Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

[RySenkari]

The 2004-05 NBA season could be summed up in three worlds: "The Lake Show". The big four of Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, and Steve Francis were completely unstoppabble after. After a 16-7 start, the Lakers rattled off 29 straight wins, nearly breaking the 1971-72 team's record of 33 straight wins in a season, en route to a 68-14 finish. Allen Iverson said that "I've never had so much fun playing basketball", as he went wild, averaging 27.2 points per game (down from 36.1 a year ago, but with three other skilled scorers on his team, that was to be expected), 11.0 assists (#2 in the league in assists, silencing the critics who called him a "ballhog" during the previous season, and 3.4 steals. Nobody else in the West could complete, though the Phoenix Suns and their Ming/Webber 1-2 punch continued to be strong and they carved out the #2 seed in the conference. The San Antonio Spurs surged to a division title thanks to rookie Al Jefferson and Gregg Popovich's potent coaching, though they only landed the #4 seed thanks to the 2002 rule change that no longer seeded based on division titles. They beat out Lebron's Denver Nuggets by a single game, and would meet them in the first round of the playoffs.

The Eastern Conference saw a tight race for the #1 seed between the Orlando Magic, led by Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol, and the Indiana Pacers, led by Steve Nash and their 2004 offseason free agent addition, Ray Allen, who took over the shooting guard spot from the legendary Reggie Miller. Both teams easily won their divisions, but were battling it out for the top record in the conference all season in the hopes of securing home court advantage in what seemed like an inevitable conference finals showdown. The New York Knicks surged back in a big way during the year, securing the #3 seed thanks to their star Kenyon Martin and a pair of strong supporting teammates in Antawn Jamison and Jay Williams. Williams was acquired from the Clippers in a trade at the deadline. Williams was tired of being on what was then the worst team in the league with a horrific 4-48 record, allowing the Knicks to fleece them to the tune of a first round pick and a couple of bench warmers. The Clippers would ultimately finish 7-75, 15 games behind the second worst team in the league and setting an all time record for futility.

Playoffs:

First Round:

Eastern Conference:

(1) Orlando Magic over (8) Toronto Raptors, 4 to 1

The Raptors had fallen from grace over the past few years. They'd been a contender in the conference over the first half of the decade, but could never find help for their star center Jonathan Bender, and had largely fallen to the wayside as a "one man team". Bender put up a valiant effort against Gasol and Nowitzki, but the Raptors were never in this series and bowed out gracefully in 5.

(4) Atlanta Hawks over (5) Boston Celtics, 4 to 1

After the controversial brawl in last year's playoffs that saw mercurial star Ron Artest suspended for the first 15 games of the season, the Hawks seemed like a ticking time bomb waiting to blow, but Artest and Darko Milicic behaved themselves and after a rough 5-10 start thanks to Artest's suspension, the Hawks got it back together and their young nucleus had its best season to date, with Artest making All Second Team NBA and winning Defensive Player of the Year. They were favored in this rematch of last year's first round series, and they overwhelmed the cagey but aged Celtics in a five game series that became a boring defensive grindfest toward the end, with the Celtics setting a record in Game 5 for fewest points ever scored in an NBA playoff game.

(3) New York Knicks over (6) Detroit Pistons, 4 to 3

It was starting to come together in Detroit, with Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler leading a young and fierce team that looked like it might knock the Knicks off after stunning them in a pair of road wins at Madison Square Garden in games 1 and 2, and going ahead 3 to 1 after Game 4. However, the Knicks and Kenyon Martin wouldn't be denied. Games 5-7 were all close, but in the end the Knicks pulled out the win and would face an old rival in the conference semifinals...

(2) Indiana Pacers over (7) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 0

The Pacers had little trouble sweeping the Bulls, and looked like a million bucks, dominating offensively and defensively. Nash and Allen were an unstoppable backcourt tandem, and the Bulls had nothing to answer them. The Pacers would go on to face an embattled and exhausted Knicks team in round two.

Western Conference:

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (8) Portland Trailblazers, 4 to 0

For the second straight playoffs, the poor Trailblazers got stomped into the ground by the dominant Lakers, though at least they didn't lose any games by 50 points this time.

(5) Denver Nuggets over (4) San Antonio Spurs, 4 to 2

Lebron James' heroic performance in Game 6 clinched victory for the Nuggets. His 51 point, 16 rebound, 14 assist performance went down as one of the best playoff performances of all time, as the euphoric Nuggets crowd cheered him on. He did pretty much everything, willing the Nuggets back from 20 points down. Now James faces an insurmountable task in battling the Lakers' Big Four in round two.

(6) Dallas Mavericks over (3) Golden State Warriors, 4 to 3

Kobe's Warriors were upended by the Mavericks in this upset, though Kobe was hobbled by an ankle sprain he sustained in Game 1 and was never 100% effective. The Mavericks' young power forward David West was the star of the series, teaming up with Alonzo Mourning to provide front-court domination that the Warriors and their fragile big men couldn't overcome.

(2) Phoenix Suns over (7) Minnesota Timberwolves, 4 to 0

And speaking of front-court domination, the Suns' Yao Ming and Chris Webber overpowered the Timberwolves, who were largely "just happy to be here" with their young team that lacked any real stars save for their sharp young point guard Tony Parker and their boring but effective swing man Corey Maggette. The Suns couldn't stop Yao at all, who averaged 31 points per game over this four-game sweep.

Second Round:

(4) Atlanta Hawks over (1) Orlando Magic, 4 to 2

The Magic fail to return to the conference finals, while the Hawks move on. The Hawks had been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference since Artest's return from his suspension, and he made mincemeat of the Magic on both ends of the floor. Though Nowitzki kept the series relatively competitive, the Magic were never really in this one despite their #1 seed.

(2) Indiana Pacers over (3) New York Knicks, 4 to 3

The Pacers escaped this series, despite everything seemingly going right for them coming in. They won the first two games at Conseco Fieldhouse easily, but struggled the rest of the way with the gutsy Knicks, who nearly came all the way back just as they had done in round one. Jay Williams played like a man possessed, getting a triple double in the last five games of the series, including a 27-17-20 performance in Game 6 to save the Knicks that nearly eclipsed Lebron's incredible first round game. The Knicks went into the last quarter of Game 7 up 71-61, but some sharp shooting from Ray Allen, including a three to give the Pacers a 93-90 lead with just 14 seconds to go, won the game for the Pacers and advanced them to the conference finals.

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (5) Denver Nuggets, 4 to 2

The Nuggets never really had a chance to beat the staggeringly good Lakers, and yet Lebron tried his damndest to give them one. The Nuggets won both Games 3 and 4, leading the Lakers do to some soul searching before they went home and crushed the Nuggets in Game 5. Lebron tried to save the Nuggets' season with another heroic Game 6 performance, but in the end it wasn't to be, and the Lakers won in Denver 97-84 to put Lebron's team away. They would advance to the conference finals yet again, where they hoped to once again make their way back to the championship game.

(2) Phoenix Suns over (6) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 3

The Mavericks played the Suns tough in this battle of front-court giants that saw Yao vs. Zo and West vs. Webber, old vs. young, offense vs. defense. For anyone who liked big, tough frontcourt players battling it out for boards and dunking over each other, this was the series for you. It was perhaps the most entertaining series of the playoffs, with plenty of shots of Mark Cuban reacting to calls and cheering on his players. The Suns came out on top, with Game 7's final score being 91-82, and would battle the Lakers in a series that looked to be a foregone conclusion.

Conference Finals:

(2) Indiana Pacers over (4) Atlanta Hawks, 4 to 1

Though this series only went five games, it was closer than it would seem. Four of the games were decided by six points or less in this battle of the Pacers' flamboyant, offensive-oriented play and the Hawks' brutal, grind it out, neo-Bad Boys defensive style. Artest nearly got into another fight after being cussed out by Ray Allen, and this was a really high energy series that saw a lot of bad blood between the two teams. The Pacers moved on, but were left somewhat bloodied after a tough five games.

(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (2) Phoenix Suns, 4 to 3

The Lakers didn't have an easy time of things either. Yao Ming seemed to have Shaq figured out throughout the series, outplaying him most of the way and blocking many of his shots, with Shaq dissing Yao frequently in the media after and between the games. The Lakers' back court made the difference, but even Iverson and Francis found themselves sometimes stymied by the Suns' skilled bench defenders such as Bruce Bowen and Tayshaun Prince, with Prince making a spectacular block on an Iverson fast-break to keep the Lakers from winning Game 6. In the end, the Lakers just proved too talented for the Suns, wearing them down in seven, but it was an incredibly hard-fought series and left doubts about their chances in the Finals.

2005 NBA Finals

Los Angeles Lakers over Indiana Pacers, 4 to 0

And those doubts were ultimately unfounded, as the Lakers absolutely crushed the Pacers in one of the most lopsided NBA Finals in history. Allen Iverson absolutely dominated Steve Nash throughout the series, while Ray Allen had some of his coldest shooting of the season, and none of the Pacers' supporting cast could get anything going. Game 3 was the only competitive game of the series, while the Pacers lost in the clinching Game 4 by 34 points and were practically booed off the court by their own fans. The Lakers had won their second straight Johnson-Bird Trophy, and Allen Iverson had his first ring.

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The 2005 NBA Draft was one of the most stacked in many years, with both high school and college stars putting their names in the ring for a shot at basketball stardom. The Clippers once again had the first pick, which they'd largely botched with Emeka Okefor, who was decent but definitely a disappointment compared to some of the players drafted after him (including rookie of the year Dwight Howard). This year, the Clippers were determined not to botch their #1 pick... and so they would trade it to the Seattle Supersonics, who'd been lucky enough to get the third pick in the draft despite having the year's eighth-worst record (and were also lucky to have that pick come in a year when they didn't owe a pick to the Cavaliers from the 2003 Vince Carter trade). The Sonics traded their #3 pick, another future first-rounder (in 2010) and two of their starters for the pick, using it to select point guard Chris Paul. This surprised many analysts who believed North Carolina freshman Marvin Williams to be the consensus top prospect, but the Sonics thought he was too raw and Chris Paul had an outstanding workout for them. Williams would go second to the St. Louis Arches, who had begun play in the 2004-05 season but had finished with a 22-60 record. The Clippers were left with the third pick, and a choice between Deron Williams of Illinois, Raymond Felton of North Carolina, and high school phenom Shorell Craig, who had gone from not even playing basketball in 2001 (he was a football player) to leading his Georgia high school team to three straight state championships. The Clippers picked Deron Williams, which turned out to be an excellent choice: though the Clippers would continue to play poorly for the remainder of the decade, they would eventually build a serviceable team around Williams, who would lead them back to respectability. Craig would go to the Utah Jazz at fourth, and Raymond Felton would go to the Charlotte Hornets at fifth. Picking sixth, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were doing decently with Dwayne Wade but had whiffed on both their own pick and the pick they'd gotten from the Sonics in 2004, took LaMarcus Aldridge, who had declared for the draft after a rough freshman year that saw him struggle with injury. The pick was said to be a reach for the Cavaliers, as many said Aldridge was injury-prone, but his talent was too significant for them to ignore.

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Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 650th career home run yesterday in a game against the defending World Series champion Minnesota Twins. It now seems inevitable that Griffey will break Hank Aaron's all time home run record of 755, as he is currently the active home run leader over San Francisco's Barry Bonds, who has 592. Bonds seemed poised to perhaps be the first to break Aaron's record before a crackdown on performance enhancing drugs in 2001 sent his numbers into decline. Griffey has largely avoided injury throughout his career, and though he has never entirely avoided suspicion of using PEDs, he has been tested perhaps more than any other baseball player in history and has never had a positive test for any banned substance, making him, in the eyes of many, the "Great Clean Hope". Most baseball fans are cheering for Griffey to break the record, which, if he keeps up his current home run pace, he is likely to do in 2007 or as early as the 2006 season. Griffey has his Mariners in first place in the AL West, five games ahead of the Oakland A's, while the Mariners are tied with both the Twins and the Yankees for the best overall record in the AL. He's hit 21 home runs thus far this season, which is good for third in the AL, though it's far off the record-breaking pace he set in the late 90s, when he achieved the then-record for most home runs in a season (which was later broken by Mark McGwire in 1998). Griffey has said in recent interviews that while it would be a tremendous honor for him to break Hank Aaron's record, what he really wants to do is bring a World Series championship back to his beloved Seattle, which enjoyed back-to-back World Series wins in 1996 and 1997.
-from an article on Yahoo! Sports News, posted on June 30, 2005

 

[RySenkari]

(Here are the other notable North American game releases from April 2005 to June 2005!)

Nintendo Wave:

Grip And Grab

Grip And Grab is frantic action platformer title featuring a diminutive protagonist who beats up enemies to gain the collectables that fly out of them. The gameplay can somewhat be compared to the OTL Lego video games, which have also started to be made ITTL but none are really notable enough to mention yet. The collectibles include coins, weapons, and various items, some of which are required to progress in the game. It also features a multiplayer mode with similarly fast paced gameplay, with up to four players competing to see who can earn the most points or gather the most of a particular item. It's called a “collectathon on crack” by one reviewer, and scores range from average to decent. The production values are good, though the gameplay is admittedly quite repetitive. The game proves to be fairly popular with families and younger players, which helps its sales substantially.

Troublemakers: Calina's Adventure

A spinoff of the somewhat obscure but high quality Troublemakers series of 2-D action platformer titles by Enix and Treasure, Calina's Adventure stars Marina's rival/doppleganger Calina, who has become somewhat purposeless after no more enemy overlords will hire her to do their dirty work. She starts to search for other things to do, and in the process discovers her true role in the universe. This game is more action oriented than previous Troublemakers titles: while Marina's moves are largely limited to grabs and context-sensitive weaponry, Calina can use punches, kicks, and bombs to take out enemies, of which there are many, including a group of galactic do-gooder heroes and the game's eventual antagonist, a dark sorceress who tries to trick Calina into helping her and eventually attacks Calina's friends once Calina starts to turn over a new leaf. Calina's Adventure is seen as a strong spinoff title that achieves some of the series' best reviews since its Sega Saturn days, but sales in North America are disappointing, and Japanese sales are barely enough to justify continuing the series.

Beat Street

Beat Street is a collaboration between Rare and Nintendo, particularly the same developers who created Donkey Konga IOTL. The game utilizes a unique controller: a pair of drums with an attached turn-table like function that the player uses to create music and control the game's characters, a group of four cartoony kids who sort of resemble the Jet Set Radio protagonists but also have some of the aesthetics of the OTL Splatoon protagonists. In Beat Street, the four main characters are a sort of street gang who use their rhythmic “beats” to take down all their rivals in a series of light-hearted musical showdowns that play out sort of like a cross between a platforming stage and a beat-em-up (the recent film You Got Served, which also exists ITTL, is another influence on the game's stylistic vision). The rhythms created for the game all consist of original music by Grant Kirkhope, made to represent a variety of musical genres (comparisons are made between the game's musical score and some of the songs in Gitaroo Man), and takes place over a series of 12 levels featuring increasing difficulty. Though many compare the game to the Space Channel series, it's significantly more complex and has an addictive and intuitive scoring system, along with head-to-head online gameplay. Though the game can be played using an ordinary Wave controller, it's significantly more fun with the turntable/drum combo. Critics consider it highly fun and unique, and it's one of the best reviewed rhythm games in years. Sales are quite good, though a bit low for a Rare title.

Paradventure 2

Paradventure 2 is the sequel to 2003's Paradventure, a family-oriented action platformer game which features a team of heroes who rescue people in perilous situations. Paradventure 2 builds heavily on the original game, though it takes place almost entirely in a mountainous resort during the heat of the winter vacation season, and features an expanded cast of characters with all new rescue vocations for players to control. The Paradventurers spend the first half of the game rescuing people who have gotten into trouble at the resort, but soon come across Bigfoot tracks indicating that the mysterious creature may be the one behind all the trouble. As it turns out, Bigfoot is friendly and is trying to help people, and it's really Chaos Jack, the Paradventurers' old nemesis, who has broken out of jail and is trying to steal a secret treasure in a mountain cave near the resort. He eventually captures Bigfoot and endangers a school bus full of kids, and the Paradventurers have to save everyone. The game features improved controls and more minigames and rescue vocations than the first game, and thus gets slightly better reviews than the original. Sales are outstanding at release, especially among younger players, and the game would be one of the Wave's strongest selling titles of the year, especially around Christmastime. 2006 would see a big expansion of the series' merchandising and media empire, and would also see the beginning of annualization for the series' games, which would lead to a slight decline in quality but not so much in sales.

Ravee 2: Ravee's Revenge

The sequel to Silver Sail's 2003 platformer Ravee, this title would be published by Activision but developed by another team while Silver Sail was busy working on the next-generation Frederico game. It would see the protagonist Ravee return, but with a significantly different focus than the earlier title: rather than helping people and collecting Smile Feathers, Ravee would fully embrace his scary nature as a raven after his friends are attacked and captured by a wicked old wizard. The game would take on a much darker tone, with Ravee's attacks becoming more powerful and Ravee himself being much more serious and less jovial. Fans of the earlier game are largely turned off by the change in tone, though the game does get better reviews than the original title thanks to its puzzle solving and strong combat. It would become a cult classic, with slightly less sales than the original game, but it would be the last game in the Ravee franchise. Surprisingly, Carlos Delgado, creator of the original Ravee, actually enjoys the sequel more than his original game, saying in an interview: “The new team did more with Ravee than I ever thought I could do with it, and I give them all the credit in the world for taking the series in that direction. It's too bad a lot of fans didn't see it that way.”

Still Afraid

Still Afraid is the sequel to Activision's 2004 survival horror title Afraid. In it, Leni, the young agoraphobic woman from the previous game, has tried to make a new life for herself: she's made friends, she's going through college, and she's trying her best to forget the trauma of her childhood, but when she and her two best friends end up trapped in the apartment that her once-savior Trent Whitman, now a deranged and sadistic lunatic, has terrorized since Leni's deliverance from her own private hell, she will have to conjure up all of her courage to protect her friends and end Trent's reign of terror once and for all. The game plays out somewhat differently from the original title. It features an updated interface and improved improvisation of weapons and resource items, which Leni must use to battle the demonic illusions that Trent's string of murders has conjured forth. Leni is separated from her friends for portions of the game, and during those times she must find and rescue them, as there is a fairly strict time limit to do so. Once Leni finally reunites with Trent, she tries to save his soul as he once did for her, and there is a period of ambiguity in the game about whether or not she'll be successful. Tragically, Leni's efforts to save Trent lead to the death of one of her friends at his hand, which is the event that galvanizes Leni's heart to strike down a man who once saved her from her worst nightmare. Leni and her remaining friend have an emotional reunion and the two work together to slay Trent once and for all, finally ending the torment within Leni's tragedy-scarred heart as she and her friend limp out of the burning apartment together. Still Afraid, while criticized for its difficulty (particularly during its timed missions), is mostly praised for its improved gameplay and storyline over the previous title. The gore is reduced in favor of more psychological horror (though there are a few graphic torture scenes in the game, the camera knows when to cut away), and ultimately Still Afraid achieves both better reviews and sales than its predecessor, becoming one of the summer's most popular releases and making the game another success for Activision.

Apple Katana:

Akira

Based on the classic anime and manga, Akira is a 3-D beat-em-up title. It follows the anime film more closely than the manga, though it somewhat skews the plot in order to make the game flow more smoothly. The game allows the player to control both Kaneda (and occasionally) Kei, and takes place over 13 levels which parallel the events of the film, from Kaneda's activities in his motorcycle gang to his final climactic showdown with Tetsuo, though the game sort of pulls a Path Of Neo in that it alters the ending to produce a more “video game”-like final boss fight. Though the game features a fun combat system and some well acted cutscenes, it's ultimately seen as a disappointing and generic beat 'em up title that glosses over the plot of the original anime and manga and doesn't live up to its source material. Sales are fairly poor, while reviews are mediocre (X-Play is notable in giving the game a 4/5, though IGN gives it a 5.6 and Famitsu gives it a 14/40).

Runic Convergence

Runic Convergence is a first-party RPG for the Katana, created out of Apple's desire to launch a new traditional JRPG franchise on the system. Apple had a good deal of input into the game, but most of the work was done in Japan. Runic Convergence is a fairly traditional RPG, but with a lot of new gameplay mechanics meant to take the game into the modern era, such as an elaborate level-up system featuring a Sphere Grid-like map that awards points to players depending on how they utilize characters in certain roles, and a multi body-part targeting system for enemies, including a proto version of the “scratch” system used in OTL's Resonance Of Fate. Its plot involves a young man working as a “crystal excavator” for a mining company. He comes across a mysterious magical crystal and pockets it, causing him to be pursued by his employers and the government. A female superior begrudgingly helps him escape, and teams up with him to discover the crystal's true purpose, eventually learning that it is the key to an event called the “runic convergence”, in which an ancient magical kingdom buried beneath the world for thousands of years will re-emerge, making the great power it once held available to the first force that can conquer it. Runic Convergence is considered to be perhaps the best new Sega RPG franchise since Skies of Arcadia, and is considered among the year's best RPGs overall. Its outstanding graphics and voice acting make it an expensive gamble for Apple that pays off by turning a small but decent profit, justifying a later sequel for Project Pippin.

Darkstalkers: The Black Sigil

A traditional 2-D fighting game in full anime style that sees Morrigan and a group of returning fighters battle it out after being granted mysterious black sigils on their bodies that greatly enhance their powers. Part of the fun in this game is seeing the special “black sigil forms” that the fighters take, particularly the female fighters such as Morrigan and Felicia. It's nothing special, but it's a significant upgrade from previous Darkstalkers games, and one of the better reviewed 2-D fighting games of its generation.

Microsoft Xbox:

Ninja Gaiden Black

While in OTL Ninja Gaiden Black was somewhat of an enhanced remake of the original next-gen Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden Black ITTL is a sequel, wherein Ryu takes revenge for the slaughter of the village that he was protecting by a mysterious group of rival ninjas called the “Total Eclipse Gang”. Ryu hunts them down one by one and slaughters them, with the gang members becoming both more formidable and more sympathetic as he goes along, to the point where Ryu is not sure if he is truly good or if he has become evil. Ninja Gaiden Black is a significant improvement above the graphics of OTL's game (like OTL, it's one of the best looking games on the original Xbox), and retains the series' traditional difficulty. There are seven members of the Total Eclipse Gang in all, and every single battle, even the first, is a serious challenge even in easy mode (which, like OTL, mocks the player for choosing it), and nigh impossible in the game's hardest difficulties. Ninja Gaiden Black gets excellent reviews, on par with those of its predecessor (possibly slightly lower), with decent sales.

Pop-Pop-Po-Pop

A colorful puzzle title designed exclusively for the Japanese Xbox, one of the very very few exclusive Japanese Xbox titles. Due to its popularity in Japan (it's so popular it actually helps to drive a few Xbox sales), it's ported to the States. VERY well received critically, it's compared to games like World Of Color and is one of the year's best reviewed games overall. It's not a smash in America like it is in Japan, but it's probably the Xbox's most popular puzzle game, thanks to its online mode which is a hit with Xbox Live enthusiasts.

Jazzy
(Authors' Note: This game idea was given to us by our reader Goldwind2!)

Jazzy is a 3-D platformer title about an anthropomorphic saxophone named Jazzy who fires musical notes at enemies. As he goes and collects power-ups, the notes that he fires become significantly more complex, and skillful players will find themselves creating surprisingly catchy musical tunes as they jump through the stage, blasting enemies. Jazzy collects musical notes to advance through stages (similar to OTL's Banjo-Kazooie, though since Banjo-Kazooie became The Dreamers ITTL, collecting notes in a major platformer hasn't been done before as of 2005). Jazzy is considered quite a fun game, with lovely animation and a stellar musical score that features both old-timey jazz and other forms of jazz such as Jamiroquai-inspired acid jazz (which, since Jamiroquai has just released a popular album, unintentionally helps to make the game a slightly bigger hit). Jazzy becomes one of the more popular Xbox platformers, competing with fellow Xbox game Grizzly 2 for reviews and sales. Its reviews are slightly better, though its sales, while quite good, are slightly worse. It does prove that original platformers can still succeed on the system, even after the Yoyo series slid into stagnation.

Rage: Flashpoint

Rage: Flashpoint is a reboot of the beat-em-up series Rage, which featured multiple selectable protagonists who battled their way through numerous stages and hordes of enemies. Flashpoint gives players a single protagonist, a SWAT cop named Ricky Berringer who becomes targeted for death after corrupt cops believe he ratted on them. Their attempt to kill him instead succeeds in killing his wife and daughter, and Ricky is itching for revenge. The game features many of the classic moves from the original series (which were split amongst numerous characters in those games, but here Ricky gets a sort of “greatest hits” selection of moves to choose from), and was hyped initially, but the generic plot and repetitive gameplay make reviewers largely sour on it when it's released, and its review scores average just a shade above mediocre. It sells decently in its first week but drops off quickly afterward, and yet another attempt to revive a classic series ends up a disappointment.

Grizzly 2: Back In Time

The sequel to Artoon and Microsoft's platformer Grizzly (which itself is the TTL version of OTL's Blinx), Grizzly 2 sees the titular anthropomorphic bear character Grizz return with a set of new time and space-based powers, and has a heavy emphasis on going back in time to alter the past before revisiting those same stages in the present. The game's main villain is Ciera, the time witch from the previous game, who has trapped her twin sister Clara, who has reformed and turned good, in a never-ending time loop. Grizz must use his new powers to make Ciera see the evil of her ways and also to defeat the evil clock wizard Paradoxis. Grizzly 2, with its strong time traveling gameplay and excellent graphics, is seen as a good sequel to the original game, and competes with Jazzy for sales amongst younger Xbox fans. Grizzly 2 is a bit grittier of a game, and so is more popular with older boys, while Jazzy is a bit more popular with younger kids of all ages. Both games, however, give the Xbox a couple of strong performing platformers during that summer.

Biker
(Authors' Note: The summary for the game Biker was given to us by the reader Neoteros! He contributed the gameplay description while we contributed the sales performance summary.)

Biker is a racing video game developed by the Milan-based Milestone company and published by Microsoft for the Xbox. It is a a simulation game which aims to deliver a realistic motorcycle racing experience. The user controls a motorcycle through races on 21 paved roads:

Amalfi Coast, Italy
Atlantic Road, Norway
Chapman's Peak Drive, South Africa
Col de Turini, France
Dadès Gorges, Morocco
Denali Highway, USA
Furka Pass, Switzerland
Going to the Sun Road, USA
Great Ocean Road, Australia
Guoliang Tunnel Road, China
Highway 1, USA
Karakoram Highway, China
Ruta 40, Argentina
Sani Pass, South Africa
Seven Mile Bridge, USA
Stelvio Pass, Italy
Tianmen Mountain Road, China
Transfagarasan, Romania
Trollstigen, Norway
U.S. Route 550, USA
White Rim Road, USA

In a nod to the Vintage Speed Series franchise, the 31 motorcycles present in the game are almost all vintage, well-known motorcycles:

BMW R32 (1923)
BMW R69 (1960)
BMW R80 G/S (1981)
BMW Slash 5 (1970)
BSA Gold Star (1963)
Ducati 750 Super Sport (1973)
Ducati M900 Monster (1993)
Harley-Davidson EL (1936)
Harley-Davidson Low Rider (1977)
Harley-Davidson WLA (1940)
Harley-Davidson XR-750 (1970)
Henderson Excelsior Streamline (1929)
Honda CB750 Four (1969)
Honda CT70 Trail (1970)
Honda GL1000 Gold Wing (1975)
Honda Rebel (1985)
Indian Chief (1947)
Kawasaki Z1 (1972)
Kawasaki ZX900 Ninja (1984)
Laverda 750 SFC (1971)
Moto Guzzi V7 (1967)
Moto Guzzi V8 (1955)
Norton Commando (1968)
Royal Enfield Bullet (1931)
Suzuki GSX100S Katana (1979)
Suzuki GXS-R 750 (1985)
Triumph T120 Bonneville (1959)
Velocette Viper (1955)
Vincent Black Shadow (1948)
Vincent HRD Black Lightning (1952)
Yamaha YZ400F (1998)

Unlike in Gran Turismo, where the objective of the game is to win all the provided races, championships, complete license tests and achieve 100% game completion, in Biker the player is tasked with creating a character (that can be either male or female) and play through a 5-year career in the fictional Road Motorcycle Series championship, contested between 5 teams:

The German Adler-Sport, racing BMWs;
The British Saint George Racing Team, racing BSAs, Nortons, Triumphs, Velocettes and Vincents;
The Italian Scuderia Garibaldi, racing Ducatis, Laverdas and Moto Guzzis;
The American Far West Motorsport, racing Harley-Davidsons and Indians;
The Japanese Super Bushido, racing Hondas, Kawasakis, Suzukis and Yamahas.

