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You must stay one step ahead of an enemy formed by an Rei Bea ee ea eee Tae R ne ied Crp rad See ta ey ee ers peor prea seers abel Ceres Teeny Blood Moka rnelalsedoual wetter ree rtac otadintonecte unrsinetcaestamenied eovataebee ieee ste ee Language |S padded lets cna elena ed apse ea ee Violence | ecceetemeetacaeresrsatceate eee reir irr at kease rc Ses craibhal eect eee een Se nattteaon La tacsnren bd oreo nearerri = DAVINCI CODE PNM oan dst -Coy-¢ Uae oUt oe Cee tuk a Pees fess rviti) xeox PorererereSEEING IS BELIEVING “T'S AMAZING!” PSM BUY OR DIE AWARD PSM “ASS, OUT OF 51” f GrnIGAL PuaistatiON Midcazise “AWESOME GAME OF THE MONTH, 5 OUT OF 5 STARS” Sti Magime “HELEO, BEAUTIFUL” OFFAL Xi0% Macaznewww.TombRaider.comfeel Ree reemerged Zeta is crucial to our economic Oman CU Lee ee economy Cece The Drengin Battle Cruiser Reece o Re SS Coe eee clcteat ey Sem Eg a le ae OM eam ae Ce eae eta Cee COP k Ce ns ca ec Cm ee elas PCR a ue Ok ara c ke Cae Ene ean ee Ce lie coe SNE unease aoe Sec em Cm ase TT Se acre al erm teat lel ool ee au Tats SRS aco meer ame www.GALCiv2.comPietsch) Pao eRe ney starport to ensure that it can Cece 4 ee eee eee Cee Re a Rc eee mea T.A.S. Columbia has returned from Oe annua acta Chet aa oe a ae Ut Saeco “Galactic Civilizations II is a strategy gamer's dream, boasting a rare eels etme cen eS a eR Me) a ee fan ie) Ur om DEAL Chas eae as Beets rere —ota eR saa RS DO Ce eee eee! Summon a recrultment advisor at: 1-800-963-3500 Microsoft STS aTeR TUNE 2006 ISSUE #263 coven stoRY SPORE Will Wright and his team at Maxis already made the best-selling series in the history of videogames. Not content with that, they're now making a game that encompasses no less than the entire history of the universe. Show- offs! Join us for this world-exclusive first look at Spore—the game we've all been waiting to see. Yay! 46 E3 Scouting Report 14 Evitorial fan eo es Tl Got the skinny on UT 2007, Medieval 2, Brothers Jelf got to see Spore this month, and he's being, in Arms: Hoil's Highway, and much more in our ike, all “neener, neener” about it. Whatever, 16 Letters 28.games-big pro-E3 preview package. dude. OMG. Like we care. ‘CGW readers sound off on last month's rulitude of changes. 22 Raver Moonlighting pros flex ther programming muscle vith Hall-Lio 2 mod Nuclear Dawn. BioWare dees (Greg Zoschuk and Ray Muzyka (of Neverwintor ‘Nights and Star Wars: Knights ofthe Old Republic fame) sound off onthe stato of thot art. Plus, we /rognosticate on the future of eantral interfaces, beyond the keyboar-and-mouse combo, 79 Viewpoint “This month’ reviews neup features in-depth anajyaes of The Elder Serais IV and Golocic Citations, 38 wel clover toks at the rolion of Bates 2 and EverQuest ‘Aso, Tem and Bruce bale aoross the ands of Middle-earth Letts hunt some ore! 80 The Elder Serolis Ms Oblivion 85 Galactic Civilizations It Dread Lords 80 Battofiold 2: Euro Force 94 The Godfather 96 EverQuest I: Kingclom of Sky 100 Tom vs, Bruce: The Lord of the Ringe: ‘The Battle for Middle-earth106 Tech Every month, atleast one person e-mals to ask ard should | buy?" This month, we tackle this eternal question. 414 Greenspeak ‘we seen hin the cops. no i that guy a there? Haven't here before? Honey, call 90: Dor ‘Age of Empires il: The W: ‘Alone Inthe Dark: N altetild 2: Eu Bates 2142 Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway of Jaro Civitzation IV: Warlords Crysis The Eide Final Fantasy Xi: Treasures of At Urhgan Frontlines: Fue of War Galactic Civilizations I: Dread Lor ‘The Godtather Gothic 3 400 The Lord ofthe Rings: The Battle for Mido Medhoval 2: Total War ‘Microsoft Fight Simulator x Mossi: Tomb of Mystary “The Movias: Stunts & fects Nuclear Dawn ParaWorld 198 2: A Tortured Soul Sid Melers Road: ‘Spore Star Wars Empire at War Fe Tabula oot Drive Unimited “Tube Twist Urveal Tournament 2007 Warhammer 400 Dain of War—Dark Crusade World of WarCraft The Buming Crusado [1-2] at CS | i reel Orr ren eae teen tet is ee ene PA Wad) telat | cote en eer aos ere cr ee ee kd ee ero) porters Pere eR eel Pertenece roy ‘when you can listen to their gooky, whiny ere ero Ceesee CC be Me CC aor eee re tera eet Rote etre ese iy ce RCT ee ares ae eae Dee Oe eee eee ear tr nets Pet rt om te eae ae oer ets CTA ee trees e cic tres Po eet Cer reer tyes Cette eae oetarerecasrts fa a Parone eC CMe rab oT) a ; Aa’ Danan Ree Too aT ea tin aoePorts se Cora CeCe ea Sete oer Creer rc iaes Pere eee rere en ponicee aOR tena aie aaa ORIG esa BO) | lO) eS ees eS mets ees td PU Anna NAT cae Cerca cn en eee since Will Wright first tipped his hand about it way DE ee eae ers ea If you think you might not have any interest in Spore Ce eae ees you to read the story anyway, because you might just ea ea et el) Seat eet Sree ce ne ces eet Cent em et ety by former CGW managing editor Dana Jongewaard, who defected from this fair magazine ina rather heinous act of treason a couple of years ago to work with our Reg eerie aa ee ete ee aoe to people? It gets them crawling back! Dana practically groveled for the opportu- Fe eee ose metas more ike me begging for her to help. Stil, the point remains. Or maybe it doesn. ‘And what sit with these wandering managing editors, anyway? Is it me? Do | smell? Because, with this issue, we bid a fond farewell to our current managing ecto, Kristen Salvatore, whose departure was rather suspiciously well timed with Ce et ees where, yeling nasty things about Barro, please tel her we're onto her. Truthfully, Do eee eet ete tote ee hens en eras wwe wish her al the best. But, hey, Kis? | __ THE ECOLOGY OF CGW Cee War Lee f po eran rary eer Reece PRs SO ee ag Perron Ts enn sey Piece ce Ler roe ee Dee) eri {com to: weve Peg aa) eet Perera eta Pret are Seater eet Ere comy ech Restrnt ter tata) Cieror Ley re atest Poe area ane a eee Peo FRET Ao eee Ee anon Serer s eens eer eet ea ent Perera Unis any presto wh nek pon ote eros Perea Paanret ret yeetel eee etn Seen Patou nna ean ‘SEAN DALASKIDD eee) Creer ery Potro ier tae eae Ferraro Pry eaten ed pes eee) eect! pierre ea reer Peace ea Sarre ay ZIFF DAVIS \Vi ner ESR oa Sin Einate Drei ESPORTS BaeFantasy Violence Mild Language Suggestive ThemesAller reading two stories about cybarsex in 4 row (CGW #262, May 2006}, how it was ‘going to be "the next big thing,” and feeling worse about being a gamer than ever Ihave bbofore, | couldn't help but laugh out loud ‘when | glanced at page 43, While it's unusual for CGW to lay out three vertically aligned Pictures, i's even more infrequent to see a ‘male character in each one staring out at the samo direction. As | followed their glances, | deduced why they were all gazing 50 intentiy to the opposing page: the centered picture fof a blonde banding over in a small, white blouse! Now, you can play the innocent, “Oh, hacha-ha, hovr did that happen?” card all you want, but | know what you guys were thinking ‘You can even tell by the annoyed expression, in the bottommost picture on page 49 that she knows where her man is looking, Well done, CGW. Well done, Eli Sheldon If only we were that clever on purpose, maybo our moms would love us more, Like the now Tech section—the LED moni tor feature was really informative and does {good job of educating. You might want to talk about dead and stuck pixels at some Point, though. I's sometimes possible to fh. Terence Pm ds a) ogee Cie Ieee eeu informative. eSree) NPM ES 16 > coveuren cave aot iicoddaden (unnelattay CMe ce 5 at taal aa He fitaaana eau [i them. Lightly massaging the screen on the bad pixel can help, and you ean find help- ful programs on the web (Google “ix dead pixels” and you'll see a Widow? page with the program available for tree). But it's really important to know that manutactuter's policy ‘on returns for them—generally, industry policy is 16 oF more doad or stuck pixels [to qualify] fora return. You can generally purchase dead Pinal insurance, however. | think I's worth it since they appear most often within 90 days of purchase, Joshua ola) vara Sous) xeon cy Cee cnr) reals flatable sheep! Srey —Gringo THE THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE rN announce that you need to be straight to jin you're going to have that kind of policy, make a webpage and require incoming mem= bers to read it. Your real-life choices shouldn't affect my gameplay unless | take steps to initiate some kind of in-game relationship. WOW should be about the game—not about the player. Allison Yeah, well, what do we know? We thought “GLBT" was a sandwich. |1was annoyed at Bruce's attitude toward The ‘Sims 2 in your Apel Tom vs. Bruce column, Not only dl he sneor at it by calling it “com: pputor Barbies,” but he algo aldn't even try to play, Most of the World War Il strategy gamas ‘could be called computer G., Joe, alte al ‘Surely CGW does not wish to claim that boy dolls are somehow better than gil dolls? Or is It that you want to propagate the notion that shooting, killing, and destroying are batter than living, building, and creating? You already offer prety slim pickings for female gamers; try not to alienate us completely, okay? Gory Kerens, who has saved the word in ‘many, many games, but who algo enjoys The ‘Sims 2. | was shocked when | ead Crispin Boyer's review of the TrackIR 4; PRO when he used the ‘words: “It won't get you lla” and “nooke.” This type of pnrasing does not belong in a premier ‘gaming magazine. Come on, Jef! Do your job! Donavan Anderson Editor-in-Chief Jeff Green rosponds: “What's ‘nookie’?" Thanks for the article about StarForce (April 2006, CGWV #264] and the problems it causes. My computer was acting slow and hanging up after reading your article, I looked through my computer and found that I did have ‘StarForce on it | removed it fram my com. iter, and things are just fine now. How did StarForce end up on my machine? | got it when installed Splinter Call Chaos Theory FROM YOUR DEMO DISC!!! Please {do us subseribers a big favor. Don't accept ‘any demos that use StarForce. Copy protec: tion for a demo??7? WTF2?2 Gary Well, since we no longer have a demo diso, it's a moot point. Stil, our bad in a big way, We hate StarForce as much as you. ‘And as wo wont to press, Ubisoft dropped StarForee from all its new games. Yay!oe ge ea se ao oN S er Rm ea oie cc oa a Paaehnent int ee een ee ee nce ce a eid a ee = was: | Fate Coat. me eee (Cy bia iaooo CGW CHANGES: PRO AND CON Editor's Note: Well, i's not like we weren't ‘expecting it But tne maii—both pro and on—keeps pouring in an our recant decision to drop the scores from our gama reviews. Hore's a small sample—with plenty more to follow, we're sure. ‘Are you guys on drugs? Is your GPU over- clocked? First, you tell us that you'e dscontinu ing the Game of tho Year ection because i's "bor Ing and unnecessary” Now you'e teling us that you're going to do reviews without ratings, Hol why slop there? Why review the games ata? You could all st around the otice and think happy thoughts. That way, you wouldn't hava to wie all of those “boring and unneces- sary" etcles. Why lt those readers—who plunk ‘down $8 forthe joy of reading all of your wity banter—bring your heads down? As for content, {yu could pattem CGW? afterall of those woman's ‘magazines, You could just print alot of ads—and ‘maybe some pictues of games, Do me a favor: Stop changing my favorite mag- azine. Isnt itbad enough tht | have to ead green print on red background? Brian MeGowan "ma longtime reader, first-time writer; basicaly, ust warted to ive you huge kudos on your decision to crop the ratings scale in your Api ‘eviews. ope you stick with this. W's brillant, Ratings tend to be worthiess and exist ony 28 @ ‘means for people who don't want to take the time to actualy inform themselves about the game to ‘gamer some quick thoughts, And, | suppose, as ‘oo! for metastes—even more annoying, Either ‘way, very good choice on getting rd of them, and I hope it sticks. Philip Kollar “The idea of reviews without scores couldn't suck ‘mare. CGM without review scores isa magazine | ‘don't need. Keap up the good work Stove {just read the Ap isaue of CGW. Ihave to say, while the whole issue was prety crappy and the Roviows sec tion seriously sucked. hate that there were no stars on any of the raviows. Although, ‘guess that's understand- able, as cl imagine it would probably take a longtime to rate saven whole Foviows. Good thing there were lots of ialevant, boring atcles to make the magazine sou really long. ! mean, what