©, or INSIDE: EVERY XBOX GAME REVIEWED AND RATED כו ‚NATION INDEPENDENT XBOX MAGAZINE | WORLD EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON PREVIEW | EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON PREVIEW We've played it: Sega’s breathtaking Panzer Dragoon Orta revealed for the first time-only in XBN METAL GEAR SOLID On X At last: Konami confirms Solid Snake is sneaking over to Xbox OnLine: UNREAL CHAMPIONSHIP m PLUS: 10 world-class game designers speak out on the future of broadband $5.99 U.S. 56.99 САМ | 22> 0 4 Display Until June 24 First hands-on with Тһе best game you've PLUS: Tecmo reveals Sega's funk-fest. p46 never heard of. p62 Ninja Gaiden . p10 TOEJAM & EARL Ill Y-PROJECT A NEW DEAD OR ALIVE 077099270698 DEAD... OR THE DEAD WILL PREY ON YOU. р ON ES 5 Жу Fight zombies, vampires and ghouls on your own as Attack 20 types of creatures in swarms of up to 30 Slay in brutal single- and multi-player action onc of 4 unique Hunters, or battle evil cooperatively at once using 20 melee, ranged and spell weapons— through 23 huge environments, including a prison. with up to 4 players on a single screen. from swords to axes and flamethrowers. gothic church, cemetery and torture chamber, 2 x A א ד | ₪ | ם‎ + =, www.interplay.com/hünfer E == 2: » XBox MAYHEM : = - 1 e * = % pr г ל‎ ч X E] ш ЯС Blood and Gore Eph ж 4 (DANGER) E: le e - ® = Violence 0 Е 3 : : om о x x ` 4 = 4 А y = Ф .. YS ron санаа tn DELIVER US FROM EVIE: м =... Hunter The Reckoning for the Xbox video game system 1002 Interplay Entertainment Corp. AJ. nehils reserved. Allas lech Game Engine tradgmark 2000 High Voltage Software, Inc All nights reserved, Developed fof Interplay Entertainment Corp. by High Voltage Software, Лас. under License frei White Wolf Publishing, Inc Hunter The Reckoning is a registered trademark of White Wolf Publishing, Wc. Interplay, the Anterplay logo, "By Gamers. For Gamers ”, Digital Mayhem and the Digital Мауна logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp.-Mierosof Xbox amd. the. 581717 re either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the WS, and/or ın other countnes and are used Wider license from Microsoft. The ratings ¡comas а repistered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. AIF othel-eopyrights and E trademarks are property of their respective owner . en Visit www.esrb.org ог call 1-800-771-3772 for Rating Information Ж ATARI PlayStation”2 and Xbox" screenshots shown. Ni e ЙО PlayStation.2 pv 一 一 4 * TERMINNTOR DAWN OF FATE IT'S ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN. WWW.TERMINATORGAME.COM The Terminator: Dawn Of Fate, © 2002 Infogrames, Inc., a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment, S.A. All rights reserved. Developed by Paradigm Entertainment. Manufactured and marketed by Infogrames, Inc., New York, NY. The Terminator ТМ & © 1984 StudioCanal Image S.A., (/к/а Canal+ D.A. All rights reserved. Terminator is a trademark of StudioCanal Image S.A., f/k/a Canal+ D.A. "PlayStation" and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. System shocks When the Dreamcast is outselling you (as it is in Japan) then you know you're in trouble. Xbox has failed at launch in Japan, in Germany, in France, in the UK and quite possibly in some other countries that nobody ever bothers to ask about (Anyone know the sales numbers for Sweden?). A recent Euro price drop will no doubt help, but without big new games,it's going to be an uphill struggle. Xbox sales in the United States һауе Бееп much better, of course, but are also showing signs of slowing to a crawl. Oh dear. Microsoft has entered what is surely the most vicious console war that anyone, including the rather more “seasoned” guys at the PC mag across the XBN office can remember. And it's getting bloody. But by the time you read this, the 2002 E3 show will have come and gone. As we report on page 10, we expect the cavalry to arrive in the form of a Metal Gear Solid title, Sega’s exclusive Xbox shooter, Panzer Dragoon Orta (which we have the world’s first playtest of on page 34) and perhaps even a Virtua Fighter 4 一 not to mention the return of a beloved classic іп the form of Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden update. And opening up a whole new front in the war is Xbox Live; Microsoft's broadband gaming service—which could yet emerge as a compelling enough reason for people to buy in to the dream. Simon Cox Editor-in-chief LO XPRESS 010 018 022 028 Now and Next Metal Gear Solid X Konami drops a bombshell Marvelous Activision X-Men and Blade, oh my! Opening the Xbox XBN gets its literary on Gear X-tra special goodies MY FUTURE EB Coming Soon to Xbox 034 042 046 052 056 058 060 062 066 Panzer Dragoon Orta Sega brings an old classic to the Xbox Hitman 2 Bang, you're dead. Part 2. ToeJam and Earl III The strangers in a strange land return XIII Cel-shaded FPS. Ya knew it was coming Sega GT Sega Japan opens its doors for XBN House of the Dead 3 AKA: Shooting Lots of Zombies Terminator: Dawn of Fate Sounds epic, doesn't it? Y-Project Sequel to the oft-forgotten X-project Broken Sword An epic adventure goes fully 3D > 080 082 084 086 088 090 090 091 091 091 091 092 092 092 092 093 093 093 093 094 XRATED Smart Reviews Hunter: The Reckoning Spider-Man World Series Baseball Blood Omen Il Rallisport Challenge All-Star Baseball 2003 ESPN NBA 2Night Spy Hunter Pirates Crash Bandicoot Smashing Drive 2002 FIFA World Cup ESPN MLS Extreme 2002 Blitz 20-02 Knockout Kings James Bond Gauntlet: Dark Legacy Burnout Moto GP Rewind XTRA Out of the Box 106 Spin XBN CD and DVD selections 108 Inbox Your mail goes here. So does ours © INTERVIEW 024 098 102 104 Free Speech Hiroshi Inukai Speaks out on small living rooms The Ego Has Landed Peter Molyneux talks a big game Tenacious D What is the secret of their powers? Jason Giambi ...has been in the same room as an Xbox XBN PEOPLE Contributors "m гд < 008 xBN Simon Cox Editor-in-chief Drafted by Upper Grumpton as a scrummer, young British lad Simon Cox quickly learned the phrase, “Oh dear Lord, not the face!” Shortly after doodling a record 34 wickets against Westumptonshire, Cox fled Europe to mold а raggedy Бапа of miscreants and sheep scrapers into a hardened team of miscreants and sheep scrap- ers who write about video games. Yes, and he's also the top dog, el numero uno queso, and all that good stuff at Xbox Nation. Evan Shamoon Rapscallion Dime-store Nietzsche Evan Shamoon reminds us all that it’s not who you know, but who knows you've got salmon in your trousers. A bully editor and a shining example for all those under the sun who’ve ever dreamed of parlaying a love of flatulent humor into a low-paying, dead-end gig, young Shamoon also comes possessed of a lemony-fresh scent. Carlo Bacor Photographer It's pure coincidence that the photos "Crusher' Carlo takes can also function as deadly projectiles—and were recently found stuck in the back of some stoolie who snitched to the man about Metal Gear Solid X. Annie Lipscomb Photographer Precious wag Lipscomb makes her way through this world blowing a ten-penny whistle and taking photographs of German men with designs on making Xbox games with giant insects in them. She's keen, y'dig? Jeremy Sarmiento Intern Though the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution officially prohibits slavery, it says nothing about internships. Таке that, Uncle Sam! Jason Brookes Freelance writer Soaring on dragons' wings, plucky Brit Brookes (or “Brooksie” as mum calls him) was a decent enough chap to cover Panzer Dragoon Orta and about a bazillion Sega games for this here publication. Jeff Lundrigan Freelance Writer "Yodelin'" Jeff Lundrigan comes to Xbox Nation straight from the радев of Next Generation апа а certain other Xbox-related magazine that we suspect is only read by the parents of the people who make it, and by penal colony workers who misbehave. Matt Sammons Freelance Writer А castaway from the Web site Daily Radar, Matt Sammons found a brand-new life in sunny Los Angeles for two whole days before being evicted. Once part of premier exercise team “Team Ripped Force," Sammons is now searching for a comfortable box and а һарру song to sing. David Ziganay Art Direction Wherever there is cheese and, to a lesser extent, “Cheez,” Dave will be there. Whenever people cry out in the night, they have been dreaming of Dave and his Medusa-like coiffure. Dave is the clouds in our coffee and the wind beneath our wings—he is the ever shining sun, the unceasing tide, the prevailing Westerly. He makes us all look good, which rightly should have been one of the 12 labors of Hercules. Greg Orlando Herald Of The Obvious Greg Orlando hates you all in life. Dan DiGiacomo Freelance writer Since we're so sure you already know what a talented writer Daniel “Dandy Dan” DiGiacomo is, we thought we'd use this space to recommend Scientology. We don't know anything about this pseudo- religion, but we figure that if you join up, we'll likely get some sort of kickback. Jeff Pearlman Freelance Writer Banjo-strumming, mud-puddle prophet Jeff Pearlman covers baseball for some obscure magazine called Sports Illustrated. You may remember Pearlman as the guy that pitcher John Rocker once attempted to kill and, we think, eat. Andre Sibayan Illustrator When the planets align, and all is truly well with the world, everything will look as if Andre drew it. Ч SPORTS SPORTS Ч i s dos e x " we CALL IT SLUGFEST FOR A REASON. COMING SOON. GAME PREVIEW AT WWW.SLUGFEST.MIDWAY.COM Visit www.esrb.org or X call 1-800-771-3772 . for Rating Information. PlayS tation. NINTENDO хеох GAMECUBE. XPRESS. Now and Next אמא 010 $ L^ XPRESS Now and Next | ₪ Konami and Tecmo to announ for Xbox; Sega waffles Triple-A titles The worst-kept secret in video games refused to comment on specifics for either game, history is no longer a secret at all. but did reveal general details about each. The Konami, maker of Metal Gear Solid for much-anticipated Gaiden, according to Team the PlayStation and its PlayStation 2 sequel Ninja, will feature “absolutely awesome, intense Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, will action scenes" and the game will be rendered announce a Metal Gear Solid game for the Xbox completely in 3D. Ninja representatives stated lay's big Electronic Entertainment Expo repeatedly that Gaiden will feature graphics that are superior to those seen in Dead or Alive 3 and that it will hold puzzle-solving elements as well as a few items plucked directly from the classic side- scrolling Ninja Gaiden series. Tecmo’s second Xbox offering Xtreme Beach etal Volleyball will be set amid the Dead or Alive comes after a year of rampant speculation, iverse. After winning a ton of money in Las rsistent Tumors, and repeated denials on the Vegas, the game's plot goes, the brawler Zack purchases his own island. He then invites in, by which it is meant all the female ers and none of the male ones, Dead or Alive eroes to compete іп no-holds barred volleyball matches. Little else is known about the game, save for the fact that it will contain at least one new character, and that it may hold some type of online component. Quite possibly, when Beach Volleyball arrives in the United States, it will do so carrying a mature _ rating from the ESRB. Team Ninja has stated publicly that it believes an older audience will be better able to appreciate the full contents of this _ game. "It'll Бе an extremely arousing experience,” the developers said about Beach Volleyball. “The fans will truly get a kick out of it.” _ With Microsoft holding its cards close to the ен о Өр not praparod ao EOP any shells, Tecmo and Konami's nouncements come as а breath of fresh air. It s to be seen if this years ЕЗ show will be ation has learned that Gaiden as well as the bizarre sports title Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox. announcement of these games can only be Team Ninja, the developer for both titles, construed as in the right direction. N | a | | 7 TAR XBN 011 > Ө XPRESS Now and Next Prisoner of War “Nazis, | hate those guys GOOD COP, BAD COP Mmmm...donuts. 012 хвм THE MANIA IS ABOUT 10 BEGIN ALL OVER AGA 42 of wrestling’s greatest including: Hulk Dominate your foes with the First-ever interactive 6 & 8 man Multi-Player Hogan, Bret “Hitman” Hart, Jerry “The King” all-new ISP system for lethal wrestler entrances Elimination Bouts and Lawler, Rob Van Dam and many more! one-button combos! with announcer introductions! graphic wrestling realism! О ЖК‏ ججح х Ё IT f 7 4 Б 2 4 Sy » р Ё x Р: & Y ` ” 5 C - : жж x Ж”. сэх Эссэ ВЕ л. Жыл, + 4 A ہے‎ а МЕ АРҒЫН Ec PT р PEUT Ха e ME к РА сс РЕ Ху, л х ЕР РРР King Kong Bundy, Ricky “The Dragon" Steamboat, Ted DiBiase, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Mr. Fuji, Captain Lou Albano, Tito Santana, The Sheik, Ivan Koloff wen X AXlaim TEEN Violence - SEITE XBox www.acclaim.com Legends of Wrestling™ and Acclaim® & © 2002 Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. ФЭ XPRESS Now апа Мехі ПТН ПЕШ5 All the news you Need To Know $ 014 хвм ФЭ XPRESS Now and Next XBN 015 9 ФЭ XPRESS Now and Next « 016 XEN © XPRESS Now апа Next XBN 017 Y ФЭ XPRESS Now and Next Freaky Flyers Into the wildest blue yonder... Feed $ 018 хвм HE WAS UNDEFEATED. HOW WILL YOU CARRY ON HIS LEGACY? BRUCE LEE QUEST OF THE DRAGON | Жхеох | а (BRUCE LEE | | QUEST OF THE DRAGON For the first time ever, you can fight as the one and only Bruce Lee. In Quest of the Dragon, motion capture technology authentically recreates more than one hundred of Bruce’s Jeet Kune Do moves. Designed exclusively for Xbox, it’s an action-packed fighting game where you'll battle hordes of thugs in an epic struggle for survival. Get ready for a fight of legendary proportion. Suggestive Themes UNIVERSAL Violence N / WWW.BRUCELEEGAMES.COM INTERACTIVE RONIN Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon © 2002 Universal Interactive, Inc. Bruce Lee and the Bruce Lee likeness are trademarks and copyrights of Concord Moon, LLP. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing, Inc All rights reserved. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft ФЭ XPRESS Now and Next Buffy The Vampire Slayer XBN gets a date with Buffy When board games won't suffice. Em mm 4. a AN . Shift Japan www.shift.jp.org www.seanbaby.com 8555 еме Gamers.com Computer and Videogames Sea Monkeys www.gamers.com www.computerandvideogames.com www.sea-monkey.com « 020 xBN 4 zs 7 1:3 FA м ! га Player Card PS Midfield | | \ 5117" Height : 5 d m / . % ELLA Y _ E Born m ж” team - Kicks a soccer ball 98-Mph. = Runs nearly 9 miles а game. - Has multiple MVP and Player of the Year awards. - Captain - Team England. a game Helped « create a game www.davidbeckhamsoccer.com = TE E сей 095275277 19% Q C MOL TE TE LITE: own Developed in England under superstar David Beckham's watchful eye, prepare yourself for the most complete soccer game ever created. Over 200 international and club teams compete for glory through multiple tournament and training modes, while spot-on commentary and advanced А.І. assure authenticity. Are you ready to step into his world? EVERYONE m É X CEP GAME BOY ADVANCE LOOX un Б Rage ED www.rage.com www. majoscogamos.com © Rage Games Limited 2001. Developed by Rage Games. Published and distributed under license from Rage Games Limited. © Majesco Sales, Inc. All Rights Reserved. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Xbox and Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance are trademarks of Nintendo. ©2001 Nintendo. Screens shots were taken from the Xbox version of the video game.Photo EMPICS Sports Photography Agency. ед XPRESS VTV el OPENING THE XBOX XBN reviews Dean Takahashi's Xbox epic OPENING THE XBOX Inside Microsofts Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution aor » DEAN ТАКАНА5Н”” FOREWORD BY SEAMUS BLACKLEY à i Takahashi, a veteran video game journalist with credits at USA Today truly did his homework ... EW eed $ 022 хвм 3.42 11111 [THEY CAN HERR MIN ШШШ ФЭ XPRESS Now and Next XBN's Jake Kazdal talks Tokyo turkey Microsoft's Xbox, perhaps unsurprisingly, ЙГ just hasn't had anything come easy in its fairly rough landing into Japan's famously picky games market. The launch has come and gone, and the dust has settled...and Microsoft is showing dismal numbers. Hardware is already being discounted as much as 5000 yen ($40), and Microsoft is finding itself in a tough position in the land of dating sims and RPGs. The Xbox launch week sales of 123.000, have plummeted. One of Japan's largest game magazine publishers, Enterbrain (publisher of Famitsu), reports that Xbox sold 190,092 units between launch day Feb. 22, to March 31; Microsoft had 250,000 Xbox units prepared for launch in Japan. In contrast, the PlayStation 2 sold 980,000 units in the first three days after launching in Japan in March of 2000. And the news gets worse. For the first week of April, the PSOne, Wonderswan, and Dreamcast all outsold the Xbox' pitiful 2,179 units. To add insult to injury, the well- publicized "scratch" glitch—whereby games and CDs would get scratched during normal use in the Xbox 一 started to make waves. Microsoft denied any problem until March 7th, when it agreed to begin allowing exchanges free of charge. In the ensuing confusion, however, there was a period of several days in which some large retailers and distributors suspended sales until all was ironed out. Oddly enough, no such problem existed for the American or European launches. games per unit of hardware, versus Sony's 1:1. Interestingly enough. Halo, perhaps finally getting some deserved recognition in the East, is moving up Japan's most wanted charts. For the week of 3/21 - 3/27, Halo was actually at number 17 on Famitsu's Top 30 Most Wanted list, higher than Nintendo's Metroid Prime (21) and Star Fox Adventures (25). Other Xbox games joining Halo in the Top 30 Most Wanted were Atlus' Shin Megarnitensei Nine, Sega/Hitmaker's Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, and Capcom's massive 40+ button need-a-special- forklift-to-get-it-home controller Big Huge Robot Warfest, Tekki, which seems to have the local gaming populace unable to rule out an Xbox purchase Sooner or later...just not necessarily right now. Bach continues, "We're seeing lot of strong support there. We expect our relationships there to grow. It's not something you can jump into, and in three weeks you have great relations with everyone. It takes three months, or three years. There is still more work to do in Japan." Unfortunately, for some of Xbox' most willing Japanese partners, the payoff simply hasn't shown up yet. Smilebit's Jet Set Radio Future and GunValkyrie have both sold dismally, with Jet Set supposedly still coming in at less than 10,000 units (nearly two months after launch). Smilebit's (for-now) Xbox-exclusive Panzer Dragoon Orta (see page 34) will be on show at this year's E3, leading the second wave of top-tier Japanese games. Xbox Japan needs a major system seller, and it For the first week of April, the PSOne, Wonderswan, and Dreamcast all outsold the Xbox’ pitiful 2,179 units. Microsoft executives have been quick to play down the Xbox’ lackluster launch in Europe and, particularily, Japan. Xbox director Robbie Bach was quoted by Reuters news service as saying, "Japan is going well on the software side, and is probably a little behind where we want to be on the hardware side. But we always expected things would be tough. Microsoft has demonstrated patience and persistence there before, and | think we will do very well. On the bright(er) side, software ratios have actually been above what PS2 reported around the same time after launch; the Xbox is selling on average 1.6 $ 024 xBN remains to be seen whether or not Microsoft has anything up its sleeve. Some big Japanese guns will undoubtedly be pulled out at ЕЗ, where many of the bíg Japanese companies will reveal their long-range plans for the coming year. Virtua Fighter 4 and Metal Gear Solid X will both certainly help, but Microsoft's Xbox simply needs bíg Japanese originals to satisfy Japanese gamers. Time will tell if the Xbox can hold its own in the Land of the Rising Sun and 2003 will likely be a make-or-break year for the fledgling console. | had a few (unedited) words with the director at Anchor, in Tokyo, who is currently on his second Xbox project. Jake: Okay. give me your name, nationality and just what have you been up to in the seedy Japanese gaming world? Hiroshi Inukai: My name із Hiroshi Inukai, born in Japan. Our previous projects have been WWF Raw for Xbox, Ultimate Fighting Championship for Dreamcast, Toy Fighter for the arcade, Pride for PlayStation 2, and our new project is making Acegamer.net, an online gaming company. J: What's the best thing about development on the Xbox? НІ: The Xbox' DirectX base has a lot of great libraries. The machine is powerful and is the only machine with broadband network system built in. J: What do you most dislike about the Xbox? HI: Microsoft and Microsoft Japan don't have a lot of gaming professionals. The buttons on the American controller feel like they will break easily. Its also so huge! Imagine if you were looking for girls in Shibuya and one invited you to go her 6-tatami [Ed. Note: one tatami is 1 meter by .5 meters long, the common way of determining the size of an apartment in Japan] room. If she had an Xbox, you would be surprised because it's so huge and black and so manly. It's not cute at all! J: So why is the Xbox so unhip right now in Japan? What must Microsoft do to get it together? НІ: Xbox is designed for both the American home theater, and the consumer market. It’s a good design, but because Japanese houses are so small you really can't have a home theater. The Japanese assume that they can’t put together а home theater іп their small house or one-room apartment, so Xbox big selling point is "only game.” So Microsoft has to make a game image and not a home theater image. But MS Japan doesn’t seem to understand this because they don't have a lot of real game professionals. Microsoft asks, "what is game?" 4 | К guten 大 和 人 H ES 1 qe 30233 3 FoS = . . ) . ” = 2 a co. 8 2 T . . . TE- ^ 4 . л i . . Л ке © Н - 、 . . B .. H ; 5 $ у: Қы ^ .. . . . LÀ - X H + о . . Ж! 4 bs ^ $ ju s E 2 MB . . . 2 5 BR; 1 meer err ו‎ воена nn ב‎ Sees Soar over the Glitter 4 new cabbies driven by Crazy Jump around the Conquer dozens of all тей Oasis strip attitude and desire West Coast and Small Apple mini-games in Crazy X MILD LYRICS www.sega.com DIGITAL ESRB Sega is registered in the U.S. Patent and Tra Hitmaker!/SEGA, 2002. Dolb 4 and the Xbox logos аге eith mark ОСЕ 55608 and Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller are eith gi ООСО tademarks of Dolby Laboratories. The ratings icon arks ortauemarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other с Пу ооооововоое сте ов ФЭ XPRESS Моу/ апа Мехі . “Мо love, you must look at the screen when fiddling with the bitty knobs and buttons on the controller. Yes, | know it's heavy. Yes, my name is Jonathan Ross and I'm a B-list TV personality in the UK here and | am wearing a very ugly tie." « 026 хвм It was the evening before Xbox: March 14 a launch date here in the United Kingdom. Virgin's flagship London Megastore sported а giant green rotating Xbox logo projected onto its facade like a laser targeting mark for some passing Death Star, while lime-green Hare Krishna types conga'd down the world-famous Oxford Street, chanting Xbox' praises and handing out leaflets promising gaming salvation. And the queue! It started at the store doors and stretched, thankfully, past several fast-food outlets. Hundreds shuffled excitedly, desperate to get inside. But when the cameras from the national press started flashing, the people on line became agitated. Were country, especially given that it's not Christmas (although it was, Microsoft told us, "X-mas"). What's more, the software tie ratio (the number of games sold per console) was a whopping 2.5:1. Many retailers reported Halo was selling to a full 85 percent of new Xbox owners. Compare that to France and Germany. Depending on who you believe, Microsoft was rumored to have sold no more than 10,000 units to the citizens of each of our continental cousins at launch. No wonder Electronic Arts' president John Riccitiello quickly surmised "Microsoft has had its teeth kicked in, in both Europe and Japan." Microsoft was quick to fight back, with the UK's Virgin Megastore sported a giant green rotating Xbox logo projected onto its facade like a laser targeting mark for some passing Death Star they scared that their partners (or parents) would discover they hadn't really found “this games thing going cheap in a junk shop?” Were they just camera shy? No. Rather, just like everyone else in the queue, they weren't buyers but representatives of the UK gaming industry who had turned up for an Xbox launch party held in the bowels of the giant shop. And they smelled a rat when the photographers came out. When the headline "Buyers go X-static for Xbox" appeared in the multi-million copy selling Sun newspaper the next morning—complete with a picture of yours truly and his cohorts “waiting on line" for a machine we've had for months—it transpired that our raucous gesticulation towards the paparazzi was all in vain. Microsoft got its fake launch queue shots. Exactly why Microsoft's marketing muppets thought a confidence-building show of strength would be to use the UK's most influential games people as jobbing extras may never be absolutely clear. The separate line of five or six real punters that had formed by 8 p.m. (for a special midnight selling- session) did give a clue, however. In Microsoft's world, it seems nothing can be left to chance. And the shame of it was that the initial UK launch was a genuine success. Some 48,000 Xboxes were sold in the first three days; big numbers for this head of marketing Richard Teversham stressing, "This і5 not just а three-week launch, it's a seven-to-10-year project." And Xbox is still a great media show here, what with the quirky advertising—the highlight of which features a baby launching out of his mother's womb and flying across the landscape, progressively aging. before dying as an old man with the tagline "Life's short. Play More?"