I 've been meaning to ask one more thing, Sega related. Has there been any word on Sega Wow's Shinobi reboot? (the one with hotauma and the cursed sword akujicki) I loved that game back in the day.
Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
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Probably. It also fits with the idea of Miyamoto's death as a game-changer since he almost certainly would have vetoed rushing it. It is his most famous quote, after all:
"A delayed game is eventually good. A bad game is bad forever."
The last Shinobi game was on the Saturn, so I imagine the Katana is due. No word on it yet though.
Command And Conquer Retrospective (Part 1)
Greetings I'm the Jovian. With RySenkari's blessing I'll be posting a retrospective of the ITTL Command & Conquer franchise. I'll be posting one for every game chronologically released in the timeline so far and I'll do the rest when the TL gets to that point in time when they're released.
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It's hard to believe that 20 years have passed since Westwood Studios released their magnum opus, Command & Conquer all the way back in 1995. I mean for me it feels like it was just yesterday when I first experienced the franchise for the first time when I booted up Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun for the first time and was treated to seeing James Earl Jones reacting to Joe Kucan's Kane saying that "you can't kill the messiah."
To me it really was a lifetime ago when Command & Conquer first came to be and to celebrate the fact that the franchise is still going strong after 20 years, 17 of which were under EA of all publishers, I'll be reviewing all of the Command & Conquer titles in order starting with the original, simply titled Command & Conquer.
Now the first game is very basic in terms of story, there isn't all that much to it, the plot is "defeat GDI" if you're playing as Nod or "defeat Nod" if you're playing as GDI. The overarching plot can be summed up as "Tiberuim happened, the opposition is trying to control this continent (Europe in the GDI campaign and Africa in the Nod campaign), go stop them." Sure the GDI campaign does have a mild twist where GDI's funding is cut by the UN when Nod frames them for war crimes but it really didn't have much of an impact and the resolution was the definition of "oh, was that it?" But then again, Nod's story really isn't any better, your mission is to rid Africa of GDI's presence and that's what you're doing, no twists, no turns (well unless you call Seth's obvious Starscream-ing to be a twist). By and large the story is a disposable framework from which you get the campaign missions.
The gameplay itself feels very archaic compared to Tiberian Sun and especially to Tiberian Insurrection. No power management button, no unit or structure queues, every building needs to be adjacent to every other one. It definitely took me a while to get used to it but once I did I was still loving every second of play and this still was Command & Conquer, a very primitive and larval form of Command & Conquer but Command & Conquer all the same. You build your base, build an army and you either steamroll the enemy or watch your forces break like water on a rock by the enemy's superior defenses, (especially if you're playing against Nod because their signature Obelisks of Light are just as powerful here as they were in TibSun and Insurrection). If you're feeling clever you build artillery and a commando to clear away the enemy defenses and infantry respectively so that your tank battalions have it easy.
If there's one thing about this game that hasn't aged well it's the FMV, it just feels really quaint compared to the epic presentation of the following titles, even Red Alert's FMVs had more going on in them than just a talking head giving you orders, which is what we have in this game, set against a very poorly aged CGI backdrop that is put to shame by Wing Commander 3's FMVs and that game came out two years earlier.
Don't get me wrong as much as I love watching Kane giving me orders (in no small part thanks to Joe Kucan's performance and the writing) the FMVs feel too claustrophobic and the poorly aged green-screen effects make the scene where Greg Burdette frames GDI for war crimes unintentionally hilarious because of how obviously fake the CGI backdrops are, I make no joke when I say that a matte painting would've looked more realistic.
As much as I can moan about how poorly the presentation has aged the gameplay is the main draw and the game does come complete with two campaigns and a whole bunch of other missions in the The Covert Operations expansion (which I'll discuss in a sec), Playing through all of them does take some time even after you get used to all the mechanical limitations, as some of them a really difficult, including the GDI mission where you're tasked with stealthing your commando in an enemy base and blowing a randomly determined building, which the game fails to point out which one. I almost considered not doing this retrospective just because of how much I struggled with this one level. It's that hard (or maybe I'm just that terrible at RTSes in general), and overall a nice robust length for an RTS campaign. Combined with a decent selection of skirmish and multiplayer maps and there's more than enough content for a first installment.
Then there was also the The Covert Operations expansion which really didn't offer much except for the missions, and again, when compared to how epic future expansions like Firestorm and Yuri's Revenge were, it feels very quaint and I'm glad that it now comes with every online copy of the game because it's not something that's worth the extra money.
Oh and there was also the SNES-CD port, I'm pretty sure nobody remembers it and I doubt the GameTV guys talked about it, I haven't played it personally but according to a friend of mine who has, it is a well polished, well made port. So I'm just going to take her word for it.