could ba batter than an article about card games and a boring interview wilh Ralph Koster and a boring article about ‘machinima and another boring interview with Jett ‘Butler and then another boring interview with Jen Van Ganeghem? | guess if we cant read com- Duter-game reviews, we may as wal read about Yyou guys talking to people who make computer games. That's ust as good! (On second thought—no, isnt. How about you ‘guys get back to reviewing computer games and stop with athe boring $7 Erik 18> COMPUTER Gta WORLD (Outstanding! t's about time magazines dropped the numerical review system. Please keop it up. I's ludicrous to think that asingle ligt can sur pa two-page reviw. | can't count the numberof times I've rend in a review the score was lowered due tothe lack of some feature that | don't care bout or lowered du to some bugs that wil be patched by te te | read the review. ff only Iooked atthe score, I might have missed cut on ome great gamos, We're al eiferent. Depending fon the person, some game features are more important than others, and some genres are more interesting than others. A single numerical score ‘can reflect how a game wall appeal to every- ‘ono—so it's best to do away wit it altogether and make people ead the reviews. You're writers, How do you feel about your 500-word review being summed up by a single number? Eddie Goletz What the hel? No ratings on games? In that ity you're in business? Nik Smith buy your magazine and PC Gamer for one thing ‘te eviews. I don't read the previews or the fea tures. don't have alot of spare time in my Ke, 80 review scores allow moto skip the trash and read only the reviews of good games, which then Allows me to futher write down the small rum ber of gamas | have tne to play Please rund my Apr Issue, 2 i's worthless to ‘me without review scores. It you plan to continue ‘his in the ft, cancel and refund the balance of ‘my subseripton Rox Jacobsen im glad you got rid of numerical game scores. “They were handy, but what always soomed to happen i that ianboys would get all pissy and bitch about Halo 2 geting a 82 and Hal-Life 2 gating a 99 for months and months, Thank you for abowing them to shut up and forcing gamers, to use ther brains. Please Koop the numbers avay from the reviews, as you ae reviewing at, not ‘dogteos of precision, Mike | ned reviews that tell me quickly about a game ‘vith stars or numbers or eters, anything that rates them. At my ge I don't have the time to read about videogames. just want to know what is good so that can relax fora fow hours. Freds99 st want to say that he idea that there should be no reviews on agama fs total BS. Hopolily, Yyou guys don't choose stay thal way, because Yyour 1-5 sta vecits ae, at times, al look at with ‘games, and most of the time | can't even tll how ‘900d the game realy is without a stared vec. PLEASE KEEP THE OLD REVIEWING SYSTEM. | think land many ther gamers wil be glad, yok Ive waited years for you to rotum tothe strtoss reviews of ol Thank you. ‘Samuel Erikson | want to write in absolute support of removing _ny sort of numerical equivalent to rating (stars, percentages, etc) games. Now all you guys need 0:d0s remove the summary box ential. There shouldnt be ony quotes at allo be abused by publishers and advertisers in any roviews, Pus, itreclaims more space to tak about the game. which isthe orignal intent ofa review. Anyone ‘who laments the oss of some sort of grading ‘uric should stop reading reviews and pick out ‘heir games entirely Based on ads; they can get {ancy numbers and quotes, and it wont take them ‘more than a minute to actually bother to compre- hend why anyone would vite those words inthe fist place Hook to CGW as the elder statesman of vid ‘ogame journalism: professional, credible, arc ‘experianced enough to separate the trash from the treasures. Hopetuly, every cther publication wil follow your load and throw avay this infantie g0sture to try and copy movies. tn my local) Newspaper, fine at, books, opara, bal pays, ‘lassical concerts, and so on never get any sort cf rating. One must actualy read the review to see how the reviewer perceivod i. Kudes to you guys for further lagimiing the argument that games ‘can be art—possibly equal to even the fe ats, Robert Danziger Fool with your own money, not mine, Do wat pay you to do. Star rate the gamos! Steven C. Montrose ‘ust wanted to offer postive fecdback on your ‘decision to do away with rankings in your rviews | think its a good idea, as ong as you delver on ‘doing more in-depth revows of the games them= selves. ko that you are thinking about ways to keep your magazine retovantin today’ werld of the Internet. | also tke the podoast you've started ‘offering. t's good way to reach readers about iferent subjects that you can't doin the same \way inthe magazine. Keep up the good werk. Jason Becker ome st ene eee ea SNe ua eer er lus $1 million in small, unmarked bis it eee eer eens oa eae nes some of your bile and e-malling ee and reeceICU TERaASe STEVE MCNIVEN yaaa INLAY MORRY HOLLOWELL A MARVEL COMICS EVENT IN SEVEN PARTS FORA COMIC STORE NEAR YOU, CALL 1-888-COMICBOOK.all- terrain vehicles. (melee Wer ete lee ea re fay} Ma reese ae atone) When you're up ta Your waist in radioactive Waste, Cr Cas LC a eR won't cut through the noxious haze. Youneed an elite COAST UI Cums DuRguCe Mc Sy ‘Comes with Intel” Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology CT ue eerie ea een CUO icc ORS Rice RUT PC ce Cea ee Gas cu TOC Come net B expe riven tee ‘Your opponents will be seeing red with Yo Can Ta LSS ee Re cet eee aera) Seren ce Ce ee oe CU eae ORR Ug ees a OU ee rrr eer nner nee ni UC ar eC meee LOTS TC area A Pg Rca a a ener ee eae elena eet a oar ee ea on Cee ree cena eee rece eet any sai ceeteerats Se Gr ce a ae cee Uae ete Der nt Cea entCentrino® Duo aN Take this widescreen road warrior for a spin. On ie ae Dell recommends Windows® PC CTEM eC) ce ead De Eee ens Pen ea ee NOR ieee nC a cue TC Pec Ree Cr i a au latest gear and downloadable games, Dell can steer you in the right Oe Poe cue aa FLTTETINIII Ig . Visi f pL Visit dell.com/gaming Ready to rule the roads with these notebooks? visi dell.com/cgw ITSA or call 1-800-247-5519 For hearing/speech impaired: 1-877-DELL-TTY (toll-free) cyPLAY WITH me Keyboard and mouse no more?TTS NO COINCIDENCE THAT FINGER- propelled interchanges govern our day- to-day existence, click by clack—thoy have for centuries. Bach could jam for hours at ‘keyboard, improvising fugues and chorales, plucking metal rings vith springy key levers ‘and jacks, And the typewriter as QWERTY. ‘character touchstone has been with us since Sholes & Glidden pegged its jam-esistant let- {ers into a keymap circa 1874. From IBM's orig- inal 89-key PC/XT to today's 107-key enhanced maxis and World of WarCraft Zbcard, forget your age: Your hours and minutes can almost bo yardstcked in keystrokes. That's going to change sooner or late, depending on which futurist you subscribe to {technophila author Ray Kurzwel thinks we'll bbe nerve-acking Neos by 2030). Inthe mean time, Im typing this article on beveled buttons. ‘Gocasionaly, my ight hand glides to the mouse to pointerwhip windows on a smoot, glowing ‘screen, Stickies and icons and twitching taskbar buttons, streaming video and ripping audio and Battofild 2 in a window: We've ke miniatura ‘mashviork concluctors with binary orchestras. But we've been plying the same ergonomic batons forages. Are we just hardwired?” “it's not about when wo'l itch from Key- bboard:mouse to something news it's whether we'd want to,” says 17-year industry interface Vet and Logitech's director of strateghe market ing Fred Swan, “As soon as you ask the quas tion of when, you have to ask winy, and then yeu'te on to looking at new enabling technolo ‘ies. Voioe recognition f getting better. Gesture recognition has come to the fore. But that sti doesn’t answer why—i just points to how it might be done,” And “might” plays ght, lef, and center when it comes to predictions about future HIDs (human interface devices) “Why” hhas a8 much to do with what you want as with ‘what you need. Says Swan: "The only answer to, ‘Why a paradigm shit?’ would be, exsen- til, because thore has tobe one. HOI POLLO! SKUNK WORKS Keyboards work ype-to-text wonders but cur ‘some its into carpal-tunnel cia. Joysticks ‘rowel already chttered desktops, and gamepad sit datocated and option-imiting in your lap. Mice skier in two-dimensional straitjackets, ‘and have you ever scraped that allen fusty= fungus off their bottoms? Wouldn't it be great someone just gave us that coo! finger ficking thingamabob Tom Cruise had in Minority Ropor?? “We get inquiries about this kind of thing al the timo,” says Swan, “think i's Crrre recone riverine peers ‘people's wih for variety or for something ‘ew, rather than practical. | got questions from people like, Whan is somebody going to replace the mouse for FPS?" and the answer! ‘ive is, wel, people have. Frequently. For the last 10 years. And nono of those devices gained ‘any traction.” Fair anough—wve know what happens when {developers push out-of-touch ideas, but ran- ‘dom mutation (as simple as mouse wtioe's) can pay dividends as well The fist thing you need Is. gauge for evaluating the question of what makes a good interlace. "When | conser which devices are going to work or appeal to some- ‘body, I break it down to what I all the three Fe," saye Swan *Fast, familar, functional. 1st the fastest way to do something? Ist fariian, ‘or are they going te have to releam what they've been doing forthe last five or 20 years? And ist tunetional; does it got the job done? If the answer to all thro is yes, you have a winner.” ‘So haw do you test? Game Interface Design (2004) author and Wahoo Studios art crecx {or Brent Fox thinks focus groups are bad for probing interface ideas but great for scoping ‘curent solutions in action. "if you ask a gamer how to solve a problem, you might not get the best answer” explains Fox, "But f you ask them whether your solution “works,” you can {get vory valuable information, We rarely ask players which features they'd want to see in thelr utimate game. Don't ask a player what he ‘wants—ask him if a new dea works. ‘Swan agiees, “Wo'e most influenced by what wo £00 when, for example, we watch people use mica to play games. What is it that we see bothering them? How might they Improve thei performance by doing something differently? Do they need more buttons? Does the mouse need 10 be lighter or heavior? More precise? So not neceseavily speci feedback from people, but as Yogi Berra would say, "You can observe alot just by watching SENSE AND SENSITIVITY ‘Ask gamers to rate simulations, and they'l often ‘grouse: not realistic enough. But are they really? "When someone switches to a game environ ‘ment, for some reason everything they know ‘about interacting in that enviornment withthe vice they'd use in real ife goas out the win ‘dow.” says Swan, “Take someone who doosn't ‘normaly play games and put them in front of Gran Turismo 4 on a PS2 with the best steering when the world, and thoy'r going to be all ‘over the road.” Swan is efarting to cognitive probleme when visual environments shi, fom being ina real car to siting stock- stl infront of ‘screen. Think the steering control's wonky? FEATURE E3 Scouting Report eer cee Eee ater right just be you. "There are rea, live professional race divers atthe top oftheir game wito will ot only go out land test drive on the track with thir cars betore a race, but prepare forthe race by silting down ‘with a game like G74," notes Swan, “t's just that accurate” In other words, the practically autonomic fine motor movements you make in your car or just walking around don't (ye) trans> late well to existing interfaces, “We have to be very careful with that famiiarity aspect,” Swan ‘adds, “We naed to mako sure that the benefit of the product is sulflclently great that people will want to invest the learn time. ‘And it all about ima. Games change at breakneck pace. Keyboards as typewriters sill sustain our basic text-lyping needs, but Pong is not Populous, and Sony's EyeToy is no Te Bo workout video, What about spatial shifts from 20 to 3D? While we've added buttons and ‘analog thumbs, today's controllers stil lok ‘an function petty Much lke yesteryear’s NES fpads. At a 2004 DICE Summit demonstration of Lionhead Studios’ Fable, design prophet Peter Molyneux suggested that indeed, controllers are just 80-tybridized 20 holdovers