—pitched perfectly for us crazy Brits. The real question, however, is what will happen when Nintendo's GameCube arrives in May? The consensus is that the two consoles will draw on very different audiences. But at £165, GameCube could still make Xbox's £299 price tag look like a misprint. [Ed. Just before we went to press, Microsoft announced that it was dropping the price of the Xbox in Europe to 2199--а full 100 quid—in order to compensate for less-than-expected sales. See page 14 for more details.] The lesson for now, however, is that the UK-US "Special Relationship" extends even to consoles. So return the favor, chuck your rugby-with-helmet games in the bin, and buy some British games. Project Gotham's a good one, and you might start saving for Lionhead's Project Ego and B.C., too. You will need us again before this console war is оуег and сіопе. UNIVERSAL o INTERACTIVE || 4 | CONTENT RATED BY y : MC Бар ша ن‎ | | о | Here comes Crash, in the biggest character-based game to hit Xbox. The Wrath of Cortex. Lightning-fast crashbandicoot.com load times. Super-enhance graph environments, He's really going all out for this one, Iniversal Interactive, Inc. Crash Bandicoot and related characters № & © Universal Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. “Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath | [ 0 rks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsolt. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox | 8) ХРВЕ55 HOOH UPS Got money? Blow it all on this stuff for your Xbox < 028 XBN “The best crashes ever in a video game" - IGN The most spectacular real-time crashes. Ever. are quite а зо” | АМЕР | “Вип ОПТИ 23 et ВИТО OHIO EU UNI The more reckless you drive, the more power you score. Е: Force your friends into oncoming vehicles. TEN AVAILABLE NOW ON NINTENDO GAMECUBE™ AND XBOX™! Drive like a madman through YOU GOTTA RISK IT ALL TO WIN IT ALL. everyday traffic. ЇЇ! | (3 < AKlaim www.acclaim.com EVERYONE MILD VIOLENCE ж © х CONTENT RATED BY | Criterion PlayStations NINTENDO ESRB | 8 GAMECUBE. Xeox Burnout" © 1998-2002. Criterion Software Limited. All Rights Reserved. Burnout is a Trademark of Criterion Software Limited. 2 Acclaim Entertainment, inc. Al Rights Reserved. Developed by Criterion Games. АП Rights Reserved. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks f Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademar 00 the dior in other countries and are used under license from Mic: M®an Nintendo GameCube Ку demarks of Nintendo Scree from the Xbox sion of the video game © XPRESS Now and Next Xbox sales chart Top-selling Xbox titles There is no justice. The saga contin- Aggressive Inline Skating Acclaim Sports August 2002 ues...to sell well. Buffy the Vampire Slayer EA Action 2002 Not just for Brits! Crazy Taxi 2 Sega Action Summer 2002 Are you tired of Dave Beckham Soccer Rage Sports 2002 this yet? Doom Ш Activision Action 2003 But WSB was just around the corner! Gravity Games Bike: Street. Vert. Dirt Midway Sports Spring 2002 House of the Dead 3 Sega Zombie Killing June 2002 People like punch. Kung-Fu Chaos Microsoft Party Winter 2002 Blowing up the charts, so to speak. Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2 Activision Sports Spr/Sum “02 Eidos finds that the souls still burn... MechAssault Microsoft Action Holiday 2002 БІЛІНЕ payne: MX Superfly THQ Racing Fall 2002 bring the pleasure. Quantum Redshift Microsoft Action Holiday 2002 Know your video game, jabroni. RedCard Soccer 20-03 Midway Sports Spring 2002 Sega GT 2002 Sega Racing June 2002 Most Wanted Star Wars: Jedi Fighter LucasArts Action May 2002 Gimmie gimmie gimmie Taz: Wanted Infogrames Action September '02 Dear God: Please let thís be an all-new game. Terminator: Dawn of Fate Infogrames Action 2002 We know it's coming, and ToeJam and Earl Ill Sega Buddy Fall 2002 So do you. But when? Transworld Snowboarding Infogrames Sports 2002 We're curious to see just how much better it gets. Vexx Acclaim Action October 2002 i M қола be Cis do tive World Series Baseball Sega Sports ay 2002 right now. Ya dig? Unreal Championship Infogrames Action Late 2002 pat ошо але non Whacked Microsoft Action Fall 2002 "Auto" be online...sorry. ¢ 030 XBN LOOK FOR THESE SPECIAL ISSUES ON NEWSSTANDS EVERYWHERE! , mera т gwg 2 КАШ іг STRATEGIES ISI 2 TO GO! INSIDE EXPERT GAMER super sas BROS. 42 ( a e АМИ 75 ж va? 100% UNOFFICIAL Metal Gear Solid 2 ш Tony Haw IDE I ider-N на THIS BOOK IS NOT ENDORSED PlayStation ARE YOU MISSING SOMETHING? Order these back issues to make sure that you have a complete reference library of the most valuable tricks, cheats, and codes for all the top games on your console. Xbox Nation 2008 Nation Premiere Issue $12.00 % 00 Pocket Games Pocket Games Summer 2001 Fall/Winter 2001 $12.00 Pocket Games Pocket Games Summer 2000 Fall 2000 $12.00 $12.00 STRATEGY GUIDES S. - Pocket Games Pocket Games Summer 1999 Winter 1999 $12.00 $12.00 Expert Gamer Expert Gamer Codebook #7 Codebook #8 $12.00 $12.00 HOW TO ORDER: Simply check off which magazines you want and send in the order form (photocopies accepted) along with a check made payable to Ziff Davis Media, for the amount indicated for each magazine plus shipping and handling—add $3 for U.S., $3 for Canada and $5 for foreign orders—in U.S. funds only for each magazine! Orders should be mailed to: Back Issues, Р.О. Box 3338, Oak Brook, IL 60522-3338. Price and availability subject to change without notice. Skate as опе of the 10 top ргов: Jaren Grob, Taig Khris, Shane Yost, Matt Salerno and Chris Edwards CP UT A illie tis Unleash an arsenal of tricks: big air maneuvers, grinds, vaults, wall rides, fast plants, cess slides and skitches Punish your friends with split-screen multiplayer; build the ultimate skate- park with the in-game park editor 4 | Attack 9 mammoth levels with environ- ment-altering cinematics at every corner AXIlaim: CONTENT RATED BY ESRB Blood Strong Language Suggestive Themes Play ation. I NINTENDO GAMECUBE. Developed by н кде Rd the Z-Axis logo are ogo are register rademarks of Sony Computer ks of Microsoft Corporatiofl;p.the U.S: and/or in. 568 under license from Microsoft, “TM, @ ате the Ni emeChbe logo age-wademar&s of марса aris Bod x from tne PlayStation®2 version of the vídeo game. . 45: у Рр 2222 4 А ML 2 AR y у > of Z-Axis, Ltd. All Rights PlayStation and, 798 inmentdnc. Microsoft, Xboxand'the Xbox Logos are either registere . °“ XBOX GAME BOY ADVANCE 222 Other Courfiries and are 0 4 Boy Advance are trademarks of Nintendo. 9 2001 Nintendo: Screens Shown were ea‏ ל Der E) FEATURE After years of speculation as to the future of one of Sega's most beloved franchises, XBN is granted a world-exclusive preview and playtest of Panzer Dragoon Orta. “ A — ч [2 FEATURE (Above) The graphical The Tokyo Game Show, March 2001. Microsoft and — —À Sega executives take the detail in Panzer Dragoon Orta is of an order of nitude greater than — stage to announce 11 Sega games ything you're likely to see on Xbox th ear. The are in development for Xbox. One sense of sca ed by causes waves of excitement to ripple through the crowd. “Panzer Dragoon coming to Xbox!” screams every gaming Web site 30 minutes later—inaugurating a year of speculation, debate, and fanboy fisticuffs over which system is the thes: эпогтоив airships is equally impressive. most worthy recipient for the return of the esteemed series. Dreamcast stalwarts are devastated, PlayStation 2 converts are mystified, and prospective Xbox owners are very happy indeed. Meanwhile, some people are still asking, “What's a dragoon?” Six months later at the September TGS, anticipation is peaking around the possibility of the first Panzer footage stylistically, the Panzer games were pure, undiluted genius and featured a surreal, visionary world ... being unveiled, : Set Radio Future about Jet а debat eloper Smilebit’s potenti | for pulling it all off. At trailer kicks in depicting whe an animated fossil follc $ 036 XBN struggles gainst an evil empire pl ) jood | 1 ( проп {һе most engrossing way plenty of ut be a premier 1cast," e Si it's head 1 е дап $ 1 sho, Такау ‘If you had to categorize it could say it's a shooter," says ame system to Panzer —that is, on-rails shooting with some collection and dragon evolution along the way. We pre-d ed the nature of the game to a giant futuristic spaceship. If you thought the bosses were impressive in Zwei (and they still are), you're in for a massive treat Control of the dragon is elegantly handled we're happy to report—the dragon is weightier than in Zwei, although still responsive. And while there was an overall feeling of familiarity Our beautiful dragon swooped through stormy chasms and past mountain-dwelling civilizations be on-rails, that way we could script the surroundings and make the journey a lot more beautiful. The enemy combat system also only works if the game is on rails, as their appearance is scripted." In the level XBN played the basic in place, although game em v finished aphics were not yet implemented. Despite this, both the scope.and. detail of the.graphics were already extremely impressive, with plenty of life visible as our beautiful dragon swooped through stormy mountain chasms, under rock bridges and past mountain-dwelling vilizations. At one point a mountain chasm opened up into a large valley arena, and we battled multiple faces of here, many features such as a means to accelerate and decelerate were yet to be included. Firing and targeting were up and running using the basic weapon system from Zwei—one button is used to machine gun enemies with a stream of plasma bullets, as well as to lock on and, when held down, target multiple opponents. Upon targeting multiple enemies, the dragon can let loose a huge maelstrom of blue-laser streams which looks (and sounds) extremely impressive. And, as before, the shoulder buttons rotate your perspective to the sides and back, allowing you to target enemies approaching from any direction Although nothing revolutionary in itself, this early version is at least a hint of a game more expansive, more beautiful, and more refined than the games that inspired it. "There are two main differences players can look forward to [beyond Zwer]," says Mukaiyama. "One is the dragon transformation element—the dragon itself can transform depending on the situation. It's a bit early to go into specifics, but for example, you might be able to transform shape depending on the type of level, or speed up if the stage requires it—different skills, weapons...that kind of thing. The other main difference is the level of freedom that's available when flying the dragon has been expanded dramatically. It's still on rails, but now there's much greater scope." The game will also feature branching paths, giving the game extended replay value This time around the game is set further inthe future, meaning all the elements, such as the characters and settings, will be futuristic and appropriately developed from the original. “Basically, the last Panzer Dragoon games were set against the decline of a civilization," Mukaiyama explains. "It was an empty, deserted lonely world. Panzer Dragoon Orta is set at the start of the next civilization so it's a world with more life. It's a beginning, not an end." There is encouraging news about the might < | Jap: е st Saturn Panzer S it features both artwork done by € ustrator Jean Giraud (aka Moebius). Savvy game- can find the game on eBay.com for around fifteen bucks. owned French i re a мл p E FEATURE Panzer creators Takayuki Kawagoe and Akihiko Mukaiyama tell XBN what it takes to make the game, and who's left from the original team Work began on the new Panzer project around the time of its announcement just over a year ago. Of course, speculation had long been circulating about a disbanded Team Andromeda and how this had potentially sealed the fate of the series. Some members had left the company in pursuit of new pastures—such as original dragon concept artist Manabu Kusunoki and programmer Hidetoshi Takeshita who joined independent developer Artoon under the direction of the renowned Yoji Ishi (former head of Sega R&D). Similarly, other ex- Team Andromeda members found homes in the fledging Sega divisions taking form after the big internal Sega shake up two years back; people such as United Game Artists" Katsumi Yokota—visionary art lead on recent trance-blasting masterpiece Rez—who contributed to the incredible character designs of Saga (and, to a lesser extent, Panzer Dragoon Zwei). Keen to shed light on exactly who's behind Panzer Dragoon Orta, why it's coming to Xbox and to clear up one or two other rumors that have been hanging in the air too long, Xbox Nation met the men in charge. Enter Smilebit director Takayuki Kawagoe, Akihiko Mukaiyama (the game's director/project leader) and Koji Kuroki from Sega's international business division. Xbox Nation: How big is the whole Panzer Dragoon Orta team at Smilebit? Takayuki Kawagoe: About 30 | think. € 040 xBN XBN: There's been some concern that the original developers at Team Andromeda have been split up. And most of them aren't at Smilebit... Kawagoe: There are 10 members from Team Andromeda working on Panzer Dragoon Orta currently. But we actually have another six Team Andromeda members at Smilebit working on other games here. For example Ueda-san, our lead designer on Jet Set Radio Future, is ex-Team Andromeda. Even though they're not on the Orta project, they're Still advising us as we progress, so you could say 16 ex-Team Andromeda members are involved with the project. Akihiko Mukaiyama: Personally, | was a planner on Panzer Dragoon Saga. | worked on the battle system. XBN: Is Microsoft funding the development of the new game? Or is it Sega? Kawagoe: Let the guy from Sega answer that one! Koji Kuroki: The cost of development is Sega-funded. XBN: Did you approach Microsoft with the idea for this game, or did they ask you to develop it? Kawagoe: We went to Microsoft with the idea. Given our investment in and experience with the console, it made sense. XBN: So this was a Smilebit project from the start? Don't your shareholders put pressure on you to devote more of your resources to PlayStation 2, given that your last two Xbox games didn't perform that well sales-wise? Kawagoe: There have been some problems with Xbox in Japan, and probably Europe. The European launch doesn't seem to have been too successful. But we are optimistic about the Xbox market in the United States. Perhaps the timing of our last two releases worked against us. But with Orta, we expect the market will have matured, and the game itself will be a bigger leap as a second-generation title. XBN: Some would say that Jet Set Radio Future and GunValkyrie were aimed toward hardcore gamers. Is Panzer Dragoon Orta aimed at the same kind of player? Kawagoe: I'm hoping Panzer Dragoon Orta will appeal to a wider audience. Original fans of the series should recognize and appreciate the game, and probably get some things that others won't. But we're going all out to make it an amazing enough experience 50 that anyone will be able to enjoy it. Sure, the fans will be there on day one, but we hope that their friends will see it and be persuaded to get it too over time. We hope it can be enjoyed by all ages. XBN: How does the team find developing on Xbox generally? AM: We'd been working on Direct X and PC for a while, and Xbox is pretty close to a PC development-wise. So it has been quite easy. XBN: Will the game taking special advantage of any Xbox features like the hard drive or broadband? Mukaiyama: The hard drive gives us faster loading times, and lets us manipulate the tempo of the game much better: transitions, music, etc. Kawagoe: | know that a lot of other Xbox games let you do things like substitute your own music. But the Panzer Dragoon experience is more cinematic, more scripted, so we wanted to keep control of the synthesis of music and game. XBN: Finally, we've heard rumors that Panzer Dragoon Orta is not the only new game planned in the Panzer series. Are there any plans to release a Panzer Dragoon RPG sequel as well? Mukaiyama: Not at the moment. XBN: Then where do these rumors come from? Mukaiyama: [Laughs] Well, actually, | did want to create a new RPG based on the Panzer universe. | have even put together a design document for it. But- for now, it's still unplanned. XBN: Thank You. Mukaiyama: And you.Those were the hardest questions we've ever ha Panzer Prologue E) FEATURE In 1995 Sega's Team Andromeda created the first Panzer Dragoon for the 32-bit Saturn and gave birth to a legendary series of games Beyond punishing deadlines and cubicle psychosis, achieving artistic notoriety in video games has usually been a case of pulling off impossible stunts in the face of technical adversity. Back in the mid- '90s when gamers started to demand believable 3D worlds, adversity was provided by the clunky, chunky, and downright difficult-to-program Sega Saturn. It wasn't that it was short of horsepower, it just needed a damn good driver at the wheel. And with twin CPUs and six extra processors dedicated to graphics and sound functions, getting this 32-bit beast to crank out impressive 3D was akin to getting pandas to mate in captivity. However, for those who ate machine code for breakfast, great things were possible on the Saturn— notably the original Panzer Dragoon which first surfaced in May 1995 in the United States (two months earlier in Japan). The game originally started out as a technology demo for the Saturn accompanying the Saturn's official announcement in early '94. However, upon its release it became a powerful retort to Nintendo's first venture into SD; the Super FX-chip powered Star Fox for the 16-bit Super Nintendo. The premise for Dragoon was simple—Space Harrier-style on-rails shooting but with texured 3D environments. But it was depicted with such esoteric style and dramatic execution that it found immediate favor with the Saturn's growing base of fans. Stylistically, there was even a nod to a visionary comic artist Mobeius (a.k.a. Jean Giraud) in there too—he provided two pieces of art for the game. Set in a post-apocalyptic world 1,000 years in the future, the story details for Panzer Dragoon—a hero named Edge, an armored blue dragon, genetic engineering, armies of cyborgs, bizarre mechanical flying creations—were overshadowed by the game’s breathtaking artistic vision. The game’s main innovation was the 360-degree viewpoint, a welcome step beyond contemporary fixed background shooters such as Silpheed. But whereas Panzer Dragoon was criticized for lacking depth, its exceptional follow-up Panzer Dragoon Il Zwei made amends with Out Run-style split paths (which are certain to make a return in Panzer Dragoon Orta) directly affecting the shape of the dragon as well as its stamina levels and range of motion. Zwei was a masterpiece of shoot-’em-up engineering containing, in particular, some memorable boss encounters. But it seemed that whatever point team Andromeda was striving towards with Panzer Dragoon and its sequel was finally reached with Panzer Dragoon Saga. With less than 10,000 copies released, it has since become the holy grail of Saturn gaming (one that regularly fetches upwards of $150 on eBay.com). Released around the same time as Final Fantasy У!!, Saturn owners scoffed at Square’s overblown PlayStation FMV fest, revelling instead in a Panzer that was blown wide open, with a combat engine that was a perfect fusion of classic shooting with the strategic depth of a typical RPG, minus the usual tedium. It was perfect; a living, breathing world with real integrity that the developers must have sweated blood to create. Two generations of hardware have come and gone, and it's still hard not to be impressed with either Zwei or Saga. Oddly though, whether it was down to the Saturn's crude texture handling or just intelligent use of texture color, playing Zwei or Saga these days is something of a revelation. For a glimpse of how 3D game art often “deteriorates” the better technology gets (the old argument of thé more realism you create, the more flaws are visible), look no further. As a contrast to the overly clean environments of many. contemporary games, the worlds of Panzer display a visual charm akin to. the latest cel-shading techniques. Less is more perhaps? For Smilebit, now mastering the controls of a new generation of gaming technology, the artistic challenge at stake is perhaps greater than anyone might have at first thought. Jason Brookes A Panzer Chronology Panzer Dragoon Released: March 1995 (Japan), May 1995 (USA) Despite a reputation for mediocre 3D graphics, the Saturn drops the world's collective jaw with a virtual onslaught of swirling dust devils, giant sandworms, and futuristic battleships oozing of organic- technology. For a simple shooter, the original Panzer made for a captivating experience. Panzer Dragoon Il Zwei Released: March 1996 (Japan) April 1996 (USA) More of the same, really, but a few meaningful tweaks to the formula made Panzer Zwei more than twice the first game. Panzer Dragoon Saga Released: Jan. 29, 1998 (Japan), April 17 1998 (USA) A wonderful marriage 01 the hand- crafter Panzer Dragoon experience (read: shooter, infinitely customizable dragon, etc.) with the depth and resonance of 8 full-on role-playing game, Detractors cited the use of only one playable characteras a drawback, but that's missing the point. A wonderful storyline, beautiful (even now) graphics and design, and a fitting finale to the trilogy add up to create a 25-hour experience that still resonates with those who played it. Indispensable. H&K МР5 999) ШЕ?) «аш! 2 E [ 999) | 29) «шш H&K МР5 Ріск UP BER TAKE CLOTHES DRAG 7204 4 4 11111) הההההההחח‎ / 2 т וווווווווווווון‎ ( 2 3 АЛЫ “Ж 9 NT а N 29943. ~ 8 Y Ч , эй EN о р Р, ЯА 4 4 B War 224 [4 WE d 9 < "0 7 : 8 m | < т ` РЫ N л (| poor Ни ни "11.1 i m yJ ¿ $ 042 xBN * FUTURE Coming Soon to Xbox He's 6 feet 5 inches tall, bald as Bruce Willis, and has an enormous barcode clearly visible on his Arnuld-size neck. He should blend right in, then... Simon Cox GAMERS: TOM Ж We ve given. уди you tee) | e. ) print magazines. From the Editors of: TOER JAMD EARL “Can we ask you a question?” Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger, creators of the goofy video game characters ToeJam and Earl, are plopped down on the floor of an office somewhere in northern California. Funk music wafts out of speakers from a computer, and Johnson, the taller and more intro- spective of the two, has just turned a perfectly decent interview on its ear. “What’s your explanation for why ToeJam and Earl has hit the spot with so many people?” he asks. “Why do you think it's resonated?” It's a good question, and one not easily answered. It seems unlikely that a game starring two aliens, one essen- tially a big yellow pudding in sneakers and the other a three-legged, medal- lion-wearing,cherry-Popsicle-with- bug-eyes-looking-thing, would stand the test of time. Yet ToeJam and Earl, released for the Sega Genesis when George W. Bush's daddy held the presidency, managed to do just that— $ 046 XBN and then some. А sort of child's daydream (complete with a herd of nerds and a malicious-yet whimsical boogeyman) brought to life on a 16-bit console, Earl gained a cult following with its unique characters and quirky play. Now, some 10-plus years after the fact, people are paying upwards of $50 for a copy of the game on eBay.com and Voorsanger and Johnson have their eyes on the skies and their buttocks on the floor, prepar- ing to hype ToeJam and Earl Ill: All Funked Up for the Xbox. Bring forth the funk. When the 12 Sacred Albums of Funk are stolen from their home on the planet Funkotron, the planet-hopping ToeJam and Earl are dispatched by the Great Funkopotomus to retrieve them. The dynamic duo is dispatched to the mudball Earth, the wacky little nowhere that was the setting for the original ToeJam and Earl. With the never-before-seen Latisha—a pretty Funkotronian femme with blue skin and enough jewelry to shame Mr. T many times over—along for the ride, ToeJam and Earl must retrieve the holy platters of funk while simulta- neously converting the locals to a more enlightened and funkified state of existence. "We're on kind of mission—a secret mission," Johnson says. "A lot of people who make games take things very seriously, and you have to look at the word 'play' and wonder, what's that all about? Serious/play, Serious/play—they don't seem to really go together. Well, | guess they do, but to the detriment of the word ‘play.’ Our secret mission is to bring а little more lightheartedness into the world of video game play, because so much of it is so intense." If “lighthearted” was currency, ToeJam and Earl Ill could rightly be redeemed for, say, The Mona Lisa or, perhaps, Guam. Insane dentists with drills scamper throughout the game's levels, a wise man in a carrot suit augments our heroes' abilities when they've gained enough experience, there's a Yeti who jabs a mean pencil, a decidedly African-American Santa Funk, warbling country-western singers, and psychotic mailboxes. ToeJam, Earl, and Latisha will be also harangued by humans aplenty such as peppy cheerleaders with oversized smiles, hulking construction workers, and fat-bodied tourists in skimpy cloth- ing. The message here, simply, and as stated by cartoonist Walt Kelly is, we have met the enemy and he is us. "Satire is a valuable form of humor," Johnson says. "It lets you step outside yourself and see things in a different way. We've had so much fun with the construction worker whose personality is, you know, he's trying to be cool: 1 am up with that, Homey-man! | am inside the house!' Or the cheerleader who says, 'Gimme a B! Gimme a G! What's that spell? Ва!” ToeJam and Earl Ill brings the Funkotronians into 3D for the first time, and the game threatens to be gorgeous. Environments, be they bucolic meadows decorated with XBN 047 2 $ 048 XBN XBN 049 9 $ 050 XBN а”. ex. ЖЕ л прай A brief history of ToeJam and Earl ... XBN 05: > 5 一 一 nanm ~ $ 052 XBN м FUTURE Coming Soon to Xbox First-person perspective. Cel-shaded graphics. Ubi Soft adds two plus two and comes up with 13. XBN does the math on this amnesiac's mystery. Sometimes you get an abundance of riches. The Xbox came charging out of the gate sporting perhaps the finest first-person shooter ever made, Halo, followed by an excellent port of Max Payne and the highly-antici- pated Unreal Championship due to be released later this year. So with the bar set that high, how do you compete? Well, if you're a Paris- based company like Ubi Soft, you push the quality that French developers have always had in spades: Style. Witness X///. Based оп the most popular graphic novel ever published in France, its premise is a little creaky, but the overall package is looking quite nice indeed. You begin the game not knowing just who your character is (this is the creaky part—just roll with it for now). You awaken on a beach, with no memory of who you are or how you got there, and the only immediate clue to your identity is a mysterious "XIII" tattooed on your chest. Oh, and the small fact that there's a group of thugs headed your way who definitely mean to do you some serious bodily hurt might lead you to believe you're in some sort of trouble. While the “wake up with total amnesia" motif may have been done before, it still lends itself well to the structure of a game—and the develop- ers at Ubi Soft Paris are doing everything they can to squeeze as much drama and mystery out of the concept as they can. XIII runs using a modified version of Epic's next generation Unreal Il engine, and plays off of the story's graphic novel roots with cel-shaded visuals and a heavily plot-driven structure. Make no mistake though, the team is well aware of the pitfalls of relying heavily on the standard gameplay- cutscene-gameplay model (the sort of that nearly swamped Metal Gear Solid 2, for example). Instead, they're taking a more Half-Life style approach, in which the story comes to you. As the game progresses, you discover bits and pieces of your identity through conversations with different characters, reading found documents, and experiencing the occasional flashback. In this way the plot unfolds organically as you work through various goals, and will hopefully enhance gameplay rather than pull you completely out of it. Even the flashbacks take place within the game engine and use a black-and- white, over lit and high-contrast rendering technique to make them feel suitably “mental.” The amnesia-driven plot device is being neatly exploited to keep you guessing; allies may turn out to be enemies, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Recovering your memory has a distinct effect on gameplay as well. As you gradually learn about who you are, you learn new skills. When you first wake up you can barely hold a gun. Before long, however, you're discover- ing that you somehow know martial arts. You've also clearly been trained in a number of small (and not so small) arms, from knives to machine guns. Infiltration and stealth skills are on the list too, and you even have a kind of "sixth sense" that enables you to know instinctively when danger is near— obviously, your character is not a waiter. One of XIIl’s more unique and inter- esting elements is that some of the characters you interact with also affect gameplay: From time to time, Al-driven allies will help you in your quest in ambitiously active, cooperative ways. This is demonstrated during a brisk chase across a city's rooftops. A female agent named Jones is there to provide covering fire against the many gang members hunting you—and, naturally enough, you have to return the favor. The goal of featuring smart, autonomous allies is something of a holy grail in gaming these days (and again, give the nod to Halo), so this is one element whose progress will certainly be worth keeping track of— doubly so, even, because gameplay is not all run-and-gun action. Like Metal Gear Solid 2, No One $ 054 xBN zi iH " + цэ ЕЗІ ІШІ ₪ ий ЕН | LL m Ii | | Ll EL DIT “шаа — $. That was then ИШ THIS/IS/'NOW!! PIKMIN SOLVED INSIDE A G ға [ Bringing you the best in multi-console coverage e Reviews Available at: Previews • Borders + Funcoland « Walgreens N ews a Electronics CVS rnes Boutique Kroger Cheats and Noble WalMart Safeway 2 B. Dalton Best Buy Toys R Us Tri с k 5 Babbages Kmart Comp USA Strate gy GameStop Target Y FUTURE ng Soon to In a world where road rage is prevalent, it's great to know Sega has found the perfect formula for keeping us indoors—nice and safe, like. ₪ Imagine a strange and futuristic world in which cars drive you and the opera isn't just when some guy gets stabbed, instead of dying, he sings about it for two hours ... + 056 XEN Leading the charge in a trio of Xbox exclusives is Sega GT 2002, a sequel to the two-year-old Sega GT on Dreamcast, and arguably Sega's attempt to claw back some kudos in an arena that's seen Sony and Kazunori Yamauchi die-cast a formula for racing perfec- tion. Of course, comparisons between GT and Gran Turismo are unavoidable, if only because the Dreamcast original tried so hard to realize almost every design innovation that Sony's series had celebrated—essentially, hundreds of licensed cars, tons of parts to customize them with, and some truly daunting racing challenges. Despite the blatant borrowing of ideas, and the adding of a few of its own, the original Sega GT was flawed in several key areas. Visually eclipsed by Dreamcast titles such as Test Drive Le Mans and F355 Challenge, and with presentation and handling problems compounded by a punishing difficulty level, GT was lost in Gran Turismo's slipstream. Now, developer Wow Entertainment is thinking it's time to set the record straight, and early signs of this powerful followup are encouraging. "Sega GT 2002 is as close to finding a perfect balance between the sim- Style play and arcade accessibility as l've seen on the Xbox," says the game's U.S. producer, Noah Maher. “Тһе interface is definitely much more user-friendly than in the first game. Sega GT for Dreamcast was a great game for the strictly serious racing fanatic, but it was hard for casual gamers to get involved. [Wow Entertainment] has completely solved this by enhancing the control and eliminating the floaty steering of the first game." As a visual benchmark, even at 40- 50 percent complete, GT 2002 can easily lay claim to be the best-looking Xbox racer yet. Vehicle models are a step up from those in Sony's Gran Tourismo 3 and are packed with exceptional reflection and bump- mapping detail. Likewise, draw distance, scenery detail, and texturing are leaps ahead of the original, with towering skyscrapers and mountains framing the action. It's the game's new Chronicle mode, however, which is perhaps the biggest step beyond the original. Effectively a teary-eyed homage to a more innocent time in racing history, this puts you behind the wheel of classic cars from the '60s, “705, “805 and beyond, providing an interesting juxtaposition of old and new, and presenting the opportunity to race tuned-up classics against future concept cars. And an interesting touch is how the action gradually changes from sepia-toned to full color as the races progress. Considering Sega's rich lineage of соіп-ор racers, it's about time the company delved a little deeper again, and the feeling with GT 2002 is of a game far tighter in execution. Of course, with ultra-realistic vehicle dynamics, dozens of licenses, themed races, a fully kitted-out garage, and enough tune-up options to keep even the most anally retentive car nut happy, GT 2002 looks like a refined piece of automotive engineering. All you need to be is serious about cars—and GT 2002 has more than 125 of them... Jason Brookes м FUTURE Coming Soon to Xbox &1 CONNOR < 058 XBN TERMINATOR: DAWN OF FATE Y FUTURE Coming Soon to Xbox Here's a recipe for disaster: First, man made machines. Then, man made machines mad. Now, at the Dawn of Fate, ЕН the mad, man-made machines will make war on man. Expect mass сагпаде, twisted metal, and plenty of hurt feelings (but, oddly, no blood and no Arnold Schwarzenegger) when Infogrames and developer Paradigm Entertainment bring the Terminator universe to the Xbox. Terminator: The Dawn of Fate, a third-person shooter with a pounding rock soundtrack and plenty of high ordinance, serves as a prequel to James Cameron's violent film The Terminator. Dawn of Fate ends where The Terminator begins, and opens in 2027 amid the ruins of a shattered Los Angeles. Human forces under the command of John Connor uncover a fiendish plot; the evil computer Skynet intends to send a Terminator robot back to 1984 in order to kill Connor's mom before she can give birth to John. As rational discourse often fails to ameliorate a Terminator's homicidal outlook, players will need to fight their way through the game's 11 levels, and the developers make no pretense about Dawn of Fate being anything other than a "relentless action game." Infogrames and company fully intend for fans of the Terminator films to get an eyeful of the future war between the humans and Skynet in Dawn of Fate— and have been granted a lot of creative license to flesh out its details. "We went in and created tons of Skynet stuff that's never been seen before," Francois Lourdin, senior producer for Infogrames says. This means players will be treated to new Terminators, new hunter/killer units, new human protagonists, and even, Lourdin says, "a new kind of enemy that's never been seen." The walls of Paradigm Entertainment's demonstration room bear witness to Lourdin's statement. They're thickly decorated with sketches of mechanical marvels, humans packing heat enough to fry St. Louis, and fearsome killing machines. Among the never-before-seen terrors are the hulking and one-eyed Terminator 400s, their metallic hides stricken with a Severe case of orange-colored rust, as well as their more-imposing brethren the T-800s. Also posted on the walls are drawings of strange human-robot hybrids—these are the mysterious "Digihumans" who play a pivotal role in the game's plot. Players take control of the Tech Com heroes Kyle Reese (the protagonist of the original Terminator film, the big and bald hero Justin Perry ("he's a big guy, so he gets a big gun," the developers say about Perry), and the female fighter Lt. Luna; sadly, the characters do not vary save for their appearances and the weapons they carry. The game offers 15 different weapons such as shotguns, plasma rifles, C4 explosive charges, and rocket launchers for the heroes to use, and it will also be possible to attack Skynet's forces up close and personal with a plasma baton or with a series of kicks and rush attacks. If a Terminator gets knocked off its feet, it’s possible to dispatch it with a well-placed baton stab to its chest—and the resultant explosion is well worth the danger inherent in coming within kissing distance of such an imposing killing machine. An early, warts and all, walkthrough of Dawn of Fate showed off the game's great appeal: its almost singleminded emphasis on killing them all and letting the God of Technology Gone Awry sort them out—as well as its Achilles’ heel, a dynamic camera system that dynamically stunk. To their credit, the developers repeatedly insisted they're aware of the camera's flaws, and have vowed to work hard to correct the problem. "We're going to be working on the camera until they tell us to stop and the game ships," Ken Tabor, lead game designer says. Because the game is intended for teens, neither Infogrames nor Paradigm intends for the game to contain blood. It seems an odd choice considering that humans are going to get shot—a lot, but this is perhaps nitpicking; the more obvious omission here is with a certain Austrian strongman whose likeness rights Infogrames was unable to secure. Still, the game holds a lot of potential for fans of the Terminator series. Frenetic firefights are highlighted by Terminators teleporting in via huge pink and blue explosions, and players can opt to fight in first-person perspective, which adds a lot of tension to the proceedings but, sadly, fixes a character in place until the perspective is changed back to the third person. Missions, which range from blowing stuff up to escorting humans (often so they can blow stuff up), are built around the notion that action is life, and life is indeed quite fine. Developer Paradigm Entertainment seems to have a good handle on the game's plot which is pretty darn deep for a rather straightforward shooter. Though specific details are being kept to a minimum, Dawn of Fate features plenty of intrigue in the form of some humans whose allegiances aren't all that well defined. Tabor hints much of Tech Сот” history will be revealed, as well. "It's not all pretty," he notes. Greg Orlando Ш Terminator: Dawn of Fate's story involves a lot of intrigue in the form of a ... ah, that would be telling! XBN 059 》 Y FUTURE Coming Soon to Xbox HOUSE OF THE It’s the dawn of the day of the night of the living dead and you're looking a lot like zombie chow. What do you do, hero? What do you do? № According to Webtender.com, it's possible to build a better zombie by mixing rum, creme de almond, sweet and sour, and coconut juice. With a twist of lime. % 060 XBN Zombies have an annoying n habit of reappearing just when you think there can't possibly be any more. They waltzed endlessly through The Night of the Living Dead, staggered through countless sequels and homages, hobbled alongside Michael Jackson in his “Thriller” video, and kept Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine up all night in Resident Evil. (Jill... What is it?" “It's another zombie you idiot.") And they're back, once again, this time courtesy of Sega and House of the Dead 3. In a similar twist of fate to that of Crazy Taxi, the game series has migrated from the Dreamcast to Xbox (and from the small screen to the big Screen: ludicrously, both titles have movie spin-offs planned, as well). It appears that this second sequel was originally also heading for DC and Naomi 2, but plans have changed and—despite the arcade technology still to be confirmed (it'll launch simulta- neously on the Xbox and in the arcades, and we're expecting the arcade game will run on Xbox-based hardware)—the game's console home is now exclusively Xbox. First things first: Don't ask about a light gun, as there's bound to be one. Just don't expect a fanfare to surround its release; violence in video games is a touchy subject these days. Do, however, expect a coin-op quality gun game, and one that hopefully puts the Xbox through its paces as well as the original worked the Dreamcast hardware. "There were many things that we wanted to do before, but were never able to," Sega representatives at Wow Entertainment say. "With Xbox, many of these things became possible. So not only can we build upon the concepts of the previous game, but we can increase the size of the game itself and do tremendous things with the design, graphics, and even the sound." Oddly, the game's visuals seem to have gone through something of a transition in recent months. Initial screenshots employed a beautiful, cel- shaded approach that seems to have been toned down—perhaps in light of the favorable response to Capcom's ultra-realistic Resident Evil for Gamecube, or perhaps negative reaction from online forums (“Оһ no, it's Jet Set Radio Future with zombies!"). To clear this matter up we asked the developers what's going on: "It's not so much cel-shading as much as the properties of some of the techniques used in cel-shading that we wanted to employ to make the game look more realistic," they explained. Apparently the game still uses "lit, cel-shaded effects" but the overall look has been changed to “а more realistic polygonal form." “We're also considering utilizing the powerful shading techniques often used in American comic books as an added layer of atmosphere," they add. Wow is also striving for a "bigger, more open" game to prop up these visuals. "With the advancement of hardware, we're attempting to create a zombie-action game that has never been done before; rethinking the very basics behind the fear that zombies exude. You'll feel a level of fear and anxiety that you've never felt before." While the Dreamcast's HotD 2 was enjoyable and well received, it's debat- able just how much replay value games such as these retain. "We can't give any more details at this point," Wow said, “but we have included features that, when you see them, you will think, “What?! They put this kind of stuff in here too?" We eagerly await. Jason Brookes Coming Soon to Xbox Ш ЁС 23 ший EE LL Г. J” 1110 « 062 xBN 一 一 一 一 一 1 Ра. tasse” T РНО JECT / 1 / | UV olt А As most of us scratch our heads at the inexplicable lack of compelling storylines in the video game canon, Tomas Schaefer is attempting to alter the existing landscape with his own unique vision of the interactive narra- tive. The guiding force behind a talented team at Westka Interactive, Schaefer has spent the last two years nestled in his studio in Cologne, Germany, working on the largest undertaking of his career. Speaking with Schaefer in his hotel room at the Hyatt Sinclair Hotel in a rain-drenched San Jose (where he is demonstrating the game to potential publishers attending the concurrent Game Developers conference), his excitement is immediately palpable and his vision solemnly assured. In thecourse of our discussion, Schaefer is partial to three words, in particular; namely, *freedom," *systems," and "illusion." On a very fundamental level, Y- Project will attempt to transcend traditional genre labels. It uses Epic's Unreal ІІ engine, but it is not a simple first-person shooter. It involves accumulating experience points and conversing with hundreds of other characters, but it is not a traditional role-playing game. And, crucially, it's not some messy combination of these various forms, either. "Don't think we're doing a genre-blending game," Schaefer insists with an engagingly thick German accent. “I’ve seen too many games in the last 10 years which have tried to blend two or three genres. Simply adding up the parts of different genres does not make a good game." Instead, Westka's approach is to leave the structure of the gameplay as open-ended as possible, allowing suffi- cient elbow room for various player types and styles. By attempting to incorporate several different gameplay "systems" into the world it has created, Y-Project will essentially give the player a say in not only the course of events which take place, but the actual form these events will take as well. Schaefer explains: "Our way is to put the freedom in the player's hands...it’s been a very long process, in which we have analyzed several different systems to put it together. If anything would speak out of the eyes of an RPG player—or a FPS player, or an action-adventure player—anything we put into the game from other genres we had to actually proof-test to be assured that it would be okay for any player type. We're trying to maintain balance and, more importantly, freedom for the gamer." (Despite their apparent similarities, Schaefer resists comparisons to acclaimed developer Warren Spector, maintaining that he has a "very different approach" to creating games.) Y-Project takes place some 200 years into the future. Seventy years before the game begins, a group of humans leaves Earth—itself polluted and ravaged beyond repair—in search of new territory to settle. Prior to landing, a genetic experiment is botched onboard the spaceship and... well, we all know what happens when genetic experiments get "botched." A failed attempt to develop a better fertilizer instead produces a mutated insect; upon landing, the insect escapes, swells to many times its origi- nal size, and reproduces exponentially. The humans are forced to move into one central, monolithic city nestled inside an enormous glass dome. Note to self: In the future, don't build cities inside glass domes. Seventy years after the landing— and, effectively, the beginning of the дате--іһе glass dome over the city is destroyed. The insects enter en masse into this once-burgeoning metropolis; most of the inhabitants are killed, leaving chaos and destruction in place of peace and prosperity. The player's role, then, is to save the surviving humans from the insects and solve the mystery behind their existence. Two leading human factions have developed in the crippled city, both sharing the same goal. Each faction however, represents a very different political and Social view; one is rooted in science, while the other, somewhat unsurpris- ingly, favors a more violent, military- minded approach. In the opening scenes of Y-Project, leaders of the two factions vie with one another to recruit you into their faction. They offer you weapons, tools and other incentives, knowing that you are an important weapon against the insects. Your natural inclination towards either of these approaches will partially determine which faction you serve, while the rest will be dictated by your response to the leaders. Throughout the game, members of each faction will attempt to recruit you for their cause. Each will reward you with special energy and items when you complete a quest for their group; in turn, you'll be forced to make critical decisions that will significantly affect the course of the story and your own role within it. (You collect different experi- ence points depending on the faction you are currently serving, and the XPs for each faction are counted and displayed separately.) The player will thereby dictate his or her own style of play, and will be forced to question these beliefs after hearing compelling arguments from the leaders of each camp. "It's more of a play of XBN 063 > « 064 хвм m — SS 4 9-4 з bs $ Я porc San) EN IN жнь :- = הממור “у А” №, Thomas Schaefer Christoph Kabelitz Nano-nano-nano-nano-nano XBN 065 》 м FUTURE Point-and-click adventure games used to rule the world. Now a new, evolved ver- sion of the genre, in the shape of Broken Sword 3, promises to regain the crown. . Revolution has developed a sophisti- cated facial animation system to convey character emotions. Over the years, this has proven very, very difficult. $ 066 XBN Despite the two previous En episodes of Broken Sword selling a million copies each, it’s taken some time for UK-devel- oper Revolution Software to continue its groundbreaking series. “Point- and-click adventures were great five years ago, but now that's all out the window,” explains managing director and series storywriter Charles Cecil. “with Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, we can harness the opportunities of next-generation hardware to create a visually stunning contemporary adventure.” One big shift in this new Sword is obvious—the game environments and characters have moved from cel- shaded 2D into lushly lit 3D. “We've spent a lot of time experimenting with the [Xbox] hardware, seeing what it can do,” Cecil says. “We're interested in a style which uses a lot of contrast, combining light and shadow and putting warm and cold colors together to create visual excitement.” And frankly, it looks stunning. Revolution is particularly proud of its shadows, which are never so dark a player can't see what clues might be hidden in the corner of a room—vital for a game with a strong detective element. The characters have been given a makeover to bring them into the third dimension. The hero, George Stobbart, has matured into a character with a certain air of cool. “We didn't want to end up with a video game cliché," Cecil says. "He's not a broad-shouldered, square-jawed action hero." Similarly, French photojournalist Nico Collard is sassy and sexy without crossing the line into fodder for adolescent fantasy a la Lara Croft. The development team is also working on a virtual actor system, which will allow script writers to choreo- graph realistic emotions via the characters through lip synch, facial animation, and body stance. One aspect of the gameplay Cecil is keen to explain is the game's pacing. One part of this is detective work. “1 think this is one thing about adventure games that can really frustrate players," he says. "We want to take the opposite approach. Detective work is what people enjoy about adventure games, so we make sure it moves fast. If you get stuck, we'll give you hints." Another gameplay element, poten- tially more controversial, is the use of pre-scripted action events in a similar manner to Shenmue's Quick-Time Events. “| thought Shenmue was inter- esting, but 1 got bored, while in Shenmue 2 the player didn't have much control at all." Cecil explains. "Instead of just having to press a button to trigger an event, we will be offering players choices using the action events." The idea is that an icon map will appear, whether by pre-scripted actions or in proximity to an object the player can interact with. Using this System, a player will be able to give orders to their partner, use their inven- tory, or jump over a wall. "Instead of requiring a player to have the manual dexterity to press a button at the right time, we can empower them to use their minds,”Cecil says. As for the plot, he doesn't want to give much away at this early stage; The Sleeping Dragon isn't due to be released until late 2003. The game starts, however, with Stobbart crash- landing his plane in the Congo jungle after a sudden electrical storm. Meanwhile, in Paris, Collard is inves- tigating the mysterious death of a hacker who warned of great danger for the Earth. Cecil says: “Of course, George and Nico realize they are part of the same plot, which ultimately brings them together." Other locations include underground pyramids in Ethiopia, a gothic castle near Prague, and sleepy rural villages in England—all of which provide stunning backdrops and the perfect opportunity to put the impres- sive graphics engine through its paces. Jon Jordan XBN 067 > E) FEATURE PLAYER 1 E) FEATURE PLAYER = As Microsoft prepares to announce its final plans for the Xbox Live online service, XBN presents the first in a two-part feature exploring what broadband has to offer. We ask 10 industry luminaries to discuss their vision of and reveal the five games that will launch the service this Fall. It all starts here... XBN 069 9 E FEATURE By the time you read this, the E3 show will have come and gone, and Microsoft will have revealed to the world the specifics of one of its biggest gambles: Xbox Live, the broadband games service that promises to change the way you play forever. You will know how much it will cost (we’re guessing $29.95/month with connection, or $9.95/month if you connect through your existing broadband provider) and you will know the incentives Microsoft will put behind it (A free Xbox when you sign up for a year with its provider?) and the launch dates. If the gamble works, and it's a gamble that Sony is also taking with its PlayStation 2 network, then we could be on the cusp of another major turning Then: Sega's Yuji Naka is recognized the world over as a star video game