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So, it appears patience really is a virtue. After monthsof feeling excluded from Sony's plans, a queue ofexcited people were each rewarded with a 46-inchBravia W Series television. Sadly it was a queue Iwas not a member of. Exactly what Sony is tryingto achieve with this enormous show of generosityis contentious, but Phil Harrison's keenness toemphasise how important Europe is to Sony as acompany is at least refreshing.

How much faith you can put in this is

questionable, however. As a way to win over acrowd it's an excellent path to take - especially whentelevisions have been bestowed as party favours- but it's going to take a little more to convince many

that we're indeed at the top of the tree territorially.More languages, more countries... it's hard toimagine that we're not just considered more hassle.

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T H E A I M I S T O T H I N K O F A F U N N YC A P T I O N T O G O W I T H T H E P I C T U R E

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C O N TA C TILLUMINATING THEWORLD OF sames^Enough of what we think, this is where you lotget to show off your rapier wit to praise, criticiseor mock the game industry. Or not...

For all your games™forum needs, point yourb r o w s e r s t o . . .

www.gamestm.co .uk/ f o r u m

FROM THE FORUMEXCITED ABOUT PS3?

■ Posted By: HendoAs gamers, we should embrace all platforms; itdoesn't matter whether or not you can afford it.What are you hoping PS3 will bring to the table?MotorStorm looks the complete nuts. And inthe future, once the Cell starts talking to itselfproperly, I'm really looking forward to the Al.

■ Posted By: The Last GinjaI will get one eventually, I have no willpower. Iwasn't going to buy a PS2, then, four monthsafter launch it was sitting under my TV. 1 wasn'tgoing to buy a GameCube, the remake isannounced... and a GameCube appears undermy TV. I wasn't going to buy an Xbox, I playedHalo on a mate's console and an Xbox turns upunder the TV. I wasn't going to buy a DS, thenI played on one in Toys R Us and left the shopwith one. I wasn't going to buy a PSR Oh, hangon, I DO have willpower.

■ Posted By: NoizeAside f rom MGS4 and Assassin 's Creed

{one being exclusive for now and the othermultiplatform anyway), there aren't many gamesI'm excited about on PS3, but what I like aboutthe console is the HDMI connect ion and hi-def

gaming out of the box - well, not out of the boxsince there's no HDMI cable in the box...

■ Posted By: mooremcI think my opinion of the aesthetic side of theconsole changed when I saw it in a shop ratherthan on my laptop, because 1 always imaginedit to be a beast-sized machine but it was a lot

smaller than I'd anticipated. Sadly, my opinionof the games hasn't changed after Resistanceand Ridge Racer 7. MotorStorm looks like thebest launch game since Super Mario 64, and thatwould be the selling point for me.

■ Posted by: AffleckI'm looking fonvard to the second generation oftitles. Comparing 360's launch titles with whathas appeared recently makes me hope that PS3will do the same and in a couple of years therewill be some 'wow' games.

■ Posted By: skunkoThere's not much on PlayStation 3 that appealsto me at ail. I won't use Linux. I love my DVDsso Blu-ray doesn't appeal. I know this wassupposed to be positive and I can appreciatethe market that PS3 will appeal to, but I loveconsoles for games and that's why I won't bebuying a Sony console this generation.

■ Posted By: BiohazardAlthough 1 won't be shelling out on Blu-ray filmsyet, it's still a good move by Sony as the storagecapacity available on Blu-ray is huge and, in myhumble opinion, that's an area where Xbox 360may struggle in a few years' time if it still usesDVDs for games.

■ Will the importance of the Wii's control method ensure thai ■ Gameslilie rrai/maCenferhaveraisedquestionsabouttheWiigames like God Of Iter are (ew and far between in die hjture? controller s sensitivity in the minds of some readers.

AS I HAVE no interest in PS3's pretty developers to fully realise the control system'spictures or Xbox 360's online features potential, but you can only make respectable

my only interest now is in the true face of judgements on the future based on thethe next generation: the Wii. Nintendo has present - othera^ise the opinion would bepretty much set the bedrock interface for most based on little more than optimism and biasgame genres on the system so where do due to Nintendo's past glories,you see it going from here? Is a God Of War- At the moment there are very few decenttype game outside the realms of possibility? games that aren't designed to be played inSurely a more detailed and accurate sensor groups, and the system relies too much onbar upgrade is really all that's needed for the appeal of Virtual Console to keep ownersprecision-based games such as an Under interested, which is fine if you're part of theThe Knife sequel? One negative point I would new demographic, but hardcore gamers didn'tmention about the Wii thus far is that I would spend £200 to play games they completed 15prefer more one-player Wii games... soon. years ago.Roll on, Mario and Samus. The fact is that as long as the Wii existsP i o u s a n d p e o p l e e n j o y p l a y i n g i t t h e n i t s f u t u r e i s

secure and the games will certainly get better,games™: We try and avoid the wrath of the The hardcore gamer may want to think twicedie-hard Nintendo fans whenever possible, about whether the console was ever reallybut speaking as serious gamers, in our heart intended for them - a fact Nintendo has beenof hearts we've been disappointed with what very candid about. The Wii is definitely funthe Wii has offered so far. After finishing and, on the surface, innovative, but we feelZelda, nearly every member of the team has that true innovation - change that goes toslid the Wii back under the table and there the very core of what a game is or could be,it has stayed, gathering dust ever since. We expanding the art form and not just theappreciate that Nintendo's efforts are likely to control method - is perhaps morebe brilliant and it will take time for third-party likely to arrive from Microsoft or Sony. VS

"NIIVTHMDO HAS SET THE BEDROCK INTERFACE FORMOST GAME GENRES ON THE SYSTEM"

T ^ r

■ Will the rise of casual gaming dumb down the market spelling theend for Innovative titles like OkamP

influential on the behaviour of children - andthat's only if you accept that videogames haveany influence at all. In our opinion, though,we feel that the role-playing element uniqueto videogames demands a strictly enforcedrating system for violent content, and bothDead Rising and Manhunt should be therecipients of a suitably aduit rating. Until thewhole 'effects' debate is resolved - and thafsnot to say that it ever will - placing suchdecisions in the hands of parents is the onlysensible thing to do.

I'M ALL FOR videogames reaching awider market so that I can pick up a

copy of Viva Pihata without feeling like acomplete idiot, but as my gaming tastes havematured and I now consider myself as liking'good' games, I find that 'casual' gamers arereally starting to get on my nerves. I am fedup with seeing amazing pieces of work likeOkannifade away into obscurity while gameslike Little Britain soar through the charts.Just think about it, without all these peoplewho consider games to be 'for geeks' butwill spend £30 or more on FIFA year in yearout, we might see more originality in theindustry we love. Games like OI<ami might doa little better because those of us with moreof an interest in playing these 'good' gameswouldn't have to wade through all of the

Snr Advertising Ex*

MourStom the greatest launch title since Mario MShort answer no.

yearly updates and poor movie titles to findthe niche games that we love.S k u n k o

games™; We'd absolutely love to see an endto shoddy movie licences and incrementalupdates, but what you're dreaming of is akinto self-flagellation. This is a problem thatthose who credit themselves with good tasteencounter in every medium. It irks musicenthusiasts that the charts are so full of emptytosh, and that more bands are signed becauseof their outfits than their songs. Cinephilescollectively slap their foreheads every time aPirates Of The Caribbean 2 rakes in the cash,and pine for the days when The Godfatherwasthe most financially successful film of all time.The literati were up in arms at the number ofcopies Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code shifted,denouncing it as airport-standard crap.

As long as people exist there will be thosethat demand little from their games, but itwon't stop the likes of Okami being made.Have faith that there are people in the world,like you, who want to see videogames pitchedabove the lowest common denominator,and that there are talented developers whowant nothing more than to never, everwork on a makeshift movie licence. Afterall, distinguishing between the gold and thecobblers is the main reason games™ exists.

Imagine Publ ish ing Ltd, Richmond House,33 Richmond Hi l l , Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6BZ

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Staff Writers Ashley Day, Matthew HandrahanArt Editor Greg Whitaker

Assistant Designer Stacey Hockings \Sub Ed i to r He len La id law

Contr ibutors Duncan Crook, Jont i Davles,Alexander Gambotto-Burke, Craig Gllmore,

Jon Gordon, William Haley, Darran Jones,Ryan King, Simon Miller, Graeme Nicholson,

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g a m e s 1 7 1

CONTACTILLUMINATING THE WORLD OF gailKSEnough of what we think - now you get to show off your rapier wit to praise, criticise or mock the game industry. Or not...

■ With Manhunt2iin its way, the violence debate willcertainly rage on. There's really no need.

■ Is the inexplicable success of the Uttfe Britainlicence a negative side-effect of casual gaming?

M a k i n g C o n t a c tThere are many wofKterfu! ways to get in touch

with games^". The traditional postal method isperfectly acceptable using this addressgames™ Imagine Publishing Ltd, Richmond House,33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6EZ

However, there are quicker ways to reach usthanks to the technological marvel that is thei n t e r n e t . E m a i l u s a t t h i s a d d r e s s

gamestm@lmagine-publishing.co.uk

THE LETTER IN issue 53 regardingpolitically aware reviews left me entirely

disgusted. I have often ignored anti-Americanremarks but "paedophile marines?" I guess Icould call the UK out for its colonial activitiesand the fact that, until after the Second WorldWar, your little island had no problem withmurdering people by the fistful without givinga crap. But you could go even further andsay that England had no problem with goingto the continent and murdering people. Oh,and I'd also like to thank you for introducingslavery to the New World. I find it curious thatyou all think that the Janjaweed, Mugabe,Chavez, Putin, Al-Qaeda, and the PRC are,morally, so much better than the US. Yes, mygovernment bullshitted mill ions of scaredcitizens into Iraq, what is YOUR government'sexcuse? Of all the evils in the world, there areseveral much worse ones than America's. Youhave no high horse to be on.Stephen P Green

games™: Nice and passionate, Stephen,but we fail to see what this has to do witha) videogames, and b) us. We're more thanhappy to act as the conduit for you complaintsabout another letter, but your rant, whileoriginally aimed at the author, shifted focus toEngland as a country, incorporating the goodpeople at games™ into the bargain. If you'reunhappy about somebody making ill-judged,sweeping generalisations about America,perhaps you should take care not to do so inyour own retort. We don't appreciate havingour political alignment decided for us anymore than you do - it's that old two wrongsnot making a right chestnut. Still, we take yourpoint that the "paedophile marines" examplewas rather harsh, though we felt the author of

that letter was deliberately using the exampleto illustrate that it would take that extremity ofcontent to break through the political apathypresent in videogames criticism. Perhaps theauthor would like to defend his stance. Fight!

I KNOW THE issue of censorship ingaming is going to rage on and on but

I have a point to raise about Mike Carson'sletter in issue 53. He put fonward the idea thatthe violence in Condemned and Manhuntshould warrant an 18 certificate whereasgames like the GTA franchise and Dead Risingshould only merit a 15 arguing that the lattergames take a light-hearted approach and aimto be straightforward entertainment. I wouldjust like to say that surely it is these gamesthat do the most damage.

As Mike Carson himself states, the violencein GTA is almost portrayed as good, cleanfun. Does this not mean that if indeed gamesinfluence our actions, a child playing GTA orDead Rising wiW not realise the consequencesof his or her actions in the real world becausethey have been shown that murder and deathare both viable options for our entertainment.I personally found Manhuntto be pretty brutaland repulsive in its approach to violence.Surely any child playing this game wouldfeel the same thing and learn violence is notsomething to be taken lightly?Dave GrifTiths

games™: The fact is that, at present, ail gamesaim to be "straightforward entertainment", somaking any kind of distinction between gamesbased on that is misleading. Choosing oneview over the other Is troublesome, though,as there are coherent arguments to suggestthat hyper-real violence is both more and less

"I AM FED UP WITH SEEING AMAZING WORK LIKEOKAMI FADE AWAY IINTTO OBSCURTTY WHILE GAMESLIKE LTTTLE BRTTAIN SOAR THROUGH THE CHARTS"

1 7 0 s a n i e s ™

NEXT MONTHENJOYED THIS ISSUE OF GAMES™? THEN CHECK OUT WHAT'S IN STORE NEXTMONTH. BUT WE CANT STAND AROUND CHATTING: THERE'S WRITING TO BE DONE

The art direction is magnificent. Can the game match it?

M O R E . . .

REVIEWSIn this traditionally arid month forreviews, games™ is hitting back withsome of the biggest titles of the secondquarter. Expect in-depth coverage ofThe Lord Of The Rings Online, Oblivion:The Shivering Isles and the supremelyexciting Super Paper Mario.

WHEN DOES MARIO EVER LET USDOWN? BE VERYEXOTED"

M O R E . . .

PREVIEWSWith no E3 to rely on this year, thespread of pre-summer hype is broaderthan ever. So, it's up to your favouritemagazine to dig out the games to lookout for in 2007. We'll be taking a lookat Heavenly Sword, Mass Effect and avery exciting secret project.

A year without E3 means a year without force-fed hype.

BURNOUTS COULD JUST BETHE GAME OF THE YEAR''

M O R E . . .

FEATURESIt's bible time again and with the genrelist coming close to exhaustion it's hightime we examined the wonderful worldof point-and-click. Fans of all thingsLucasArts, mark a date in your diary.Plus, expect the usual complement ofinterviews and retro goodness.

Sam & Max is sure to get all the love it deserves.

SHOW US A GAMING GBW?£ PURERT H A N P O I N r - A i m C U C K "

ON SALE 17 MAY '07S a m e s ' " 1 6 9

www. gamestm. co. uk 561 07

CONFEATURES

NEWS;

Logical Progression 26Windows Vista brings with it a new perspective.We reflect upon wiiat this means for PC gaming

FEATURE:

Square Enix 32We look at what the future holds for one of the

boldest development studios on the planet

FEATURE;Welcome Home 70

At last Sony delivers an online service to rivalXbox Live. Could this be the making of the PS3?

FEATURE;

Army Of Four 78Introversion Software talks exiusively to games'^"

about why bigger is rarely means better.

f e a t u r e :Found In

Translation 84Relatively unknown in the West, we chat to Atlus

about its stunning portfolio of niche titles

FEATURE;

Living The Dream 90Find out from the professionals how easy - ordifficult - it really is to get a career in games

Recrui tment 173Be a part of the next generation of videogame

creators. From page 173 find the career for you

REGULARSSubscriptions 97

Essentials 162Nex t Mon th 168

Contac t 170Rec ru i tmen t 173

PREVIEWSFinal Fantasy XIIISkateMotoGPO?ShadowrunM a n h u n t 2

Stuntman IgnitionDawn Of MagicFrontlines: Fuel Of WarMonster Hunter Freedom 2

LittleBigPlanetSBK- Superbike World ChampionshipMySimsJuiced Z. Hot Import NightsThe Settlers II

REVIEWSCommand & Conquer 3; Tiberium WarsGhost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2Fire Emblem: Goddess Of DawnBurnout DominatorProfessor Layton And TheMysterious TownAfter Burner Black FalconEarth Defence Force 2017300: March To GloryNBA Street HomecourtHeatseeker

Runaway 2- The Dream Of The TurtleSMT Devil Summoner - RaidouKuzunoha Vs The Soulless AmiySim City DSDownloadable Content Tbe Round-Up

RETRORetro NewsReview: Trigger Heart ExelicaReview: KarousThe Making Of... Theme ParkRetro Feature: From Mii To YouCollectors' Spotlight Alex KiddClash Of The Titans: Ninja GaidenAnciem History: AvalancheWorst Licence: Nightmare On Elm StreetFeature: Bullet HellGreatest Game: Mayhem In MonsterlandUltimate Collection

Buyers' Guide

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CONQUER 3:TIBERIUM WARS

The finest RTS series ever makes an impressive comeback

N E W S I N D U S T R Y G O S S I P O P I N I O N

C O N T E N T SFIND OUT WHERE TO GETTHE ESSENTIAL STORIES WITHOUR QUICK GUIDE TO THE NEWS

10 FREE GAMESShiny Entertainment founderDavid Perry talks exclusivelyto games™ about the growingphenomenon of premiumdownloadable content that is

sweeping the East. He sees itbecoming more mainstreamover here too.

12 rrs BETTERTO GIVE

In a similar vein to Live Aid,Martin De Ronde, co-founder ofGuerrilla Games, has come upa new initiative that aims to usethe game industry's creativityand profile for the greater good.One Big Game is a charitysupported by some of theworld's biggest developers.

14 TAKE THAT,TA K E T W O

A series of allegationsregarding back-dating stocklooks like it might be comingto an end. There's now achance that other publisherscould start stripping off thecompany's assets - the mostvaluable of which is GTA...

16 FREE TV,ANYONE?

As the most loyal gamersqueue outside a shop inLondon to get a PS3 at launch,Sony announces that eachone of them will be receiving aspecial - and rather expensive-gift for their support.

26 VISTAMicrosoft's new Windows istaking the PC world by storm,but where there's confusionan in-depth look at this newsoftware is certainly required.

0 0 8 g a m e s ' "

NDEPENDENTSINDIE DEVELOPERS TALKINNOVATION AS THE WiiCOMES UNDER FIRE

The Game Developers Conference2007 belonged to SonyBetween LittleBigPlanet an6

Home, the resurgent platform holdereclipsed anything its rivals had tooffer - something that Microsoft andNintendo will have been acutely awareof. With two of the most influentialvoices silenced, however, it gave anopportunity for the event's low-profile

developers Jonathon Blow, Kyle Gabler,John Mak and Jenova Chen decreedthat, despite the mainstream industry'sbest efforts, the increasingly commercialnature of the business makes it a poorbreeding ground for innovation. Thepresence of suitable technology in anincreasing number of homes, however,grants independent developers a chanceto stand out. "As computing power

and Visual Studio, and he won't evenknow he's innovating."

Jenova Chen, the developer behindflOw, believed that innovation wouldcome when the industry started toprioritise emotion as the inspiration fordesign rather than features. Games elicitemotions in the same way as any artform, and developers must be focusseaon how best to do that. Jon Mak was

"THE Wii IS A PIECE OF SHIT. I HAVE UNCOVEREDTHE SECRET TO Wii MANUFACTURING... YOUTAKE TWO GAMECUBE'S AND SOME DUCT TAPE'

CHRIS HECKER, FOUNDER, DEFINITION 6visitors to come to the fore, and thesubject of 'innovation' seemed to be oneverybody's lips.

At the Independent GamesSummit, a panel featuring leading indie

becomes ubiquitous, the only thing leftis artistic expression," claimed Gabler."The sad thing is that it probably won'tbe done by you or me, but by some kidwith the pirated version of Photoshop

critical of the independent sector,stating that, much like the mainstreamindustry, the majority of games struggleto be different. "It's still based on whateverybody else thinks," he said, and

■ JonMak'sfre/yrfa/S/iooteris jstill a woik in progress, but seems |a tremendously exciting project \

In an open discussion over breakfast, Microsofte x e c u t i v e s S h a n e K i m a n d C h r i s S a t c h e l !revealed that two of the Xbox 360 projects thatThe Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jacksonis working on with Bungie will take the form ofepisodic series, "Our deal with Peter is not abouta film guy who wants to make videogames,"K i m r e m i n d e d t h e c r o w d . H e a l s o r e v e a l e dthat, "The first series will be set in the Halouniverse," and that, "we're in the design phasenow." The projects were first announced at X06,and their emergence as episodic series cameas something of a surprise, hinting that bothprojects will have a strong emphasis on story.It is comforting to know that progress is beingmade, however slow it might be.

LITTLE PLANET,B IG PRAISEIf you have even a modicum of interest in gamesyou're likely to have seen the LittleBigPlanetdemo. Even this early on in its development thegame looks set to be stunning, and Mark Healyand Alex Evans of developer Media Moleculewere showered in praise at their Q&A session. Inbetween gushing claims that the demo was "thebest I've seen in ten years" and that it "broughttears to my eyes", the duo also revealed thereason why they chose PS3 over the otherpotential platforms. "I always thought Sony hadthe best parties," Healy claimed. "I remembermany times standing outside them without aticket, watching all these people - producers,most of the time - so I thought, one day I'mgoing to go to a Sony party." Such honesty canonly mean great things for the game.

implored the crowd to create, "piecesbased on your heart, and not the heartsof others." Jonathon Blow finished offby warning of the dangers of supposedinnovation becoming little more thana gimmick - a way of distracting theaudience just long enough for them tobuy an othenwise average product.

This was precisely the argumentpresented by Definition 6 founder ChrisHecker at the Game Publ ishers Rant.

The previous year had seen Heckerdenigrate Microsoft and Sony for failingto innovate, and he now took to thepodium to do the same to Nintendo."Everybody loves the Wii. 'Oh, God,the Wii, we love you so much',"mocked Hecker, "The Wii is a pieceof shit. I have uncovered the secret

to Wii manufacturing... you take twoGameCube's and some duct tape."

The root of his frustrations was his

belief that Nintendo isn't interested

in furthering games as an art form. AGoogle search revealed 30 uses of thewords "art form" on the PlayStationwebsite, 13 uses on Xbox.com, but nota single appearance on Wii.com. Hethen followed this up by showing clipsof Bill Gates and Phil Harrison talkingabout games as art, then an excerpt ofEiji Anouma claiming that, "I don't feelgames can be considered art... our goalis to make games that are fun."

"This is not good enough for peoplewho are leading our industry," Heckercried. "We're at the beginning ofsomething that could be an art form ona par with film and literature and music,and it's ours to fuck up." Hecker hassince apologised for and retracted hiscomments due to industry pressure,which is a shame, because if Hecker hadsimply ditched the showboating vitriol,the audience may have seen that heactually had a point.

: r H Nintendo came underfire for\! failing to pusti games as an art

f o i r a w i t l i t t i e W i i .

■ Trip Hawkins gave apassionate speech aboutmobile gaming and, on thisevidence, fishing.

\ Q Developers from Media Molecule, die geniuses behind UttleBigPlanet' answer questions from an enamoured audience.

i CALL TO ARMSTrip Hawkins, former head of EA and currentCEO of Digital Chocolate, gave an impassioned

! speech on the problems plaguing the mobilegaming industry. He argued that the platformis suffering an inferiority complex that is in theminds of the developers, the marketers, and,by proxy, the consumers. Hawkins reasonedthat if consumers have willingly adapted theirphone use from voice chat to text messagingto WAP, then it wouldn't be long before they'recomfortable with the idea of mobile gaming.He argued that creating a compelling mobilegame is every bit as challenging as creating anext-generation masterpiece, there are just morelimiting factors. In his opinion, multiplayer iskey to innovation for the mobile market, stating:"Every content media is a contact media. Peopledon't just want to play by themselves."

0 0 9

NEWS DAVID PERRY I PSP RE-DESIGN?

STAFfrY(E N G I N E S 'Gears Of War For Free?David Perry Explains How

aming's anexpensiveb u s i n e s s .

'* Anybody with asmuch as a toe dipped in thewaters of the next generation willattest to that, and the arrival of thePlayStation 3 has raised the bar stillfurther. According to David Perry,the founder of Shiny Entertainmentand creator of Earthworm Jim andMDK, this won't always be the caseand the change may be comingsooner than you'd think.

"Free games generally suck atthe moment," said Perry, in anexclusive interview with games™,"but they are making a fortune inAsia. One of the companies I workwith just announced that they had230,000 concurrent users playing agame. The money you can makewith that is just phenomenal."The laws of commerce being asthey are, any publisher with a

! lot of money must look towardsexpansion, and Perry feels thatthese Asian companies have their' eyes trained on our shores.

^ "They're going to look to theWest," he continues, " to ourbest technologists, to whoeveris making the best engine... andthey're going to license the shit outof that engine. In fact, they alreadyare. If you take a trip around China,as you go into each office you'llsee the Unreal Engine all overthe place. Then there's the CrysisEngine, you can license that, andthe Valve Engine, you can licensethat, and the BioWare Engine...you're going to see all the best thatwe can create being licensed bythese people... and used to makefree games. Trust me, I've seendemos of these games running and

I'ji,; " they do exist."

Free games with highproduction values don't fit into thecommercial videogames businessmodel, but the emerging trend forpremium downloadable contenthas brought with it a host ofn e w r e v e n u e s t r e a m s t h a t h a v e

yet to be fully integrated withmainstream gaming. It is entirelyfeasible that a game could turn ahuge profit on microtransactionsalone, and this would place farmore impetus on the quality of theexperience. "Money can't be madeon downloads if the player doesn'twant to hang out in the game,"Perry explains. "You're betting onyour game so much more in the'free' world than the 'retail' world."

This emphasis on qualityto bring profit will be music togamers' ears, though it's difficultto imagine publishers workingt o w a r d a c o n c l u s i o n t h a t w o u l d

place any success down to aconcept as slippery as quality.In Perry's opinion, though, it isinevitable, and all it will take isfor someone to set the wheels inmotion. "When someone actuallygets a really good free game outthere, what's going to happen tothe industry the morning after?"he asks. "For those companiesthat are all putting $20 million intodevelopment, what happens whenthere's something that looks likeHalf-Life 3 out there, and it's free?It will become very, very difficult toask people to hand over $60.

If it were me I'd go and hireCliffyB," he concludes, "becausethat guy is worth whatever hecharges, put him on the UnrealEngine and give him a full team,and release whatever they comeup with for free. It would shake upthe industry, believe me."

i ^

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» ONE BIG GAME GEARS OF WAR: THE MOVIE

DATA STREAMBITE-S IZED STOR IES FR OM AR OU N DT H E W O R L D O F G A M I N G

P S P U T EAfter severa l months o f

speculation over the future of thePSP, SCE UK's MD, Ray Maguire,has gone on record to announcethat work is underway on a new"smaller and lighter" version ofthe handheld. Maguire reassuredeveryone at the PSP In Educationevent that the size of the screenwould remain the same, thoughhe would not go into detail aboutany other design changes. ThePSP's sales figures had startedto recover after an uncertain

start, though many will see there-design as little more than aneffor t to mimic Nintendo's farmore popular DS Lite.

"\F IT WERE ME I'D GO ANDHIRE CLIFFYB BECAUSETHAT GUY IS WORTHWHATEVER HE CH/tftGES

GAME OFFHigh street videogame giantGame found i tself in hot waterwi th Microsof t a f ter one ofits stores - at the Bluewater

shopping centre in Essex,since you ask - put up a postercomparing the 360 with PS3.The poster proposed that thepurchase of an HD-DVD driveand a wireless network adapterwould make the Xbox 360 more

expensive than the PlayStation 3which comes complete with bothwireless and a Blu-ray drive. Aspokesperson for Game claimedthat the poster was the work ofa rogue employee who thoughtthey were being industrious - anA+ for effort, then.

DAVID PERRY, SHINYENJt:

NEWS ONE BIG GAME I GEARS OF WAR: THE MOVIE

THE GOOD HGHTNEW INITIATIVE BRINGS CHARITY TO VIDEOGAMES

•. • y

ONE BIGg a m e

In an industry fuelled by the notionof innovation, it's refreshingto encounter people wil l ing to

share the glory - Martin De Ronde isone such person. "We stole the ideafrom the music industry," he admits,revealing the true origins of his newcharity initiative. One Big Game. "I waswatching a documentary on the 20'*^anniversary of Live Aid, and I just puttwo and two together. We've got thesame level of creativity in the gameindustry, and I just thought that we coulduse that creativity to do something goodfor the world, just as these musicianshad done 20 years ago. They createdawareness and they raised a lot of

money There hasn't ever been a bigcharity initiative in the games industry."

Formally announced at GDC, theresponse to One Big Game wasimmediate and positive. "We'vealready secured a number of concretecommitments from developers," DeRonde says. "The number and profileof the developers we have got arereally high." Indeed, One Big Gamecan already count representatives fromEidos, Disney and Naught/ Dog aspan of the initiative, and De Ronde isconfident that things will progress.

"We will be setting up a casualgames portal," he explains, "andinstead of filling it with games created

"WHEN WE START GENERATING REVENUE, WE MIGHTDECIDE TO INVEST SOME OF THAT IN A LARGERGAME THAT WE DEVELOP OURSELVES"MARTIN DE RONDE, ONE BIG GAME

■ Hie interest from some of the world's top videogamepublishers, such as Eidos, is encouraging.

■ Martin De Ronde already knows the industry wellhaving worked on the likes of Killzone.

by traditional casual-game developers,we're going to ask top developmentstudios and famous designers to donatea little of their time and creativity tomake a game for us. They could createsomething based on an existing IP, itcould be a prologue to a forthcominggame, it could be a pet project they'vebeen thinking about for months. We'llbe able to use the names of these

designers to create a lot of publicity."

The games will be distributeddigitally, with De Ronde looking to formpartnerships with existing distributors,and the games will not necessarily haveto carry a message. "Initially we'renot going to restrict developers," DeRonde claims. "But if I were organisinga concert with lots of famous bands,and these bands were just playingnew songs revolving around socialmessages, I'm not sure we'd draw inas many people. We're going to let thecontributors be free to do what theywant to do, though we do insist thegames will be rated 'E' for everyone.However, in the future we may embarkon more serious games projects. On theone hand we want to raise money, onthe other we want to raise awareness.The message will be implicitly tied to thegame, regardless of what it is about."

Should One Big Game enjoy the levelof attention that De Ronde expects,he is adamant that more ambitiousprojects will feature in its future. "Theonly reason we're starting with casualgames is because they're small," hesays. "Our major enemy here is time. Allthese developers are very enthusiastic,but they have deadlines to consider. It is

part of our plan to see where we can goafter the smaller games. When we startgenerating revenue, we might decideto invest some of that in a larger gamethat we develop ourselves."

0 1 2 g a m e s " '

DATA STREAM

Q Sony is instigating aprofit-drtven series of casualgames created byfanxtusdevelopers, such as DavidJaffe's Calling All Cats.

B I T E - S I Z E D S TO R I E S F R O M A R O U N DT H E W O R L D O F G A M I N G

M O B I L EM A D N E S SThe potentially massive mobilegaming market could receivea boost with the news that theFelix Group is introducing theMax Box, a multimedia ATMmach ine . Consumers w i l l beable to print photos, downloadmusic and ringtones, top up theirphone credit, and downloadgames. Max Box machines willappear in the spring, with petrolstation forecourts, shoppingcentres, off-licences andconvenience stores being majortargets for placement. This willmake downloading games farmore accessible to the public.

Martin De Ronde

helped found Guen-illaGames, responsible for thePlayStation hit Killzone.

H O L LY W O O DC A L L SSummer 2009. The proposedrelease date for the movie

adaptation of Gears Of War. Thescript will be written by StuartBeattie, the talent behind suchaverage films as Derailed andCollateral, and will be producedby Temple Hill. In an interviewwith Variety, Wyck Godfrey, oneof Temple Hill's producers, said:"I'm not a gamer, but what blewme away about Gears was how itcaptures the mythology of a warmission and how high the stakesare." CliffyB will be executiveproducer and hopefully theproject won't suffer the same fateas the proposed Hah adaptation.

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Xbox, Xbox 3iC o r p o r a t i o n i n t h e

o f SE6A Cofpo

Virtua Tennis"* 3 coming soon to Xbox 360'", PSP^^ and PC.iN" "FR-Tr^" and "UM D" are trademarks of registered trademarks of Sony Comput), Xbox Live, and the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox Live logos are either registered trademarksJ.S. and/or other countries. © SEGA. SEGA, the SEGA logo and Virtua Tennis are either regisition All other company names, brand names and logos are the property of their respectiv*

DATA STREAML W i l i O U I j i u m )

B I T E - S I Z E D S TO R I E S F R O M A R O U N DT H E W O R L D O F G A M I N G

GOOD FOR GATESA major criticism of the PS3 is itsline-up of games. It does includestrong titles, but many of theseare cross-platform, making 360seem a more sound inves tment .The exclusivity of the MGS andD/MCfranchises were alwayscompelling reasons to stick withSony. Capcom has announcedthat DMC4\m\\ receive asimultaneous release on PS3,360 and PC, and questionsare now being raised on thefuture of both MGS and FinalFantasy, while Microsoft retainsownership of the Halo franchise,a n d B i o S h o c k a n d M a s s E f f e a

both remain exclusive to 360.

OEPJEHa

m Im

C Kthereistobeatakeover bid, then the rights ito Grand Theft Autofranchise are iikety to be adecisive factor,

D U M B P U N K SUlt ima creator Richard Garr io t treturned home recently to find hehad been the victim of a break-in.Someone had forced their wayinto his property, drunk over$5,000 worth of alcohol, trashedthe place and left. Fortunately forGarriott, these would-be burglarsalso happened to be idiots, andleft behind a digital camera fullof incriminating pictures of theevening's events. In an interviewwith Austin radio station KVUE,Garriott, who is working onTabula Rasa, joked: "We werethinking about tomorrowmorning, when they wake upwith a hangover, the/re going towonder where that camera is . "

N:

""P The forthcoming releaseof Manhunt 2\s somethingJack Thompson has beenwaiting for.

j Rockstar is, wilhout doubt,the jewel in Takelwo's crown,and the possibility stilt remainsthat the company couM be

0 1 4 s a m e s " '

1

REBEL REBELTAKETWO DIRECTORS FEARSHAREHOLDERS REVOLT

After a series of very publicscenes, the trouble that TakeTwoInteractive finds itself mired in

might conclude in the most dramaticfashion. Chris Morris, columnist for CNN,reported that insiders are expecting a revoltat the annual shareholders meeting. Acoalition of investors, who between themown 46 per cent of the shares, is lookingto overthrow the board of directors, whoseconduct over the past few years has seenthe company post huge losses. Paul Eibeler,the current chief executive officer, was evennamed Worst CEO Of 2005 by the financialwebsite Marketwatch.

Compounding the company's problemsare accusations over the illegal backdatingof stock options by former executivesto take advantage of the post-9/11 WallStreet slump. TakeTwo's former CEO, RyanBrant, pleaded guilty to several countsof illegal backdating between 1997 and2003, and was asked to pay $7.3 million incompensation - he could face up to fouryears in jail. Brant was the only executiveofficially convicted, though the investigationsuggested that three other execs, "appearto have had significant involvement in thecompany's stock-option granting process."

In light of the rumours of a revolt, theboard has delayed the shareholder meetingby a week, prompting further speculationthat the company will be sold before it canbe wrestled from the director's control.

As the owner of the Grand Theft Autofranchise, TakeTwo is a tempting proposition.

and both Electronic Arts and RupertMurdoch's News Corporation are said to beinterested. In an interview with GameSpot,industry analyst Todd Greenwald welcomedthe news of a shake-up, commenting:"Given their studios and their franchises,TakeTwo should be able to be a far more

profitable company that it is."IDC analyst Billy Pigeon, meanwhile,

scolded the company to Business Week lota lack of professionalism. "There are peopleat the company," he claimed, "who areserious professionals. But the company'sparty atmosphere, the 'Hot Coffee' thing,even the name Rockstar - it doesn't sendoff the appearance of sobriety. There's a top-down party attitude."

One man who will be happy is our oldfriend Jack Thompson. The Florida attorneyhad been gearing up to launch publicnuisance lawsuits against the forthcomingRockstar games. Grand Theft Auto IVand Manhunt 2. TakeTwo Interactive,however, has launched a pre-emptivestrike, and petitioned the Florida Courtsto stop Thompson from interfering withthe company's First Amendment rights.Thompson's response came in the formof an email to selected media organs,promising that he plans to "strike back."

The email read: "I have been praying,literally, that TakeTwo and its lawyers woulddo something stupid... that such a mis-stepwould help me destroy them." Given thecompany's current situation, this time it maynot need Thompson's help.

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5 coming soon to Xbox 360™.

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www.sega.co.uk••Jl", "PLAYSTATiON" and "PSS" are trademarks or fegistered trademarks ot Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360,

a n d / o r o t h e r © SEGA. SEGA, the SEGA logo and Virtua fighter are either registered traderrtarks o

NEWS BRAVO BRAVIAS I EA CEO RETURNS

DATA STREAMBITE-SIZED STORIES FROM AROUNDT H E W O R L D O F G A M I N G

R I C C m E L L OR E T U R N SAfter an absence of three years,John Ricci t ie l lo has returned toEA as CEO. He worked at EA aschief operations officer until 2004when he left to start up ElevationPartners, a private equity firmthat invested $300 million tocreate the al l iance betweenBioWare and Pandemic Studios.Larry Probst, EA's currentCEO, will become executivechairman of the board. Riccitiellois delighted: "Leading EA hasalways been my dream job," hesaid. " I'm truly honoured thatLarry and the board gave methis opportunity."

»■-■

□ H A L O E D m O N SBungle boosts Halo 3feverand announces three ed i t ions.

Standard (the game on its own)is $59.99. The Limited edition,with the game and the bonusof other discs is $69.99. TheLegendary edition, however,will come in a Spartan-helmetcase, with storyboard art andtwo discs featuring a 'Making Of'and an audio-v isual ca l ibrat iontool designed by Bungle tomaximise the performance ofyour home-entertainment setup.It also comes with a studio

featurette, Machinima shorts andremas te red c inemat i c ma te r ia lfrom the previous two games.The catch? If II cost $129.99.

REWARDSONY GIVES FREE TVS TOPLAYSTATION FAITHFUL

■ Tlte 46-inch Brawatelevisions had a retail value of

£2,000 each - five times that ofthe PlayStation 1

■ The four-month wait will

have cooled interest in originallaunch titles like Resistance:

Faff Of Man.

■ The European launchline-up Is the strongest ofthe diree, even with a monthdelay until Obfivions release.

'THIS IS A 46-INCH BRAVIA W SERIES.IT'S AN AWARD-WINNING FLAT PANEL.AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT? I'MGOING TO GIVE YOU ONE FOR FREE"

RAY MAGUIRE, SONY UK

016 games ' ' '

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For PlayStation loyalists It has been a gruellingwait. Even with games like Okami, God Of War IIand Final Fantasy XII to l<eep tliem occupied, tine

effort to resist the lure of the new experiences of the Wiiand Xbox 360 will have been enormous. The knowledgethat fellow Sony fans in America and Japan have beenenjoying their PlayStation 3s for more than three monthswill have been small comfort. A free Sony Bravia TV,however, must have gone some way to compensatingthem for their patience.

Standing before the queue of 125 patient customers,Sony UK boss Ray Maguire gestured to the large, flat-screen television behind him. "This is a 46-inch Bravia Wseries," he said. "It's an award-winning flat panel. Anddo you know what the good news is, guys? I'm goingto give you one for free." The revelation was met witha mixture of confused cheers and just plain confusion."Every single one of you in the queue is going to get one,"Maguire explained, and the crowd, finally understandingthe situation, let rip with a thunderous applause. For all thenegativity surrounding the company, Sony sure knows howto reward its fans.

Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, Maguire explained thegesture. "PlayStation 3 is about the new generation ofhigh definition," he said. "There are people in that queuefor whom HD is the more difficult part of that equation...

They've got the best console and now they've got thebest screen." Maguire then went on to say that he feelsPlayStation 3 has started a whole new era. That Sony has,"stepped over the 'current' next generation to create the'real' next generation."

Phil Harrison seemed similarly grateful for thecustomers' loyalty, and reiterated that Europe was neveranything but a top priority. "This is the third continent ofthree, but it is the most important," he explained. "It's gotthe most countries, the most people, the most cultures.

The fact that we've got the launch here with moreconsoles shipped on day one than we've ever had

in history is a compliment to the importance of theEuropean market."With the four-month saga of the PlayStation 3 launch

now officially over, the explanations can stop and the realbusiness of proving the system's worth can truly begin."PlayStation 3 has got a tremendous future ahead of it: thisis just the start as far as the UK is concerned," Harrisonsaid. "We're in a ten-year cycle, and we're four minutesinto that ten-year cycle. Ask me in however many minutestha t i s f r om now. "

I MolorStonn is great but ii e playing it on a free Sony Bravia HD screen.Siiould liave gone to London. We're still finding it hard to write through the tears.

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Full Auto^" 2: Battletines coming soon to PSP^.

www.sega.co.uk

NEWS I MERCENARIES PANIC I EDUCATIONAL GAMES

DATA STREAMB I T E - S I Z E D S TO R I E S F R O M A R O U N DT H E W O R L D O F G A M I N G

GDC CHINAChina's steady development as aplayer in the game industry took agiant leap with the announcementof a new GDC in Shanghai. Theevent will take place at the end ofAugust, and will be organised w^hfull input from a team of Chinesedevelopers to help nurture a "byChina, for China" atmosphere.GDC's Megan Scavio said: "GDCis about connecting the worldwidegame development community,but it has become more and moreapparent to us that certain marketsrequire a specialised experience.The local developers on the GDCChina advisory board hope to makethat experience a reality."

PL£ASEHELPPOLITICAL ACTIVISTS CALL ON BONO

Q The U2 singer has long beeninvolved in political aclivisn, buthis stake In Elevation Partners Is

a coirfllct of interest.

The controversy surrounding Pandemic'sMercenanes 2 deepened recently whenthe Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign

(VSC) wrote to U2 singer Bono requesting helpin stopping the game's release. Bono is involvedwith Elevation Partners, a company with $300 millioninvested in Pandemic, and the VSC is hoping thatBono's track record of polrtical activism will help himrecognise the game's supposedly volatile content.

"The aim of [Mercenaries2\ is full devastation,"the letter claims, "so any 'person' who movesshould be shot, and all the buildings, such as the HQof the PDVSA, the Venezuelan public oil companycan be 'destroyed'. Our concern is that this gamewill only deepen an already antagonistic relationshipbetween the US and Venezuelan governments.

Millions of Venezuelans fear an invasion from theUS; knowing that a company that works for the USmilitary has created a game in which their country isdestroyed, will increase those concerns."

While it is obvious Venezuela was chosen as thegame's setting due to being seen as a troublesomeregion - a natural place for mercenaries to gravitateto - the VSC's accusations of the game beinggovernment-funded propaganda are unconvincing.Pandemic co-founder Josh Resnick defended thelocation as a design choice. "It's common practicein the entertainment business - both movies andvideogames - to set a fictional story in real places."Resnick told Gamespot. "This isn't any different fromsetting a movie like Goodfellas in New York." Seemsnobody told Resnick that Goodfellas is a true story.

M I X E DM E S S A G E SSony representatives seem unableto decide whether the PS3 price-point is too high. In an interviewwith US financial programme CEOExchange, Sony CEO HowardStringer claimed the figure is themost likely reason for failure. "Ifwe fail, it's because we positionedPS3 sales as the Mercedes of the

videogame field," he admitted.Echoing Nintendo's beliefs, hesaid, although it was a "wonderfuldevice", the Wii is not strict^fcompetition as it is aimed at adifferent market. He ended onBlu-ray: "We're selling three-tooneversus [HD-DVD]. At some pointBlu-ray will takeover"

'1 Strategy games are alreadybeing used In schools to teachconceptual subjects and ideas.

PSP LESSONSPROGRESS FOR GAMES IN SCHOOLS

F"J"ollowing the news■that Buzz!: The Big

Quiz will be translatedfor use in the classroom,

Sony has restated itscommitment to pushing

videogames and gaminghardware in education. Atits PSP In Education event inLondon, Sony UK boss RayMaguire outlined the potentialof the company's handheld as alearning tool for schools acrossthe UK. "Up until now it hasn'tbeen right for us to be in thisspace - the technology andthe delivery medium were not

there," Maguire said. "Today Ibelieve that we are."

"[The PSP] takes all the openformats that we need to providefor an internet-based deliverymedium," he said. "In otherwords, if you want pictures,if you want video, if you wantwireless access to the internet,this will give it... I see a situationwhere class notes or homework

assignments can transfer toPSP... So that when kids gohome they can access theinformation rather than havingto go on the internet and searchthrough many websites."

Also speaking was DougBrown, head of the TechnologiesAnd Future Unit at the DFES,who reinforced the messagethat education and gaming werenearing a point of convergence."What is becoming quite clearis that games in education has asignificant part to play" Brownexplained. "A range of activitiesthat are now happening inschools are making good useof games to teach very difficult

conceptual topics, and to takechildren where the teacher

might not otherwise be able totake them. "

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» R E L E A S E L I S T L E T T E R F R O M A M E R I C A

N O . 5 5 ; B E I N G P R O V E D W R O N G

The curse of passing comment on thegame industry is that, occasionally, apartial judgement must be made beforeall the information is In. With somethinglike a new console, it is nigh on impossible toknow what the future holds - well, just looka t t h e D r e a m c a s t .

Sony's PR performance has been laughable oflate, and many media entities, this one included,questioned just how good the PlayStation 3would be as a result. With the Xbox 360 offeringsuch great games and the Wii offering peerlessfun, the question was understandable, but theannouncement of LittleBigPlanet Br\6 Home atGDC has provided the first convincing glimpse atwhat the future of PlayStation 3 might hold. Forthe first time in a long time, hats off to Sony.

- u n

fieTCONSOLE LAUNCHPS3 CONCLUDES THE 'NEXT GEN'

\ f e s , h a p p y! t h e

people of Europeh a v e m a n a g e dto get their hands onThe Most PowerfulH o m e C o n s o l e

Ever^"", but we've hadjust about enoughof covering consolelaunches. Sony is

easily the worstculprit, stretching thePlayStation 3 fiasco

over four months and three separate launch days, though at least theAmericans spiced things up by shooting each other.

The performance of a console can't be tested over three days, sonow that all three next-generation machines are officially here, thehyperbole, guesswork, and inter-company fighting can finally stop.The next time the press insults the PlayStation 3, they might actuallyhave a compelling reason to do so.

Oh, and a free Bravia TV would have been nice.

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•k$ of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.te red t rademarks o r t rademarks o f M ic rcledgehog are either registered trademarre the proper ty o f the i r respect ive ownei

RELEASE LISTCALM YOUR FEVERISH ANTICIPATION WITH OUR COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF FORTHCOMING RELEASES

I l l / M U LT I F O R I V I ATU K c h a r t

F o r m a t P S 3 P u b l i s h e r S o r v

Fonnat Multi Publisher Seci:

C A L L O F D U T Y 3

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This MonthM A Y[Date T i t l e Format 101 May Buzz! Junior : RoboJam P S 204 May Bust -A-Move Bash! W i i04 May Chicken Shoot + Egg Catcher DS,Wii04 May Diner Dash D S

|04 May Final Fantasy III D S :04 May M i n D S t o r m D S04 May Pac-Man Rally P S P04 May Spider-Man 3 M u l t i04 May Tony Hawk's Project 8 PSP04 May Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom PS311 May Cooking Mama: Cook Off W i i11 May Heatseeker PSP11 May SOCOM: US Navy SEALs: Combined A.s,sault PS2, PSP11 May Tw o Wo r l d s 360, PC118 May Halo 2 PC :18 May Impossible Mission M u l t i18 May Legend Of The Dragon M u l t i25 May Dave Mirra BMX Challenge P S P25 May Enemy Territory: Quake Wars P C25 May Forza Motorsport 2 3 6 025 May Limbo Of The Lost P C25 May Pirates Of The Caribbean At The World's End M u l t i25 May Space Force 2 P C

125 May Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition PC ;25 May Valhalla Knights P S P

130 May Glory Days 2 DS ■T B C Circus Empire PCT B C Crush PSPT B C Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai 2 PSPT B C Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales D ST B C Lost In Blue 2 D ST B C Naruto Ninja Council 3 D ST B C Super Fruitfall D ST B C Tank Beat D ST B C World Of Chaos PC

VIEWPOINT

F I N A L F A N T A S Y I I IFormat: DS PubllsherSquareEnixOld-school RPG gaming with anew tick of three-dimensionalpaint. The US has had this forages, now it's our turn.

VIEWPOINTm

H A L O 2F o r m a t : P C P u b l i s h e r M i c r o s o f tIt's been a long time coming butnow PC owners can finally enjoyone of the greatest multiplayerF P S s i n e x i s t e n c e . ,

V IEWPOINT

TO M B R A I D E R : 1 0 ™A N N I V E R S A R Y E D I T I O NF o r m a t : P C P u b l i s h e r : E i d o sLara's original adventure updatedwith the Tomb Raider Legendengine. Will the controls be sorted? ^

VIEWPOINT

G L O RY D AY S 2Format: DS Publisher GhostlightA hugely playable combination ofaction and strategy. Think Silkworm Imeets Advance IVarswith gorgeoussprites and smooth stylus control.

B A R G A I N B A S E M E N T

Format 360 Publisher Ubisoft

b l V l b N r T h e b e s t d e a l s t h i s m o n t hgamestm.co.uk/fomm FOR BANG-UP-TaOATE DEALS. YOUR RND COULD WELL FEATURE ON THESE HALLOWED PAGES

Format: PC Publisher THQ Where: www.play.com Price: £17.99Play.com's sale will probably have finished by ttie time this issue hits thestands but ifs worth checking out its website as soon as possible. At aroundhalf the recommended retail price, this excellent game just became a little

m more essent ia l .

Format : DS Pub l i sher N in tendoWhere: Argos Stores Price: £9.99The online mode may be riddled with cheat-cartridge-using scum but at under a tenner theoffline mode is well worth it.

Format: GBA Publisher SegaWhere: www.hmv.co .uk Pr ice : £6 .00GBA games are plummeting in price downat HMV. The best of the bunch... Treasure'sawesome Astro Boy.

020 games" *

™ i , ^Boom Boom Rocket

. FORWARD THINKING..

B O O G I EF o r m a t ; W i tPub l i she r E l ec t r on i c A r t sElectronic Arts' dancing-karaoke game has asort of The Nightmare Before Christmas stylethat is really quite endearing but the questionremains whether or not this can work without adance mat.

- FORWARD THINKING...

ID E V I L M A Y C R Y 4Format: 360, PC, PS3Publisher: CapcomOnce a PiayStation 3 exclusive. Devil May Cry 4has now been confirmed for the Xbox 360 andPC as well. So, now everyone can look fonwardto Capcom's gothic beat-'em-up sequel. Everyoneexcept Nintendo fans, that is.

^ T B A ^

J U N E A U G U S T0 1 J u n Mega Man ZX DS 10 Aug M a r b l e C h a o s P S 2

0 1 J u n Meteos: Disney Magic DS 24 Aug B i o S h o c k 360, PC0 4 J u n Planet Puzzle League DS

0 8 J u n S B a l l A l l s t a r s DS T B C ' 0 70 8 J u n Powerba l l P inba l l Cons t ruc to r DS T B C Alone In The Dark 360, PC, PS311 Jun Big Brain Academy W i i JBC Army Of Two 360, PS32 8 J u n Cosmic Family W i i T B C Assass in 's Creed 360, PS32 9 J u n Gui tar Hi ts 2006 PSP T B C Battlefield: Bad Company 360, PS32 9 J u n Shrek The Th i rd M u l t i T B C BlackSite: Area 51 360, PS3, PCT B C Alien Syndrome PSR Wii T B C Blue Dragon 3 6 0

T B C Cra^Taxi Fare Wars PSP T B C Boogie W i iT B C Dave Mirra BMX Challenge W i i T B C B u r n o u t s 360, PS3T B C D r i v e r 7 6 PSP T B C Chibi -Robo: Park Patro l DS

T B C Driver Paral le l L ines W i i T B C Cipher Complex 360, PS3T B C Fj^ut Ultimate (^ni^e 3 6 0 T B C Clive Badger 's Jer icho 360, PC, PS3T B C S h a d o w r u n 360, PC T B C Col in McRae DIRT 360, PS3

T B C Cry-On 3 6 0

J U L Y T B C Crysis P C

07 Jul Cricket Life 2007 PC T B C D a r k S e c t o r 360, PS3, PC20 Jul Tr a n s f o r m e r s : T h e G a m e M u l t i T B C D a w n O f M a n a PS2

Hour Of Victory 3 6 0 T B C DevilMayCrY4_ 360, PS3T B C Dew/s Adventure W i i

T B C Emergency Mayhem W i i

T B C Fable 2 3 6 0

M O E R O ! N E K K E T S U R H Y T H MT A M A S H I I O S S U ! T A T A K A E ! O U E N D A NF o r m a t : D SP u b l i s h e r : N i n t e n d oElite BeatAgentswas a superb localisation of thefirst Ouendan but many complained that the songsweren't as good as the original's Japanese rock. Thislong-titled sequel should be right up their street.