badly in need of ‘a second-gen shake up But while 3D has yot to meet its ideal go between, bewara false prophets. “When you look at Minaity Report, that type of interface fs both ‘charming and very dramatic," says Swan. "i's ‘dramatic becauee there's motion, because i's new, and becauge whether or not Tom Cruise has tho most expressive of faces, he knows how to make broad, erisp motions with his body thet are compelling tothe audience.” Gesturo-based Interfaces fundamentally change the underiying ‘game, be they designed for oF slipstreamed. “in a videogame, you want to be able to do things ret areeneeere ener ae eee poo ee eTocs al piace een Ca ee eat eae Sees bae Moe nod Perret roe cdny BSrarnaoer Orono nee penenerence Te See ee uae Bertin rocuetn oar rr ron Ce eee Snr orc eo. ee kiooas “WHEN IS SOMEBODY GOING TO REPLACE THE MOUSE FOR FAS2" THE ANSWER | GIVE IS, WELL, PEOPLE HAVE” FRED SWAN, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC MARKETING, LOGITECH comsvecen 23@RADAR PLAY WITH ME eee) Ma eo Bt] ‘Avant-garde designer SensAble Technologies makes a See ea ed ee Cee ere hee ire oripone tr TOC ar arene eter area) you hold it exactly ike a pen," explains SensAble president ee eee Pees ine XYZ, pitch-yaw-rol, and force err ee er ee Ce ate ee eee Se ee er) Cee eet tte ed eee es ‘So the Phantom has demonstrated its Use in specialized ‘but how does that translate to the broader realm of gaming? Prenat an eee een ee So we came up with OpenHeptics, which Isa toolkit sold with our {vice to make it easio for game developers to experiment.” Case ue ee Tt Cee etre eee) that combining guns and skiing sounds even more ridiculous, but that’s an Olympic sport Presented at GDC 2004, Haptic Battlo Pong Coe eet ‘opponents oF gun them daw. With rockets, (And Rockstar thinks its eee Chet ee a) FRUSTRATION BUILDS WHEN ‘GOTTA HAVE’ CLASHES WITH GARDEN VARIETY ert Bros Pack rarrn Corry oct pea ere pera ry Brett Cae Oe aes I ICoRL it res Lee ne ate ee reer ey Seen ee ee Ce oe eee ey ee ee een eet cea ‘motion sensors to feedback-loop input, the Phantom also provides a) Cee eee es fire machine gun impulses or a shotgun's boom-back jolt. Phantom ee ee eer CO ae eee ee ery Tee CC ener spesific and clear reason and where they no longer meet people's needs,” says Swan, “then you'e going to get new deviees and new ways of doing things." Two-pound eal phone “bricks” in 1984 versus Star Trek fip-ups toclay, for example, ‘And function cortainly governs form, asthe bic acbrac history of game interfaces ilustrates. Take the early 1990s Logitech Cyberman, which resem bled a mouse impalad on a joystick and worked with games tke id's Doom and Bethesda’ (yeah, that Bethesda) Terminator: Rampage. Ithad six degrees of freedom: XY2, piteh-yaw-rol, and vibrotactile feedback on battries oc AC power, “The Gyberman was similar to the PSP's pointing vice,” explains Swan, “a cis that moves within a fixed area of space, absolute as opposed relative, which mado it ideal for gaming. People didn foe it offered enough benasit over the ‘mouse, and it required lesrning-plus, so they ida't adopt it. And gamers preferred to use the ‘cursor keys onthe keyboard ora joystick. There wasn’t enough excitement from the game dev ‘pers to make ita success. Getting hip hardware to market an! dev Supported is most ofthe problem. At 2004's DICE Summit, Molyneux sai: “I'm sure there are ‘90in9 to be tots of interesting revolutions. The big problem is (getting game designers to stat] supporting [them]. Its going to require a fairy ‘major effort rom hardware manufacturers, ‘Or maybe not. Sony's EyeToy simply pinned an application to hardware at the market-standard $50 price point. "Sony aliminated any decision your character can't in real life, whether that's a...20-hour gaming experiance—you'd be lke an’ making by bundling,” adds Swian, “And once ‘acing cacs at 150 mph or running for hours tot- Intemational bodybuuder atthe end of i." people have the camera fom the first-generation ing @ 100-pound eal gun. games, you're seling second gen at fll margin Molynoux agroes. "The oniy thing...about MARKET TO MARKET ina market you own.” Sipstream harcware the EyeToy is. bloody exhausting to play Solutions are born of frustration and frustration through your install base? Sounds tke the model games," he mused at 2004's DICE Summit "hava to have energy eink alter about five minutes. And the thought of actually playing 24 > coururencaune nore bulls whon "gotta have" clashes with garden ‘variety. When you look at eitcumstances where the existing solutions are inadequate for a to folow, frankly, 3 what are we waiting for? Bring on the Vista-bundied retina jacks already. ‘Matt Peckham.TEXT THE GAME's KEYWORD To 82174 TO GET TH Standard SMS and data charges app a E GAME Topay! ¥) = KEYWORD W3D KEYWORD AgDwww.HitmanBloodMoney.com teleNUG SOU IIeEUc r oneview )] Og Aol Serena coma terial) Sen nae ee eras of games in these genrag, but, other than Pree iat ements uae ieee arenes re ee ena as Ree Sua one oes | peer ji ea eee reas Cee) pened 28 > coururenca % BN ~ = a Se ee ET ue erat eked} ee eerie Sch A eee Pixs Oe tem a thai rower Se ote pees Aprende Erase birmcseeiy fae eter itera Minti ait eS pS od ieee oe. Aiea er IN des Oe > haeepiepep teal rie eee Scie es ud Coe kor ae tad Rose hears eens gameplay is a pretty natural progreesion ea crea a NS eee Mn ean d Cenea errr ae coe eee ie mera ocd Tore normed Contec eet wa ae is CR ed een eee er array ofeee ee una pene eaie tra ct ky cin ae Suen y Peer ae) eee oun ae Pere ee a ene ee er era Seer are ec) err cs Pe aoe pena a eR ca | reek Ee ee ea Eee ete eae Se mies hi aks oF ‘convert stockpiled resources Ito oxo-suits hte re ete prec noetet See os foarte Eee ieee UG) te ROO W uo mandor-and soldiers, whe ag fee eee ee ea ue Ci eae eee on ees (kc akcu a ee CU Coe Pon ee Ce ead Rice eens a OC Read SINT tae Uel i Sonne acu Ar ore een Mae use cou Be cen ee ene Be Ce teres ee A eet ee ean ree ee ae Cee eee ‘guarding the generators that power them,” eee eS ene rer tea Pee ec eee ae eer Pent meee ee ecu ees Pe ee eat Wn points—he can instruct his men to Ree eee ets POWER REACTC niece cd Se os ‘contingent to serap the other side's reac- eer eee ea Poe oa = :NUCLEAR DAWN [i Dee ee an eg eer enren ne eee ene en eee Per meee vec i eee programmers out to vindicate passed oft oer eet ra) Pore ee renee nr ay cutee ea ere Seer ere eee rae ees BRS RTL eth Perea’ OT eu prensa sa OUR UC Tae a Cul Es aan peta tM ote eer ere aeneneet eee Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing eae teary eee en Ear nes Perera cee iny Ce ena en ers ee poten peneneens Reece en [mene rene oon eto Perce geen reer ats aetna reese ar Seer eee en reac Peano rey Peay eres eae tee ere een ents ead een ee te oe Ree rene ae nner ce ee eerie ee ear ey Beye ee ras ern eer erer ys eee eee Etec ase Pec ac creer Pere Eee ere Peeeerere nae eer Rear rome rind PSC eecie ct ts peer ener ee eee ket Seater Ls be Sy) = =e Ue) sie hg dU a= Pha Nas SOC oa6 i 5 core care Pelt aL Cad (iio © amazoncom. buy.comDanger creeps up on us when we least expect it. That is why. Yyou should never embark on uncharted land without the proper weaponry to keep you alive & alert. es Leading Edge Performance on ‘ABS® high-grade machines are built from the ground up with ‘only the most severely battle-tested components! Each system is precision-tuned by experienced ABS® Engineers to give you the bone-shattering performance you crave, Choose your gaming weapon today at wwwabs.com! 9-ad98 B2-it The ABS" Ultimate M6 Sniper posted a “record-breaking score of 141" in the PC World Test Center World Bench 5! ELATED) itt Sper en. DOMMI MATE L& > Hours: Mon-Fri: @208N-7-0PM PST > 1 Year Limited Pats & Labor Varanty Sob 8:00N-<20eM PST4 he Regular Price ee i) [ANID Athion™ 64 processor 4000+" with HyperTransport technology at ee wt AMDSA ooo Today and Tomorrow's Software Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Sevice Pack 2 = 3D Aurora ATK Black Aluminum Chassis with ‘Super-Co0l 20 Galaxy LCS Liquid Cooling Techioloay - ASUS AN32-S1! Deluxe NVIDIA® nForcos™ SLI X16 Motherboars with True Duel X16 SLI Sits ‘2G Corsair XMS Extreme DDR 400 Memory i ee + Dual NVIDIA" GeForce” 7900 GT 256MB Video Cards: iSLiaage oer ene ae me sass ‘eautisl Me Creative Labs Sound Blaster XtremeMusic X-Fi 7.1, Sound Card UPTO 20S HE ORAPHTES PROCESSING POWER -tmasisfutu ssn os nTADO en = 16K DVD-ROM Dive ~ 16X Double-Layer DVD+/-RW DVD Recordable Drive smlrei Precision) vy eee@RADAR ay Lal :) hea) \ , ci bs preroda noc -Met- UNM TL UAloLe mal Lele Va og UCc MECC InE I) Ma ee ame get ey > nee eee re ea ee ee ey en ny bunch of ambitious coders (ome stil in schoo), waiting for their shots atthe big time. The Independent Games Festival, held every year during the Noone eee ec eee ee oe een ‘ut of the woodwork to shaw off some truly lever stuf. Somehow, they even manage to make great ite games without muitimiion-dollar budgts. Ue eee ce ener et es arte tet teen ee ee et ee na Ce i ee ee ee Se eee ee ee to 101freegames.1URcom to find out more about them). To kick off our regular coverage of free games inthis spaco, though, we couldn't think af a better way than to highlight come ofthe other titles on display this year. While not everyone walks away with a prize from the annual awards, wo'o all ee et ue sy mia oe ove zombies. Why, just the thought of the See ae ‘Stubbs the Zombie gave me a gurale of hope, eho er et of students from the Art institute of Vancouver. White only in beta, The Awakening already St es al-horror game stare four diferent characters, eos ue i) Work together and survive the hordes—or if Seo a See Seer enn Peete See ae ee Seay Pe os a) Ree) oa eects) a eee erect fun. Cloud, developed by students from the University of Southern California’ one cue ty Se aan res So ee a at a ey Sec noe ete anny Coke erry ees Tee era teeny eco at ees eee nee Pee ae) eae oes neice te eee Pe aoe limit rushing you through, you ean just chill CeCe cL ai ern ‘My favorite part of the Battlefield series: Co es bat and blowing enemies to hell is great fun. Ce ee rg ‘Max-like world. Sounding protty damn sweet, ocd as control of one of 16 human- or A.l-controlled Vehicles to help rebuild factories, The real eae aca occa behind the whee! of ns ‘armored cars bristling Sera) Se Smee earned ResTO CONQUER THE MONSTERS OF LEGEND... yy P|...YOU MUST BECOME A LEGEND YOURSELF. “Titan Quest has evei expect out of a tripl “One of the more prot action/ RPG games of 200 -IGN™ “Who better to defeat the great Diablo thanthe Titans of myth?” ee tet ei! ee ee gene nearer eset eetPerea mert oe ALL YN YAR Aad NOC ‘The Titans have escaped their eternal prison, wreaking havoc upon the earth. The gods seek a hero who CT Ceo Ceram aed eee a ree ced mysteries and battle the beasts of mythology as you journey to the Parthenon, the maze at Knossos, the Great Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and other legendary locales.ir) RAY G ZE MUZYKA The Rx for RPGs BY DARREN GLADSTONE rns Ro eed Sei Se peomeneetir iio Peet ager eerie siintiay pete eeecltanes eenrcioed aed Peal dauhebipin sehr dina ei inn eed TE i ete eee ice formelprrwetete ta Bespireimerarngmnat dest Piet spel peepee eeey Pie ere ay pavenrnieiy seine pains epepeemce manne PiPeiehsthae ried Pesce Peineetnire arent Pre silage th CGW: What do you think of some of the more Se ed ees rat eas Sear ‘ping compelling and memorable sto- eee ent (mea) eee Sc ee ees Deu ee ee eros Ce aoe relent eee ra ee eo eae) We believe there's a powerful balance to be Pe a ee ue freedom and a strong story; our best example Peer ase ee cu te kes ean ace een eens CUCL c ay Ooo ae Cae Petar ees Oe ee ed See er acs Pose terns Sees eee Pe neers ee re Pee er ee! Cet ear ets Cee Ls oes Point where most games are adding RPG- Ike oie es eek eared See ers Soe CoC C eee el GW: Your last few games have had this See Ce ec ned ee er Ped Se Ce a ey Ser cc Se a ee eee ney ee ae ye Sur ret ey ee ety absolutely needs to be in all RPGs or story- driven games, but it certainly does help usRe ee a Or eaten ceed Ceo yee eae aaeyit jcleenr cate snaN aA hetbattid as en er Se cee ae Pes eee ne ea ery er gery Rr Caan So ed Sa en Se ane eee) eons eee ge icc) pee et eee eee ete ‘ith altficult moral decisions! We have some eel Cee er ener eer ea ee ee acs eee Poe eee peepee aL ctr ee eee Peta et aa Pan ree he it pomieer tite os eee, ox. eee gt Werte yt ee cd eee oad i) Elo eiaas paaad SMe ood ee td reer Cae ee ere ra ee ees eee