Issue 25 (October 2002)

Issue 25, October 2002

Editor’s letter

       Apologies to anyone who’s tried to phone our office recently only to be greeted by the click and whirr of the answerphone kicking in – we were all in the games room engrossed in a Timesplitters 2 multiplayer marathon. There really is nothing better than humiliating your mates via the medium of videogames, and Free Radical Design truly understands this basic human impulse.
       The Timesplitters 2 Four-player Split-screen mode is perfectly balanced allowing you to easily and rapidly customise the game for your own needs, selecting numbers of bots and weapon sets to provide an almost infinite variety of scenarios – and that’s just the basic Deathmatch mode. The game even allows you to set up a multiplayer league, logging all the statistics from individual Deathmatch games to save you mucking around with pieces of paper if you want to spend an evening sorting out just who is the best shot.
       This kind of collective experience is what keeps gaming fresh and exciting, so it’s a shame that more developers haven’t made better use of the MultiTap. Sony didn’t help matters in this respect by opting not to include four controller ports in the design of the Playstation 2, dissuading developers from making four-play an integral part of their games. The number of compelling four-player experiences on PS2 are limited, but they can add months to a game’s longevity. Pro Evolution Soccer is a whole different game when played two versus two; Smash Court Tennis is much more fun if you play mixed doubles; and even The Bouncer benefitted from a four-player beat-‘em-up brawl.
       Anyone who’s ever lived in a shared house or in a student hall of residence will appreciate the way that guilt can be shared when there are four of you wasting glorious time on your PS2 instead of just one. Online multiplayer gaming may be the future, but MultiTap multiplayer gaming is the present. Timesplitters 2 proves four is the magic number and hopefully more developers and publishers will take the hint.

Sam Richards, Editor

Features
OPS2 Interview: Keiji Inafune, who returns from Issue 9.

Vice Vice Baby – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. This also comes with a potted summary of the 80s for those too young to remember them, covering film and TV, music, fashion and society.

Swish Tony – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4.

People Power – The Sims.

Monthly Articles
Character Assassination – Creating Frankenstein’s Monster as a videogame character. This month, the cutesiest character ever – an egg with Dixie Kong pigtails riding on a giant pink furball.

Pocket Heroes – This month’s cards are Hideo Kojima and Keiji Inafune.

30 Days in Tokyo – This month, Sony’s Summer Festival, and George Lucas action figures. No, not George Lucas characters, but George Lucas himself.

The Burning Question – Asking 5 questions to 3 industry figures. This month’s question: Are videogames a good medium for understanding the realities of war?

Designer Genes – Readers write in with their game ideas and pitches. This month, School on the Black Market. Build your own business empire selling contraband at school without getting caught by the teachers.

What If? – This month, what if the army used videogames for training? This has actually been done for real on occasion, although in this case it is of course exaggerated for comic effect, as these soldiers are trained entirely on videogames, and their first and only experience of actual combat is an unmitigated disaster.

Previews
Ratchet and Clank – “We’ve banged on about how great the game is looking, but is this precious metal or just a load of old platform junk?”

WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth – “Yuke’s is now on its fourth Smackdown game. So are there signs of grappling fatigue or is this as fresh as a clean pair of wrestling trunks?”

Burnout 2: Point of Impact – “If they could licence Radiohead’s Killer Cars for the soundtrack, these replays would make for the most sobering road safety campaign ever.”

Ape Escape 2 – “Ape Escape 2 looks set to be an entertaining and surprisingly deep platform title. And it has monkeys. Lots of monkeys.”

The Sum of All Fears – “TSOAF’s hardcore atmosphere is currently undermined by dim-witted AI. There is a good game in here, but it’s yet to take a stand.”

Twin Caliber – “An interesting ‘twin pistols’ idea but hampered by linear game flow and dodgy cameras. Let’s hope they sort it out for the final build.”

Gungrave – “Noisy, action-rammed pyrotechnics make for a real antidote to stealth and strategy, but there are doubts about Gungrave’s length and depth.”

