Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

[RySenkari]

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs is a third-person shooter title exclusively for the Nintendo Wave. Like OTL's game, it centers around an elite team of Navy SEALs who go around the world fighting terrorists and other belligerent entities. It also has a focus on online multiplayer, with a heavily team-based focus. The OTL version of the game was released in 2002, and originally, Nintendo and Sony planned to release the game in 2002 ITTL, as a way to push a potential online system for the Ultra Nintendo as a response to the success of the Katana's online play. However, Sony quickly realized that the Ultra Nintendo wouldn't be capable of handling the game, and that the current state of online console multiplayer on the Ultra wouldn't make it worth publishing an online-focused title. The game was retooled for the Ultra Nintendo, while being refined and fine-tuned to optimize the gameplay experience. Like in OTL's game, the player can give commands to squadmates, both AI and human controlled, and there's an emphasis on realism, with players taking very few shots to die. Also, there are five missions instead of four. The Alaska, Congo, and Turkmenistan missions from OTL's game appear in TTL's game and are fairly similar to those in OTL, and there are two missions original to TTL's game: China and Antarctica. In the China mission, the SOCOM team must stop a rogue American squad from killing a kidnapped Chinese political leader and his family, which would spark World War III. In the Antarctica mission, the team investigates a secret weapons project being carried out at a secret base on the frozen continent. The online multiplayer is noticeably more complex than TTL's multiplayer, with multi-round matches that simulate different parts of a mission. For example, there's a mission where a hostage must be rescued, and then in part two of that mission, the hostage must be extracted. There's another online mission where the SEALs must smoke out the enemy team, while that enemy team attempts to fortify and protect their base. Once smoked out, the enemy team must still be hunted down. Parts of the single player missions have also been made into multiplayer modes so that teams can re-enact these missions with human-controlled opponents.

Like OTL's game, SOCOM puts a heavy emphasis on the online aspect of its multiplayer mode, and all copies include a headset for the Wave, making the game cost $69.99. There is a version without the headset that's released alongside the game, but the headset version is the one that's hyped up in advertising and commercials, and a lot of players actually buy the game for the headset. While the headset isn't supported for the online modes of a lot of first-party Nintendo games such as Mario Kart or Ken Griffey, it IS supported for most third-party shooter titles. The SOCOM headset has somewhat of a residual popularity affect on other games such as Tom Clancy's Delta Force, raising sales of those games amongst players who own the headset. The review scores for SOCOM are about on par with what they were IOTL, averaging about an 8/10, largely on the strength of its multiplayer mode. The game's popularity strikes a blow for Nintendo in the online multiplayer battle with Apple and Microsoft, a battle they're still lagging somewhat behind in. Sales for the game, which is released on April 26, 2004, would top 100,000 in the first week, and while they would drop off somewhat quickly afterwards, the packed-in headset keeps sales for the game from bottoming out for a long period of time, ensuring at least a few thousand sales per week for the remainder of the year.

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Ace Combat 4

Developed by Namco exclusively for the Nintendo Wave, Ace Combat 4 had a very long development cycle, due to the low sales and poor critical reception for Ace Combat 3 on the Sega Saturn. Namco decided to shelve the series for a few years before retooling it for the graphical power of the Wave, and the result is a complete reboot of the series utilizing some of the best graphics yet seen in a console video game, far superior to those of OTL's Ace Combat 04 for the Playstation 2. The game also features a complex storyline, featuring a number of characters with colorful personalities in an effort to capture a sort of Top Gun-like feel for the game. The game itself plays much like OTL's Ace Combat 04, a fairly realistic flying combat sim that allows for the player to engage in both aerial dogfights and battles against targets on the ground. As the missions play out, the protagonist is in communication with both friend and foe, giving battles a highly cinematic feel that's enhanced by an epic musical score by Junichi Nakatsuru (who helped compose OTL's Ace Combat 5). The protagonist, Ether 11, starts out as a trainee at an elite flying academy and befriends a number of people there, some of who will become his wingmen, others who will become commanding officers, and a few who will become enemies. While Ether 1's training is ongoing, a war breaks out, forcing him and his friends to engage in a trial by fire as the enemy's planes attack the academy directly. Ether 1 will ultimately become a reluctant hero as the war changes the world forever. Ether 1's wingmen include Ether 2, a brash pilot who starts out as Ether 1's rival but later becomes his most trusted wingman, Ether 3, a serious but respectable pilot who will ultimately betray his squadron, and Ether 4, a beautiful woman who secretly hails from an aristocratic family and had to run away from her overbearing father to get into the training academy. Other notable characters include Jureiya, a stern female general who becomes a sort of mother figure to the Ether Squadron, Grand 7, a member of the Grand Squadron, the elite strike force of the enemy nation, who fights with honor even as he commits reprehensible acts, and King Sternborne, the leader of the enemy nation, whose ambitions hide a secret past.

Ace Combat 4 is received extremely well, being especially praised for its graphics and storyline. It was highly anticipated before its release due to the efforts of Namco to seriously hype it up as a revival for the series, and it's a game almost five years in the making, one of the longest development cycles yet seen for a game, with magazine articles appearing as early as 2001. It's one of the best reviewed games of the year thus far, and is released in Japan in January 2004 to outstanding sales, topping the charts for three straight weeks. In North America, it's released on May 17, 2004, and while it's not nearly as big a hit here as it is in Japan, it's still the best selling game in the series to date, and manages to be the #1 game of the week in sales, topping the second week sales of Codename: Messiah, a bit of an upset. It also has excellent sales in Europe, where it sees release the last week of June.

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Victor Lucas: Ace Combat is back, and take it from me, we're happy to see it back.

Alex Stansfield: This is a fantastic game, and an early candidate for Game of the Year. I was impressed with the storyline and I was especially impressed with the graphics, which demonstrate that there are things the Wave can do that other consoles just can't.

Victor: I think the Xbox probably could've done this game, but I'm not sure it could've done it at 60 frames per second like the Wave. Those planes move!

Alex: I'm going to say this: some of the dogfights in this game would've been really frustrating without the super-responsive controls. You can really feel just how smooth the game runs when you make those complex moves.

Victor: By the time you've beaten this game, you'll feel like Maverick.

Alex: Ride into the danger zone.

*Alex and Victor's scores appear on the screen, Alex's 10 in a red circle and Victor's 10 in a yellow circle.*

Victor: How long has it been since we've seen one of these? A perfect score from both of us?

Alex: Um... was it, was it The Dark Tower?

Victor: I believe it was. This is number three. Gran Turismo 2, The Dark Tower, now this.

+ BREATHTAKING GRAPHICS
+ REALISTIC CONTROLS
+ THRILLING DOGFIGHTS

- NO.... ONLINE?

Alex: On a positive note, this game has spectacular, beautiful graphics, that, to quote another song from Top Gun, take my breath away. The controls are incredibly responsive and very intuitive, which keeps the game's difficult and thrilling dogfights from ever getting too frustrating.

Victor: The only flaw we could really find with the game was that the multiplayer is local only, you can't go online and shoot down your buddies from across the country, but even so, that's a tiny nitpick with what's otherwise the definitive aerial combat game.

-from the May 24, 2004 episode of G4's Judgment Day

 

[RySenkari]

James Cameron's Manticore

James Cameron's Manticore (known as Manticore during the game's development period, but with the James Cameron name added in the months before release) is an action-based game exclusively for the Microsoft Xbox, based on the OTL television series Dark Angel. ITTL, Cameron never got the chance to start his own television production company due to the lesser success of Titanic and his work on both Terminator 3 and Justice League, and so the idea that would become OTL's Dark Angel television series remained in Cameron's mind until Microsoft approached him about an exclusive Xbox game. Cameron was a fan of video games and especially enjoyed Konami's Snatcher for the SNES-CD, and had always wanted to make his own game, so he jumped on the opportunity. Manticore is a much more involved game than the OTL Dark Angel video game adaptation, which was a fairly rushed affair with mediocre reviews. It features a complex beat-em-up system that includes the option to converse with enemies during combat, and even to possibly talk them down during a fight, which may open up new dialogue and story options. The influence of Snatcher on this game is very evident: in-between action segments there are a lot of exploration and discovery segments, where the protagonist, Max, can uncover secrets that affect the plot of the game and how she handles later areas. The influence of Snatcher is also seen in the game's plot, in which Manticore's genetic soldiers have infiltrated areas by replacing certain humans, in similar fashion to the titular robots in Snatcher. Max can also team up with allies in battle and can communicate with them as well, the presence of certain allies may have a calming or enraging effect on certain enemies. In addition to the standard contingent of guards and mooks in the game, there are many enemies with their own distinct personalities. Max may be battling a group of guards, for example, and there may be at least one person among them with a unique story or piece of information. The player can choose to handle this enemy as a normal guard and dispatch them or can engage them personally and either befriend or intimidate them. There are over 100 unique characters in the game that Max can interact with, many of whom the player may not even notice. Because of the involvement of James Cameron, Microsoft and the development company responsible for the game put a large amount of money into the game's production values, creating a large, open cityscape with some of the best graphics of the time. The game is also studded with some fairly notable voice actors, with David Duchovny, Keanu Reeves, Tupac Shakur, and Linda Cardellini all playing various characters in the game. Ironically, the protagonist, Max, is not played by Jessica Alba as she did IOTL. Even though Cameron had worked with Alba before, in Terminator 3, and even though she was considered for the role, her asking price at the time was too much even for Cameron. Instead, a somewhat less famous but still talented actress was brought on to play Max (whose last name in Manticore is Valentine and not Guevara): Ashley Johnson, whose previous most notable video game role was that of Selkie in the Dog Dash series. The game's musical score is composed by a team including multiple former members of the same Konami Kukeiha Club team that worked on the game Snatcher, in an attempt to capture some of that game's feel.

The plot of the game shares a lot with the OTL television show, with Max as a genetically enhanced human girl designed to be a supersoldier by the unscrupulous corporation Manticore. After she and several other young genetically enhanced humans escape a Manticore facility, the United States is hit by a double whammy disaster: an EMP that fries nearly all electronic technology, and a virus that kills 90% of the population. Max and her fellow Enhancers (the game's name for the genetically enhanced humans, replacing the term "X5s" used in the OTL Dark Angel show) take refuge in a vast city called New Paradise, hiding out and attempting to lead ordinary lives as Manticore sends hunters to track them down. When the game begins, Max has just turned 18 and is working as a waitress by day, while at night she tries to find out as much as she can about Manticore and track down other Enhancers. She knows that something strange is happening, because some of her friends have begun disappearing and other people she knows are acting strangely. Her adventure really begins when she meets up with Zack (voiced by David Kaufman, and the game's equivalent to Logan from the OTL TV series, there IS a character named Zack in the OTL show but no equivalent to that character appears in this game), who has been investigating Manticore as well and publishes a secret underground blog chronicling their activities. Zack introduces Max to some other Enhancers and people who may be able to help her dig deeper into Manticore. Much of the game is spend investigating the strange disappearances, helping rescue people from Manticore's trackers, and protecting Max's friends, including Logan, from danger. During this time, Manticore becomes more and more prominent, and their CEO, the corrupt Elliot Pharson (voiced by David Duchovny), eventually learns of Max's existence and turns the full forces of his private army on her. As Manticore's reach grows, New Paradise begins to descend into chaos, as a full-scale rebellion breaks out. Because of Manticore's extremely positive public reputation, they've taken on a sort of quasi-governmental role in New Paradise, and much of the latter part of the game centers around exposing their shady activities. Though the game has only one ending (Max and Zack exposing Manticore's shady dealings to the world), which of Max's other friends survives the game depends on the choices the player makes along the way (ultimately, the canon ending has all of Max's friends survive, save for one, a sickly cancer patient who dies in an early mission no matter what the player does). With Manticore exposed, Pharson can only watch as a huge mob of furious rioters storms his corporate headquarters, his mercenaries ultimately standing down and fleeing for their lives. Max and Zack watch Manticore's HQ burn from a vantage point across the city, but it's implied that the company's reach extends far beyond New Paradise, and that the real battle has only just begun, especially with some of the Enhancers still controlled by Manticore lurking amongst the normal population in plain sight.

James Cameron's Manticore is released on May 31, 2004, with a considerable amount of prerelease hype due to the involvement of James Cameron. However, reviews are a bit less enthusiastic than originally expected: the game was thought at one point to be a surefire Game of the Year contender, but thanks to a few prominent glitches and some questionable gameplay choices (players and reviewers alike had a lot of trouble discerning important characters hidden amongst enemy crowds, with some really significant enemy characters able to be killed extremely easily, closing off certain plot threads without the player ever knowing) and repetitive fight mechanics, reviews average in the high 7s to low 8s. It's still considered a good game, but definitely not what it was expected to be. Because of this, and because of the glut of major games available at the time, sales disappoint as well, at least compared to expectations. The game still has lots of fans, and does get at least one sequel, but there are some prominent reviewers who are really disappointed with the game, and many fans, especially Nintendo and Sega fans eager to show up the Xbox, point at these reviews and criticize the game heavily.

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So on top of the disappointment that was James Cameron's Manticore, it seems Cameron's choice of game composers has led to somewhat of a tiff between Microsoft and Konami.

Konami's made some great games, but their upper management can truly be some right bastards, and two of the composers for Manticore were apparently on the company's shit list, due to leaving Konami on bad terms. Konami's been rumored to have a habit of “blacklisting” folks who leave their company, and in the case of Manticore, Konami sent Microsoft a nastygram once it came out that ex-members of the Konami Kukeiha Club were working on the game. Apparently Microsoft wanted to drop these two guys that Konami didn't want scoring the game, James Cameron said no, and now Konami's threatening to pull games from the Xbox. It's bullshit, but there you have it. Manticore, one of the most disappointing games of 2004, has led to a dick waving contest between Konami and James Cameron.

Not really a big Manticore fan but I think I speak for every Xbox owner here when I say fuck Konami.

-from the topic “Why Is Konami So Pissed About A Mediocre Sandbox Game?” posted by user JimSterling to the Xbox Central Forum, on July 24, 2004

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Konami Cancels Two Upcoming Xbox Titles, Rules Out Metal Gear Solid Port

Konami has quietly announced the cancellation of a pair of upcoming Xbox projects, including a sequel to Contra: Shattered Soldier and an unnamed FPS project. The company cites low sales of the Xbox in Japan as the reason, but rumors surrounding the company's reported dispute with Microsoft over the use of two "blacklisted" composers in May's James Cameron's Manticore have also been seen as a potential reason for the game cancellations. Konami has also quashed rumors that Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear War could potentially be coming to the console via enhanced ports, stating that "we have no intentions of developing future Metal Gear projects for any hardware but Nintendo hardware for the foreseeable future". Other Konami projects still in development for the Xbox remain in development at this time, but the cancellations deal a heavy blow to the Xbox's chances of success in Japan, where the console's sales have been in decline since late 2003. The Xbox continues to maintain strong sales in North America and is still pacing ahead of the Nintendo Wave in both the United States and Canada.

-from a Gamespot.com article published on August 10, 2004

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"You know, I wanted Konami to publish the game. I wanted Microsoft to develop it and Konami to publish it and that was my original plan. It was Microsoft that wanted to publish it and I feel like these problems could've been avoided if Konami had just published Manticore. I think they make fantastic games. I love Metal Gear Solid. I love that company, but the idea of them blackballing former employees just because? I think that's an absurd practice and something they need to get over. It's absolutely ridiculous."
-James Cameron, during an August 2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly about Manticore and his upcoming film projects

 

[RySenkari]

(Authors' Note: This is Part 1 of this year's E3 presentation! We'll post Part 2 either this weekend or Monday.)

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Microsoft Keynote - E3 2004

Microsoft's 2004 E3 keynote speech took place on May 10, 2004, and was given by J Allard, rather than by Robbie Bach as in years' past. Allard started off the show by thanking Xbox fans for continuing to make the console and the Xbox Live online service such an enormous success, then launched immediately into a presentation for The Covenant 2. Microsoft also kicked off their 2003 presentation with The Covenant 2, but they had a lot more to show this time around, including numerous gameplay levels. Much of this game takes place on a futuristic Earth, against which The Covenant have launched a massive invasion, and Master Chief is forced to defend civilians and liberate the cities of Earth, all the while attempting to get in contact with what may be the last living Progenitor in order to regain the power he needs to defeat the invading armies. Master Chief seems to have a vastly expanded weapon loadout this time around, with new energy weapons in his arsenal, and a variety of high explosives as well. The video seemed to show off footage mostly from three levels: a desert city resembling Dubai, an American city resembling Chicago, and a large space station which is caught up in the middle of a Star Wars-esque space battle. There was an incredible set piece in which Master Chief boarded a futuristic space fighter and launched from the station just as a large section of it exploded, firing a laser gatling gun at Covenant aliens the whole time. The game's campaign stage looks truly incredible, but there was a heavy focus on multiplayer as well, with Allard heavily stressing the availability of Xbox Live multiplayer services immediately at launch, drawing cheers from the crowd. Following The Covenant 2 presentation, which lasted about ten minutes, Allard introduced the Housers from Rockstar, and they showed off Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. While the game isn't exclusive to the Xbox, it's being primarily promoted as an Xbox game, and the presentation showed off the game's three huge cities, the improved character customization, and the graphical improvements. It's amazing that this game looks so much better than the previous two titles while also being so much bigger, and for the first time, the franchise is really utilizing the Xbox to its full potential. While it doesn't quite look as good as The Covenant 2, it's a definite step up from the fairly clunky look of the previous two games. After these two presentations, which showed off the big holiday releases for the Xbox, Allard once again started to talk about Xbox Live, and introduced a streamlined look for the service, improved matchmaking, and more cooperation with third party developers to develop e-leagues on the network's services. The Xbox Live seems to be posititioning itself in contrast to Apple's SegaNet 2.0, in that while SegaNet stresses a more social-based network, Xbox Live is all about rankings and competition, giving hardcore gamers a place to really test their skills. Allard concluded the presentation with a surprise announcement: the introduction of the PC Classics line, a line of classic PC games that would be optimized for Xbox play to be purchased on the system. The games announced during the presentation included DOOM, DOOM II, Civilization II, Half-Life, System Shock, Alone In The Dark, and Secret Of Monkey Island. The first PC Classics will be made available in October, and start at $4.99 each, though some would be as much as $14.99. The PC Classics line seems to be another attempt by Microsoft to compete with Apple's online service, and was fairly well received by the crowd.

Next came the long-awaited presentation for Acclaim's action title Eternal Warriors, based on the classic comic series from Valiant. The game features not one, but three different heroes who battle through eons of historical wars, wielding a variety of weapons and their own fists in battle. Joining main protagonist Gilad in battle are his brother Armstrong and Magnus, Robot Fighter, each of whom can be controlled by the player and have their own movesets and weapon specialties. The game plays like a violent, brutal beat-em-up and the graphics and gameplay impressed the crowd during the game's presentation. The next preview was for a title called Panspermia, in which a generation ship launched from a dying world now searches for a new home for its sapient race which greatly resembles humanity. The ship launches fast-evolving seeds onto favorable worlds in order to see what kind of life sprouts up, and the protagonist is a crewmember on this ship who must investigate this life and protect it from harm, while destroying any hostile creatures that pop up. There's also a simulation element to the game in that the player can design their own life forms before the seeds are launched. This combination sim/shooter game will be coming out in September, exclusively for the Xbox. The next game to be shown off is Beyond The End, another post-apocalyptic title, but with a more RPG-ish focus, somewhat resembling the Ultima games. The presentation was in the form of a combination story/gameplay trailer that sees a young girl awaken on a desolate planet, completely alone. She emerges into a world where lightning crashes in the sky, and in which feral creatures seek to eat her alive. She must find out what happened to humanity before she, possibly the last remaining human, is killed. The game has a really dark feel to it, the girl seems to spend a lot of time hiding and foraging, and the game looks like it could be one of the most talked about of the year when it releases in August. The next presentation was a brief trailer for a new FPS title based on the James Bond franchise: called The Hildebrand Rarity, it's based on one of the classic Ian Fleming stories, but seems to have a much more intriguing plot than the story upon which it was based (about a rare fish). This game seems to be about a rare diamond, and Bond gets into all his classic shenanigans as he battles international criminals in order to track it down. This may be the most promising James Bond game since Goldeneye, and looks to continue the Xbox's streak of FPS hits.

After the rapid-fire presentations of games scheduled to come out over the next few months, Allard introduced a special guest to the stage: Quentin Tarantino, who was very eager to promote his new Kill Bill game. The game, a hack and slasher following the journey of The Bride through her early days as an assassin and the events of the two movies, was developed with Tarantino's heavy input, and will include all the original voices from the films, including Uma Thurman as the voice of The Bride and David Carradine as the voice of Bill. In addition to the storyline mode which expands heavily on The Bride's story, there's also multiplayer, including a co-op mode where up to four players can control The Bride, Elle Driver, O-Ren Ishii, and Vernita Green on various assassination missions, and a combat mode in which players can have fierce martial arts and sword battles with one another. Tarantino said that he thinks video games based on movies suck and he wasn't going to make a Kill Bill game unless he could make sure it was a damn good one. If the preview is any indication to go on, it looks extremely promising. Following the Kill Bill presentation, there was another brief trailer revealing that the classic game series Syndicate is returning, exclusively on the Xbox. It looks to be a combination stealth/shooter title, and it seems that the game will reboot the story of the series, almost in such a way that this can be seen as a remake of the first game. Following the Syndicate trailer, there was a presentation for Fallout: Van Buren, appearing on both the Xbox and the PC at the same time later this year. Van Buren is a 3-D title, taking place primarily in the region of Colorado outside of Denver, which has been reorganized into the "state" of Van Buren, led by a deranged preacher-like figure. Though the game is in 3-D, it features entirely turn-based combat in the vein of the original two titles, giving the game somewhat of a tabletop/JRPG feel while resembling a somewhat modern shooter. The Black Isle staffer who showed off the game with Allard claims that the game will "take Fallout into the next generation", and that they hope to introduce a brand new generation of players to the Fallout universe. Following the Van Buren presentation, there was a somewhat surprise announcement as John Romero came up to the stage. While many people expected a potential Daikatana 3 announcement, or perhaps even DOOM 3 to the Xbox, we instead were treated to a brief trailer for a game called Paradigm Shift, a third-person shooter/action game in which a crew of heroes jettisoned themselves through a variety of time and space portals. The trailer had a definite Quantum Leap feel to it, and Romero even said that before the official title was decided upon, the project was known as Project Quantum Slide. He announced that the game was pretty far along in development and to expect it in early 2005.

The next few announcements were all sequels: first, a trailer for the sequel to the FPS title Downfall, which sees the protagonist escorting a hooded criminal on a plane. The plane is brought down, and the protagonist and criminal are the only survivors as they are being hunted by the people who shot the plane down. The game's title is Stranger, and it seems to be an Xbox exclusive. The next trailer was a pretty major one and also somewhat of a surprise: it was for The Witcher II, which is coming to both PC and the Xbox in 2005. It's a sequel to the hit 1997 PC game and Xbox launch title, and will continue the story of Geralt of Rivia. While the trailer didn't show off much, it does seem to show a much more massive world than that of the previous game, giving players lots more territory to explore and more fun characters to meet. Then, an even bigger surprise: Richard Garriott was brought on stage to show off a brand new Ultima game that's just entered development. The tenth title in the series, it's going by the appropriate name Ultima X, and will appear exclusively on the Xbox and the PC. After a long, long time in which EA and Sega had partnered to work on Ultima games, seeing the series continue for the Xbox is a surprise, but for the gathered reporters, a rather pleasant one: the applause accompanying the announcement was among the loudest thus far. Finally, there was a brief trailer for Divine Wrath 3, which, in addition to the game's familiar slate of gods and goddesses, introduced new characters based on things that mankind worships other than gods, including a god based on money (Mammon), a god based on technology (Exmachina), and at the very end of the trailer, a reveal for Santa Claus, in which the jolly Christmas elf was seen beating Osiris to a bloody pulp with a razor-spiked gift box. The full name of the game is Divine Wrath 3: False Idols, and the game was given three release windows: Microsoft X-Zone (November 2004), Arcades Everywhere (February 2005), and Xbox (2005).

J Allard: Before we end this presentation, there's one more game we'd like to show off, demonstrating just how far we've come with the Xbox and how many ways our amazing developers are figuring out to push this machine. Check out this trailer.

*London at night time is depicted, in a sort of gritty, rain-soaked darkness. People are walking on a crowded street, when suddenly, a bomb goes off, causing chaos in the crowd. There's a news report shown on the screen, and a man in a suit watches the news report as he places a silencer on a pistol.*

Narration: It's a new world. A world of fear.

*More news reports are shown on screen, with sensationalist headlines such as "TERROR GRIPS LONDON" and "PM ADVISES VIGILANCE"*

*The suited man from before is shown walking into a secret government agency HQ, where his boss, a stern middle-aged woman, begins to speak.*

Boss: There was another attack last night. These attacks are becoming more frequent. *she addresses the protagonist by name* John, tell me you found something.

John: I did.

*There's a brief flashback scene of John torturing someone in an apartment building, shooting him in the leg to get him to talk.*

John: The man I interrogated gave us one name. Clara, the one doing this is one of our own.

*John slides a blood-splattered sheet of paper across the table. There's another flashback of John and a slightly taller, blonde-haired man shooting their way out of a warehouse.*

Clara: Agent Russell? He left MI5 with honors, there's no way this could be possible!

John: I thought that too, then I saw what the man I interrogated had embedded in his body.

*There's a flashback to John cutting a computer chip out of the prisoner, while he's still alive*

John: This has information on every single one of us. Agent Russell is conducting these false flag attacks to get the public into a fury, and then he plans to set us up for the attacks.

Clara: He's trying to tear the country apart.

John: Now the only question is...why?

*A melancholy yet menacing piano theme begins to play as John is shown in various situations: walking the streets, shooting terrorists, sitting alone in his apartment, all the while thinking back to his partner Russell, who he clearly considered a brother.*

Narration: The world's gotten more complicated than anyone five years ago could've imagined.

*More news reports are shown of more attacks. Middle Eastern terrorists are being blamed, but John knows the truth and is seeking to unveil it. There's a scene of another agent confronting him.*

Agent: Torture? Murder? When does it end, John? When do you admit that you've turned into a monster?

John: I've already come to grips with being a monster.

Agent: What happens when you hurt an innocent person?

John: ...

*More flashbacks show John's entire family abandoning him. We also see gameplay clips of the game's fierce gun battles, it's a first-person shooter but with a really fast pace, the player has to constantly react to things happening around them.*

Narration: The only thing standing between the people and the monsters who want to kill them is another monster. I know I'm going to hell for the things I've done.

*John is shown in a confession booth, begging for forgiveness from God. We then see a scene where Russell confronts John.*

Russell: Have you figured it out yet, John? Have you figured out why this country needs to burn?

John: *takes out his gun and points it at Russell's head*

Narration: When this is over, I'll welcome my punishment.

*John is shown being tortured by several masked men. There's a female agent being slammed against the wall and screaming as John begs his captors to torture him and not her.*

John: NO!

Narration: When this is over... I'll deserve whatever's coming to me.

*More gameplay scenes are interspersed with scenes of John's brutality toward his enemies. The same female agent from the previous scene is shown punching John in the face.*

Female Agent: You're a sick bastard! How dare you!

Narration: But until the people of Britain are safe, I'll do everything I have to do.

*The scenes continue until one final scene is shown of John looking up into the sky and pointing a gun at his own head as lightning flashes and rain pours down on him.*

John: WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!

*A gunshot is heard.*

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY

2005

ONLY FOR XBOX

*There's loud applause as the trailer concludes.*

J Allard: Thanks again to all of you, and enjoy E3!

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The Stars Come Out For E3 2004

E3 is always a celebrity-studded affair, but this year the celebrities seemed to be everywhere, packing the crowded Los Angeles Convention Center. While some were there to promote games, others were simply there to enjoy the games and enjoy the show, including Indianapolis Colts quarterback Tom Brady, who hung out at the EA booth playing both Madden 2005 and Need For Speed: Monte Carlo. There were other famous athletes at E3, and even a few team owners, like Dallas Mavericks owner and internet magnate Mark Cuban, who was there at the show both to enjoy the atmosphere and to meet with Microsoft officials about a possible Xbox/Angelfire partnership.

Then, of course, there were actors, lots and lots of actors. Uma Thurman was there to promote Kill Bill, and Mark Wahlberg could be seen at Apple's booth, taking the new Virtua Fighter game for a spin. We also got to see Vin Diesel, promoting his new game based on The Transporter. While Diesel wasn't playing any other games on the floor, he did tell a reporter that he was disappointed that he'd be too busy to check out the new Warcraft and Final Fantasy MMOs, and asked the reporter to tell him if either game was good. One of the most interesting celebrity moments of the show took place during the live performance by Avril Lavigne to promote her new Thrillseekers game. While on the Activision stage jamming with fellow cast members Lacey Chabert and Erica Luttrell (with whom Avril has formed a band called the Thrillseekers to perform songs on the game's soundtrack), she was joined by Henry Rollins, who was in attendance to promote his new game Big Bad Hero for Nintendo. Rollins briefly joined the Thrillseekers on stage, and together the four briefly covered a Black Flag song (though while Lavigne and Luttrell knew the lyrics and enthusiastically sang along, Chabert was clearly having some trouble).

Despite the Katana's lagging sales performance and the prominent Wave and Xbox exclusives being revealed at the show, more celebrities seemed to be crowded around Apple's booth. Whether it was simply Steve Jobs' aura or the exciting Apple presentation that attracted the celebrities, the Apple booth was the place to be at the show, and even with all the long lines, there was plenty to see even amongst those who didn't get to play most of the big talked about games, with some celebrities like Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore even hanging out to chat with fans waiting in line to play. Even Ken Griffey Jr., who usually promotes Nintendo games exclusively, was seen at the Apple booth. It's likely that the iPod Play was the big gadget getting all these stars buzzing.

-from an article posted on Variety.com on May 13, 2004

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Apple Keynote - E3 2004

Reggie Fils-Aime took the stage first for Apple, and the keynote started with Reggie enthusiastically presenting a number of upcoming games for the Sega Katana, starting with Sonic Rover. While Apple's been showing off portions of the game for the past two months, the E3 trailer revealed both more gameplay (in particular showing off the game's procedurally generated levels, which work surprisingly well and provide Sonic with some really unique challenges), and the plot of the game itself, in which Sonic and his friends have been transported to an alternate dimension by a science experiment conducted by a little girl named Lydia. The experiment causes Lydia's toy robot Rover to run away, joining up with Sonic and friends to help them through the world. Meanwhile, Lydia is approached by Eggman (whose presence in the game was first confirmed during the E3 presentation), who wants to use Lydia's knowledge to build a huge evil robot of his own. The plot is a bit more simplistic compared to other Sonic games, but with a heavier focus on the gameplay this time around, that's understandable. After a fairly brief Sonic Rover presentation, Reggie moved right on to Virtua Fighter 5, which will launch simultaneously in arcades and on the Katana on July 26, 2004. The presentation showed off several new fighters and the game's improved fight mechanics, though the graphics themselves don't seem to have improved much from the previous game. Despite the lack of graphical improvements, the game should still generate some buzz for the Katana, as it remains perhaps the most popular current fighting game series. Next up was Shenmue III, which was shown off with a trailer that detailed the game's plot: Ryo Hazuki found out at the end of Shenmue II that his father is still alive, and may in fact be the leader of a powerful crime syndicate. In Shenmue III, Ryo is torn about confronting his father or moving on with his life, as Ryo's friends encourage him to take different paths. The game itself takes place across numerous cities, and Reggie announced that it will span three discs, the only Katana game thus far to do so. After the Shenmue III presentation, which is wildly applauded despite the absence of Yu Suzuki, the next presentation is for Skies Of Arcadia 2, which gets just a trailer detailing the game's basic plot. The plot introduces a brand new cast of characters and takes place in a completely new world, but the game features the same swashbuckling sky pirate gameplay of the original (though with vastly improved graphics due to the fact that the game is on the Katana rather than the Saturn).