unten Ree eed [ea ea eee re aac eras Watch for more information on Dragon Age a Crea ec Pee Neen! peer CA Eee cect seems they tend to take up a fir amount of reer ot ett i noet ee eee) “value” ofthe timo being spent on the game, but we're keeping them secret for now. More ae enn MMO doveloping at BioWare Austin! See eer Crean aad what can be done with the d20 pen-and- enon Go eee pers) Ce oe oer) ‘technologies on projects with your new Se a Ce ee Rn eee e et rrr ‘on the phone oF In a video conforence with eee en Resnick] at least a couple of times a weok, and Caer enn a ern ree Siero ence et rune ‘iscuss approaches to davelopmant at both of the companies, with about 60 staf from each Src Ot anes ee ty te eee eer a eee.) ey teeter erie) allt Sen eed cet eeas HBerspectvg ubaboln ferns of the marketing ee kee os trun eee Ce eh ere il one ‘what we're planning tg Bull and can make an recente et TT adak larger seen ee unce siiety Se en ed a ee Cs eee eee reed 1 jointly run BioWare, with me as CEO and Cen eee er ee ees Ce ee er nd eee ee re! eee ire ener an ‘more with him and al the ether great folks at Ee are In addition to the investment of working See et ar) ‘our operations, we gat the chance to work ‘with Pandemic, a very talented group for See eter un Re eo ee ee lar to ourhistorical goals: Wa're going to con- tinue to make great products that sell xcop- tionally well, always strive to bo tho best Peete ued Cee a eee en ‘our fans, bulld our respective brands, and peer aca ed Se Neal Pera Cate ra Pandemic elected nat to work on Full ea aC, td decided we would dedleate our development See tr hee laa eet een ert ee ceca re ane ed Sere oe) eee aL) pie ee cad ere ect ees net ar pase Ce "SOME GAMES ARE REALLY BEST SUITED TO THE AC” Bee er a-ia aaa ateIN MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER GAMES, BRC e yee Ad om Se gE Me Oe agar ral L a 1 Fa en AOR NNEC ad | a = g ) : | COMPLAINTS AND THE SENIOR GMS 5 | n ==] L '} | Mycohaoiseipetyr Leggs s he | tO pero Centre ts ering oat Rua as eee Eimer tree eee Bobi omen i | erence ; | amen 94273-08 eer ecarnveseaiees eee enone piso eyes ie patients Ean peat el Poem een ea rintan rere ater esr paris coer ea Retin’ nearer aia Seri erent 056273-077 eceeniatry Doi it hae cea eaters ‘unlor CASE #4893419: THE NAME GAME 3 pam. PST. The beginning of prime time for the GM squad, Somewhere, a ticker scrolls, indicating how many people are currently online. The wm shows that 1,085 fssues need to be resolved, ‘With two new expansions released and two servers recently moved, its ts going to be a busy night to.all characters, online or off. ea siving gold or wiping debt, this is then ppatlonce of a saint; amar weapon GMs have. Inthe past, K rece the system. Now there are weekly avatar audits ¢o that no GM can Sco abuse that power. Damn. Poe aa ‘After a quick training soscion, tho frst call comes in, An offensive Peres namo—my spocaly. "This isthe most commen complaint we get «ays Joo “Lead GM Nikolah” Paolineli "You should be ablo to, eee handle tis one.” Time to i the virtua stroete. pe reneneetety Pec eens [5M Bizma > Greetings, Artemis. My name is GM Gizmo, Thank Peers you for reporting the name violation, We are curonty looking into the situation. Just out of curiosity, where did you spot the character in. question? APEEMIS > Hake it that something wil be done about tho rather offensive nature ofthe nam that was reperted? My wife and |RADARO GLADSTONED ‘ore in Thundermist Vilage, Thundering Steppes when we both noticed him running about ‘And algo, as she rightly pointed out, given that cron do also play this game twas rather a borderline name to have been allowed through the fit in the fst place Sm Don't wony. [want fo assure you that names found offensive wil be deal with. You know howt is; People come up with new ways to foo the fies al the timo. Aa result, bad names get added as we fin them, Understandably, you all have a ot of people to monitor and names can slip through, SM Giza » Yep. Now fm off to track down the offend. (A quick check inthe remote toot an..] Looks like he's now online. Before I lose out your ticket, s there anything ese that | can help you with? > Ido appreciate your wit rosponse in gating back to me conceming this matte, and just to let you now, GM efforts are appreciated.) N Gizma > Thanks forthe kind words. fsmilo “There is nothing lge at this ime, and | wish you a pleasant evening 3) 6m Gizma > Fight back atcha. Our tipster leads us to the caves downtown witere we find tho player, Hibal DDoesitfrombehind, midtight. At least he didn't name his character "The Sodomizer.” ‘Strangely, he doesn't put up much ofa fight with the character name, He's even polite about it, Since his characteris a sneaky backstabber, the name ft—but Hibal ‘concedes, “I can see where that can offend someone,” Choosing to go the Cher route for the moment, he loses the surname. He'd bettar choose wisely next ime. Or else he {gots another visit from the name police. ei ole es —— PILFERED POTIONS 5 pam. PST. Nine-hundred seventy-nne tickots to go, At east | get a break in tho action for a few ‘minutes. That's when Amy "GM Kimbial” Leo lbs a blue energy drink my way. "E02 GMs love Bawis,” she jokes. | quass 'm part ofthe team, so time to chug. Leo isa wiz with forensic search- ‘es. Yom if someone made an EQ2 CSI, she'd eagerly work the crime scenes. As she sifts through reams of data strings, the GM tools help her track down mishandled funds. If the game, or another player serewe you aut of some items or gold, you want her on your side. in Deritran's case, a ‘game loophole made him lose lot. your petton? ema > Greetings, Domitian. This is GM Gizmo. Do you have a moment to discuss ‘sure do. [Bizma > Our records indicate that this charactor was previously known as Cherian on the lavastorm server and that you claimed the reward on 12/15/2006, “That's correct; however, I did't receive the items ited, [Through a series of Boolean ‘searches, we find the problem, A mix-up ocoumed,Ikely because of the name and server change. ‘Accorting to Leo, most ofthe time the job bols down to backtracking and looking at past activites. ‘You'd be surprised to know that just about everything you de in-game, shy of cyberng, is logged and stored for reference ‘You actually used one on January 7th, 2006, So we can reimburse you for two, but not three of your fl repair kits. As forthe rest ofthe items. 1 don't understand hov i's possible, bul 'm wing to tako what | can get at this point ‘to put thie to rest. did receive the TS potions, but I'm nota tradeskl person, so I didn't use them, conuscon 37@RADAR GLADSTONED | can realy use those arivanture potions, though, [5m izma > OK, just give me a fow minutes, and I'll reimburse your adven= ture potions. ‘Thank you. Bizma > You are now loaded up with drinks. So go get loaded. You should now havo two six-month and two one-yoar adventure potions, Drink em in good health, Can |help you with anything else? “Thank you forthe help; | very much appreciate it. One mor thing: Gan you 608 my character ight now? GM Gizmn > Sort of. just wented to say tha this was the best armor I'v seen in-game {and to ask your opinion. He. MD > Sorry, m not in-game at the moment, but 'm sure thatthe armor looks fetching on you. You madla my day! Good evening! Bottoms up! (With the potions, that is) Ginight. GOLD-FARMER STING 8 pam. PST. You kxow wher the bad neighborhoods are inthe real worl. Same goa for ining bot tarmera they are tough to spotit you know wher took EverQuest underwent amacsie famar swoap two wooks prior tomy vist. "Yah, [MMORPG services company] GE s none toe pleased jokes Charles "GM Belovar™ Mostranglo. But to nobody suprie, te botters and gold farmers always come back. Curent, Mastrangelo isin the mide of sing operation. A busts gold famr cracked under pressure and ates ‘ut his resin oa fo avd geting banned. No honor among thieves. We find Agupo, 9 etupocted gol tarmer and btter One p= olf Thoythave a st group af charactor slaves (usualy a hea a couple of wards, andl Hohe to absor hits) aiding with oui the frac vel tapi. Makes mo wish coud ust ype “il” and be done wih hi. According to Mectangolo, thats vat twas Ike in the good a days. "Before Sany got invated twas a ite He the Wid West he says Inane caso, ogrent farmer camped atthe top ofa mountain. The Git mead in, took contol oth character and mode tke 8 nese diveat ile th player watched. | don't Rave that option, 0 > Greetings, Agupo, This is GM Giemo. Please respond. [Five ‘minutes go by and hw pontinuas fighting sanderavder, ignoring me. | got ‘enough of this in ea fe! Mastrangolo says that many times they don't respond because thay don't know enough Enejish to fake i. Have | found iy vary fst gol farmer? | try taking to another membar inthe "grup." MA > Greetings, Faustina. This is GM Gizmo, Please respond [Five minutes, no answer. Let's ty someone elso hore} 5M Grootings, Pipi. This is GM Gizmo, Pease mspond. vey, Hal m ‘That's a nity carpet. Where'd you buy it? More important, Is tone of those hvirid carpets? Doas it get good mileage? 5, 10, 15 JUNE 2006 Atook sack at the way 71996 Gat. ng 2001 aa so nat .g0 [He starts running. Is he trying to make a break for it?} Hoy, wait for mot Hail, Gizmo. [He finally says..four minutes later] 3M Bizma > They treating you well in China? why? Fm doing quest N Gizmn > How is that quest going for you? you E02 GM? What if were? Say, 'm curius, how much do you make 1 day? [A couple of sanderawler raiders interupt our conversation] Now where were we? Right, you got enough maney for doing this? tol 2 > | have a riddle for you, You work? Is that a philosophical question? Well, honesty, not really. Anyway, here's the riddle: How much wood eould a ratonga ‘chuck if ratonga could chuck wood? [Not surprisingly, I'm ignored for the next three minutes. After yet another gold-farming battle... ‘sory, have matter Hail hello While the lack of response isn't a good sign, poor grammar isn't enough to ban them. Stil, Roipk and his gang get tagged fora fll, investigation. That's somoone olso's problem, though. My shit's over. Darren Gladstone 4RADAR© — rate pote rien eminem nie ee eeeoreeti na rreerterater cr wi mremcainenagrs fey Oe eres au One Preeti rt error ener een rete preenratiet (eve tn arene eas er ec Or Ra Cau) oer ers pepeieeretcra Pee ae eee Ce as etme a ad eee ee et ee td Inthe face wth when they don't ee rd the dosort. Po ere eee eer DOr el Coen ke Mish late i peer eee cee ee ie Ce eee cae earn wn ae ee eee Cero ree ee Carter ce Coenen roe settee rac ersbyforlop dances wastess 4 the creeping nud instead of Kicking ther heads clean of thir torsos. A eclheiciae sepia sori DUC RR hu el ok Aas Pespessereierrsters cog sareeeeeeney paceman sees rmg Oe eee ree i Eee ec eet ny Riecenereerearara! eerie rs rec eon ee ed poi Caos Cegeeeetrinete) ee een For 30 seconds! That's, ke, three eee es eee ay Cee areas et enter oy ey eerie msn) ee ao eee at Reeth rere eter rt cy os shrink them to sction-igure size, take over thelr mind, and force them to ‘dance—allattho same time: Then, when Itwears off can Rocket-Hlm ee hr ere coer entree) easWec eIfed(cst WENT tis oh r COO ofS TTA] As professional gamers, Team 3D travels the globe to compete in tournaments from China to New York City and beyond. Because they spend so much time traveling, being able to focus on building their skills while away from home really helps them keep up with the competition. But wherever they go, they know that the right hardware can make all the difference in their game. With the latest technology powering their PCs, they have the extra edge to win. “We choose Intel® dual-core based PCs because, as professional gamers, we want to focus on our game and we want to focus on winning,” says Dave Geffon, aka moto. “Today's laptops are as good as any home PC, and even better because they're mobile and just as powerful,” says Ronald Kim, aka Rambo. On their most recent global trek, Team 3D made sure to get in as much practice as possible. “We were gaming on the flight back from China,” adds moto. “That's the great thing about the laptops: It doesn’t matter if you're at home or in the park; you can really play any game on the go.”Maintaining your edge is what competition is all about. “! really ike the competitive aspect of professional gaming, It is like any other sport," says Josh Sievers, aka Dominator, who takes his career as a professional gamer very seriously, as do all his teammates. I's crucial that