There can be only 10 races in each season and only 10 different motorcycles can be used in each season by all teams, with bikes and tracks being unlocked depending on the player's actions, in a manner similar to a Ridge Racer game.

Between each season, the player can be hired by another team or sign with the same team again.

Biker is somewhat of a sleeper hit: Microsoft neglects to hype it significantly, focusing instead on its Forza Motorsport game. However, the game gets strong reviews (an 86.81% average on Gamerankings) and good word of mouth, contributing to its financial success. Its difficulty puts somewhat of a cap on its total sales figures, but it still sells more than enough to be profitable.

Subterfuge

Subterfuge is an FPS where the player is a spy and saboteur and must not only take out his enemies, but lay traps and plant bombs as well in order to complete his numerous objectives. It's a fairly mediocre game, but has a decent multiplayer mode thanks to the large array of traps the player is able to set, and provides some rather hilarious video footage of these traps going off.

Game Boy Nova:

Mario vs. Donkey Kong

Similar to the OTL puzzle platformer, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a puzzle-oriented Mario game for the Game Boy Nova. However, unlike OTL, the Minis do not appear in this game, and instead, Mario is once again rescuing Pauline from Donkey Kong's grasp as he journeys across more than 100 different levels, unlocking doors and solving puzzles and chasing Donkey Kong through many different types of worlds. The game features DS-esque graphics and animation, and even a bit of voice acting (just Mario's typical noises and one liners though), and like the OTL game, is considered a solid hit and is well reviewed by critics.

Oculus 2

The sequel to 2003's RPG Oculus, Oculus 2 features a brand new cast of characters and slightly more realistic graphics, though the gameplay is similar to the previous title. It does introduce the concept of “dual discipline” characters who are a combination of two different vocations. These are pre-determined rather than controlled by the player, though you do get an interesting set of combinations: there's an ice/poison character, a wind/metal character, etc., with most of the fighting utilizing magic and not physical weapons (similar to the previous game). Reviews are good and the game sells about as well as the first one, retaining its cult fanbase and reputation as one of the Nova's stronger RPG franchises. The third game would release on the Supernova some years later.

Thrillseekers: Alex's Ride

A prequel to the original Thrillseekers, this game takes place during Alex's first year in Eureka (before she met Stacy) and is about her finding various places to skate in the city. It's essentially just a reskinned portable Tony Hawk game, though it does feature some more unique skating locales and some fun character interactions in the cutscenes. For those wanting a portable version of the skating portion of Thrillseekers, it's a decent enough game. Sales are all right, though this obviously isn't a major hit like the console version was.

Ace Attorney 2: The Wright Stuff

The sequel to the original Ace Attorney, like the last game it took more than a year to localize this, but due to the game's cult success it was a shoo-in for an eventual localization. This game continues the story of Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, and Mia and Maya Fey. Mia is murdered in this game, in the third case of six (and like OTL's first game, Maya and then Phoenix are blamed for the crime before being exonerated). With two more cases than the original game, this does have quite a bit more content than the original title, and can sort of be considered “two games in one”: the first three cases form one arc, and then the second three cases form another arc. The game's second arc, revolving around a brash public defender named Alonzo Stone, is considered to be one of the best sequences of cases in the series. Alonzo, a public defender with a flair for the dramatic, is seen as somewhat of a “rival” to Phoenix after defeating Miles Edgeworth and crushing his spirit in a case running parallel to Phoenix's own case, the fourth in the game. In the fifth case, Phoenix and Alonzo work together to bust a crime overlord and exonerate a young prostitute for a horrible crime, though Alonzo takes much of the credit and leaves Phoenix somewhat disgraced. This culminates in the sixth case: Miles Edgeworth is framed for murder and Alonzo defends him, but Phoenix learns that Alonzo is sabotaging Edgeworth's defense as part of a long con. Phoenix manages to get put back on Edgeworth's case and in a dramatic sequence, gets Alonzo to confess to the crime, exonerating Edgeworth and restoring his spirit. The game is generally considered superior to the original, and helps to put the Ace Attorney series in the gaming mainstream to a small extent. However, this does cause Apple to notice the series, and the company already has a good relationship with Capcom from working together on Mega Man 9....

iPod Play:

Commander Keen: Dimensional Destruction

Commander Keen: Dimensional Destruction is an original Keen game for the Apple iPod Play. The structure and graphics of the game are quite similar to a Katana Keen title: it features full voice acting and all the wackiness you'd expect from a Commander Keen game. However, the worlds are somewhat smaller and more straight-forward than those of the previous title, A Stitch In Time for the Katana. This was a deliberate design choice and not a limitation of the iPod Play hardware: Apple and Ion Storm both wanted to make the game more convenient for portable players. The plot is fairly simplistic as well: Billy Blaze and his siblings find out that a variety of dimensions are being attacked by mysterious masked creatures known as the Goobers, and the Blazes must use every weapon at their disposal to stop them, leading to lots of collateral damage as they make their way through 16 different dimensions, each with their own rules and quirks: there's a fire dimension, an ice dimension, a cloud dimension, a gravity dimension, etc. As the protagonists make their way through the dimensions, battling the Goobers all the way, there's plenty of leaning on the third wall, with Commander Keen making fun of how “cliched” some of the dimensions seem to be. The game also features a competitive multiplayer mode, complete with an official version of “Get Hiller”, where one person plays as Mr. Hiller while the other players gang up on him. Using the game's online mode, this could be as many as 15 other people, leading to some truly insane shenanigans.

Commander Keen: Dimensional Destruction isn't quite as well reviewed as the Katana Keen titles, but still largely lives up to the hype and is seen as one of the better iPod Play games thus far. Sales are extremely strong, the game sees the iPod Play's biggest first week software sales to date in North America, and the game would eventually become a pack-in title in certain iPod Play bundles.

Powerchain

Created to be the iPod Play's big puzzle game, Powerchain is a puzzler that allows players to connect nodes and shapes to form chains and quickly rack up points (which can reach ludicrous amounts). It's fun, but doesn't quite match up to the great puzzlers, and sales and reviews are a bit disappointing. It's said that Apple underestimated how popular Molecular Chaos, another popular iPod Play puzzler, would be.

Soul Calibur II

Soul Calibur II for the iPod Play is a port of the Katana version of the game, it's pretty much a straight port (featuring Alis from Phantasy Star) and has all of the features of the original. It even looks slightly better on the smaller iPod screen, making it the best looking handheld fighter ever released up to that time. There is one major change: the addition of two new exclusive characters, Joe Musashi (from Shinobi) and Akira Yuki (from Virtua Fighter). They were both considered for the Katana version of the game before Alis was decided upon, but with the two year development time for the iPod Play port, there was time to add them both. Soul Calibur II immediately breaks Commander Keen's record for first week iPod Play software sales and would go on to sell more than two million copies on the system before the end of 2005.

Ghost In The Shell

A third-person shooter title based on both the original film and the Stand Alone Complex anime series, Ghost In The Shell follows Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team as they investigate a series of mysteries pertaining to the mysterious Laughing Man, though they get sidetracked as they find a killer who may not be entirely human. The game features numerous anime cutscenes and explores the nature of humanity, AI, and the soul, making it one of the deepest iPod Play titles yet in terms of thematics and storyline. Unlike the Katana's Akira, which was seen as a disappointment, this is considered one of the best video game anime adaptations ever made, and one of the iPod Play's best third person shooters. Its sales are still rather low in North America, but it does find considerable success in Japan to the point where it helps push more iPod Play sales there.

Elite Squad Champions

A sequel/side game to the Xbox-exclusive Elite Squad: Deploy And Destroy!, Elite Squad Champions is a top-down tactical RTS with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek tone. Featuring similar gameplay and scale to the Xbox game, it's quite technically impressive, though at its core it's a fairly generic RTS and sales are rather low. Still, it's considered to be a technical achievement and review scores average around a 7/10.

Hexa Guardians

A traditional RPG about six legendary heroes, each of whom embodies a different element and is symbolized by a different color, with a red (fire) hero, a blue (water) hero, a yellow (lightning) hero, a green (wind) hero, an orange (earth) hero, and a purple (time) hero. Each hero (three boys, three girls) has their own distinct personality, and each can transform to become more powerful, creating a sort of split battle system where characters have different techniques and stats for their civilian and transformed states. Featuring high quality graphics and voice acting, it's probably the best looking portable RPG to date, and is intended to be a somewhat “entry level” RPG type of game, targeting new iPod Play owners and younger fans. It's not Mystic Quest level simplistic or easy, there are some genuinely difficult bosses and challenges, but it's definitely not on the level of a Shin Megami Tensei or even one of the harder Final Fantasy games. Intended to start a multimedia franchise, it doesn't QUITE achieve the sales to reach that level, but it's not a commercial flop either, as reviews are quite good. The game becomes more of a fanart magnet than anything, though it does do well enough to get at least one sequel.

Multiplatform:

Flores 3: Bright Blossoms

The third iteration of an anime-styled fighting game based on colorful, flower-styled characters that had been very obscure in the West before this installment, this is actually only the second game from this series to be localized, but after the series' popularity has steadily grown, especially among tournament players, this third game got the biggest rollout yet in the West. It does well on the Katana but the Wave version doesn't see many sales. It DOES become a collector's item, however.

Frederico

Released on the Katana and Wave, this title is a semi-reboot of the classic platformer series (as evidenced by the fact that it doesn't have a subtitle, so many fans refer to it as Frederico 10, symbolizing the ten-year anniversary of the series). It features Frederico and all the other classic characters in a brand new adventure. Rather than being just a typical 3-D platformer like the fifth-generation games were, the new Frederico changes things up a bit by bringing back 2-D levels but with the occasional 3-D perspective for certain rooms and boss fights. It also brings back Generalissimo Garcia as the main villain, who has raided the treasury of Frederico's town and threatens to put all of his friends in the poorhouse. Frederico has to go and get all the money back, battling Garcia's minions all along the way, including Paulina and her naughty friends who make their return in certain levels. Frederico is seen as a breath of fresh air for a series that had largely gotten stale, and manages to score some really good reviews, though not quite enough to put the game in the elite category. Sales see an uptick from the last game, and the multiplatform release definitely helps the game as well.

Mortal Kombat: Tribulation

Sub-Zero, Raiden, Scorpion, and Kitana are back to kick the crap out of each other in the latest Mortal Kombat title. The main plot revolves around a demonic entity named Shakhan, who has invaded Earth to harvest souls by tormenting humanity as much as possible. Only the Mortal Kombatants can stop him, but Shakhan captures them all and forces them to fight each other, claiming the souls of any fighter that is killed. Once Shakhan is defeated, all the souls he has claimed will be liberated. The game features bloody new fatalities and online multiplayer, and is a hit on all three consoles it's released on, especially the Nintendo Wave where it's the month's top new release.

Necrotizer 2

The sequel to 2002's hit FPS (which was one of the biggest early Xbox titles), Necrotizer 2 sees release for all three main consoles (though it's noticeably less good looking on Katana). The single player campaign is fairly generic FPS fare with a space marine battling zombie-like foes on an apocalyptic Earth, but the multiplayer has been seriously updated, with a bevy of new modes including a co-op zombie killing mode very similar to OTL Call Of Duty's “Nazi Zombie” mode and even a competitive mode where one team seeks to zombify the other team. The multiplayer mode is one of the year's best in an FPS, and gets the bulk of the praise for the game, which scores quite well. Necrotizer 2 just misses being one of April's top new releases but is still a financial success on the Xbox and a limited success on the Wave, while the Katana version flops fairly hard.

Planetfall

An alien invasion FPS that's seen as somewhat of a more sci-fi version of Encounter (and also has elements of Cyberwar), it's another typical run of the mill mid-2000s FPS title, but it's quite competently made, with good graphics and a decent campaign, and thus reviews and sales are good (not on the level of Necrotizer 2, but still considered a decent success).

Quake: The Horror

A console exclusive Quake title for the Wave and the Xbox, Quake: The Horror is somewhat of a companion title to Quake 4, though as the title implies, it has a much more horror-based storyline. The title also makes reference to an Apocalypse Now quote, and indeed, the plot is somewhat of a parallel to that as well, with the player cast as a space marine sent to find another space marine that went AWOL after crash-landing on a strange planet. Much to the protagonist's horror, he finds that his fellow marine has built a cult of personality around himself after learning to control the strange and hideous mutants inhabiting the planet, and the player must shoot their way to the wayward soldier and terminate him with extreme prejudice, coming up against some of the scariest beasts in the Quake series to date. The game is quite well received, both for its campaign and for its multiplayer, and becomes one of the year's best reviewed console FPS titles. Xbox sales of the game are very strong, competing with Mortal Kombat: Tribulation as the most successful launch title of the month of April, which is seen as a very FPS-heavy month.

Gun

Like OTL's game, Gun is an open-world Western themed title developed by Neversoft and released for the Wave and Xbox. The game plays similarly to the original, though its plot line is somewhat different, featuring the same protagonist (Colton White) but making him a sheriff rather than a man on a quest for revenge (though Colton does get revenge at one point after one of his deputies is murdered). Colton battles to keep his town safe from the ruthless Bishop Gang, led by Billy Bishop, based somewhat on Billy the Kid. He pursues the Bishop Gang all throughout the West, eventually having one final showdown with him on the top of a high plateau. Gun is similarly praised as OTL's title, perhaps a bit moreso, for its excellent open world gameplay, well developed combat system, and outstanding storyline (penned by a few of the same writers who worked on Thrillseekers). Sales are a bit low initially, though word of mouth helps the game make a profit later on.

Stripez

(Authors' Note: The idea for Stripez was given to us by the reader Goldwind2!)

Stripez is a platformer/adventure title about an anthropomorphic tiger named Stripez who uses a magic paintbrush to battle enemies. The paintbrush not only damages enemies, but can also paint certain areas of the stage a different color, causing them to have different effects (for example, Stripez can paint a certain area of the stage black, leap into it like a hole, and come out the other side from somewhere else painted black, almost like a Portal Gun but with more limited range). He can also utilize special power suits in battle, such as a ninja suit that gives him more speed and karate moves, and a space suit with a raygun and a jetpack. His enemy in this game is a sorcerer named Rigard the Hideous, who was turned into stone by a curse and put in a museum, but who gets angry and breaks out after he (in statue form) is insulted by an art critic. He then goes around cursing the critic's favorite paintings, and Stripez must repair the cursed paintings by defeating the enemies within. Stripez gets moderate to good reviews: the game is seen as somewhat of a mish-mash of creative concepts but no unifying theme: there's almost too much going on. It's also seen as an archetypical platformer in an age where those types of games are falling out of fashion. Despite the reviews, the game does manage to sell decently on both the Wave and the Katana, and becomes a somewhat minor franchise, though it's not in the upper echelon of platform popularity.

Brothers In Arms

A WW2-based first person shooter, and Gearbox's follow-up to Tank Girl (and its first multiplatform game, released for the Xbox, the Wave, and the PC), Brothers In Arms plays quite similarly to OTL's title, based on the 101st Airborne Division and their battles behind enemy lines in the days after the invasion of Normandy. Brothers In Arms is an attempt at a highly realistic war game, but it's not quite as well received as OTL's title, due to the team's exhaustion after the studio's work on Tank Girl and the smaller staff allotment to the development of this title. As a result, the game is considered good, but not the excellent game it was IOTL, and fails to reach a million in total sales. Because of this, 2005's Brothers In Arms is the first and only game in the series, which fails to become the franchise that it did IOTL. Gearbox refocuses its efforts on other projects, particularly the project it's hoping to develop for a seventh generation system in 2007 or 2008.

Tomahawk: The Future Is War

Tomahawk: The Future Is War is a futuristic aerial combat game for the Katana and Xbox, meant to somewhat counter Ace Combat on the Nintendo Wave. It has a much more arcadey style than Ace Combat, with faster planes, more weaponry, and features such as scoring and combo hits, and the Katana version is notably inferior both graphically and in terms of gameplay. It does become one of the more successful flying combat games on the Xbox, thanks to its online multiplayer combat mode (another feature exclusive to the Xbox system).

Toon Enforcer

Toon Enforcer is a cel-shaded open world game that's sort of like Grand Theft Auto meets Roger Rabbit. The game features wacky cartoon characters solving and committing crimes (though it's not as gritty as GTA and thus earns a T rating). The protagonist is an anthropomorphic wolf detective named Roarbach, who is attempting to solve a wave of “serial pie-ings” throughout the city. Roarbach can solve plenty of other crimes as well, and the game features an all-star lineup of voice actors, such as Tress MacNeille and Rob Paulsen, who were famous for their roles in 80s and 90s comedy cartoons. Released for the Wave and the Xbox, but not the Katana (largely due to technical reasons), the game does well on the Wave but flops on the Xbox due to the cartoony style.

True Crime: New York City

The follow-up to True Crime: Streets Of L.A., this is another open world title, based on OTL's follow up of the same name and it takes place in a fairly realistic replication of New York, particularly Manhattan. It features a different protagonist than OTL's game, a veteran officer that's seen as somewhat of a tribute/ripoff of Fred Kroenin from the original Narcotics Squad. In fact, True Crime: New York City takes a great deal of inspiration from OTL's NYPD: Narcotics Squad, so much so that Sega considers a lawsuit. However, because True Crime is a sandbox game while Narcotics Squad is a much more streamlined game, such a lawsuit was seen as lacking much in terms of merit, with the plots of the two games just different enough to be considered original. It's said that the lack of effort in terms of plot was done so that the game's technical aspects could be focused on. There ARE fewer glitches than OTL's game, but that does come at the expense of the game's scope, which isn't quite to the degree that OTL's game is. Overall, True Crime: New York City is seen as a disappointing but solid game, with just barely good enough sales and reception to keep the series alive. Ultimately, Activision would decide to refocus its efforts on producing a good seventh generation title to make up for this disappointment.

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

April 2005:

1. Mortal Kombat: Tribulation (Nintendo Wave)
2. Quake: The Horror (Microsoft Xbox)
3. Soul Calibur II (iPod Play)
4. Commander Keen: Dimensional Destruction (iPod Play)
5. Mortal Kombat: Tribulation (Microsoft Xbox)

May 2005:

1. Star Siren Nakama (Nintendo Wave)
2. Paradventure 2 (Nintendo Wave)
3. Beat Street (Nintendo Wave)
4. Fated To Rise (Microsoft Xbox)
5. O.R.B.I.T. (iPod Play)

June 2005:

1. Endotherm (Sega Katana)
2. Still Afraid (Nintendo Wave)
3. Albert And Zulie 2 (Nintendo Wave)
4. Haze (Nintendo Wave)
5. True Crime: New York City (Microsoft Xbox)

 

[RySenkari]

Eurovision Propels French Techno Act To International Success

Romania may have won last month's Eurovision final with Adaleta Sival's stunning performance of "Under The Stars", but France's act, an infectiously catchy tune called "Drum" by the hip hop trio La Graine, has proved to be a far bigger success internationally. "Drum" wowed the crowds and took runner-up at Eurovision 2005, but after being posted on sites such as Youtube and Videocean, La Graine's outlandish and forcefully delivered rap song caught fire with people who didn't even know what Eurovision was. The performance has been viewed more than 25 million times between the two sites, more than ten times as much as Sival's winning performance, and that doesn't count the number of videos that simply use the song as background music while other visuals play in the foreground. The song is frequently set to a 1998 McDonald's commercial which features Ronald McDonald and Grimace hip hop dancing awkwardly, and the song has become unofficially known in some circles as the "McDonalds Rap", even though it has nothing to do with the fast food chain.

"Some of these videos are pretty wild," said Fabien Lucere, 23, one of La Graine's performers and the writer of "Drum". "Seeing our song used in such a way. I am surprised by it but I am also glad people are getting to hear it!"

Unlike many musical performers, who frequently take offense to their music being so widely shared, claiming copyright infringement, the members of La Graine are happy to see their music being spread around, and are stunned by the song's sudden success. "Drum" recently charted at #81 on last week's Billboard 100 chart in America, though the song fell to #94 on this week's list.

"We wrote the song specifically for Eurovision and thought it would only be heard there primarily," said Jeune Savroix, 24, also of La Graine and the self-proclaimed "dance master" of the trio, who choreographs the majority of their performances. "Having those characters dance to our song is pretty wild! I guess these things cross even the barrier between fantasy and reality!"

La Graine actually frequently cites the barrier between fantasy and reality as a theme in their work, and have stated a desire to see their songs bridge the gap between all peoples through the language of song and dance. While their next album isn't due to be released until 2006, they hope that the popularity of their performance at Eurovision will help them sell more albums and reach more people.

-from an article on Billboard.com, posted on June 23, 2005

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Memes And Games Raise The Profile Of European Dance Music

It was once extremely unusual to hear European dance music in the United States outside of dance clubs, but now songs from all over Europe are popping up everywhere, and it can be largely attributed to the rise of digital media, both on the internet and also in the form of a wave of popular video games spreading European dance music all over the world.

Sites such as Videocean, where foreign music videos are frequently posted, have helped European songs and acts reach more listeners, and the songs' catchy nature and lyrics have made the songs a frequent subject of memes and fads, which spread from one person to another whenever a video or posting is shared between two people. The song "Drum" by La Graine is one such song that has become a meme in this way: a video of a class of elementary school students dancing wildly to the song has been seen more than four million times already, while other such mashups including characters such as Ronald McDonald or Spiderman have also been seen more than a million times. Other popular acts such as the German band Paffendorf have seen their songs become international memes, such as "Flagdance Paradise", which currently appears in the background of the #1 site of all time on the internet meme collective YTMND.com, where Eurodance and Eurobeat music frequently reaches memetic status. Called "Grover's Flagdance Massacre", which depicts a parody of Grover killing other Sesame Street muppets synced to the beat of the song, the YTMND page has been seen by over 1,000,000 viewers and has spawned its own wave of parodies involving other violent acts set to the song. Newgrounds also sees frequent postings of Eurodance songs, such as the "Skateboard Chick" video which features a teenage girl with an extremely unique haircut doing surprisingly skillful tricks and set to the beat of the Polish song "Wysikka" by Kombii.

Meanwhile, the Dance Dance Revolution series has massively raised the profile of Eurobeat. The game is frequently played in the arcades, but also has home console versions, the most popular recent one being the 2004 Nintendo Wave release DDR Ultimaximum, which features a total of 62 songs: 20 American, 22 Japanese, and 20 European. The game has sold over 500,000 copies in North America alone, and many of its Eurobeat songs have become memes in their own right thanks to being frequently heard in the game, appearing in both serious videos and on parody sites. While many bands do object to their songs appearing in the background of offensive or violent material, others are glad just to have the exposure, and songs by many Eurodance and Eurobeat bands have recently seen their iTunes sales spike as a result of being featured in a particularly popular meme.

-from an article on Wired.com, posted on July 1, 2005

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"And we continue to count down the hits with our #8 song, and this week's #8 has been rocketing up the charts these past three weeks, it was number 25, then number 20, then number 16 and now it's all the way up in our top ten. It's by the band Jamiroquai, they're a British band best known for their funky jazz beats, and previously appeared on this countdown only once, back in 1996 with their song "Virtual Insanity", which peaked at #33. Jamiroquai's latest hit is from their album Fell In A Forest, which is being called not only one of the best albums of the year, but also of the entire decade in magazines like Rolling Stone and Variety. It's their first album since 1999, and band leader Jay Kay says some of the songs appearing on it have been more than five years in the making. The band, and the music scene, has undergone a lot of changes over the six years since their last album, and many of the songs were scrapped and re-written numerous times before being recorded for the album. Jay Kay goes on to say that if every version of every song recorded for Fell In A Forest was compiled into a set, it would include more than 70 CDs! Sounds to me like some hardcore Jamiroquai fans have an amazing, and expensive, compilation set to look forward to someday. For now, you'll just have to make do with this, the #8 song in America from Jamiroquai's latest album. Here's 'Remaining Days'."
-Casey Kasem, from the July 10, 2005 episode of American Top 40

 

[RySenkari]

Star Fox: Hyperspace

Star Fox: Hyperspace is, like previous games in the series, an on-rails space shooter developed by Argonaut Software and published by Nintendo. The game is the first Star Fox title for the Wave, and it goes back to the series basics somewhat in that it ditches the Landmaster, Wingmarine, and Hypercycle, and focuses entirely on Arwing play. To mix things up, Hyperspace introduces new capabilities for the Arwing, including the Hyperblaster, which is a temporary but very powerful upgrade to the Arwing's main laserweapon, and Hyperflight mode, where the Arwing flies so fast that it creates a hole in space and time and passes temporarily into a phantom dimension, and can then reappear somewhere else, an ability to access new parts of old stages. There are fewer planets and stages in the game, which takes place entirely in another sector of the galaxy and introduces 12 different worlds and zones for Fox and his crew to explore. The game also ditches the traditional "alternate routes" system which has been a series staple since the beginning, and instead has three different, defined routes, intended to be played one after the other, with some worlds repeated on certain routes, usually to explore a different path. The game relies heavily on All Range Mode, which is about half of the title's total gameplay, and much of All Range Mode is spent in aerial dogfights with other powerful ships with skilled pilots, while traditional on-rails levels feature more traditional large boss robots and monsters. Hyperspace features significantly improved graphics over the previous titles in the series, with beautiful and realistic worlds and gorgeous looking ships and beasts. It's definitely one of the best looking space shooters ever released on console, showing that Argonaut once again is able to push the Wave's technology quite far.

Star Fox: Hyperspace is heavily linked to the previous two Argonaut titles: Squad Four Upheaval and X: Heroic Valor, both of which are directly referenced. On one of the worlds visited by the Star Fox team, Fox and his crew are actually hailed by Shad and Rebecca of Squad Four, who offer their assistance and who can briefly be seen firing at a monster threatening one of the Arwings. The Star Fox team is also briefly involved in a tank-on-tank battle between General Xenda's forces and an opposing army, and must dodge tank fire until Xenda's army pushes forward. In a later mission, the Star Fox team blows up an obstacle on another planet, allowing Squad Four to push forward, though there's a later mission where they see ominous signs that something bad has befallen the Squad Four team. The game's main plot involves an anthropomorphic owl sorceress, Nocturna the Arch-Heretic, who has amassed an army of ancient robots in the hopes of taking over the galaxy. She's also gathered a squad of mercenary pilots to protect her, and those mercenaries are set to battle the Star Fox team at every turn. She has set her sights on the Lylat system, and the Star Fox team is sent to Nocturna's home solar system to stop her before she can push forward. The first route sees the Star Fox team making their way to the system's star, where Nocturna has conjured up a robot out of the star's core, a long-buried artifact with a planet-killing laser. Destroying that robot seemingly defeats Nocturna, but in the credits, she appears to have survived, and the team must go back into the solar system to battle her again. This time, they pursue Nocturna to the outer reaches of the system, to the rocky dwarf planet Arcaenus, where Nocturna has used her magic to manipulate the very planet itself. The team penetrates to the core of the icy world and battles Nocturna herself. Her defeat seemingly ends the crisis, but in the credits it shows that Nocturna and her army of robots and mercenaries are pushing out of the star system using their own hyperspace gates. The third route has the Star Fox team heading back into the star system to use gates that the ancients placed on certain worlds to catch up with Nocturna and stop her. The final battle of the game has the Star Fox team battling a gigantic Nocturna near a rogue black hole, as a team of three mercenaries who the Star Fox team have been engaging throughout the game use magically-infused ships to defend her (by this point the mercenaries consider Nocturna their queen). The mercenaries can't be defeated outright (their health can be depleted but this just takes them out of the battle momentarily), but they can be used to defeat Nocturna by rerouting them through hyperspace gates to crash into her at FTL speed. Eventually, Nocturna takes enough quantum damage to be sucked into the black hole, which fuses with her, tearing them both to shreds that disperse themselves harmlessly throughout the universe.

