Issue 3 (January 2001)

Issue 3, January 2001

Editor’s letter

“Why did you buy your Playstation 2? Was it because you ache for sophisticated adult gameplay? Perhaps you simply want your arcade thrills faster than light? Or maybe you want to play as the cute dinosaur from that Disney film. Then again, you might just want it as a DVD player and have a go on the odd game. Hell, that Timesplitters looks a giggle, so why not whack it on after Blair Witch?

Many of the letters we’ve received after out debut issue have touched the hardcore/mainstream, old/young arguments. While some readers see Playstation 2 as the magnifying glass that will bring out the gaming nuances hinted at in such PSone titles as Metal Gear Solid, others see it quite simply as ‘a good laugh.’ For all the future promises, goes the argument, this is just a games console that plays bloody good games and lets you watch movies. Yes, goes the counter-argument, but such future advances as broadband delivery and episodic gameplay will sort the men from the boys and show that games aren’t just for kids. It’s a console. It’s the future of computer entertainment. It’s a DVD player. Donald Duck: Quack Attack. Fight Club. Resident Evil. Toy Story 2. Hardcore. Mainstream. Yada yada yada.

The piecemeal answer to the above is, yes, that it’s all of the above. No one ever argued over what a video recorder was – it was what you watched on it that counted. The same’s true of the Playstation 2 but crucially, it’s also not – unlike your trusty VHS, Sony’s latest and greatest won’t be standing still under your TV. Those who crave straight-ahead gaming thrills or just want to watch the latest movies will be happy with Playstation 2 straight out of the box, their pleasures increased as the content gets better. Count us in with that crowd for sleepless nights and thrill-packed days but after such visceral pleasures, I don’t think it’s snobbish to ask for, well, more. From the game developers we interview to the boffins busy inventing new peripherals, those people behind the scenes are desperate to realise the best from Playstation 2. They want it to evolve into something that will offer us experiences we haven’t even dreamed of yet. Co-operative online gaming, tactile interfaces, real-time interactive play… Buzzphrases, yes, but what buzzphrases. We all liked playing Pong but wouldn’t it have been great to feel the white dot when you volleyed it back?

New readers – and there’s hopefully a few of you after Christmas, if that’s you, welcome – will wonder what the hell I’m on about. Hopefully a few older readers will too. The fact is the Playstation 2 is what you want it to be. Why not write to us and tell us what your vision of the future is. This and future issues show some of our ideas. It’s just a shame we’re usually so busy leathering each other at Timesplitters to finish the damn things.

Mike Goldsmith, Senior Editor

Features

OPS2 Interview: Phil Harrison

I’m With the Band – A feature on Bemani music games such as DDR and Beatmania.

Race From the Prize – PSone developer Psygnosis rebrand as Studio Liverpool for Formula One 2001.

Larceny in NYC – Grand Theft Auto III. The first look at how the leap to 3D would revolutionise not only the tabloid-baiting favourite, but also gaming as a whole.

Play as you Go – Mobile phone games using WAP. A bit more advanced than Snake then.

Return to the Land of the Damned – Soul Reaver II and Blood Omen II form the Legacy of Kain tag team.

The Third Place – A behind the scenes look at the Third Place commercial to advertise PS2 directed by David Lynch. A man vomiting up an arm while a duck and a mummy receive therapy is meant to sell PS2s apparently. The real question: is this better than the Xbox advert where a baby shoots out of his mother’s womb at rocket speed, aging as he goes, before crashing into an open grave?

Calendar 2001 – Since it’s the first issue of 2001, what better time to look ahead to the year’s upcoming releases?

Monthly Articles

The Beautiful Game – Stealing bits from other games and mashing them together to make the ultimate super-game. This month, driving games.

30 Days in Tokyo – More robots this month, with the likes of Aquaroid the robot jellyfish, and SDR-3X, a robot that sings and dances.

The Grid – A head-to-head comparison of multiple upcoming games of a similar genre or theme. Ironically, I’m highlighting this now when it’s not covering games this month, but rather peripherals. This feature appeared in the first two issues, but it didn’t have a name until now. Issue 1 compared superhero games, and Issue 2 did RPGs.

5X5 – Asking 5 questions to 5 industry figures. This month’s theme: retro games.

The Ladder of Lust – A change of pace this month, as male characters are ranked instead. We’re not limited to human characters either, as Crash Bandicoot ranks at number 3. Maybe we should have limited this to humans…

Designer Genes – Readers write in with their game ideas and pitches. This month, The Verdiak Invasion. Form a mercenary army to repel an alien invasion, but beware! The aliens have psychic powers and can brainwash your mercenaries over to their side. This was another feature that also appeared in the first two issues, which I didn’t mention due to the first two games being example pitches from the magazine staff.