T B C ^

T B C

T B C

TBC_T B C

TBC_T B C

T B C

T B C

T B C

T B C

T B C

T B C

T B C

Final Fantasy XIIIFront i ines: Fuel Of War

Grand The f t Au to IV

G r a n T u r i s m o S

Kane & Lynch: Dead MenHalf-Life 2

Halo 3

H a l o Wa r s

Haze

Heavenly SwordHellgate: LondonH e r o e s O f M e n s

P S 3

360, PC, PS3PS3,360

P S 3

PS3,360360, PS3

3 6 0

3 6 0

360, PC, PS3P S 3

■pc'D S

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men 360, PCTBC The Legend Of ZeldarPtiantomHourglass DST B C L a i rT B C L A N o i r e P S 3

T B C Left 4 Dead PC

T B C Lost Odyssey 3 6 0

T B C Lunar Knights D S

T B C M a n h u n t 2 P S 2 , P S P , W i iT B C Mass Effect 3 6 0

T B C Meda l O f Honor : A i rbo rne PS3,360T B C Metal Gear Sol id 4 P S 3

T B C Metroid Prime 3: Corruption W i i

T B C MySims W i i

T B C N o M o r e H e r o e s W i i

T B C Resident Evil 5 360, PS3T B C S a d n e s s W i i

T B C Sega Rally 360, PS3T B C Silent Hill Origins PSP

T B C Space Giraffe 3 6 0

T B C Spore PC

T B C Stranglehold 360, PS3T B C Super Mario Galaxy W i i

T B C Super Paper Mario W i i

T B C Super Smash Bros Brawl W i i

T B C Tabula Rasa PC

T B C Unrea l Tournament I I I PC,PS3T B C WipEout Pulse PSP

T B C Yakuza 2 P S 2

rp FORWARD THINKING...

H A L O 3F o r m a t : 3 6 0P u b l i s h e r M i c r o s o f tNothing can quell our burning anticipation for theBungie masterpiece-to-be Halo 3, but the highprice of the Legendary edition ($129.99) meansthat we probably won't be dressing like the Chiefth is Chr is tmas.

Q4 •

FORWARD THINKING

S U P E R S M A S H B R O S B R A W LF o r m a t : W i iP u b l i s h e r N i n t e n d oSpeculation is rife that Nintendo might havesneaked Sonic the Hedgehog into the final versionof Smash Bros. Personally, we would rather seeChibi-RotM and his trusty toothbrush.But that's just us.

T B A c

PLEASE NOTE: While every effort has been made to ensure these dates are correct at the time of going to press, they are liable to change. This is beyond our control, so don't go giving us evils.

E S S E N T I A L P U R C H A S E Y o u ' l definitely be wanting theseI

C O M M A N D & C O N Q U E R 3

I g - ^

^ i p M I I U

mFormat: PC Publisher: Electronic ArtsThe fact that this long-awaited sequel is basically the same as itspredecessors means that it missed out on games^'s greatest accolade butthat doesn't make it any less entertaining. The classic formulas never grow

■ old and C&C3 is ample proof of this.

Format: PS2, PSP Publ isher: Electronic ArtsFor those of you who thought that Burnoutftevenge tipped the balance between racingand destruction too far, Dominator \s a greatreturn to form.

Format : 360 Publ isher : Ubisof tAs with Command & Conquer, this is a case ofmore of the same but good fun nonetheless.Newcomers should definitely pick up GhostR e c o n A d v a n c e d W a r f i g h t e r 2 . ■

IMPORT WATCH

D A W N O FM A N A

FonnatPS2 Publishers

T h e r e h a v e b e e n l o a d s o f M a n a

games lately but Dawn is the firsttrue sequel since 1995. Will it live

I up to the series'high standards?T O U C H T H ED E A D

Aka Dead & Furious, this long-delayed shooter is finally out inthe states, For a few minutes ofzombie blasting, this can't be beat.

S H I N I N GW I N D A

Sega's final Sh/n/ng game thisgen throws hundr s of retro-like sprites on screen in this 2Dpixelated Dynasty Warriors clone.

F I N A L F A N T A S YTA C T I C S : S H I S E IS E N S O U ^' I m i

The Japanese story will beincomprehensible but strategyRPGs are usually import friendly.This surprise sequel is essential.

H O K U T O N O K E NP A C H I S L O T _

This adaptation of Sammy'sFist Of The North Sfarpachinkomachine is the ideal way to findout what Japanese is crazy about.

games'" 021

V

"I'VE BEEN PLAYING UNRNISHED SOFTWARE FOR TEN YEARS BUTTHERE'S SOMETHING EXCTTING ABOUT BEING INVOLVED IN THE BETA"

H/II ■ ello," it said. "Been enjoyingthe Shadowrun beta?"

" T h e w h a

"Great. Now share the news.'" B u t I . . . "

"We're lifting the NDA on coverage for the beta as oftoday. Feel free to post as much information as you likeabout the game."

"That's peculiar," I confided in Marcia, who sat on mydesk. My eyes shifted between her and the message on

my screen. "I think Shadowrun was that first-person shooterwhere you had wings or could be an elf." She just smiled andgazed back, always happy to listen. "I seem to remember

a friend put me on to that beta program because it wasonly open to the US," I continued, "and that I suffered

through the most hateful sign-up process on the WorldWide Web." It often tickled Marcia when I opted for

the unabbreviated forms of terms that need neverbe unabbreviated. "I had to change browsers threetimes," I went on. "There were so many errors, Iwasn't even sure if I'd done it in the end."

It started coming back to me. "My friend sworehe could fast-track my name to the top of the pile.

on account of our hotshot journo credentials." Her smilingface seemed to grow rosier. It seemed to embarrass Marciawhenever I was sarcastic about my profession; a self-deprecation she wasn't used to where she came from.

"Do you know when that was?" she asked. A perfecthead, shaking.

"November," I said.A glance through my inbox rooted out the missing piece

of the puzzle: I had indeed been accepted on to the betaprogram five days previously. The email that confirmed thishad fallen victim to my personal spam blocker, which consistsof me glancing over the subject titles of new mail, decidingin 50 milliseconds whether it looks like it's from a person ora company There was a Marketplace code in the message,granting access to the beta download of Shadowrun. Holyshit. A new game to play. And one that my friends could not.That would teach them to showboat with the ninja rope. I putMarcia back in her little Unazukin box and took off for the roomwith the big white console.

After a hefty download, and an enormous patch, I was in. Iwas right: you could fly or be an elf (or a dwarf or a human ora troll). The flying was actually a minor let down. It's more ofa big jump with controlled descent than what you would call

: -S'-* 4 1

flight, and a late winter consumed by Crackdown told me thatReal Time Worlds had already cashed the big jumps cheque.

The rest, though, was more stirring. It's the integration of

magic spells - including a Force Push sort of thing, healingand resurrection, and a short-travel teleport - with establishedfirst-person shooter fighting that gives Shadowrun its ownflavour. FASA wants the balance to be right, and they're

listening to us. There's a bug report menu built into the Pausescreen, and a private corner of their forum for more involvedgripes or suggestions.

Although I've been playing unfinished software for tenor so years as part of my job, there's something aboutinvolvement in the beta test that's exciting. Perhaps the

prospect of being able to help get it right, rather than reportinglater on what went wrong. Every game should go throughpublic beta. In particular, America-only betas that make melook all flash.

M a n y t h a n k s

S TAT SPS3: LOSING THE RACE

The NPD Group released sales figuresfor consoles sold throughout themonth of February across the US

HOW OUR LITTLE FORUMRESPONDED TO PS3 HOME

Live killer: 6%Sounds awful: 18%Very interesting: 24%Could beworthwhile: 24%

I Meh: 28%

Thanks to Aniki who ran the poll

US MULTIFORMAT TOP TENTitle Pub l i she r Format

1 Resistance: Fall Of Man Microsof t 360

2 MotorStorm Sony PS3

3 Brian Lara Int Cricket 2007 Codemasters Multi

4 Vittua Tennis 3 Sega Multi

5 Call Of Duty 3 Activision Multi

6 GTA: Vice City Stories Rockstar MuM

7 F1: Championship Edition Sony PS3

8 STAtXER Shadow Of ChemobylTHQ PC

9 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 Electroinc Arts Multi

10 GRAW2 Ubisoft 360

3 6 0 - 2 2 8 , 0 0 0 u n i t s P S 3 - 1 2 7 , 0 0 0 u n i t s

Totals sold to date are 5.1 million 360s,1.9 million Wiis, and 1.1 million PS3s.

T h e T H R E A DI bought the first game. In its Monster

w Attacklorm, for £6, basically becauseit had a big monster that looked like Godzillaon the front. To date it's probably the PS2game I've got the most enjoymentout of. This will have to be invested in ^ ^

I (Updated 24 March 2007) Jet Jaguar looks forward to Earth DefenseForce 2017, at The Society (society.miskie.net)

games ' " 023

'^*|*^~iriiTri]r

K O N G E T S U *W I T H J A PA N E S E C O R R E S P O N D E N T T I M R O G E R S

GUNDAMS PROBABLY HAVE QUICKER ACCESS TO WIRELESS RADIOC O M M U N I C AT I O N T H A N A 2 N D C E N T U RY C H I N E S E WA R L O R D "

If you surf Amazon.co.jp customer reviews - a hotbed ofentertainment-related Japanese public opinion - you'll findthat for each Musou game (equivalent to Dynasty/SamuraiWarriors), somewhere in the first sentence of the top customerreview, someone will use the word 'Soukaikan.' Soukai' means'refreshing' and 'kan' means 'feeling'. Refreshing feeling. The latest in

the series, Musou Orochi, is kind of hilarious as it involves a paralleluniverse in which characters from Dynasty Warrbrs and SamuraiWarriors meet. I call this hilarious because Dynasty Warriors is 2"^

Century China, and Samurai Warriors is 1 et*! Century Japan.Apparently, some hardworking demon warlord causes a

dimensional rift, and time-slips the hell out of these twohistoric wars. So, do the bad guys and good guys from2" Century China call a truce so that they can fight the

bad guys and good guys from 16#^ Century Japan,who have called their own truce? Or do the goodguys from 2"^ Century China recognise the badnessof the bad guys from 16®^ Century Japan, and decide

to team up with the good guys from 1 e"'' Century Japan?Or is there a language barrier? Or mayte evil - or justice- transcends language, and the bad guys from one era get

along with the bad guys from another era just fine.It used to be that Koei exercised a lot of muscle when

it came to producing historical simulations like RomanceOf The Three Kingdoms which were like girly magazines

for people who'd double-majored in Numbers and Facts

in university. Then, somewhere down the line, it popped out DynastyWarriors, a one-on-one fighting game starring historical characters, andthen came the sequel which was one guy versus thousands - it wasa winning formula. It had turned lead into gold; Dynasty Warriors wasthe genre that every licensed game of the 8-bit era wanted to be. Koeihad created a genre of casual games that also had pocket-like illusionsof depth: you have your troops over here, make sure they don't getkilled, oh, there's a flashing spot on your radar, that means one of yourcaptains is in trouble, let's help him. On the way across the battlefieldto help your captain, you can bash and kill various enemies whocower before your glorious might. In a nutshell, that's what the gamesare about: memorising who is going to be in 'trouble' when on eachmap, and running in the right direction and killing anything that gets inyour way In an even nuttier nutshell, they're about pounding buttonsand killing enemies.

The whole 'flashing spot on the radar to indicate one of yourcaptains is in trouble' thing works better in the recent GundamMusou Xhan it does in Dynasty Warriors, probably because Gundamsare giant robots and probably have quicker access to wireless radiocommunication than a 2"^ Century Chinese warlord. Still, the waythose guys in Dynasty Warriors swing a spear, you'd believe theymust also have telepathic powers. That's kind of implied in the word'Musou' which means matchless, peerless, unparalleled. Fighterslike Lu Bu were regarded as geniuses in their day Rock stars withoutguitars. Their flamboyant methods of fighting and presence on thebattlefield made them legends. These legends are likely not entirely

» FEATURE I PREVIEWS

TEACH YOURSELFJ A PA N E S ELESSON: #56: READING JAPANESEVIDEOGAME PR LINGO (TAKEN FROM THEP L AY S TAT I O N S T O R E D O W N L O A D S PA G E )

Toukyou Geemu Shou de koukai sareta wadaiwo yonda TOREERAA MUUBII.The trailer movie that caused quite a stir atTokyo Game Show.

Masumasu moriagari wo miseru AKUSHONADOBENCHAA sa ish insaku tosh i te PS3 detoujou.In celebration, the newest instalment makesits debut on the PS3.

I f

fictional: fighting is a very mental thing, like any sport. And manysoldiers were basically just warm bodies in armour.

Musou games let the player be someone. Sometimes, this isridiculous, like in Gundam Musou, with its amazing HD graphics,where I can stand still in a cloud of enemy mecha and they'll stareat me like they're having a radio conversation: 'Should we attackhim?' 'I'm afraid I might miss and shoot you.' 'But we never shootour guns, we just do melee attacks with them. That's the kind ofgame this is. Even if he's just using a laser sword.' 'You're right''What are you waiting for?' 'I don't know. It feels dumb to smack aguy with a rifle. Why can't 1 use my big iron fist?'

Musou is the name people trust, they sell thousands ofcopies, and though we can laugh at them because not three daysafter their release the shops are flooded with returned copies, wecan also use our imaginations and say that these copies were nodoubt played to obsessive completion in two sleepless, feverishnights, by a man with a job and a rich social life, who has notskipped a Musou game since they started offering expansionpacks. The games vanish from the sales charts the week afterrelease because everyone is buying it used - or not buyingit at all. Man, Japan should really start allowing game rentals

again. That'd be nice. Oh, wait a game rental service started uprecently. Oh, yes, I remember now - it's owned by Koei,

K i n d r e g a r d s

G A M E R E N TA L C R A Z ES W E E P S J A PA N

Well, not really. In May 2006, Koei started upa service called RentaNet, and no, it doesn'tlet you rent nets. Ifs quite amazing that Koeidid this, seeing as it makes most of its moneyfrom games that people sell back two daysafter buying. I suppose we can consider thisphilanthropy. Those who would sell the gamescan now rent; those who need to own everyMusou game will do so.

Actually, Koei doesnt make its new gamesavailable for rent. Here, I pause to reflect on howifs odd that Musou gamers are a weird kind ofsplinter group of casual gamers - a faction thatdeeply cares about getting the game on therelease date.

Anyway, Koei's RentaNet is currently beingtest-marketed in GEO movie-rental shops.Members can ren t se lec ted t i t les f rom Koe i ,

Electronic Arts, SquareEnix and Sega amongother companies for around ¥1,000 each. Why isthis a big deal? Well, game rental was abolishedin Japan forever ago, before it could even getstarted, by an angry little company from Kyoto.This company - called Nintendo - also had anAmer ican branch that t r ied to abo l ish a dev icecalled the Game Genie because it let you cheatin games, which wasn't nice. There's been aweird frozen war going on for decades trying todestroy the second-hand game market, which ishow most people get games in Japan, though ithas been largely unsuccessful. The people wouldhave a fit. Koei's rental service is working becauseall of the companies offering games for rental- so far PlayStation 2 only - have agreed with thei d e a b e f o r e h a n d .

J A PA N E S E M U LT I F O R M ATTOP TEN

H t l e P u b l i s h e r F o r n i a t

1 M u s o u O t o c h i K o e i P S 2

2 Y o s h i ' s I s l a n d D S N i n t e n d o D S

3 DBZ: Hanikanaru Goku Legend Bandai/Namco DS

4 World Puzzle Mojipittan DS Bandai/Namco OS

5 Monster Hunter Portable 2"'' Capcom PSP

6 W i i S p o r t s N i n t e n d o W i i

7 Crayon Sbin-chanDS:Arashi wo

Sakebunutte Crayon DaisakusenI Banpresto DS

8 Prof Layton And Hie Mysterious Village Level 5 DS

9 W i i P l a y N i n t e n d o W i i

10 New Super Mar io Bros Nintendo DS

(Updated week ending 25 Marxh 2007)

K a t s u t e n a i A K U S H O N w o .[Experience] action the likes of which hasnever ex is ted before.

Kono tek ishuu wo mae n i k imi wa ik inob l rukotoga dekiru kailCan you survive the onslaught?

Go kitai kudasai.Please anticipate [it].

GEARS OF WARS W E E P S J A PA NS A K A G U C H I : U N D E N I A B L YO N E O F T H E G O O D G U Y S

I reported last month that Gears Of Warsold 33,(D00 copies in Japan. Great butthat's nothing compared to this. HlronobuSakaguchl recently told a US interviewer thatMicrosoft's marketing in Japan is awful. Hespoke in English as he knew it wouldn't betranslated by the PR guy. Sakaguchl! Longlive the Gooch! He said Gears should have

been number one, a system seller, a gatewayto US-style action games for the uninitiatedJapanese gamer. He couldn't believe howexcel lent i t was and how no one at Microsof t

had bothered to show it to him. He cal ledfor all developers to try to make games as"together" as Gears. He also invited FinalFantasyto compete with his upcoming LostOdyssey and be caished beneath his mightyfeet The best part of the interview, for me, ishow he says Gears has inspired him to makean action game - this from the man whosaid he had no interest in making an actiongame just because Dragon Quest IX was tobe an action game. Please don't talk aboutSakaguchi making a gun game about mopeyteenagers with fantastic hair, or I'll hit you. I'msure when he says he wants to make a gamelike Gears, he means a game that is cohesive,strong, fluent and immaculately paced. Yes.

games ' 025

NEWS FEATURE I LOGICAL PROGRESSION

togressionCAN WINDOWS VISTA CHANGETHE FACE OF PC GAMING?

Despite the months of frenzied anticipation,the arrival of the PlayStation 3 in Europehas not signalled the close of console

gaming's period of transition. When you're dealingwith machines designed to have a useful lifespanof five to ten years, with innovations being maderight up to the death, the launch is actually fairlyinconsequential. The Nintendo Wii's controls anddepth of experience have yet to convince, Sony isadamant that we're a long way from seeing whatthe combination of Blu-ray and the Cell Processorcan really accomplish, and Microsoft has taken greatpains to remind the public that Gears Of IVar doesn'trepresent the peak of the Xbox 360's powers. Inshort, if consoles exist primarily to support games andsoftware, then the realisation of the next generation issome way off arriving.

This lull while console developers learn theintricacies of the new hardware has offered PC

gaming an ideal and rare opportunity to take centrestage. Itzik Ben Bassat, a developer on Blizzard'sWorld Of Warcraft, recently observed that themultimedia functionality of modern consoles isbringing them more in line with PCs, but while consolegamers will have to be satisfied with squeezing

S * >■

I We'll see Shadovmin multiplaver games on plenty of PCs thanks to Vista.

0 2 6 s ^ m e s " '

greater efficiency out of their current hardware for thenext decade, PC technology never has to stand still.Speaking exclusively to games™, David Perry, directorof Project Top Secret (see boxout), commented: "Ifyou compare PlayStation 2 to the Crysis Engine, itgives you a feel for what the PlayStation 3 is gonnalook like in a few years. The console industry looksat where the PC is and catches up to it at a cheaperprice, and then it's frozen for five years, which allowsthe PC to race ahead again. That's basically the cycle.If you want to play cutting-edge stuff, the last placeyou want to do that is on consoles."

Getting to the cutting edge, however, is easier saidthan done. With the technology forging ever onward,it is up to the individual to keep pace, and the expenseinvolved in doing so is beyond the means of manyYes, the number of PCs throughout the world dwarfsthe number of consoles, but only a minuscule fractionof that number would be able to fully support thecomplex games that represent the forefront of whatis currently possible: Crysis or Spore, for example.The appeal of a console lies not in its power, but inthe simplicity of the experience and that is a qualitythat PCs - temperamental almost by design - havenever been able to lay claim to. With Windows Vista,however, Microsoft is attempting to at least partiallyredress the balance.

Since its launch, discussion surrounding the newoperating system has largely centred on its problems.That Microsoft has never released a piece of softwarethat wasn't riddled with bugs seems to have slippedthe public's mind, though the negative feeling doesnot stop there. Speaking to Gameslndustry.biz at GDC,Valve's marketing manager Doug Lombardi expressedhis concerns that Microsoft's sudden dedication to PCgaming is a little too convenient in its timing, citing it

"THE BEST THING ABOUTDX10 AND VISTA FOR ME IS

THE PUSH MICROSOFT ISMAKING TO MAKE PC GAMES

EASIER FOR THE USER TO BUY,I N S TA L L A N D U N D E R S TA N D "KEN LEVINE, CO-FOUNDER, IRRATIONAL GAMES

» NEWS FEATURE I LOGICAL PROGRESSION

as nothing more than a ruse to falsely exaggerate theimportance of Vista. "If [Microsoft] is going to use itto promote sales of Vista that's really not good for theindustry," Lombardi claimed. "It's good for Microsoft inthe short term." The introduction of DirectX 10 is seenas Vista's key technological contribution to gaming,but there is a growing feeling that it could easily havebeen implemented on Windows XR saving existing PCowners the expense of an upgrade. That this is all justa moneymaking scheme by Microsoft is not beyondthe realms of possibility, but Lombardi's view is toonarrow in focus, and assumes that Vista has little usefor gamers beyond acting as a conduit for DirectX 10.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Ken Levine,co-founder of B/bS/ioc/c developer Irrational, stated:"The best thing about DX10 and Vista for me is notthe graphics, it's the push Microsoft is making tomake PC games easier for the user to buy, installand understand. The new rating system for system

requirements is going to go a long way to broaden ourmarket. PC gaming needs to grow up in this regard,and Vista is a great start." David Perry expressedsimilar sentiments on the importance of Vista. "Iknow it's frustrating the hell out of everyone," headmits, "but the bottom line is that Microsoft willsort it out, and Vista is really pushing all the hardwaremanufacturers to put in 3D cards for the first time.Not any 3D card, a good 3D card, so any PC beingmanufactured now will be optimised for gaming likenever before. I think Microsoft let gaming fall by thewayside, and now they're starting to take it seriouslyagain. Word processing, MP3s - this stuff just doesn'tuse the power. Gaming is the real driver that makes usall want to keep upgrading."

Lombardi's damning assessment of Microsoft'smotives seems tainted by the ruthlessly corporateimage that the company has laboured under ever

popular by Vista?

since it entered the console market. Everydecision made in a business is underscored bythe goal to maximise profit, and in that senseMicrosoft did develop Vista to make money - butonly in as much as Valve developed Steam forthe same purpose. Vista, like Steam, will enhancethe gaming experience: perhaps not as much asLombardi might have liked but it is widely heldthat Vista still represents an important progression.

In a recent interview with games'™. RichWickham, who was instrumental in Vista'sdevelopment, claimed that gamers were alwaysgoing to be part of the equation. "We've built itwith gaming in mind from the ground up," hesaid. "Vista offers a significantly improved gamingexperience for everyone - from casual gamersto the hardcore enthusiast we're bringing thevery best online service, including GamerScore,Achievements and matchmaking to the platformwith the most online gamers. I think the Windowsgame world is doing just fine but we can make iteven better with the introduction of Vista, linkingGames For Windows with Xbox Live, and our

branding and retail efforts. One thing that hasbeen missing from PC gaming is leadership, and [ >

I Are PC gai g us what the PlayStation 3 will be presenting In a few years?

i : _; Ho3 HELLGATE; LONDON

j AnMMOthatdarestobedHferent* * ■

IV!

I No2 CRYSIS^ The best looking game ever?

V

V No.1 SPOREI It might be Will Wright's piece de resistance

l i B U

P v ■>

/

I Spore reallY doesn't need to appeal any more - its alreadv near the top of our wish list

that's where Games For Windows is risingto the occasion. With our dedicated efforts,

we are looking to bring Windows gaming bacl< tothe fore and help it continue to be the innovationcatalyst for the industry,"

Claims to leadership may seem inherentlyarrogant, but despite competition from Apple,Microsoft's dominance of the home computermarket is such that the decision to concentrateon gaming immediately makes them one of themarket's most important driving forces. Whenpush comes to the shove, the Xbox 360 is stilllikely to be Microsoft's priority when it comesto gaming, but that is hardly cause for dismayamong PC gamers - surely any extra attentionfrom Microsoft is a tremendous benefit. GamesFor Windows is unquestionably an important stepfor online gaming, linking two previously disparateplatforms and moving the industry one step closerto our prophesised future of one common systemfor all our entertainment needs.

The benefits of this, for Microsoft, areimmediately apparent but it will also encouragedevelopers to create typical PC games for Xbox360 and typical console titles for PC, broadeningthe scope of both platforms, and growing theonline community enormously. In addition, allXbox 360 peripherals will be compatible with bothplatforms, giving developers a standard controller,headset and wheel configuration to work with."We think this will revitalise games that havedisappeared from the Windows platform, likeracing and sports," Wickham claims. "We'realso delivering terrific new mice and keyboardstargeted directly at gamers."

Much like the next-generation consoles,however, the promise of Windows Vista remainsjust that: promise. It is as simple for Wickham toclaim that Vista will change the face of PC gaming

as it is for Doug Lombardi to say it is a financiallymotivated flash in the pan. Time will tell, but withVista now the standard operating system for allnew PCs, it is imperative that Microsoft retains thedesire to see its plans through. "When we firstintroduced Xbox Live it was an in-game experienceonly," Wickham explains. "We've been workingon that experience for five years now and made anumber of improvements. We've only in the lastyear started working on Games For Windows andLive, yet we'll be releasing titles this year that willhave more functionality than first-generation XboxLive games had. We're connecting two platformsin a way that has never been done before. This isno small feat. We've come a very long wayin a very short time."

I BioShock will be lighting up our screens later in the year

"WE'RE CONNECTIN"el aVTA

I It's been a long time coming, but S. TALKER, was wonli the wait

V V I - 1 I L . I t l M

W TFOBIVIS IN A WAY THATLk NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE.fTfllS IS NO SMALL FEAT WE'VE

COME A VERY LONG WAY in: AVERY SHORT TIME"

^ RICH WICKHAM, GAMES FOR WINDOWS, MICROSOFT'

INTERVIEW: DAVID PERRYgames™ Talks To Shiny Entertainment Founder David PerryAbout His User-Created MMO, Project Top Secret

games™: What inspired the project?David Perry: I have a website where Istarted to list the colleges in the world thatwere teaching how to make videogames.That made my site a bit of a magnet forschoolteachers and students and parents.The students would just send me simplequestions that they had and I would answerthe questions and they'd get all happybecause someone actually replied.

Then I got these guys who would emailme a design document and say "Here is adesign document for a game, can you gomake it now, please?" and I'd say, "No,I'm a little busy right now." But they'd keep

coming back, asking what they could do,so I would tell them to go find themselvessome programmers and put together a demo.And they would say "Where do I get theprogrammers who would be willing to dothis?" At some point it's a Catch-22, they'restuck, right? So I said 'why don't we createa Wiki on my website where you can postyour design document? There are plenty ofprogrammers that come flooding throughhere, if they like the look of it maybe you'd beable to catch a few.'

So we did that, and it's actually worked,so there are multiple projects running on mysite. Project Top Secret is like that on steroids.Everyone can join in, not just the people onmy site. What's most interesting is how manyindustry people are watching with completefascination, and we sent out a letter thatexplains all the details of how it works to lookfor people to help moderate.

g™: Is everything going to be user created?DP: We have a fully funded team that is readyto make the title. We start off with an MMOengine, which allows you to have lots ofsen/ers interconnected so we don't have to sitaround for a year waiting for the programmersto do that. The next thing is the genre, andthe immediate response was that everybodythought I would just rip off World Of Warcraft.We've got about 20,000 people signed up andI think we'll probably get about 100,000 - it'sgoing to be quite interesting tp/ing to managethat many people, so making WOWss ourfirst game, I think, would set us up for failure.

I said 'let's pick a genre that everybody herehas played.' I wanted a genre that everybodyhad an opinion on and ideas for, so the genre

I chose was racing. The idea of the first gameis to make something quite simple; it's goingto challenge them to make a game, I don't justwant to make a racing game - you could be

racing on cows, or flying -1 don't know whatkind of racing game yet, that's just the genre.

g™: Who decides which ideas are used?DP: We have a forum where we'll say 'Weneed a character design for a main malecharacter, and we need it drawn from the sideand straight on.' People then go off to the sidechannels and d iscuss i t and th ink about what

they're going to do, but whenever they'refinished, they have to post the image into themain channel. We have moderators watchingthe main channel so if somebody delivers

games by about a million miles. It's worthmillions of dollars. Microsoft is doing a

competition for its XNA and the top prize is$10,000-that's Microsoft, you know? When Igo to colleges, students will make demo reelsto showcase their talent. We set it up a littlelike American Idol, where I'm Simon Cowelland I basically sit there and review the reelswith them. I cannot tell you how good thesereels are, and they have no idea they haveso much talent. They're all timid and I'm like,dude, you have no id... can I be your agent?[Laughs.]

g™: So even below that eventual winnert h e r e w i l l s t i l l b e c h a n c e s a t e n t r a n t s

gaining employment?

"THERE'S PEOPLE THAT POIINrT AT HURDLES AND PEOPLETHAT JUMP OVER HURDLES, AND SO I'M HOPING THATWE CAN KEEP CLEARING THE HURDLES ON THIS"04 WD PERRY, FOUNDER, SHINY ENJERTAINMENT

w h a t w e a s k e d f o r t h e n t h e m o d e r a t o r m o v e s

that image to the judging channel. Then I'mgoing to have industry celebrities come into help judge, people who really know thefield and can make a good decision. If thereare two designs so close that we just can'tchoose between the two, then we have areputation system where the users can voteon each other's progress, and the person withthe highest reputation will be the winner

g™: There's no precedent for a project likethis. Does that scare you?DP: There's people that point at hurdles andpeople that jump over hurdles, and so I'mhoping that we can keep clearing the hurdleson this one because it's a very complicatedproblem. I do ask everyone to be patient whilewe work it all out because people are going todo whatever they do and we'll have to figureout how best to work with that. On the otherhand, I look to the future and wonder whathappens if this works. Next game we'll get1 million sign ups, and at that point you'vepretty much built an army ILaughs.j

g™: Do you see this as a valid way offinding and recruiting new talent?DP: I think that's the big surprise here. Theprize is the biggest prize in the history of

DP: I look at it like there are three levels.There's the winner. Then there are the peoplethat really have some impressive lookingstuff. They're going to get jobs - I'm gonnahire some. Acclaim's gonna hire some. I betyou all the big companies are gonna haveheadhunters in there fishing around like crazy.I'm also expecting some spin-off teamswhere a group of, say, five people all just likeworking with each other Then the third levelare those that don't get any job offers, butthey'll get a full credit, which is verifiable, fortheir CV. That's much better than nothing, youknow, 'I worked on a year-long project and didbackground art for three levels.'

g™: How will the winner be decided?DP: In my experience, every time I go in aroom of people somebody always shines.Somebody stands out. We're offering them alittle more than is initially obvious. Say I giveyou $10 million dollars to make a movie, youmight ask whether to buy your camera or rentyour camera. Wouldn't it be better to get $10million and the cell number of a director whocan answer all your questions so that everytime you get stuck you can pick up the phoneand find the answer - we're offering that aspart of the prize. I'm not just going to let themget stuck.

g a m e s ' 0 2 9

S Q U A R E E N I Xg?

A S S Q U A R E E N I X B R I N G S F I N A L F A N TA S Y T H R O U G H I T S F O U R T H G E N E R AT I O N A LT R A N S I T I O N , T H E W O R L D W I T N E S S E S A C H A N G E D S E R I E S . T H E F I R M H A SP R O P O S E D A T H R E E - P R O N G E D AT TA C K O N T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N O F C O N S O L E SA N D A N A T T E M P T T O A P P E A L T O T H E M A S S E S O F N E W G A M E R S E N S N A R E D B YT H E E F F O R T S O F VA R I O U S O T H E R C O M PA N I E S . I T ' S A P L A N T H AT L O O K S S E T T OS T U N I N M A N Y W A Y S . A D D T O T H I S T H E I M M E N S E S U P P O R T F O R H A N D H E L D ST H E C O M P A N Y H A S P L A N N E D A N D T H E S U C C E S S O F I T S R E C E N T E U R O P E A NR E L E A S E S A N D I T ' S C L E A R T H E F U T U R E I S L O O K I N G B R I G H T F O R T H E C O M PA N YT H AT D O E S N ' T K N O W T H E M E A N I N G O F T H E W O R D F I N A L . . .

There is no game series thatbenefits from larger-scaleproduct ion more thanFinal Fantasy. It's a series

that simply revels in expanse due to its verynature as a videogame. As SquareSoft (asFinal Fantasy's parent was known back inthe day) brought Final Fantasy VII into themodern disc-based arena of in-game moviesand pre-rendered settings utilising threeCDs, it became apparent that Final Fantasywould be developed subsequently withouta hint of conservatism: particularly fromthe PlayStation era onwards, Final Fantasy

• games have been produced with the ethos

j" that bigger is, indeed, better From that

point on, size did matter - and it matteredto many, many people.

It's fitting, then, that the destination forSquare Enix's most ambitious project todate, the initially three-headed Final FantasyXIII (look out for more heads growing onthis particular monster in the future), isSony's similarly over-designed PS3. And thepotential of this marriage is strengthenedby Square Enix's willingness to test thePlayStation 3 hardware with its owntechnical ability rather than simply relying onthe safe choice represented by middleware.PlayStation 3, for whatever faults you mayattempt to find, is a powerful beast andthe scope of potential for the titleAitles is

nothing short of staggering. Fans of theseries have been salivating for some timeover the possibilities. You can count usamong them.

Although Square Enix recently licensedthe Unreal Engine 3 for use in other projects- the engine responsible for some of thefinest examples of gaming the last yearhas seen - Final Fantasy XIII has been

developed using the company's ownproprietary White Engine. Certainly, fromthe footage released so far and the screenswe're privy to on these pages, that decisionseems to have been a very wise one. FFXIIIlooks better than any other PS3 game by

Fighting Solo?ONLY A FEW battle scenes

have been shown to thepress so far, but Toriyama didrecently confirm to Japanese

magazine Weekly Famitsuthat tradit ional team-based

b a t t l e s w o u l d o c c u r i n F F X I I I .

However, there will be manyoccasions when Lightning goesinto battle without any backup.

Presumably, other characterswill also be playable in battle

without assistance from partymembers. Exploration also

seems to be split between soloand group-based adventure.

some way - no mean feat - and we haveto assume tha t t h i s i s as much to do w i th

the technology it's using as it is SquareEnix's inimitable artistic direction which,even without the technology to back itup, has managed to wow gamers forupwards of 20 years.Of course, looks are not everything- a n e t h o s t h a t w e ' r e k e e n t o m e n t i o n

whenever possible here at games™- but as well as jaw-dropping visuals.

Final Fantasy XIII a\so progresses theseries with a sound, stable and promising

gameplay mechanic based on thegroundbreaking nature of last year's PS2swansong, the real-time wonder that wasFinal Fantasy XII.In many ways Final Fantasy XII owes adebt to the online anomaly that was Final

Fantasy XI. It feels like an MMORPG,albeit one where the '0' stands for'offline', and this is mainly thanks toFFXII's adoption of real-time battlesthat segue with the game's roaming,exploratory passages. There is no cutbetween Adventure and Fight: betterstill, for those who desire continuityabove flash. Final Fantasy XII relies moreheavily on cut-scenes using its in-gameengine instead of over-using Square Enix'scrutch/forte (delete according to yourown perception); FMV. While the leapto Square Enix's White Engine in FinalFantasy XIII, however, provides at lasta genuine opportunity to drop the pre-rendered sequences altogether.

Of course, we said 'last year's swansong'when referring to FFXIl, but the gamewas only recently released here in the UKand many are likely still wading throughthe title now. The downside of beingreleased in Japan such a long time beforeit eventually drifted over to our shores isthe fact that the games™ review of FFXIlcame a long while before you could buythe game in this territory. Those inclinedwould have imported and perseveredwith it in Japanese - with a little helpfrom a translation guide, no doubt - butfor those who missed out, you may haveguessed by now that Final Fantasy XII isan exceptional title, well worth your hard-

■ Will fra'///actuallylook this good in-game?Our scepticism says not

but wen

earned cash, and a joyous way to whilsQaway large quantities of your time.

It's clear from Motomu Toriyama'sresponse to our questions regardingFFXIII (see Direct Approach) that SquareEnix is putting most of its weight intoFinal Fantasy XIII at present, and - ashe revealed - what was thought to bea trilogy is actually set to become evenmore expansive. We're particularlyinterested by the prospect of spin-offgames, which may be a philistine thingto say, but Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VIIand Dirge Of Cerberus have shown thatSquare Enix can successfully diversify itsileading series. (And, of course, furtherinto the depths of Square Enix's backcatalogue. Brave Fencer Musashindenand Ergheiz were also great examples ofSquare's norvRPG-related abilities.)

As ever, battles are key and it's goodto see that a real-time model (the ActiveTimer Battle system of Final FantasyXll) has been adopted in XIII. WhatToriyama didn't go into, but which wealready know of is Final Fantasy XIH'sOverclock system. Overclock will enablethe player in your control to 'go hyper', forwant of a better term, once the circulargauge (pictured in the top-right cornerof FFXIII battle shots) is filled. And whileyour character (Lightning, initially) is inthis state, he/she will be able to movemuch more quickly than usual whileother characters in the field have their

; movements slowed to a crawl.

I ^na/farrtas/hasn'tlookedso 'sc i - fi ' s ince the b r i l l i an t

Surely a good sign.

Final Fantasy Xlll's setting is still largelyunder wraps, but from having been to therecent Jump Festa event over in Tokyowe do know that much of the game willbe set on a floating island called Cocoon,A separate world, used as a refuge forthose who are evicted from Cocoon, iscalled Pulse. The plot of the game seemsto be more political than most Final

Fantasy games, with a focus on howthe government of Cocoon and Pulse is

treating the citizens in its domain. Lightningand other controllable characters will spend

W h a t w a s t h o u g h t t o b e a t r i l o g y i s s e tt o b e c o m e e v e n m o r e e x p a n s i v e . T h ep r o s p e c t o f s p i n - o f f g a m e s i s i n t e r e s t i n g

Lightning QuicliFINAL FANTASY Xlll 's lead

protagonist is one of the coolestFinal Fantasy characters since the

iconic persona of Cloud Strife.And just as Cloud had his own

enormous blade. Lightning hasa weapon to fear: the gunblade.

Lightning also has a Gravity tonbat her disposal, which can bfiped

to quickly put up an electricals h i e l d a s a d e f e n s i v e t a c t i c i n

battle. Although he remainsunnamed, one of Lightning's

comrades was revealed atDecember's Jump Festa show in

Tokyo. The blonde figure lookslike a tough guy - he rides a

motorbike, after all, and wears ab a n d a n a - a n d h i s r o l e s e e m s t o

be that of Lightning's bodyguard,as he often comes to her defence

with his trusty gun. Other thanthese two playable characters,

nothing is known about FinalFantasy Xlll's line-up.

much of their time fighting against the evilelements of this government.

The crystals mentioned in the FabulaNova CrystaUis titles also have a strongbearing on how the game progresses.Initially, there is an invasion of Cocoon bybeings from Pulse, which leads to a quasi-revolution. Cocoon, as its name suggests,has developed into something of a havenfrom the ills of Final Fantasy Xlll's universe,leaving those outside of Cocoon in adangerous environment. Crystals formedCocoon, but it seems that Cocoon'sstrengths as a fortress are susceptibleto infiltration and, more alarmingly for itsinhabitants, the prospect that Cocooncould be dislodged from its position abovethe orbit of Pulse. Although Square Enix

has stated that the various games thatform Fabula Nova CrystaUis Final FantasyXIII are not directly related to each other,

they do all occur in the same universe andshare aesthetic similarities.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII is the mobilephone title in the series - whether thisparticular section of the title will make itas far as Europe, where mobile phonesare still rudimentary in comparison tothose available in Japan, is unknown - andit seems to play completely differentlyfrom Final Fantasy XIII proper, takingthe un i ve rse i n an on l i ne d i rec t i on tha t

facilitates multiplayer adventuring (althoughonline features, as Toriyama explained,are still being considered for Final I The PS3 may be able to realise more realistic visuals but the monsters remain as imaginatively designed

g a m e s ' " 0 3 5

D>

White MagicWE DON'T KNOW a great

deal about the magic spellsavailable to FFXIII's playable

characters, but we do haves o m e b a s i c i n f o r m a t i o n t h a t

gives an impression of thedirection the game is taking.

As ever, elemental magic willplay a big part in battles: Fire

(based on flames). Blizzard(icy), Thunder (loud), and

Aerial (strong winds). There'salso a brand of magic called

Firaga, which takes fire magicto a further level, enabling

simultaneous attacks againstall enemies. In a more

general sense. Lightning andher comrades will have four

key options available to themin battle: Attack, Shoot (which

makes use of Lightning'sgunblade weapon), Defend,

and V Strike which can effectOverclock and Limit

Hit specials).

T h e s c o p e o f S q u a r e E n i x ' s a m b i t i o n s i si m p r e s s i v e . F i n a l F a n t a s y X I I I w i l l s h o w h o w w e l l

8 Advent Children can be represented in a game[> Fantasy XIII as well). Tetsuya Nomura,

Agito's art designer, is also working ascharacter designer on Final Fantasy XIII.Interestingly, while the PS3 games haveshown no signs of resurrecting old FinalFantasy characters, Agito does featurethe series' popular Moogles.

This mobile plione direction reallydoesn't come as any great surprise, it'sbecome increasingly clear that SquareEnix's interest in portable systems hasgrown significantly and with titles suchas Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings,Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Tactics,I t ' s A W o n d e r f u l W o r l d a r \ 6 H e r o e s O f

Mana all turning up - if they haven'talready - some time this year. It's morethan clear that mobile gaming is goingto be a large part of the company'sstrategy in the future.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is the otherPlayStation 3-based Final Fantasy gamecurrently in the works. Versus is anotherseparate proposition, with more of ana c t i o n - a d v e n t u r e b e n t t h a n t h e c e n t r a l

Final Fantasy XIIIRPG under MotomuToriyama's direction. Tetsuya Nomurais Versus' lead art designer, whichexplains the visual synergy betweenthe three Fabula Nova games, andNomura also plays the role of directorhere. Versus is all about the control ofthe mysterious crystals that tie FabulaNova Cr/stallis together. In this case, anheir to a kingdom is entrusted with thetask of protecting a city's crystals frominvaders, although further details aboutthis main playable character remain asecret. What is known is that the gamewill make innovative use of the Sixaxisduring fight sequences, and there willbe playable characters other than thecen t ra l he i r he ro .

The sheer scope of Square Enix'sambitions with Final Fantasy XIII andits offshoots is undeniably impressive.It's safe to say that without the storagecapacity of Blu-ray, Final Fantasy XIIIin its PlayStation 3 guises would havebeen a non-starter. As Toriyama recentlytold Japanese magazine Dengeki: "Final

Fantasy XIII takes up the challengeof seeing how well the battles fromA d v e n t C h i l d r e n c a n b e r e c r e a t e d i n a

game. Battles that were not possible topresent in previous Final Fantasy gameswere shown in Final Fantasy VII AdventChildren. On the other hand, FinalFantasy XIII will show how well thatmovie can be represented in a game."

If Square Enix gets anywhere near

achieving a playable videogame with thebeaut/ of Advent Children, the franchisewill be forever changed - and for thebetter. As technology - not to mentionSquare Enix's development techniques -have progressed, the onus on players tofill in the continuity gaps with their ownimaginations ('seeing' two-dimensionalsprites in three-dimensional vision,and imagining in-game visuals of FMVquality) will have diminished to virtuallynaught. The future's certain to be a veryinteresting place - especiallywhen it's Square Enix that isshowing us the way.

M o r e T l i a nFantasy

Just from looking at thenew screens here, you cansee that Final Fantasy XIII

isn't only light years aheadof other titles in the series

in a technical sense - it'salso more futuristic in style.

By Toriyama's admission,FFXIII is, "less fantasy than

it is science fiction", and thegame's distinctive visualshave been developed to

progress the sci-fi themes ofFFVII and FFVIII. Certainly,

with the physical gapbetween Cocoon and Pulse,

and the chance to journeybetween planets. Final

Fantasy XIII is worlds away (ifyou'll pardon the pun) from

the comparatively simplemap-based exploits of past

Final Fantasy games.

J

0 3 6

FEATlgE SQUARE ENIX

D i r e c t A p p r o a c hW E S A T D O W N W I T H T H E G A M E ' SD I R E C T O R , M D T O M U T O R I Y A M A , F O R AC H A T A B O U T T H E P R O G R E S S O F F F X I I IA N D F O U N D H I M T O B E I N F I N E V O I C E . . .

games™: There are so manyfans out there waiting for FinalFantasy XIII and most of them willinevitably buy the game, but doyou feel any pressure to deliver?Motormu Toriyama: Whenever we

develop a new Final Fantasy gamefor a new hardware format, we'revery conscious to nnake use of thenew console's key specificationsand features, so there is definitelypressure to perform. With FinalFantasy on the PS3, we're particularlyfeeling that type of pressure.

g™: With Rnal Fantasy XIII y/ou'vedecided to spread the projectover three titles, including onefor mobile phones. What was thethinking behind that? Is there anyparticular objective?MT: In faa, the Fabula Nova CrystallisFinal Fantasy XIII project isn't justlimited to three titles - there are

many different aspects. In terms ofthe formats we're reaching, as well,it's not simply exclusive to the PS3and mobile phones. In Latin, FabulaNova Crystallis means 'New CrystalStory' and we're using that as a basefor the project, but there are manycharacters and legends that arebranching off from this main storyand universe. It's a huge project.

g™: If we can move on to thebattle systems in Final FantasyXIII, how does the game playdifferently to previous FinalFantasy titles?MT: The Active Tmer Battle systemof recent Final Fantasy games hasbeen speeded up to its limit in Final

Fantasy XIII. It can't get any quickerthan this. Compared with previousFinal Fantasy games, the pace ofbattles in Final Fantasy XIII has beendrastically increased, but we've stillmanaged to retain the tactical andstrategic characteristics of the series.

g™: Could you tell us a little aboutsome of the most interestingcharacters in Final Fantasy XIIRMT: I can only really talk aboutLightning at the moment. She's themain character, but in the game she'sreluctant to talk about herself and

her past, so there's a strong elementof mystery about her character The *name 'Lightning' itself is just a tag Jshe has chosen - it's actually not "* ■her real name. We're planning totalk about other characters in the

near future, but we're deliberatelyrevealing them in a certain order, soI'm afraid you'll just have to wait formore reve la t ions.

g™: How does Final Fantasy XIIIuse PlayStation 3's key features- its Blu-ray disc format, the

PlayStation Networi<, and so on?MT The PlayStation 3's high-definition capabilities are really helpingus to develop Final Fantasy XIH'sdrama scenes with an extra sense

of presence and impact. I think we'llbe able to achieve a lot of things tha®were previously impossible: we'rereally creating a greater degree ofexpression as far as the game'scharacters are concerned, and we'realso innovating with a split displayto show what's happening in thegame to different characters indifferent locations at the same t ime.

We haven' t dec ided whether or not

to make use of the PlayStation 3'sonline functions, but we're thinkingabout i t . . .

g™; Are there likely to be anymini-games in Final Fantasy XIIRMT: We're still debating over whetheror not to include mini-games in theFinal FantasyXIII project, but if wewere to develop mini-games in thisuniverse we'd probably think about

developing them into additional,separate releases - brand newgames in their own right.

g™: How long do you expect itto take a typical player to see theentirety of Final Fantasy XIIRMT Well, we want to maintain thevolume of previous Final Fantasygames, so you can expect FinalFantasy XIII to be just as long.

g™: And here's the biggie. Whencan we expect to see Final FantasyX / / / r e l e a s e d ?

MT I'm afraid we still haven't set a

release date.

- 037 '

PREVIEW 1 SKATE XBOX 360/MULTIFORMAT

0 3 8 g a m e s ' "

S K AT EX B O X 3 6 0 / M U L T 1 F 0 R I V I A T

■ EA Black Box is a subsidiary of EA Canada. Skate's associate producer Jay Balmer has 30years of skating experience behind him, he was on the production team for SSX3 and can alsoboast credits on Tony Hav\^'s Underground and Grind Session on the PSOne.

HISTORY■ NEED FOR SPEED CARBON 2006 [MuW]■ NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND 2003 [MuKi]■ NHL 2004 2003 [MuKi]

■i:

A N D Y O U T H O U G H TY O U K N E W W H A T AS K A T E B O A R D I N G G A M E W A S

DjV How do you go about reinventing/ the wheel? Not a simple thing todo you would think, but that's basicallyt h e t a s k t h a t E A B l a c k B o x s e t i t s e l f w h e n

it decided to make a skateboarding game.The Tony Hawk's series has dominated the

genre since 1999 but that doesn't mean thereisn't space for competition. If we're beingperfectly honest we're of the opinion thatAct iv is ion and the Hawk l icence cou ld do wi th

having a fire lit underneath them. And afterseeing Skate, we have to say that ElectronicArts may well have pulled it off. If nothingelse it is a complete departure from theconventions laid down by the current marketleader and with any luck it will send a veryloud alarm bell ringing around the Neversoftoffices. There's some competition on thehorizon and it could have Hawk beaten.

However, Black Box doesn't appear tohave gone about developing Skate in avindictive state of mind. When we spoke toJay Balmer, the associate producer of thegame, he was quite open in his admiration ofthe skateboarding supremo: "I think that TonyHawk is a great game in that it was almostlike combining racing with fighting... It lookslike skateboarding -1 press a button and I seea kick-flip, press another and I see a heel-flip- however, it never felt like skateboarding.It lacked a physical connection in that what

happened on screen wasn't connected to myactions, which is a challenge for all games."And a challenge that Skate has met with great

D C B E D A M N E DWe thought we'd ask the game's jassociate producer. Jay Balmer, about;d o w n l o a d a b l e c o n t e n t f o r S k a t e o n I360 and PS3. After all, this is an EA 'game and we felt pretty comfortablein assuming that there would beplenty of additional features andfi x t u r e s a d d e d f u r t h e r d o w n t h eline. The answer we got, however,was both surprising and refreshing-. !"My understanding is that we're notbuilding downloadable contem; we'rejust doing everything we can to makethe game as good as it can be instead!of partitioning it out. You've bought ;the game; you've paid enough." Nopatches or fixes, either, hopefully, asBlack Box isn't pushing itself to getthe game finished before December

"YOU BEGIN TO WONDER HOWYOU EVER PLAYED THESES ^S P O R T S A N Y O T H E R W A Y "

{X

aplomb. EA went back to the most simple ofactions and asked how it could make that feelas close to the real experience as possible.