Star Fox: Hyperspace is released in North America on July 26, 2005. The critical reception for Star Fox: Hyperspace is generally positive, but less so than other Star Fox games. While critics praise the game's graphics and some of the boss battles (including the ludicrous final battle which is nearly universally positively received), it's heavily criticized for being a fairly short game, as well as somewhat monotonous and repetitive. While the dogfights are considered some of the best in the series, even they are considered repetitive after a while, and many critics accuse the game of being merely a "prelude" to 2006's upcoming crossover and not a truly epic standalone game in its own right, especially compared with Star Fox 2 and Star Fox 3, or even other Argonaut games like Squad Four Upheaval. Hyperspace's somewhat lackluster reception continues a trend of Wave titles that are disappointing compared to their predecessors, with a common complaint amongst them being that they lack innovation compared with their Ultra Nintendo counterparts. Squad Four Upheaval, Metroid: Homecoming, and Super Mario Shades have all been games that had lower sales and worse critical reviews compared to the games before them, and even The Legend Of Zelda: Hero Eternal, while considered fully on par with the Ultra Zelda games critically, has sold at a lower pace than both Temple of Time and Majora's Mask. Hyperspace also sees lower sales when compared with the Star Fox Ultra games: while Star Fox 3 smashed series records and was one of the better selling games of 2001, Star Fox: Hyperspace couldn't even match the first month sales of Star Fox 2, which faced incredibly stiff competition on its own console from Super Mario Dimensions and Final Fantasy VII. Hyperspace is by no means a failure, but Nintendo hopes the trend doesn't continue with 2006's big crossover.

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Rumors are now swirling heavily around Argonaut Software, which recently developed Star Fox: Hyperspace for Nintendo. The game, part of what is officially known as the Alliance Sequence, is the third in Nintendo's crossover series of Argonaut franchises, culminating next year with Star Fox: Heroic Universe, which brings together the heroes from Star Fox, Squad Four, and X. Dylan Cuthbert, one of Argonaut's lead producers and creative designers, has already stated that going forward, Argonaut is likely to focus on the Squad Four games, while development on standalone X games is likely to cease for the time being and the Star Fox games will be worked on by another studio. Cuthbert has repeatedly stated that he wants Argonaut to go back to its roots as a developer of game technology and not so much as a creative force behind game software, though he has also stated that he wants the company to develop IPs separate from the Alliance Sequence.

Argonaut initially won favor with Nintendo by helping to develop the Super FX Chip, which was used in games for the Super Nintendo cartridge system including Super Squadron X and Stunt Race FX. However, the unexpected success of the Super Nintendo CD made the Super FX chip somewhat redundant, and Argonaut became more of a software developer than a hardware developer. At one point, Nintendo did look into having Argonaut work on an updated version of its "HANDS" cartridge, used to communicate between the Super Nintendo and the Super Nintendo CD peripheral, in the hopes of pushing more power out of the SNES-CD, but these plans were scrapped after Nintendo and Sony agreed to develop the Ultra Nintendo together. The company has largely been seen as a "second party" of Nintendo, but that's not entirely true: technically, Argonaut remains nominally independent of Nintendo and could choose to go its own way. However, because Nintendo holds the rights to all of Argonaut's IPs, including Squad Four, it would require Argonaut to develop a slate of new IPs should it choose to strike out on its own. Cuthbert's recent statement about developing these new IPs has led to rumors that Argonaut is looking to go indie, however, there have also been rumors to the contrary: Nintendo might be looking to absorb Argonaut fully.

We can't say anything for certain, except that post-Heroic Universe, Argonaut will likely enter into a new phase of its relationship with Nintendo, and whether that means it will draw nearer to Nintendo or pull further apart can't be confirmed at this time. We do know that Cuthbert and some of the higher-ups in the company have expressed a level of discontent toward Nintendo, but this could be for any number of reasons, both related and unrelated to the Alliance Sequence games. Some have guessed that a possible fracturing of the company might take place, with some Argonaut developers choosing to stay on with Nintendo and work more closely with the company, while Argonaut itself takes its leave to develop new hardware and/or original IPs. We do know that whatever happens, Squad Four and X, the two properties wholly developed by Argonaut, will remain part of Nintendo, and whether or not Argonaut itself plays a role in those franchises' futures has yet to be determined.

-from an article on Game Grapevine, posted on August 20, 2005

 

[RySenkari]

No One Lives Forever 3: She Lives For Danger

No One Lives Forever 3 is an FPS title developed for the Katana and the Macintosh, and released in August 2005. It continues the story of the secret agent operative Cate Archer as she once again battles the evil organization H.A.R.M. to save the world from destruction. This game, more than any others thus far in the series, heavily spoofs old school spy films such as James Bond, and unlike the original No One Lives Forever, which released on consoles close to the release of Velvet Dark: Synthesis and thus spent some time taking shots at it, this game actually downplays the similarities between itself and the Velvet Dark series and tries to set the two franchises apart as much as possible. No One Lives Forever 3 instead concentrates more on the use of gadgets and skill shots, and also incorporates puzzles into its gameplay more than any previous game in the series, with the player asked to use their wits as much as their skill with a gun. The game utilizes cutscenes and kitschy visuals to add to the "spy movie" feel, including an opening credits sequence that tries to mimic the James Bond series more than any of the previous games, it's also a bit lighter on the comedy, though there are still some serious moments and a bit of dark/dry humor, making for a very balanced game in terms of mood and really doing its best to establish Cate Archer's character by exploring her backstory and making the player really understand her emotions. Its graphics are mostly similar to those in previous titles, with some minor improvements but nothing that really heavily pushes the Katana. Kath Soucie returns as the voice of Cate Archer, while a number of other characters from previous titles also return, including Isako the ninja girl.

No One Lives Forever 3 introduces a brand new character to the franchise: a suave superspy named John Danger, meant to be an over-the-top spoof of old school Connery Bond. He's hard-drinking, he's womanizing, and he sees himself as the main character of the game and sees Cate as one of his "Danger Girls" who he needs to woo and protect. Cate, of course, remains the game's true hero and has to bail Danger out of trouble more than once, though he's either oblivious to this or shrugs it off. Cate herself gets captured and placed in deathtraps numerous times over the course of the game, and her primary motive for escaping (besides not dying) is not wanting Danger to rescue her because he'd never let her live it down. Fortunately, Cate bails herself out of trouble every time she finds herself in it, save for one occasion when Danger does get to rescue her by mere chance and she's quite furious with him. The main plot of the game is that H.A.R.M. has returned under a new director: the ex-Nazi rocket scientist Harmund von Belt, who wants revenge for World War II and wants to get it by bombing both the United States and the Soviet Union into oblivion. Cate is sent to stop him, though she doesn't know that Danger has been sent first by an exasperated MI5 director who just wanted to get Danger out of his hair. The two traverse their way across the globe, with Cate running into both old friends and new enemies all along the way. They track Harmund from continent to continent while running across one another numerous times, sometimes helping each other but usually getting into each other's way. Eventually, they blast off into space to battle Harmund on the orbital platform where his missiles are poised to launch. Cate (with a bit of help from Danger) defeats Harmund and saves the world yet again, though when Danger offers Cate a date, she flat-out rejects him. The credits roll, with the familiar message "Cate Archer will return in No One Lives Forever 4..." at the end.

No One Lives Forever 3 is quite well received, and like its predecessors is one of the year's best reviewed FPS and Katana titles. It successfully wraps up the Katana trilogy of games for the series, which won't be seen again until Project Pippin (and possibly the iPod Play). It launches on the Macintosh also, but not as its own separate game: instead it appears as part of the No One Lives Forever Trilogy, which packs the first two games in with the new title at the same price as a single game. It's the first time the previous two games have appeared on Macintosh, and the compilation is a best seller for the platform. It also sells quite well on the Katana, becoming the best selling new Katana game since Endotherm. While no one expects the game to compete with the upcoming Velvet Dark: Conspiracy in sales, it doesn't really need to: Apple has finally established Cate Archer as a distinct heroine separate from any perceived rivalry with Nintendo's female-driven FPS franchise, and they'll continue doing their own thing with Cate as a 60s mod styled James Bond spoofing heroine, separate from Nintendo's sci-fi cyberpunk Joanna.

 

[RySenkari]

Ballistic Limit Cross

Ballistic Limit Cross is an action/sci-fi/shooter game developed and published by Sony. It's the first Ballistic Limit title on the Nintendo Wave, and like previous games in the series, it pushes the limits of its system, with incredible visuals and effects, along with an expanded arsenal of items and weaponry. Ballistic Limit Cross continues the series' focus on its hybrid FPS/third person shooter gameplay, giving protagonist Ash Beckland the ability to switch between a first and third person viewpoint to attack enemies, which modifies the effects and power of his weaponry. The game also allows Ash to hop between the tangible dimension and the ghost dimension, which is inhabited by the ghosts and souls of the mysterious new creatures threatening the galaxy. Ash must frequently destroy both the enemy in the physical world and its soul in the ghost world in order to fully defeat it, and hopping between dimensions also allows him to enter areas he wouldn't normally be able to go to, with some areas explored entirely via the ghost dimension. Ash not only must manage his Ballistic Meter, but his Cross Meter as well: if Ash exhausts it, he takes damage from the ghost world and isn't able to utilize his most powerful attacks. Upgrades acquired throughout the game expand the size of his Cross Meter and allow him to spend more time in the ghost world but he never fully gains the ability to stay there indefinitely. Ash is aided by Sara, who now inhabits the ghost dimension as the Genosiege, which regulates the relationship between time, space, and the dimensions. Sara provides Ash with upgrades and advice to better battle the creatures he comes up against, and he may need her to directly intervene as he battles the creatures who threaten to rip the world apart. Michael Massee returns as the voice of Ash, while Pamela Adlon appears for a second time as the voice of Sara.

As Ballistic Limit Cross begins, Ash Beckland is a retired hero, living alone on Earth and quietly contemplating the events of the past decade. He's lost most of his friends and the love of his life Sara, who now inhabits the space between worlds, the ghost dimension, as the Genosiege. Ash has only been able to visit her once, and the reunion was brief before Sara faded into the aether once again. Meanwhile, a new generation of space heroes has taken up the flag of defending the universe, and they've been sent to investigate a mysterious phenomenon happening at the outer reaches of the solar system. When they don't return, and instead a terrifying transmission is the only trace picked up of them, Ash is called out of retirement to save the world once again, due to his experiences with the ghost dimension and the Genosiege. Ash's old buddy Danny, now leader of the Earth Federation's military, offers to help, but Ash decides to go it alone, and lands on Pluto, where the mysterious phenomena have been centered. Ash encounters creatures known as the Locuphages, the mysterious creatures who annihilated the space heroes and who nearly kill Ash until Sara intervenes and gives Ash the power to enter the ghost dimension to do battle with them. Ash battles the Locuphages across Pluto and learns that these creatures have slowly been multiplying, feeding off the souls of the dead and tearing at the seams of the universe. If they are not stopped, ghost energy will begin to appear throughout the universe, leading to a phenomenon known as the Big Rip, where all dimensions and universes are ripped apart forever. Ash learns that the Locuphages are gradually advancing toward Earth, and he also learns of an experiment on Earth that might have brought them here. In a series of short missions, Ash makes his way back toward Earth, briefly battling Locuphages on numerous moons and in the atmospheres of several planets. In a climactic battle on Mars, Ash battles against a massive Locuphage who uses its power to bring the moon Phobos hurtling down onto the Red Planet, causing an enormous, cataclysmic impact explosion ten times more powerful than the one that killed the dinosaurs, forcing Ash to phase into the Ghost Dimension to avoid being burned alive. With Sara's help, Ash makes hyperspace leaps inside the Ghost Dimension back toward Earth and ends up in a secret particle accelerator laboratory. As he fights his way out, Danny leads the battle against the Locuphages in Earth's orbit. Just as Ash makes his way back to the surface, Danny is killed. Consumed by grief and rage, Ash leads a suicidal charge against the Locuphages and is seemingly killed. He winds up back in the Ghost Dimension in Sara's arms, and thinks about just giving up and staying with her. Sara tells Ash that he can't stay, and gives him her power temporarily so that he can battle the Locuphage Overlord, a creature comprised of all the grief and suffering in the universe. Ash confronts the Locuphage Overlord inside the particle accelerator, defeating him and ending the threat to the universe, but the battle has left Ash's soul separated from his body. Once again he has a chance to stay with Sara, but he chooses instead to return to Earth and his body reunites with his soul. Though Ash has a heavy heart at the loss of more friends and being separated from Sara (maybe forever this time), he has grown comfortable with his role as Earth's defender and vows to keep up the fight.

Ballistic Limit Cross is a bit controversial with long-time series fans, but the combat and gameplay progression are generally seen as improvements over Ballistic Limit 3. The graphics are widely praised as being among the best of any console game in 2005, and the game itself has separated itself from its rival series Metroid, favoring more fast-paced, mission-based gameplay over Metroid's exploration. It's firmly established the series' identity in a crowded field of sci-fi shooters, and is seen as a pioneering game for the series and one of the best Ultra-to-Wave transitions yet. Sales are quite strong, a bit less so initially than Ballistic Limit 3 but they do pick up later on once competition dies down. It remains one of Sony's flagship original franchises, and its future looks quite bright. Cross will be the only game in the series to be released for the Wave, as Sony wants to focus more of its creative efforts on the Wave's successor, and look to either reboot the series, continue it with a new hero, or revamp the classic formula further.

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Lash Out

Lash Out is a Nintendo published game developed by a second party studio headed by David Jaffe, the OTL creator of God Of War. It's his follow-up to 2002's Infinity Age, which was both a critical and commercial success, and though it has nothing to do with that game from a plot perspective, much of its gameplay is adapted and enhanced for this title, while also combining some beat-em-up elements as well. Lash Out stars a protagonist named Lash who wields a pair of glowing red dual energy whips that have a wide variety of uses. He can wield them against enemies (and the game features a fast-paced combat system with a variety of strikes and throws, sort of like a less bloody God Of War but with whips instead of blades/blunt instruments) but can also use them as tools, such as for item retrieval, switch flipping, climbing, or swinging. The utility of the twin whips is one of the main selling points of the game, the whips can be used independently as well, with one used to whip an enemy while the other is used to pull down an obstacle, and Lash can explore and pick up power-ups to enhance the whips and expand their capabilities. The game, while featuring a serious protagonist and plot, has some light-hearted humor and plenty of comedy relief, with some humorous side characters and baddies to fight, and is intended for all ages, though the game is rated T for Teen. The graphics are considered excellent, not quite up to the level of Ballistic Limit Cross but still quite good, and the voice acting, music, and sound effects are all widely praised as well. The game's advertising campaign skews toward the game's more light-hearted aspects, with the main commercial set to a remix of Devo's "Whip It" synced with action from the game. It's actually quite a memorable and popular commercial despite the cheese factor and pushes a lot of people to buy the game.

Lash Out begins as the protagonist Lash wakes up in a strange facility, being experimented on by scientists who refuse to speak to him. With the help of a small, friendly robot, Lash breaks out of the facility, taking two energy whips with him. He has no memory of his real identity, all he knows is that he's on a mysterious world and must find his way to the spaceport which may be able to take him home. The way to the spaceport is littered with traps and hazards, but Lash's whips help him to overcome those traps and he eventually begins to piece together his identity over the course of the game. He reaches the spaceport, but before he can find a rocket to take him offworld, the space port is destroyed by an orbital strike, and it seems that Lash is the target. Lash eventually finds out that he is one of six weapon androids created by a spacefaring civilization for mysterious purposes. The ship transporting these androids was destroyed, and Lash was captured by the inhabitants of the world he landed on. The other six androids are presumed dead, though Lash will later learn that a female android, Laika, remains alive and is being held in a prison facility on the other side of the world. Lash goes to reach her and fights his way to her containment chamber, but she comes out hostile to him and attacks with twin energy knives. He "defeats" her enough to escape from the facility and is contacted by representatives from the spacefaring civilization that created him, offering to take him back. Lash goes with them, but Laika, hot in pursuit, comes with him and attacks, causing the ship to be destroyed, separating Lash and Laika, who learn that they've both been programmed to destroy, Lash by the spacefarers and Laika by the natives of the terrestrial world. Lash heads to a village, where he is deprogrammed and asked to aid in a rebellion against the world's rulers. Lash agrees. Meanwhile, the survivors of the spacefarers send their own bounty hunters to kill both Lash and Laika, leading to a massive confrontation. Eventually, Lash manages to deprogram Laika, but instead of helping him fight either the people who programmed her or the spacefarers, she leaves on her own ship, leaving Lash to fight on his own. He has to defeat both the civilizations who wanted to control him, and eventually forces the spacefarers to flee, while also helping the rebels retake control of their world. He returns to the village to live in peace, hoping never to have to pick up his whips to fight again.

Lash Out is extremely highly praised at the time of its release, thanks to its versatile adventure gameplay and vast, explorable world. Its critical reception is comparable to that of the OTL God Of War, perhaps a bit less but still considered one of 2005's best games, and it's also a major commercial success as well, putting Jaffe's studio even further on the map in a big way.

 

[RySenkari]

Forza Motorsport

Forza Motorsport is a simulation-style racing title exclusively for the Microsoft Xbox. Much like OTL's game, it features realistic racing with true-to-life vehicles on a mix of real life and original tracks. Created to compete with Nintendo/Sony's Gran Turismo series and the numerous exclusive racing titles on the Apple Katana, it features both arcade and simulation style racing. It features a total of 260 cars, slightly more than in OTL's game, and customizable vehicles, which can be shared and displayed online. Like OTL's title, Forza Motorsport places a heavy emphasis on online competition, with a featured Xbox Live competition lobby and tournament play. Unlike OTL's Forza Motorsport, which briefly co-existed with the Project Gotham Racing series for a time, ITTL the game is intended as a full successor to Project Gotham Racing, designed to replace the series and including a number of legacy features common to both games, including tracks, cars, and certain modes, along with a few hidden secrets for PGR fans to discover. The game features a soundtrack of half-licensed, half-original songs, unlike OTL's game which featured a strictly original soundtrack. The band Jamiroquai is heavily featured on the soundtrack, with 10 of the band's songs included in the game's tracklist, a mix of old and new material. Said Bill Gates in an interview after the game's release: "It was a bit of a happy accident that our game came out right when the band was having a resurgence of popularity. I don't think our game helped them in any way, our game came out after their album's sales peaked, I think their music has helped Forza Motorsport a lot though." The game casts itself as a somewhat "hipper" alternative to the more strait-laced Gran Turismo series, with a few features more geared to casual players while still providing a difficult and realistic experience for true racing sim enthusiasts. The game's advertising doesn't mention Gran Turismo in any way, it simply promotes the positive aspects of Forza while declining to badmouth any of the competition, letting the game speak for itself.

Forza Motorsport is released on August 2, 2005, slightly later than IOTL due to the game being a bit richer in content and due to the licensing for some of the in-game bands taking a bit more time. The game's critical reception is excellent, about on par with OTL's, maybe a very small bit less than OTL's due to a slightly worse AI (the game's heavier focus on player vs. player meant that a bit less time was spent developing the game's AI, it's still extremely good but just a tad less intuitive than in OTL's game). It does continue the racing tradition established by Project Gotham Racing, achieving first month sales numbers of about 200,000 due to excellent reviews and excitement over the licensed soundtrack, and establishes itself immediately as a contender to Gran Turismo's throne. With a new Gran Turismo game nowhere in sight (Gran Turismo 4 has been rumored for a 2007 release but it's also rumored that Nintendo may wait for their next-gen system to work on the game), it establishes Microsoft as the new king of the hill in the racing genre, at least temporarily, though Gran Turismo 3 continues to pull down excellent sales. The game's release is also accompanied by the release of a new racing sim experience at Microsoft X-Zone locations: Forza: Real Racing features eight driving simulators loaded with a copy of the game and placed inside real cars, the players "race" by playing the game and their race is commentated on by a live announcer, with real sound effects and car motion effects. Like OTL's game, it launches a franchise for Microsoft, with a sequel immediately going into production for the Xbox 2 and positioned for a 2007 release.

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The announcement of the Xbox 2 at E3 back in May was accompanied by a great deal of fanfare and speculation, but we've seen little news from Microsoft since, save for a few small announcements about the Half-Life 2 port and the new console's Steam service. That is expected to change, however, as the company has already announced that they will reveal more details about the Xbox 2 at a special exclusive showing on New Year's Eve, where the company will reveal the look of the console, preview its technological capabilities, and also discuss the console's pricing and release date. Many expected the company to wait for E3 2006 to formally unveil the console, but the company has stated that their E3 presentation will be less about the Xbox 2 itself and more about the upcoming games, of which they plan to reveal "at least a dozen exclusives" at the show. They've also announced that the Xbox 2 will be featured at next spring's Game Developers' Conference and that there may also be "a little tease" of something at the Tokyo Game Show next month, a forum which Microsoft has typically avoided but which Steve Jobs utilized to great success when he showed off the iPod Play there last year.

While the Xbox 2 is Microsoft's future, the Xbox itself is Microsoft's present, and its success has gotten lost somewhat in the fold. It's still the best selling console out of the three current generation systems, with several million more units sold than Nintendo's Wave. The Wave saw a surge of sales late last year, but that's slowed down somewhat, and the Xbox's current sales are lagging just a bit behind the Wave's. 2005 has seen the release of numerous exclusive hits for the Xbox, including Paradigm Shift, Tom Clancy's Rendition: Masterminds, Fated To Rise, and most recently, Forza Motorsport. That game remains the current focus of the company's marketing strategy, with television and magazine advertising and the launch of a brand new simulator at a significant fraction of the company's 45 current X-Zone locations. Forza: Real Racing has been called the most realistic and thrilling racing simulator ever made, and the company has launched it in cities like San Francisco, Atlanta, Toronto (home of the first non-USA X-Zone location), and of course, racing mecca Indianapolis. The company's X-Zone arcade experiment has proven to be a rousing success, with the newest facility launched in an unconventional location: Portland, Maine. When asked in an interview why Microsoft would choose the somewhat small city of Portland to host an X-Zone location, Microsoft executive Larry Probst said, "We feel like this is a unique entertainment experience for that part of the country. Before, people who lived in places like Maine and Vermont would have to go all the way down to Boston to enjoy a facility like Microsoft X-Zone. We feel like it's going to attract a lot of people from all over northern New England who don't have the time to come to our Boston location to experience our unique Xbox brand." It's a bold gambit, but so far Microsoft's X-Zone has succeeded where most other arcades have failed.

Thus far, Microsoft has experienced a great deal of success over its other American gaming rival, the company of Apple, which took over Sega's games division back in 2003. So far, the Katana has largely floundered under Apple's brand, and though the iPod Play is flourishing, Microsoft, which doesn't have a handheld device and doesn't plan to launch one anytime soon, is content with lording its domination over Apple in the console market. In the same interview where Larry Probst touted his hopes for the new Maine-based X-Zone location, he also stated that he expects Apple's rumored new console to launch around the same time as the Xbox 2, and doesn't seem worried about what they have coming down the pipe: "We know Steve Jobs is likely cooking up a really nice shiny new game console to compete with our upcoming Xbox 2, but we've futureproofed ourselves pretty heavily. We could be releasing our new system this year, but we took the extra time to make sure we're powerful enough not only to compete with what Nintendo and Sony are coming up with next, but Apple as well. We'll let Steve Jobs fight it out with Nintendo in the handheld realm, but when it comes to home video game consoles, the Xbox 2 is going to be the best on the market. I can guarantee that." Only time will tell if Probst's bold guarantee will come true, but one thing is for certain: the Xbox 2 looks to be one of the most anticipated product launches of 2006.

-from a blog post on Commentating The Console Wars, posted on August 22, 2005

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August 12, 2005

Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Goin Down" blared through the massive San Francisco X-Zone complex as Alex and Ariel Hirsch emerged from the Forza: Real Racing simulator. Ariel had a look of exhilaration on her face after having defeated seven other players, including her twin brother, in one of the most competitive races of the day.

"Geez, Ariel, you didn't just kick my ass, you kicked everybody else's too!" said Alex, impressed with how well his sister had done in the race.

"Beginner's luck," Ariel said with a slight laugh, before shrugging and laughing even louder. "Nah, it was all skill! That was so much fun though, oh man..."

The twins were frequent patrons of both the San Francisco X-Zone during the summer and the Los Angeles facility when the two were attending college. Alex had originally gone to college to be a cartoonist, while his sister had been drawn to video game design, but during Alex's sophomore year he'd gotten the chance to talk to a studio head from Microsoft who convinced him to switch majors and become a game designer as well. What had clinched it had been the offering of an internship for both Alex and Ariel.

"Pretty soon we'll be making games like this," said Alex, looking around at the arcade machines and consoles spread across the facility floor. "I still can't believe we're gonna be interning for Remedy next year."

"Didn't they make Max Payne?" asked Ariel. "I mean, most of it before they ran out of money and Rockstar swooped in and saved the project. Not really my favorite game but..."

"Sam Lake's an amazing guy and interning for him is gonna be sweet."

"I just hope we can balance our internship and our course work," Ariel said with a bit of trepidation.

"Hey, if you're doing what you love, it's not work, right? And anyway, with this on our resumes we'll be able to get a job with pretty much any game company we want out of college," said Alex as the twins walked past a long row of Divine Wrath 3 machines.

"Hopefully Nintendo..." said Ariel with a smile and a sigh.

"Hey, shhh!" said Alex, looking around in playful fear. "This is Microsoft territory, don't say the N-word in here!"

Ariel just rolled her eyes, but it was true...she'd much rather work for Nintendo than for Microsoft. Hopefully, Alex was right about their internships letting them have their pick of game companies to work for, though she knew the game industry usually didn't work that way... but whatever happened, the most important thing was that they be able to work together. As long as the two of them got to live their dream together, it didn't matter which game company they ended up working for.

 

[RySenkari]

The Pact

The Pact is a first-person shooter title published by Electronic Arts and developed by Shortstop Software. The game's protagonist is a special forces soldier named Scott Anderson, who is serving on a peacekeeping force in the fictional country of Abzaghad. His childhood friend, Mark Ellsworth, is covering the current conflict in Abzaghad for a magazine when he is captured and taken hostage by a dangerous group of terrorists. Scott goes AWOL in order to penetrate the terrorists' stronghold and rescue his friend. The game takes elements from recent FPS franchises such as Call Of Duty, and also heavily resembles the game Encounter in terms of playstyle. As a lone soldier, Scott must battle his way through hordes of opposing forces, including, at times, his own military comrades who have been sent to capture him, lest he destabilize the situation in Abzaghad and cause an international incident. Scott has a variety of weapons at his disposal, both his own and those he confiscates off of enemies. He has a decent amount of freedom in how he handles certain situations, particularly in civilian territories, where he can ingratiate himself to the local populations, use subversive means to get what he wants, or simply go on a bloody rampage to instill fear into his enemies. Not only does the player play as Scott over the course of the game, but also occasionally as Mark during a few escape attempt missions, with another mission toward the end of the game once Scott and Mark reunite. The game also features multiplayer, with both the usual FPS deathmatch modes and a series of 1 vs. many modes in which a player is pitted against numerous online opponents, they have to build up a stronghold and then stop the other team from invading it and taking them down, in a sort of "Rambo" type mode that proves to be the most popular multiplayer mode featured in the game. The Pact is one of the most expensive FPS titles to date, with a total production cost exceeding that of 2003's Encounter. James Badge Dale stars as the voice of Scott, while David Krumholtz voices Mark.

The game begins with Scott executing a mission to capture the overlord of the terrorist organization Scimitar. Scott and his team raid the organization's headquarters but the overlord gets away, with Scott blaming another member of his unit for the terrorist's escape. Later, Scott learns that a reporter has been taken hostage by Scimitar, and soon finds out that it's his old childhood friend Mark. We see a flashback to Scott and Mark hanging out together as kids, and after helping each other fight off a group of bullies, promise to have each other's backs if anything ever happens to one of them. Scott remembers his promise, and asks his commanding officer if they're going to try and save Mark. When his CO tells him they'd like to save him but it would be too risky, Scott flies off the handle and has to be restrained by some of his squadmates. Eventually, he goes AWOL from his unit and embarks on a one man campaign of destruction through Abzaghad in the hopes of hunting down Scimitar and saving Mark. He single-handedly takes out several terrorist training camps, gleaning information from villages in the hopes of finding where Mark is being held. Meanwhile, Scott's unit learns of Scott's path of destruction and starts to go after him. He engages them at one point but refuses to kill any of his former squadmates (if one of them sustains a fatal injury during this mission, it's an automatic game over). Scott continues his search for Mark, and just barely misses him. He sees a lot of blood and thinks Mark has been killed (in fact, Mark has been tortured but not killed), and soon after confronts his former squad once again, particularly the squadmate he blames for the leader of Scimitar getting away. This time around, Scott does kill at least one member of his former unit, now becoming guilty of treason but still not giving up his mission to save Mark. In a later twist, Scott learns that the squadmate deliberately let the terrorist leader get away in exchange for a huge cash payment, and so now he's seeking revenge against both his former squadmate and the terrorist leader. After several more confrontations with the military and with the terrorist, Scott finds and rescues Mark. He then takes on the Scimitar leader in a brutal one on one fight (where Mark has to intervene to save Scott at one point). Scott kills the terrorist leader, and then goes after his traitorous squadmate. The two have a gun battle which ultimately results in Scott's squadmate being killed, and Scott being mortally wounded. Mark promises to report Scott's real story and watches as his friend dies. We see Mark on a plane back to the United States starting to write his story, and then the credits roll.