Game Over – Silent Scope. The president is safe – for now…

Previews

Dark Cloud – “It’s already due for release in Japan but Dark Cloud will need some tweaking to appeal to western tastes.”

Unreal Tournament – “The US version is out already. It contains a few flaws, which should be ironed out in time for the release over here.”

No One Lives Forever – “A Charlie’s Angels-scale blockbuster on PC, it could elbow Lara aside as the PS2’s most enjoyable girl-power release.”

Sky Odyssey – “Too far off to draw conclusions but looking remarkable already. It also plays like a blinder.”

Knockout Kings 2001 – “Slicker than Marvin Hagler, as brutal as a hungry Mike Tyson and as long-lasting as George Foreman. Frank Bruno need not apply…”

Lotus Challenge – “Bold and British with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. Sounds promising indeed.”

Robot Warlords – “A different approach to the whole mech thing happening at the moment that could prove very successful.”

Reviews

Moto GP – “Halfway to a racing game classic. A few more tracks and a little more originality in the gameplay would have made it much more appealing.” 7/10

Theme Park World – “A very enjoyable and charming game which has a lightness of touch that will appeal to those usually put off by plodding business sims.” 7/10

F1 Championship Season 2000 – “Its easy nature will undoubtedly please the crowds, but, ironically, not necessarily the hardcore racing fan that would feel inclined to acquire yet another F1 title.” 6/10

Street Fighter EX3 – “A decent fighting game but doesn’t give TTT fans enough to worry about. Great for fans, not a big enough progression for the neutrals.” 6/10

Dinosaur – “Like the movie, Dinosaur is a vacuous trip through prehistoric times that completely fails to entertain. Don’t inflict this on any child.” 4/10

Gun Griffon Blaze – “Piloting a mechanical wonder that makes the Terminator look like C-3PO is bound to hold a visceral appeal, which Gun Griffon Blaze captures with considerable flair.” 7/10

Silpheed: The Lost Planet – “Polygon-for-pixel translation of an eighties shooter, with shocking slowdown and lacking a single original idea. Avoid.” 3/10

Dragon’s Lair – “Seventeen-year-old technology crammed on to a DVD disc – and it bloody well shows.” 2/10

Dragon’s Lair II: Timewarp – “Pull some fingernails out in a random manner and you will have some idea of how this game plays.” 1/10

Hologram Time Traveller – “Give the money to charity instead. It’s far more rewarding, and you’ll feel much better about yourself.” 0/10

PSOne Reviews

Final Fantasy IX – “A real high to end on. It’s not for everyone but all will gasp in awe at Square’s continued technical brilliance.” 9/10

Ready 2 Rumble: Round 2 – “Will have you in stitches for the first two hours, barely amuse for five, and totally turn you off after a few days.” 6/10

007 Racing – “The game is a crude and messy scrapheap, the handling is appalling. Even the super slow two-player mode can’t save this license to kill.” 3/10

FIFA 2001 – “The true essence of football hasn’t been harnessed. Come on, FIFA, bite the bullet and copy ISS – a winning formula that outclasses this offering.” 6/10

Hardcore

Custom levels for Timesplitters, and cheats and hints for Madden 2001, Theme Park World, NHL 2001, Sky Surfer, Dynasty Warriors 2, Surfing H30 and Ready 2 Rumble: Round 2.

Disc Content

Playable Demos

Dynasty Warriors 2

NHL 2001

Footage

Wipeout Fusion

Kessen

Street Fighter EX3

F1 Championship Season 2000

Theme Park World

Trivia

·         Another dominant PS2 franchise emerges this month, in the form of Pro Evolution Soccer, also known as Pro Evo or PES to its mates, and currently going under the moniker of Jikkyou Soccer Winning Eleven. With three of the four staff profiles citing it as their most anticipated game, you can already see how central it will become to the magazine.

·         Also debuting this month is Shiny Red Car, the game that would come to be known as Burnout.

·         After the last of the launch titles were reviewed last month, a look at most of the scores for this month’s review crop will tell you that we’re now into the post-launch lull of dross that wouldn’t get a look-in if it weren’t for the fact that people are starting to finish the games that came with their PS2s and there’s nothing else worth playing out yet. Leading the charge are Dragon’s Lair II: Timewarp, the first game to score 1/10, and Hologram Time Traveller, one of only two games ever to score an ignoble 0/10. The other one is a very long way off yet. You’ll never guess what it is, unless you have a copy of the relevant issue on hand to consult, and I’m not telling you which issue that is!

