Obviously The Ziff-Davis Empire is launching a campaign of exclusivity on fans of KotOR, because they allegedly have some exclusive information on Sith Lords, the now confirmed sequel that takes place five years after the original. The information, screenshots and concept art were slated to appear in both of their gaming mags this month. But everyone knows this doesn’t last long – even the previously mentioned MP2 screens were originally in the print version of Game Informer, and succumbed to the same fate. But these are just technicalities; gamers don’t care where the information comes from – they’ll devour anything that even resembles the taste of meat.

Gamesradar has posted more substantial information, bringing out some great new points about the game. Development will be handled by Feargus Urqhart’s Obsidian Entertainment as rumoured earlier this year. I think it will be a given that the same graphics engine will be used – there weren’t many complaints on that front for the original and it gives the developers more time to focus on story. Combat will remain the same, but this time you will have two quickly selectable weapon configurations like NWN or Lord of Destruction. This is a great addition, in my opinion, because switching from blasters to melee weapons mid-combat can get annoying fast – especially when enemies retreat.

Something that KotOR did extremely well is the way it handled your character’s alignment. Depending on what path you choose, you can open up a whole different set of quests. Of course, you essentially end up at the same place, but the journey is always different. I think there’s room for improvement here though, as I found it unfortunate that another plot doesn’t develop when you turn to the Dark Side – surely the killer of fellow Jedi or innocent civilians would develop some sort of reputation. This is something I’m hoping that Sith Lords addresses. One thing that has been considered is the effect of your character’s alignment on the party. This time you won’t have NPCs like Carth or Bastila clucking in the background when you do something evil – they’ll simply go along with it and eventually become evil too. I see posibilities for some really inventive story-weaving and gameplay here.

I go out of my way every month to read PC Gamer – but it’s coming to point now where its monthly input is almost cursory to the mass of websites I frequent. The Slow Death of Video Game Magazines has been heralded by the online gaming media for years, but I haven’t see any real change in print media’s landscape to adapt. There will always be print-only exclusives like the recent MP2 and KotOR2, demo CDs, or some other tantalizing morsel that will try and make you pay for the whole package, even if it involves grumbling under your breath the entire time. I’d like to think the quality of writing is better; after all, instant presses are more succeptible to rumourmongering and just plain sloppy journalism. I think that print gaming magazines are where the industry needs to start changing – they have a guaranteed source of income that they can afford to spend on refining the craft to create a genuine model to follow, instead of relying on sensationalist headlines, annoying flash advertisements or clickthrough pages. To leave gaming media in its infant state to the easily swayed drones of online Big Media would be grave mistake.

singing lines from all our favorite songs

Unfortunately IGN has been at it again, this time hinting at a real-time version of the highly acclaimed Advance Wars series for the Gamecube called “Cube Wars”. This was originally attributed to a passing mention in IGN’s Gamecube mailbag a couple of weeks ago. Given the success of Advance Wars on the GBA in North America – the first versions to even see release here – I expect that there is some truth to this. Putting the game into real-time takes a bit of the purpose out of the game (I can hardly imagine playing Command & Conquer with a controller), but I’m still adding it to the E3 watch list.

In another GBA to Gamecube move, a significantly upgraded Fire Emblemwill be released in Japan later this year. As Fire Emblem is another long running series that first appeared in North America on the GBA, I hope to see the eventual release of the Gamecube version here. Slightly jealous of PS2 owners who got to play Disgaea, I think the Gamecube is due for this type of tactical strategy.

There’s equally good news for the GBA – the success of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has softened the relationship between Square-Enix and Nintendo enough to produce a port of Final Fantasy I & II, and there is further speculation that the elusive Final Fantasy III would be ported as well, a game that fanboys have been lusting after ever since they learned of its existence. One thing seems to be guaranteed though, and that’s a brand new Final Fantasy adventure for the GBA.