The Pact is released on August 9, 2005 for the Nintendo Wave and the Microsoft Xbox. Though the game is technically sound, with excellent graphics and good voice acting, it is plagued by glitches, and the scenarios themselves are EXTREMELY repetitive, with most missions consisting of firefights with interchangeable enemies and poor enemy AI. The village missions aren't much better: though ostensibly Scott has the option to work his way into the good graces of most villagers, the most effective method of completing missions is simply to go into the village and mow people down until someone gives up where the next group of terrorists are. Needless to say, this game is controversial. Alex Stansfield of Games Over Matter writes: "Scott goes from village to village, committing horrific war crimes left and right as he searches for his friend. The game actively rewards you for being an even bigger monster than the terrorists you're supposed to be fighting. I don't know if the game is trying to make some statement about war being hell, but it surely can't be a hotter hell than the one Scott is almost certainly going to after the events of this game." Multiplayer is a mess too, with glitches and unbalanced gameplay, and even the reasonably popular "Rambo mode" is plagued with frustrating obstacles that make it almost impossible for the one-man army to lose as long as even a marginally competent player is controlling him. Again, from Alex Stansfield: "To demonstrate just how unbalanced Army Of One is toward the single player, I managed to re-unite all nine former hosts of GameTV: Ted Crosley, Lyssa Fielding, John Walden, Kazzi DeCarlo, Gary Westhouse, Adrien Fry, Steve Horton, Brittany Saldita, and myself to play against Brittany's husband Chris Hardwick in a 1 vs. 9 online match. Now, Chris is certainly no slouch at FPS titles, but Brittany kicks his butt at pretty much all of them and she had eight teammates helping her. We could not beat him. Even once. Once he figured out the right traps to use, it was impossible for us to win no matter what we tried. This should not have happened." The Pact is considered to be one of the biggest critical disappointments of the current generation of gaming and certainly the biggest of 2005 thus far. Sales are robust early on, though the game is quickly overshadowed by Blackheart 4 and in the following month by Velvet Dark: Conspiracy and the game can be found that year on Black Friday for $19.99 in most places.

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The Pact Review Controversy: Pay For Play?

Now that fans have gotten their hands on EA's hotly anticipated first-person shooter The Pact, the verdict is in: it's pretty bad. Average fan scores for the game on Gamespot.com currently average a 3.6/10, and though initial impressions may be skewed by hyperbole, critics agree with the fan assessment of the game... to some extent. The Pact is currently averaging a 60.15% score on Gamerankings, and while that's a pretty low score compared with other blockbuster titles, it's still significantly higher than fans are rating it. Most notably, Gamespot itself gave the game a 7.5/10, praising it for being "vividly realistic, with one of the most addictive multiplayer modes we've yet seen in an FPS game". Most other major review sites haven't been quite so glowing, but few have deigned to rate the game below a 5/10, which is ostensibly an "average" score. Only X-Play, which scored the game a 1/5, and Games Over Matter, which gave the game a 2/10, have really trashed the game. Adam Sessler of X-Play called the game "a disgrace that Electronic Arts should be ashamed to publish", while Alex Stansfield said at the end of his review: "I felt dirty playing this game, and I felt dirty subjecting my friends to this game." Gamespot has been called out for its positive review, with fans having noticed heavy advertising for The Pact in the weeks preceding the game's release. Other outlets such as Positively Gaming, which gave The Pact a "recommended" review, and Electronic Gaming Monthly, which gave the game an average review of 7/10, have also been noted for advertising The Pact heavily. However, other sites that didn't advertise The Pact also gave it high review marks. Gamemasters, which doesn't feature advertising from game companies on its website, awarded The Pact a B+, which translates to an 8/10, and stated in their review: "Despite the questionable choices it's possible to make during the course of The Pact, the game stands strong as a technical achievement and an emotionally moving FPS with a lot more resonance than most other titles in its genre." With most positive reviews of The Pact lavishing the game's detailed graphics with praise, it has been speculated that perhaps game reviewers are focusing too heavily on graphics and not enough on gameplay, and that "pretty" games can get away with more when it comes to poor gameplay or a questionable storyline. Whatever the case, The Pact and its reviews have generated tremendous controversy amongst the gaming community, a situation that isn't likely to blow over anytime soon.

-from an August 18, 2005 article on Techbubble.com

 

[RySenkari]

NiGHTS: Dream's End

NiGHTS: Dream's End is the third game in the NiGHTS series of platforming titles and the last in the series for the Apple Katana. The game is somewhat of a return to the traditional style of the first game, with less of the fast-paced combat that characterized the second, and sees NiGHTS travel between dream realms in order to escape a coming darkness known as the "end of all dreams". He must get to the bottom of the situation before every child in the multirealm has their dreamlight snuffed out forever. In order to traverse the realms, NiGHTS travels inside the Dream Whale, a shapeshifting extradimensional creature that carries the power of dreams wherever it goes. Utilizing the Dream Whale's power, NiGHTS is able to restore the dreamlight of the children he encounters while gathering up their nightmares and dispersing them. Attempting to stop NiGHTS are mysterious beings known as the Nightmare Riders, who are ethereal ghostlike skeletons who ride on black horses and disrupt NiGHTS' efforts, while also plaguing the children they meet with nightmares. In order to battle them, NiGHTS must fly through the various stages, flying through power-ups and bounding off objects. There's no one set path for this, the player has a lot of freedom in where they wish for NiGHTS to fly. NiGHTS is able to collect a variety of objects that fill up three main meters: his Dream Meter, which serves a similar function to Into The Labyrinth's meter, allowing NiGHTS to utilize special attacks, his Speed Meter, which controls how fast NiGHTS is moving and also affects his power, and his Combo Meter, which is affected by how many Nightmare Riders NiGHTS has successfully attacked, and affects his ability to fly through certain power rings. Once the player has grown accustomed to how NiGHTS flies, progression through stages and battles has a certain rhythm to it that's quite fluid and fun, with players rapidly zipping through massive, beautiful stages, taking out multiple enemies at once, and making brilliant sparks of light and musical cues appear on the screen.

The game features 10 main levels, with interstitial segments taking place in or around the Dream Whale as NiGHTS maneuvers the Whale through the space between the realms. Unlike the previous two games, there aren't really any prominent child characters, though there are a few that stand out, as in this game the focus is largely on NiGHTS and the gameplay. The Nightmare Riders move between worlds on a massive black dragon meant as an evil counterpart to the Dream Whale, though the dragon itself and the Nightmare Riders are being controlled by Pollux, a powerful witch who wants to destroy dreams because she herself has never had a pleasant dream, only nightmares. As NiGHTS moves from world to world, battling the Nightmare Riders and rescuing children, the worlds themselves become more and more tainted by darkness as the Nightmare Riders slowly steal all the dreams from the world. NiGHTS encounters increasingly desolate environments and more frightened children as he progresses, while Pollux herself first shows up in World 5 and makes more frequent appearances as the story goes on. NiGHTS and the Dream Whale fly through environments that for the most part lack any sort of defining theme, but are instead rather psychedelic in appearance, getting more and more twisted the later NiGHTS gets in the game. Finally, in the last world, despite all of NiGHTS' efforts, Pollux manages to steal all the dreams, and she disperses them, seemingly ridding the universe of dreams forever. NiGHTS despairs, falling into and disappearing inside the Dream Whale, where he is surrounded by the dreams and wishes of all the children he's saved. Realizing that the dreams still remain, and are merely trapped, NiGHTS is encouraged to keep fighting, and rises up to battle Pollux. The final battle is an epic midair confrontation featuring Pollux and the Nightmare Dragon vs. NiGHTS and the Dream Whale, with numerous elaborate flying combos required to win. Finally, Pollux is defeated, and sinks into the Nightmare Dragon, absorbing all the nightmares. NiGHTS can sense her fear and flies in to save her, even as all the dreams she's stolen begin to fade away. NiGHTS realizes that there's still one good dream left, and gives it to Pollux, who has a revelation as she experiences her first good dream. She weeps in joy and relief, and all the nightmares comprising the Dragon begin to be absorbed by the Dream Whale, restoring everyone's good dreams and sending them back to all the children in the multirealm. Pollux reverts to a little girl, and thanks NiGHTS before returning to her own universe.

NiGHTS: Dream's End is considered a beautiful and very fun game, though it's not quite as compelling as Into The Labyrinth, and isn't quite the critical darling that game was. It's still considered an excellent continuation of the series and a worthy successor to the first two titles, and fan reception is even more positive than the critical reception. Sales are outstanding, and the franchise remains one of Apple's flagships. Endotherm is considered a superior game by most, but that game hasn't yet established itself as a staple for the company.

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Aerio 4: Sacrifice

Aerio 4: Sacrifice is the fourth game in the Aerio platformer franchise and the final installment of the franchise for the Apple Katana. Given more development time than the other games in the series, it's a culmination of the game mechanics featured in the previous titles, with a mix of platforming, exploration, combat, and stealth, and features numerous playable characters, including Aerio, Lina, Johnny, Fitzer, Brion, Destin, Zia, and two new characters: Elayne, a dark magic slinging witch character, and Zachariah, a knight wielding light magic and a powerful sword. Though Aerio remains the main playable character, the others can be controlled at certain points in the game. Taking place several years after the first title, it sees a 16-year-old Aerio now in full control of her wind powers and flight capabilities. Lina and her little brother Tobias have been Aerio's faithful companions throughout their travels, while Elayne has been traveling with Aerio for nearly a year. Meanwhile, the early part of the game sees Aerio reunite with Johnny, who is also fully trained thanks to his brother Fitzer, who has come to terms with the evil that once resided within. The main action of the game takes place inside a realm called the Forgotten Kingdom, an abandoned castle and town defended faithfully by the young knight Zachariah, who lives alone battling the evil revenant denizens of the realm. Aerio learns that the Forgotten Kingdom was cursed by a powerful evil king named Laith, who turned his back on his people after his daughter, the princess Avamaria, refused to marry her betrothed and instead fled out into the world to seek her own destiny. Aerio decides to retrace Avamaria's steps to find a way to break the curse, convincing Zachariah to leave his kingdom and come along with her and her friends. Aerio journeys throughout the world, including to the three realms ruled by her friends Brion, Destin, and Zia, recruiting their help as well. As Aerio journeys, she learns that Avamaria had wind powers much like hers, and that she fell in love and settled down in an old forest village, a village now plagued by horrible monsters. Aerio learns that Avamaria died protecting her village from a particularly powerful monster, and she also learns that Avamaria is actually her mother. Aerio defeats the monster to avenge her mother, and finds her mother's grave, decorated by the villagers Avamaria helped. Aerio takes a relic from Avamaria's tomb that is said to help break the curse, then returns to the Forgotten Kingdom to find it overrun by monsters, send by the undead King Laith. Aerio and friends fight their way into Laith's castle, where Aerio confronts the restless evil spirit of her grandfather before doing battle with him. She defeats him and takes his own relic, uniting the light and dark relics to undo Laith's curse... but it doesn't work. The relics must be merged by a powerful energy, and that energy is Aerio's. Aerio must sacrifice herself like her mother did. Her friends desperately plead with her not to do this and Johnny begs her and tells Aerio he loves her (the two have been gradually growing closer over the course of the game). Aerio shares a passionate kiss with Johnny, but knows she has to fulfill her destiny or the monsters summoned by Laith will overrun the entire world. Aerio stands on the altar and uses her own life energy to unite the relics as the kingdom collapses around her. Aerio's friends promise to remember her sacrifice as the game ends, but there's an implication that perhaps Aerio is still alive...

Aerio 4 is generally well received by critics, though it receives the lowest Gamerankings score in the series to date: 80.82% (still considered quite good). Critics love the blended gameplay and touching storyline, though the game is criticized for being a bit short and the characters themselves don't have large repertoires of moves, making many playable characters redundant. It's still considered a great game and an excellent "conclusion" to the franchise, though it's quite clear Aerio will return, either on the iPod Play or Project Pippin. The great sales for Aerio 4 ensure that the series will indeed continue.

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September 13, 2005

Steve Jobs was pleased with the early sales figures for Aerio 4. The game wasn't a smash hit like Endotherm, but it would still turn a good profit, and continued to justify its existence. Though Jobs was happy that the Katana was still churning out successful titles, he also knew the end was rapidly approaching. Katana sales continued to drop at a steady rate, and there had been few hits in terms of software in 2005. The iPod Play was clearly the present, and Project Pippin was the future.

"Sonic... NiGHTS... Aerio... Ecco... Vectorman... Zodiac World... Spare Parts... Endotherm... what do all these properties have in common?" Jobs asked an employee who he'd called into his office.

"They're successful action IPs with lifetime sales over a million units," said the employee.

"That's true. What else?" asked Jobs.

"They're positively reviewed by game critics and fans," the employee said, starting to get a bit nervous as he 'fished' for the right answer.

"Go on..."

"They...sell hardware units?"

Jobs showed the employee a chart, which displayed the lifetime hardware sales for the Nintendo Wave, Microsoft Xbox, and Sega Katana. The Xbox had sold over 42 million units worldwide. The Wave, just over 40 million. And the Katana?

"We've sold 28.5 million total Katana systems, significantly less than either of our competitors despite being the first system to market. So no, these franchises are NOT selling hardware units," said Jobs. "We are losing, and if we bring the new console out with these franchises on it, we will continue to lose. We need something new, something that makes people WANT to buy our hardware despite Microsoft and Nintendo's best efforts and best games."

"We... need something new then, not just another action platformer."

"Exactly," said Jobs. "We already have Project Pippin nailed down from a hardware standpoint. We need good games to go with it. Good, exclusive, ORIGINAL games. Have your teams been working on original concepts during the past six months?"

"We have a few concepts that look promising-"

"No!" shouted Jobs, standing up and pounding his desk. "I don't want something that looks promising, I want something that's going to sell hardware. I want something I can go up there at E3 next year and tell everyone that they can't fucking live without it!"

The employee's legs shook, and he thought he might run out of the room like the Cowardly Lion ran from the Wizard in the Emerald City, but he stood his ground and began trying to recall the most promising idea he'd seen.

"There's....there's a game where you're a robot and you have to collect gears-"

"Oh for the love of God, let me see the ideas and I'll pick."

Jobs was presented with a folder full of ideas and concepts for new original IPs. Most of them were rehashes of the typical Sega action franchise, but there were a few diamonds in the rough...one idea in particular looked like it might be a winner. Not only would it work as a Project Pippin title, but Jobs could see it working on the iPod Play as well....it could even be a killer app for Apple's other big idea coming down the pipeline that looked like it might be released alongside Pippin.

"This one here, the world-building game. You say it's online?"

"You build a world, and then other people can come in and add to it or explore it. And the graphics, they're kinda old school, the building units are called 'pixels' and-"

"Who designed this one?"

"Er...the um, the designer you recruited from Sweden."

Jobs had trouble remembering him for a moment.

"Markus."

"Oh....! Yeah, now I remember him. Pretty smart guy, he designed this game?"

"With some input from his team, yes."

Jobs looked at the design concept for the game again. This was definitely something he could promote, though he wasn't quite sure if it would be the killer app for Pippin. He handed the folder back to the employee.

"Tell Markus to keep working on that game, it's the... 'most promising' one in here. Keep the teams busy, we'll need more than one hit game to take the piss out of Microsoft and Nintendo."

"Yes sir, Mr. Jobs."

Jobs sat back down at his desk and continued to ponder that intriguing 'pixel' game. The old-school graphics wouldn't blow Half-Life 2 out of the water, but they did make the game playable on things less powerful than Project Pippin, not just the iPod Play but.... quite possibly... a cell phone.

"Project Pippin's killer app doesn't need to be the best game ever made. It just needs to sell hardware. Lots, and lots, and lots of hardware."

 

[RySenkari]

Resident Evil: Viral Agent

Resident Evil: Viral Agent is a survival horror/action game published exclusively for the Microsoft Xbox. The game takes place between Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4, and stars Jill Valentine and a new partner, special forces agent Alan Markov, as the two are attempting to stem the tide of a dangerous new virus in a suburban city. The game plays somewhat like OTL Mercenaries, with short, time-limited missions taking place in a variety of locations, and involving more action-packed gunplay than slow-paced horror. Jill and Alan must make their way from place to place in the city, gunning down infected and protecting survivors, while a timer on screen displays how much time the player has before the outbreak grows too large to control. While the player controls Jill, it is possible for another player to control Alan during two-player co-op mode, which can be either cooperative (players work together to accomplish a goal without scoring) or competitive (players compete for points and have opportunities to hinder each other's progress). There are a total of 14 "missions" in all, each lasting from anywhere between 10-30 minutes, with each mission having at least two stages and as many as five. Between each stage and mission, a quick story cutscene plays out. Each mission has a "boss" infected at the end, with some stages having "mid-boss" infecteds (there are more of these mid-boss stages toward the end of the game), these infected can range from more resilient zombies to huge monsters. The game attempts to combine an arcade-style feel with the feel of a full-length third person shooter, making for an experience that's somewhere in-between. Viral Agent is playable online as well, similar to the earlier title Resident Evil: Outbreak.

The game stars with Jill and Alan arriving in Bessemer, a suburb of a larger city some 20 miles away. Bessemer has been experiencing horrific, bloody attacks in a variety of places, and it's quickly determined that a new virus is causing this by mutating some of the inhabitants of the city. Jill and Alan make their way to the first locale, a warehouse on the outskirts of town, and begin trying to neutralize the virus by taking out every infected they can. After clearing the warehouse, they learn of another location being overrun, and their quest soon takes them all across town, where they have to stop infected at every flashpoint before the virus can spread to other places. As Jill and Alan make progress, Jill begins to suspect Alan of being responsible for the outbreak, and indeed, before the end of the game she learns that he's actually a Russian special forces spy sent to collect a sample of the new virus to cultivate into a bioweapon. Jill must neutralize both Alan's Russian contact and Alan himself to stop the spread of the virus completely (during the final missions after Jill and Alan turn on each other, Jill teams up with a local officer, Officer Hanover, so the second player will play as Hanover during those missions).

Viral Agent gets a positive reception for its action-packed gunbattles and its graphics, which are quite good for an Xbox game, but it is viewed poorly by some series purists who don't consider it a "true" survival horror game and also by some Xbox fans who wanted an experience akin to a Code Veronica or a Resident Evil 4. Still, it's decently popular, and sales are good after the game is released in August 2005.

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Resident Evil: Desertion

Resident Evil: Desertion is a survival horror title released initially as an iPod Play exclusive. The game plays much like a traditional old-school Resident Evil game, in similar fashion to OTL's Resident Evil: Revelations. It takes place in a town off an old highway in Nevada, and tells the story of a rookie highway patrol agent named Samantha "Sam" Lovell (voiced by Megan Fahlenbock) who uncovers a strange and horrifying secret in the middle of the desert. Unlike previous Resident Evil titles, Sam explores almost entirely by herself over the course of the game, as virtually every other named character in the game is a villain. The game combines the feeling of horror with the feeling of isolation, and much of the game has Sam running or hiding as she deals with strange creatures and heavily armed mercenaries. Early in development, Shinji Mikami wanted to bring back the old typewriter save system of previous Resident Evil games, but was told that it wouldn't be a good idea due to the game being a portable title and people needing to be able to stop and start their game quickly. Mikami relented and added a more forgiving save system, but also included "Professional" mode for people who have beaten the game, which includes the typewriter save system and ups the enemy difficulty and number of enemies overall, it's considered to be perhaps the most difficult Resident Evil game in the series (even with the more forgiving save system it's considered a very difficult game). Soon after Capcom began developing Mega Man 9 for the iPod Play (and Supernova), Mikami and others began imagining what a Resident Evil game could be like on such a powerful handheld. Ultimately, Desertion is one of the most technically advanced games to date for the iPod Play, looking better than any Resident Evil Katana game and even drawing comparisons to Resident Evil 4 on the Xbox and the Wave.

Desertion begins with Sam entering what looks like a small desert town that turns out to be an abandoned ghost town. She's been separated from her partner after a car crash, and now she is looking for him. She explores for a while until she comes across an old building with a basement, and in the basement she finds what looks like a human corpse but is actually someone infected with the T-Virus. She flees and begins to make her way through the town, where she discovers more creatures attacking her. She finds her partner's corpse, but immediately afterward she is captured by mysterious hooded people and she wakes up in an experimentation room. She escapes her restraints and staggers out into a hallway where she is attacked by another creature, though she eventually finds her partner's old weapon and is able to defend herself somewhat. She learns that the hooded people are working for a government scientist who swiped a sample of the T-Virus from a CDC lab and has come out to the desert to experiment in solitude. Sam tries to find a way to alert the government but is unable to make a call out from where she is. She eventually does find another prisoner, a man who was a tourist at a casino when he was drugged and brought out here, he helps Sam for a short time but he too ends up dead. Sam eventually is able to put up more of a fight and is able to kill some of the hooded men and some of the creatures as well, and eventually she confronts the scientist responsible for all of this, killing him soon after he mutates himself. The game ends with Sam staggering out toward a highway, nearly dying of thirst, she collapses and is surrounded by police cars but her fate after that is left uncertain.

Released in September of 2005, Resident Evil: Desertion is one of the iPod Play's most anticipated exclusives of the year, and it lives up to the hype, with critics praising its excellent production values (especially for a handheld game) and its difficulty, which "returns the Resident Evil series to its roots". It gets reviews in the high 8s, on par with Resident Evil 4 in 2005, and is one of the fastest selling iPod Play games released to date. It would remain an iPod Play exclusive for nearly two years, but Capcom can't resist the allure of porting such a popular title to the consoles forever, and it would eventually be ported to the seventh-generation consoles in similar fashion to OTL's Revelations, with updated graphics and extras.

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The future of the Resident Evil series looks bright indeed. Nintendo fans bummed out that they won't be able to play Desertion shouldn't feel completely left out: the Game Boy Supernova will be getting an exclusive Resident Evil title of its own next year. It's called Resident Evil: Liquefaction, and it features an extremely creepy phenomenon: people melting alive and turning into flesh-eating zombies. Capcom promises some of the most gory and terrifying visuals to date, and we'll get to see them all on the Supernova.

We've also been promised Resident Evil 5, but according to series creator Shinji Mikami, that's still quite a ways out, as he expects the game to be developed with future consoles in mind. Does this mean that this generation of consoles has seen its last Resident Evil game in the Xbox's Viral Agent? Mikami couldn't say for sure, but he did tell us that he thinks there may be one more story left to tell before Resident Evil 5 is released.

"I think there is a side story featuring a character most fans would not expect," said Mikami. "I would like to do it some time in the next couple of years, but I can't say if it will be for one of the consoles or for one of the handhelds. The iPod Play and Game Boy Supernova are both impressive pieces of hardware, and both have shown they can handle a full-fledged Resident Evil game."

-from an article on Games Over Matter, posted on September 21, 2005

 

[RySenkari]

Kameo: The Dreamer

Kameo: The Dreamer is an adventure/action-RPG title developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. The game is TTL's version of the OTL game Kameo: Elements Of Power, taking elements from that title and combining them with elements from The Dreamers and Dreamscape, two Ultra Nintendo adventure platformer games which themselves were based on Banjo-Kazooie/Project Dream. While Kameo: The Dreamer does share many elements from the Ultra Nintendo games, it has a completely new storyline and a completely new protagonist: Kameo, a teenage fairy girl with the ability to capture, nurture, and fight alongside elemental creatures. Kameo is a human-sized fairy, like the fairies seen in Fairytale and Haze, and uses both magic and physical attacks to battle enemies. The battle system itself is VERY similar to OTL's Kingdom Hearts, without the Squaresoft tropes but utilizing pretty much everything else, including jumping, non-combat movements, guarding, and fighting alongside AI controlled companions (in this case, Kameo fights alongside three monster companions). Kameo utilizes a glaive in battle, and also has telekinetic abilities that can blast enemies, throw them, manipulate objects, and more. She can capture monsters in a variety of ways: some monsters she finds and befriends in her travels, some she can buy, some she has to defeat, others she is awarded by fulfilling certain conditions, etc. There are 120 different monsters in the game, corresponding to one of 12 different elements. Each monster has a "child" form, then evolves into an "adult" form, and finally into a "mature" form, for a total of 360 possible monster forms in the game. Like Pokemon, some monsters evolve through leveling up, while others evolve through different means.

The 12 different elements present in the game share much in common with the OTL Kameo, though some have been changed to avoid redundancy. They are:

Fire
Ice
Water
Plant
Lightning
Rock
Wind
Acid
Sound
Spike
Arc (corresponds to light)
Shadow

The player usually controls Kameo, but can switch between monsters using the shoulder buttons to fulfill certain functions outside of battle, the player can also switch during battle but only for a limited time. It IS possible to capture all monsters during a single playthrough of the game, though a few monsters are missable forever. The game takes place in a massive open world, though it's not an open world game per se, as many areas are closed off until certain prerequisites are met. The game itself makes no secret of being an RPG: enemies now freely give experience points and gold in battle, and the game itself is described right on the box as an action-RPG. Though Kameo does not look as pretty as it did IOTL on the Xbox 360, the game is still one of the best looking Nintendo Wave titles, not just up to 2005 but overall. Steve Burke, who did the musical score IOTL, also does the score for the game ITTL, though he is joined by Grant Kirkhope, and the game's soundtrack has a more "epic" feel than that of previous Rare games. The voice acting is done primarily by British-based unknowns, though there are a few in the cast who would be more well known later on (more for voice acting than for anything else), as Rare used most of its voice acting budget for the later Velvet Dark: Synthesis. Still, the game's voice acting is considered quite good, on par with most of Rare's other recent games.

The game's plot has a few similarities from OTL's game, primarily the villainous troll, King Thorn, who returns ITTL as Kameo's primary antagonist. Kameo's evil sister Kalus does not appear in the game, and instead Thorn primarily works alone, sending his minions after Kameo as the game progresses. Thorn and his trolls have overrun the kingdom of the fairies, and have captured most of the survivors, including Kameo's family. Kameo escapes the overrun fairy kingdom and sets out on a mission to free her people by storming King Thorn's mountain and defeating his minions. In order to do this, she must assemble an army of monsters and allies, which she must accomplish by completing missions and raising hope amongst the people. As Kameo journeys, she begins to get a reputation as the "queen of dreams", as she is the only one left in the realm who has any hope. Her reputation makes her a frequent target for Thorn's minions, and he and his legion of trolls disperse throughout the realm to try and stop her. Kameo meets a few trolls along the way who don't work for Thorn, but she initially doesn't trust them, and must learn not to see all trolls as enemies, because there are some friendly trolls who will become valuable allies along the way. Kameo manages to rescue a few of her family members as she journeys as well, including her older brother Arkham and her younger sister Melodia, who become valuable allies in their own right. She also rescues numerous cousins, each of whom have their own quirks and ways of helping Kameo. Eventually, Kameo has fomented enough hope throughout the realm that she is able to raise up a rebel army, who storms Thorn's mountain and gives Kameo an opportunity to make her way to the summit. Kameo does battle with Thorn alongside her friends and family, utilizing the monsters she's captured along the way. She defeats him and saves the realm and her family, freeing the fairy kingdom in the process.

Kameo: The Dreamer is released on August 2, 2005. It is received very positively at release, certainly better than OTL's Kameo: Elements Of Power, and on par with the previous two games in the Dreamers franchise. It gets a lot of comparisons to Fated To Rise for its plot and gameplay, though Kameo is definitely more RPG-ish than Fated To Rise was, and with a more open world and less twisty plot. One of the Wave's most hyped games of the year, it sees outstanding initial sales and strong legs throughout the rest of the year, making it a far bigger commercial hit than OTL's game and maintaining the Dreamers franchise as one of Rare's strongest.

