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12/7/99
Munch's Oddysee
Have you ever heard of Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee? If you have or haven't, it is coming out for Playstation 2(I hope you have heard about Playstation 2. If not, look later on in this section.). You will play as Abe(from former Oddworld games) and Munch, who is the only surviver of the Gabbit species. The main reason why the Gabbit species died out was because their lungs were used as transplants for Glukkons(those big, bad, bossy guys that think they're so cool) with lung cancer and Gabbit eggs were used as a culinary delight. Early in the game, Abe kidnaps Munch and that's when you start playing with Abe or Munch.
12/7/99
Matrix?
Do the letters M-A-T-R-I-X mean anything to you in that order? That's right people, Matrix the game is coming for the Playstation 2. I don't know when it's coming out though.
12/11/99
US FF8 sells one million
Square Electronic Arts announced on Thursday that Final Fantasy VIII for the PlayStation has sold more than one million units in North America since its September release. The game has also sold more than four million units in Japan.
"Final Fantasy VIII has grossed more than US$50 million in revenue in only 13 weeks of sales in North America," said Jun Iwasaki, president of Square Electronic Arts. "With the holidays still ahead, we anticipate that Final Fantasy VIII will continue to break sales records."
The next installment in the Final Fantasy series (part IX) will be unveiled in Japan during a Square-sponsored event, called Square Millennium, next month.
"Final Fantasy VIII is one of those rare titles that just gets bigger and bigger in terms of anticipation and demand," said Doreen McKenzie, director of merchandising of video games for Babbage's Etc. "There is usually a lot of hype and excitement in the air around the release of a new game such as Final Fantasy. The difference with this franchise, however, is that it maintains a frenzied sales pace over a long period of time. Final Fantasy VIII is the type of game that will get a huge boost in sales through the holidays and remain a strong seller thereafter. It is one of the few titles whose value to consumers maintains through the holiday season, and will most likely continue until its sequel is released."
12/11/99
MediEvil2
MediEvil was always one of those games that people tend to remember fondly. The truly bizarre skeleton-hero with the glimmery name of Dan Fortesque had to save the world from the evil Lord Zarok. But what was it all about, and what is the sequel going to be like? After all, as one of the PlayStation's more pleasant surprises, a sequel would, hopefully, warrant new ideas and innovations. We sat down with Sony-Cambridge's James Shepherd, the creative director of MediEvil 2, to find out more about the crazy knight who definitely has no weight problems to worry about.
MediEvil was set in the legendary land of Gallowmere, in the Dark Ages of history. Lord Zarok, an evil demonic sorcerer, attempted to conquer Gallowmere by casting the Spell of Eternal Darkness. The result was an army of undead creatures that ruled the country and caused fear and darkness to rise up across the land. But by casting the spell, he also unwillingly awoke our long-lost hero, Sir Dan Fortesque, who then took on the challenge of defeating Zarok and his evil army. Of course, he succeeded at the end of the game, and Lord Zarok died in his collapsing, castle, and the magic book, which included the evil spell, was thought to be lost in time for good.
The second part of the game is set 500 years after the first game. You're in London in 1888, and the Victorian age is in full swing as new industries forge wealth throughout the empire. Everybody in the country seems to be happy except for one man, Lord Palethorn - an arch criminal, evil magician, and high-society wannabe. He is going for a goal much higher than the ones of the usual citizens. He discovers some pages of Zarok's old spell-book. Of course he tries the spells out and discovers that the spells work, indeed. As he realizes he is getting more powerful, he casts the Spell of Eternal Darkness, and, as in the first game, an army of undead start to take over London. From there, he prepares to take on the world.
The situation is clear: Poor Sir Dan Fortesque needs to save the world all over again because Lord Palethorn doesn't seem to learn lessons well. So Dan takes his sword and goes on the quest to find Lord Palethorn and the missing pages of the book, because once the magician finds them, he will be able to dominate the world. So it ends up being a race against time.