The answer came from the analoguesticks. It's an answer that a number of gameshave come up with, especially from ElectronicArts - and with mixed results. Some gameslike NHL 07 didn't pull it off very well, butFight Night Round 3 and Skate make analoguecontrol feel definitive. You begin to wonderhow you ever played these sports any otherway The first step for Skate was the simpleact of pulling off an ollie. Tony Hawk madeit a jump, but an ollie is more than that andwhen EA mapped it to pushing down, then upon the analogue stick everything else fell intoplace. As Balmer put it to us, a kick-flip is nota separate action from an ollie, you do themtogether so pulling down and then off to theside performs a kick-flip or heel-flip.

There's no jumping out of half-pipes,either, with momentum being the key factor

in getting air or not. This was the only weakpoint that we could find in the game whenwe got our hands on it. The dynamic camerain the half-pipe was far less stable than ithad been on flat surfaces and rails. It wasexcellent everywhere else however, sittingslightly below the skater and twisting aroundto give you the best view of the action.

The controls took some getting used to butlooking around it was interesting to see thatthe actual skaters picked it up far faster thanothers . That 's tes tament to Skate 's success in

redefining what it means to be a skating sim.It's been built 'from the board up' with superbphysics, and beautiful controls to match. It feltgreat to throw away the ludicrous theatricsthat we've been shackled to for so manyyears and just enjoy skateboarding for whatit is. What we've seen so far suggests thatSkate has gone a long way toward capturingthat elusive balance of payability that allowsthe truly skilled to excel without alienating therest. This game has the potential tobecome the definitive skateboardingtitle in years to come.

F O R M A T :

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3O R I G I N :C a n a d a

P U B U S H E R :E l e c t r o n i c A r t s

D E V E L O P E R :E A B l a c k B o x

R E L E A S E :Q 4

G E N R E :

SportP L A Y E R S :T B A

i»7iJ■ A r e d e f i n i t i o n o f

w h a t i t m e a n s t o b e a

skateboarding gameeight years after TonyH a w k ' s P r o S k a t e r

brought the genret o t h e m a s s e s . A n dabout time, too.

g a m e s " * 0 3 9

PREVIEW I MOTOGP 07 | XBOX 360/MULTIFORMAT

R E I N V E N T I O N O R R E D H E R R I N G

F O R M A T :

Xbox 360, PCO R I G I N ;

U S

P U B L I S H E R :T H Q

D E V E L O P E R :C l i m a x

R E L E A S E :0 3 ' 0 7

G E N R E :

RacingP L A Y E R S :T B A

M M■ M o t o G P O ?

attempts to movet h e s e r i e s m o r e i n t o

t h e m a i n s t r e a m a n dout of the specialistghetto - a biggera u d i e n c e m e a n s a

bigger payday.

\ There is a grim sense of the/i inevitable about annually updated

franchises. Great games can take up to fiveor sometimes even ten years to complete,and while sports titles in particular canlegitimise the practice by citing the need toupdate team sheets, leagues, vehicle modelsand such like, it's impossible to shake the

feeling that a year simply isn't long enough tomake the changes required to justify spendinganother £40. MotoGP 07 arguably find itself inan even more precarious position as it not onlyfollows the perfectly decent previous effortbut it also simulates a sport whose appeal is

inherently divisive.The series has garnered enough followers

to justify regular instalments, but developerswill always take an interest in broadeningthe appeal of the game in order to increaseits audience further still. This, then, is theconundrum: how on earth do you makea specialist game more accessible to themasses without sacrificing the specialismthat attracted your existing fan base in thefirst place. It is almost a no-win situation, andClimax is wel l aware of the del icate balance

that's needed for its plan to work.In the broadest sense the changes are still

minor - unavoidable when the bike models.

riders and tracks are l icensed - but several

tweaks have been implemented in order tomake the learning curve a little more lenientand the handling more forgiving. A major

problem with the previous instalment lies in

and pull off powerslides. Any accusations ofthe game becoming too mainstream can be

quickly silenced as the changes are subtle- deliberately so to avoid alienating the series'die-hard fans.

'SEVERAL TWEAKS HAVE BEEN MADE TO MAKETHE LEARNING CURVE A LITTLE MORE LENIENTAND THE HANDLING MORE FORGIVING"the difficulty of gauging when a good turn wasabout to change into a disaster. This time thebike gives a lot more visual feedback whenyou are placing it under too much strain,allowing you to compensate or pull out of acorner early to avoid a tumble. The turningcircles have also been decreased, making itmuch easier to take corners at higher speeds

Whether o r no t the d i f fe rences tha t have

been made to this game will be profoundenough to attract an entirely new audienceis anything but clear, however, the loyaltyof the core fan base will be rewardedwith several new features. There wi l l be a

new track, Misano, and an increase in thecustomisable options within Extreme mode.The major alterations however, will be inthe atmospherics, with a greater emphasison capturing the hustle and bustle of a GPrace day. Tens of thousands of fans line thetrack, aircraft soar through the skies, flagsare waved and flares fired. Both followersand newcomers have good reason toapproach MotoGP 07 with a certain degreeof trepidation, but as long as Climaxmakes good on its promises, this timeeverybody could end up a winner.

0 4 0 g a m e s " '

" I

5 ^ ^

This year, the world celebratES a phenDmenan -the 3Dth Anniversary of the Star Wars saga.With that in mind, we're offering a very specialStar Wars Miniatures set: AHiancE and[mpire.

If you're a Star Wars Miniatures player, this set isthe perfect complement to your game. And ifyou're a Star Warshn, this set is a one-of-a-kindcollectable, sure to be treasured for years to come.

wizards.cam/starwars

That's because the first production run of this setis a Limited Edition featuring new sculpts of classiccharacters on a square base, labeled with theStar M' ar loga in silver. Subsequent productionruns will revert to the unlabelled base.

So hurry down to your nearest newStar Wars Miniatures retailer and

get the collectable that's playable.W A R T

M I N I A T U R E S

A L L I A N C Ee m p i r e :

PREVIEW I SHADOWRUN XBOX 360 / MULTIFORMAT

'AN INTENSE, TEAM-BASED FIRST-PERSONSHOOTER THAT COMBINES ANCIENT ^MAGIC, MODERN WEAPONS AND ^A D VA N C E D T E C H N O L O G Y " '

M I T C H G I T E L M A N . S T U D I O M A N A G E R > FA S A S T U D I O

" . n rA j '

' M i

' S i -

.Ifj

m

l i j V I e fl W v U T i T i i l^ ^5 MUmPLAYER MADNESS

M A G I C S H A D O W R U N

0 4 2 g a m e s " "

S H A D O W R U NX B O X 3 6 0 / M U L T I F O R M A T

DEVELOPER PROFILE■ Despite having a number of decent titles under its belt, such as the MechWarrior games,Microsoft-owned FASA Studio is expecting greater things from its latest project. Studio managerMitch Gitelman even boasts that: "Shadowrun is the best game FASA Studio has ever made."

H ISTORY■ MECHWARRIOR 4: MERCENARIES 2002 [PC]■ MECHASSAULT 2002 [Xbox]■ CRIMSON SKIES 2000 [PC]

E V E RY B O D Y L I K E S A L I T T L EF R I E N D LY C O M P E T I T I O N

F O R M A T :

Xbox 360, PCO R I G I N :U S

P U B L I S H E R :M i c r o s o f t

D E V E L O P E R :I n - H o u s e

R E L E A S E :J u n e

G E N R E :F i r s t - P e r s o n S h o o t e r

P L A Y E R S :1 - 1 6

WkM■ Mix technology andmagic as you battleagainst the opposingt e a m i n t h i s F P Sbased on the popularrole-playing game.

It's becoming increasingly obviousM that multiplayer options within

titles are more important than ever. XboxLive and Sony's upcoming Networl< aretools that developers can use to pour appealand longevity into their games, but are wegetting to the stage where the single-playercampaign can be forgotten?

FASA has made this bold move withShadowrun and, up until this point, hassuffered because of it. When shown atE3, adding to the lack of solo play was adisplay of somewhat poor visuals - hard tojustify when titles such as Lost Planet andGears Of l/l/arare wowing the crowds nottoo far away. Fortunately, the most recentbuild we've witnessed has all the visualflair you'd expect and it seems as if theFPS multiplayer that the title offers couldimpress in equal levels.

"Shadowrun isn't just about putting yourcross-hairs on a troll and pulling the trigger,"studio manager Mitch Gitelman tells us."It's about using the right abilities and theright weapons at the right time to get theadvantage in combat. It's a thinking person'sshooter - but someone who thinks on theirfeet." Opting for a purely tactical approachto the team deathmatch, Shadowrun is allabout customisation and balance ensuringthat it does its one job really well.

Before each conflict begins, your squad(made up of seven friends, strangers, orbots if you're a little shy) is given the chanceto kit out with technology, magic or amixture of the two. The four different races- human, troll, elf and dwarf - predictably

each have their own strengths andweaknesses in these two areas, but thosewho err on the side of technology will begiven access to improved weapons, and airgliders while those fond of magic can lookforward to such tricks such as resurrection,

teleportation and heath restoration. As

Portals allow the arenas tobecome much fuller affairs thanmost first-person shooter titfes offer.

'WE COULD BE LOOKING AT ONE OF THEMOST SOPHISTICATED MULTIPLAYEREXPERIENCES AVAILABLE"

previously mentioned, it's how you balancethese abilities with your race and the racesof those in your team that will ultimatelydictate who emerges victorious.

When this detailed element is combinedwith the impressive map designs, there'sa fair chance we could be looking at oneof the most sophisticated multiplayerexperiences available. Sure, some maystill baulk at the lack of real content, butthe puritans - of which there are manywhen discussing the first-person shootermultiplayer - are likely to be in for a realtreat when Shadowrun eventually arriveslater in the year.

The real news about the game, ofcourse, is that you'll be able to competewith both PC and 360 players. Thanks tothe combination of Windows Vista andXbox Live the two communities will mergeallowing your team to be made up of either." It's not just like Live, it is Live, but on

Windows Vista," Gitelman enthuses. "Youcan voice chat, you can create a Friends List,and you can earn achievements." Soundsgreat but you can be sure the 'mouse-and-keyboard versus pad' debates will be rifein a few months when PC playerscontinuously punish those playing ont h e i r 3 6 0 s . W e c a n ' t w a i t . V ; : : /

g a m e s 0 4 3

It's been revealed that Shadowrun will have fewer maps toplay on than similar titles. This is due to the mechanics of thegame allowing you to make use of the maps vertically and inmore complex ways than usual - the whole thing has beendesigned with outmanoeuvring in mind. "Let's be honest,"points out Grtelman. "How many Counter-Strike maps actuallyget used? Less than a handful. Two I can think of. Rememberthat the maps in Shadowrun are the same eight to ten mapswe've been playing for years and still love to play."

PREVIEW I MANHUNT 2 I PLAYSTATION 2 / MULTIFORMAT

M A N H U

044 sa<nes"»

M A N H U N T 2P L A Y S T A T J O N 2 / M U L T I F O R M A T

G U E S S W H O ' S B A C K . . .

I II To begin, a small story - an insightI 11 into the usually clandestine worldof magazine journalism, if you will. If youare a long-time reader of this fine tonne, youmay remember a scathing review of theoriginal Manhunt back in issue ten. It receiveda well documented three out of ten, causingbacklash from the forums and many a heateddebate around pub tables. Of course, thatreviewer is absolutely entitled to his opinion,and it's as valid as any other, but that reviewerno longer works on games™. In fact, not asingle member of our current editorial team(bar the returning Editor in Chief) worked on themagazine back on issue ten. And do you knowwhat? The present team loves Manhunt- infact one of our number recently referred to itas 'the tensest videogame of all time.' Quite aturnaround, we're sure you'll agree.

So, that leaves us with a dilemma. Shouldwe remain consistent and choose to ignorethe impending sequel? Or do we wipe theslate clean, remain true to ourselves and getas excited about Manhunt 2 as many of you

surely already are? Well, you can probably tell

T U R N O F P A C E

the answer by the four-page spread that youfind yourself waist deep in right now. games™is a Manhunt fan from here on. Please excuse

our self-indulgence, but we felt it necessary toexplain why

Talking of wiping the slate clean, this isexactly what Rockstar is trying to do withManhunt 2. The ludicrous notoriety surroundingthe original drowned out its real achievements,a list of brilliant mechanical and atmospheric

techniques that have gone on to influencenot only the publisher's own output but thegenre as a whole. So, let us cease talk of

who finds himself embroiled in a nightmareof conspiracies and cover-ups. Six yearsbefore the game's opening scenes. Lambwas hard at work on a top-secret weaponsprogramme, one that used dangerous, mind-altering narcotics in order to inflict its damage.Inevitably, things go wrong - as we all know,you can't work on a secret military projectin a videogame without it eventually comingback to bite you in the face - and Lamb'sexperiments begin to go awry. In fact, he endsup testing the drug on himself, a move thatcauses the scheme's financial backer - The

THIS IS A GRUESOME EXPLORATION OFTHE FRAGILITY OF THE HUMAN MIND: ANEXERCISE IN SKIN-TEARING TENSION"

Pakeerah and Thompson, of The Daily Mailand conservative outrage, let us discuss aprovocative, intelligent and genuinely originalvideogame and its forthcoming sequel. Let us,as they say move on.

Manhunt 2 tells the unfortunate story of DrDaniel Lamb, a seemingly innocent scientist

One of Manhunt's crowning achievements back in 2003 was something games™ hastalked about a lot recently, pace. The first game worked on a skilfully implementedarc, as the hunter becomes the hunted, reaching a frenetic peak two thirds of the waythrough, before settling back down into its climactic groove. Manhunt 2 has taken thisa step further, giving individual levels their own pacing structure, so within the spaceof five minutes you can be putting holes in faces with a shotgun then sneaking aroundwith nothing more than a ball-point pen. Hopefully, this doesn't mean an abandonmentof the overall pacing arc, but we have every confidence that Rockstar knows what it'sdoing. The original Manhunt didn't happen by accident.

Project - to apprehend Lamb, lock him up andthrow away the key.

Today, Daniel Lamb is a man of fragile mind.Locked up in a private asylum among the kindof inmates even Hannibal Lecter would findtroubling, he has resigned himself to a lifeof misery. Until, that is, the day of the freakelectrical storm, and the mildly contrived setup to Lamb's escape. As the weather ragesoutside, a bolt of lightning causes the powerto short. With no electricity, Lamb's cell doorunlocks, and the opportunity for emancipationpresents itself. Obviously roaming the corridorsin a darkened container for the criminally insaneis not a particularly safe business, so it's upto Manhunt's familiar and unfussy stealthmechanics to make a welcome return.

As before. Manhunt 2 p\ays its gameof hide-and-seek in the shadows. If you're

F O R M A T :

PlayStation 2,Nintendo Wii,PlayStation PortableO R I G I N :U K

P U B U S H E R :R o c k s t a r

D E V E L O P E R :I n - H o u s e

R E L E A S E :

J u l yG E N R E :S t e a l t h

P L A Y E R S :

1

■ The sequel to them o s t c o n t r o v e r s i a l

game of all time,and ifs exactly asyou'd expect. Brutal,unflinching anduncompromis ing .

g a m e s ' " 0 4 5

PREVIEW I MANHUNT 2 I PLAYSTATION 2 / MULTIFORMAT

Imo

^ 7 4 v : y

1'

K I L L O R B E K I L L E D

M A N H U N T H A N N I B A L L O N D O N M A N H U N T 2I The asylum's guards are as

I brutal asthe inmates. In Afa/7A(/n(evetyone has their flaws.

046 games" '

M A N H U N T 2PLAYSTATION 2 / MULTIFORMAT

DREAD PROFILE■ Not many games can boast Manhunt's balance between engaging play and repellent atmosphere -rfs a dangerous, bold and very difficult thing to pull off. Survival-horror is the genre in which it thrives,ahhough only the cream of the crop manages it with any real success.

H ISTORY■ CONDEMNED 2005 [Mul t i format ]■ PROJECT ZERO 2002 [Multiformat]■ SILENT HILL 2 2001 [Multiformat]

shrouded in darkness, you cannot be seen.In gaming terms, it's this mechanic that is thetruest source of controversy. Of those that hadproblems with the original, most found fault inthis - the suspension of disbelief required toaccept standing an inch away from an enemywho cannot see you was too much for some.Of course, following the game's instructions todip the TV's brightness helped immeasurably,but who reads game manuals any more?Aware of this major criticism (one that, ifyou were prepared to let it, shattered the

entirely random, happens only sporadically andmeans that you never feel safe.

If an enemy does espy you lurking in thedark, a brief OTE-style mini-game pops upon screen. Complete it successfully and yourpotential assailant will walk away. Fail, andyou're in big trouble. It adds another layer ofdread and unbearable tension to proceedings,further adding to Manhunt's bulging list ofaccomplishments. With all the nonsensesurrounding the first game, there was littletime to mention the wonderful sound design

'CAN MANHUNT 2 RECAPTURE THE ORIGINAL'SSTORY AND ITS GRUBBY FASCINATION WITH THESEEDY UNDERBELLY OF URBAN AMERICANA"original's atmosphere, leading to some wildlycontrasting review scores), Rockstar Londonhas incorporated a terrif/ing random elementto the stealth. Now, even when covered bythe security blanket of the shadows, there's aslim chance any given enemy can spot you. It's

(BAFTA award winning, no less), the incredibleatmosphere, and perhaps Manhunt's greatestachievement, the fact that it wasn't fun toplay, but remained thrilling nevertheless. It'ssomething that only a few games have evermanaged successfully - Silent Hill being theprime example. Turning a corner in Manhuntis not something you greet with open armsas you do in, say, God Of War or Zelda. InManhunt all you feel is dread. It's what makesit brilliant. And it's exactly why Manhunt 2 \sshaping up so well.

The intention here is clear: to shock, toappal, to scare and to thrill. Everything hasbeen ramped up considerably, from thebrutality of the executions (still played outfrom disconcerting camera angles) to thedark psychology of the link between playerand protagonist. Where the original's James

Earl Cash was forced into his actions by bothcircumstance and the vile director, LionelStarkweather, Lamb is battling with his ownpsyche. A reluctant but able killer, he's guidedby the rather unpleasant Leo, a fellow inmatewith a penchant for bloodlust. And it's this Leowho acts as Manhunt 2's interior monologue,

audibly urging Lamb to commit grisly actsof murder and provoking him to let go of hisremaining threads of sanity.

As ever. Manhunt 2 is a fine example of

single-minded design. Not keen to pander tocurrent trends, next-gen technology or themass market, Rockstar London, in conjunctionwith the great minds of Rockstar North, hascreated the game it wants to make. This isa gruesome exploration of the fragility of thehuman mind: an exercise in skin-tearing tensionand (still) an active comment on videogameexploitation. Tme will tell if Manhunt 2 canrecapture the original's engaging story and itsgrubby fascination with the seedy underbelly ofurban Americana. One thing's for sure,it's not going to please everyone. Andwhat great pieces of art do?

P E R I P H E R A L V I S I O N

Manhunt's simple but effective radar system returns In

slightly tweaked form for the sequel. As before, enemiesare shown as arrows, with the colour changing dependingon their alert status, and your own noise level is indicated

by an ever-increasing circle. However, new this time isenvironmental noise. Taking a cue from Splinter Cell, a bluecircle on the radar now represents the noise that's happeningaround you, allowing for noisier kills and a great deal lesssubtlety if and when it's needed. It adds an extra tacticalelement to your bloodletting, and allows for a few cleverpuzzle elements to be added, breaking up the action nicely.

■ A games™ favourite, the oldbaseball bat to tiie back of thehead, returns in fine style.

4

• »

g a m e s ' 0 4 7

PREVIEW STUNTMAN: IGNITION I XBOX 360 / MULTIFORMAT

F O R M A T :Xbox 360, PlayStation 3,RayStation 2O R I G I N ;

U SP U B U S H E R :

T H Q

D E V E L O P E R ;

Paradigm InteractiveR E L E A S E ;

Q 3 ' 0 7

G E N R E :

RacingP L A Y E R S :1 (1-« Online)

STOP, START, STOP, START, STOP START...

The term 'high concepf became linkedHmi to mainstream movie production inEiglrties Hollywood. Motivated by the shallowexcess and greed that pervaded the culture,high concept described those properties thatcould be boiled down to an easily digestedsentence produced for the masses with no

thought given to plot, character or depth untilthe project had been given the green light.

Stuntman could also be placed in thiscategory. Videogames in general are moregiven to high concept, but the originalStuntman game felt like an idea in searchof suitable execution. The opportunity toperform set pieces from popcorn cinema isa tantalising pitch, and one that was alwaysgoing to appeal to a cross-section of gamers.Atari can hardly be blamed for believeingthe idea would be a success - and 1 millioncopies sold is solid evidence of that - butin terms of the playing experience it washugely fnjstrating. Making a mistake wouldprompt the director to order a retake, whichmeant waiting through a lengthy loading timeand beginning the scene again. Making thelevels challenging had the knock-on effectof restarting an intolerable number of times,fracturing the flow of the game and drainingmuch of the enjoyment

These concerns were clearly in mind duringthe development of Stuntman: Ignition whichseems to go some way toward addressing theproblems present in the original. Advancingtechnology has largely eradicated the issue ofloading times but Paradigm has l3een much

W T l■ C a n T H Q s u c c e e d

w h e r e A t a r i f a i l e dand do Justice to agreat concept? Or isit nothing more thanempty fun?

'STUNTMAN: IGNITION GOES SOME WAYTOWARD ADDRESSING THE PROBLEMSTHAT PLAGUED THE ORIGINAL"more lenient in punishing mistakes made bythe gamer Ignition allows you to miss fivestunts over the course of a sequence beforethe director shouts 'cut!', so while you willinevitably have to start again ifs perfectlypossible to complete a scenario within a fewtries. The challenge is then to perfect themn and maximise your score - a far moreforgiving approach to the material, and onethat should have iDeen implemented in theoriginal game.

You can earn score multipliers by formingchains of stunts and dangerous manoeuvres,a system that owes a huge debt to BurnoutIndeed, Stuntman: Ignition has clearly paidattention to EA's racing franchise, referencingit in a variety of different ways. That the gamehas greater flow than its predecessor, then, isno accident, and if there is a hint of plagiarismabout the proceedings at least it borrows fromthe best possible source.

RAISING THE STAKES

The problems that plagued the originalhave not been eradicated, however Withthings exploding and crumbling around youifs still necessary to run into trouble before

you learn how to avoid it. You have five strikesbefore you're out, but on the early mns thesequickly disappear and unpleasant memoriesof fractured gameplay come flooding back. Inaddition to this, missing stunts is not the onlyway to be sent back to the start. One levelfound us racing through a volcanic eruption,with one of the very first stunts involving ajump through a burning barn. We missedthe jump and landed in fire, resulting in animmediate restart. A little later in the sequencewe rode over fire of equal intensity that linedthe side of the road, this time with no adverseeffects. Such inconsistencies harm bothenjoyment and performance, thoughwe're hopeful the/ll be gone beforethe game is finished. ©

For many the major drawback of the Stuntman experience is that you're only ever racingagainst yourself, the goal being to repeat each sequence and iron out any creases in yourperformance. This is inherent to the formula, but online play will grant Stuntman: Ignitiona fresh sense of competition that the original lacked. You will be able to look at replays ofvarious players' best runs and, should they be available, download ghosts that you canshadow as you attempt to match or better their performance. Online multiplayer modeswill also lie available in the finished game, though there are no details of these at present.

S T U N T M A N : I G N I T I O NXBOX 360 / MULTIFORIVIAT

HISTORY■ Even though its CV is free of any crimes against gaming, it would be useless to pretend that Paradigmhas enjoyed a glittering career Paradigm's Terminator games were far more convincing than the woeful

TERMINATOR 3: REDEMPTION 2004 [Mult i ]TERMINATOR: DAWN OF FATE 2002 [Mult i ]

sMrK'--'

AI ■ The frustrating stop-start1 tendency of the original game is

gone, though not completely.

g a m e s 0 4 9

PREVIEW I DAWN OF MAGIC P C

F O R M A T ;P C

O R I G I N :

R u s s i aP U B L I S H E R :

Deep SilverD E V E L O P E R :

Sky FallenE n t e r t a i n m e n t

R E L E A S E :

0 2 ' 0 7G E N R E :

A c t i o n - R P GP L A Y E R S :

T B A

r » M■ Take yet anothermight-be-enjoyableRPG romp througha w o r l d t h a t l o o k s a

bit like many otherworlds you may haves e e n o n y o u r m o n i t o r

quite recently.

MIGHTY MORPHING GENERIC ACTION RPG?

j Ifs entirely possible that Dawn OfMagic could turn out to be a really

great game. After winning various awardsunder the nanne Blood Magic in its homecountry of Russia, it is now being launchedhere in Europe. Despite the fact that Russia-based studios have generally tended to besuited to development on the PC format, to saythat Dawn Of Magic may pass under many agamer's radars, undetected, is fair. And with noparticularly impressive screenshots or dazzlingstats to show at this time, it's looking to staythat way for the moment.

For the most part the information that hasbeen presented is generic at best. There arethree different attitudes for you to choosebetween - good, evil and neutral - and theusual copious number of spells, weaponsand combinations of the two are predictablypresent. So, equally, there's enough here tobe cautious about: it could turn out to be arather drab experience all round. The elementthat the press release boasts most about, andwhich is also likely to glean the most interestfrom gamers, is the fact that your character willmorph into a form that reflects how you playwhile you progress through the game.

This morphing goes a fair way beyondthe typical 'good/evil/neutral' mechanic- something that has already been put intoaction in titles including Fable and Black &White - and actually changes the appearanceof your on-screen avatar in accordance withthe skills and abilities that you discover andthe attributes upon which you decide to focusyour grinding. So putting that time investmentinto clocking up attribute points for firemagic could see your character beginning toemit a fiery glow. Players that use lightningattacks will acquire armour that crackles withelectricity, and extreme examples even seecharacters sprouting feathery angel wings orspider legs.

I A flaming man hrtting a bear with a |I hammer-ifs an age-old RPG fomiula.

The morphing element could furtherDawn Of Magic's appeal if it can realise the

possibilities it seems so proud to promote.Based on what's available at the moment,however, it's difficult to suggest thatDawn Of Magic will make any mark fon the currently busy RPG genre.

'BASED ON WHAT'S AVAILABLE AT THE MOMENTIT'S DIFFICULT TO SUGGEST THAT DAWN OFMAGIC IS GOING TO MAKE ANY MARK"

■ Who knows exactly how muchelectricity you have to throwaround to eam this particular look.

0 5 0 g a m e s ' "

NOD32. Swift. Nimble. Relentless.

Can you describe your antivirus softwarewith the same certainty?

PREVIEW FRONTLINES: FUEL OF WAR I PLAYSTATION 3/MULTIFORMAT

FRONTLUMES: FUEL OF WAR

0 5 2 g a m e s ' ' '

FRONTLINES: FUEL OF WARP L AY S TAT I O N 3 / M U LTi r o R M AT

DEVELOPER PROFILEKaos Studios was formed as recently as 2005 by FPS veterans from several established studios, with the

core staff coming from Trauma Studios - creator oif the Battlefield mod Desert Combat and the R&D team onDICE'S Battlefield 2. Other staff worked on F.E,AR. and Doom 3.

H ISTORY■ BATTLEFIELD 2 2005 [PC]■ F.E.A.R. 2005 [MuKifomiat]■ DOOM 3 2004 [Mult i format]

F O R M A T :

PlayStation 3,Xbox 360, PCO R I G I N :

U SP U B U S H E R :

T H QD E V E L O P E R :

K a o s S t u d i o s

R E L E A S E :0 3 ' 0 7

G E N R E :F i r s t - P e r s o n S h o o t e r

P L A Y E R S :

1-32 (PC 1-64)

TA K E A G L I M P S E I N T O Y O U R F U T U R E

HThe most compelling visions ofthe future are always those thatreference our present. Those tributes to thecodes and conventions of the contemporaryare what mal<e any Utopia or dystopiaresonate and linger in the mind. Our fears canbe so much more vividly realised when theyplay upon a precedent already set within thelives of the audience.

Frontlines: Fuel Of War will no doubt strikean uncomfortably prescient nerve for its cannyuse of a global energy crisis as the catalystfor its plot. Global warming has become auniversal cause celebre, even more so nowthan when the game was initially announced12 months ago, and referencing such acontemporary issue lends an immediate depthto a videogame that will almost certainly belight on plot. The war for Earth's last resourcesis being fought between the WesternCoalition (the EU and the US) and the RedStar Alliance (Russia and China) - a detail thatunderscores the setting nicely, playing on bothour memories of the Cold War and modernconcerns over the emerging superpowers inthe East .

Whether Frontlines provides a glimpse ofwhat the future holds for gaming, however, isa completely separate matter altogether, andone that it answers with less conviction. Thesingle-player mode definitely offers innovation,but like the game's context and setting, it has

■ W/e're fightin'thiswar along a multi-checkpoint frontdammit and linearityb e d a m n e d !

one foot firmly rooted in the conventions ofcontemporary action games. Frontlines' majordistinguishing attribute is that each battle isfought along a front leaving you with the taskof pushing back the enemy over a much widerarea than most tactical shooters.

The level we played began with a cut-scene set on a helicopter with soldiers anda photographer spouting dreadfully clicheddialogue at each other. The helicopter is thenshot down and several members of the squadkilled, before the player is left to fight his waythrough an oil refinery. At any one time therewere two or more objectives to be completedalong the front, and it was largely our decisionas to what order they should be completed

objectives, rather than a predeterminedcheckpoint, and change our complement ofweapons, allowing us to gain at least sometactical advantage from our own demise.

'REFERENCING SUCH A CONTEMPORARY ISSUELENDS AN IMMEDIATE DEPTH TO A GAME THATWILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE LIGHT ON PLOT"in. Proximity to the location was often thedeciding factor, but several situations requiredcareful consideration of time, weaponsand manpower before a decision couldcomfortably be made. When we died we hadthe option to restart at any of the available

The playing area is large, and the multipleobjectives, which can be missed should yourteam-mates complete it in your absence,suggest the developer, Kaos, could deliver onits promise of a non-linear experience that canbe tackled in several ways. No promises canbe made based on the content of the demo,however, as beyond this Frontlines felt andlooked every inch a conventional FPS, albeitan admirably atmospheric one. Clearly a lotwill rest on how well the scale of the battlesand the choice of objectives can be balancedagainst Frontlines' more traditional ^elements - that potent combination of (3Jthe present and the future.

g a m e s ' 0 5 3

Given the development team's experience on the Battlefield games it is small wonder that the multiplayermode on Frontlines: Fuel Of War is so ambitious. The console versions will almost certainly be set at a 32-playermaximum, though tests are still being conducted, with reasonable success, using 64 players on the PC - theuse of Live Anywhere was neither confirmed nor denied. The scale of the battle was well suited to multiplayerfighting as each team pushed and pulled across the full length of the front. The chance to specialise in certainskill areas was also offered, thereby influencing your weapon choice and the vehicles and drones you had accessto, and providing an extra tactical depth to the action.

PREVIEW I MONSTER HUNTER FREEDOM 2 I PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

MONSTER HUNTER

IB Few games have managed to splice genrestogether quite as well as the Monster Hunterser\e&.

THE BIGGER THEY ARE, THE HARDER THEY FALL

l^r seeing a game enjoygreat success in other territories

F O R M A T :

PlayStation PortableO R I G I N :

JapanP U B U S H E d :

CapcomD E V E L O P E R :I n - H o u s e

R E l f A S E :

SeptemberG E N R E :A c t i o n

P L A Y E R S :1 - 4

W J T I

■ H u n t o r b e h u n t e dare your options asyou set out to talted o w n s o m e r a t i i e r

large beasties - and af e w s m a l l e r o n e s .

is a mixed blessing. Sure, you can befairly confident that if a game is worthy ofyour time and money it will come to arriveon these shores at some point. What youcan never be sure of, however, is howlong you are going to have to wait for it.Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is one suchgame. Although Capcom has confidentlyissued a September release date for the UK,there's every chance that we could end upwaiting longer for the game that Japan iscurrently going a bit mad over - apparentlythe translation process is a long andunpredictable one.

The excitement that has been ragingin the East certainly comes as no greatsurprise; the first Monster Hunter Freedomthrived upon the huge success of the equallygood PlayStation 2 effort and dominatedthe Japanese charts for quite some time.This was partly due to the fact that it waseasily the best looking game the PlayStationPortable had to offer at that time. In anobvious move considering this huge success,Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is delivering afamiliar experience that is just as stunningaesthetically and which is sure to impress

here in this territory at a similar - if somewhatmore subdued - level.

It would appear that far more time andeffort has been focused on the multiplayerelements in this incarnation, with four-manmonster hunts being a honed and far moreenjoyable experience than the single-player

the enhanced multiplayer - that annoyinglystill doesn't seem to feature online play- and range of new creatures to capturewill undoubtedly appeal to those alreadyensnared by the successful series, and forthose yet to sample the delights of monsterhunting this will be as good a place to start

'MONSTER HUNTER FREEDOM 2 IS SURE TOIMPRESS HERE IN OUR TERRITORY AT A SIMILAR- IF SLIGHTLY MORE SUBDUED - LEVEL"

campaign that Capcom has been less keen toshow off ever since the title was revealed atlast year's E3 exhibition.

While no obvious improvements havebeen made to the actual formula we're nowused to seeing in Monster Hunter games.

as any Besides, it's not like your Sonyhandheld has a wealth of titles of this qualityjust waiting to be played. Monster HunterFreedom 2's success could well be

guaranteed by the lack of any realcompetition here in Europe.

0 5 4 g a m e s " '

INTEL® CORE "2 EXTREME DESKTOP PROCESSOR.THE WORLD'S BEST GAMING PROCESSOR.

It's your chance to multiply everything you love about gaming.Learn more at www.intel.co.uk/gaming

World's best gaming processor claim based on 3DMarl<*2005 - CPU test results as performed by Intel Corporation, July 2006, Actual performance may vary. Seewww.intel,com/performance for more information, '2006 Intel Corporation, Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, the Intel Core logo, Intel, Leap ahead,, and the Intel. Leap ahead,logo are trademarl<s or registered trademarl<s of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All rights reserved,"2004-2005 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc, All rights reserved. World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment,lnc„ in the U,S. and/or other countries.

PREVIEW I LITTLEBIGPLANET PLAYSTATION 3

S O N Y ' S B I G B A N G - T H E F U T U R E O F P S 3 ?

F O R M A T :

PlayStation 3O R I G I N :

U KP U B L I S H E R :

SonyD E V E L O P E R :

M e d i a M o l e c u l eR E L E A S E :

T B A

G E N R E :P l a t f o r m

P L A Y E R S :T B A

■ A co-operative,physics-based, user-c o n t e n t - s t r u c t u r e d

platformer with morec h a r m t h a n t h e r e s t o f

PS3's catalogue puttogether.

RHow do you change an entiregaming public's perception of youin one fell swoop? If you're Sony, you showthem LittleBigPlanet. Then you take a stepback and watch in delight as the internet'sbusiest and most cynical forums light upwith praise and admiration. In an instantthat image of a blank, soulless corporatemachine is replaced by friendly little puppets,skateboards, oranges and an infectioussense of fun. It's astonishing how fickle thegaming community can be at times.

By now, it's likely most of you will haveseen the glorious LittleBigPlanet Uaierst h a t h a v e d r o w n e d t h e n e t s i n c e t h e G a m e

Developers Conference. Those who havewill be mightily impressed, but for theuninitiated and broadband free, a game ofthis importance certainly deserves a briefsynopsis. But where to begin? Imagine aco-operative platform game, driven almostentirely by the most robust and realisticphysics engine ever seen, but featuringcharacters that can only be described asmutated Raggy Dolls. That's LittleBigPlanetAnd i t 's here to take over the wor ld.

In an internet climate dominated by user

interactivity, LittleBigPlanet has come at theperfect time. YouTube, MySpace and Flickrare the success stories, but even the likesof Gametrailers.com rely on user-createdvideos for a good portion of its traffic. InLittleBigPlanet, the user becomes creator.Not a platformer in the traditional sense,LittleBigRanet gives players a toolbox with

which to create their own levels, then uploadthem to a central - and beautifully presented- server for the rest of the world to enjoy

comment upon and rank. It's a stirringglimpse of the future: a breathtaking spin onthe whole concept of online gaming, a gamethat not only encourages unmitigated funbut also allows those with creative minds toblossom. And who said videogames werekilling society?

Using a toolkit comprising some of themost charming textural design games™has ever seen, LittleBigPlanet'^ levels looklike they have been snatched straight fromthe set of an Eighties live-action animationshow. Think Button Moon, all cardboard

backgrounds and household utensils, andutterly utterly charming. Players then takecontrol of their team of rag-doll friends, eitheroffline or on, and set about manipulatingeverything within the game space in orderto reach the goal. The little fellows can grabhold of any object with their amusinglystretchy arms and proceed to push, pull.

hang, swing and launch themselves aroundin their quest to reach 'the end.' It's alreadybecome a cliche, but LittleBigPlanet is an a t u r a l c o m b i n a t i o n o f L o c o R o c o ' s i n n o v a t i o n

and sense of joyous abandon mixed withFour Swords'focus on co-operative playWe're sure you'll agree that this all soundsrather special.

But it's this focus on community that reallysets LittleBigPlanet apart. Media Moleculehas already made it clear that the level-editingfacilities are not separate from the game,they're entirely integral to it. Amazingly,players can build levels co-operatively usingthe XMB-styled editing kit, so you canconstruct a glee-filled wonderland with thehelp of chums. Sure makes a change fromblasting American teenagers in the face.

Believe the hype. LittleBigPlanet coupledwith the tremendous potential of Home, isgoing to be huge. PlayStation 3 has taken ahuge step this month, one that couldchange the industry forever. Let'shope it can deliver on its promises.

A huge part of UttleBigPlanet's charm comes from the acting talent of the little puppetsthemselves. They're positively brimming with character and personality, all of which canbe controlled through some ingenious use of the much-maligned Sixaxis controller TheD-pad is used to select facial expressions so your friendly little avatar can smile in delightor grimace in disgust. Tilting the Sixaxis causes them to move their heads, so if you fancymnning around with your head held high and a big grin on your face, you can. And on topof all of this, a tug of R2 and L2 allows each analogue stick to be used to control each armindependently. Cue many dancing puppets. Good stuff.

056 games" *

L I T T L E B I G P L A N E TP L A Y S T A T I O N 3

D E V E L O P E R P R O F I L E■ This Guildford-based developer is hedging all its bets on LrttleBigPlanet it's the first product the studiohas worked on. But what a product. Wrth the full backing and support of Sony and the full might of thePS3 to work with, UttleBigPianet is sure to launch Media Molecule into the stratosphere.

H ISTORY■ LittleBigPlanet is Media Molecule's first title

■ i

r

« 1

'AS PLAYERS BEGIN TO EXPLORE, THEIRCREATIVE SKILLS WILL GROW AND THEYWILL BE READY TO START CREATING ANDMODIFY ING THEIR SURROUNDINGS"

S O N Y P R E S S m

ft .itifiHiiu,*.

I The scope for fun is almostj infinite- Utt/eB/gPfanetwillI change your lifeforthe better

g a m e s " ' 0 5 7

PREVIEW SBK-07 SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP I PLAYSTATION 2 / MULTIFORMAT

SBK-07 SUPERBIKE

THE LEADER OF THE PACK?

F O R M A T :

PlayStation 2,PlayStation PortableO R I G I N :

U KP U B L I S H E R :

K o c h M e d i aD E V E L O P E R :

B l a c k B e a nR E L E A S E :

Apr i lG E N R E ;

RacingP L A Y E R S :1 - 2

W k H■ A n e w f r a n c h i s ein motorcycling, ando n e t h a t l o o k s s e t t o

chal lenge MotoGPt o r t h e h a r d c o r eb i k e r s c r o w d .

|p5=| A""® we spotting a trend here? BeforeI II /WotoGPfirsttoreupXboxLive, theappeal of the serious bil<e sim was indeedlimited, but now you can find previews fortwo of them in this very issue of games™.

It's no secret that Superbikes and theirequivalents are one of the fastest growingspectator sports in the UK, and as is oftenthe case, the game industry loves a trend.So, we're now inundated with the things.MotoGP, of course, has proven the mostsuccessful in this country; Sony's TouristTrophy is a collector's dream but a racer'snightmare, and now Black Bean and Koch'sSBKls hoping to pull the rug from underClimax's wheels and pinch the hardcore bikercrowd for their very own.

It's all in the details. By securing the SBKlicence. Black Bean has the rights to everytrack, every bike and every rider currentlyoperating under the Superbikes bannerEven the track girls are in there. Obviously,to those without any interest in the sport it'smeaningless, but you only have to look atFIFA's continued commercial popularity overPro Evolution Soccer to see that licences arereally important to the buying public. This

acquisition marks a serious assault on theconsole market for the usually PC-orientatedKoch Media - a potential cash cow to fundother projects on both current and next-

generation technologyOf course, in order for SBK to prove a

lucrative asset, it has to play a strong game,and at this stage it's clear that it's a strongcompetitor to MotoGP. While lacking thetwin-stick control of Climax's effort, SBKnevertheless combines ultra-realistic physicswith genuinely impressive rider Al to createan authentic representation of the sport.Each rider has been given an individualpersonality based on his real-life driving style,so expect Max Biaggi to tear to the front ofthe pack while Troy Bayliss maintains a moreconsidered, strategic style. This makes theraces as realistic and as exciting as possible

which is essential considering this game'sinferior visuals and atmospherics.

With the promise of a next-gen version laterthis year and a solid engine already in place,SBKts looking like a comfortable competitorto MotoGP's crown. If Black Bean can refinethe physics and driving model beforerelease, the hardcore crowd will lap it ]up. A two-bike race, you could say

THIS ACQUISIT ION MARKS A SERIOUSASSAULT ON THE CONSOLE MARKET FOR THEUSUALLY PC-ORIENTATED KOCH MEDIA"

0 5 8 g a m e s

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PREVIEW I MYSIMS I NINTENDO Wii / MULTIFORMAT

S I M U L AT I O N G E T S S I M P L E

F O R M A T :Nintendo Wii,N i n t e n d o D SO R I G I N :

U SP U B U S H E R :

E l e c t r o n i c A r t s

D E V E L O P E R :EA-S ims D iv is ionR E L £ A S E :0 3

G E N R E :

S i m u l a t i o nP L A Y E R S :1

i W I■ Repopulate anabandoned town byrebuilding housesand attracting simsb a c k t o t h e i r h o m e s ."If you build it, theyw i l l c o m e . "

n The videogame worid can be• a bizarrely surprising industrysometimes. You think you've got the entire thingfigured out but then, in the words of ShigeruMiyamoto, someone "upends the tea table"and we all have to r&evaluate our position inthis world. It's fair to say that the last two yearshave seen the greatest changes. Nintendo's DSand Wii represent a seismic shift that has literallyreshaped the videogame landscape, denrandingthat, for the first time in an age, developersand publishers question their traditional output.The chasm of difference between competinghardware is now much wider than ever beforeand certain publishers have adapted to that muchquicker than others. The swift, dynamic changeof EA, however - a company once so reliant onidentikit, muHiformat releases - is perhaps themost surprising and exciting change to resultfrom the current climate.

Early Wii triumphs like SSX Blur ani Maddenshow that EA 'gets' Nintendo's new console,

perhaps more than any other Western publisher.But if recent handson experience of MySims isanything to go by, EA's apparent metamorphosishas only just begun. At its core, this is still thesame The Sims experience that saw the PCgame become a worldwide phenomenon, ofcourse. The emphasis is still placed on user-created content and soap opera dynamics butthe whole DMA of the franchise from the lookto the feel to the sound has been broken downand re-spliced with the 'Nintendo Difference'chromosome. This rethinking permeates theentire nature of the game but is never more

apparent than in the new look of the simsthemselves. Super deformed and super cute, thesims have now become less a reflection of theplayers' ideal selves and more characters in theirown right. The fresh new art style of these littlecomputer people as well as their giggle-inducinganimations and gurgling Simlish language makethem as warm, lovable and inviting as the Wii'starget audience demands.

Comparison with Nintendo's own Milcharacters are bound to occur, of course, butafter spending just a few minutes in Create-A-Sim mode it becomes abundantly clear thatthere's actually very little similarity at all. Wherethe Mii system offers the ability to create auniversal avatar for the player, the wider variet/ ofhairstyles, ctothes and incidental details availablein Create-A-Sim allow for the creation of actualcharacters rather than just cutesy interpretationsof the user There's a clue in the title, after all. The

player will see these characters as 'My Sims':like their ovwi little digital offspring, it's difficultnot to form an emotional attachment to them,which should ensure that the player returns tothe game time and again just to see how they're

T H E S I M S ' C I T Y

getting on. Catering for the player character, aswell as the many pre-built NPCs, is similarly opento user creativity. Building a house and filling itwith furniture is done by using different-shapedbuilding blocks to assemble the required objectfrom the ground up, then applying colours,textures and additional, supplementary objects.

Like a Lego set, there are enough d'rfferentbricks available to ensure that the final resultsare limited only by the players' imaginations. Andalthough the possibilities are wide and complex,the S/ms team is working hard to ensure that theway in which those objects are put together feelsas intuitive as possible. Using the Wii remote'spointer abilities to pick up and attach buildingblocks currently feels as natural as the Legocomparisons would have you believe. Just pickup your favourite piece and attach it to another

MyS/ms'creative tools are easy to understandyet complex enough to offer sufficient freedomand if they can be masterfully integrated intothe main quest (see The Sims' City) EA couldwell have created one of the most personallyrewarding Wii games currently inexistence. What a pleasant surprise.

Another radical change to the Sims formula, but one thafs been showcased the least,is the Story mode in MySims. Unlike previous The Sims games, and in a nod to thetastes of console gamers, MySims actually has an overriding objective and narrative.Upon beginning the game, the player is dropped into a run-down, abandoned villagethat must be rebui l t to at t ract s ims back to the habi ta t More ak in to Viva Pinata thanAnimal Crossing, the style in which the houses and homes are built will determine thetype of sims who return to the village. Once in the village, these inhabitants must be kepthappy by building new fumiture for them and generally being quite nice. The addition is amasterstroke that adds a sense of purpose to the non-linear, creative elements.

150 6 0 g a m e s ' "

M Y S I M SNINTENDO Wii / MULTIFORMAT

DEVELOPER PROFILE■ Now divided into two entities - one to work on original The Sims games and the other to concentrateon expansion packs. Electronic Arts' Sims Division is mostly comprised of people who used to be part ofMaxis, as well as several new, and unusually youthful, recruits.

games™ 061

PREVIEW I JUICED 2: HOT IMPORT NIGHTS I PLAYSTATION 3/MULTIFORMAT

JUICED 2:I G H T S

DJS, MUSIC, CARS, GIRLS, ETC...

N"lt's about the DJs, its aboutthe music, it's about the cars, it'sabout the girls," chimes Juice Games'representative extolling the virtues ofJuiced 2: Hot Import Nights. Hopefully heplain forgot to mention it's also about thegameplay, but when - as with Juiced 2-aproduct targets a whole lifestyle, gameplayis rarely at the forefront of the marketingpush. Fortunately, this isn't to the detrimentof the preview as Juiced 2 is early enoughin its development for hands-on time to beforbidden, mal<ing assessments about thegameplay impossible to mal<e.

For the uninitiated, 'Hot Import Nights' is aseries of real-life events where motorists cangather together to celebrate the virtues of theaforementioned DJs, music, cars and girls.The brand will mean little to most gamers, butJuiced 2: Hot Import W/g/its'affiliation with itwill no doubt boost the series' standing in theeyes of its target market. Racing games havebeen playing the lifestyle angle ever sinceGran Turismo broke the mould all those yearsago, but Juice Games has taken the practiceto the next level .

This being a sequel, everything from theoriginal game is present and turned up severalnotches. There are a number of dry statistics

F O R M A T ;

PlayStation 3, Xbox360, PC, PlayStation 2,PlayStation PortableO R I G I N :

U KP U B U S H E R :

T H QD E V E L O P E R :

J u i c e G a m e s

R E L £ A S E ;0 3 ' 0 7G E N R E :

RacingP L A Y E R S ;1 - 1 0

i i l T T■ By focusing tliegameplay online andcreating a community.J u i c e d 2 t n e s t o t a l c etlie lifestyle approachto racing games tot h e n e x t l e v e l .

THE RANGE OF VARIABLES YOU CAN STRETCH,TWEAK AND ADJUST IS SIMPLY DIZZYING"to support this - 90 unique cars and 600 bodykits if you really must know - but it sufficesto say that modding is at a premium, and therange of variables that you can stretch, tweakand adjust is simply dizzying. Once again thisis irrelevant for some gamers, manna fromheaven for others.

Where Juiced 2: Hot Import Nightstakes things still further is in its bias towardonline play. The developer was quick to skippast the single-player experience, insteadconcentrating on Juice Games' ainn to createan online community where, sin^ilar to the realHot Import Nights events, enthusiasts canmeet, form crews, bet, and race each otherIf you spot a decal system you like, you can

buy it direct from its creator The game evenmonitors your performance and assembles anindividual 'Driver DNA' pattern, which can thenbe downloaded by others and raced against.

If making a great sequel requires taking theelements that made the original a success,innovating within them and pushing themfurther then Juiced 2 seems set to surpassthe achievements of its predecessor Whetheryou buy into the scene or not there's arefreshing bravery to its embellishment ofthat sense of community. By targeting carculture so heavily, Juiced 2 w\\\ inevitablynarrow its potential audience but it could beto the advantage of those who live thelifestyle it imitates. HI

hopes to tap into both the gamersmaiket and the motor enthusiasts market

0 6 2 g a m e s " "

, ( = w ,

i

The biggest racinggame we've ever playedon any gaming machine'

P S W

PlayStation 2

'RACING REINVENTED"O U T M A R C H1600km of diverse Hawaiian roads to explore

A seamless streaming world - no loading times

An unlimited number of challenges

Over 65 of the world's most luxurious supercars

i V IQL

W I R E L E S S

i ' ^J 1 9 1 s t e v e r f u l l y o n l i n ey |l racing experience

on PSP

P C =

C O N N E C T

" B e s t O n l i n e G a m e "O f fi c i a l X b o x 3 6 0Magazine

C O M M U N I T Y

Crea te c lubs torace, chat, tradea n d m o r e

w w w . t e s t d r i v e u n l i m i t e d . c o m PlayStation E. •PlavSiaiion-. •;=' r are lfa(temrits or regisiered Irademarics o( SonyComputef Eniertainment Inc All ris ils fesaved Test Onve® Unlimited 0 2006 Atsn Inc Designed arKt (Jeveloped by Meiboume House Studio, ar Atari d«vetop<T«al studw M sd by Atan Europe SASU All trademarlis are ttw property of their respective

PREVIEW THE SETTLERS III NINTENDO DS

A C L A S S I C S E R I E S S E T T L E SO N T H E S M A L L S C R E E N S

F O R M A T :N i n t e n d o D S

O R I G i N :

GermanyP U B L I S H E R :

U b i s o f tD E V E L O P E R :

BlueByteR E L £ A S E :

l J u l yG E N R E :Real-Time StrategyP L A Y E R S :1 - 4

l O T I■ Lead your littlet r i b e f r o m s w e e tl i t t l e m u d h u t s t o

glorious victory in theD S i n s t a l m e n t o f a

c l a s s i c P C s e r i e s .