Overall there really isn't much to say about this one, Command & Conquer is the egg of the franchise's life cycle (with Red Alert being the caterpillar and TibSun / RA2 being the chrysalis from which the butterfly of Incursion / RA3 would emerge, and boy was that a drawn out metaphor). It's basic, the plot doesn't require an in-depth analysis that that games from TibSun onward will receive and the gameplay is very plain and vanilla compared to the more dynamic mechanics of future titles. I'm not sure if should recommend it to franchise newcomers but for those that have already played most of the games in the series, you should give it a try if only to see where it all began.
Also "Act on Instinct" (and by extension the rest of Frank Klepacki's epic soundtrack) still rocks. Give it a listen.
- The Jovian's Journal (30/08/2015) - Command & Conquer Retrospective (Part 1) - Command & Conquer (1995)
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It's hard to believe that 20 years have passed since Westwood Studios released their magnum opus, Command & Conquer all the way back in 1995. I mean for me it feels like it was just yesterday when I first experienced the franchise for the first time when I booted up Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun for the first time and was treated to seeing James Earl Jones reacting to Joe Kucan's Kane saying that "you can't kill the messiah."
To me it really was a lifetime ago when Command & Conquer first came to be and to celebrate the fact that the franchise is still going strong after 20 years, 17 of which were under EA of all publishers, I'll be reviewing all of the Command & Conquer titles in order starting with the original, simply titled Command & Conquer.
Now the first game is very basic in terms of story, there isn't all that much to it, the plot is "defeat GDI" if you're playing as Nod or "defeat Nod" if you're playing as GDI. The overarching plot can be summed up as "Tiberuim happened, the opposition is trying to control this continent (Europe in the GDI campaign and Africa in the Nod campaign), go stop them." Sure the GDI campaign does have a mild twist where GDI's funding is cut by the UN when Nod frames them for war crimes but it really didn't have much of an impact and the resolution was the definition of "oh, was that it?" But then again, Nod's story really isn't any better, your mission is to rid Africa of GDI's presence and that's what you're doing, no twists, no turns (well unless you call Seth's obvious Starscream-ing to be a twist). By and large the story is a disposable framework from which you get the campaign missions.
The gameplay itself feels very archaic compared to Tiberian Sun and especially to Tiberian Insurrection. No power management button, no unit or structure queues, every building needs to be adjacent to every other one. It definitely took me a while to get used to it but once I did I was still loving every second of play and this still was Command & Conquer, a very primitive and larval form of Command & Conquer but Command & Conquer all the same. You build your base, build an army and you either steamroll the enemy or watch your forces break like water on a rock by the enemy's superior defenses, (especially if you're playing against Nod because their signature Obelisks of Light are just as powerful here as they were in TibSun and Insurrection). If you're feeling clever you build artillery and a commando to clear away the enemy defenses and infantry respectively so that your tank battalions have it easy.
If there's one thing about this game that hasn't aged well it's the FMV, it just feels really quaint compared to the epic presentation of the following titles, even Red Alert's FMVs had more going on in them than just a talking head giving you orders, which is what we have in this game, set against a very poorly aged CGI backdrop that is put to shame by Wing Commander 3's FMVs and that game came out two years earlier.
Don't get me wrong as much as I love watching Kane giving me orders (in no small part thanks to Joe Kucan's performance and the writing) the FMVs feel too claustrophobic and the poorly aged green-screen effects make the scene where Greg Burdette frames GDI for war crimes unintentionally hilarious because of how obviously fake the CGI backdrops are, I make no joke when I say that a matte painting would've looked more realistic.
As much as I can moan about how poorly the presentation has aged the gameplay is the main draw and the game does come complete with two campaigns and a whole bunch of other missions in the The Covert Operations expansion (which I'll discuss in a sec), Playing through all of them does take some time even after you get used to all the mechanical limitations, as some of them a really difficult, including the GDI mission where you're tasked with stealthing your commando in an enemy base and blowing a randomly determined building, which the game fails to point out which one. I almost considered not doing this retrospective just because of how much I struggled with this one level. It's that hard (or maybe I'm just that terrible at RTSes in general), and overall a nice robust length for an RTS campaign. Combined with a decent selection of skirmish and multiplayer maps and there's more than enough content for a first installment.
Then there was also the The Covert Operations expansion which really didn't offer much except for the missions, and again, when compared to how epic future expansions like Firestorm and Yuri's Revenge were, it feels very quaint and I'm glad that it now comes with every online copy of the game because it's not something that's worth the extra money.
