interesting is double skin, where you're actually playing two separate games simultaneously, switching back and forth between the grids in an attempt to hang on as long as possible. The weakest part of the game is multi- player; there's only two-player ad hoc available, and that only has one versus mode that doesn't even allow you to see how the other person is doing. But despite that flaw, Gunpey still makes line creation a whole lot more fun than art class ever did. | Dana Jongewaard VERDICT Too much "W" and "T" but not enough ^F." VERDICT Playing the Pey is A-OK. 811 Іп Memoriam Gunpei Yokoi was most famous for creating the original Nintendo Game Boy back in 19889. After he was killed in a car accident in 1997, the decision was made to name the first title for the WonderSwan system (which Yokoi helped develop) in his memory. Lumines 11 Second verse, almost identical to the first First things first: Though this game may have а "II" in the title, it is in no way a full-fledged sequel. In fact, it’s almost not even a Lumines 1.5. The basic gameplay and multiplayer are exactly the same as they were before. So what's different? The most obvious change is the (mostly) new music and new Skins. Theoretically, that's a nice touch, but l'm not a fan of the mainstream music that has crept into the mix. The nice thing about house tunes is that you can hear them over and over for quite a while before they become repetitious—they're much more background appropriate. I'd already heard plenty of the Black Eyed Peas’ “Pump It” before | ever booted up this game, though, and having the video playing in the background is completely distracting—my focus kept drifting on all of the video-backed levels. The extra technical load of a moving background also means that some- times there's an annoying little skip between stage transitions that can prevent you from positioning a piece correctly. However, once you've unlocked a good vari- ety of skins, you can avoid the ones you dislike by building your own set list, which you can set to play through once or loop endlessly. You can also try your hand at creating your own background music by tweaking four available tracks through tempo adjustment and playing with a mixing board. It's not terribly deep, but it provides another level of customization My favorite addition is the mission mode. Unlike the puzzle options of the first game [which show up again here], these missions are much more straightforward—for example, clear the screen before five minutes is up, or delete eight blocks of squares in one sweep of the timeline. Most of thern are pretty simple, but it's a nice break from the challenge mode. If you didn't buy the first game and you like more mainstream music, then this might not be a bad choice for you. But people who already own Lumines should spend their money on Gunpey instead. | Dana Jongewaard VERDICT Too much the same to shell out another $30. IF THERE'S ONE THING YOU LEARN WHEN YOU ARE А KID... IT’S TO NEVER GO INTO THE FOREST... FIGHT THROUGH A WORLD OF SCIENCE PROJECTS GONE WRONG WITH CONTROL BOTH DJ MARE. uem du L аж е. EM pup cel A Wen | Mor of [у тесин Б NINTENDO DS ADVENTURE IAVATIABIIE Уо n SYSTEM FIND OUT MORE AT: 7 WWW.DEATHJR.COM BACKBONE €—— і Visit www.esrb.org for % мімтемос г) F насы 4 updated rating information. Y © 4 м гемемѕ Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey Super-serious, not super-fun The good news with this film is that old-school viewers of the Superman series can now offi- cially pretend that the silly Superman ЇЇ and the unspeakable Superman IV don't exist; this flick slices off that continuity and splices on another, apparently talking place five years after the events of Superman II. Call it Superman II.V. The other good news is that, really, this film looks amazing. Those kids with their computers sure make spe- cial effects look fine. And the film has a nice-look- ing cast, too: Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth strike me as a little young for Superman and Lois Lane—Lois would have had to have been an ace reporter at about age 14 and knocked up right out of high school for it to track—but