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The EuroGamer Digest 2002 05 29
The Weekly EuroGamer Digest - 29th May to 5th June 2002
=====================================================================
The EuroGamer Digest, brought to you weekly by the tireless fingers of
our editorial team, currently explaining away the last 5-10 minutes of
shouting exultantly at the Republic of Ireland's dramatic comeback in
Ibaraki against the Germans!
Thanks to a number of factors; E3 hangovers, the Queen, the World Cup,
war, parties etc, this week has been a slow one for gamers, and
virtually nothing of any great consequence has occurred. No price
drops. No impressive game announcements. Apart from uncovering the odd
treat that we missed at E3, there hasn't been much for our team of
gamers to do except... play games. And bicker endlessly about the
relative merits of the Super Bomberman 2 and 3 rule sets. Not that
that's an argument, because 3 was truly rubbish.
The 24th of May marked the release of the long-awaited Final Fantasy X
in Europe, and as predicted it suffered from horrendous borders and
the lack of a 60Hz display mode. Although Square has quite reasonably
explained that it would have to replicate the game content and this
would not fit on a single DVD, we're still wondering how that serves
as an answer to the question "So, what the bloody hell is up with
these borders then me old china?"
Of course, those of you who have seen the NTSC version will know that
slight borders exist there too. Although these are barely intrusive,
when coupled with the extra 100 lines or so of screen left black by
the slothful PAL conversion, the result is something approaching what
European PS2 owners up and down the continent are currently lambasting
from forum to forum.
You can look forward to our review of Final Fantasy X in due course.
We wanted to base our review on the PAL version of the game and not
the NTSC one we have had since last year - and with 50 hours odd
required to finish it (that's "finish", not "complete"), it's quite a
haul, even if we do know the way!
As far as the website is concerned, it's World Cup Week, and this
means a raft of features celebrating the world's biggest sporting
event (that's "Tom Bramwell", Sepp, for the cheque), and a raft of
features for people who find football intensely boring. We hope you
enjoy it, and as always, your feedback - good or bad - is appreciated.
Tom Bramwell, Assistant Editor
=====================================================================
Features
On Thursday, John collected his thoughts about the PC version of Grand
Theft Auto III, and he really liked it, which saves him from a
startling fate involving a kitchen knife and a cheese grater, and at
the same time Tom mulled over Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
Barely stopping to catch his breath, John took Mirage out for a few
drinks and forced them to spill the carefully rationed beans that made
up their World War II role-playing game Another War, and he continued
with his war fetish throughout the weekend, reviewing Koei's
delightful Kessen II.
All the while Darth Bramwell was secretly plotting to bring chaos and
disorder to the galaxy in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, but
using a WW2 bayonet borrowed from Another War John was able to quickly
suppress the excitable Sith Fraud.
And then we kicked off World Cup Week. The site reskinned, we launched
Tom's "Mugwum Opus", a roundup of eight of the football games you
could be playing to fill the gaps in this year's tournament. Then on
Tuesday he went a little deeper with one of the contenders, ISS2,
which fared reasonably as an arcade footy title, but the game of the
day was clearly Insomniac Games' forthcoming Ratchet & Clank. Jak &
Daxter is the best platform adventure on the PS2, and Ratchet & Clank
wants that crown, and it's sailing extremely close to the wind to get
it. In a boat made of metal. With a helipack. And a slingshot.
Then, in a whirlwind of keystrokes this Wednesday morning Tom's
preview of Pro Evolution Soccer 2 continued the World Cup theme. Based
on the Japanese release of Winning Eleven 6, it's the product of
nearly 60 hours of play.
+ Pro Evolution Soccer 2 preview
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/p_pes2_ps2
+ International Superstar Soccer 2 review
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/r_iss2_ps2
+ Ratchet & Clank preview
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/p_ratchetclank_ps2
+ World Cup Play-offs
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/a_worldcup2002
+ Kessen II review
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/r_kessen2_ps2
+ Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic preview
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/p_kotor_x
+ Another World War II Game (Mirage interview)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/i_anotherwar
+ Grand Theft Auto 3 PC review
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/r_gta3_pc
+ Splinter Cell preview
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/p_splintercell
=====================================================================
Industry News in Brief
Industry news is about all there has been this week. On Wednesday we
learnt of SN Systems' online tools for the GameCube announcement.
Their product is a sort of middleware for developers looking to
produce online games for the Cube, and deals with all the tricky
gubbins, allowing them to focus on the game itself.