Oh and there was also the SNES-CD port, I'm pretty sure nobody remembers it and I doubt the GameTV guys talked about it, I haven't played it personally but according to a friend of mine who has, it is a well polished, well made port. So I'm just going to take her word for it.
Overall there really isn't much to say about this one, Command & Conquer is the egg of the franchise's life cycle (with Red Alert being the caterpillar and TibSun / RA2 being the chrysalis from which the butterfly of Incursion / RA3 would emerge, and boy was that a drawn out metaphor). It's basic, the plot doesn't require an in-depth analysis that that games from TibSun onward will receive and the gameplay is very plain and vanilla compared to the more dynamic mechanics of future titles. I'm not sure if should recommend it to franchise newcomers but for those that have already played most of the games in the series, you should give it a try if only to see where it all began.
Also "Act on Instinct" (and by extension the rest of Frank Klepacki's epic soundtrack) still rocks. Give it a listen.
- The Jovian's Journal (30/08/2015) - Command & Conquer Retrospective (Part 1) - Command & Conquer (1995)
Fall 2002 (Part 3) - Twin Megahits On The Xbox
Grand Theft Auto: Miami
The sequel to the Xbox launch blockbuster Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto: Miami is based on OTL's Vice City, and plays very similarly. Like OTL's game, it takes place in 1986, in a Miami full of crime, drugs, sex, and general debauchery. The main character is Tommy Vercetti, the same as OTL, though ITTL's game, the main villain isn't Sonny Forelli, but a ruthless Cuban drug lord named Emelio Cortez, based very closely on Tony Montana from Scarface. Ricardo Diaz is also present in the game, but serves as one of Cortez's lieutenants that Tommy defeats earlier in the story. The biggest change to gameplay from OTL's Vice City is the addition of the ability to swim, which aids Tommy greatly in the numerous speedboat chases he engages in. Lance Vance also returns in the story, and betrays Tommy as well, but in this game, he's working as an undercover cop, partnered with Cole Sanders (voiced by Don Johnson). The two characters are a deliberate homage to Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice, from which TTL's game takes just as much inspiration from as OTL's. The city of Miami is divided into three segments that open up as the story plays out, with the size of the city being about twice as big as Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto. There are a total of 121 licensed songs in the game, all selected from the late 70s and 80s, from a variety of genres. About half of the song selections appeared in OTL's game, while the other half are exclusive to this game, including songs such as "Come On Eileen", "Kyrie", "Physical", and "Killed By Death". The game introduces numerous new weapons, though a notable absence from OTL Vice City is the katana. Tommy Vercetti is voiced by Joe Pantoliano, who didn't voice any characters in TTL's Grand Theft Auto like he did in OTL's Grand Theft Auto III. Overall, the game maintains the same high quality and fun gameplay as OTL's Vice City. It's planned from the beginning with a Wave port in mind, even though the exclusivity agreement would preclude a Wave port until at least 2003 (in truth, the game doesn't come to the Wave until spring 2004).
The plot holds many similarities with OTL's game, though Tommy Vercetti's path up the criminal world is less like Scarface and more like the original Grand Theft Auto, due to the presence of Cortez in the game. He is still assisted by the character Ken Rosenberg, and there's also a woman in the game who helps Tommy on a few early missions: Lola Anglio (voiced by Constance Marie). Lola is a bit of a femme fatale and is excellent with a sniper rifle, though she becomes the first major character to be killed off: her dead body ending up on Tommy's doorstep is the impetus of a mission about a third of the way through the game, the first sign that the Cubans are on to Tommy. Once again, Tommy must forge relationships with a number of gangs throughout the second half of the game, including the Haitians, the Mexicans, and the Mafia. He must also forge a relationship with a biker gang, similar to the one in OTL Vice City. Like OTL's game, the end of Vice City can't be reached until Tommy buys and operates a number of businesses throughout the city: in fact, this part of the game drags on even longer and has several frustrating missions toward the end, and there's not just one but two complicated and difficult driving missions Tommy must perform. Though this segment of the game is heavily criticized by players, it does little to detract from overall critical reception of the game, at least at the time (future critics wouldn't be as kind). The final battle of the game is similar to the Diaz mission from OTL, but somewhat more complex, as Tommy finally raids Cortez's mansion and takes him out in one final showdown. Tommy then confronts Cole and Lance after they show up to arrest him, but he successfully intimidates them into leaving his operation alone, and he becomes the undisputed kingpin of Miami.
