Issue 72, May 2006
Editor’s letter
On the day Sony revealed its plans to launch across the world this November we took calls from newspapers, TV stations and radio shows. All with the same question: “What’s your reaction to the delay?” Sorry? Delay? A quick glance around the office found the team wearing party hats, high fiving each other and trying to work out the code for sparkling wine on the vending machine. Up until this point, the accepted wisdom had been that regardless of whatever happened in Japan and America, European gamers would be forced to wait, patiently drumming their fingers, until next March. So forgive us for being close to ecstatic when it turned out that wasn’t the case, and we weren’t going to have to stand in the cold with our faces pressed against the glass for four months. We celebrate this issue with a deluge of new PS3 titles, led by the mighty Smackdown VS Raw 2007. (Grapplefans, you’ve never had it so shiny.) That’s joined by the new Brothers in Arms, grisly comic adaptation The Darkness and stylish shooter Resistance: Fall of Man plus many more. And things are still looking bullish on the PS2 front. This month we’ve got the world’s first hands-on with the latest incarnation of Pro Evo, an exclusive review of riot-‘em-up Urban Chaos, plus God of War II looking sexier than an Aphrodite upskirt shot. It’s also a strong month for PSP owners, thanks to the surprisingly brilliant Daxter, a welcome price cut and the ever-expanding range of inventive things you can do with your machine – like making your own comic. All in all, then, a great time to be a man, or indeed lady, of Playstation. But you knew that already, yes?
Tim Clark, Editor
Features
OH MY GOD! – God of War II
Embrace the Pain – WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2007
Stop! – Okami
Monthly Articles
Funny Nicknames – This month, what’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever worn?
Could be a Classic – This month, Steambot Chronicles. Part RPG, part mech sim, with a dash of rhythm action in there too.
A Brief History – Retrospectives of some of PS2’s most popular franchises. This month, Gran Turismo. There’s also an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the series.
Replay – Online reviews for Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix, NBA 2K6, NHL 2K6 and From Russia With Love, and what the other mags said about Tomb Raider: Legend, Guitar Hero, Fight Night Round 3 and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.
OPS2 Investigates – This month, Cult Fiction. Diving into the world of fan fiction, with excerpts. My favourite involves Lara Croft in a homicidal chocolate factory. Another highlight of this feature!
Endgame – Game endings. This month, Killer 7.
Monitor
Rogue Trooper – “Some work still to do, but Rogue is coming along nicely with some great gameplay ideas. Making them all gel together is the key now. We’ll know whether this future war is worth fighting with next month’s review.” Hot
The Con – “It’ll be over in the first round if the fighting’s not fixed.” Warm
X-Men: The Official Game – “We like playing as different X-Men and The Official Game has great looks and enjoyable powers. Unfortunately, inconsistent quality between characters creates some wildly unbalanced levels, which is worrying.” Warm
Sensible Soccer – “Whether anyone will choose to buy this over PES or FIFA, particularly with its lack of licences, remains to be seen. But there’s no doubt that Sensi is shaping up to be a unique alternative.” Hot
Loco Roco – “Ignore the hyper-bright, kiddie-sweet looks. Simple controls and realistic momentum hide a deviously addictive, oddball platformer that could outweird We Heart Katamari.” Boiling
Flatout 2 – “It’s a car crash of a racer, but in a good way for once.” Hot
Lego Star Wars II – “The first game was a brilliant romp through the Lucasverse, and the sequel will benefit from even better source material. Expect the inevitable Sarlacc Pit sequence to be an absolute classic.” Meltdown
Rogue Galaxy – “The language barrier means we’ve barely scratched the surface of Rogue Galaxy. As it is, we predict it will be every bit as compelling as the excellent Dark Chronicle – ambitious in scope and scale and almost painfully pretty.” Boiling
Infected – “Chaining combos of exploding zombies? A genius idea.” Hot
PS2 Reviews
Urban Chaos: Riot Response – “Great shooting, epic set-pieces, regrettable sewer level. This is a satirical, heartfelt love letter to the kind of police force we’d like to join.” 8/10
Tourist Trophy – “Gran Turismo’s flaws plus imperfect handling make this hard to love. As a glossy bike catalogue, it’s lush. As a game, it’s not quite right.” 7/10