what the hell, it's Hollywood. The bad news, which isn't really bad but just kind of deflating, is that this film isn't a whole lot of fun; not nearly as much fun as the two films it wants to be in continuity with. Those films had the benefit of the light touch of director Richard Don- ner [the second film is officially credited to Rich- ard Lester, who also has a light touch, but much of it was filmed by Donner], who could both film "3 OPM December action and crack a nice joke. This time around, we've got Bryan Singer. He's is a fine director, but the dude ain't exactly a ray of sunshine; prior to this he was helming the X-Men series, the most dour superhero films ever. Singer's dourness doesn't sink Superman—he's not that depressing—but it does mute the film; not even Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor gives this film the injection of levity it needs to go from being entirely respectable to being, well, super. But Singer's planning another Superman in 2009, | hear. This one is good enough to hope that the next one will be even better. ' LN б. р = Cars Owen Wilson, Paul Newman It says something about the level of expec- tation with Pixar that this flick could bring in $240 million and be the second most popular film of the year [to date] and people still think it's a bit of a disappointment. It's not—it's bright and funny and fun with eye- popping visual design and excellent casting. Is it a home run, like The Incredibles or Toy Story? No. But it's a solid triple. For God's Sake, let's have some perspective. Score 7.5 |" The Da Vinci Code Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou The problem here is that, really, The Da Vinci Code is silly beach reading, trashy fun disguised as brain food because the hero's from Harvard and it's about Jesus, and this movie adaptation treats it like a lost book of the Bible. It's all so painfully serious that you want to make fart noises with your hands just to lighten things up. I’m a fan of Hanks and of director Ron Howard, but, guys, try a comedy next time, hey? Score 6|" Ice Age: The Meltdown Ray Romano, Denis Leary Harmless but entirely unnecessary sequel to Ice Age, in which the world is warm- ing up, which serves as an excuse for the characters to walk around and have adven- tures just like they did in the first film. I'm personally looking forward to Ice Age III: The Tar Pit, in which they all stay in one place and slowly sink. But maybe I'm just a bas- tard that мау. But it does have Queen Latifah as a lady mammoth. Works for me. Soe 6|" An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore Yeah, yeah, | know. One mention of Al Gore, and suddenly half of you get all foamy that he hasn't been waterboarded for treason. Don't be a moron, OK? It's possible that someone who doesn't share your politics might have something compelling to say. Gore has compelling things to say about global warming, and the film itself is well put together and interesting. You don't have to vote for the guy, just listen to him score 7.5 |" Little Man Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans Why haven't the Wayans been Guantanamo- ed for their crimes against all things good? Can we not speak to God and arrange a trade, wherein we get back Richard Pryor in exchange for the entire Wayans family driv- ing their limos off the Ventura Highway and vanishing into а spontaneously appearing fissure in the Earth? Is it too much to ask for? After watching this appalling film, I tell you it is not 2 [" score Brian O'Halloran, Rosario Dawson director, which is one-trick pony iting about filth urated New Je about them be like them, it tak one of them, him a bunch of bitchin ands nd digression and avoidance to the fr ornplaint, b fore he can k Stop to the gin' point. rom their beloved world of fast f front the fact they’ re thirty but in thi mockin Strangers With Candy Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert If ever a movie was meant to be released on YouTube, this would be it. This film, in which a fortysomething former drug addict goes back to high school as a student, doesn't hang together very well as a full cinematic