Grand Theft Auto: Miami is an extremely successful game, selling much faster than the original due to the large number of Xboxes now in the hands of players. It's released on October 14, 2002, and cements the Xbox as the top sixth-generation system currently on the market, as a massive number of console sales accompany the release of the game. It's not without controversy for its violent and offensive content, and the fact that the game takes place in the real-world city of Miami only adds to the controversy. The mayor of Miami personally condemns the game, though more Miami area players per capita buy the game than almost any other American city, and there's more than one midnight release party for the game where loud "Fuck Mayor Diaz" chants break out, leading to even more controversy... leading to even more sales. Reviews are excellent, if SLIGHTLY lower than OTL Vice City due to the difficulty and tedium of the final missions of the game. It's considered one of the best games of the year, and wins many Game of the Year awards for 2002.
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The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower is a WRPG produced by Microsoft and developed by Bioware, released exclusively for the PC and the Xbox. The game is based on Stephen King's acclaimed Western fantasy book series, namely the first four books, with elements of the fifth book, which was released in June 2002 ITTL, included. The game allows the player to create his or her own character, which can inhabit up to 12 different primary classes, including the Gunslinger class, similar to the protagonist of the book series, Roland Deschain. Roland can actually be encountered by the player character during the story, though it's not toward the end and it's entirely optional whether or not he is encountered, he plays no physical role in the main story of the game. Gameplay is a mix of third person shooter elements and OTL Knights of the Old Republic, creating a game that almost plays like a proto OTL Fallout 3, with turn-based combat blended with third person shooter gameplay depending on the situation. This creates a sort of "epic feel" to certain battles where turn based combat is used, making every shot, spell, or blow count. The exploration is centered around settlements. There's a great deal of wandering, but the vast majority of the game's actual missions are given out in towns that the player visits. The player can also establish their own settlements, which is the only way to make certain missions appear (indeed, part of the main quest line requires the player to assist in the founding of their own settlement). The game, like the book series, blends fantasy and Western elements with some horror elements: there are numerous allusions to King's works, some of which don't appear in the novels themselves. There's a certain quest line where the player slips through a rift and enters the town of Desperation, for example. The game also briefly alludes to the short story "The Body", which the film Stand By Me was based on.
The game's main plot involves the player character, who comes to be known as the Fate-Weaver, as this character has the ability to bind together the fates of those they encounter along the way. The Fate-Weaver is asked to procure water, food, and materials for a settlement called Dream's End, a seemingly peaceful town full of good people in the middle of a vast wasteland of desperation and fear. As the Fate-Weaver journeys, they come to hear a legend of the "man in black", who is threatening the people of Dream's End. The young mayor of Dream's End, a 20-something woman named Mercuria, tells the Fate-Weaver that this man visits her in her dreams and tortures her. Progressing through the main quest line causes events to become increasingly disjointed. More rifts open, characters disappear and appear suddenly, and the world begins to make less and less sense. The Fate-Weaver learns that their repeated journeys to Dream's End are causing fate itself to slip out of balance, and causing dreams to become reality. Eventually, this causes a massive rift to open underneath Dream's End, destroying the city in spectacular fashion. Mercuria disappears, said by the lone survivor of Dream's End to have been taken to a mysterious castle by the Man in Black. As the Fate-Weaver progresses through this castle, they encounter numerous incarnations of the Man in Black, including Walter o'Dim, Marten Broadcloak, and of course, Randall Flagg. In the end, however, the Fate-Weaver encounters Mercuria, and learns that Mercuria is yet another incarnation of Flagg. She reveals that the Fate-Weaver is so called because their fate is intertwined with another, which is implied to be the player. She reveals that the Fate-Weaver is simply one of an infinite number of people who have come to this place before, and displays a number of random player avatars completing various tasks that the player has accomplished during the course of the game. The player then engages Mercuria/Flagg in combat, in which Mercuria/Flagg utilizes a number of fourth-wall shattering tricks in an attempt to disturb the player. The final boss fight is essentially the Psycho Mantis fight from Metal Gear Solid on steroids: Mercuria mentions the player's favorite television shows, books, and even their friends depending on how much personal information the player has provided to their Xbox over time. Eventually, though, Mercuria is defeated, and Flagg appears, gravely wounded. He tells the player directly that this isn't over, that as long as a spark of evil remains in the minds of twisted humanity, that he will return and cause more death and pain. He then falls into an abyss. In the game's ending, the Fate-Weaver seems consumed with despair, but is given solace by a figure that takes the form of the character that the Fate-Weaver has done the most good for during the game. He/she tells the Fate-Weaver that they've done a lot of good in the world, and that it takes a truly bright light to find hope and pleasure in a world consumed with such darkness. There are some variations on this ending: if the Fate-Weaver has been mostly evil, they don't despair at all in the game's ending, and in some cases, return directly to the world to cause more mayhem (in which case the game compares the player to Stephen King himself). There's also a "golden ending" in which Mercuria herself appears to the player, separated completely from Randall Flagg and allowed to begin life anew at the Fate-Weaver's side. This ending requires a number of conditions and side-quests to be completed, and the game's developers estimate that less than 1% of first time players reach this ending without the help of a guide. Most endings have the Fate-Weaver returning to the world to continue their quest: though it is now a quest without purpose, the Fate-Weaver can surely find a way to draw purpose from nothing.