At Sony Cambridge, they were all hoping to make a sequel one day. James Shepherd comments: "As Dan goes back to his grave at the end of the first game, we knew it would be set in a different time period - the only question was when. We didn't want to get accused of doing 'MediEvil 1.5,' so we decided to go for something radically different. We quickly settled on the Victorian era, the birthplace of all things Gothic, and the perfect location and inspiration for our 'Comedy Gothic' game." When a game is as good as MediEvil, the expectations of the public about a second game are very high. As a consequence, the pressure is massive, but the team naturally wants to top its own achievements. "The main pressure to improve on the original comes from within the team itself," explains Shepherd. "You always want to improve on your existing games. The things you never got time to put in, or would have done differently, you can address in a sequel.
"We started on the sequel shortly after the first game was released. Everyone within the studio loved Dan, but we weren't sure whether the public would like him. He's no oil painting, and, being a skeleton, he doesn't have the hourglass figure of certain other game characters in the action-adventure genre. Luckily, people loved him, so we got the chance to turf him out of his grave to save the world once again."
A recent trend in the industry is developers not having enough time to finish a game (Daikatana anyone?). As a consequence, developers tend to drop a lot of ideas in order to deliver the title on schedule. The latest and most apparent example of this is Soul Reaver, where material found on the CD never appeared anywhere in the game. Naturally, one of the reasons is the creative spirit within a team, which never stops making up new stuff to implement in a game. That is one of the reasons why many teams need to drop ideas at the end. So, was there material that couldn't be implemented in the first MediEvil game?
"Loads of stuff," explains Shepherd. "To tell you everything would be to give too much away. We always wanted to get some other playable characters into the game and to play on the fact that Dan's a skeleton. Also in our game, he wakes from five hundred years in the grave, so we thought a bit of love action would cheer him up."
One of the strongest parts of MediEvil was the very intelligent puzzles. There was a lot of exploration required for the player to get through the levels, and the brain cells got to exercise too. However, the puzzles were simply great and offered many shiny details, which gave the game a lot of long-term fun.
"The thing we found most people enjoyed about the first game was the integrated mix of puzzle solving, exploring, and good old-fashioned bashing heads in. We want to keep the same game style as the original's but improve on all the above areas. If you like killing things, the fighting and the weapons are better. If you like exploring, with our new, modular loading, we have created levels up to three times as big as the original game," continues Shepherd. "Finally, if you like solving puzzles, there are some real "brain teasers" in store for you that will quite literally have you ripping your head off." One of the biggest changes in the sequel is that there will be three playable characters in the game. Dan quite literally loses his head in one of the earlier levels of the game. This rather painful inconvenience actually gives him a whole range of new abilities. The first of these is Dan-hand's. Without giving too much away, remember the hands that ran around making a nuisance of themselves in the first game? This time, Dan can actually use them as Dan-hands to solve puzzles and explore new areas. When Dan is in Dan-hand mode he can switch to headless Dan, and the two characters have to cooperate to get through the trickier areas of the game, solving puzzles for each other. Dan-kenstein (as in "Frankenstein") is a version of Dan you get midway through the game for a one-off level, his name should give you a clue to what he's like. He doesn't have weapons as such, but he possesses a wicked left hook."
Every level within MediEvil 2 will have its own style and tasks to solve. "There isn't a really typical MediEvil 2 level. From fighting giant bone demons, to exploring the streets of "Old London town," we've tried to make every level offer the player something different and exciting," says Shepherd.
"My favourite is the level Dan-kenstein, where you have to collect body parts for one of the Mad Professor's experiments. Dan is in a race against time to kill a number of bizarre mutants to get the bits of body he needs. When you see what you have to kill to get the 'bum,' you'll see why it's my favourite level."
Sounds weird? That's right. And if you thought Dan Fortesque would stick to the same weapons as in the first game then you are definitely wrong. "Dan's weapons have been given a total overhaul - he still has the best weapons from the first game; you'll still be squashing things flat with the hammer and chopping things to bits with your trusty sword. We want to add more variety to the weapons and greater diversity to the ways enemies react to them. When I say you will be blowing away fat bearded women with a steam-powered Gatling gun, that's how bizarre it's going to get."