My hopes for Shining Soul were high indeed, and now the sequel has arrived in stores to fairly indifferent reviews as well. Things have much improved since the last installment – which is good – and the co-operative adventuring still has my attention. Now that I’m more or less done with Sword of Mana I can probably give it a try. Unfortunately, Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is the victim of a badly designed cover, and should hope that fans of the series will look past it for a faithful adaptation. Kind of like Age of Wonders: you’d have a better chance explaining the hype surrounding Franz Ferdinand than why I picked up that box at my local software shop. But I’m glad I did.

In a recent edition of Gamespot’s Rumour Control a version of Treasure’s 1996 classic Guardian Heroes for the GBA was mentioned. Maybe I really do hold a special place in my heart for Treasure’s side scrollers, because I also have fond memories playing this game on a friend’s Saturn back when it was released. It was a frenetic and crude action/RPG, and if anything reminded me of Street Fighter Alpha with the ridiculous melee combos you could perform on your enemies. The gameplay was similar to any side-scrolling beat-’em-up, but Guardian Heroes provided you with multiple storylines to travel through. Depending on dialogue with NPCs it would take you on a completely different quest, which was refreshing for a console RPG at the time. A direct port has been denied, so I suppose Treasure is creating an entirely new adventure. There is a rumoured September release for a Japanese version – but neither Sega or Treasure has confirmed this.

The reaction to the scanned Metroid Prime 2 screenshots was like reopening the old wounds sustained when the original was released. With the introduction of multiplayer, it has some riled up enough to call it a “Quake clone” or that it’s trying to be Halo. Even the controls scheme itself has been brought back out for public flogging – it seems that a game that looks like a FPS should, in fact, be an FPS. But it should be pretty fucking clear to anyone that’s actually played ‘Prime that it is not. And as you well know I’m completely happy with the way things turned out.

Along with official screens the new title has been released at Nintendo’s site: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I’d say the subtitle is very fitting, given that multiple power suits will be running around in multiplayer mode. Unfortunately the comparisons to Halo don’t stop at the multiplayer, either – someone has already compared the mysterious figure in the silver power suit wielding a pulse rifle to the Master Chief. There’s always room for interpretation, but give me a break – is every science fiction game since Halo’s release going to be compared back to it?

I trust that Retro Studios uses the Metroid universe such that they would at least integrate the multiplayer component into the main game’s story. There is probably a very good reason why there’s more than one person sporting the power armour – perhaps the Chozo’s technological secrets have been unearthed by another force other than the Space Pirates. Maybe it’s the Ing, a new race as noted by the official site, who have come to use this technology to fuel their war machine on the planet that hosts Echoes’ setting. Once again Samus will have to regain her power suit’s upgrades and weapons, and I’m pretty curious to see the reason for losing them this time.

To lay underneath the red sky there

Whether you think it’s a tantalizing advertising campaign or cheap marketing gimmick, Gearbox Software has still managed to turn some heads with their recent “teaser” website for Brothers in Arms. The site first opened a few weeks ago at warstory.net, where they posted a few quotes about the state of war-based FPS, and how they have been lacking the distinct flavours of frontline battlefield combat. Before even the first screens were revealed, you could hear the sounds of gamers lamenting another WWII shooter and decrying how the genre has already been done to death. Unfortunately, my predisposition towards war-related games has firmly planted me in the camp of those who believe that only the execution of these games can be overused; World War II as a subject is absolutely brimming with material to base an action-adventure on.

Gearbox is being intentionally coy about the engine, but it will most definitely be part of publisher UbiSoft’s E3 lineup. Some rumours are saying it’s a brand new engine, and others hint that its grand scale battlefields put the CryEngine to good use. Looking at some of the screenshots it’s hard not to be skeptical; all of them look doctored or modified in some way to give them an all-too-realistic polish. But according to most “previews” (and I use that term loosely; most are nothing more substantial than speculation given after an inital viewing), this soft appearance is all part of the engine. I must admit these initial screens remind me of when I saw Call of Duty for the first time.

