March 17, 1999
Sony officially announced the PlayStation 2 last week in front of a
crowd of over 1,500 members of the press and game company representatives.
Representatives from Square, Namco, Capcom, Konami, and just about every
other third-party developer you can think of were present to witness Sony
answer the questions that have been on everybody's minds for months. Will
it backwards compatible with the original PlayStation? Will it be DVD-
based? When will it be out? Who will be supporting it? The answers are
that yes, it will be backwards-compatible with the original PlayStation
(but your original PSX games won't be enhanced in any way on the PSX 2);
yes, it is DVD-based (and it's also compatible with CD-ROMs); it will be
released in late 1999 or early 2000 in Japan and late 2000 in the US and
Europe, and pretty much everybody other than Nintendo and Sega will be
making games for it. The system itself is even more powerful than
previously announced, and Sony claims it can display a maximum of 66
million polygons per second (as opposed to the previously announced 55
million), it will run at 300MHz (as opposed to the previously announced
250MHz), and it will be able to execute 6.2 billion floating point
operations per second (as opposed to the previously announced five billion).
The general consensus in the industry is that the specs are exaggerated,
but that the PlayStation 2 still blows anything on any console or PC out of
the water (including the Pentium 3 and the Dreamcast). Technology this
powerful doesn't come cheap, and a Japanese-to-American mis-translation
actually had many people believing that Sony stated the system would cost
"around $800." Fortunately, that was just a mis-translation, but the unit
could still be as much as $400 at retail, or it could be as low as $200.
No matter how cheap or expensive it ends up being at retail, it will almost
certainly be much more expensive than the Dreamcast to develop for given
the complex nature of the hardware and the development tools. However,
third-party developers across the world seem to have nothing but good
things to say about the system, including the following statement from
Peter Molyneux (creator of Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park, etc.):
"The PlayStation 2 is the most exciting entertainment machine I can ever
imagine. It is rather hard to imagine a world where the PlayStation 2 does
not emerge as the winner in this race, provided it has great software to
support it." Here's one more notable quote, this one from Eidos USA
president Bob Dyer: "This technology will make giant technologies say 'holy
s---' and want to get involved..."
As a side note, Sony did not comment on what Operating System developers
would have to work with, but rumor has it Sony will bypass Microsoft's
Windows completely and go with Linux and/or SGI. Also, Sony has not said
much of anything about the PlayStation 2's modem, but already rumors are
flying that Sony will have to sell it separately from the system because
the system will be expensive enough as it is and it would be even more
costly with a built-in modem. If Sony drops the ball with the modem issue,
it could be one of Sega's biggest weapons to use against them, seeing as
how one of the biggest selling points of the Dreamcast this fall will be
the online capabilities, which will be fast, cheap, and prominently
featured in the majority of all Dreamcast games. Plus, it will be built
right into the Dreamcast and will be easily upgradeable in the future.
While the Fall 2000 release date for the US and Europe may seem far off,
Sony is going to have to bust their butts to manufacture enough units in
time and at a reasonable price, and to do this they have actually formed
two separate companies together with Toshiba. One of these companies will
have the sole objective of manufacturing the PlayStation 2's CPU, and the
other will have the sole objective of manufacturing the PlayStation's
graphics processor. Sony estimates that getting these companies up and
running quickly will cost well over $100 million. Even after all of this
is in place, there still exists the very real possibility that Sony will
run into production problems like Sega did with the Dreamcast in Japan and
there will be PSX 2 shortages, although if anyone can pull off a
manufacturing miracle like this, it's probably Sony. And with the
PlayStation now accounting for over 40% of Sony Corporation's total
revenues, you better believe Sony is going to do the best they possibly can
to manufacture the hardware on time.
Sony displayed several videos (which were generated in real time) meant
to show off the PlayStation 2's technical capabilities. While they looked
absolutely incredible, no games have been announced yet, and with no
finished development kits in anybody's hands less than a year before the
system is supposed to be released in Japan, it appears Sony is doing what
Sega did with the Dreamcast- rush the Japanese release, but make sure
everything's nice and polished for the US launch. Also, for the record,
Sony has not officially referred to the PlayStation 2 as the PlayStation 2,
instead choosing to simply call it "the next-generation PlayStation" until
they've got a final name worked out.