After the reveal of the Katana's four heavy hitter sequels, two more games were quickly announced: Treasure's Gunstar Heroes: Rerisen, which takes the frantic run and gun gameplay of the Genesis classic and re-introduces it in a beautiful new Katana title, features dozens of weapons and some truly epic bosses. The trailer had a lot of "wow" moments, and this game could be one of the year's biggest sleeper hits. Then there was a trailer and some gameplay revealed for the new Narcotics Squad game, Old Habits Die Hard, which sees Ethan Stone, the protagonist from the first game, return to head up this one. He's fallen hard from his status as a hero cop, he's started taking heroin himself and has gotten into some pretty bad trouble. The game appears like it'll show Ethan's struggle for redemption, and features some gameplay improvements over the last title. Then, Reggie showed off The Seven Samurai, based on the classic Akira Kurosawa film. It's a hack and slash title that in a lot of ways resembles Kill Bill on the Xbox, but with a Dynasty Warriors or Nightsquad type feel to it, as the player will "control" seven fighters at once. The game looks to be really well made, capturing the look and feel of the classic film, and this too could end up being a big sleeper hit for Apple. The Seven Samurai presentation was followed by the reveal of Extremis: Ruin Stalker, the third game in the Extremis survival horror franchise, in which a team of investigators are attempting to hunt down a mysterious creature, revealed to be a transformed Amy from the previous two games, now mutated into a hideous creature. The trailer shows her hunting down and killing the members of the investigation team, and establishes her as the game's main nemesis, a horrifying monster who the player will have to hunt before becoming the hunted themselves. Extremis: Ruin Stalker will be released in early 2005.

The next game trailer revealed an intriguing new character: a four-legged human sized creature who roams a mysterious jungle environment, revealing a variety of special powers and adapting like a chameleon to its circumstances. The presentation revealed footage showing a number of areas, including a city where the creature uses four long, sticky appendages to walk between skyscrapers, an ocean where the creature turns into some kind of stretchy submarine, and a volcanic environment in which the creature appears to spew lava out of its mouth. The game's title is Endotherm, and Reggie announced that it was the first new Sega franchise that Apple had a major role in development. We'll see if it can carry the Katana forward when it's released in 2005. Next, a trailer was played for a very highly anticipated title: the brand new NiGHTS game. It was just a teaser trailer for a game that's more than likely a year out, but it was good to see that the Katana is still going to see at least one more NiGHTS title. After the NiGHTS reveal, Reggie briefly showed off some third party titles coming to the Katana over the next year, concluding with a brief presentation in which Keiji Inafune revealed several new Capcom games, starting with Mega Man Next, a next-generation console Mega Man game coming first to the Sega Katana. The game showed Mega Man in full 3-D but with his familiar blaster and other weapons pilfered from defeated robot foes, fighting with massive bosses and climbing up buildings. Then, Mega Man 9 was revealed as the first game to be announced for the new iPod Play. It's a classic style Mega Man sidescrolling adventure, but with advanced 3-D graphics. Finally, Inafune discussed XR: Human Weapon, which has been in development for nearly two years. Humans become living bullets in this game, which sees highly trained fighters launch themselves into enemy positions and come out swinging. It's a pretty over the top looking game and will be coming to the Katana and the Wave later this year.

After the Capcom presentation, the mood on the stage seemed to change and get a lot more serious as Reggie ceded the podium to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was on stage for one reason and one reason only: to introduce to the world the iPod Play. He spoke briefly about the history of the iPod, and then held up a device that resembled an iPod, but thicker and with a somewhat taller vertical screen. He turned it on and it worked just like an iPod, playing music and utilizing a click wheel, though the click wheel looked somewhat more like a D-Pad than an ordinary iPod click wheel. Then, Jobs flipped the device on its side and slid a panel out of the device. The panel contained several buttons, and when slid into place, the iPod now heavily resembled the bottom of a Game Boy Nova. Jobs introduced the device as the iPod Play, and revealed that it had a plethora of multimedia abilities: it could play music, it could play videos, and of course, it could play games, both downloaded games and games stored on small 4-inch discs which looked like miniature DVDs and could be inserted into the top of the device when on its side (the device seems to be the reason for the iPod Play's bulk). The games themselves looked almost identical to Katana games graphically, perhaps even slightly better, and the first game Jobs showed off was a full port of Sonic Neon, which played just like it does on the Katana. Jobs then showed off a port of Soul Calibur II for the device, then showed off Super Monkey Ball. He then revealed several iPod Play exclusive titles, including a rhythm game called Songhopper that utilizes the songs stored on the device, an impressive looking FPS title called The Raid, and a game starring superpowered teenage girls called Deva Station. He then revealed a new Commander Keen title for the device, featuring all the chaos and slapstick of a typical Commander Keen game, along with an online multiplayer mode utilizing the iPod Play's built-in wifi. The multiplayer mode even teased a "Get Hiller" mode based on the classic "Get Hitler" scene from GameTV. The crowd seemed extremely impressed with the iPod Play's game lineup, and were even impressed by the device's capability of downloading and playing classic titles from the Genesis, Game Gear, and Saturn lineups, with the Sonic and Phantasy Star titles revealed and even a Panzer Dragoon tease.

Jobs then revealed the iPod Play's release date: November 19, 2004, and its price: $299 for a 5GB version, and $399 for a 10GB version. While the audience seemed less than enthusiastic about this price, Jobs continued to speak: "This is indeed a premium price for a handheld gaming device, but the one thing that I want to make very clear about the iPod Play is this: this is no Gameboy. It's a fully connected multimedia experience in the palm of your hand, allowing you to take your favorite music and your favorite games anywhere you go. It's both a home game console and a jukebox that you can carry with you in your pocket, and it's poised to become the center of your personal entertainment world." It's clear that Steve Jobs is intending the iPod Play as not merely a competitor to the Game Boy Nova (which it is), but as an addition to the lucrative iPod line of music devices. He's giving potential iPod buyers a choice between an MP3 player with a huge amount of memory, or a device with less memory that can play both games and music. Whether or not the iPod Play becomes a success like its music-only big brother has yet to be seen, but despite the price, many people at the show were extremely excited about the iPod Play, and indeed, Apple's entire presentation generated a huge amount of buzz. Though the games portion of the presentation was clearly trimmed to make way for Jobs' 20-minute iPod Play introduction, the games that were shown off demonstrated that Apple is still very much invested in the Katana.

 

[RySenkari]

Nintendo Keynote - E3 2004

Nintendo's keynote presentation began with a video showing off various Wave and Game Boy Nova titles, and then Katsuya Eguchi, Satoru Iwata, and Bill Trinen took the stage. They thanked those in attendance for coming, and then began to talk about the Mario franchise, then showed off a reveal trailer for a new Mario game. The trailer began with Mario on a large island with scenery resembling that of Dinosaur Island from Super Mario World, but it seemed like there was nothing going on. Then he picked up a pair of sunglasses from off the ground and put them on, and the world lit up with puzzles and creatures. The game seems to play like a typical 3-D Mario game in the vein of Dimensions or Ranger, with the big new play mechanic being that Mario can don pairs of sunglasses to change up his view of the world. He can swap between them at will anywhere he is, with certain glasses being required to solve certain puzzles and access certain places. There are visual indicators that a certain pair of glasses is needed for a section, and it's easy to switch between them at the push of a button. The trailer ended with the reveal of the game's title, Super Mario Shades, and its release date: November 23, 2004. Iwata and Trinen then took turns playing through a large tropical level as Eguchi, with the help of a translator, told the audience what was going on. Apart from the glasses mechanic, the game looks quite fun, with a lot of throwbacks to Super Mario World and Super Mario World 2, including Yoshi. The glasses were shown off, as Mario swapped between two different pairs: one allowing him to see special variant enemies like Ice Hammer Bros., and the other allowing him to see certain hidden switches. Eguchi explained that the glasses allow the game to show the player many different perspectives in the same place, giving players more of a chance to think about what's going on in the level. It was a bit of a long winded explanation and the audience was a bit baffled at times, but they still seemed to enjoy the game. After the presentation, Eguchi then showed off a very brief teaser video for a project he personally directed, which features a village full of animal characters that can be interacted with and will continue to live their lives even while the game is turned off. The game is called Animal Crossing, and will have a September release in North America. After the brief Animal Crossing presentation, Eguchi left the stage and Eiji Aonuma took his place, and Trinen and Iwata joined him to show off The Legend Of Zelda: Hero Eternal. We've heard a lot about this game since its reveal back at E3 2003, with occasional bits of information shown off in places like CoroCoro and on G4, but E3 2004 showed more of the game than we've ever seen before, with an updated trailer that gives even more information about the game's setting: an enormous modern city with incredible magical temples and artifacts hidden in plain sight. The footage really seemed to emphasize this aspect of the game, with an entire huge temple hidden above a row of apartment buildings and a bodega-like store. The Hyrule of Hero Eternal is a city with three levels: a surface area where most people live and work, a top-level area where the rich play and the powerful make big business deals and control the city from on high, and an underworld, a hidden city area where the poor dwell and where knowledge about Hyrule's ancient origins is shared freely. Link was shown meeting and talking with several people during the footage we saw, including a mysterious old woman who seems to know a lot more about magic and the Triforce than she would seem to know at first glance. We also got to see more of the game's version of Zelda, a young heiress who, like Link, senses that there's more to her own life and more to Hyrule than meets the eye, and yearns to discover the city's secrets. While there was still a lot of skepticism from people about the game's modern settings, the previews and footage of the game have caused some of that skepticism to subside, as footage from the game's massive dungeons shows. Some of the dungeons are full-on urban/fantasy fusions, with rooms that incorporate both ancient Hyrule lore and modern architectural design: there's a full-on Art Deco temple in the game. Hero Eternal seemed to overshadow the Super Mario Shades reveal amongst a lot of the gathered reporters and Nintendo faithful: everyone's waiting to see just how Nintendo is going to pull this off. The release date for the game was announced at the show: it's October 5th, just five short months away.

After the Hero Eternal presentation, Iwata and Aonuma left the stage so that Bill Trinen could talk about the rest of the company's lineup. Nintendo's focus on Mario and Zelda, nearly 20 minutes between the two games (plus the brief Animal Crossing presentation), caused them to rush through some of the next presentations, including Metroid: Homecoming, which got only an updated gameplay trailer to hype the game's August release. Despite the brevity of the presentation, it did impress, showing off some of Samus' new melee moves, including an equippable power fist and an ability that lets her lock onto enemies and then zip between them, turning into a ball and slamming into them like a bullet. The Chozo planet looks incredible in full 3-D, and the huge environments will be incredibly fun to explore when this game is released in August. We were then treated to another preview of Metal Gear Solid II: Children Of The Patriots. We didn't learn too much more about the game, which has already had lots of information leak out ahead of its release in Japan next month. The footage shown merely showed off a few new levels, hyped a showdown between Naked Snake (one of the game's two main protagonists, with Naked Snake being controlled by the player for flashback segments and Solid Snake being controlled in the present) and a deadly Soviet operative, and showing off more footage of Vapor Snake beating up Solid Snake in a cutscene, before Snake turns on something attached to his clothes and suddenly gains the upper hand, slamming Vapor Snake against a wall and telling her he knows who she is. The game's North American release date was then announced: October 20. The release of Hero Eternal and Metal Gear Solid II in the same month will make October jam-packed indeed, and here's another jam-packed month for Nintendo: August, which, in addition to Metroid: Homecoming, will see the release of two more big games: a new Nintendo IP called Big Bad Hero, and the Activision developed Avril Lavigne-driven extreme sports project Thrillseekers. Big Bad Hero was shown off first: it's an action/comedy title that plays like a platformer/beat-em-up game, starring an ancient evil sorcerer named Nero who is accidentally woken up in the modern world by a bunch of kids and has to reluctantly befriend them in a bid to get his powers back. The crowd laughed at the trailer and the game itself looks like a hilarious throwback of sorts to Ultra Nintendo/Saturn-era action platformers, though with next-gen graphics and gameplay. Then a new Thrillseekers video was shown off. Unlike the MTV trailer which largely focused on the game's storyline, this one was a lot more gameplay-centric, showing off footage of all six main girls and all five main sports, all set to Natasha Bedingfield's song "If You're Gonna...". The trailer ended with a thrilling scene of all six girls skateboarding off a huge ramp, and the crowd applauded the trailer about as loudly as they did the trailer for Big Bad Hero. Metroid: Homecoming launches August 2, Thrillseekers launches August 17, and Big Bad Hero launches August 23.

After these games were shown off, Trinen briefly showed a video presentation for the upcoming Pokemon Gamma, the companion game to Pokemon Alpha and Pokemon Omega, which promises a brand new adventure taking place in Hoenn. After the Pokemon Gamma presentation, there was a video for the upcoming Velvet Dark: Cyber Wars, an FPS title for the Game Boy Nova which takes place between the original game and Velvet Dark: Synthesis. The graphics looked especially impressive for the Nova, almost on par with the original Ultra Nintendo game, a feat that looks to push the Nova to its limits. It didn't look anywhere near as good as anything on the iPod Play, but it's good to see Nintendo still supporting the device, and there were heavy cheers when Trinen announced a price cut to $99, effective immediately. Then Trinen showed off a video for Resident Evil 4, which will be hitting both the Wave and Katana later this year. The game looks fantastic on the Wave, possibly the best looking game Nintendo has shown off thus far, and the survival horror aspect of the series is definitely there, even with the game's more action-oriented feel. After the Resident Evil 4 presentation, Trinen was joined on stage by Naughty Dog's Mark Cerny, who showed off several games, starting with a trailer for the new original franchise title X-Plore. X-Plore introduced a group of young college students working freelance for a magazine, taking pictures of a beautiful jungle landscape when all of a sudden, some kind of ancient phenomena lights up the sky, causing the students' cameras to spark and malfunction. When the students compose themselves, they look to see an ancient pattern glowing on the ground, with energy shooting out of it. That pattern is incorporated into the game's logo, and it's implied that the students will need to find their way back to civilization before they are hunted down by alien entities. The trailer looked extremely visually impressive and the audience seemed to be on the edge of their seats for what happened to the characters next, though the trailer ended before we saw what the students saw when they looked all the way down into that crater. Cerny said X-Plore would be released in 2005, then introduced a pair of Tales Of The Seven Seas games, including the long awaited Wave title Hoist The Colors and a new Game Boy Nova title, The Forbidden Island. Hoist The Colors looks to be somewhat of a throwback to the original game's more open ended exploration, while The Forbidden Island is a Game Boy Nova game that visually resembles the original SNES-CD titles in both graphics and gameplay. Hoist The Colors is set to be released next month, while The Forbidden Island is coming this holiday season. Cerny then left the stage, and Trinen showed off the first footage of Star Fox: Hyperspace, the brand new Star Fox game for the Wave. It seems to have the same shooter gameplay as the original three games, but with a lot more 3-D all-range exploration, and the ability to zip from planet to planet within the same "stage" via special hyperspace rifts. The game is still early in development and there wasn't much footage to show, but what we saw looked great, and Trinen even teased the crowd with some very early footage of the upcoming Argonaut crossover game, showing Squad Four, General Xenda, and the Star Fox team nearly meeting one another on a crowded battlefield.

Next up was an early trailer for an upcoming Rareware game, which showed a young fairy woman exploring a massive world, while talking about how her family was taken prisoner by an evil king. She shows off her powers, which include magical blasts and the ability to recruit creatures in a sort of Pokemon-style manner. The game looked visually stunning, and the trailer also alluded to certain magical abilities which gave away its connection to Rare's Dreamers series, which was confirmed when the name of the game was revealed at the end of the 90 second teaser: Kameo: The Dreamer. Trinen announced that Rare would have more to reveal about the game on the show floor and in the months ahead. Following the Kameo trailer was a brief montage of third party titles that concluded with several Squaresoft trailers: a big gameplay trailer for Final Fantasy Online, whose North American release date has been pushed back to early 2005, a trailer for a new Mana game on the Nova called Fires Of Mana, and then a much longer trailer for a new Mana game for the Wave: the trailer told of an ancient story told and passed down for thousands of years about the heroes of Mana, before introducing a young girl reading about the story and wanting to become an ancient hero of Mana as well. The girl encounters a boy in the forest as a remixed version of the original Secret of Mana theme is played, then the game's name was shown on the screen: Reverie of Mana, followed by 2005, indicating the game's release window. Finally, a new Kingdom Hearts trailer was shown, showing off a Treasure Island world and showing the game's battle system, a hybrid of turn-based and action combat that greatly resembles the battle system seen in Chrono Trigger and Fairytale. Kingdom Hearts has a North American release date of September 28, 2004. Following the Squaresoft presentation, one final third party reveal was shown...an official announcement of DOOM 3 exclusively for the Nintendo Wave (at least exclusively on consoles, as the PC version is coming out later this year). While the game doesn't look as impressive on the Wave as it does on PC, it looks surprisingly good, even better than Resident Evil 4. We didn't get a release date but it seems that the port is still very early in its development cycle.

Then there was another very cryptic teaser trailer shown, of a man waking up alone on a completely deserted island. He wanders the beach for a little while with no other signs of life in sight. There's no music, nothing but the waves to keep the man company. Realizing that there's no other human beings for maybe thousands of miles, he collapses to the beach and begins to sob. He screams, "Oh God, help me!" and then the name of the game appears in big black letters on a white screen: STRANDED. The trailer, despite its simplicity, was extremely effective, and Trinen promised more information on this new Ubisoft game at a later time. Then, one more trailer was shown.

*Shad and Rebecca of Squad Four are shown in a forest, crouched behind a big rock.*

Shad: We're completely pinned down, send help!

Rebecca: Not good... *she peeks above the rock to see Bowser stomping toward them*

Bowser: *he laughs*

Shad: We don't have a choice, we gotta fight!

*Shad and Rebecca leap out from behind the rock and begin fighting Bowser, who fights back with his claws and fire breath. It's a pretty close fight until Ganondorf suddenly shows up, knocks Rebecca aside and grabs Shad by the throat.*

Ganondorf: We've got you now...

Bowser: Mwahahaha!

*Suddenly, Ganondorf and Bowser are blasted away from Shad! Shad looks up and sees Marcus and Lane charging in!*

Marcus: Looks like you DID need our help after all! (A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED: Marcus!)

Lane: Hey Rebecca, you okay? *blushing as he helps her up* ....look out! *dives to the ground with her, planting a bomb on Bowser's chest as he tries to smash them* That was a close one, huh? (A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED: Lane!)

Rebecca: I'm fine, but..thank you. *smiles*

Ganondorf: Curse you, Squad Four....!

*Suddenly, someone rides in on his motorcycle...he spins out next to Squad Four, bends over, and blows them all away with a massive fart. Ganondorf and Bowser look disgusted but glad to see the new arrival.*

Wario: AHAHAHAHAHA! (A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED: Wario!)

*The scene shifts to the Mushroom Kingdom, where Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach are doing battle with Link, Zelda, Samus, and Kirby in a somewhat friendly slapstick battle with various items and weapons.*

Mario: *kicks Samus aside, only for Kirby to suck him up and spit him out* Whoa!

Kirby: *uses Mario's fireballs on Luigi, only for Peach to hit him with a golf club* Aaaaahh!!!

*The eight Nintendo characters continue their four on four battle, only for a Grim Reaper-like figure to descend. He looks up and sees a colored, glowing ball orbiting overhead. The reaper laughs, hits the ball a few times with his scythe, and is surrounded in darkness. (A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED: Morticloak!)*

Peach: Huh?

Zelda: *gasps*

Yoshi: Uh-oh!

*Morticloak suddenly unleashes his Final Smash attack, a huge blast of dark energy that litters the battlefield with destruction and decay, sending the eight Nintendo heroes flying.*

*The scene switches again. Solid Snake and Ash Beckland are battling it out, Ash Beckland is pinned down by Snake's missile blasts.*

Ash: I'm in trouble...

*Suddenly, Snake takes heavy fire from behind. He turns to see an invisible figure gradually reveal herself.... and punch him in the face.*

Joanna: Sorry to sneak up from behind like that, but you really should be more careful... (A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED: Joanna Dark!)

Snake: *comes at Joanna and is tag teamed by her and Ash at the same time, quickly getting juggled back and forth, landing on his back on the ground* Nnngh!

*Joanna and Ash advance on Snake, only for a bright flash to stun them and a green clad figure to leap down between them, knocking them both down with a kendo stick.*

Jade: That's one way to end things in a snap... *holds up her camera* Say cheese! *snaps another photo* (A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED: Jade!)

*More scenes from the game are shown, though no new characters are revealed, only new items, new Final Smash attacks, and new stages, which include a Metroid: Revenant inspired dark ship and the new world from Squad Four: Upheaval, along with Hillys from Beyond Good And Evil. The trailer ends with a bunch of Nintendo characters all coming together with punches and kicks, and then the name of the game is revealed, both shown and yelled out by an announcer.*

SUPER SMASH BROS. CLASH

*The crowd gives one of the loudest ovations of the show as Trinen thanks them again for attending, then the keynote speech ends.*

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It was an outstanding E3 for new games from all three of the big console makers, with Nintendo showing off their next big releases in the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid franchises, along with a new Smash Bros. game, Microsoft showing off more of The Covenant 2, shocking us with a big Ultima reveal, and impressing us with the trailer for the amazing new FPS God And Country, and Apple showing off some really impressive Sega titles including the new Sonic, Virtua Fighter, and NiGHTS games, as well as the incredible new iPod Play. But some of the biggest games at E3 didn't show up in any of the keynotes and still managed to generate some of the most buzz of the show. We'll briefly discuss a few games that were absent from the big presentations but made a big splash on the show floor.

Call Of Duty 2

Activision's sequel to their WWII-based FPS hit looks to play similarly to the last game, but with some big presentation upgrades and a much more developed multiplayer mode. The game was being shown off extensively at Activision's booth, and apart from Thrillseekers, was their most popular game of the show.

Immortal Soul

While Tetsuya Takahashi's new Squaresoft RPG was absent from Nintendo's Square presentation, it might be the best game the company is showing off at E3. Its storyline appears to be based on reincarnation and rebirth, and battles take place in real time, with no load screen battle transitions. It seems to be a bit of a departure from Fairytale 2, but we can't wait to dive into this one, which releases late this year in North America.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age

The Xbox's upcoming exclusive Lord Of The Rings title looks to be the definitive retelling of the classic Tolkien novels, allowing players to re-enact most of the major scenes from the films and even incorporating elements from the books that didn't show up in the films, including the Scouring of the Shire. The combat gameplay is more strategic than a simple hack and slash and will require players to think on their toes to succeed.

Maxima

Maxima is another FPS title, but definitely not your typical FPS, incorporating elements of spectacular Matrix-style combat into its repertoire of character abilities. It wasn't getting a lot of hype at the show but every reporter who played it seemed to come off very impressed.

Shieldmaiden

Another Xbox exclusive, Shieldmaiden borrows heavily from Norse mythology, and looks to be one of 2005's most visually impressive hack and slash titles, with brutal combat against a massive amount of foes. It plays a lot like Dynasty Warriors, and features a Berserkr meter which fills up the more the protagonist Hildur attacks.

Tank Girl

This is a cel-shaded thrill ride based on the classic comic, featuring a unique visual style and wild third-person shooter gameplay. This is definitely one of the more ludicrous games we saw at the show, with tons of fanservice and dark comedy, and it should be interesting to see how it's received when it's released later this year.

Troublemakers: Calina's Adventure

Enix and Treasure are bringing this series to the Nintendo Wave for the first time. It features action packed 2-D gameplay like the original Troublemakers games, but instead of focusing on Marina Liteyears, it focuses instead on Marina's doppelganger/rival Calina, as she struggles to find her own purpose. This game looks absolutely beautiful on the Wave, but we won't be seeing it in the States until next year.

Vertical Drift

One of the most impressive looking racing games of the show was this Katana exclusive that features futuristic racing, with, you guessed it, a vertical twist. We saw cars driving up roads stretching miles into the air, defying gravity and physics but looking incredibly fun. The Katana continues to shine in the racing games department, but a lot of people there were hoping this game ends up on the iPod Play as well.

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Adam Sessler: Let's just take a moment to talk about the big PC games of E3. Of course we saw more of Half-Life 2 and DOOM 3, both of which are finally, FINALLY coming out this year...but it seems like the biggest PC game of the show was World of Warcraft.

Morgan Webb: Yeah, that's right, maybe the most anticipated MMORPG of all time and we got to play it first hand here at E3.

*Footage from the game is shown on the screen as Adam's character is shown teaming up with other reporters at E3 to go after a mob of plant monsters.*

Sessler: The game plays really great, you've got a lot of functionality with your weapon and all the various spells you can use, so combat isn't really a problem. Compared to the somewhat slower paced Final Fantasy Online, this is a more aggressive, quick moving type of game and one I think people will definitely enjoy more as opposed to Final Fantasy.

Webb: True, though you've made it no secret that you're not really a fan of the series.

Sessler: Hey, no bias here, I really do like World Of Warcraft more, it just seems to play a lot more smoothly and it's less of a grind, or at the very least it's easier and more fun to grind.

Webb: I will say this, World Of Warcraft is more fun than I thought it would be too. I mean, if a lot of people are playing this and it's easy to find a group, I could see people getting sucked into this game for sure.

Sessler: Another MMO that looked like a lot of fun was Cloud Fortress, which takes place high above the world in these huge clouds that each have their own civilization.

Webb: The people live in huge fortresses, jealously guarding their treasures and knowledge. You play as a Cloud Raider, who travels to various fortresses to infiltrate, steal, and kill.

Sessler: I like that this game lets you decide between going out and being a raider and staying closer to the fortresses to help defend them. I can see a real dichotomy developing between an offensive and defensive gameplay style and that I think is going to be key to this game's success going forward.

Webb: There was also Live To Race, a simulation title in which you start out as a young novice driver and have to build your own car to race with. There's elements of Gran Turismo in there, but this game gets more into the business of racing than any console game ever did. You don't have to be a racer, you can sponsor your own race team, making this game sort of like the Football Manager of racing titles.

Sessler: Then there's Disarmament, a first-person shooter game that takes place in an alternate world where Ancient Rome has survived to the present day and is being invaded by an army from the north. Combining modern-day weaponry with ancient Roman style, this game features surprisingly realistic shooting mechanics and is said to be a big step forward for the genre.

Webb: And speaking of shooters, there's also Quake 4 coming soon, and apart from World Of Warcraft, it was probably the biggest PC game of the show.

Sessler: Right, maybe THE biggest judging from the length of the line, it took me two hours to be able to play, but what I did get to play was impressive enough to make me jump out of my boots. *footage of Quake 4's terrifying environments is shown off*

Webb: I'd make fun of you for getting scared of Quake 4 but it scared the bejeezus out of me too.

(...)

Sessler: Let's finish things off with a quick debate, who do you think won E3?

Webb: For me, it begins and ends with Apple. They had to have a big show this year and the iPod Play blew everyone away, myself included. It does pretty much everything, it plays music, it plays movies, and most importantly, it plays games. The ability to play console-quality titles on a handheld is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen, and with Nintendo not announcing a new handheld of their own this year, it's going to have a monopoly on next-gen handheld gameplay for quite a while.

Sessler: As impressive as Apple's new handheld was, I'm going to say that Nintendo won the show, and I'm going to say that fairly reluctantly since I was incredibly impressed with Microsoft also. Fact of the matter is, Nintendo's got so much going on this year, with games like Metroid: Homecoming, Hero Eternal, and Metal Gear Solid II, and then of course there's Super Mario Shades, which I really liked but I couldn't shake the whole They Live vibe going on, with the whole Mario putting on sunglasses to see hidden stuff idea. I mean, is there a part where Mario and Luigi fight each other after Mario tries to get him to put the sunglasses on?

Webb: We can only hope so, Adam. We can only hope so.

-from the X-Play E3 2004 Special, which aired on May 20, 2004

-

Game Critics Awards E3 2004

Best Of Show: iPod Play
Best Original Game: Endotherm
Best Console Game: The Legend Of Zelda: Hero Eternal
Best PC Game: World Of Warcraft
Best Peripheral/Hardware: iPod Play
Best Action Game: Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill
Best Action/Adventure Game: Endotherm
Best Role Playing Game: World Of Warcraft
Best Racing Game: Vertical Drift
Best Sports Game: Thrillseekers
Best Fighting Game: Divine Wrath 3
Best Shooter: For God And Country
Best Online Multiplayer: World Of Warcraft
Special Commendation Awards: For God And Country, Songhopper
Best Booth: Apple

-

E3 2004, while definitely an exciting show, in many ways lacked the "wow" factor of E3s past, largely due to the fact that most of the big games being shown off that year had already been teased or revealed at earlier events in one form or another. The Legend Of Zelda: Hero Eternal, Metal Gear Solid II, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, The Covenant 2, Sonic Rover...all great games, but we'd already known about them, many for more than a year beforehand. It was great to see new footage of them, and in many cases play them for the first time, but none of them blew us away like they had when they'd first been shown off.

Nintendo's show was headlined by the reveal of Super Mario Shades, a game that looked fun to play but didn't seem much different from the games that came before it. Mario did look really cool in sunglasses, but we'd need to see more than that to be truly impressed. Nintendo's show did show off a lot of amazing games, and the Wave was looking super impressive in its second year, but in some ways, all those awesome games kind of got in each other's way, and diminished the hype we had for each individual one. Despite that, the company did cap its show with a pair of extremely effective reveals: the first teaser trailer for Stranded, and the action-packed and character reveal studded Super Smash Bros. Clash, which drew some of the biggest applause of the show when Beyond Good And Evil's Jade showed up, camera and all. Nintendo still had plenty of games, but would quantity overtake quality? Only time would tell.

Microsoft's E3 presentation focused on games, games, and more games. There was The Covenant 2, of course, and the reveal of For God And Country, which blew our collective minds with graphics rivaling any Wave game. There weren't a whole lot of surprises from Microsoft's presentation, unless you count Ultima's revival on the console, but it was a solid presentation nonetheless. The Xbox was still the top console in North America, and was still keeping well ahead of the Wave in lifetime sales. Microsoft had been somewhat successful in peeling away some of Nintendo's adult players, and was a solid second place in market share. Their presentation didn't make a splash, but for the moment, it didn't need to.

And then there was Apple, which once again made the biggest wave of the show with the formal reveal of the iPod Play. Steve Jobs knew he had an unimaginably hard sell, pushing a $299 handheld against Nintendo's newly $99 Nova, but by positioning it as an alternative to the classic iPod rather than an alternative to the Nova, Jobs pushed it as a trendy device, something all the "cool" kids would be getting, no matter the cost. It helped that Apple had plenty of games to reveal at the show, including original exclusives and Katana ports, and even a downloadable games service just like the one on the Katana. The iPod Play won a ton of awards and ended up making the biggest headlines, even over all the big franchises being shown off. Steve Jobs had done it again, and even though the Katana was a distant third in sales behind Nintendo and Microsoft, Apple once again came out of E3 smelling like a rose.

More than anything else, E3 2004 was the year when the show became a celebrity playground. There were tons of them at the show, promoting and playing games and giving the event a Hollywood atmosphere. It was the perfect place for Steve Jobs to show off his latest gadget, and Nintendo's franchises got somewhat lost amidst all the celebrity buzz. The one bright spot was the Zelda game. Hero Eternal, with its modern aesthetic, turned a bunch of heads at the show. Celebrities were playing it and loving it, and even the mighty Mario found himself overshadowed. And of course, World Of Warcraft, which was hoping to become a mainstream phenomenon, was also on full display for all the celebrities to play and enjoy. Those were the three biggest stories of E3 2004: The iPod Play, Hero Eternal, and World of Warcraft. Which one of the three would have the biggest staying power could determine the future of gaming for years to come.

-from IGN's report on E3 2004 (based on this OTL article: http://www.ign.com/wikis/e3/E3_2004 )

 

[RySenkari]

(Here's the update reviewing the 2003-04 network television season! We will start covering cable at some point, though it might not be until around 2006/2007. If there's a particularly notable cable show, it may warrant its own update or a part of a different update.)