experience, but as a repository of 30-to-90-second chunks of uncomfort- able comedy that hold up well streamed in a Flash-based player. This is a gold mine, baby. And look, Stephen Colbert! score You, Me and Dupree Owen Wilson, Matt Dillon The Man Who Came to Dinner for the idiot set, which, if you can catch the reference, you're not in. Congratulations. Having said that, this film, while basically dim, is not uncongenial, and that’s mostly due to Owen Wilson's personal stoner charm. It's hard not to just give him a pass, which is, of course, the sentiment his character's sup- posed to arouse, too. To that respect, well done, filmmakers. Well done indeed e 33 ODM.1UP.COM 139 Vote for the best games т these categories: 2006 Game of the Year Action Adventure Fighting Harciware Innovation Onlime/Multiplayer Racing RPG Shooter - Sports { 2 1UP Strategy NETWORK Revving up the PlayStation wayback machine What we can learn from Past Sony launches | Д | You may be familiar with most of the songs in Guitar Него II, but here's a few classics that might be new to you Pauley Perette of NCIS fame talks about the PlayStation character who keeps her up at night. ОРМ лиР.СОМ 141 d iA Гел ду SONY'S PAST SYSTEM DEBUTS OFFER FOOD FOR THOUGHT BSS The PlayStation 3 is a favorite target of pundits and detrac- tors who'd love to see Sony get some sort of comeuppance in exchange for 10 years of peerless success, and the system's launch lineup is one of their favorite talking points. "There's no killer app," they sneer, "and more and more games keep getting delayed." But if history teaches us anything, it's that Sony thinks about the long term. Its console launches have always chal- lenged the conventional wisdom of what a system's debut should be...and in the end, Sony still comes out ahead. Still, the costly and powerful PS3 is a risky proposition, even for a company with a practically perfect hardware b. track record. Has Sony heeded the lessons of the past? by Jeremy Parish Battle Arena Toshinden The Raiden Project Kileak playstation September 9, 1995 Battle Arena Toshinden Sony CEA Vi ESPN Extreme Games SonyCEA и Kileak: The DNA Imperative Sony CEA и МВА Jam Tournament Edition Acclaim и Power Serve 3D Tennis Ocean Vi The Raiden Project Sony CEA и. Ваутап Ubisoft Vi Ridge Racer Namco и Street Fighter: The Movie Capcom и Total Eclipse Turbo Crystal Dynamics Twisted Metal Sony CEA и Warhawk Sony CEA Vi OUG CO LAUNCH в LAUNCH | SYSTEM SPECS 4 Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.25 x LA 2 inches Weight: 2.8 pounds 1/0: Controller (2), Memory Card (2), AV Out (composite video), Paral- lel Port, Serial Port Debut Price: $299 Akiller app is nice, but it’s even better to cover all your bases. Before the PlayStation came along, the prevailing belief was that a launch was useless without a single killer app. Nintendo was the primary beneficiary of that nugget of wisdom, dutifully trotting out an amazing new Mario game with each generation of hardware But things changed when Sony launched the PlayStation. There wasn't a single title that stood out as a world-shaker on day one— though the nearly arcade-perfect Ridge Racer came close—but what Sony did offer was variety. The competing Nintendo 64 launched with a paltry two games, and those who didn't like Mario or flight sims were out of luck. Yet almost anyone could walk into a store in November 1995 and find a PlayStation garne that appealed to them, be they arcade fans, fighting game fans, FPS fans, platformer fans, racing fans, or sports fans. The message was clear: The PlayStation was a system for everyone. (And it had pretty amazing graphics, too.] And everyone flocked to the System developers, publishers, and gamers alike. There is no lack of day-one variety in the PS3's launch titles. So, assuming you can actually find a system, there's almost certainly a game that will suit your tastes. From brisk action [Genji] to platforming [Sonic] to sports [Madden] to shooters (Resistance), the PS3 covers its bases and then some. However, Nintendo's Wii, which launches two days after the PS3, could be a small spoiler for the event. Although Nintendo's still relying on the “killer-app” strategy—the Wii launches with the much-delayed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in tow—the company is, for the first time ever, releasing a system with a broad range of games. Arguably broader than Sony's, in fact, since Nintendo's new favorite market is the ultra-casual gamer... demographic that will be under- represented on the PS3 at launch. On the other hand, the PS3 offers a graphical leap that's an order of magnitude above what the Wii rep- resents, so it's still likely to be the hardcore gamer's console of choice this November. ODM.1UP.COM 143 Irepo LAUNCH SYSTEM SPECS Dimensions: 118 x 7.2 x 30 inches Weight: 5.3 pounds 1/0: Controller (2), magic Gate Memory Card (2), FireWire, Ethernet, Optical Audio Out, AV Out (compo- nent/composite/S-Video), PCMCIA slot Debut Price: $299 playstation 2 The Launch October 26, 2000 The Lineup Armored Core 2 Agetec • OPM Score: 6 [10 Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore Tecmo • OPM Score: 9 [10 Dynasty Warriors 2 Koei ОРМ Score: 8 |10 ESPN International Track & Field Konami • OPM Score: 6 [10 ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding Konami = OPM Score: 6 [10 Eternal Ring Agetec + OPM Score: 4|10 Evergrace Agetec • OPM Score: 4 [10 FantaVision Sony CEA • OPM Score 8 [10 Gungriffon Blaze Working Designs * OPM Score: 7 [10 Kessen Koei * OPM Score: 6 [10 Madden NFL 2001 EA Sports + OPM Score: 9 |10 Midnight Club: Street Racing Rockstar • OPM Score: B |10 MotoGP Namco • OPM Score: 8 [10 NHL 2001 EA Sports • OPM Score: 8 |10 Orphen: Scion of Sorcery Activision « OPM Score: 3|10 Q-Ball: Billiards Master Take 2 • ОРМ Score: 7 |10 Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 Midway • OPM Score 8 |10 Ridge Racer V Namco « OPM Score: 9 |10 Silent Scope Konami « OPM Score: 6 [10 Smuggler's Run Rockstar • ОРМ Score: 9 |10 SSX EA Sports Big • OPM Score: 10110 Street Fighter EX3 Capcom • OPM Score: 7 |10 Summoner THO + OPM Score: 6 [10 Swing Away Golf EA Sports + OPM Score: 6 |10 Tekken TAG Tournament Namco + OPM Score 9 10 TimeSplitters Eidos • OPM Score: 10 [10 Unreal Tournament. Infogrames + OPM Score 5 [10 Wild Wild Racing Interplay + OPM Score: 6 |10 X-Squad EA Games • OPM Score: 7 |10 | The Lesson Don’t get carried away. And deliver on your promises. The PS2 launch was like the PlayStation launch, but amplified to ridiculous proportions. With more than two dozen games available on day one, Sony actually went too far—few games enjoyed truly excellent sales due to the absolute glut of choices. This was compounded by the hardware shortages that plagued the system for the first six months of its life; games that might have sold well under normal circumstances languished because few gamers actually had a system The lack of a truly standout title was a drawback as well. While the PlayStation capably proved that a killer app isn’t absolutely necessary, in the PS2's case, it meant that nothing truly stood apart in a sea of medi- ocre titles. It was a serious letdown after all the company's hype: Here was the system that was supposed to change the world, that supposedly represented a massive leap over everything that had come before...but the software was lame. Besides SSX and Dynasty Warriors 2, the bulk of the PS2's launch lineup left gamers with an empty feeling of, “Is this all there is?” | How Does the PS3 Stack Up? Unfortunately, the PS3 may be poised to make the same mistakes. Hardware shortages are a given this time, yet more than 20 titles are on tap for day one. Which brings up the question: Who's going to buy them? Chances are, not Sony fans. Much of what's available this fall for the PS3 is multiplatform content...so even if the PS3 version looks better than the Xbox 360 version—which isn't actually a given—plenty of gam- ers who can't connive a system for themselves won't be going away from the store empty-handed. Instead, they'll be taking home the Xbox 360 version. The PS2's launch succeeded despite the odds thanks to hype [sheer anticipation caused gamers to shun the Dreamcast, not realizing it was almost as powerful as Sony's console] and timing [it arrived a year before the GameCube