their PCs are up to the challenge. “It's kind of like racing a car," Dominator adds. “You don't see a professional race car driver driving an old jalopy around for 500 laps. You need a top-of-the- line rig to play these games.” Taam 3D trains three to five hours a night, five nights a week. But even all this practice can't guarantee victory. As Rambo notes, “Any team that's on fire can win on any given day. So we pretty much expect every match to be our hardest!” Gameplay performance is a huge part of maintaining that competitive ecige, especially With today’s hardware-intensive games, which is why Team SD relies on the power of Intel® dual-core. “We're seeing 30 to 40 percent increases in performance,” says moto. “A lot of the new games are really pushing the envelope, but the right hardware makes the experience that much more fun.”Fé, p. i Ee ee ee ere ere ne ert eee ee) bi) oi oe Ca oe ea ere ee ea a er ane at caw. eee] reseed Co acmectr ra Cee ee re Sea Lee in a.comic dedicated to vermin. A knife-wielding, Creede yeeros Cee Tt) ‘Anime fans and slaves to Square eet aes ter De ia te AU Ser Se ee ee ene eer eee at See ae going on? You're not alone—and the disc helps eee ea Ce ao ee eer Pa Gea Rae Eestrster eens ices genni Emer estateetis Repeats yei ii bieh Esrveetrermenipeneter rey Pecan orienter orate Septet ius a ok peeererpeietienin tag Pecarmtraniieseiirominns Paice taeda bearer PBRAINAGE eee eet] Cue Sco aS Seeded ot ee ited rete Cae et sharpens your mind and grades your prog- eee eee Ponta rere et ee at CaS es et oe eee teach you that the cow goes "Moo!" ‘nav 2000 re vet a) DC Comics continues to st things up in its pulp univorso, with tho “One Year Later" story itemerer SUC sc uccsine, the Infinite Cash—or—Ifiite Crisis crossover. ue eects eee tas UNE oie tt ad : Se EET Em Pee Toone for crimes he didn't commit (nthe Robin com= in eee a ant a eure yd) Saas ae ute as Wits Wir editor Shawn Elliott should get eee eer cme makes his living defending smokers’ rights, ced (OGNIM SGNAWINODIY UWAD AWINLX“cr VIL LIZATIONS AT WAR. Wield the weapons of the mightiest warrior-heroes in the first historical strategy game to let you fight from the front lines. Command an army on the field, lead an invasion fleet to enemy lands, and fight alongside your troops at the hour of crisis to turn the tide of battle. EMPIRES RISE AND FALL. BUT HEROES LIVE FOREVER. WWW.RISEANDFALLGAME.COM Fee | Blood ; : @games3). ~D>mipway 1 Violence esas SOFTWARE SOFTWAREPreteBR a RE a A ee a hh eis ae hi "AT ONCE ON POINT AND GROSS- ‘current, Deus Ex maestro Warren ‘Spector agtates that, “Rather than triving for something new and wonderful, we [developers] go with the trod and true, mab ing assumptions about what players want ‘and need based on what they've wanted in the past.” Enter cyber-sports hopeful Unreal Tournament 2007—emblematically “brighter, bigger, better"—but does it also embody what n, _we'e told devs we want with our doiare? Can it bo tied and new, true and wondertu? "When you work witha franchise ke Unreal Tourrament;" counters producer Jetf Moris, it's negligant to not do everything you can to ‘ensure thatthe people who bought tho previous iteration buy the now one. At the same time, all ‘dovolopers want to Innovate, and UT2007 has its ‘new and wonderful elements, too. Onslaught ‘mode and vehicles were UT2004's major add: tions. We'e expanding their olan UT2007 even ‘more with to complete categories of vehicies, the Axon and the Necrs:" Not so much a case fof cake and eating in Moris" mind than one of Creumsoribed innovation, with novelty focused ‘whore its likeliest to pay dividends, figurative and itera ‘Among UT2007% new moneymakers: the paladin mobile escort. Never mind its micling ‘uret and less-han-menacing bitzkieg; instead, the poladin’s operator rotated force fold proves incepensable to lag returns and fighting retroats Imagine the shooter savant in a sort of Arkanoid play, felding incoming fie with et-ight mouse shoves as alled infantry cowers close. As for ‘offense, the open-lopped cicada fier offers rimbleness and clustr missles atthe price of personal protection (Eplc isn't iting Halo 2 jop jacking, but doing so might improve its ‘ever procaricus infanty-vs-vehice balancing act, whereas the revamped SPM coordinates its eye-n-the-sky camera with mouse-precise designating to batter the front from afar Other ‘change is ether largolyundor wraps (wo know that Unreal Warfare mode is to UT2007 what ‘Onsiaughtstemtoral tug-of-war was to UT2004, ‘ut lo beyond that) or less prominent. Is UT prohibitively twitchy? Says Morris: "Many dovolopors consider the fist 15 minutes, ‘ofa customer’ time eical in whether he or te A a Me oe ie ea ‘Axon {shown hore) and Necris forces marshal army-snecific vehicles. she plays a second or third session. It makes multiplayer more dificult in that we don't have ‘as much control aver epponents or challenge level Bring on matchmaking to mitigate the Imbalance, U72007 is taking tho PC into what hhad Jong been the frever-out-of-each roaim of ‘contola FPSes (namely, Halo 2). Details pend, but, according to Moris, Epic has “come up ‘with some effective ways to ensure that players ‘area't matched up against opponents well out- side their ski range, Wo'e not leaving it up to chance.” And while many of us want the com- ‘munity and compatition ony plugged-in play coffers (i's just the doteat anxiety we don't ig), cline types can count on automated good ‘company, "Distinct personalities and veico “command” says Moris, “are ony two of the ways wo're anthropomorphizing our A ‘opponents for more convincing single-playor matches." ‘Shawn Elliottee ee eer Pee ene e) eae eee ures has ieee tei vio Core ee ser ety Peerage Mes neces tae NC) ra eee eee ee iol Seen a) deca ee Coen Pee ei ee are Piecocutiseat icin uric s orc Sonera UL cure Pose Oey Rare ean neyCOUTING ere ee sree phe 3 | ou iT i = tue oe pear Siete asec cet a Hiereer cence erry hey . = Wc iret anit pater ROM at) ina aera = ee FN sR Sieroter edi ee Si NUE Co eo Mata ue S cotataeneah adFEATURE THERE WERE A LOT OF THINGS THAT we wanted to do with the first Savage, but did't,” says $2 Games! COO Jesse Hayes of the groundbreaking RTS/FPS hybrid series. Savage 2: A Tortured Soul continues to pioneer tho way for this new motagenre. However, the sixcman toam from Rohnert Park, CA, is looking to do more than just add a new coat of paint ‘Among the biggest problems for this ‘sequel to overcome Is the original game's. learning curve. Savage had no tutorial or practice mode against A. Online, it was sink ‘or swim—resulting in confused RTS-Rode Commanders and more team-voted coup detats than in a third-world nation, Whi there won't be a single-player campaign, Hayes says Savago 2 will provide offline training on a few maps. Personally, wo'd pro- for the ability to load up any map wo Want with bots, but who aro wo to complain? The offline and limited LAN play mode will be ‘This is where wo'd put a screenshot of the! new race, if Blizzard would just tell us alrensy| es MURLOCS? DRANAEI? UM...WISPS? The rumors havo been running rampant avallable for free to promote tho full game, ‘Another fundamental change is the RPG. factor. First time around, each class was more powerful than the last you created in the tech tree—very RTS-lke thinking. For Savage 2, the different classes will be ‘emphasized with unique abilities as you ‘gain lovels on a map. The goal is to botter balance the classes than to simply dole out ‘more hit points, While the experience won't ‘carry over to the next game played, there will be persistent stat-lracking. Maybe you'll {get a shinier sult of armor or something for special achievements. ‘As Hayes puts it, "We're trying to take tracitional RPG elements (and incorporate) them into an FPS in new, Innovative ways.” More innovative than what The Elder Serolls 1V: Oblivion or Dark Messiah of tight and ‘Magic are doing? That remains to be seen, ‘but well bo on the lookout at the show. Darren Gladstone ‘about the stil-unnamed new player race in The Burning Crusade, Blizzard's upcoming expansion to World of WarCraft, with rabid fanboys and -gis flooding message boards with such mind-bending questions as: How would a motal helm fit over a murloc head? And far be it from us to itresponsibly ‘add fuel to the fre with our own speculations ‘on the matter, but based on our own insider knowledge, we do have two words for you: ‘green slime. Remember, you read it here fist! In other news, Blizzard informs us that the expansion js proceeding apace, though What exactly “apaco means to a company that moves at such glacial speed on new Telaases remains to be seen. Perhaps it willbe released in our Ifetimes. Perhape not, What ‘we know for sure is that when it does come cut, The Burning Crusade will be humongous, in scope—especially for an expansion—with Outland, an entiro new world to explore, and all-new zones Inthe existing world of Azeroth Not to bo outdone by Peter Jackson's King ‘Kong, Rocky tries making a name for himsell for both newbs and high-level players alike. ‘Speaking of “high-level,” that too is chang- Ing, as the level cap is going up to 70, which Biizzard promises will encompass a lot more ‘Rew content than that “mere” 10-loval increase might convey. Furthermoro, Blizzard promises ‘abundant new endgame content for fovol 70, ‘charactere—good news for those who know that the ‘oal” game bogins aller you've Capped out, anyway. ‘You may note in this write-up the distinet lack of any new information. Very observant (f you! That's because Blizzard Is holding its cards to the vest until ES, and even our highly placed spies and plants, who dug through Blizzard's garbage cans and even—in a mis- placed ent! somewhat dangerously dolusioy ‘Jack Bauer-esque moment—held one dovel- ‘opment team mombor hostage, found nothing ew to report ‘We remain just as excited to see it as you ‘are, though. And seriously, hero's our real ‘guess: murlocs, That's the bet walre taking to Vegas./Jetf GreenMe ; SIMULATOR X “a. PURLOIE, Meret Game Stud PUFFY CLOUDS AND PRETTY PLANES ‘get you only 80 far. Flight Simulator X wants to Indulge you with captivating close-ups by finally populating its ghostly grasslands, mountains, forests, and cities with automobiles, highways, houses, boats, farmland, livestock, and wildifo. Factor In new airerat eight In all, including the deHavilland DHO-2 Beaver floatplane, the Grumman -21A Goose, tho Air Creation 582SL Ultralight, and the Maule M7-260C. rion with wheels and skis) and visible perks from shaded rivets and reflective paint to the lint on glass and chrome, and you have the outline for what Microsoft's calling “the most PINHEADED SCORE-SQUAWKING ‘aside, we fancied Age of Empires I! ‘OK; we just didn’t want to, like, have its baby or anything. Love or just kind of ike i, the core game won't be changing in The WarChlefs expansion, but AOES fans can look forward to three new Native American clulizations, unique units for each (lke foot archers and musket cavalry), a 15-mission ‘campaign, and enhancements to existing European civs that include new Home City ‘content, unite, and deck-stacking ops. “The natives hava to solve the same problems the Europeans do,” oxplains lead dosigner Sandy Petersen, “But they obviously do so in differ- cent ways. Each Native American civilization ‘Welcome back to the Fonalssance and Age cf] Enlightenment inthe series’ frst fully 3D game, | ee ‘significant [version of its franchise) to date, Missions also mattor big and tally 60-plus. Not more rustic buzz Mt, Mekinioy” reverie ‘either, but serious hard-won hypothetical, ay, fighting forest fres In the Rockies, res- couing North Sea oll workers from exploding platforms via helicopter, or bringing rolof ald to the Congo. Online gets a boost as well with What Mieregoft's dubbed a "connected world.” Roleplay pilot or copilot with frionds or other Aviators, direct trac from the control tower, take your mom fora virtual sightsooing sp fr sweet-talk your semestor-abroad significant ‘other during a twilight fight..even if she's on the other side ofthe globe./ Matt Peckham. De ‘Staley PERSE Fall 2000 has unique features that enable it fo de afectivaly with the Europeans while maintain= ing a unique tactioa idontity. Was the company concerned about ste reotypee? “it was particularly challong lng because ofall the myths about Native ‘American history wo had to weed through, ‘says Petersen, “For oxample, many believe Native Amoricans were technologically