ABC:

ABC has become the most successful network on television, due to the success of three enormous shows: Lane, Horizon, and Sheffield. Lane in particular has continued to post spectacular ratings for the network and was the number one show on all of television, even beating out American Idol. The show has found a huge audience among women aged 18-49, and despite its focus on a middle school aged girl, has even found a decent male audience as well, simply due to its excellent critical reception. The show would earn the Primetime Emmy for Best Drama Series in 2004, but Kristen Stewart would narrowly lose out for Best Actress for a second time running. Horizon saw a big ratings boost due to the show's action sequences and compelling storylines which skillfully mix family drama with international intrigue, and had some synergy with the hit video game Tom Clancy's Delta Force due to its own Delta Force protagonist. The Bachelor and its companion show The Bachelorette finally broke into the top 25 for ABC, along with a pair of rookie shows: the police procedural The Standard, which follows a young black rookie cop played by Anthony Mackie, and the comedy Twin Synergy, about a pair of successful fraternal twins forced to live in a cramped apartment together after both of them have their rents jacked up.

CBS:

CBS continued to have problems. It couldn't get a single rookie show in the top 25, and its old comedy guard, Mighty Megan and especially Everybody Loves Raymond, both saw sharp ratings declines. Its only real success story was the continued high ratings for Pineville Drive, which won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series in somewhat of an upset over Twin Synergy. Both CSI and CSI: Miami continued to decline, so much so that CSI: Miami was at risk for cancellation. Survivor remained a bright spot, and the network may look to debut more reality competition shows for the 2004-05 season. The Amazing Race, while failing to crack the top 25, remained a critical darling and a strong Thursday stalwart, and while Mark Burnett is busy with both Survivor and his recent smash hit on NBC, CBS will try to convince him to work his magic and get this network back on top.

NBC:

While NBC continued to see mild ratings declines amongst its old stalwarts, including Friends and The Fixer, the network was also looking for the next reality hit, and turned to Mark Burnett, the genius behind Survivor. Burnett's original proposal was for a show called The Apprentice, in which a business leader would handpick from amongst a group of aspiring entrepreneurs to award a big employment contract. Burnett initially asked Donald Trump to host the show, but Trump dismissed the idea, having gained a poor impression of reality shows and not wanting to "debase" himself. Burnett begged Trump to do The Apprentice, but Trump turned him down, and Burnett was forced to move on to his second choice, Mark Cuban. However, Cuban was too busy with his growing social media empire, and reluctantly had to say no as well. Instead of pitching The Apprentice to a third business mogul, Burnett decided to shelve the idea. Instead, he decided to go with something else: a reality competition that would pit six families in a cross-country challenge of physical and mental acumen for a million dollar prize. He called the show The Ultimate Challenge, and it would be hosted by Marc Summers, who previously hosted the hit game show Million Dollar Mayhem for the network earlier on. The Ultimate Challenge took six families, with two parents and two kids ranging in age from 9-17, and had them compete in a series of challenges spanning the entire continental United States. There would be no eliminations in the show, and Burnett wanted to focus heavily on the families themselves. His casting directors deliberately chose families that had been having some kind of trouble, as Burnett wanted to see if the competition could bring them closer together. Families would be forced to work together and trust one another to overcome incredible adversity. The show took place over twelve weeks, with different challenges each week. The prize of the smaller challenges would be an advantage in the big two-hour challenge during the season finale of the show. Each week brought compelling, heart-warming drama and exciting challenges that kept audiences on the edge of their seats, and in the end, Burnett and NBC had an enormous hit on their hands that would immediately be greenlit for a second season in the fall.

FOX:

FOX's search for an animated comedy to join The Simpsons and King Of The Hill on Sunday nights continued to be fruitless, though the network had achieved huge success with a number of reality hits, including American Idol and a pair of new shows: a relationship-based reality show called The Secret: Can Our Engagement Survive? and Tricked: The Search For America's Most Hilarious Prankster. In The Secret, one member of a couple engaged to be married has a terrible secret, and cameras roll as that secret is revealed, with the person being paid $100,000 to reveal their secret. If the couple chooses to stay together and get married, they get $500,000. The show was extremely heavily criticized by pretty much every television critic, with most calling it "disgusting" and "exploitative", but audiences lapped up the emotional reveals and it became one of the biggest hit shows of the season. Tricked is only slightly less controversial: it's a Candid Camera-style competition show, with four comedians competing with wacky stunts on unsuspecting victims, and whoever can draw the most laughs wins a cash prize. While some of the winning pranksters have been genuinely funny, a few stunts have gone wrong, ending in tears or in one especially notorious case, an arrest. But while FOX was lowering the bar in terms of reality TV, they were raising it with their new hit sci-fi show Firefly. Joss Whedon's follow-up to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Whedon was given a big budget and a big advertising push by Fox, hoping to cash in on the cult success of Buffy. The big advertising push, including the series' debut right after the Super Bowl, made it the biggest premiere for a sci-fi show ever, and though the ratings declined over the course of the season, the show still did well enough for a top 25 berth and an easy renewal. Starring relative newcomer Nolan North (whose previous live action roles included mostly soap operas and who had done some video game and cartoon voice acting beforehand) in the starring role as Malcolm Reynolds, and taking place in the late 22nd Century, Firefly follows the exploits of a ragtag bunch of space pioneers as they try to carve out a living in a harsh and unforgiving universe. Like Buffy before it, Firefly immediately cultivated an enormous fan following, and looks to be one of Fox's top drama series going forward.

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Top 25 Rated Network Television Programs Of 2003-04:

1. Lane (ABC)
2. American Idol – Tuesday (FOX)
3. American Idol – Wednesday (FOX)
4. The Ultimate Challenge (NBC)
5. Horizon (ABC)
6. Sheffield (ABC)
7. Monday Night Football (ABC)
8. ER (NBC)
9. Mighty Megan (CBS)
10. The Secret: Can Our Engagement Survive? (FOX)
11. Survivor (CBS)
12. Pineville Drive (CBS)
13. Stone (CBS)
14. The Standard (ABC)
15. Law And Order (NBC)
16. Friends (NBC)
17. The Fixer (NBC)
18. 60 Minutes (CBS)
19. The Bachelor/The Bachelorette (ABC)
20. Fear Factor (FOX)
21. Twin Synergy (ABC)
22. Tricked: The Search For America's Most Hilarious Prankster (FOX)
23. Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS)
24. Firefly (FOX)
25. Gainfully Employed (FOX)

-

Johnny Gilbert: THIS IS JEOPARDY! Please welcome today's contestants.

A high school principal from Joliet, Illinois... Edward Canning.

A construction project manager from Parker, Pennsylvania... Jacob MacGregor.

And our returning champion, a paralegal from Glendale, Arizona... Stephenie Meyer, whose 61-day cash winnings total $1,790,216 dollars. *Stephenie just smiles a huge smile* And now here is the host of Jeopardy, Alex Trebek!

Alex Trebek: Thank you Johnny Gilbert, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our program. And as you can see, our returning champion Stephenie is still on her amazing run, 61 days and it seems there is no twilight in sight for her winning streak. But on this, the day of the new moon, can our challengers eclipse the greatest Jeopardy champion of all time? Let's find out and we'll start with these categories for our first round of play.

-from the introduction to Jeopardy! on May 19, 2004

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Brittany Saldita: Welcome back to LA This Weekend, and we are so lucky to have a very special guest in our studio today, he really needs no introduction. He's a billion dollar businessman with real estate ventures all over the world, he owns the Miss Universe pageant, and this fall he's going to be starring in his own talk show, ladies and gentleman, please welcome Mr. Donald Trump to the studio today.

Donald Trump: Thank you, you've all shown me a really lovely time here today.

Saldita: Well, we are really pleased to have you here, thank you again for your time.

Trump: It's my pleasure.

Saldita: You are obviously a very busy man, with so many businesses and so many appearances and everything you do, what made you decide to have your own talk show?

Trump: Well, I've got a lot of things to talk about. And, you know, I've been thinking about breaking into TV for a while. I was actually offered my own reality TV series a little while back.

Saldita: Oh, tell me about that!

Trump: You know, I just...it's not for me, you know? The whole reality thing, I think, I mean some people are, they fit right in, but it just wasn't something I felt was going to do me any favors. You look at, some of the trash they've got right now. I mean I was being offered something with a lot of class, and I appreciated the offer, but I didn't want to put myself on TV in that context with the kinds of things that are going on.

Saldita: It is a hit or miss kind of thing.

Trump: And again, I'm not bashing those kinds of shows, I mean, I wouldn't bash a show like The Bachelor, since it airs on your network...

Saldita: *laughing a bit* Obviously, we love The Bachelor here.

Trump: And I love The Bachelor too. But anyway, I wanted to do something with a bit more substance and freedom, something I could make my own rules for, so to speak. You remember when I ran for president back in 2000, right?

Saldita: Right, as a third party candidate, yes.

Trump: And the media, they treated me really unfairly. And Ralph Nader too. Since we weren't part of the big two, we got really kind of ignored. It was very unfair. And so now I'm going to be able to get my own message out there.

Saldita: Is it going to be a political talk show?

Trump: It's gonna be a little bit of everything. We'll have politics, we'll have business, a lot of business. We'll have celebrities on there, I've already got tons of celebrities lined up for the show. It's gonna be huge. And, you know, we'll have fun. Because I'm all about fun. I'm all about fun, and celebrities, and it'll be such an amazing show, like Oprah.

Saldita: You know, my dream as a little girl was to have my own talk show. It's actually why I got into journalism in the first place, because I wanted to do that kind of thing.

Trump: Well there you go, are you happy right now?

Saldita: I love this job right now. *smiling*

Trump: *noticing her tummy* And you've got a baby on the way, that's wonderful.

Saldita: Thank you!

Trump: Boy or a girl?

Saldita: A girl!

Trump: Wonderful, wonderful. But yes, big things are coming up and I'm really excited for this talk show. We're going to be filming it in New York but some days we're going to be on location, I'd love to film from all over the world. I can get in my jet and go anywhere and film it and fly back and film in New York again the next day.

Saldita: Sounds like it could get expensive.

Trump: Well, the ratings we're gonna bring in, they'll offset that quite a bit.

-from an interview with Donald Trump on the May 29, 2004 edition of LA This Morning on KABC

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May 29, 2004

After about ten minutes, the segment ended and Brittany Saldita and Donald Trump kept making small talk for a bit longer after the camera stopped rolling. Afterwards, the two stood up and Saldita reached over to shake Trump's hand.

"Thanks again, it was a real pleasure talking to you," said Saldita earnestly. While she wasn't too fond of Trump on a personal level, she wanted to be as professional as possible, and she did appreciate him taking the time to come and give an interview for a local news station (even if it was ABC's flagship station west of the Mississippi).

"Absolutely," replied Trump, "any time."

He shook her hand, then offered to give Saldita a hug. She thought it was a bit strange, but internally shrugged and figured he was just being friendly. The two hugged lightly, and she could feel one of his hands reaching down toward her buttocks.

Oh. It's one of those kinds of hugs. She gave a nervous laugh and broke the hug as gently as she could. "We'd love to have you back."

She was just glad he hadn't tried to kiss her. He smiled and said a few more polite things before leaving the room.

Did he really just try to....? Saldita let out a sigh. She dismissed it as an accident, even though she knew better, and sat back down in her chair to prepare for the next segment of the show.

 

[RySenkari]

Rogue's Story II

The sequel to 2002's minor WRPG hit Rogue's Story, Rogue's Story II is a game in a similar vein, with updated presentation, even more customization options, and a larger world to explore. Like the previous game, Rogue's Story II takes place in a medieval fantasy world and allows the player to create a character before starting their quest. In Rogue's Story II, the player takes on the role of an infamous thief who must rob and steal in order to grow the reputation of their thieves' guild and ultimately change the kingdom for the better. Unlike Rogue's Story, which had a more simplistic and somewhat less focused storyline, Rogue's Story II is compared by many to Grand Theft Auto set in medieval times, though the game is much, MUCH more idealistic and whimsical than Grand Theft Auto, with only the open world mission structure being very similar. The game allows the player to play as either a boy or a girl, and both characters, along with many side characters, are fully voiced, though there aren't any really huge names amongst the voice cast. The game is known for taking a more lighthearted tone than most of the other, more gritty WRPGs available on the Xbox or PC at the time, making it suitable for kids with its fairly soft T rating. The reviews and sales both top those of the original game: when it's released for the Xbox in May 2004, it averages about an 8/10 amongst most reviewers, and sales are about twice that of the original, making it one of the Xbox's most popular RPGs of the year.

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Riders Of Ajorn

Riders Of Ajorn is a game that flew somewhat under the radar. While it didn't get a big marketing campaign, it did have a lot of coverage in the various magazines and websites of the time, which showed screenshots of characters riding otherworldly mounts across desolate landscapes. When the game itself is released in June 2004, it lives up to the hype in a lot of ways. The game's main protagonist is Beckan, a long-haired, mysterious, cloaked hunter who is himself being hunted by the armies of a powerful warlord. He is being hunted because he stole his horse, a black, tattooed horse named Shadowmane, from a knight of the kingdom, and is rumored to have murdered the knight. Though Beckan did not actually murder the knight, he allows everyone to think he did because it brings fear to his name. He teams up with four other riders, each outcasts in their own way, who all ride horses and other creatures, including flying wyverns and oversized bulls, over the course of the game (the riders can change their mounts at various points, and both the mounts and riders can be leveled up during the game). The game takes place in a land called Ajorn, which is being plagued by the ceaseless eruption of a powerful volcano which regularly spews ash and smoke and poisonous gas, darkening the skies. The five riders will eventually come to confront the corrupt rulers of the land and uncover the mystery of the erupting volcano. As for the game's combat, it follows a fairly typical WRPG formula, though with the added mechanic of mounted combat in which the riders can (and oftentimes must) battle atop their mounts, with either ranged weapons or with weapons like swords or lances. There are some epic jousting battles in the game, which, during key moments in fights, can slow down to depict powerful lance strikes in slow motion. Riders of Ajorn is considered one of the year's best WRPGs, scoring around the high 8s with critics, and sales are fairly strong too, though not quite up to the level of Rogue's Story II.

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Vampire: The Masquerade

Based on the 90s tabletop game, Vampire: The Masquerade is a WRPG developed exclusively for the Microsoft Xbox. It's made by a different company than Troika, who made the OTL Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a game which is ultimately butterflied away ITTL. Despite the butterflying of Bloodlines, there are a good deal of similar elements between the OTL and TTL games, including a heavy focus on interacting with the other characters in the game in order to build relationships, and the use of Humanity points, which are spent by performing overly brutal or cruel actions within the game. The game takes place in modern day Los Angeles, during a time of turmoil for the vampire clans in which numerous vampire lords struggle for control of the city's underground vampire society. As the main character (who can be freely customized by the player before beginning the game), you ultimately become a pawn in the schemes of the various vampire lords, but as choice becomes a big element in the game, the protagonist can choose which vampire lord to support, or can ultimately choose to rise through the ranks themselves to take over the city on their own. The game's overworld is a fairly realistic depiction of Los Angeles, though it only covers a small section of the city, with the majority of the game taking place within the vampires' hidden society. There are a number of major characters in the game with whom the player can become friend or foe, and the game has several different endings depending on who the player ultimately chooses to side with. As the game was made with the Xbox exclusively in mind, with its own source engine and development timeline, it didn't run into many of the glitches that needed patching in the OTL Bloodlines game. Instead, it's considered one of the best WRPGs in the Xbox library and would ultimately be one of the strongest reviewed games of the year. It's released in June 2004, but it's unfortunately released amidst a wave of other, more hyped games, and with Xbox fans largely unfamiliar with the material, it slips through the cracks somewhat and of the three major exclusive Xbox RPGs released at the time, it's the worst selling despite being the best reviewed.

 

[RySenkari]

X: Heroic Valor

X: Heroic Valor is the latest game in Argonaut's tank-based space combat series X. One of the three Argonaut "Heroic Universe" franchises along with Squad Four and Star Fox, X follows the saga of Xenda, who is now a general in the Space Defense Force, the organization charged with protecting humanity from intergalactic threats. Heroic Valor is a return to the series' tank battling roots, with the game taking place in large 3-D environments, but tank segments being on rails as Xenda shoots at enemy forces and gives orders to his army. However, inbetween the tank combat segments are "infantry" segments in which Xenda delegates a combat role to an infantry soldier. Control then switches to that soldier, who enters a fully 3-D environment with combat similar to that of a 3-D shooting game like Squad Four or The Covenant. The soldier is given a certain task to perform, such as defeating an enemy, finding an item or items, or reaching a certain location. There are three possible outcomes of an infantry mission: Heroic Success, Success, and Failure. Heroic Success involves going above and beyond the call of duty, outperforming mission parameters by either completing the mission quickly or finding secrets or defeating enemies not originally specified. Completing a mission with a Heroic Success awards Valor points that can be used to power up Xenda's tank or other soldiers later on. A Success is just that, a normal success, while a failure either results in a penalty or in some cases a death that requires Xenda to return to a previous checkpoint (this is specified before the mission is launched). While some infantry missions are mandatory, others are optional, and many times the player will have a choice about where and when to launch a mission. The game itself takes place on a large planet on which a massive weapon array is being developed. It's believed that a scientist has gone rogue on the planet and is developing the weapons for himself, but Xenda eventually learns that the scientists have been taken prisoner and are being held deep under the planet's surface by an alien army who is forcing them to make the weapons. Xenda's army clashes with the aliens to take back and planet and liberate the scientists.

Heroic Valor is of course the second game in Nintendo's "Heroic Universe" series, following Squad Four: Upheaval. It's even listed on the game's cover art, under the title, in a small notation that reads "Part of Nintendo's Heroic Universe" series. And, like Upheaval, Heroic Valor has a cameo from both Squad Four and Star Fox characters, though the cameo is even more significant than the small, hard to find cameos in Upheaval. Late in the game, there are two segments that feature crossovers: during Mission 14, Squad Four actually shows up and can be selected as the playable characters in an infantry mission, as the squad joins Xenda to free a crucial scientist from captivity, turning the tide of the war. Then, during Mission 18's penultimate battle, Star Fox shows up in their Arwings about midway through to rain down blasts from the air on an advancing enemy, with the team briefly radioing General Xenda to report their status. It's essentially just a "passing in the night" sort of cameo, but it further ties the three franchises together and builds up hype for the eventual main crossover game. X: Heroic Valor is released on May 31, 2004, to the best critical reception of any game in the X series since Critical Dawn on the SNES-CD. Sales are quite good as well, about as good as those for Critical Dawn, and Heroic Valor is considered to be a sort of "comeback" for the X series after the fairly disappointing and obscure Tactics. It proves that rail-shooters still have somewhat of a place in modern gaming, and that the three Argonaut sci-fi franchises do work quite excellently together.

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Donkey Kong And Battletoads

Donkey Kong And Battletoads is a 3-D platformer developed by Rare and published by Nintendo, exclusively for the Wave. The game is a combination 2-D/3-D platformer that brings together characters from the Donkey Kong Country and Battletoads franchises, and combines elements from both, while also leaning heavily on nostalgia. While including the world/level structure of Donkey Kong Country, with six "worlds" in all and 49 levels (40 mandatory, 9 secret), the game's actual levels are split into segments, with certain segments as 2-D platforming and other segments featuring 3-D exploration and adventuring (it's about 80/20 in favor of 2-D platforming, rather than being a Super Mario 3D-type game, it's sort of a 2-D platformer genre mash, with the 3-D segments taking on the form of other games such as racing, beat-em-up, and puzzle solving). Rareware attempted to create a mash-up that would be familiar to and fun for fans of either Donkey Kong Country, Battletoads, or both. The playable characters are Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Rash, Zitz, and Pimple, with players selecting one Kong and one Toad before each level (they can be switched freely at checkpoint barrels). From there, the "health" bar takes on the typical DKC formula, being hit by an enemy or hazard causes whichever character struck it to be trapped in a barrel until found and rescued by the surviving character. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's movesets have changed up somewhat to match those of the Battletoads, they now have more melee fighting moves in addition to being able to roll, while the Battletoads have gained the ability to fire weapons similar to Donkey Kong's coconut gun and Diddy's peanut pistol (which are both available in the game). Two people can play at once, though the rules for multiplayer are thankfully similar to those of the Donkey Kong Country games and not the Battletoads games. The game's graphics, in typical Rare fashion, are excellent, among the best on the Wave and easily comparable to if not better than the OTL Donkey Kong Country Returns. Levels are a diverse mix of environments, from natural to mechanical to fantastical, and the game's music is composed by David Wise. There is full voice acting in the game, though Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong don't speak. The game is voiced by a full Los Angeles-based crew (as opposed to Rare's usual habit of casting England-based voice artists), with Rash voiced by Greg Cipes, Zitz voiced by Rob Paulsen, and Pimple voiced by Bill Fagerbakke. The Dark Queen is voiced by Mary Kay Bergman.

The plot of the game begins as Dixie Kong and Candy Kong are spending time at a fancy spa on an island. However, the Dark Queen invades the island with her evil army and takes over the spa, taking Candy and Dixie prisoner. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong rush to their rescue but are easily defeated by the Dark Queen's magic, forcing them to team up with the Battletoads to save their friends. The game's action takes place in an archipelago, as the Kongs and Toads hop their way from island to island in order to get back to the big island where the spa is (now transformed into an enormous castle) and defeat the Dark Queen to rescue the girls. The seven islands are as follows:

Roughentumble Isle: The first island of the game, inhabited by a crumbling city. This island introduces players to the game's combination beat-em-up/platforming gameplay.
Vineswinga Isle: A jungle-based island that's more the Kongs' speed than the Battletoads, this island is full of enemies from previous Donkey Kong Country games with a Battletoads twist.
Underground Isle: An island comprised of a massive network of caves, a highlight of this island is a remake of the classic Turbo Tunnel level from Battletoads, giving Donkey or Diddy a chance to experience this hellish ride firsthand (fortunately, it's a bit easier this time around, though hearing the remix of the classic theme and seeing those suddenly appearing barriers will give Battletoads vets some major dread when they first see it).
Electroshock Isle: An island where lightning strikes a lot more than twice in the same place, the Kongs and Toads must one by one deactivate electrical nodes contained within the levels to advance. This island contains a level that's a throwback to the lightning levels of Donkey Kong Country 3.
Chemicalburn Isle: An island that once housed a massive laboratory, it's now just a ruin, though it's given rise to some hideous mutants that will need putting down. This is one of the more combat oriented worlds of the game.
Watermyth Isle: An island with many submerged sections, this world combines the jungle aesthetic of the Kongs, the futuristic Battletoads aesthetic (in the form of an underwater lab) and a mythical mermaid lair to create an amalgam of environments designed to show off the game's graphical prowess and give players a gauntlet of challenges before the final world.
Darkparadise Isle: The Dark Queen has transformed an island spa into a fortress fit for an evil queen, and the Kongs and Toads must face their fiercest challenges yet if they are to be victorious. This world even has some allusions to the classic SNES-CD game Battletoads: Dark Queen. Eventually, the heroes face the Dark Queen in one final spectacular fight, defeating her and rescuing Candy and Dixie. The Kongs and Toads then celebrate together with a huge party back on Donkey Kong Island.

Donkey Kong And Battletoads is lauded by critics, who give it the best review scores of any game in the series since the first three DKC titles, and most also agree it's probably the best Battletoads game ever made. The game is considered extremely challenging, but not overly frustrating, and the graphics get exceptionally high praise as well. It's hyped as one of Nintendo's biggest games of the summer, and is released on June 28, 2004, to stellar sales, thrusting the Battletoads franchise back into the public eye and also bringing back Donkey Kong Country in fitting fashion.

 

[RySenkari]

Santorum Endorses Kasich Ahead Of Pennsylvania Primary

With the Pennsylvania Republican primary two weeks away, and John Kasich holding a slim but growing delegate lead over his rival George W. Bush, Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Senator and most recent candidate to drop out of the primary, endorsed the candidacy of John Kasich in a recent statement made to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The statement reads in part: "I have thought long and hard about which of these two well-qualified men I would like to endorse for the Republican candidacy. Both Congressman Kasich and Governor Bush have good ideas about which direction this country needs to take, but I feel that John Kasich has the best plan for taking America forward and the best chance to defeat Al Gore in the general election this November. He not only understands the value of hard work and fiscal responsibility, but also believes in the American family, a culture that respects life, and a culture that respects the institution of marriage."

Kasich leads Bush in the most recent state polls, 54 to 42, with four percent remaining undecided.

-from an article on Yahoo! News, April 14, 2004

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Dan Rather: The first results from Pennsylvania are in, and they show John Kasich with a big lead over George W. Bush, a bad sign for Bush in the early going. With 38 percent of precincts reporting in, Kasich holds a 60 to 39 percent lead, which beats his most recent polling numbers by four percent. Our exit polling also shows a big lead for Kasich amongst voters, and I think even in this early going it's safe to call this primary for John Kasich.

*Voters are shown leaving a polling station in suburban Pittsburgh as Dan Rather continues to speak.*

Rather: One of the big issues with the voters of Pennsylvania has been the economy, and while growth has accelerated in the early part of this year, there are still a lot of people unhappy with the way the economy is going. Manufacturing jobs are in decline, and many voters here in western Pennsylvania, where those jobs have been so important in the past, have said that John Kasich would be the most likely candidate to bring manufacturing jobs back to the Rust Belt. They don't believe President Gore's green initiatives will help the people of Pennsylvania.

*The vote count updates now, with 44 percent of the precincts in, Kasich's lead has narrowed to 59-41 but he's still winning in commanding fashion and indeed, there's a checkmark by his name, indicating that CBS has called the primary for him.*

Rather: And with almost half the votes counted, you can see that CBS has called this primary, the Pennsylvania primary, perhaps the most important primary thus far, for John Kasich, the former congressman from Ohio, which will expand his delegate lead over George W. Bush, and indeed makes his lead, with just a few states remaining, nearly insurmountable.

-from CBS News' coverage of the Pennsylvania Republican primary on April 27, 2004

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*The hosts of The View: Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Meredith Vieira, and Stacey Dash are talking with Selena about her pregnancy and her efforts to build a music studio in Corpus Christi.*

Joy Behar: So you're not slowing down at all!

Selena: Well, I'm not making music right now...

Stacey Dash: But you're helping other people to make music.

Selena: It's a little less intensive but that's pretty much, yeah!

Barbara Walters: And Corpus Christi, an absolutely beautiful city, one of the most beautiful cities in Texas and one of the fastest growing in the country.

Selena: I love Corpus Christi so much, and being able to give back-

*The "ABC NEWS SPECIAL REPORT" logo appears on screen.*

Peter Jennings: Hello, I'm Peter Jennings and this is an ABC News Special Report. Last night, John Kasich defeated George W. Bush in the Pennsylvania Republican primary with 62 percent of the vote, and now ABC News can confirm that Kasich has just become the presumptive Republican nominee, after Bush announced the suspension of his campaign just about 10 minutes ago. With the win in Pennsylvania, Kasich took a commanding delegate lead, making Bush's path to the nomination an extremely narrow one, and with Kasich polling way ahead in Indiana as well, it seems that Bush has seen the writing on the wall and has chosen to call it quits. This, another close and painful loss for former Texas governor George W. Bush after a loss to John McCain in the bitterly fought 2000 Republican primary. We go now to a live press conference in Dallas, Texas, where Bush has announced that he has suspended his campaign.

George W. Bush: -always a bridesmaid and never a bride. *laughs a bit* But no, I don't... I think John Kasich will make a great president. We've got some disagreements, especially about the role of the military, but I feel like we both want what's best for this country and I absolutely endorse him for President of the United States. No question about it. *points to a reporter* Yes.

Reporter: Have you called Congressman Kasich to congratulate him?

Bush: I absolutely did, I called him earlier this morning, told him I was suspending my campaign and congratulated him on being the presumptive nominee. We had a little chat for a few minutes, talked some politics, some other things, the weather... it's beautiful up there in Ohio right now, you know? Beautiful down here too. *laughs again*

-from an ABC News Special Report on April 28, 2004

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Al Gore: And I've proposed raising the minimum wage to eight dollars immediately. The eventual goal, what I'd like to do is $10 an hour, but right now eight is I think feasible and certainly better than what it is currently, which is $5.15, which is a starvation wage. Right now 63 percent of this country supports raising the minimum wage, but it's been so hard getting Congress to sign off on it. And I think the economy is improving and it's time to get it done.

Dan Rather: On to another issue of great interest right now, same sex marriage, which as you know has been legalized in Massachusetts and Oregon and Vermont over the past twelve months. Your stance is that marriage is between a man and a woman only, have you re-examined that stance during your presidency?

Gore: Well, Dan, I still believe that marriage is such an important and sacred institution, and my personal belief is that it should remain between a man and a woman, but I'm not going to get in the way of any states that, you know, where the voters decide to expand it. And I would be in favor of civil unions, so that certain benefits... certainly hospital visitations, life or death matters, could be made possible by a same sex couple committing to a civil union. Where it's the government involved but not a church, I feel like that could be a solution that might work someday at the federal level, yes.

Rather: But it wouldn't be called marriage?

Gore: No, it would not.

Rather: Even with the growing tide of support it's gaining?

Gore: I feel like with the media and with a lot of the people it is gaining a lot of support, but the American people themselves, I don't think as a whole that they're ready to redefine marriage, and neither am I. But I understand how important an issue it is to both sides, and that any action taken has to be done with the utmost care. I support civil unions, I've supported them for quite a while now, but marriage is a different matter.

Rather: There are some who would say that without the title of marriage that a civil union doesn't mean anything.

Gore: It means a lot to a lot of people. I said before, the hospital visits, child custody rights, financial benefits...it gives committed same sex couples the same rights as a married man and woman but it doesn't challenge an institution that's so important to so many Americans.

Rather: Moving on, you've said that the environment continues to be a major issue on your agenda, but you weren't able to get the Kyoto Protocol ratified, and your critics on the left have said that without American commitment to moving forward on global warming, the actions that need to be taken won't be. Will you try to get a new agreement on the environment if you're elected to a second term?

Gore: Right now, I'm committed to more domestic environmental measures. Clean coal, renewable energy, pushing for wind and solar in America, giving incentives to companies that promote those technologies. A new international agreement would be a huge step forward, but right now my focus is on what the American people are willing to accomplish. Certainly, it would've been nice to get Kyoto ratified, it's one of the biggest regrets of my presidency thus far, but what I can do as President is take measures to improve our carbon footprint without impacting American jobs and the American economy, and so far I think we've made a lot of strides on that.

-from an interview with President Al Gore, featured on the CBS Evening News, May 11, 2004

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Greg Forbes: And today we are expecting a major tornado outbreak stretching from Nebraska possibly all the way east to Ohio. You look at the Storm Prediction Center forecast, and this is the largest high risk area ever recorded, it covers Nebraska, including the cities of Omaha and Lincoln, and stretches all the way to Central Illinois, spanning several hundred miles, with a moderate risk area down into Kansas and Oklahoma and covering Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. This is an enormous area where tornadoes could spawn, and they could be large, long-lived, and very destructive.

-from the Weather Channel broadcast at 10:09 AM on May 30, 2004

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Paul Page: And race officials have decided that the race will go on as planned, even though they have expanded that high risk area of storms into Indiana, they do expect more storms to arrive later today but as of right now we will be running this race on time and hopefully we can beat the arrival of those storms.

Scott Goodyear: Yeah, we had a little bit of rain earlier today but they got that off the track and now it's very bright and sunny, just a few clouds but looking really nice and hopefully we can start racing soon.

-from ABC's broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 at 1:20 PM on May 30, 2004

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Greg Forbes: And this tornado approaching Terre Haute, Indiana, right now it looks to be getting itself a bit more organized. It's not very big right now but it seems to be getting wider as it's approaching the west side of the city, and that cell is moving to the ENE right now at 30 miles an hour.