·         New this month is the OPS2ometer, which ranks the highlights and lowlights of each issue. There will be several rebrandings, but the basic premise remains the same all the way up to the feature’s retirement in issue 89.

Quote of the Month: “Its name means reptil with parallel septum comb.” The digital encyclopaedia included in Dinosaur could have done with a run through a spellchecker.

Cover price: £4.99

Page Count: 162

Issue 2 (Christmas 2000)

Issue 2, Christmas 2000

Editor’s letter

“Take a look at this month’s letters page and you’ll see one of our early contributors bemoaning a word that has apparently gone from media buzzphrase to cliché in the blink of an eye – convergence. For the uninitiated, convergence means (deep breath) the gradual coming together of movies, TV, videogames, music and the World Wide Web into one indistinguishable digital melange, distributed into people’s homes by the networking marvel that is broadband and to be enjoyed on platforms such as Playstation 2.

                Sound good? As the phrase ‘d-entertainment’ (‘d’ as in digital) joins convergence in the new electronic lexicon, of course it does – but as our writer confirms in his ‘yawn’ comment, convergence is in danger of becoming a lazy catch-all for nothing in particular delivered some time in the future. “Convergence? That’s when games turn into movies and have guest voices from Hollywood and they it straight to your TV. It’s coming soon, y’know…” Follow this bloke-down-the-pub model and we’ll end up with PS2 games that are nothing more than hollow movie licences with a Dolby Stereo soundtrack a contractual obligation voice-over from Adam Sandler’s mum.

                See? Without a definite infrastructure in place, convergence becomes an empty promise of a distant future. Recent announcements such as Sony’s Hard Disk Drive and Ethernet package, the release of a stop-gap modem next year and such online compatible games such as Infogrames’ Unreal Tournament show that convergence is slowly beginning to snowball into existence. However while the technology is starting to firm up, the content remains up for grabs. Rather than the risible movie licences that stalked PSOne, PS2 is the digital petri dish where the best of movies and games can join together. Sure, there’ll be the odd licence nightmare but the future offers so much more – and thus this issue.

                Cover game Metal Gear Solid 2 is a seamless hybrid of Hollywood action flicks and revolutionary gameplay. Online whispers suggest the Tomb Raider movie will be based on the PSOne games. Tekken is now a big enough name in Asia that an unofficial movie is being sneaked out. LucasArts’ Star Wars games will no longer be licences but will have official story lines in their own right. As 2001 approaches, the traffic between movies and games is no longer one-way and the PS2 providing both the technology and the audience, the winner will be you, whether the content arrives via disc, DVD, broadband or carrier pigeon. Broadband might make the letterbox a bit bigger, but it’s PS2 that’ll stop us getting junk mail.”

Mike Goldsmith, Senior Editor

Features

OPS2 Interview: Ian Livingstone

Playstation 2 at the Movies – Reports on the Tomb Raider movie, and Legends of Tekken / God of Fist Style, an unofficial Tekken film from Hong Kong.

Swords, Samurai and Survival Horror – Onimusha Warlords

Toy Story – A collection of videogame merchandise, including characters from the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy and many more.

Back from the DiD – How Digital Imagination Design, or DiD for short, resurfaced as Evolution Studios, as well as a look at World Rally Championship.

Rise of the Robots – Not a remake of the infamous Amiga game, but rather comparing the various mech games coming to PS2, and the role giant robots hitting each other play in Japanese pop culture.

Paradise Lost – Project Eden

Monthly Articles

The Beautiful Game – Stealing bits from other games and mashing them together to make the ultimate super-game. This month, first-person shooters.

30 Days in Tokyo – This month, Recording Studio, a karaoke machine that burns the player’s performance onto a CD.

5X5 – Asking 5 questions to 5 industry figures. This month’s theme: Videogame budgets.

The Ladder of Lust – Ranking PS2’s female characters. This month, you don’t have to pretend you’re surprised as Lara Croft has fallen six places and Tekken’s Ling Xiaoyu takes her place as the new PS2 queen.

Game Over – FIFA 2001. What if England won the World Cup?

Previews

Metal Gear Solid 2 – “Not only is it a pivotal title for the PS2, it is a milestone game in its own right. And it’s still a year away.”

Zone of the Enders – “An intriguing mix of beat-‘em-up, shoot-‘em-up and RPG with graphic quality and detail you’d expect from the makers of Metal Gear.”

F1 Racing Championship – “Being so close to completion, F1 Racing Championship only has to undergo a little more polishing before arriving on the PS2 launch grid.”

Summoner – “The NTSC version is already on American shelves, but there’s still more than enough time for a bit of PAL tweaking.”

Oni – “Early days yet but Oni is already heading in the right direction. A fast and fluid action adventure is anticipated.”