As impressive as the PlayStation 2's specs are, the Dreamcast is by no
means down and out. Within days of the PlayStation 2 announcement, Sega of
America's president Bernie Stolar held a teleconference to address the
issue. "On paper, Sony's machine sounds impressive, but the fact is it's
still on paper. Sega Dreamcast is here now," Stolar said. Stolar
confirmed previous reports that Dreamcast owners will eventually be able to
upgrade to DVD, and also purchase other add-ons (including more RAM and
even a 1GB hard drive). These upgrades will only appear on the market when
there is a significant consumer demand for them, and Sega is in a position
to manufacture and sell them for a reasonable price. Stolar went on to
state that there will be 8-12 launch games in the US and around 30 games on
store shelves before Christmas. Stolar has been busy visiting retailers
across the country, mending many relationships which were damaged in 1995
when Sega released the Saturn four months early, but only to four select
retailers. This left all the other nation's retailers out in the cold
until the previously scheduled September 2, 1995 launch date (although,
honestly, they didn't miss much). Over 100,000 Dreamcasts have already
been pre-ordered in the US despite the fact that the launch is still at
least six months away and there has been absolutely no marketing in the US
yet. The Dreamcast's $100 million North American marketing campaign kicks
off next month, headed by Sega of America's new vice president of marketing,
Peter Moore (formerly of Reebok). The Dreamcast is also selling fairly
well in Japan, with over 800,000 systems sold as of the end of February.
Nintendo still hasn't announced their next video game system, Nintendo
of America president Howard Lincoln did state that an announcement
(complete with full technical specs) would take place sometime before the
end of the year. A Nintendo spokesperson also stated that the system would
be as powerful as the PlayStation 2 (or more powerful), and for the same
price (or cheaper). Sounds good, until the realize the answer to the all-
important question "When the heck will they release it?" (the answer: late)
Many in the industry don't expect the system to be released until the fall
of 2001, but a Nintendo spokesperson said that the system could hit the
market as soon as late 2000. Sure... and Zelda 64 was released in 1996...
Anyway, one bit of good news did come from this: Nintendo's next system
will NOT use cartridges (thank God). And the first developer for
Nintendo's next system has already been announced- Retro Studios, a
Nintendo-funded company founded by ex-Iguana employees who are being
positioned as a sort of "US version of Rare," only probably with much less
talent. Retro's web site (www.retrostudios.com) says that they are looking
for a sports game designer which, means one of two things. Either they're
making a sports game for Nintendo's next system, or they just get off on
hiring sports game designers to make platform games.
More prominent rumors about Chrono Trigger 2 being in development have
surfaced. The latest report claims that Square had previously begun
development on CT2 for the PlayStation, but much of the development team
was temporarily re-allocated to help finish up some other projects
(including Final Fantasy 8). Rumor has it that the team is back together
again and is now working on CT2 for the PlayStation 2. Assuming that the
team has jumped head-first into development, Chrono Trigger 2 could be
released as soon as next year. As a hardcore Chrono Trigger fanatic, I'm
excited by all these rumors, but I still have to keep in mind that that's
all they are right now- rumors.
Namco is one of the most high-profile third-party developers to stand in
support of the Sega Dreamcast, so it comes as no surprise that the
graphically amazing weapons-based fighting game Soul Calibur, the sequel to
Soul Blade/Soul Edge, will be released for the Dreamcast, not the
PlayStation. Soul Calibur is only about 30% complete and no release date
has been set, but the screen shots already look amazing, and as usual,
Namco (the masters of the arcade-to-home conversion) will be significantly
improving the game for the Dreamcast, with even better graphics and all-new
gameplay modes not found in the arcade version.
Starting now and extending until May 31, numerous cereal products from
General Mills will come packaged with coupons off popular PlayStation games.
Anyone who buys a box of Trix, Lucky Charms, Reese's Puffs, Frosted
Cherrios, Cocoa Puffs, or Cookie Crisp will find a $5 off coupon for Gran
Turismo, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Spyro the Dragon, Tomba, or Rugrats:
Search for Reptar. Without getting into quotes straight from Sony's
marketing department, let me just paraphrase. Now that 99.9% of all the
world's hardcore gamers already have a PlayStation, Sony is trying to make
the PlayStation more desirable to "other demographics," including kids.
Products like cereal are just another way to reach people who might not
normally play games.
Sony has announced that they have picked up the US publishing rights to
Enix's critically acclaimed RPG, Star Ocean: The Second Story. Due for
release in the US in June, Star Ocean: The Second Story will undoubtedly
keep many role-play-gamers content during the painful wait for Final
Fantasy 8. It will be a classic if it turns out half as good as Sony's
"FF7 holdover" Wild Arms did.