The Dark Tower was released on the PC on April 13, 2002, and on the Xbox on October 28, 2002. Both versions were highly praised by reviewers, with the Xbox version containing numerous fixes and patches applied to the PC game after release. Though the PC version featured superior graphics, the Xbox version of the game features excellent graphics as well, probably the best to date in a console JRPG. The reviews ARE a bit polarized: though there's a high floor for the game (about 8.0/10), not all reviewers considered it a truly "great" game, with a few stating that it's just impossible for a game, even one as big as this one, to contain all the nuances and elements that made the novels so great. However, some reviewers considered The Dark Tower among the greatest games of all time, with Gamespot awarding it a 10/10 and calling it "among the two or three best games ever made, bar none". Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a Gold award: two of its reviewers gave it a perfect 10, while another gave it an 8. Stephen King himself, who helped to write the game's story and was involved in the development process as a consultant, said he was "proud" of his work, but that he understood if people didn't like it. Overall, sales were very strong. The PC game had some of the best sales numbers of the year, while the Xbox version, though not a megahit like Grand Theft Auto, still reached a million sales fairly quickly and would be a multi-million selling game by the time everything was said and done. The Dark Tower was, notably, the first modern WRPG to be considered the console RPG of the year by a plurality of reviewers, after JRPGs had dominated the console RPG landscape since the release of Phantasy Star on the Master System. It was the beginning of what would become a growing trend in console gaming: the rise of the WRPG, as consoles got powerful enough to contain the massive worlds required of them.
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"One thing I learned in helping to develop the video game version of The Dark Tower is that making video games is hard. It's not like in that dumbass commercial, where all you have to do is 'tighten up the graphics'. It's legitimately one of the most difficult forms of art to create, and those people who worked on programming the game, those guys are heroes. All I did was give suggestions and help work on the story. Writing novels is hard too, I can attest to that. But those guys who make the games, they're working their asses off, and most of the time it's pretty thankless. I'm going to get more credit for making The Dark Tower video game than 99 percent of the people who worked on it combined, and that's really not fair."
-Stephen King, discussing the video game version of The Dark Tower in an exclusive G4 interview with Bill Sindelar and Ted Crosley in the leadup to the release of the Xbox port
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Ultra Nintendo, Xbox Sales Strong In October
Both the Ultra Nintendo and Microsoft's Xbox console saw strong sales in the month of October, bolstered by the releases of major games for both systems. Super Mario Ranger, released on September 30, helped Ultra Nintendo sales climb to their best levels since June, and helped the console to once again take the worldwide crown in terms of overall units sold by a few thousand units over the Xbox. However, Microsoft's Xbox was easily king in North America, with more than double the units sold of the Ultra Nintendo. The dual releases of megahits Grand Theft Auto: Miami and The Dark Tower helped the Xbox to its strongest North American sales month to date, with over 800,000 units sold in the United States and Canada. Grand Theft Auto: Miami sold more than a million units during the calendar month, while The Dark Tower climbed over 200,000 sales in its first day of release.
Meanwhile, the Katana's sales continue to drop: while the system was #1 in terms of units sold in Japan, its North American sales dropped steadily: only 140,000 units sold in North America during the month of October, after seeing a strong rebound in sales in August and September thanks to the release of Sonic Neon. Sega expects strong sales numbers during the holiday season, but industry analysts aren't so sure, and though Sega's overall profits are strong, this is mostly on the strength of the company's toy sales, which rose 37% during the fiscal year, bolstered by sales of anime tie-in toys and toys based on the company's game properties.