Madden NFL 2003 – “Another top notch helping of yankee lunacy, but there’s barely any difference between this and last year’s version. Well, if it ain’t broke…”

Reviews
Timesplitters 2 – “Expansive in every sense, this is an essential purchase for anyone in possession of a Playstation 2 and a central nervous system.” 10/10

Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny – “Capcom has produced a supreme sequel that exceeds its precursor in every respect. This is adventure gaming at its very best.” 9/10

Tekken 4 – “You can’t knock the essential quality of Namco’s beat-‘em-up giant, but after the halfway house of Tekken Tag, we demanded more from Tekken 4.” 7/10

The Thing – “Top-class survival horror meets one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. Excellent.” 9/10

Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2 – “You won’t be raving on about its originality, but Pro BMX 2’s innovations and atmosphere give the king of BMX yet another good result.” 7/10

Turok Evolution – “A well-constructed game let down by poor controls and dumb AI. Three months more in development would have helped a great deal.” 6/10

Ninja Assault – “Ninja Assault isn’t going to break the lightgun game mould, but this slick, solid shooter covers all the bases.” 6/10

Legion: The Legend of Excalibur – “Often well presented, Legion is dull to play. Time lavished on the spectacular cut-scenes should have been spent improving the gameplay.” 5/10

Lethal Skies – “A game that doesn’t even try to better its peers deserves to be largely ignored.” 4/10

Eggo Mania – “This wacky puzzler is too derivative to deserve your attention for long.” 4/10

Shifters – “An interesting RPG idea that is sadly ruined by the final execution.” 3/10

London Racer 2 – “£20 will buy you a quality Platinum racer, so why blow your wad on this?” 3/10

Stitch: Experiment 626 – “Gleeful mayhem undermined by an irritating camera and lazy graphics.” 4/10

Lego Football Mania – “A soccer sim for kids. Fun, but not in the same league as Pro Evo.” 5/10

Antz Extreme Racing – “Mildly diverting but, unless you’re an Antz fanatic, save your cash.” 4/10

Akira Psychoball – “It’s a load of balls, so please don’t let this be the last Akira-licensed game.” 3/10

All-Star Slammin’ D-Ball (PSOne review) – “Hardly a technological feat, but the fun factor is simply undeniable.” 6/10

Hardcore
Walkthroughs for Prisoner of War and Gran Turismo Concept: 2002 Tokyo Geneva, plus Stuntman, Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament, Aggressive Inline, V Rally 3, Men in Black 2: Alien Escape, Downforce, Medal of Honor: Frontline and Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2.

Disc Content

Playable Demos
Timesplitters 2
This is Football 2003
Ninja Assault
Stitch: Experiment 626
X-Men: Next Dimension
WWE Smackdown! Just Bring It

Footage
Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
NHL 2003
Ratchet and Clank
Terminator: Dawn of Fate
Treasure Planet
WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth
Ferrari F-355 Challenge
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Konami Evolution Sports (Includes Evolution Skateboarding, Evolution Snowboarding and Whiteout, which was called Evolution Snocross at the time.)
Mat Hoffman interview
Playstation.com advertisement
The Making of Stuntman

Trivia
* The cover art for this issue was designed especially for the magazine, and very nice it looks too.
* EA clearly knew they were on to a winner with the Lord of the Rings licence, as they were already saying in this issue before The Two Towers was even released that there would be two more games to follow, one for Return of the King and another game covering the entire trilogy. They even spoke of increasing the RPG elements. We know now that the result of this was The Third Age.
* This issue has news of Activision extending the Tony Hawk license until 2015. Given how long-lasting this license was, it’s impressive that a new game was released almost everyone year until 2015, and that the license wasn’t ended sooner.
* Shadow of the Colossus is officially confirmed – sort of. It’s currently known as Ico 2 and the accompanying artwork shows three people on horseback, all of whom have Ico’s horned head.
* Timesplitters 2 becomes only the second game to score 10/10 after Metal Gear Solid 2. Unlike Metal Gear Solid 2 however, it doesn’t have to carry the entire review section by itself, as there are two other games that score above 7/10 this time.
* OPS2 had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Tekken Tag, since it didn’t evolve enough from the PSOne era, but there were no viable alternatives yet either. Now, with Virtua Fighter 4 out and Soul Calibur 2 on the horizon, it’s safe to say that the Tekken love affair is officially over. Although Tekken 5 would go on to redeem the series to some extent, it would take until Tekken 7 for it to fully regain the popularity it had on PSOne.
* We’re now a quarter of the way through this series! Thanks to everyone who has stuck with this so far. This milestone also marks the perfect spot for the magazine’s first redesign, so you’ve got that to look forward to in the next issue.

Quote of the Month: “With Armageddon only a paranoid OAP away, this was no time for subtlety.” Must... resist… obvious comparison. Must... resist…

Cover price: £5.49
Page Count: 146