Issue 36 (August 2003)

                                                                   Issue 36, August 2003

Editor’s letter
       It’s not that I like violence. For a start it hurts, sometimes really quite a lot. But I can’t pretend that I don’t love some of the forms violence takes – sports, films and games are almost always that much better when the threat of bone crunching, head popping or at least wincing pain is involved.
       And so it is with Tony Hawk’s Underground. While the Tony games have never exactly wimped out, there was something a little tired about the franchise. Or so we thought, before we saw the THUG video that is. And it wasn’t just us. Everyone – even the fat German online guys who hate everything – loved the Tony Hawk’s Underground video when it was shown in LA recently. And I mean loved it. So here it is. The video, the first play, the interview, the freakin’ everything. Let a bit of thuggery into your lives.
                                                                   Richard Keith, Editor

Features
Would you buy a used car from this man? – Colin McRae Rally 4.

I think he’s attempting re-entry – 007: Everything or Nothing.

Tear it up! – Tony Hawk’s Underground. To go with the underground aesthetic, this feature is decorated with lots of photos of graffiti, posters and newspaper clippings that the magazine staff photographed in their local area.

Monthly Articles
Funny Nicknames – This month, 70s stuff, in honour of Starsky and Hutch.

“Oh Good Gawd!” – The worst promotional item and/or screenshot sent to the magazine. This month, cheese and crackers, to promote Wallace and Gromit: Project Zoo. Fancy some cheese, Gromit me lad?

Previews
True Crime: Streets of LA – “True Crime: Streets of LA might well be rather derivative but if it can actually deliver the kind of verve it’s promising right now, we won’t hold that against it.” Boiling

Jak 2: Renegade – “Jak 2: Renegade, well, what can we say? We reckon it’ll be Jakalicious. The new lifeblood of platform gaming is right over here. Form an orderly queue people. Behind us.” Meltdown

A Dog’s Life – “A Dog’s Life is a quirky little number and it’ll probably only sell 25 copies, but there’s no escaping the originality and quality in the marrow of Dog’s Life gameplay bone.” Hot

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 – “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is a mixed bag of balls. This year’s model is near-as-damn-it certain to be the best golf game on PS2, but the lack of online play feels like a triple-bogey.” Warm

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy – “Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, on our first glance, looks a promising release. We’ll have to wait and see if it can unravel the might of the Jak and Ratchet sequels later this year.” Warm

Destruction Derby Arenas – “Destruction Derby Arenas looks set to be high order car-nage. Whether or not it’ll take off online remains to be seen but its slick styling and no-holds barred gameplay make for anarchic fun.” Hot

Club Football – “Club Football is certainly a lot more than just a marketing ploy. With the right tweaking it could also prise the fingers away from the tight grip PES and FIFA have on the footy sim genre.” Hot

Freedom Fighters – “Freedom Fighters is a little easy – this code was designed for E3’s idiot attendees – but there’s no mistaking the technical polish and balls-out fun. Likely to be an essential purchase, comrades.” Boiling

Headhunter: Redemption – “Headhunter: Redemption certainly looks atmospheric, but has the whole future apocalypse thing run its course? Will Headhunter be strong enough to survive a second outing? We’ll see…” Hot

Alien VS Predator: Extinction – “Alien VS Predator: Extinction isn’t what fans will have expected from the franchise. But with planetary scrapping and army-sized battling, this could well be a pleasant surprise.” Hot

Ratchet and Clank 2 – “Ratchet and Clank 2 might not be going commando in this country but they look like they’ll be doing plenty of handsome adventuring. Put this on your Christmas wish list now.” Boiling

The Great Escape – “The Great Escape is looking every bit the inventive WW2 stealth/action game and fully respects the much-loved movie classic. And it’s from the guys behind Conflict: Desert Storm – that can’t hurt.” Hot

Updates for Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, Super Farm, Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure, Urban Freestyle Soccer, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Finding Nemo, Freestyle Metal X, Backyard Wrestling and Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance.