producer and designer. often mentioned in the same breath as Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. Creator of Sega's mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog, Naka is president of Sonic Team, the group behind the Sonic games, the classic Saturn title, Nights, as well as Phantasy Star Online, Chu-Chu Rocket and Samba de Amigo. Now: Naka is working on a follow up to the popular Phantasy Star Online (Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2) for Xbox and Gamecube. Then: Constantin is just 28 years old. He co-founded French studio Kirialys in1995, and contracted for the now-defunct BMG Interactive. before eventually finding his way to Ubi Soft, via middleware and 3D authoring tools deviopment and the somewhat flawed, but original, Conflict Zone for PC. Dreamcast, and PlayStation 2. Now: Project Manager on the multiplayer Rayman Arena for Xbox and Gamecube. Then: Founded Visual Concepts way back in 1988 and has since lead projects as diverse as the quirky Clay Fighter for Nintendo 64, the superb Madden '94 and, er, Tazmania. Thomas pioneered the online sports genre with highly rated NFL2K for Sega's underrated Dreamcast in 1999, and had since gone on to produce the excellent NFL2K2 for the Xbox. Now: Overseeing the broadband enabled NFL2K3 and NBA2K3, and running what is fast becoming the premier US sports studio. Then: A professional game designer and frequent writer on issues of virtual world design, Koster was the lead designer on the million-selling Ultima Online. His essays and writings on online world design include influential pieces such as "Declaring the Rights of Avatars," "The Laws of Online World Design," and, er, "A Story About a Tree.” Now: Creative director at the Austin studio for SOE, heading up the design of the massively multiplayer Star Wars Galaxies. Then: Spector spent seven years at Origin Systems producing scads of addictive games including Underworld: The Stygian Abyss. Underworld 2: Labyrinth of Worlds, System Shock, Serpent Isle, Wings of Glory and many more. А brief stint with Looking Glass Technologies was followed by lon Storm, where he directed the development of the excellent Deus Ex. Now: As Studio Director of lon's Austin office, Spector is currently knee-deep in the development of Thief 3 and Deus Ex 2. $ 070 хвм point in the history of video gaming. But unlike such white elephants as virtual reality, everyone agrees broadband gaming is the future. It's just matter of time. The question is, are we ready for it now? Before we obsess over the specifics (that's Part 2), XBN has asked the industry, in the form of 10 veterans of game design—many of whom have worked on online games in the past—to give you its take on what broadband gaming will be like, not just in the near future, but years from now. Then on page 75 we exclusively reveal the online components of perhaps the most-anticipated game since Bungie's Halo; Unreal Championship, as well as the four other games that Microsoft is counting on to take the Xbox live. Then: Molyneux invented the god-game with the release of Populous in 1988. He produced a number of innovative hits through his company, Bullfrog Productions including Theme Park, Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper. In 1997, Molyneux formed Lionhead Studios and released Black and White ісг PC. Now: Heading up the Lionhead "satellites" indy development program and working on Black and White Next Generation, B.C. and Project Ego (with satellite Big Blue Box). Then: Co-founded Bioware in 1995 with Greg Zeschuk; producer on Baldur's Gate, and Co-Executive Producer on Shattered Steel, МОК2, Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate ІІ, Baldur's Gate Il: Throne of Bhaal. Now: Co-producer on forthcoming Dungeon's & Dragons massively multiplayer online RPG Neverwinter Nights; Co-producer on LucasArts’ Xbox Star Wars RPG, Knights of the Old Republic (see issue 2 of XBN). Then: Hall has occupied positions as lead programmer, lead designer, producer and studio director throughout his career. Despite his current PC focus, he has also worked on console platforms, including N64 and PlayStation. Previous titles include Star Crusader, Iron and Blood, Jetfighter Full-Burn, Bass Hunter 64, Ripper and Railroad Tycoon. Now: Senior Producer for massively multiplayer (and hugely poopular) RPG, Ultima Online Live. Then: Schmalz formed Digital Extremes in 1993. Since then he has supervised the generation of a number of titles, including the best- selling shareware game Epic Pinball and the niche-but-highly regarded Extreme Pinball. The Quake-beating Unreal arrived in 1998 and the multiplayer-focused follow-up Unreal Tournament stormed the PC charts in 1999. Now: Spearheading Unreal 2003 for PC, and the Xbox-only broadband killer-app, Unreal Championship (see page 76). Then: Zeschuk co-produced all of Bioware past projects (mostly for now-imploding publisher, Interplay Productions) from RPGs Baldur's Gate and Shattered Steel to the accomplished platform-shooter MDK2 and the recent hit Baldur's Gate И. Now; Co-executive producer for the massively multiplayer online title Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan in Episode 2. It's the beard. The shift from 2D to 3D afforded some major gameplay changes in video games. Do you believe broadband will do the same? Why?_ | Ray Muzyka: | think the potential is definitely there for broadband to really change how people play both multiplayer and single player games. This could occur in several different ways: first, with new ` Streaming technologies like Steam or Streamtheory becoming available, end users might be able to download new content on demand. The market could be come much more “pull” oriented, rather than “push” driven. Greg Thomas: With the introduction of broadband, we will be able to do so much more than what was accomplished on narrowband— online leagues, franchises, and tournaments are just the tip of the iceberg. In my mind, online is the next revolution for sports games. Rick Hall: The predatory nature of the gaming industry makes every new technology into a new race... and the more significant the | technology, the bigger the prize at the end. Ultimately, | believe broadband will probably prove to be the sort of quantum leap that drives online gaming to the next level, much like 3D drove graphical advancements as you mentioned. Raph Koster: It probably won't have quite the impact that a major shift in presentation had. After all, it affects the player's experience, but not as much as what the player literally sees. If you look at what broadband gets you, it's basically room to shove down more data, and lower latency. James Schmalz: When you can count on a large majority (or all) of your customers having broadband access, as a developer, you can really start to explore some different gameplay scenarios. For the most part in the past, multiplayer has been only one part of the game, an "extra" feature. When games are focused toward multiplayer you get a much different gameplay experience. You can see that now in the dedicated multiplayer-only games such as Everquest. WHAT YOU'LL: SEE BETWEEN NOU AND THE END ОҒ 2002 WILL BE ITERATIONS ON THEMES YOU'VE SEEN сєеєсток» What new gameplay elements can broadband help introduce that we haven't already seen?_ James Schmalz: Voice communication is a very exciting aspect of broadband that may very well be the gameplay leap everyone has been waiting for with the next-generation systems. And it’s unquestionable how much downloadable content will change the face of gaming and the industry. The possibilities really become endless when you think about it...new character skins, gameplay modis, entire levels of a game or possibly entire games themselves. Games will be fun, fresh, and new for much longer períods of time. LI 29 times, which allows game developers to create games that utilize By E FEATURE Rick Hall: Broadband allows for a vast reduction in download | constantly growing content. For RPGs especially, this represents a " tremendous step forward. We can make games that have continuous storylines that adjust to the way the community plays. That's an enormous difference from the old way of doing things. We can add tremendous content to the characters, opponents, even the world itself. Broadband gives us the ability to be truly interactive with our storytelling and our game designs. Greg Thomas: One of the more exciting features in the future will be full online teams. Imagine the possibilities of composing an entire team online—my friend in Kansas will be my starting Running Back, my friend in Wisconsin will be my starting Wide Receiver and | will be in California starting as Quarterback. (Of course all of the other positions will be filled out by other friends and we will be able to play other teams of a similar nature). The possibilities are limitless. Raph Koster: | think we need to realize, though, that the Internet can only get so good, can only get so fast, at least for most people. Broadband is not a panacea. That said, there will be experiences we can't provide right now that we'll be able to. We'll be able to fit more people closer together, for example. More players in a single game. In the case of persistent online environments, we'll have the freedom to allow much greater modifiability of the environment things like building structures, changing the landscape, and so on. the end of 2002, what kind of online gaming experiences do you think we "11 be having? . ES Raph Koster What we're going to see by the end of the year is the Ч 4, beginnings of what | like to call the Great License Invasion. Industry- " д wide, we're seeing that online games are suddenly being made with major properties, and there's a bit of a gold rush there to stake out key properties. This is particularly true in the persistent world subscription arena, but we've been seeing it with Web-based games for the last year. This has the real potential to increase the audience for online worlds significantly. Warren Spector: If there's anyone out there working on anything more than prettier versions of what we already have, l'Il be a little Surprised. There are some folks working on interesting approaches to content delivery, all made possible by broadband, but in terms of gameplay? Don't expect a revolution any time soon. Rick Hall: It takes very large teams and some pretty sophisticated technology, not to mention a ridiculous amount of money. This means that it's not financially smart for most developers to dive into a new technology until they're sure it's got a deep enough market penetration to justify the expense and effort involved in the attempt to forge ahead into uncharted waters. | think what you'll see between now and the end of 2002 will be iterations on themes you've already seen. Greg Thomas: By the end of this year, | believe online will still be in its infancy. | don't believe there will be much more than what we offered on the Dreamcast this past year. EJ FEATURE Greg Thomas: | believe the biggest issue is the slowness in the penetration of broadband into homes. Broadband needs to be more accessible and adopted by more people. And once we have enough How do you see the broadband gaming experience developing through 2003 and beyond? (Think big!)_ Ray Muzyka: It's quite possible that broadband content delivery | could become а significant—even the dominant—way for people to get new games at some point in the next 10 years. When exactly this will occur (if it occurs) is anyone's guess, but I think it will be subtle at first; for example, imagine sitting at home, wondering what is on television, when you realize that you can download the latest game or expansion pack to a game to your Xbox—broadband could help make games, like television, an on-demand form of entertainment. Yuji Naka: The broadband gaming experience will allow gamers to become more engaged to the games they play because they can be connected to the network all the time. The possibilities are endless. Greg Thomas: One of the things | see in the future (way beyond 2003) is always being connected and the ability to always receive updates from the leagues, whether it is player trades, injuries, real- time stats, coaching changes, etc. Having these elements real time as they occur during the actual season will enhance our games to a new level. This will be complete sports immersion combining real life action with a video game experience. Sports gamers will love it. Rick Hall: If we could guarantee a much higher bandwidth—like broadband— we might be able to have hundreds or even thousands of characters acting independently in a small area. It would be possible to be able to participate as a single soldier in the Invasion of Normandy, or Caesar's Siege on Alesia, for instance. Instead of having a few dozen characters supported by a bunch of computer controlled NPCs, the true chaos of thousands of screaming maniacs running around in an epic battle might be achieved. ку К 5 j 2 EAE Rick Hall: Yes, but there are a couple of key differences between PC games and console games. Obviously, everyone will tell you that tne console controllers impose a limitation to taking games online. Thís is probably true, but an advantage consoles have is that they've waited before jumping online until broadband is more "mainstream." Thus, when developers finally do start making a large number of online games for the console, they won't be held back by having to deal with the legacy issues of narrowband. They'll go straight to broadband and never look back. © IMAGINE SITTING АТ HOME- WONDERING WHAT'S ON TELEVISION, WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE LATEST GAME OR EXPANSION PACK TO YOUR XBOX (muzyka connections in the homes, the next issue is getting them into the living rooms—and not just the home office where the PC resides. Warren Spector: I'm still not completely convinced the world is ready for online gaming at all. | mean, even the most successful onlíne games attract followings smaller than the most successful single-player games. The fans are loyal and they keep paying for months—even years. That makes online gaming profitable, certainly, but in terms of sheer numbers, l'm not sure online gaming is The Future, as a lot of folks seem to think it is. Having said that, broadband + console could be the thing that puts multiplayer online gaming over the top. Right now, though, | still think of online gaming as a very profitable niche, not a mass medium. Warren Spector: Entertainment tends to be a solitary thing for most people—if they want to engage in any multiperson diversions after a hard day at work or at school, it's probably a small group sporting event or a phone call with a friend. Most people don't rush home every night to get out the ol’ Monopoly set and gather half a dozen friends. So why do we expect millions of people to rush home and participate in a game with 10,000 strangers, many of whom seem most interested іп cursing and behaving badly? It's all vaguely mysterious to me. Rick Hall: I'd say the number one issue is the cost to us, the service provider. When we make an online game, we have to put together a pipeline that's enormous. Our largest cost now is bandwidth, and we're still only dealing with mostly narrowband customers and games that were designed to support them. If we were to switch to a broadband-only game (which we'd only do if we had a game design that truly required it) then obviously our bandwidth costs would skyrocket. Like it or not, we have to consider the business ramifications of everything we do. Raph Koster: The most obvious is adoption. You might get lots of folks adopting broadband, but that doesn't mean they'll go for broadband gaming per se. There's got to be a compelling reason to do it. The hardcore gamers, they're already there. The penetration rate of broadband among hardcore PC gamers is pretty large already, and growing steadily. But we know the size of that market, and it's not that big. So the question becomes, what's the compelling reason to do broadband gaming if you're the type of player who enjoys online bridge or Bejeweled? Peter Molyneux: To start off with, broadband is a very very tough design problem to crack. These are the problems you've got: Not only have you different aged people, different cultural peoples in different time zones, but they've all got different levels of ability. It's not like playing Quake in the office against someone you know, where you can decide not to play if they're really good. In design terms, how do you balance that out? How do those people who play occasionally get as rewarding an experience as the die-hard nuts? It's going to need to be subtle. It's going to need to be built into a game . can't be done on an arena, where | go and there's a "beginner's league", because nobody wants to play in a f cking beginner's league. It needs to be behind-the-scenes. Seamless. What challenges have you faced in 2002 while designing broadband gaming experiences?_ | James Schmalz: If you have to take into consideration that you | must support a 14.4k modem, then you are a hell of a lot more ) limited than if you can depend on ALL your users having a fast broadband connection. So, we are now a lot freer to explore options that take up more bandwidth. But we do still have to worry about bandwidth optimizations a great deal as well as latency. Those are the two major factors you need to keep in mind. Sylvain Constantin: The main problem is to design an online game a specific system without having a prior experience on this system, and without having any other games already running online. Technical specifications can change through development, so we have to anticipate, and be ready to quickly adapt our game to any change. And finally despite the broadband promises, it should be wise (required?) to be compatible with narrowband game systems. Raph Koster: In 2002 lm not designing a broadband-specific gaming experience. The large market that I’m designing for doesn't all have broadband, and therefore Рт not designing to that platform. If you are trying to reach more than the hardcore PC action gamers, you can't limit yourself to those with cable modems or DSL. BROADBAND UILL BRING US ONE STEP CLOSER TO THAT HOLY GRAIL KNOUN AS VIRTUAL REALITY cuatro We've had narrowband online gaming on the PC for some years пош. How will broadband be differenti in your opinion?_ л Біск Hall: Broadband will give us the ability to eventually allow EVERYTHING to be controlled by the players. It will allow them to communicate much more effectively through spoken word, customized avatars, and their own personalities. Broadband will bring us one step closer to that Holy Grail known as "Virtual Reality." James Schmalz: You can pass voice as well as more data. You can make more complex situations work whereas with narrowband you needed to keep things very simple. You could only have so many projectíles or so many people on the screen. One good example is that we can simulate vehicle physics realistically and smoothly in а network game. This is complex enough that it would be very difficult to do in narrowband. Peter Molyneux: We've always thought of games as something you download and that is it. With broadband there's this ability to change the game constantly. It's no longer a fixed game. This world or game that we've created can be a lot bigger than it is to begin with. Because we do design things to fit on a DVD at the moment- and that's very limited. When you've got broadband, suddenly that goes away, You've got an infinite amount of space and an infinite amount of content to push forward. It's going to be a totally new genre. E) FEATURE Greg Zeschuk: On platforms like the Xbox people will never be exposed to the pain of narrowband they're going to jump right to a nice, fat connection. Everyone is going to have a better experience as a result of this and the audience should grow very fast. Playing across a broadband connection when everything is working well is a totally flawless experience (provided the game is well-made)— players are going to love what they find online. Sylvain Constantin: The possibility to compete with six billion people! Not all games are designed for global competition, but I think online gaming as a "virtual" sport will become more and more popular. It's very exciting. My dream is that through online games, people could become professional players, solo or in teams (depending of the game) and earn their "lives" by playing. These virtual sports will become more and more popular (there are already TV shows in Korea for video games competitions), and | think that one day, Quake-like championship will become as popular as the “real world" soccer World Cup. Raph Koster: You're thinking in terms of releasing authorship, rather than expressing yourself. Online games are about other people, really, and the mechanics need to reflect that. This manifests itself in lots of ways, ranging from the “modding” community that has sprung up around first person shooter games, to the extremely undirected experiences that massively multiplayer games provide, where narratives are largely absent. This in particular is alien to a lot of game designers. James Schmalz: It's a totally different mindset. The biggest difference is that in a single player game you are the hero. You are the main character in the story. So scenarios can be predicted. In a multiplayer game everyone still wants to be the hero, or at the very least everyone wants to have the ability or chance to become the hero, making the gameplay possibilities endless and completely unpredictable. Greg Zeschuk: With online games your goal is to attract and then retain ап audience 一 you need to make датев with longevity that give players a reason to keep coming back. Online games require more content if they involve any aspect of exploration. If they involve a competitive mode it has to be better not only than all the games currently available, but all the games coming down the pipe. Rick Hall: With online games, we have to deal with the fact that some people use the anonymity provided by the Internet as justification to harass their fellow gamers. They go out of their way to destroy the experience of everyone around them. Dealíng with this from within the game's design is considerably more difficult than you might imagine, but it has to be done. A single troublesome player can drive away hundreds of subscribers. хам 073 》 E) FEATURE Rick Hall: | think it would be incredibly fun to build a game where I could be a pilot on a starfighter, but part of a much larger military conflict. This kind of game is probably still a few years from being possible. Of course, broadband would help in being able to have hundreds of other fighters blasting away at each other, not to mention being able to talk during the battle to my other squadron members, and hear orders from a base commander somewhere. Imagine if there were huge capital ships flying around out there, and my job was to protect them, seek-and-destroy the enemy capital ships, and explore the universe. | guarantee you if someone makes a game like that, ІЛІ be the first one in line to buy a microphone/headset, joystick, foot pedals, and anything else | need in order to play. Warren Spector: Га like to be able to play with friends scattered all around the country and all around the world. I'd like sufficient tools to interact with them in ways that didn't feel forced or—a chat line with pretty pictures just doesn't cut it. Га like all of this in the context of a narrative that's rícher and more varied than the typical fantasy or Sci-fi scenario. | mean, killing monsters and goíng on random quests if all well and good but how about something more? Not too much to ask, is it? We're pretty close to providing that experience already. Yuji Naka: My ultimate online gaming experience would be a game that allows you to experience virtual senses through the network, not with television as a medium. You would not only be able to hear, see and feel, but also even taste and smell. , Ray Muzyka: PC MMORPGs - Star Wars Galaxies, Worlds of Warcraft, and Earth and Beyond, for example. There are many, many more MMORPGs in development now and we want all of - them to succeed but unfortunately the market is probably only large enough for a few of these to thrive at any one time. As well, it will be interesting to see games like Final Fantasy XI to see what console fans think of the MMORPG on the video game console. Greg Thomas: Halo 2 because Halo was so awesome and yet being online will make it that much better. Fever 2003 just to see if they are able to innovate much with online gameplay. Raph Koster: The Sims Online, certainly, in order to see what , acceptance a more social model of online world gets from the gaming market. It's going to be interesting to see what proportion of the extremely casual Sims audience chooses to pay a subscription fee, for example. And beyond that, the game is such an empowering platform that | am very curious to see what users make of it. | am likewise very curious about the work being done over at Linden Labs [lindenworld.com]. for similar reasons. I DON'T THINK THE NEXT GREAT GAME IS GOING TO BE BASED IN A FANTASY WORLD cnoryneux> What genre of video games has the most Sylvain Constantin: | think that some kind of global virtual world, potential with regards to broadband recreating a better clone of our world, and in which anything gaming? Uhy? possible in real life (and more...) would be possible, would be EL absolutely fantastic. Greg Thomas: The opportunity to have a unique playing experience every single time online with multiple players would be the ultimate challenge. Even more than just playing, we are managing the entire team, making all the decisions, playing all of the games and essentially having our “own NFL"-so to speak. We may even decide to change rules or other elements in the game to make it more fun. This would be an incredible gaming experience that would be so addicting to me. | don't think | would get any work done...