Speaking of middleware, Criterion is moving ever closer to announcing
its acquisition of MathEngine plc's middleware business, which will
help to complement its own RenderWare product, which lies behind
titles as resplendent as Grand Theft Auto and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
In other news, Activision has purchased the development studio behind
the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX series, Z-Axis, with $20m exchanging
hands as part of the deal. Confusing those this might seem, Z-Axis is
actually working on the latest Dave Mirra game as an Xbox release for
Acclaim...
And the only other thing that we thought was interesting this week was
the news that Angelina Jolie will be returning as Lara Croft in
another Tomb Raider movie, to be directed by Speed-man (that's not a
drugs reference, kids) Jan de Bont. Chris Barrie should be in it
again, and according to reputable sources, Barrie's role will be much
larger this time. He does a wonderful poncy butler, but Lord help us.
+ Xbox gets smaller hard drive
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21085
+ Activision goes straight up
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21084
+ Lara Croft II?
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21083
+ Criterion to acquire MathEngine
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21067
+ Microsoft of Japan speaks
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21061
+ SN launches online tools for Cube
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21060
=====================================================================
Games Announcements
After throwing several million words at the subject last week, we're
left trying to work out what actually did get announced for this
Digest. Give me a few minutes.
[short pause - refreshments available in the lobby]
Aha, I've found something. Okay, this is quite good, and it had
slipped my mind thanks to the rather stupendous amount of beer
consumed before noon on the morning of England's game against Sweden
on Sunday. Poor, cash-strapped Squaresoft, who cannot afford to even
optimize their European releases - bless 'em - plan to squeeze a few
more yen out of the (admittedly excellent) Final Fantasy X characters
Rikku and Yuna, by giving them their own games. Details are scant, but
the two games should fly off the shelves, good or bad, so perhaps
Square can get back to making games for the love sooner rather than
later.
Elsewhere, in typical Net fashion, it was announced by C&VG (and
reported by silly, gullible us) that the new MGS2 Substance would lack
the skateboarding sections shown in the E3 trailer. Fortunately it
turns out the skateboarding is in there, and that a mix-up was
responsible for Konami's confusing comments last week. Never mind, eh?
+ Operation Patriotic Video Game II
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21080
+ Quake Advance?
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21078
+ Substance lacks Solid Snakeboarding (look at the puns we had, too!)
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21075
+ Squaresoft to develop FFX spin-offs
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21064
+ Valve plumbs Half-Life one more time
http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=21059
=====================================================================
Screenshots
Activision went into overdrive this E3, with shots of its various
"Random Name Pro Whatsit Number" games. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 was
shown in all its glory on Xbox, PS2 and Cube, while Mat Hoffman's Pro
BMX 2 struts its stuff on PS2 and Xbox. Of course not content with
that, Shaun Murray's Pro Wakeboarder (PS2) and Kelly Slater's Pro
Surfer (PS2, Xbox) also did the rounds, and token brand exception
Street Hoops popped up on the Xbox.
PC owners actually got the most shots this week, with games like
Stalker, Hoverace, Duality, Unreal Tournament 2003, Shining Lore and
Deus Ex 2 (also on Xbox) rearing their heads. Duality in particular is
going to be one to watch.
Cube owners not only had a small number of shots this week, but the
shots themselves were tiny. Capcom's Resident Evil 0 shots blown up to
twice their size do look quite nice, but otherwise it's hard to pick
up much detail at all. Shame, really.
+ Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_mathoffman2_ps2 (PS2)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_mathoffman2_x (Xbox)
+ Street Hoops (Xbox)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_streethoops_x
+ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_tonyhawk4_x (Xbox)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_tonyhawk4_ps2 (PS2)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_tonyhawk4_gc (Cube)
+ Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_kellyslater_ps2 (PS2)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_kellyslater_x (Xbox)
+ Shaun Murray's Pro Wakeboarder (PS2)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_shaunmurray_ps2
+ Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_ratchetclank_ps2
+ Stalker: Oblivion Lost (PC)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_stalker
+ Hoverace (PC)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_hoverace
+ Duality (PC)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_duality
+ Unreal Tournament 2003 (PC)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_ut2003
+ Shining Lore (PC)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_shininglore
+ Resident Evil 0 (Cube)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_residentevil0_gc
+ Deus Ex 2: Invisible War
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_deusex2 (PC)
http://www.eurogamer.net/content/ss_deusex2_x (Xbox)
=====================================================================
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