Technologically, MediEvil 2 is also going to have new features. As mentioned, the levels will be bigger, but their size caused some problems within the level design. "The hardest part of the development has been deciding which level ideas were 'crazy funny,' and which ideas were just plain crazy. We wanted to make the sequel as good as possible; We recoded a lot of the core technology, so in some ways it was like starting from scratch. The results speak for themselves, though - bigger levels, better enemy logic, and more moves for Dan. The easy part of doing a sequel is that you already have the character, and you know people are going to like him."
Sounds like the team behind MediEvil are a bunch of crazy guys who are trying to create the ultimate game for the PlayStation. But is it really always fun? "Development isn't a barrel of laughs. The funniest things tend to happen when we socialize after work, and the programming team tries to chat up girls; but it's funny-sad rather than funny." As the era of the PlayStation might soon find an end with the appearance of the PlayStation2, it's of course very likely that development on a next-generation MediEvil could be well on the way. "It is highly unlikely Dan will be back on the original PlayStation. As for Fortesque on the PlayStation2? Personally, I would love to bring him back. I've grown quite attached to the bony little bugger. It's really up to the great game-buying public. If he proves to be a hit again, then anything's possible."
After hearing all the crazy things about Dan Fortesque and his quest that leads him through the Victorian Age, we just wonder how weird it can get and if there is anything that James Shepherd would wish to come true in a possible third game, no matter how likely or unlikely the realisation is. "By the end of MediEvil 2, after saving the world again, I think he deserves a little leisure time. A nice sunny holiday in the Caribbean would be ideal; after all, he doesn't have to worry about getting sunburned. As for his next adventure, I'd like to see Dan in America, on his giant Harley Davidson, pulling chicks, flaunting the law, getting his kicks on Route 66," jokes Shepherd.
It looks like our little skeleton mate is riding on the wave of success for the time being, and if Sony Cambridge can deliver the adventure the way it seems it is going to, then we can all expect a brilliant adventure by the time it is released next Easter. The combination of puzzle-solving and exploration could be the magic combination that makes punters run into the shops to buy the game. If Sony can only halfway match its promises, then we can expect a truly interesting piece of software next year. Looks like the new millennium will bring some new pearls of interactive entertainment.
12/21/99
Preview: Galerians
Hand it to Crave again, the upstart American publisher from Rancho Dominquez, CA, has hooked into another potentially major title (after the gorgeous RPG Jade Cocoon) by the name of Galerians. Published by the Japanese developer Polygon Magic (also known for Tondemo Crisis, Road of Fist, Fighters Impact, Straight Victory) in Japan, and developed by ASCII, this Resident Evil-style still-camera, story-driven game stars a young teenage boy, Rion, who wakes up in a surgeon's room, pumped to the gills with strange fluids that enable him with bizarre powers of telepathy. What's a young boy to do? Galerians, billed as a "third-person psychic thriller," but clearly a Resident Evil-style adventure, tells the story of this young boy's discovery of who he is, and how he's transformed into a psychic being of enormous strength.
As Rion searches through this new mysterious world in which computers run everything, he encounters a new form of being, an artificially created super-species, who's prime directive is the total annihilation of their inferior human creators, known as Galerians. Dr. Lim and his researchers at the Michaelangelo Memorial Hospital had looked for someway to stop the master force, but the situation was hopeless, until they experimented with Rion.
From the operating table in a giant hospital to futuristic towns and sci-fi looking environments, this three-disc game looks to bring a new kind of twist to the growing sub-genre known as survival horror.
Able to take certain pills, called "Psychic Power Enhancement Chemicals (PPECs)," the central character has the power to rage psychic combat on the Galerians throughout the game.
Galerians uses a totally unique combat model that is built upon the use of various psychic attacks, making it the first "psychic survival adventure game." The psychic attacks in the game include telekinesis (the ability to levitate and freeze matter), pyrokinesis (the ability to mentally incinerate matter), and psychokinesis (the ability to deliver powerful psychic blasts).
The game is packed with story, and contains more than 70 minutes of stunning CGI cut scenes. Crave promises more than 50 hours of gameplay.