Jim Cantore: Greg, I just want to, if we could for a moment go back to Lincoln, Nebraska, which has been under a tornado emergency for the past ten minutes, if we could go to the live camera from Lincoln, because that tornado is-

*The screen shows a massive, 1.5-mile wide tornado approaching downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. In another part of the screen, the radar shows a classic hook echo and an enormous debris ball right over the city.*

Greg Forbes: That is massive, that is....that is a very bad situation right now in Lincoln, Nebraska. *the huge tornado can be seen spinning rapidly as it approaches the city, almost engulfing the entire skyline, Forbes seems at a loss for words* If you are in that city right now...you need to be underground or in an interior room but preferably underground.

Jim Cantore: This tornado is right over the top of downtown Lincoln right now, it's awe inspiring but also one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen.

Greg Forbes: This is reminiscent of the, um, of the Oklahoma City tornado five years ago, where you had the tornado pass right over the city, but this is...it's much bigger, it has to be almost two miles wide.

-from the Weather Channel broadcast at 2:57 PM on May 30, 2004

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Paul Poteet: These tornadoes are continuing to form, right now there are eleven counties in Indiana under a tornado warning, there's the tornado in Terre Haute which is the most concerning right now, but also in Clinton and Tippecanoe counties, Miami County, Wabash County... ...I'm getting in my ear that ABC News is asking us to put up a special report right now. We're gonna go ahead and stay with the local coverage because that's the most pressing at the moment, but if you are wondering about that special report, it's because there is currently a tornado in Lincoln, Nebraska, a huge tornado that is impacting the downtown area of that city at this moment. Folks, it is bad here in Indiana but it is bad in many places right now, and this is the biggest outbreak that I can remember since probably the Super Outbreak in 1974. Right now there are tornado warnings in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, and of course right here in Indiana where we have eleven counties under a tornado warning right now, including Terre Haute which I believe is now under what's being called a tornado emergency, a large tornado has been spotted near the campus of Rose-Hulman University and has already caused a lot of damage in Terre Haute at this time. Tornado emergency for the city of Terre Haute, you need to get into your shelter immediately.

-from the Indiana WRTV-6 broadcast at 3:04 PM on May 30, 2004

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Jim Cantore: That is unfortunately a very distinct hook echo on that storm which right now is passing through the southern suburbs of Chicago. Again, there is a tornado emergency for all of Chicago right now.

*A large tornado is shown passing through one of the southern suburbs of the city, not nearly as big as the Lincoln tornado but looking very powerful, with fierce winds as it churns through a residential area.*

Jim Cantore: We want to take you to the live radar in Illinois, where that main line is passing through but you have all these cells forming out ahead of that line, including the Chicago storm and the one that passed just north of Kankakee, that didn't prompt a tornado emergency but it did have a tornado and we're reporting trees down, power lines down in northern Kankakee County from that cell that passed through earlier, but this tornado is passing through the south side of Markham, Illinois, and doing a lot of damage right now, and is moving almost due north north-east which is what's prompted that tornado emergency for Chicago.

*The Chicago skyline is shown, the tornado can actually be seen off to the southwest.*

Jim Cantore: That is an extremely sobering sight, the Chicago skyline with that very, very powerful and dangerous tornado in the backdrop.

-from the Weather Channel broadcast at 4:18 PM on May 30, 2004

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Peter Jennings: And amidst all the devastation, with the images coming out of Lincoln, Nebraska and from the south side of Chicago, where thankfully that storm weakened before entering the city but still ravaged many of the city's southern suburbs, and from Fithian, Illinois which has been completely leveled by another devastating tornado that passed through that village, we now want to tell you that the Indianapolis 500, which was being held today, has just been called because of a tornado emergency just issued for the entire city of Indianapolis, including the town of Speedway where that event was being held. Called at Lap 160, and they are evacuating that speedway as quickly as possible because of an approaching tornado. We do have images of that tornado, and we'll bring them up right now...

*A stovepipe tornado can be seen moving through the city of Plainfield, Indiana, causing damage to a shopping center there.*

Jennings: That is a tornado just about ten miles to the west of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, moving at about 40 miles an hour. And we are all hoping and praying that they can get that crowd evacuated in time. The attendance of that race was, um, 300,000 people... *he looks a bit distressed as he reads that figure on air* and the speedway is right in the path of that large and very powerful tornado.

-from an ABC News Special Report at 4:55 PM on May 30, 2004

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Wolf Blitzer: What you are seeing right on on live television is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where a tornado is currently passing right over that fabled sports landmark. Right now there don't seem to be any people left in the stands, they seem to have gotten the crowds evacuated just before the tornado struck.

*The winds from the tornado can be seen blowing several Indy cars into the air, whipping through the stands and tearing some of the chairs out of them. The iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway scoring pylon has been snapped in half, either by the force of the winds or via a car impact.*

Blitzer: And that is really a very sobering thing to see, but fortunately it does seem to appear that the speedway was evacuated before the storm came through. That tornado emergency was issued at 4:40 PM, just about a half an hour ago, and they began evacuating immediately. There was a plan in place, and they-

*As Blitzer is speaking, a large blast of wind and an explosion of debris can be seen from a part of the structure. Accompanying that debris is a spray of what appears to be human blood, and more than a dozen people being blown out of one of the tunnels. Loud gasps, yelling, and an obscenity can be heard from the news room, and the live footage is cut after about two seconds. A few more terrified murmurs and an "oh, God" can be heard from the news room and Blitzer looks stunned by what he's seen.*

Blitzer: I, um... what you just saw, that...appears to be some debris impacting a part of the structure where people may have been taking shelter. We...we want to apologize to our viewers for what apparently... was clearly something very tragic and just shows the scale of the horror of this event taking place right now at what was supposed to be a day of celebration on one of the most notable days in the sporting year.

-from a CNN broadcast at 5:12 PM on May 30, 2004

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What ultimately came to be known as the Memorial Day Weekend Super Outbreak took place primarily on May 30, 2004, though there were other tornadic events preceding it in the week before. The event involved severe weather and a massive tornado outbreak across the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, and involved 195 total tornadoes, with 3 F5 tornadoes and 17 F4 tornadoes. Altogether, these tornadoes killed a total of 857 people and injured more than 9,000, making it the deadliest tornadic event in United States history (surpassing the Tri-State Tornado). More than half the people killed in the outbreak were killed in two tornadoes, an F5 that struck Lincoln, Nebraska and killed 351 people, and an F3 that struck Indianapolis, Indiana during the 2004 Indianapolis 500, killing 107 people (81 directly, most when a large metal support beam was hurled through an area where about 400 people had gathered to take shelter, and 26 indirectly via crush injuries in the panic to evacuate the speedway). Other notable tornadoes included an F5 that struck the southern suburbs of Chicago (and prompted a tornado emergency for the city itself), killing 78 people, an F4 that struck Dyersberg, Tennessee, killing 32 people, an F5 that struck Fithian, Illinois, completely obliterating the small town and killing 29 people, and an F4 that struck Ames, Iowa, killing 29 people.

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"We already knew about the greed surrounding the Indianapolis 500. The infamous television blackout that prevents local viewers from watching the race is one thing, but refusing to cancel the race when the area was under a high risk for tornadic weather is in a whole different league. You've got more than a quarter of a million people crammed into that place, knowing that even with the best laid plans, evacuation would be nearly impossible. Even with 30 minutes warning, there wasn't nearly enough time to get everyone out safely. Hundreds of people were forced to cram into a tunnel, exposed to winds of up to 206 miles per hour, more than those from a Category 5 hurricane. The horrific sight, which was aired live on CNN, of that half-ton metal beam being hurled through that tunnel at more than 100 miles an hour, will be burned into the retinas of everyone who was watching live that day and should be burned into the mind of Tony George, whose decision to hold the race regardless is tantamount to reckless homicide."
-from an opinion piece written by Bob Kravitz in the Indianapolis Star, May 31, 2004

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"Presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kasich have both temporarily halted their campaigns in order to aid with tornado relief efforts in the Midwest, which was affected by Sunday's terrible tornado outbreak that killed over 800 people. Gore returned to his home state of Tennessee to visit the stricken residents of Dyersberg, while Kasich visited Celina, Ohio, where two people were killed when an F4 tornado clipped the northern part of the city. Both are expected to resume their campaigns next week in the leadup to the national conventions."
-from a brief news update on NBC's Today, June 2, 2004

 

[RySenkari]

Tales Of The Seven Seas: Hoist The Colors

Tales Of The Seven Seas: Hoist The Colors is the fourth game in Naughty Dog's Tales Of The Seven Seas pirate-based adventure series, and is released exclusively on the Nintendo Wave. The game plays quite similarly to the other 3-D game in the series, The Victorian Legacy, but with an improved combat system and a vastly improved camera. The combat plays out a bit more fluidly than that of The Victorian Legacy, with melee combat playing a big role, and an improved sword fighting system as well that draws from old swashbuckling movies and relies on context-sensitive inputs for spectacular set pieces. The game returns somewhat to the more open-ended, free mission structure of previous games, which The Victorian Legacy was heavily criticized for departing from. There are more than 80 total missions in the game, with the typical player completing about 30 in the average playthrough. Most of the missions tend to be on the shorter side, with the main quest missions usually being the longest. Hoist The Colors takes place mostly on board the main characters' pirate ship, which once again serves as the game's "hub world" so to speak, and can be freely explored between missions, with characters able to be switched on board the ship. The ship can disembark at one of several dozen islands, and can either sail freely between them or can teleport instantly to islands that have already been visited, with sections of the ocean closed off until certain storyline landmarks have been passed. Hoist The Colors has a character progression system in which equipment and special attacks and skills can be earned, either via storyline events, treasure chests, or via purchase. Characters can then equip these buffs to one of a number of slots (characters start with four slots, two for special attacks, one for equipment, and one for passive skills) but these can be expanded up to 16 (eight for special attacks and four each for equipment and passive skills) as the game progresses. This is the closest thing to a "level up" system that the game has, but does give players a sense of progression as they go through the game.

The seven familiar main characters (Erick, Dona, Victoria, Creel, Albert, McKenna, and Jack) all return, though unlike the previous three games, none of them serves as the "main" character so to speak. Instead, players can choose which character to focus on, because each character has their own character-specific missions that can be unlocked during the game. While the character development of all three games remains intact, a lot of it is concealed in favor of a more "generic" presentation for each character, which gives the impression that some of the series' character development (Erick/Dona's relationship, Victoria's maturation, etc.) has been somewhat reversed in favor of a more humorous mood for the game. In general, the mood of Hoist The Colors is more light-hearted and adventurous than that of The Victorian Legacy, which was done in the hope that a more adventurous game might sell more copies. All the voice actors from The Victorian Legacy return, while the game's graphics have significantly improved over The Victorian Legacy due to the transition from the Ultra to the Wave. Despite this, the game has taken on somewhat more of a "cartoony" style reminiscent of the Monkey Island series, meaning that the graphics aren't quite as realistic and impressive as other Wave games. The main plot sees the seven characters sailing the high seas in the middle of an island chain known as the Verdant Archipelago. They mostly operate as a band of Robin Hood-style thieves, robbing the rich ships that cruise between the islands, while also hunting for treasure on the deserted islands of the chain, occasionally stopping at a port of call to help out the locals or restock the ship. They're being pursued by a ruthless bounty hunter named Darkan (voiced by Miguel Ferrer), who operates a ship of his own, the fastest and most well armed ship in the archipelago. Darkan isn't exactly evil, per se, but he is relentless in his hunt for glory, and there's little he won't do to track Erick and his crew down. Much of the game is spent evading Darkan and his crew, while helping the locals of the archipelago and fighting the occasional sea creature. The player's actions during the first two thirds of the game determine which of the seven protagonists will be the one to confront Darkan, after he captures the other members of the crew, forcing the last remaining person to raid a massive dungeon tower in search of the other six pirates (part of which is a fairly annoying stealth mission). After escaping the dungeon, events lead to one final confrontation with Darkan aboard his ship, and then a scene where the crew must team up with Darkan to fight off a fleet of ships led by the cruel governor of the archipelago. Darkan has a chance to betray the pirates here, but instead decides to let them leave the archipelago while he and his crew go off to hunt other bounties (he, like James in The Victorian Legacy, will return in a future game). The pirates enjoy their victory, and ride off into the sunset across the beautiful ocean.

Hoist The Colors gets a somewhat mixed reception upon its release, and is almost universally considered the worst of the first four Tales Of The Seven Seas titles. While the combat system is solid and many fans welcome the series' return to its roots, the somewhat repetitive missions, the seemingly backward direction in character development, and the cartoony art style turn off fans who enjoyed the strong characterization and plot twists of the first three games. It's generally a positively received title, but definitely somewhat of a disappointment. As for sales, the game would release in June 2004, a few weeks before the release of Donkey Kong And Battletoads, and the disappointing reviews scare off a lot of buyers, even young ones. While the game would be a financial success, it drops significantly in sales from The Victorian Legacy, and leads Naughty Dog to seriously re-think the direction of the series.

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Alex Stansfield: And that'll just about wrap things up for Judgment Day.

Victor Lucas: That's right, hope you enjoyed all the games we showed off and hopefully you got all the information you need to know which games you should play next.

Alex: And before we go, I do have an announcement to make, this will be my last episode of the show. I'm leaving to pursue some other endeavors, so Judgment Day will be taking a break for a while so that they can find someone else for Victor to argue with every week.

Victor: Hey, it won't be the same without you, buddy, but good luck with your next project and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of you down the road.

Alex: I've had a lot of fun doing this show with you, and hey, I have a feeling these won't be the last games I give my two cents on. So thanks again to all the viewers and Victor will still be here when the show comes back, hopefully very soon.

-from the June 21, 2004 episode of G4's Judgment Day

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"Hey guys, this is Alex Stansfield here and I just want to welcome all of you to my brand new website, Gamesovermatter.com. What's Games Over Matter? Well, this website is all about video games. There's a lot of video game websites out there, but this one cuts right through the crap and all we're gonna be talking about is games. We'll have old games, we'll talk about the latest releases, and we'll have exclusive scoops on some of the amazing new games coming out over the next few months and indeed, years. I'm hoping to make this your one stop shop for gaming information, as you can see on the left side of the screen, the Games Over Matter database already has tons of info on your favorite retro classics, including reviews and strategy tips, and we'll be adding more of those every single day. I've got an awesome team here, including my beautiful fiancee, Melissa Nakajima, who some of you might remember from IGN, and we're going to be bringing you tons of gaming info, we'll be constantly updating this website and this really is the start of a new era in video games on the internet. So welcome, everyone to Games Over Matter, and stay tuned."
-the introduction video posted on Gamesovermatter.com on July 11, 2004

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Naughty Dog's upcoming adventure title X-Plore is a big leap forward for the company, which previously has produced mostly kid friendly games featuring mascot platformers and over the top adventure heroes. While Tales Of The Seven Seas: The Victorian Legacy was the company's attempt to make a more mature, character-based title, that game was somewhat of a flop from a sales perspective. Now, with X-Plore, they're taking another shot at more well developed characters with realistic motivations, while also making a game with fantastical elements and even some science fiction tropes.

In X-Plore, four college students taking pictures for a magazine are caught up in an extraterrestrial event when the island they're exploring is suddenly engulfed by the awakening of an alien craft buried deep below the Earth's surface. The company's E3 trailer didn't show much else, but in the exclusive look that we got of the game, a bit more was revealed: the awakening of the craft prompts the sands around the young students to transform into glowing purple creatures that can move and attack. These creatures, manifestations of the alien craft's will, provide a difficult but instructive opening challenge for players once they finally gain control. However, these students aren't skilled fighters, and there isn't much they can do besides defend themselves and run as the sand continues to spawn more of these strange beasts.

"The entire island is sort of this ancient alien burial ground," said Mark Cerny, the game's lead developer, "and these four kids have to work together to find the places on the island where they can access the ship and possibly disable it before the island itself overwhelms them."

As noted in the game's title, exploration is a big part of X-Plore, and players will have to use their brains to advance within the game.

"There are these little puzzles scattered about for the players to solve, and by solving them, you'll learn more about these aliens and maybe even get the chance to fight them later on."

When I asked if the entire game would take place on just this one island, Cerny was unable to answer, but it's implied that the four students may find themselves in at least one more location, and that this island may be just the tip of the iceberg. He also said that these four students will really bond over the course of the adventure, and that they'll have to rely on each other to make it out alive. I asked Cerny if this meant that there might be a four-person multiplayer mode, and once again, he was unable to say.

-from an article posted on Gamesovermatter.com on July 12, 2004

 

[Pyro]

With the conclusions of The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix trilogies, there was only one film on the fandom’s minds going into 2004: Justice League. Most of DC and Warner Bros’ aspirations led to the film with the surprise appearance of Darkseid in 2000’s Wonder Woman and cameos from league members at Superman’s funeral in Man of Steel the following year. Warner Bros. spent those four years crafting a cohesive theatrical universe that had never been attempted at that time. While the announcement that James Cameron would direct the film energized the fans, the road to Justice League would be far from a smooth one.

The first conundrum would be that casting of Batman. It was clear that Val Kilmer was uninterested in returning to the role. While the studio approached Leonardo DiCaprio, who cameoed as Batman in Man of Steel, he made it clear that it was a one-time deal. So the search was on. Ben Affleck lobbied hard for the role and was the frontrunner for months. Other names bandied about were Keanu Reeves and a relative unknown called Hugh Jackman, but neither had the star power WB wanted for the role. It seemed that Affleck was a shoe-in for the role, however, negotiations collapsed and the studio cast Karl Urban (Eomer in The Two Towers and Return of the King) in the role.

The casting of the Martian Manhunter was a less exciting affair. Keith David, whom many children of the nineties would recognize as the voice of Goliath from Gargoyles, handily won the role. while WB floated the idea of using a combination of motion capture and CGI ala Gollum, Cameron rejected the idea and insisted on prostheses and makeup to make J’onn J’onzz come to life. For this, Cameron brought on multiple-Academy Award winner and frequent collaborator, Stan Winston onboard to supervise the film’s special effects.

That only left the antagonist for the film. While the Wonder Woman films and Green Lantern 3 foreshadowed the involvement of the New Gods in the burgeoning DC Expanded Multiverse, both Cameron and the studio felt that it was best to keep them in the background. Thus Cameron looked to the League’s comic book canon and chose one of its oldest enemies: Despero.

It was the cover to 1990’s Justice League America #39 where the villain wore the tattered flag of the United Nations as a cape that inspired Cameron, and indeed one of the most icon scenes in the film, to choose Despero. Idris Elba (then famous for the role of Russell “Stringer” Bell of The Wire), who had auditioned for the Martian Manhunter role, but the studio instead cast him as Despero. Much like the Manhunter, the studio would use practical effects to bring the alien tyrant to life. However, the studio kept Elba’s role a guarded secret to build anticipation for the film.

While excitement for the film grew, it also suffered many setbacks. The largest of which would when LAPD arrested the Justice League’s Superman, Wes Bentley after a near-fatal automobile accident late in the film’s production. While Bentley himself suffered minor injuries, the driver and passenger of the vehicle he collided with ended up hospitalized. Authorities would later disclose that Bentley had been under the influence of alcohol and charged him with DUI.

This proved to be a scandal for Warner Bros. with the polished image of the Man of Steel now tarnished. Though the courts did release Bentley on bail, the studio force him to go into rehabilitation before he would allowed to return to the set. More rumours of the film’s troubled production came to the fore as allegations that Cameron’s legendary perfectionism and temper pushed Bentley (who had been struggling with his meteoric rise to fame) farther into addiction and discord between the actors and director on the set fuelled the fire. Frustrated by the scrutiny he now faced and delays in production, James Cameron famously stormed off the set and never returned.

Between Bentley’s legal troubles and Cameron’s departure, a desperate Warner Bros. turned George Miller to see the film through production. Meanwhile, Bentley would find an advocate in former Superman, Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams, whose own struggle with addiction was well-documented. As Bentley would say in his recent autobiography, he was about to leave the role in shame when Reeve talked him out of it by insisting that role meant something bigger than himself. Williams would become something of a sponsor, whose humour and heart helped the younger actor through that dark period of his life.

With the project in crisis, the cast rallied behind Bentley upon his return to the production, and other DCEM creators like Sam Raimi and JJ Abrams also pitched in to see that Justice League would make its June 30 release date. Warner Bros likewise doubled down on its marketing to combat the bad press by aggressively pushing the “Heroes United” campaign, including a Justice League/Unlimited marathon on Cartoon Network, to stoke fan excitement for the film. Regardless of the films production troubles, the culmination of six years of world-building made Justice League the most anticipated films of its day with not only the studio’s archrival Fox/Marvel watching, but also Sony, who had several Valiant projects in its pipeline, as well as Disney.

The film begins with a daring escape scene with the imprisoned “manhunter” fighting his way through a starship on the outskirts of the Vega System. Though his face remain in shadow for the entire sequence, it is obvious from his shifting form as well as his ability to turn invisible that it is J’onn J’onnz. Using his Martian abilities to evade or subdue his pursuers, he makes his way to the hangar where he steals one of the fighter craft and blows a hole through the hull and makes his escape. Unfortunately, the craft takes a hit before it makes its jump into hyperspace and crash lands in the California desert.

A weakened J’onn emerges from the fiery wreckage to give a warning to a pair of onlookers, “Prepare yourselves. He is coming.” However, the spectators reveal themselves as agents of the Department of Extranormal Operations, who then subdue and capture him.

The story jumps ahead six months later to Central City, where the Flash is facing off against Mirror Master (the Evan McCulloch version of the character, played by David Tennant) who is using his light-based weaponry to steal highly experimental equipment from S.T.A.R. Labs. It starts as a typical confrontation with the Flash bantering with his foe, but just after the Scarlet Speedster disarms Mirror Master, the criminal’s eyes glow red and his voice changes to Keith David’s as he issues a familiar warning: “Prepare yourselves. He is coming!”

Mirror Master loses consciousness shortly thereafter, leaving the Flash confused. However, he is not the only criminal affected by this phenomena as Commissioner Gordon (Martin Sheen) summons Batman to Arkham Asylum to reveal that the voice had allow possessed several inmates. The scene is notable for Mark Hamill’s vocal cameo as the Joker who we can hear laughing and taunting Batman from behind a locked door. Batman hears the warning from a possessed Riddler (Cillian Murphy.) Gordon remarks that it has happened to criminals as far away as Metropolis, Star, Midway, and Central City. Deducing that these possessions are a telepathic “distress signal,” the Dark Knight says that he will need help. In a wink to the fans, Gordon asks if he is talking about Robin, referencing the Titans. Batman merely states that Robin is working with another team, and that he will need a assemble his own task force.

Meanwhile, the film establishes the other characters and where they are. On the Kent farm in rural Kansas, the film reveals that it takes place about a year after the Raimi Last Son trilogy end. Lois (Kate Beckinsale, replacing Dana Delany) knows his secret identity and they have been dating for a year. He reveals a ring his mother (Sally Field) and confides that he plans to ask Lois for her hand in marriage.

Aquaman, AKA Arthur Curry, AKA Orin of Atlantis, announces that he plans to open diplomatic relations with the surface world to his court. This proclamation displeases the isolationists, and though his brother, Orm (Gerard Butler) appears to support him, but is in fact conspiring with the isolationists to depose “the Half-Breed King.” Some want to stage a coup during Orin’s mission to the surface. Orm vetos that option and urges patience, which sets the pieces for the following year’s Aquaman film.

Wonder Woman likewise discusses Themyscira’s opening relations with Patriarch’s World with her mother and her work as ambassador. It is only after she leaves that Cybil, the Amazon’s oracle, arrives with foreboding news for Hippolyta. She had a vision of an apocalyptic battle with Diana lifeless body cradled in Superman’s arms. The news haunts the Queen of the Amazons who fears that her decision to name her daughter ambassador may have doomed her.

That leaves the Green Lanterns. The Green Lantern Corps is recruiting and rebuilding after the battle with Sinestro’s soldiers in Green Lantern 3. Ganthet (John Hurt, replacing the late Richard Harris) reveals the state of the galaxy. After the fall of the Corps, several organizations like L.E.G.I.O.N. and the Darkstars rose to fill the vacuum. Among them were freelance “manhunters” and one of them, a Martian named J’onn J’onnz went missing and may have crashed on Earth with crucial information. Ganthet charges John Stewart and Kyle Rayner with rescuing him.

Hence the plot follows two tracks: the Martian Manhunter rescue and the Invasion. The former primarily involves Batman and the Flash with the Green Lanterns joining in later. This sub-plot plays up to Batman’s strengths as a detective and Flash’s strengths as a CSI. The most notable scene being Batman’s confrontation with Barry Allen and the revelation that he knows that he is the Flash. Despite Barry’s denials, Batman proves his point when he throws a batarang to prove his point and Barry reflexively dodges.

BARRY: All right! You got me! But why come to me? Doesn’t the Batman work alone?

BATMAN: Because we have more in common than you think, Mr. Allen.

BARRY: What are you talking about?

(Batman pulls back the cowl to reveal his identity to a shocked and confused Barry)​

BARRY: B-B-ruce Wayne? The billionaire playboy? You’re Batman?

BRUCE: You and I share a similar pain, Barry. I watched a criminal murder my parents when I was eight years old. Eobard Thawne AKA John Doe murdered your mother when you were ten and framed your father for the crime. We pursue the same goal and you are one of the few I can trust with this secret.

Karl Urban deserves a great deal of praise for his portrayal of Bruce Wayne, who had moved on from “tortured vigilante” phase to a driven, but more rounded portrayal akin to the Bronze Age incarnation. Batman and the Flash become like a buddy cop film with Batman’s more ruthless tactics contrasting with Flash’s straight-laced and easygoing personality.

Meanwhile, the Invasion plot takes place in Metropolis as Atlantis and Themyscira are inducted into the World Assembly when an ominous shadow looms over several landmarks including the Statue of Progress (standing in for the Statue of Liberty) and the Daily Planet building. A large spacecraft parks itself over the city. A towering figure beams down to the front steps of the World Assembly. Most fans assumed that the figure was Darkseid, but then the pans out to reveal that is, in fact, Despero who has come to issue his ultimatum to the world’s leaders.

Superman sees it on television and races to Metropolis to confront the invader, as do Aquaman and Wonder Woman, who were both present at the ceremony when he storms the hall and takes the General Secretary hostage. The Man of Steel takes point and demands an explanation. Despero makes his demands clear: hand over to the Martian, or he will incinerate the planet. Despite Secretary General’s claims of innocence, Despero attempts to crush him when Superman intervenes by punching him through the walls.

A battle breaks out on the streets of Metropolis where Despero proves to be the Man of Steel’s equal in strength and durability. Things appear to be in the heroes favour when Aquaman and Wonder Woman join the fray. But then Despero opens his third eye and reveals his telepathic abilities, which he uses to mind control Superman and turn him against the others. Neither the King of Atlantis nor the Amazon Princess are a match for the Man of Steel. Despite their bravery, both fall to Superman’s physical might and then Despero’s telepathy. With three of Earth’s greatest heroes under his control, the alien tyrant holds the World Assembly and many of the world’s leaders hostage.

The Green Lanterns serve as tertiary story thread and the connective tissue between the other two. Of note is the bar scene where Kyle and John play good cop/bad cop with an informant: the “retired” space pirate Kanjar Ro (Kurtwood Smith.) Eagle-eyed viewers can spot Lobo as well as some obscure space characters like Space Cabbie and Ultra the Multi-Alien in the background. Kanjar Ro reveals that Despero was the despot of the planet Kalanor until a rebellion ousted him from power. The reason why he pursued the Martian Manhunter was because the Martians discovered a power so fearsome, it destroyed their civilization. The secret of Anti-Life. When pressed on what Anti-Life is, Kanjar-Ro doesn’t know but learned that Despero was headed to Earth.

The Lanterns’ confrontation with Despero goes as well as one could expect. With the combined might of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman augmenting his own, Despero forces the Emerald Gladiators into a tactical retreat who then instead focus their efforts on locating J’onn J’onzz.

This is where their plots dovetail. Batman and the Flash infiltrate a DEO complex not too dissimilar to Area 51 in a sequence reminiscent of the Mission Impossible films. At this point in the film they are aware of events in Metropolis, but focus on freeing a weakened J’onn. Unfortunately the DEO are aware of their presence and the three escape the building as it goes under lockdown. They managed to make it out, but find themselves facing an armoured division barring their way off the grounds. However, the arrival of the Green Lanterns allows for their escape.

J’onn thanks them for their assistance, but is horrified to learn that Despero has taken the planet hostage. Despero uses his telepathy to force the President of the United States to prepare a nuclear first-strike on Russia if J’onn doesn’t surrender himself. Though he is prepared to, John Stewart tells him that “Earthlings don’t negotiate with tyrants.” And thus with Batman’s strategic prowess formulate a plan to bring down Despero.

What follows is one of the most visually impressive fights in superhero cinema as the fledgling alliance of heroes take the fight to the invader. The highlight of which was the showdown between Batman and the mind-controlled Superman. Some cynical observers claim that it was designed to sell toys as Batman uses a “Bat-Tank” and a new incarnation of the Bat-Plane in a battle vaguely reminiscent of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. However, it excited far more fans who wanted a showdown between the two. Batman’s attacks can only annoy Superman at best, but it was all a feint to lure him towards the Daily Planet. Once there, the Dark Knight abducts Lois Lane and throws her off the top of the building to force Superman back to his senses.

His gambit works as Superman breaks free of Despero’s control and rescues her, though he is enraged at Batman for putting her in danger. Meanwhile, Flash steals Wonder Woman’s lasso while she battles Kyle Rayner and J’onn and uses it to free the Amazon and Aquaman. Enraged with the loss of his pawns, Despero forces the President to launch the missiles, forcing Superman and the Green Lanterns to intercept them in the upper atmosphere. Meanwhile, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman engage Despero in physical combat while J’onn fights him via telepathy. Forced to fight on two fronts, the battle burns out Despero’s mind and leaves him a mental vegetable.

After the dust settles and Despero’s troops flee, the DEO takes Despero’s inert body away for study. CCH Pounder makes another appearance as Amanda Waller, who confronts Batman over who has “custody” of J’onn J’onnz. Batman “kindly” reminds her that it would make the DEO look like fools if they detain someone who was instrumental in saving the planet. Flash suggests to his fellow heroes that that band together as, “some sort of legion of superheroes.” (Something of a hint at the future Legion film. Superman declines, citing his responsibility to Metropolis, but his body language suggests that he refuses to work with Batman. Aquaman similarly says no because of his duties as King and Wonder Woman as well. The Green Lanterns have a corps to help rebuild and J’onn agrees to head to Oa with them. The heroes go their separate ways, leaving Batman and a dejected Flash. However, Batman comforts Barry and assure him of the possibility that a bigger threat will force them to band together.

In the wake of recent events, Superman proposes to Lois. Wonder Woman returns to Themyscira to notice a subtle change in her mother’s behaviour though Hippolyta remains evasive as to why. Aquaman returns to Atlantis, unaware of the political intrigue, and the Lanterns escort J’onn to the newly-rebuilt Citadel on Oa for a private audience with Ganthet. It is evident that the two are familiar with each other; they discuss the Anti-Life Equation and J’onn confirms Ganthet’s worst fears. A shadowy force is collecting the pieces of it and that the last piece is on Earth. J’onn informs Ganthet that he plans to return to Earth and work to reunite the eight when the time comes.

As with most DCEM movies, there is an extra scene at the end of the film. The post-credits scene takes place on an “unknown” world where Desaad (Brent Spiner) informs his master that his forces found another piece of the Anti-Life Equation and only one more remains. However, Earth exists outside Apokolips’ sphere of influence as mandated by his pact with Highfather. In this scene we see the silhouetted figures of Darkseid’s court like Kalibak, the Female Furies, and Steppenwolf. Darkseid nevertheless appears undaunted and tells Desaad that he need not concern himself with Highfather and that all is going according to plan.

Justice League rose above its production troubles to become the smash hit of 2004. The film earned $175 million in its first five days ($105M from Friday to Sunday) with a domestic total of $440 million and just over $1 billion worldwide. It generally received good reviews with the negative ones focusing on the editing, which likely stemmed from the post-production problems. Meanwhile, it enjoyed massive popularity among the fans who still consider it the best superhero flick to this date.