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Velvet Dark: Conspiracy

Velvet Dark: Conspiracy is a first person shooter title and the third mainline game in Rare's Velvet Dark franchise. It picks up about a year after Synthesis left off, and sees Joanna Dark and her AI sister Velvet working together to stop a conspiracy of high-ranking government officials from destabilizing the world. The game is a bit of a return to the series' roots, after Synthesis played with enhancements and RPG elements. Conspiracy is more of a straight-up FPS, and includes many of the game enhancements from OTL's Perfect Dark Zero, including the third person cover system, a recharging health meter (though like in OTL's game, only a small amount of the player's health refills, making it a bit similar to the system used in OTL's Bloodborne), and evasive dodge rolling. In this way, Conspiracy presents a more action-based FPS title in line with many of the current third person hits on the market such as The Covenant, Squad Four, and Blackheart. Velvet returns in an advisory role but does not directly interact with the player this time around. In fact, Velvet is directly playable in her own right in a few missions, with some missions involving the player switching back and forth between them to make progress through a level. The game also has secondary functions for virtually all of its weapons, though unlike in OTL's game, the player is allowed to carry unlimited weapons in a level. There are a number of weapons unique to Conspiracy that don't appear in OTL's Zero, including a mind control dart gun, a heatseeking freeze ray, and a weapon that deploys a shrapnel mine. There's also an energy weapon with a number of functions suspiciously similar to Symmetra's energy gun in OTL's Overwatch, including a proximity-based damaging laser and the ability to plant laser turrets that fire at close range. Velvet Dark: Conspiracy was a collaboration between both British and American game developers, and a number of young developers got some of their very first work on this game, while some would continue to work for Rare, others would move onto other companies such as Blizzard, and still others would go on to form companies of their own. The game's graphics are substantially better than those of the Ultra Nintendo Velvet Dark games, though of course not as good as the graphics in OTL's Perfect Dark Zero. Still, like Rare's other big 2005 project Kameo, Velvet Dark: Conspiracy is held up as one of the best looking Wave games before or since, and is considered to be perhaps the best looking console game ever at the time of its release. There are a lot of tight, cramped levels in the game, which increase the amount of visual detail that can be devoted to objects and scenery. The game was also the first to utilize an American-based voice cast, including the casting of John de Lancie as a returning Daniel Carrington, Crawford Wilson as young teenage hacker Scam, and also the controversial recasting of Joanna and Velvet Dark. Though Eveline Fischer, who herself was not a voice actress by trade, had been considered excellent in the dual roles and had even won an Interactive Achievement Award for her portrayal of the twins in Velvet Dark, she would be replaced in the role by actress Rebecca Mader. This was partly by choice (Fischer wanted to focus on her music composition work), and partly the desire of Rare to use a more accomplished actress in the role. To her credit, Mader performed excellently as Joanna and Velvet, and is generally considered by critics to be the better of the two actresses in the games, but fans still reacted with some harshness to the new voice.

The plot of Conspiracy sees Joanna now working as head of security at the Genesis Institute, where her sister Velvet also works as a benevolent AI liaison meant to promote the company's work. AI is gradually being reintroduced into certain facets of ordinary life, though it is now heavily monitored and restricted after the events of the first game. The first mission sees Joanna overseeing the installation of a Genesis AI at a government facility, but she must also pursue a hacker who is trying to get the data and who has activated military robots to stop Joanna. After Joanna evades the robots, she is about to catch the hacker but is pursued by another shadowy figure. She manages to catch the hacker anyway, who reveals himself as Scam. He accepts responsibility for the robots but says that the shadowy figure who attacked Joanna wasn't one of his and was from the government. Joanna orders Scam taken to prison and goes back to the Genesis Institute to ponder recent events. She's contacted by Daniel Carrington, who has a job for her. She initially refuses, but Velvet asks Joanna to do it and she finally agrees. The job concerns a troubling bit of code that one of Carrington's techs stumbled upon in a London office. Joanna investigates the code, only to be pursued by shadowy figures like the ones from before, and barely makes it out alive. Joanna and Velvet gradually learn that some kind of rogue code is being planted into AI systems all around the world. Carrington thinks it's a rogue AI, and wants the Genesis Institute to terminate their work. Velvet agrees, which surprises Joanna: being an AI, Velvet has always been an advocate for AI proliferation. However, Velvet is afraid, and Joanna realizes she's experiencing trauma from the experience of having her body hijacked and her code overwritten during the events of Synthesis. Meanwhile, Joanna thinks Scam might have more information about what's been happening, but he's been transferred to a secure prison and the government isn't letting Joanna see him. She decides to bust Scam out with Velvet's help. Scam reveals that numerous government officials have been conducting hacking operations, and when he stumbled onto it, they tried to kill him. After the Genesis Institute is raided by a special ops team, Joanna's suspicions are confirmed and she, Velvet, and Scam relocate to a secret Carrington facility to continue to unravel the conspiracy. At first, it seems like a straightforward case of the government being corrupt and working to steal AI secrets and destroy its competitors, but soon Joanna and Velvet discover something even more sinister: a conspiracy of humans and AI programs working together to trick the American government into accomplishing its goals. The AI conspirators are led by an agent called Janus, a computer program designed as a spy. Janus is perhaps the most human-like AI program to be developed since Velvet, experiencing the same grief, fear, and trauma that Velvet is capable of experiencing. The human conspirators are led by a man named Paul Wilkensen, the Secretary of Defense, who believes that the government is too cautious in its approach toward AI, and wants to gradually replace all government officials with AI programs. While there are other agents, both human and AI, involved in the conspiracy, Wilkensen and Janus are the ringleaders. What becomes apparent is that the two of them think they're manipulating the other, forming a tangled web of subordinations and alliances within the conspiracy itself, and raising the Blade Runner-esque question of whether or not the humans know their humans or the AIs know that they're AIs.

As Joanna, Velvet, Scam, and Carrington work together to take down the conspiracy, they're assisted by Mala Hendrix, Carrington's new "best" agent, after Joanna (in fact, he calls her Perfect Hendrix). Mala is the one who discovered the code that Carrington alerted Joanna about, and she is a skilled and brilliant agent in her own right (in fact, Scam flirts with her and the two seem to have a bond for most of the game. However, about 3/4ths of the way through the game, Mala reveals herself as the true architect behind the conspiracy. In addition, she reveals that Wilkensen is no longer human, but an AI robot that Mala created after killing Wilkensen months before and uploading his mind data to a computer. Soon after revealing her treachery, Mala wounds Joanna (fatally, though she ends up surviving because she gets immediate life-saving treatment from Velvet) and flees, taking the Carrington Institute's entire data cache with her. After being nursed back to health by Carrington and Velvet, Joanna leaves to try and take Mala down once and for all. Mala's motivations are fairly simple: she wishes to create the most advanced superintelligent AI ever, and mindlink herself to it in order to gain supreme power over the entire world. She replaces Wilkensen with herself amongst the conspirators and uploads Carrington's datafiles into Janus. Meanwhile, Velvet has figured out what Mala intends to do and is horrified. Uploading Carrington's datafiles into Janus will destroy his mind, because those files have all of Velvet's memories, and Velvet's mind is consumed with trauma. Velvet has learned how to handle this trauma, but Janus has not, and the upload will drive him insane. "Can you really drive a computer insane?" asks Joanna, to which Velvet replies "if you know what I've been through, you'll know the answer to that question." Joanna and Velvet race to stop Mala. Joanna engages Mala in fierce fight and Joanna seems to have the upperhand, but Mala uses Janus' functionality to retake control of the fight, and is about to kill Joanna once and for all. But in her moment of triumph, Mala screams as Janus' computing power overwhelms her mind. Janus has been driven mad with pain and revenge, and uses his power to kill Mala by literally erasing her mind. Janus then turns on Joanna, but before he can attack her, Velvet launches a containment program and Janus is forced to re-download himself into a robot body. Joanna and Velvet fight their way out of Mala's base, but Janus has made his way to Washington, DC, in order to carry out a vendetta he had when he was initially an AI spy: the military gave Janus another AI program to fall in love with, then deliberately "terminated" the program in order to provoke a vengeful response which would make him more ruthless in battle. Joanna tries to stop Janus alone, but is unable to defeat his superior functionality. With Scam's help, Joanna is able to defend herself, but she can't defeat Janus without Velvet. Instead of using force on Janus, Velvet reasons with him, using her own trauma to try and provoke a sympathetic response. It doesn't stop Janus completely, but it causes him to have a programming conflict, enabling Joanna to kill him with a shot to the CPU core in his skull. The threat from Janus now ended, Joanna has once again saved the world, but this incident puts AI back in a negative light, and the traumatized government officials decide to terminate all AI research effective immediately. Joanna and Velvet, with the help of Carrington and Scam, go underground. Almost immediately, Scam discovers evidence of another conspiracy...a conspiracy to put AI technology in a bad light. Almost everything that happened was set into motion by another, unseen force, leaving a cliffhanger ending as the sisters ponder their next move.

Velvet Dark: Conspiracy, like the games that came before it, gets an outstanding critical reception. Critics do note that the plot does have some similarities to Blade Runner, with one critic summarizing the series thus far as: "What if Blade Runner took place in a 2019 that wasn't a grimy dystopia?" The game's multiplayer mode, which is largely based on the multiplayer from the Ultra Nintendo installments with the addition of online play, is criticized a bit for not being very innovative, but most critics take an "if it's not broke, don't fix it" approach, and do appreciate the stability of the servers, enabling what they call the best online shooter play since Tom Clancy's Delta Force. The game is released on September 27, 2005, and is one of the fastest selling titles of the year, making it one of the most successful Ultra-to-Wave transitions to date.

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"IT'S OFFICIAL: NINTENDO PURCHASES RARE FOR $450 MILLION"
-the title of a Kotaku.com article posted on October 14, 2005

"Nintendo, was smart, I think, to lock Rare down when they did. I don't mean when they bought them last month, I mean when they signed that contract back in 2001 I think it was to keep them around for the next five years. We were close, I think, to moving in, especially after we knew that The Covenant wasn't going to be an FPS. We were thinking, well maybe we'd do a Velvet Dark game. But then Nintendo, wisely, I might add, locked them down, and that was the end of that. Still, I think we got just as good a deal buying up Psygnosis, because Cyberwar has been really lucrative for us, for sure. And now we're working with Valve, so we're in a good spot to where we don't really need Rare. Would have been nice to have a company like Rare, but we'll do just fine."
-Bill Gates, in a November 2005 Forbes interview

"And a lot of people want to criticize us for not buying up, say, Rare when we had the chance. At the time, Nintendo's stake in the company meant that it only had to fork over half a billion dollars to buy up all of Rare. For us, it would have been nearly a billion. It cost us a billion dollars to buy Sega. I don't care who you ask or how much you like Velvet Dark or Conker or whatever, that company was not worth as much as Sega. Go ask any kid who he recognizes more, Joanna Dark or Sonic The Hedgehog, then come back and tell me with a straight face whether or not we should've paid a billion dollars for Rare."
-Steve Jobs, in a 2011 interview with Wired.com

 

[RySenkari]

Sonic Blaze

Sonic Blaze is an action platformer released exclusively for the iPod Play. The game plays quite similarly to TTL's Sonic The Hedgehog 4, in that it's a primarily 2-D game with some 3-D segments, essentially some bonus rooms and boss battles are in 3-D with a few other short sequences also in 3-D, but for the most part it plays like a classic 2-D Sonic game. The graphics are in 3-D, but have a slight cel shading element to them that make them a bit more cartoony than games like Sonic Neon and Sonic Rover. The game takes place across eight stages, divided into four acts each, with four stages being retreads of earlier Sonic stages (such as the first stage, Blazing Hill Zone, being a remake of Green Hill Zone) and four stages being entirely original. As implied by the title, the game itself has a fire motif: Sonic himself has a new fire-themed design change, and when he runs or spins across a stage, he leaves a temporarily fire trail that can burn enemies and objects. Sonic is joined by a new animal friend: Flare the Tortoise, a turtle with flaming nitro jets strapped to his body to make him as fast as Sonic. Flare is a fairly generic "badass" type character in the vein of Knuckles, but has a lot of science know-how as well (a lot of series fans compare him to Dom from the Fast and the Furious movies, and wish that Vin Diesel had voiced him). Flare is attempting to battle the ice queen Agalania, a powerful witch who has frozen Flare's home and who seeks to freeze Sonic's realm also. In order to stop Agalania, the animals who live in Sonic's world have artifically warmed a number of areas, making for the "Blazing" stages that Sonic and Flare encounter over the course of the game. Flare himself is playable in one act in every stage, except for Stage 7 (Frozen Tundra Zone, Flare's former home now frozen over) where he's playable throughout. Flare can shoot projectiles at enemies or run them over, though his powers are limited by how much fuel he has, and needs to refill his reserves throughout the level or switch with Sonic if he's stranded. Despite the game's somewhat retro playstyle, the game features full voice acting and CGI cutscenes throughout to enhance the game's storyline elements. Though Sonic and Flare are the primary characters, other familiar characters such as Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, and Corona make appearances throughout the story, either helping out Sonic and Flare or being captured and having to be rescued. The game features a lyrical theme song, "Blazing Fast", performed by Crush 40.

As the first Sonic game designed primarily for a handheld console since the Game Gear, Sonic Blaze was given a lot of hype and anticipation, with fans wondering if the game would translate well to the medium and if the return to a retro playstyle would be a successful one. Ultimately, the game was considered a critical success, with reviews about on par with last year's Sonic Rover and favorable comparisons to 1996's Sonic the Hedgehog 4. The gameplay and fire mechanics were especially highly praised, as was the gameplay of Flare, a character with more powers than Sonic but with a limited supply of that power. The cutscenes and storyline were considered to be a bit lacking, but the CGI cutscenes, which altogether totaled about a half hour and could be skipped, didn't drag the game down too much. Ultimately, Sonic Blaze was both a critical and commercial hit, becoming one of the year's best selling handheld titles and going a long way to convince Sega holdouts to spring for the iPod Play.

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Gunstar Heroes Galaxy

Gunstar Heroes Galaxy is a run-and-gun game developed by Treasure for the iPod Play. It features the same classic run and gun gameplay of previous Gunstar Heroes titles, though the graphics are in a more stylistic 2-D style than the 3-D of the Katana's Rerisen. The game itself takes place across nine different planets, with two stages on each planet and somewhat longer stages than those in Rerisen. Whereas Rerisen distinguished itself by featuring a MASSIVE amount of weapon combinations (700+, as opposed to about 150 different combinations in Galaxy), Galaxy distinguishes itself by having more enemy variety than any other game in the series. Each of the game's nine planets has its own contingent of enemies to battle, with different strategies required for each one. For this reason, eight of the game's planets are accessible right from the start of the game, with the ninth being selectable after the other eight planets are conquered. The game also features a new protagonist: Terric, galactic space hero, who wears a cape and spacesuit into battle as he fights across the game's nine worlds. Each of the nine worlds has its own distinct motif: there are futuristic worlds, strange biological worlds, medieval worlds, etc., and the enemy fighting strategies on those worlds corresponds heavily to the world's motif. As par for the course in a Treasure game, each world has multiple boss enemies to fight, each with its own distinct strategy, and many being very difficult: in fact, many fans of the series say this is the toughest Gunstar Heroes game yet. The presentation is a bit of a step back from Rerisen: there's hardly any voice acting to be had, and all cutscenes are done in-game, not via the use of animation.

Gunstar Heroes Galaxy is considered a solid run and gun, and fans of the series do praise its difficulty and diverse strategic options, but overall it isn't seen as being as good as Rerisen. Sales are a bit slow for the game in North America, and even Japanese fans balk a bit after an initial sales spike at release. Still, it's low budget enough to turn a profit, and it was never expected to move iPod Play systems like Sonic Blaze, so overall, the game is seen as a success.

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Ecco: The Mysterious Cove

Ecco: The Mysterious Cove is an action/exploration title for the iPod Play. It continues the Ecco The Dolphin series, and plays much like the series' earlier titles, with a dolphin named Ecco exploring the ocean, battling enemies, and saving his friends. This game takes place almost entirely in and around a cove where strange and dangerous creatures lurk, guarding a secret that can save the ocean from pollution and destruction. The Mysterious Cove, like Sonic Blaze and Gunstar Heroes Galaxy, was designed by Apple to largely mimic the successful games of Sega's past, and on one level it does succeed: the game plays much like the old Ecco games, with beautiful music, strange (and sometimes horrifying) creatures, and a vast ocean to explore. However, in the eyes of many, it emulates those old games a bit too well: exploration gets repetitive fairly quickly, and so does the music. While the music is considered quite beautiful, the game doesn't feature a lot of tracks, and the ones that do get played tend to wind up playing ad nauseum as the player explores areas over and over again. There's not a lot going on in The Mysterious Cove, and players tend to get easily lost. It's got a lot of the same problems that Ecco's Water World on the Katana had, though Ecco's Water World gave players a lot more to do and had more indicators about where the player should go next.

Reviews for the game are mediocre, as opposed to the overall good reviews enjoyed by Ecco's Water World. This comes at a great disappointment to Steve Jobs, who considers the Ecco series to be one of Sega's most valuable properties, and one of the few game franchises he chooses to indulge in during his free time. Jobs was personally involved in choosing the game's developer, and though Jobs himself enjoyed what he played of The Mysterious Cove, he blames the developer for poor design choices and making the game too confusing. The game is also somewhat of a commercial failure, again, unlike Ecco's Water World which enjoyed success on the same level as Knuckles And Bit. In what is overall considered to be a good year for the iPod Play, The Mysterious Cove sticks out like somewhat of a sore thumb, and is a bit of a sore spot for Jobs, who doesn't want to give up on the franchise quite yet, and looks to retool it for a future game.

 

[RySenkari]

Duke Nukem: Arena Of Death

Duke Nukem: Arena Of Death is a multiplayer-focused FPS title for the Microsoft Xbox. It plays almost identically to 2003's Duke Nukem XXX, but with additional weapons and combat items geared toward arena play. The game does have a single-player campaign, but it's a fairly bare bones one, featuring Duke going up against increasingly stiff challenges as he kills his way through an interdimensional combat tournament. The multiplayer mode itself is playable locally with up to four players, over a LAN network with up to 16 players, or online, and features a variety of modes, including co-op, deathmatch, Capture The Babes (capture the flag), and others. The game features plenty of the series' trademark crude humor and tons of new one-liners, along with plenty of old classics. Playable characters include Duke himself, a few generic soldiers who serve as Duke's "buddies", an array of villains, and a few sexy female characters. All in all, it's a fairly competent, if cliched, FPS game, with the main attraction being the Duke Nukem humor. It's about average for an Xbox tournament fighter, there's no huge glaring flaws but nothing really stands out as great either. As Duke still has plenty of fans, especially among the Xbox crowd, the game sells decently, a bit less than Duke Nukem XXX did, but still enough to keep Duke alive as a viable game franchise. The game is also released for PC, and does fairly well there, allowing Xbox and PC players to battle one another (Duke even has a few console vs. PC wars lines that he uses when a console player kills a PC player or vice-versa). While a lot of the mainstream gaming press thinks Duke Nukem is getting stale by this point, his loyal fans continue to buy his games, and the series is likely to continue into the seventh generation.

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Blueboyz 2: Unrelenting

The sequel to 2003's Xbox FPS title Blueboyz, Blueboyz 2 features more of the same FPS combat action, with improved graphics and gameplay. It continues the story of the elite military squad known as the Blueboyz, and this time sees the Blueboyz sent alone on a war against a massive enemy army. Their commanding officers plan to disavow the Blueboyz after their inevitable deaths, but the squad has other plans in mind as they battle against an overwhelming force. This game covers all the action movie cliches: humorous dialogue, massive explosions, and even a soundtrack heavy on classic rock music. It's fairly light-hearted considering the subject matter, and even features an over-the-top villain who's clearly affecting Raul Julia's M. Bison accent from the Street Fighter movie. The gameplay itself is standard FPS fare, but fairly forgiving compared to most other FPS games on the market: the heroes are bullet sponges for the most part, while enemies die fairly quickly (which is good, since you'll be fighting a lot of them). The game actually gets a lot of praise for featuring more enemies on screen than just about every other Xbox FPS game up to that point, even if the AI is fairly stupid (the difficulty comes from the large numbers of enemies, leading some critics to compare it to Dynasty Warriors in FPS form, though there aren't quite THAT many enemies to fight at once). The game is definitely better received than the previous title, averaging around an 8/10 from reviewers, and sales are fairly good as well.

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Tribes

The first title developed by Looking Glass Studios after its acquisition by Microsoft in late 2002 is Tribes, a reboot of the company's series of FPS games developed for the PC. Visually and from a gameplay perspective, the game most resembles OTL's Tribes: Vengeance, though the plotline itself is completely different. Like earlier titles in the series, Tribes is a futuristic shooter, and in addition to weapons, the player has a number of enhancements that can be used in battle, such as jetpacks and a Metroid-style grappling hook. Aware of the popularity of Techno Angel, a similar futuristic shooter game, Looking Glass made a great effort to distinguish the gameplay of Tribes from that series. There's a lot less visual information available to the player, and the combat is a bit grittier and more realistic, making the player deliberate and take their time about where to shoot and when to take cover. The game itself centers around a rebellion taking place on a Venusian colony, and a soldier named Ataskus who raids an Imperial military base to outfit a small ragtag band of fellow rebels. Ataskus' goal is to unite the "tribes" of Venus (more groups of rebel military detachments) to launch a grand war to throw off the Imperial yoke. He gains help from a number of allies, including a bounty hunter named Citrine and a scientist named Raul. The game features 20 missions in all, which gradually ramp up the stakes as Ataskus' rebels achieve more victories. The Empire brings in heavily armored soldiers and eventually massive capital ships to defeat the rebellion. Eventually, the rebels succeed, and escape the planet in an Imperial capital ship, hoping to bring the fight to Mars next and foment a rebellion there. The reception to Tribes is quite good, it's one of the year's best received FPS titles. It sells at about the same rate as Blueboyz 2 initially, though sales would pick up more later on. It proves itself to be a strong exclusive Xbox game, and raises anticipation for Looking Glass' next title, said to be an Xbox 2 exclusive.

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Long Awaited Team Fortress Sequel Headed To Xbox 2, PC In 2007

In another announcement from Valve Corporation, which recently entered into a "creative alliance" with Microsoft, the sequel to the company's hit 1999 multiplayer combat game Team Fortress will be released in 2007, and will appear on both PC and Microsoft's Xbox 2. This adds yet another exclusive FPS title to Microsoft's impressive roster, joining Half-Life 2 which will be available at launch. The game looks to be a flagship title for the new console's Xbox Live service.

Valve has yet to confirm additional exclusives for the Xbox 2. In a recent statement, Gabe Newell said: "We are not locked into an exclusivity deal with Microsoft and may be releasing other games for other consoles if the circumstances allow." It has not yet been confirmed whether or not the game will be made available through the rumored Xbox 2 Steam service or will in fact be its own separate Xbox 2 game.

-from a September 10, 2005 article on Games Over Matter

 

[RySenkari]

Blackheart 4

The fifth game and fourth mainline game in Ubisoft's Blackheart franchise, Blackheart 4 continues the chronicles of lethal special agent for hire Sadira Blackheart and her rival/frenemy Messiah (AKA Mariska Zobrist). It takes place after the events of Blackheart 3 and Codename: Messiah, and, in similar fashion to previous games in the series, is a stealth-based third person shooter. Blackheart 4 does update the gameplay somewhat from the previous two games. The tri-combat meter system, like in Codename: Messiah, is gone. Instead, it's been replaced by a new system of visual cues that indicate the physical and emotional states of Sadira and her enemies. Sadira can still perform a variety of actions during missions to get into the heads of foes, such as leaving downed foes alive but heavily injured, laying traps, tricking enemies, and lulling them into false senses of security, among many other things. This will affect the mood of the enemy and the actions they perform. Blackheart 4 has more of a stealth focus than Blackheart 3, and yet is even more fast-paced: Sadira has a wide array of melee attacks she can perform, many of them while in stealth mode. The game features a revamped stealth system, where Sadira can rapidly move between cover, elevate herself into heightened positions, and move in and out of stealth at a very rapid pace. The game can be somewhat compared to "OTL's Arkham series, but with guns" in terms of gameplay, and features a more open-ended structure: there are still missions, but they're divided into stages and take place across vastly larger areas. Sadira can explore some areas before others, allowing her to change the structure of the mission itself on the fly. Some missions will allow her to intercept certain characters beforehand, changing their fates. Others may allow her to avoid a difficult boss battle or stealth sequence. Still others might result in a different end to the mission and a different beginning to the next one. The overall plot remains the same no matter what actions the players take, but there are nuances that can be altered and affected by the player's actions. The player also takes control of Messiah for certain segments of the game, and Messiah has a completely different combat system than Sadira's: because of the events of the previous game, Messiah feels every bit of pain she inflicts. While it causes her no actual physical harm to cause pain, causing too much pain can do things like alter her shot or make her briefly cry out, interfering with her stealth. While this does cause more difficulty for the player, it's balanced by Messiah's empathic abilities: she has an intrinsic ability to suss out the mood of people around her, making it much easier for the player to sense visual cues and tell where the enemy is going. Depending on the player's actions, Messiah can be playable for as little as 10% of the main story and as much as 25%, though ultimately Sadira remains the main character and is the only one playable during the game's final mission. The graphics have gotten a significant upgrade from the previous game, and as good as Blackheart 3 looked, Blackheart 4 looks incredible. On the Wave and Xbox it's stunningly impressive, looking every bit as good as titles like Velvet Dark: Conspiracy on the Wave and The Covenant 2 on the Xbox. It even looks great on the Katana, pushing that system to its utter limits (there are even reports of the game crashing some old-model Katana systems, in the same way Squad Four Eclipse crashed a few OG SNES-CD units back in 1996 and in OTL, The Last Of Us overheated some of the older 2006-2007 model PS3s in 2013). Lana Parilla and Grey Delisle reprise their roles as Sadira and Messiah respectively, and the game features some other outstanding voice actors and even a few live-action stars such as Michael Madsen and Judi Dench voicing major characters. Ubisoft clearly put a massive amount of money and effort into the production of the game, with a budget significantly higher than even the budget for Beyond Good And Evil 2, which is expected to be one of 2006's Game of the Year contenders.

Blackheart 4 consists of eight main missions/story chapters, broken up into between 3-7 stages each. The game takes place about six months after the events of Codename: Messiah, and sees Sadira still working for the same group of assassins/powerbrokers who have been employing her since the previous game. Sadira has been tasked with arranging a deal between a government and a mega-corporation. The corporation is refusing to give a valuable contract to the nation's government, and Sadira is to "persaude" the corporation's CEO to make the deal by threatening the life of his jet-setting son. Meanwhile, Messiah, who is now being hunted by the remnants of Opalescence, the organization who used to employ her, has decided to hunt down Sadira, presumably to kill her for being humiliated repeatedly and ultimately left for dead by her.

Mission One: Lap Of Luxury
This mission involves Sadira attempting to kidnap Robert Sconse, the son of Atlanticorp CEO William Sconse. She pursues Robert to a luxury hotel in Dubai, all the while ducking and/or killing Sconse's hired security. Eventually Sadira manages to capture Robert, but as she's smuggling him out of town in a luxury car, she's intercepted by Messiah. The two immediately begin to fight, but after a brief scuffle, Messiah tells Sadira that she doesn't want to kill her, but that she wants Sadira's help to warn an old friend of hers about an Opalescence assassin. Sadira's not interested in helping Messiah, so Messiah frees Robert and helps him get away, infuriating Sadira. Sadira pursues Messiah to a private airport but the two are both attacked by Sconse's men. Sadira leaves Messiah seemingly for dead and escapes in the Sconses' private jet, though she's lost her target and needs to formulate a new plan.

Mission Two: Vendetta
We see that Messiah has recaptured Robert and is grilling him for information about his father's corporation, though unlike Sadira, who started torturing Robert immediately, Messiah isn't hurting Robert at all. She intimidates the hell out of him, though, and gets more information off him than Sadira did. Meanwhile, Sadira learns Messiah is still alive and tracks her to an old historical site in Italy, where the two play a cat and mouse game while Sconses' security comes after them both. Eventually, they're forced to work together, and Sadira learns from Messiah that the Sconses' government contract involves an experimental medicine meant to cure a virus. Meanwhile, we also learn about Messiah's new condition: that she not only has gained her sister's emotional empathy as well, but has also acquired a physical empathy: she can feel the pain of everyone within a 500 foot radius of her, and this is made manifest during the battle, where Sadira sees Messiah noticeably reacting every time someone gets shot. It's a very slight reaction, though eventually Sadira learns that Messiah feels EVERYTHING and thus must have an incredible tolerance for pain (feeling thousands of bullet wounds in every part of her body and barely flinching). Sadira learns that Messiah knows something about the new virus, and after the battle ends (leaving Sconse's entire security team, plus Robert, dead), Sadira captures Messiah.