and the more powerful Xbox]. The PS3 doesn't have these factors on its side...which should make for an interesting holiday season OPM December OUC TO LAUNCH в 1 X-Squad 2 Smuggler's Run 3 Evergrace x9 HUINI HP ODM.1UP.COM 145 м герлу LAUNC SYSTEM SPECS Dimensions: 6.7 x .9 x 2.9 inches Weight: 9.2 ounces 1/0: Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, Mem- oru Stick PRO Duo, IrDA, IR Remote (SIRCS) Debut Price: $249 H playstation portable The Launch March 24, 2005 The Lineup Ape Escape: Dn the Loose Sony CEA + OPM Score: 6110 ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails Sony CEA + ОРМ Score: 6|10 Darkstalkers Chronicles: The Chaos Tower Capcom + OPM Score: 6110 Dynasty Warriors Koei • OPM Score: 6|10 Gretzky NHL Sony CEA • OPM Score: 7 [10 Lumines Ubisoft • ОРМ Score: 8|10 Metal Gear Acid Konami • OPM Score: 8|10 MLB Sony СЕА + OPM Score: 7110 NBA Sony CEA - OPM Score: S|10 Need for Speed Underground: Rivals. EA Games - OPM Score: 7|10 NFL Street 2 Unleashed EA Sports Big • OPM Score: 6|10 Ridge Racer Namco • OPM Score: 9|10 Tiger Woods PGA Tour EA Sports • OPM Score: 810 Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix Activision • ОРМ Score: 8110 Twisted Metal: Head-On Sony CEA • OPM Score: 8|10 Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade Sony Online Ent. • OPM Score: 6|10 Wipeout Pure Sony CEA = OPM Score: B [10 World Tour Soccer Sony CEA + ОРМ Score 6|10 | The Lesson The race is a marathon—don't burn out in the first stretch. With the PSP, Sony hit the perfect balance of variety, minimalism, and quality. The system had a little of everything, but not too much; the software looked and played great; and there was even a killer app in the form of Lumines (although most people didn't realize it). Other hardware makers can only dream of calling this sort of lineup their own. The problem with the PSP was that Sony played its hand on day one. After the console's March launch, there wasn't much of anything for gamers to look forward to. The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto: Lib- erty City Stories was more than half a year away, but what little software became available in the interim was lacking in both quantity and quality. Desperate gamers ultimately resorted to snapping up UMD videos or hacking their PSPs to emulate classic Nintendo and Genesis games. It wasn't until this year that the flow of quality PSP software improved, and even then it's mostly been a trickle. As a result, the PSP has been far less of a runaway success than everyone expected. Its sales have slightly trailed those of the Nintendo DS in America and Europe, while in Japan the DS is a clear victor—a loss made all the more embarrassing by the fact that the DS wasn't even seen as worthy competition to Sony's far more powerful and beau- tiful machine | How Does the PS3 Stack Up? On the whole, the PS3 is sitting pretty. Although the immediate post- launch software outlook is fairly bleak, it's probably just as well. It's going to be a while before most people can actually find the hardware to begin with, and early adopters will likely have their hands full with the system's huge launch library. And, fortunately, Sony and its third parties have a decent amount of must-have software coming down the pipeline. The ultra-realistic Gran Turismo HD is on the way, Kojima Productions has the incredible Metal Gear Solid 4 on track for 2007, and the equally gorgeous Final Fantasy XIII will probably arrive in 2008. Still, blockbusters alone can't keep a system in first place, as Nintendo learned a decade ago by stacking its N64's small library of AAA smashes against PlayStation's massive array of good-to-great titles It will ultimately be the smaller releases that keep gamers engaged between the high-profile titles. And in that regard Sony is on roughly equal footing with Microsoft. Still, Sony has the upper hand—its own past provides all the wisdom it needs to keep the PS3 ahead of the com- petition. But as they say, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it...and possibly from the loser's perspective. a OPM December aisi 1 Wipeout Pure 2 Dynasty Warriors 3 Metal Gear Acid .