It also marked the end of an era for some. Catherine Zeta-Jones announced that she would be vacating the Wonder Woman role to pursue other projects. That did not stop Warner Bros from greenlighting a third Wonder Woman film (based on the 1994 storyline, “The Contest.”) Despite her departure, Justice League’s success emboldened the seemingly unstoppable DC/WB juggernaut to also greenlight films based on lesser-known properties like Lobo and a Blue Beetle/Booster Gold buddy comedy. Warner Bros. Even Suicide Squad had received a riotous applause and a standing ovation upon its announcement at San Deigo Comic Con that July.

In the end, Justice League signaled a seismic shift in the cinematic landscape with several studios wanting their piece of the superhero pie. Fox had Captain America: War of the Patriots and Incredible Hulk in the pipeline that year while Sony prepared its superhero debut with the World’s Worst Superhero Team: Quantum and Woody. Even the house Mickey Mouse built was exploring its options with Gen 13 or WildC.A.T.s though nothing had been set in stone yet. Ultimately the popularity of Justice League sent all of the major studios into a feeding frenzy for any comic book property they could get their hands on. Whether this was the beginning of a new era for superheroes in Hollywood or just a flash in the pan would be determined as the DCEM entered its second stage.

-Tales From The Superhero Wars, sequentialhistory.net, October 7, 2010

 

[rick007]

The Amazing Race: Season 5: Broken Ox Sold Separately.

Like I said last time, the show was barely renewed for a fifth season, with many saying that it was only because the show won an Emmy that it was renewed. However, it was renewed. And it would have another summer premiere, but not for the reason you might think. CBS did flirt with the idea of having a fall premiere, changing it to summer so that they can use the momentum for season six in the fall should CBS renew, which they did.

However, there were some changes. First, removing the Fast Forward from every leg. What use was there having a one use task that no one else can do that might not get used at all? Fans were understandably upset about not seeing the Fast Forward every leg, while it was also understandable why it had to be done. Next was the introduction of the Yield. This allowed one team to stop another team in their tracks for a specific length of time. Like the Fast Forward, the team that uses it can only do so once. A lot of fans hate the Yield as a dirty tactic, but I hate it because the teams don't do anything during the time they stop except stew. Finally, there is the penalty for coming in last on a non-elimination leg. In the previous four seasons nothing happens. Starting in this season and going to about season eight, teams were stripped of all cash and weren't given anymore the next leg. This is just plain stupid, especially in the really poor countries.

The show went back to having eleven teams on the show. Casting took place in late 2003 with filming taking place in January and February 2004.

The Cast

Chip and Kim: African-American husband and wife team. They are probably one of the most enthusiastic and generous teams to ever run the race. Though that generosity nearly costs them.

Bob and Joyce: Older dating couple (Bob was in his early 60s and Joyce in her mid 50s when this was taped) who met online after losing their previous partners. They manage to do well early on.

Dennis and Erika: Formerly engaged couple who called it off after she skydived naked with her instructor. Yes, really. While they weren't a couple going into this season, they seemed to have a good working relationship and maybe a rekindling of the relationship (Spoiler alert: it doesn't happen, as far as I know).

Colin and Christie: Dating couple. Christie is a former Miss Teen USA from Texas and Colin is one of the most intense contestants this show has ever had.

Jim and Marsha: Father and daughter team who made it far in spite of Jim being injured at the Starting Line.

Charla and Mirna: Cousins who immigrated to America from Syria when they were babies. Charla is an achondroplastic Dwarf but that doesn't stop her. In fact, she does all the heavy lifting on the team.

Marshall and Lance: Brothers who's feud with Charla and Mirna was a subplot of the early episodes of this season.

Kami and Karli: Twin sisters whose tendency to go off in the wrong direction provides some humour in the race.

Linda and Karen: Friends who seem like cannon fodder but are one of the best.

Brandon and Nicole: Dating models who seem to really do love each other. Nicole is also a former Miss Texas.

Alison and Donny: Dating and I use that term loosely. Alison was the runner up on Big Brother 4 and I suspect that both her and Donny were foisted onto the producers by CBS in order to bring in more ratings.

The Race

Leg #1: "I thought I was smarter than that."

Original Air Date: July 6th, 2004.

Starting at the Santa Monica Pier in California, where, in the rush to get the first clue of the season, there are some injuries, including Jim (of and Marsha) getting stitches at the airport. Teams, after getting $200, first have to go to Montevideo, Uruguay where they have to find the Hand in the Sand, a giant sculpture of a hand on Punta del Este, that's a monument to drowning victims. Once there teams have to go to Goritti Island, where teams have to spend the night, leaving the next day at 8:00 A.M., 8:30 A.M. or 9:00 A.M.

Once back on the mainland, teams get their next clue at the dock. Teams then have to go to a meat warehouse in Maldonado and then carry an entire side of beef half a mile to a butcher shop. I think that this is supposed to be the Roadblock as only one team member is carrying the side of beef, but they don't say in the show itself. Anyway, teams then have to go across the street from the Conrad Hotel (though the show calls it the Blue and White Hotel) where teams find the Detour: Zips or Chips. In Zips, teams go to the top of the hotel, pull themselves across a line between the hotels two towers, then ride a zip line into the pool. In Chips, teams play roulette in the hotel's casino with twenty chips. If teams lose at Chips, they'll have to do Zips anyway. After that it's off to the Pit Stop: Casa Pueblo.

1. Chip and Kim 12:45 P.M. Won a trip for two to Hawaii

2. Linda and Karen 12:48 P.M.

3. Brandon and Nicole 12:52 P.M.

4. Bob and Joyce 1:01 P.M.

5. Charla and Mirna 1:05 P.M.

6. Colin and Christie 1:11 P.M.

7. Dennis and Erika 1:20 P.M.

8. Kami and Karli 1:21 P.M.

9. Marshall and Lance 1:25 P.M.

10. Jim and Marsha 1:29 P.M.

11. Alison and Donny 1:37 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #2: "Can I have another group?"

Original Air Date: July 13th, 2004.

Getting $136 teams have to go to Montevideo and find the Shake Mega Disco, where they have to search the foam covered dance floor for inflated balls that look like globes. Some have clues in them, others don't. Then teams have to drive 100 miles and catch a ferry to Buenos Aires. Once there teams have to search for the grave of Eva Peron. There teams find the Detour: Tango or Perro. In Tango, teams go one and a half miles to a darkened tango theatre and look among similarly dressed men for the one they are given a picture of. In Perro, teams walk a group of dogs, located right outside the cemetery gate where the clue box is, past three checkpoints one mile to the statue La Flor.

Either way teams have to travel by bus or taxi 70 miles to La Invernada. At this traditional Argentine ranch is where teams find the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to go into the corral and get one of the kerchiefs the cows wear. It's a traditional Argentine sport called ribbon roping. Then teams have to ride in a wagon to the Pit Stop at the ranch house.

1. Brandon and Nicole 11:49 A.M.

2. Chip and Kim 11:50 A.M.

3. Linda and Karen 12:15 P.M.

4. Jim and Marsha 12:20 P.M.

5. Bob and Joyce 12:28 P.M.

6. Colin and Christie 12:30 P.M.

7. Charla and Mirna 12:35 P.M.

8. Marshall and Lance 12:45 P.M.

9. Dennis and Erika 1:05 P.M.

10. Kami and Karli 1:13 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #3: "After a while, it gets disgusting."

Original Air Date: July 20, 2004.

Receiving $11, teams must fly to San Carlos de Bariloche, in Patagonia, go to the town hall and get their next clue from the mayor. From there teams have to go two blocks to the Del Turisto chocolate factory. This is where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to go up to a table with almost 11,000 chocolates to find one of 20 with a white center.

Then teams have to go to Villa Catedral. Here teams find the Detour: Smooth Sailing or Rough Riding. In Smooth Sailing, teams tandem paraglide with an instructor 5,000 ft. In Rough Riding, teams mountain bike down the same mountain as the paragliding six miles. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: A tiny island a few steps from Bahia Lopez.

1. Colin and Christie 3:12 P.M.

2. Brandon and Nicole 3:22 P.M.

3. Charla and Mirna 3:23 P.M.

4. Dennis and Erika 3:59 P.M.

5. Chip and Kim 4:02 P.M.

6. Bob and Joyce 4:05 P.M.

7. Linda and Karen 5:15 P.M.

8. Jim and Marsha 5:30 P.M.

9. Marshall and Lance 5:35 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #4: "Spit in a bowl"

Original Air Date: July 27, 2004.

Getting $241, teams have to go to Buenos Aires by bus then fly to St. Petersburg, Russia. There teams have to find the Battleship Aurora. That is where teams find the Detour: Block Five Shots or Drink One Shot. In Block Five Shots, teams have to go to a hockey arena, put on goalie equipment, get into the goal and block five slap shots. In Drink One Shot, teams have to go to the Anichkov Palace and drink a shot of vodka off a sabre.

After that, teams head to The Bronze Horseman, a monument to Peter the Great. Teams then have to go to the Tower Restaurant in the town of Pushkin where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to eat 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of caviar. Then it's just a sleigh ride to the Pit Stop: Catherine's Palace.

1. Chip and Kim 9:10 P.M.

2. Colin and Christie 9:30 P.M.

3. Dennis and Erika 9:45 P.M.

4. Jim and Marsha 10:00 P.M.

5. Charla and Mirna 10:13 P.M.

6. Brandon and Nicole 11:30 P.M.

7. Linda and Karen 12:10 A.M.

8. Bob and Joyce 4:12 A.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #5: "Breathe it in."

Original Air Date: August 3, 2004.

With $123 in hand, teams are told to go to Milan, Italy. Once there, they have to go to the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II and search for bus tickets leaving the next morning at 2:00 A.M. 4:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M. These tickets are hidden somewhere in the gallery. The buses take the teams to the Church of St. Fillipo and Giacomo, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to go into the church and put lacquer onto a wooden bust.

After that, teams have to go up the mountain, Cinque Torri, which requires a ski lift. At the top is the Detour: Search or Rescue. In Search, teams have to search a 160-acre snow field with a hand held locator. This leads teams to the keys to a snowmobile that can take them to their next clue. In Rescue, teams climb a slope, cross an alpine rescue bridge made of four steel cables and then ride a 250 meter zip line. Then teams go to the Pit Stop: The Hotel Lajadira.

1. Colin and Christie 11:16 A.M.

2. Jim and Marsha 11:29 A.M.

3. Dennis and Erika 12:43 P.M.

4. Charla and Mirna 12:59 P.M.

5. Chip and Kim 1:03 P.M.

6. Brandon and Nicole 1:11 P.M.

7. Linda and Karen 1:19 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/BANKRUPTED.

Leg #6: "I am SO confused right now."

Original Air Date: August 10, 2004.

Everyone except Linda and Karen gets $65 for this leg. Teams are told to go to the Trampolino Olimpico where everyone has to participate in snow rafting to get to the bottom. It's exactly as it sounds. Then everyone is told to go to a bridge in Venice, called the Ponte della Guglia by train. There teams find the Detour: Waterways or Pathways. In Waterways, teams must navigate a gondola using a map, but can't ask for directions from locals. In Pathways, teams go by foot, but can ask for directions. Both sides of the Detour go to the Campo Querini Stampalia.

From there teams have to go to the Palazzo da Mosto, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, teams have to search a dark theatre for someone wearing one of four masks using a photo. Only three racers are allowed in at a time and anyone who get a wrong guess goes to the back of the line. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: A ship called the Citta di Padova.

1. Colin and Christie 5:35 P.M. Won a trip to Mexico

2. Chip and Kim 5:55 P.M.

3. Charla and Mirna 6:27 P.M.

4. Brandon and Nicole 6:46 P.M.

5. Linda and Karen 7:01 P.M.

6. Dennis and Erika 7:18 P.M.

7. Jim and Marsha 7:30 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #7: "This isn't safe."

Original Air Date: August 17, 2004.

Receiving $75, teams are told to go to Nairobi, Kenya, where they have to sign up for a flight (at either 8:00 A.M., 8:45 A.M. or 9:30 A.M.) to a "mystery destination". It turns out that it is Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Then teams have to travel by bus to Mto Wa Bu where they find the Detour: Buzzing or Busy. In Buzzing, teams have to harvest 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of honey. In Busy, teams have to deliver two wooden chairs to a house in town, with each team getting a different address.

Then teams have to go to the Kavishe Hotel in the nearby town of Kibaoni. Here teams find the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, in a throwback to season 1, one team member has to cook and eat part of an ostrich egg. Then teams walk, and zip line, to the Pit Stop: Lake Manyara Lookout.

1. Chip and Kim 2:40 P.M. Won a vacation to Latin America

2. Colin and Christie 2:58 P.M.

3. Brandon and Nicole 3:03 P.M.

4. Linda and Karen 3:08 P.M.

5. Dennis and Erika 3:10 P.M.

6. Charla and Mirna 3:15 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #8: "If Mirna could see this."

Original Air Date: August 24, 2004.

Receiving $200, teams are to go back to Kilimanjaro airport, get back to Nairobi and then get to Kiz Kulesi in Istanbul, Turkey. During this, Colin and Christie's cab gets a flat and, as a result, Colin refuses to pay the cabbie. Long story short, Colin does eventually pay but only after getting the police involved and nearly going to jail. Anyway, once at Kiz Kulesi, teams have to find a box with their clue in it. It tells them to go to the top of Galata Kulesi. This is where teams find the Detour: Kilos or Columns.

In Kilos, teams have to go to the Yeni Mosque and find a man with scales. Using the scales, teams have to get a total of 2,500 kilos (5,500 lbs) by weight passersby. In Columns, teams have to go to the Binbirdirek Cistern and find four columns using a map with coordinates. The columns have numbers on them that will unlock a padlocked box. The next clue leads teams to Rumeli Hisari where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to scale a wall of Halil Pasa Kulesi, get a key from the top of a nearby tower, then rappelled down the other side, and opened a book with the key. Then a guard will open a door for the other team member and they both run to the Pit Stop: Inside the fort.

1. Colin and Christie 10:48 A.M. Won a vacation to the Caribbean.

2. Brandon and Nicole 11:09 A.M.

3. Chip and Kim 11:24 A.M.

4. Linda and Karen 11:40 A.M.

5. Dennis and Erika 12:01 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/BANKRUPTED.

Leg #9: "This may be our only chance."

Original Air Date: August 31, 2004.

While Dennis and Erika beg for money, the other teams get $55. Teams are then told to go to the Waterplanet Aquapark and get a number for the Kamikaze Water Slide. At the bottom of the slide, is a clue telling teams to head to Sahid Minar in Kolkata, India. There teams have can go to the Globe Brickworks or take the Fast Forward at a Hindu Temple. Both Dennis and Erika and Brandon and Nicole go for it, though once Brandon and Nicole learn that involves having their heads shaved they go to the Brickworks.

There teams run into the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to make 20 mud bricks, by hand, properly. Then it's off to the Sealdah Station where they pick up the Detour: Heavy but Short or Light but Long. In Heavy but Short, teams have to take a taxi themselves to Panditji's Garage. Since there is no engine in them (something the teams are not told), teams have to push them. In Light but Long, teams have to go to a particular flower vendor, buy a garland and then throw it into the Ganges for good luck. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: The Victoria Memorial.

1. Dennis and Erika 1:14 P.M. Won a vacation to Mexico.

2. Colin and Christie 2:30 P.M.

3. Chip and Kim 2:35 P.M.

4. Linda and Karen 3:24 P.M.

5. Brandon and Nicole 6:00 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/BANKRUPTED.

Leg #10: "Worst. Hot spring. Ever."

Original Air Date: September 7, 2004.

All the teams, except Brandon and Nicole, get $45. This leg teams are told to fly to Auckland, New Zealand and then drive themselves to Rotorua where they'll find the Rotorua Museum and the Detour: Clean or Dirty. In Clean, teams go to a white water rafting course and, with expert guidance, ride a sledge down the course. In Dirty, teams have to go to a place called Hell's Gate and search the hot, bubbling mud for their next clue.

After that, teams have to go to Matapara Farms, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to inflate a big inflatable ball called a zorb, get in roll down a hill, then roll over the "finish line." After they get out, they and their partner can walk to the Pit Stop.

1. Colin and Christie 4:55 P.M. Won a trip to Europe.

2. Dennis and Erika 5:01 P.M.

3. Chip and Kim 6:07 P.M.

4. Linda and Karen 6:15 P.M.

5. Brandon and Nicole 7:03 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #11: "My Ox is Broken!"

Original Air Date: September 14, 2004.

Getting $140, teams are told to go to the Westhaven Marina in Auckland Harbour. Teams have to ratchet down their next clue which is the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to get in a boat (their teammate is in the boat with them), use a rope ladder to climb to the girders under the bridge, walk across a set of girders, get their clue then free rappel down. The clue tells teams to fly to Manila, The Philippines. Once there teams have to go to Malaguena Motors, where a Yield is.

It is here that Chip and Kim Yield Colin and Christie, the latter team getting a bad taxi. The actual task is to put decorations on a local bus-like vehicle known as a jeepney. Once that is done, teams have to get driven in the jeepney to Victoria, specifically to a field behind the statue of a giant duck. It here that teams find the Detour: Plow or Fowl. In Plow, teams have to drive an ox drawn plow through a muddy field until they find the clue. In Fowl, teams have to herd 1,000 ducks from one pen to another. This is where we get one of the most famous lines of the franchise (after "That's Namibia, Jackass", "Swing, you fat bastard, swing!" "We're coming, Phil!" and "It's on like Donkey Kong!"), when Colin says, after spending a long time trying to get an unruly ox under control, "My Ox is Broken." Then it's off to the Pit Stop: The Coconut Palace.

1. Chip and Kim 3:40 P.M. Won a Hawaiian vacation.

2. Dennis and Erika 3:49 P.M.

3. Linda and Karen 3:56 P.M.

4. Colin and Christie 4:00 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/BANKRUPTED.

Leg #12: "I'm a millionaire now!" Part I

Original Air Date: September 21, 2004.

All teams, except Colin and Christie, get $17 for this leg of the race. Teams are told to go to Luneta Park, where teams are told to get one of two charter flights to El Nido Island, one at 10:45 A.M., the other at 11:30 A.M. Once there teams have to go to El Nido Pier and get in a boat. Once teams get to a certain location, they have to search three nearby islands for one that has a large Philippine flag on it (the other two islands have large flags of other countries. I believe they are Russia and South Africa).

The next task is believed to be one have of a Detour. But since the show never classifies it as such, I won't either. Anyway, teams now have to put on snorkeling equipment and diving to look for giant clams with their next clue in it. Then teams are told to go to Lagen Wall, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to climb a 150 foot limestone cliff using an ascender. Once that is done, teams can go around the island to the Pit Stop.

1. Dennis and Erika 3:15 P.M. Won a trip to the Caribbean.

2. Chip and Kim 3:35 P.M.

3. Colin and Christie 3:43 P.M.

4. Linda and Karen 3:50 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #13: "I'm a millionaire now!" Part II

Original Air Date: September 21, 2004.

Receiving $630, teams have to go to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. There they must take a taxi to Lookout Mountain, get a gondola to the top, then hike, 1,000 to the top of the Continental Divide. From there teams have to go to Calgary's Olympic Park, where teams find the Detour: Slide or Ride. In Slide, teams must luge down the Olympic course in under 34 seconds, the accepted time for amateurs. In Ride, teams mountain bike down a slalom course in under three minutes. In either case, if they fail teams have to go the back of any line and try again.

There was a Roadblock around now, involving building a tipi, but, since it didn't really affect placement, it wasn't shown. Teams then get the clue to their final destination city: Dallas, Texas. Colin tries to get a quick driver to take him around Dallas. And he succeeds, mostly. Anyway, once in Dallas, teams have to go to the Fort Worth Stockyards where they have to complete a maze, four times (to get keys to various locks at the front) to get the final clue. Then teams have to go to the Finish Line: Trammel Crow Park.

1. Chip and Kim WIN

2. Colin and Christie PLACE

3. Dennis and Erika SHOW

The Review

This season is held very high esteem amongst fans, myself included. In fact, it's my number one race, as of this writing. A lot of the changes were good, bankrupting teams who came in last place on non-elimination legs notwithstanding. Casting Allison and Donny was a mistake in my opinion, but I don't entirely blame the producers for that one.

Other than that, the challenges the teams faced started to be more challenging this season, though not nearly as challenging as on other later seasons. And this was the first season that an African-American team won. Though the only reason Chip and Kim won was because Colin and Christie's taxi got a flat on the way to the Finish Line.

This season also won the show its second Emmy just before the season finale aired. Like I said at the beginning of this article, this season premiered during the summer so that CBS could use the momentum to launch season six in the fall. It did as season six started three weeks after season five. For good and for ill.

-Globetrotting: An Amazing Race Blog by R. C. Anderson on the website Reality Rewind, October 3rd, 2016.

 

[RySenkari]

Rise A Knight II: Imperial Dawn

Rise A Knight II: Imperial Dawn is the sequel to 1999's hit WRPG Rise A Knight for the Ultra Nintendo. The original Rise A Knight was one of the first major WRPGs on console to become a hit, with nearly three million copies sold over the game's lifetime. The game wasn't a huge seller upon release, but reviews, word of mouth, and price drops would make the game an Ultra Nintendo staple, with most of the game's sales coming in North America and Europe. Like the original game, Rise A Knight II is developed by the company Vermilion Software and published by THQ. Rise A Knight II is a WRPG where the player is free to wander a large, open world. However, the game is a bit more structured than typical WRPGs: it has a defined protagonist whose appearance is not customizable, and has a bit more of a structured story than other WRPGs, with less side quests and more of an emphasis on decision making and stat optimization, making the game play somewhat more like an Ultima title than an Elder Scrolls title in terms of playstyle. The protagonist is Algon, who begins the game as a young peasant boy whose family tends the fields under the reign of a warlord. As often as he can, Algon goes to watch the lord's knights train, and secretly trains himself to become a great soldier. Throughout the game, the player interacts with various people, and the decisions the player makes will determine both Algon's alignment and the people with whom he allies. Meanwhile, Algon learns to fight, and depending on the player's actions, Algon will take on a distinct fighting style. There are 21 different combat "disciplines" in the game, and Algon can learn and master up to three at a time. Each discipline concerns a various style of fighting, though there are a few disciplines that revolve around magic or exotic weapons. There are also up to 21 "vocations" in the game, and Algon can again learn up to three: these vocations concern Algon's various people skills, whether they be physical labor jobs such as farming and blacksmithing, mental labor jobs such as bookkeeping and lawyering, or communication skills such as intimidation or seduction. Through the various combinations of vocations and disciplines, Algon can end up being a brave hero, a scheming trickster, a brutal conqueror, or any of dozens of combinations of character traits. The vocation and discipline system are new to the series, adding a major layer of gameplay to the fairly basic leveling systems of Rise A Knight, which had character relationships but little in the way of leveling a player's skills and playstyle. Once a vocation or discipline is mastered, it's locked in, but not completely set in stone: there are ways to change Algon's chosen attributes, but they're somewhat slow and involved: Algon can only change a discipline through intensive combat training, and can only change a vocation through many "out of character" interactions. The player is given fair warning before embarking on a decision that will lock in a vocation or discipline, so players are able to back out if they don't want Algon to go down that path. The combat itself, while slower than a typical hack and slash, is faster paced than that of the original game, with responsive controls, intuitive inputs, and the ability to counter enemy strikes. It's better than the combat in the Elder Scrolls series, but it's not the best combat in a WRPG game. It's more than good enough for most players, but it's not a huge part of the game. While there are defined boundaries for the player, exploration is still fairly extensive, certainly more so than the rather limited world of the original Rise A Knight. Usually, things to do are plentiful, and the player is free to go off the beaten path often, but the game does try to steer players toward Algon's story. However, the main story itself branches quite a bit for a WRPG depending on which path the player chooses to take, so there's enough freedom within the main quest to make up for the lesser number of sidequests. The production values of the game, including the graphics, music, and sound, are considered good for 2004, with cutscenes and in-game graphics slightly above the level of a typical open world console game, due to the increased main quest focus. It's not groundbreaking by any stretch, but the game looks good. The game does feature a strong cast of voice actors, with Steve Blum as the voice of adult Algon and other notable voice artists playing other major characters.

The game's main plot can largely be divided into four parts, with Part I being the shortest and Parts II, III, and IV of variable lengths depending on the path that the player takes through the game. Part I concerns Algon's early training, from a boy to a soldier to an army officer, which has the least amount of variance in terms of options available to the player, and is largely meant to establish the path that the player will take in terms of fighting style and combat disciplines. Usually, the player will master one discipline during the first part of the game. Part II concerns Algon's rise to becoming an emperor, which involves usurping the warlord of the realm. This can be done one of a number of ways, whether through assassination, through a military betrayal and conquest similar to the real life Julius Caesar, through becoming the ruler's advisor and then waiting him out until he dies of natural causes, or several other ways (but the three listed are the most common ways that players take the throne). Either way, Part II ends once Algon becomes dictator of the realm, and at this point, Algon can begin establishing his empire in Part III. In Part III, Algon unifies the kingdoms, and once again, there are any number of ways this can be done: by conquering one of five neighboring kingdoms, by rallying the kingdoms to unite peacefully, by using magic to brainwash the right people, by unifying the kingdoms via marriage, by becoming a hero and slaying a giant beast and becoming emperor via acclimation, there are ten main ways to transform Algon's kingdom into an empire: some quick and brutal, some long and arduous. There are also eight major love interests in the game, including a childhood friend of Algon's, the daughter of the former ruler of the realm, an evil wizardess, brides from four of the neighboring kingdoms, and finally, a young rebel woman who can eventually be convinced to accept Algon's rule. The wizardess can only be married in "evil" routes and the bride from the kingdom of Saracia can only be married in "good" routes, but the other six love interests can be married whether Algon is good or evil (though whether the bride themselves are good or evil also depends on Algon's choices, for the most part, a "good" Algon will have a "good" bride, except for the bride from the kingdom of Thraxar, who tends to be a scheming Lady Macbeth sort of character, while an "evil" Algon can either have an "evil" bride or a "good" bride who is essentially either Algon's love martyr or prisoner). Finally, Part IV largely deals with challenges to Algon's rule, either from outside the empire or from within. There are twelve different final challenges that Algon can face (Six different challenges for "heroic" Algon players, four different challenges for "evil" Algon players, and two different challenges for morally ambiguous Algon players). Which of these challenges Algon faces is determined at the start of Part IV and is based on internal values determined by the player's actions during the game. Even within these challenges, there are small little elements that can be affected by the choices that Algon has made. Each of these challenges has two different endings, one generally considered "good" and one generally considered "bad", though that's for the most part up to the player's interpretation. The most common ending for heroic Algon players sees Algon leading his empire to an age of peace, glory, and prosperity, raising a family and is generally a "happily ever after" ending. The most common ending for evil Algon players also sees success for Algon, but Algon's empire is a brutal empire of conquest and genocide, and his people for the most part hate him. The most common ending for morally ambiguous Algon players sees something inbetween, the most "realistic" of the game's endings: Algon himself is successful and historically significant, but many of his people are suffering and human rights is not guaranteed for all. There are, of course, also endings where a heroic Algon dies in battle, a morally ambiguous Algon abdicates his throne to live with his family in obscurity, and where an evil Algon is successfully overthrown in a rebellion, among many others. For the most part, the game gives the player the ending they deserve.

Rise A Knight II is released on June 15, 2004, simultaneously for the Nintendo Wave and the Microsoft Xbox. The game is heavily advertised for the Xbox and not so much for the Wave, but despite that, still sells slightly more copies on the Wave than on the Xbox. Reviews are outstanding, generally praising the game's character interactions, multiple endings, and high production values, and it's considered both better than the original and one of the year's best games. It becomes THQ's best reviewed and most successful game to date, and continues one of the most enduring WRPG franchises of all time. While the company would continue to publish games across all genres, it would continue to dip its toes into the RPG waters, hoping to find another major hit.

 

[RySenkari]

The 2003-04 NBA season was one of great anticipation for NBA fans, as they would finally get to see the rookie sensation LeBron James in action when he played his first season for the Denver Nuggets. He was immediately successful, averaging 22.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 6.9 assists in his rookie season and easily taking Rookie of the Year honors, while also helping the Nuggets go from 21-61 to 42-40 and the #7 seed in the West. Other outstanding rookies included Atlanta's Darko Milicic, who averaged 11.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks a game, landing on the All-Rookie team, and Cleveland's Dwyane Wade, who led the team in scoring with 19.1 points a game.

The Eastern Conference was a tight race between the Washington Wizards, the Orlando Magic, the Indiana Pacers, and the Atlanta Hawks. The Wizards were once again led by the stellar play of Allen Iverson, who averaged an incredible 36.1 points a game. However, Iverson was disgruntled throughout the season, as he felt he had to "carry" his team, all while the press accused him of being a ballhog. The Magic were anchored by their sensational European bigs, Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol. The team had come within a game of the NBA Finals in 2003, and they eventually separated themselves from the pack, landing a 59-23 record and the #1 seed in the East. The Indiana Pacers continued to play a fast-paced offensive focused game led by Steve Nash, and for a time, they once again led the conference. But star Reggie Miller, who'd already announced his plans to retire at the end of the season, quickly grew tired from the fast paced basketball, and the team faded somewhat in the second half of the season. The Atlanta Hawks improved majorly over their previous year, thanks to the play of starting rookie center Darko Milicic and the outstanding defense of rising star Ron Artest. However, the Hawks were a volatile team: both Artest and Milicic frequently argued with referees, and the team led the league in technical fouls and ejections. Despite their controversial behavior, the Hawks ended up winning their division to secure the #3 seed in the East (the Hawks would have been #2, but thanks to a new rule enacted before the 2002-03 season, playoff seeds are determined by conference standings only, this also helped the Golden State Warriors get the #2 seed in 2003 where under the OTL rules they would have been #3). The Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics both fell back somewhat: Jonathan Bender remained strong for the Raptors, averaging 25 points a game, but his supporting cast couldn't quite keep up, and as for the Celtics, injuries to stars Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway hurt the team.

In the West, it was once again all Lakers, all the time. Shaq and Duncan cruised to a 64 win season and were looking for revenge on Kobe Bryant's defending champion Golden State Warriors. The Warriors were able to grab the #2 seed (once again, thanks to the new rule that also helped them in 2003), while the rising Phoenix Suns, propelled by Yao Ming, took #3. The San Antonio Spurs, stinging from the retirement of David Robinson, limped into the playoffs thanks to Gregg Popovich's excellent coaching (despite having no stars and a fairly untalented team), landing a 42-40 record while refusing to tank for a potential lottery pick.

Playoffs:

First Round:

Eastern Conference:

(1) Orlando Magic over (8) Miami Heat, 4 to 0

The Magic had little trouble dispatching their first round foes, the Miami Heat. The Heat didn't really have any strong big men to counter Gasol and Nowitzki, and despite a good performance from point guard Gilbert Arenas, none of the games was truly competitive and the Magic advanced with little trouble.

(4) Indiana Pacers over (5) Toronto Raptors, 4 to 2

Try as he might, Jonathan Bender couldn't keep up with the fast-paced Pacers attack, and even Reggie Miller had a spring in his step for this series. The first two games were Pacers blowouts, though the rest of the series was quite competitive: the Raptors won Games 3 and 4 by 6 and 2 respectively, the Pacers struggles through a tough Game 5, winning 94 to 89, and then Game 6 went to overtime before a Steve Nash crosscourt pass for a layup prevented double overtime in the deciding game.

(3) Atlanta Hawks over (6) Boston Celtics, 4 to 2

The Celtics played a gutsy series, but by the end of it, stars Hill and Hardaway looked utterly washed up compared to young Ron Artest and Jamal Crawford. Artest stuck to Grant Hill all series, while Jamal Crawford seemed to score at will. The Hawks came out of this series looking like the team of the future.