If you've got an Interact DexDrive, you can now update your NBA Live '99
rosters by going to www.easports.com and downloading the updated rosters.
These updated rosters were accurate as of February 24, so they're still
missing a few notable transactions (such as Dennis Rodman and Glen Rice
signing with the Lakers), but they're a lot more up to date than NBA Live
'99's default rosters (which were accurate as of July 1, 1998 thanks to the
NBA lock-out). If you don't have a DexDrive and want to update your Live
'99 rosters, you can buy one for under $40. Or you can just manually edit
the rosters for hours on end to reflect the real NBA's rosters like I did.
Quake creator John Carmack openly speculated recently that perhaps he
would lower the sacred rail gun's rate of fire in the upcoming Quake 3:
Arena. After being swamped with letters of protest from the many lovers of
Quake 2's rail gun (which has a slow rate of fire as it is), Carmack issued
the following statement in his .plan file:
"On the issue of railgun firing rates -- we played with it for a while at
the slower speed, but it has been put back to exactly Q2's rate of fire.
I do agree with Thresh that the way we had it initially (faster than Q2,
but with the same damage) made it an overpowered weapon in the hands of
highly skilled players, which is exactly what we should try to avoid.
An ideal game should give scores as close to directly proportional to
the players relative skills as possible. The better player should win
in almost all cases, but the game will be more entertaining if the
inferior players are not completely dominated.
Quake 1 had really bad characteristics that way -- Thresh can play
extremely talented players and often prevent them from scoring a single
point. We wouldn't put up with a conventional sport that commonly
game scores of 20 to 1 in championship matches, and I don't think
we should encourage it in our games.
Eliminating health items is probably the clearest way to prevent
blowout games, but that has never been popular. Still, we should
try to avoid weapon decisions that allow the hyper-skilled to pull
even farther away from the rest of the crowd. They will still win,
no matter what the weapons are, just not by as wide a margin."
The NPD Group has released the list of the top ten video game publishers
in the US for 1998. The rankings are determined by the amount of revenue
each company generated off of game sales. Here's the list:
1. Nintendo
2. Electronic Arts
3. Sony Computer Entertainment America
4. Havas (which bought Sierra and Blizzard in 1998 for $1 billion)
5. GT Interactive
6. Acclaim
7. Midway
8. Hasbro Interactive
9. THQ
10. Eidos Interactive
Wing Commander: The Movie hit theaters recently to mostly bad reviews.
In response to this, Digital Anvil's president Marten Davies said, "I'm not
going to say we have a bad movie. If we'd had more time and more money,
we'd have an even better film. For the budget, what we have is way above
most expectations." Just the fact that Davies felt the need to make
statements like "I'm not going to say we have a bad movie" should clue you
in that they probably do really have a bad movie...
Nintendo has released more details on Command & Conquer 64, which is due
for release on June 28. Unfortunately, the game does not feature any
multi-player modes whatsoever right now, and get this- it's actually based
on the original C&C. I guess Nintendo couldn't be bothered to make an
original C&C game, or even a port of the three-year-old Red Alert. At this
rate, you can expect to see Nintendo publish C&C: Tiberian Sun on their
next-generation system around 2003...
The Big Two in the upcoming flood of team-based, online-only first-
person shooters for the PC are clearly Quake 3: Arena and Team Fortress 2,
but Unreal Tournament will be on store shelves before either of the
aforementioned games. Unreal Tournament is scheduled to ship for the PC by
the end of this month (unless it's delayed...), and like Quake 3, it will
also be brought to the Macintosh. The Mac version of Unreal Tournament is
due out by the end of June at the latest.
PC Data released a list of the worst-selling games of 1998, and there
were some games on the list that you wouldn't expect to see. In order to
count as a "bomb," a console game had to sell less than 50,000 copies, and
a PC game had to sell less than 20,000 copies. The following are just a
few of the games on the "bomb" list, followed by the approximate number of
copies sold in 1998 in parenthesis.
FIFA Soccer '99 for PC (16,000)
Blood 2: The Chosen for PC (16,000)
NFL Blitz '99 for PC (12,000)
Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 for PC (12,000)
Carmageddon 2 for PC (14,000)
Heretic 2 for PC (16,000)
Moto Racer 2 for PC (16,000)
Extreme-G 2 for Nintendo 64 (46,000)
International Superstar Soccer '98 for Nintendo 64 (37,000)
Dead or Alive for PlayStation (49,000)
Wild 9 for PlayStation (37,000)
Theme Hospital for PlayStation (28,000)
Deadly Arts for Nintendo 64 (3,100)
Dual Heroes for Nintendo 64 (2,600)
Sentinel Returns for PlayStation (171)
Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth for Nintendo 64 (31)
PC Data's report also showed that only one PC game which requires 3D
acceleration has ever sold over 50,000 copies, and that game is Star Wars:
Rogue Squadron (and even that only sold 57,000 copies). This record will
surely be shattered by Quake 3: Arena, which will require a 3D accelerator
to run.