EC With the number of gamesNintendo's DS has been receiving

I Tlie DS is the perfect machine tofeature our little Sefl/erfriends.

recently it's fairly easy to get left behind.You can barely turn your back without anessential import or surprisingly innpressive port

ridding you of your money.Occasionally, caught in this whirlpool of

software, you may even be taunted by gamesthat never actually make it into the shops. TheSettlers is a case in point. Some time last yearyou may have heard that The Settlers wouldbe arriving on the handheld, only you probablymissed it as it never actually arrived. For allthe flexibility the DS has, it must be said thatthe RTS genre is one of the most likely to seesuccess when dragged onto the format andwhen the RTS in question is part of the highlyacclaimed Settlers series that has performedso well on PC over the years its no wonderDS owners started to get very excited aboutt h e l a u n c h .

As mentioned, however, the game neveractually made it over to us in 2006. Now weappear to have another Settlers title on thehorizon, this time under the highly originalmoniker The Settlers II. It seems as thoughthis is the same game that was presentedfor Nintendo DS previously - an entirely newgame and the fifth in the series - and not aport of the existing Settlers II. Nevertheless,this is still the first time that the series hasever ventured away from the safet/ of its PChome. The Settlers II will more than likely turnout to be a very worthy title for the DS as wellas a superb test of its capabilities.

'■* A? V A .* nvr-

■ r i - H

THIS WILL BE THE FIRST TIME THE SERIESHAS MOVED AWAY FROM ITS PC HOMEAND SHOULD CERTAINLY BE A WORTHYTITLE FOR THE DS"It's nice to see videogames such as this

arriving on the handheld. Although certainother RTS titles have made the move from PCto console over the last couple of years - withmixed success rates - the lack of mouse andkeyboard has hindered mass appeal. With theDS, control issues are no longer a concern andwe can finally see some of the great gamesonce stranded breaking away and becomingplayable on the train.

No matter how the version of The Settlerswe end up playing in a few months' timeturns out, the screenshots available show thaithe transition has been made well and it's nothard to imagine that the game will play just a?well. The same cute graphics are a certaintyand we can't see BlueByte dropping the ballafter so many quality instalments.Let's just hope the game actuallymakes it to us this time.

H i

''Heatseeker is Burnout mth jets and nukesOfficial PlayStation 2 Magazine

l i Blisteringly explosive''N - G a m e r

W i i J ~ lPlayStat ion.Por tab le

PlayStation.E© 2007 The Codemasters Softwafe Company Limited {"Codemasters"). All rights reserved, "Codemasters"® is a registered trademark owned by Codemasters, "HEATSEEKER"" is a trademark o1 Codemasters. Developed by IR Gurus Interactive Pty Limited and published by Codemasters All trademarks and copyrights associated with the manufacturers, aircraft, models, trademarks, brands and visual images depicted in this game are the property of their respective owners, and used with such permissions. LOCKHEED MARTIN, F-35 Lightning II, F-22 Raptor, F-16 fighting falcon, f-117 Nighthawk, C-130 Hercules, SR-71 Blackbird, associatedemblems and logos, and body designs of vehicles are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Lockheed Martin Corporation in the USA and/or other jurisdictions, used under license by Codemastefs, Produced under license from Boeing Management Company. T-45, f-15, F/A-18,8-52, KC-1 & Boeing are arnong thetrademarks owned by Boeing. Unauthorised copying, adaptation, rental, lending, re-sale, arcade use, charging for use. broadcast, cable transmission, public performance, distribution or extraction of this product or any trademark or copyright work that forms part of this product is prohibited, and PlayStation areregistered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Al! Rights Reserved." F='_rF=" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Nintendo, Wii and the seal of quality icon are trademarks of Nintendo.

ONLINE GAMING IS A THRIVING MEDIUM SET TOEXPAND ON TO OUR TV SCREENS. XLEAGUE.TV EXPLAINS HOW...

No matter where you look, thevideogames industry seemsto be thriving. With multimillion-dollar ad campaigns,

backed up by multi-billion-dollar end-of-year profits, gaming seems to have finallyshaken off its 'just for geeks' image ande m b r a c e d t h e w o r l d a s a n e n t e r t a i n m e n t

medium to be reckoned with.And yet there are certain aspects of our

industry still lagging behind its film andmusic counterparts. We can play gameson our commute into work or into school;we read about it in magazines and listento gaming podcasts downloaded fromthe internet with a click of a button; thereare concerts dedicated to videogames,conventions, awards, and websites - butif gaming is truly everywhere and allencompassing, where is it on our humblet e l e v i s i o n s c r e e n s ?

Of course, there have been numerous

attempts for the medium to break throughinto our little black boxes in the past-the most popular being GamesMaster,surviving a healthy seven years onChannel 4 in the Nineties, but mostattempts remained firmly in the minority.Even when gaming television programmesreceived positive critical acclaim, their fatewas often swift and unyielding.

Dominik Diamond, presenter ofGamesMaster, went on to host WhenGames Attack! on Bravo, and survivedfor just one series. Bits and ThumbBandits, also on Channel 4, endured forthree years between them. ITVI's onlyvideogame coverage was CyberNetwhich aired for seven years but wasresigned to a television slot so late thatfew gamers were awake to watch it. BBC'sVideogaiden, although popular, can only

be enjoyed by those living in Scotland.And Game Guru disintegrated in 2006,along with Game Network's gaming |output. Nice.

Enter XLEAGUE.TV, the latest in a lineof companies attempting to break openyour television and shove it full of gaminggoodness. Only XLEAGUE.TV is going onestep further - with a 20-hour-a-day eSportsgaming television channel hosted on SkyJ.integrated with a dedicated website. It's thefirst of its kind, and many would claim it arisky venture, but what does the companyhave to say?

"We wanted to put people at theD very heart of eSports entertainment,"says Lee Catania, marketing manager ofXLEAGUE.TV. "We are creating the firstintegrated UK-based social networkingexperience within the third largest global

M X I - E A G U E T V. T H E e S P O R T S C H A N N E L

'XLEAGUE.7V IS THE LATEST COMPANYATTEMPTING TO BREAK OPEN YOUR TV Ar J DSHOVE IT FULL OF GAMING GOODNESS"

~ REGISTER AND GET

^ EIISI20ClitOIISFRE!l i M M l i l i M I i l i S

' -BfCoSfc IfI ■■ . _ l £ A G «

I OS) OtiflWEBSITE (WfWCHt 2™™ - J EOBilNUMITEO ACCESS...lAGJESAflOrOWNAMENTS GOLORiPMlfJljMfflCHISfRtEhOflSUBSCfllBE JSoN

XL£AGUE.TVs vast website will include the latest news from the online leagues and the gaming worid.

J . i t t t v • ' J | - ■ -

, - . r ; - ' ' . .MiERr A9

J iI Games Uke KS6m\\ forai part of XLEAGUETVs launch titles. I MotorStorm ls a must for all PS3 fans, play it on XLEA6UE.1V.

0 6 6 g a m e s " '

A D V E R T O R I A LX L E A G U E . T V

Player profiles will be part of the XLEAGUE.TV experience

P a u l V A L E

I XLEAGUE.TV will feature live studio games in The Match.

m Whether fighter,shooter or sports fan,

XLEAGUE.TV will havesomething for you.

gaming market. With the growth ofbroadband, gaming has moved from asolitary pursuit to a social activity, and wewant to give gamers a centralised hubwhere they can compete to be the nextelectronic sports star of the future."

X L E A G U E . T V d i f f e r s f r o m i t s

predecessors by being able to create itsown unique content from the peoplewho made the gaming industry whatit is today: the gamers. By treatingcompetitive videogaming as a sport,XLEAGUE.TV's scheduling will providecompetitive matches between gamers- including league and tournament play,

game commentary and analysis - as wellas news, reviews, updates and magazinef o r m a t s h o w s . T h e w e b s i t e s e r v e s a s i t s

foundations. "It's detailed and very easyto use, allowing anybody to create theirown customisable club. You can challengeo t h e r c l u b s o v e r t h e i n t e r n e t o n a w i d e

range of games, or battle it out solofor prizes and the chance to be on ourXLEAGUE.TV television channel," saysCatania. "Whether you play for a laughor play professionally, XLEAGUE.TV hassomething for everyone."

MotorStorm, Battlefield 2142 and ProEvolution Soccer 6 will be putting in anappearance. And to make sure content iskept fresh and interesting, games will beupdated every few months, depending onpopularity. "So, even if you're not seeing aparticular game you want to play, it couldwell appear in future," says Catania. Soit's not just a few clueless idiots sat on thesofa telling us that Sony manufactured theX b o x a n d N i n t e n d o i s t h e l e a d e r i n B l u -

ray gaming? "Definitely not," he laughs." W e ' v e r e c r u i t e d a t e a m o f d e d i c a t e d

gamers, for gamers. And we are always

happy to receive feedback from fans - Itis their channel, after all."

W h i l e t h e c h a n n e l a n d w e b s i t e a r e

free to view, there will be a charge forcompeting. Details have not yet beenconfirmed, but Catania says there willbe a multitude of options to suit any

gamer's wallet. So, is XLEAGUE.TVthe breakthrough that will bring our

industry to national television? Will thisherald a new age where CoronationStreet is followed by a televised ProjectGotham Racing 3 race? It's certainly anexciting prospect.

And when they say everyone, theyD mean everyone - XLEAGUE.TV'sleagues and tournaments cover all themost popular videogaming formats,including PC, PS3 and 360. Though titleshaven't yet been announced, it's safe topresume big hitters such as Gears Of War,

g a m e s ' " 0 6 7

uuelcxxmeWith Home, Sony may have finally silenced its critics, games™ examines

what Home is, what it could be, and where it could all go wrong...

Microsoft's bold assertion that the There have been moments whenfirst next-generation console to sell Microsoft's assumption seemed almost10 million units would emerge the reasonable, though these fleeting glimpsesvictor in this battle for supremacy of a gaming future not totally dominated bymay prove to be disastrous. The PlayStation were only made possible by alog ic i s there - a l l p rev ious conso le success ion o f vo la t i le inc iden ts exacerba tedgenerations have been won by the by the inadequacies of Sony's PR machine,

first system to reach that target - and at the Las The 'borrowed' technology tacked on to theVegas DICE summit Robbie Bach, president of Sixaxis controller, its virtually anonymousMicrosoft's Entertainment & Devices division, presence at E3, the demise of Lik-Sang, theproudly announced that 360 had indeed fulfilled bogus website that lied to the public to sell athat ambi t ion, though there won ' t have been a few more PSPs, the ca l lous t reatment o f i tssoul present who honestly believed that it was all European fanbase, all topped off with a priceover. No matter how wide Bach's grin, there is an point that seemed designed to discourageinherent emptiness to a victory achieved in the people from forgiving the company any of itsabsence of serious competition. Launching a year indiscretions. It may not have been in Sony'sin advance gave Xbox 360 the lead, though only power to completely avoid all of its problems,by default. The real race had yet to be run. but every one could have been handled

0 7 0 g a m e s "

FEATURE I WELCOME HOME

with more care. The lasting impression for ahuge number of gamers was one of arrogance- Sony was riding on the strength of its brand

power, with little obvious consideration for theconsumer or even the competit ion. Accusationsof anti-Sony sentiment in the press wereinevitable, but in reality there was only oneway to report the stories. The growing senseof distrust surrounding the company was an

explicable and utterly natural reaction to itsactions in the marketplace.

WHERE THE PUBLIC response becamec o n t r i v e d w a s i n t h e c o n c l u s i o n t h a t t h e

PlayStation 3, and Sony in general, was nowd o o m e d t o c o l o s s a l f a i l u r e . W h e n D i d i e r

Malenfant, president of Ready At Dawn, said,"It is Sony's market to lose, that's the reality,"

he was merely reminding the industry ofthe obvious truth. No company before haddominated the videogame marketplace asmuch as Sony, and the likelihood is that nocompany will again. Even so, the danger ofPlayStation 3 losing the enormous marketshare of the previous generation was very real,and common sense suggested that Sony wouldbe running a tight ship preceding the Europeanlaunch, when the battle for industry dominancecould truly begin.

With barely a month to go before PS3'sofficial European release date, yet anotherpotential scandal surfaced. The populargaming blog Kotaku had received a rumourregarding the content of Phil Harrison'skeynote speech for the San Francisco GameDevelopers Conference. The site's editor.

Brian Crecente, a newspaper journalist withseveral years experience, took the decisionto run the story, clearly stating that it was arumour and running through the reasonswhy it might be true. "Sony asked us notto publish the story, first nicely, then not somuch," Crecente told Gamepol l t ics.com."Sony Computer Entertainment America(SCEA) representatives reminded us that thestory was a rumour, and then went on to saythat publishing it could harm our professionalrelationship with them. When I responded thatwe were going forward with the story, and thats o m e t i m e s n e w s d o e s n ' t c o m e f r o m o f fi c i a l

sources, I was told that we would likely beblackballed by the company. Specifically, theysaid we would be asked to return our debugPlayStation 3, uninvited from all meetings

g a m e s " 0 7 1

FEATURE IWEU

[> scheduled with Sony at GDC, including oneon blogger relations and a one-on-one withPhil Harrison, and that they would no longerdeal with us." A truly brave soul, Crecentedecided to blow the whistle, exposing Sony'sstrong-arm tactics to the online community,and was met with an overwhelming chorusof support. Sensing disaster, Sony quicklyissued an apology to Kotaku, allowing thestory to stay online and retracting every oneof its threats.

While such bully tactics are far fromuncommon, they are sti l l inexcusable- jeopardising the notion of an objective

gaming press, and allowing the public anembarrassing peep into the tendency ofpublishers to flex their economic muscle toget others to toe the line. Sony was shamedonce again, though this time there wasgood reason for the secrecy. After a stringof insubstantial showings at major events,Sony had targeted the Game DevelopersConference as the moment to remindthe industry that it was still number one.

Gambling logic states that a winning handshould be played at just the right time, at thatopportune moment when its impact wil l bemost keenly felt. This time Sony had nothingbut aces. This time Sony had Home.

u:i MAKEYOURSELFAT HOME

The Central LoungeWhenever you enter Home you wi l lbegin in the Central Lounge. It has nolarger function than serving as a startingpoint, and as a place for you to meetw i t h f r i e n d s o r m a k e n e w o n e s . T h e r e

is an occupancy limit of 64 people, butwhen it hits this target the lobby willi nfin i te l y respawn to accommodatethe ex t ra users . Communicat ing wi thother users can be achieved in severalways; Quick Chat, where you assemblesentences from a set of stock phrasesusing the joypad; the Virtual Keyboard,which al lows you to type out morecompl icated messages; Voice Chat,which lets you speak directly to oneanother: and Body Language, whichlets you wave, point, salute and makeother s imi lar gestures. These funct ions,and the majority of others in Home, areaccessed through a Virtual PSP.

THE DAYS FOUJOWING his keynote mayhave been the first in months that Harrisoncould successfully ignore Sony's critics. In aninterview with Gameslndustry.biz, he clearlyunderstood the impact of his presentationby saying: "The keynote here at GDC wasa very, very significant moment in theevolution of PlayStation 3... As a platformholder we have a responsibility to growthe market, and to try and push the market.What I wanted to do here at GDC was painta picture for where this industry should, Ibelieve, move - which is to empower theuser through user-created content."

If the sight of Miyamoto in a pristinetuxedo strolling out to conduct a virtualorchestra for a captivated audiencewas the abiding memory of E3, and BillGates outlining every facet of Microsoft'sforthcoming multimedia assault dominatedthe Las Vegas DICE summit, then the San

Francisco GDC unquestionably belonged toSony, and Harrison knew it.

Despite the seemingly obvious strength ofthe presentation's content, however, Harrisonadmitted to Kotaku's Brian Crecente that, ashappy as he was with the positive reaction,he was far from certain that the audiencewould be impressed. "I know that Homeis really special," Harrison stated, "and Iknow it has the potential to be incrediblypowerful, not just as a brand but for theconsumers and the industry, so it's not acomplete surprise. But you never knowuntil you stand up in front of an audienceof experts, yourselves, the media last night,or the development community today."Colin Sebastian of Lazard, the event'sorganiser, was effusive in his praise for

As a platform holder we have aresponsibility to grow the market andto try and push the market Phil Harrison, Sony

0 7 2 g a m e s "

Sony's announcements. Between Homeand LittleBigPlanet ihe company had, heclaimed, been the "comeback story" ofGDC, attracting "significant interest" fromall corners of the industry. "[Home] couldrepresent an important milestone for Sony asit attempts to build a stronger community forPlayStation 3 owners," suggested Sebastian."It will also narrow the gap with Microsoft'sXbox Live, which is already popular and am o r e e s t a b l i s h e d o n l i n e s e r v i c e . "

Dissenting voices have prematurelylabelled the PlayStation 3 as a failure, thoughgood sense dictates that this is a foolhardybelief. Sony has built a brand formidable

enough to withstand a barrage of negativepress, though the competition offered byMicrosoft and Nintendo is far strongerthan in the past, and few would argue thatthe gulf between the platform holders'

popularity is closing all the time. With Home- and, to a degree, LittleBigPlanet- Sonyhas provided the public with a persuasiveselling point for its console, something itsaudience can see and experience, ratherthan the abstract promises of 'potentialpower' they've had to settle for. Sony cannot

MAKEYOURSELFAT HOME

Your ImageThe omnipresent advertising and Sony'semphasis on getting other companiesinvolved make Home seem tike a marketingplatform. Sony wants to make money, andHome is largely about games, but you cancustomise yourseH. Avatars are adult inappearance and can be designed using asystem similar to EA's Game Face. Clothesare a key way to alter your appearance.T h e r e w i l l b e a l i m i t e d w a r d r o b e a v a i l a b l e

for free straight away, with further premiumcontent available to buy. Developers arealso encouraged to design clothing items toaccompany their games^ so when you startplaying Resistance, for example, a brandedt-shirt or hat will appear in your wardrobe.

call Home a pure innovation, taking as itdoes elements of several existing servicesand integrating them into a whole, but theinevitable accusations of plagiarism that havesurfaced are ill-informed. In an interview withGamasutra, Harrison revealed Home's trueorigins. "It started life on PS2, actually," heclaimed. "It was something we were workingon to create an interactive 3D lobby thatwould become a launchpad for a number ofonline games... We've been working on it forabout two and a half years... We're obviouslyaware of some of the other graphicalinterfaces that exist on other systems, butwe've done some things on Home which can

only be done on the PlayStation 3 becausewe have a hard drive, because we have aconsistent rendering platform, and becauseevery PS3 experience is the same."

THEVERYfiACTthat Home so clear lyreferences aspects of Xbox Live, Second Lifeand Nintendo's Miis could be its greateststrength. Drawing comparison with anyestablished entity is a bold move, but theassociation only serves to highlight howmuch more complete a service Sony seems

Even at this early stage the customisation options aavatar are veiy impressive.

games™ 073

0 M A K EYOURSELFAT HOME

Home Thea t reAt this early stage, the Home Theatre seemsthe least realised element offered by theservice. The idea is certainty intriguing; avirtual mock-up of a modem multiplex thatyou can visit with friends to watch videocontent on one of the various screens. Themajor drawback is that, at the moment thec o n t e n t a v a i l a b l e t o w a t c h s e e m s l i m i t e d

to trailers for movies, television and games.When you consider that the very sametrailers could be playing in the foyer, theGames Lounge and, potentially, your ownapartment there seems very little use forthe Home Theatre beyond being anotherlocation for networking. As time goes onand the service becomes established there isample opportunity for premieres and majortelevision events to take place within theH o m e T h e a t r e .

D> to have produced. Avatar creation is the onlycommon element that Home shares with IVIiis,but while Nintendo has yet to find a persuasiveuse of the characters beyond their appearancein a small handful of games, Sony's serviceprovides a wealth of customisable optionsand a universe in which they can exist andcommunicate with each other. The world ofSecond Life is entirely user created, allowing afreedom that Sony simply cannot provide. Butthis level of freedom demands an intensity ofdedication from the user that has stemmed thenumber of repeat visitors - millions have signedup out of pure curiosity, though few returnand there are rarely more than a few thousandpeople online at a time. If this PlayStation doeseven a third of the business of its predecessor,and assuming that the majority of owners takeadvantage of the complementary service, thenHome has the potential to eclipse any otheronline community, even the indomitable WorldOf Warcraft.

PRIORTO HARRISONS keynote, the jpopularity of its Live service was held as theXbox 360's most seductive quality, and withthe focus of gaming shifting further towardsmultiplayer all the time, Microsoft will havebeen relying on that reputation to temptgamers away from PlayStation. Indeed, if Sonyhad done as everybody expected and merelytried to match Xbox Live then Microsoft'srevered service would almost certainly havehad a significant impact on Sony's marketshare. The revelation of Home's true nature,however, marks it out as a quantum leapforward for online console gaming - takingthe skeleton and dry efficiency of Live andconceptualising an entire world of possibilitieson top of it. The brilliance of Home is that it isan answer to a question that nobody asked;the solution to a problem that nobody knew

I think [Home is] a springboard for thedeeper gaming experience that willhappen on PS3 Phil Harrison, Sony

^ • I [ Hi, how's it going?Hi, goipci ll ^

a Is there any PS3owner who isn't goingto sign up for Home?

i

!

existed. The PlayStation 2's lack of onlinefunctionality was the one abiding criticismfrom its fanbase, and any one of them wouldhave been fully satisfied with a comparableservice to Xbox Live. With Home, Sony wentabove and beyond expectation, displaying anadmirable dedication to perfecting the user'sexperience, and washing away much of thenegative publicity that has tainted its reputationas a key innovator. Indeed, the potential of theservice is such that Xbox 360 owners mightbegin to question the value provided by Live'ssubscr ipt ion costs.

When questioned by MTV on the guidingethos of the Home community, Harrison stated;"Home is all about games. It's about creatingsocial interaction between gamers, enablingthem to find out about new games, enablingthem to see video of new games, enablingthem to launch multiplayer games from withinHome. I think that it's a springboard for thedeeper gaming experience that will happenon PS3." As a sentiment this is reassuring,though given the service's capacity to createan online culture with a depth and variety thatLive couldn't hope to offer, if Home began and

' V ;

4 .■— — e i * « i

m ^ li'l, m I

t■ Videos and pictures stored on your PlayStation 3can be shown on the walls of your room.

■ A spacious living area, such as the onehere in this screenshot is hitely to cost you.

0 7 4 g a m e s ' "

FEATURE I WELCOME HOME

■ You and up to 15 friends can chilt out in yourvery own pad. If you invite them, that is.

I I Y O U R S E L FJ AT HOME

Your ApartmentE a c h m e m b e r o f H o m e i s i s s u e d w i t h a

standard, single-room apartment, andyou are free to design it as you wish. Aswith clothing, there wil l be a selectionof fu rn i tu re and ornaments immedia te lyavailable to place around the room asyou see fit. Extra items will be sold overthe PlayStat ion Network and, again,new objects and pieces of furniture willbe attainable by playing certain games.Televisions and picture frames wi l l letyou display any video clips or photosyou have stored on the console's harddrive. Your music can be played througha virtual stereo, with the volumereal is t ica l ly adjust ing depending onyour proximity to the speakers. Larger,

f luxury apartments will be available ata price, with further plans for housesand, eventua l ly, ent i re ne ighbourhoodsin the future. The occupancy limit on all

I apartments is set at 16, and access isI t h r o u g h i n v i t e o n l y .

P> ended with games, you'd have to questionwhether it was really fulfilling its potential.

For any sense of community to flourish,Sony realised that it would take much morethan just its own input to make it happen. Itcould provide the idea, the structure and ahandful of initial spaces, but the project wouldrequire rapid expansion to become trulyimportant to the futLire of PlayStation 3. Theopportunities that Home presents as a platformfor publishers and developers to communicatewith their audience are irrefutable, and it takesno great leap of imagination to see how thatsense of 'togetherness' could be translatedinto increased profits. Harrison's vision forHome was never limited to Sony brands andproducts - it would be a democratic spacewhere companies of all sizes could fostera sense of unity with its customers. Whenquestioned by Kotaku over the fear that Homewould become a soapbox for behemothslike Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, and excludecompanies with less money to invest inmarketing, Harrison seemed adamant thatenough had been done to ensure equality."Imagine a game that has a realistic street

\scene," he explained. "It would be very simpleto grab four of the buildings from that street

scene, which have already been created forthe game anyway, and for those to form theboundaries of the space... There are lots ofapproaches you could take, and the simplestway would be to re-use 3D content. That wasexactly the philosophy behind the choices wemade in the tools and technology, to make itreally low impact for developers."

ACCORDING TO SONY, the ease withwhich these virtual spaces can be created isalready translating into real-world interest.In his interview with MTV, Harrison claimed:"We're just starting to consult with third-partydevelopers and publishers about the kinds ofthings we want to do, and every time we sitdown with one of our third-party partners weend up with a 50-page list - it's great. This isa service that will grow, that will change overtime." Eventually that growth will spill outpast the boundaries of the game industry and,much like in Second Life, begin to incorporatecompanies and institutions from all partsof the commercial world. Record labels,film studios and clothing lines would all beobvious additions, though an official statementreleased by Sony outlined just how far thecompany is wil l ing to expand Home's universe:

0 M A K EYOURSELFAT HOME

The Hall Of FameMicrosoft received praise for introducingGamer Points and Achievements to onlinegaming, and Home is taking the conceptto the next logical step. Every member hastheir own Hall of Fame, where they canshowcase their accomplishments in variousgames. Sony wants developers to create a3D trophy for every title, and when you'vereached certain targets within that game thetrophy will be yours to display in your Hall ofFame. TVs can be placed on walls to replayyour finest moments - your best lap on GranTurismo. the killer blow on Virtua Fighter 5.Connected to the Hall of Fame is a cavemousroom that displays every trophy for everytitle available for the console. From here youcan choose which trophy you'd like to win,and thus, which game to buy.

L s L

Better than me I'm sure/

"If you consider Home to be a simulacra ofthe real world, then most goods and servicesfound within the real world could theoreticallybe replicated." This means that almost anykind of business could set up premises withinHome, and should PlayStation 3 sell in largeenough numbers, that's precisely what everyk i n d o f b u s i n e s s w i l l w a n t t o d o .

There is an inherent problem in thisinevitable growth. As more and morebusinesses enter the Home universe the moremonetised it will become, and when Sony is

offering the service for free it is very unlikely '■to turn away new revenue opportunities.That some advertising is necessary to offseta subscription fee has been made quiteclear by Sony, and while it would be entirelyunreasonable to expect Home to be entirelyfree of it, even the bare-bones vision presentedin Harrison's keynote contained a strikingamount. When Sony's ideas for growing theuniverse seem limited to integrating moreand more commercial enterprises, it lendslegitimacy to the disturbing notion thatHome may become little more than a virtualshopping mall. Each company's space mayprovide mini-games, videos and various otherdistractions, but the reason for their presenceis universal: to sell products and make money.Should Sony's financial interests begin tooutweigh its artistic sensibility, then Home'ssupposed destiny as a tool for communicationand a platform for discussion could becorrupted, leaving it as little more than a wayof commodify ing the gamer.

THE WEBSriE GAMEOAILY su rveyeda group of advertising executives on thepotential for Home as a marketing tool. JoelEpstein, president and CEO of Double Fusion,commented: "Sony is serious about online,and anything that brings a higher percentageof gamers online is good for Double Fusion...W h i l e t h e H o m e a n n o u n c e m e n t w a s n ' t

about in-game [advertising], it says strongly,'We believe in advertising, and we believeit has a place on consoles'." This is placingwords in Harrison's mouth to a degree,

though GameDaily directly quoted a Sonyrepresentative as saying that Home broughtwith it, "virtually limitless possibilities forpromotion and advertising."

Justin Townsend, CEO of IGA Worldwide,even goes so far as to suggest that Sonywould be foolish not to exploit the marketingr e v e n u e s . " T h e s e d e v i c e s a r e m o r e t h a n

game machines - they're media devices,"Townsend insisted. "Major publishers have tostart thinking like media companies, not gamehouses. Games are more than just games- they are hot media properties. The morecol laborat ion between advert isers, consolemakers and in-game companies, the better."

F E AT U R E W E L C O M E H O M E

■ Just kicking backand having a chat?Home is sure to provideso much more.

m

The more collaboration betweenadvertisers, console nnakers and in-gannecompanies, the better Justin Townsend, IGA Worldwide

Who, exactly, this situation would be better foris not made clear, though it certainly wouldn'tbe the gamer. The views of people like Epsteinand Townsend are rooted in capitalist ideology,and presuppose that making money mustbe the fundamental goal. Any expansioninstigated by these voices would be for therevenue rather than the gamer, for profit ratherthan quality of experience.

W h e n c o m m e r c i a l i n t e r e s t s h a v e b e e n

acknowledged as essential to Home'sexistence, it is perhaps foolish to expect themnot to be vigorously pursued. If Sony canmaintain a balance between recouping healthy

profits and broadening the user's experiencebeyond the ability to play games, shop and besold to, then all parties will benefit from theservice. Like nature, the game industry abhorsa vacuum, and Sony's reluctance to discussits plans regarding user-created content in anydetail has left ample room for nagging fears ofcommercialisation to creep in. To keep such abold idea as nothing more than a launchpadfor play and commerce would surely requirethe ignorance of the desires of Home'sresidents. Phil Harrison may insistthat Home is "all about games", but it fjOfXd e s e r v e s t o b e s o m u c h m o r e .

M A K EYOURSELFAT HOME

The Games LoungePhil Harrison: "The Games Lounge wasinvented to create opportunities for socialinteraction. To allow players, in a low-intensity environment, to meet and to getto know each other while playing very easy,very simple multiplayer games." In otherwords, a virtual youth club. Pool tables, abowling alley and user-definable arcademachines are scattered about the room, andgrant access to embedded mini-games thatyou can play on your own or with others.Gameplay footage and trailers from the latestgames play constantly through wall-mountedscreens. The occupancy limit will be the sameas the Central Lounge, though it will respawnto accommodate all users in the same way.

V

The consequences of having 'too many cooks'are well known, but to sonne developnnentstudios this particular proverb poses no greatthreat, games''"'^ chats to Introversion, the littleteam capable of big results...^ teamci

S p K l i t D r r a n w n i

magine, if you will, that the Mora Lisa had been paintedby a hundred people. And of those hundred people,

some were aesthetes and craftsmen, others were fixatedon evoking a certain mien, and others still were worriedabout how the public would receive the finished work- are her breasts big enough to capture the young male

demographic? Consider that this was the case for ever/great work of art ever made: how would each have turnedout? Something like today's games, we presume.

It's an established practice to associate art with artistsand auteurs. You'll never confuse a Coppola movie witha Farrelly Brothers flick, but if you're casual about thissort of stuff, it might surprise you to hear that Quake IV

and Doom 3 were assembled by two different teams.After all, they're essentially the same game. We're notimplying that they're bad, but let's face it, they're about

as original as Zero lA/;hgjokes. This is almost inevitable in the moderngame-development climate where costs are high and teams are huge.Because everyone has a contribution to make, big, sweeping changesand experimentation by a sole auteur are impossible: plans need to besolidified at the outset, and carried out to the end.

Chris Delay, lead developer at Introversion Software finds thisprocess disturbing, especially in the UK which he no longer sees as ahub of highly creative game development. "It has something to do withthe quirkiness of the British people," he reasons, "but I think we alwayshad that creative edge. Many of the games I've loved came from Britishdev houses like Bullfrog, back in their heyday I mean they just inventedgenres for each game they brought out. It's not like that any more.

T H E ' S T I ' S B K a m EMOKK (X)MME1U:LUJSE». a lot of companies who arestill around have joined with big publishers, or they sell companiesand consolidate their developers; in other words, they get bigger andmore established. The problem with that, though, is that they loseflexibilit/. They're not allowed to try out those crazy ideas that madethem so creative to start with. You see it now where people who wereonce very creative experimental game developers are now sittingatop companies of a hundred people, and their salary bill is £100,000 amonth, and they just can't mess around any more."

If ever you need proof that experimentation makes games moreinteresting just look at Darwinia. Its development process was so openthat, at the start. Delay admits: "We just had no idea what we weredoing. We had some vague ideas, we thought it would be cool to havehuge battles with 100,000 troops on each side. So we started makingthe fractal landscapes, and we put down hundreds of thousands oftroops and just experimented. Open experimentation. It's a lovely idea

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but we found it hard to hit upon anything that worked out well; werealised controlling that amount of troops isn't actually that fun. Youcan't really do anything. So, it actually took us about 18 months ofexperimentation before we got to the point where we had a game. Wedidn't know it was going to be retro or anything like that; the Darwinianswere just little placeholder men we drew in Paint Shop Pro. The gamedefinitely benefitted from such a long period of experimentation."

Delay is aware that experimentation is never going to thicken theold wallet. The exquisite gameplay corpse that Darwinia became nearlybankrupted Introversion. "This was our second game and we were veryshort on money," he recalls. "That was an additional pressure: we wererunning out of money rapidly, we were taking in miniscule salaries andeventually we ran out of money completely And for about nine monthsto a year we had to survive without any money coming in, which washard. We accrued so much debt and just battled our way through to theend. By then, it wasn't like, 'Oh, we're in this joyous situation where wecan openly create any game we want.' It was more like, 'We have tofinish this game or we'll be bankrupt and working in McDonald's.'"

It wasn't always like this; in the 8-bit era, small creative teams werenot just prosperous they were ubiquitous. These were the days whena programmer was expected to create art, music, a story, and code fora game, and still get missed off the credits. It didn't exactly open theindustry up to anyone other than insanely talented coders - and possiblyvampires what with all the late nights - but the end result was gameswhere the vision of an individual designer shone through. Will Wright,Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux: guys like these madetheir names building games over which they had near total control.

So what happened? Graphics. Technology. Next time you club a darkelf to death in Oblivion be sure to write separate thank you notes toBethesda's modellers, texturers, animators, physics programmers, andvoice actors. Basically if you want to release a game with somethingresembling competitive graphics, you're going to need a small armyAnd this is Introversion's sacrifice: each of its games is visually lo-fi.

I M i M Y S AY S I N ' n u m ^ l t S I O N U S E D T H I S ' « )rre ilDVilATAGE. How? Well, despite (or perhaps becauseof) the firm's financial and technological shortcomings, it managed tocreate a successful niche: minimalist gaming. Uplink used a sleek userinterface to get its hacker aesthetic across; Darwinia, Introversion's only3D game, made up for its rudimentary graphics with brilliantly retro-inspired art direction; and Defcon takes place entirely on a vectorisedworid map. "What's more," Delay laughs, "we didn't even draw themap. Worid map data was freely available, with all the city data in theworid, where all the cities are, the population of each, and so on. It wasjust a matter of sorting it all off the internet and then making tenderersto render the map into that lovely low-qualit/ vector style."

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Delay actually believes that by being forced to abandon the wildfrontiers of the graphics war, Introversion's games are, ultinnately, moretimeless than their more visually sophisticated peers. "As a case inpoint," he adds," Uplink, which came out in 2001, still sells now onour website. It sells more than Darwinia quite frequently. It's a reallyold game; there aren't many games from 2001 that still sell now. Manywon't even run because of the hardware changes. And with Darwinia,as well, it means they look the same whenever you play them, sincethey were never aiming for photorealism. They can never be supplantedby something that is more photorealistic. We're working on graphicalupdates for Darwinia, using pixel shaders and things like that, but theoriginal look of the game, well, it's very difficult to make something more,you know, Yetro.' More processing power wouldn't help."

m Dm^WS CASE, MIMMAUSN VfASWJJIJST PREFERRED Fff WAS ESSElVim. why?Because nuclear war isn't actually that pretty. "There's somethingabout that atmosphere in Defcon," Delay enthuses, "where you're in abunker, with the music and the sound of the nukes, and you're just veryremoved from what's happening. But that's totally deliberate - we'retrying to make obvious how horrible what you're doing is. And, youknow, you couldn't do it any other way - if you could see what you weredoing, you wouldn't be able to do it."

Introversion's arty gamble has actually revealed something importantabout modem game design: although we've sacrificed our Wrights andour Meiers for gorgeous graphics, something like Defcon is far moreevocative than any big-budget title currently on the market. "There's thisidea that you need photorealistic visuals to be emotionally compelling,"Delay sighs. "I think that's rubbish, to be honest. I don't think it works likethat at all. You need a huge company to be able to do the photorealismnow, to create the necessary detail. And I think we're just nowhere nearphotorealism, anyway. It's like when the Final Fantasy mow\e, The SpiritsWithin, came out, and everyone said 'Oh, it's so photorealistic.' Well, itlooked kind of photorealistic in the screenshots, but when you saw theirfaces move, it was fairly obvious it was rendered.

If we ever get to the point where we can model human beings sothat you can't actually tell the difference, then that will be the verybeginning of evoking an emotional response through photorealism.Because on top of that you need to have De Niro acting. You need tohave a real actor coming in who knows what to do. And a real actordoesn't just animate your character, he creates an emotional responsein your audience. It's all these things that you have to consider: Defconis a disturbing game and we didn't need photorealistic visuals toachieve that effect."

It's tight, simplistic designs like this that work perfectly for theIntroversions of the world. They also allow for a great deal of personalfreedom; thanks to reasonably low-cost, low-maintenance development.Delay and co are able to develop games from their homes. "We do havean office," he clarifies, "but we only meet there - in London - usuallyonce a month or so, when we have these big, day-long meetings.Otherwise, we've always done it this way because, in the past, weweren't actually able to afford an office. We've just done what we couldusing laptops and meeting online through Skype, and things like that.And that's generally how we've done things in the past.

The other reason, though, is that there aren't that many developersat Introversion. So, of the original directors, it was only me who did anydevelopment work on the game. It would be two thirds business andPR, and one third development. So there was no real reason for usto liaise on a daily basis because our own areas don't really cross thatmuch. What tends to happen now is that we all still work from home,but we speak several times a week on Skype."

It's for the reasons mentioned above that Introversion considersitself ' the last of thp hftdrnnm nrnnrammprQ ' In nthor \A/r»rr lc thoi/ ' r^a

the last apparent members of a dying breed - those who make moneybuilding great, complex, competitive games on the cheap. It's the kindof developer players swoon over on internet forums - it cares little fornormal-mapped pimples, but is passionate about tight, original gameplay.It is also the kind of developer that gets utterly shafted by the retailchannel, which is why it has successfully turned its sights to digitaldistribution via its website and Steam.

Delay explains the rationale: "For a company like Introversion, retailreally is a loser's game. It's very difficult to win that game now. Back in2001, with Uplink, it was easier - it did okay in the shops. But four yearslater, Darwinia did very badly indeed. We were taking in returns - theywere actually sending them back to us. And that's a disaster becauseyou have to pay money back to the distributors. The way we're workingis that we have a distributor in the UK and they load the copies ontoshelves and if they don't sell they come back to us. That's a horrible,hon-ible situation to be in, especially now that stores have so few PCgames - they're just in a dingy, dark corner. If you're not a big seller youget dropped pretty quickly."

Taking its sales to Steam has changed that completely. Darwinia,which was once nearly responsible for Introversion's closure, nowsells well through Valve's content system. "We always said that, inthe first month of us being on Steam," Delay laughs, "they sold morecopies than we did since the beginning. In one month." Steam isunquestionably a powerful system for innovative small-time developersas it takes potential exposure in retail outlets and replaces it withimmediate exposure by 10 million established users. "The thing is,"Delay says, "they just have a massive audience - literally millions ofhardcore gamers, basically, who use the system to play Counter-Strike.It's just a great way to get your game out to a lot of people very quickly"

D i s n u B u n s ^ G g a m e s o n t h e f e r u l eOMINE MARKET HAS ALSO ALLOWEDINTROVERSION TO RYPASS THE AGE-OU)ISSUE OF GENRE-RASED MARKEONG, AND,INDEED, GENRE ENTHIELY. All three Introversion titlestraverse genre boundaries, take little snippets from each gameplay style,and build something completely unique. Delay has always been intounique gameplay, but he also reasons that innovation is what keepsthem running. "Because," he explains, "if we tried to make an FPS we'djust be lost in the noise. There are so many great first-person shootersthat we just can't compete with on our budget. But I'm a firm believerthat there are many many genres of games that haven't yet beenexplored. Or, at the very least, creative mixes of lots of genres. DanA/iniais exactly that, I think. It's a kind of genre melting-pot and it makes for anunusual experience.

We've just become fixated on the small number of videogame typesthat we know work very well. If you look at an RTS game, for example- and Defcon has been called an RTS game - its basic template hasn'tchanged since Dune II and C&C. It's the same game, all these yearslater. The rules have been set down. We're trying to do games that areoutside those rules." Delay's words echo a time when, at least for acertain, illustrious group of developers, there really were no rules. Gameswere made on concept rather than marketability and the results werethat each designer's game bore their signature. And when you fire upan Introversion game, you'll see Delay and his fetish for computerisedsterility all over it. Consequently, each of his games is so significantlydifferent from any other on the market that they'll never be, as he putit, "lost in the noise." Perhaps in time more developers will see theadvantages of low-cost game design, and begin to re-exercise theircreative muscles. If they don't, well, if you're planning to get into theindustry in the future, you'd better get started on the Mona _Lisa's left eyebrow because the guy who's doing the right one'sQoina to hfi nmttv tirkftH nff if it'<; nnt Hnno h\/ ntavt N/1nnHa\/

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Introversion s deal withValve has obviouslybeen a boon fo r the

small company, but for thelife of them, they can't workout what put It in motion." W e d o n ' t k n o w w h o w a s

responsible," Delay laughs."Long before the Steamdeal had actually comeabout, we tried to get int o u c h w i t h Va l v e b e c a u s e

people had been telling us'Get your game on Steam;it's a great way to sell yourgame.' And at the time,only Ragdoll Kung-Fu wasa r o u n d a n d w e k n e w i twould be a great place forDarwinia, but we didn'tget anywhere. Eventually,though, they got back to us,and said, 'Let's talk aboutthis.' Valve has alwaysbeen very open to puttingunusual games on itsSteam system. What musthave happened is that atsome point Darwinia caughtsomebody's eye and theygot back to us."

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THE PLAYERSAS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF MYSIMS FOR NINTENDO Wii,TIM L£ TORNEAU HAS OVERSEEN ONE OF THE GREATESTREINVENTIONS GAMES™ HAS EVER SEEN FOR ANESTABUSHED FRANCHISE. HERE'S HOW IT CAME TO BE...

E A - S I M S D I V I S I O N

T I M L E T O R N E A UThe people behind EA's MySims don't look howyou'd expect a typical Sims development team tolook. But then MySims, on Wii and DS, isn't your averageThe Sims project: reinvented, as it is, with cute super-deformed characters and Lego-brick gamepiay. In contrast tothe usual male-dominated team of computer programmersyou'd expect to find within most dev houses, the MySimsbunch is populated in equal proportions by both men andwomen with an average age around the early-twenties.Each sits at a cubicle, overflowing with toys, posters andanything else that's colourful and made of plastic, and at thehead of this team is Tim Le Torneau who, on the day wemeet, is sporting a shirt decked out in imagery from Pixar'sThe Incredibles movie - his influences quite literally worn onhis sleeve. The entire team seems obsessed with fun; littlesurprise, then, that the Wii version of The S/ms turned outthe way it has.

"We have built the team with many, many Nintendo fans.I've been a Nintendo fan since I was a kid and all I can sayis I'm having a blast making games for the Wii. I'm surehaving fun and I think it's an incredible platform," says LeTorneau, who immediately knew that The S/ms would workperfectly on the Wii from the moment he saw it. "If youthink about The S/ms - which doesn't have the traditionalgaming audience - in many ways the Nintendo audienceis much more the audience of The Sims than most othervideogames. So it's a very easy equation for us. In taking thedecision to make MySims there is a very concentrated effortto say 'where do we think our players are going to be in thenext generation?' We made the decision early last year thatthe Nintendo platforms made a lot of sense for us as theplace to take The Sims on the next-generation consoles.What Nintendo has done with the Wii is brilliant and it'ssomething we've already seen on the DS with Brain Age- they started to target a much broader demographic and

brought that westward. I think Nintendo has done incrediblethings to broaden that spectrum even wider and I think, youknow, having my 82-year-old mother on Thanksgiving, bowlon the Nintendo Wii couldn't be a clearer indication that theWii and DS have broadened that gap. So, for us it's natural,it's like, well, these are our players already: why shouldn'twe be where they are?"

Having played MySims, it's clear that Le Torneau iscorrect: The Sims and Wii are perfect for one another Andyet the Sims team has decided not to make use of one part

of the Wii that many assumed would be a natural choice forThe Sims, namely: the Miis. "The short answer," explainsLe Torneau, "is that we started developing this nine monthsbefore anyone knew what the Miis were. The long answeris that we make The Sims and we make MySims so, youknow, these characters are sims. They're our characters andwe designed them and developed them and had fallen inlove with them long before we saw the Miis. I think the Miisare awesome. They're such a great ambassador for the Wiias a platform and I applaud what Nintendo did with that butfor us our sims are our sims and they are our characters. It'sso easy for people to try and draw comparisons but they'revery, very different characters."

Le Torneau is obviously very proud of the new-look Simsbut that's nothing compared to his love for the Sims playersthemselves - a fact made all the more apparent by thewalls of the developer's office, which are plastered withscreenshots, letters and pictures sent in by avid S/ms fans."The greatest sense of pride I ever take on any Sims gamehas nothing to do with anything we do as game makers.Nothing. It has to do with what players do with the toolsthat we give them. Being able to see the expression oftheir individuality and their creativity is the most powerfulexperience as a maker of these games that you canpossibly have. The greatest sense of pride I ever have isseeing people do what goes above and beyond my ownimaginings. Seeing that is an amazing experience because,as a player of The Sims, you look down and say 'I can'tbelieve I did that' and I think what I've seen with MySimsis that people have similar reactions. They say 'wow, I builtthat thing, that looks so cool and I feel really proud of that.'But each person is limited by their own personal creativity,so the thing that's really inspiring is when you see peoplewho really are artisans take it beyond. This can inspire you todo new things. For me, the incredible community that existsaround The Sims is the most gratifying thing about thisgame and the reason I've continued to make it for the lasteight years. I've been working on The S/ms for a long timeand a lot of people ask if I'm bored with it but I can't say thatI've ever been bored with it. It's that element of allowingplayers to build and make something that is always newand always surprising to you. I don't think I'll ever gett i r e d o f t h a t . "

MySims is released in the dutumn and is previewed on page 60.

082 sames" '

THE PLAYERS I EA - SIMS DIVISION

T H E G R E A T E S TSENSE OF PRIDE IEVER HAVE IS SEEINGPEOPLE DO WHATGOES ABOVE ANDBEYOND MY OWNI M A G I N I N G S "

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(The Past)

Chances are that most gamers haveheard of Atlus but would struggleto name many of the games it haspublished. That's entirely excusable; the

company has no presence in PAL territories, and manyof its games have never been published in Europe, Incorporate terms it is a relatively small firm. Many Atlusgames have a limited print run as they're niche titles. ButAtlus has been bringing weird and wonderful Japanesegames to a Western audience for over ten years nowand you'd be surprised by how many you do know.Mention the likes of Snowboard Kids, Trauma Center,or the Shin Megami Tense/series to most seriousgamers, and you'll get a number of knowing nods. AllAtlus games. And that's before mentioning Maken X,Steambot Chronicles, SkyGunner, Stella Deus, Riviera...

Collectively, Bill Alexander, Atlus' senior editor and OAmanager, and project manager Yu Namba have 13 years'experience translating games from Japanese to English.Between them they've worked on the likes of TacticsOgre: The Knight Of Lodis, Persona 2, Thousand Arms,Disgaea, and the forthcoming Shin Megami Tensei:Persona 3 and Odin Sphere. With so many notable titlesbehind them, which games are they most proud of?

"Primarily, the games that were best received, likeRiviera, SkyGunner and the MegaTen games," answersAlexander. "Everyone likes to have his or her workrecognised, I suppose. I give every game's localisationmy all, as does the rest of our team, but the ones youremember most are the ones that fans fall in love with.Disgaea had that quirky humour; Nocturne was dark andthought provoking; SkyGunnerwas Miyazaki-esque. Eachof these games had something that made it unique, thatmade it stand out from the crowd. I feel incredibly luckyto have worked on such wonderful masterpieces."

He admits that not all the gannes he's worked onhave performed as well as he might have liked."While some games have sold better than others, I thinkquality wise Atlus has proved that we care about everytitle we publish." Alexander and particularly Namba bothhave a fondness for the Shin Megami Tense/series,a name inextricably linked to Atlus since its Japaneseparent company published the first game in the franchiseon the SNES way back in 1992.

"I'm grateful to our parent company for bringingout the SMTtitles, and to our fans for purchasing ourgames," says Namba. "Every S/W7"title has amazed meand knowing that there are people out there who arewaiting for the English version gives me both pleasureand pressure to do my very best in localisation." It's easyto agree with Namba when he says: "the series hasalways boasted very unique storylines and concepts."/ / I feel lucky to have worked

on such wonder fu lmasterpieces Bill Alexander

086 games ' ' '

The SMT games have always touched upon darkerthemes than a lot of RPG titles - or a lot of games,full stop. Despite its disappointingly high number ofrandom battles, the two Digital Devil Saga games - inparticular the superior second game - are maturelyscripted, with genuinely interesting ruminations onthe nature of existence and reincarnation. In fact, theorigins of the Megami Tensei name itself relate to theGreek philosophical belief in the migration of the soul -metempsychosis. You won't get this in Gears Of W/ar...

Namba continues: "I believe technology was alvraysthe limiting factor when these great ideas were madeinto games. Persona, Persona 2, Nocturne, DDS, DevilSummoner, Persona 3. every time Atlus has madesignificant improvements over the previous game, andthe results are spectacular. I'm anxious to see whatthe development team will do on the next SMTtitle, both as an Atlus employee and an SMTfan.

Although Nocturne is still my favourite in theseries," adds Alexander, "it has been reallycool to see the characters come to life throughvoice acting, first with Digital Devil Sagaand now with Persona 3.1 think whatour parent company did with DevilSummoner [SMTspin-off, subtitledRaidou Kuzunoha The Soulless

Army, featured real-timecombat in a Twenties Japansetting] was also an excitingdeparture from the norm, andI'm sure they have a few other tricks uptheir sleeves for the future of the series.

FOUND IN TRANSLATION

(The Present) , . • • • • •

translations. So how d^ and"Our teams start each p ) Alexander. We

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pressure in tryingto keep thatparticular grouphappy? "Wecertainly recogniseand appreciate ourcore fans; wrthoutthem, we wouldn tbe where we aretoday," Alexanderreplies. "However,with games likeTrauma Center, we ^hat said, theare striving to reach a gg^^g, and vvetarget audience varies from g ^ , 3 houtdo our best to try and ptea alienating the casu 9 . games a tr/."some of our rnore J"9 9 challenging

While many A«us titl _ gn oft-_ both thematically and in ^g^y ofignored facet is present in gamesthe games display. ® Qf The Unemployeds u c h a s D S B P G d o e sNinja. or the underrated is thatAtlus USA actively try to ^3dependent on the ^ .hoices are made on aa bit of both. "Our 'jrAlexander, "with all tmcasey-<ase bas r® considering a number ofmembers involved in a pi platform, intendedfactors, including the 9^- ;nal intent. If weaudience, and the devel® ® understood by thethink that a certain pke gp^g^g n withvast majority of 9 ^ ' familiar. We do alsosomething gems buried within the'®:i!rthl really hardcore fans."

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Shin MegamiTense i : Noc tu rneDark, apocalyptic, and intense,Nocturne ^ac/fer^Gs/Hri#i»^) . ,is another tough but ullimatalY f y trewarding RPG. Its unique batHesystem is one of its strengths, as isjts terrific plot - twisting all the time,with dialogue that just about managesto walk the tiehtrope between dramaarftttnetoelrama. Tlwe's a dark, bitingwit to the script too - and DevH I YCry's Dante makes an appearance.What more could you ask for?

