Issue 84, April 2007
Editor’s letter
What’s your price? Me, I’d settle for a bar of that posh chocolate with cherries in it and a device for cleaning out all the muck from the little grooves on the DualShock 2. Our Mercenaries 2 cover star, Mattias Nilsson, charges a little bit more than that, as anyone who sampled the excellent original game will know. We had feared that Nilsson and the rest of the Mercs crew had deserted PS2 for next-gen pastures, so when EA suddenly coughed up news that our fears were unfounded, we were delighted. And, of course, immediately went about getting the development team to tell us all about the PS2 version so we could share the good stuff with you lot. But the top-drawer PS2 previews don’t stop there. We’ve got exclusive shots and info for Spider-Man 3, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Manhunt 2, Painkiller, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Juiced 2… loads of stuff! I keep hearing people going on about how PS2 is on its last legs now that PS3 is out. Fools! You and me, we know different, right? Right. With that in mind, can I point you to page 26? There you’ll find a story about how we’re going to freshen up the mag in the coming months. Please drop me a line at ps2postal@futurenet.co.uk, or via old-fashioned snail mail to the usual address if you prefer, and let me know what you think Nick Ellis, Editor
Feature
The Amazing… – Spider-Man 3
Monthly Articles
Funny Nicknames – This month, what tattoo would you get?
Could be a Classic – This month, Raw Danger!, a survival game where you must escape a flooded city.
Replay – Part one of the walkthroughs for God of War II and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, online reviews for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and The Warriors and what the other mags said about Ghost Rider, God Hand, The Warriors and Little Britain.
Playstation Education – Demonstrating various examples of a certain item in PS2 games. This month, dogs.
Trading Pages – A new feature in which other magazines take over the back page. This month, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock give their dream tracklists for the next Guitar Hero.
Monitor
Tomb Raider: Anniversary – “Intelligent, exciting, beautiful to look at and to play, Anniversary has all the elements in place to be the most complete Tomb Raider experience yet. It looks like the future is bright for Ms Croft.” Boiling
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – “With all the licensed content on board plus a sword-swinging system that sounds mighty promising, At World’s End is looking sexier than Keira Knightley wearing nothing but a tricorn hat and a smile.” Hot
Manhunt 2 – “Sure, it shares plenty of its core ideas with the original, but that doesn’t mean that this suitably uncompromising sequel feels devoid of originality, especially when it’s looking to be even more volatile and violent.” Meltdown
SBK-2007 Superbike World Championship – “Official license notwithstanding, SBK-07 isn’t a radical reinvention of the Superbike series, but still remains gripping, high-octane fun for fan and novice alike.” Hot
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights – “Juiced never got the exposure it deserved but some hot MTV styling, a revamp to the engine and some cracking new gameplay features all mean this sequel is sure to ‘spook’ the competition.” Boiling
Painkiller: Hell Wars – “Gore, horror, massive weapons and a weighty plot: Painkiller ticks all the right boxes and, providing the gameplay is as smooth as it looks, Hell Wars is all set to be a stonking PS2 shooter.” Boiling
Alien Syndrome – “Alien Syndrome is a deceptively deep reworking of a much-loved coin-op classic that suits the handheld format down to the fingertips. Sega could have yet another PSP hit on its hands - and in ours.” Hot
Dark Sector – “Shaping up to be a solid halfway house between stealth puzzling and full-on blood-spilling action. The version we saw needs more polish than a brass statue, but Digital Extremes look to be onto a winner.” Hot
PS2 Reviews
Medal of Honor: Vanguard – “Shoddy, dull and filled with recycled WW2 content we tired of years ago. The weakest MOH on PS2: nothing more than a poor man’s Call of Duty.” 5/10
The Red Star – “A decent, short-term hack‘n’blast that’s best with two players who like old-school games, but a far cry from today’s big action titles.” 6/10
UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 – “Blatantly a cash-in, on the back of the knockout stages of the Champions’ League. But still a formidable football game.” 7/10
Championship Manager 2007 – “For all its good intentions and fine qualities it lacks the magic to make it the life-consuming experience it so wants to be.” 7/10
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – “A fairly average RPG, rescued from mediocrity by some unique mechanics, an oddball plot and the dozens of demons at your disposal.” 7/10