Street Fighter EX3 – “Currently lacks polish. Instead this game looks to be concentrating on devastating special effects and good, old-fashioned gameplay.”

Reviews

Dead or Alive 2 – “Over exuberant and alienating to the novice but it looks good and, more importantly, plays well once you learn how to tame it.” 7/10

FIFA 2001 – “FIFA 2001 talks a good game, but its dependence on flashy tricks and glossy presentation leaves the all important football basics sadly lacking.” 6/10

Rayman Revolution – “Revolution is an engrossing experience, although not exactly original. New elements to the gameplay add longevity and make it well worth a look.” 8/10

TG Dare Devil – “A decent driving sim offering a welcome change from racing around tracks but its repetitive gameplay means the enjoyment is short-lived.” 5/10

Dynasty Warriors 2 – “Gorgeous swordplay on a truly epic scale. But size isn’t everything, and the endless swiping will gall before long.” 7/10

NHL 2001 – “Certainly the most important ice hockey game for at least five years. So damn hot, you half-expect the ice to melt.” 8/10

Swing Away Golf – “A potentially decent blend of realism and fun turns sour in the face of poisonous presentation and horrendous loading. Fore! No, three.” 3/10

Poolmaster – “A potentially decent pool sim which consistently fouls on the 8-ball shot. Head down the pub instead, wethinks.” 5/10

Surfing H3O – “A great concept is bogged down under horrendous controls, and a syrupy pace. Definitely not radical. A shame.” 4/10

X-Squad – “The lack of attention to detail makes X-Squad seem thrown together – it’s enjoyable enough, but never inspiring and certainly not a good example of the PS2’s capabilities.” 5/10

RC Revenge Pro – “A missed opportunity to further improve a franchise that could have used it. There is fun to be had, but it’s constantly being smothered by a lack of ambition.” 3/10

Super Bust-a-Move – “Dated and not very fitting as an exercise of the Playstation 2’s capabilities. Puzzle addicts should look to Bust-a-Move 3 for PSOne and buy that instead.” 4/10

PSOne Reviews

The World is Not Enough – “The opening and closing levels are dead enjoyable, but the whole thing falls apart in the middle.” 7/10

Knockout Kings 2001 – “A realistic and rewarding antidote to the arcade insanity of Ready 2 Rumble. It’s always going to appeal far more to fight fans.” 8/10

WWF Smackdown 2 – “Any sports game where you can give the commentators and the manager a thorough lashing has got to be good.” 9/10

Dancing Stage Euro Mix – “Sadly lacking in mass appeal. The theory is sound, but are our wallets big enough? Probably not.” 6/10

Hardcore

A guide for Silent Scope, plus hints and cheats for Dead or Alive 2, SSX, Madden NFL 2001, X-Squad, TG Dare Devil, Ready 2 Rumble: Round 2 and Timesplitters.

Disc Content

This month’s disc is dedicated to Tekken Tag Tournament, with both a playable demo and footage. Tekken 3 got a similar treatment on the original Official Playstation Magazine. I wonder if Namco Bandai requested standalone discs for Tekken. Then again, Tekkens 4 and 5 had other games on their demo discs, so maybe not?

Trivia

·         I didn’t mention it back in Issue 1, but since the editor’s letter brings it up, I have the perfect opportunity to do so now. The letters page for the first 2 issues are provided by various people who work in the gaming industry, due to the magazine having not been released to the public yet at the time of writing. Letters from readers begin in the next issue.

·         Oni was the only PS2 game made by Bungie, as the developer was bought by Microsoft, and went to work on the Halo series for the next decade.

·         This month’s Spy sees Sony’s first new PS2 IP make its debut. The game to get this honour is none other than The Getaway, which is largely dismissed as just another Grand Theft Auto wannabe nowadays, but at the time it was notable for having a photo-realistic London to drive around exactly like the real thing - to the extent that your knowledge of London in real life would carry over to the game and vice-versa – and minimal screen furniture to enhance the blockbuster production values (you had to look at your car’s indicators to see when to turn when driving to an objective, for example.)

·         There’s also the first mention of Devil May Cry, a snippet noting that it began as a Resident Evil game before becoming its own thing.

·         Dead or Alive 2’s Bankotsubo is a strong contender for the best fighting game boss ever: “Besides looking like Oliver Reed on the biggest bender of his booze-sloshed life he possesses a pair of fairy wings, dances in stilts and curtsies at you whilst peering coyly behind his fan.”

Quote of the Month: “When hunting for wild mushrooms, don’t put the ugly, warty or phallic ones in your mouth.” Foraging advice from photographer Louise Broom.

Cover price: £4.99

Page Count: 162