C o n t a c tIts box proclaims that in Ocmtacf you'llfind, "deeper meaning in life", thenfollows with a caveat "results mayvaiy." It's the sort of humour typical ofa translatkxi that stots in popculturereferences alongside postHnodemism,including a nod to Sony's disastrous E3showing last year - at ore point you'retoW to attack a creature's weak spotfa massive damage, ffie gameplayis sadly less inspired than the script,but its testament to tfie quality of thewordsmithery that you're compelledto play on no matter how much of ataidge the dungeoncrawling becomes

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D i s g a e aAh, Disgaea. It's as cute as a buttonon the exterior, but it has a hard-nosededge to its gameplay that makes ita cult strategy classic. Nippon Ichi'sgroundbreaking PlayStation 2 timedestroyer doesn't receive nearlyenough credit for an incredibly wittytranslation effort from the folks atAtlus Co. Absolutely jam packedwith casual asides and sneaky littlereferences, this a genuine delight thatmakes the occasional grind of thetough-as-nails scrapping that muchmore enjoyable.

C u b i v o r eIt never made it to the UK, but Atluslocalisation of baffling Japanese curioAnimal Leader has a totally brilliantscript. The game itself is flawed - ithas an appalling camera, and somecharming but very primitive visuals- but the dialogue is sparkling, clever,sometimes belly-laugh funny andoccasionally oddly moving. With itsinnovative eat-and-evolve gameplaybacking up the needle-sharptranslation, Cubivore is a rarity wellworth hunting down.

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FEATURE FOUND IN TRANSLATION

(The Future)

As a relatively small developerin an industry where themantra seems to be 'biggeris better', Atlus Co has a

number of interesting tests to face inthe future. With the three new-generationconsoles now on the market, games are gettingbigger and inevitably costlier. With added emphasison immersion through ultra-realistic graphics,today's gamers now demand superb-quality soundto match - wh ich means an inc reased re l iance on

full voice-acting. That presents difficulties to eventhe largest developers, so how does Atlus plan to

rise to the challenge?A c o n fi d e n t B i l l A l e x a n d e r s e e m s a l m o s t

nonchalant in his response: "We alreadywork with a talented pool of actors and

actresses, and have been releasing voicedgames for several years now. So, in essence,we aren't doing anything new, we're just doingit more often. Voice acting really brings thecharacters in these games to life, so we're just as

concerned as our fans are about nailing this aspecto f loca l i sa t ion . "

Of course, one worry in the current market isthat, with more and more games being publishedthan ever before, certain titles that are more nicheare bound to get ignored. You only have to look atsales of Okamih the UK to see that exceptionalquality doesn't mean great success. But Alexander

is confident that Atlus can manage tohold its own in such a competitiveclimate. "There will always begamers who are looking forsomething new or different.Since our whole s taff is invo lved

in evaluating titles for licensing.

we generally pick titles that we ourselves can getexcited about. I think that's one of the reasons whywe've developed such a dedicated fan base; fansknow they can trust the Atlus brand."

For the time being at least, Atlus seems to beconcentrating on the consoles that are already wellestablished, with its next three major releases onPlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. But does Alexanderhave a personal preference when it comes to next-

generation consoles? Would he rather be workingon Wii, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 in the future? Hisreply is almost inevitably noncommittal, though itperhaps suggests that we could be seeing Atlustitles on all three consoles in the future. "Eachsystem has its strengths, and therefore we areopen to publishing titles for all of these systems,"he acknowledges. "Personally, I think it's reallycool to be able to work on games for all platforms.Variety is the spice of life, no?"

Pressed for any further information on thefuture of Atlus - whether it will continue bringingunusual Japanese games to the West, or whetherthere's a different path ahead for the company- unfortunately, Alexander's lips are sealed. "Ah,

you almost got me there," he laughs. "I'm afraidI'm not at liberty to reveal too much about ourfuture plans. Nevertheless, I can promise that youwon't be disappointed."

While in the crazy world of videogaming youcan never be entirely sure of anything, you'd beton Alexander being right. Its games might not beenjoyed by the masses, but with any luck Atluswill continue to produce excellent niche titles thatare cherished by the enlightened few. And whoknows? Perhaps one day the few will become themany and this company can finally get the successit so richly deserves.

■ The stunning Odin Sphere, will) itsbeautiful hand-painted aitwoilt and fulivvoiced dialogue, is an action-RPG not tobe missed. Due for release late spring.

I L i s t e n t o m y u i a r n i n g s . . .T l i r o f r r b r l l t o n d r ci n t h e fl o t u c r g a r d e n ; ,

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O D I N S P H E R E

I ETRIAN ODYSSEY

P E R S O N A 3

ForthcomingProjectsATLUS USA IS currentlyworking on three titles: thebeautiful Odin Sphere onPS2, the Japanese successEtrian Odyssey on DS, and yetanother SMTRPG, the hugelyimpressive Persona 3. Theseare all due for release in spring2007 in the US. games™pressed Alexander and Nambaf o r s o m e m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n o nthese t i t l e s .

A l e x a n d e r : " I t h i n k t h e t w oPS2 games will demonstratethat the system will be aroundfor quite a while. Persona 3 isan enormous game - the sizeo f two no rma l RPGs - so i f sdefinitely worth picking up.Odin Sphere's graphics, asgood as they look in print, looka m i l l i o n t i m e s b e t t e r w h e n

you're actually playing thegame. Etrian Odyssey also hasexceptionally good graphics forthe DS, and will provide quite achallenge for gamers."

Namba: "My currentproject. Persona 3, is quited i f f e r e n t f r o m o t h e r t r a d i t i o n a lRPGs. You l i ve a norma l

Japanese high-school lifeduring the day, and at nightyou fight monstrous creatures.The two seemingly separateaspects are actually tiedtogether by both the storylineand the game mechanics...You'll just have to play it tosee wha t I mean . The ba t t l e

system is as exciting as ever,and there are a ton of thingsyou can do in the game. I cansafely say that Persona 3 willkeep you entertained for quites o m e t i m e . "

g a m e s ' " 0 8 9

I m t

G a m e s Te s t e r

Gaming Websites

P r o G a m e r

V i r t u a l W o r l d F a r m e r

Playing videogamesfor a l iv ing,w h e t h e r v o u ' r e

winning pro tournamentsor testing top-secret titlesf o r b u g s , i s s o m e t h i n g

many gamers aspiret o . T h e r e a r e m a n v

assumptions that gettingin is easv and anvone cando i t , or that i t 's l i teral lya l l fun and games. Bu t

just how probable is it toturn your hobby into apavcheoue every month?games™ interviewedpeople who are making ithappen so read on to findo u t w h a t i t t a k e s . . .

g a m e s ' " 0 9 1

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JOK Making sure Mario worksWHAT YOU NEED: Writing andgaming skills are mandatory, as is aflexible scheduleC H A N C E O F G E T T I I I N :E x c e l l e n tBENEFITS: Sometimes your inputhelps make a game better. Can alsolead to better positionsDOWNSIDES: Extremely stressfulhours and work conditionsPAY; $10-15 per hour starting rate

Most people assumevideogame testingequates to sitting in a

room all day, eating Cheez-lts anddrinking Coke while playing thelatest and coolest games. The coldreality is that being a tester is morelike Bart Simpson writing the samel i n e o n a c h a l k b o a r d o v e r a n d o v e r

again than playing videogames.Testing, or Quality Assurance

as it's professionally referred to, isall about fixing. You're the nursewho examines the patient andfinds out what's wrong with themso the doctor can fix the problem.That may not sound all that bad,as it still beats flipping burgers orcleaning toilets, and you are stilltechnically getting paid to playvideogames, but there's one otherfactor that will constantly be drillingitself into your skull at every wakingm o m e n t : d e a d l i n e .

IWING A GAMK is like cominginto a basketball game in the finalquarter, down 50 points with tenseconds on the clock and beingt o l d ' w i n . ' A s v e t e r a n t e s t e r W e r n e rNemetz explains: "You have tostick to the deadlines and if youare behind them then you haveto work overtime and weekends.That can mean sometimes doingthat for a couple of weeks. Becauseof that, people who work in thatbusiness for a very long timeare later affected by a burnout

syndrome. It's not easy to handlethe stress and the pressure." AndNemetz would know, he has doneOA on Kingdom Hearts //andFinal Fantasy XII, which was in

development for five years and isconsidered one of the greatest OAundertakings in console history,especially since Square is far lesslenient on shoddy software thanrush-to-market companies.

Testers play a crucial role inthe development of a title, butdon't expect to feel special or geta pat on the back. If you don'tfind all the bugs, the game will beslammed by critics and customers,making you and your companylook bad. If you do find bugs thedeveloper will need to go back andfix them which is expensive andcan often delay a game's releasedate. Despite the fact that OA isso important, many cases haveb e e n w e l l d o c u m e n t e d w h e r e a

major company treats its testersvery poorly, barraging them withsituations that are best describeda s ' m i s e r a b l e . '

OA is less a career and more ofa starting point. Many individualslooking to obtain a managementposition or even become a gameproducer try to get their foot in thedoor by becoming a tester. Youwon't be getting paid much at first,but if you stick with it and workhard, you might move up in theworld. No job is easy, especiallyone in the gaming industry, butyou know how the saying goes...you have to start somewhere.

t ^

If sitting in a room with 20 overheating gamemachines and sleep-deprived gamers for hourssounds like fun tfien by all means be a tester

Daily

at hand, .1 may no.™thP in t roduct ion o i l—-- I people are needed to

tt,e actual game itself. Also, 1-

^en down, the -a legit offer."which he has corfirm , evenHoweve.Ranc^^'::;, boostingftey've admitted ta P

LIVING THE DREAM

Gaming WebsitesJ O B :

Providing news or features -preferably in a manner visitorscan't get anywhere elseW H A T Y O U N E E D :An expendable social life, aunique approach, and a sizablecaptive audienceC H A N C E O F G E T T I N G I N :

Fairly good if your site isunique, meaning the chancesare pretty slimB E N E F I T S :

Becoming a central part of thegaming community and gett ingf r e e s t u f fD O W N S I D E S :Don't quit your day job orexpect to get much sleepPAY:If you're breaking even, you'redoing better than most

Gaming sites and blogsa r e a b o u t a s a b u n d a n t

as the number of copiesof Halo sold. Everyone has anopinion and the internet providesan outlet for these views. The onlyproblem is does anyone care?Human beings can only visit somany sites a day and chances areno one's going to take the time tocheck out 'Little Tlmmy's NintendoParadise', and for good reason.Unless you have something uniqueand rewarding to offer, your site

just isn't going to perform.One way to make your existence

on the web worthwhile is to identifya demand, preferably early on,and supply it. A perfect example ofthis would be MyGamerCard.net.When Xbox 360 was launching,American Jason Young noticedthat many gamers wanted a way todisplay their Xbox GamerCards onthe internet, something Microsoftitself wasn't offering. Now Young'sc u s t o m G a m e r C a r d s c a n b e f o u n d

on pretty much every gamingwebsite in one form or another,and his global leaderboards havef u e l l e d w h a t h a s c o m e t o b e k n o w n

as 'GamerScore Whoring.'

r ( ) C ; K T A > i d e a o f h o w

many people care about theirGamerScore, Young reveals a fewfacts about his site, "MGC hasreached a few milestones recently:we're consistently serving up over5 million GamerCards daily to usersall over the world. Our membershiplevels are getting close to 50,000,a n d t h e l e a d e r b o a r d n o w r a n k s

over 1 million GamerTags that haveplayed on an Xbox 360."

Sometimes you can create a

supply for something people didn'teven know they wanted. A gaming

blog known as Destructoid.comgarnered a massive following bydiving headfirst into controversytime and again. There's been the

hiring of a former Joystiq bloggerJason Young recognised the online need fora method of displaying GamerTags.

the same day as he was very

publicly fired; the posting of awidely spread video of personalfootage taken of a Jack Thompsoncourt case in Miami; and of coursethe introduction of many a gamert o t h e w o r l d o f N e r d c o r e . A l l o f t h i s

c o m b i n e d w i t h t h e i r u n c e n s o r e d

take on the gaming industry hasrocketed them to an unheard ofposition in the top 5,000 worldwidesites in less than a year. Pretty goodfor a site that was built simply tot r i c k t h e t w o c o - f o u n d e r s i n t o t h e

media-only E3 2006.D e s t r u c t o i d a l s o m a d e i t s

presence known in the industryby attending all media events inthe trademark robot helmet (madefrom household items). "Thegaming industry is divided into twokinds of people," explains Dtoid co-founder Yanier Gonzalez, "peoplethat have a sense of humour andpeople that missed their callingin accounting. Some companies

began contacting us after the [E3]e v e n t a n d o t h e r s r e f u s e d t o u n t i l

they could no longer ignore ourViagra-laced Alexa score." Andthat is a major accomplishmentas getting to play with the bigkids is not an easy task. Yaniersays: "Trying to contact thegaming companies as a nobodyis absolutely impossible. They getbombarded with so many peoplethat just want free things out ofthem that they really have to filterand put up a wall. I know somepeople at ad agencies that don'teven get free products that they'repromoting from their gamingc l i en t s . I t ' s i n sane . We s t i l l have

problems. Up until recently wehad absolutely no relationship with

Sony, for example, until we bookedo u r a t t e n d a n c e a t t h e G a m e

Developers Conference and spent afortune flying people and getting ahotel out there. They want to knowthat if they are going to invest theirenergy on you, you're serious."

M . \ N V a w e b s i t ein their spare time and then getdiscouraged when they get twosite visits per month or when Sonydoesn't invite them to its pressconference or send free games,or when they have to spend theirallowance to pay for web hostingfor a site that might as well notexist. Getting your site recognisedIs one thing; maintaining it isanother. "Destructoid is a bit of atrust-fund baby," says Gonzalez,"living off of my remnant day-jobsalary. We typically break even onhosting with money generatedf r o m r e m n a n t a d n e t w o r k s b u t

nobody's making a living off it."Young finds himself in a similarsituation, admitting that his sitereally only makes enough to be rei n v e s t e d t o w a r d t h e m a i n t e n a n c e

and expansion costs.The internet is a battleground.

Everyone is at war with each othertrying to win the average websurfer's time and money. To evenget in the ring you truly need tos h i n e . T h e r e a r e t h o u s a n d s o f

reviews for every game made,on the web, and chances are that

people already go to a site theyknow and trust for reviews. So asmuch as you want people to knowhow many stars you'd rate Halo 3or how clever you are in comparingCrackdown to GTA, that won't be

enough to get you anywhere.If you can't come up with

anything unique to make your signstand out, and would rather justvoice your occasional opinion orgame review, then getting a 'job'at an already-established websiteis the next logical step. Smallersites like MGC and a360p.com (thenumber-one Achievement site) arealways looking for contributorsf o r t h e i r n e w s o r r e v i e w s s e c t i o n s

while others that offer payingjobs like Destructoid or IGN andGamespot have more demandingprerequisites for employment.

g a m e s 9 3

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P r o G a m e rJ O B :

Pwning noobs all across the worldWHAT YOU NEED:Money, extreme dedication, oh,and you have to be the bestCHANCE OF GETTING IN:Anyone can sign up, but only oneperson can be the winnerBENEFITS:Immense satisfaction and theability to buy many Faberge eggsDOWNSIDES:Constantly being the best is anecessity. Don't expect a lot off r e e t i m ePAY:

Anywhere from around 5K to150K for first place, plus free stuffl i ke ca rs

Nothing suggests gettingpaid to play videogamesmore than the term 'pro

gamer', but pro gaming is a lotmore than meets the eye. Firstand foremost, pro gaming is hard.You're a cyber athlete the momentyou sign up and compete in yourfirst tournament. Whether youtake home first place or don't evenqualify, you can (and probablywill) call yourself a cyber athlete.However, competing in one ore v e n a h u n d r e d t o u r n a m e n t s i s

very different from actually seeingany money from it. 12 times WorldChampion Johnathan 'Fatality'Wendel defines a pro gamer as,"a gamer that makes a living fromcompeting in competitions andtravelling the world."

Succeeding in this profession islike moving to Hollywood to be then e x t O r l a n d o B l o o m , B u t w h e r e a s

in Hollywood everyone is fit andbeautiful, in the pro-gaming world,everyone is skilled and determinedso you better be more than justa wandering hopeful who 'thinkshe's pretty good sometimes.' To besuccessful you need to win, andsince not everyone gets to win,you really do have to be the best tomake it in this game.

l-:v KN THK HKS l need practise- lots of practise. Pro gamersexercise gaming just asprofessional athletes practisesports. It's not uncommon forcompetitive gamers to play thesame game six to ten hours aday, seven days a week. WatchingWendel play in a tournament is like

watching a robot; he knows everynook and cranny of every map,he knows every spawn point, heknows where his opponents aregoing to come from and how, andyou better believe he can fire offmultiple headshots with a rail gunwhile strafing in mid-air amid anIncoming hail of rockets.

Just remember; If you lose,everyone's watching.

It's important to note that youdon't get to choose what you'regoing to play If you want to be thebest, you have to go where themoney is. If CODS is your favouritegame, too bad, you're playingRainbow Six Vegas - if you'relucky. Chances are you'll be stuckplaying the original Counter-Strilieor Qualte III for a few more years.In this way, pro gaming is similarto game testing; you have to bededicated, and if you get tired orburnt out on the game in question,you still have to stick with it.

There's a saying that goes: 'youneed money to make money',and that's also true of pro gaming.Until you're lucky enough to besponsored, you'll be paying all yourtravel costs as well as your entryfees. Unless you finish ITM (in themoney), usually the top five or ten,your expenses will rack up quickly.

Many gamers join competitiveclans which offer benefits like beingpart of a close-knit group and allthat that entails. However, this alsomakes you rely on everyone to beat their very best. You can be atthe top of your game, but if yourteam-mates show up drunk oraccidentally frag themselves, you'rejust going to be another loser ina sea of pro wannabes. And thatsea is vast: some of the largert o u r n a m e n t s h a v e t h o u s a n d s o f

entries. And that's a lot of peoplestanding in your way.

\viiiLK99Pi'" - ;::Sri ofpeople who want to be - or callthemselves - pro gamers aren'tgoing to quit their day jobs, if youdo manage to reach the upper endof pro gaming you will see all yourhard work pay off, and then some."I've made close to $500,000 in myseven-year career just competingin tournaments," says Wendel.But the perks don't end there as he

explains: "I've also started my ownline of products that represents a

lifestyle brand for gamers." Wendelruns the Fatality Brand, whichproduces mouse pads, keyboards,clothing and other gamingaccessories and is partnered withmajor companies like Creative,ABIT, XFX &Zalman. If thosenames don't mean anything toyou, then just know that they allmight as well be spelled in dollarsigns. It is reported that by the endof the year, Wendel will be makingmore in endorsements and FatalityBrand profits then he ever did in hispro-gaming career.

NOT ALL PRO gamers get theirown company and have hot chickswalking around with their nameprinted on their rear, but when thegrand prize can reach 150K for asingle event, just finishing in thirdplace consistently can net you adecent living... or at least see youdriving home in a brand new car.To top it all off, when you finishin first place you are handed a

ridiculously oversized cheque.As gaming becomes

increasingly more mainstream,competitive gaming will alsobecome much more prevalent.In Korea, pro gaming is televisedon no fewer than five differentchannels at any one time,broadcasting endless hours ofSfarCraft matches which mightas well be the national sport overthere. Children and grown menalike idolise champion gamers, andplayers who have perfected theZerg rush take home supermodelsand actresses and get their facesplastered all over commercials andc e r e a l b o x e s . T h e r e s t o f t h e w o r l d

is not quite that fanatical, but if wecan award millions of dollars toany idiot who can throw a ball intoa hoop, it's not entirely unlikely toone day see Fatality in the tabloidsbattling his drug problem anddating three different singers, oneof which is a man. Maybe.

9 4 g a m e s '

1,:

FEATURE LIVING THE DREAM

V i r t u a l W o r l dF a r m e r s

Too much spare limeon your hands? Whysit around when you ,could be making 4.££C just by playing 'games'' Online gaming has never been schuge and there s money to be made. Calltms number fww andwe ii send through aninformation pact- teii-

„ ing you how you can; turn hours into pounds

in a tew short weeksP,.;: ; Tet:08007 00121000

ses

g

Fancy grinding away' f o r w e e k s

o n e n d ?

J O B

Turning your +15 Dragon Sword ofInferno Into dinner for your familyW H A T Y O U N E E DEndless amounts of free time,dedication, and a bit of foresightC H A N C E O F G E T T I N G I N

Getting in is easy, becoming successfulis quite hard... and rareB E N E F r r S :Microtransactions are the future so you'llbe one step ahead of everyone elseD O W N S I D E S :

eBay hates youP A Y :

Usually not nearly enough to recoverthe amount of time you have wasted

actually earn the same amount of moneyat even the lowest-paid jobs. Likewise,gamers looking to get real-world rich byselling virtual-world gold will find thatmost people still prefer to play their owngames the 'old-fashioned' way withoutcheating. The ones looking to bypass afew hundred hours in Molten Core and

get their epic mount 'now' will mostdefinitely turn to the inhumanly low ratesoffered by the aforementioned gold-farming sweatshops, rendering your littlestart-up business useless.

^ \ r '*V>

> (

Whenever something isinvented, someone,somewhere will find a

way to make money out of it. Thegame industry is no different, and thepractice of turning virtual propertyinto real-world profit is becoming

increasingly recognised as a profession.It's been reported that in Korea, a

country suffering the side effects ofl/l/OWaddiction, sees approximately $1billion in virtual-world sales a year. Thisincludes selling accounts or in-gameitems and power-levelling but is mostlygenerated by in-game currency beingsold, which is known as 'gold farming.'

The practice of farming gold - orplatinum or gil, or whatever the gamecal ls i t - to se l l on the in ternet is so

pre-eminent that sweatshops areemerging around Asia where underagechildren are put to work playing gameslike Lineage and WOW. Although theword 'sweatshop' often has negativeconnotations, gold farms have actuallyhelped get kids off the street, out ofgangs, and are generally consideredsafer than 'regular' sweatshops.

I JKi: GAME TES'llNG. gold farmingis a grind, but if you can overcome thearduous hours and repetitive gameplay,your job can become an interestingand challenging experience. For gameslike WOW, the most efficient way toobtain vast a fortune is by doing endgame raids which require groups of40 players working together. Whetheryou're a homeless Chinese boy or anunemployed American living in yourmum's basement, this level of gold

farming at least encourages socialactivity as opposed to sitting in a darkroom by yourself exterminating a never-ending flood of boars.

However, building up a decentaccount takes longer than it would to

VIDEOGAMES ARE AN escape. Alwayshave been. Always will be. Except, astechnology advances and games evolve,that escape begins to mirror the worldwe were trying to leave behind. A newbreed of MMOs have begun to emerge,the most notable being Second Life. It'sa virtual world created by its 'residents.'This open-ended freedom not onlymakes the game practically infinite butalso allows for some unique in-game

experiences that have never beenoffered before. These experiences rangef r o m a c t u a l c r e d i t e d H a r v a r d c o u r s e s t o

l i v e m u s i c a l c o n c e r t s .

Several similar titles are beingdeveloped but currently Second Life isthe most prevalent of the bunch. Theuser-created content in the game iscopyrighted by the residents and canb e s o l d t o o t h e r u s e r s f o r r e a l - w o r l d

money. Many real-life companies havealso set up shop; so far mainly from theapparel business. Second Life's websiteadvertises a list of possible in-game'business opportunities', from casinooperator, pet manufacturer, architect,private detective, and countless others.How much you can make is hard to saysince the game is still in its infancy, butone woman last year was reported to bethe world's first millionaire via virtual realestate, most of which was owned on thes e r v e r s o f S e c o n d L i f e . A d d t o t h a t t h e

fact that eBay, the biggest marketplacefor virtual items to be sold and bought,banned the sale of such items, accounts,and currency in the beginning of 2007.All except one game: Second Life.

M i c r o t r a n s a c t i o n s a r e t h e f u t u r e .

Games like Second Life and Sony's

recently announced Home service forPS3 are paving the way for in-game

advertising and the sale of virtuallocations, items, and so on. Second Lifeallows everyday people to become apart of this growing phenomenon andwhile it may not make you filthy richnow, the possibilities are endless andyour in-game future is bright.

g a m e s " 9 5

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I N T R O D U C T I O N R E V I E W S

REVIEWSCommand & Conquer 3:T l b e r i u m W a r s M u l t i 1 0 0Tom Clancys Ghost ReconAdvanced Warfighter 2 Multi 104Fire Emblem:G o d d e s s O f D a w n W i i 1 0 6

B u r n o u t D o m i n a t o r P S 2 1 1 0Professor Layton AndT h e M y s t e r i o u s To w n D S 11 2After Burner. Black Falcon PSP 113Earth Defence Force 2017 360 114300 : March To G lo ry PSP 115N B A S t r e e t H o m e c o u r t M u l t i 11 6H e a t s e e k e r M u l t i 1 2 0

Runaway 2:T h e D r e a m O f T h e Tu r t l e P C 1 2 1

Sn/TT: Devil Summoner- RaidouKuzunoha Vs The Soulless Amiy PS2 122S i m C i t y D S D S 1 2 5Downloadable ContentT h e R o u n d - U p M u l t i 1 2 7

THE AVERAGEThree of the numbers in a ten-point scale are ofgreater importance than the others: five, seven and,of course, ten. Some publications would fool you intobelieving that a seven-out-of-ten game is average,but that just doesn't make sense to us. games™reviews videogames on their entertainment value,and so any title that simply performs to an adequatestandard will receive a five out often. Simple. Theelusive ten is reserved for games of incredible,irrefutable quality, but please be aware that a scoreoften in no way professes to mean perfection.Perfection is an unattainable goal, and on a ten-point scale nothing should be unattainable. Again,simple. Our reviews are not a checklist of technicalfeatures with points knocked off for flaws. They'renot a PR-pressured fluff-fest we'd never let thathappen - besides you'd smell it a mile off. And finally,the reviews you find within these pages are mostcertainly not statements of fact; they are the opinionsof schooled, knowledgeable videogame journalists,designed to enlighten, inform and engage. The gospelaccording to games™.

REFERENCE KITAll the PC content for the magazineis tested on the uber-speccedAlienware Area-51™ 7500 extreme

performance desktop PC. Forinformation on Alienware products,point your browsers to www.alienware.co.uk or call them

freephone on 0800 279 9751. AUEFMWAREf

098 games™

. . ' ' ' . - I -

INTRODUCTIOjM I REVIEWS

GHOST RECONA D V A N C E D

WA R F I G H T E R 2^ The Ghosts return for their second next-gen outing

0 9 9

REVIEW COMMAND & CONQUER 3: TIBERIUM WARS I PC / MULTIFORMAT

It's taken a few years, butwe've finally learned to defendourselves against air attacks.

p

■■cm :

F O R M A T R E V I E W E D

P C

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X b o x 3 6 0

O R I G I N

U S

P U B U S H E R

E l e c t r o n i c A r t s

D E V E L O P E RI n H o u s e

P R I C E

£ 2 9 . 9 9

R E L E A S E

O u t N o w

P L A Y E R S

1 - 8

M I N I M U M S P E C

Pentium 4, AMDAthlon XP or newer,512MB memory,GeForce 3 graphicscard, Radeon 8500or higher, 64MB nonshared video memory,G e F o r c e M X v e r s i o n s

not supported, 6GBhard drive space

C O M M A N D &CONQUER 3 :T I B E R I U M WA R SSOME THINGS ARE CERTAINLYWORTH F IGHTING FOR

scarred memory can take a longtime to heal, so games playedsome years ago are approachedcautiously around these parts.

However, there are some titles that your instinctsinform you are unlikely to change for the worse- instincts that are led to this conclusion by way of

sequel upon sequel that stick to a winning formulaand deliver every time. Command & Conquer, as longas you're being reasonable, is yet to clip a hurdle.

Breaking little new ground yet taking advantage ofevery graphical update is how the series has earnedits fans. Never bogging the player down with complexcommands, and sticking to ideas already plantedin the mind has led the games along a long road ofsuccess - success that looks set to cont inue with

Tiberium Wars. Strangely it's the points mentioned

earlier - not breaking new ground, and relying onvisuals to see the product through to the top of thecharts - that don't fit with the concept of a greatgame. Many titles in the past have been heavilycriticised by numerous sources for displaying thesame properties, so it's easy to thoughtlessly castthe spotlight upon nostalgia as a cause of needlessaffection - but really it goes far deeper than this.

Primarily it's been well documented over therun-up to the release of the game that this would bethe title that dragged the series back to its roots. Agood thing, no doubt, as this phrase has been hurleaaround a fair bit of late and it's never meant anythingelse. Roots are good. Kane's booming voice echoingaround Temple Prime as he fumes at a traitor isan interesting way to reel you back to the rootsestablished in 1995. But it's effective. Of course, it's

100 games'

FAMOUS FACESThere have always been a few familiar faces in C&Ctitles, and thistime you'll probably be recognising a few more than usual - well,as long as you're not a stranger to cult television. It seems a fairfew big names are interested in getting involved in videogamesthese days and as well as 'original Kane' Joe Kucan returning toham it once again. Josh Holloway from Lost, Tricia Helfe fromBattlestar Galactica and Billy Dee 'Lando Calrissian' Williams- who apparently claims that acting in this latest C&Cis 'the mostfun he's had since Star Wars' - a lso star in the l ive-act ion video

sequences the series has become well known for

■ The rattier purple Serin bases could well be inspired by die woilts of Giger.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the destruction that can beachieved witfi 13 Stealth Tanks is impressive.

neither the cast nor the voice of Kane that's doing themajority of the pulling: it's the gameplay. GDI and TheBrotherhood of Nod have been warring over Tiberiumfor a long while now, and it's nice to settle back into afamiliar conflict. Each faction has its own units - each

designed to out-manoeuvre/out-gun/out-explode aunit on the opposing side - and its own tactics. TheNod's stealth technology is perfect for sneaky hit-and-run tactics while the GDI is capable of hard hits thatkeep the pressure on. These are the tactics we usedwhen skirmishing years ago. They are just as effectivenow. Turtling in your corner, gathering resources anddefending the odd attack that comes your way is still asure-fire way to lose. Not much has changed over theyears. It's also still fun.

What needs to be realised here is that some

things don't have to change that much. For thesame reason that Zelda tit les don't need an overhaul

enhancedMammoth Tanks: The bane of

every Nod unit

'STICKING TO IDEAS ALREADY PLANTED IN THEMIND HAS LED THE COMMAND & CONQUERGAMES ALONG A LONG ROAD OF SUCCESS"

s m e s - 1 0 1

REVIEW COMMAND & CONQUER 3; TIBERIUM WARS I PC / MULTIFORMAT

to make them appeal again and again, C&C doesn'tneed to alter its core to reach its audience. It was

great 12 years ago and it happens to be a formulathat can stand the test of time. What a game ofthis type does need is tightening. The sloppinessthat has plagued many games over the years is nolonger acceptable, and gamers today demand amuch higher standard - especially with the wealthof quality PC real-time strategy titles that have beenmade available recently. It's rather fortunate, then,that it's in this area that Command & Conquer 3:Ttbenum Wars excels.

"COMMAND & CONQUER IS BEINGBROUGHT TO THE MASSES THISTIME. NOT JUST THE REGULARMASSES. . . THE MASSIVE MASSES"

I Tlie Serin are lethal in the air, soanything you let leave your base hadbetter be toting rocket launchers.

Everything that could possibly have beenimproved upon has been enhanced. Controlpanels are streamlined - now allowing the easymanufacturing of units successfully from anywhereon the battlefield - the visuals are sublime even

when hovering above the heads of infantry andelements such as waypoints and defensive/aggressive stances are simple to grasp and effectivewhen used. There's even a fast-forward option. It's

a dazzling package, but it seems that somewhere alittle something went amiss.

From the very beginning. Command & Conquer

games have been about good versus evil. Redversus blue. It's a concept that lives on evenin capture-the-flag matches. The 'Rock, Paper,Scissors' nature of the units and the differing specialattacks all led to one thing: balance. It's always beenabout balance. It's an element that's rarely seen anerror in previous titles in the series, but now thereseems to be a small hitch. While the single-playercampaign manages to play perfectly when it comesto skirmishes The Brotherhood tend to be at a

disadvantage. Something we can only assume isdown to the new faction and the attempts to give ita place on the battlefield.

The Serin are aliens and their speciality is

harvesting. Dubbed 'The Visitors' by Nodand 'The Invaders' by GDI, their role in the storyshouldn't be discussed. It's safe to say that theywant Tiberium. But then, doesn't everyone?Biomechanical walkers and teleporting technologyallows this faction to quickly grow and expandacross the map. Mastering their abilities is tough,as the single-player mode allows only a few shortSerin levels when both of the other factions (about15 stages each) have been played out. Still, they area formidable force and are well matched against thehard-hitting GDI. The Brotherhood, however, tendsto crumble when involved in multiplayer skirmishes- especially when the top tier of technology hasbeen reached by all. The top end of GDI and Serintech seems to out-perform Nod in every way - with

Q . K A N E ' S A L I V E ?

Did you ever really doubtit? Really?Q . I S T H E A U E NRACE AIMV GOOD??They're not without theircharms but neither arethey particularly great,

Q. NOSTALGIC THEN?It sure is. Like youw o u l d n ' t b e l i e v e .

DIY DESTRUCTIONAn element to play that really sets this latest C&C apart is how well the customunits have been implemented. Being able to load up the Nod Avatar with theturrets and abilities of the units you sacrifice to it is a superb way to introduceeven greater tactics to an already tactical title. Not to be left at a disadvantage,those playing as the Serin can latch the faction's basic infantry units - which takethe form of floating blade-like spores - onto any vehicle, making them morelethal to otherwise irritating enemy infantry. Ifs touches like these that helpmake the greatest real-time strategy series ever that little bit better - even if itdoes affect the balancing.

102 g iunes" '

repeatedly for noterecting enoughanti-air tun-ets. Likewe said, ifs like younever left.

much fun. Really.■ Destroy the Temple OfNod or get nuked. Simple.

S U P R E M E C O M M A N D E R

iC O M F W N Y O F H E R O E S

GDI Mammoth Tanks leading the charge. It's beenreported that the development team is now awareof this and the first patch will correct the problemand rebalance things. For now you can be safe inthe knowledge that even if you have selected Nodand are in the process of being humiliated as yourprecious Avatar Warmech gets disabled, stolen andused against you, the battle is unlikely to last longand you'll be able to select GDI or Serin forces soon.

The reason? The skirmishes just don't last as longas they used to. It's no bad thing, just a difference.The process of reaping Tiberium, claiming landand growing your tech tree is a more streamlined

process: this leads to quicker conquering. Mostmatches played tend to last around 15-30 minutes(depending on how competent your foe is - theBrutal difficulty setting the CPU offers makes apretty quick job of it), which is perfect for casual play.

In the end, it's this point that's the clearest.This is an RTS that's largely for the casual

audience. C&C always was. This is the same ethos,extended. RTS games are no longer chained to

the PC format, the 360 and DS are already seeingsuccessful examples of the genre. Something hasto give and Tiberium Wars has given. If you enjoy

checking build times and observing vehicle speedsover various terrains, then there's little for you here- there perhaps used to be, but not any more. As

mentioned previously there are numerous RTS titleson the PC that ooze facts and figures. Competing inthat market would have likely seen C&C3 becomejust another name, albeit a name that peoplerecognise a little more than the others. Command &Conquer is being brought to the masses this time.Not just the regular masses... the massive masses.The game has changed to suit this, and once thefaction-balancing issue has been sorted - somethingbound to be in place before the Xbox 360 launchlater in the year - well, this is likely to be themost popular Command & Conquer ever.And it's all thanks to accessibility.

VERDICT 8/10J U S T A S G O O D A S Y O U R E M E M B E R

games" ' 103

REVIEW GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER 2 | XBOX 360/MULTIFORMAT

GHOST RECONA D VA N C E DWARHGHTER 2UBISOFT'S STELLAR SHOOTER RETURNS TO MEXICO

mi 3

F O R M A T R E V I E W E D

X b o x 3 6 0

O T H E R F O R M A T S

PlayStation 3,PlayStation Portable,P C

O R I G I N

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1 - 1 6

t's always a challenge to determinehow to approach a sequel. It's

imperative to implement somechanges to keep things fresh, but at

the same time, moving too far away from the originalwill alienate a large proportion of the fan base. It is aconundrum like no other, and the decision becomesincreasingly more difficult when the follow-up istrying to outdo what many consider to be the GameOf 2006. When Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighterdebuted in March of last year it was heralded asthe first 'real' next-generation title. The graphicswere awe inspiring, the gameplay was solid and itleft everyone who played it in high sprits regardingtheir £279 investment. There was never any doubtthat the series would continue but exactly howUbisoft would push the next instalment was indeeda mystery. To be blunt, it's managed to take it up anotch by hardly altering its style at all.

There's no denying that GRAW2 is a sequel in

every sense of the word, but the tweaks and fine-tuning that have taken place are more than enough

to draw you back into the Ghosts' universe. TheCross-Com is now far more robust and versat i le

than before: being able to switch to a full-screenview of any ally be it human or machine, assists informing a solid strategy no end. The new dynamicweather system is also a pleasant addition. Notknowing how the conditions will transpire on theground means missions can feel varied. It neverrequires a significant alteration of tactics - evenwhen the wea the r sh i f t s f r om beau t i f u l sunsh ine to

torrential rain - but it allows the realism the gameso desperately craves to have some credibility.However, it's the sheer epic nature of the single-player campaign that will leave you craving more.

Despite continuing to rely on slow pace andtactical initiative, GRAW2 is able to pile up the

action to an impressive degree. Mexican rogues andmercenaries co-operate with a startling amount of

intelligence, and certain shoot-outs take a substantialperiod to get through - the majority of whichcontinually ask for a tremendous showing of skilland tact. I t 's almost as i f GRAW2 is GRAW's older

brother - wiser, tougher, and equipped with just theright serving of attitude. The exaggerated dialogue ishighly cliched and delivered with such enthusiasmand haste that it's hard not to feel like somethingof a hero. Reinforcing this theme is the truly grandmusical score that crescendos when events getserious, and completely disappears when they'recalm. It hasn't radically altered from Ghost ReconAdvanced Warfighter but is used far better and with

greater effect.Unfortunately, the single-player suffers slightly

due to how short the campaign is. Experienced

a . I S T 1 4 E R E E N O U G HN E W C 0 l \ n E I \ n 7Definitely. The single-playercampaign is brand newand the online options willkeep you busy for a whilo.Q. BUT FT LOOKSA L M O S T I D E N T I C A LWell, it is set in Mexicoagain but the environmentis varied enough to makeevents seem fresh.

Q. ANY NEW CLASSES?Yes. You can now chooseto take along a medic whocarries a specific numberof health packs - just don'trun out of them.

GHOST RECON 2

QHOST RECONADVANCED WARRGHTER

1 0 4 g a m e s " '

players will be able to breeze through it in littleover a day while those new to the franchise, whodecide to play through on a lower difficulty (asis probable), will find barely any obstructions toblock their path. Thankfully due to its intensity,there are enough reasons to venture back through.Whether tha t comes down to the des i re to

complete it on a higher difficulty level, to improvestatistics, or simply as a result of the urge to getcaught up in the whole ordeal once more, it'shighly doubtful anyone will have had enough afterinitially sitting through it. Furthermore, the singlemissions that are unlocked after successfullytackling them in the campaign offer a great dealof longevity. Developers clearly realise the appealthat Xbox Live has beyond that of straightforwardmultiplayer gaming, in particular the state of leaderboards. With that in mind, it comes as little orno surprise that every move and shot made in asolitary assignment is recorded. It's not incrediblyinnovat ive but i t sure is we lcome nonethe less .

Despite all this, it's hard to find an excuse forthe poor job that's been carried out with Scott

Mitchell's Al team-mates. Although they are notas frustrating as before, they still have a tendencyto stand directly in the line of fire even whenrepeatedly telling them to regroup. Fortunately allmembers turn it up a notch when on the offensive,

The smoke effects and explosions are still a wonder to behold.

but as soon as bullets start to fly it's likely they'llreturn to their old tr icks.

As important as it is to repel Mexican forces, it'sthe multiplayer side of things upon which Ubisofthas really focused on this occasion. With moreco-op missions, maps and the ability to set up andjoin clans, it has the potential to become the Livegame of choice for quite a stretch. It's disappointingthat the 16-player limit hasn't been altered - teame l i m i n a t i o n m a t c h e s w i t h 3 2 c o m b a t a n t s w o u l d h a v e

been extreme to say the least - but this omission byno means stops the promise multiplayer has.

It was always unlikely that GFIAW2 would carrythe same impact as its predecessor last year, mainlydue to the fact that its graphics and approach do lookexceedingly similar. Beneath the surface, though, ithas done more than enough to prove itself. Anyonewith a sharp enough eye will notice how attractive itis and how well it plays out: at a push, it may evenbe the better game. It's plain to see that GRAW2 willappeal to the same type of gamer as it always has,nevertheless, those who fit into this category are freeto s tar t the ce lebrat ions. Ghost Recon cont inues to

be a triumph, and for that reason alone weshould all be exceedingly pleased.

CHARACTERISATIONScott Mitchell was no more than a face in 2006,

so ifs surprising to see him so vivacious here.Always ready to make a hackneyed quip or utter

an atrocious one-liner, he's developed quite thepersonality and is all the better for it. True, many

will find this out of place considering GRAW'ssolemn tone, but it adds a sense of flippancy towhafs essentially a very serious game. As long

as Ubisof t can conta in i tse l f when the inev i tab le

sequel rolls around, if II be a nice novelty thatinjects a solid dose of much needed personality.

Yes, the Ghosts are back in Mexico biit Ubisoft has done a fair job iivarying the environments.

VERDICT 8/103 6 0 I S T H E P L A C E F O R E X C E L L E N T TA C T I C A L S H O O T E R S

g a m e s ' ' ' 1 0 5

REVIEW I FIRE EMBLEM: GODDESS OF DAWN i NINTENDO Wii

F I R E E M B L E M :G O D D E S S O F D A W NINTELLIGENT SYSTEMS GIVES US SOMETHING PRETTY TO WAKE UP WITH

r ~ i' 1 .

FORMAT REVIEWED'N i n t e n d o W i i

O R I G I N

J a p a n

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N i n t e n d o

D E V E L O P E R

Intel l igent SystemsP R I C E

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R E L E A S E

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P L A Y E R S

1

i r e E m b l e m : G o d d e s s O f D a w n i s

not a typical example of a next-generation game - that much isobvious from the opening FMV

scene, which smacks of GameCube productionvalues. From start to finish, there's nothing to beseen here that couldn't quite easily have beenr e n d e r e d o n N i n t e n d o ' s n o w - d e f u n c t m a c h i n e :

in comparison with Goddess Of Dawn's directpredecessor, Path Of Radiance, there are very fewdifferentiating factors.

That sense of continuity is appropriate though, asGoddess Of Dawn occurs three years after the finaleof Path Of Hadiance. The major conflict in that gamewas between two neighbouring kingdoms - Crimeaand Daein - with Crimea grabbing a victory in injurytime. In Goddess Of Dawn, Daein has become afiefdom under the vassal rule of Begnion. Politicianslie, economies stumble: the populace isn't happy.Enter Sothe, Micaiah and team.

The format of play here is specifically designedin order to enhance the game's dramatic leanings.It plays much like a stage production - a multidirectional story divided into four acts, each

comprising 11 scenes. The duration of these partstends to vary quite a lot, but in general you can

expect to spend between 30 minutes and two hours

passing through each scene. The length of theadventure is, naturally, commensurate with howskilful you are as a battle tactician.

The death of any key player automatically spellsGame Over and enforces a replay of the latestbattle, and this is the crux of what makes GoddessOf Dawn (and, by extension, the whole FireEmblem series) so compelling. Everything rests onthe results of your decisions in battle, which meansthat at almost every turn you're only a mistake/touch of genius away from Game Over/success.And on a purely emotional level there also loomsthe threat of bereavements where the GameOver screen doesn't show. Characters classed byIntelligent Systems as dispensable can be killed offnever to appear again, while your troops march on.And all you can do is watch.

There are plenty of instances of drama in\3Fire Emblem: Goddess Of Dawn, but theinconsistency is that they're conveyed, seeminglyat random, through several different methods.FMV cut-scenes (with voice acting) are the least

impressive medium here, looking slightly pass6,and static screens of written dialogue are merely

perfunctory: but Goddess Of Dawn's scene-opening/ending sequences, which are rendered

Q . W I L L I B E P L A Y I N GT H I S I N A M O N T H ?It ' l l take 50 hours tosee the whole thingso, unless you havem o r e f r e e t i m e t h a nthe average Betamaxsalesman, er, yes.

Q . I S T H E R E A N YM U L T 1 P L A Y E R H E R E ?

There's potential foronline play, but FireEmblem'^ heavy relianceon story suggests thatmultiplayer is unlikely.

O . G A M E C U B E U N K ?If you have a Path OfR a d i a n c e s a v e fi l eon your GameCubeMemory Card, and saidcard is in the A-port ofyour Wii, Goddess OfDawn w i l l de tec t i t and

import any coins/itemsfrom your previous jaunt

FIREEMBLEMr''"THE SACRED STONES

Static dialogue screens are hardly cutting edge but they suffice toconvey messages quickly and cleariy.

106 games" *

by the in-game engine, retain asurprising degree of effectuality.

At one turn, for example,a noble enemy commanderpursues the player's charactersas they flee from a dangeroustown. As the group makes itsescape, it sprints through a crowded market streetand is encouraged by the locals, who shout theirsupport. By the time the pursuing enemies arriveat this street, the player's characters are aboutto leave the scene. The locals form a humanblockade, which leads to a stand-off, which, aftera perfectly timed pause in the game's soundtrack,leads to the unannounced and brutally quickmurder of three peasants. Simple polygonalmodels - there, then not there. And the effectis more poignant than 90 per cent of the FMV ingame worlds.

Goddess Of Dawn shows that, even in 2007,Dthis kind of understated storytelling - withoutthe overblown crescendos of modern Final

Fantasy games, and with a reliance only on a fewbasic character models against a simply texturedbackdrop - can have a great impact. And it'sexperiences such as these that make Goddess OfDawn complete. When it's not being played outacross large-scale battles. Goddess Of Dawn istelling stories. And it tells you everything you needto know, directly.

This is a Wii game because that is Nintendo'sprimary home format. Goddess Of Dawn'sdevelopment as a Wii title has nothing to dowith the console's unique functions. This is anunusual Wii game, in that it demands no physical

^generation

movement other than button presses. GoddessOf Dawn plays well with a Classic Controller (oreven a GameCube controller), or even with the WiiRemote held horizontally in 'NES pad mode.' Thisis no disaster though. For a game whose entireexistence is based upon its ability to challengearmchair generals, taped-on reflex controls wouldhave been a travesty. Wisely Intelligent Systemshas remained loyal to its values.

Goddess Of Dawn doesn't offer much in theway of new features - just a few new weapons,including Strike, Dark Magic and Knife - but,again, we have to ask why mess with a winningformula? The game is still played out on grids, andthose grids often spread to cover whole villagesand towns. Goddess Of Dawn sticks with the FireEmblem philosophy of 'battles over exploration',and the results are generally excellent. Thereare odd niggles that we'd like to see addressednext time out - attack animations viewed inclose-up become repetitive and can't be skipped- but ultimately Intelligent Systems is giving FireEmblem fans precisely what they want:more (much more) of the same.

VERDICT 8/10

BATTLE LINESFire Emblem, historically, gives fans of Japanese

strategy gaming plenty to think about. Instead ofplaying from a two-team setup. Goddess presents

battles that are unevenly weighted with, say, theplayer up against a single enemy force but also aided

in battle by an ally and supported by a neutral/anti-aggressor element. The game switches betweenphases of play according to how many sides are

at war from Player Phase to Enemy Phase, toPartner Phase (allies/protectorates) and Other Phase

(politically involved parties and naive neutrals).

I-' -

Polrtics are explained by a voiced narrator and maps are displayed togive a sense of the enormity of your task.

NOT ALL Wii GAMES NEED TO BE PHYSICAL

^ ? ;

■ Exploration isn't encouraged in Goddess Of Dawn as mucti as it is in,say, TwHigfitf ncess. Battles are the focus of play.

Direct the character around grids using a cursor. Fire Emblem, at itscore, is a challenger to the monarchy of chess. Protection of allies is vital to progress and batdes are usually more complicated than two-party encounters.

games"' 107

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iPUBUSHERE l e c t r o n i c A r t s

D E V E L O P E R

HAS THE SERIES FINALLY BURNED OUT?ere's a point for discussion: Burnouthas made the cinematic car chase,as a spectacle, near redundant.Obviously, the likes of the Bourne

Supremacy and Bullitt gwe the audience a vestedemotional interest in the characters when they'respeeding around the city streets, but when it comesto pure speed and visceral excitement, nothingcan compete with Criterion's finest. Which is why,despite its shortcomings. Burnout Dominator 'is stilla superlative arcade racer. And it's why the Burnoutformula is still a long way from getting old - there'ssimply nothing to match it.

As an unexpected stopgap between BurnoutRevenge and Burnouts, Dominator\s mostwelcome - games™ is never one to shy away fromits favourite racing series. The pre-release hypewas enough to spark our excitement: promises ofa return to Burnout 2's scintillating 'boost chaining'system and the wholesale removal of Revenge'straffic smashing was enough to cause mild hysteriaaround these parts. In practice, however, it's notquite the Second Coming many were hoping for. Yousee, Dom/hafor challenges seasoned Sumouf driversto unlearn every instinct the series has imbuedwithin us over the past few years.

The most ostentatious and initially bewilderingchange is, understandably, the culling of traffic

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smashing. It's more ingrained in the consciousnessthan you might expect. The first couple of hoursof Burnout DominatorwM involve many, manycrashes. It's all down to instinct - when cruisingslowly, remembering to dodge ALL of the cars isn'ta problem unless you snap back into that familiarBurnout 'zone.' It can be is all too easy to careerinto the back end of some poor, unsuspectingFiesta. After a short while, the brain begins torelearn the rules of the road and it becomes fareasier to avoid all the traffic again, but it's thesecond of Dominator's mechanical changes thathas proven its most controversial.

Yes, the world rejoiced when the words 'boost'CHand 'chain' appeared side by side in the pressreleases, but in actuality Burnout Dominator's needfor speed isn't as fulfilling as it might be. In orderto achieve a boost chain, you must first fill the barusing the tried-and-tested method of driving like anabsolute maniac, and when it's full, hold the buttonuntil the entire bar depletes. So far, so good. Thatis until the catchy refrain 'you can't earn while youburn' becomes upsettingly apparent. Essentially,you cannot earn standard boost with the buttonheld down, so you are constantly having to battlewith yourself to lift the finger off the trigger,constantly glancing down at the boost bar, and asa result, constantly snapping yourself out of thatglorious Burnout zone that has proved the series'finest achievement.

Q. WHAT TRACKS?A mishmash of pastclassics, reworked toinclude bigger bendsfor drift.

O . E A T R A X ?

Unfortunately yes.Jane's Addiction andN.Lft.D (good). TheFratellis' ChelseaDagger {htid). Thatsong should be illegal.

O . A N Y 0 N L I N E 7No, none whatsoever,sadly. A realdisappointment.