State of Emergency 2 – “Wildly derivative and shamelessly exploitative, SOE2 neither challenges nor entertains. Thug gaming at the very lowest level.” 3/10
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter – “Laziness of the worst kind, this is a charmless shadow of the next-gen version. There are plenty of better shooters available on PS2.” 4/10
The Bible Game – “Hallowed be thy game? No, actually. However much you love the man upstairs, you aren’t going to like this.” 4/10
Final Fight: Streetwise – “Disposable urban nonsense. The barbaric combat may entertain for a while, but it’s not long until tedium sets in.” 5/10
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers – “Entertaining and absorbing. This is an intelligent, testing mix of action and strategy spoilt only by its motor-mouthed characters.” 8/10
Championship Manager 2006 – “Fun at first, but quickly descends into an empty experience. The club benefactor feature is good – it’s just a shame the rest is so soulless.” 5/10
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood – “Decent blend of traditional RPG elements and innovative additions, let down by some confusing execution. Don’t touch it until you’ve clocked Dragon Quest.” 6/10
Rampage: Total Destruction – “Repetitive and dull retread of a once okay game. Even if you have £15 in your pocket and simply have to buy a new game, we strongly suggest you look elsewhere.” 4/10
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare – “Although better than Mutant Melee, this is another sub-standard beat-‘em-up that won’t test your brain, but might have you dipping your thumbs in TCP afterwards.” 3/10
SOCOM 3: US Navy SEALs – “SOCOM 3 is a schizoid game. Close to brilliant online, but very much less than offline. Whether or not to buy depends on how you play.” 7/10
Ape Escape 3 – “Not much new for Ape Escape veterans, but if you want to get a youngster a game that’s actually good, this is the monkey business.” 7/10
Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix – “There’s enough here to tempt owners of the original, let alone those who blinked and missed Dub Edition on its first lap.” 8/10
Singstar Rocks! – “The name is a little misleading, but it’s still probably our favourite Singstar setlist so far. Next: Singstar Miserable Indie! please.” 8/10
Rhythmic Star – “Want some gainful employment for your Eyetoy? Then don’t even think about touching this. You’ll enjoy a single Eyetoy Play 2 mini-game infinitely more.” 3/10
Spongebob Squarepants and Friends Unite! – “We like Spongebob, but teaming him up with his Nickelodeon pals has resulted in a generic platformer with precious little originality or energy.” 4/10
Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity – “Starts off well and features some decent strategizing, but is ultimately stifled by a poor script and some uninspired character design.” 6/10
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown – “Lovely-looking if unadventurous platform fare that does the bare minimum to keep its pre-school audience quiet.” 5/10
Eagle Eye Golf – “It mightn’t be licensed but this still serves up a cracking round of golf. Time to start quaking in your over-polished Nikes, Mr Woods?” 8/10
The Ultimate Trivia Quiz – “Trivial in every sense. Still, it’ll make a nice surprise for your binman among the cat sick and cold pizza.” 2/10
PSP Reviews
Street Riders – “This is 50% racer, 50% shooter, 100% embarrassment. A cheesy, worn out take on gang culture and cars.” 5/10
Daxter – “This makes you realise how much Jak has been holding Daxter back all these years. It also shows just how good PSP gaming can get.” 9/10
NBA Ballers: Rebound – “You need to be an NBA aficionado to get the most out of Rebound, but for those who aren’t this still delivers slick and feature-packed balling.” 7/10
Monster Hunter Freedom – “It may have a pouch full of original ideas, but Freedom makes too many basic errors to be a serious PSP predator.” 6/10
Popolocrois – “It may be cuter than a kitten kissing a baby, but this offers nothing more than tired, old RPG gameplay in a world that’s custom built for younger players.” 5/10
Championship Manager 2006 – “An improvement on the version released before Christmas, CM2006 nonetheless gets repeatedly kicked in the shins by the superior Football Manager Handheld.” 6/10
PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient – “It’s no Lumines, but accept that PQ will occasionally make your blood boil and you’ll find an engaging and rewarding puzzle game.” 7/10
MX VS ATV Unleashed: On the Edge – “On the edge? Off the boil, more like. This extreme racer may be competent, but it’s about as much fun as wading through marshland in your socks.” 5/10