| would play all day long. Greg Thomas: Definitely sports games because they are so much better online. Being able to play against millions of different people is Such a better experience than having to play against the computer. People do crazy, smart, stupid, exciting things that we just can not program into our АІ. This is why sports games online will be revolutionary. Warren Spector: If you buy my contention that online gaming is a (big) niche rather than a mass-market proposition, you have to look to the roleplaying games for the core audience. But, really, it seems like sports games offer immense possibilities that, as far as | know, have been dramatically underexploited, both creatively and from a business standpoint. (Again, if anyone out there is actively working on a league-based, individual-player-level, basketball game, and you're looking for testers, give me a holler.) What online games are you most looking forward to seeing: and why?_ л Rick Hall: Aside from the hope that someone will make my starfighter game, I'd also like to see someone make a persistent RTS. RTS games are lots of fun, but if someone were to create a ^ system that allowed me to accumulate gains over time, that would add an extra dimension. Warren Spector: Star Wars Galaxies. | know the guys making it, know their ambitions and l've seen some of their stuff. And it's Star Wars, for crying out loud. | don't know if anyone's working on such a thing but an online basketball game where each onscreen player was played by an offscreen one, with league play and all... that would totally rock. | might lose myself in a game like that. Rick Hall: Atmosphere and immersiveness being the biggest benefactors to broadband, | think it makes sense that RPGs will be the big winners. They are highly dependent on realistic atmospheres, and would be the types of games that would benefit most from having large crowds in small places. Peter Molyneux: | don't think the next great game is going to be based in a fantasy world. | don't think it's going to be elves versus goblins in some space-future-freaky weird place. | think it will be set in a far more real and contemporary world. | think it will almost certainly be something to do with violence, in the first-person. If there's one thing that's been conspicuously lacking from the Xbox broadband story it's buzz; an unfortunate consequence of a tight- lipped, round-the-houses approach to public relations from Microsoft and a necessarily long gestation period for the network. By the time you read this, the E3 show would have been and probably gone, and the Xbox broadband plans common knowledge, scattered to the four winds of the Internet. What's likely to headline the whole shooting match is- well, the whole shooting match that is Unreal Championship. Until now, details of the game have been in short supply. Now Digital Extremes founder and director James Schmalz speaks exclusively to XBN +... e about the game charged with making Xbox Live a global success. Xbox Nation: Please describe the online components of UC and how they work. James Schmalz: You will be able to quickly get into a multiplayer match with just a few button clicks. You will be able to communicate through your Communicator headset and talk to other players. You will also be able to download new content for the game such as new maps, new game types and new characters. These are probably the biggest online components of UC. XBN: How will we connect to the service? Will you have an “Xbox Live” button on the main menu of the game? Schmalz: It will be seamless for the user, other than simply selecting the multiplayer menu option. Once you go in there, you will be able to setup and configure your online character and then select the kinds of games you want to play. It will be incredibly easy to use. . XBN: What is your opinion of the Microsoft broadband strategy? What aspects of it make broadband gaming easy, and what aspects are challenging for you as developers? Schmalz: Their strategy is excellent and will deliver a fantastic online experience. The great thing for E) FEATURE gamers is that, other than doing a quick and easy configuration of your Xbox for getting it hooked up online, playing a game like UC will be incredibly simple for you. Just as easy as starting a single player game. We don't want people to abandon the online portion because it's too difficult to understand or takes too long to get online. Our goal and Microsoft's goal is to make it as easy and fun as possible. XBN: It was leaked in the United Kingdom that UC would have a fee for online play. Will you be charging for UC online? Schmalz: As far as we're concerned there isn't a subscription fee for Unreal Championship specifically. No XBN 075 9 EI FEATURE The environments in Unreal Championship are varied and stunning in their realism. The game has been designed to harness many of the Xbox graphics chip's custom features, such as bump- mapping, specular highlighting, self-shadowing, and pixel shading. one involved on the publishing or development side (that is Infogrames, Digital Extremes or Epic Games) will be charging to play this game online. Microsoft has indicated there may be a service fee to subscribe to the Xbox Online service, but no fees specific to UC. But that said, there is a very strong single-player element to UC, so you can play the entire game without subscribing to the Xbox online service at all if you wish. XBN: Not that it really matters much, but is there a plot? Schmalz: In the future an alien race has enslaved humanity and several other alien races. Much like the ancient Roman gladiator battles, this overlord race forces the best humans 076 хвм апа other enslaved races to compete in similar gladiator battles. Your goal is simple—to win and be the best. We have over 50 characters composed of six different species on six different worlds. We have a huge range of locations from a frozen tundra level to a molten lava level. XBN: How will the online game differ from the single-player experience? Schmalz: You will be able to select from a large variety of different game configurations. You can host your own game or join into any of the multitude of other games. We will have a ranking system so you can see how you rate against every other player. We have tons of different game types, Digital Extremes have worked hard to make the NPC ‘bots’ ‘as lifelike in their splaying style as possible. The end result should be that the 'single-player' experience is almost as good as the multiplayer online game (minus the fun of using the Xbox Communicator). and game mutators and game configurations. There is plenty of variety to play however you enjoy playing the most. XBN: Will you be able to play the single-player "story" over the network with 16 player co-operative play? Schmalz: The story is very secondary to the gameplay. The focus of our single-player game is to make it as enjoyable as the multiplayer and as similar as possible to the multiplayer element of the game. Our enemy Al or ‘bots’ have evolved over the last six years to be what we think are the most human-like bots in any game. So, the main separation between single player and multiplayer is the fact you are playing against bots, but it is just as enjoyable at fighting real people. In fact, many people have commented on how difficult it is to tell the difference between the bots and a real human player. XBN: What kind of environments can we expect to see? Schmalz: We are trying hard to make each arena unique, interesting and as varied as possible. We have sprawling outdoor terrain levels and tight, confined one-on-one dungeon-style deathmatch levels. The key for us is variety. Several of the worlds we have created include a desert planet, ice planet, volcanic lava planet, and an alien-built artificial planet. Essential Purchase:_ XBOX COMMUNICATOR Free when you subscribe to Xbox Live, Microsoft's headset may leave you looking like a cross between Lance Bass and a Navy Seal (N' Sunk?) but the payoff will be worth it. You'll be able to speak to your teammates in Unreal and Ghost Recon, and shout abuse at your opponents in Whacked! Games will eventually support for voice recognition, allowing you to issue game commands to change weapons, check inventory, or use items. As an added incentive to sound silly as well as look it, the Communicator can also alter your voice in a variety of ways. Xbox Nation has heard the future, and it sounds like Greg Orlando doing Darth Vader... (Oh, wait, that didn't come out right at all). XBN: Is there one that's your particular favorite? Schmalz: Not really. | have no one specific favorite at the moment. All the levels are evolving over the weeks as they get refined and adjusted. | do love the ones that are so visually spectacular that they look like movie sets, such as a level called DM-Core. It looks as if you're running through the corridors of a set in one of the Alien movies. XBN: The graphics are particularly impressive. What in particular are you most proud of in this respect? Schmalz: | think probably the variety of locales. It would be easy enough for us to just make one style and | PEOPLE HAVE COMMENTED ON HOW DIFFICULT IT 15 TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BOTS AND A REAL HUMAN PLAYER (SCHMALZ) duplicate it 30 times, but we put a huge amount of effort into making each arena as unique and different as possible. Certainly we have some with similar themes, but within each of those we strive for a unique look. And the graphical power of the Xbox allows us to make scenes that are literally 100 times more complex than anything we've done before. XBN: What kind of support will you be providing to players online? Leagues? New missions? Easter- eggs? Schmalz: We will have ranking and stats. Certainly downloadable levels and other content. We would love to support Leagues and Tournaments! Features are still under wraps, but the Holy Grail of football game, according the Sega's Greg Thomas, is to make each team position human-controlled. Squad-based combat, in the for of Ghost Recon, should suffice until Halo 2 arrives some time next year. Microsoft is taking the usually staid mech genre into the realm of the arcade shooter with its amped-up Mech Assault. — _ «(72.5 2, There's a limit to how many ‘whacky’ games one console can sustain. Microsoft may have reached, and breached that limit with Whacked! E FEATURE NFL Fever Microsoft's own bid to steal the coveted Madden football crown goes online this fall in the shape of a new NFL Fever. There are no details yet, but you can count on Sega's NFL 2K series on Dreamcast being a big influence. Rumors persist, however, that fans of NFL 2K will have to wait, as Microsoft is keen to give its own game the home advantage by being the only football title offered on the Live network. Ghost Recon Red Storm's Tom Clancy tactical FPS is another surefire hit for the Xbox Live service. Widely regarded as one of the best games ever on PC, the Xbox version sports 10 multiplayer maps in addition to its 15 single-player missions, and supports up to 16 players. The game is also armed with enemy Al that had even the Halo team marvelling at the recent Game Developers Conference. Mech Assault Created by the minds behind another successful PC franchise, Mech Warrior, Assault replaces the sim elements with arcade shooter DNA. Players take control of fast, maneuverable "Mechs" from a third- person perspective and blast the nuts and bolts out of each other over destructible cityscapes. Mech Assault supports matchmaking, buddy lists, live chat, creepy voice augmentation and game swapping. Whacked! Some games were meant to be online, and none perhaps more so than the wacky Whacked! Microsoft's four-player frag-fest though something of a lame duck in single-player, will provide comic relief for the Xbox Live crowd over the network. No word yet on any special features, but this is fertile ground for expansion packs, new comedy-levels and downloadable characters and weapons. XBN 077 9 premier event in the world of XRAIED Smart Reviews HUNTER: THE RECHOnInG Blow off some steam. And some zombie heads. The most exciting aspect of video game development is the forging of virgin ground; crafting original gameplay pardigms, birthing new genres, and inspiring evolutionary approaches to the man- ner in which we interact with the images on our screen. Development is also, however, a forum in which to refine the art of killing the sh*t out of like six billion zombies, trampling their corpses, and staining your skin with their blackened blood. Enter Hunter: The Reckoning. From its gruesome opening moments to its savage final boss, Hunter is sheer, unadulterated, cathartic violence. It harkens back to the days when we'd spend entire days dropping quarters into the local Gauntlet coin-op machine, and entire nights beating Golden Axe six times over on our Sega Genesis. It un- abashedly foregoes trivial details such as "a coherent story" and "varied forms of gameplay” in favor of turning lots of undead zombies into lots of dead un- dead zombies with the help of your trusty boomstick. And it does so with the sort of graceful control and visual panache that we haven't seen since the 16-bit era. What makes Hunter so compelling is the tactile simplicity of its hack ’n’ slash (n' shoot) gameplay. Puzzles are few and far between, and those that do crop up are mostly of the "find a key/use it to open a door" variety. What the game boils down to is a series of unreasonably lopsided battles between you and end- less hordes of bloodthirsty monsters. The 1 à FREE variety of moves (and the bounty of ene- Enjoy the pain? Crave the violence? You mies upon which to employ them) need some Hunter, we reckon. provides the game's depth; cutting a zombie's arms and head off with a machete, and then blowing a shotgun hole directly through its armless/headless corpse while cartwheeling out of its path never grows tiresome. Freedom of move- ment is another key; characters are able to move and fire in independent direc- tions using the dual analog sticks, á la Smash TV. Quite simply, this is a more organic approach to the genre than con- strained turn/shoot/turn/shoot monotony. While it's not pushing any technical boundaries, Hunter was designed for the Xbox hardware—and it shows. Character models are sharp and defined, impres- sive environmental effects permeate the well-drawn locales, and dozens of ene- mies simultaneously fill the screen without slowdown. The context-sensitive $ 080 XBN ШЕ Police Cops Homer Simpson and Lance Kaufman star in their most gory adventure to date. And boy, will the chief's face be red after his skin's been pulled off... Despite its rough edges, Hunter: The Reckoning is an early contender for dark horse of the year ... music elegantly swells from provocative ambient soundscapes to cinematic crescendos, and enemies are both varied and suitably nasty. Aesthetically, Hunter Succeeds on nearly every level. Often, however, the game's conces- Sions to realism feel random and contrived. Small touches are nice (like animations for your character sheathing his sword, then reaching back and pulling out a shotgun), but preventing the player from accessing certain areas via "invisible walls" is lamer than jock itch. Multiplayer mode presents its share of problems as well; the difficulties inherent in a fully 3D camera quickly become apparent, and you'll find yourself doing the running man up against the edge of the screen quite regularly. But these are minor flaws. Despite its rough edges, Hunter is an early con- tender for dark horse of the year. Its difficulty curve progresses gracefully, its atmosphere is immersive, and its visceral punch is straight to the gut. Evan Shamoon > Eight out of Ten XRATED Smart Reviews Dev : Digital Mayhem Pub : Interplay Players : 1-4 Gimme Gimme : Violence Release Date : Out Now Ш The collection and conservation of magic adds another element to Hunter's simple gameplay dynamic. It also shows off the game's real-time light sourcing to stunning effect. Sir Diesalot Like The Who said, "It's very, very, very, very hard." The game, that is. One thing about Hunter: The Reckoning you may not be prepared for is that it's hard...very hard. Fortunately, this difficulty does not stem from troublesome controls or a seizure-prone camera. Rather, it's the BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS OF ZOM- BIES TRYING TO KILL YOU AT EVERY TURN. Enemies are so numerous and powerful that every single lost life counts, which means lots of restarting from earlier save points in order to win. Death be not proud in Hunter, but all too common. ₪ ProTip: Resist the temptation to "negotiate" with the zombies. Instead, slay them. XBN 081 》 With great power comes the great responsibility to punch robots in their stupid robot faces whenever possible. Here, Spider-Man punches robots in their stupid robot faces. Now you may be asking yourself, *Just what the heck is Spider-Man swinging from?" Well, to be honest, he seems to be swinging from the sky. It's okay though, because it's just a video game based upon a comic character who is, in fact, not real. Just keep swinging, kid, and try not to look downward. Or let go ... Excelsior! Translated from the Latin, the word means "still higher," and has become the catch phrase for what's now accepted as the Mighty Marvel Universe. It's also the philosophy driving Activision and its develop- ment arm Treyarch to create bigger and better games featuring supermen in super-tight longjohns. On a spider's web the 3D adventure Spider-Man soars still higher. It's the most ambitious Spider-Man game to date, taking the wall-crawler across gorgeous New York skylines, and pit- ting him against a collection of black-hearted knaves straight from the comic books. As with any heroic tale, there's some stumbling along the way as well as a few reversals that serve to gum the engine—but in the end Spider- Man, as rendered by Treyarch, really does whatever a spider can. And that's a quite a feat. Spider-Man uses the plot of the Spider-Man movie as its launching pad. Players take the role of hero Peter Parker as he dons the tights to become Spider-Man and attempts to squash the villainy of the Green Goblin; the story is fleshed out by the addition of such cos- Spider-Man, as rendered by Treyarch, really does whatever a spider can. And that's quite a feat. $ 082 XBN You'll believe a man can Пу--ог at least soar across the New York City skyline оп a few strands of faux spider's web. tumed cruds as Kraven the Hunter, the Vulture, the Shocker, and the Scorpion. Actors Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe provide the voices for Spider-Man and the Goblin, respectively, and Bruce Campbell (he of Evil Dead fame) pitches in as the game's smarmy narrator. With all of Spider-Man's powers intact, players are afforded a great deal of freedom as to how to tackle most of the game's missions. Old web-head can crawl on walls, creep across ceilings, and take a flying leap off a building, plummeting for a bit before firing off a web line to swing on. Spider-Man can also use his tremendous agility to per- form special kick-and-punch combinations on hapless enemies, or paralyze foes by wrapping them up in webbing. While attached to a ceiling, our hero can drop directly onto an enemy's head and administer a bit of strict justice while the stricken sap dashes about in a panic. A brand-new feature allows Spider- Man to fight while web-swinging, and the levels featuring Spidey duking it out with the Vulture and the Green Goblin are simply superb. A lock-on feature, which is equal parts curse and cure-all, allows players to select an airborne enemy at will; once chosen, the camera shifts to (hopefully) show both Spider- Man and his prey. Though it's initially hard to determine what's going on during the game's aerial fights, the stunning vistas and jackhammer adren- aline rushes elicited by these scenes more than make up for any deficiencies. A temperamental camera flips and jumps with great frequency, and helps to sink some of the game's indoor- based levels. Simply, the camera is not very good at choosing where to go when Spider-Man attaches himself to a wall or ceiling and this, coupled with a rather unforgiving difficulty level, turns frantic moments into frustrating, punch- the-wall extravaganzas. While storming a rickety bell tower that the Vulture's claimed as his hideout, players will be treated to a stomach-turning series of camera jerks; as the Vulture hurls end- less waves of grenades and Spider-Man is mercilessly pursued by various explo- sive devices, the camera itself functions as a de facto enemy—and possibly the deadliest one of all. Greg Orlando =) Seven out of Te Е Fun Fact: Spider-Man once had his own "Spider-Mobile." The writer who thought that gem up went on to be ridiculed by his peers and later died in a puddle of his own bitter tears. XRATED Smart Reviews Dev : Treyarch Pub : Activision Players : 1 Web: Entangled Release Date : Out Now Once, when Marvel Comics let chim- panzees write its comics, Spider-Man met his clone. Readers wondered "Could things get any more stupid?" The answer was yes, and Marvel dragged "The Clone Saga" out for years until readers forced the restora- tion of the one, true Spider-Man. Now let us never speak of this again. XBN 083 > XRATED Smart Reviews WORLD SERIES BRSEBRLL Sports Illustrated reporter Jeff Pearlman finds tao in the Yankee Stadium bleachers ₪ There would be joy іп Mudville if the Mudville Nine were included in World Series Baseball. $ 084 XBN In my five-plus years as a baseball writer, | have covered, oh, 20 or so games at Tropicana Field, home of the putrid Tampa Bay Devil Rays. With its greenish-gray backdrop and half-empty stands, Florida's largest dome is, in a word, horrific. Some call the stadium baseball's largest tuna fish can. | call it unregulated indoor crap. To watch the Rays in Tampa is to induce oneself into a Legends Of The Fall-sized coma. This, alas, is my number one reason World Series Baseball is the best sports video game of all time. Despite its kickin’ graphics, vast pitch selections, and endless buffet of batting stances, | still got bored playing at the (virtual) Trop. It is a sucky building in real life, and in the gaming world it bites even more. Bravo. If realism is the ultimate goal of the game maker, then World Series Baseball is the Mona Lisa of games. In the sixth inning of a Rangers-Reds con- test, a bird flies above second base. Not for any real reason—just because birds tend to do such things. Nestled behind the outfield wall of Comerica Park are the buildings of downtown Detroit (stumbling crackheads not included). As he waits for the pitch to arrive, Padres outfielder Ray Lankford’s knee twitches and his bat twirls. At the plate, Boston’s Jason Varitek wears a shin protector on his right leg. San Francisco righthander Livan Hernandez throws a nasty sinker that eats righthanded hitters up, Detroit righthander Steve Sparks’ knuckleball is as unpredictable as a WWF Storyline, and Pedro Martinez’ fastball shakes and jumps like Emmanuel Lewis after three beers. It is, at 97 mph, unhittable. Best of all, the game plays beautiful- ly and with conviction. Roger Cedeno gets good jumps and steals bases with relative ease. Jason Giambi does not. Roger Clemens’ fastball hums at 95 mph with pinpoint accuracy. Brian Mohler is a bum. Righthanded hitters fare better off lefthanded pitches (and vice versa). Stick Orioles catcher Brook Fordyce behind the plate and he's rock solid. Move him to shortstop, and the Es never stop. | was happy to find that World Series Baseball hardly requires a Master’s Degree in Hand-Held Controller Robotics. Everything is very Ja. Giambi № Here's an interesting picture: Pedro Martinez was the spokesman for the lame World Series Baseball 2K1 and World Series Baseball 2K2. Jason Giambi is the spokesman for World Series Baseball. If realism is the ultimate goal of the game maker, then World Series Baseball is the Mona Lisa of games. simple and clean, and with the click of the "Start" button—lest one forgets— there's an on-screen diagram explaining which button does what. Indeed, despite our limited IQs, after no more than 10 minutes of goofing around my wife and І found ourselves locked in one of those epic clashes you'll be reading about 50 years from now. | was the Royals. She was the Cubs. The stadium was the Metrodome. The final score: 12-3. She, uh, won. Complaints? Only a couple. There is a team of Hall of Famers who look nothing like Hall of Famers (unless Yogi Berra was once tall, with Clark Gable features). A pitcher can plunk 856 batters in a row and receive nary a warning. The instant replays are ridiculously awkward. And Florida rightfielder Kevin Millar is nowhere to be found. But fret not. World Series Baseball kicks ass. Just stay away from domes. Jeff Pearlman =) | Nine out XRATED Smart Reviews Dev: Blue Shift/Visual Concepts Pub: Sega Players: 1-2 World: Serious Release Date: Out Now Ichiro RF AVG: .350 HR: 8 RBI: 69 As a New Yorker, | have visited crumbling Shea Stadium more than 100 times, and—except for the ubiquitougierazy drunk guy in Section С, Row 206 gating a hot dog and bragging about the day he said hello to Junior Ortiz —World Series Baseball's Shea is an exact replica. The scoreboard. The skyline. The big № The screens tell the story: Sega has made up for its past two years of baseball mediocrity with red apple behind the rightfield wall. what may be the finest baseball game we've ever played. Bravo. Even the dimensions. Perfect. “Y Help 271177 XBN 085 》 BLOOD OMEN ІІ Things got messy after Kain decided to forego the collection human souls, instead taking advan- tage of “All-you-can-eat Shrimp Mania” at Red Lobster. As Kain hunts down and slays fellow vampires, he rudely slurps away their special abilities, known as Dark Gifts. Sadly, most of these powers, such as Telekinesis, are merely superficial; assuming the form of Mist, Mind Control, and Immolation actually just help our once-proud King of the Undead flip switches or push crates. $ 086 XBN The original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was atmos- pheric and neatly crafted, getting by as much on style as sub- stance. It was, arguably, the most interesting 2D game the PlayStation ever offered. The years since have seen the Soul Reaver spin-offs, but Blood Omen 2 brings the vampire hero Kain himself into the three- dimensional 215t century. It's a safe bet that if you enjoyed the previous games you'll like this one too. Others may need a little convincing. Taking place 200 years after Blood Omen, Omen 2 finds Kain waking up from a vampire coma. The powerful Sarafan Lord has stolen Kain's empire and his fabled sword, the Soul Reaver, and vampires are being systematically hunted