1/7/2000
Chrono Cross
Square's Chrono Trigger got everything right. The self-proclaimed "dream team" of scenarist Yuji Hori (Dragon Quest), producer Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy), and character designer Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball Z) created a quirky, enjoyable romp through time with a cast of endearing characters, memorable environments, solid RPG gameplay, and unparalleled presentation. Needless to say, fans of the 16-bit SNES game have clamored for a sequel ever since. Which is why, after nearly five years of silence, the announcement of Chrono Cross drew so much ire. Where was the legendary dream team? (Only Sakaguchi contributed to Chrono Cross.) Where was the cast of characters we had grown to know and love? And who the hell was that Thundercats reject named Yamaneko? Things looked grim for the Chrono Trigger faithful. When Chrono Cross was revealed to have 40 playable characters, many lost faith entirely in the game. Had Square thrown all pretense of a coherent title out the window? But fortunately for series' fans, Chrono Trigger's dream team doesn't have a monopoly on RPG innovation. As with the first SNES title, everything in Chrono Cross clicks in a way most games wish they could imitate. The different parts combine into an instant RPG classic. The story begins with the hero, Serge, thrust into a parallel world where he had died under mysterious circumstances more than a decade earlier. He teams up with a rowdy adventurer, Kid, and sets out in search of the mysterious Frozen Flame, an artifact that lets the holder reshape time and space at will. The enigmatic Yamaneko, a regal man-cat who hunts the Frozen Flame for his own purposes, opposes them. In his quest to return home, Serge will collect both allies and foes and will find himself thrust into an adventure that will reveal his heritage, purpose, and ultimate destiny. Only by crossing between the two dimensions can Serge find the answers to his questions. Without revealing any more of Chrono Cross' excellent storyline, it can be said that it successfully pulls off the difficult balancing act every sequel faces. It's not a rehash of the original Chrono Trigger, nor does it exploit the characters and setting of Chrono Trigger for name recognition alone. Instead, it sets up an equally valid, separate, and well-developed world, then slowly and responsibly weaves in elements, characters, and events from the first title. It doesn't continue the original Chrono Trigger mythos so much as it expands it. You will be stunned by the resolution of the disparate plot threads. And with features like an impossibly taciturn hero, an accommodating attitude toward interdimensional travel, and a New Game+ mode, Chrono Cross manages to maintain the ineffable Chrono Trigger feel. The battle system deviates slightly from the RPG norm. The traditional active time bar has been replaced with a bar of seven stamina points. While the engine is still ostensibly turn based, any character can take a turn at any time as long as he has at least one stamina point remaining. Enemies can even interrupt your characters' attacks. Party members can unleash a weak, medium, or strong attack, requiring respectively one, two, or three stamina points. Even though the game pauses while waiting for input, the ability to start and end a character's turn whenever you please makes for a more frantic, pseudo-real-time experience. Elements - Chrono Cross' magic system - are divided into six colors: black and white, red and blue, and green and yellow. Each character has a color alignment that determines his affinity to certain elements. Once you obtain a spell, you place it in an acceptable empty slot on a character's element grid. For example, a spell with level "5+/-2" is a level-five spell, but it can be placed in any slot from three to seven with the expected drop/rise in effectiveness. Successfully landing a weak, medium, or strong attack adds one, two, or three bars to a character's element grid. A character with sufficient element bars can cast a spell, but the cost is seven stamina points, temporarily dropping him out of action. Combine building element grids and plummeting stamina bars with the dynamic nature of characters' turns, and battles become a constantly shifting endeavor - yet always remain under your total control. Once you understand the intricacies of the battle system, encounters are always over quickly. Two other features of the battle system are dual techs and the color field. As in the original Chrono Trigger, characters can combine their special techniques for combined attacks; while not as prevalent as might be expected, the combos are there to be discovered. The color field keeps track of the color of the last three spells cast. If the field becomes a single color, characters with that color alignment gain a statistical boost. Moreover, a monochromatic field is the only time when one of the game's mighty summons can be unleashed. Manipulating the field so that it becomes a single color is trickier than you might expect, as your opponents' spells (and interference) can't be ignored. Chrono Cross has to be the most battle-friendly