BIA plans to take a more strategic approach to battle, depending even more on the actions of squadmates. Wishful comparisons were quickly made to something like Ghost Recon, and although some elements are there, the field command options are much more simplified. Through this new approach, Gearbox promises gamers realistic tactics. It’s not enough that your fellow soldiers provide covering fire – you are now able to issue general commands as well, including supressing hostiles and moving into position, instead of letting your AI controlled squadmates follow your lead like in Call of Duty or Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Having a limited number of armaments also restricts your ability to take on the entire Wehrmacht yourself, something MoHAA and even CoD allowed you to do. I’d like to see punishment for trying to go it alone in BIA, as it doesn’t make sense that you can abandon your squadmades on a whim to race ahead because they can’t bunny hop bullets.

It’s also clear that Gearbox is going for realistic environments, as this composite shows. Using historical photos and battlefield accounts of the airborne assault on Normandy to build most of the environments, and the actual story based on the experiences of a platoon seargeant in the 502nd parachute infantry regiment adds a bit of credibility to the game’s reason for being. Gearbox also plans on developing the characters of your squadmates, something that Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is also attempting to do. I’d consider this an advancement of sorts, because it’s one thing to provide decent AI to fight alongside you, and perhaps add a nametag to them, but when you start getting involved in their backstories, the deaths of these NPCs starts to carry a bit more weight.

I sense that this game is also heavily influenced by Band of Brothers, but where Spearhead has failed, I think Brothers In Arms has the ability to make up for the character development and emotionally charged combat. Both the XBox and PC version will be available sometime in October. It’s hard to make a proper judgement call given all this pre-E3 hype, but I’m not afraid to say I’m very, very interested.

miles above the sea

The in-laws are currently stationed in Hong Kong, and aside from the huge culture shock they seem to be enjoying it very much. They have fantastic weather all year round, and access to a lot of unfamiliar things that make their daily lives more interesting. As a result, we tend to get a lot of stuff “imported” via courier that they have purchased such as VCDs (completely legal of course), magazines, and an amazing variety of snack foods. Last week we got a copy of The Matrix Revolutions, and decided to check it out. Leaving the theatre crestfallen after weathering the massive hype of Reloaded, I expected great things from a movie that is supposed to tie everything together. A few reviews from friends when it was in theatres assured me that it was better, and so when we finally sat down to watch it I was ready to be vindicated after Reloaded’s mis-steps.

The Matrix Revolutions is the insult to Reloaded’s injury. Trying not to degrade into clever combinations of foul langauge, I still can only say that it is absolutely fucking awful. Overdramatic in its delivery, convoluted in plot and in its action scenes, and completely pointless as a sequel.

The completely eye-rolling final battle involving giant exoskeletons a little too reminiscent of the power loaders from Aliens ended (for the most part) with an EMP blast from a ship barely making it inside Zion’s docks. What was the point of the final power loader stand if there was always this “last ditch effort”? How did bullets actually manage to stay the crushing blow of highly agile robots that probably number in the billions? Neo’s final confrontation with the machine’s hive mind regarding their common enemy was an interesting way of cleaning things up, but not enough to save this disaster of a movie from collapsing on itself.

The convoluted explanation on why The Oracle actress changed was also extremely frustrating to listen to. Indeed, it was sad that Gloria Foster died during filming, but there’s not a whole lot you can do except continue as planned. Just look back at The Crow, which saw the death of its star, and could still be salvaged (the makeup helped, of course). I’d like to think that audiences can accept these unfortunate circumstances without having to slog through rhetoric and double-speak that confuses the issue. Taking a cue Microsoft’s idea of security the Wachowskis plan on making their story so obscure it’s impossible to tell if it’s actually doing the job or not. The only sequence I enjoyed in this movie was the assault on Merovingian’s club – but even that was a “re-imagining” of the famous lobby scene from the first film. The climax is a Woo-like standoff that’s so over the top that it was cool by default.

With Revolutions the Wachowskis have given the entire franchise a viking funeral. The very concept of both sequels was incredibly indulgent and expecting the masses to choke down this insipid, lazy mess without complaining was cavalier at best. As far as I’m concerned there’s only one Matrix film, and I will happily continue to watch it for years to come. The sequels were pointless and told me absolutely nothing except how incredibly vain and contemptuous the creators are.

don’t play truth or dare