down by the Sarafan's minions. However, a small rebel group has revived Kain in an effort to fight back— and Kain, of course, has his sights set on ruling the world again. Gameplay is a mix of beat-‘em-up action and puzzle solving, and the graphics are a cut above average — much better than in the PlayStation 2 version, at any rate. It's generally atmos- pheric, with nicely varied level designs and a few gory surprises. It looks, in fact, almost exactly like the original ren- dered in 3D; even Kain's trademark "projectile blood suck," which enables him to drain victims from a surprising Above, bottom: Kain's early attempts to build a notepad holder in wood shop went horribly awry and many were killed. distance, has been retained. Overall, however, it must be said that the game is good looking without really being any- thing spectacular. The control is fairly crisp and respon- sive; in combat each different weapon Kain picks up has a different set of attack moves, and blocks actually fol- low the strikes of each combo. This doesn't exactly keep the fighting from getting repetitive, but that's been a problem with every beat-'em-up since Double Dragon, so you can't really find much fault there. Over the course of the game Kain earns a number of Dark Gifts, from blending into the mists to setting oppo- nents on fire with his mind. These powers are (mostly) pretty cool, but Obscure reference number one: "Not the craw! The craw!" BO2 is not big on exploration. The lev- els are completely linear, and every puzzle has exactly one way to solve it— to the point where, on occasion, a Dark Gift simply won't work if it's not the one you're supposed to use. Still, this also means it's impossible to get lost, and in general it's just challenging enough to keep you interested without becoming frustrating. In fact, the only real problem with the design is that continue points are either placed pointlessly close together or maddeningly far apart—a small knock, but a significant one. However, as with the original, BO2 [Omen 2] is generally atmos- pheric, with nicely varied level designs and a few gory surprises ... gets by as much on style as it does оп substance. The storyline rambles a bit, but takes a lot of twists and turns, and the characters are engaging. The dia- logue is, admittedly, rife with clichés, and at one or two points it's just shy of eye-rolling. On the upside, the voice acting is uniformly excellent, and so in spite of the dialogue you buy into it any- way 一 although Kain's “Flaye Victus!" battle cry is conspicuously missing. Blood Omen 2 is definitely not for the squeamish, but if you're looking for a cold, ruthless, and literally bloodthirsty antihero to keep you occupied for 15-20 hours, Kain definitely fits the bill. Jeff Lundrigan e) Seven XRATED Smart Reviews Dev : Eidos Pub : Crystal Dynamics Players : 1 Bloody: Goodness Release Date : Out Now Ш Thanks to great textures and nice architecture, many of Kain’s environments look superb. Тһе animation system, however, could use a bit of polish. One really odd thing about Blood Omen 2 is that the boss battles are sort of inversely difficult. Faustus, the first boss, arguably takes the longest to beat—not because he's especially tough, but because you have to use puzzle solving as well as combat skills (or simply find ways of using combat skills differently than you would with lesser minions). In fact, each boss battle is divided up into three stages, and after a time you simply get used to looking for ways to use Kain's Dark Gifts while dodging the boss' attacks, until by the end, the final boss is actually a bit of a snap. This isn't a good or bad thing, incidentally—just odd. XBN 087 9 XRATED Smart Reviews RALLISPORT CHALLENGE My other Rally game’s a Sega If Rallisport Challenge found | itself in the unlikely position of sharing an arcade with Sega Rally, it would probably cough up just a few coins at days end, while Sega's mud-covered classic gently tipped to one side, eventually spilling quarters all over the floor like a fresh haul of shrimp. And then the shrimp would play Sega Rally too. It's not the most glowing introduc- tion, but then Rallisport Challenge doesn't give you one either. With a nod to real-world rallying, RC has you driv- ing solo on long tracks in Hill Climb and traditional Rally modes, competing against your opponent's time rather than his car. It's uninspiring at first, but eventually you begin reading the little gauge in the top left of your screen. It splits the course up into blocks and matter-of-factly turns them red or green as you pass checkpoints, indicating whether you exceeded or fell short of your opponent's "ghost" time. The ten- Sion mounts when you're three blocks into a course, they're all red, and you have just three to go—you'd better not James Dean that next bend. Out of nowhere, what seemed like a passion- less toil becomes a red-hot race—and what seemed like just another average rally game grows wings and takes off. There's more traditional head-to- head racing too, in the Rallycross and Ice Racing championships (and multi- player split-screen if you're in the mood), and the cleverly programmed Al cars are always just tough enough to give you a decent workout. If Rallisport fails on any level at all, it's the personality test. Overly long and unimaginative tracks punctuate the wide selection of courses and it's impossible to know them all well enough to become fond of their individual traits. It's all right, though, because even if you can't remember every bend and jump in every course, you'll be happy enough just staring—shrimp-like—out of the window as you pass. Rallisport Out of nowhere, what seems like a passionless toil becomes a red-hot race ... Digital Illusion’s graphics engine renders sunsets as if it were designed for that particular purpose. Watching the replays is like being stuck in a Nissan ad. « 088 хвм comes within a hairsbreadth of photore- alism, and on your first go round on the Mediterranean tracks you'll throw a couple of races by pulling over on the edge of a mountain pass to stare at the Kodak-moment sunsets. Digital Illusion's mix of arcade power- slide-physics and realistic courses means that it will take more than a few races before you warm to its many charms. What begins as an object lesson in patience pays progressively bigger dividends as you conquer each championship—not just with new cars № There's no such car as a Peugeot in this country. It means "plump cat" in Europe. Dev : Digital Illusions Pub : Microsoft Players : 1-4 Bump: mapping Release Date : Out Now (though there are enough) and tracks (there are 45 of them), but with some- thing far better: pride. It comes from building a career in the game over many days and nights where the races get tougher and the margin for error shrinks to nothing before eventually demanding a next-level commitment that you have to dig deep to supply. Simon Cox = | Eight out of Ten № Reflections, wheels that are actually round, and beautiful skies. Ahhh, yes. rm Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert F. Callahan COO and CFO Bart W. Catalane Senior Exec. VP, Publishing Operations Tom McGrade Executive VP Peter Longo Executive Vice President Stephen D. Moylan Exec. VP and Editorial Director Michael J. Miller Senior Vice President (Circulation) Charles Mast Senior Vice President (Game Group) Dale Strang Ziff Davis Media Inc. Vice Presidents Ken Beach (Corporate Sales) John Dodge (News) G. Barry Golson (Editor-in-Chief, Yahoo! Internet Life) Kim Hoover (Chief Information Officer) Charles Lee (Integrated Solutions) (Custom Media) Aimee D. Levine (Corporate Communications) Eric Lundquist (Editor-in-Chief, eWEEK) Bill Machrone (Technology) David Mullen (Controller) Michael Perkowski (Ziff Davis Market Experts) Beth Repeta (Human Resources) Tonia E. Ries (Marketing) Carolyn Schurr Levin (General Counsel) Sloan Seymour (Publishing Director, Baseline) Tom Steinert-Threlkeld (Editor-in-Chief, Baseline) Stephen Sutton (Internet Audience Development) Stephen Veith (Publisher, CIO Insight) Jason Young (Internet Advertising Sales) Exec. VP and GM, eTesting Labs Mark Van Name CTO (Internet Operations) Alan Bourassa Senior Director, Manufacturing, Carlos Lugo Director, International Christin Lawson Contact anyone on this masthead via e-mail using first name last name@ziffdavis.com AD INDEX Acclaim Entertainment 13, 23, 29, 32-33 Electronic Arts 78, 110-111 Infogrames 4-5 LucasArts 112 Majesco Sales Inc. 21 Midway Home Entertainment 9 Sega of America 25 Vivendi Universal Games Inc. 2-3 Vivendi Universal Games Inc. 27 Vivendi Universal Games Inc. 19, 50a-50h Editor in Chief Art Director Executive Editor Managing Editor Designer Contributors Illustrations Photography Editorial Intern Art Intern Manufacturing Director Senior Production Manager Pre Media Manager Assistant Production Manager Project Leader Customer Support Analyst Vice President/Game Group Business Director Circulation Director Circulation Director Senior Newsstand Sales Manager Group Publisher Group Associate Publisher Regional Sales Manager/East Coast Territory District Sales Representative/East Coast Territory Account Executive/East Coast Territory Regional Sales Manager/NW & Bay Area Account Executive/NW & Bay Area Regional Sales Manager/Southwest Territory Senior Account Executive/Southwest Territory Regional Sales Manager/TX, WA, SF Territory Regional Sales Manager/TX, WA, SF Territory Senior Marketing Manager & Creative Director Marketing Coordinator Advertising Coordinator Sales Assistant Sales Assistant Simon Cox David Ziganay Evan Shamoon Greg Orlando Julie Munsayac Owain Bennallack, Jason Brookes, Che Chou, Nate Denver, Dan DiGiacomo, Mike Fasolo, Jon Jordan, Jake Kazdal, Justin Keeling, James Mielke, Wil O'Neal, Jeff Pearlman, Matt Sammons, Shawn Smith, Rus Wooton Andre Sibayan Carlo Bacor, Annie Liscomb Jeremy Sarmiento Alex Katzen Carlos Lugo Anne Marie Miguel Steve Riemers Teresa Newson Mark LeFebvre Peter Felonk Dale Strang Cathy Bendoff Joan Mclnerney Shirley Viel Don Galen Lee Uniacke 415-357-4910 - lee uniackeGziffdavis.com Suzanne Reider 415-357-4915 - suzie@ziffdavis.com Marc Callison 630-382-9034 - marc_callison@ziffdavis.com Tallie Fishburne 617-354-0284 - tallie_fishburne@ziffdavis.com Emily Olman 415-357-5226 - emily_olman@ziffdavis.com lan Sinclair 415-357-4925 - ian_sinclair@ziffdavis.com Mary Gray 415-547-8782 - mary_gray@ziffdavis.com Karen Landon 760-942-6277 - karen_landon@ziffdavis.com Linda Philapil 415-547-8781 - linda_philapil@ziffdavis.com Marci Yamaguchi 415-357-4944 - marciy@ziffdavis.com Meighan O'Rourke 415-357-4920 - meighan_orourke@ziffdavis.com Rey Ledda 415-547-8775 - rey_ledda@ziffdavis.com Wayne Shiu 415-547-8248 - wayne_shiu@ziffdavis.com Tipler Ubbelohde 415-357-4930 - tipler_ubbelohde@ziffdavis.com Kristeen Laut CJ Amit Advertising Inquiries Contact: Game Group 50 Beale, 12th floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Telephone: 415-547-8783 XBN 089 》 XRATED Smart Reviews ALL-STAR BASEBALL 2003 All-Star Baseball has one thing going for it, but that one thing is golden: You can seriously maim peo- ple. In three innings against the Cleveland Indians, | hit 15 players in the head with 95-mph fastballs. Nine suffered broken ribs (admittedly, an odd reaction to a ball in the noggin). The other six just limped over to first. Four pitchers were ejected. Now that’s catharsis. That Acclaim has produced some of the best sports software on the market makes one wonder what yutz approved ASB, what with its choppy movements, mediocre graphics, and limited control options. You can play in a multitude of stadiums, but unlike the best games on the market (World Series Baseball is a prime example), none of the arenas here have character. Yankee Stadium might be the House That Ruth Built, but to ASB it’s just backdrop. It affects game- play not one iota. ASB lacks the simple things that make great baseball games, well, great. Except for the three-second span when hitters approach the plate and we are granted a close-up, all of the action is ACTION T REPLAY ₪ Here's a strange and unusual happening: А New York Met pitcher throws a meatball that's knocked out of the stratosphere. ESPN NBA 2NIGHT Over the years, basketball games have proven to be a lot like first dates: usually fun, but rarely—if ever—ultimately satisfying. Konami's most recent hoops attempt is certainly competent; but on a plat- form which lays claim to three of the finest polygonal renditions of the sport ever created, there is simply nor room for mere competence. From the initial loading screen to the end-game celebrations, ESPN NBA 2Night is rough around the edges. Navigating through the various menus is a headache-inducing endeavor, and in- game graphical bells and whistles are kept to a minimum. Player models are inconsistent at best; low-resolution tex- tures and sloppy construction make for unconvincing close-ups. Animation is spotty as well, with altogether too many awkward movements and jerky colli- sions. Rebounding is not realized very well, and the passing game is flawed. That said, there are certain areas in which 2Night excels. Mid-move transi- tions, in particular, are executed with surprising grace and fluidity, and the "fake" button allows for some subtle B The standard jump shot animations in 2Night are perhaps the best the genre has ever seen. We're not very big fans of see- ing them when we go up for a layup or dunk three feet from the basket, however... $ 090 XBN miles away. The fans are a blur. The players seem to have emerged straight out of the Atari 2600. There is no mini- box in the corner to show where runners are located. There is no dia- gram pertaining to a hitter's hot and cold spots. Although Randy Johnson owns four Cy Young awards and Dave hesitation and ill-nasty breaks. The ball has a nice weight to it, and netting a triple feels (and looks) quite accurate. Playing this game is not unenjoyable. Stuart Scott provides mildly enter- taining commentary and it's got all the requisite play modes but, at the end of the day, 2Night simply falls a bit flat. It's Dev : Acclaim VR hotdogs : VR gas Pub : Acclaim Release : Out Now Players : 1-2 Burba is a perennial punching bag, in ASB their pitch velocity and movement is identical. How did that happen? Jeff Pearlman ep Four Dev : Konami Close but: No cigar Pub : Konami Release : Out Now Players : 1-4 a huge leap past the original Dreamcast version, but this simply can't compete with the true ballers. Evan Shamoon e) Five SPY HUNTER Dev : Point of View Pub : Midway Players : 1-2 Spies: Don't Like Us Release Date : Out Now For those old enough to remember when Must-See TV consisted of The Cosby Show and Family Ties, the original Spy Hunter represents a pinnacle of arcade gaming. The new Spy Hunter—a PlayStation 2 port—doesn't really represent a pinnacle of anything, but it does feature a remake of the Peter Gunn theme by nu-metal outfit Saliva, who contributed the puzzling chorus "Come on and let the Hunt be the Hunted/Get in my way and I'll be blowing up something." Sadly, “blowing up something” isn't quite as much fun as it should be, thanks primarily to some muddy graphics. Spy Hunter is incredibly dark—a problem made worse when damaged vehicles ahead of you spew plumes of smoke in your direction. The camera puts you behind the G- 6155 Interceptor, which transforms into a boat and motorcycle when appropri- ate, as you blast your way through 14 levels while taking on the vaguely evil and presumably spy-oriented Nostra International. The Interceptor sports weapons that harken back to the CRASH BRnDIC00T: THE WRATH OF CORTEX № As a PlayStation 2 game, Spy Hunter's graph- ics were passable. As an Xbox game, they're simply sub-par. Reagan-era game—machine guns, missiles, etc.—but the levels place too much emphasis on lame secondary missions like tagging boats with tracker units. What's more, these levels are all too brief, checking in at five to seven minutes apiece. You do the math—this game is short. And not so sweet. There are some nice bonus features, including a hidden version of the original game, but it's simply not enough. Dan DiGiacomo -= Five out of Ten Dev : Traveller’s Tales Pub : Universal Interactive Players : 1 Crash: Same old coot Release Date : Out Now Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex knows where its bread is buttered and, make no bones about it, it's from someone else's crock. If there's a good idea out there, rest assured Crash has swiped it. If there's a mediocre idea to be had, chances are Crash has burgled it, too. The game pilfers some terrible ideas as well, with the rationale being that thinking up something new might be time consuming. Crash marches the parade straight down Cliché Boulevard. The manic bandicoot collects fruit, jewels, and other trinkets; smashes crates galore; and engages in all sorts of kooky plat- form-based action. It's a slow level when some huge beast doesn't smash through the walls and chase Crash ad nauseam and an even slower level that doesn't feature some wacky vehicle that wants piloting. In the laziest move of all, even the game's boss characters are based on the four elements. Yet Crash reeks of solid workman- ship. The Xbox version contains graphics worth staring at and load times that have been shortened appreciably № Who's Crash, you're wondering? Well, we're Still not sure, but we do know he likes collecting fruits, crystals, gems, relics, and other fun stuff. from those seen on the PlayStation 2. The chase scenes are just harrying enough to quicken anyone's pulse, and the game does an excellent job of Switching gears to stave off any bore- dom that might ensue. In the colorful lingo of the streets, this bandicoot has game—and the fact that it’s someone else's game (actually multiple some- ones) shouldn't deter anyone from taking this marsupial for a spin. Or two. Greg Orlando =p) Six out of Ten XRATED Smart Reviews PIRATES: THE LEGEND OF BLRCH HAT Dev : Westwood Pub : Electronic Arts Players : 1 Grog: Orlando Release Date : Out Now Yarrgh! Legend has it that if ye put two mediocre games together on one disc, ye can beguile the witless into thinking ye've got one good piece of swag. Shiver me tim- bers, but it just ain't so. Pirates: the Legend of Black Kat comes highly recommended, but only if you're inclined to randomly blurt out the following phrases, loudly and in a pirate's voice while playing: “Yeargh! It's the broadsides for you!" and "Grog and plunderin' keeps me warm at night!" As buccaneer Katarina de Leon, you run around a series of bland island environ- ments performing mind-shriveling fetch quests for characters who, quite frankly, should be collecting their own flowers and such; engaging in simplistic sword battles; and digging up buried treasure that's revealed when the Xbox controller decides to shake and spasm with force enough to crack pavement. Traveling between islands on a can- non-packed ship stands as the better half of Pirates. Thrilling sea battles are fought arcade-style, complete with spe- cial weapons and instant ship repairs. А loony camera eliminates the possibility SMASHING DRIVE № ProTip: Yelling, “It's time to taste the cold, cold steel, уе scurvy dogs!" while playing this game will make you feel more like a pirate. of catching these battles in all their glory (glory in Pirates, of course, being a rela- tive term), and the game's odd predilection for nighttime levels ensures that players will be doing double duty fighting and squinting. Though neither portion of Pirates can be considered horrid, the shoehorning of two lackluster games makes for a legend best forgotten, and a treasure to be buried. Deep. Greg Orlando Í Five out of Ten Dev : Gaelco S.A. Pub : Namco Players : Earsplitting: Headache Release Date : Out Now Imagine taking everything that was good about Crazy Taxi and San Francisco Rush, and putting it all together in one game. Now, imagine doing the exact opposite of that. The result would look and play an awful lot like Smashing Drive. Actually, Smashing Wreck would be a more appropriate title; in many ways this is a blueprint for making a game as annoying as possible. The idea is to race a rival taxi driver through the streets of New York (although since you never pick up a single passenger, it's unclear why being in a taxi is even rele- vant). One or two bits of business here show smudges of creativity—like driving through burning buildings or chasing King Kong up a skyscraper—but mostly you're reduced to hitting very mundane ramps and grabbing largely uninterest- ing powerups. Your computer-controlled opponent glides through traffic, never slowing down or making a single mis- take, so the challenge mostly consists of finding the one or two magic short- cuts on every level that can put you ahead—find them, you win. Miss them, you lose. Period. № Smashing Drive is one of those titles that makes us reconsider our career paths. In fact, tomorrow, we're going to become alchemists. There are a total of nine levels through four different sections of the city, plus a few pointless bonus areas, but for all the frustration of its trial-and- error gameplay, Smashing Drive can still be beaten in a few hours. However, it's recommended you turn off the sound- track after the first 10 minutes, or risk nausea and headaches the likes of which haven't experienced since that Pokémon seizure incident. Awful. Jeff Lundrigan = | Three out of Ten XBN 091 9 XRATED Smart Reviews гоог FIFA WORLD CUP Dev : EA Sports Pub : Electronic Arts Canada Players: 1 - 4 The Best : For now Release Date : Out Now With only two play modes— World Cup Tournament (a seven-game series) and Friendly, FIFA World Cup 2002 is about one thing and one thing only: fun. While other soccer games aim to sat- isfy all of your simulated soccer needs (from drafting teams and managing a squad’s front office), FIFA seems only concerned with gameplay. Setup is about is quick and easy; within a few clicks of the "A" button, you and your boys are on the pitch and ready to go. Those familiar with the series will welcome commentary by John Motsen and Andy Gray, as well as the familiar interface; however, playing the game with the Xbox controller will take some getting used to. Also, it seems that every year EA likes to muck around with the game's pace and various controls, and this year's version is no exception. In an attempt to make the game play more like watching a televised one, the developers have slowed things down a bit. In other words, at the Professional level, don't think that the road to victory will be as simple as giving the rock to star Eddie Pope and just guiding him ₪ Sing it with us: “These are а ҒІ-ҒА my favorite things..." Uh. Sorry. through the defense. Some of the pass- ing schemes have changed as well, such that finding open men for those all-too-important crosses won't be as easy as it's been in the past. Criticisms aside, EA has put together a game that you'll enjoy playing by yourself or with up to three of your bud- dies. While it may not be the deepest around, FIFA is just plain fun. And in the final analysis, that goes a long way. Wil O'Neal a | Seven out of Te HNOCHOUT HINGS 2002 Dev : Black Ops Pub : Electronic Arts Players : 1-2 King: By Default Release Date : Out Now Electronic Arts' inbred monar- chy Knockout Kings doles out shiny fighters who appear to have been dipped in Turtle Wax and whose connected blows sound exactly like gunshots; there are more phantom punches to be found here than in a rumble between Casper and Hamlet's old man. It's boxing gone surreal, complete with referee Mills Lane whose countenance seems to have been melted on a hot stove, and cor- nermen whose sage advice consists of gems such as “Relax. You're doing good. Keep working the combos.” Forget the whole notion of Knockout Kings existing as a boxing simulation; any such pretense із shattered with this year's go-round. Brawls eschew апу Sort of skill and are won by the pugilist who lands the most punches in the least amount of time. Blocking, a very useful tool in real-world boxing, has been trimmed in Kings to the point where a fighter will raise his guard for a period of time equal to or less than one full sec- ond before dropping it. To the point: punches can only be blocked one at a time, a farcical proposition considering « 092 XBN E = а № Knockout Kings is not only the shiniest boxing game we've ever played, but also the sassiest. even the lowliest pug in this game can hurl six or so punches in three seconds. Beautiful and over-the-top knockout replays as well as a terrific force-feed- back system that thumps the Xbox controller in tune to a fatigued fighter's heartbeat, help steer Kings toward competency...and the sheer thrill of pounding the opposition to paste with some fanciful fisticuffs can't be easily discounted. Greg Orlando ESPN MLSEXTREME 2002 Dev : Konami Pub : Konami Players : 1-4 Coulda : Shoulda Release Date : Out Now Based on its pedigree, we had very high hopes for this one; ESPN MLS Extreme 2002 comes from the creators of the glorious /SS series on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Sadly, our hopes were dashed the minute we loaded the game. MLS Extreme 2002 sports more than 100 teams, including real Major League Soccer and national squads. Konami's even built in a deep general manager mode for those who prefer to toil away in the back office. Replete with a wealth of animations and commentary from Jack Edwards and Luis Tapia (the "Goal!" guy from Telemundo), MLS 2002 looks great on paper. Unfortunately, the game is virtually unplayable. An unwieldy interface, endemic to most of Konami's sports titles, stands as an obstacle between the player and the ever-elusive "fun." The menus and options become excessive at some point—and MLS simply doesn't know when to quit. Competent yet uninspired graphics dominate and, adding insult to injury, it typically took about two whole losing matches to figure out how to effectively control the players, switch BLITZ 20-02 ₪ After receiving its share of victory hugs for the inspired /SS series, the MLS ball bounces, in all ways, badly for Konami. players, pass, or shoot. From a purely organic control standpoint, this game is light years behind /SS 64...and that is, quite simply, inexcusable. Konami should be lauded for the attempt. MLS Extreme 2002 has some modes that, were the game more playable, would be gaming time well- spent. Instead, difficult controls and a