ТУР.СОМ 147 IF CLAY ” м: СОРЕАУ Starring: Guitar Меги ЇЇ Yeah, we know you know a lot of the songs on Guitar Hero //. But here are a few albums with songs featured in the game that you damn kids with your MySpace may not have already heard. | John Scalzi AVENGED EVEN wei Ritual de lo Habitual Back in the day, Perry Farrell was like what you would've gotten if some TSOL-loving punk boy totally hit it with a hippie chick and their mutant offspring were raised by trash-dig- ging coyotes in Santa Monica. That's just what Ritual is like, too: Perry wanders off into space, yodeling about whatever the hell, while guitar- ist Dave Navarro and the rest of the band stay down here on Earth and rip your head right off. Yes, it was too, too delicious to last. 8110 Avenged Sevenfold City of Evi OK, so it goes like this. Guitars? Shredili- cious, totally New Wave of British Heavy Metal guitar attack. Mnmmm...shiny. Rhythm section? When it's pushed into overdrive, it's pure punk goodness. Vocals?| WTF? It's like karaoke night at Wayne's | World. Look, if you're going to front this sort of aggro tuneage, you need to have a voice of Bruce Dickinson proportions. But instead, these dudes harmonize like they're Hello Kitty's neutered kid brothers. Guys, get back to me when you find a lead singer, m'kay? 5110 Matthew Sweet Girlfriend Back in the early 905, Matthew Sweet was totally a record-store-clerk favorite—which is the friggin’ kiss of death commercially, because those passive-aggressive bastards wouldn't tell you about Sweet's smart guitar pop because it was too good for you. Some scientist should build Matthew Sweet a time machine so he can go to 1991 and kick the ass of every punk record store clerk he can find. 7110 ж E MATTHEW SWEET | GIRLFRIEND The Pretenders The Pretenders Sure, it’s great to be a kid today, what with the PS3s and the cell phones, whereas if you were a kid in 1980, all you'd have had would have been 8-tracks and a Camaro. But you'd also be the first to hear this album and to bathe in the unspeakable gorgeousness of James Honeyman-Scott's fretwork, not to mention the smart, sexy, sultry siren call of Chrissie Hynde, who even now is the coolest front woman in rock. And it would be a fair trade 9110 PRITINDER S| The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Vital music from a time when the Rolling Stones were the best rock band on Earth, rather than an ossified music freak show cun- ningly designed to suck the cash out of the wallets of the Viagra generation. Yeah, laugh while you can, Chuckles. One day you'll be 53, taking in an arena package show of the Strokes, the Killers, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and some part of you will be praying to stroke out right there. 9110 A OPM December OR START HERE Pauley Репейе The NCIS star remembers how Crash Bandicoot used to keep her up Most actors insist that vho plays forens and Abt forensic scie aste in ook a lot alike and shar ames runs funny that | liked CTR so much play on TV. But Pa > that claim. Not only do d drinks, but nore toward fast animals. before | ICIS, 35 produc And | got so hooked on Cra: st in that game. M ally annoying voic 1 Racing that I s to beat ugh!—girls 1 tuff. My goal was a j to get really r le. Though | never played against anyone else. l'm really it's just not fun for me. The thing is, l'm actually terrified of cars and hate | Paul Semel and reminded me o! y Perrette Statement of Ownership Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Monthly 28 East 28th Str V Gorgias A 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016 28 Bast 28th Street, New York, NY 10016 28 East 28th Street, New To нү 10016 T TFT SRT TER TREES OTT OTTO CTE TT Playstation Magazine September 2006 [Ci No. opie of ge [eere prd == ony Ose 521,270 "Fre белен (Sum o 154 an 150) Instructions to Publishers Ñ Complete and the one copy ot pus Lom wen you postmaster anrusty on or balore Ociober 1 Keep a сору ol he competes Tom. or you recien 2 in cop where we socer звону holder is a lao, ecd in items 10 and 11 the name of te person cr corporation for Wim De rune a cing. Ao жеме De names and adresses of мааа who