SOCOM US Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo – “Simplified PSP controls do dial down SOCOM’s complexity, but impressive options both on and offline make this shine.” 7/10
Gottlieb Pinball Classics – “Brilliant in short bursts and great looking to boot; only question marks about its longevity prevent Gottlieb earning a higher score.” 7/10
Armored Core: Formula Front – “With highly customisable mechs, smooth controls, and lots of really big explosions, this is great mech action on the move.” 7/10
Fight Night Round 3 – “Look beyond the somewhat crude control system and there’s plenty of life in this deep and handsome boxing game.” 7/10
World Poker Tour – “Poker makes marginally more sense in the portable format – still, no Royal Flush.” 5/10
World Series of Poker – “Being cheaper than WPT is WSOP’s only real advantage. Even so, if you want to play PSP poker, the pricier title is your best bet.” 4/10
Disc Content
Playable Demos
Hitman: Blood Money
Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast
Sonic Riders
Black
Tomb Raider: Legend
Driver: Parallel Lines
24
TOCA Race Driver 3
We Heart Katamari
Footage
Rogue Galaxy
Trivia
* As you can see if scroll down a little further, the page count is permanently reduced from 146 pages to 130 starting with this issue. There’s still 2 years left to go, but this is the first sign of the magazine slowly starting to wrap things up.
* The second sign also comes this month, and it involves the demo disc. You see, we’re now into stage 3 of the demo disc life cycle: new demos are starting to slow down as development focus shifts to Playstation 3, although there are still a decent amount of new demos for the time being. The same thing happened with the PSOne magazine, but whereas that simply had fewer demos on each disc, here we have the same amount as before, but demos stay on the disc for around 2 or 3 months before being rotated out to make room for new ones.
* The Editor’s Letter is an unfortunate time capsule, as though it wasn’t the original intention, we did end up having to wait until 2007 for PS3 in the UK anyway due to parts shortages. Not only that, but WWE had its PS3 debut delayed by a year, with WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2008 being the first one to get a PS3 release.
* Sad news this month, as after 12 years and over 100 million units sold, the PSOne is finally discontinued. On a brighter note, there is the announcement of PSOne games being playable on PS3 and PSP via downloading them from the Playstation Store. The system may die, but its games live on!
* This month’s intriguing unreleased game: Truth or Dare, an Eyetoy game aimed at a slightly older audience, with some risqué challenges and questions. It would have even remembered which players were paired together for dares and try to pair them up more often.
* Jason Rubin, co-creator of Crash Bandicoot, is mentioned as working on an independent comic called Iron and the Maiden. The name was later changed to The Iron Saint after Iron Maiden launched a copyright infringement lawsuit.
* Games that would never be made today #13: Urban Chaos: Riot Response. Why not? The potential for police brutality against the anarchist gang, the Burners wouldn’t go down at all well today. Heck, the police being the good guys may well be pushing it for some. The game has a satirical, ultra-authoritarian tone in the vein of Robocop or Starship Troopers, right down to the live-action news reports between levels. Said news reports even have their own subplot via the scrolling ticker of a bleeding-heart liberal senator running a smear campaign against the authorities in the hope that the Urban Chaos task force is dismantled before they uncover his gun-running operation – it’s basically a Republican’s wet dream! Great game, though, with plenty of originality in your ability to give orders to other emergency workers, and the inspired riot shield mechanic which offers protection at the cost of reducing your visibility if you overuse it. It’s one of my favourite lesser-known PS2 games, and you can see in it some of the elements of the Batman Arkham games. I would like it if Rocksteady got to make another non-DC game someday.
Quote of the Month: “God of War II is the kid that rocks up late to the exam, scribbles furiously for a couple of minutes and then hands his paper in saying “I’m done, dude.” And you just know the cocky bastard’s aced it.” God of War is one of those games that is effortlessly cool.
Cover price: £5.99
Page Count: 130
ABC sales figures: Only a slight drop from the last six month period, likely thanks to big blockbusters such as Resident Evil 4 releasing in the second half of the year.
Jan-Jun 2005 – 133,242
Jul-Dec 2005 – 132,069 (Down 1173)
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