confusing interface make MLS Extreme 2002 an exercise in extreme frustration. Wil O'Neal Dev : Point of View Pub : Midway Players : 1-4 Blitz: Bomb Release Date : Out Now We'd feel rather safe in saying the 365-day period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 wouldn't rightly be a year if, during that period, Midway didn't release a new iteration of its classic smashmouth football game Blitz. In fact, Blitz (along with death, taxes, and Dick Clark) is one of the universe's great constants. Blitz 20-02 breaks away from the Blitz tradition a bit in that it's not last year's model reheated and with four hours' worth of graphical improve- ments. This year, the brutality is augmented by eight-man teams and the addition of a special "impact player" for every squad. This special player can be assigned to different tasks, be it block- ing, blitzing, or running a receiving route, and the addition of a wild card of sorts to each play adds new depth to the title. This impact player does little to offset the imbalance between the overemphasized pass game and the rather limp running offense, but it's a nice idea nonetheless. Sharp and smart, Blitz 20-02 burns the NFL's rulebook and allows for unparalleled arcade-style mayhem. It's ₪ Fun Fact: “Blitz” is German in origin, and short for "blitzkrieg." Blitzkrieg, as the Poles learned in World War ІІ, means "lightning war." great fun to mug a receiver before the ball reaches his hand, or bodyslam a hapless quarterback to the cold, cruel Earth; after a play, the recently tackled can be legdropped, elbowed or similarly molested. Goofy commentary accom- panies the on-screen action, and the developers have put in their requisite time to beautify the graphics so they're worthy of the Xbox. Put a hearty seven up on the board for Midway. Greg Orlando JAMES BOND: AGENT UnDER FIRE беу: Electronic Arts Pub : Electronic Arts Players : 1-4 Bond : Lames Bond Release Date : Out Now Many still see Rare's GoldenEye as the undisputed champion of console first-person shooters. Now, as EA makes its latest attempt to revitalize the sagging James Bond license, we find the veteran develop- er still struggling to reclaim that old FPS magic. Agent Under Fire features an original storyline not borrowed from any of the James Bond films. It includes all the spy doo-dads fans expect—renegade sub- marines, chemical warfare, and super-hot kung fu babes. But upon closer inspection, we find little more than a paint-by-numbers first-person shooter with a few driving and shooting gallery segments thrown in for variety's sake. Though the game's visuals are solid (especially on the framerate-friend- ly Xbox), the action lacks both variety and challenge. An oppressive auto-aim System, weak enemy Al, and simplistic puzzles keep gameplay straightforward and repetitive. Players are encouraged to find special *Bond Moves" within the levels to rack up bonus points...in turn unlocking skins, weapons, and multi- player maps. Unfortunately, most of BURNOUT Ш Wouldn't it be cool to play a game wherein the hero was a secret agent who was always being set on fire? You could call it "Agent on Fire." these are painfully obvious, and the unlockable bonuses less than gratifying. Multiplayer is one of the game's stronger points, featuring Deathmatch with optional computer-controlled bots, Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill. But there's not enough originality here to keep us away from Halo for long. AUF's Bond license may be enough to satisfy serious fans, but oth- ers will be balk at its shallow gameplay. Matt Sammons > Four out of Ten Dev : Criterion Pub : Acclaim Players :1 Side : Impact Release Date : Out Now If Acclaim's Burnout seems to come up a hair short, bear in mind the company it keeps; in any other era, this would be top of the line. From Gran Turismo to the free- wheeling of San Francisco Rush and Crazy Taxi, we’re living in a veritable Golden Age for console racing games Burnout is a terrific-looking game, recreating both the lush green of moun- tain highways and the cramped cobblestones of roadside villages with aplomb. You get a heady sense of speed here, the control is responsive and suitably arcade-y, and while chal- lenging, the learning curve isn't all that steep. Тһе А! of opposing drivers is sharp, as they deliberately attempt to push you off the road or into other cars. Burnout's main point of hype is its rather spectacular crashes. Roadways are swarming with civilian vehicles, and plowing into one earns a frighteningly realistic wreck. It's cool eye candy, com- plete with a handy readout telling you exactly how much insurance money it's gonna take to fix the damage. But Burnout also suffers from small, if numerous shortcomings. The mone- 3 11133 1 81 АРАН 23: ₪ Old-school fans of Sega's arcade classic Outrun will feel right at home on Burnout's roads. tary damage doesn't mean squat, and has no real effect on gameplay. Being completely blindsided at an intersection is frustrating as hell, and while the selection of tracks (14 in all) is pretty healthy, the choice of cars is dismal— they may look sorta different, but they break down into three basic categories that all handle about the same. Burnout is a solid competitor—fast and fun and oddly addictive. Jeff Lundrigan =) Seven out of Ten XRATED Smart Reviews GAUNTLET: DARK LEGACY Dev : Midway Pub: Midway Players: 1-4 Yes : Again Release Date : Out Now Flawed but solidly fun, deep as a dime, and airy as a zeppelin, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy provides the sort of cerebrum-free action that fairly screams to be enjoyed in 20- minute intervals. For those unfortunate souls who happened to be asleep or dead for Gauntlet's previous iterations, the game puts players in the role of a medieval hero thrust into a series of environments where many strange and exotic mon- sters demand killing with various melee and projectile weaponry. It's all standard fare, with a few role-playing game ele- ments tossed in for good measure. The usual criticisms involved with quick-and-dirty Xbox translations apply. Legacy has been poorly ported, so much so we expect the programmers left the job to lower primates, perhaps gibbons or macaques. The game fea- tures 3D graphics, as well as an isometric view that tends to show off ugly character and creature models. Players will find the in-game camera positioned down too close to the action—this enhances the view of the shoddy characters while simultaneously MOTO GP № Woodrow Wizard and Arthur Conan the Barbarian decided to take a break from plundering and begin slaughtering. reducing a player's ability to see a lot of Dark Legacy's worlds. In the face of these sizable bumps in the road, Legacy manages to uphold its predecessors' fine tradition of hectic, kill-*em-all, gameplay, and emerges as а game that's more magic than it is muck. Just don't bother going solo here; Gauntlet has always emphasized the shared experience and Midway's dun- geons are best crawled with friends. Greg Orlando =} | Six out of Теп Dev : Climax Pub : THQ Players : 1-4 GP: Gross Product? Release Date : Out Now While we've played more than our share of console racing games, there haven't been many good ones of late featuring our two- wheeled pal the motorcycle. Moto GP, which features 10 tracks modeled on real life venues and the like- nesses of more than 30 pro bikers, bucks that trend. In fact, the game pro- vides a unique feeling of authenticity and a depth of gameplay to a genre all but buried in a glut of car-based racers. Newbies to bike racing will be pleased with the game's gentle but deep learning curve and veterans will marvel at its fancy graphical touches. Even with bump-mapped terrain and up to 20 high-poly bikes on screen at once, the game never drops below 60 frames per second. The high framerate adds amazingly to the game's sense of speed, and the Xbox' springy analog Sticks provide plenty of control. The controls are simple—one stick is used for turning and the other for gas and brake. Advanced users will also want to master the independent front and rear wheel brakes, and eventually the elu- sive wheelie. Luckily, there's a № Motorcycles are like bikes for lazy people. Motorcycle video games are like motorcycles for lazy AND pathetic people. comprehensive training mode to help with the finer points. Throw in solid arcade and simulation modes and a ton of unlockable bonus- es, and we're left with little to pick on. Even the multiplayer modes, including a system link option, show plenty of pol- ish. Essentially, Moto GP is a game that has the potential to satisfy both gear- heads and a good chunk of wannabe bikers alike. Matt Sammons Eight out of Ten XBN 093 》 Нат CHILDHOOD CONTENT RATED BY ESRB THE ESRB VIDEO & COMPUTER GAME RATINGS Find out whether a computer or video game is right for your home. Learn more about the Entertainment Software Review Board rating system and how games get rated on www.esrb.org. 1 Es EE BY ADULTS 0NLY Ф RATING PENDING | , Visit www.esrb.org or call 1-800-771-3772 for more info. CONTENT RATED BY This message is brought to you by the Editors of: EARLY CHILDHOOD Titles rated “Early Childhood (EC)” have content that may be suitable for children ages three and older and do not contain any material that parents would find inappropriate. EVERYONE Titles rated “Everyone (Е)” have content that may be suitable for persons ages six and older. These titles will appeal to people of many ages and tastes. They may contain minimal violence, some comic mischief (for example, slapstick comedy), or some crude language. TEEN Titles rated “Teen (Т)” have content that may be suitable for persons ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violent content, mild or strong language, and/or suggestive themes. 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Between ШУ ОТ breaks and the munching of chips, he spilled the beans on '5`Пех{ for the god of god games. $ 093 хвм Peter Molyneux is one of the biggest ₪ stars іп the gaming firmament. His balding head routinely pops out of just about every European gaming magazine there is—and his Zen-like presence and considered perspectives on game design make him a favorite speaker at E3 and the Game Developers Conference. His company Lionhead Studios is now well established following the critical and commercial success of the PC hit Black and White, and his commitment to independent game development in the form of the Lionhead Satellites Program has helped a number of small outfits get their projects off the ground, not least of which is Big Blue Box's Project Ego. Molyneux virtually invented the genre of the god game with Populous on the Commodore Amiga, and since then his efforts have been largely confined to the less-glamorous (but no less obsessive) world of the PC. Until now. With three new projects Xbox bound, B/ack and White: Next Generation, B.C., and the epic Project Ego, Molyneux is stepping into a wider world. Xbox Nation: What are you working on right now, other than Project Ego? Peter Molyneux: Since March we've kicked off the Xbox version of Black and White which we're calling Black and White: Next Generation, which is in no way like the PC version. In [Next Generation], the whole game is centered totally around your creature instead of this disembodied "God hand." There's this new gameplay mechanic, which we shall show at ЕЗ, where you can take your creature in and collect the villagers round him and drag them around with him. The more villagers he has, the quicker he grows, the stronger he is, the better fighter he is when he meets other creatures, the more magic he can cast. It's much more like an RPG than a god game. XBN: Is it a completely different game? Are you using assets from the original title? Molyneux: [We're using] some of the artwork and some of the animations, but every single line of code is new. It's a totally new game. New story. New challenges. And really, the reason that's come about is the realization—and it's simple to put—that Га never really tackled a console game before. Га ported lots, yeah, but some of them had been successful and some of them hadn't been success- ful. Sitting down I’m thinking, "Well, if | want to make a great console game, how can | do that?” And the answer is by going back to school. It’s like starting again. Developing a console game is so different to a PC experience. | can’t assume, for example, that I’ve automatically got someone's attention for hours on end. The fact of the matter is that if you're playing a console game you might be half-drunk or half something else [Laughs] and you're not going to be playing it for six hours straight, you're going to be playing between doing other things. XBN: So this is Peter Molyneux the Next Generation? Molyneux: Yes, it is in a way. And that's gone into Project Ego and B.C. and Black and White: Next Generation. XBN: Why will Project Ego be the "Greatest Role- Playing Game Ever Made"? Molyneux: The idea with Project Ego—that incredibly bold and stupid thing for me to say—that it's got to be the best RPG ever is actually like asking, "Please Mr. Journalist—kick me in the nuts when this comes out," because you'd love to say, "Actually it's the shittiest role-playing game ever." [Laughs] So how come | even attempt to do that? Because looking back on it, there are things that we have been doing on the PC for years that have never really been tried on the console, that could make the game experience that much better. Right now, role-playing games are set in scripted worlds, where nothing changes. How many times have you walked up to a character and had them say, "You've got to go and rescue the princess up on the hill," and you've just done the most obscene things to the person next to them, with a sword, and they still speak to you as if nothing's happened. It pisses me off. It doesn't feel right. We can change that. We can set this linear story in a simulated world. Instead of playing a character that is fixed and designed by some game designer, you play a character that you have an influence on— that changes and morphs as the game goes on. XBN: Sounds like Black and White... Molyneux: It's the same concept. What your charac- ter is in Project Ego is up to you. He starts off as a 15-year-old kid. Whether he is a Conan the Barbarian-type character, or a Bruce Lee-type martial arts guy, or a wizard, isn't down to a question at the start of the game. It's down to what you do with him during the game. Whether you are the most evil hero of all time that has slaughtered young children or whether you're going to be the most noble of knights like Sir Lancelot, is completely up to you. Is it better that those morphs and changes happen to a cow, or is it better if they happen to a human being? It seems more natural, obviously, if those things happen to a human being. What we've done is we've taken some of the inspiration from Black and White, like the morphing-and what Big Blue Box has done is increase it enormously. For example, the morphing is now to the most detailed level. The character you play in Project Ego is 15 years old. You play the game until you finish it. If by the end of the game the character is an old man, then he's an old man, and A INTERVIEW he looks like an old man, because he morphed/aged as the game progressed. Another aggravation of role-playing games is that they always take place over a weekend in game terms. You started playing the game on Friday and the world had to be saved by Monday morning. It’s ridiculous. Why not set it over somebody's life and say, yes, there is this great quest that you have to go on, and it’s a life quest, and at the end of the game, you are going to be the greatest hero the world has ever known. Another thing we’re introducing is something that role-playing games have never had—a competitive element. You’re not the only hero in the world. You might be down at this tower where this damsel needs saving, and you look up and there’s Boris the Impaler already halfway up! And you think, “Bastard! He’s going to get all the kudos for rescuing the girl!” These are things we've done on the PC, and they shouldn't be imported directly, but the underlying mechanics should. XBN: So what about B.C.? We've heard some stuff. Molyneux: B.C. is set in a prehistoric world. You play the role of a tribe. That sounds a bit weird, but you can play any member of a tribe. We don't say: "Hey, you're this one." You've probably had drunken conversations like | have, and they go something like this: "Imagine you go back in time, and you couldn't take a anything with you and you were naked, what would you change?" XBN: Err...right. Molyneux: [Laughs] The reality is that this game is going to be the most brutal, savage, gory, unbeliev- ably gut wrenchingly bloody game ever seen on a console, and | put it to you that if you actually do get to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the ocean of blood that spews forth from this creature will turn your stomach. | want this to be a primitive world. It's not cozy, comfy cushion-y land—it's going to be somewhere that is unbelievably brutal. Arms are ripped off, and heads crushed. XBN: Sounds like our office. Molyneux: Well, it's about survival. The first, opening scene of the game, is a cave with these barely human, disgustingly behaved beings, huddling—not knowing where their next meal will come from. The first thing you do is lead them out of this cave, and as you come out of the cave, you're on top of a cliff, and below you is this enormous valley, just full of incredible life. And we're not making dinosaurs life- size; we're making them like Godzilla. They're big things. | mean, | was disappointed when 1 went to the National History Museum in London that the T-Rex was small. Continued on p100 XBN 099 > 下 INTERVIEW XBN: What perspective are you playing the game from? Molyneux: Third-person, over the shoulder of the particular tribe member that you're controlling. XBN: A follow-cam? Molyneux: Yes. If you do something and there are other tribe members around, then they're copy what you do. So if you go and attack a dinosaur, they jump in too. Those characters act as lives and power-ups. XBN: Is there a progression? *Hey everybody—l discovered fire!" about, and there is a rival tribe of simians that are competing against you, who are semi-intelligent beings as well, who are always fighting you. What you're doing is taking your tribe on a trek across this huge plain, and once you get to the plateau, you'll be safe. And at the end of the game you get a score that says, "Based upon how you treated your tribe, your tribe will invent ‘this’ in this year, the early tests that we've had say that you will have invented writing by the year 2010," and another says, "You'll invent rocket Science." The main thing is that it's very gory, with a little bit of tribal RPG stuff and a very soft structure in there. XBN: Did you play Pikmin on Gamecube? Imagine you went back in time, and you couldn't take anything with you and you were naked. What would you change? Molyneux: Yes. If you discover a bone on the ground and you decide to use it as a weapon, then everyone else will do that too. You can invent stuff—almost the role-playing elements of the game, is that by the end your tribe would have got all this cool stuff. XBN: Nuclear weapons? Molyneux: Not quite. But it is sort of, | know what | can do with that round thing and make a wheel. It's the player that decides that...| mean—we highlight things, obviously. XBN: So there's some progression. Are you following a season or a year in this tribe's life? Molyneux: The story is really simple. At the start of the game you're basically fighting for survival. You can find various new tribe members that are just wandering « 100 хвм Molyneux: The thing that's most like Pikmin is Black and White: Next Generation, because those little creatures you pick up and that follow you around is a bit like the villagers following your creature in Next Generation. XBN: Did you like it? Molyneux: When | first started playing it | thought, this is going to be amazing, and | really like the mechanic of things following me and feeling that | could do things with them. But it kind of lacked something...that sharpness. | was talking to someone recently who was saying that there's no original games around any more, and | think that it's not so much that there are no original games, but rather that there's as much originality as there was before, but it's not the whole thing about a game now. XBN: So, it's hard to invent new genres, but people are being original within the formats we're familiar with? Molyneux: Pikmin was probably the most totally origi- nal game—other than Rez and things like that, where the whole thing was totally new, and it lacked a bit of a story, | think. But you don't blame God for making mistakes, and [Shigeru] Miyamoto's God, so... it was perfect! XBN: When we look at your games, over the years, you get a sense that each one is another step towards the big, ultimate Peter Molyneux dream game. How close are you to that dream now? Molyneux: Certainly | think Project Ego and B.C. аге steps along the way. I think that Black and White 2 is another step again. But really, the project that | can't say anything about at all right now, a project called Dimitri, is stupidly ambitious. XBN: Is this a Lionhead game? Molyneux: Yes, What happened to the Black and White team is that a third of them went off to do Black and White 2, and two-thirds stayed to do Dimitri. Dimitri won't even be showable for another two years. And the big idea there is recreating a scene like this [gestures to the bustling hotel lobby], down to every single detail. XBN: Totally convincing people? Molyneux: Totally. Every single detail. At the moment. We've got one scene, which is not too dissimilar to this bit of the room, where every single detail of that room has been simulated. Total realism. XBN: Sounds like the Holy Grail of graphics. Molyneux: Well, the face technology that we're talking about—the feature technology is, І would say, and this INTERVIEW‏ יצ is another of my bold claims 一 better than anything Hollywood is doing right now. When | show it, | don't want you to be able to distinguish between a real human face and this face, which would be cool. Eyes that move and follow you, the way a face animates, and twitches and changes over time, and all of the things that make up a human face and human body. XBN: It's often the little gestures that make something real—the stuff that we barely register. Can they be distracted, while you're talking to them, in realtime, for example? Molyneux: Absolutely. The funny thing is that the technology is achievable, | think, except one thing— it's the number one limiting factor in an awful lot of games now, and it's going to become more and more so-and it is this: Animation. It's come out of left field. We didn't predict this limiting factor and it's a night- mare. Because suddenly we've got characters that look like human beings ... XBN: But move like cheap robots? Molyneux: Right. We've haven't got the skill in our industry. The people that can animate really well are at Disney and ILM, and those companies have sucked the animation talent out of the world already! And suddenly, we're coming along, and our characters have got—you know, every major bone in the human body, covered with muscle and flesh, but you can't ask Al to make a dramatic motion, like picking up this glass here. It's got to be done by an artist. We've got a team of programmers, a team of artists, and now, suddenly, we need a team of animators which is bigger than the team of artists and the programmers put together! XBN: You say you can't ask artificial intelligence to work it out, but surely, eventually, Al will be smart enough to figure out how to pick up a glass in a human way? Molyneux: We can do that now. It's called inverse- kinematics, but it's a very simplistic thing, and the robot looks like a robot, not a human. The only thing we can do—and it's what we're looking at—is creating this soup of animations that have been created by animators, animations that are not on the whole body, broken down into the bits of the body, and then the AI chooses the most appropriate animation to do the job. | mean—primitively speaking—just for me to get up and walk over the other side of this room, think of the number of different moves | have to made, squeezing past furniture, making sure | don't knock over a cup of coffee—it’s terrifying! Well, you’ve seen A./., the movie? The Al portion of that | think, at least mentally, we could do a six- to eight-year-old within about two years. | could create a character on a computer that you would communi- cate, probably by typing stuff in, and that would be indistinguishable from that six- to eight-year-old. It would have emotions—it would have fear, it would be deceptive. In engineering terms, the idea of putting that into a robot, it’s pathetic. It’s just pathetic. We can’t even blink an eye in engineering terms, let alone XBN: When it’s real enough, Peter Molyneux will come down from the clouds and go first-person? Molyneux: That has always been my ultimate ambition, to do a simulation of a world. That's it. XBN: So is first person the future of video games? When it becomes perfectly real, you’ll want to be in it as you—not as some third person. Molyneux: | think that’s right. | don’t agree with people that say there’s this stagnation of stuff in the computer games industry. | think it’s just amazing. When it goes from little things—they way they just got it absolutely right about the way the enemies avoid the shots in Halo—it made it real. Just a tiny little innovation, but it will now influence every game. And all these things are happening all the time, but they’re happening on less titles, not more titles. XBN: So has animation taken over from Al as the next big frontier in video games? Molyneux: No, | think Al is still that—and it’s going to You've seen A./., the movie? From а program- ming perspective, we could simulate a six year old, at least mentally, within about two years create someone close to human. So there's a lot of amazingly exciting stuff coming out at the moment, but there's also a lot of new frustrations. XBN: There is that progression, though, in your games? Molyneux: Yes. | mean, if you look at it—if you follow the games, you're going from up here in the heavens, down to one person—eventually. lead