-from an article posted on Gamespot.com on November 10, 2002
The sequel to the Xbox launch blockbuster Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto: Miami is based on OTL's Vice City, and plays very similarly. Like OTL's game, it takes place in 1986, in a Miami full of crime, drugs, sex, and general debauchery. The main character is Tommy Vercetti, the same as OTL, though ITTL's game, the main villain isn't Sonny Forelli, but a ruthless Cuban drug lord named Emelio Cortez, based very closely on Tony Montana from Scarface. Ricardo Diaz is also present in the game, but serves as one of Cortez's lieutenants that Tommy defeats earlier in the story. The biggest change to gameplay from OTL's Vice City is the addition of the ability to swim, which aids Tommy greatly in the numerous speedboat chases he engages in. Lance Vance also returns in the story, and betrays Tommy as well, but in this game, he's working as an undercover cop, partnered with Cole Sanders (voiced by Don Johnson). The two characters are a deliberate homage to Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice, from which TTL's game takes just as much inspiration from as OTL's. The city of Miami is divided into three segments that open up as the story plays out, with the size of the city being about twice as big as Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto. There are a total of 121 licensed songs in the game, all selected from the late 70s and 80s, from a variety of genres. About half of the song selections appeared in OTL's game, while the other half are exclusive to this game, including songs such as "Come On Eileen", "Kyrie", "Physical", and "Killed By Death". The game introduces numerous new weapons, though a notable absence from OTL Vice City is the katana. Tommy Vercetti is voiced by Joe Pantoliano, who didn't voice any characters in TTL's Grand Theft Auto like he did in OTL's Grand Theft Auto III. Overall, the game maintains the same high quality and fun gameplay as OTL's Vice City. It's planned from the beginning with a Wave port in mind, even though the exclusivity agreement would preclude a Wave port until at least 2003 (in truth, the game doesn't come to the Wave until spring 2004).
The plot holds many similarities with OTL's game, though Tommy Vercetti's path up the criminal world is less like Scarface and more like the original Grand Theft Auto, due to the presence of Cortez in the game. He is still assisted by the character Ken Rosenberg, and there's also a woman in the game who helps Tommy on a few early missions: Lola Anglio (voiced by Constance Marie). Lola is a bit of a femme fatale and is excellent with a sniper rifle, though she becomes the first major character to be killed off: her dead body ending up on Tommy's doorstep is the impetus of a mission about a third of the way through the game, the first sign that the Cubans are on to Tommy. Once again, Tommy must forge relationships with a number of gangs throughout the second half of the game, including the Haitians, the Mexicans, and the Mafia. He must also forge a relationship with a biker gang, similar to the one in OTL Vice City. Like OTL's game, the end of Vice City can't be reached until Tommy buys and operates a number of businesses throughout the city: in fact, this part of the game drags on even longer and has several frustrating missions toward the end, and there's not just one but two complicated and difficult driving missions Tommy must perform. Though this segment of the game is heavily criticized by players, it does little to detract from overall critical reception of the game, at least at the time (future critics wouldn't be as kind). The final battle of the game is similar to the Diaz mission from OTL, but somewhat more complex, as Tommy finally raids Cortez's mansion and takes him out in one final showdown. Tommy then confronts Cole and Lance after they show up to arrest him, but he successfully intimidates them into leaving his operation alone, and he becomes the undisputed kingpin of Miami.
Grand Theft Auto: Miami is an extremely successful game, selling much faster than the original due to the large number of Xboxes now in the hands of players. It's released on October 14, 2002, and cements the Xbox as the top sixth-generation system currently on the market, as a massive number of console sales accompany the release of the game. It's not without controversy for its violent and offensive content, and the fact that the game takes place in the real-world city of Miami only adds to the controversy. The mayor of Miami personally condemns the game, though more Miami area players per capita buy the game than almost any other American city, and there's more than one midnight release party for the game where loud "Fuck Mayor Diaz" chants break out, leading to even more controversy... leading to even more sales. Reviews are excellent, if SLIGHTLY lower than OTL Vice City due to the difficulty and tedium of the final missions of the game. It's considered one of the best games of the year, and wins many Game of the Year awards for 2002.
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The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower is a WRPG produced by Microsoft and developed by Bioware, released exclusively for the PC and the Xbox. The game is based on Stephen King's acclaimed Western fantasy book series, namely the first four books, with elements of the fifth book, which was released in June 2002 ITTL, included. The game allows the player to create his or her own character, which can inhabit up to 12 different primary classes, including the Gunslinger class, similar to the protagonist of the book series, Roland Deschain. Roland can actually be encountered by the player character during the story, though it's not toward the end and it's entirely optional whether or not he is encountered, he plays no physical role in the main story of the game. Gameplay is a mix of third person shooter elements and OTL Knights of the Old Republic, creating a game that almost plays like a proto OTL Fallout 3, with turn-based combat blended with third person shooter gameplay depending on the situation. This creates a sort of "epic feel" to certain battles where turn based combat is used, making every shot, spell, or blow count. The exploration is centered around settlements. There's a great deal of wandering, but the vast majority of the game's actual missions are given out in towns that the player visits. The player can also establish their own settlements, which is the only way to make certain missions appear (indeed, part of the main quest line requires the player to assist in the founding of their own settlement). The game, like the book series, blends fantasy and Western elements with some horror elements: there are numerous allusions to King's works, some of which don't appear in the novels themselves. There's a certain quest line where the player slips through a rift and enters the town of Desperation, for example. The game also briefly alludes to the short story "The Body", which the film Stand By Me was based on.
