Issue 50 (September 2004)

                                                                 Issue 50, September 2004

Editor’s letter
       Ageing well is a tricky thing, just have a look at any of the too-many pictures of me in this mag and you’ll see what I mean.
       When you’re young you want to be older, so you can be independent and buy your own booze instead of nicking it from your dad, eat McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner and be able to touch women without having to run away after. And when you’re old you’re, well, old, and that’s no fun at all.
       What you want to be is in your prime: old enough to know what goes where and young enough to still be able to put it there without breaking anything. Which, after 50 issues, is exactly where we are right now, except without the sexual overtones. We’re reaching maturity just as the PS2 hits its stride. With San Andreas, Killzone, Black Monday, GT4 and Snake Eater this is going to be a barnstorming end of year – the biggest ever seen, in fact.
       So we won’t be stopping too much to look back, but over on page 105 Gorgeous George – the only one who’s been here for every single issue – does take you through the last four-odd years of OPS2s.
       See you for the exclusive Killzone review on Thursday, 9 September. See, the big names just never stop.
                                                                    Richard Keith, Editor

Features
“This is the game I’ve been waiting for my whole life” – Killzone. Instead of the usual team, this feature has four readers chosen by OPS2 to test the game.

Why, yes, Stacy, I do like that shirt…” – WWE Smackdown VS Raw

Destroy All Humans! But first… let’s probe the cows – Destroy All Humans!

You’ve known the Gran Turismo series from the beginning. You’ve played GT3 for a hundred hours, maybe you’ve even sprinted through GT4 Prologue, the recent taster for the new game, and you think you know what’s coming: more, lots more, of the same. You’re wrong. We’ve been playing the real Gran Turismo 4 and, boy, are you wrong – Gran Turismo 4

Happy 50th Birthday OPS2! – To celebrate the 50 issues milestone, George Walter takes a look back at the previous 49 issues, and also names some of his favourite (7, 20, 31, 33, 42, 45) and least favourite (18, 24, 26, 32, 39, 41, 43) covers.

Monthly Articles
Funny Nicknames – This month, if the staff were wrestlers, what would their ring name be?

Could Be a Classic – An original non-sequel gets some focus. This month, The Shield, a tie-in game for the US cop drama.

She’s Got Game – A column from Kirsten Kearney from the perspective of female gamers. This month, Kirsten bemoans the trend of games going darker for the sequel.

Replay – Revisiting Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and MX Unleashed, reader reviews for Cricket 2004 and Forbidden Siren, cheats for Driv3r, Samurai Warriors, Van Helsing, Shrek 2, Hyper Street Fighter 2: Anniversary Edition and The X Files: Resist or Serve, and a Spider-Man 2 walkthrough.

OPS2 Investigates – This month, All About You. The responses to Issue 45’s reader survey. The most interesting facts: more than half of respondents had read every issue, 93% of respondents like the current design, with 75% loving it, and 2% of respondents don’t even own a PS2!

Back page list – This month, 8 things that would make rubbish peripherals.

                                                                This month's Save Point

Monitor
Star Wars Battlefront – “Promises to be the best Star Wars game ever… and yes, we’re as bored of writing that as you are of reading it. But this could be the game to turn the phrase ‘Star Wars’ game from a term of abuse to a thing of joy.” Boiling

Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires – “A notable improvement, but unlikely to attract any new fans.” Hot

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 – “Not a massive reimagining by any stretch… but the inclusion of online play, mode customisation and harsher difficulty should be enough for PGA Tour 2005 to make its mark.” Hot

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – “Could we be any more excited? Doubtful. GTA:SA is looking like the most essential title on the PS2 ever. Ever. But then you know that. You’ve got your £39.99 ready-trousered for 22 October, haven’t you?” Meltdown

Crisis Zone – “We hope the finished game provides a sterner test of our skills.” Warm

Flatout – “The publicity for Flatout has centred on its bouncy, destruct-o-rama physics, and they don’t disappoint. The actual game, however, still needs a bit of work to make it wild and fun. Six fingers crossed.” Warm

Jak 3 – “Not the same moon-leap in quality was saw between Jak 1 and 2, but this is still set to round off a fantastic trilogy. Smart, smutty and one of the most impressive bits of technical clout on PS2 – it’s all right, Jak.” Boiling

TOCA Race Driver 2 – “In an overpopulated genre, TOCA is quietly distinguishing itself with deliciously smooth handling, bags of variety and an excellent story mode that adds to, rather than takes away from the business of racing hard.” Hot

Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 – “THUG 2 feels like sliding into a warm bath with an old friend. The only question remaining is whether Neversoft can make this the ‘all things to all people’ skate game without it spilling out at the seams.” Boiling