(2) Washington Wizards over (7) New York Knicks, 4 to 1

There would be no Game 7 struggle this time, but the Knicks played well enough to keep three of their losses close, and got Iverson frustrated at several points. Kenyon Martin looked like Patrick Ewing at times, with Games 3 and 4 being split at the Garden and both going down to the final minute. The defending Eastern Conference champs, however, would move on in five.

Western Conference:

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (8) San Antonio Spurs, 4 to 0

The cagey Popovich had no answer for Shaq and Duncan, who utterly dominated the mostly center-less Spurs, crushing them in all four games by scores of 28, 17, 33, and 23 in one of the biggest blowout series of all time.

(5) Portland Trailblazers over (4) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 3

The Trailblazers triumphed over the Mavericks, thanks to the outstanding play of their star Shawn Marion. Marion was too much for the Mavericks to handle, and with Alonzo Mourning starting to show his age, the Mavs just couldn't keep up despite a Herculean effort. This time, the Blazers wouldn't have their hearts broken in the first round.

(3) Phoenix Suns over (6) Memphis Grizzlies, 4 to 0

The Grizzlies, who were newly moved to Memphis, made it back to the playoffs...only to be swept by the Suns and a dominating performance from Yao Ming. The Suns were looking for revenge on the Warriors after their 2003 playoff loss, and now a rematch was set for the second round.

(2) Golden State Warriors over (7) Denver Nuggets, 4 to 1

LeBron's playoff debut was impressive, falling just short of a triple double as the Nuggets gave Golden State a scare in game 1, losing by just three points. LeBron, though a rookie, was able to hold his own with Kobe for most of the series, but it wasn't to be: the Warriors took this one in a fairly easy five.

Second Round:

(1) Orlando Magic over (4) Indiana Pacers, 4 to 2

The Magic had a bit more trouble with the Pacers' faster style of play, but Dirk Nowitzki's shooting got the Magic through, and Reggie Miller ended up playing his last game in Indianapolis as the Pacers were eliminated, 101 to 87. The Magic took a time out with ten seconds remaining to allow Reggie to get a five minute long standing ovation from the Pacers' crowd, and while he would've liked to end his career with a Finals win, he did manage to pick up one ring before the end of his career. The Magic would move on to the conference championship for the second straight year.

(2) Washington Wizards over (3) Atlanta Hawks, 4 to 3

This was an incredibly hard fought series, but the biggest story was what came at the end of Game 7, with the Wizards up by a point. The Hawks had the ball with just over 30 seconds left and Ron Artest moved into the lane for a score, but was whistled for a very suspect charge. Artest and Darko Milicic both erupted, with Milicic in particular launching into an extremely obscene rant about the referees' mothers, and Artest eventually shoving a referee to the ground. The argument then turned into a bench clearing brawl on both teams that saw Allen Iverson and Ron Artest going at it with punches thrown. Milicic, Artest, and another Hawks player were ejected, as were Iverson and another Wizards player, before play was finally resumed. Iverson would be suspended for the first game of the next round, while Artest would be suspended for 15 games the following season and Milicic for 5 games.

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (5) Portland Trailblazers, 4 to 0

The Lakers continued their utter domination, beating the Trailblazers by a total of 92 points across the four games of the series, including a 50 point blowout in Game 2 that would cause local Portland sportscaster Gary Westhouse to wear a bag over his head in shame during the first minute of his game recap that night. The Lakers became the first team to ever win their first eight playoff games by double figures, and they would go into the Western Conference Finals itching for either revenge against the Warriors or a chance for Shaq to humiliate his new rival Yao Ming.

(2) Golden State Warriors over (3) Phoenix Suns, 4 to 3

Another epic series that was perhaps even better than the Wizards/Hawks series in the East, the Warriors and Suns went at it fiercely in all seven games, with no game being decided by more than 11 points. Chris Webber had an outstanding series for the Suns, but in the end, the Warriors prevailed thanks to Kobe's epic 47 point performance in Game 7. The Warriors' series win would mean that the 2004 conference finals would be a pair of rematches from 2003.

Conference Finals:

(1) Orlando Magic over (2) Washington Wizards, 4 to 3

The Magic were able to beat the Wizards easily in Game 1 thanks to Iverson's suspension, but the rest of the series wouldn't go so smoothly. Dirk Nowitzki sprained his ankle in Game 3, forcing the Magic to play without him in Game 4 and with a hobbled Nowitzki in Game 5. They would lose both games to go down 3-2 in the series, and it looked like the Wizards would make it back to the Finals. But Dirk had other ideas, and played heroically in Games 6 and 7. Meanwhile, Iverson scored 44 and 40 in the final two games, but looked extremely frustrated as his team lost.

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (2) Golden State Warriors, 4 to 0

Another series, another sweep for the Lakers, who proved that revenge is sweet in definitive fashion. These games were at least closer, Kobe kept all four games from becoming blowouts, save for the clinching Game 4 in which the Lakers would win by 19. Shaq and Duncan were looking unstoppable, but would come up against another pair of excellent big men in the Finals.

2004 NBA Finals

Los Angeles Lakers over Orlando Magic, 4 to 2

And in the end, the Lakers would ultimately triumph. They would take the first three games of the series, though the Magic were able to rally back to win Games 4 and 5 due to Pau Gasol's excellent play. The Magic would also make Game 6 close, but in the end, the Lakers would triumph, and Shaq and Duncan would hoist the Johnson-Bird (renamed in 2002 to honor Magic Johnson and Larry Bird) Trophy yet again.

-

2004's NBA Draft saw the Los Angeles Clippers, who positively stunk up the league with a 13-69 record, holding the first pick after winning the NBA Draft Lottery. Their decision would be between a pair of centers: high school standout Dwight Howard and UConn star Emeka Okafor. Howard looked like the better player, but the Clippers were concerned about his raw, unpolished play, and would take Emeka Okafor with the first pick, allowing Dwight Howard to fall to the Philadelphia 76ers at #2, where he would ultimately become their best center since Moses Malone. The Sixers were more than happy to pick up Howard. The San Antonio Spurs grabbed Al Jefferson at #16 to help their big man problem, while the Chicago Bulls, who barely missed the playoffs, picked up Josh Smith at #14, hoping to pair him with star point guard Shane Battier in a potent combination.

The biggest story of the offseason was in free agency. Allen Iverson had a year left in his contract with the Wizards, but was very vocally demanding a trade, which ultimately forced the Wizards to deal him. Despite Iverson's volatility, lots of offers came in for him, and they would ultimately trade him to the Los Angeles Lakers on draft night. The blockbuster deal netted the Wizards a number of role players (mostly to free up cap space for the Lakers), as well as five unprotected first round picks in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012. The Wizards used the Lakers' 2004 pick to take Kevin Martin at #30, while the Lakers, who looked unstoppable before, now had a big four: Shaq, Duncan, Iverson, and Steve Francis.

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The 2004 Summer Olympics took place in Tokyo, Japan, from August 6, 2004 to August 22, 2004. Tokyo beat out numerous other cities, including Athens, the site of the inaugural Olympic Games in 1896, to win the right to host the Games. Japan was eager to bring the Games back, their economy was recovering from the "lost decade" and economic recession the country had suffered, and the country had been a world leader in technology and manufacturing for a number of years. The theme of the Olympics was "innovation", in which Tokyo presented a futuristic picture of itself to the world, reflected in many of the new venues that were built for the Games and which Japan hoped to make use of afterwards. Construction in the country had been slowed by Japan's economic turmoil, and thus many facilities were overdue for replacement anyway, making 2004 a very opportune year for Tokyo to host the Games. The Games themselves went by largely without incident: both athletes and spectators greatly enjoyed themselves in the city, with the Olympic Village receiving especially good reviews from those staying there. The major criticism was the commercialization of the Games, which approached the level reached by Atlanta's 1996 Games, and was something the IOC was hoping to avoid. Despite this, the athletics themselves were well received.

Highlights included the much anticipated swimming duel between teammates and rivals Kris Humphries and Michael Phelps. The two swimmers had competed against each other numerous times in the events leading up to the Games, with Humphries coming out slightly on top, but many expecting Phelps to surpass Humphries in Tokyo. Ultimately, the two men both won five golds each, two each in team events and three each individually, with Humphries winning three silver medals and Phelps winning two silver and one bronze. In gymnastics, Svetlana Khorkina won the all-around women's gold in a thrilling clash in the finals with American gymnast Courtney Kupets, winning her second all around gymnastics title in a row. In basketball, the United States won the gold medal, though the team would endure a very close semifinal match with a surprising team from Japan before closing out the finals against Dirk Nowitzki's Germany. Jonathan Bender would be the hero of the Olympic team, scoring 33 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in the 87-85 semifinal win, and the Americans would take their fourth straight basketball gold medal. Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima made history by becoming the first Brazilian to win the men's marathon.

The host nation of Japan performed excellently at the Games, taking fourth place in overall medal count and in gold medals won. The Japanese national team would win the baseball gold medal, thrilling the heavily pro-Japan crowd in Tokyo as they won the final game over the Dominican Republic, 5 to 4, on a thrilling base hit that just barely stayed left of the right field line. Japan would also sweep the women's synchronized swimming competitions, while Mizuki Noguchi won the woman's marathon event.

Overall, the 2004 Summer Olympics are regarded as one of the most well-run and thrilling Olympic events to date, and the general consensus is that Japan did an excellent job hosting the games. While the games did operate at a loss for Tokyo, it was a very small financial loss, and was gradually made up by the use of the brand new facilities built for the events. The closing ceremonies featured a ceremonial handoff from Tokyo to London, who was chosen to host the 2008 Olympics in 2001 over Paris and Beijing.

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Senna To Retire From NASCAR After 2004, Earnhardt Staying In For Now

Ayrton Senna, who shocked the motorsports world when he made the jump to NASCAR in 1997, has announced that 2004 will be his last NASCAR season. Senna, a four time Formula One champion and two time champion of NASCAR, has been one of the most successful drivers on the circuit since he entered to great fanfare, and has been in a much publicized rivalry with driver Dale Earnhardt, as he is widely known as one of the few drivers in NASCAR who doesn't back down from Earnhardt's aggressive racing style, famously swapping paint with Earnhardt on numerous occasions. Despite the rivalry, the two are known to have a strong friendship off the track, which Senna has said "is based on mutual respect and love of this great sport". So far, Earnhardt hasn't commented on Senna's coming retirement, and as for Earnhardt, he recently stated to Sports Illustrated that he hopes to continue on the circuit through at least 2005. Currently, Senna has the Motorola Cup points lead over Earnhardt, while Jimmie Johnson stands in third, close behind the two.

-from an article on Yahoo! News, posted on June 28, 2004

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"The love I am feeling from everyone here, I just wish I could return it so many times over. To come back here so soon after such a horrible tragedy, these fans are the greatest in the world. I love coming to Indianapolis and it hurt my heart to see so many people killed and hurt. I am honored to be here. Thank all of you so very much."
-Fernando Alonso, in an interview with Dave Calabro of WTHR-TV in Indianapolis after taking second place in the 2004 United States Grand Prix on June 20, 2004. The race was the first held after the tragic tornado at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and though some of the stands and the pylon could not be fixed in time for the race, the track was repaired in time to hold the event without incident, and more than 200,000 fans came to see the race, doubling the expected attendance.

"Um, er, no. Probably, absolutely not."
-Michael Schumacher to a Fox Sports reporter on July 25, 2004, when asked after his tenth straight Formula One race victory if he would be going to NASCAR after Ayrton Senna retires

 

[RySenkari]

(Here are the other notable North American game releases from April 2004 to June 2004!)

(Authors' Note: We had a couple of reader contributed ideas in this batch! Guardians Of Nature was given to us by Goldwind2, and Liberty was given to us by HonestAbe1809!)

Nintendo Wave:

Blade's Fury

A hack-and-slash title with less emphasis on exploration and more emphasis on combat, with waves of enemies constantly attacking the protagonist (making it play somewhat like a more arcadey Dynasty Warriors game). The game revolves around a young swordmaster who must defend the honor of his master's dojo after his master is accused of making a blade used to murder thousands of innocent people. The local authorities have issued a kill on sight order for the master and all of his pupils, and the swordmaster must defend himself against the people sent to kill him while clearing his master's name. The combat does get somewhat repetitive but the game's high production values, with a detailed combat system and excellent graphics and sound, help it score well in reviews. Sales are a bit low, but the game does garner a cult following.

Harvest Moon: The Simple Life

The first title in the Harvest Moon series for the Nintendo Wave, The Simple Life is about a young man from the city who must return to his family's farm after his grandfather passes away, leaving the farm in jeopardy of being taken away due to the grandfather's debts. With help from his grandmother, the young man must learn the ropes and make the farm successful once again. It follows the typical Harvest Moon formula, but the city slicker twist does lead to some nice fish out of water humor, and all in all it's remembered as one of the better games in the series, with decent sales.

Mercenaries

Similar to the OTL open world military-based title, Mercenaries is a sandbox game that pits the player as a soldier of fortune in a future North Korean conflict. The player must decide which of a number of factions to aid in the war, earning money and making alliances with the various warring countries. There are multiple playable protagonists in the game, five in all (as opposed to the three of OTL's game), with two female and three male. Also, unlike in OTL's game, progression is not driven by the capture or killing of individuals on playing cards, but by completing somewhat more complex tasks for the rival factions. At certain points in the game, the player is asked to complete a mission that will eliminate one of the four possible factions from the possible factions they can work for, meaning that the game's final mission is what determines the player's alliance and which faction ultimately wins out in the war, whether it be NATO, China, Russia, or South Korea. Like IOTL, Mercenaries gets a highly positive reception due to its advanced graphics (which necessitate the game being a Wave exclusive) and its excellent open world gameplay. It's one of the best reviewed games of the season, though sales lag a bit behind expectations.

Spellbound: The Sorcery War

An RTS title developed by Sony and featuring mages and wizards that the player can train. It's a very deep RTS, and one of the best console exclusive RTS titles developed up to that point. The game takes place in a medieval fantasy based world in which three magical kingdoms of various disciplines are at war. Units take the form of various magical beings and adepts. Players can build runic towers, academies, and other facilities to help train their wizards, and many reviewers note the similarity to existing RTS franchises, with one reviewer calling it “Magicraft”. Though the game is somewhat unpolished and has some flaws, particularly with balance and lag during the more crowded stages, it's still received quite well, with good reviews and fairly strong sales for its genre, and a sequel soon goes into development.

Bomberman Squad

The first Bomberman game for the Nintendo Wave has both a multiplayer mode (local/online), and a single-player adventure mode, in which the player doesn't control just one Bomberman, but four of them, and must switch between them to get through the game's (somewhat more complex) levels. There are 36 levels in all, with lots of challenging puzzles, new enemies, and of course, plenty of explosions. Reviews are solid, though sales for the game are only mediocre, with the big drawing point being that this is the first ever online Bomberman game.

Calliope

A Sony developed RPG about an ancient race of singing sages who disappeared many centuries ago and who are rediscovered by an intrepid young warrior. The warrior discovers the first sage working as a mistreated maid in the mansion of his hometown's mayor, and this kicks off a quest to find seven more sages, each of whom joins the warrior's party as the game progresses. Though the game has its dark moments, it's a somewhat lighter hearted game than their previous RPG effort, with numerous vocal songs (though the questionable voice acting diminishes the effect of these songs somewhat). While a good looking game graphically, it's not quite as good as some of the other RPGs that come out during the year, and like Wrath and Ruin, becomes somewhat obscure.

Savage Eon

The sequel to 2001's Savage Age, which was infamous for being one of the bloodiest and worst fighting games of all time, is a Nintendo Wave exclusive, and includes a few more fighters and even bloodier action. Surprisingly, this game is actually fairly decent, and much, MUCH better than Savage Age was. Sales are an improvement over the original as well, and the game isn't quite as controversial even though it contains an even greater level of violence. Critics applaud the effort put into the new characters, the game's plotline, and the effort to give characters more intuitive movesets. It becomes one of the top 2-D fighting games of the year, though 2004 doesn't see many of them, so that's not as big a distinction as it used to be.

Shadows: Avenged

Shadows: Avenged is the fourth game in the Shadows Of The Moon series, developed by Konami. Taking place after Shadows Of The Moon II, it chronicles Ariel's efforts to avenge the deaths of her lovers Destin and Asher at the hands of the Black King and his right-hand woman, Ariel's sister Magritte. The game is a fully-3D adventure title, though it's shed some of its Metroidvania roots in favor of more structured exploration. Despite this, the game introduces a Castlevania-esque level progression system to the series, and Ariel has even more weapons she can use on her foes, including magic bats, a powerful spinning saw blade, and birds that can descend from the skies and peck enemies to shreds. The main villain of the game is Magritte, who has conjured Destin and Asher's souls back from hell in order to put them into living dolls that she uses to taunt and attack Ariel. The Black King mostly works behind the scenes, but Ariel finally confronts and defeats him in the final level of the game, after defeating Magritte in a fierce boss battle at her castle to liberate the souls of her former lovers. Ariel's defeat of the Black King ends the current story arc, but implies that Ariel still has more evil to fight as she continues to roam the streets of the underworld. Shadows: Avenged scores well with reviewers, averaging scores in the low 8s, and sales are fairly strong, though in the crowded month of May when the game is released, it's a bit ignored in favor of other titles, and most of its sales come later on after its price drops somewhat. Konami wouldn't make any more Shadows games in this current generation of consoles, but the series would come back in a big way during the seventh gen.

Deadman Sam

Deadman Sam on the Nintendo Wave is largely a remake of the original game, though where that game was a sidescroller, this game has 3-D platforming elements. Most of Tecmo's effort on the series is going to the Xbox exclusive title coming out in 2005, so this is seen as a bit of a cash-in game, and reviews are only slightly above average, recommending the game for nostalgia buffs only.

Prototype 01

A Level 5 created action-RPG that's a bit like OTL's Rogue Galaxy in terms of graphics and gameplay, Prototype 01 has the player, a human boy, traveling with a mysterious robot and a band of friends as they seek to uncover a dangerous robot conspiracy. The robot's creators are a mysterious corporation that, instead of being run by humans as initially believed, is actually run by a malevolent AI. While definitely not as profound on the subject of AI as the Deus Ex or Velvet Dark games, it's still a long and complex RPG that becomes a bit of a cult classic.

Revroad 2: Ride The Wave

A sequel to the 2001 Katana exclusive Revroad, Revroad 2 is exclusive to the Nintendo Wave, and while it continues the previous game's theme of futuristic racing vehicles, this game sees those vehicles hitting the waves, as players drive vehicles that are convertible into watercraft on the fly. Another graphical showcase and one of the best looking Wave racing titles to date (rivaling the recent F-Zero), Revroad 2 featurs 24 cars and 19 thrilling tracks, and gets excellent reviews averaging in the high 8s. Sales are fairly strong, not in the league of Gran Turismo but near those of the recent F-Zero game.

Spree For All

A car combat game taking place in a massive city, it's a sort of hybrid of Twisted Metal, Cel Damage, and Grand Theft Auto. The game features wacky, Teen-rated weapons action, silly characters, upgradeable cars, and a huge open world to explore and battle it out in. Though reviewers praise the game's ambition, the gameplay itself is a bit of a mess. The missions aren't very well thought out, there aren't nearly as many cars as there are in Grand Theft Auto, and the game has trouble deciding if it wants to be a goofy combat game or a serious open world sandbox game. Sales are decent, but the game's chances of a sequel are about 50-50.

Teen Titans

A game designed to take advantage of the recent Titans live action series, but having nothing to do with that series, this game is a beat-em-up superhero title featuring the characters from the comic, like Nightwing, Raven, and Cyborg, as they uncover a plot by the Joker, who's hired Deathstroke the Terminator to assassinate various people throughout the city. The beat-em-up action is fine, but the game itself is seen as a cash-in and a bit of a waste of good characters.

Wonder Project Glory

A continuation of Enix's Wonder Project series, in which the player must guide a humanoid robot girl through the trials and tribulations of life, this game centers around a young robot girl named Gloria, who the player, a teenage boy, finds while scavenging outside his town. Gloria is being hunted down by a group of scientists working for an evil corporation, and the boy must not only teach Gloria how to get along with people in her town, but how to fight as well. This game gives the player more interactivity over Gloria, in addition to giving her commands, there are moments, particularly fight scenes, where the player can control her directly, making this both an action title and a life sim. Reviews are decent, and the game sells well in Japan, but not so well in North America due to a lack of advertising, and mostly becomes a niche classic.

World Of Color: Chain Reaction

The long-awaited World Of Color Wave game, this game follows the immense success of World Of Color: Millennium, which became one of the best reviewed and best selling titles for the Ultra Nintendo. Chain Reaction attempts to capitalize on that success by featuring mostly the same gameplay and modes as Millennium, but introducing a few new mechanics such as the Chain system, in which combos on one field of play can trigger events on another field of play, and also introducing more colors which have different effects as the player clears them. Reviews are strong, but the game is seen as not a big enough leap from Millennium, and online play is plagued by lag at first. Even when online play improves, there aren't enough players for the game to really have a robust community. Overall, it's a critical and commercial success, but not quite on the level of Millennium, continuing a trend of Wave games that underperform following their Ultra Nintendo counterparts.

Ultra Nintendo:

Batman: The Dark Knight's Bane

This Batman title takes place as a 2-D beat-em-up title, sort of like OTL's Blackgate, though a bit less Metroidvania-like. It sees Batman becoming the hunted, as he is pursued by the ruthless criminal Bane, who seeks to kill him for reasons that only become known later in the game. Batman must continue his mission to protect the people of Gotham, while avoiding Bane long enough to confront him at the optimal time. This game features some of the voice actors from the animated series, and some of the music as well, and is generally considered the Ultra Nintendo's best superhero game and one of its last truly great games. Unfortunately, because it comes out at the end of the Ultra Nintendo's lifespan, sales are very low.

Kokukisoju

An aerial combat game that's half rail-shooter and half 3-D, it's a very realistic combat game (though it plays a lot like the Starfox titles), and features some of the best graphics seen in an Ultra Nintendo game. Bosses mostly take the form of aerial dogfights with other skilled pilots, and this is another game that's very well reviewed but that doesn't quite translate into strong sales.

Sphere Soldier Sapphire

The last Sphere Soldier game for the Ultra Nintendo, this is a classic 2-D sidescroller/shooter title that provides some of the best 2-D graphics ever seen in a game up to this point. It was almost developed for the Wave, but developers decided to hold off on the next gen console for budgetary concerns, instead making the best Ultra Nintendo game they possibly could. Reviews are excellent, but as was the case with the other games in the series, sales are very low.

Sega Katana:

Altered Beast

Altered Beast is an updated version of the classic Sega beat 'em up title about an ancient Greek soldier who transforms into a powerful beast to fight his enemies. The gameplay has transformed from sidescrolling beat-em-up into a fully 3D hack and slash title, with a plot that is basically the same as the original (Zeus resurrects a fallen soldier to rescue Athena) but is greatly expanded, with more characters, enemies, and full CGI cutscenes and voice acting. With action taking place across 16 levels, it's definitely one of the better hack and slash titles of the year, and one of the best reviewed Katana games of the year as well. It scores decent sales due to its strong reviews and pre-release hype, and ends up kicking off a new franchise.

Uber Alles: Air Brigade

Uber Alles: Air Brigade is a Herzog Zwei like title focusing on aerial combat and featuring fantastic, futuristic air weaponry. The game takes place in 2039, 100 years after the beginning of a World War II that never ended, but just got more and more brutal because neither side ever discovered atomic weaponry, and the Axis and Allies have been slaughtering one another for decades. It's got a much more action-packed gameplay style than the Herzog Zwei remake, giving the player the ability to control the planes (it's not quite Ace Combat 4, but it's close enough, and is said by many to be what the Herzog Zwei reboot should have been. Sales are only moderate but reviews are very favorable.

Tick And Tock: Time Travel Trouble

The next game in the Tick and Tock series about two troublemaking kids who can manipulate time, this game has them going back into the past and forward into the future, adventuring in a bunch of worlds that spoof various periods of history. Unfortunately, it comes out less than a year after the vastly superior Commander Keen: A Stitch In Time, and it also comes out around the same time as Tak 2. It's considered to be inferior to both, and sales and reviews are among the worst in the series to date.

Yakuza

Similar to the OTL open world title that was released on the Playstation 2, Yakuza revolves around a falsely imprisoned gang member named Kazuya who, after being released from jail, must redeem his name and protect a young girl. The game features a complex combat system, a huge amount of missions and sidequests, and a vast open city. It's considered to be one of the biggest Katana releases of the year, though it doesn't get a huge amount of hype for release. Once it's confirmed that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas won't be released for the Katana, Sega does its best to push this game as a sort of “rival”, and it's actually partially successful, largely due to excellent reviews (better than the ones the game got IOTL) and some strong sales as well. The RPG elements and heavily Japanese-centric storyline give it a unique Sega feel, and it does work as a Katana-exclusive alternative to the GTA series, especially in the months before the release of Shenmue III.

Sakura Wars: Friend X Foe

The first Sakura Wars game for the Sega Katana, Friend x Foe is a tactical RPG/dating sim with a heavy emphasis on character recruiting: throughout the game, you can date various characters, and if they enjoy your company, they'll join your party: otherwise, they'll become lethal foes. Presentation-wise, the game is most similar to the OTL Sakura Wars 5, though the plot differs quite heavily, rather than taking place during the 1920s, the game takes place in an alternate universe present day Japan. As with previous Sakura Wars games, the game doesn't do quite so well in North America, though it does do a bit better than previous titles thanks to a strong marketing campaign for it.

Tak 2: Fire And Ice

The sequel to the surprise hit Tak And The Power Of Juju, Tak 2 continues the story of the boy islander hero as he quests through a land of fire and ice (the Staff of Dreams plot points from OTL are butterflied away), which features both glacial environments and volcanic ones. He gains a special weapon that can utilize the power of both, and must use the ice powers on the fire enemies and the fire powers on the ice enemies (somewhat like a platformer version of Ikaruga), with puzzles involving both elements as well. Filled with lush worlds and plenty of humor, Tak 2 is a strong platformer title for the Katana, and maybe their biggest non-Sonic platformer of the year. Sales and reviews both exceed those of the previous game, and Apple has a bonafide hit platformer franchise on its hands.

Microsoft Xbox:

Freelancer

The sequel to the 2000 PC game Starlancer, Freelancer is released for the PC in 2003 and ported to the Xbox in 2004 (unlike OTL's Freelancer, which was never ported). The gameplay has been adapted for the Xbox, which means that it's been simplified somewhat from the complex space combat and trading simulator it was on the PC. The multiplayer mode has been removed and a few of the levels have been cut from the PC version of the game, but in large part it does follow the PC title's plot fairly well. The adapted gameplay, however, is a mixed bag, with the controls noticeably more clunky than they are on the PC. The Xbox's controller just isn't quite suited for a game like this, and players largely stay away after mediocre reviews.

Knights And Lords

Knights And Lords is a feudal-based RTS title in which medieval knights clash on the field of battle. Featuring excellent graphics and a deep battle and resource system, it's compared by a lot of people to the Wave's Spellbound, and with similar review scores and sales, it becomes a point of contention for fans of both consoles in arguments about which is best. It's obviously more gritty and realistic than Spellbound, with little in the way of magic and a lot of blood and brutality, it's rated M, but the game's fans like it that way. It becomes one of the most popular console RTS games of the year.

The Dreaded

A survival horror title in which the protagonist must avoid being consumed by an overwhelming darkness populated by creatures of unimaginable evil. While the game is praised for its graphics, the gameplay is fairly monotonous and repetitive, and the plot, which is somewhat of a ripoff of Silent Hill and is basically an excuse to pack as many scary things and mind screws into a single horror game, is also roundly bashed. The game IS notable for being a favorite of streamers later on, due to its jump scares and campy plot.

Transformers X

A game based on the classic Transformers franchise, Transformers X is a mech combat title with similarities to Zone of the Enders, in which the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, must defend a group of humans from the incursions of the Decepticons. The human characters are fleshed out well, but the real focus, as it should be, is on the robots, and Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprise their roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron in the gameplay and cutscenes. Players get a chance to control as many as nine of the classic Autobots over the course of the game, and there's even a multiplayer combat mode, though it's local multiplayer only. There was brief thought during development of allowing the player to use the Iron Battalion controller for the game, but that was scrapped early on in favor of a conventional control scheme. Transformers X is quite well received by reviews, who largely praise the game because it's better than it was expected to be. Sales aren't great, but the game is still a success thanks to the strong reviews and built in fanbase.

Counter-Strike 2

Thanks to the stronger performance and online community of the Xbox ITTL, Microsoft heavily funded this Counter-Strike sequel, which was released on the PC and Xbox and saw much greater success than OTL's Condition Zero. It's largely an updated version of the original Counter-Strike, with loads of new maps and new scenarios, and improved (though not vastly improved) graphics. Counter-Strike remained one of the most popular FPS games on Xbox Live in 2004, and this game saw a ton of hype going into its release, which translated into big sales despite the game getting only in the mid 7s in reviews (reviewers liked the new maps but didn't think this should be a full game at full retail price). Fans complained too, but still bought the game in droves.

La Guerra

An FPS set during the Spanish Civil War, in which the player is a Republican fighting against Franco's forces. Incredibly deep and extremely poignant and tragic, the game isn't known for its gameplay so much as it is for its storyline, about a man fighting in a losing struggle and gradually losing the people he cares about and loves, including his family, his comrades in arms, and his girlfriend, a courageous spy who is executed late in the campaign. Eventually, the player character participates in a final battle to defend Madrid from occupation by Franco's forces, and ultimately gives his life for the resistance in one final stand. The game does have a multiplayer mode, but it's largely bare-bones and hardly anyone buys the game for the multiplayer. Despite being one of the best reviewed FPS titles of the year, it sadly doesn't sell nearly as much as the Xbox's multi-player focused titles, and would ultimately become a cult classic.

Game Boy Nova:

Final Fantasy: Young Heroes

A game that has a lot of similarities to OTL's Crystal Chronicles, this game is an action-RPG with a chibi aesthetic, featuring chibi versions of classic Final Fantasy heroes like Black Mage and Fighter. There are 12 total classes to choose from in the game as characters traverse towns and dungeons in a somewhat downscaled Final Fantasy experience meant for younger players. The game is notable for featuring four player local multiplayer using the Nova's infrared connection, but that feature isn't used very often. Still, it's a fulfilling, if somewhat simplistic, single player quest, and the game achieves decent reviews and sales.

Kirby: Dedede Strikes Back!

Another classic-style Kirby game in the vein of 2002's Capture Crisis, this game is a sort of return to an old school sensibility for Kirby, in some ways a super-enhanced remake of the original Kirby's Dream Land game, in that it features King Dedede as the main villain and revamped versions of the original stages from that game. However, it features a massive amount of new stages and copy abilities for Kirby, and though the game lacks some of the originality of some of OTL's Game Boy Advance games like The Amazing Mirror, Kirby fans still lap up the game and its sales are far stronger than those of Capture Crisis.

Tron: Lightcycle Legends

A combat racing title based on the classic lightcycle sport from Tron, this game features massive arenas to battle in and nearly a dozen characters, with a brand new storyline featuring a reckless gang of lightcycle racers seeking to take out all competition in service of the Master Computer. The game features some slick graphics that are the best approximation of the original film that the Nova can provide, and overall, reviews are good, though sales are only mediocre.

Guardians Of Nature

Guardians Of Nature is a hybrid action/RPG style game, featuring isometric graphics and a mix of platforming and adventure gameplay. The game's protagonist is a nature loving boy who moves from the country to the suburbs and befriends a group of kids who have a great love of the environment and nature, like him. However, one day a bunch of rich kids kidnap the boy's rabbit, and while chasing them, the boy ends up in a beautiful forested nature world that's being threatened by monsters. The boy finds out that his friends have been transported to this strange world with him, and now have mysterious elemental powers. The bullies have also come to this world, and have been transformed into evil monsters by a powerful tyrant who seeks to corrupt and pollute this world. The boy and his friends must defeat the tyrant and his armies while finding a way to return home. The game is centered around a hub village, from where the boy and his friends can move outward, discovering new areas to save. The hub village can be improved as well, earning power ups and opening the way to new areas. The game can generally be described as OTL's Rune Factory with Tomba-like platforming and exploration elements, with a plot that can be described as a much less cheesy Captain Planet. The game gets generally good reviews, and while sales are poor initially, good word of mouth helps the game sell more copies down the road, to where it can be considered a success overall.