con- sorvative, when In fact they were inventive {and innovative and could adapt incredibly Auiokl. The Iroquols, fer Instance, inoorporat- fed European gunpowder and steel weapons to conquer the western tribes and control the trade routes to Canada," When it arrives this fall, maybe you wil, o0./Matt Peckham Be rciuemc rortetivon MM real-time magnum-strategy series: PEATURE | [FSX packs In more than 24,000 aleports with A.lecontrlled Jotways and fuel trucks. ‘Ast the landscapes weren't lush enough, FSX’ Satna to bret erat ont wrt ii EU and EU? (save the mission system) sakes the jump intact, The biggest take-notice change Is probably Paradox's shift to full 3D, giving you a topo- graphically plush world map that'l finally scale to higher rosolutione and let you skim ‘or z00m over 1,700 provinces and sea zones in more than tyo dimensions. Don't stress {feature flood either: Paradox plans to make ‘over everything from ergonomic 2D layovers to the number of panel- and map-poking ‘mouse clicks. At ts core, of course, EUS floxos historical fidelity, at least in terms of kickotf variables; where you go and who you bocome, bow to, ‘or backstab onca the ciock's ticking fs stil up to you./ Matt Peckham siaBROTHERS IN ARMS: HELL’S HIGHWAY ea etd ‘MO features the so-callod “four F's of See cacao eet er Cer acer Eton a 's Gearbox prosident Randy Pitchford points ee ee eee eng eee a Scorer nears Seer tcc Se en ee ee ce Nee ay eee eee es ee ee Ce eee ee arenes buildings and cover chip, scorch, and crumble Serer nets Cr ic ae eet See) ee tet CO Rao eae et Cees erate COW: How does [WWII] veteran and Hell's Highway historian George Koskimaki respond to Brothers in Arms as a game? Is eRe a eis) ag E18) EMO) MPS STI en eNO a © IN THE FIDELITY OF AC GAMING ONCE STN RC Leta cca fea or glorifying the realty of hs lived experi= ee eT ay aera ae ee ee en een esata ei es Sa er es Reenter a a from firsthand experience that many veterans een hy ener cr et eae any enc ta coset eset cas Cees ote ere ‘Other teams are copying our approact Se tere) ee et See rs ans to reconstruct history that histo irene econ ee Re nM er ety: rere rater Cat es wEoenenee err ee) ea ee Cera coterie’ Cs Medal of Honor's going airborne, Pere ee a eed ey OM ert ‘emphasizing the same featlres. Do you think ere ci) Senses ST ae eee ee ‘same roots—they wrapped a solid Quake-tike ne See og yee er te Gite rae iid Ce eC ccc ei Tc) ore Panera tts‘a matter of time. And when it does, I think itil be pretty obvious that it's the product of marketing analysis and some suit’ oxocutive deci CGW: Are next-gen naysayers assuming too much from static screens? Aro wo underem= pphasizing animation? RP: "Next gen” may seem Incremental ‘because, in the PC space, itis, We've hed high-definition for some time now. For months, ‘we've had videocards that can compete with the new consoles, But, because contont typ: cally lags bohind at the level ofa two-year-old ‘computer, we're anticipating Windows Vista and DirectX 10 and the new hardware that will dle the next generation of PC games. We're {going to see a dramatic leap in the fidelity of PC gaming once Vista is out, and it's nat going to come from the part of Halo 2. I's going to come from new games from indopandont dovolopers like Gearbox. CGW: Is taking control of a player's head movement, forcing him to se specific things at unspecified times, a situational analog to scripting? Is straightforward scripting starting to wear thin? What wins in a given situation— story oF freedom? RP: Entertainment wins, Dynamism wins. We Jove freedom, Even #0, we hate missing coo! stuf Developer demos from when we frst tarted playing with physics simulation in FPSee wera far cooler than anything that’s ever shown up in a game. We'ro convinced that there ara ways to put the coolest stu infront of players without jolting thom uncomfortably oF yanking thom out of the experiance. f we can find ways to do that dynamically, the experionce {gets botter in terms of entertainment, oo. CGW: What challongos doos this solution create? (e.g, “Stop looking at that shot-up soldier, what with the machine-gun nest in front of mol") RP: You can't interrupt core gameplay with story elements—thats a fundamental rule and ‘willbe aw soon enough. Gearbox Is treading new ground with ths stuff, and wo've had to learn the rules through prototype and proot-of- Concept work. But'm hesitant to break down these solutions before the game comes out, because everyone le going to copy us once It does, Developers are already copying us. QW: Are you concerned with per- sonalizing violence and/or sensitiz~ ing players to combat? Not making the game so brutal that it's not fun to play, but conveying more of what Spielbers Was after with Saving Private Ryan? FP: | take it as a personal reeponsibllty to push things, to use our medium to create meaningful ‘experiences that lao to the human condition. ‘Otherwise, we're stuck with more compliceted rations of game loops that are fundamentally rot much different than pinball—a series of ski tests dressed in the flashy thomes of culturally relevant subject matter. Wo'ro bottr than that. Interactive entertainment is more important than that and we're going to play an increasingly rl evant role in shaping the future ofthe world. We can have gaming as pastime and hobby, but we ‘can algo evolve the videogame as a legitimate ‘meansot expres ‘With Hell's Highway, we're getting closer ‘and closer to rendering lifelike poopie and places, which is important when you're trying to convey actual emotion, We're doing things in realtime that go beyond what Pixar did in ite frst prorencored fms, and | know how wll the Pixar stuff engaged mo on a storytelling level. As an industry, we should be beating those guys. After all they're passive, we're interactive.WE BUILD IT, YOU PLAY IT. in less time by delivering exceptional ‘multitasking capabilities and increased performance on digital media. ‘+ Dual-core technology islike having ane processor responsible for running programs inthe background while a second runs the applications you want to work on. The AMD Athlon” 64 X2 dual-core processor brings true parallel ‘processing tothe desktop and can incre «+ Provides leading-edge 32-bit performance for musi, video, and games ands ready for future 64-bit software, PR eee | Hurrionst | conserves powerand operates quit with AMD Cool’ Quiet’ technology SS « Features HyperTransport” technology for improved multitasking performance ea: SS runes, (eertavion cus-rursog ‘computing performance by upto 80%, ult 184° Wide Screen 16:1OWNGA TF LCD 1280x8000 y 1SWide Screen 1610 WNGATFT LCD 12803800 OisplyCL. |AND®Tuion”68 Mable Tectnolgy {AD Tron t Mabie Technology ‘AMO? Powerow!Teenalogy AMD Poweront Technology Hypedanspor Technaogy ypertanspot Technology hanced Vis Protection echnclogy tence vs Protection ecology 'NSWINOWS# X dia Comer Eon 2005 w/ Serve Pak 2 NSWNDOWS® XP Meda Center Eton 2005 Service Pack 2 Nabil AT Radeon X700 1200 OOR Video ‘oble AT Radeon” X1600 25680 DOR Video 10248 CORO enry S12NBD08-209 Memory Removable x DVDR / CD-RW Dive Removable 8x DVDSR/=RW CD-RW Drive 90 4008PM Una ATATOOHar Drive 8 008° Ul ATA 100 Har ee Tori there! LAN Sx Modem 1O/1001000 Ni there LAN BSR eer Wireless 602119 Spa Min-PO News {Buildin CMOS Camera’. Rega Pets 4xUSB 208 a Fieve EEE-1394 Pott Buln Mala Ca Reader Wels 80219 Satis ink? Network Hah Perlman ion Baty “4,US8.208 1 Frewie FFE 13% Por int Buln Madi Cord Reader Free Dee Canyng Cave High Perfomance ion atery Free Deluxe Canyng Cte ‘ab Ton” Ge MobieTechnolgy MT-30 Pecior aie "AAD Tron 64 Noble Technalegy M-30Prcesar $308 ‘Au Talon” 64 Mebileteehneegy Mica Pocesor S309 ‘AND Tren 6 obletechnology MT-38 Processor 51238 ‘4M Tren” 64 Mobletechnalogy Mia? Prceser sts ‘AMD Ton 6 Mbletechnology M37 rocestor Sass ‘AMO Tulon® a Moblelechnlagy M0 Proce 51399 {2 Tutor” 6 MebTecinology M40 Proceso? 51389tomes [RARCRIN 6 | ee ts NUIOIA® nForce 4 SU Chip Dual PI Expes Motherboard ‘AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ Processor $529 NDET® ty Mid-Tower Cae +See Tough Window + Neon Light ‘AMD Athlon™ 64 35004 Processor $569 Corsair 51248 DDAAOO Memory ‘AMD Athlon” 64 37004 Processor 5619. SeriakATA 1606 7200RPM 3 Gb Had ive ‘AUD Athlon™ 68 40004 rocessor 5679 16 DVD-ROM + 52152152 CO-RW Combo Dine ‘AND Athlon” 61 X23000¢ Procesor 5679 NVIOIA® GeFore” 6200 w/TurboCeche 255MB 1X PCIEcpressVideo Card |] AMD Athlon” 68X24200+ Procesor $249 {8 Channel Suround 30 Premium Sound 10/100/1000 Nps EAhernet LAN 600Wat Suround Sound Speakers Logitech Dene Keyboard 8 Optical Mouse ‘dd VewSoniceVX922 19°LCD-Xuems 2s video forultimate gaming @ $448] ZF eS VALUES PRD |e a VIO nForce 4SU Chip Dal PCH Exress Motherboard {UND Aton” 64 5200+ Processor $989 [MSWINOORS® xP Mexia Centr Edition 2005 Service Pack 2 ‘M0 Aton” 68 3500+ Procesor $1029 CoolerMaster Ammo 53 Gaming Tower ase ‘290 Alon” G4 37005 Processor $1079 Corsair 128 DORED0 Memory {MD Athlon” 68 4000; Prcesor $1139 SeiabATRA2C0G8 72008 3Gb Hrd Dive 29D Non” 64 X2 4200s Processor $1208 “6x Double Layer DVDaR/AW Dive ‘AMD Aton 68 2.004 Processor $1319 INVOIA® GeForce™ 730LE 256MB 16XPCI Expres Video Cad channel Suround 30 Premium ound 10/16/1000 MBps theme AN that Suround ound Speakers $989 17 Viewsoie® OTB LCD Wontar Logitech Dele Keyboud & Optical Mouse J Free Wireless 02.19 SAMps Network Adapter SZ — ee ET NUDIA® nForce” 4S Chip Dua Pl Expess Motherboard AMD ation” 64 3500+ Processor $1589 WINDOWS® xP Mia Cer Eon 200 w Servic Pck2 AND Helen” 68 3700+ Mecessor $1609 Raldmace x9 Gaming Case [AD lon” 6$ 4000+ Processor $1679 KBeypewere CPU igeld Cacia System AMD Athlon” 6324200 Pocessor $1789 Cerur ovat DDR00 Memory ‘AMD Aion” 6832 4400¢ Processor $1859 Scrat ta 30068 720090M 3G Hord Dive ‘AMD Aton” 64246004 Processor $1949 ‘ex Dole Liner DVDSHVARW ve ‘AMD Aion” 68 FL6DProcesor—S2469 V6xOVO-RON Drive AKNVIDIA®Gefore” 79006T PCI Express 286MB Video Cards SLI Enabled ' Cheon! Suround 30 Pemiu sound Creative pie 8 Chnnel Surund Sound Speakers 10/07 020 ps test tAN Logitech Dtae Keyboard Optical Mouse Free Waele 62.119 Saps Network Adopter SS vr accion ower elipaattosieatssn -MSWNDOWS® xP He Cater on 205 Sere Pack 2 "NS WNDOHS® x Mia Cer Eon 205 Seve Pack? DMT Apa Ging Cse Tani mety Ging ase "Buypower® CPU Lil CoaingTeehalogy IBuypenerCPULIgud Cooking Tebnoogy (evs 12M 00RAEOMenary (et 1O.NBODAED Merry Ser A208 720136 ard ee Sela T2568 7208 30 Hard ive "be Dobe ayer SRI re 1 OosbleL ayer DVDRW Dive lo Mei Crdeater Aone” 632004 cessor $859 6XOMD-OM Die AMD Aton” 643200 Pocesor $1199 KAVA eforee” 76000525608, [MDA 61350 Proceso $959 KNVIDAY Fore” 76006T2S6MBDORI——AMDAton” 643500+Pecenor $120 6X PCH Express SU rabled ‘AMD Aton” 6370 Peso S10 —‘GKCIExpressVieoCord-SUEmabled AMD 613700¢Pecesor $1299 8 Chanel Suround30 Femur Sound AMD Aton” 644004 Peso: $1119 Chan Sueur 30 Premiums AMDAod* 6QtOs ces $1368 cv to0 lps et AN AMDAhon” G4X24200 Poceser $1169 1/10 1000 MBps teat LAN ANDAon” 61128200: Pacesoe $189 avian SonoosSountSpeakas AUDAthons GX24ODeProceser 51299 Logitech 53051 Suneund Sound spenies ——ANDAay” 624400 Pracesior $1539, LegiechDalae Reboud & Opal ouse AMD Aton 62600 Processor $1389 Lelech Dene Reyboad@Optcal Movie AUD Ar GAX2A6ODH ces $1639 Faetfas$0211g$A\BpsNewon Adzpter AMD” G1X24800 Peocuor S469 Feels OMDITQSeMGpsNetworkAdaer AUDA” 64124800 Processor $17 IBUYPOWER.COM| * FEATURE "THE ORIGINAL SID MEIER'S RAILROAD “Tycoon kicked off the tycoon strat- ‘ey craze way back in 1990, and now ‘Meier's giving the genre ancther go. The seris! fourth iteration, Sid Moier's Ralroads!, sports 8 shiny new ttle—sans the Tycoon part—but aspires to capture tha same classic gameplay ‘elements that appeal to shrewd virtual busi nessmen and choo-choo fanatics alka, ‘Armchair tycoons know the dri: Buld trains, lay tracks, ship your goods, rake in the dough, ‘and rule th railway industry with an iron fet. Creative players can use the bullt-in map ad tor and LocoBuilder (wo don’t make these ‘names up, folks) to craft custom sconarios, ‘maps, and locomotives. And for especialy Competitive capitalists, Railroads! features realtime multiplayer support i aha et i ere ‘OPPORTUNISTIC GAME PUBLISHERS. act with shocking spood those dayo— ‘once a company findsTRBH with a Certified hit on its hands, you can count on ‘an expansion or a sequel in record timo, Jeb Case in point: Loss than six months after Civilization IV's October 2006 relaase, pub- lishor 2K Games unveiled Warlords, the first expansion