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