Robo Co.

Robo Co. is an action title about a company that builds little custom robots that engage in a battle for territory across a world at war. The game plays a bit like Advance Wars but with more customization and the ability for the player to control the robots they create, adding some Metal Clash elements to the game. The game is quite fast-paced, with colorful graphics and a lot of combat. It's one of the better Game Boy Nova titles of the year, and sales are fairly strong.

Sailor Moon: Veil Of Occlusion

A Sailor Moon RPG similar to Another Story, Veil Of Occlusion is a gaiden game that has little to do with the original anime or manga. It essentially has the Sailor Senshi uniting to stop a mysterious masked woman who seeks to transport the entire world into a parallel universe of shadows and darkness, and has conjured up thousands of warriors known as Shadow Servants in order to do so. The game plays out like a mystery, with the Senshi investigating the infiltration of various places by these Shadow Servants, who have a negative influence on their friends and family. The battle system is much improved from that of Another Story, with far more balanced combat and a much bigger selection of attacks. Overall, it's a very good RPG, and reviews average around an 8 out of 10. It doesn't sell very well, due to the game's somewhat niche status, but it pleases RPG and Sailor Moon fans alike.

Fire Emblem: Goddess Champion

A brand new Fire Emblem game for the Game Boy Nova, Goddess Champion features the classic series gameplay that fans know and love, while introducing brand new characters and an all new adventure. The game revolves around two rival kingdoms ruled by two grand goddesses who call forth a champion to lead their armies into battle. Sokul is the champion of the nation of Ray, which must battle against the nation of Dusk, led by General Gargan. At first, Sokul leads his armies willingly, but soon he comes to believe that the people of his world are being manipulated, and that this war may just be a way for the people to become the goddess' playthings. Sokul must not only neutralize the ruthless Gargan, but must challenge the goddesses themselves if he is to win freedom for his people. However, there's more to these goddesses than meets the eye as well, and their motives may not be entirely malicious. Sokul eventually comes to realize that there's an even greater threat afoot, one which he and the goddesses must unite to defeat. Goddess Champion features some great graphics for the Nova, though it lacks any kind of voice acting. It's definitely a well made game, and one of the better selling Nova games of the summer, even in North America.

The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams

The SNES-CD classic gets a port to the Nova, and it's a fairly straight port, though with an added challenge dungeon that Link can conquer to win the Purple Mail, which cuts damage to 1/8. Conquering this dungeon also elaborates on the fate of the anti-villain Gaddis, indicating that he may not have actually died after the events of the original game. This was a very long awaited handheld port, and sales are excellent.

XCOM Supernova

A game in the XCOM series for the Game Boy Nova, made using as close an engine to the original PC games as the developers can muster. It's largely like the old school XCOM games in that the player must manage their resources while defeating an alien invasion. While the attempt to get a PC-style XCOM game on a handheld is admirable, Supernova is somewhat of a critical disappointment, due to poor graphics and a clunky interface. Sales are unremarkable.

Multiplatform:

Load: Hollowpoint

Load: Hollowpoint is released for the Xbox, Wave, and Katana in April 2004. It's the fourth game of the Load series, and while it's given a long development time compared to Load 3, it's still somewhat rushed, coming out barely more than a year after that game. Kilroy Hearns returns, and must this time hunt down a squad of soldiers who are committing war crimes in Middle Eastern villages. Hearns has a dark secret: he used to be a member of this squad many years back when they were operating in Latin America, and committed a number of atrocities while in their ranks. Hearns must atone for his past sins by saving innocent civilians from his old comrades in arms. Hollowpoint has a very serious tone compared to the previous two games that featured Hearns, and this game is Activision's attempt to correct the errors they made in Load 3. The game's graphics and gameplay have gotten noticeable improvements from the previous game, and the game was designed with the Wave in mind, with the Xbox and Katana versions being ports. Hollowpoint generally gets better reviews than Load 3, with some critics even considering it the best game in the series thus far. However, the game is somewhat overshadowed by the release of Red Sun in the same month. Despite that, the game still sells well, especially on the Xbox despite being the less than optimal version of the game. This would be Kilroy Hearns' last appearance of the series (he is killed at the end of this game, dying to protect a reporter so that she can reveal to the world what his old unit did), but the series would return in 2006 with a new protagonist and even further revamped gameplay.

Nightrush

A fairly generic racing game featuring all night races, Nightrush largely strives for realism, but also for style, featuring sleek graphics and a large variety of cars. It's not quite Gran Turismo, and indeed, a lot of people consider it a ripoff, but decent sales make this game more of a hit than it should be considering its lack of originality. It's released for the Wave and Katana initially, but gets an Xbox version later on.

Star Wars: Jedi Academy

Star Wars: Jedi Academy is largely similar to the OTL game Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, but rather than it coming only to the Xbox, it makes its way to all three consoles (along with the PC). The game plays out largely like it does IOTL: after creating a player character, the player must complete missions given to them by Luke Skywalker and Kyle Katarn. There is a larger variety of missions in this game than IOTL, and like OTL's game, there's a multiplayer combat mode as well. While reviews for the game aren't quite as good as those for Knights Of The Old Republic, the game is still considered a good one, and sells quite well on all three systems, particularly on the Wave where it becomes one of April 2004's top debuting titles.

The Devil Doctor

The Devil Doctor is a horror/beat-em-'up title about an evil doctor who battles even more evil foes, using a variety of doctor's implements while making a lot of medical themed puns. It's a very tongue in cheek game, featuring Bruce Campbell as the voice of the protagonist, and while reviews aren't all that great (the game is somewhat short and the combat is repetitive), it's funny and out there enough to become a cult classic. It's released for the Wave and the Xbox, with the Wave version the better selling of the two.

All Points Bulletin

All Points Bulletin is a SWAT-based police game where you take a team of police officers and raid criminal hideouts. It starts with simple standoffs and ends with military-style raids on large buildings. It's hyped quite a bit before its release but repetitive missions, glitches, and spotty graphics make it only a mediocre game, and it's ultimately forgotten amidst the slew of superior games that are released around it.

Deathblow: Blood Feuds

After strong sales for both Deathblow and Deathblow II, the series was expected to get a third installment very quickly. However, Deathblow III was caught in development hell, as the developers wanted to wait until all the next generation consoles were out before making the game. Finally, once the Wave went into development, work could begin on the third Deathblow title. Deathblow: Blood Feuds features the same ultra violent 2-D fighting action of its predecessors, with 20 characters in all. Each character is paired off with another character, who is labeled their “mortal enemy” and whom they fight with much more brutality. The game has a lot more special moves and combinations, and of course, the graphics are significantly improved from the previous game. The long hiatus between the last Deathblow game and this one harmed fan interest somewhat, but it still sees decent sales in what's considered to be a down time for fighting games. It's released on the Wave and the Xbox, but not the Katana.

Exhilaration: Top Down

The “sexy” racing game from 2002 gets a sequel, and while this game does little to improve the graphics or gameplay, it does ramp up the T+A enough to get a Mature rating. As the name of the game implies, female racers can go completely topless, though there's a small censor bar placed strategically over the racers when they're in this state. While the developers were hoping the controversy could sell lots of copies, the poor reviews and negative press end up really hurting this game in terms of sales. Though it's not a financial flop, it is considered one of the year's worst games. It's released on the Wave and the Xbox.

Need For Speed: Monte Carlo

The continuation of the Need For Speed series takes place in Monte Carlo, where adrenaline junkie racers battle it out on some of the richest streets in the world. Though this does get the game some accusations of trying to rip off Excelsior Luxury Circuit, the game doesn't focus on the luxury of the racers (indeed, most of the racers make fun of the glitz and glamour they're surrounded by), and that game didn't sell nearly as well as the last Need For Speed regardless. While reviews are mostly good, many reviewers note that despite the change in scenery, the series is starting to wear a bit thin. Despite that, sales are still excellent, only a bit lower than the previous Need For Speed game.

Focal Point

Focal Point is a fairly standard FPS about a special agent infiltrating enemy bases. Each base has its own hazards and strategies. The game gets some praise for its graphics and weapon selection, and the fact that its levels are quite different from one another (and so the campaign doesn't get repetitive quickly). It's released for the Wave, Katana, and Xbox, and sells well enough to get a sequel, but it's not much more than a ho-hum shooter.

Glass

Glass is an adventure title about a girl who finds another girl trapped in a glass coffin underground. Awakening her triggers a series of events that turn an army of killer robots against the two girls. It's Snow White and Rose Red with a sci-fi twist, and features beautiful graphics (a sort of cel-shaded, stylistic look) with well received gameplay. It's mostly a 3-D platformer, but with somewhat less combat and more puzzles than the typical platforming game. The voice acting is mostly done by fairly unknown British actors and actresses, but still gets a decent amount of praise. Sales aren't overwhelming, but they're still strong, especially on the Wave, where it's released first before eventually being ported to the Xbox and Katana. Despite the game making a profit, it doesn't get a sequel, instead, the developer chooses to move onto other projects, especially once the seventh generation begins.

Klonoa: Brave New World

A sort of reboot of the Klonoa series (though not really, since all the old continuity remains), this game is the first true 3-D Klonoa platformer. While the game keeps as many of the elements of the classic Klonoa gameplay as possible, there's a lot more exploration and collecting, as Klonoa journeys through nine massive realms to piece the Dream Stream back together. The plot is that Klonoa somehow ends up in a mysterious new world, and has lost his memory, including that of all his old friends. Slowly, Klonoa's friends find ways to reach across the dimensions and help him, but he still can't remember them, and won't fully regain his memories until he journeys through the ninth and final realm, where he reunites with all of his old friends and teams up with both his old friends and his new friends to battle the game's villain, the psychotic Ratamus, the one responsible for destroying the Dream Stream and transporting Klonoa to this new world. While the game gets a lot of praise for its graphics and storyline, it's about as uninnovative a 3-D platformer as they come. All the classic tropes are there: the collecting, the hub world, everything, and Brave New World doesn't add anything new to the genre. Reviews are still decent, but not quite what they were expected to be. Still, Klonoa fans enjoy the game, and it achieves acceptable sales on both the Katana and the Wave.

Liberty

An EA-developed third person shooter title, Liberty is essentially the TTL version of Freedom Fighters, though with somewhat altered gameplay and with the Red Army as the main villains rather than the Soviet Union. The game takes place in the “near future”, at the start of a future World War III that sees China invading the United States, landing troops in dozens of cities simultaneously, including New York City, where the game's main action takes place. Unlike IOTL Freedom Fighters, the game is a more open world title, with flashpoints of conflict opening up all over the city and the player having to choose where to go. What the player chooses determines much of the plot, including which characters remain alive and how well equipped the protagonist will be for certain missions. No matter what actions the player takes, the final battle takes place in and around the Statue of Liberty, with the final fight being a fist fight taking place in Lady Liberty's crown between the protagonist and a Red Army general. The reviews for Liberty, while widely trashing the game's story as implausible, praise the open-ended gameplay, including the ability to recruit an entire squad of teammates to your side and the differing missions that can be undertaken, and overall it's one of the best reviewed games of the month, just below games like Rise A Knight II and Donkey Kong And Battletoads. It's released for the Wave, Katana, and Xbox, and while sales on the Katana aren't so hot, it does well on the other two systems.

Raptor Strike

Raptor Strike is a helicopter combat game released for the Xbox and Katana in June 2004. It contains both a campaign mode and a multiplayer mode (both local and online). Its graphics and gameplay get good reviews (with the multiplayer mode getting especially high praise), and sales are decent on both consoles.

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Top Selling New Console Games In North America (in terms of sales over the first four weeks of release):

April 2004:

1. Red Sun (Microsoft Xbox)
2. Internationale (Nintendo Wave)
3. Load: Hollowpoint (Microsoft Xbox)
4. Star Wars: Jedi Academy (Nintendo Wave)
5. Kirby: DeDeDe Strikes Back! (Game Boy Nova)

May 2004:

1. Codename: Messiah (Nintendo Wave)
2. Need For Speed: Monte Carlo (Nintendo Wave)
3. Need For Speed: Monte Carlo (Microsoft Xbox)
4. Need For Speed: Monte Carlo (Sega Katana)
5. Prince Of Persia (Nintendo Wave)

June 2004:

1. Donkey Kong And Battletoads (Nintendo Wave)
2. Rise A Knight II: Imperial Dawn (Nintendo Wave)
3. Rise A Knight II: Imperial Dawn (Microsoft Xbox)
4. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Dreams (Game Boy Nova)
5. Counter-Strike 2 (Microsoft Xbox)

 

[RySenkari]

Virtua Fighter 5

Virtua Fighter 5 is the fifth game in the Virtua Fighter series (not counting spinoffs). It's the first game in the series released simultaneously for the arcade and for consoles (exclusively on the Katana). The game continues the storyline from previous titles, featuring a somewhat revamped fighting system and six new characters, in addition to all the playable characters from previous games, giving this one the largest roster to date. The new fighting system changes incorporate some of those from OTL's game, including the slightly longer throw time and the Clash System that can cancel out strikes with throws. In addition, the game introduces a unique counter combo move for each character, and a guard breaking strike that can be activated if the opponent has been guarding for a certain length of time. The changes are introduced to speed up fights and to give them a more organic feel. While the combat system and gameplay has gotten a significant change, the graphics are nearly identical to those of Virtua Fighter 4. There are some more fluid animations, but the resolution and detail on the characters has been improved by less than 5% over the previous game. Virtua Fighter 4 already took the Katana very close to its limit, and it was discovered that making Virtua Fighter 5 too much better than the previous game would introduce too much slowdown. However, the arcade version IS somewhat improved over the previous title, making the gap between the arcade and console versions much wider than that of Virtua Fighter 4.

The storyline continues from 2003's Virtua Quest 5, which saw J6 systematically destroyed by the efforts of all the characters working together. The defeat of J6, however, has caused some of its technology to end up on the black market, and some of it is purchased up by a scrap dealer named Adler (one of the new characters). Adler hopes to use the technology to come up with a money making invention. Adler's psychopathic 17-year-old daughter Katie (another new character) is a serious devotee of the martial arts, and has been studying the Dural Project. She begs her father to re-initiate the project and transform her into Dural, but when he realizes what that will do to his daughter, he refuses. Meanwhile, the Sixth World Martial Arts Tournament has been ongoing, and it's attracted fighters from all over the world, including Hoyt (a fighter based somewhat on Royce Gracie), Burden (a muscle-bound ruffian who enjoys brutally beating his opponents but has a good heart very, very deep down), Regallo (an Italian fighter specializing in fierce kicks), and Miss Scandal (a reporter with hidden martial arts talents). Katie also enters the tournament, and is a prodigy, easily beating pretty much everyone put in front of her. In the end, she hijacks her father's experiments to become Duralka, the most powerful model of Dural yet, and probably the most threatening. Because of the force of Katie's will, she keeps her full autonomy as Duralka, and has no problem using her new powers to sadistically hurt her enemies, forcing the other competitors to team up to take her down.

Virtua Fighter 5 is released on both the Katana and to arcades on July 26, 2004. The reception to Virtua Fighter 5 is for the most part very positive. The new fight mechanics and characters are well received, and though the game's lack of graphical improvement over its predecessor is roundly criticized, it's still one of the best looking games on the Katana, and is ultimately considered one of the best fighting games of the year. The character of Katie (who is voiced by Tara Strong) gets a very mixed reaction: while some praise her as a complex and threatening villain, others see her as too over the top in terms of villainy and also a bit too fanservicey. In terms of sales, there's a big and unexpected drop-off from Virtua Fighter 4's sales, which is largely attributed to the waning popularity of 2-D fighting titles, but is also considered by many, especially at the time, to be a sign of trouble for Apple and the Katana. It's still one of the top selling games of the month, but doesn't rank nearly as highly on the year-end charts as VF4 did, even in Japan.

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Apple To Inherit Sega's Troubled Gameverse Locations

The deal that made Sega's entire gaming division, including its Sonic the Hedgehog franchises and others, a part of the juggernaut computer company Apple, was one of the biggest and most impactful deals in the history of the industry. Apple has been managing Sega's former video game properties for over a year, and thus far, it's seen a mixed bag of success: while sales were on the uptick throughout most of the first year following the merger announcement, sales of Sega hardware and software have taken a sharp decline since April. However, many critics believe that Apple won E3, particularly with its announcement of the iPod Play, a new model of the popular iPod multimedia device that will play video games, including new titles, Katana ports, and classic Sega games. One aspect of the deal that didn't get a lot of press was the situation surrounding Sega's massive network of arcade facilities throughout the world. Sega has long been one of the pre-eminent arcade companies, and its Japanese facilities continue to take in many millions of dollars a year. Sega has also been operating its large Gameverse facilities throughout North America, though a large fraction of those facilities have been shuttered in recent years, owing to a general decline in arcade profitability. While the deal between Apple and Sega allowed Sega to keep its Japanese arcades, the Gameverse locations have begun to revert to Apple's control over the past few months. Sega's Gameverse first opened in 1997, and the arcades were initially highly successful, but they've seen their profits drop rapidly, especially compared to Microsoft's X-Zone arcades, which remain extremely profitable (and will expand to 40 locations by the end of 2004, with their first international locations set to open in September). Gameverse has seen its traffic increase slightly due to the release of Virtua Fighter 5 last month, but the series doesn't have the cachet it once did, and overall, Gameverse profits are down 19% in just the last year. Apple is looking to re-brand many of these Gameverse facilities in the same way that Microsoft has partially co-opted their X-Zones into sports bars and electronics demonstration locations. The company has announced that they'll be opening Apple Store locations adjacent to nine of the 22 remaining Gameverses, including the original Gameverse in Seattle, the Gameverse location in Hollywood, Florida, and the Gameverse located on the top floor of the Circle Center Mall in Indianapolis. These Apple Stores will sell both Apple-themed items and Sega video games, and will carry the iPod Play when it's released in November.

-from an August 11, 2004 article on Gamesovermatter.com

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August 11, 2004

Steve Jobs didn't know whether to be frustrated or elated as he read the latest technology business reports. The entire industry was still buzzing over the iPod Play, which was fast becoming the most anticipated gaming handheld of all time. Jobs should've been pleased, and he mostly was, but Apple's video game division was still reporting a loss. Katana sales had slowed precipitously, and Virtua Fighter 5 was looking like a major sales disappointment. He was glad to have Sonic Rover to fall back on, but that was still a month away.

"You shouldn't be stressing yourself about the Katana too much," said Jobs' executive vice president, Tim Cook. "Reggie told us both that Virtua Fighter 5 wasn't going to sell nearly as much as the last one, and he was right. And besides, the gaming press loved our Katana games. Quality over quantity, that's what they said."

"All gamers are going to hear is that the Katana doesn't have any games," Jobs grunted.

"The Katana's not the future anyway. The iPod Play is, and after that, we're doing our own console. As long as the iPod Play sells well, which it will, nobody will give a damn about the Katana."

Jobs looked unsure, but then he looked back at his business paper and smiled. Three months on from E3 and the press was still raving about it. Once the first commercials started airing in September, the buzz would reach a fever pitch. And then they'd win the holidays and the ship would be righted.

"Reggie was right about Virtua Fighter 5," said Jobs. "I gotta say, he's not afraid to tell it like it is, even when he knows it'll piss me off."

"He was right about the cancer, too."

"I gotta say, guy's got a pair of brass balls on him. I tell him, 'hey Reggie, I have pancreatic cancer', and then tell him I'm not gonna get the surgery, and the guy calls me an idiot right to my face. I remember exactly what he said when I told him I was doing acupuncture, he said 'Steve, you're an idiot. You've got the only kind of pancreatic cancer they can treat, and you're doing some alternative medicine crap. Go get the fucking surgery.' I wanted to punch him, but the son of a bitch was right. Total remission."

The two men shared a laugh for a moment, before returning to their conversation.

"So the first iPod Play commercial, during the Emmys... we've got a guy, silhouetted, we're only showing the silhouette of the people playing, but on the iPod's screen, we're showing the games. Silhouetted people playing games. It shows off the games and makes the people look really cool, they're kinda dancing as they play," said Jobs, moving his body as he described the commercial to demonstrate the dancing. "We're gonna use a song by this band Franz Ferdinand, have you heard 'Take Me Out' before?"

"I have, it's a cool song," said Cook, nodding.

"That's what we're going for, it's gonna be cool. It's gonna be the cool thing to own, that's why you're gonna pay $299 for it and not $99 for the Nova or whatever Nintendo's gonna charge for their new thing they're probably gonna come out with in a year or two. You're gonna pay $299 for the iPod Play because it's the coolest goddamn video game handheld in the world, and I'm gonna show you why."

 

[RySenkari]

Turok: Extinction

Turok: Extinction is an FPS/adventure title and a direct sequel to 2002's Turok: Evolution. Produced by Acclaim, the game features the same sci-fi gameplay as previous titles in the series, with a protagonist known as Turok who hunts down dinosaurs and other ancient creatures with a mix of modern and futuristic weapons. However, in contrast with previous games in the series, Extinction takes place in our modern world, as Turok must stop the unleashed creatures from rampaging through American cities. The game has more of a focus on action and less on exploration and puzzle solving, with the introduction of quick time elements to the series and lots of action setpieces, along with more melee weapons. All of these new innovations are designed to give the series a similar feel to a blockbuster movie, with lots of explosions and more thrilling cutscenes. The gameplay takes place across 12 different stages, mostly in urban or suburban areas. Gameplay is objective-based, somewhat similar to the Velvet Dark games, where there is a checklist of things Turok must accomplish before completing the stage. In the case of city-based levels, this often involves clearing an area of creatures and then closing the gate that is allowing these creatures into the world, with optional side objectives such as collecting an item or saving civilians. The equipment and item system from Evolution returns for Extinction, though it's not quite as fleshed out, with less equipment to collect. Currency is earned from defeating enemies, saving people, and completing side objectives, and this can be used to purchase items and equipment from the various merchants that pop up. Extinction features somewhat improved graphics over Evolution, with heavy detail given to environments and enemies. The game looks great on the Wave and Xbox, but is somewhat primitive looking on the Katana, a function of developers not being able to extensively detail environments very much without causing slowdown. Online multiplayer is introduced, a first for the Turok series, and the game's multiplayer is praised for its variety and complexity of arenas, though the gameplay itself is fairly unoriginal.

The story itself begins as Tal'Set, the man who holds the title of Turok, is continuing his university research work when he bumps into a woman who has a mysterious amulet. This woman's name is Danielle (a version of the same character from the original trilogy), and Tal'Set is surprised at the woman's resemblance to him. She warns Tal'Set about a strange anomaly she found and asks him to accompany her to speak with the professor of archaeology. As the three are speaking, a strange portal appears in downtown Denver, and raptors pop out of it. Tal'Set and Danielle ride in a helicopter to the city, where he reveals to her his expertise in fighting these creatures. He assumes the mantle of Turok once more and begins to fight the dinosaurs to save the city. As Turok is battling dinosaurs in Denver and in other cities, he continues to bump into Danielle, who eventually begins to help him in his fight, and is eventually revealed as his long lost sister. Turok also meets other characters, many good but a few of them bad. Amongst the bad characters is Lyman Hartwell, a collector of ancient artifacts who currently runs a dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Hartwell eventually becomes the game's main villain, once it's revealed that Hartwell has been gathering pieces of an ancient gate known as the Genesis Portal that the ancients built to visit the primitive world, but were forced to shatter once the creatures coming out of it began to overwhelm them. Danielle's pendant is the last remaining piece of the Portal, and she has been sworn to defend it at all costs. Turok fights dinosaurs (and eventually, mercenaries hired by Hartwell) across 12 stages, including six different cities (Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and finally Washington, DC), four scientific/government facilities, and two brief trips to the ancient world. The final two stages of the game are Washington DC and the Pentagon. In the Washington level, Turok and Danielle fight their way through Hartwell's mercenaries and a bunch of huge dinosaurs, concluding with a massive, mutated sauropod ridden by Hartwell himself. Danielle manages to land a shot through the creature's eye, but as it falls, seemingly killing Hartwell (and also smashing the Lincoln Memorial), Hartwell emerges from the wreckage and abducts Danielle, taking her pendant and the final piece of the gate. Hartwell assembles the Genesis Portal in the middle of the Pentagon, forcing Turok to fight his way through the facility (which is now overrun with armored mercenaries and dinosaurs) in order to stop Hartwell's plans to raise a mutated dinosaur army to take over the world. As Turok arrives at the portal, Hartwell declares victory, only to be distracted from a blow by a struggling Danielle. As Turok wounds Hartwell, he continues to rant and rave, but is eaten by an enormous creature coming out of the portal. Turok and Danielle combine their forces to defeat the creature, saving the world and what's left of the nation's capital. Now that the danger is over, Tal'Set rests, and Danielle offers to take up the mantle of Turok while Tal'Set is finishing his studies. Tal'Set says he'll need to train her, but she insists she has enough training, smiling as she disappears into the portal, taking the necklace with her and closing the Genesis Portal for good.

Turok: Extinction is released on July 13, 2004, for all three major consoles (and would also get a version on the Nova later on). The graphics, gameplay, and multiplayer online mode are all heavily praised, and while the story is considered somewhat of an overblown mess, it too has its charm and continues the general feel of the Turok series fairly well. Sales are quite strong for the game, making it one of the summer's biggest hits.

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It certainly hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows for Acclaim. The company has seen its fortunes decline since the arcade heyday of the 90s, and they've had trouble finding a new franchise that's clicked. The Burnout series has performed well, but hasn't managed to achieve true mainstream success like Need For Speed, and the All-Star Baseball series has been a perennial also-ran compared to Nintendo's exclusive Ken Griffey games and EA's Triple Play, which have for the most part monopolized console video game sales. But thanks to the continued success of the Turok franchise, which, in addition to the games, include the comic book series (which the games are based on), at least one hit film, a series of novels, and merchandise, Acclaim has managed to keep its head above water, and its acquisition of Valiant, one of the most popular of the non-DC/Marvel comic book companies, has been a profitable venture as well. It's this Valiant connection that Acclaim hopes to profit on again, when Eternal Warriors is released on the Xbox at the end of the year. The comic seems tailor made for a video game adaptation, and with hack-and-slash video games becoming more and more popular thanks to the success of games like Devil May Cry, Eternal Warriors could well be the next big hit. It may need to be, if the company is to bounce back and reach the level of success it once had when it was riding high off the success of the Mortal Kombat series (which is now published by Midway). If Eternal Warriors is a success, the company is planning to produce several more titles based off Valiant properties, in the hopes of turning each of them into a marketing machine similar to Turok. This idea of games being intended as merchandising juggernauts from the very beginning is somewhat new, born out of the success that franchises such as Mario and Sonic had when they developed spinoff merchandise after achieving success in the gaming area. It's usually a happy accident that a game launches a huge merchandising empire, but with companies looking to maximize franchise profits, it's becoming increasingly frequent that such a thing is intended from the very start. Activision is taking a similar approach with its Thrillseekers game, set to launch later this month, and Apple has stated its intentions to launch next year's Endotherm with merchandise and a possible animated series in mind.

-from "Resounding Acclaim", an article posted on Gamesovermatter.com on August 5, 2004

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Jeff Gerstmann: So what do you make of this rumor... that Microsoft and Sega are talking about...excuse me, Apple.

Alex Navarro: That is still, a year later I still get them mixed up.

Gerstmann: Microsoft and Apple... could be getting into a bidding war for Acclaim?

Navarro: Yeah, I...I'm not too sure about this one. Um, isn't Acclaim doing an exclusive Xbox game soon?

Gerstmann: Eternal Warriors, yeah.

Navarro: So, okay, Apple just bought Sega....and the Katana right now is tanking. And they're wanting to buy...Acclaim? Have you played the Katana version of Turok: Extinction?

Gerstmann: Unfortunately.

Navarro: It sucks!

Gerstmann: Well, I mean, I suppose they'd be making games for the new iPod. *groans* Games for the new iPod.

Navarro: Play Turok on your iPod!

Gerstmann: Yeah, Turok and...I guess All-Star Baseball? Or would they not make baseball games anymore, because, you know, World Series Baseball is on there?

Navarro: And Burnout, Burnout's fun. It's not bad on the Katana, might be fun to play that on there.

Gerstmann: But anyway, Microsoft and Apple might be trying to buy Acclaim as an exclusive second party. And I'm thinking....why? Like, for Turok or for the Valiant comics library?

Navarro: Well I was just thinking, because Archie Comics works with Sega all the time, we could see like, Archie meets Valiant, that might be cool.

Gerstmann: Archie meets Turok. Uh....actually that might not be half bad. But yeah, I think both companies might be best off leaving Acclaim alone. I mean, you could probably get them pretty cheap right now but, why...?

Navarro: Sega's gotta get some more second parties though.

Gerstmann: You mean Apple.

Navarro: *groans*

-from the August 10, 2004 episode of the Gamespot Podcast With Jeff And Alex

 

[RySenkari]

Metroid: Homecoming

Metroid: Homecoming is the first Metroid game for the Nintendo Wave, the first fully 3-D game in the series, and the sixth mainline Metroid title, following the events of Metroid: Darkness and Metroid: Revenant. The game is not a first-person title like OTL's Metroid Prime, but a third person shooter/adventure game, sharing similarities with TTL games like Squad Four, Ballistic Limit, The Covenant, and games like Gears of War and Oni from OTL. Despite the transition to a fully 3-D style of gameplay, Homecoming retains the familiar Metroid tropes of exploration and discovery, giving players a massive world to explore, divided into six main sections. The ability to scan enemies and artifacts, first introduced OTL in Metroid Prime, is introduced for the first time TTL in Homecoming, and gives the player something to collect, along with giving them lots of interesting information about the game's world and backstory. The actual gameplay of Metroid: Homecoming is similar to other third person shooters of the time, with Samus being able to use a variety of ranged weapons on enemies. The player has the ability to lock onto multiple targets at once, or a single target, or to aim manually, whichever they prefer, with the lock-on mechanic being executed extremely well and becoming one of the most critically praised aspects of the game. The Special meter from Metroid Darkness returns, powering Samus' special beams and some of her other attacks, though she also has separate stockpiles for missiles, super missiles, and power bombs. Samus also has a variety of melee moves at her disposal, in a somewhat similar fashion to OTL's Other M, in that Samus can grapple with enemies and even tear things off of them. She can also strike enemies, though this is only recommended in specialized situations, once Samus has acquired a number of power-ups. Samus has the ability to jump, climb, and eventually to grapple once she acquires the Grapple Beam, giving her a repertoire of moves much like those featured in other games of the genre. She can slide in certain areas and can also use her Morph Ball to reach small spaces and navigate them, either in full 3-D or in 2-D in enclosed spaces (like the Morph Ball maze sequences in the Prime games). Samus moves a lot more fluidly than most other 3-D shooter heroes, her movement is less clunky and more natural and agile, making it quite fun for players to see where they can reach with her when she's climbing or running. She can hang off of ledges and fire at approaching enemies, or even fire while grappling (and this comes into play during a number of action sequences in the game). Like in previous titles, Samus gains a bunch of new weapons and equipment for her to utilize during the game, including the Power Fist (which allows her to punch enemies and environmental objects with greatly enhanced strength), the Bullet Ball (letting her zip between enemies and damage them in her Morph Ball form), the Tornado Beam (a wind-elemental beam that allows Samus to blow enemies and objects away), the Sand Suit (allowing her to navigate exceptionally harsh deserts and turn into a stone-like form) and the Chozo Suit (acquired toward the very end of the game, giving Samus a host of new powers). The game has some of the best graphics yet seen in a Nintendo Wave title, making it one of the best looking console games of the year and generally looking even better than OTL's Metroid Prime 3 and Metroid Other M. The game once again features voice acting, with Jennifer Hale returning as the voice of Samus Aran.