to the popular Sid Meier-branded turn-based strategy game. Expect the standard array of offerings here including six additional civilizations, ‘more unique units, a few gamoplay balance ‘tweaks, and nearly a dozen new historical civilization leaders (each with his or her own styized caricature, of couree). Six original prehlstote predators tn funky ralnbow armor. RDS Yeah, yeah, wo know—its a train game. AS boring as that sounds, its predecessors did invent an adelctive row strategy gaming sub- ‘genre..and with stuf ke Game Tycoon and Prison Tycoon flooding store shelves today, wo Can think of a more perfect time forthe lagend= fry Sid Meier to bust out with a (hopefully) qual= ity product that reminds us why we gat hooked fn these games in the fet place. /Ryan Seott ey ‘Scenarios, ranging from the Peloponnesian War of ancient Greece to the Vikings! raid actos, Europe, fil out the expansion. Cal Gs crazy, but so far this sounds like the prototypical plug-and-play update. Maybe we just have high standards, but when gamas like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn ‘of War accomplish a soquol's worth of feats ‘with each expansion, it makes these sorts ‘of six-month rush jobs look that much mora stale. At the vary loast, we hope Civilization developer Firaxis learned from its mise takes with Civ 2's expansions—we want a Conquests-callbor add-on here...not another Play the World. yan Scott DONT CALLIT DNOTOPIA SERS Gp erserits rte noe nto redatine te gene ao much iS bout astn and respons, aout a Stategy and tacts say doves Se. “showers abet ooking fre snd haybord orate SE aso oped an-army Cont” (A) component ttle you survey une ata gance na sient a eter Sout waste SH pg trentaned rl, eoutWoror tarot lndape The Gevoaper op the AC Irae wou ase tom Reginald Fortesque protests the shame ‘rale's proximity to his summer retreat. by getting gamy camera: the way, Repleto with XXL dinosaurs (at least 40 of them), nine ability-focused heroes, and five climatic zones that impact resources ‘and indigenous wildlife, ParaWorld lets you ‘romp through its bloom-suffused 3D realms 8 distinctive Norsemen (Viking-insplred), Dustriders (African-insplrod), or Dragon Clan (Asian-inspired) tribes. Recruit specific hheroas to balanco tribal weaknesses, or just tinkor with different structures and control up. 1060 combat units with unique special and finishing moves. Whether the AC can cram all that into an easy-to-use panel ramains to be soon, but wo'ro certainly all ears, ey ‘and fingers. /Matt PeckhamMore fun while you get more done. Get the power to do more at once with the Intel® . 7 Pentium® D processor's dual execution cores in inte the IBUYPOWER Dream 2006. PentiumD hel ‘alma Ninjo Gaming Case Ire Penton? 0 S30 rcesor [MS WINDOWS" XP Medla Cee Calton 2005 w Serve Pack 2 [RMB Coche 300% 0010HeFSB)s1050, ‘uypower CPULIqud Cok Technoiogy Ine entism® D980 Proceso NVIDIA" force 4 SL Chip Dual PCI Expres Matherboard (QMBcoche 3264 a00 02658) $1129, cass oor emo mca Sera 068 oh rd Oo marresine aae 16x Doutble Layer DVDRW Drive, 16x DVD-ROM Drive (OMA Cache 2AGi, OMRSR) 51200 NVIDIA® GeForce 7600GT 25648 DRS 16x PCIExpress Video Card | lel Pentium® 0 960 Processor ‘hana Suround a emu oun Biooesssteeminera 569 ‘ora otra {evs Sunt pte tapanch nw hyo Opi Mouse Fras 802% ar etwas ues [caners cower — tax Apolo Goming ne Petune 0530 Rocesor S WINDOWS x Coca suckers) 1268 Atypon CPU Cnig hin Ee raneenrenee: NNVIDIA® nForce” 4S Chip Dual PCI Expres Motherboard Corea 1025448 DOR2-567 Memory Sev ATA 25068 7200872 1Gb Hard Dive ‘at Perc 0 90 Procoxor Tec Dauble ayer OvoRW De, Ys VOOM Oe caBcaresAchcouKEFSH $137 2HNIDIN GeForce 7600652568 Y6XRCIEspressdea Cards Enabled | Ine Fenn D369 Process ‘8 Charme Surround 30 Premium Sound (AME coche 6H, aonue FSB) $1619, 10710071000 MBps Eernet LAN. inte RW6510 81 Surround Sound Speakers {coawate Surround Sound Speskers ogitech Delune Keyboard & Optical Mouse revels 802.189 SahlOps Network Rapter (OMB Cache 326i 00HEFSB) $1309 sree adeno Poaceae “hu Pon Pee nce an ces “tu toes ag Ie 09 isa Cpe ine tsenpet Scr ea Cee ion 205 Serie Pk? SWnCoHOS MF ea Coen 205 seek FNM cer NOE he Par Pte olan reir adele a ‘DOR Video Card (User Upgrodeabiet QMBLICache,173GHr SSB MEFS) $12 DDR Video Card (User Upgradentle) (OMB L2Cache,173GHt SID MH FSB) $1489. siren O08 Hanoy tot ipsa tea i ney vee swoinmertiddne ” .. cimcaoeisgesmmesn sn SMARGRDoe ae GSM) 6H Gb Ethernet LAN 256K Madtem ‘ocel* Pentium® M Processor 760 Gh Ethernet LAN & 56K Modem (rea? Pehan? MPrcecor 60 oon Ciacoseosriars) su Sut DeLeon eRe WI a9 he 2 Pos versa ie we eos Hevpuscascaatander Discerezi sues) sia) LariBnwemcavnks Le HRSG 9 ‘ahronenns entero feet ic tipretennec obey ‘eo Frebeinc Cannone GiacacerissessImes) sp Heronine Cyc Gecooace say se Order Toll Free 888. 462. 3899FEATURE Not sure if you want to play In FPS or RTS rede? Why not both? a poe Ubisott's Faces of War? The WMbohind ‘even a year after it first enlisted. For this) ee WHEN YOURE THEKINGPIN OF A ‘swrotchod hive of scum and vilainy” javeed is good. Greed clarifies. And greed ‘might even net you an Eclipse-class star dostroy- ferthats 11 times (17,500m) the sie ofthe singles (1,600m) seen in Empire at War. Played out post- Episode IV, Patroglyph's EAW expansion puts youn the Syndicate hot seat with a completely new Underworld faction, Play as Tybor Zann, covrureRcauNa ORDIn the beginning, there was one brain. Granted, the brain is the size of greater Cleveland, and yes, it is so big and power- ful, it could eat most other brains alive. But it is still, in the beginning, one brain from which this project is born. So when that one brain chose the substantially smaller brains at CGW as the first outsiders for an in- depth look at Spore—arguably the most revolutionary game of the past decade—we felt pretty damn honored. ‘And we'd like to share that honor with you. Aren't you special! >© CREATE A GAME ABOUT INA GENERIC INDUS. trial neighborhood of Emeryile, CA, a fow ‘hundred yards from a bustling railroad tine, in a brick office building that also houses some kind of scary biochom- ical lab, new life is born. Here, in EA's Emerwille studio, Will Wright and his dedicated team of programmers, art- Its, and animators are hard at work 6 thele first non-Sime project since 2000. The Sims franchise, as we all know, exploded into an international henomenon—the mast popular PC franchise ofall ime, with sales of ‘early 60:milion copies to date, So where do you go from there? What topic {do you tackle after making a game that simu- lates human if itso? For Maxis cofounder and ‘Sims designer Will Weight, the answer was to pall back the camera poised above those Sime hhouseholds—way, way, way back. To encompass the ent breadth of not ust one lie, one house hold..but all ite, for altima, both backward and forward through time. This project combines many of Wrights wide-ranging intellectual pur sute—astrobiolony theories on the erigins of le, space explration—uith his instincts and ‘ambitions as a game designer It's a game so big that Wright fest callod t—quite seriously— ‘SimEverything, before setting on the much-loss- daunting-souncing Spore. Rumors and hints about Spore have ckeulated ‘ever since Wright made the eurprco announce ‘ment at lst your's Game Developers Conference Jn San Francisco, sharing just afew soreens and ‘basic gamoplay Concepts, The hypo hit fever pitch at last year’s E3 Expo, where it won Best ‘of Show—based on litle more than wiat Wright had shown previously. Radio slonce went into foc at Maxis afterward, and the team hunkered down in preproduction phase to get this beast of a game off the ground. But now, finaly, we ean 00 aie of what this team is up to and what ‘Spore is all about ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER la game once called SimEvorything sounds {bit intimidating to you, then lot's ground this ‘discussion, for nov, inthe tangible—the easy suit, Spor, first offi a strategy game, just like ‘SimCity, The Sims, and all of Maxis’ other stuf ‘Your goa? The same as that of al ving species: Survive. Multiply. Live long and prosper. From your humblo boginnings asa single-celled ‘organism swimming n the primordial soup, you pass through generation after generation, evol- ing your physical form, learning how to live with ‘or in compotion against the other creatures on your planet, You choose your own path of evolu tion: Are you a giant, prodatory, elaiv-wielding ‘carivore,terorzing the planet's other species? (rare you a small, peace-lovin trbble-ike her bivore? Do you amble slowly across the land on your two olgantic legs? Or co you skitter quickly ‘along on eight ito toothpicklke bs? Do you hhave a mouth on your foot? A foot on your head?‘Dav ries over a new plant, created by you. Hows that for a sense of power? “The design's lft to your imagination—and the your creature itsel, 30 fans ofthe SimCity series, survival to your ga is ‘should find thomselves right at home here, Evolution ginning theugh. Onee And once you conquer the planet, its time to ‘you prove that your species ean survive, you ‘on even further outer spaco. And you can ‘must figure out how to grow and multilyfrst_ design your own spaceship, too. According to into tribes and then into cites across your planet, the design team’s curent the galaxy To keop gamers focused, Maxis divides Spore contains about 400,000 star Into distinc, discrete soctons as time passes _planots apiooo. That ads up to roughly 2 lion oe the “Spore in 60 Seconds” sidebar at ight, planets for you to ex ch with its ovm gameplay, goats, and mis- says Wright, take playe sione—with he overarching geal of Keeping your 0 species alive untl the next stage. ‘ \What that gameplay involves depends on your level, Early on, in the creature and tribal levels, {you mst maintain noeds—A la The Sims—such ‘as hunger, health, and happiness. Higher levels feature misions where you can explore or do favors for other cviizations (Maxis remains mum ‘onthe details of this fornow). You can custome {ze cites and buldings just as much as you can Elana el) SECONDS Aico menia Ree es Pere et ane ene oe Cae Cee an hhow lang the team anticipates each Beret ne ons Cm > Stort as a single-celled organism and Ea eee ec peer aes oad peer ne nies eu Geert tg Coors Reet ROR eee ting their peak form, The team projects roughly two to three hours for this part. Be ee ee eer re auc tee ert Peer eee ee an oer ey ee aren eet ere cnme ety eeernereenn ey co Pee Re eu Peete Co ue eer tons tion through trado, diplomacy or wat. HE aeeaoae oe os ee | nner) iicthevndippntianaell Had eter Rivaioeenpesaton [Pie pagar deecy= Artists sketch ofa city in Spore. Do you make friends with them, oF blow them avray? ™ \& "YOU DECIDE, IN THE WAY THAT YOU ? * ALAY, HOW YOU ARE GOING TO EVOLVE” ‘TEAM SPEAK {Hit cooms daunting to think about playing ‘Spore, just imagine how it must feel to oroate | While Wil Wright serves as the high-profile brainiac fronting the project, Spore (ike all Maxis ‘games) isa team effort, and one that avolvos in both concept and exocution as more folks get Involved inthe process. Exocutive producer Lucy Bradshaw, who's ‘worked! with Wight sinco the original Sims, le the brains behind the brains, quiding the project through the treacherous waters of preproduction. "Wolre basically working on tvee big things at ‘once right now,” she says. "The creature eai- ‘oy, the game technology, and prototyping [tho] ‘gameplay The ida is that, by the ime prepro- ‘duction is done, well be able to marry the three {and see where we're headed. Because that fist creature _you design plays such a crucial ralo in how the ene game plays out, Bradshaw and the rst ofthe team are working iligonty to get the ereature ‘ctor ust rght—power ful enough to create any “ Dude, a mushroom planet! Jeff roth llegerdorm days. 72 >couruienawmna wor ~EXEC PRODUCER LUCY BRADSHAW Creature a player can imagine, yet simple and onitimicating (S00 “Inteligent Design” on page 72 for our own hands-on impression of the erea- ture edit). ‘Of course, you can’ just create anything you want (no mechs, for example). You're inited by the aesthotic syle ofthe gamo...something the ‘team spent ages trying to nal down, fe sketched everything frst to diecover an art style and experimentod with all sorts of aesthetic looks," says Bradshaw, We started with a more realistic style but then madi it more playful, And part ofthe reason for that is that Maxis’ content 's always somawhat playful and