Need for Speed Underground 2 – “Not a massive leap visually, we’d have to admit, but the open-ended game design is ambitious and hugely exciting to play. Now it’s all about trying to match Burnout 3’s incredible sense of speed...” Hot

FIFA 2005 – “We might be heading for a fall but we think this year EA could finally produce a worthy rival to the mighty PES. Next month’s massive playtest should tell us if we’re right or not.” Boiling

McFarlane’s Evil Prophecy – “So many problems, so little time. It doesn’t look good.” Tepid

Def Jam: Fight for New York – “Drags the original out of the ring and into the ghetto, and it works just fine. Looks beautiful, even at full pace, and should be just varied enough to make it a must-try title this Christmas.” Hot

Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition – “We suspect that there won’t be too much to choose between this and Need for Speed Underground 2… but the club certainly clinches it if you’re after a tasty slice of the real deal.” Hot

Sly 2: Band of Thieves – “It should be polished and enjoyable. Just like the original, really.” Warm

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – “The decision to de-tech Snake by plonking him in the 1960s has rejuvenated the beating heart of the series; namely its tense stealth gameplay. Elsewhere, new features and locales have been integrated beautifully.” Boiling

Reviews
Second Sight – “Second Sight has a lot of style and grace, though still falls into some familiar traps. But we definitely recommend you play it.” 8/10

Resident Evil: Outbreak – “The should-be-online features cause some obstacles to horror happiness, but this still delivers plenty of gore, trickery and death.” 7/10

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy – “Psi-Ops is brilliantly satisfying to play and feels gratifyingly fresh. With a little more polish this would have scored even higher.” 8/10

Crimson Sea 2 – “As a story-driven adventure it fails, but as an action-focused experience it succeeds. There’s a challenge here, if you want it.” 7/10

NBA Ballers – “A super-simplified yet surprisingly deep basketball experience that should slam dunk its way onto bazzy fans’ want lists.” 8/10

Formula Challenge – “A shocking example of PS2 programming that should be stacked on bricks at the back of the grid. Thoroughly terrible.” 1/10

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts – “Somehow more morally repugnant than killing scores of humans, this is for poshos and right wing nutters only.” 5/10

Corvette 50th Anniversary – “Even cheap – a vote of no confidence there – this is entirely unnecessary. It’s boring, outdated and simply no fun.” 2/10

Steel Dragon Ex – “It might be cheap, but boy is this cheap. If it’s an old-skool Japanese shooter you’re after, buy R-Type Final instead.” 4/10

Disc Content
Playable Demos
Burnout 3: Takedown
Second Sight
Silent Hill 4: The Room
Star Wars Battlefront
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Crash Twinsanity
Van Helsing
Ribbit King

Footage
Destroy All Humans!
Playboy: The Mansion
Goldeneye: Rogue Agent
Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Devil May Cry 3
Far Cry
Gran Turismo 4
DJ: Decks and FX
Silent Hill 4: The Room
World Rally Championship 4
Timesplitters: Future Perfect
Top 5 tips – Comedy cheats
Goal of the Month
Challenges for SSX 3, Need for Speed Underground, Eyetoy Groove, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Driv3r
Online Rankings for Hardware Online Arena and This is Football 2004
Ask OPS2

Trivia
* This month, we have four variant covers, with each having a WWE diva on it. I got Sable, and the other three covers have Torrie Wilson, Trish Stratus and Stacy Keibler.
* This is the first issue for reviews editor Michael French.
* Two points of interest on this month’s demo disc: first, Crash Twinsanity is referred to by an earlier title, Crash Bandicoot Unlimited. Second, and more importantly, there’s meant to be a playable demo of Juiced on the disc, according to the demo box and the magazine, but it doesn’t seem to be on there. At least it appears a few times on later discs to make up for its absence here.
* Gaydar: This month, OPS2’s most prolific letter writer Daniel Gay praises the Down the All Night Garage feature, while sharing his love of terrible direct-to-DVD films.
* How fitting that Second Sight and Psi-Ops, two games themed around psychic powers, should be released around the same time. Just to be extra awkward, they both got the same score, so we can’t even declare a winner. Second Sight seems to be better remembered nowadays thanks to being from the creators of Timesplitters, so that’s as good a tiebreaker as any, maybe?
* Issue 18 is named in the retrospective as the least favourite issue overall, described as “a duff month all round.”
* This is the halfway point! Thank you to everyone who's stuck around this long, and I hope you will continue to read as we move into the second half.

Quote of the Month: “Ben doesn’t like spicy food.” One of the readers in the Killzone feature refers to himself in the third-person for some reason.

Cover price: £5.99
Page Count: 146