Metroid: Homecoming gives players a great deal of information about Samus' childhood and early life amongst the Chozo, which is relayed at appropriate times via flashbacks given to her throughout the story. The game takes place on the Planet Chozo, the ancient homeworld of the Chozo race, and though Samus herself was not raised on this planet, she has been told information about it by the Chozo who raised her. By the time Samus arrives, still in pursuit of the ancient Chozo artifact she had been searching for in Revenant, the planet is seemingly devoid of animal life. Samus arrives in an underground Chozo temple, and is put through a ritualistic Chozo "cleansing" ceremony, in which she is stripped of all her power-ups and weapons, leaving her with just a few missiles and her Morph Ball. She emerges from the temple in a lush, forested area, but lurking amongst the trees are the first creatures Samus must face, vicious insects with powerful acid and venom. As she explores the planet, she must "reclaim" the power-ups that were taken from her, sometimes by battling the planet's creatures and other times by battling various Chozo machinations along the way. As she explores the forest, however, she realizes that she is not alone on the planet, and is eventually attacked by a Chozo warrior. She soon learns that the Chozo homeworld is still inhabited by the remnants of the ancient Chozo race: the few remaining warriors who refused to accept the Chozo's new peaceful ways and who devoted themselves to the art of war. These early Chozo that Samus faces aren't very tough, but as she continues to explore, she'll come across more powerful Chozo and learn of the planet's ancient secrets.

There are six total regions on Planet Chozo, and in true Metroid fashion, Samus won't visit them all in linear order, she'll revisit them as she gains more items to uncover more areas of the planet. Here are the regions of Chozo in the order Samus first visits them.

Paradisa: The forests of Chozo, home to ancient temples and powerful fauna. There used to be a lot more forests on the planet, but as an ancient evil force began to take over, the forests were gradually replaced by deserts.
Abyssia: The vast desert realm of Chozo. The sands conceal many secrets, but the innermost regions of the desert can't be navigated without the Sand Suit.
Obscura: The underground cave network of Chozo, where many of the warriors now inhabiting the planet have made their secret training grounds. There are also ruins and collapsed temples buried here.
Ancient Altar: A sacred region of Chozo, home to the greatest temple on the planet, and once home to the great Chozo elder who was like a father to Samus.
Miradia: A swamp-like region where dark, evil mists of spiritual energy have been building up. Here is where Samus discovers the true secret to the fate of the Chozo.
Fatespire: The newly constructed temple, dedicated to the new Chozo warrior caste, and the place from where the Chozo seek to rebuild their civilization. Here is where Samus will help decide the fate of the entire Chozo race.

Samus learns of the great cataclysm that forced the Chozo off their homeworld, and the population crisis that caused the inevitable decline and extinction of the Chozo race. She also learns that the warriors who attack her (and who guard some of the temples she encounters) are few in numbers and seem to be a disorganized band, not a powerful organization like the Space Pirates. The ancient Chozo mechanical weapons who attack Samus as she explores the temples are much more of a threat to her, and are not being controlled by these warriors. Samus continues to explore the planet, gradually unraveling the mystery behind the fate of the Chozo. The peaceful, sparefaring Chozo, like the ones who raised Samus, have all died out, and these warrior Chozo seem to be the last ones left, but even they aren't doing well. They can't go into the wastes of Abyssia, and they speak in a disjointed language that's nothing like the refined speech of the Chozo who raised Samus. They seem almost...feral. However, about halfway through the game, at the temple at the Ancient Altar, Samus goes into the innermost sanctum and finds a Chozo named Shaka who is an excellent fighter, and much more intelligent than the Chozo warriors she's been facing, speaking like the ones who raised her. Shaka is disgusted with Samus' presence, and is insulted that the Chozo would pass on their warrior heritage to a human rather than embrace the warriors still remaining on their planet. He blames the peaceful Chozo for the downfall of their species, and attacks Samus in a fury. He actually looks like he's about to defeat her, but the activation of an ancient mech forces him to flee, leaving Samus to fight the mech. Samus continues to explore the planet and eventually pursues Shaka through Miradia (where she encounters other intelligent warrior Chozo who are mostly hostile to her) to the Fatespire, a newly constructed Chozo monument, giving off an energy resembling the wavelengths of the Chozo artifact Samus has been pursuing. Samus is unable to enter the Fatespire when she first encounters it: she'll need to "complete" her Chozo training, and eventually finds the few remaining friendly Chozo. However, these few remaining friendly Chozo are merely spirits, inhabiting the artifacts in the temple where Samus completes her training and is given the Chozo suit. Also in this temple, Samus learns the true fate of the Chozo: once they left their ancient homeworld, they were stricken with a disease that made it impossible for them to reproduce, or to return to the planet. They could only return via spirits, spirits that inhabited the Chozo technology, both on their homeworld and throughout the universe. The warrior caste had long ago been banished to the ancient caverns. Meanwhile, without the huge numbers of Chozo to sustain their homeworld, the planet became a wasteland, and the Chozo warriors who finally emerged from the caverns found a dying world to greet them. They were still able to reproduce, but the new generation grew up without the knowledge of the ancient progenitor Chozo, and soon there were only a few intelligent Chozo like Shaka who remained. In desperation, the remaining intelligent Chozo used a ship to leave in order to conduct experiments to restore their world. This became the ship that Samus explored in Revenant. When things went awry, a few Chozo (including Shaka) evacuated back to the homeworld, with the artifact in hand. This artifact is known as the Progenitor Stone, and it's the thing that allows the Chozo to maintain their presence on the planet. The Progenitor Stone contains all the knowledge of the Chozo and where to find the remaining members of the Chozo race, and to return them home and cure them of the disease. In other words, the Progenitor Stone will allow the Chozo to rebuild their entire civilization. However, Samus realizes that it remains in the hands of Shaka, a bitter Chozo who despises all other intelligent life in the universe and seeks only to destroy them. If Samus allows him to keep the Stone, the Chozo will become the scourge of the galaxy, rather than its protectors.

Samus returns to the Fatespire and enters. The first part of the Fatespire takes the form of another ancient Chozo trial, though this is one that is rigged for Samus to lose and which the player must use all their skills if they are to survive. Finally, Samus engages in three final battles: the first battle is against a team of five powerful warrior Chozo, each with their own special skills, who gang up on Samus and make this an extremely tough fight. The second battle is against Shaka himself. After defeating Shaka in a fierce fight, Shaka asks Samus if she's truly willing to cause the extinction of the Chozo, especially after all they did for her. Samus tells him that with the Progenitor Stone, she might be able to find some other Chozo who are truly benevolent, and return them to their homeworld to start anew. However, Samus also honors Shaka as he kneels before her, realizing that the two of them have a lot of similarities and that Shaka is just trying to protect the Chozo. She doesn't want to kill him, but he continues to attack her, not seeming to give her much of a choice. Samus can feel an ancient evil energy, and realizes that Shaka and his fellow warrior Chozo weren't acting on their own volition...they were under the influence of a powerful evil force, a corruption that Samus can feel in the very planet itself. The evil force consumes Shaka, and transforms his body into that of an ancient evil Chozo god, prophesized by the Chozo to wreak havoc on their world (and alluded to many times throughout the game, including in an ancient bedtime story the Chozo told to Samus. Known as the Dark Progenitor, this evil force is the true final boss of the game, and after defeating it, Samus has won. She can feel the evil still permeating the planet itself, and sets out with the Progenitor Stone to find any remaining Chozo who might be able to return and restore the ancient civilization to its former glory.

Metroid: Homecoming is one of the year's best reviewed games upon its release. It's not quite as well reviewed as Darkness, but still considered an outstanding game, continuing the Metroid franchise's reputation as one of the best game franchises in existence. The game is released on August 4, 2004, to very strong sales, about in line with Nintendo's expectations. A sequel is immediately put into production, and scheduled for release sometime in the next two or three years. Ultimately, Metroid: Homecoming and its sequel, which would also be released on the Nintendo Wave, would signal the end of an era for the Metroid series, after which the series would see another tonal shift, many gameplay innovations, and the recasting of the voice of Samus Aran (despite the excellent reception of Jennifer Hale's performance).

 

[Pyro]

There is little doubt that Justice League dominated movie theatres in 2004, but 20th Century Fox was hardly idle with its Marvel properties. The resounding success of Captain America three years prior assured a sequel and The Incredible Hulk had always been a priority for the studio. Unlike the drama behind its rival’s tentpole release, the productions of both films were a low-key affair. While Fox did want John McTiernan to return to for Captain America 2, he showed more interest in reviving the Die Hard franchise after a decade of dormancy. Thus the studio turned Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black who would make his directorial debut with Captain America: War of the Patriots.

In keeping with the character’s patriotic roots, Fox slated the film’s release date for Memorial Day weekend. The story itself would borrow from Steve Englebert’s run in the 1970s and combined them with elements from 1984’s What If? (vol. 1) #44, which dealt with the question, what if Captain America had been revived today instead of Avengers (vol. 1) #4? William Burnside (played Jeremy Renner), the Captain America of the 1950s, served as the antagonist that was a failed experiment to replicate the Super-Solider Serum. While the government had been able to replicate the serum’s effects, the flaws in the formula also drove the subjects into fits of psychosis and paranoia. Disappointed with the results, the government put him into suspended animation.

However, Burnside was merely a puppet for the films true villains Baron Helmut Zemo (son of Heinrich from the original film, played by Ralph Fiennes) and Doctor Faustus (David Odgen Stiers.) Both the sons of exiled Nazi war criminals and agents of Hydra enraged by Captain America’s return, who learn of the 50s Captain America and conspire to undermine their fathers’ hated enemy and the United States by reviving Burnside and planting him the reactionary group, “The Committee to Regain America’s Principles” led by Norman Chadwick (Ned Beatty.)

Meanwhile, Steve Rogers struggles with the alienation he feels with being a man out of time and how even his hometown of Brooklyn feels foreign to him. His only friend at this time his is S.H.I.E.L.D. “handler” Sharon Carter (granddaughter of Peggy, played by Charlize Theron.) He ruminates on how America passed by him and openly wonders if the country even shares his values. Things do look up after he befriends Sam Wilson (Jamie Foxx), formerly special forces, during a robbery. Steve is later horrified to learn that another Captain America emerged with views completely antithetical to his own.

Burnside is very much a product of the McCarthyist, pre-civil rights United States who rails on how the “Marxists and sodomites” despoiled the “America” he loved and that he intends to bring the country back to what it used to be. As such he endorses Chadwick, who had reshaped the Committee into the Patriot Party, for President. Faustus makes use of his skills as a psychologist to “sway” many influential citizens and politicians to Chadwick’s side, including the director of the FBI.

Both Chadwick and Burnside accuse Steve Rogers of being an imposter and traitor, which quickly turns the film into a political thriller where Steve becomes a fugitive from the law. There is added intrigue as Zemo and Faustus plot Chadwick’s assassination using a Hydra asset known as “Nomad.” Their plan is to make Chadwick a martyr and install his running mate (himself a Hydra sleeper agent) as President of the United States.

The film culminates in a showdown between Steve and Burnside at a Patriot rally in Washington D.C. while Sam Wilson (as Falcon) swoops in to foil the assassination attempt. Steve ultimately prevails over Burnside while Nomad overpowers Falcon and escapes, though not before Falcon removes his mask. Meanwhile, Sharon captures Zemo and Faustus before they escape, and exposes their ruse. Chadwick bows out of the race in disgrace while Steve receives his vindication. Sam Wilson decides to become the protector of Brooklyn since Manhattan has the Fantastic Four and Queens has that “spider kid.”

However, the biggest bomb drops at the end of the film where Steve steps into Nick Fury’s (David Hasselhoff) office aboard the Helicarrier. The S.H.I.E.L.D. director reveals that a surveillance camera in DC caught something of interest. Though the image is slightly blurred, Steve recognizes the face as Bucky’s. Fury explains that it was the assassin known only as Nomad, who has had a hand in every assassination and revolution in the past sixty years. He earned that name because he has no allegiance to any country. When asked where is going as he leaves Fury’s office, Steve simply replies, “to find my friend,” to set up the hook for the next Cap film.

The Incredible Hulk released later that year on July 16 two weeks after Justice League hit theatres. Fox and Marvel had assumed that the hype from their rival film would have died down, but underestimated the League’s staying power. It also did not help that the studio had brought on Luc Besson as director. While a talented director in his own right, Besson was not familiar with the character by his own admission and was more familiar with the French comics scene. He cast Hugh Jackman, previously passed over for the roles of Wolverine and Batman, as Bruce Banner and Winona Ryder as Betty Ross.

Rounding out the cast were Jeff Bridges as General “Thunderbolt” Ross and Liev Schreiber as Major Glenn Talbot. The most puzzling casting choice was Matthew Lillard; most fans had assumed that the studio cast him as perennial Hulk enemy, the Leader, but were dumbstruck when it was revealed that he was playing the Abomination. While the film did stay true to the origin of the character with Emil Blonksy being a foreign spy, the portrayal had not been what fans were expecting.

While the Bruce/Betty/Talbot love triangle had been a staple of the comics, the film added Blonsky as an abhorrent admirer and obsessive to point of being a stalker. The film further retcons his origin so that he a researcher at the Gamma Project, feeding intelligence to an unspecified country. In keeping with the shared continuity between the Marvel films, the purpose of the Gamma Project was to replicate the same accident that created the Fantastic Four to create a new breed of super-soldier, though Bruce originally had more altruistic intentions. After Blonsky sees that Betty clearly has affections for Bruce, he decides to sabotage the project’s first test so that it would explode and remove Banner from the picture. He only half-succeeds as the explosion bombards Banner with gamma radiation, but doesn’t kill him.

As expected, Banner transforms into the Hulk and escapes from a military hospital before going on a rampage through the nearby New Mexico town. This leads to the Green Goliath’s first confrontation with Talbot and his subsequent escape. General Ross orders a manhunt for Banner, whom he now considers an asset of the United States Army despite Betty’s protests. Upon seeing her concern for Bruce, Blonsky believes the only way to make her love him is to become a monster himself.

One of the main highlights of the film is the unexpected appearance of a character that got his start in Incredible Hulk back in 1974. After his rematch with the US Army (with included the Hulk downing an A-10 with his bare hands), the Hulk lands in the parking lot and lurches towards Keifer Sutherland who then pops an iconic set of claws and asks, “You want trouble, Bub? ‘Cause I can give you a whole lot of it.”

The Hulk reverts back to a shellshocked Banner, whom Logan gives him a shirt and buys him a drink. Many fans considered the scene surreal, as no one expected Wolverine to put in an appearance. An inebriated Banner spills his guts to Logan over his troubles and the, “monster inside him,” something Logan can relate to given his berserker rages. Logan asks Banner if he anyone special in his life (hinting at his unrequited feelings for Jean Grey) and advises not to push her away because people like her can help tame the beast. Thus after parting ways with Logan, Banner resolves to surrender himself to Talbot for Betty’s sake.

However, it is only while Talbot is bringing Banner back to Gamma Base that they learn that Blonsky kidnapped Betty. Driven mad by his obsession with her, Blonsky decides to turn both he and Betty into Hulk-like monsters to become the Adam and Even of a new race. Betty is naturally appalled by this and even calls him, “an Abomination.” Talbot and Banner put their rivalry on hold to rescue her while Blonsky mutates into a Gamma-fueled monster to do battle with the Hulk.

Banner demonstrates a degree of control over his alter-ego, no doubt because of his anger towards the Abomination. Despite Blonsky’s seemingly superior strength, it is Banner’s love for Betty that helps the Hulk defeat Blonsky. The ordeal also convinces Banner that the Hulk could be a force for good, but he would have to remain a fugitive from the army. He gives Betty a kiss good-bye while Talbot gives him a head start as a gesture of goodwill. The film ends with Banner hitchhiking along an empty highway as a reference to the old television series, with a version of the “Lonely Man” theme.

A truck pulls up and offers Banner a ride. The driver make a remark about his black eye and swollen lip to which Banner smirks and replies, “You should’ve seen the other guy.”

In terms of domestic gross, both War of the Patriots and Incredible Hulk were successful, albeit not to the level of Justice League. The former earned an impressive $105 million over the long weekend (with the tornado outbreak hampering its Sunday earnings) and $260 million overall. It proved that the success of 2001’s Captain America was not just a fluke and that Fox had a bonafide franchise on its hands and thus greenlit a sequel. Hulk was less successful with $60 million opening weekend and $165 million total. While not a failure, it was not what Fox had wanted from the Green Goliath who found himself overshadowed by the distinguished competition.

Many in the media and fandom began asking Stan Lee when Marvel was going to produce an Avengers film. The public face of Marvel Comics also began asking the same question and hectored 20th Century Fox behind the scenes while assuring the public that the Avengers were on the way. This put Fox in a bind; industry insiders initially reported that the company was going to put an Incredible Hulk sequel on its slate, but were surprised to learn that Fox was indeed rushing Avengers into production to catch up with Warner Bros.

2004 also saw the entry of a new combatant in the Superhero Wars: Acclaim (formerly Valiant) and Columbia/Sony with the release of Quantum and Woody on July 30, 2014. The comic had seen a brief, but memorable 22-issue run from 1997 to 2000. Compared to the “big two,” the adaptation of this somewhat obscure property had a modest $30 million budget and placed writer/producer Judd Apatow in the director’s chair. Khary Payton, then mostly known for his voice work and minor roles on television, landed the role of Eric Henderson/Quantum while the studio signed on Owen Wilson as Woodrow “Woody” Van Chelton to bring some star power to the film. Those with sharp enough hearing would recognize Seth Rogen as the voice of Vincent Van Goat, Woody’s quadrupedal “sidekick.”

Quantum and Woody mostly follows the comic with former childhood friends Eric (a decorated Army officer) and Woody (a failed musician and implied to be stoner) reunited after the deaths of their scientist fathers. As expected from the buddy comedy, most of the laughs come from Eric’s straight-laced personality clashing with Woody’s womanizing and lack of discipline. Over the course of their investigation, gain energy-based superpowers with the caveat that their metal bands much renew contact every 24 hours or their physical forms with dissipate. Meanwhile, Vincent the goat is arguably the most competent out of the three, providing snide commentary and saving the duo’s butts while they bicker.

The film drew in $37 million on its opening weekend with total domestic gross north of $130 million, making it a bonafide success. It also brought in more money with hits home release. Quantum and Woody’s success helped get Sony gets its foot in the door in the burgeoning superhero genre. With three major studios in the game, 2005 would prove to be another watershed year for the industry as the King of the Seas would challenge the combined forces of Spider-Man and the X-Men for box office supremacy while Harbinger and 2006’s Shadowman would determine if Sony had legs in the game.

-Tales From The Superhero Wars, sequentialhistory.net, October 14, 2010

 

[RySenkari]

"The Next Evolution Of Fun"
-the tagline for Capcom's "CapcomNEXT" advertising campaign, which began in the summer of 2004

In the year 2004, Capcom was at a bit of a crossroads. The company was still quite successful, but their upcoming games weren't generating as much buzz as games from companies like Konami, Squaresoft, and Activision, and many analysts wondered if Capcom had become a "second tier" game company, so to speak. Their most anticipated game of the year, Resident Evil 4, would hopefully bring the series back into the public eye after it had slipped from the height of its popularity, but Resident Evil 4 didn't have mass market family appeal like Nintendo's Mario or Apple/Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. The only Capcom franchises to have that kind of appeal were Mega Man and Street Fighter, but both of them were on the decline as well. In the leadup to the release of Mega Man Next, the game that would bring the Blue Bomber fully into the next generation, the company decided to make that game the focus of its next marketing campaign. It was ultimately decided that the game XR: Human Weapon, in development since 2001, would be the first game to fall under the new marketing initiative, dubbed "CapcomNEXT". CapcomNEXT would emphasize the graphical advancements of the new games, while also introducing dynamic marketing to make all of Capcom's major releases appeal to a larger audience. Even mature games such as the upcoming Resident Evil 4 would fall under this campaign, but it was mostly designed for games such as Mega Man Next and the upcoming Star Siren Nakama, which were designed to appeal to broader audiences. The first two CapcomNEXT commercials were for XR: Human Weapon and Mega Man Next, and rather than show the games' storyline in an attempt to make them seem more dramatic, the commercials were based around "fun", showing off action packed gameplay footage and showing excited looking gamers playing the games. It was somewhat of a throwback to a 1990s style of advertising, but if it worked, Capcom's image would be given an enormous facelift.
-from the article "A History Of Capcom's Marketing Campaigns", posted on Gamesovermatter.com

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XR: Human Weapon

XR: Human Weapon is an action title developed and published by Capcom. The game focuses on assassins who are trained to be fired out of specialized cannons into enemy positions, where they then emerge from their bullet-like containers and attack all enemies in sight. In development since late 2001, the game was intended from the start to be released on next-generation consoles, and features bright, detailed, and colorful graphics. Each level (there are fifteen in all) begins with the player aiming the large cannon at the stage itself, with the option to choose where to land. Depending on where the player lands, the level will play out differently, with some areas containing more enemies but less stage hazards, and other areas containing less enemies but more stage hazards. Once the player lands, there's a large explosion that knocks enemies away (depending on the player's loadout, landing will have different effects, sometimes the player can elect for a stealth landing, they can choose to freeze their enemies, they can land with a gravity effect, etc.) Then, the player emerges from their projectile and attacks enemies with a variety of weapons. Missions can have different objectives: sometimes the player will be asked to cover the landings of more "human weapons", sometimes they'll be asked to take out a specific enemy, sometimes they'll be asked to clear a certain point, though there are many different objectives that can be performed in a level. Fighting itself tends toward the hack and slash variety and is almost cartoony at times, the game is Teen rated, and so there's not much blood, instead the fighting is more like that of an action cartoon show, with the characters taking on almost superheroic qualities. The game features voice acting, done mostly by unknowns, and the game features about 45 minutes of cutscenes featured mid-level and between them to show the plot of the game.

The protagonist is a young man codenamed XR, a member of the elite Human Weapon Project, a task force of fighters trained to be launched into enemy positions that require a precision touch that explosive weapons can't provide. There are a few dozen members of the project, though the game only focuses on six: XR and his five best friends in the organization, who do the bulk of the work depicted in the game. The organization that XR works for is generally depicted as benevolent, there's no conflict between XR and the organization, and the villains they fight are just that: villains, with no real sympathetic motives (there is one noble Protoman-like lieutenant who has a sense of honor, but still fights for an evil cause and must be taken down). The enemies that XR and his friends are fighting against are called the LaGrange Syndicate, a group of international criminals who build evil robots in order to form a massive army. They take hostages, build superweapons, and generally engage in a lot of villainy. They are led by an evil scientist named Dr. Vector, who is somewhat more serious than Dr. Wily from the Mega Man series, he's depicted wearing a military-style trenchcoat with a green hat and black sunglasses, and his demeanor is very aggressive and cruel. Throughout the game, XR and friends constantly foil Vector's schemes, until they battle Vector himself, who has boarded a massive robot and is attacking the city where the heroes' base is located. The final battle basically consists of the human weapons being shot into Vector's robot, coming out to fight him a bit, and then loading themselves back into the cannons to be fired again until the robot is destroyed. Vector manages to escape, threatening to come back and fight another day, and the game ends.

XR: Human Weapon is seen as a fun, somewhat innovative action title. Its slightly silly tone alienates some fans who expected something a bit more serious based on the promo material and trailers, but it's still a generally good game that falls just a bit short of its monumental hype. Sales are strong, about on par with expectations, and for the most part it's seen as the game that launches another successful Capcom franchise. The game is released on August 3, 2004, on the Nintendo Wave and the Apple Katana, and initially it sells about twice as well on the Katana, due to the Wave having seen the release of Metroid: Homecoming just a day before. Sales would eventually recover on the Wave, but it's still seen as more of a success for the Katana than for the Wave.

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Mega Man Next

Mega Man Next is a title in the Mega Man franchise, and it essentially brings the series' classic gameplay into full 3-D. If Next's style of gameplay is to be described, it can basically be imagined as "Super Mega Man 3D World": in other words, it's an old school style Mega Man game that plays across a 3-D landscape. It features eight selectable levels, each with a robot master to fight and to collect their weapon from, and then features a large final stage where the game's bosses are re-fought along with more tough unique bosses. Mega Man's repertoire is a combination of his control scheme from the original games and from the Mega Man X series: in addition to being able to fire a large variety of weapons and use auxiliary gadgets and power ups, he can also climb buildings by clinging to them and can slide as well: in fact, his slide can damage enemies this time around. He's able to find health power ups and energy tanks, similarly to the X series, and can also charge his weapon to hit enemies with a superpowered blast of his normal projectile attack. Mega Man Next features cutscenes and voice acting, but it's largely kept to a minimum, similar to the OTL Maverick Hunter game. Inafune and his team do their best to make the gameplay as familiar to fans of the old games as possible, so there aren't too many new gameplay elements introduced aside from the transition to full 3-D movement.

Mega Man Next sees the return of the classic protagonist Mega Man (AKA Rockman) to the series. His enhancements are explained as the result of time travel that Dr. Light did in order to use components from the future to enhance Mega Man's skills in the face of a brand new enemy, a genetically enhanced cyborg named Cognus. Cognus was a human who grew envious of the skills possessed by robots, and began capturing them and taking them apart in order to graft their parts onto his body. The robots he decided not to use, he put chips into them to control them and turn them into his Robot Masters. Once Mega Man reaches Cognus, Cognus tells Mega Man that the two of them are a lot alike: after all, doesn't Mega Man gain much of his power from stealing the weapons of other robots and taking them for himself? Mega Man replies that he uses those weapons to protect others while Cognus only uses them for himself, but Cognus just laughs and tells Mega Man that the two of them are exactly the same before attacking and beginning the final battle. Even after Cognus is defeated, Mega Man is unsure of what he should do next, and that he doesn't know if he ever wants to fight again, leaving the game on somewhat of a bittersweet note.

Mega Man Next is released on September 14, 2004. It's seen as a logical next step for the series, but also somewhat of a disappointment, as the levels are a bit small and the gameplay is seen as being a bit repetitive at times: in other words, good idea but somewhat so-so execution. Still, reviews average in the 7s, and the game does prove to be an overall sales success, outselling any of the Zero or Legends games and giving the series sales it hasn't seen since the heyday of the Mega Man X games. Again, it's a game that does a lot better on the Katana than the Wave: the graphics are the same on both consoles, and are seen as being a bit backward for the Wave but quite good on the Katana.

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RUMOR: Inafune Wants To Focus On The Katana For Future Mega Man Games

It's no secret that the new hit Mega Man game, Mega Man Next, sold better on the Katana than it did on the Nintendo Wave, despite the flagging sales success of Apple's console. While Mega Man 9, the next sidescrolling Mega Man adventure, is currently in development for the iPod Play and has been announced for Nintendo's next generation handheld as well (despite no official announcement for Nintendo's Nova successor), going forward, Inafune has stated that he may prefer to see new Mega Man titles, particularly titles in the Next series, go exclusively to the Katana. His statements came in a recent interview with Famitsu, where he also teased his work on another game that could show up for the iPod Play in the future. Capcom has currently been producing games for every console on the market, though the company has recently stated that it will be scaling back on Xbox software development to focus on Nintendo and Apple's consoles.

-from an article on Gamespot.com, posted on October 21, 2004

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STREET FIGHTER IV RUMORED TO BE REVEALED AT UPCOMING TOKYO GAME SHOW: ARCADE, WAVE RELEASE?
-from UGO.com's front page on September 20, 2004

 

[RySenkari]

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Shadow Strike

Splinter Cell: Shadow Strike is the sequel to the 2002 Xbox and PC exclusive Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Shadow Strike is an action/stealth/shooter game with many gameplay similarities to the original Splinter Cell. The game takes its name from the original working title of OTL's Pandora Tomorrow. The game features a number of improvements to the original's stealth-focused gameplay, allowing protagonist Sam Fisher to strike and incapacitate enemies with even more precision than before, with a number of melee and grapple moves and a big step up in the level of the game's AI intelligence, forcing players to think on their toes and utilize stealth to the best of their ability. While it's possible to play through with a more run and gun style, it's highly discouraged, and players are practically required to use stealth for certain segments of the game. With that said, Shadow Strike is considered to be one of the easiest games to play stealthily if the player goes about it in an intelligent way. Enemies behave realistically, which makes their behavior easier to predict, and there is a level of forgiveness, especially on the easier modes, so players won't accidentally trigger enemy alerts and make things harder for themselves. Graphically, the game is nearly identical to the original. The Wave version does look a bit better, but the game was still designed with the Xbox in mind.

The game's plot is completely different from the plot of OTL's game, with a brand new villain and plot from OTL's Pandora Tomorrow. Sam Fisher is once again sent on a mission to neutralize a deadly terrorist. The game's primary protagonist, Farron Glazer, is a former colleague of Fisher's who has formed an organization of former assassins from organizations all over the world. Glazer is hoping to use his knowledge to make precision strikes on global infrastructure. At first, these strikes don't seem to have any sort of pattern, and Fisher has trouble pinning Glazer down or predicting his next move because of this. However, after Fisher captures and interrogates one of Glazer's subordinates, he comes to realize that these precision strikes are being launched with the goal of destabilizing the world's economy in order to funnel money into Glazer's organization, which Glazer plans to use to start his own rogue nation. Fisher must prevent Glazer's activities if he is to prevent the collapse of the world economy and the descent into a Second Great Depression, which will kill many millions via chaos and starvation. Fisher pursues Glazer and his team, gradually wiping the team out one by one until only Glazer is left. The two confront one another atop the Three Gorges Dam, which Glazer plans to destroy in order to crush China's burgeoning economy. The two battle one another and Fisher kills Glazer and prevents the destruction of the dam.

Shadow Strike is generally received very well by critics. Both the Wave and Xbox versions of the game receive excellent reviews, though it's not reviewed quite as well as the Xbox version of OTL's Pandora Tomorrow. Critics love the realistic AI and the gameplay improvements, but the lack of graphical improvements and the occasionally frustrating difficulty, along with the fairly derivative plot, prevent the game from achieving a Game of the Year level reception. Shadow Strike is released on August 31, 2004, and sells somewhat better on the Xbox than on the Wave, though it's considered a major hit on both systems and is one of the top selling games of the month.

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The runaway success of the Tom Clancy games continues to highlight a stark division within Ubisoft: its American and European divisions are creating different types of games for different types of fans, and are achieving different levels of success in doing so. Ubisoft's American division focuses on mainstream gamers, those who love shoot-em-up games and online multiplayer experiences, and those are the games that are currently driving sales. The Tom Clancy series in particular is seeing massive sales, with pretty much every game a hit. In contrast, Ubisoft's European division, responsible for producing games like Rayman and Magicka, is seeing declining sales in what is seen to be a backlash against platform games amongst the general gamer population. Only Beyond Good And Evil has proven to be a recent blockbuster for the European division, but production for that game's sequel has hit a snag, as the two game divisions within Ubisoft compete for resources with one another.

The question is: is there room within Ubisoft for both Tom Clancy and Beyond Good And Evil? And what of more obscure franchises like The Darkest Ritual, whose third game has recently begun development? Will the continued success of the Tom Clancy titles threaten Ubisoft's less successful games, or can they co-exist thanks to the company's rapid growth? The Ubisoft umbrella continues to expand, but there's still only so much money to go around, and games like the third Darkest title and maybe even Beyond Good And Evil 2 could see budget cuts if sales for any of the company's franchises decline, leaving fans of the European franchises paradoxically hoping for success for the Tom Clancy games in the hope that those games' profits are funneled toward the European franchises, rather than being spent on the next big Tom Clancy game.

For now, the American and European branches of Ubisoft all seem to be working toward the same goal, rather than competing with one another. It's hard to know what lies beneath the surface, but at the moment, everyone at Ubisoft seems content with just riding the wave and hoping that the rising tide truly does raise all boats.

-from "Ubisoft: A Tale Of Two Divisions", an article posted on Gamesovermatter.com on September 16, 2004