Reviews
Eyetoy Play – “Hands down, it’s the most fun we’ve had this month. But we’re convinced it’ll be even better next time around.” 8/10

Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter – “A hype-free, classy intermesh of different styles makes for one of the most compelling games of the year.” 8/10

RTX Red Rock – “Puzzles, platforms and projectiles done well but you’ll see it done better in any bargain bucket.” 6/10

Starsky and Hutch – “Given the lack of gameplay variety this cop caper shouldn’t be as consistently enjoyable as it is.” 7/10

Armored Core 3 – “Bigger and better than the previous outings, but far too like its predecessor to warrant excitement.” 7/10

Summer Heat Beach Volleyball – “The best crack at beach volleyball we’ve seen, but nothing to really set your gaming soul aflame.” 7/10

Dead to Rights – “Near endless gunplay with hand-to-hand scrapping, backed up with a dark tale. DTR is good, mindless fun.” 7/10

Next Generation Tennis 2003 – “Clumsy and ugly tennis game that tries to get on your good side by being way too easy. Smash Court is far superior.” 4/10

Perfect Ace Pro Tennis Tournament – “In a match between Virtua and Smash Court, this’d be the ball boy. Perfect Ace? Perfect Arse, more like. Cheers.” 4/10

Chaos Legion – “A must for DMC gurus, but suffers from high-concept ailments. Great battling for the rest of us.” 7/10

SX Superstar – “An above average arcade racer that’s let down by a lack of a lasting challenge and cornball career mode.” 6/10

Die Hard: Vendetta – “A blockbuster (if ageing) licence and potentially good stealth element let down by a lack of imagination.” 6/10

Dynasty Warriors 4 – “Improvements make this a hack ‘n’ slash game with depth – though not enough for converted DW heads.” 7/10

Formula One 2003 – “If this were a PC mag, Formula One 2003 would be a patch. Slightly sexier but still the same underneath.” 7/10

Le Tour De France: Centenary Edition – “Hardly merits a sacre bleu but Centenary Edition is a sturdy enough two-wheeled racer.” 6/10

Smash Cars – “A decent enough stab at toy car racing that’s undermined too often by frustrating course design.” 4/10

Piglet’s Big Game – “Nothing’s new here, technically. It’s a child’s distraction but nice with it. Good clean fun for clean minds.” 6/10

Hardcore
Part 1 of the Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness walkthrough, Part 2 of the Enter the Matrix walkthrough and walkthroughs for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Hulk, Resident Evil: Dead Aim and Dynasty Warriors 4, plus WWE Crush Hour, Armored Core 3, Ratchet and Clank, Devil May Cry 2, Wipeout Fusion and Midnight Club.

Disc Content
Playable Demos
Starsky and Hutch
Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter
Futurama
Final Fantasy X
Tekken 4
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
Zone of the Enders
Headhunter
This is Football 2003

Footage
Tony Hawk’s Underground
Jak 2: Renegade
Kya: Dark Lineage
Tribes Aerial Assault

Trivia
* This issue features the first look at the UMD, the storage format used for PSP games, and the PSX, a TV recording device with DVD-rewriting capabilities and a built-in PS2. Naturally, all that tech crammed into a single device doesn’t come cheap, and as a result of the device’s high cost, it sold poorly enough in Japan that it was discontinued after a little over a year, and never released outside Japan.
* Speaking of PSP, there’s also a story about Project ET, a previous attempt at a portable Playstation planned for release in 2000, that was cancelled at the prototype stage. Could this have been the PSP’s predecessor?
* The last few issues have been running a goal of the month competition, where players send in footage of the best goals they can score on PS2 football games, and the winners were announced this month. Unfortunately, we don’t get the footage on the demo disc like with the original Official Playstation Magazine, only screenshots in the magazine. However, later issues did put the winning goals on the disc as well.
* Jak 2 is the first game in the previews section to score Meltdown for anticipation.
* We’ve got two sets of guest reviewers this month. Eyetoy Play is reviewed by George’s girlfriend, his non-gamer friend and his dear old mum, while Piglet’s Big Game is reviewed by a group of children.
* Dead to Rights has possibly the best finishing move ever, where protagonist Jack Slate throws a man into the air, then shoots him so much, the bullets keep him in mid-air until they stop. Brilliant!

Quote of the Month: “Granny? How long’ve you been in there?” Eyetoy can also be used to look down the back of the sofa. The real question is how did Granny fit down there?

Cover price: £5.49
Page Count: 146

ABC Sales figures: I should have been doing this for ages already, but it didn’t occur to me until a reader wrote in to ask, so apologies for that. To make up for it, here are all the sales figures up to now, in 6-month intervals. From these figures, we can see a big leap in the second half of 2001, and rocketing up again in the first half of 2002 as more people upgraded to PS2, while growth levels off in the second half of 2002. From here on in, I’ll be posting the new figures once they’re updated, and comparing to the previous six month period.

Jul-Dec 2000 – 81,883
Jan-Jun 2001 – 82,109 (Up 226)
Jul-Dec 2001 – 125,895 (Up 43,786)
Jan-Jun 2002 – 195,293 (Up 69,398)
Jul-Dec 2002 – 197,348 (Up 2055)