The delays of several over-hyped games were announced this week:
-Jeff Gordon XS Racing has been pushed back from March 31 to "sometime this
fall" for the PlayStation, and from April 16 to "sometime in May" for the
PC.
-MGM Interactive's first and hopefully last James Bond game, Tomorrow Never
Dies for the PlayStation, has been pushed back to a mid-August release.
-And last, but certainly not least, Ion Storm's Daikatana (originally
scheduled for a 1997 release) might be released in June, or it might be
released whenever the heck Ion Storm feels like it (take your pick). Ion
Storm couldn't even whip the game's multi-player mode into decent enough
shape to be featured at a gaming tournament in Texas the game had been
scheduled to appear at, supposedly due to "last minute tweaks and changes."
Someone needs to tell Ion Storm that "last minute tweaks" take place right
before you release a game. Ion Storm has been claiming to be doing "last
minute tweaks" for nine months now (and counting)...
As hot as Gran Turismo 2 is looking, a couldn't help but be alarmed by
one statement Sony made in a recent press release: that the annoying
"license tests" of the original game will be used a lot more in GT2, and
there will be 60 of them throughout the game to pass. It's a good thing,
too, because we all know that the most important quality of a racing game
is whether or not it requires you to perform completely meaningless tasks
that you will never have to do in an actual race, such as driving in a
straight line for a while and then stopping on a small section of white
painted road, only to have to do it dozens of times because you keep going
over the time limit by .006 seconds...
ArtDink has announced the sequel to Aquanauts Holiday, shockingly titled
Aquanauts Holiday 2. If you remember the "game" known as Aquanauts Holiday,
you will remember that the goal was to swim around underwater in an attempt
to... rescue endangered underwater species? Overthrow a group of vicious
pirates? Collect lots of treasure and be rich? No, you just wandered
around aimlessly with literally no objectives or direction, until you
eventually lost your will to live and killed yourself. Sounds like fun,
eh?
Microsoft has announced that the MSN Gaming Zone now has over four
million registered members, surpassing even Mplayer.com in the competition
for online gaming membership (Mplayer currently has about 2.6 million
members, and I'm one of them). Microsoft also claims that The Zone gets
over 200,000 visitors every day, which they say is more than all the Disney
theme parks combined. Yes, but are the Disney theme parks infested with
lag and casual-gamer-oriented crap?
Numerous video game web sites recently posted what they billed as a
playable demo for Quake 3: Arena, but it was in fact it was just leaked Q3
code that was never intended for release. To clear this matter up, let's
go straight to the quote from Id Software's director of business
development, Anna Kang, who made the following statement:
"A version of the IHV (independent hardware vendor) test has been
leaked. The leaked version is used for the sole purpose of internal
testing and contains no real levels. It serves no purpose other than
for hardware vendors to test and optimize features such as
multitexture and compiled vertex array implementation. It contains no
playable maps. Some maps are specific for testing oversized textures,
extreme texture aspect ratios, and high polygon outputs (much higher
than normal maps). We hope the public is aware that this leaked test
is useless to them and illegal to have in their possession. This
material was given under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and its sole
purpose for distribution was for hardware vendors to test out various
features. We're flattered that so many people are interested in getting
their hands on the game, but what is out now is not a game, nor is it
the test that will be out in about a month. Trying to play the IHV test
will only lead to frustration."
EA Sports has announced the first in a long line of WCW wrestling games
from the company- WCW Mayhem for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64.
Developed by Kodiak Interactive, WCW Mayhem will feature over 60 WCW
wrestlers (about half of which are currently being buried because they're
not friends with Kevin Nash and/or Hulk Hogan). The game will also let you
fight backstage and in locker rooms, and is due out this fall. EA must be
pleased about their timing in acquiring the license (just as WCW's ratings
are lagging behind the WWF's at all-time high). I'd give you more details
about the game, but wait a minute, EA didn't release any! Acclaim, on the
other hand...