TMNT – “A sprawling platform brawler with a few frustrating sections, but there’s plenty of fun to be had with your little green pals.” 7/10
The Fast and the Furious – “A competent but characterless racers that rolls, rather than roars over the finish line. Not so much a Maserati as a Mondeo.” 5/10
Singstar Pop Hits – “Providing you have a taste for the Top 20, or are a pre-adolescent girl, Pop Hits delivers another welcome helping of tacky karaoke goodness.” 8/10
SOCOM US Navy SEALs: Combined Assault – “Stomach-churning graphics and bad AI undermine an otherwise solid tactical shooter. Has ‘For Hardcore Fans Only’ written all over it.” 7/10
Buzz! The Mega Quiz – “Not as educational as the upcoming Buzz! Schools, but Mega is a packet of guaranteed rainy-day entertainment.” 8/10
Samurai Warriors 2: Empires – “With its veneer of strategy, Empires improves on Samurai Warriors 2, but crowd combat should be more fun than this.” 6/10
Freak Out: Extreme Freeride – “Boarding’s twin-planked brethren may get some kicks out of it; the rest of you should look elsewhere to get your sofa-adrenaline rush.” 4/10
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories – “If you don’t own VCS on PSP there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying this. Never played the original Vice City? Buy that as well!” 8/10
PSP Reviews
Afterburner: Black Falcon – “So it’s not an epic free-roaming adventure, but Afterburner is finely formed arcade shooting: a perfectly proportioned aerial shooter.” 8/10
Virtua Tennis 3 – “A lack of realism does nothing to dampen the sheer fun and depth of play behind Virtua Tennis 3. It’s, ahem, ace.” 8/10
300: March to Glory – “Anyone who’s played God of War will recognise lots here, but 300 sets itself apart with some unique ideas and set-pieces.” 8/10
M.A.C.H. – “There’s not enough to it, and what there is of it, there’s too much of, if you follow us. Good, but in an over-saturated market it needs more.” 6/10
Sid Meier’s Pirates! – “The charming rogue of handheld gaming, Pirates! is a blast to begin with, but it can get tiresome if you’re with it for too long.” 8/10
Gunpey – “A decent enough puzzler, but at a wallet-punching £30 you’d do better to get yourself a copy of Lumines on the cheap instead.” 6/10
Zendoku – “For sudoku addicts the competitive element breathes new life into the game and forces you to up the ante, but without a real-life opponent the lifespan may be limited.” 6/10
Metal Slug Anthology – “Still as fun as it was in the arcades years ago; although it has minor technical niggles, all of those are forgivable if you’ve got the Slug in your blood.” 8/10
Disc Content
Playable Demos
Brian Lara International Cricket 2007
Everybody’s Tennis
Ico
Rise to Honour
Soul Calibur III
Maximo VS Army of Zin
God of War
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Mashed
Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution
Trivia
* Mercenaries 2 is the first cover game not to be reviewed, because the game wasn’t released until after the magazine ended.
* Mike Sterry joins the team this month.
* George Walter returns briefly as a freelance contributor. His choice of tattoo would be “The OPS2 logo – for old times’ sake.” Aww, bless!
* The article mentioned near the end of the Editor’s Letter is the first hint at an upcoming redesign. The current design has been around for three years at this point, and it’s relatively similar to the ones that came before it, so with all but one staff member having joined the team in the last few issues, it makes sense that they would want their own take instead of continuing to use the design they inherited. There’ll be more on this to come.
* After Medal of Honor and SOCOM were praised and slated respectively in last month’s previews, it’s ironic that their fortunes should switch come review time.
* Eyetoy Antigrav and Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland are both eliminated from the Hot 100 this month, making room for God of War II and Burnout Dominator. I bring this up because those two were the last remaining 7/10 games on the list. As of this month, every game in the Hot 100 scored 8/10 or higher.
Quote of the Month: “Panda! Sumo! Flower! You bastard!” Sophie gets really into Zendoku.
Cover price: £5.99
Page Count: 130
ABC Sales Figures: The figures have changed now to calculate over a year period instead of 6 months as before, so I won’t be comparing with the last figures. As well as the continued move towards websites for gaming info, the new Official Playstation Magazine had started by now, so a significant amount of readers have likely moved over to the new magazine, along with the old team. It’s worth noting that sales are now slightly below when the magazine began.
Jan – Dec 2006: 76,351
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