RPG ever released. All encounters are visible onscreen before they occur, making them easy to avoid - or to engage. Even more pleasantly, every battle can be escaped whenever you like with a 100 percent success rate. Even boss battles. Don't like the way the battle is going? Are your three red magicians hopelessly doomed against a blue powerhouse? Don't reset your console; just run away, regroup, and re-engage. And last but far from least, the option to automatically heal at the end of a battle is a boon from the RPG gods. Don't misunderstand; the game doesn't cure your party for free. But it will intelligently dig through your available spells and stocked inventory and use the necessary elements to return your party to fighting speed. Goodbye, post-battle trips to the status screen, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. Chrono Cross also features a list of key items that can be selected and used on the overworld map and field screens. These items advance the plot, bypass obstacles, and recruit characters to your cause. While no one will fall head over heels in love with this gameplay "innovation," it does add an old-school adventure-game feel and an element of interaction with the environment that most console-RPGs lack. Surprisingly, Chrono Cross' seemingly endless supply of characters works to its benefit, not to its detriment. The secret to its success? Every last one of the 40-plus members is a unique, story-driven, and valuable contributor. Unlike many cast-of-thousands RPG epics, each character in Chrono Cross is an interesting and worthy addition to your team. Everyone has a beautiful character model, excellently animated attacks, and even three unique limit-break-type special skills. There's even a miniquest or special requirement for every character's best skill - that's a lot of extra adventuring! While you'll certainly have your own handful of favorites, you'll never add someone to your party and wonder, "Why is he in the game?" There are no disposable placeholders in Chrono Cross. Even more surprising is the amount of unique text in the game. There is no dialogue spoken by "assorted other party members." All characters have their own reactions to and feelings about the story's events that are expressed in their own special dialects, speech patterns, and dialogue styles. Moreover, many exchanges are only found by having certain characters in your party. If your opponent has a history with one of your members, the two of them will hash it out before you fight. If one of your characters has an experience he feels pertains to the situation at hand, the character will share it with you. Hopefully, Square's localizers will be up to the formidable task presented by Chrono Cross. Graphically, Chrono Cross is nothing short of stunning. While Square's Final Fantasy is glossy and polished, Chrono Cross has an organic feel lacking in the former's "perfect" environments. Vibrant color, creative design, and just the right number of ambient effects bring the settings to life. Again, while Final Fantasy drops your characters into a small subsection of a large, epic environment, Chrono Cross lets you explore every nook and cranny of a scandalously detailed town, building, or dungeon. While we don't intend to slight Final Fantasy's excellent graphics and design, many gamers will prefer the more down-to-earth, personal, and "gritty" feel of Chrono Cross. Environments are well worn and lived in, not newly constructed movie sets. Battle graphics are also excellent. Characters and enemies are universally well modeled, textured, and animated. Camera movement, for the most part, always offers a great view of the action. Special accolades should be given to the spell effects; while they're impressive and suitably over-the-top, they're also short and fast. Thankfully, the sound and music more than match the graphics. Sound effects are varied and always appropriate to the situation at hand. The music is, in a word, gorgeous, and it will undoubtedly bethe favorite part of the Chrono Cross experience for many players. Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda has returned and crafted a masterpiece. Composition and sample quality are both outstanding, and the soundtrack runs the emotional gamut, presenting everything from playful mambo jams to sorrowful violin solos. While many songs are new and unique to Chrono Cross, the influence of Chrono Trigger can definitely be heard. Some songs are rearrangements of Chrono Trigger tunes, while other songs merely tactfully reference a three- or four-note phrase that none but the most devoted series fans will recognize. With Square agonizing over every detail of its flagship property, the members of the Chrono Cross team were apparently left mostly to themselves. Consequently, the game shares an all-out enthusiasm and joie de vivre found in the best 16-bit titles - back before games became multimillion-dollar properties that had to answer to glaring shareholders. Chrono Cross may not have had the largest budget, but it has the largest heart.
1/7/2000
Two-Day PlayStation2 Event
Sony brings out PlayStation2 to Japanese fans for two-day mini-show in February.