Acclaim has unveiled loads of promising features set to appear in WWF
Attitude, the last WWF wrestling game from Acclaim before they lose the
lucrative license to THQ. Attitude will feature a lot more wrestlers than
War Zone did (over 40), and will improve on War Zone's already incredible
Create A Wrestler Mode. Now you can even create your own pay-per-view with
up to eight matches on it, featuring as many of the WWF's title belts as
you want (even the Light-Heavyweight belt, which hasn't been mentioned on
WWF television for months). Even more intriguing than this are all the
different match options players will have at their disposal, including
Lumberjack, Weapons, Survivor Series, Steel Cage, Triple Threat, Last Man
Standing, King of the Ring, Hardcore, First Blood, Tornado, I Quit, Iron
Man, and Two out of Three Falls. The game will also feature plenty of new
and creative weapons, including Vince McMahon's bedpan (which made a brief
appearance on Raw several months back when Stone Cold Steve Austin attacked
Vince in his hospital bed and beat him up, including a stiff shot to the
head with his own bedpan, which was thankfully empty at the time).
Interplay is going all out to promote the upcoming Descent 3, including
giving away the largest cash prize ever for a video game tournament. The
winner of a massive Descent 3 tournament Interplay is running with Case's
Ladder will get $50,000 in cash, beating out the Professional Gamers League
previous record of $30,000 for winners of their Quake 2 and StarCraft
competitions.
Sony has announced an upcoming PlayStation action game entitled Ape
Escape, which will require a Dual Shock Analog Controller to play (so that
you move around freely in 3D space with the analog joysticks). Sony didn't
say much else about the game except that it's due out in late 1999. "Ape
Escape" sounds like a pretty stupid name for a game, but remember that a
certain Super Nintendo game starring a big ape did pretty well in its day...
A bug has surfaced in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy 8 which
erases your game if you don't defeat a certain boss on Disc 3 within a
certain time limit. Square claims that bug is only present in about .03%
of games shipped to retailers, although that's probably of little comfort
to those who have had their games erased due to this bug. This is good
news for US gamers, though, as it means that Square will make sure the bug
is removed before FF8 is released in the US.
The top five selling PlayStation games in January (in order from one to
five) were:
1. WCW/NWO Thunder
2. Metal Gear Solid
3. Frogger (no!)
4. Crash Bandicoot: Warped
5. Crash Bandicoot 2
The top five selling Nintendo 64 games in January were
1. Zelda 64
2. Goldeneye 007
3. South Park 64
4. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
5. Super Mario 64
Crystal Dynamics' upcoming third-person action/adventure game Legacy of
Kain: Soul Reaver has been delayed again, this time to May 25. If you
remember correctly, it was late last year when Crystal D announced that the
game would be not be released in 1998 and had slipped to February, and at
the time they claimed that the game was pretty much done, they just delayed
it so it wouldn't get lost in the pre-Christmas rush. Now with the latest
delay, it becomes clear that the game wasn't really anywhere close to being
done when Crystal D made that announcement, they were just looking for an
excuse to delay it. Note to game companies: There's nothing wrong with
saying, "We couldn't finish it on time. It's delayed." Don't feel the
need to make up lame and completely transparent excuses, because all you're
doing is insulting your audience's intelligence and making yourselves look
like idiots.
Nintendo's annual video game trade show has been delayed once again.
Nintendo's "Space World" (clever name, eh?) show takes place every November
in Japan, but last year Nintendo said there would be no Space World in 1998
and instead the 1999 Space World show would take place early in May, where
they would unveil the 64DD (yes, Nintendo still insists that the 64DD will
be released in Japan this June, but they have all but said that it's dead
in the US). Now Nintendo says Space World 1999 and the 64DD unveiling
won't take place until August, which means one of two things: Either
they're going to showcase a product that will have been out for a full two
months, or the 64DD isn't really coming out this June in Japan. Hmm...
I wonder which one is true...
MASTER GAMER'S TOP TEN MOST ACCESSED REVIEWS
1. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee Review
2. Spyro the Dragon Review
3. Tomb Raider 3 Review
4. Tomba Review
5. Zelda 64 Review
6. International Superstar Soccer Pro '98 Review
7. Kartia Review
8. WCW/NWO Revenge Review
9. Metal Gear Solid Review
10. Tomb Raider 2 Review
Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News,
GI News, Next Generation Online, Adrenaline Vault, VideoGames, Happy Puppy,
Gamesdomain, GameCenter, PlanetQuake, PSM Online, IGN 64, Sega Web,
www.hamsterdance.com
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