The game's main plot involves the player character, who comes to be known as the Fate-Weaver, as this character has the ability to bind together the fates of those they encounter along the way. The Fate-Weaver is asked to procure water, food, and materials for a settlement called Dream's End, a seemingly peaceful town full of good people in the middle of a vast wasteland of desperation and fear. As the Fate-Weaver journeys, they come to hear a legend of the "man in black", who is threatening the people of Dream's End. The young mayor of Dream's End, a 20-something woman named Mercuria, tells the Fate-Weaver that this man visits her in her dreams and tortures her. Progressing through the main quest line causes events to become increasingly disjointed. More rifts open, characters disappear and appear suddenly, and the world begins to make less and less sense. The Fate-Weaver learns that their repeated journeys to Dream's End are causing fate itself to slip out of balance, and causing dreams to become reality. Eventually, this causes a massive rift to open underneath Dream's End, destroying the city in spectacular fashion. Mercuria disappears, said by the lone survivor of Dream's End to have been taken to a mysterious castle by the Man in Black. As the Fate-Weaver progresses through this castle, they encounter numerous incarnations of the Man in Black, including Walter o'Dim, Marten Broadcloak, and of course, Randall Flagg. In the end, however, the Fate-Weaver encounters Mercuria, and learns that Mercuria is yet another incarnation of Flagg. She reveals that the Fate-Weaver is so called because their fate is intertwined with another, which is implied to be the player. She reveals that the Fate-Weaver is simply one of an infinite number of people who have come to this place before, and displays a number of random player avatars completing various tasks that the player has accomplished during the course of the game. The player then engages Mercuria/Flagg in combat, in which Mercuria/Flagg utilizes a number of fourth-wall shattering tricks in an attempt to disturb the player. The final boss fight is essentially the Psycho Mantis fight from Metal Gear Solid on steroids: Mercuria mentions the player's favorite television shows, books, and even their friends depending on how much personal information the player has provided to their Xbox over time. Eventually, though, Mercuria is defeated, and Flagg appears, gravely wounded. He tells the player directly that this isn't over, that as long as a spark of evil remains in the minds of twisted humanity, that he will return and cause more death and pain. He then falls into an abyss. In the game's ending, the Fate-Weaver seems consumed with despair, but is given solace by a figure that takes the form of the character that the Fate-Weaver has done the most good for during the game. He/she tells the Fate-Weaver that they've done a lot of good in the world, and that it takes a truly bright light to find hope and pleasure in a world consumed with such darkness. There are some variations on this ending: if the Fate-Weaver has been mostly evil, they don't despair at all in the game's ending, and in some cases, return directly to the world to cause more mayhem (in which case the game compares the player to Stephen King himself). There's also a "golden ending" in which Mercuria herself appears to the player, separated completely from Randall Flagg and allowed to begin life anew at the Fate-Weaver's side. This ending requires a number of conditions and side-quests to be completed, and the game's developers estimate that less than 1% of first time players reach this ending without the help of a guide. Most endings have the Fate-Weaver returning to the world to continue their quest: though it is now a quest without purpose, the Fate-Weaver can surely find a way to draw purpose from nothing.
The Dark Tower was released on the PC on April 13, 2002, and on the Xbox on October 28, 2002. Both versions were highly praised by reviewers, with the Xbox version containing numerous fixes and patches applied to the PC game after release. Though the PC version featured superior graphics, the Xbox version of the game features excellent graphics as well, probably the best to date in a console JRPG. The reviews ARE a bit polarized: though there's a high floor for the game (about 8.0/10), not all reviewers considered it a truly "great" game, with a few stating that it's just impossible for a game, even one as big as this one, to contain all the nuances and elements that made the novels so great. However, some reviewers considered The Dark Tower among the greatest games of all time, with Gamespot awarding it a 10/10 and calling it "among the two or three best games ever made, bar none". Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a Gold award: two of its reviewers gave it a perfect 10, while another gave it an 8. Stephen King himself, who helped to write the game's story and was involved in the development process as a consultant, said he was "proud" of his work, but that he understood if people didn't like it. Overall, sales were very strong. The PC game had some of the best sales numbers of the year, while the Xbox version, though not a megahit like Grand Theft Auto, still reached a million sales fairly quickly and would be a multi-million selling game by the time everything was said and done. The Dark Tower was, notably, the first modern WRPG to be considered the console RPG of the year by a plurality of reviewers, after JRPGs had dominated the console RPG landscape since the release of Phantasy Star on the Master System. It was the beginning of what would become a growing trend in console gaming: the rise of the WRPG, as consoles got powerful enough to contain the massive worlds required of them.