J U I C E D

B U R N O U T R E V E N G E

I As ever, the real thrill of Bumotacmes from the racing; nothing can match its adrenaline-hielled chaos. Unfortunately, drift challenges and the tike detract from the overallracing experience.

n o g a m e s " ^

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If this is the sacrifice we must now makefor boost chaining, then it's probably best leftin the past. Burnout 2's was near flawless: thatdynamic music, the then glorious sunshine, theperfect balance between handling and speed...Burnout Dominator's, on the other hand, is

just too intrusive. No one wants to have theirsuspension of disbelief constantly jarred by acounter-intuitive game mechanic. But, despite itsslightly clumsy execution, when the boosts beginto chain, it's glorious. Your vehicle gets faster,and faster, and faster, the whine of the engine

practically screaming after three or four chains, thebackground blurs, your adrenaline soars... then youcrash. But it was worth it.

It comes back to our initial argument: there reallyLJsn't anything that can match the heart-attackrush of a Burnout race, and when Dominatorthrows five cars at you and demands you survive,it's as exhilarating as any other entry in the series.Why then, has Criterion chosen to dilute thisexperience? By filling the single-player campaignwith a host of dull, unimaginative challenges.

the developer has made Dominator far more ofa trudge than any fiumouf should ever be. YesRoad Rage, Eliminator and Grand Prix are thrilling,but Drift challenges and the bizarre Maniac modeare not, Maniac, in particular, almost feels like theseries beginning to eat itself - it challenges youto drive like a lunatic. Surely that's all Burnout hasever been anyway?

This, coupled with a complete lack of online playand the visual hit Dominator takes from remainingon current-generation technology means it is theweakest Burnout so far. It's ostensibly a GreatestHits package, much like 2005's Legends, but it'sone without many of the actual hits. Where are thecrash junctions? The online? The brilliant revengerival system? It's always worrying when loading-screen text is clumsily written and punctuated- it often means a game has been rushed. Andthat's how Dominator feels during its weakestmoments. It's the first time Burnout has seemedcompromised in any way and that's a shamebecause when it flies, when it hits as only Burnoutcan i t ' s untouchable .

If nothing else, Dominator acts as an excellenttaster for the limitless potential of Burnout 5. Asa statement of Criterion's ability, a 'here we areand this is what we've achieved in the last five

years', Dominator is a perfectly valid piece ofentertainment, but as a standalone Burnout it'snever more than decent. Of course, there arethrills to be had here. But it cannot compete withRevenge, Tal<edown or Point Of Impact Rollo n n u m b e r fi v e .

VERDICT 7/10

SIGN YOUR NAMEA new addition is ttie signature sliort cut a dever

blend of the signature Takedown and, you guessedit, short cuts. While not wildly original, it adds

another layer to the established Bumout aesthetic- smashing some poor fool straight through a wall

and then speeding ahead of the competition is aparticularly satisfying way to win a race. Shame

there's no online, of course, but if a similar systemis in t roduced to Bumout 5- and there 's no reason

why it wouldn't be - then the potential for ruining anopponent's day increases considerably.

I The amount of time spent on empty roads, can detract from tfie insanitya Bumout Dominalor.

S T I L L B E T T E R T H A N A N Y R A C E R T H A T I S N T B U R N O U T

I The sense of speed is as tengible as ever, boosted by some cleverblurring effects.

Dominator's greatest achievement is that it makes you yearn forBumout 5. That simply cannot come soon enough. I Despite including some of the series' older elements, the f;

g a m e s " " 111

REVIEW I PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE MYSTERIOUS TOWN I NINTENDO DS

p and colourful; Level-5's art direction is perfect Progress through town locations will inevitably be too linear for some tastes.

PROFESSOR LAYTON ANDT H E M Y S T E R I O U S TO W NLEVEL-5'S DS DEBUT ASSERTS THE DEVELOPER'S STATUS AS A PROVEN STORYTELLER

F O R M A T R E V I E W E D

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l O R I G I N IJ a p a nP U B U S H E R

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{Japan: Out Now)

P L A Y E R S

1

here's something about classic

Japanese animation - from OsamuTezul<a's Astro Boy to the finestworks of Hayao Miyazaki - that

exudes charm and sophistication like thechoicest cuts of French cinematography. Rarelyis that ambience conveyed in Japanese games,however, Professor Layton is one of those rareexamples. And it's not because Layton drives a 2CV.

There's probably more video animation on thisDS card than there is on any other. Level-5 hasmade great use of the Actimagine Codec to achieve

high-quality playback of rich, well-drawn scenes.The clarity of Layton's voiced dialogue, too, sets anew standard for DS software. The game beginswith Layton and his assistant Luke, voiced by aJapanese actor/actress duo, in search of the fortuneof a recently deceased Alan Linford. The methodof progress in Mysterious Town is simple andrepetitive but variation can be found in the game's

I Io

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vast selection of puzzles. Points areawarded for the speedy solution ofthese mental challenges, and almostall NPCs present these puzzles at theconclusion of their discussions with

Layton and Luke. Some are simplegames of deduction, others borderon the 'if one train leaves...' typeposer. Crucially, though, in spite of theirreliance on traditional formulas, the puzzles are alwaysengaging. Although most form bridges betweendialogue or cut-scenes without any obvious relevanceto the matters at hand, the incentive to perseverecomes from two sources: amassment of points (andsubsequent discovery of secrets), and progression ofthe fascinating story.

Mysterious Town's design is such that puzzlesappear one after the other, only separated by

dialogue sequences and explanations. There is nochoice of direction, so you are effectively being showna guided tour of the game's quaint world. Whetheror not this lack of freedom is really detrimental to thegame is debatable, but taken as a purely fon/vard-looking puzzle game (with a well-told story, to boot),Layton provides DS entertainment in a unique fashion.

Ultimately it's the storytelling aspect of MysteriousTown that places Level-5's game in the company ofBrol<en Sword ar\d Monkey Island. If the inevitable butas-yet-unconfirmed English-language version retainsthe humour. Mysterious Town will be discovered forwhat it is - a finely balanced, albeit linearadventure - on a far wider scale.

CONNECT *expanding THEP U Z Z U N G u s i n g m emore than 130 new downloaitablev A / ; - F i s e r v i c e t o o t t e r v v e e k .

VERDICT 7/10 B R O K E N S W O R DA S U R P R I S I N G L Y O L D - S C H O O L A D V E N T U R E G A M E

1 1 2

REVIEW I EARTH DEFENCE FORCE 2017 I XBOX 360

EARTH DEFENCEFORCE 2017A CASE OF 'SO BAD, IT'S GOOD'?

FlNGERPRl Lfun times: Th owrpr-fdrocSslona,tan.ord hev're bound to have a blg__ __

m AF O R M A T R E V I E W E D

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cult game, much like Its cinematicequivalent Is something that cangenerally only be enjoyed by thosewho 'get it', who can see past its

flaws and appreciate Its unconventional charmswhere others see no value or merit. No current

game series exemplifies this more than EarthDefence Force .

Built to budget standards and released at a

fitting price, the original PS2 games dropped oneor two players into a low-polygon city filled withgiant ants and asked nothing more of them than tosystematically kill every monster then start a newlevel and do it all over again. The graphics werecrude, the controls rudimentary and the varietynonexistent but a small minority of Europeans,along with a much larger Japanese fan base, quicklylatched on to the games. What they found hiddenbeneath the bottom-of-the-barrel production valueswas a game that remained purely fun in spite of itspresentation. After all, there's something about takingon hundreds of giant insects and robots that appealsto the videogame geek in all of us.

With the unexpected but welcomeL, announcement of an Xbox 360 version of EarthDefence Force, speculation began to run wild.The game would never appeal to the mainstream,but with the expected additions of online co-op,HD graphics and the power to display even moreenemies, surely this would be the perfect cultsequel. Unfortunately, however, what Sandlot andD3 have delivered is little more than an update of theprevious games with none of the logical additionsthat were naturally expected.

Co-operative play was always the most funaspect of the previous Earth Defence Force games,and remains equally compelling here, but to have

■ Tlie NPC voice acting is so bad you'll be quoting it for months to come.

an online co-op mode denied feels unnecessarilybackward thinking.., even for a budget title. Thiscrushing blow to expectant fans wouldn't havebeen so hurtful if Sandlot had poured its efforts intoimproving the offline experience but, aside from afew minor changes, this is disappointingly similar tothe last PlayStation 2 game.

Long-time fans need not rush out to buy an Xbox360, then, but that's not to say that EDF is a badgame in its own right, far from it. As a 3D take on theold-school run-and-gun genre, the mixture of giantenemy hordes and fully destructible environments isoften both exhilarating and deeply satisfying, albeitin a very tongue-in-cheek way Those who prefertheir game titles to be preceded by the words 'TomClancy's' need not apply but anyone witha scholarship from the Ed Wood School ofGame Design will find a lot to love.

CHIU CX)N CARNAGE

VERDICTF O R C L U E D - U P N E W C O M E R S O N L Y

LOST PLANET:E X T R E M E C O N D m O N

I Vehicles are few and far between but guaranteed fun. For a simple game there are quite a few tactics in EDF. Aim for the eye.

114 games" "

REVIEW I AFTER BURNER: BLACK FALCON I PLAYSTATION PORTABLE.

Once off the i< ingthe barrel rolln e is periect for avoiding enemies. They look pretty but the explosions in Black Falcon actually hide a multitude of sins.

A F T E R B U R N E RB L A C K FA L C O NSEGA'S CLASSIC FRANCHISE GETSREINVIGORATED FOR A NEW GENERATION

I missing linka WHAT W WOULD CHaX<jeis pllblis d bylea»''v

disappointing that the orfrtn ® '"" "'hat-n. This would hrv:s::'rordr,:r

F O R M A T R E V I E W E D

PlayStation Portable

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j DEVELOPERP l a n e t M o o n S t u d i o s

j PRICE£ 2 9 . 9 9

I RELEASE

P L A Y E R S

ver since we witnessed theblistering brilliance of After BurnerClimax, we've been patientlyawaiting news of a home

conversion. Sadly, said news isn't with us yet. Butall is not lost: Black Moon Studios, a team comprisedof mostly ex-Shiny employees has come to therescue with an all-new After Burner. One that'simpossibly slick, pays homage to Yu Suzuki's 1987arcade hit, and has more over-the-top explosionsthan a two-player Gears Of l/Var marathon.

Realising that the 20-year-old play mechanics ofthe arcade original would make for a rather hollow- if obviously joyous - PSP experience. Black Moonhas gone to great lengths to ensure that Black Falconappeals to a whole new generation of gamers. Andwhile it hasn't quite captured the sheer accessibilityof AM2's recent sequel, it's a more-than-worthy peerthat can proudly bear the After Burner narr^.

Skewing the simplistic action of the original.Black Falcon is a title brimming with choice andcustomisation, and while the thought of a Hot-Rod-coloured F-14 is likely to send forums into a 'Sega's

lost its soul' rant, it's simply a nice option that hasno detrimental affect on gameplay Weaponry andaircraft, of course, do affect Black Falcon's coregameplay and fortunately, they've been handledvery well indeed. While only a handful of planes(including the majestic F-14) are available to beginwith, the successful completion of missions - ofwhich there are an impressive 26 - soon becomeshighly profitable. Most missions also have severalbonus events, to further boost your monetary status,

meaning you'll soon be accessing new aircraft andstate-of-the-art weaponry.

The missions themselves are fairlystraightforward requiring you to simply shoot

down specific objects, ranging from huge oilstations to 13 rogue pilots. These serve as thebackbone to Black Falcon's ridiculously flimsystoryline. As with OutRun though, this is all aboutthe actual experience and arcade thrill and there'snothing more exhilarating than flying through ascreen of explosions while desperately dodgingenemy missiles. It's a wild rollercoaster of a ride butcertainly isn't without its faults.

Analogue control is extremely sensitive, makingsome of the more agile planes a real effort to fly,while the non-stop explosions, although visuallyarresting, tend to mask rock formations and otherlarge objects. Visually, everything feels rather drab,with the bright clear skies of the original replacedwith muddy textures and some rather distractingpop-up. As we've already said though, it's all aboutthe experience and in that respect BlackFalcon currently has no equal.

n i i i i m n B i B f t i VERDICT 7/10

AFTER BURNER II

A F T E R B U R N E R C U M A X

No After Bumens complete without a frenzied canyon run. A S O U D U P D A T E O F A N A R C A D E C L A S S I C

g a m e s ' " 11 3

REVIEW 300: MARCH TO GLORY I PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

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I When hurt your movements will slow and your attacks will weaken. You can use points earned for killing enemies to buy more powerful combos.

300: MARCH TO GLORY"THIS IS WHERE WE FIGHT THIS IS WHERE THEY DIE"

1 FORMAT REVIEWED 1PlayStation Portable

O R I G I N . sG e r m a n yP U B U S H E R

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orget the Alamo. Pay no heed tothe few who fought the Battle ofBritain. The undisputed champion ofDavid and Goliath stand-offs is one that

you probably haven't even heard of: Thermopylae.A Greek army of 6,000, led by King Leonidas anda platoon of 300 Spartan warriors, stood its groundagainst the Persian hordes of Xerxes, estimated tobe between 250,000 and 5 million strong. They lost,of course, but the heroism displayed by the Greeksis without parallel in all of history, and the inspirationfor a Frank IVIiller graphic novel, its impending filmadaptation and this, the videogame licence.

While ail the carnage may make for good readingand potentially scintillating cinema, it isn't an idealfoundation for gaming. Placing you on the side ofan army facing overwhelming odds means killing anawful lot of enemies, and is the perfect jumping offpoint for a steady descent into jarring repetition. WithThermopylae the odds are so unfairly stacked againstyou it virtually guarantees that you will spend themajority of the game hammering buttons as you arepitted against successive waves of enemies. Hack-

and-slash games don't have to be boring, but 300:March To Glory lacks any of the invention or senseof grandeur that makes a game like God Of War sounique, and it is only a matter of a few hours beforeyou feel you've seen everything it has to offer.

Combat is integral to the experience, and thedeveloper has made obvious effort to provide somedepth of choice to the action. As you kill the Persians,you will earn currency with which to buy morepowerful swords, spears, shields and armour, as wellas more complex and devastating combos. Eachfallen enemy also contributes to your 'Wrath' meter,which gives you the ability to perform more powerfulattacks and, when full, gives you access to fourspecial powers - slowing time, replenishing health,temporary invincibility and increased strength. Whileinitially this might sound impressive, it is underminedby narrow scope in the attacks and a jarring lack ofvariety in the NPC design.

Only after three solid hours of play did we comeup against what could be described as a puzzle- involving a locked room, three levers, some water

and a badly placed trident. Occasionally you have tofight in formation, or against an elephant or a slightlybigger Persian soldier, but none are exciting enoughto lift the whole experience above its more banalmoments. A shame, therefore, because despitesome engaging moments, and in direct contradictionto the legacy of the soldiers upon which itis based, 300: March To G/ory never risesabove the average.

C H I U C O N C A R N A G E

A S G O O D A S

W O R S E T H A N

■ You must become disciplined in using your shield for defence if youwish to make progress.

VERDICT 5/10 k tFUN FOR A WHILE, BUT SOON BECOMES A BATTLE

SYPHOfg RLTER:D A R K M I R R O R

games ' " ' 115

REVIEW I NBA STREET HOMECOURTI XBOX 360/MULTIFORMAT

I The opposition At can sometimes go walkabout especially when the ball is up in the air

NBA STREETH O M E C O U R TNOTHING BUT THE BOTTOM OF THE NET

here's something strangely personalabout Electronic Arts' output of late.All the games have been about mood,about tapping into cultures and sub

cultures, about using more than just gameplay andgraphics to engage their audience. It's all cynicallyfocus-tested 'corporate hugs' marketing strategy ofcourse, and it misses as often as it hits: the uglinessof Need For Speed's racing 'scene', for example, isas off-putting as those horrendous mayfly ads fromVodafone. When this mood, this sense of place isexecuted as skilfully and honestly as it is in NBAStreet Homecourt though, it's almost impossible notto fee l endeared.

There's a warmth to Homecourt that comes asquite a surprise, and a very welcome one: if it helps,think 'old school.' Concrete schoolyards and urbanAmericana. NBA stars relay stories of their youths,their exploits growing up on inner-city streets, andof course, memories of their own home courts.It's almost inspiring hearing the rags-to-richestales of these now multi-millionaires as they chatleisurely over the Jackson 5 and Kurtis Blow, allwhile still photos of the real courts glide by in thebackground. It makes you feel young again - rose-

F O R M A T R E V I E W E D

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PlayStation 3

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tinted memories of long summers and better times,despite being on the other side of the Atlantic. Quitean achievement for a sports game.

It even permeates the on-court action. The gamesare picked out in washed-out blues and yellows assoft mellow breaks and beats play in the backgroundand the bailers chat and banter like a scene fromWhite Men Can't Jump. The first couple of games ofNBA Street Homecourt are particularly pleasurable.The tweaked and improved match engine plays hostto a game full of expression, of slick, stylish three-ornthree hoops where men can jump eight feet into

SO, HOWA N Y T E A M S ?

Loads. All of the NBA,the All Stars and a hugeba tch o f C lass i c t eams .

Q . H A S T H E E N G I N EB E E N I M P R O V E D ?Picl<s are more effective,and stealing is muchbetter but rebounding isstill lacking.

Q . T H E B E S TV E R S I O N Y E T ?Unquestionably so,bu t where i s the ser iesto go from here?

N B A S T R E E T: V O L S

Seeing players s|NBA Steet Homecourt

ird off the glass is not an uncommon sight in

116 games " *

Every dunk is thrown down with panache and aggression.It's all about attitude, you see.

the air and hit jump shots from anywhere on thebasketball court. It's a world in which the players

jump off each other's backs, where passing withthe feet is deemed sens ib le and where a double-

dunk (that's catching the ball as it falls and dunkingit again) is a legal way to score.

Unfortunately though, it's also a world wherethings get awfully repetitive awfully quickly

Without human competition, Homecourt's fairlygeneric single-player 'campaign' - create a bailerand take on the professionals - gets tiresome aftera few hours of progression. The over-reliance on'gamebreakers', the always controversial lynchpinof the 'street' franchises, is once again its ultimatedownfall. By encouraging players to focus on tricks,combos and outrageous play to build up their

gamebreaker bar and unleash a Herbie Hancock-soundtracked point-stealing feast, basketball'snatural toing and froing is disrupted. It's a shame,too, as Homecourt plays a mean game whenthe gamebreakers are ignored: fast, transitionalbasketball, full of attitude and supremely satisfyingways to score.

When focusing on the sport's best qualities- skill and speed - NBA Street Homecourt is

comfortably the best instalment of the series.Using two buttons, the new trick-remix systemallows players to create their own moves onthe fly, so the feeling of accomplishment whenoutfoxing an opponent is the equivalent of a well-timed shimmy in Pro Eva. Also, by attributing oneface button for the sole purpose of crossovers(switching the ball between hands), Homecourtcaters to people who just want to keep thingssimple - rotating the ball around the perimeter.

keeping it away from the swiping hands of adefender and setting up an open jump shot. It'salways been Street's most important inclusion,the abilit/ to use standard basketball tactics incombination with the outlandish highlight-reel moves.It's something other 'fun' sports games should takenote of - yes, we're looking at you, Mario.

A special mention should also go out to the

stealing system, which allows for a physicalitythat is sadly absent from most representations of thesport. Through timing and rapid, context-sensitivebutton presses (highlighted by a miniature buttonappearing above a player's head), it's possible toboth strip an opponent of the ball, knocking them offbalance or fend off an opponent defender, removingthe random element and ensuring the ball is kept outof reach of the opposition. Expect to see it appearingin future basketball games everywhere.

But, despite all the smooth integration of clevercontrols and an unparalleled quality of presentation,Homecourt still cannot match the depth of a propersimulation. Yes, that's missing the point, but thisgame is unlikely to see much on-court action afterthe first few hours - it shows its hand far too earlyand is left with nothing in reserve - opponent Aljust doesn't give enough. It should be admired forits commitment to a theme and, dare we say it, itssoul, but there just isn't enough here for anyone butdevoted fans of the sport. A brief, nostalgic, slickand endlessly st/lish trip down the memory lanes ofthe NBA's greats, but not quite the bona fidehoop dream.

VERDICT 7/10S T Y U S H A N D S O U L F U L B U T L A C K I N G I N D E P T H

TRIPLE DOUBLEHomecourt's create-a-player system is unique.

Instead of the typical customisation options, you'reasl<ed to blend the physical and playing attributes

of two NBA players to create your own bizan-eamalgam. Useless if you don't know the sport but

inspired if you do, this eliminates the fuss of buildinga short white man from scratch and allows you tofocus on skills, games™ chose a mixture of AllenIverson and Steve Nash - not a bad combinat ion,we're sure you'll agree - allowing lightning-quick

ball handling, brilliant passing and no rebounds.

■ Showboating and flying leaps aside, Homecourtis Die basketball gamethat likes to keep things simple.

g a m e s " 1 1 7

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2012 THE EARTH TAKES REVENGE FOR THE

R O M□ © 2006 Transavision Ltd. Exclusively published and distfibuled by THQ Inc. THO and

(he THQ logo are. trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All rights reserved.All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners.

" t'' :■ J'm

Next Month ii

a\

f t I

Shadows Of Angmar■ Could this be the game that finally topples Worid Of Warcmft from the ,.top oftheMMO tree? Find out next month...

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PS3|XBOX360|Wii PS2 I GC I PC GBA I PSP DS

P E R I P H E R A L SE A C H C O N S O L E H A S T H O S E M U S T- H AV E P E R I P H E R A L S - C A N Y O U K E E P Y O U R H A N D S O F F T H E M ?

R u n ' N ' D r i v e 3 - l n - 1Console: PC, PS2, PS3F r o m : T h r u s t m a s t e rPr ice: £22.99A v a i l a b l e : N o w

This innovative joypad from Thrustmaster is designed to make players proficient inany game, no matter what the genre. The ace up the Run 'N' Drive's sleeve is theOptical Wheel, a sliding dial around the D-pad that enables precision steering in racinggames, van/ing degrees of sniper zoom in FPS games and various other analogue-driven effects. Configurable to two sensitivity modes, the Optical Wheel representsthe ideal way to control analogue games without shelling out for expensive steeringwheels and flight sticks.

Rather uniquely, the controller also features internal RAM that remembers thecustom configurations of the buttons and sticks so that it can be plugged into anotherconsole or computer and still operates exactly as the player would like it to.Finally, the joypad is available in two variations: one with rumble support for PCs andanother without for PlayStation 3, although it should be mentioned that motion controlis not supported.

T-Charge NWC o n s o l e : W i iF r o m : T h r u s t m a s t e rPr ice: £24.99

A v a i l a b l e : N o w

One of the most frustrating elements of theNintendo Wii is that its controllers seenn to munch

through a pair of AA batteries with the speed of ayoung child devouring a Mint Cornetto. And withNintendo so far refusing to create an officialrechargeable remote, viable alternativeshave to be found.

Thankfully, Thrustmaster has come upwith a handy accessory that charges up aset of rechargeable AA batteries throughthe USB port at the back of the Wii. Itmay not be as fast as charging themthrough a mains adaptor but at least itcan be conveniently found close tothe Wii itself, for immediateaccess. The charging stationalso doubles up as a dock forone Wi i remote and nunchukcontro l ler and comes

together with a set of rubbergrips and four 1600mAhbatteries so you get plenty fory o u r m o n e y

dsetC o m m u n i c a t o r h e a d s e t s

are great, by allowing us to trash-talk our> friends, chat to people we haven't seen in ages

or tell Americans that 'no, we're not Australian', they'vemade the world a little bit smaller and brought a living room

atmosphere to online gaming. On the other hand, one thing that isn't

^ great about them is that they often take up most of your head.^ With the launch of PlayStation 3, however, cumbersome headsets are outas the console's Bluetooth compatibility means we can make use of teeny tinyheadsets like this one from Datel. Subtle, comfortable and unhindered by wires, ths

headset won't make you look like you're in an embarrassing mid-Nineties pop video,and neither will it trip up the dog. Oh, and it will also work with Bluetooth-enabled

phones. Highly recommended.

TEN ESSENTIAL MUST-HAVE GAMES

Meteos Nintendo Q Entertainment 31 9

New Super Mario Bros Nintendo In-House 45 8

Ossul Tatakae! Ouendan Nintendo iNiS 37 8

Star Fox Command Nintendo In-House 48 8

Trauma Center Under The Knife Nintendo In-House 39 8

Yosfii's Island DS Nintendo In-House 52 8

Burnout Legends Electronic Arts Criterion 37 9

Every Extend Extra Bandai/Namco Games Q Entertainment 49 8

Football Manager 2007 Sega In-House N/A 8

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories Rockstar In-House 39 8

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories Rockstar In-House 51 8

46 9

Lumines II Ubisoft Q Entertainment 51 8

PowerStone Collection Capcom In-House 49 8

Ridge Racer Sony N a m c o 28 8

WipEout Pure Sony In-House 31 8

G a m e B o y A d v a n c e T e n M u s t H a v e G a m e s |Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Nintendo Intelligent Systems 8 9

Castievania: Aria Of Sorrow Konami In-House 6 8

The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap Nintendo In-House 25 9

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Nintendo AlphaOream 14 9

Metroid: Zero Mission Nintendo In-House 17 8

M o t h e r s Nintendo In-House 47 8

1 Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire Nintendo In-House 11 8

Street Rghter Alpha 3 Upper Capcom Crawfish 1 8

Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island Nintendo In-House N/A 8

WarioWare: Twisted! Nintendo In-House 31 8

P C T e n M u s t ' H a v e G a m e s |Battlefield 2 Electronic Arts DICE 34 9

Defcon Introversion Software In-House 49 9

Football Manager 2007 Sega Sports Interactive N/A 9

Grim Fandango LucasArts In-House N/A 8

1 Half-Ufe 2 Vivendi Valve Software N/A 9

The Movies Activision Lionhead Studios 39 9

Naked War Zee-3 The Pickford Brothers 50 9

Sam & Max Hit The Road Activision LucasArts N/A 9

ST.A.LICE.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl THQ GSC Game World 55 9

Worid OfWarcraf t Vivendi Blizzard 30 9

S TA R F O X C O M M A N DA change for the series sees the DS versionboasting RTS elements and a host of brand newcharacters. It may not be what you're expectingbut DS Is all about reinventing the way we play -and StarFox\s a great example of this philosophy.

L O C O R O C OCute balls of goop that roll around and sing atyou... It was always going to be great. One of thefew games that have really got to grips with whatthe PSP can offer, Sony's LocoRoco is a treat that- gamer or not - no one should miss out on.

THESE TITLES COULD BE APPEARING IN THESE LISTS IN THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT FUTURE.

D E V I L M A Y C R Y 4It has recently been announced to the worldthat Devil May Cry 4 Is not actually going tobe a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Nero and friends- and plenty of enemies, no doubt-will also be

appearing on Xbox 360, and no matter whichversion we all end up playing it's likely to be agreat ride, We finished DMC3 on Dante MustDie mode some time ago now, and the SpecialAddition that allowed us to play as Dante's twin,Virgil, didn't last much longer after that - it's abouttime we had a new challenge from our difficulty-loving friends at Capcom.

Format: PlayStation 3. Xbox 360 Publisher Capcom Developer In-House

P O K E M O N P I N B A L L : R U B Y & S A P P H I R EPinball games deliver varied experiences withequally varied success, but the unlikely PokemonPinba l l i s one o f the bes t o f the bunch - on

a handheld. Even if you hate the little pocketmonsters, you should spare the time for this.

H A L F - U F E 2H a i l e d a s o n e o f t h e fi n e s t F P S a d v e n t u r e s i n

existence, Half-Li^ 2 is a game that everyoneshould experience. Even the recent Half-Li^Episodes haven't captured gamers in the waythis highly acclaimed title has. Play It. Pronto.

games" ' 165

PS3 I XBOX 360 I Wii | PS2 | GC | PC | GBA | PSP | DS

E S S E N T I A L STOO MANY GAMES, NOT ENOUGH MONEY. THANKFULLY, NOT ALL OF THEM ARE WORTH SPENDING YOUR HARD-

T i t l e P u b l i s h e r D e v e l o p e rN i n t e n d o W i i T e n M u s t - H a v e G a m e sK O R O R I N PA

Having to roll a spherical pig/dog/penguinaround joyously themed arenas is a good wayto sell a game to us. Kororinpa is helped by thefact that ifs Ingeniously designed. A little shortlived, perhaps, but one of the better Wii games.

T .

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILX3HT PRINCESSOn our first play through it took 26 hours.Ignoring side quests due to excitement has ledus to play it again - this time with bug catchingand Poe hunting. The fact that we don't mind inthe slightest shows just how good this game is.

GOD OF WAR IIA sequel that improves upon the original is whatwe all wanted to see, but nobody predicted thatit would happen in such a spectacular manner.Kratos returns with all the rage of the gods andreceives the fourth ever games™ perfect ten.

K ILLER7

Okay, so you'll likely get to the end and not beentirely sure what's going on, but in anticipationof the excellent looking No More Heroes we'verecently revisited killer? and ifs worth everymildly confusing moment you spend with it.

Konami In-House

[ Kororinpa Nintendo Hudson 53 7

The Legend Of Zelda; Twilight Princess Nintendo In-House 51 9

Madden NFL 07 EA In-House 53 8

Sonic And The Secret Rings Sega Sonic Team 55 7

SSXBlur EA In-House 55 8

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Sega In-House 51 7

Super Swing Golf Tecmo Ntreev 54 8

Trauma Center Second Opinion At lus In-House 52 7

WarioWare; Smooth Moves Nintendo In-House 52 7

I PlayStation 2 Ten Must-Have Games , ; rAmplitude Sony Harmonix 8 8

Beyond Good & Evil Ubisoft In-House 12 8

Devil May Cry Capcom In-House 30 8

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories Koet Nippon Ichi Software 48 9

God Of War Sony In-House 32 9

iGodOfWarll Sony In-House 55 10 1Guitar Hero II RedOctane Hamionix 51 9

Ico Sony In-House N/A 9

Rez Sega Uga N/A 8

Shadow Of The Colossus Sony In-House 39 9

1 N i n t e n d o G a m e C u b e T e n M u s t - H a v e G a m e s , IAlien Hominid 03 Entertainment The Behemoth 27 8

Animal Crossing Nintendo In-House 1 8

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem Nintendo Silicon Knights N/A 8

F-Zero GX Nintendo Amusement Vision 10 9

Ikaruga Treasure In-House 2 8

: killer? Capcom In-House 34 9 1The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker Nintendo In-House 5 9

Metroid Prime Nintendo In-House 2 10

Resident Evil 4 Capcom In-House 29 9

Viewtiful Joe Capcom In-House 24 8

{ Nintendo DS Ten Must-Have GamesAnimal Crossing: Wild World Nintenao In-House 40 8

Daigassol Band Brothers Nintendo In-House 29 8

Elite Beat Agents Nintendo iNiS 52 8

Kirby: Power Paintbrush Nintendo HAL Labs 31 8

ON THE HORIZON THEY MAY NOT BE HERE JUST YET, BUT WE FEEL THAT

L I T T L E B I G P L A N E TAnyone who's seen the trailer that wasreleased at this year's GDC, or glanced at thescreenshots on page 56 of this magazine,will see quite clearly why everyone is gettingexcited about Sony's upcoming platformer.Four players, aided by PlayStation Homeand infinite levels of cuteness make this oneof the most anticipated titles for the newmachine. Assuming Sony doesn't let themasses down, you can probably expect tosee the impressive LittleBigPlanet on thesevery pages later on in the year.

Format: PlayStation 3 Publisher; Sony Developer: In-House

164 games ' "

THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVIONPublisher. 2K Games Developer Bethesda Genre: ActiorVRPG Price: £49.99

Offering immersion and a fine way to rid yourself of a fewhundred tiours, Oblivion is still one of the best things youcan do on 360. The future of our on-screen avatar is lookinglil<ely to involve yet more Dark Brotherhood deeds - wereally should have paid them a little more attention early on.

5RAINBOW SIX VEGASPublisher Ubisoft Developer IrvHouse Genre: FPS Price; £49.99

Near perfect 'shoot the terrorist before they do bad things'action from the series that's taken more multiplayer hoursfrom us than any other - and you can do it all with yourown face stapled to the front of your character if you sowish. Will Terrorist Hunt will ever get boring? Nah.

8DEAD RISINGPublisher Capcom Developer IrvHouse Genre: Action Price: £49.99

Near infinite replayabilty is Dead Rising's finest virtue andwhen everything else contained within is as highly polishedas can be and all wrapped up in impressive 'SwarmPhysics', you know you're in for a treat. The living deadhave never been so appealing - or so numerous.

T O M C U \ N C Y ' S G R AWPublisher Utjsoft Developer In+louse Genre: /\ction Price: £49.99

Though technically outdone by the sequel that's now uponus, we recommend picking up Ghost Recon AdvancedWarfighterfirst because the appeal of the multiplayer won'twear thin for months. If you like shooting things - especiallyyour friends - there are few better titles on 360.

BURNOUT REVENGEPublisher Electronic Arts Developer Qtterion Genre: Racing Price: £48,9!

It's a bit dated now but until the likely-to-be-awesomeBurnout 5 arrives there are few other ways to get this levelof speed or high-quality arcade racing. Better still, the onlinelobbies are as busy as ever but that doesn't mean gettingthat 'Opening A Can' achievement will be any easier

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ISSUE; 45 SCORE; 9

PROJECT GOTHAM RACING 3Pubfisher Microsoft Developer Bizarre CrBatiors Genre: Radng Price: £49.99

We've had Gotham 3ior the same length of time as our360 itself, so the fact that Bizarre's grandest of creations isstill being played is a sign of how excellent it is. We'll happilyspend an hour shaving a fraction of a second off a lap timejust so we can boast about it down the pub. Roll on PGR4.

ISSUES? SCORE: 9

C R A C K D O W NPubfeher Mkrosoft Developer Real Tirrre \Afor1ds Genre: Actkxi Price: £49.99

If being proved wrong means you can leap around a hugeenvironment throwing cars at gang leaders, then we wishwe were wrong more often. We were as surprised asanyone when the once dodgy looking CraMown turnedout to be great, but Real Time Worids has proven its worth.

ISSUE; 54 SCORE: 8

10TONY HAWK'S PROJECT 8Publisher Activision Developer Neversoft Gerire: Sport Price: £49.99

Skateboading games are far better than they ought to be- and the reason is the Tony Hawlc's franchise. The mostrecent instalment in the series has impressed just as muchas any other with more moves, more locations and, well,it's just better. It also helps that it looks stunning.

L O S T P U \ N E TPublisher Capcom Developer IrvHouse Genre: Action Price: £43.99

A gorgeous looking game with hardcore retro elements. LostPlanet impresses neariy every step of the way. If you likemutant insect things, mechs, or - ideally - a combination ofthe two, Capcom's most recent 360 effort is worth a peek.We're looking forward to our next snowy day

S C » R E : 8

games ' " 163

PS3 I XBOX 360 I Wii | PS2 | GC | PC | GBA | PSP | DS

E S S E N T I A L STOO MANY GAMES, NOT ENOUGH MONEY. THANKFULLY, NOT ALL OF THEM ARE WORTH SPENDING YOUR HARD-EARNED CASH ON. IF YOU WANT TO TASTE THE CREAM OF THE CROP, YOU'VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE

XBOX 360iSSSsd::.

Xbox 360 TEN MUST-HAVE GAMES

G E A R S O F WA RPublisher Microsoft Developer Epic Genre: Action Price: £49.99

Epic's masterpiece really can't be given enough praise - though we'regiving it a good go, it seems. Even after conquering the title on the hardestdifficulty and playing through co-operatively on numerous occasions, we'restill being dragged back time and time again for the sublime multiplayer. Itturns out we're really fond of taking out friends and strangers alike by wayof shotgun, chainsaw and oh-so occasionally, grenade-tagging. Let's face it,Gears Of War is unlikely to be truly rivalled until Halo 3 reaches us later inthe year or Epic completes work on a sequel.

I ISSUE: 51 SCORE: 101

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1 6 2 g a m e s

%• Right then, you've just picked up a second-hand computer and are looking for some classicgames to play on it. The only problem is, you're not too sure what to buy. Hopefully we can help.This month, we're taking a look at some of our favourite Nintendo Game & Watch handhelds...

B a l lEstimated Price: £70-£200F o r m a t : S i l v e rYear of Production: 1990

The fi rs t eve r Game & Watch fea tu red

u n d e r s t a t e d d e s i g n a n d s i m p l e ,addictive gameplay. The idea is tojuggle two or three balls by movingthe juggler's hands between threedifferent posit ions to automaticallycatch and return them. Racking up ahigh score isn't easy; drop one balland it's game over. It may have beensimple but its success and popularitye n s u r e d G a m e & W a t c h c o n t i n u e dfor the next 11 years.

Donkey KongH o c k e yE s t i m a t e d P r i c e : £ 2 0 - £ 4 0F o r m a t : M i c r o V sYear of Production: 1984

The Micro Vs system was an interestingoffshoot of the Game & Watch series,that failed to take off despite some uniqueideas. Designed so that two peoplecould play the handheld together, eachunit featured retractable joypads and awider screen in order to incorporate bothplayers. Donkey Kong Hockey was by farthe most interesting of the - only three- Micro Vs games and a definite precursorfor many Mario sports games to come.

B o m b s w e e p e rEstimated Price: £30-£70F o r m a t : M u l t i S c r e e nYe a r o f P r o d u c t i o n : 1 9 8 7

As part of a series of handhelds famedfor the i r over ly s imple gameplay,Bombsweeper stands out like a diamondin the rough. Essentially it is a puzzlegame, with the aim of pushing moveablewalls to get to a bomb at the end of apre-defined maze. The game is difficultfrom the start, making Bombsweeperone of the most cerebrally challengingGame & Watch t i t l es and an essent ia l

purchase for those who want to play aswell as collect.

O c t o p u sE s t i m a t e d P r i c e : £ 1 5 - £ 5 0F o r m a t : W i d e S c r e e nYe a r o f P r o d u c t i o n : 1 9 8 1

With three lives, this classic handhelda s k s y o u t o a v o i d t h e o c t o p u s 'tentacles, grab the treasure from thec h e s t a n d s w i m b a c k t o t h e s u r f a c e .Like all the best Game & Watch games,it is brilliantly simple but addictive tohigh-score chasers while also beingr a m m e d f u l l o f c h a r m a n d c h a r a c t e rWil owners may recognise the gamefrom one of the mini-games in ther e t r o l o v e - i n t h a t i s W a r i o W a r e :S m o o t h M o v e s .

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Spitball SparkyEstimated Price: £25-£50Format: Super ColorYear of Production: 1984

Spitball Sparky is one of only twoSuper Color Game & Watch systemst o b e m a d e . T h e s e h a n d h e l d s a r e

taller and come with a painted overlayto simulate colour graphics. Despitei t s n e w f a n g l e d c a s i n g , S p i t b a l lSparky was the most traditional ofvideogames: a clone of Atari's 1976arcade game. Breakout . A l thoughquite rare, Spitball Sparky can bemore easily found on the Game BoyColor's Game Boy Gallery 4.

Mario The JugglerEstimated Price: £100-£250Format: New Wide ScreenYear of Production: 1991

Mario The Juggler was the last tmeGame & Watch to be released, 11 yearsafter the first and two years after the lastbefore it Zelda. As something of a tributeto the entire Game & Watch line, MarioThe Juggler was a remake of the firstever Game & Watch - which, as you allnow know, was cal led Bal l - albeit withthe monochrome juggler replaced bya colourful Mario. Expect to pay quitea hefty price for a boxed copy of thiscollector's i tem.

F lagmanEstimated Price: £150-£800F o r m a t : S i l v e rYear of Production: 1980

Unfortunately not a pre-emptive tribute toOutRun Zs cult mascot. Flagman is moreof a traditional Simon Says-style game. Thekiea is to watch the order in whfch Flagmanraises his four flags and then mimic thesequence with each turn adding one moreflag raise each time. Although ifs prettyeasy to begin with, the game becomes a lottrickier as the number of flags to memoriseincreases beyond human capacity. This isone for nnembers of Mensa and peoplewith photographic memories only.

M a r i o C e m e n tFac to ryEstimated Price: £35-£100Format: TabletopYear of Production: 1983

O h - s o h u m o r o u s r e v i e w s o f t h e m o s t

recent Mario games love to remindus that Nintendo's portly plumber hasnever actually been seen doing any realplumbing. In Mario Cement Factory,however, we do get to see him puttingin a hard day's woric, even if there's nota U-bend in sight. This tabletop editionfo l lows the same cement -sh i f t inggameplay as the widescreen edition butwith suped-up colour graphics.

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G A M E S ' ^ R E T R O ■ 1 6 1

C * U A * S ' S ' h C C ' O ' N ' S ' O ' L ' EB U Y E R S ' G U I D E Q U I C K R E F E R E N C EI C E ^

f

It might be easy to play retro gamest h r o u g h e m u l a t i o n , b u t t h e r e ' s n o t h i n gquite like owning the original system - thatm u s t y s m e l l o f a n c i e n t e l e c t r o n i c s c a n

never really be replicated with a PC. Of course,there's always a price to pay and unscrupulousdealers out to make a quick buck, but you reallydon't have to pay through the nose if you lookin the right places. Charity shops, car boot salesand eBay are all good places to start, but beforeyou do, use our guide to see how much youshould be paying...

f 3 D O JPanasonic 3D0 £ 4 0 - £ 6 0

G o l d s t a r 3 D 0 £ 4 5 - £ 6 0

UCORN COMPUTERS ]B B C M i c r o £ 1 5 - £ 2 5

A c o r n E l e c t r o n £ 1 0 - £ 2 5

l A M S T R A D ]A m s t r a d C P C 4 6 4 £ 1 0 - £ 2 5

A m s t r a d C P C 6 6 4 £ 2 0 - £ 2 5

Amstrad CPC 6128 £ 2 5 - £ 5 0

A m s t r a d G X 4 0 0 0 £ 2 0 - £ 6 0

Atari VCS 2600Ata r i ST

Atari LynxAtari Jaguar

£ 2 0 - £ 3 5£20+ (depending on model)£15+ (depending on model)

£ 2 0

C O M M O D O R E

C o m m o d o r e V i c 2 0

C o m m o d o r e 6 4

Commodore AmigaC o m m o d o r e C D T V

C64GSC o m m o d o r e C D 3 2

£ 1 0 - £ 3 0

£ 1 0 - £ 3 0

£20+ (depending on model)£ 2 0 - £ 5 0

£ 3 0 - £ 5 0

£ 2 5 - £ 5 0

GCE Vectrex (General Consumer Electronics)£ 6 0 - £ 2 0 0

M B V e c t r e x ( M i l t o n B r a d l e y ) £ 1 5 0 - £ 2 0 0J A M M A C o m p a t i b l e c a b i n e t s £ 1 0 0 - £ 3 5 0

(depending on model)S u p e r G u n £ 1 2 0 - £ 4 0 0 ( d e p e n d i n g o n m o d e l )

PC EngineTu r b o G r a f x - 1 6

T u r b o D u o

PC Engine GTSuper Grafx

£ 5 5 - £ 7 0

£ 3 0 - £ 5 0

£ 1 2 0 - £ 1 8 0

£ 7 0 - £ 1 5 0

£80 (prices can fluctuate)

N I N T E N D O

Game & Watch £1-£200 (depending on model)£ 1 5 - £ 2 0

£ 5 - £ 1 0

£ 1 0 - £ 1 5

£ 2 0 - £ 4 0

£ 8 0 - £ 1 0 0

£ 1 0 - £ 2 5

Nintendo Entertainment SystemGame Boy/Game Boy PocketGame Boy ColorSuper NintendoVirtual BoyN i n t e n d o 6 4

Master System £10-£30 (depending on model)Mega DriveG a m e G e a r

Mega CDSega 32XSega NomadS a t u r n

D r e a m c a s t

S I N C L A I R

£ 1 0 - £ 2 0

£ 1 5 - £ 2 5

£40-00 (depending on model)£ 3 5

£ 7 0 - £ 1 4 0

£30+ (depending on model)£25+ (depending on model)

Z X - 8 1

ZX Spectrum 48KZX Spectrum +ZX Spectrum 128KZX Spectrum +2Z X S P E C T R U M + 3

£ 4 0 - £ 7 0

£ 2 0 - £ 5 0

£ 3 0

£ 4 0

£ 3 5

£ 4 0

Neo Geo MVS Single Slot (arcade system)£70+ (depending on model)

N e o G e o A E S ( h o m e S y s t e m ) £ 1 5 0 +N e o G e o C D £ 1 0 0 +N e o G e o C D Z £ 8 0 +

N e o G e o P o c k e t C o l o r £ 3 5

I 1 6 0 H G A M E S ™ R E T R O

4;'rw - Sft'' A1'4>'

Ifs the loft tliat dreams are made of- hundreds of games hran wall to wall.

a series of games that has been neglected recentlybut I am sure that there are enough people outthere who would love to play through one moreGuybrush Threepwood adventure to make It worthL u c a s A r t s ' t i m e .

g™: Most of your collection is made up ofJapanese games. Why do you prefer these toWestern games?BP: Their love for gaming, in the East, is easilyevident in the attention to detail in game design,right down to the beauty found in the packaging,game art and merchandise associated with Japanesereleases. This is something that is sadly missing inbland Western releases. There really is somethinghugely exciting and satisfying about unearthinga brilliantly playable little gem of a game that isvirtually unknown outside Japan.

g™: How did you manage to get hold of yourFiremen prototype cart and is it any different tothe retail code?BP: I picked that up from another game collector Imet a few years ago, through my Super Famicomwebsite http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/superfamicom,who collects handheld Japanese titles. He boughta box lot of Japanese GBA games from HongKong and among the various games and curios,he came across the Firemen prototype cartridge.Knowing it was something I would be interestedin, he contacted me and I bought it from him. Asfar as I am aware, without having played the gameright through, it is exactly the same as the final retailrelease apart from a build number on the title screenand the large EEPROMs inside the cart itself.

g™: What's missing from your collection that youdesperately need to find?BP: A hotel SFC would be my ultimate dream butmost of these were binned by hotels in the late-Ninet ies when the SFC become o ld , unwanted

technology, even the ones that do still exist virtuallynever come up for sale on the open market, so Icouldn't even hazard a guess as to what their marketvalue would be.

g™: How much do you think you've spent on yourc o l l e c t i o n t o d a t e ?

BP: Thousands. I hope my fiancee isn't reading this.Having a quick total up, I'd say I have spent anythingbetween £8,000 and £10,000 - possibly even more.

g™: What's the best bargain you've discovered?BP: In 1998 I got a brand new copy of RenderingRanger for the Super Famicom, in a shop inFrankfurt, for what worked out at £27.1 wasn't reallyaware of it at the time but this is one of the rarestSFC releases there is and when it does becomeavailable it normally sells for around the £200 mark.

g™: Do you have any modern consoles? And doyou download retro games on them?BP: Yes. I am a sucker for following the consoleevolution, and try to buy each new machine as theyare released. I bought a Japanese Wii but haven'treally played on it much yet. I do enjoy playing onthe Xbox 360 and have over 30 titles for that so far.The reason I like the 360 is for playing over Live withfriends. Most of the games offered on Live and VC I

have in their original format, so unless it is a title thatbenefits from multiplayer online, like Worms, then Idon't tend to bother downloading them.

g™: Finally, what do your friends and family thinkof your collecting habit?BP: Most of my friends are gamers, too, but theydo think it is a bit excessive in regards to the extentof my collecting. My fiancee is totally fine with it;in fact, she sometimes sneaks online and buys mesomething she knows I want. The only thing is thatI am getting married in Barbados in June and sohave had to curb my collecting spending in recentmonths. Still, there will be plenty of time to keeptopping up my col lect ion once I am home andsettled into married life.

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guide...

BRYAN PATON, A SELF-EMPLOYEDLOCKSMITH FROM GLASGOW,L I K E S N O T H I N G M O R E T H A NC O L L E C T I N G R A R E J A PA N E S ESNES GAMES; HE'S HAD TOFURBISH HIS LOFT TO STORE HISCOLLECTION OF OVER 400 BOXEDC A RT R I D G E S . W I T H S E V E R A LH U N D R E D M O R E G A M E S F O ROTHER SYSTEMS ON TOP, BRYANDEFIN ITELY DESERVES THISM O N T H ' S H O N O U R A B L E T I T L E O FU LT I M AT E C O L L E C T O R . . .

games™: When did your interest invideogames begin?Bryan Paton: It was back in the early-Eighties,when, as a comple te surpr ise to me, myparents bought me a Commodore Vic 20 forChristmas. Looking back I assume they got itfor me to be used for educational purposesbut instead it began to be solely used forplaying games. I can clearly remember sittingfor hours trying to knock all the buildingsdown in Blitz, one of the five games that camewith the machine. Somewhat unwittingly myparents had turned me on to a lifetime loveof gaming.

g™: Where have you bought most of your haul?BP: Unfortunately, Japanese titles don't often turnup at you local car boot sale so most of my buyingis now done online. I do have some friends in Japanwho look out for items for me and on trips to Japan,in the past, I have brought various titles back, butobviously you are limited to what you can carry.Plus the "No Re-sale" law in Japan makes it difficultto pick up second-hand titles in the shops. Therewas an amazing import shop in Glasgow, where Iam from, that could get you almost anything youasked for, but unfortunately the man who runs ithas recently emigrated and so his shop has nowceased trading. Although not before I bought up anyJapanese items he had left in stock.

g™: What is your favourite game of all time?BP: Easy, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, I lovedthe Street Fighter games in the arcade, right up

until Hyper Turbo Fighting; anything after that turnsme cold. I think that the series reached its peakwith Champion Edition, after that Capcom tried totinker with the controls too much. The gameplaymechanics changed with mid-air blocks, reversec o m b o s a n d t h e l i k e .

gTM; What is your favourite videogame genre?BP: At a push I would cite scrolling shooters as myfavourite. Games like R-Type and Gradius are just asplayable now as they ever were and although theSuper Famicom wasn't known for its sprite-handlingcapabilities, titles like Area 88, Phalanx, R-Type 3andValkyrie were incredible and up there with the bestof what other consoles had to offer. More recently Ihave been enjoying Einhanderon the PlayStation, InThe Hunt on the Saturn and the ever popular BorderD o w n o n t h e D r e a m c a s t .

g™: And what Is your favourite game series?BP: A series that never failed to impress me was TheSecret Of Monkey Island. Right from the first game,LucasArts perfected the point-and-click adventure,but it wasn't just the technical side of the game thatworked, it was the story and, more importantly, thecharacters that dragged you into the universe andhad you hooked. These games actually providedme with laugh-out-loud moments. Plus, as each titlein the series was released, the games themselvesjust got better and better, outstripping the highexpectations everyone already had for them. It is

O T H E R 1I HIGHLIGHTS II O F 1 9 9 3

: < r

O N T H E R A D I OAlthough its host album. Pocket FullOf Kryptonite, was released in 1991, itsbest selling single, Two Princes, didn'tf o l l o w u n t i l 1 9 9 3 . A n d t h e r e a s o n f o rthe delay: it took a year of solid touringfor Spin Doctors to build up a largeenough fan base. The hard work wasworth it though, and the single wentinto the top ten and the album went onto sell 5 million copies.