Mission Three: Opalescence
Sadira spends a brief time attempting to torture Messiah, but obviously fails. It's here that one of the game's major twists is revealed: while Sadira is the protagonist, she's a morally ambiguous sadist working for bad people. Messiah, who has grown immensely as a human being over the events of the first two Blackheart games and her spinoff, has become incredibly sensitive, both from her growth as a person and from her ability to feel the emotional and physical pain of others. She's the game's hero, though it's not quite that simple, as it becomes apparent later on. Before Sadira can attempt to extract the information from Messiah another way, Opalescence assassins show up. Messiah breaks free and attacks Sadira, though instead of leaving an injured Sadira for Opalescence, she helps her to escape, and the two spend the rest of the mission evading the Opalescence assassins. One of them, a man named Carter (voiced by Michael Madsen), seems to know Sadira from a previous mission, but Sadira doesn't want to help anyone in Opalescence (she hates them even more than she hates Messiah), and after a brief battle, the two wound each other. Meanwhile, Messiah (after making sure Sadira will be all right) flees the scene. We see a cutscene of Sadira reporting to her boss, Katarin (played by Judi Dench), who gives Sadira a new order: find and kill the person cultivating this deadly new virus that Sadira and Messiah have both just learned about.

Mission Four: Research And Development
This mission is split between Sadira (operating in America) and Messiah (operating in Canada). Sadira learns that the virus is being developed by a terrorist organization that the American government has been clandestinely trying to destroy for more than a decade, committing numerous war crimes in the process. Meanwhile, Messiah learns that the virus' chief developer, Dr. Karl Salzmann, is the same person who created the drugs used on both her and her sister Jillian. Salzmann used to be the chief scientist for Opalescence, but went rogue around the same time Jillian did. Messiah uses her sister's old contacts to track Salzmann down, while Sadira gets the information out of a captured Opalescence agent. This once again leads Sadira and Messiah to meet in the same place, but this time Sadira agrees to put their old vendetta aside so the two can track down Salzmann together.

Mission Five: Something Borrowed
The two track Salzmann to an abandoned German drug factory in a town in the middle of a forest. The area is crawling with guards, and the two split up to complete their mission. The guards include more former Opalescence agents, and Sadira wonders just how many defectors Opalescence really had. Working together, the two corner Salzmann at the factory, but Salzmann claims that he sold the virus to Katarin, and implies that Sadira herself helped to make the transfer. Sadira calls Salzmann a liar, but Messiah believes him and shoots Sadira. Sadira, too injured to fight Messiah, kills Salzmann and flees. Before she gets far, she is set upon by a squad of Opalescence agents led by Carter, and is captured.

Mission Six: Something Blue
During this mission, Sadira has to escape from the sprawling Opalescence HQ, while we also see Messiah learning more about the virus, its effects, and why Salzmann sold it to Katarin. During Sadira's escape (in which every single remaining member of Opalescence, except for Carter, is killed), Messiah gets seemingly incontrovertible evidence that Sadira helped facilitate the sale of the virus, and also learns of its intended effects: it's meant to overwhelm its victims with pain, killing them from utter shock, and is set to be released within a matter of days. Convinced that Sadira is irredeemably evil, Messiah goes to find and kill her. Meanwhile, Sadira learns of the reason for the frame-up: Katarin did buy the virus and is looking to blame its release on Sadira. Sadira's cruelty and recklessness has left a trail of collateral damage, and rather than have her killed, Katarin plans to release the virus in a small, contained area, use the vaccine to cure it, and blame Sadira for everything, simultaneously eliminating a problem while bringing legitimacy to their former "underground" operation. However, when Messiah disrupted the dispersal of the vaccine, it threw a wrench in Katarin's plans, and now Katarin has to run a clean-up operation by destroying Sadira, Messiah, and the remnants of Opalescence. Realizing both she and Messiah are being used, Sadira grudgingly decides that she needs Messiah's help, and goes to find her.

Mission Seven: Sensory Overload
Messiah learns that the Salzmann who Sadira killed was actually a body double planted by Katarin. She tracks down the real Salzmann, but is captured. Meanwhile, Sadira is able to find the location where Messiah has been taken, but it's being guarded by a massive amount of Katarin's soldiers, including many of her fellow agents. We learn that Salzmann saw Jillian as his magnum opus, and was hoping Messiah could follow in Jillian's footsteps and become a great agent, but now that she's become soft he sees her as a failure as an agent, but perhaps a success as an experimental guinea pig. There is a scene where Salzmann tortures Messiah, not by hurting her (he doesn't lay a finger on her) but by brutally killing dozens of other captives in front of her. The overwhelming pain nearly breaks Messiah but she manages to endure when she realizes that Jillian left Opalescence because of Salzmann's cruelty, and that she'd be failing her dead sister if she broke now. Sadira fights her way through the compound to save Messiah, and in the end the two manage to save each other, with Messiah inflicting the killshot on Salzmann without even wincing. Messiah earnestly apologizes to Sadira, which surprises her...but then Sadira does something she's never, EVER done before and apologizes to Messiah. Sadira realized that she's been loyal to the wrong people, and that there are depths to which even she won't sink. She then tells Messiah that she knows where Katarin is and asks Messiah to join her for the final mission.

Mission Eight: Release
The final mission takes place in Katarin's compound on a massive artificial island in the Pacific Ocean. The island is loaded with security measures and Katarin's best agents, and it will take all of Sadira and Messiah's best efforts to take Katarin down. The player plays entirely as Sadira for this mission, though Messiah helps numerous times depending on the player's actions. The final battle itself takes place in an arena-like room and is just a simple one-on-one battle between Sadira and Katarin, who stalk one another around the huge space while Messiah works to prevent the release of the virus. Eventually Sadira catches Katarin and executes her with a shot to the head. Meanwhile, Messiah has found the containment chamber for the virus, but the only way to prevent its release is to take all of it at once into her own body. She does so, and Sadira finds her writhing in agony. The amount of pain is too much for even Messiah to handle, and she's utterly broken, begging through sobs for Sadira to finish her off. Sadira takes out her gun, but then she smirks. "You once called me a coldhearted, sadistic bitch," Sadira tells her. "Well, you were right. I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer." Messiah screams in agony, but Sadira only compounds it by starting to beat her viciously and insult her cruelly. Eventually, Messiah's agony and pain turn into sheer rage at Sadira, and she starts to physically fight back, only for Sadira to keep attacking her. After some time of this, Messiah collapses to the floor... and no longer feels any pain. The virus has run its course, and Messiah, through sheer force of will driven by her hatred of Sadira, has survived. "You just saved my fucking life," says Messiah, before breaking out into convulsions of laughter. Finally, Messiah passes out, and in a callback to the first game, Sadira leaves her in the same humiliating position she left Messiah in when she first defeated her. Messiah wakes up, gagged and tied to a chair, and Sadira plants a kiss on her taped lips, whispers "never stop hating me, bitch" to her, then leaves her there (knowing she'll escape eventually). Sadira then leaves, and despite the position she's in, Messiah can't help but smile under the tape, knowing the world is safe (for now at least). The ending implies that Sadira will continue on as a ruthless mercenary, though now she'll be working on her own. Meanwhile, Messiah has gotten free and we see her planting flowers at her sister Jillian's grave. Carter, who hasn't been seen since mission six, gets an assignment from an unseen figure and is presented with a pair of envelopes, one with Sadira's information on it and the other with Messiah's, implying that his next assignment will be to kill one of them, while the unseen figure will hire another assassin to kill the other. We don't see which one he chooses.

Blackheart 4 is almost universally praised by critics, despite the controversy over the game's content (of which there's quite a bit, considering the violence, harsh language, and sexual themes, including heavy BDSM subtext throughout). The graphics are considered groundbreaking, the voice acting nearly flawless, and the storyline, which essentially has the player cast as Sadira as the villain in Messiah's story for two-thirds of the game, is debated by fans and critics for years to come. It's considered by many to be the best game in the series thus far (and considering that every single game in the series with the exception of Codename: Messiah averaged over a 90 on Metacritic thus far, that's a huge accomplishment), and immediately proclaimed as the leading contender for Game of the Year. It sells massively for all three consoles following its release on August 16, 2005, and makes Blackheart one of the most pre-eminent game franchises, quite possibly the second most popular adult-themed video game series behind Grand Theft Auto. It would be the last game in the mainline series released for the sixth generation consoles (though the Nova would see a Blackheart portable game, essentially a demake of the first, released the same day, the iPod Play and Supernova would get a spinoff in 2006, and a second Messiah spinoff would be released in 2007), as Ubisoft focused its efforts on developing a fifth game for the seventh generation consoles targeting 2008 as a release window.

 

[RySenkari]

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist is an action-RPG developed by Quintet and published by Enix exclusively for the Nintendo Wave. IOTL, it was a popular and influential manga and anime series, but ITTL, Enix liked Hiromu Arakawa's initial concept for the manga so much that the company decided to have it made into a game instead, and would serve as Quintet's follow-up to Revolution Alpha. Fullmetal Alchemist plays very much like OTL games such as Secret Of Mana and particularly Terranigma, with the player controlling a single protagonist (Edward Elric) and battling enemies, exploring dungeons, and visiting towns. Combat takes place completely in real time, and the player has a massive variety of options in combat: Edward is able to use both melee combat and firearms in battle, and this will be the player's primary method of combat for lesser enemies. However, Edward is also an alchemist, and able to use a massive assortment of alchemic spells (more than 80 in all) with all sorts of different effects, including healing, environmental manipulation, defense, and elemental magic of all sorts. All alchemy is governed by the Law of Equivalent Exchange, which requires something of equal value to be given up in order to cast a spell. This works sort of like the alchemy system in OTL's Secret Of Evermore, where the player purchases materials to use to cast alchemy spells, though it's a bit more complicated, with some spells requiring massive amounts of highly exotic materials to cast, many spells having more than one formula, etc. The player is also able to cast spells from the life force of Edward or an available ally, though this is not recommended for difficult fights, as the HP used to cast a spell can quickly add up. Combat takes place extremely quickly, even for an action RPG, bordering on hack-and-slash level speed at times. During combat, players must cast spells quickly: the game doesn't pause while menus are being accessed, meaning that the player will need to cycle through their spells fast, or map particularly useful spells to certain buttons to use in combat. Up to four alchemic spells can be mapped at a time. During the game, the player will fight alongside various allies, up to three at a time, and can issue commands to them, although depending on the ally and on Edward's current level, that ally may not always follow a given command. For example, Edward's brother Alphonse will follow every command given to him, but Roy Mustang will almost never follow the player's commands until Edward has earned his respect later on in the game. Most of the time, the player will not be able to choose Edward's allies, though occasionally that option does exist. Edward's eight NPC combat companions include the OTL characters Alphonse, Roy, Riza, Winry, Lin, and Izumi, and the TTL-exclusive characters Gubler (a blacksmith who wields a thick sledgehammer and specializes in metal-based alchemy) and Kara (a thief character who the Elrics meet while she's on death row for stealing state secrets, Edward and Alphonse bust her out of prison and she eventually becomes an ally, she can steal valuable alchemic materials in battle but isn't much of a fighter). The player does earn experience points, gold, and treasure (sometimes equipment but usually materials that can be used in alchemy) by defeating enemies or sometimes by completing certain side quests. The game itself features a massive overworld map that is traversed in similar fashion to the overworld map in Terranigma and Illusion of Gaia: the player moves between the locations they wish to visit, no enemies are encountered on the overworld. This is a bit of an old-school design choice for 2005, but it gives the game a distinct Quintet feel that many older RPG fans appreciate. The game itself is in full 3-D, and is one of the prettier Nintendo Wave titles, though it doesn't majorly push the system in terms of graphics. It has a slight cel-shaded look to it, and features more than two hours of beautiful anime cutscenes, which appear very visually similar to the OTL anime series. The game's score is a collaboration between Miyoko Takaoka and Yuzo Koshiro, with contributions (including the main theme) from L'Arc-en-Ciel. The English language voice dubbing was one of Enix's first projects to use Los Angeles-based unionized voice acting, as opposed to the non-union New York City-based voice dubbing the company had used for previous games and the Dallas-based Funimation cast who dubbed the OTL anime. Will Friedle performs the voice of Edward Elric, Vincent Martella performs the voice of Alphonse, Christy Carlson Romano performs the voice of Winry, Crispin Freeman performs the voice of Roy Mustang, Kari Wahlgren performs the voice of Riza Hawkeye, Michael Bell performs the voice of Father, Tabitha St. Germain (who moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s ITTL, while IOTL she remained in Vancouver) performs the voice of Lust, and Andre Sogliuzzo performs the voice of Scar. Most of the other major characters are voiced by fairly unknown voice actors, though a few more familiar names do pop up playing once or more incidental characters.

Fullmetal Alchemist sticks fairly close to the plotline of the OTL manga and the Brotherhood anime series, though it includes a few elements from the first anime. It begins with a fairly short prologue chapter which chronicles the early years of Edward's alchemy career, beginning with the incident in which the two brothers attempted to use alchemy to bring back their mother, only for Edward to lose a leg in the process and Alphonse to nearly be killed (causing Edward to then lose an arm in the process of binding Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor). The prologue chapter covers many of the events that took place in the flashback segment of the first anime series, it includes a couple of dungeons and a few bosses and introduces the player to many of the characters and mechanics of the game, taking about a few hours to complete. Once this segment is completed, the game shifts to the present day and the adventure proper begins, with Edward and Alphonse serving as State Alchemists under Colonel Roy Mustang, in the service of the Fuhrer of Amestris. They are sent to investigate a man named Father Cornello, who is using alchemy seemingly in violation of the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Meanwhile, a mysterious scarred alchemist is murdering soldiers and State Alchemists, and makes his presence known after the Cornello situation is resolved. The Homunculi also make an early appearance, with Lust and Gluttony being first to appear, and the others (including Wrath, who, as IOTL, is the secret identity of the Fuhrer of Amestris) showing up later on. Lust and Gluttony are initially presented as a dangerous, unstoppable force, and the first couple of times Edward faces them, he has no chance of victory. Ultimately, Gluttony becomes the first of the Homunculi to be defeated by Edward in battle, shortly before the death of Maes Hughes at the hands of Lust and Envy (about a third of the way through the game), while Greed is second to fall shortly thereafter (in a battle where Izumi joins Edward and Alphonse as an ally character). Winry doesn't become an ally character until later on in the game. Like some of the other allies, she doesn't get the ability to use alchemy, but is able to bring powerful mechanical inventions to bear on enemies, and is also able to repair other characters' armor and weapons in mid-battle (and also able to repair Alphonse himself), making her a valuable utility ally. Most battles in the first half of the game are fought with Edward and Alphonse alone, as Roy is somewhat too powerful to be a frequent ally initially (he decimates enemies in the early part of the game), and doesn't appear as an ally in a boss fight until the battle with Lust, the third homunculus to be defeated in battle. After Lust's defeat, the game's plotline shifts back to Scar as the main antagonist (with Envy still lurking in the background) and the events of the Ishvalan massacre are detailed and flashed back to, explaining Scar's motivations. We also learn during this time that the Fuhrer is actually Wrath, and he begins maneuvering against Roy Mustang, drawing Roy closer to the Elrics (which makes him available as an ally character more often). There is a climactic confrontation with Scar that ends inconclusively, while Envy's manipulations (using its ability to shapeshift into various people) come to the forefront.

The action shifts to Xing during this part of the game, and another villain, one original TTL, joins Envy as the main focus of the game during this time: General Kaiten, who seeks to unite the clans of Xing into a powerful military force. Edward meets up with Lin Yao at this time, and teams up with him on several missions before returning to Amestris to deal with the Envy situation. Wrath rises to the forefront as a villain at this point, and begins taking actions that will ultimately lead to a coup in Amestris. Pride and Sloth both make their first appearances in the storyline at this time, as does Father himself, though only very briefly, setting him up as the game's main villain (but not as the game's final boss). Scar also reappears, but instead of being a villain again, this segment of the game gradually begins to set him up for redemption. Envy is confronted and defeated during this part of the game, but not killed (which sets up Mustang's mercy scene later on in the game). As unrest in Amestris grows, Father continues to manipulate events leading toward his ultimate goal, which as IOTL, is to arrange events in all nations of the world to create a massive alchemic transmutation circle where he can then use the Philosopher's Stone to open the Gate of Truth and become a god. Edward and Alphonse continue to confront and battle the homunculi (defeating Sloth during this time) as events draw nearer to the day of reckoning. Eventually (after further climactic battles with Pride and then Wrath), Edward and Alphonse discover Father's plans, but it's too late, and similarly to IOTL, Father opens the Gate of Truth and absorbs the Eye of God into his being. The Gate of Truth itself is presented as an enormous final dungeon into which Edward, Alphonse, and their allies must venture to find and stop Father. During this final dungeon, Edward gradually loses allies to various events occurring within the Gate (many of which parallel the various events that happened in the later stages of the manga), until finally, he is forced to confront Father with only Alphonse and Winry at his side. This battle is broken up into three phases: after the first phase, Edward loses Winry, and after the second phase, he loses Alphonse (who, like IOTL, sacrifices his metal body to restore Edward's body to its original form). The final stage of the Father boss fight is a one-on-one fight between Edward and Father, after which, Edward attempts human transmutation to bring back Alphonse. This leads the Gate of Truth to open further, and Edward confronts Truth itself. The two have a long dialogue about everything Edward has learned over the course of his travels (which, after 60 hours worth of gameplay, is quite a lot). Truth is attempting to judge humanity based on Edward's experience. He offers Edward a Philosopher's Stone to use to bring back Alphonse and to heal/revive many of his allies who were recently lost, but Edward must be tested first. Edward agrees, and the true final battle, against Truth itself, begins. During this fight, Edward can restore some of his allies to the fight by performing certain actions. Once three of Edward's allies have been restored, no more can be brought back and the player must fight with the allies available to them. Victory leads Truth to judge humanity worthy of alchemy's power, though Edward states that he has learned no one, not even himself, is worthy of such power, and only asks that his friends be allowed to return with him. Everyone returns to Amestris, where things begin to go back to normal. The corruption of Father and the homunculi has ended, and Edward and Alphonse, now restored to their full humanity and at peace with their mother's death, can resume their study of alchemy for the good of humanity. Edward and Winry declare their love for each other, as do Roy and Riza (though in a MUCH more low-key way), and the long ending sequence ends with a post-credits scene of Edward and Winry married with their children.

Fullmetal Alchemist is released in North America on September 13, 2005. It's universally critically acclaimed after its release, both for its battle system and its storyline. It immediately becomes Quintet's most critically acclaimed title, a game that, according to one reviewer, "finally takes one of the best old school RPG makers into the next generation". It's the best reviewed RPG since Chrono Infinite and the best reviewed action RPG since Secret Of Mana. It immediately becomes a Game of the Year contender upon its release. Sales for the game are brisk, though it's not a blockbuster by any stretch and ultimately doesn't sell as well as later rival title Reverie of Mana in North America (though sales would exceed those of Reverie in Japan by a great deal). Despite this, it still manages to eventually cross one million North American sales, more than justifying the cost of localizing the game. It would become the first Quintet title to receive a direct sequel, and it WOULD eventually see an anime adaptation, though that adaptation would differ from the OTL anime by quite a bit. The game spawns a fandom and community nearly as large as the OTL anime and manga, making it, at least in North America, the most popular non-Squaresoft RPG of all time up to that point.

 

[RySenkari]

The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season had been one of the most destructive in recent memory, with eight total major hurricanes, three of which made landfall in the United States at major status. After such an active season, the 2005 season was predicted to be nearly as active, continuing the dangerous trend set by the previous year.

As it turns out, 2005 would be far more deadly and destructive, ultimately becoming the most active hurricane season in Atlantic history. While "pound for pound" it would be less potent than 2004's season, with the same number of major hurricanes (8) forming from a greater number of tropical storms, those major hurricanes would tend to strike populated areas, including the United States. The season got off to a very active early start, with Hurricanes Arlene and Bret forming in June. Arlene would form out in the Atlantic and Bret would form in the Gulf of Mexico. Arlene would reach Category 2 status, packing 100 mile per hour winds, but curved harmlessly out to sea without ever threatening any landmasses. Bret would take a dangerous path toward Tampa, which had taken a hard hit from Lisa in 1998, but high wind shear in the Gulf prevented Bret from ever strengthening past a Category 1, and would eventually strike Tampa as a weakening tropical storm with winds of 50 miles per hour, becoming more of a soaker than anything. Cindy and Dennis would become tropical storms without much incident, dissipating over the Atlantic, but Emily was a different story. Emily formed in late July and would become a major hurricane quickly as it passed just north of the Leeward Islands, causing rough seas in St. Kitts that killed two people. Emily would continue to churn West, gathering strength and becoming a powerful Category 4 storm with 145 mile per hour winds. The storm passed safely north of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, and was initially forecast to turn to the north thanks to a trough expected to dip down from the west, becoming a potential threat for New England but sparing the southeast. However, forecasters soon realized that Emily wasn't going to make that turn, as the trough weakened severely before picking Emily up. Instead, Emily's turn was far more gradual, toward the west north-west. It turned enough to miss South Florida, avoiding becoming another Floyd, but now the cone of uncertainty had cities like Jacksonville in its sights. Hurricane warnings would eventually be issued from Cape Canaveral up to Charleston as Emily continued to grow and was still a strong category 4. An eyewall replacement cycle weakened Emily briefly below a major hurricane as it approached landfall, but this had the effect of making the storm twice as large, expanding the windfield dramatically. It eventually came ashore just south of Brunswick, Georgia, as a category 3 hurricane with 120 mile per hour winds. Brunswick experienced the full force of the storm, along with an enormous 20 foot storm surge that flooded the city, while Savannah and Hilton Head Island were hard hit with strong tropical storm force winds despite being far from the center of circulation. Emily would kill 38 people in the United States and caused over $20 billion in damage.

The next storm to be named was Franklin, which formed in the Caribbean Sea and dissipated quickly, never able to get itself organized. That wasn't the case with Gert, which strengthened quickly into a hurricane and threatened the Yucatan Peninsula. Gert reached 130 miles per hour, at the time making it a strong Category 3 (130 MPH wasn't included in the Category 4 threshold until years later) as it approached northern Belize and southern Quintana Roo. Gert would eventually make landfall near Chetumal, Mexico at this status, taking a fairly similar path to Hurricane Janet in 1955. That storm had killed over 1,000 people, but thanks to Gert being weaker than Janet and thanks to improved building codes and evacuation procedures, Gert would claim only 14 lives in Mexico and Belize. Gert emerged into the Bay of Campeche as a strong tropical storm, and would restrengthen to hurricane status before making landfall once again in Mexico as a weak Category 1. As Gert was churning in the Caribbean, another hurricane, Harvey, was forming in the Atlantic, just north of Hispaniola. Harvey would form into a Category 1 hurricane as it impacted central Cuba, causing flooding there and claiming one life. It emerged into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm with winds of 50 miles per hour, and while disorganized when it emerged from western Cuba, it quickly got its act together. The shear that had shredded Hurricane Bret and spared Tampa another costly hit had mostly dissipated, and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were extremely warm in mid August. Harvey regained its hurricane status in just 18 hours, and 18 hours later, Harvey was a major hurricane and taking direct aim at Houston. There were little to no steering influences to move Harvey off its path, and as it headed for Houston, it passed directly over a warm eddy, strengthening and enlarging it. Harvey exploded into a Category 5 monster, packing winds of 180 miles per hour and with a central pressure of 893 millibars. A hurricane warning was declared for the northeast Texas coast as well as western Louisiana as Harvey pushed its way toward the city with nothing to stop it or weaken it. Houston's mayor, Bill White, appeared on television and begged people to evacuate, and as the storm approached, Al Gore made a nationwide address urging people to get out of the storm's path and pre-emptively declaring a state of emergency in Texas. Harvey weakened slightly before hitting the city, but was still a 165 mile per hour Category 5 storm when it made a direct hit on the City of Houston on August 19, 2005. It was the fourth Category 5 hurricane to hit the United States in recorded history, and at 901 mb of pressure, was the third most intense, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1955 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Harvey would bring in a massive storm surge that overtopped the Galveston Seawall and flooded Houston for many days, while the powerful winds shattered nearly every window in Houston, causing more damage to the city's skyline than Floyd had caused to Miami in 1999. Even with the massive evacuation of the city, Harvey would still claim a total of 862 lives, including more than 200 lives lost during the evacuation itself. More impactful even than the damage to Houston would be the damage to the city's refineries and the Houston Ship Channel, which would slow the flow of oil into the United States for month and send oil and gas prices soaring. Gore's initial response to Harvey was highly praised, but the economic consequences of the storm would combine with trouble overseas to plague his administration in the years to come.

After the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, the United States got a bit of a reprieve. Irene formed in the Caribbean Sea, but had to pass through cold waters churned up by Gert and never reached hurricane status. Jose formed into a powerful Category 4 out in the open Atlantic, passing relatively close to Bermuda but otherwise not threatening any major landmasses and dissipating out in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. Katrina formed and dissipated fairly quickly as a 50 mph tropical storm off the Eastern Seaboard, and Lenny formed in the southern Caribbean and slammed into Venezula as a weak tropical storm. Maria was the next storm to be born, and it became a Category 2 hurricane, causing problems for the Leeward Islands as it passed into the Caribbean Sea. High shear in the eastern Caribbean prevented further strengthening, and it would weaken into a tropical storm before impacting Hispaniola, causing flooding rains that killed nine people in Haiti. Nate was up next, and struggled in the eastern Caribbean where Maria had weakened, emerging into the warmer and more favorable conditions of the western Caribbean as a struggling low pressure center. It strengthened into a hurricane, but never got itself properly reorganized, and weakened again after hitting the southern Cuban coast. It then made its way toward the Florida Keys and the southern tip of Florida, impacting as a 60 mile per hour tropical storm. It was late September now, past the peak of hurricane season, but still plenty of time for the next major hurricane to form. Enter Ophelia, which formed in the western Caribbean about a week after Nate had gotten a second wind there. Ophelia began its life as a compact but well organized tropical low, and formed into a very small tropical storm in the extremely warm waters there. In just 24 hours, Ophelia made the leap from being a 40 mile per hour tropical storm to being a 110 mile per hour hurricane, slowly making its way toward the same place in Cuba that Nate had hit as a Category 1. Ophelia continued to strengthen, picking up speed as it passed just to the west of the Isle of Youth as a 135 mile per hour Category 4 storm. It continued north and hit the southern coast of Cuba, emerging from the northern side of the island between Mariel and Havana as a Category 3, packing winds of 120 miles per hour. As soon as Ophelia hit the Straits of Florida, it picked up right where it left off, re-strengthening into a Category 4 as it underwent rapid intensification. It passed just to the west of Key West, Florida, the eastern eyewall lashing the island with 150 mile per hour winds. Just as with Hurricane Harvey a month before, dire evacuation warnings went out to the residents of the southwestern Florida coast, urging people to leave as fears were that Ophelia would become the second Category 5 to impact the United States in a single year. Mercifully, wind shear managed to disrupt Ophelia's eyewall, and weakened the storm to 140 miles per hour. The storm also turned further east than expected, making landfall in an unpopulated part of the Florida Everglades. This, along with the storm's relatively small size, spared Naples, Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale from hurricane force winds. Still, Ophelia's speed and the fact that it was passing through brackish swampland kept it a hurricane throughout its brief passage over Florida, and it emerged near Fort Pierce as a category 2 with 110 mile per hour winds. Ophelia re-emerged over the Atlantic Ocean, quickly regaining major hurricane status with maximum winds of 125 miles per hour. Due to a ridge that had built up, Ophelia didn't curve out to sea, and instead made a northerly turn east of Jacksonville. More hurricane warnings went up as Ophelia began to take aim at the Carolinas, from Myrtle Beach all the way up to Nags Head. Ophelia began to hug the coast, never making direct landfall but sort of "skipping" off the Carolinas numerous times. This land interaction weakened Ophelia a bit, but then the storm would re-strengthen after pulling away from land. Ophelia would make its final landfall on the southern Delmarva Peninsula as a Category 3 storm with 115 mile per hour winds, and would send winds and high surf all the way up the Chesapeake, causing flooding and hurricane force gusts in Washington DC and Baltimore. The fact that Ophelia had been able to maintain its strength so far up the coast was attributed to the continued impact of climate change, and Al Gore considered making a speech outdoors as tropical force winds were occurring in Washington before being talked out of it by the Secret Service and some of his advisors. Ophelia would become the second most damaging storm of the season behind the $100 billion Hurricane Harvey, racking up $30 billion in total damage and causing 89 deaths.