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"One thing I learned in helping to develop the video game version of The Dark Tower is that making video games is hard. It's not like in that dumbass commercial, where all you have to do is 'tighten up the graphics'. It's legitimately one of the most difficult forms of art to create, and those people who worked on programming the game, those guys are heroes. All I did was give suggestions and help work on the story. Writing novels is hard too, I can attest to that. But those guys who make the games, they're working their asses off, and most of the time it's pretty thankless. I'm going to get more credit for making The Dark Tower video game than 99 percent of the people who worked on it combined, and that's really not fair."
-Stephen King, discussing the video game version of The Dark Tower in an exclusive G4 interview with Bill Sindelar and Ted Crosley in the leadup to the release of the Xbox port
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Ultra Nintendo, Xbox Sales Strong In October
Both the Ultra Nintendo and Microsoft's Xbox console saw strong sales in the month of October, bolstered by the releases of major games for both systems. Super Mario Ranger, released on September 30, helped Ultra Nintendo sales climb to their best levels since June, and helped the console to once again take the worldwide crown in terms of overall units sold by a few thousand units over the Xbox. However, Microsoft's Xbox was easily king in North America, with more than double the units sold of the Ultra Nintendo. The dual releases of megahits Grand Theft Auto: Miami and The Dark Tower helped the Xbox to its strongest North American sales month to date, with over 800,000 units sold in the United States and Canada. Grand Theft Auto: Miami sold more than a million units during the calendar month, while The Dark Tower climbed over 200,000 sales in its first day of release.
Meanwhile, the Katana's sales continue to drop: while the system was #1 in terms of units sold in Japan, its North American sales dropped steadily: only 140,000 units sold in North America during the month of October, after seeing a strong rebound in sales in August and September thanks to the release of Sonic Neon. Sega expects strong sales numbers during the holiday season, but industry analysts aren't so sure, and though Sega's overall profits are strong, this is mostly on the strength of the company's toy sales, which rose 37% during the fiscal year, bolstered by sales of anime tie-in toys and toys based on the company's game properties.
-from an article posted on Gamespot.com on November 10, 2002
Admittedly my comparison to Sonic 06 was a bit hyperbolic, but the showcasing of Legend of Zelda on the Wave also has me concerned. It has a more realistic aesthetic than "anime fantasy-style" if memory serves, and I wonder if that and a rushed Mario will evolve into base breakers in the long run.
In regards to Sega, I wonder if they are considering branching out into animation or will they just stick to toys? Also, which studio is producing Sonic X TTL? TMS or Toei, I bring up Toei because of the Super Sentai/Power Rangers and Bandai connection.
The kidnapping was completely butterflied. Brian David Mitchell was arrested and jailed for nine years for child molestation in 1998. He got out in 2005 and kept his nose clean until drinking himself to death in 2010.
Rush Limbaugh is getting huge ratings and making massive amounts of money bashing Al Gore's administration on his morning radio show.
Al Franken is still writing books and doing comedy.
Sarah Palin is mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.
The marcoeconomical butterfly make the euro was already set(Heck the sign of the Common Currency iniciative was the same day as the POD... roughly, in 1991 Summer), so that is up and done
East Timor i think as ONU would applied pressure, for the rest dunno what ry says but maybe a little different but roughlt as otl.
You Still got Berlusconi don't worry, if he survives as long as otl, depends, still much of the Eurozone is far better as USA is not antagonizing, and if you see there a big butterflies already soared but nobodies noticed it.
You still touched a good points, besides England and France(ubisoft), Sweden(DICE, and others) and now Poland(cd project) europe is a wasteland for videogames since the death of mircocomputers, IIRC the new ecco means something as novotrade is from Hungary but the rest of europe(besides a few spanish making licensed and edutaiment games). Why that? some europeans might give reasons about it=
Good, that will be a surprise,Berlusconi's still around? Fuck.
No, I haven't noticed any butterfly.
adding this
You still touched a good point, besides England and France(ubisoft), Sweden(DICE, and others) and now Poland(cd project) europe is a wasteland for videogames since the death of mircocomputers, IIRC the new ecco means something as novotrade is from Hungary but the rest of europe(besides a few spanish making licensed and edutaiment games). Why that? some europeans might give reasons about it=
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