aro ren cwn o Po percent aou ol sonda mortgagor, or оте, securus fa родила corporation, in em 11 N roce, heck тө ‘or Use Dank shoots d moro space feque. RM Be ses o nan at cicuaton formation caled for in tam 15. Feo circulation most be shown шет 154, 0. ad K Men fh. Copies not at ke, muet nce) newton copies originaly stata on Form 3941, aur o v pune о news aperi. and (1) capas (ar fice ve, vers, ороо, and al mer copes па лед ите pusscason had Ребодсан nsorzaon m a gener or requester putiicalon, ts біметегі ot Ownership Management. ОО ШИШИ А E mua be med мү enue n Oder s a рис дол net pushed duin October. the fes soo ped aher Octobar G алт 16. cata the date of te lere in wich һа Statement of Owner wi be pubished. T Mem 17 must bo sped. Failure to fle or publish a statement of ownership may lead fo suspension of Periodicals authorization; Fem E26, сәсе um ora) а, > y ` gy NN а DUAL LAYER JAVA INTERACTIVE DISC! FEATURES! Bluray Disc AVAILABLE NOW! HIGH DEFINITION NEXT-GENERATION INTERACTIVITY SUPERIOR SOUND FULL 1080P PICTURE The office drama continues (and even more great game videos) PART OF THE GAME in the Fall 2006 Season of the 1UP Show. n EOS A new episode every Friday on iTunes, Yahoo! Podcasts СР wateh now, play later or log on to http://the1upshow.1up.com NETWORK atch now, play е eo the games in action before they hit the stores. Log on to GameVideos.com to watch the best videos about the hottest games, PLUS: Exclusive videogame shows From weekly news updates to in-depth roundtables, interviews and features on the hottest titles, GameVideos.com will be the home of the very best videogame programming. Trailers of upcoming games You'll find gameplay videos and trailers for all the latest and upcoming games at GameVideos.com to stream or download in hi-res. Video cheats and walkthroughs Never be stuck again. Video cheats and walkthroughs show you exactly how to play the games to win. ..and other stuff! Including retro game ads, the funniest game-related videos on the Web, user-submitted movies, ‘extreme’ gameplay movies and more. ч š ony ж м | "Чи Ho inh CIUR | THE MICROTRANSACTED WORLD PURCHASE JOE RYBICKI remembers a day when "downloadable content meant ASCII porn. He wants to know your take on the microtransaction revolution. Send your nasty e-mails to opmëziffdavis.com. With the recent revelation of Gran Turismo HD's, uh, unorthodox strategy for download- able content in the game's classic mode, | figured now would be a good time to talk about microtransactions. If you haven't been paying attention, the concept of microtrans- actions deals with paying small sums of money [generally a buck or two] for down- loadable content for your shiny new next-gen system. Xbox Live has been doing this since the launch of the 360, allowing publishers to charge players minimal amounts of money for anything from new themes for the 360's system interface to entirely new add-on content for games. In theory, it's a great idea. It gives game designers an avenue for selling nonessential extras to their games, and it lets the player pick and choose among available content. In the GTHD model, the idea is to allow [some say "force") players to choose only the cars and tracks they want for online play, thereby shaving from the game all that the individual player considers extraneous. Don't want to stárt with a used Celica hatchback? Don't want to bother with the high-speed ring? You can just jump right into the juicy cars and courses...for a price. The monetary argument that's made in favor of this decision tends to go like this: Most people only want to play the "good" cars and courses anyway, so the average player is likely to actually spend less money this way than if he or she paid $50 at retail. It's a legitimate point. In theory, anyway. The problem is that this feels like a very slippery slope. In the case of GTHD, you're paying for extra content only; you do still get а дате at the store [most likely for a bargain price), and it comes with content of its own— all this downloadable stuff is just gravy. But it seems to me that it's a very small step from this model to a completely modular one, in which you have