us to places we've never dreamed of going, by the way. But animation is the bottleneck. It doesn't matter how detailed my character is, or how amazingly intelligent he is, because if he moves like a robot, he's going to look dumb. When we crack that, we'll really have something amazing to look at. XBN 101 > үх M 84 72 y P P T ч 4 ~ Photo by Sean Murphy, ; hy . x $ 102 xBN Next month, Xbox Nation interviews Charo about Gex, Art Garfunkel about the nVidia chipset, and Lassie about the Mideast crisis. For now, it's Tenacious D. Part Crosby, Stills, and Nash, part Morbid Angel, part Steve Martin—it's a fair assessment of the supergroup that is Tenacious D. The world was first introduced to the duo a few years ago via several shorts featured on the HBO comedy program Mr. Show. Although Mr. Show ranged from god-awful to goddamn genius, the D shorts were end-to-end whoppers. Since the shorts aired, lead singer/actor/comedian /favorite of the Xbox Nation staff Jack Black has blown up and Tenacious D has exploded with him. Since the record came out, Black and his partner Kyle Gass have toured ceaselessly with Weezer, appeared on all the late night shows, and snorkeled zero times. Dragons beware. Xbox Nation: | saw a huge raccoon last night. Jack Black: Where are you? XBN: San Francisco. Black: When you say huge, how huge? XBN: It was up to my knee. Black: Oh my God. Those things can be vicious. They look cute, but you're not supposed to pet them. XBN: Where are you guys? Black: We're at the...Kyle—what are you doing? Gass: lm right here. Can you hear me? Black: Yeah, but are you doin' some other stuff? Gass: No, go ahead. Is this better? XBN: Way better. Black: [To Kyle] What were you using, a special headset? KG: | was using a special flight simulator headset, XBN: Do you ever get to go snorkeling while you're on tour? Black: That's à strange question, and the answer is no. | could if | wanted to, but һауе not chosen to snorkel. Gass: There's a lot of things you can do... Black: What's with you and the snorkeling? ХВМ: It’s fun, | did it, and heard whales singing. Black: Okay, you are insane. But yes | have enjoyed the fruits of snorkeling, in my youth, but not lately, maybe you're right, maybe I'm missing out on something. XBN: When did you guys find out you're the best band? Black: | suspected it from the very beginning. Before we even played a live show, | suspected that maybe we could be the best band, but that goes back to my childhood when | used to think maybe | was the fastest runner, and | was proven wrong. | thought maybe | could be the strongest man in the world until proven otherwise, but I found out that was not the case. And then I thought smartest, nope, but then the best band, | thought, maybe the best band and then fick, lo! and behold, we found it. XBN: Are you going to work with Lee Perry? Black: Hell yes, from Journey? Gass; Мо, Lee Scratch Perry. Black: Oh, he's a raga dude? Um, I’m not gonna say по, I'm open to all possibilities. Has he expressed interest? XBN: | don't know, but he's a very good producer. Black: If he's down with the D, that's the main thing. Can you check into that? XBN: Yep. How many dragons have you guy seen? Black: Seen or slayed? XBN: Seen. Black: Гуе seen only two, but Гуе slain three. Because one of them was coming up behind me, | slayed him and he disappeared in a ball of flame before ! could get a glimpse. Gass: I'm not really sure you slayed him, though. Black: No, but you told me, you Saw. Gass: That's true, | assumed you did. XBN: What do dragons smell like? Black: Sulfur. Gass: They do not smell good dude. Black: And one time there was an invisible dragon, that | had sex with. XBN: So you were Zeus and the dragon was Leda? Black: I'm not familiar with that fable. XBN: Zeus wants to make love to Leda and she doesn't like him, so he turns into a swan and they have sex. Black: And she has sex with a swan? She boned a swan? And he was stoked. | like Zeus, | like all those Greek guys. They're very sexual, the gods from Christianity and all the other ones, you don't hear about them boning. Zeus will go and bone and һауе а good time. XBN: Which one is the best god? Black: Well Zeus is obviously the most powerful right? — - Best god,..'m gonna go with Elron, ‘cause he's the | most scí-fi. He can kill microscopic aliens with his laser vision. Gass: What's the guy that's fleet of foot? SER Black: That's Flash. pm Gass: Apollo? וכ‎ Black: Who's faster, Flash or Apollo? Gass: 1 think Apollo. 1 Black: They both have wings on their feet. XBN: Flash has wings on his head. JB: Only on his head. ХВМ: You guys ever see someone run а — loop? JB: [Laughs] How do you do that? ХВМ: You have to run really fast. Black: You mean if there was а ramp? ו‎ haven't seen that. Have you Kage? Gass: Have not, although the chick last night.. pue was a gymnast, and she was trying to do one of vo : walk-overs, but not using her hands. 6 Black: Oh no, did she bite it? Gass: So close to biting it, she kinda fell backwards and it looked like the head was gonna... Black: But she didn't hit her head. : Gass: She didn't hit her head, but she did kinda 2 XBN: Are you back in LA for awhile or аге you. going to keep touring? JB: We're going on tour dude. Major f'ckin' tour. - XBN: With Cannibal Corpse? JB: I'm not familar with their work. Who's Cannibal. Corpse? XBN: They're a good death-metal band. Black: Really? Не! no. We're gonna do a stretch with: David Cross hopefully. And we're gonna do a stretch with Kid Rock, and hopefully Eddie Vedder will come | out. | heard [Paul] McCartney and Ringo [Starr] аге | gonna back us up on some of the shows. Check this © out: We've got an offer out, we've haven't heard back from them yet, We've asked Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic to come out, and we'll. call it Nirvana, and me and Kage will have to join forces to make up. for the missing Kurt Cobain. с Gass: | think the name might be Nirvana Redux. not sure though. рт tradition. Its great to be a part of. 5. home ER view that you'd be looking . out at, зау, any zen uode the exact view | see | вте ла able Jo complete your duties? Will Sega ден ате aped x Giambi: Yeah, and then | won't be able to play the game апутоге. That would be rough. | don't know if ; be able to handle that, because ! enjoy playing, _ video games. I've played since | was a kid. “ХВМ: Your teammate Derek Jeter is the 5 spokesman for Acclaim's All-Star Baseball. Did һе ` give you any advice on the trials and tribulations of |. spokesmanship? 1 Giambi: No, he didn't. Now, we're rivals as it goes in ` the video game world. No, we've been having a good _ time with it, you know, he's great with it. So, like I've said, anytime you get an opportunity to be behind something that's great and that you enjoy doing—and Гуе been playing video games since | was a kid. It's . the cool part of being a big leaguer. | XBN: What systems did you play? Giambi: When | was a kid? You know, | had even ‘before Sega came out with the Xbox and everything else, | had, you know Sega and | also had, let's see, _ with the uh, the biggest one, you know, some PlayStation, but Sega was the biggest one that | ended up having as a kid. XBN: dee wae ל‎ your glove “like Allie Caufield from J.D. Salinger's Catcher in E Giambi: No, you know I'm pretty anal about keeping _ my glove in great shape and I've had the same glove _ for about the last seven years— try to touch it up and keep it all together. There are some guys who write on _ the top of their hats, other guys do their little rituals at the plate, but I'm pretty basic. The only one [ritual] | do = is! put my uniform on the same way every day. ient them by asking how come Pas never . been picked to promote a baseball game? | paid. millions to play baseball and endorse World Series .אסכ‎ But has he ever been in the same room as a video game? Giambi: No, the biggest thing is that when you get to first base, the most things you talk about are the girls in the first row, what's going on in the game, you know, and sometimes things really unrelated to baseball. XBN: Are you going to give your brother Jeremy a nougie or a wedgie if he gets to first base? Giambi: [Laughs] No. We grew up as best friends, so it's great that he's doing well this year. It's one of the biggest things ! miss not being with the A's is my brother, because it was pretty special to grow up and be on the same field as your brother. It doesn't get any better than that. XBN: What do you think of Sega's strategy of shift- ing from a hardware developer to a strictly platform-agnostic content publisher? Giambi: | think it's great move on their part. | think they really feel that's where the market's at and they can be more realistic. | think them switching over, you know, they're trying to tap a new part of the market that's really not been tapped into. XBN: Have you played World Series Baseball yet? Giambi: I've only seen bits and pieces of it. We haven't finished up everything that they need to go with the game. Because of [Sega] being out here in the Bay area and me in New York, | haven't had a lot of opportunity to see a lot of things that have gone on with the game. XBN: What was the motion capture process like? Giambi: We haven't done the motion capture yet. We've still got that in the works. It's definitely going to be cool, you know the way they described it. You get to put on the wet suit and throw out the little ping- pong balls. That's what it makes it so realistic: because it's actually you swinging the bat, it's actually you throwing the ball or sliding or whatever they want you to do. That's the fun part of the game. XBN: Do you believe that Union general Abner Doubleday created baseball or do you believe in a more evolutionary theory, as put forth by anthro- pologist Stephen Jay Gould? Giambi: [Laughs] Well, first of all, it probably would have helped if | had finished college—l'm just kidding. You know, | think everybody wants to have this big to do about how this game was started. | think Doubleday was a big part of how the game got started, but that's always up for debate. I really don't know where it actually started, but they way every- body talks about it, Abner Doubleday did. : L Ж М INTERVIEW ^ XTRA Out of the Box > Essential Selections Your Xbox is your multimedia pal. It gets tired of the guns and the explosions and the video game shenanigans, so feed it some music and cinematic masterpieces. BoC makes music that transports you to other places. One moment you'll be riding on a merry-go-round with loads of kiddies on a sunny day in July and with the smell of sunscreen in the air, the next you'll be swimming in a gyroscopic aquapool on Jupiter with loads of kiddies, except this time they'll actually be kiddy- impersonating robots and it smells normal because robots don't need to wear sunscreen. After their amazing debut, these guys said that Geogaddi could be "a perfect album"; we have no idea what a "perfect album" should sound like, but this is very good, and we recommend you present it to your ears as a gift. The work of Atlanta- based Scott Herren, Studies demonstrates more original musical concepts than your ears will know what to do with. The sound is both gloriously lo-fi and bumping as hell, with white noise and electronic fragments layered atop one another by someone whose understanding of music is as instinc- tive as it is comprehensive. By chopping up samples of emcees and using the resulting vocal fragments as individual instruments—including those of Aesop Rock and MF Doom—Herren opens up new pathways in your brain. Beats are bananas, production is tight, and this is one of the best records we've heard in years. Warren Zevon, arguably the world's leading exporter of thrice-plumbed angst, collaborates with authors Hunter S. Thompson and Carl Hiaasen, enlists the help of TV goof David Letterman, and, in doing so, creates the perfect album for a Prozac Sunday. Brilliant and comic, with equal parts of kick to the stomach and twitchy rock beats, Here is perhaps Zevon's finest stab at the American zeitgeist; when he croons, “I’ve got a bitter sort of je ne sais quois— Guess what? I'm stirring it with a monkey's paw," you can just about sense that Zevon is perhaps too talented for his own good. Buy two copies. The second LP from Brighton-based Stuart Cullen, who cites influences from Black Dog to Public Enemy to Phillip Glass. Mr. Cullen’s compositions are melancholy, detached, and beautiful, all with an underly- ing sense of humor—which itself never interferes with the album's emotional resonance. Pilote's work cannot be easily categorized; “Nelson” is a vaguely retro, upbeat electro track, while “French Canadian,” perhaps the album's finest moment, is a beautiful downtempo gem with distant vocal samples, rich strings and a distorted piano melody. It makes us feel both happy and sad, and we highly recommend it. $ 106 хвм Today it seems like the best film soundtracks are only good because they remind you of scenes from the film itself, so when we found one that could stand on its own we thought it deserved some credit. The soundtrack was put together by director Wes Anderson, with original music by Mark Mothersbaugh; together they have created a compilation with the same polished, subtle emotion as the movie. The soundtrack ranges from The Clash and The Velvet Underground to newcomers like Nico for its inspira- tion, and Mothersbaugh's classical compositions make this a trip you'll want to take over and over again. This is the third sopho- more effort in our reviews section this month, and it avoids the infamous slump as deftly as the first two. Andy Turner's diverse geographical roots come through in much the same way as they did on his first album, Co/d Water Music. Turner grew up in Barrow-in-Furness—located directly in the Middle of Nowhere, U.K.—and Hinterland manages to effectively fuse the pine-scented serenity of his homeland with the human bustle of his more current urban habitats. Guest spots from Diamond D and on Souls of Mischief are welcome, and Kate Rogers returns for another dreamy vocal appearance. Terry Gilliam's classic is now a part of the distin- guished Criterion Collection DVD series, which is good because we're fresh out of Quaaludes and this movie is an ample substitute. The plot involves a band of mischievous midgets pilfering a map, which gives them access to holes in the space-time continuum—-and, in turn, brings them one step closer to fame and finance. Fortunately, a resourceful and evenhanded laddie named Kevin is chosen to escort them on their altogether ridiculous quest through various eras and epochs. Time Bandits provides a dizzying dose of cinematic lunacy, and the entire tale—right through to the very end—never relents in maintaining its grim, deranged sensibilities. The DVD includes audio commentary by director Terry Gilliam, his co-writer (and ex-Monty Python collaborator) Michael Palin, and actors John Cleese, David Warner, and Craig Warnock. Make it yours (or convince someone else to do so). XTRA of the Box So you've been watching television all night, and you can't seem to find any shows in which extraterrestrial porno/goth nurses prod their patients' asses with syringes, drawing from them a cacophony of discomforted howls to the tune of “Comin’ Round the Mountain." You also can't Seem to track down any programs involving leather-clad interplanetary mistresses dealing hallucinogenic drugs to bug-eyed alien nerds, or live-action sitcoms about a family of American mannequins moving to Japan and their ongoing violent marital drama. Now you can get all of this and a hot set of free stickers to boot, thanks to Japan's infamous Pleasure Night collection, which is now available on delicious US region 1 DVD. It's funny in that way that makes you look at the person next to you every five minutes or so and say something to the effect of, “Huh?” Peep http://www.vpn-tv.net/english/index.html for more. Annoying cartoon waif Linn Minmei (one envisons her creator as a sadist of the highest order) whines and pules throughout the entirety of the epic Robotech: The Macross Saga. Her "singing" will torment you in the same manner as the fiery pitchforks of Hell jabbing across your private bits. She will make you believe that suffering is eternal, and that when you die, she'll be at your funeral, wailing away like Yoko Ono. You'll watch the entire epic animated series just to see if she suffers a horrible fate—and rejoice when hero Rick Hunter makes his ultimate decision regarding Minmei. Oh, and you'll thoroughly enjoy the whole six-DVD set from Harmony Gold and ADV Films, which features a brave band of humans attempting to defend the Earth against a race of giants, planes that transform into butt-stomp- ing robots, firefights galore, intrigue, romance, and action of the two-fisted variety. As transforming robot space operas go, this one may be the Queen Mum. It might seem like we're riding the Terry Gilliam/ Criterion Collection dilz this month, but it's really just our way of celebrating celluloid greatness. Brazil is a quite indescribably twisted work of genius, and so is this three- disc DVD gem. In no particular order: a "Production Notebook" (writers illuminate the script's development through three drafts and treatments, a production designer displays his set designs, a costume designer explores the couture of fashion, fantasy, and fascism); Terry Gilliam's origi- nal dream sequence storyboards; composer Michael Kames talks about his score; a comprehensive study of the special effects, with loads of cool unused footage; What Is Brazil?, a rare on-set documentary; an original 1996 Criterion documentary discussing one of the most controversial releases in Hollywood history; and, on top of all that, a 94-minute version of Brazil—rearranged in the hope of making the film “commercial”—which, if nothing else, illustrates the corruptive power of editing. This thing isn't cheap, but what, save for perhaps life, is? So you know it's illogical and stubborn, but you've been holding off on your purchase of The Usual Suspects DVD because of its curious lack of "extras." The predicament has actually been forcing you to question your merciless dedication to consumerism; despite the fact that Suspects is one of the most tightly scripted, skillfully directed, and brilliantly acted films of the past 10 years—and knowing full well that you would watch it at least a dozen times a year until the day you die—the disc doesn't have any deleted scenes, on-set documentaries, or original TV spots. Well the Special Edition has finally arrived with all of this assorted goodness, and it sports both fancy new packaging and a cheaper price tag to boot. So now you can make amends with the gods of materialism and enjoy the towering cinematic achievement that is this film. (Oh, and if you somehow haven't seen it, please stop wasting your time with this silly magazine and go do so immediately. Thank you.) Two brothers (ably played by Steve Zahn and Paul Walker) driving cross-country play a joke on a trucker with a CB. They stop to pick up love interest Venna (Leelee Sobieski). The joke backfires. Bad things happen. Much violence ensues. It would be easy to dismiss the creepy, toe- curling Joy Ride as little more than a mainstream pleaser with some in-vogue acting talent. That would be a mistake, however, and as the characters in Joy Ride discover, the simplest mistakes can have serious consequences. The tension is a superstar here—kicking in over the opening titles and building like it's never stopping. A taut but playful script and some noir camera work of which Hitchcock would be proud all combine to deliver one of this year's most surprising rides. And you get fries with this one—three alternate endings, as well as numerous commentaries which make for a superb DVD package. If you've got nothing to do tonight, we recommend you rent this sordid take on the classic road/buddy movie gone terribly wrong. Very popcorn-friendly. XBN 107 9 = This issue... Malfunctioning Xboxes, strange UFO-style sight- ings of Grand Theft Auto and something about a game character allegedly called “Crash Bandicoot” characterize the missives that stuff our mailbox. Sorry about the Tony Hawk thing, by the way. $ 108 XBN אספחוצ XBN@ziffdavis.com Hi, | recently purchased issue #2 and it's great. | appreciate the objective way in which you report on all things Xbox. | have found that objectivity is hard to find in some of the “Official” magazines. | saw in the issue that Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was due to be released in April on the Xbox? Your magazine is the only one | have seen this information in. It is not even on the EA Web site. Could you confirm or deny if this is in fact going to happen, and if not, do you know when it will? Keep up the good work. jmg018 We called EA and their reps told us that the game release date has been changed from spring to fall. They didn't say why, but our manag- ing editor Greg Orlando suspects that it might be because they want to fit more Nazis in it so that he can shoot them. But that's Greg. One criticism: way too many typos in your first and second issue. My wife is a teacher of English as a second language and English for literacy with a degree in English literature. Are you interested in a good proofreader? Tony Pikos No thnaks, Tony, we're dOing fine. | just want to know what could possibly be holding back СТАЗ from coming to the Xbox? I'm sure whatever kind of money Sony could be offering them would be well overcome by the money they would make. When you have something that good, why use its full potential? Any other thoughts on why they are holding out? Ziggy We have heard, through a source close to the Grand Theft Auto development team, that СТА 3 is a PlayStation 2 exclusive and that Sony has paid for it to stay that way. Rockstar is not talking (as usual), but there is some good news: According to the same source, GTA 4 is in development for all systems, including Xbox. І bought myself an Xbox at the end of November 2001. | doubt I've logged more than 500 hours of play time on this thing. In five short months, my Xbox has gone from being the coolest thing I could have spent $300 on, to the bane of my existence. I'm starting to wish Га just spent my money on black tar heroin, I'd have ended up healthier. Over the last two months, my 'Box has gone from occasional read errors (where the damn thing fails to recognize that, yes, that IS a game disc), and crashing once in a blue moon, to nine times out of 10 NOT reading my game disc, and crashing every 10th time after about half an hour. What's really sad is that I'm NOT exaggerating; I've been keeping notes. And of course, since it didn't turn into the HellBeast until AFTER a month after | bought it, getting it returned is going to be a nightmare. Insomnia Bob Getting it returned should be a breeze if you have a) registered it with Microsoft and b) it’s within 90 days of purchase. If it’s within those 90 days, then Microsoft will fix it free of charge. If it’s after those 90 days, that’s when it gets expensive. There's a flat fee of $129.00 + tax for any repairs outside of the warranty. Ouch. You will also need proof of “| contacted Microsoft's customer service department and they told me that | was SOL” Bryan Duke purchase, if you haven't already registered the system. First off, | would like to say that you guys have one great magazine. l'm glad to see someone out there is out to show both the good and the bad about the Xbox. | was reading the letters in your Spring Issue #2 and I wanted to let people know that the rumors about the Xbox failing are true! І purchased my Xbox in December and four days after the full warranty expired the thing stopped reading any game or audio disc including DVDs. 1 contacted Microsoft's customer service department and they basic ally told me that | was SOL and if | wanted it fixed, it would cost me another $275.00 Canadian to get it done. Bryan Duke My Xbox is f#cked up too. | had to ship that big 955 box back to Memphis to get repaired. The DVD drive | think is going out already and I bought it before Christmas. | didn't buy the $50 warranty, so you know they charged me an arm and a leg to ship it out to get repaired when basically it's their own damn fault it's messed up anyway. | guarantee you if it comes back still messed up, РИ be raising some hell. My games just wouldn't work. It said that my CDs were unrecognizable and that it was either dirty, scratched, or damaged. So | tried it on my friend's Xbox and it worked fine. So, are my CDs dirty, scratched, or damaged? | don't think So. Find some more people with the same problem so we could all raise hell together. Seth Pontiff My friend's friend already bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto 3 for Xbox from a store. | want to know how he bought the game before IGN or whoever had a chance to even see screenshots of it. He bought it from a video game store nearby, and | even played it on his Xbox with my very own hands. Nemesis3975 And then the pizza sent out for you! You mentioned that some people returned their Xboxes saying that the "games wouldn't play." Well, that's just because they're impatient. When | first got my Xbox, it said "Your Xbox cannot read this disc, please make Sure..." but after trying it a couple of times it worked. All you have to do is put in a different game and then put Overheard in the offices of XBN Automated unit #X4F5B Chip Boaz addresses Evan's computer problem at Ziff ^Brazil" Davis. Managing editor Greg commenting on the soulful sounds of the Avalanches. A very hyper Art Director Dave Ziganay after viewing Silence of the Lambs for the umpteenth time Greg pines for a quick demise while some deadly dull speaker rambles on about the video game-themed TV station G4 Mail of the moment Skate Expectations s Simon has the answer to Bill's problems in the Far East XBN 109 > в” Bl. Rage". | 1 ў oden stakes, fireballs or your surroundings taking the “un” out o the undead Only on Xbo ‚ Xbox and the Xbox logos ё and/or other countries ап STAR WARS = ДІ STRUT Now, FORCE powered. TEEN ® ( Violence CONTENT RATED BY ESR PlayStation.e Our goal is to preserve classic video game magazines so tha they are not lost permanently. People interested in helping out in any please visit us af www.refromags.c [f you come across anyone selling releases from this site, please do not support them and do let us know. Thank you!