1/10/2000
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is holding a mini-Tokyo Game Show of its own this February, as it brings the PlayStation2 and 20 games to the public for 48 hours of game playing. From the early morning to dusk on Wednesday, February 19, at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture (about an hour south of downtown Tokyo), Sony will display hundreds of PlayStation2s and games to play on them in demo, and full, form for gamers to get hands-on experience with Sony's 128-bit DVD system. According to the The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Friday morning edition, about 20 new games will be on-hand for testing, including racing and battle games developed for the new machine. While the Nihon didn't say what games, IGNPSX is sure that the several titles show at the Tokyo Game Show -- Tekken Tag Tournament, Ridge Racer V, Dark Cloud, GT2000, Eternal Ring, and more -- will be ready for the kids to play. While rumors have surfaced about the delay of the system, SCEI has remained firm in its March 2, 2000 launch plan, and insists it will ship 1 million units in the first two days of sales. Tickets will cost 1,200 yen, with a 200 yen discount for advance purchase. Elementary school students are half price.
1/7/2000
PlayStation2 Preorders Begin
Retailers nationwide have begun taking preorder reservations for Sony's next-generation PlayStation console system, the PlayStation2. Currently slated to release during the fall of this year, the PlayStation2 will likely carry a price tag between US$300 and $400. While the date and price for the PlayStation2 has yet to be set, most retailers are expecting it to release sometime in September. While specifics of what needs to be done to preorder the PlayStation2 vary from retailer to retailer, most are currently requiring little to no money down. Online retailer gamestop.com is saying no money down, while Toys "R" Us wants US$50 to preorder and $299 at pickup. Kaybee Toys is offering preorders for only $10. Sony will likely begin talking about US PlayStation2 launch details in the coming months, so we'll soon know more specifics as to the system's price and date of availability.
1/25/2000
Playstation 2's Price
Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) is planning to implement an open-pricing system for its PlayStation2 software. Open pricing means that there is no actual retail price set by the publishers themselves, but retailers will be ultimately responsible for setting a price tag on each game. Though this may sound like a sweet deal, most retailers tend to keep prices in the same range, rather than compete with each other by lowering prices.
Not all software publishers will be implementing the system, as some have already announced their pricing. Sony's launch title Fantavision will be priced at 4800 yen (about US$46). Games like Konami's Jikkyou World Soccer and Astroll's American Arcade are priced at 5800 yen (about $55), and From Software's Eternal Ring and Koei's Kessen are priced at 6800 yen (about $65).
1/25/2000
Resident Evil?
When I think of Capcom these days, the first image that appears in my head isn't Ryu hurling a fireball. It's not a little blue robotic boy, not is it Chun-Li's outfit flying up to show her panties. (OK, that's a lie, I always think about that...). But seriously, the first image that manifests in my skull is of a slow, decrepit zombie biting deep into Jill's neck, blood oozing across her tight shirt. Sounds kind of wonderfully scary, doesn't it? Well, whether you love blood, zombies, sex or not, the game has something for everyone. The fact is, Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan) is hauntingly popular in across the world, and has enthralled millions of gamers for the last three years with three deep, adventure-filled games. So it should come as no surprise that Resident Evil is coming to the PlayStation2. In fact, it's no longer just hearsay. At the Capcom Gamers Day in Las Vegas, Nevada, last December, we discovered that the producer and creator for the Resident Evil series, Shinji Mikami, stated in his producer profile that a Resident Evil sequel is in the works for PlayStation2.
The document on Mikami lists details such as his current projects, number of years working at Capcom, products worked on, most American and Japanese foods, current projects, and more. So what's Mikami's current project? "A Bio Hazard sequel and some other PlayStation2 projects, Bio Hazard Code Veronica for the Dreamcast." That's right. Mikami is working on several PlayStation2 projects.
Based on what Capcom has achieved with the Dreamcast version, we can be certain that the PlayStation2 version will feature several advanced aspects. The PlayStation2 version will definitely be created in a fully realized polygonal world. There will be multiple light sources, and a near-perfect merger of in-game graphics with prerendered visuals. The game is going to be phenomenally huge, too. If the Dreamcast version is three times bigger than Resident Evil 2, well than the PlayStation version is going to be at least that big.
Given that the next big Resident Evil game is appearing on Sega Dreamcast, we have to theorize that the PlayStation2 version will carry the story on from there. But that's getting ahead of the game, just a little. But you can at least bet that it won't take place in Raccoon City!
Capcom has yet to officially announce the game, so instead of waxing lyrical about what could happen, we'll wait until Capcom says something more about the future of Resident Evil. Until then happy zombie hunting!
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