to keep paying to play. (Please don't shout at me about MMORPGs; these are games that require а constant, full staff of programmers and moderators, and so are a completely different color of horse.) What would you say to a Final Fantasy game where you had to buy—as in, pay real-world money for—additional characters to add to your party? Or a first-person shooter where you had to pay a couple of cents for each clip of ammo? Or a Madden game where you had to buy each team separately? Of course, there's the argument that no one is forced to buy anything, and that our deliciously capitalistic society will put the smack down on any company that tries something along these lines through the simple method of nobody buying the game. But since when has capitalism saved из from bad ideas? People still eat at McDonald's. People still go to movies starring Jessica Simpson. Arrested Development was cancelled while The War At Home remains on the air. It's a crazy, mixed-up world we live in My concern is that the lure of a constant stream of new content (and hence new income] will prove too strong, and gamemak- ers will end up spending more time coming up with innovative ways to sell small things for small money, and less time, you know, making new games. To me, that'd be a bad thing. But then, | guess I'm old-fashioned. | DVERTISER INDEX 2K Sports www.2ksports.com 39, 41, 43, 45 Activision www.activision.com 90-91, 121 Bethesda Softworks www.bethsoft.com Capcom USA Inc. www.capcom.com 156 Disney Interactive Games www disney.com Eidos Interactive, Inc. www.eidos.com 98a-b Electronic Arts Www.ea.com. demo, 4-5, 12-13 Full Sail Real World Education www.fullsail.com 123 The Gillette Company www.gillette.com Ignition USA Www.ignitionusa.com Koei Corporation www koei.com 155 Konami America www.konami.com Та-19, 106-107, 137 Mitsubishi Electric www.mdea.com 103 Namco Bandai Games America www.namco Tri 52; 80-4 81. 87 Napster Www.napster.com Office for National Drug Control Polic www.whatsyouranti- drüg.com Red Octane redoctane.com 127 Sega of America www.sega.com 48-49, 60-61, 66-67 www.snkplaymoreusa.com 133 YU Sony Computer Entertainment www.scea.com 2-3, 28-29, 35, 50-51, 69,71, 73, 75 Sony Online Entertainment www.sonyonline.com Sony Pictures Entertainment wynw.sonypictures.com Spike TV www.spiketv.com 131 Square Enix U.S.A., Inc. www.square-enix-usa.com 24-25 Take 2 Interactive yww.take2games.com THQ Ine. www.thq.com 117 Ubisoft Entertainment www.ubisoft.com 8-9, 83 Vivendi Universal Games www.vugames.com 10-11, 26-27, 76-77 Wizards of the Coast went wizards co (кое!) www.koei.com Andent China's greatest warriors have rocked the foundations of heaven and earth for over 2,000 years. Now the Warriors Worth а Thousand return in the sequel that edipses the original. ® For the first time, multiplayer combat with Battle Royal for up to 4 players (ad hoc). % Includes the complete pantheon of all 48 Dynasty Warriors? with branching story paths for each kingdom. ® Unleash Double Musou attacks with your,officérs. Ñ Own a stable of up to 8 horses and elephants that gain rience during battle. * Musou, Multiplayer, Free, and Camp modes, plus over 50'stagesiand 31 maps. i г Violence Dynasty Warriors and the KOEI logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of KOEI Coq reserved. "PlayStation", "PS" Family logo, and "PSP" are registered trademarks of Sony. t Duo™ may be required (sold separately). Тһе ratings icon is a trademark of the Entertainme “...video game perfection. «stands among the 8T €QL Sf PlayStation®2 9 games ever released." “...50 visually striking, so original and "I'd be surprised if you find a better game on any system this fall." RONIC Gy A ©CloverStudio Co., Ltd. 2006 АН Rights Reserved. DISTRIBUTED BY CAPCOM CO., LTD. Okami, CloverStudio and the CloverStudio LOGO are trademarks of Cloverstudio Co., Ltd. of CAPCOM CO., LTD. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment trademarks are owned by their respective owners. CAPCOM and the CAPCOM LOGO are registered tradet Inc. The ratings icon is a registered trademark of the Entertainment Software Association. All other e capcom.com/okami АРСО