Philippe was next to form, becoming a Category 1 before dissipating in the open Atlantic. Then there was Rita, which formed in early October in the Gulf of Mexico and strengthened quickly into the third Category 5 storm of the season. With Ophelia having occurred just a couple weeks earlier, America was on high alert, and as Rita exploded into a storm packing 170 mile per hour winds and 896 millibars of pressure, it horrified everyone when it took aim at New Orleans. The storm was headed right for the city, and evacuation proceedings began, just as they had done for Lydia in 2004. But just as panic began to set in, Rita started to turn... and to weaken. In a situation that was somewhat the opposite of what had happened with Emily earlier in the year, a trough thought to be too far north and too weak to affect Rita dipped down further than expected and began to pick the storm up. The European models had seen this turn, but the forecast had focused on the North American models, which were much more bullish on a New Orleans hit. The storm curved sharply to the northeast, taking aim at Pensacola and the Big Bend of Florida, while also entering a much more shear-rich environment. Rita weakened from a Category 5 to a Category 3, striking Callaway, Florida with winds of 115 miles per hour. Though hard hit by the winds and storm surge, the Panama City-Callaway area was well equipped to deal with the storm, and Rita caused surprisingly few deaths: three. A notable highlight of the storm coverage was broadcast on the Weather Channel, when a drunken Panama City resident interrupted Jim Cantore and shouted at the camera "We took one for the team, you can thank us later!" Though the residents of New Orleans breathed a collective sigh of relief that Rita had spared them, it was still a rough hit for the Big Bend area, causing a total of $12 billion in damage. It would be the last major hurricane to impact the United States in 2005.

The remainder of the season, while fairly quiet for the United States, was still rather active. Stan was the next hurricane up after Rita, and it too become a major hurricane: a Category 3, with winds of 125 miles per hour. It churned out in the open Atlantic for a time before curving to the north and taking aim at Maine and the Canadian maritimes as a strong extratropical cyclone. It would weaken before striking Nova Scotia, but still made an impact, with gale force winds and some flooding, killing three people there. Tammy became a Category 1 hurricane in the Caribbean, hitting the Yucatan Peninsula. It was thought that Tammy might restrengthen once it got into the Gulf of Mexico and threaten the Texas coast, but thankfully it had been badly weakened by its time in the Yucatan, and only managed to get back up to a minimal tropical storm before hitting Corpus Christi and delivering much needed rain there. Vince and Wilma formed into tropical storms and dissipated without much incident, but now for the first time ever, the Greek alphabet had to be used for naming storms, something that had never happened in the history of the Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane Alpha was a Category 1 storm that flirted with a strike on the central Florida coast, but would ultimately curve out to sea. Hurricane Beta was another Category 1, a Cape Verde-type storm that fell apart in the cooling Atlantic waters of mid-November. Forming soon after Beta was Gamma, which formed in the Caribbean in late November and managed to make it all the way up to 120 miles per hour, becoming the season's eighth major hurricane. Gamma initially took aim at the Yucatan Peninsula, but managed to pass between the Yucatan and Cuba, entering the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier in the season, Gamma might have exploded over the Gulf's warm waters, but it was almost Thanksgiving and those waters had significantly cooled, while shear had expanded over the entire Gulf. Gamma dissipated rapidly and arguably wasn't even a tropical storm when its remnants passed over New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day.

All in all, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season had been one of the most deadly and destructive in history, causing just over 1,000 deaths and nearly $200 billion in total damage (not counting the economic problems from the damage to Houston's refineries and ship channel caused by Hurricane Harvey). With 25 named storms in all, it had been the most active season in recorded history, and the effects of the storms would be felt long after the last storm dissipated.

 

[rick007]

The Amazing Race: Season 8: Racing with the Stars.

The eighth season of the show got off to a bit of a rocky start. You see, it was originally planned to be an All-Stars season, like season eight of Survivor was. When that season became bitter and personal however, the producers decided to do something different. Their first idea was to make it a Family Edition. What that means is that they would cast families of four and lower the age limit to allow children as young as eight to participate.

This would have been a disaster, not least of which being that having children on would mean having to lower the difficulty of the tasks so they could participate more easily. Also, from what I've heard, the logistics would have meant not leaving the North American continent. Maybe going to Central America. However, this changed when someone saw an interview with Selena where she mentioned how much she loves the show.

And that's where the idea for this season comes from: Have 11 teams of celebrities race for charity. When fans heard this, they were leery especially after the cast was revealed. However, they were willing to give it a chance. It took a lot of negotiation to get the cast together. Although, Selena couldn't make it as she had a tour scheduled for the month that the race was being filmed (dammit). Starting this season, racers who come in last, instead of losing their money and luggage, are told that if they don't come in first in the next leg, they will incur an automatic 30 minute penalty. Also no prizes will be given out at the end of each leg like usual. Filming was from early to late July 2005.

The Cast

Lucy and Alex Liu: Actress and her older brother. She is most famous as Trinity in the Matrix movies and Alex Mundy in Charlie's Angels. They are racing for UNICEF.

Tia and Tamara Mowry: Twin sisters. They are probably most famous for the show Step by Step. Born again Christians, they want to use the money for various Christian charities.

George and Kelly Carlin: Father and daughter. A comedian and his actress daughter, George is a somewhat controversial addition seeing as he just got out of rehab prior to coming on the show. Kelly had just finished her first one woman show at the time. They would donate the winnings to cancer research.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love: This season's bickering couple. Though not as bad as some other couples that have been on the show, they were worst than most. I should note that I don't listen to either of their music, though I know who they are. They were raising money for Planned Parenthood and the American Foundation for AIDS research.

Marcus and Damon Allen: Brothers and Football players. I don't follow football so I don't know much about them. From what I've read online they're pretty good. They're racing for domestic abuse victims.

David Hyde Pierce and Brian Hargrove: Actor and his life partner. Pierce is known as Niles Crane on Fraser and Hargrove is a producer. These two and George Carlin were funny together. They are racing for the Alzheimer's Association.

Linda and Leslie Hamilton: Another set of twin sisters. Linda Hamilton is Sarah Conner and Captain Nicole Janeway and Leslie is a professional stunt person. They are racing for the National Institute of Mental Health.

Donny and Marie Osmond: Brother and sister singers. They seem like nice people though, again, I don't listen to their music. They are racing for the National Association for the Deaf.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford: Friends. They are this season's old person team. I used to watch their movies when I was a kid. They are racing for The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and the National Resources Defense Council.

Phil and Bryn Hartmann: Married Couple. You might remember Phil from such things as The Simpsons and Newsradio. Though I never saw Newsradio, I do love his movies. They are racing for Second City.

Bruce and Ida Campbell: Married Couple. The chin himself, and his wife. I love him as Superman, even though it's been years since he played that role. They are racing for the ALS Society.

The Race

Leg #1: "I'm arranging for them being beaten-by me."

Original Air Date: September 27, 2005.

Starting in New Orleans, Louisiana, (which is unfortunate seeing as the city was almost hit by Hurricane Rita a few months later), teams get $340 and instructions to go to Panama City, Panama. Once there, teams have to go to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Station in Gamboa. There they have to transport twenty potted seedlings from one section of the station and plant them in another. After that, teams get the Detour: Rhythm and Coos.

In Rhythm, teams have to collect four instruments (a saxophone, a trumpet, a conga drum and a trombone), from four different locations (Teatro Nacional de Panama, Escuela Simon Bolivar, Casa Góngora and Instituto Nacional de Cultura) and deliver them to the Take Five Jazz and Wine Bar. In Coos, teams have to go to the El Parque Metropolitan and, using binoculars, identify five fake birds from a sheet. Then teams have to go to the Estadio Juan Demóstenes Arosemena for the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to hit either a base hit or a homerun off of a junior league baseball player. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: The Miraflores Locks.

1. Tia and Tamara 12:01 P.M.

2. Phil and Bryn 12:16 P.M.

3. Paul and Robert 12:24 P.M.

4. Lucy and Alex 12:25 P.M.

5. Marcus and Damon 12:33 P.M.

6. Bruce and Ida 1:02 P.M.

7. Linda and Leslie 1:10 P.M.

8. David and Brian 1:12 P.M.

9. George and Kelly 1:15 P.M.

10. Kurt and Courtney 1:20 P.M.

11. Donnie and Marie 2:17 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #2: "Of all the places to be eliminated in all the world...."

Original Air Date: October 4, 2005.

Getting $400, teams are told to go to the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. That's the only part of Casablanca we see as the next clue sends teams to Marrakech by train and then take a taxi to the Palmeraie Oasis outside the city. Here teams face the Detour: Now You See It or Now You Don't. In Now You See It, teams have to ride horses a short distance and dig up their next clue. In Now You Don't, teams have to ride ATVs a longer distance and make a sand rubbing of the clue.

In both cases, the clue is in Arabic and teams have to have it translated. This clue tells teams to go to the Cafe Glacier, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to help a street vendor sell five bowls of escargot. Teams then head to the Pit Stop: The roof of the Riad Catalina.



1. Lucy and Alex 3:12 P.M.

2. George and Kelly 3:27 P.M.

3. Linda and Leslie 3:45 P.M.

4. Paul and Robert 3:59 P.M.

5. Marcus and Damon 4:22 P.M.

6. Kurt and Courtney 4:55 P.M.

7. Tia and Tamara 5:15 P.M.

8. Bruce and Ida 5:16 P.M.

9. David and Brian 5:32 P.M.

10. Phil and Bryn 5:40 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #3: "This is the [expletive]iest thing we've ever done."

Original Air Date: October 11, 2005.

Receiving $380, teams have to fly to Vienna, Austria. There teams have to go through a section of the Vienna Sewers to get their next clue. On the other side, teams have to grab a horse drawn carriage known as a fiacre and ride six miles to the Schönbrunn Palace. The trick here is that the fiacres arrive in groups of three, every 30 minutes, and teams have to grab a pass on the side to claim it. At the Palace is where teams find the Detour: Mozart or Beethoven.

In Mozart, teams have to carry a string bass six miles to the Figarohaus where Mozart wrote The Marriage of Figaro. In Beethoven, teams carry sheet music 11 miles to one of Beethoven's lesser known residences. After that teams have to make their way to the base of the Donaturm, an 1,150 ft. tower on the Danube where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to bungee jump 450 ft off the tower. Then teams have to take a train and a taxi to the Seeschloss Orth outside Gmunden.

1. Paul and Robert 11:43 A.M.

2. Lucy and Alex 11:45 A.M.

3. Tia and Tamara 11:59 A.M.

4. Marcus and Damon 12:03 P.M.

5. David and Brian 12:15 P.M.

6. George and Kelly 1:00 P.M.

7. Bruce and Ida 1:01 P.M.

8. Linda and Leslie 1:14 P.M.

9. Kurt and Courtney 1:44 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #4: "At least it's not cats."

Original Air Date: October 18, 2005.

Starting with $300, teams are told to go to Luxor, Egypt, and find Karnack Temple. Here teams find the Yield for this leg, though no one uses it. Here teams find the Detour: Herd It or Haul It. In Herd It, teams have to go five miles to Banana Island, put 10 sheep and goats in a small boat, cross the Nile and deliver them to a shepherd on the other side. In Haul It, teams have go three miles to a pigeon farm and deliver water from the Nile by donkey. Teams have to travel to either option by a horse drawn carriage called a Kalesh.

Then teams have to go to Habu Temple where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to dig in a marked plot of land for a stone scarab. Then teams have to go to the Pit Stop: Crocodile Island.

1. Bruce and Ida 5:30 P.M.

2. Lucy and Alex 5:44 P.M.

3. David and Brian 5:53 P.M.

4. Marcus and Damon 6:05 P.M.

5. Linda and Leslie 6:40 P.M.

6. George and Kelly 6:41 P.M.

7. Paul and Robert 6:45 P.M.

8. Tia and Tamara 6:47 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #5: "Our parents would be so proud."

Original Air Date: October 25, 2005.

Getting $250 this leg, teams are told to go to Guangzhou, China. Once there, teams have to go to the People's Park. It's here that Brian, rather unceremoniously, manages to pop his right Achilles tendon. Though he does get put into a cast, both he and David will eventually drop out. Anyways, at People's Park teams have to face the Detour: Rams or Pots.

In Rams, teams have to go to the Temple of the Five Immortals and search for five rams hidden on the temple grounds. In Pots, teams have to go to the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall and make one traditional Chinese pot each. Then teams have to go to South China Botanical Garden, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to put on a blindfold, memorize 10 plants by scent and touch, then go to another area and identify those same plants. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

1. George and Kelly 3:11 P.M.

2. Lucy and Alex 3:14 P.M.

3. David and Brian 3:59 P.M.

4. Paul and Robert 4:23 P.M.

5. Linda and Leslie 4:44 P.M.

6. Marcus and Damon 4:58 P.M.

7. Bruce and Ida 5:15 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #6: "They make it way too easy."

Original Air Date: November 1, 2005.

After receiving $300 for this leg, teams are told to go to Tianjin, China. Once there, they have to find the Tianjin Zoo, where the clue is in front of the lion enclosure. It is here that teams find the Detour: Stand or Deliver. In Stand, teams have to go to the Beijing Opera and rearrange scenes from Chinese history in chronological order. In Deliver, teams have to go to Tianjin's Ancient Culture Street, pick up a package and deliver it to a specific address (which is different for each team).

Then teams have to go to Tianjin Water Park. Here the teams find the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to memorize and repeat a series of kung fu moves. Then teams have to go to the Pit Stop: Porcelain House.

1. David and Brian 2:33 P.M.

2. Lucy and Alex 2:34 P.M.

3. Paul and Robert 3:01 P.M.

4. Marcus and Damon 3:13 P.M.

5. Linda and Leslie 3:33 P.M.

6. George and Kelly 4:05 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/PENALIZED.

Leg #7: "Sometimes it's easier to just let things go."

Original Air Date: November 8, 2005.

Getting $350, teams have to go to George Town, Malaysia. Teams then have to go to the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower. There teams find the Detour: Old Sport or New Year. In Old Sport, teams have to go to the Penang Turf Club and prepare a race horse for a race. In New Year, teams have to setup, then blow up a fireworks display of a paper mâché rooster.

Then teams have to go to the Hawker Stands on Gurney Drive, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to get a shopping list, go into Gurney Plaza and get all the items on there to make a local soup named asam laska. Then they have to go back and make a bowl of it for their partner. Then teams go to the Pit Stop: The Blue Mansion, where David and Brian decide to drop out of the race.

1. David and Brian 5:15 P.M. DROPPED OUT.

2. Linda and Leslie 5:30 P.M.

3. Lucy and Alex 5:35 P.M.

4. Marcus and Damon 6:03 P.M.

5. George and Kelly 6:13 P.M.

6. Paul and Robert 6:45 P.M.

Leg #8: "This is what we signed up for." (This episode is sometimes split up in syndication. That's why it gets a different title.)

Original Air Date: November 8, 2005.

Receiving $150, teams are told to go by bus to Malacca City. Once there, they have to go to the Jonker Walk. This is where teams find the Detour: Porcelain or Silk. In Porcelain, teams have to go to the Baba-Nyonya Heritage Museum, pick up a porcelain vase and carry it to Hard Rock Cafe, Malacca. In Silk, teams have to go to Little India, find a specific fabric store and look for their clue in amongst the silk.

Then teams have to go to the Maritime Museum. This is where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to climb to the crow's nest of a replica of the ship Flor de la Mar. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: The Malacca Sultanate Palace.

1. Marcus and Damon 2:15 P.M.

2. Linda and Leslie 2:24 P.M.

3. George and Kelly 3:05 P.M.

4. Lucy and Alex 3:18 P.M.

5. Paul and Robert 3:30 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/ PENALIZED.

Leg #9: "That took longer than I thought."

Original Air Date: November 22, 2005.

Getting $290, teams have to go the Post Office in Hobart, Australia, on the island of Tasmania. Once there, teams then have to go to the Theatre Royal. This is where the Roadblock takes place. In this Roadblock, one team member has to perform a speech from The Green Dragon by Tasmanian playwright Clive Sansom.

Then teams have to go to Hobart Harbour, where the Detour is found. In this Detour, teams have to get to the same point but have to choose how to get there: By Land or By Water. In By Land, teams have to drive a long distance. In By Water, teams have to paddle a canoe a much shorter distance. Then teams have to get to the Pit Stop: The Hobart Cenotaph.

1. Paul and Robert 11:34 A.M.

2. Lucy and Alex 11:35 A.M.

3. Damon and Marcus 11:57 A.M.

4. Linda and Leslie 12:45 P.M.

5. George and Kelly 1:17 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #10: "I love a good view."

Original Air Date: November 29, 2005.

After getting $300, teams are told to go to Queenstown, New Zealand. Once there, teams have to find the Queenstown Mall. Here teams face the Yield. Lucy and Alex use it against Damon and Marcus, who complain about it as per tradition. This is also where teams find the Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to deliver a rug, by bicycle, to a specific address, using only a map.

Teams then have to head to Ben Lomond Mountain. There they find the Detour: Glide or Ride. In Glide, teams tandem paraglide, with an instructor. In Ride, teams ride down to the paragliding landing zone on mountain bikes. Then teams go to the Pit Stop: TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu.

1. Lucy and Alex 2:20 P.M.

2. Damon and Marcus 2:56 P.M.

3. Linda and Leslie 3:15 P.M.

4. Paul and Robert 3:25 P.M. NOT ELIMINATED/PENALIZED.

Leg #11: "It could have been worse." Part I

Original Air Date: December 13, 2005.

Getting $275 for this leg, teams are told to fly to San Jose, Costa Rica. Once there they have to find the statue of Juan Mora Fernandez, Costa Rica's first elected head of state. Teams then have to head to the Doka Estate coffee plantation, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to search through 800 pounds of coffee beans to find one painted red.

Teams then have to go to the Roca Loca Surf Shop in Jaco for the Detour: Relic or Ripe. In Relic, teams have to go to Manuel Antonio National Park and find four relics and deliver them to the head archeologist. In Ripe, teams go to the Frutas Selectas del Trópico Plantation and harvest 15 bushels of Bananas and put them in a truck. Then it's off to the Pit Stop: Playa de Malecon.

1. Damon and Marcus 12:15 P.M.

2. Linda and Leslie 12:43 P.M.

3. Lucy and Alex 1:03 P.M.

4. Paul and Robert 1:20 P.M. ELIMINATED.

Leg #12: "It could have been worse." Part II

Original Air Date: December 13, 2005.

Receiving $250, teams are told to go to Playa Maracas and have one team member swim to get their next clue. Teams then have to go to La Iglesia de Metal, a church made entirely of metal, where teams find the Detour: Brush or Barrel. In Brush, teams go ten miles away to an oxcart factory where, using a completed example, they have to paint two oxcart wheels. In Barrel, teams go the same distance to a sugar plantation, where they load a flatbed truck with one ton of sugar cane, transport it to the warehouse, then search the warehouse for the next clue.

Teams are then told to fly to the final destination city: Phoenix, Arizona. Once there, teams have to go to the Bondurant SuperKart School, where the Roadblock is. In this Roadblock, one team member has to go 50 laps in a go-kart. Then it's off to the finish line: Fort McDowell.

1. Lucy and Alex WIN

2. Damon and Marcus PLACE

3. Linda and Leslie SHOW

The Review

I know what a lot of you are thinking: Did the other charities get any money? Yes, they did. The bottom three got $10,000; the next two got $25,000; the two after that got $50,000; fourth place got $100,000; third place got $250,000; and second place got $500,000. As a result, this season was the most expensive season of the show ever produced. It also goes a long way to explaining why there were no prizes at the end of each leg (aside from the whole celebrity angle).

That being said, while most fans weren't excited for this season, they did get something out of it. The racers were entertaining; the challenges were good for the most part; even the locations were good. Though this did spark some projects between some of the participants down the line, they never appeared on the show again, not even for the first All-Stars season. On a related note, this would sadly be the last time that Paul Newman and Robert Redford would work together before Newman died in 2008. Though Newman did set a record as the oldest person in the top four at 80, a record that still stands. Also Lucy and Alex are the first Asian-American team to win the show.

This season had solid ratings. Even still, it is still at or near the bottom most rankings, mine included. I put it at number 26 out of the 28 seasons that have aired so far. Next time, we're back to regular Joes.

-Globetrotting: An Amazing Race Blog by R.C. Anderson on the website Reality Rewind, October 24, 2016.

 

[RySenkari]

January 1: “Surge” by Nina Sky
January 8: “If You Don't Want Me” by No Doubt
January 15: “If You Don't Want Me” by No Doubt
January 22: “How Sweet You Are” by Mario
January 29: “How Sweet You Are” by Mario
February 5: “How Sweet You Are” by Mario
February 12: “How Sweet You Are” by Mario
February 19: “How Sweet You Are” by Mario
February 26: “How Sweet You Are” by Mario
March 5: “Wasted” by The Grifter
March 12: “Wasted” by The Grifter
March 19: “Wasted” by The Grifter
March 26: “High Stakes” by Lizzy Wells
April 2: “High Stakes” by Lizzy Wells
April 9: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
April 16: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
April 23: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
April 30: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
May 7: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
May 14: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
May 21: “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz
May 28: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
June 4: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
June 11: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
June 18: “Check Yo Pulse” by Usher
June 25: “Umbrella” by Mandy Moore
July 2: “Last Night, First Fight” by Indira Villa
July 9: “Last Night, First Fight” by Indira Villa
July 16: “Last Night, First Fight” by Indira Villa
July 23: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
July 30: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
August 6: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
August 13: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
August 20: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
August 27: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
September 3: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
September 10: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
September 17: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
September 24: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
October 1: “These Savior Wings” by Carrie Underwood and Jenny Stigile
October 8: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
October 15: “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
October 22: "Gold Digger" by Kanye West
October 29: "Gold Digger" by Kanye West
November 5: "Gold Digger" by Kanye West
November 12: “Hug It Out” by Outkast
November 19: “Hug It Out” by Outkast
November 26: “It's A Woman's World” by Destiny's Child ft. Julieta Venegas
December 3: “It's A Woman's World” by Destiny's Child ft. Julieta Venegas
December 10: “It's A Woman's World” by Destiny's Child ft. Julieta Venegas
December 17: “It's A Woman's World” by Destiny's Child ft. Julieta Venegas
December 24: “It's A Woman's World” by Destiny's Child ft. Julieta Venegas
December 31: “It's A Woman's World” by Destiny's Child ft. Julieta Venegas

 

[RySenkari]

(Here are the other notable North American game releases from July 2005 to September 2005!)

Nintendo Wave:

Antarctica: Operation Erebus

Antarctica: Operation Erebus is the sequel to 2003's Antarctica: War Below Zero. It's a first person shooter title, and continues where the original game left off, though it follows a different protagonist. This game takes place in the areas in and around Mount Erebus, where an important enemy installation is entrenched and needs to be taken out. The game features some minor gameplay and graphical improvements over the first title, including an improved temperature regulation system and the introduction of an altitude sickness system where the protagonist will start to get altitude sickness as they go higher up in the mountain. Unlike the first game, which featured an even mix of outdoor and indoor areas, Operation Erebus takes place primarily inside the various tunnels that have been carved into the mountain. The game is noticeably shorter than War Below Zero, though the expanded multiplayer mode makes up for this a bit, featuring more modes and more arenas. Overall, Operation Erebus is seen as a solid, if deeply flawed, sequel to War Below Zero, and sells slightly more than that game.

Exosphere

Exosphere is a combination action RPG/third person shooter title that takes place on a series of spaceships and between a set of space colonies. Players control one of three main protagonists and make their way through a series of missions totalling 17 in all. The game features a wide variety of weapons and has an extensive weapon modification and character stat progression system that adds quite a bit of variety to the typical third person shooter formula. The game's main weakness is its lack of a real cover system (it tries to use armor/defense techniques as a substitute, but it's fairly counterintuitive), but apart from that the combat is highly praised, as is the game's level progression system and its level layout. The plot itself also gets a decent amount of praise, it starts out with a group of soldiers rebelling against their commanding officers due to their anger at having to commit a series of war crimes, but the second half of the game has the rebels and rulers forced to band together to stop an alien invasion. In a year that sees a lot of major action RPGs released, Exosphere gets a bit lost in the fold, but its high production values and quality gameplay still make it a minor hit.

Geist

Geist is a first-person shooter/adventure title developed by N-Space and published by Nintendo. As IOTL's game, the protagonist is a man who was forced out of his body by a science experiment gone wrong and now roams around as a ghost, possessing various people while trying to return to his original body. The game plays much like OTL's title, though the ability to possess inanimate objects does not appear in the game and instead, the player is given more animals to possess. The game's plot is also different, rather than dealing with a corrupt corporation as IOTL, the protagonist, Alex Sanders, is a university research assistant whose professor has turned evil (initially he is thought to be evil on his own, but as it turns out the professor himself is possessed by a vengeful evil spirit). Alex is forced out of his body and is about to be trapped by the professor, only to be saved by a ghostly young woman, the professor's previous research assistant (who turns out to be the professor's daughter) who might have a way to restore Alex to his body. The game primarily takes place in the university and in the town surrounding it, as the professor and the military try to hunt Alex down while Alex works to restore his body and foil the various ghost possession incidents around the town. It's a bit more light hearted a game than OTL's title, but is still rated M for a number of violent scenes. Geist, as a Nintendo published game, gets a fair amount of hype leading up to its release, and reviews are quite good, averaging around an 8/10. Sales are about on par with expectations: the game is successful, though it doesn't sell enough to be considered a blockbuster, and whether or not the game will get a seventh-gen sequel is up in the air.

Agni Solemn 2

The sequel to Namco's interesting but polarizing RPG from 1999, Agni Solemn 2 took about 18 months to be localized after being released in Japan in early 2004. It has few if any ties to the original game, save for its battle system and a few motifs, though it does share the original title's melancholy mood. Its protagonist is a young orphaned girl named Solemn (who shares a name with the original game's character but is a different character with a different personality) who, in seeking to crush the evil she witnesses on a daily basis, stumbles upon the power to become a god. She makes a few friends but also many enemies, and must ultimately decide what path she'll take: to protect the world, or to punish it. Agni Solemn 2, like its predecessor, is considered a very strange game, but its gameplay is a bit more polished and it has more original elements (the original game was criticized somewhat for a lack of originality. Overall reviews aren't great, but like the original, it becomes a cult classic.

Armored Core

A reboot of the original series and sort of a rebirth for a new console generation (as evidenced by the fact that the game has no numbering or subtitles), Armored Core stays true to its mech shooter roots. Its protagonist is part of the elite Raven Squadron who is sent to fight a war against a powerful rival army, and must complete a series of increasingly difficult missions. The game introduces an interesting randomized loot system to the series, where robot parts and even entire pieces of armor or weaponry can be looted from destroyed enemies. This loot system is enough to make the game seem quite fresh, and ultimately Armored Core is considered a strong contender for the best game in the series to date. The game's difficulty does turn off many casual buyers, but sales are still decent in both North America and Japan.

Dirty Doggs

Dirty Doggs is a game about two brothers in rural America who ride motorcycles and commit crimes, the overall feel of the game is somewhat like a mix of OTL games Kane and Lynch and Ride To Hell Retribution (though unlike Ride to Hell it's actually a decent game, and unlike Kane and Lynch the main characters are actually somewhat likeable). Redd Dogg and Joe Dogg are a couple of small-time criminals who own Harleys and ride around their town causing mischief and trouble. After a gang of big-time meth dealers rides into town, the Doggs have to shut down their operation, causing mayhem all along the way. Dirty Doggs combines elements of motorcycle racing games with elements of Grand Theft Auto, and even has some Twisted Metal style vehicular combat mixed in. The game isn't a huge hit but it's successful enough to get a sequel.

Tenchu: Forsaken One

Tenchu: Forsaken One is a third person action title about a ninja named Rikimaru who is betrayed by his clan, tortured and left for dead, while his twin sister Ayame is brainwashed into becoming head of the clan. The game is a reboot of the Tenchu series but keeps the familiar game mechanics and characters intact. It plays like a fairly generic action hack and slash game, but its new interpretation of Rikimaru and Ayame is compelling, and the game's storyline and pacing are highly praised. It doesn't draw many new fans to the series, but it does please longtime fans.

Unseen

Unseen is a stealth title known for its fast pace and short levels, which, while difficult, don't send players back very far if they fail. It features a pair of agents, one male and one female, who go by the codenames Ace and Violet. They infiltrate enemy strongholds to conduct a variety of missions, most involving assassination but a few involving thievery. Ace and Violet start out conducting a series of unrelated assassination missions, though they will eventually come to realize the scope of their mission as they work to prevent a powerful shadowy organization from developing a superweapon. Its brisk style is a change of pace for the genre (it's almost reminiscent of an early Hotline Miami, though the graphics are fully 3-D and the game doesn't have retro 80s style) and it benefits from a decent about of hype beforehand, scoring big in both sales and reviews.