A T T H E M O V I E SSince its 1993 release, rumours havepersisted that Harold Ramis' comedyGroundhog Day was based on theNietzsche book Gay Science and thatthe film is shown in French philosophyc lasses . Bu t who ca res abou t suchclaims when the film, starring BillMurray, is so damn funny? Even ifyou've seen the film a hundred timesalready, it's worth reliving it at leasto n e m o r e t i m e .

O N T H E T E L E V I S I O NS i c k o f t h o s e A m e r i c a n T V s h o w s l i k elost and Heroes that pile endless plottwists on top of cliff hangers until youhave no idea what's actually happeningany more? The X-Hles is definitely toblame. Although it started out wellenough, this compelling mystery shows o o n d e s c e n d e d i n t o n o n s e n s e a s t h ewr i t e r s t r i ed t o l u re v i ewers back eachweek with plot threads that neverwent anywhere.

A From a visual point of view Mayhem In Monsterland looked like a lot of fun.

A P L AT F O R M E R N O O N ET H O U G H T P O S S I B L E "

all recognition, just as the Rowlandsbrothers had dramatical ly redefinedhow a platform game could look on theC o m m o d o r e 6 4 .

It wasn't all about the graphics, asamazing as they were, though. Severalcomputer games of the early-Ninetieslooked amazing in screenshots butwhen you came to actually play them

they usually disappointed with pooran ima t i on and a s tu t t e r i ng f ramerate. This simply wasn't the case with

Mayhem, however. The little dinosaurc o u l d r u n f r o m o n e e n d o f t h e l e v e l

right to the other without a hint ofslowdown or juddering. It was the firstC64 game to feature smooth scrollingacross an entire level - and playedbrilliantly for it. Chances are, however,that if you were one of those peoplewho were too busy playing the likes ofStreet Fighter or Mario Kart, MayhemIn Monsterland will have gone bycompletely unnoticed. Perhaps it's timeto give it a second glance.

G A M E S ™ R E T R O ■ 1 5 7 I

found himself charged with the taskof collecting enough 'magic dust' tomake the world happy again. Thiswas done, of course, in the age-oldplatform-game tradition of jumpingon the heads of monsters and hopingthey dropped a bag of said dust.Collect the required number of bagsa n d i t ' s o f f t o fi n d t h e s e c r e t h i d e o u t

of Theo the Dragon who will use thed u s t t o t r a n s f o r m t h e w o r l d b a c k t o

its happier form. The level must thenbe explored again, taking on the new,much brighter enemies that inhabit itand collecting enough stars to moveon to the next level.

It's at this point during the firstlevel that Mayhem In Monsterlandreally starts to impress. After battlingthrough the level, which looks aboutas attractive as Leeds city centre on a

rainy Monday morning, the jump tothe full multi-coloured happy versionfeels like a sugar-rush for the eyes.The on-screen world changes beyond

M A Y H E M ' SM A G I C D U S TMayhem In Monsterland neverreally received a true sequel,much to the dismav of many fansof the original, but its creatorsdid recently produced a spinoff game for mobile phones.Although graphically similar, theaim of Maybem^s Magic Dustwas quite different to the C64game. The idea is much moretraditional, requiring the player toreach the end of a level and defeatthe boss, although the controlsand gameplay are a little moreup to date. Bosses are defeatedwith a series of special attacks,which are gained by jumping ons e v e r a l s m a l l e r e n e m i e s ' h e a d s

without landing on the floor inbetween. It may be different butit's a great little action game that'swell worth playing. Get it at www.i n fi n i t e l i v e s . t v

V I

Mayhem's Magic Dust on mobile phone.

w /By 1993 you'd be forgiven forthinking tiie C64 was dead. Gamersand developers alike had moved onto the 16-bit platforms while theSaturn and PlayStation were justaround the comer. But one gamealone proved that the 84fit systemsst i l l had a lo t l e f t t o o f fe r. . .

Release: 1993Format: Commodore 64Publisher: Apex Computer ProductionsDeveloper: John andSteven Row lands

Cast your mind back to the year1993. Which games were tal<ing

up most of your playing time?Street Fighter lf> Super Mario KarOSecret Of Manal Chances are, mostgamers were plugging away at the likesof the above titles - games that pushedthe boundaries of 16-bit technology- while they dreamed of a 3D future

to come. This is stating the obvious, ofcourse, but it's worth pointing out justto illustrate how significant the lifespano f t h e h u m b l e C o m m o d o r e 6 4 w a s . 11

years after its initial release, the C64 wasstill going strong. Commodore had onlyjust stopped producing the hardware,which had continued to sell despitet h e e m e r g e n c e o f m o r e p o w e r f u lcomputers, whi le production of newc o m m e r c i a l s o f t w a r e h a d c o n t i n u e dand would l ive on wel l in to 1995.

By 1993, the C64 was so cheap thatit was the first choice of computer formost young families. This new userbase demanded new games, of course,and there were a wealth developers and

publishers who were happy enough toprovide them. One of these developers

^ i-s t * * ,

▲ Despite the lack of colour, some 'sad' levels stilllook fantast ic.

was Apex Compu te r P roduc t i ons ,a small outfit run by the Rowlandsbrothers. Having already wowed C64owners with the graphically impressiveCyberdyne Warr ior and the quirkyCreatures ser ies, the pair a l readyhad some brilliant games under theircollective belt, yet all of them paledin comparison to the technical marvelthat was Mayhem In Monsterland.

By calling upon 11 years of C64programming tricks as well as drawinginspirat ion f rom Japanese consolegames, the Rowlands brothers wereable to create a platform game thatnobody at the time thought possible onan 8-bit home computer Up until thatpoint, most computer platform gameshad been rather static, single-screena f f a i r s l i k e M a n i c M i n e r a n d C h u c k l e

Egg bu t Mayhem was a d i f fe ren tbeast entirely. It had the visuals, thespeed and the gameplay of a 16-bitconsole game and had much more in

▲ The enemies become larger and stranger as thegame progresses.

common with Sonic The Hedgehog orSuper Mario than anything that hadpreviously been produced within theBri t ish Is les.

T h e m o s t a p p a r e n t d i f f e r e n c ebetween Mayhem In Monsterland andthe genre entries that preceded it wasthat, visually, it was miles ahead ofeverything else. The use of colour andbig bold sprites screamed fun at theplayer while the enormous smooth-scrolling levels made the game feelmore like it belonged on the MegaDrive than a stuffy old computer. Justabout the only thing that shattered thei l l u s i o n w a s t h e u n f o r t u n a t e c u r s e o f

the 8-bit platform game: the use of upon the joystick to jump.

Although ifs unclear which camefirst . Mayhem In Monster land a lsofeatured a similar gameplay conceptto Sega's Sonic CD. Starting in a drab,colourless world, the lead character,a dinosaur by the name of Mayhem,

■ 1 5 6 B G A M E S ' " R E T R O

l o w - r e s o l u t i o n g r a p h i c s w i t h o u tblurring effects, unlike PlayStation2 or o ther modern conso les. Weare only interested In malnstreannformats if they allow us to displayproper low-resolution graphics."But commercial developers likeMilestone and Triangle Serviceclearly see Pepe's strategy as anessential part of their business.Tr i a n g l e S e r v i c e ' s X I I S TA Gwas por ted to P layStat ion 2and released in Europe by 505GameStreet without whom, Fujinoclaims his business might not haves u r v i v e d . " W e m a d e a c o n t r a c tnot d i rect ly wi th 505 GameStreetbut with another company," heexp la ins . " In th is case, we wereable to gain a profit equivalentto giving the licence to otherdomestic companies. XIISTAG forPS2 is not one that we ourselves

developed or published so I wasdeeply thankful. If it had not beenpublished overseas we could nothave developed TriZeal.

The number of small publishingc o m p a n i e s t h a t a r e a h u n d r e dper cent committed to the task oflocalising Japanese shoot-'em-upshas increased quite dramatically inthe last five years or so, and thisis a trend that 03 Entertainment'sMike Pepe sees as an inevitableresult of the continued expansionof the videogaming scene. "As thedemographics of games continueto broaden we expect a resurgencein 2D games. 2D games tend to bemore accessible to casual gamers;they are designed specifically tobe immediately and incrementallyenjoyable." It's a logical theoryand one that has already begunto be proven with the astounding

Another fieiy screen of list Hope, fnmSemm indiedeveloper NG:DEV.TEAM.

% >▼ Xr/SMGwas released on PlayStation 2 in Europe by 505 GameStreet

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s u c c e s s o f N i n t e n d o ' s V i r t u a lC o n s o l e s a n d M i c r o s o f t ' s X b o xLive Arcade. The latter in particularhas been a surprisingly successfuloutlet for new 2D games with thedecidedly old-school GeometryWars unexpectedly becomingthe Xbox 360's only killer-app forthe first couple of months in thec o n s o l e ' s l i f e .

I t m a y s e e m l i k e a n i r o n i ct w i s t o f f a t e t h a t a n A m e r i c a n -

designed console could come tothe rescue of a predominantlyJapanese genre but it is seriouslybeginning to look like a realisticresolution. When you look at itl og i ca l l y, t he Xbox 360 fea tu resall of the same advantages thatthe NAOMI/Dreamcast systemdoes - deve lopment i s easy(especially with XNA), productionc o s t s a r e l o w t h a n k s t o t h e l a c k o f

physical media and distributionneeds, while the console's largeglobal audience ensures a muchbroader marke t than tha t o f thedwind l ing arcade scene canoffer. Furthermore, it is a solutiont h a t b o t h o u r c o m m e r c i a l a n d

independent respondents canbo th ag ree on . "V i r t ua l Conso leo r X b o x L i v e A r c a d e a r e m o r e[obtainable for us]," says Hellwig,while Fujino adds: "We could useX b o x L i v e A r c a d e s o t h a t m o r eg a m e r s o u t s i d e J a p a n c o u l denjoy our games. Our task is toc o n s i d e r h o w w e c a n d i s t r i b u t e

'AS TH£ DEMOGRAPHICS OF GAMliSCONTINUE TO BROADEN WE EXPEjC'A RESURGENCE IN 2D GAMES"

o u r g a m e s t o p l a y e r s o v e r s e a s .Actually, if Microsoft receives anumber of those requests fromeach of you, the possibility will bemuch stronger."

So, in the year 2007 with theDreamcast and arcades seeminglyf ad ing away, whe re can t hehardcore shoot-'em-up enthusiastlook to experience the latestgames? With so many possiblesolutions available to strugglingshoot-'em-up developers it seemsas though those who own a largenumber of gaming formats ares e t t o b e n e fi t t h e m o s t . W h a t ' sm o s t c l e a r f r o m t h e n u m b e r o ft h u s f a r a n n o u n c e d s h o o t e r s f o rthe year (see boxout) is that thearcade is no longer viable as amajor source o f income for mostsmal l developers. And i f Toshiak iFujino or some other enterprisingdeveloper cannot create a suitablea rcade f o rma t t o f o l l ow on f r omN A O M I t h e n a n a f f o r d a b l e a n dc r e a t i v e l y d r i v e n a l t e r n a t i v e w i l lneed to be found quickly if we areto avoid the loss of gaming's mosthistorically important genre.

F u j i n o s a y s : " T h e m a r k e t i sgetting smaller so we can't makeup for the development costs

1

A Games like (fe/i/OrerJJieffnierare keeping the2D shooter flame from burning out.

f r o m a r c a d e s a l o n e . W e s h o u l dnot be optimistic." Still, games™remains confident that a genre thathas survived 36 years can adaptand live on. As Timm Hellwig pointsout, the final nail in the Dreamcast'scoffin may actually be a positivechange: "Shmups are arguably theonly genre which will be affected bythe loss of this allegiant arcade andgame system. But then the shmupgenre itself should be protected, notthe system. Less shmups for oneconsole means more shmups fora n o t h e r . " A m e n t o t h a t .

G A M E S ' " R E T R O ■ 1 5 5 1

T P S r o f f F4 9 S ^ 0

on CD and, although not officiallylicensed by Sega, the release was aresounding success with sites likePlay-Asia even agreeing to stockthe game. Team founder TimmHellwig explains: "CD-ROMs areless expensive and offer the same

q u a l i t y a s G D - R O M s . T h e m a i nadvantage is that everyone can gettheirgames independently pressed.No licence or special GD-ROMproduction lines needed. Somegamers fear that this will stressthe i r Dreamcast 's laser too much.But games that use the streamingt e c h n o l o g i e s , s u c h a s I k a r u g a ,independently of their disc format,w i l l s t r e s s t h e l a s e r a l o t m o r e t h a n

any professionally pressed CD-based game. Last Hope has onlyone shor t in i t ia l loading t ime andone more after every completedstage. Since you won't see a lotof those loading screens, it can'tput too much stress on the laser.To r e f u s e C D - b a s e d D r e a m c a s ttit les would be pretty ignorant anddoesn't support small developers."History suggest that the CD-ROMw i l l r e m a i n v i a b l e o n l y f o r i n d i ed e v e l o p e r s l i k e N G : D E V J E A M ,however, as wi th the except ion ofthe unreliable Mil-CD format, Segah a s n e v e r a l l o w e d a c o m m e r c i a l

developer to use CD-ROM in eitherN A O M I o r D r e a m c a s t .

So, assuming that both NAOMIa n d D r e a m c a s t w i l l b e o f f l i m i t s

f o r shoo t - ' em-up deve lope rs f rom

Supposedly the final Dreamcast game, Karous is agreat swansong for the system (see page 139).

i 1 5 4 H G A M E S ™ R E T R O

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~ ▼ Xbox Live Arcade could well become an essential part of the shoot-'em-up industry..

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2 0 0 8 o n w a r d s , w h a t a l t e r n a t i v e sa r e a v a i l a b l e t o s u c h s m a l l c o d e

shops? In recent years, other arcadeplatforms have been targeted atthe small shoot-'em-up developersbut have so far failed to live up totheir promise. Taito's Type X boardfailed to attract developers due tothe high cost of its innards whileSammy's Atomiswave hardwarefailed for other reasons, as Fujinoexpla ins . "Sammy was exc lus ive lym a n a g i n g a l l t h e d e v e l o p m e n t so n A t o m i s w a v e , s o u n d e r s u c hc i r c u m s t a n c e s o u t s i d e r s a n d

d e v e l o p e r s , e x c e p t S a m m y ' sa s s o c i a t e s , w e r e n o t a b l e t odeve lop on t he ha rdware . " O the rdevelopers, like Cave, prefer to uset h e i r o w n c u s t o m - b u i l t h a r d w a r e ,although Cave's games do not makeuse of polygons and so require littlein the way of expensive hardware.

A So much for Twilight Princess, Radio Altergyma^well end up being the GameCube's last great game.

" I n o r d e r t o p r o d u c e a g a m e

a g r e e a b l e w i t h c u r r e n t t r e n d s , Iwould like to work on a platformwith higher performance," remarksTriangle Service's Fujino. "In fact, Ia m a m b i t i o u s t o d e v e l o p a n e warcade system by myself, but I don'thave such funds. But someday I willbring it out."

One man who bel ieves he mayh o l d t h e a n s w e r t o t h i s c o n u n d r u m

is American publisher, Mike Pepe,o f 0 3 E n t e r t a i n m e n t . T h e s m a l l

Amer i ca -based pub l i she r dea ls i nconve rs ions o f l ow-key Japanese

games. In 2005 03 Enter ta inmentp u b l i s h e d M i l e s t o n e ' s a r c a d eshoot - 'em-up Chaos F ie ld onGameCube and plans to follow it upw i t h M i l e s t o n e ' s s e c o n d s h o o t e r.Radio Allergy, despite the apparentd e a t h o f N i n t e n d o ' s G a m e C u b e .His theory is that GameCube mayb e t h e n e x t s t e p f o r d e v e l o p e r s

moving on from the Dreamcast."For a smal l developer, costs arealways a concern," he says, "so withthe Wi i 's lower development costsyou may expect them to migrate inthat direction. Also, with backwardscompatibility offered by the firstparties, smaller developers can stilloperate in the current generation -Xbox, GameCube and P laySta t ion2. Radio Allergy is a good exampleo f t h i s . " N o t e v e r y o n e a g r e e sw i t h P e p e , h o w e v e r. T i m mH e l l w i g h a s d o u b t s a b o u tt h e v i a b i l i t y o f t h e t h r e el a s t - g e n e r a t i o n f o r m a t s :" D r e a m c a s t i s t e c h n i c a l l ybetter suited for displaying 2D

2 x nTHE YEAR OF THESHOOT-'EM-UP?For a genre in supposeddecline, there are plenty of 20shooters to enjoy this year.H e r e a r e t h e t i t l e s w e k n o wof so far:

Blast Factor(PlayStation 3/March)Damy PhantDtn: Uifaan Jungle(DS/March)K a r o u s(Dreamcast /March)Trigger Heart Eicefca(Dreamcast /March)R a d n A l e f g y(GameCube/Apri l )S e n k o N o R o n d e(Xbox 360/May)Raid Over The Ftivier(DS, Wii/Q2 '07)M u c h i M u c H P b r i d(Arcade/Q2 '07)B r o k e n T h u n d e r(Format unknown 2007)Every Extend Extra Extreme(Xbox 360/2007)Nanostray2(DS/2007)R a d e n l V(Xbox 360/2007)Shooting Love 2007(Arcade/2007)Untided Ttoa Slioot-'Em^(Xbox 360,'2r

\ J = i y

The videogame industryarguably owes its entiree x i s t e n c e t o 2 D s l i o o t -

'em-ups. From ear lyexperiments like Spacewar andComputer Space to breakthroughsensations like Space Invaders,the genre was there from the birthof the medium itself. As the powero f h o m e c o n s o l e s a n d a r c a d e

technology increased, the genregained dominance and, despitelosing favour with the mainstreama r o u n d t h e l a t e - N i n e t i e s , t h e

simple art of moving and shootinghas remained a mainstay forthe hardcore while also recentlya p p e a r i n g o n t h e r a d a r o f l e s sdevout gamers through titles likeIkaruga and Gradius V. In 2007,h o w e v e r , t h e f u t u r e o f t h e 2 Ds h o o t e r h a n g s i n t h e b a l a n c e .

Although far from the worst yearfor shoot-'em-ups - 2002 was arecord low with only three arcadeshooters re leased - the death ofold technologies and the expenseof the new has left many smalldevelopers uncerta in of where totake their next shooting game.

During the last eight years or so,the two-d imens iona l shoo te r hassurvived by releasing new gamesin the arcade and then followingt h e m u p w i t h p o r t s t o e i t h e rthe P laySta t ion 2 o r Dreamcast .Tha t p rocess was th rea tened i nl a t e - 2 0 0 6 w h e n a D r e a m c a s t f a n

s i t e r e p o r t e d r e l i a b l e r u m o u r sthat Sega was planning to ceaseproduction of the GD-ROM discsu s e d i n b o t h i t s N A O M I a r c a d eboards and the Dreamcast i tse l f .Although the end of a storagemedium used by a nine-year-o l d a r c a d e b o a r d a n d c o n s o l emay not seem like a particularlybig deal, the impl icat ions for the

T Half shooter, half fighter, Senko No Ronde was touted for a DUimcast conversion but is novAwaAd for 360.

▲ Licensed shooter Danny Phantonm 'i not ejicite_re but it brings tlje genre to

shoot-'em-up scene as a wholeare potent ial ly disastrous.

Smal ler-scale developers l ikeTriangle Service - which is nowoperated by just one person,Toshiaki Fujino - rely on theGD-ROM for their way of life. Itsease of development, low cost ofp r o d u c t i o n , n o t t o m e n t i o n t h ewidespread market penetrationof the NAOMI make GD-ROM thelifeblood of many shoot-'em-updevelopers. "At present, smalldevelopers like us can work on noarcade system except NAOMI,"s a y s F u j i n o w h o s e n e x t t i t l e .Shooting Love 2007, will be oneof the last games made for thesystem i f the rumours are to bebelieved. Even Fujino, a developerwork ing on NAOMI, i s unsure o fthe future of GD-ROM. " I do notknow about that," he confirms. "If

y i 1 ' 1 1 *

▲ Indie games like Last Hope should ensure theDreamcast lives beyond its commercial lifespan.

FA N S R E L I E D O N D R E A M C A S TFOR THE 2D SHOOTERS YOU'DNEVER FIND IN ARCADE^ HERE'

so, we may feel sad. In 2008, theten th ann i ve rsa ry o f D reamcas t ,I ' m e a g e r t o r e l e a s e o u r n e w

g a m e [ o n D r e a m c a s t ] , b u t i ts e e m s d i f fi c u l t . "

It's easy to forget just howi m p o r t a n t t h e D r e a m c a s t i s t othe shoot- 'em-up scene. After al l ,in the eyes of most gamers, theconsole died in 2001 when Segaa b a n d o n e d t h e c o n s o l e . I n t h e

following six years, however, 2Dshooters found a natural home onthe hardware. Fans rel ied on theDreamcast to bring them gamesthat would never have appeared ina British arcade, while developersused the machine as a second formof revenue to complement theirarcade releases. In more extremecases, like Warashi's Trigger HeartExelica, the developer would nothave tu rned a p rofi t w i thou t theD r e a m c a s t . T h e a r c a d e r e l e a s e

of Trigger Heart failed to make animpact but the Dreamcast releasesold 10,000 copies on its first dayon sale in Japan; that's exactly thesame as Crackdown on Xbox 360.

B u t t h e D r e a m c a s t f o r m a t i s n ' t

q u i t e d e a d y e t a s t h e r e ' s s t i l la g l i m m e r o f h o p e t h a t e x i s t sin its ability to use regular CD-ROMs. German developer NG:D E V. T E A M r e l e a s e d L a s f H o p e

W I N D O W S O FO P P O R T V N n YOne burgeoning mediumfor shoot-'em-ups, thatdeserves much morecredit, is the humble PC.Al though not a real is t ica v e n u e f o r e s t a b l i s h e dcommercial developers,the number of hobbyistp r o g r a m m e r s c r e a t i n ghigh-quality 'DoujinShooters' in recent years,has exploded. Indiesensations like WarningForever and rRootageeasi ly r ival commercia larcade games for puregameplay value as well asv i s u a l s a n d a r e w e l l w o r t h

downloading. Some indiegames, like Every Extend,are even often picked upfor commercial publication,turning their creators intoprofessional developerswhile also carving a new,i f r i s k i e r a l t e r n a t i v e t othe t rad i t iona l route in tovideogame development.

Readers looking to try outthe best Doujin shootersshould check out Shoot TheCore at ht tp: / /shootthecore.m o o n p o d . c o m .

Indie games such as WarningForever make the PC a must-have machine for shooty fans.

G A M E S ' R E T R O

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ANCIENT HISmI N T H I S R E G U L A R F E A T U R E W E T A K E A L O O KA T T H O S E L O N G - F O R G O T T E N A R C A D E G A M E ST H A T A P P E A R E D B E F O R E 1 9 8 0 A N D Q U I C K L YD I S A P P E A R E D I N T O O B S C U R T F Y . . .

M I S S E S OP L A V E R - 1 2 3

H I G H S C O R E 1 3 9

• • • •

L O O K O U T ! T H E R E ' S A N . . .

AVALANCHERelease: 1978Manufacturer AtariDistr ibutor: In-HousePlayers: 1

^ Hardly the most inspiring ofscreenshots is rt?

Looking back over Atari'sa r c a d e o u t p u t i n t h eSeven t ies , i t ' s d i f ficu l t to

find an original game, crammed asit is with infinite Pong and Breakoutvariables. Nevertheless, after leafing

through countless dusty pamphletsand arcade flyers, we came acrossAvalanche an undeniably or ig inal

game. The unfortunate problem is,howeve r, t ha t o r i g i na l i t y doesn ' talways equate to fun.

The idea was to control a... well,we're not sure exactly what it is buti t l ooks a l i t t l e b i t l i ke a l adder. Th is

ladder is moved from side to side inorder to catch falling rocks. You cancatch them with any rung of the ladderbut let a rock drop to the floor and you,lose a life.

As the game goes on, the ladderbecomes smaller and the avalanchemore overwhelming but once you'veplayed it for more than about fiveseconds, any novelty that was thereto begin with quickly wears off.Interestingly, Activision's Kaboom! onthe Atari VCS was based on Avalancheand was a smash hit despite the failureof Atari's coin-op.

R e l e a s e : 1 9 8 9F o r m a t : N E SP u b l i s h e r ; U N L t d

Developer: Rare

Q U I T E L I T E R A L L Y . . .

A NIGHTMARE ONELM STREETAnyone who still believes that appear and start causing hassle.Rare isn't as good as it used premise that could have made f(

to be really ought to play A game but the reality is that NigN igh tmare On E lm S t ree t E lm S t ree t has seve ra l i r r i t a t i ngAnyone who still believes thatRare isn't as good as it usedto be really ought to play A

N i g h t m a r e O n E l m S t r e e tas soon as possible. They'll be convincedthat Perfect Dark Zero is a comparative

masterp iece w i th in seconds. The ideabehind A Nightmare On Elm Street is thatthe more damage you take, the closer youcome to falling asleep whereupon the entirelevel takes a turn for the sinister with skeletal

bats flying around and claws protruding fromthe street floors. Fail to wake up from thenightmare quickly enough and Freddy will

appear and start causing hassle. It's a solidpremise that could have made for a decentgame but the reality is that Nightmare OnElm Street has several irritating problems.It's possible to avoid almost every enemyjust by running and jumping through thelevel, for example, while Freddy himselfis hampered by terrible A! that sees himhopping and slashing about the screen nomatter where the player stands. The biggestproblem, however, is that even outside ofthe dream world. Elm Street is plagued bysnakes and zombies, which surely makes itno worse than the nightmares.

▲ More embarrassing than die countless sequels. Believe it

G A M E S R E T R O 1 5 1

N I N J AV G A I D E N

As gaming infiltrated the home market a newbreed of gamer evoh/ed. Dubbed the 'fanboy',he associated himself with a certain genre,machine or even developer or publisher,and then ridiculed all that opposed him.First recorded in playgrounds in the early-

Eighties, typical arguments revolved around who hadthe better machine, or which game looked best on whichformat. We aim to put a stop to years of squabbling byfinding the definitive versions of some classic titles. Thismonth, the 8-bit console versions of Ninja Gaiden...

R D U n O 1 : U I 5 U R L 5MASTER SYSTEM: Sega had a habit of re-programming its third-party releases itseK and NinjaGaiden was no exception. As well as improving thecontrols, every sprite and background was redrawnand the game looks much better for it. Instead ofhopelessly trying to condense the arcade game intoa tiny cartridge, Sega sensibly played to the MasterSystem's strengths.

NES: We're aware that the NES is hardly a dual-core processing, super computer but surely it canmanage a palette of colours made up of morethan just grey. The backgrounds look awful, sprites

unrecognisable and by the time you reach the firstboss, it looks like a sub-standard Spectnim game.

PC ENGINE: This Hudson Soft port of the Tecmooriginal may have the same level design as the NESversion but it looks better Every sprite is crystalclear, while the backgrounds make good use of thePC Engine's wide colour palette. Hudson Soft evenimplemented a nifty parallax scrolling effect.

W I N N E R : P C E N G I N ER U N N E R U P : M A S T E R S Y S T E M

R D U H D E : n U D I D~ ' - - I g n o r i n g t h e t i t l e s c r e e n

and story sequences, there's only really one tuneon offer here but it's so good that we can forgiveSega. Dramatic and moody in style, the tune fitsperfect ly with the subject matter and includesenough changes in rhythm and tone to stop itdragging on. The music is, in fact, the best thingabout this 'mixed bag' conversion.

- : W i th a d i f f e ren t t heme tune fo r each leve l as

well as the title screen and cut-scenes, the audio inthe NES version is nothing if not varied. The qualityof audio isn't great but then the NES has never been

that capable when it comes to music. The numberof different tunes will ensure you don't get bored.

= - -- Once again, the PC Engine provesthat when it comes to audio capabilities, the tinylittle console leaves its competitors behind. Thereare just as many tunes here as in the NES versionbut each one has far more depth and range, makingthem a genuine pleasure to hear as you play.

W I N N E R : P C E N G I N ER U N N E R U P : M A S T E R S Y S T E M

R D U H D 3 : E R F T l E P L n VMASTER SYSTEM: The Master System's NinjaGa/den features loose and floaty controls that makethe game as fast and fluid as you would expect aninja game to be. There are loads of cool power-upsand abilities at Ryu's command, too, but the lackof a scrolling screen means that he'll often fall intotraps or unexpectedly walk into unseen enemies.

NES: Much like the PC Engine version, NES's NinjaGaiden suffers from clunky controls but unlike itsnearest rival, play is made much more clumsy bythe placement of walls, which often force Ryu tobecome stuck in an area as he tries to jump his

way out. Additionally, a lack of hit indication whenattacking the bosses makes combat feel awkward.

PC ENGINE: Serviceable and unspectacular, PCEngine's Ninja Gaiden works okay but doesn't reallyimpress. Getting through most levels is never ahassle but the combat and jumping manoeuvrescould have benefited from a little more fluidity. Assuch, this doesn't play as well as it looks.

W I N N E R : P C E N G I N ER U N N E R U P : N E S

With a win in all three categories, theP C E n g i n e v e r s i o n o f N i n j a G a i d e n i sundoubtedly the greatest of all three 8-bitconsole ports, ft doesn't come close tothe coin-op, of course, but it's still a greatachievement and well worth playing.

Looks good, sounds great and pfays well. A winner is you.

s c p . b o o o i d b o . M ' fi

h's nothing like the arcade ver^on but ifs pretty good anyway.

l O k ' s l i [ - M r - M V - • I t l l l l l l l t l i l l D

■ 1 5 0■G A M E S ' " R E T R O Horrendous. Tliis game makes us hate die NES.

ITEM: SegagagaWINNING BID: £25.74Defini te ly one of the most enchant inggames to feature in Retro, Segagaga askedyou to turn Sega's fortunes around. Itsprice zips around the place and £25.74 isa fairly modest fee to pay - some go fora r o u n d t h e £ 6 0 m a r k , a n d m o s t o f t h e mwill need to be imported, too.

K l d flill .Sfifn<»l»i W<>Hd

ITEM: A lex K idd In Sh inob i Wor ldW I N N I N 6 B I D : £ 3 . 0 0

The antithesis of the previous auction,this is proof if proof were needed of howlittle Alex Kidd games can be sold for.Furthermore, most are in pristine condition,so aside from BMX Trial, there's no excusefor not being able to obtain most of Kidd'sback catalogue.

ITEM: AlexKidd JapanWINNING B ID :

£ 0 . 4 9I t ^

A l t h o u g hgiven the titleo f ' A l e x K i d dJapan', it didn'ttake a geniusto figure ou tt h a t t h i s w a sthe Japanesevers ion of AlexK i d d I n T h e

Enchanted Castle. What's astonishing ishow much of a bargain it is. Clearly, the sellerd i d n ' t r e a l i s e w h a t h e h a d o n h i s h a n d s ,although the £2.50 postage and packingcharge make it slightly less than daylightrobbery.

Tn i£ : A lex K idd I n The Enchan ted Cas t l e

FORMATS: Mega DriveYEAR: 1989ESTMATED VALUE: £5+

After varying the series as often as possible, Sega pulled a complete U-turnfor Alex's eventual Mega Drive appearance. The Enchanted Castle wassimply a sequel to Miracle World, right down to the resurgence of thatcatchy tune. As one would expect, there had been some slight tweaksand additions (like the fact you had to engage in and win a Janken battlebefore being able to buy anything) but this wast h e a d v e n t u r e

e v e r y o n e w h ohated the previous

sequels had been waiting for Alex was evensearching for a family member again, as he hadfound out his father. King Thor, was still alive.

True Kidd fanatics will want to ensure they pickup both the Western and Japanese versions, asthe Eastern item is a lot more risqu§. In America,losing a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors meant Alexwas crushed by a brick, but the relaxed Japanesemarket was treated to the loser being stripped ofall their clothes. There's little difficulty in securingAlex's only Mega Drive appearance, and Play-Asia iscurrently selling pre-owned copies for £5.17.

« S e Q A P U U C D A O O M P I E T E

M E Q A D M V E A P P E A R A N C E '

S U A

A l e x K i d dill Sl i i iMibi n'«tr id

TTTIE A lex K idd In Sh inob i Wor ldFORNIATS: Master SystemYEAR: 1990ESTMATBI VALUE: £4+

Despite making the jump to 16-bit, Sega dumped Alex back on theMaster System for his farewell jaunt, and you'd be forgiven for thinkingit had run out of ideas. Mixing the world of Alex with Shinobi may havebeen relatively successful but it reeked of laziness.

Interestingly enough, our young hero wasn't even supposed to takethe starring role.S i m p l y k n o w n

as 'Shinobi Kid', it's not hard to figure outwhy the more recognisable adolescent wasthrust into the spotl ight. That wasn't theonly alteration that was made, as one oft h e b o s s e s w a s n a m e d M a r i - o h i n t h e

beginning, named after Nintendo's numberone individual. Kabuto, the name the bosswas finally given, still had many Mario traits,such as shooting fireballs and shrinkingwhen he took damage.

Thanks to its time of release, Alex KiddIn Shinobi World is still in plentiful supply- a m a z o n . c o . u k e v e n h a s i t i n i t s ' n e w &

used' section for around the £10 mark,but online auctions will result in paying agreat deal less.

GAMES RETRO Ql 49

UTIE A lex K idd BMX Tr ia lFORMATS: Master SystemYEAR: 1987KTIHATED VALUE £25+

Alex Kidd BMX Trial is most definitely the Alex Kidd title thatwill make or break your collection. Not only was it restricted torelease in Japan, but also it requires the Japanese-exclusivepaddle control; it's not an item you can just discover on awhim. Unfortunately, after putting all that time and effort

into tracking one down, it's not going to stay in the memory for long. Using Alex Kidd to try and sellthe controller to the Eastern market wasa solid idea but an overhead BMX gamewasn't what the market needed. As youwould expect, you have to jump over lakes,perform wheelies and ensure you don't runout of health, all the while watching out forother bikers who are determined to knockyou off your ride.

Hunting down this little gem can bequite difficult, especially if you want theunique controller to complete the wholepackage. As a Japan-only release, theeasiest way to track this down, in completecondition, should be the excellent Yahoo!Japan Auctions. Just make sure you havea friend who lives in the country.

@ ( 9 a oT

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_ g' m m i N Q D O W N T H I S u n u O E MCAN BE TRICiat ESPECIAUy IP YOUWA N T I H E U N I Q U E 0 0 N i n 0 1 i £ i r

AlesEiddffigh-Mlpid

inU: Alex Kidd In High-Tech WorldFORMATS: Master SystemYEAR: 1989ESIHIATED VAUIE £3+

Keeping up with the trend, Alex Kidd In High-Tech lA/or/d followeda completely different path from all that had come before it.Desperate to make its way to the new arcade in town, Alex Kiddhas to track down eight map pieces that will give him the directionshe so desperately craves. It breaks up each level by switchingb e t w e e n a c t i o na n d p u z z l es o l v i n g b u t

never really feels like it deserves to carryt h e A l e x K i d d n a m e .

That's because it's nothing more than amodified vers ion of Anmi tsu Hime, an o ldvideogame based on a Japanese televisionshow. Aside from the addit ion of Alex, theonly other notable changes were alteredsprites, English text and a new story. Withso l i t t le re la t ion to the A lex K idd canon,the game was no t popu la r w i th f ans andcan now, consequently, be picked up prettyeasily. There's not an especially high demandfor it unless it is desired in order to fill a holein someone's col lection, and the internet isheaving with places that will offer it up at amore than reasonable price.

ffiSSSlSS.OF WRITING

ITEM: Sega Master System II withb u i l t - i n A l e x K i d dWINNIN6 BID: £30.00If you want to guarantee a flawlessAlex Kidd compilation this is essential,and you can get your hands on one fora surprisingly small amount. £30 mayseem rather high but it does allow youto see the slightly updated version ofMiracle World. That said, the patientamong you will be able to track thisdown for as litt le as £5.

I Mttx likhi\Jmyi-leBoi-Ict'Hif' Mvgu ('j,r( j.j, jgf.'

I T E M : A l e x K i d d

I n M i r a c l e W o r l dWINNING BID: £26.21Not a huge amount of money to say theleast, but it is the going rate for a fullyboxed copy of Miracle World. It justgoes to show how much people careabout the series, and how bidding canquickly spiral out of control.

■ <

y

AlexKiddi n

i m E A l e x K i d d I n M i r a c l e W o r l dFORMATS: Master SystemYEAR: 1986VALUE: £10+

The most remembered and recognised of the Alex Kidd titles- and arguably the greatest. Fully equipped with one of thecatchiest musical themes in history, Miracle World saw Alextrying to rescue his brother from the evil clutches of Jankenthe Great. Although at its heart it's a platformer, there'sso much more to Alex's first Master System outing thanjust pixel-perfect leaps. Unlike many of its contemporaries,

vehicles were integral to the overall experience. True, these sections were rathershort, but being able to buy a motorbike or peddle-powered helicopter left every levelfeeling distinct and varied. What's more, the boss battles added yet another layer toproceedings. Rather than laying down the task of defeatingfoes, Alex waged war by bestingthem in a two-out-of-three Rock,Paper, Scissors duel, known as aJ a n k e n b a t t l e .

Copies do quite frequentlypop up in places like eBay, butbecause in 1990 a slightly alteredversion of the game was built intomany Master Systems the actualcartridge isn't readily available. Still,you won't have to pay more than£20 to £30, but be wary as enteringinto a bidding war is usually requiredto seal the deal .

A l e x K k M "TIk' Lost Stars

i m E : A l e x K i d d : T h e L o s t S t a r sFORMATS: Arcade/Master SystemYEAR: 1986/1988ESTMATH) VALUE: £10+

Despite Alex Kidd In Miracle World's success, Sega'snext move was to port the mediocre arcade game TheLost Stars to consoles, which ditched nearly every ideain favour of a much more standard approach. Resemblingthe original Super Mario Bros to a fair degree, it lacks thecharisma and imagination that its predecessor had. Still, itwasn't completely run-of-the-mill, and a moderately offbeat

gameplay mechanic let it stand out. Deciding that the tried and true system of liveswasn't the way to go, Alex had a timer that depleted every time he made a mistake;once it was empt/ he had tor e s t a r t t h e l e v e l . T h e a r c a d e

counterpart did, in fact, relyon l i ves and a lso o f fe red two-

player simultaneous action,but this was seemingly lostin t he t rans la t i on .

eBay is still the best placew e w o u l d r e c o m m e n d f o r

hunting down a copy of TheLost Stars, and again, youwon't have to part with anarm or leg. But in actual fact,stumbling across a copy canbe quite tricky and it's nighon imposs ib le to find thea r c a d e v e r s i o n .

TRULY UNIQUEIt's not every day that youhappen to stumble across aboard game featuring yourfavour i te v ideogame character,b u t A l e x K i d d w a s f o r t u n a t e

enough to be an exception tothe rule. Finding a home withinthe Japanese market only, theA l e x K i d d b o a r d g a m e i s a nenigma to us. After days ofsearching for information aboutit, the only clues that could be found were the above image ofthe packaging. Clearly there's some depth to it - the amountof cards and size of the board are pretty enormous - butthere's so much we'd love to know. For starters, the devicethat we assume is used to move is most remarkable.

The real kick in the teeth is that after seeing this it's likelyAlex Kidd admirers will be desperate to get their paws on it,and that will take some doing. A Japanese car boot sale maybe a good bet - if the Japanese even have car boot sales,of course.

SAVING SEGANot al l that many companieswould make a videogame thatasked you to save it frombankruptcy, but this is exactlywhat Sega decided to do in2001 . One o f t he h i gh l i gh t si s a c a m e o a p p e a r a n c e b yA l e x K i d d h i m s e l f , i n w h i c hhe outright insults Sega forabandoning him in favour oft h e f a s t e r, m o r e m a r k e t a b l eSonic the Hedgehog - sheer genius.

TIMELESSTRACKSSega Game Music: Volume 1is as essential as truly movingscores such as Dragon QuestV I I I a n d S h a d o w O f T h eC o l o s s u s . W h y ? W e l l , a s i d ef rom boast ing songs f romOutRun and Space Har r ie r, i ta l s o h a s a s e l e c t f e w c l a s s i c sf r o m A l e x K i d d I n M i r a c l e

World, including the criminally catchy opening theme.

3AMES' RETROCl470

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As odd as it may sound today,t h e r e w a s a t i m e w h e n A l e xKidd was the poster boy forSega. Forget the blue hedgehog

that we all know and love; the youngster wasgiven the enviable task of being Sega's mascot.Unfortunately, in the age of the next generation,it's only the most hardened of gamers thatremember Alex. Those who do though, willknow how charming and unique his run of gameswere. Refusing to adhere to the standard formulaof releasing a succession of similar titles, Segadecided that nearly all of them should be entirelydifferent from one another. It was a choice thatcaused plenty of debate over the years, butultimately left Alex with an interesting history thathas allowed him to remain quite the characterAt the same time, it was also the reason Alexeventually died. With such an unbalanced rangeof genres, it left fans feeling indifferent to theseries as a whole. It was easy to fall in lovewith the colourful environment of Miracle World,which marked Alex Kidd's console debut, but the

follow-up. The Lost Stars, was radically different;many weren't sold on the jagged formula. Ofcourse, for a while Alex was also Sega's answerto Nintendo's Mario, until he was replaced bySonic, and for that reason alone he's a fascinatingcase study He may not have made it as far asthe plumber, but his first outing in particular couldwell be up there with the diminutive Italian'searly efforts; with greater support it's not hardto imagine a world where the Kidd would still be

reigning supreme.More important than all of this, however, is the

sentimental value that gathering up all six classicscan add to your collection. Unlike many of thegames we've covered in the Spotlight, you don'thave to re-mortgage your house to get the set.The majority of Alex's adventures are availableat a fair price and better yet, aren't necessarilyin short supply That's not to say they're notconsidered an essential investment, mind you.

Our young friend is most definitely one of akind and, as you're about to discover, is etchedinto the hearts of the gaming community.

■ 0 -

2002 - GameCubeShowing off an early GameCube experiment, in which a GameBoy Camera could be used to create a 3D avatar of the player,Miyamoto explained; "At the time we called this Stage Debut,which some of you may have seen at E3 in 2002. To me it wasobvious that this was going to be a huge hit, but inside Nintendothe people said 'sure, maybe this is funny, but you still can't make agame out of this' and I couldn't really refute what they had to say. Ithought maybe I should give up but still I was not defeated."

>

We'd been working on this ideaff for 20 years but we'd neverb e e n a b l e t o t u r n i t i n t o t h a t m u c h

of anything. Early on, people hadevaluated the project negatively; theirview was that this idea would be verypopular with creative people but if it wastoo complicated it would only frustratethe masses who aren't used to usingthese types of tools. Others pointed outthat there was no way to make this intoa game - no way to make it profitable.Finally, with the Wii, we managed toanswer all of these questions. Creatingthese Mils didn't need to be a game Initself; they could be stand-ins for actualplayers in games."

mqB-ds' hen Wii planning began, my team began thinking of how" m m

7we could use this idea on the Wii. But then, one day, MrIwata approached me with a little smirk on his face and asked 'arewe still playing around with that face-creation idea?' And I said 'well,yes but we haven't been able to turn it into anything significantyet' and at that point he informed me that another team inside thebuilding had been working on something similar as part of a DSgame and had made good progress. I said 'this is exactly what I'vebeen thinking of.' So, I went back to my team and I said 'You guysare useless.' I told them I didn't need them any more and I went andworked with this other team for a few months."

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ver the years, by insisting that in every advance in hardware we also make the graphics more' complex, it turned into less of a game and more of a utility. As we were making it we were

creating something that the average person would look at and see as being too complicated. Wewere actually reducing the number of people who would ever want to use it. But once we started toreconsider the program to be something inviting to the widest possible audience, all the riddles weresolved. The editor is simple, the choices are limited and the exchanging of Mils is easy. So our tenacityfinally paid off only when we were willing to take the risk of looking at the problem from a differentperspective. Today, people are so taken with Miis, around the world, that I'm actually working on a newWii Channel that will allow people to compare the Mils that they've created in a popularity contest."

G A M E S ™ R E T R O ■ 1 4 5 ■

For many publishers, this year's Game Developers Conference was anopportunity to show off its latest hot products, but keynote speaker ShigeruMiyamoto chose to look backwards. As part of his speech, entitled 'A CreativeVision', the veteran designer explained how the concept of the Mil has been indevelopment far longer than you might think...

- Famicom DiskRevealing unseen imagery of a 'plioto fit' program for the Famicom Disl( System,IVIiyamoto explained: "About 20 years ago I thought it'd be a good idea to use a gamemachine to let you draw your own face or the faces of others. This was used with somethingcalled a Scenario Disk, which you would then use to animate these faces. I thought this wasa great idea but there weren't many people who agreed with me. They asked me 'how couldthis be a game?' So at that point we stopped making progress with it and the game was puton the pending list. But I always thought it would be a very fun idea. Still, we left it behind."

2000- Rintendo 64DDBut then it kind of awoke from hibernation after several years," Miyamotor

# #J reveals as he shows long-forgotten footage of the Mario Artist: Talent

Studio on the 64DD. "Talent Studio was sold only to the members of ourRANDnet network service. The key features of this program were the widevariety of clothing options and a built-in movie editor. In fact, Mr Yamauchi,our former president, co-operated by creating a personal greeting for all ourmembers who bought this. Of course, I believed that no one at Nintendowould be able to resist this idea, but somehow they did."

■ 1 4 4 H G A M E S ' " R E T R O

y r j r u w r u v r j

imodes: Sandbox just al lowingyou to c reate a theme park ;S i m w h i c h c o m b i n e d d e s i g nwi th some st rategy e lements;and Business which was a fullyfledged simulation that saw youcontrolling every decision.

The latter mode is incrediblychallenging, and you'll have tokeep on top of every eventualityif bankruptcy is to be avoided.

"When people at Bullfrog startedp l a y i n g t h e g a m e , i t s o o nbecame clear that some peoplejust wanted to design a coolpark without having to work orf o c u s o n t h e b u s i n e s s s i d e o fthings, so we came up with theidea of a Sandbox mode to giveplayers the choice of whether tojust design a cool park or whetherto actually get involved in thebusiness nitty-grit ty side." It 'sa decision that proved pivotal;without a simpler mode for thosefar more interested in playingw i t h t h e p a r k t h a n g e t t i n gi n v o l v e d w i t h fi n a n c i a l d e c i s i o n s ,it's considerably unlikely that thegame would have become assuccessful as it has.

Theme Park was one o f thoserare commodities that impressedthe specialist press, yet at thesame time was a hit among thepublic. "As I remember, it wasreally amazing and positive - itwas a bit of a change in gamestyle for Bullfrog at the time butthe press really seemed to getit. It was very, very successful

commercially and was convertedto many different platforms whichhelped it sell a vast amount. Itwas a lso a cont inuous sel ler andstayed in the sale charts for a long,long time - over a year I think."

T h e A m i g a v e r s i o n s o o nfo l l owed the pa th o f the PC

- A1200 debuted a year before the

much-delayed A500 edition - andwas just as playable. "I had andstill have a great deal of affectionfor the Amiga; it remains oneof my favourite platforms. Frommemory it was always far mores t a b l e t h a n m y P C . " _

iOf course, there are always

fea tu res tha t can ' t rea l l y beimplemented due to a lack oft ime or over ambi t ion and ThemePark is no exception. Early on inits design, the idea of being ableto pick one person and followthis individual around the parkwith a 3D perspective was neverrealised - although rides can beexperienced in full 3D on CD-based vers ions such as the 3D0,

Amiga CD32 and PC CD ROM.The idea of listening in on a

person 's conversa t ion w i th amicrophone was another ideat h a t d i d n ' t c o m e t o f r u i t i o n , b u t

the main feature that never madeit was a rol ler coaster editor. "As

anyone who works with me willtell you, I am notorious for tryingto squeeze in more fea tu resright up to the very end," admitsMolyneux. "I seem to remembert h a t s o m e o n e c r e a t e d a r o l l e rc o a s t e r e d i t o r w h i c h I w o u l dhave liked to include in the game,but we just didn't have the timeto do th is . "

W h i l e T h e m e P a r k h a s s i n c ebeen superseded by the likes ofRollerCoaster Tycoon along withi t s f a i r s h a r e o f i m i t a t o r s , t h e

original remains compell ing tothis day. Upon being asked as tothe secret of the game's success,Molyneux is certain that much ofit lies in its simplicity along withthe fact that people just can't getenough of the thrill of the fair. "Ithink most people enjoy goingto theme parks and most peoplefancy that they could design agood theme park. It was alsopretty easy to pick up and play.I really wanted to make a gamethat was simple enough so that rtwas accessible to ever/one and Ith ink we succeeded . "

I STILL HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF AFFECTIONFOR THE AMIGA; IT REMAINS ONE OF MYFAVOURITE PLATFORMS. IT WAS FAR MORESTABLE THAN MY PC PETER MOLYNEUX

TEP WQRKC-Although there are some fantastic rides In Theme Park, a favourite to create

is the roller coaster and, "the bigger and scarier the better," according toMolyneux. Rather than just placing an already-constructed ride into your park,

it can be built piece by piece as well as having its height adjusted for sheerdrops, include terrifying loop the loops and particularly vicious corners. Of

course, the bigger the ride, the more expensive it is to build meaning it is alltoo easy to create a ride you can't afford to turn on. Watching the people rideit, piercingly scream as they lose their lunch over yet another drop makes any

expense worthwhile. Besides, it might even award you with a trophy.

S v

•ft ■ ■

Theme Park has receiveda number o f convers ions

since its conception onPC, from the Amiga and

Amiga CD32 versions (on. a par with the original)

to console edi t ions forthe 3D0, SNES, MegaDrive and PlayStation.

However, the one that isof interest to retro fans isthe upcoming release ofTheme Park on Nintendo

. DS. The stylus controland touch screen means

it is the perfect formatfor a game that was

originally mouse based,and should erase any of" the control issues that

plagued console formats.The game has the same

cartoon stylings thatmade the original so

appealing yet promisesto include all the business "

management decisions- whether or not to

increase the salt in the■ chips or mess aboutwith the ice cream

- and beh ind- the-scenesnegotiations that gave itthat all-important depth.

Also expect plenty ofr ides and rol ler coasters

to entertain your punters.

W i t h t h e u s e o f i c o n s t h a t c a nb e s e l e c t e d w i t h t h e t o u c h o f amouse button, rides, shops, pathsand trees can be positioned withvery little difficulty. Staff could behired such as handymen for theupkeep of the park, mechanicsfor ride maintenance, guardskept the area secure and therew e r e e v e n c o s t u m e c h a r a c t e r st o e n t e r t a i n t h e v i s i t o r s . " Ialways found those charactersin costumes at theme parks veryscary and it was this feeling Iwanted to recreate in the game,"comments Molyneux regardingtheir origin. "They are not meantto be cuddly and fr iendly butm o r e - a s I r e m e m b e r t h e m - abit sinister and spooky." In themore business-orientated modes,research into inventing new rides,shops and better design can beu n d e r t a k e n , h o w m u c h t i c k e t scost and prices of products canbe altered accordingly and youcan even control the quanti tyof salt on the fries, sugar in theice crcam and the speed of ther ides . The hea r t o f t he s imu la to r

I At first (miy the UK is wfrtiin budget; becomesuccessful and you can afford a park elsewhere.

, is far more sophisticated than itsexterior would have you believe;increasing the salt on the fries willmake the visitors thirsty whichwil l in turn boost drink sales.