Pepin II

The sequel to 2000's Pepin: The Hidden World, this game was quite a long time in the making, stuck in development hell for a couple years before its eventual release. It follows the first game in terms of plot but its plot has little to do with the plot of the original. It has Pepin, now a couple years older and more skilled in combat, visiting an ancient library and inadvertently awakening massive creatures who were trapped in the books there. Pepin must explore the worlds of the books to destroy the creatures, though sometimes the book worlds merge with the real world. The game is praised for its creative visuals and bosses, though the gameplay is a bit generic and lacking the intuitive puzzles of the original. Reviews are mediocre to good, and sales are merely mediocre.

Street Rockets 2

The sequel to the original Street Rockets features even more fast motorcycles and even more daring street racing. It's another visually gorgeous title, and gets a lot of comparison to Biker on the Xbox. Unlike that game, Street Rockets 2 focuses on newer, faster bikes, and has a slicker visual aesthetic and a more arcadey style of gameplay. It's a decent alternative to Biker for those who have a Wave instead of an Xbox, though sales and reviews aren't quite as good.

Super Mario Gridiron

A football game based on classic Mario characters and featuring some very silly gameplay and lots of items. It features 6-on-6 arcade style football gameplay, and in addition to Mario characters, it features guest characters from franchises like Zelda, Metroid, Squad Four, and even some third party franchises like Final Fantasy, with over 50 characters in all. Reviews are quite good, averaging in the 8.5/10 range, and it would ultimately be one of the year's best selling games.

Apple Katana:

Scooped!

Scooped! is a platformer title that's largely considered a Beyond Good And Evil ripoff, it features a plucky female reporter protagonist with a camera, who investigates and explores various areas to get her stories. It has its own charm (and is a somewhat lighter hearted game) but is ultimately considered inferior to the game that inspired it.

ESR: Red Team

ESR: Red Team is the third title in the Elite Strike Raiders series, and is a sidestory/spinoff from the first two games, with a more combat-based focus and a brand new team of protagonists. You play as Cain, captain of the Red Team, a band of elite soldiers who pilot fierce combat mechs and are sent into hostile territory to force other powerful combat teams out. The game lacks a lot of the plot twists and nuances of the first two games, but arguably improves on the combat system, combining third-person shooter gameplay with one on one “duels” that are initiated when two mechs are locked in combat for a significant amount of time. In duel mode, your combat options expand, and battle animations become highly detailed. Though few of the enemy soldiers have much in the way of a distinct personality, many do have distinct fighting styles that makes fighting them both interesting and challenging. While ESR: Red Team's sales don't quite match up with the previous games, it's still considered to be quite good by critics, and the series would continue into the seventh generation.

Super Monkey Ball 3

The third game in the Super Monkey Ball series continues the formula from the first two games, adding more stages and bumping up the difficulty. Though it's still a quality game, it's considered to be somewhat stale and derivative, and by now the graphics aren't so impressive either. It's still well received by critics, but sales drop from those of the first two games, and Apple may focus on the series' portable installments in the future.

What Is Normal?

What Is Normal? is a psychological horror game that starts off with the protagonist visiting his psychiatrist, only for things in his life to begin to turn into horrifying, psychedelic nightmares, starting with his place of business and continuing to his house. When he starts to try and escape this by leaving town and going to an abandoned farm, things get much more terrifying. A psychological horror title meant to play on the player's fears, What Is Normal? wouldn't be considered out of place in the modern horror game landscape, though it's somewhat of a proto-version of those types of mindscrew type games. Benefits from the fairly low-tech expectations of the Katana and is a mild success, though not a game-changer in the horror genre.

Microsoft Xbox:

Mafia II

Unlike OTL's Mafia II, which wasn't released until 2010, TTL's Mafia II was rushed out for both the Xbox and PC, and released in the summer of 2005. It features a completely different plot and hardly any of the gameplay enhancements of the OTL version, and chooses to scrap the more open world gameplay of the original game for a more focused, mission based game, somewhat in the vein of the Narcotics Squad series. It centers around Enzio Zagatta, a 30-year-old businessman who is unwittingly thrust into the center of the mob after his estranged father is murdered. Zagatta wants nothing to do with the mob, but one of his closest friends who is a high ranking capo begs him to take over and fend off a challenge from a rival. Zagatta assumes control of the mob and must fend off trouble from all sides, ultimately forced to make a choice between the mob and his family. The game is praised for its storyline, but its gameplay is a bit rushed and the change from the open world in the original is criticized heavily. It gets marginally good reviews and sales, but is still considered a disappointment. The next installment in the series, when it was made, would be an open world game.

Preacher

Intended to build off the success of games like Eternal Warriors and The Dark Tower, Preacher is an adaptation of the comic book series focused on Jesse Custer, a preacher who gains the ability to use the Word of God and bend other to his will, and who must battle the homicidal Saint of Killers. Custer can use the Word of God to compel other characters to do his bidding, which helps him out in the various fights and puzzles he encounters over the course of the game. The game is a very loose adaptation of the comic book series, and has most of the humor sucked out of it, in favor of being a very gritty and dark game that doesn't know whether it wants to be more of an action beat em up game or an adventure game. Announced in 2003, the game got a lot of hype when it was initially announced, but the hype diminished as the release drew closer with little news until it was released fairly unceremoniously in summer 2005. Reviews are mediocre, the game is criticized for its confused gameplay and its poor adaptation of the source material, and sales are rather low.

Wreckers

Wreckers is a game about massively enhanced vehicles that are commissioned to wreck and deconstruct various buildings and structures. Can be compared to Blast Corps, but is a LOT more wacky and has a big focus on car combat as well. In single player mode, players are given a mission consisting of both cars and buildings that need to be wiped out, and collect money the more stuff they destroy. Multiplayer mode includes a straight up car deathmatch mode and a building destruction rally mode, with the player who blows up the most stuff ending up the winner. It's a really fun game overall, with strong review scores, though it doesn't sell as well as might be expected from the reviews. It's a profitable game, however, and would eventually get a sequel.

Stargate

Based on a TTL Stargate television series airing on Sci-Fi at the time (not OTL Atlantis, but equally critically and commercially successful), Stargate is an RPG/shooter game where the player assumes the role of a crewmember on the TV show's main crew. The player gets to select their appearance and skills and is given a job on the crew that fits the skills they chose. From there, the player gets to experience missions that simulate a season of the show, written exclusively for the game. The actions taken by the player determine what happens and what missions they're able to take later on, though there isn't as much variance allowed as a game like Knights Of The Old Republic. There's also a great deal of dialogue and not a whole lot of combat, though this also depends on the player's skills and the role they've chosen. Ultimately, Stargate is well received by critics, who enjoy the game even if it features a bit less action than similar games in its genre. Fans of the show especially love the game for its attention to detail, including casting the actors from the show. Ultimately, the game is mildly successful amongst general game fans but highly recommended for all fans of the Stargate franchise, and is considered to be the best Stargate video game made before or since.

The Darklands

The Darklands is a WRPG made for both the Xbox and the PC, with the Xbox getting it about three months after the PC version. In The Darklands, the protagonist, a custom character created by the player, must venture to various towers to light up a world overcome by a dark mist. The Darklands is a very gritty and edgy game, full of violence and unsavory characters, with even the “heroes” appearing in various shades of gray. The player has the option to be a full-on hero (more like an antihero) or a straight up villain, though the ultimate goal of restoring light to the Darklands remains the same (a villainous character will want to rule the world after it's freed from the darkness). Despite the game's edginess, it still finds somewhat of an audience due to a fun combat and character advancement system that plays like a hack and slash that builds the player's level up according to what types of combos they enjoy using.

Game Boy Nova:

Quixsters Nova 3

The third portable Quixsters game, and the final one to be made for the Game Boy Nova. It's a mix of a 2-D and a 3-D platformer, featuring small but complex stages. This is possibly the series' biggest leap to date, despite being on a technically backward piece of hardware. It features very brief animated cutscenes and some voice acting, along with a massive selection of levels that operate out of a central hub, new techniques that distinguish the four Quixsters (and eight other playable characters) more than ever before, intuitive new enemies and puzzles, and a soundtrack that features a large variety of genres but ties everything together quite well. Considered by many to be the best Quixsters game to date, the gameplay engineering of this title is influential on a number of other games down the road, including numerous games much more successful than this. Quixsters Nova 3 is considered one of the most successful Nova games of the year, both critically and commercially, and is the beginning of somewhat of a “renaissance” for the series that will continue into the next generation, beginning with a title for the Supernova in 2007 and then a full-fledged return to consoles in 2008.

Blackheart

A port of the 2000 Ultra Nintendo game, featuring about 2/3rds the content of that title and obviously downgraded graphics. It makes up for this with a slightly more intuitive control interface and a few added bonus motion comic cutscenes. All in all, this is a fairly popular port released on the same day as Blackheart 4, and a decent portable version of the original game to tide people over until the 2006 iPod/Supernova spinoff title is released.

Shin Megami Tensei: Otherworld

A spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series, this game features a group of schoolchildren in Tokyo who are pulled into another world, where a demonic invasion is getting underway. The kids must recruit their own demons to protect their own world from destruction, but the more powerful demons they recruit, the more their own minds are starting to erode away. This is one of the darkest RPG titles on the Nova, and is also one of the few M-rated games on the system. It's also very difficult, with dungeon crawling galore and a steep learning curve. Still, it definitely appeals to hardcore SMT fans, and becomes somewhat of a cult classic, though sales, as expected, are pretty low in the States.

iPod Play:

Angel Flight

A game that combines elements of NiGHTS and Kid Icarus, Angel Flight features an angelic protagonist who must fly through on-rails areas, destroying enemies as he goes. Certain sections allow the player to go off the rails, though it's still a shooter title at heart. It's a gorgeous game and can be quite addictive as well, with the player gaining more powerful weaponry and accessories for their angel as they battle tougher and tougher enemies. It's fairly easy early on, but the later/optional levels can be quite tricky, especially without really good armor. The game gets good reviews, but sales are fairly mediocre due to a lack of advertising and a protagonist who's not very interesting or compelling. It's mostly a “bragging rights” game for people to compare their best scores/times and equipment loadouts, and has more popularity amongst hardcore players than casual ones.

Multiplatform:

Dead Midnight: Bloodlines

The next game in the Dead Midnight series, Bloodlines takes place after Fade and in lieu of having one main storyline, it features several, including Derek and Darla on a quest for revenge for their deceased mother Raya, Zurika, an assassin's daughter who must complete her father's missions, Harry, the son of a member of Death's Circle who tries to make amends for his family's past, and Fenn, who we later learn is the younger brother of Steve Sheckert, off on his own missions. The game plays much like previous Dead Midnight titles, it's a third person shooter at heart and is a bit more stealthy than Fade, though the playstyle and weapons loudouts depend on the circumstances and the characters used. Derek and Darla have more weapons and don't care much for cover, while Zurika's missions are almost entirely stealth. Though the game features four separate storylines, they do interweave at times, especially the Derek/Darla story and Fenn's. Ultimately, each of the characters do achieve their goals, but do so in a variety of ways and don't always come out of their missions the same as they went in.

Dead Midnight: Bloodlines features excellent graphics and sound, but the gameplay and plot are heavily criticized. The gameplay barely innovates from Fade, and though the variety between the characters' playstyles is noted, most of the missions themselves are fairly boring, repetitive affairs, with Zurika's stealth missions in particular cited as being extremely frustrating, unlike stealth in games such as Splinter Cell or Blackheart. Derek and Darla are criticized for being reverted to revenge-obsessed caricatures, Harry is seen as boring, and Fenn Sheckert is criticized for screwing up the series timeline and being much less interesting than his brother Steve. Overall, the series has really started to grow stale with Bloodlines, which gets the worst reviews in the series to date. “A lot of money and production values were wasted on this boring, repetitive mess of a game,” said one reviewer, and sales take a hit as well: while still initially strong, ultimately Bloodlines becomes the lowest selling console installment of the series to date. It's released for all three main consoles, and does best on the Wave, though it's a disappointment on all three.

Tony Hawk City 2

The sequel to Tony Hawk City, which allowed Tony Hawk to explore a massive open city, performing tricks and even having a bit of an adventure, Tony Hawk City 2 greatly expands on the game's “campaign mode”, inspired by the success of Thrillseekers. In THC2, Tony Hawk serves as a mentor to a group of young, enterprising skaters hoping to make it in a world of big risks and unscrupulous sponsors. Depending on which skaters the player chooses to mentor, some will thrive and others will become dangerous rivals. While the story and characters definitely aren't as deep as those in Thrillseekers, the campaign still has some meat to it, and takes the average player about 6-8 hours to get through. As you play through the campaign mode, you unlock different skaters, skateboard parts, outfits, and segments of the city itself, which can be explored fully in Free Roam Mode. The skating itself hasn't changed too much from previous Tony Hawk games, and that's the biggest criticism of this title: its focus on the campaign mode and its neglect in innovating the basic series formula. Still, it's a highly reviewed game that averages in the mid to high 8s, and one of the best selling games of the month. Like previous titles in the series, it's released on all three main consoles.

Treasures Of The Deep 2

This sequel to the cult classic Saturn title is released on both the Katana and the iPod Play, and plays much like its predecessor: the player explores seas and oceans around the world, looking for ancient treasures while avoiding hazards such as sharks and even undersea volcanic eruptions. It features fewer areas than the previous game, but these areas are bigger and are populated by much more treasures and hazards. The game also features a rudimentary plot, where the protagonists, a middle aged scientist and his teenage daughter, are on a worldwide adventure but must avoid deadly modern day pirates. The plot is pretty much just a framing device for the gameplay, but the daughter, Mollie, is a popular character (and voiced by Ashley Tisdale). Treasures Of The Deep 2 is generally well reviewed, and a much bigger hit on the iPod Play than on the Katana, but isn't a huge seller on either console and is considered a bit of a flop on the Katana.

Iron Combatant 3

Iron Combatant 3 is the latest game in the mech series Iron Combatant, and is released for the Wave and the Xbox. It features a mix of third person shooter and mech gameplay, with Layla (and later another playable character) utilizing a sort of cobbled together mech suit/exoskeleton hybrid. This adds a level of danger to the gameplay that wasn't present in the first few games, as Layla is now much more vulnerable to attack and is sort of a glass cannon. The player must use cover and defensive equipment strategically to avoid being killed by enemy gunfire, and oftentimes in this game, the best offense is a good defense. Iron Combatant 3 takes place seven years after the events of the previous game. After seven years of constant fighting, the town that Layla had been defending from all sides has been wiped out. Most of its people are dead, Layla's friend/lover Kirkpatrick is missing, and the little girl Layla once protected is now a 15-year-old and following Layla around like a daughter. The girl's name is Amber, and Layla will fight to the death to defend her, while trying desperately to find the people responsible for wiping out the town she was defending. While she ostensibly fights for revenge, she's become dispassionate and fatalistic, and finds herself sleeping many hours at a time. At times it seems she's had the life sucked out of her, as the constant fighting has worn her down. Still, she continues on, if only to protect Amber. Amber herself has become an expert at building and repairing mechanical equipment, due to all the military information downloaded into her brain. She has a spark of hope left, despite Layla's attempts to dissuade it. The two go through most of the early part of the game as both hunter and hunted, and as the battles wear on, Layla becomes increasingly combat weary. Finally, at a climactic point in the game, when Amber realizes that the fighting has completely broken Layla, Amber inflicts a crippling injury on her to prevent her from ever fighting again, then takes up Layla's combat mech and begins battling herself. Layla is furious with Amber but helpless to stop her as Amber carries out the vengeance Layla sought. However, following a mission in which Amber defeats a powerful warlord general, Layla reunites with Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick has fallen in love with a new girlfriend, a combat medic named Eleanor who fixes Layla's injury, allowing her to fight yet again, though Amber refuses to relinquish her mech. In a heartwrenching battle, Layla, wielding only a battle rifle, fights Amber, piloting Layla's old mech but doing so halfheartedly. Layla reclaims her mech after defeating Amber and goes on to finish the job Amber started. Amber, Kirkpatrick, and Eleanor pursue Layla to the enemy headquarters, convinced Layla is attempting a suicide mission. Layla battles her way through enemy HQ, heavily wounded by the time she makes it to the leader, who is fighting in a fully operational combat mech. Despite incredible odds, Layla defeats him, but sustains multiple fatal injuries, and collapses with her sparking mech/exosuit attached to her body. Kirkpatrick and Eleanor peel Layla from the mech and try to stabilize her, but Amber knows that Layla wouldn't have wanted to survive any of this and uses a gun to force them to stop working on her. Layla tells Amber to put down her gun and promise to never pick up another one again and she'll die happy. Amber complies, and Layla closes her eyes for the last time.

Capcom's decision to kill off Layla, one of its more well known characters, at the end of Iron Combatant 3 is considered incredibly controversial, but the company expected this. The series is quite a successful one, but Capcom still hopes to revamp it for the seventh generation, and needs a new protagonist in order to do so. Despite the controversial plotline, the game is fairly well reviewed, and sales are strong, though not quite on the level of the previous game.

Twin Cities

Twin Cities is an open world crime/action title in largely the same vein as games like True Crime and of course, Grand Theft Auto. It takes place in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in winter, and stars a police detective named Roger Criss, who solves crimes while utilizing methods of dubious legality. Criss is clearly corrupt, as the player finds out over the course of the game, but he eventually comes up against a group of even more corrupt cops as the game goes on. This game is highly praised for its realistic graphics and massive explorable cityscape, though it suffers from noticeable pop-in and graphical glitches on the Katana version. It looks quite lovely on both the Wave and the Xbox though, and sells slightly better on the Xbox than on the Wave. Reviews are outstanding, averaging around a 9/10, and of all the Grand Theft Auto inspired games out there, this is probably the most critically and commercially successful, which leads to a sequel being rushed into production for 2007.

Spirit Of Exploration 2

The sequel to 1999's cult classic Saturn title, Spirit Of Exploration 2, like Treasures of The Deep 2, is released on both the Katana and the iPod play. It combines cave exploration with puzzle solving, though it focuses a bit more heavily on the puzzle solving this time around. It notably uses pieces from certain puzzles to lead the player to other puzzles, letting the player choose, for example, to remove a puzzle piece that can help solve a puzzle in one part of a cave and using it as a way to solve a more difficult puzzle later on. This sort of multi-level puzzle solving is fairly unique to games and is a more complex evolution of the multi-level puzzles in the previous game. Reviews are a bit better than those of the previous title, and it's another game that finds more success on the iPod Play than on the Katana, leading to a series of scaled down spinoff titles exclusive to the handheld.

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

July 2005:

1. Sonic Blaze (iPod Play)
2. Ballistic Limit Cross (Nintendo Wave)
3. NiGHTS: Dream's End (Apple Katana)
4. Tony Hawk City 2 (Nintendo Wave)
5. Star Fox: Hyperspace (Nintendo Wave

August 2005:

1. Blackheart 4 (Nintendo Wave)
2. Blackheart 4 (Microsoft Xbox)
3. Madden NFL 2006 (Microsoft Xbox)
4. NFL Play Action 2006 (Nintendo Wave)
5. Blackheart 4 (Apple Katana)

September 2005:

1. Velvet Dark: Conspiracy (Nintendo Wave)
2. Super Mario Gridiron (Nintendo Wave)
3. Tribes (Microsoft Xbox)
4. Resident Evil: Desertion (iPod Play)
5. Aerio 4: Sacrifice (Apple Katana)

 

[RySenkari]

For God And Country

For God And Country is an FPS title published by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox. The game takes place in the near future in a London gripped in fear after a series of deadly terrorist attacks. Though the game is ostensibly an FPS, it has somewhat of a hybrid style to it, as it features an open world mission progression where you'll actually be controlling the protagonist in third person between missions, and enter first-person mode whenever you step into a "combat zone". This is actually used to great cinematic effect, and is oftentimes accompanied by a sound or music cue to add tension to a mission. The gameplay itself mostly follows standard FPS conventions, though it's somewhat more action-packed than a typical FPS game, with many gunfights taking place in fairly dynamic fashion. The protagonist, John Hagen, can roll between cover or toward an enemy, can change his shots quickly, and can also switch between firing his gun and utilizing melee and back with a single button press. This gives fights a very dramatic, action-packed flair that most other FPS titles lack. The mood can go from quiet and tension-filled to an intense gunfight and then back extremely quickly. The game also features cinematic interrogations in which John tortures suspects for information. Unlike the earlier game The Pact, which got a great deal of controversy for its use of torture on helpless enemies, For God And Country almost universally condemns the acts that John commits. Occasionally a tortured enemy will cough up useful information, but often they'll give John a bad lead, and it becomes difficult to rely on torture as an effective interrogation tool. The player has numerous other options for interrogation, and many times a light touch is much more effective. John (and at least one partner character introduced later) can play mind games on enemies or can trick them into slipping up. In many ways, For God And Country weaves gameplay and story together unlike any FPS game before. As the player progresses, John's deeds take a mental toll on him and often a physical toll as well. The player must not only watch John's physical health, but also his emotional state, if he gets too mentally exhausted he'll start to miss shots and slip up. Sometimes the player will need to withdraw from a gunfight to let John's mind process what's going on. The game's graphics are incredible, among the best on the Xbox over the course of its entire lifespan. It portrays a gritty, washed out London, and even depicts some scenes in black and white. The game really pushes the limits of what the Xbox can do, rivaling Blackheart 4 for the best looking Xbox title of the year. The musical soundtrack is extremely lowkey: an original score mixing jazz with light symphonic music, no licensed tracks. The voice acting is performed by a cast of mostly unknown British actors, with few recognizable names, but high quality nonetheless.

The game features numerous memorable characters, but these are the main five:

John Hagen: An MI-5 agent highly skilled in counterterrorism. He's tortured by the cruel acts he's performed in the name of protecting his country, and finds himself confessing to a priest more and more often. Despite his proclivity for cruelty, he's no sociopath: he cares deeply about his friends and is at heart a sensitive soul, but this does make him more prone to rage when those he cares about are threatened.
Arthur Russell: John's former partner and another skilled agent, the two were like brothers when they worked together. Early on, John learns that Russell may be behind all the recent terror attacks. Russell harbors a deep grudge against Britain for an unknown reason.
Christa Piven: A young but skilled agent who is assigned to work with John. By the book almost to a fault, she condemns his cruelty and becomes defiant, but John is determined to protect her.
Clara Brenneman: John's boss at MI-5, almost like an older sister to him. Stern and fierce, Clara, like John, is determined to protect her country, and quietly approves of John's cruel methods, though this may come back to haunt her.
Slade Warrens: A weapons dealer with ties to Interpol, Slade becomes John's top contact in the underworld and helps him track down numerous terrorists.

The game begins with a mission showing John hunting down and killing several terrorists, capturing and interrogating one, which gives the player a glimpse at John's brutality. He returns to MI-5 to a dressing down from Clara, but later she praises him for his actions. John is getting closer to the figure at the center of the terror gripping London, but he doesn't yet have a handle on exactly what's causing all of this. Meanwhile, John meets his new partner Christa, and the next mission is mostly by the book, with John abstaining from torturing anyone or using any unorthodox tactics. Later on, John gets a lead about the cause of the attacks, and this time is able to foil an attack before it takes place, though two civilians are still killed in the crossfire. John captures two terrorists, goes overboard and kills one, and gets information out of the other implicating his old partner Russell in the attacks. This leads to a sequence of missions where John attempts to find out if Russell truly is the cause of the attacks, and if he is, what his motivation is for doing so. We see more of Christa and she sees more of the real John, but she is sympathetic toward him at first because she knows his family left him sometime in the past two years and thinks he's just angry because of that, not realizing how tormented John truly is. Eventually, John finds a computer chip (after cutting it out of a still living man) that has evidence on every single crime committed by MI5, and indicates that Russell may be attempting to set up MI5 to be blamed for the attacks, setting up a false flag scenario and then planting evidence that Britain has been attacking its own people to drum up support for a Middle Eastern war. John eventually confronts Russell, and Russell gives a cryptic motivation for his actions before fleeing with John in hot pursuit. John and Christa confront Russell again on the next mission, but this time they are led into a trap and captured. Both of them are tortured, and after John witnesses Christa being tortured and seemingly nearly broken, he flies into a rage and brutally kills every last one of their captors. Christa is disgusted with John's actions and tells him she was about to get free on her own and was only pretending to nearly be broken, and says that she refuses to work with him anymore. John is determined to stop Russell now, and he embarks on a suicide mission in the futile hope of stopping him, but ends up collapsing in the street and putting a gun to his head, only for the gun to be empty when he tries to pull the trigger. Russell finds John and captures him, but unlike the gang that tortured John before, Russell is civil and tells John that he had nothing to do with what happened to him and Christa before. John doesn't believe Russell and tries to get free and kill him, but Russell says that John needs to go over that evidence again to find out the truth. Meanwhile, Christa launches her own investigation, and finds some disturbing information about John's underground contact Slade, who's been feeding him information throughout the game. While Christa follows Slade's trail, John manages to escape Russell's lair and goes after him again, only to be set upon by more men from the same group that tortured him and Christa before. This time, John manages to defeat them, and captures the leader, but instead of torturing the man he manages to make him give up a crucial bit of information on John's boss Clara. John picks up Christa's trail and follows her into one of Slade's safehouses, which is being besieged by Christa. We see Christa seemingly about to get captured again by one of Slade's lieutenants, but she is merely tricking him, and she disarms him before forcing him to the ground. She actually starts to torture him before John shows up and talks her down. The two of them both realize that Slade is actually the one behind the attacks, but don't know why Russell is trying to make it seem like it's him. John tells Christa the information he got about Clara and the two make their way back to MI-5 headquarters to get the information from her.

They arrive to find the HQ on lockdown and being attacked by more of Slade's men. John and Christa force their way through to Clara's office but find that Clara can take care of herself, having killed a whole bunch of Slade's men in the process. However, she refuses to answer John's questions and the two are forced to interrogate her. This is probably the game's most difficult interrogation, as John and Christa have to put their wits together and trick Clara into giving up the information they want. Just as it seems she's about to give them information on Russell's true motivation, she is shot in the chest and killed... by Russell, who then points his gun at John. Christa points her gun at Russell, who tells her that if they kill him, MI-5 will immediately be implicated in all the attacks besieging the country. Russell reveals that he and Clara have been working together ever since he left MI-5, and that the two have been working to sabotage the organization. They learned that an unknown entity (who John discovered was Slade) had been using his underground contacts to conduct terrorist attacks for the past year, while setting themselves up with lucrative petroleum and weapons contracts in order to profit off the inevitable wars, wars that would destabilize the Middle East and allow numerous dictators to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Russell and Clara arranged to set up an investigation that would lead to the world believing that these attacks were in fact false flag government orchestrated attacks, which would prevent the wars while leading to a massive investigation of what the two believed was a hopelessly corrupt government. However, as tensions increased, Clara began to get nervous that this news would cause far more distrust in the government than was intended and might led to a civil war, but it was too late to stop Russell's machinations, and she had been relying on John to kill Russell and uncover the true conspiracy. John realizes that Russell wants Christa to kill him, but Christa refuses. Russell says he'll kill John if she doesn't, but she still refuses, and starts to lower her gun, saying if Russell kills John, then everyone will know the truth of what really happened. Russell says that's true, then points his gun at Christa and shoots and kills her instead. In a furious rage, John disarms Russell and brutally kills him, but this causes Russell's data bomb to be released, and the building is swarmed with armed agents who take John into custody. Filled with self loathing and hatred, John tries to hang himself in his prison cell, but backs out at the last moment, and instead realizes that he still has to find and kill Slade. He fights his way out of a government prison, then, in the game's final mission tracks down Slade and raids his hideaway. After a fierce gun battle against Slade and several of his top lieutenants, John kills them all, and by killing Slade, exposes the true conspiracy, clearing his own name and sparing Britain from chaos and turmoil, while also ending the terror attacks. John may have saved his country, but he has yet to purge his demons, and knows that someday, his bloodstained hands will have to kill again.

For God And Country is one of the year's most highly praised titles, due to its graphics, gameplay, and exceptionally well received storyline. The game does have a multiplayer mode like most Xbox FPS titles, but it's bare-bones at best, with the storyline being the centerpiece of the game, and most critics don't have an issue with that. It's seen as a technical marvel and a big step forward in terms of storytelling, with plenty of emotional pathos and realism. It would become one of the most influential FPS titles of its day, and contributes to a growing divide between story-focused and multiplayer-focused FPS games. It's released on October 4, 2005, and is a major hit, ultimately becoming one of the year's top selling games.