One of the main driving factorsbehind the concept of ThemePark is that of the park visitors,whose opinion of your creationc a n b o o s t o r b a n k r u p t y o u rent i re bus iness. Each personc o m e s w i t h v a r i a b l e s , s u c h a s

hunge r, t h i r s t , bo redom andhappiness, which are constantlyupdated. Failure to meet theirrequirements, even something assimple as keeping the place freefrom litter, can cause happinesslevels to drop and popular i tyleve ls to dwind le . Le t th ingss l i d e t o o m u c h a n d v i s i t o r s w i l ls top coming, meaning drast icaction is required, "There werea l o t o f f a c t o r s t h a t i n fl u e n c e da character's enjoyment of thepark such as how far they hadto walk, the price of the rides,w h e t h e r t h e y w o r e h u n g r y ,th i rs ty o r needed the to i le t , "explains Molyneux concerning

' J

I G l B Q C e B Qr ^ L Advanced rides like rubber tubing please tfie public

, and a re en te r ta in ing to watd ) . j" - f m .

The people were under the inq)ress(on that bubbles were what they required.

how the i n te l l i gence worked ." We p u t a l l o f t h e s e f a c t o r stoge the r i n one fo rmu la andt h i s i s w h a t c r e a t e d t h e i r l e v e lo f a p p r e c i a t i o n a n d o v e r a l lenjoyment of a particular park."

Although a number of run-of-the-mill events occur during apark's development, there arespecial sequences that take placedepending on your progress. Inone instance, a park was rapidlydeteriorating in public demanda n d l o s i n g m o n e y . A f t e r awhile, a gang dressed in blackarrived on the scene and, uponenter ing the park , proceededto pop the bouncy castle andk n o c k t h e h e a d o f f t h e c h i c k e nman, leading to a lot of upsetc h i l d r e n a n d s o m e t r o u b l e ds t a f f m e m b e r s . " W e w a n t e d t o

give players a bit of variety andalso to stop things getting toopredictable," reveals Molyneux.

"These sorts of events were verymuch tied into how long you hodfcxxw playing nncJ also how wtillyou were doing witti your thenmpark." If staff tiecome unhappywith their wages, a mini gomefeaturing two arms representingeach party would appear, eachtaking it in turns to move fotward.I f t h e h a n d s d o n ' t n m o t b ythe time the digestive biscuitsdisappear, expect (ilenty of staffs t r i k e s u n t i l t h e i s s u e h a s b e e nr e s o l v e d , M o l y n e u x e x p l a i n sthat this or iginated from, "anold Commodore 64 game calU;dM.U.L.E. which is still one of myfavourite games of all time."

After two years of developmentThonw Park was finally releaseda n d ' i n c l u d e d t h r e e d i f f e r e n t

-*r > r-jw m m w . c : L C i S

Investing research money opens up new rideswhi(^ will increase die park's popularity.

A The stunning 3D intros«fpienee was sketched outin storyboard form before it as finally computerised.

everyone at Bullfrog and so goon to conv ince them that i t was agood idea for a game."

Once the team had tal<en on theproject, it was time to researchthe game by v is i t ing as manytheme parl<s as possible aroundthe world, sampling the rides andmaking notes of the atmospheref o r d i f f e r e n t a r e a s . " I n B r i t a i n

'Alton Towers is pretty good butGreat Americas in LA is also verycool," notes Molyneux. "There wasplenty of arduous research whichmeant 1 had to go and visit asmany theme parks as I could," herecalls, clearly having enjoyed theentire experience. " I also managedto speak to quite a few theme parkmanagers. The conclusion was, asyou'd expect, that they are all verycarefully designed to ensure thatvisitors spend as much time andmoney at them as possible."

W i t h t h e ' r e s e a r c h ' u n d e r t a k e n

and the ideas fo rmed, i t was t imeto start designing. From the outset.Theme Park was to have a simplec a r t o o n - l i k e s t y l e w h i c h s t o o d o u t

from other games of a similarnature. "It was designed to besimple to use and generally bold,bright and inviting as opposed tobeing intricate, complex and dull,which was the case with many ofthe strategy games at that time."Al though Theme Park s tar tedoff in 2D using a refinement ofthe Populous game engine, theintroduct ion of 3D dur ing theNineties meant that Bullfrog usedart package 3D Studio to constructthe shops and rides while givingthem a ca r toon makeover to su i tthe style of the rest of the game.

S o u n d e f f e c t s w e r e u s e d w i t hlibrary CDS and Bullfrog createda n , " a m b i e n t b a c k d r o p l o o pfrom a 'children in playground'sample." The events on screend e t e r m i n e d t h e s o u n d s h e a r d ;there are vomiting noises if snackbars are too close to r ides, whi leyou'll hear screams as peopleh u r t l e d o w n a r o l l e r c o a s t e r .

Building a park is a processthat really couldn't be simpler.

o

T H E M E PA R KScreaming children, lashings of ice cream, exciting rides, throbbing crowds andmile-long queues - they can only belong in the world of a theme park, games™gets the ride of a lifetime as Peter Molyneux discusses his original business sim

■ ■

' - < r "

Although the softwareworld-specifical lythatof the PC- is c rammedw i t h b u s i n e s s t i t l e s

a n d s i m u l a t i o n g a m e s t h e s edays, back in the early-NinetiesTheme Park was something ofa reve la t ion . Combin ing cu tev i s u a l s w i t h a n a s s o r t m e n t o frides, intelligent park visitors anda full management mode, ThemePark was original but still hadenough accessibility to appeal tonovice gamers as well as thoselooking for something to testtheir business acumen. Strategygames existed, but few evokedthe fun and personality that wasexplod ing f rom every pore ofTheme Park 's co lour fu l ex ter io r.

A fi x a t i o n w i t h P o n g l e dJB tePe te r Mo lyneux ' s l i f e l ong

0 , '

obsess ion w i th a l l t h ingscomputer orientated and provedan effective way of unleashinghis creative urges. "I got it home,took it apart and never got it towork again but from that momenton I was hooked on everything todo with computers. If you don'tcount Pong as my first computert h e n i t w a s a C o m m o d o r e P E T.The other reason why I got intoprogramming is that I'm dyslexicso programming was a far easierway for me to express myself."

If it weren't for a business error,Bullfrog, as a creator of games,would never have ex is ted, " I hadset up a company called Tauruswith my business partner, LesEdgar, and we were work ingon making databases," begins

Molyneux. "One day I got a callf r o m C o m m o d o r e w h o w e r e

very keen to meet with us as they. wanted our product on their new

machine, the Amiga. When I got. to the meeting I quickly realised

that they had called the wrongcompany; they thought I was fromcompany called Torus. However,just as I was about to fess up,they offered ten free machines soI didn't say anything. Around thesame time, I was approached bya f r i end to conve r t D ru id 2 f romthe Atari ST to the Amiga whichwas rapidly becoming more of agames machine, so we decided toforget about databases and startmaking games and that is howBullfrog was born."

The concept o f a bus inesssimulator was something that

originated in the early-Eightiesand although a game was createdin 1983, the arrival of only twoo r d e r s m e a n t i t n e v e r t o o k o f f .However, the idea o f a bus inessgame remained wi th h im andsome considerable years later theseeds of Theme Park would fullyblossom. "My inspiration camefrom going to a theme park andwondering how it all worked andalso wishing that roller coasterswere a bit more scary," explainsMolyneux . "Then the thoughtcame to me that it would be verycool to be able to design my owntheme park and that's where thei d e a w a s b o r n . B e c a u s e i t w a sa very different idea for a gameat that time, I programmed thefirst version myself so that I thenhad something concrete to show

IT WAS DESIGNED TO BE SIMPLE TO USEAND GENERALLY BOLD, BRIGHT ANDINVITING AS OPPOSED TO BEING INTRICATE,COMPLEX AND DULL PETER MOLYNEUX

G A M E S

u z n i

K A R O U SD R E A M C A S T G O E S O U T V m H A B K S L O U D B A N G

C el-shading isn't used all thatoften in games, but when itis, you know exactly whatto expect. The cartoon

style suggests a happier tone as wellas an emphasis on humour and fun.Yet despite its relatively new art style,Karous is anything but light-hearted.

By using a colour palette of greys,blacks and greens. Milestone hascreated a new sort of eel-shading thatfeels moody, gritty and suitably grimy- visually at odds with the publisher's

p r e v i o u s s h o o t e r, R a d i r g y. T h eimmediate impression is that Karousis a darker, more serious game thatwill challenge as much as it entertains.That impression, as it turns out, is spoton. Despite the fact that it's possible tobreeze through the first two levels by

sitting at the bottom of the screen andblasting all of the enemy bullets awayKarous is a tough game that requires alot of thought to get to the end.

With only two continues available,K a r o u s i s n ' t a s h o o t e r t h a t c a n b e

finished in one lazy afternoon: it takesskill, planning and much more thought

Format : DreamcastPubl isher: Mi lestoneDeveloper: In-HousePrice: ¥7,060

^

than you might think. There are nopower-ups here, not even any smartbombs, just three basic weapons thatmust be powered up by using themas much as possible - a little bit likeexperience points in an RPG. There'sthe obligatory standard shooting attack,a sword that can absorb bullets anda sh ie ld tha t deflec ts them. Use each

weapon enough and it will graduallybecome more powerful but Karousreally demands that each weapon isused in equal proportions. You see, theplayer's ship also has a total experiencelevel that is dictated by the combinedlevels of the three weapons. Add tothis the fact that an individual weaponcan power up much quicker whenit is used against an enemy that is

particularly weak and there's a lot toconsider. This is where those earlylevels are deceptive. Rush throughthem as quickly as possible and you'll

only hit a brick wall as the enemies andbosses suddenly become too powerfulfor your low-level ship to deal with.Instead, it's best to learn those firsttwo levels completely and exploit themto maximise the experience levels asquickly as possible.

As suggested, it's almost morelike an RPG than a shoot-'em-upand demands much more care andattention than the average bulletthrower As such, most players willfind themselves returning to this againand again, gradually inching closer tothe end with each play-through as

they become more accustomed to thedepth and complexity of the levellingsystem. In this respect it has muchmore in common with the likes ofRadiant Silvergun and Ikaruga thansomething like Giga Wing.

That's not to suggest that Karouslacks a sense of fun though. It maybe a tough nut to crack but the qualityof the presentation makes learning

the ropes that little bit more attractive.The eel-shading is brilliant and theunconventional choice of colours work?in the game's favour creating a darkatmospheric style that makes the gameworld an interesting place to return to.

Special mention must also go to ths?music. Less retro sounding than thescore to Trigger Heart Exeiica, Karous'drum-and-bass beats create a sense ofexcitement from the get go and stick inthe head long after the Dreamcast hasbeen powered down.

Smart, challenging and attractive- if a little inaccessible for some - if

Karous does turn out to be the very las'Dreamcast game it'll be a worthy end toa ver/ special console.

O V E R A L LS C O R E

8 9 %

P ■ V

1

• • •

i s i ' a y

Most of the mobile phone references from Radirgy are gone but the occasional text message remains.

G A M E S ™ R E T R O ■ 1 3 9 1 1

9 h y » - / t - h r ? i p j «v t ' J K .■ n s a :

1 A

T R I G G E RH E A R T E X E U C AW A R A S H I ' H E A R T S ' T H E D R E A M C A S T O N E L A S T T I M E

If you ask us, innovation is a wordthat is being used far too frequentlyin the videogame industry of late.Message boards up and down

the internet country are littered withpeople, crying out for something newand demanding not to see the sameold games rehashed time and again.It's a healthy outcry, of course, butperhaps a little misplaced. As TriggerHeart Exelica proves this month, eventhe oldest of genres can be madefresh and interesting with the smallestof new touches.

On the surface, Trigger IHeartseems to be a generic bullet-hellshoot-'em-up. All the hallmarks, suchas intr icate bullet patterns, smartbombs and warning-preceded bossesare there and those who approachthe game and just look at the surfacedetails will no doubt brand the gameunoriginal and walk away. This,incidentally, is exactly what happenedwhen Tr igger Hear t Exe l i ca was

released in Japanese arcades last year.The game notoriously failed to attractplayers, but now that we've sampledthe Dreamcast port, it's clear that itwas definitely their loss.

The ace up Trigger Heart's sleeve isthe player's ability to grab enemy shipsand use them against the oncomingwaves of bullets and bosses. Eachand every enemy in the game can begrabbed with a grappling beam - witha slight delay for the bigger enemies -and then used as a makeshift shield to

absorb bu l l e ts and ram o the r enemies

until the ship takes enough damagethat it explodes. Much more uniquely,however, and where Trigger Heartreally stands out from the crowd,skilled players are able to swing acaptured ship around themselves andlob it through the air like a shot put.It's a move that takes a significantamount of practise to get right, butonce mastered, most players will findthemselves gleefully lobbing hulking

Format : DreamcastPubl isher: WarashiDeveloper: In-HousePrice: ¥7,060

great spaceships through the bulletpatterns and smashing into their fellowships at every possible opportunity.As you'd expect, this spinny-smashymechanic is integral to Trigger Heart's

sco r i ng sys tem. Eve ry de fea tedenemy leaves behind a gold bar whichautomatically gravitates toward theplayer's ship when not attacking andincreases the player's total numberof points. Use a captured ship as aweapon, however, and they'll droploads more gold bars, creating the

potential for much higher scores.T h i s i n t e r e s t i n g t w i s t o n t h e

traditional shoot-'em-up formula alonemakes TriggerHeartworth owning butWarashi has made sure that the discis packed with extra modes to makethe entire game that little bit moreappealing. Aside from the main arcadeconversion, there's a Story modet h a t a d d s f u l l a u d i o i n t r o d u c t i o n s t o

each level as well as new endings foreach character, and a more coherentnarrative that sees the end-of-gameboss crop up at certain intervalsthroughout the game. In addition, thechallenging Arranged mode combinesparts of the Arcade and Story modesbut asks the player to complete thegame with just one credit. Such lavishextras have become quite unusualwith Dreamcast games in the last

S C O R E2 I I I S "

0EDB1m Q B . 0

Main character Exelica flies closer to the camera,

revealing her bum, when using a smart bomb.

five years or so - most developershave opted for a straight port and

nothing more - so Warashi shoulddefinitely be commended for makingthe extra effort to increase TriggerHeart Exeiica's replay value.

Combine the inventive play systemwith the generous extras as well asthe decent 3D visuals and excellentsoundtrack (that's strangely reminiscentof Mega Dr ive-era shoot- 'em-ups)and Trigger Heart Exelica becomesa highly recommendable Dreamcast

game. If you own a Dreamcast and likeshooters, this is a must havs.

O V E R A L LS C O R E

9 3 %

I The grapple beam can be used to focus all fire on one area when fighting ■ Spinning ships is much easier with an arcade stick, by the way.

I 1 3 8 H G A M E S ' ^ R E T R O

etto te abundance, and in who, carms: MtMe for Darenf.hond

G A M I N GL U M I N A R I E SPASS AWAYR I P K E I T H C A M P B E L L A N D R I C H A R D J O S E P H

As the gaming medium slowlyages beyond the 30-year markit is unfortunate but inevitable

that more and more of the peopleinvolved in the industry from the startwill reach the end of their lives. Thismonth, news has reached games™that two such veterans of the gameindustry have sadly passed on.

Keith Campbell is a name thatshould be instantly familiar to fans oft h e h u m b l e t e x t a d v e n t u r e . B e t w e e n

1 9 8 0 a n d 1 9 9 0 h e w o r k e d o n t h e

world's first gaming mag, Computer& Video Games as the publication'sadventure-game reviewer. For manyBritish gamers, their first taste ofadventure games, and gaming ingeneral, will have been provided byhis enthusiastic writing and clear loveof games.

Sadly, on 26 August 2006, Keithsuffered an embolism caused bycomplications in the removal of a

tumour in 2001 and died, aged 66, inh i s o w n h o m e . K e i t h l e a v e s b e h i n d h i s

wife, Ruth, and his son, Neil, and willbe missed by his family, friends andf a n s a l i k e .

Also leaving behind a great legacyas well as hundreds of mournful fansis veteran games musician RichardJoseph. He passed away on 4 Marchthis year, after being diagnosed withlung cancer

A true pioneer of the game industry,R i c h a r d c a n b e c r e d i t e d w i t h t h e

earliest use of both voice actingand interactive music in games (forMega Lo Mania and Chaos Enginerespectively) as well as working withestablished musicians to bring chart-quality music to the likes of MagicPoclaets and Speedball 2.

The last known game that Richardworked on is believed to be The EiderScrolls IV- not a bad way to end sucha fan tas t i c ca reer.

Keith Campbell pictured with C&VG issue one.

a t ' c o -D I A R YOld-school gaming is on the up, so games™dedicates itself to keeping you up to date withwhat's going down in the world of retro.

M A Y * 0 7

F I N A L FA N TA S Y I I IDate: 04 May Publisher: SquareEnIxP r i c e : £ 2 9 . 9 9 F o r m a t : D S

It may not have the high-tech wow-pizzazz 128-bit shenanigans of recentFinal Fantasy releases but Final Fantasy III is every bit the classic role-playing game and visually pushes the DS further than almost any other,title on the system. Also, as the original NES version of Final Fantasy ///,was never actually translated into English, this is a more-than-essentia.r e t r o r e m a k e .

I M P O S S I B L E M I S S I O NDate: 18 May Publisher: System 3Price: £19.99 Format: DS, PS2, PSP, WiiWe really can't understand why this re-release has been delayed byanother month and a half, after all, it's almost exactly the same asthe Commodore 64 version and that was finished over 20 years ago.Seriously though, this is looking like a faithful remake that'll be perfect forfans of the original, which makes the delays all the more unbearable.

A L I E N S Y N D R O M EDate: 29 May Publisher: SegaPrice: $TBA Format: PSP, WiiSo few retro remakes stay true to the formula of the original game thesedays, so it's refreshing to see Sega's new Alien Syndrome retain the top-down perspective of the arcade original in this run-and-gun update. We'oprefer it if they kept the manga graphics, but you can't have everything,now, can you? The fast-paced shooting action, as well as the obligatorytiA/o-player co-operative mode make this just as enjoyable as the vintagearcade and Master System title.

T H I S M O N T H I N

r s t r oG A M E R

f e t r o v

I s s u e : 3 7On Sale: 26 AprilP r i c e : £ 4 . 9 9

.ii -I

Highlights: Love 'Making Of features? Then Retro Gamer 37 is the placeto be with exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at Pitfall II, Final Fight, JetSet Willy Online and Thanatos. Also in this issue is an in-depth look atthe Virtua Fighter series, the convoluted history of Wonderboy and ther e s u l t s o f t h e r e a d e r s ' To p 2 5 P l a t f o r m e r s p o l l . ]

t n r i m n g , B u t c a s s i n p v a f e l tst<3ra.j|g love for Caterina was nowT t . ! l o v e r o r u a t e n n a w a s n o w

He relU^iar i t ly abandoned i

F I N D O U T W H A r S G O I N G O N I N T H EH E R E A N D N O W O F R E T K O G A M I N G

This month we revieww h a t a r e s u p p o s e d l ythe final two games

f o r t h e D r e a m c a s t - a

c o n s o l e t h a t h a s d e fi e d t h e

odds by l iv ing on for s ixy e a r s a f t e r S e g a a b a n d o n e di t . W e ' v e h e a r d t h e c l a i m

be fo re , o f cou rse . Unde rDe fea t was supposed to bet h e l a s t c o m m e r c i a l g a m ei n M a r c h 2 0 0 6 b u t t h i s

t i m e , w i t h t h e r u m o u r e dc a n c e l l a t i o n o f t h e G D - R O M

fo rma t , i t f ee l s more l i ke l y.W i t h t h a t i n m i n d , g a m e s ™h a s s p o k e n t o k e y m e m b e r sf r o m t h e s h o o t - ' e m - u pd e v e l o p m e n t s c e n e t o fi n do u t w h a t w i l l n o w h a p p e n t ot h e g e n r e a n d c o n s o l e t h a thave kep t each o ther a l i vef o r t h e l a s t h a l f - d e c a d e .

S o m e m a y c o m p l a i nt h a t t h e s e s h o o t e r s w e r e

deve loped fa r t oo recen t l yt o b e c o n s i d e r e d r e t r o b u t I

be l ieve that the 2D shoot inggenre remains c lose tot h e h e a r t o f m o s t r e t r o

gamers and it is a genrew o r t h p r e s e r v i n g a n d w o r t hkeeping track of.

I f s h o o t - ' e m - u p s a r e n ' ty o u r t h i n g , d o n ' t w o r r y,t he re ' s p l en t y mo re r e t r olove to go round. As usual ,b e s u r e t o l e t m e k n o w

what you th ink a t the emai la d d r e s s b e l o w .

Ashley Dayr e t r o @ j m a g i n e

- p u b l i s h i n g . c o . u k

CLASSIC TEXTADVENTURES HIT DS. . . A S L O N G A S Y O U H A V E A F L A S H C A R T

The underground world of illegalflash devices for GBA and DSaren't something you'll read

about too often in games™ for fearthat the powerful lawyer gods willdescend f rom the heavens and de l i ve r

a mighty legal slap to our collectiveface, but this particular news was toogood to risk passing by Flash carts,you see, have a rather handy use thatgoes way beyond downloading thelatest commerc ia l re lease for f ree.

We're referring, of course, to thew o n d e r f u l w o r l d o f h o m e b r e w.

There's plenty of brilliant homebrewon offer for the DS, most of it utilitysoftware like an MSN Messenger

clone, but there are also some greatgames too. Some enterprising DShobbyist has developed severalslick professional-standard portsof the vintage text adventures ofold. The interface displays themain game on the top screen andseveral command buttons (likeNorth, South, East and West) onthe bottom screen and allows

any word to be inputted just bywriting directly on to the screen.We're not going to say whereto get them but we highlyrecommend searching theinternet for at least one of theseexce l l en t conve rs i ons . Text adventures are back. Rejoice.

NEW COMMODORECOMPUTERS. . . T H A T A R E A C T U A L L Y J U S T P C S

Fans of the exceptionalCommodore 64 and CommodoreAmiga may be pretty excited

to hear that a brand new range ofcomputers are set to appear thatwill once again bear the might/C= logo. Available in four differentmodels, the new Commodorecomputers are available from www.commodoregaming.com and have beenspecifically built to play the most taxingof modern computer games.

But will they play a copy ofSpeedball or Creatures 2? No,because they're actually just high-endW i n d o w s P C s w i t h t h e C o m m o d o r e

logo slapped on the side. Unlike thosegroundbreaking machines - the C64and Amiga - there are no uniquechipsets or operating systems here,just the same graphics cards and

processors you'll find in any powerfulPC. And did we mention that this isn'teven the same Commodore fromthe Eighties? That company went out

of business in 1994. This companyacquired the Commodore brand in2005 and really has nothing to do withthe old one. Let's just make that clear.

1 L U 1 I . 1 U U J l U J U i U l B . p u t t i n g o a r e g u l a r s h o w s f o r t i i el a fi o A l i i a w A . f a m f e a s s a d o r,

• b u t C a s a n o v a f e l tp C a t e r i n a w a s n o wI N A L L Y , B e

I fka

n n

AN IMAGINE PUBLICATION

N 0 . 5 6 M A Y 2 0 0 7

M I C R O G A M E S A C T I O N

COLLECTING Al^ KlOur guide to Sega's forgotten niSBk.; ' ' P L U S

RETRO NEWS, REVIEWS,CLASH OP THE TITAt S,

ANClkNtHISTOlRY,WORST) Llt ENOBB/ER,

B E H I N D T H ES C E N E S O FT H E M E P A R IPeter Molyneuxtakes us for a ride

m%\f i Fl]||lRE^11 <1^20\ S m O T E R S

Jvnere now for gaming'soldest genre?

THE GP2X CAN PLAY YOUR CLASSIC PC GAMES

YOU CAN EVEN PLAY YOUR GAMES FOR CLASSIC SYSTEMS

PLAY NEW GAMES DEVELOPED FOR THE GP2X

ELSEWHERE VEKTAR BEAT2X

WATCH MOVIES AND LISTEN TO MUSIC ON THE GOPLAY ANY VIDEO

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Mario Kart 64BE^ER THAN MANY GIVE IT CREDIT FOR

The recent re-release of Mario's second karting venture has led to a"d distinct re-appraisal around these parts. MK64 has akA/ays been considered

an ugly cousin of the SNES original, with its over-reliance on unfair power ups andrubber-band Al. After a lengthy multiplayer session, however, it seems perhaps wehad been too harsh. Mario Kart 64 is cleariy a fantastic arcade racer, with brilliant track

design, limitless charm and a genuine competitive compulsion in its multiplayerSo, MK64 may be fantastic after all (although there's still a touch too much lightning),but it seems such a shame that it can't be played online. The beauty of Xbox Live'sretro releases is the newfound ability to compete against the world, and what bettergame is there to do that than Mario Kart. A missed jopportunity, then, but a great game nonetheless. SCORE: As good now as it ever was. Get involved.

The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The PastONE OF THE FINEST GAMES OF ALL TIME

n ^ What more do we need to say? Undoubtedly the finest two-dimensionalr—d Zelda, and arguably the greatest game in the entire series, the outstandingA Link To The Pastfeels as fresh today as it did 15 years ago. This retro release hasreceived nothing in the way of touch-ups, but then it doesn't actually need them. Thevibrant graphics still look great. It still oozes charm and innovation from every pore.And it's still a benchmark in videogame design. We implore you, if for some reason- be it age or idiocy - you have never played The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past

then jump onto the Virtual Console as soon as you possibly can and get involved. Justas any fan of cinema needs to have seen Citizen Kane and Casablanca, so too a truevideogames buff must play A Link To The PastIt really is that important. S C O R E ; ★★★ *★ A benchmark in videogame design. Truly a thing of beauty.

Kid IcarusAN UNSUCCESSFUL RETURN FOR PIT THE ELDER

B ^ This is a great example of a game that just hasn't aged well. In its prime,f—d Kid Icarus was a magnificent and challenging platformer brimming withcharacter and charm. Now, unfortunately, the concept of scrolling upward as well asfrom side to side doesn't quite hold up like it used to. Not even the Metro/cf enginecan pull Kid Icarus up from the depths of boredom.

In young Pit, the game has a cute and charismatic mascot (not bad for what is

essentially a small jumble of pixels), and those who remember the original game willstill feel a twinge of nostalgia when stepping into his shoes, but there are far strongerplatformers out there on Virtual Console. With Super Mario World and Sonic available,there seems little point in shelling out for asecond-rate product. A shame. SCORE: ★★

I I ^% f %

Scrolling upwards just doesn't have die same appeal any more.

REVIEW FEATURE 1 DLC: THE ROUND-UP '

W o r m sTEAM 17 DOES IT AGAIN

D); With so many variations of Worms available in Team17's back catalogue,'Jj deciding which one to bring to Xbox Live Arcade must have been quite

tricky. Thankfully, the Yorkshire-based independent developer has chosen wisely.Basically a port of the PSP's Worms Open Warfare, Xbox Live's Worms is a graphicallyupdated version of the original 2D template with the balance tipped in favour ofstrategy not silliness. By throwing away all the over-the-top weapons like the HolyHand Grenade and Concrete Donkey Teaml 7 has taken the series back to its roots.Players are left with basic weapons like the shotgun and Uzi, ensuring that victorymust be won through smart thinking rather than luck. As such, Worms is the mostvitally competitive game currently on Marketplace,and receives a serious games™ recommendation. !SCORE: I ★★★★★ No superfluous nibbish, just pure woim-related action.

Heavy WeaponCRUSH THE RED RESISTANCE

It may be getting on a bit but anyone who has missed out on PopCap's'Ji Ingenious shooter should really consider investing. A beautifully crisp

side-scrolling shooter. Heavy Weapon initially feels underwhelming - its tiresomesingle-player never managing to shift out of third gear However, and it's a bighowever. Heavy Weapon's four-player online coop is borderline genius. It's aSurvival mode, where your quartet of cartoon tanks must stand up to the mightof communist oppression for as long as is humanly possible. Not even Geometr/Wars is as overwhelming in its onslaught - the sheer amount happening on screenis phenomenal. Wrth four friends, caffeine-fuelled eyes and a passion to end theRed regime. Heavy Weapon is an almost-perfectmultiplayer. Don't be fooled by the retro stylings. SCORE: I ★★★★! ■ It may look simple, but just you wait until rt all kicks off.

TTVINTTAKE A TRIP BACK TO 1989

m ^ Oh dear. There was a genuine air of excitement when Ubisoft announcedthe classic 1989 arcade version of TMNTirx Live Arcade, but it quickly turned

to disappointment. As is sometimes too often the case, the retro nostalgia lamp hadshone a far-too-favourable light on the Turtles, and some 18 years later it just doesn'thave the depth to demand even ten minutes of your time. Even in four-player co-op,TMNTquickly becomes dull - its massively limited moveset and complete ignoranceof the term 'combo' soon make you realise just how far games have come. The likesof The Simpsons Arcade featured more to do than simply slash and kick, maybe one

day we'll be lucky enough to have that bestowed upon us. Until then though, stickwith the two better games we've mentioned onthis page. You know it makes sense. SCORE: I RIe this one under 'not as good as we remember.'

Blast FactorGEOMETRY WARS LITE, ANYONE?

HKeen not to allow Microsoft the monopoly on all things twin-stickedand shooty, Sony's Blast Factor offers a novel twist on the well-worn

genre with some limited tilt control to accompany the blasting. The game isa combination of Geometry Wars and Every Extend Extra, with enemies in close

proximity to each other causing chain explosions when killed. With a swift tilt ofthe pad to the left or right, a pulse will move across the screen, nudging enemieswith it. The idea is to force your enemies into a corner then annihilate them witha few well-placed bullets. Unfortunately, Blast Factor lacks the purity of GeometryWars or Mutant Storm, and although the innovations should be lauded. Blast Factorcan never match the ability those games have ofsending you headfirst into 'the zone.' SCORE: ★★ Bright colours, lots of enemies. Familiar?

Super Rub-A-DubUP FOR THE QUACK

H This is exactly what downloadable videogames should be. Super Rub-A-Dub is instantf/ accessible, charming, fun and even makes good use of the

technology available. For want of a more suitable explanation. Sumo Digital's playthingis a bathtub simulator. Using the motion sensors of the Sixaxis controller, you tilt ashallow bathtub so that your plastic duck can float about collecting smaller ducks.And when you have collected them you drop them in the plughole. Easy. Or at leastit would be if it weren't for the wind-up shar1<s. Careless tilting can pop bubbles thatunleash the razor-toothed plastic fish, leaving your miniature mallard minions at themercy of the predators. As a throwaway puzzler with the focus on fun. Super Hub-ADub is hard to fault. It may be short lived but whoneeds depth for £3.50? SCORE: I ★★★

Its the old tech demo in motion.

LemmingsLET'S GO!

Hlf you've played the PSP version, you'll know what to expect. Pin-sharpgraphics, lemming power-ups and the gameplay that has served the serieswell since its inception. Using the analogue stick to move the cursor is easier thanexpected and a deft tap of the shoulder buttons switches between lemming typeswith ease. So, with control not proving an issue, it's up to the puzzles themselvesto make Lemmings stand out and, as ever, they're excellent. The inclusion of

teleporters may be befuddling to traditionalists, but they add an extra element ofbrain-scratching that's perfectly welcome. Lemmings is far more time consumingthan the rest of PSN's current catalogue so is best avoided if you're in the market forsomething casual, but we know we're preachingto the converted here - you know it's great. SCORE: I ★★★★* Lemmings in ciystal-clear high definition. Lovely.

REVIEW FEATURE DLC: THE ROUND-UP

O-V^!

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FLOW ESCHEWS TRADiTIONAL NOTIONS OF GENREAND GOAL-ORIENTATED STRUCTURE IN FAVOUR

OF A DEFIANTLY UNIQUE EXPERIENCE"

y ■

"t-9 ^ . , 6 k , ■I

flOw DOWNLOADABLE GAME OF THE MONTHTHE ART OF RELAXATION

ust as LittleBigPlanethas performed wondersin changing the wider

public's perception ofSony, the beautifully understatedflOw has the potential to do thesame among the so-called hardcorecommunity. A game so abstract it'salmost impossible to define, flOweschews traditional notions of genre andgoal-orientated structure in favour of adefiantly unique experience.

For those who have never tried the

online Shockwave version of the game,it is essentially a synthesis of light,sound and motion similar in style to Rezbut with none of that game's intensity.You begin life in the ocean as a small,almost fossil-like sea creature, and usingthe tilt functionality of the Sixaxis canswim through the water, eating smaller

. J f : - '

life forms to increase your size. It'srefreshingly simple, arguably pointless,but supremely enjoyable.

Most of the pleasure comes from theSixaxis itself. Much maligned in the lightof the Wii's remote, the controller actuallycomes into i ts own with flOw. Within

seconds, controlling your organismmakes perfect sense, and before longyou'll be changing direction in a splitsecond and slaloming between the moredangerous sea-beings without so muchas a cursory glance at the pad. For once,it's actually superior to an analogue stick.

As you casually glide through the

gorgeously hued water, travelling deeperinto the ocean to discover what's

lurking on the next level, it all begins tomake sense. It may sound pretentiousbut flOw is a game about feeling. It'sas gentle and relaxing a videogame

• y • o

as you could ever hope to find, neverdemanding more than a few relaxingdeep breaths and a general sense ofwellbeing. In an industry dominated byultra-violence and adrenaline, this sortof attitude to game design should bewelcomed with open arms.

Of course, it's not perfect. The inabilityto save means the fourth and fifth play-throughs can feel like more of a trudgethan a trip, and the lack of a specificfocus could be extremely off-putting foranyone who bases their gaming on goalsand scores. But don't let that deter you.At an extremely low price point, and witha pleasantly implemented four-playerCCHOP, there's certainly no better originalgame on PSN. So relax, pick up theSixaxis and let it all flOw.

SCORE; I *★★★

; W /

o - 6 O A r

' " ^ ® . V

ffOiv features a selection of different creatures to play as. Eacfi new being is unlocked at the end of its I While minimalist ffOw is still visually arresting. A great example of high definition used perfectly.

N X N N N X V

REVIEW FEATURE DLC: THE ROUND-UP

T H E R O U N D - U PAs promised, games™ is expanding

its coverage of everything online overthe coming months. No longer canthe print media ignore what is the

key to the future of gaming, and assuch, neither can we. So, with the

volume and quality of downloadablegames increasing on a weekly basis,it's high time we embarked on a brief

examination of the latest and greatestavailable on the three home consoles.

Obviously, this section is still in theprototype stage, and all feedback is

welcomed with open arms atwww.gamestm.co.uk/forum.

We're always listening...

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REVIEW SIM CITY DS 1 NINTENDO DS

SIM CITY DS

mm m k .[format reviewed [N i n t e n d o D S

O R I G I N

Japan

P U B L I S H E RE l e c t r o n i c A r t s

D E V E L O P E R

EA Japan

P R I C E

¥4,800

R E L E A S E

S u m m e r

(Japan: Out Now}P L A Y E R S

1

EA JAPAN'S TAKE ON SIM CITY ENDS UP HALFWAY BETWEEN TOKYO AND TORQUAYn Sim City DS, Will Wright is MrMaxis. He appears at the start ofEA Japan's last game - Sim City DSwas developed at the recently shut

down studio - and begins to quiz you, ostensiblyin order to gain an idea of your personality.

"Are you the type who believes in UFOs?"Er, no."Have you ever played Sim C/ty before?"

Only on nine other fornnats..."Okay, I'm now beginning to get some kind of

idea of your personality."You think we're sarcastic, don't you, Mr Maxis?"Meet your personal advisor: 28-yearold Ayako.

She has lived abroad."He l lo .

Until now, console adaptations of Sim City 2000have either been compromised through joypadcontrol or have encouraged the purchase of aconsole-compatible mouse. Sim City DS, thanks tothe merits of stylus control, sidesteps the previousissue of control but still fails to properly emulate thegameplay of computer-based Sim C/ty releases.

The problem here is that because of the OS's

relatively low display resolution, combined withthe fatness of the st/lus' nib, it's far too easy onthe game's standard viewpoint to tap on a squarethat's actually adjacent to where you thought youwere planting a tree/erecting a power station. Thesolution is to zoom in on the action, but doing sowill severely limit your view of the editor window.Granted, the OS's upper screen provides a constantdisplay of your city in its current state, which helpsto alleviate some of the nausea that can result fromplaying in 'zoomed in' mode.

Happily, the content beneath the low-resolutionimagery is as solid and as engrossing as ever.Although It has clearly been tuned for an audiencethat likes to be guided through processes, Sim City

I In zoomed ouf mode, touch screen control is tncky.

DS retains its appeal for veteran playersby providing an option to mute theadvisory services of Will Wright, Ayako,a n d c h u m s .

The seriousness of the original SimCity is preserved in countless budget graphs,population Stat charts, and so on. But there's stillspace for the occasional alien invasion. Indeed, SimCity DS comes across as an attempt to satisfy allpotential players; and as a result, it isn't sufficientlyfocused in one direction to properly placate any of itsaudiences. There's bulk here, and there's no doubtthat city building can still be fun, but EA Japan'svision of the game is blurred. This is aSim City that was constructed while theplanners were on their lunch break.

J a p a r , e s e b u i l d i n g s

rp"Tp%'";erwon"soi

S I M T O W N

VERDICT S)/1QA VAST CHALLENGE LET DOWN BY RNICKY CONTROLS

Ayako provides frequent and unnecessary advice but there is an option to play without help. Sim CitY DS% Japanese roots are evident in the selection of b le and in the preset metropolises.

g a m e s " " 1 2 5

CODEMASTERS PRESENTS A KDV GAMES/CODEMASTERS PRODUCTIOSA CODEMASTERS GAMEJAMES BUCHANAN, ARLAN KHAN AND MARCUS O'NEIL IN "MAELSTROM" INTRODUCING SASHA ANTONOVA

M A E L S T R C 3 MT H E B A T T L E F O R E A R T H B E G I N S

HRKHESS TKE FflliCES OF HftTURE MO FIGHT FOB SUBVIVW (M V'w R FULLY DcSTRUCTIBLc RERITIME STRRTEGY EHVIROHMtHT

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M A E L S T R C D M

13 ^ o d e n v. v t . . r . . " N

© 2006 The Codemasters Software Company limited. All rights reserved. "Maelstrom"™ iis trademark of The Codemasters Software Company Limited.Developed by KDV Games Limited. Published by The Codemasters Software Company Limited ("Codemastefs"). "Codemasters"® is a registered trademark. Unauthorisedcopying, adaptation, rental, lending, re-saie, arcade use, charging for use, broadcast, cable transmission, public performance, distribution or extraction of this product or any't.trademarli or copyright work that forms part of this product is prohibited. Netcode by DemonWare, Cover image of earth courtesy of NASA.

F r o s t Ta r r a s q u e

iR a i d o u

^ — 1 5 9

D'^more! It's no good!

■ h's worth dying just to see the Game Over screen, though chances areyou'll be seeing it soon enough anyway...

I Yes, that creature does look like a macaque crossed with an annadillo, and no he deosn't look particularly happy about it It's actually called a Tarrasque.

now something of a headache, it won't preventyou from looking forward to what's lying ahead,just in case you see a new demon that looksparticularly useful or interesting. When you doeventually cobble together a useful army offiends, the puzzles become more interestingas you have to make the most of the abilitiesavailable to you to read minds, inspect yoursurroundings, ignite NPCs' spirits and so on.

It's window dressing for the same old 'walkaround town pressing the X-button until youhit upon the right conversation' puzzles, but itfeels involving enough to ensure you feel you'veaccomplished something rather than jumpedthrough the right hoops set by Atlus. Whenyou're told to capture a demon you alreadynabbed a while ago, there's a genuine feeling ofsmugness for being a few steps ahead of Atlusand knowing other players will then struggle tofind the necessary demon to proceed. Also, whilethe tone has shifted away from the desperatebleakness of Lucifer's Call and Digital Devil Saga,Devil Summoner has a unique aesthetic andatmosphere that makes exploration a joy.

Somewhere in Devil Summoner is a brilliantDgame obscured by a multitude of minor flawsand bizarre design decisions. The real-timeaction is a move in the right direction but itsimplementation is badly realised. The puzzlesare fun but acquiring the keys to solve them isnot. The demon capturing is both the strongestand the poorest element of the gameplay. Thereare plenty of contradictions and problems that,with a little more forethought and tweaking,could have easily been avoided and allowed

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - RaidouKuzunoha l/s The Soulless ArmyXo flourish. It'sgoing to be hard enough to convince the old DevilSummoner fan base to stay on board, let alonepersuade newcomers to join the fold. Evenso, there's just about enough here to makei t w o r t h t h e e f f o r t . V n . /

VERDICT 6 710B O L D N E W D I R E C T I O N O B S C U R E D B Y M I N O R F L A W S

■ You could say changes have been made in order to attract a new audience.

FUSION FRENZYCollecting demons is good; fusing them together

is better. When you have two demons, hand themover to Victor (the 'crazy doctor" stereotype) thenhope for the best. You can register your demons

on a chart to see the chances of a successfulfusion. Fusing two healing or support demons

together should result in a new demon with extrasupport moves and more HP to survive attacks.

Sometimes accidents happen and the fusion failsor you end up with something entirely different

from the demon you'd hoped for.

P o l t « f r r r i > i

FlameSho^

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■ The game's good and bad points together create a rather unbalanced title.

R a i d o u

U k o b a c h

g a m e s ' " 1 2 3

REVIEW I SHIIM MEGAMITENSEI: DEVIL SUMMONER - RAIDOU KUZUNOHA VS THE SOULLESS ARMY PLAYSTATION 2

- ' - . c ' u g e t r e a i - t k

t h a t : \

R a i d o u

This tastes like goat piss! Is thiswhat the k ids today are dr inking!?

I While not on par with Dragon Quest W//(what Is?), the localisation and dialogue is decent enough.

Tee-hee... so. you wanna pla

I Dealing with more than two enemies often sees the fighting degenerate into something of a button-hash-fest, which is a sh»ne.

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI: DEVILS U M M O N E R - R A I D O U K U Z U N O H AVS THE SOULLESS ARMYALSO KNOWN AS HARDCORE FAN BASE VERSUS APPEALING TO THE MAINSTREAM

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F O R M A T R E V I E W E D

PlayStation 2O R I G I N

Japan

P U B L I S H E R

K o e i

D E V E L O P E R

A t l u s

P R I C E

£ 3 4 . 9 9

R E L E A S E

24 April

P L A Y E R S1

alking cats, capturing demonsin test tubes, and that title. Shin

Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner- Raidou Kuzunoha Vs The

Soulless Army has several attention-grabbingqualities but all that will pale in comparisonto the confusion fans will experience whenthey see the major change at the heart of thistitle. For Devil Summoner, Atlus has moved itsShin IVtegami Tensei series away from turn-basedfighting and focussed it more on the real-timearena instead, allowing you to move about andslash at the demons freely while those alongsideyou are controlled by artificial intelligence. Thebattles are still random, the battlefields themselvesare still small and rectangular but there's no morepolitely waiting for your turn while formulatinga plan. It could be argued that this a nod to theMMORPG mechanics slowly permeating theoffline RPG genre a la Final Fantasy XII but giventhe obvious change in tone from dark and moodyto a warmer, almost humorous adventure, it's easyto interpret the change as an attempt to reach outto a brand new audience.

Leaving the hardcore for the mainstream? It'snot the first time it's happened but unfortunatelyfor Devil Summoner, it's not nearly committedenough either way to capture the fan base it'safter. The core gameplay will be familiar to everyShin Megami Tensei fan. Starting on your own, yousoon discover that you can capture demons to fightalongside you and even fuse them together for

further unique demons. This sets off the Pokemonchild lurking inside you and soon you're attemptingto capture every new demon in your path, slowlybuilding up an army of underlings to do your biddingand match every tricky situation you encounter.

At least, that's how the theon/ goes. WhileCI having an army of demons under your commandis undoubtedly fun, getting to that point is not.Stunning enemies can be a maddening task at thebest of times, as you're always forced to secondguess the range at which you can start attemptingto capture them, a problem that has been broughtin on the back of the real-time changes to thefighting. Combine this with the presence of puzzlesthat can't be solved unless you have the rightdemon in your command and you'll find it hard notto get mad when Devil Summoner forces its flawsdown your throat at every given opportunity.

Furthermore, while the depth and amount ofoptions available to you have been trimmed awayto allow the action room to breathe, the amount ofmicro-management needed to bring the best outof your demon collection means you're constantlypausing to give out orders. What you end upplaying is a fussy, staccato role-playing game thathas action-RPG pretences but can't escape itsturned-based roots, failing to capture the fluidity ofthe former and the steady strategy of the latter.

In spite of itself. Dew/Summoner remainsn enjoyable. Even though capturing demons is

r i T » rQ . W H Y C O L L E C TD E M O N S ?Some heal you, someoffer elemental attacks,o t h e r s a r e u s e f u l f o r

solving puzzles.

Q . H O W D O Y O UD O I T ?S t u n t h e m w i t he l e m e n t a l o r b u l l e t

attacks, then run up tot h e m a n d m a s h c i r c l e .

a H O W M A N YD E M O N S ?Not as many as Lucifer'sCall but if II be a fewm o n t h s b e f o r e s o m e o n es e t t l e s o n a n u m b e r.

S A M U R A I W A R R I O R S2: EMPIRES

tlB E T T E R T H A N

W O R S E T H A N

S H I N M E G A M I T E N S E I :L U a F E R ' S C A L L

122 games ' ' '

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REVIEW RUNAWAY 2: THE DREAM OF THE TURTLE I PC

R U N AWAY 2 : T H E D R E A MOF THE TURTLE

i FORMAT REVIEWEDPC

or ig i inTS p a i n

F o c u s H o m eE n t e r t a i n m e n t

D E V E L O P E R

P e n d u l o S t u d i o s

i PRICE£ 2 9 . 9 9

R E L E A S E

O u t N o w

DOING WHAT ADVENTURE GAMES DO BESTfs one of the more disappointing

aspects of being a games player:finding a game that exudes suchhigh production values but, when

you dig beneath its glossy veneer, reveals itself tobe another story altogether And not in a good way.Runaway 2 mquestmably impresses aesthetically,with some truly stunning imagery and art design, butwhen you venture beneath its surface you're presentedwith one of the most infuriating experiences you'll havein quite some time.

At its core. The Dream Of The Turtle, despite being asequel, is a self<xintained story detailing lead charaaerBrian's attempts to find and save his girlfriend Gina. The

pair are taking a holiday on a tropical island but thingsquickly turn sour vi/hen their pilot suddenly drops deadand Brian has to kick Gina out vwth the only parachute,leaving him to endure the crash. Waking up ostensiblyhours later, he sets out to find her again. A simple storybut one that also boasts incredible presentation, whichincludes a cast of genuinef/ interesting characters savefor Brian himself, some good voice acting, again, apartfrom Brian himself, and some truly excellent music.

But such things are countered by some weakl_. gameplay The biggest problem is the truly asinine

triggering system, which sees you having to performwrong actions before you can ultimately do the rightone. The game doesn't even wait to spring this on you:

early on you have to cross some quicksand by climbingthe large tree trunk stretching over it. However, amischievous lemur keeps kicking you in the face everytime you try. To pass, you must fill a robotic urinatingdog with alcohol, place it near the lemur, and get itdrunk. But you can't right away, instead you must firstplace the empty puppy and fail. Then you have to fill itwith water and fail again. Only then, after two wrongattempts can you do the right thing. This isn't theonly occasion it appears: it happens many times over

S i P S i .

I PLAYERS

IIVIINIMUM SPE^ I500MH2 CPU, 128 MBRAM, DirectX 9.0mW i n d o w s 9 8

the course of the game and was also an extremelyannoying element of the previous Runaway title too.

It ajins what could have been an extremelygratifying experience because, while its aestheticsundoubtedly impress, the actual gameplay side of it ismostly irritating. But it's the little things that do make itworth playing. Those encounters with characters likeSoldier O'Conner, a half blind and almost entirely deafsoldier who believes you're his superior in disguise.Or Lokelani, the sexy waitress who is every bit a

stereotypical female character but also lots of fun.Conversations with her are genuinely entertainingaffairs. And, yes, there's the whole aesthetic side. Butyou'll notice that's highlghting non-gameplay aspects ofthe game, and that's because w/hen it comes to actuallyplaying Runaway 2: The Dream Of The Turtle, you'reessentially playing an endurance test in videogameform. It's not terrible but it is horribly annoying.If you're aware of that before going in youmay just love it.

B R O K E N S W O R D :Tt iE ANGEL OF DEATH

B E T T E R T H A N

W O R S E T H A N

VERDICT 6/10B E A U T I F U L A N D S O M E T I M E S G E N U I N E L Y E N T E R T A I N I N G

SAM & MAX EPISODE 2;S n U AT T O N C O M E D Y

Meet Lokelani, one of the better characters. It's almost too good looking at times.

games" * 121

REVIEW I HEATSEEKER I NINTENDO Wii / MULTIFORMAT

1 Tliere is a harder, 'Professional' flight mode for those looking for a sterner challenge.

m mI FORMAT REVIEWED IN i n t e n d o W l i

O T H E R F O R M A T S

PlayStation 2,PlayStation Portable

O R I G I N

U K

P U B U S H E R IC o d e m a s t e r s

developerII n - H o u s e

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£ 3 9 . 9 9

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1

Manoeuvring your plane is tricky at first but quickly becomes second nature.

H E AT S E E K E RTHE Wii REGAINS SOME CONTROL

mil the release of the PlayStation,games were largely led byt h e i r c o n t r o l s . We a k n e s s e s i n

graphical power ruled out the vivid,virtual worlds we see today, and so the softwarewas designed to test timing and precision. Thephenonnenal advancements made in graphics,physics and sound since then have placed the visualat the forefront of the gaming experience.

Developers have struggled to keep controls assimple and natural as possible, to ensure that theydo not detract from the player's immersion in theseintricately crafted worlds.

This approach has been greeted with derision incertain circles - genres like the FPS seem to do littlemore than present the same stock controls against adifferent backdrop - and with the Wii, Nintendo hastried to make an eloquent counter-point. The consolehas made developers shift emphasis back onto thecontrol method - learning and mastering the controlsare, once again, more important than what andwhere you're playing. As entertaining as they are,games like Excite Truck look so sparse because whatthe track looks like is relatively unimportant - it's howyou move around it that counts.

This is a blessing for a game like Heatseeker. WithC virtually every mission condemned to a search-and-destroy mechanic, arcade flying games tend tosuffer from a near inherent repetition. But while theWii's sensitive motion-control system has detractedfrom many games, it makes Heatseeker's learningcurve satisf/ingly steep and staves off the naggingsense of deja vu that occurs several missions sooneron the PlayStation 2 version.

Naturally the controls also carry with themseveral attendant flaws: performing any manoeuvrerequiring a sharp snap of the remote can send thecursor off the edge of the screen, taking you severalpotentially catastrophic seconds to regain control of

the plane; tasks involving a highdegree of precision are also moreproblematic than with an analoguestick, meaning that, due to a forgivinglock-on, shooting down planes is simple, but menialtasks like landing on an aircraft carrier and scanningvehicles can take several tries.

The game remains tremendous fun, though, andif you persevere with your own initial incompetencethe controls can be mastered without too muchstrain, and the adventure becomes that much richeras a result. The competition may be slight, butthat shouldn't in any way detract from the fact thatHeatseeker ]s one of the more substantial playingexperiences currently available on the Wii,and perhaps the first multi-platform releasethat feels superior rather than compromised.

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