stylized. It gives aitie bit of forgiveness, in players’ minds, when you go from col to creature to tive to city to civ- lization to space. The one thing you want is to be ‘coherent across every single lave, co the player Isn't confused." ‘Alter naling down a styl, the torn frst sketched, and then modeled, what creatures ‘might look ike, creating hundreds of samples to \work from. From there, they broke the croatures ‘down by parts to give players a palate of places with which to construct their own creatures. How we broke down the creatures into parts as ted tightly wih Spore's gameplay.” saye ‘Bradshaw. "We knevs, for instance, that the eapa- bilities ofthe creaturos were going to be strength, speed, perception, and (te ably to ether be «] camivore or [an] herbivore. So from there, we ‘know that there were going tobe these particular sets of parts we were going to need. So we made sketches of deas of part, fguring out where We ‘could got to in terms of breach that would bo salistyng fo payors. With mouths, for example, we knew we wanted birike, insectike,camivo- ous, on and on—enaush room to give players the flexibility to be creative.” Yu won't make all your creature design daci- sions at once, but rather over time—as the creatures evolve. as you play, you eam volition points, and when you amass a certain numberof Points, your brain (the one in the game, not your ‘al one) levels up, which then grants you accace, to the next evolutionary level of body parts— ‘which you can use immediatly (uniees you'd Father save up for more powerul part, that ie "You decide, inthe way that you pay, how you. are going to evolve," says Bradshaw, "Are you ‘g0ing to take evolution points every time you ‘r0er to buy a better mouth? You may decide, ‘while you're playing, that you're getting yout ass kicked, so maybe you want your creature to jor speed instead, or stronath. So thé editor vithin the gam ‘As you grow, and depending an how you grow, ‘thor croatures in the world may become moro attracted to you as prey, further influencing your ‘evolution. "You may decide you want to move fast, £0 prodators can’t catch you, or so that you can catch the prey you nood to survive,” Bradshaw explains. "You're reacting to a world ‘evolving around you, and i's regctng to you” ‘And wat happens if you win the Darwin Avvard {as it were) and fail to survive as a species? ‘Bradshaw grins. "You just return to the previous ‘generation ofthe charactor you created and try again.” Aiter you finish the evolutionary game and move {rom tribe to civiization to space, you ean con- tinue to tinker with various editors (vehicles, til ings, even planets) and try your hand at wore ‘building —but you eventually regain access to the Creature editor. Once you start playing tha space ‘game, you can access to the creature editor “for froo," where you can create more croatures when {ever you ike and seed them on other planets, fos- tering their growth and soeing what they evolve int Wit those creatures become sentiont? Wil thoy become the masters ofthat planet? "Space," says Will Wight, isthe ultimate sand- box." And as he says this, he sits at a monitor, playing this early vorsion of Spore, his spaceship hovering menacingly over an alin civilization. He ‘ponders the notion of convincing them to worship, him, before saying *Nah” and blasting them with laser beams—and laughing as they outnumber him and force him to retreat into deep space, ‘Which only eaves us with one question. when do we get to play in the sandbox?We took a golden opportunity to jump inside Will Wrial Perea tana nck eS ko) Peete telecast Penn At eee ee Rie a) Coe ener el ee ete eee ied Viet r ec Ls Bee ee) erly head over sent) eM aa wy aoe ee Petre arnt palatial See er oc Pee ere pe Mie ec ead Ceettt eet ni Re Set am uae one eas en possib to be subversive ina game So cote id Pr enep eer teen te Perma Gwe 4 Rito a game, with only sme of them being) Paonia eee et cure Seen) eke as eet eater eect errand Ree Gmc tees CAE Ser ea Peco ll henry ree tts eee eee ee eee tor teeters eae Catered etn er a Porte Pa eee eee eg ee ee OE ee as eer mc Cae an pee et et eng SOA ee ne ey pene a aed ceed a red Pet nce ce a eee a eg ene ees tere a Comat building robots. Cae ee ean er ne mc ceo) potted rae aay Reese sett Cae Econ Soviet space equipment. Where do you buy Ree oan reece ea ca Sura eae Brea og Taree moot Peta hase ‘all me when something cool comes in, Other ‘thar that fetu, 'mnot a bg collector Ses eee intr rote prised himsell When vas tho lat time you ‘surprised yourself? ae osHands-on with Spore's creature editor Ce Oey Penij= fe) p] == mot 9 mee | Spore’s “creature team” on animating the unknown Retort tee Pee) ea org Pees Pepe crete to Ce kun ciao pee eco fon Spore. How do you animate creatures that, so far, only exist in players’ imagi tions? Executive producer Lucy Bradshaw, animation director Bob King, and anim ee er ere cena) Ree Ck ere coo fee err et ra don't have a spectic target to animate to, the ee nd pera ee ing, “I need to make something that's going ee eon peer ene Gat Peete see emo eee eens er een eT Preis Cc Cnn ua Lot ‘Spore exee | | Spore's creature team explains the fun Potente Cie ee cae because it’s the first time I've evor walked Se os Pe eee cy ce eR ee nea onece emoreau auc pees en ee eee ee ons See ee uae how many difforent animations we're going inne ed Breet Cn ecco nn eee eel Cra eet eu reed POA eee Cree en Pee OC ec cs Sua eel ec Pci eee a Piece a arcs king gestures to 2 creature on his monitor ee ee a eee Cee oe ed Ge ae es See ea Pee ecr on ee eed Peg Ce et oe ee oe en they're impossible to animate? That the bod~ Pen ees ees Paes ci eC ec ee en ree eet acs Prieeen ht tet Ta eet es aeons Pee eo start out with a two-armed, two-leqged crea eee et ey Pere or cee ‘across all the craziness wo'ro anticipating ee eos Pett eee eel nec oa Se rae Cee ee eee ends eee ek ea ete ee orn Ce ed eee te eeeWHILE SPORE GIVES GAMERS something huge right out of the box, the scone is nothing compared to what it wil be ‘once you connect Spore to the Intornet. One of the design team’s biggest challenges: successfully incorporating player Content into an onlina-enabied universe, The whole uploading end downloading process happens dynamically—the gamo ‘automaticaly uploads your creations to the ‘Spore server. Because each piece of content {is essentially ust the DNA code for the object, each file is only arcund 2-3K in size—compare that to the sizeof a downloadable Sims 2 Character, which can easily balloon to 5-6MB, Once content packets reach the master ‘Spore server, they're sorted and categorized bbased on topies like abject type, coolness: level, and aosthotic style. The next time your Spore game needs a fresh piece of content, it makes a request to the server based on the type of contont you nood. It's always looking for the best fit, so you noedn't worry about getting something that throws off the balance of your universe. Wright tells Us, "Higherlevel exeatures or races won't bbe downloaded into yeur lowe ‘Thay might pop in fo a O 76 >covpuTeR GAMING WORLD AND BEYOND : Massively single-player gaming ce} Iight get a UFO fly-by—but wo don’t want you to get obliterated by some other player's advanced race. It doesn't make sense.” Once a best ft gets found, i's sant back to Your PC. What happens next, Wright explains, “is tha the game just acs water, reconstitutes ‘tnd now, #8 you're walking around the envi- ronment, youl soe that now ereature, And A is now running the behavior of whatover player created that character. I| made my guy really ‘warlike inthe space level and you came to my planet, they're NPCs in your game, but they’ still be warlko becauso I played them that way.” you don’ ike the content that was selected, though, you ean boot it rom the game—and you can report any potentially offensive mate- nal. On the fip side, you can bookmark creators yu particularly enjoy, and thelr content gets preference for downloads to your machine. ‘The team created Sporepodia to store al the Content information for players to look at t's ‘organized into virtual card docks, each showeas- ing acilfrent kind of content. For every planet that a player encounters, ho or she gets ate planet card to go along with tan with each planet card comes individual cars for alo the Content on that planet. Each ard (hich the team envisions as animated) contains informa tion about who created It, as wll ae statistics on how the creations havo fared in ether universes (ike how many battles they have won or lest) Wright envisions Sporepedia possibly exist- ing as a separate card gamo, too: Players ‘could print these cards out, with rules basod off the creature's stats, Voils—Spore: The Card Game. And it has that whole collectibilty factor..kind of lke Pokémon, except with a potentially infinite number of cards. We asked Wright if he worries about play (ors letting him down like they aa with The ‘Sims Online—and the answor's no. “Many of tho constraints in The Sims Online had to do with the constraints of ereating an MMO,” he explains. "In designing Spore as a massively single-player game, we get all the benefits of ‘an MMO without the constraints. This means, that players can be the hero or the god, and they never encounter dark planets bacauso Someone has logged off, Thoir experience is ‘enhanced because of the sheer varaty of cro ative content that othor players have made, So what's his biggest hope for Spore play- fs? He pauses, and then says, “I want it to change their sel-porception of how creative they are or can bo. And | hope it makes them think about the nature of life and pon dor some of the philosophical questions around lfe."/ && IN SPORE WE GET ALL THE BENEFITS OF # AN MMO WITHOUT THE CONSTRAINTS" TAKE IT OFFLINE $2: th222 who don't pay well with thors os Ceeeneee oe 7 ee eto ere ord eee ie eo eer an give you a huge amaunt of content ove eras Reece it you're not on the Net. But it eCSy ®&.&1 WANT SPORE TO CHANGE PLAYERS PERCEPTIONS Ca ar ee en Mls as Ae Tal a Prem ae occa!G fot t-(e§ Out a eT oy-ge F PEAT Re imma; Skee ee for exclusive E3 coverage: Oe Ma KL Pe er ce ad eR oe aL etc aes Rm cs Bae escue ui) a | i: i f a) Experience the Creel a iT ee ae peePLAYING | ‘AN INFORMED t | Ls laminas ) nae rSVer) |_| pilin w ALING INTO OBLIVION TXT 1) esc a as as snug een Bees c eee eeer aay pretty much took over the CGW/ offices when it came out, eee ee eee ae tees Priore maar cue eS Pee eater an We've inadvertently dedicated no less than three CGW podeasts (which you can listen to online at Preachers aoe hg Pen he Seeevcdesesnjea | The Elder Scrolls Iv: Oblivion Yo olde fantasy. Peace Ree ec Ce orate leon Pee en cae we bestow upon you a jam-packed five-page ‘Oblivion review feature, including a postmortem QRA with Bethesda Softworks executive pro- eMac te Ret wanes eg let ene eee eee ue) Oise pee eieia ates ier en Galactic Civilizations I: Pere Cosa ue aeUao Dread Lords Seems raga Vicks a ag ee ee beast pet ee ee ee ana eenprraeiniiieer penny rent tree tei Poeenor mere setters Sr a Intemet buzz, and postelease gameplay evolution, Sure, you ean find plenty of reviews and aggregate scores onlino—but in CGM, you get the big picture. A CGW Pare ence een Lt. te3 Don’t fence me in i ae & erent Pees pay ener mer ieing epee ee eer =n Hines ennetatiood eae er trene—some “Say hello, goodocking!” pinup. eet oer at) eer een eerie cee ee er ae reer eee ae Cre einer es eer tey eee en Deira cies iia Soe Set eter eer tenreny eee er ere arn Peoerrentinan Ss F Cet ey ony Cee eee ar) eee ets Sete ean Comune es ee eee eed ee a ered ee erat Ce are Tocca ed CnC ea sure my “conceptions” (ike yours) about what Ree earn ures ee ers er eeuc hae ong) Tce) jack without the muscular atrophy, and maybo eed eae a an ar eect an Crary hoped it would be: Morrowind with a wider Ree cate ea Sen eect Cee ere ee et) Ce ee) Smee ed assassination at the hands of demoniacal ‘thugs causes crackly hell-gates to the demon CeCe crs atts Cyrodil, the center-continent province where Ce ee tg ake See ean ue eed you'd rather not bother with the main story ‘tall Let the demons pour forth? Leave ee rns Nees are eter Cee are mec cs ee a THE DEGREE TO WHICH YOU ACCEPT OBLIVION CORRESPONDS WITH YOUR ABILITY TO ACCEPT A LITTLE LESS FROM A LOT MORE.VIEWPOINT © Ce eC ea Eee eres ete ete epee ere eras Pee a ao eee ee ee eee ae ead ee erred teen cae ‘but even Morrowind’s singular NPCs amounted See ee inaly homogeneous dialogue trees dashed the pe ee ae ‘Oblivion takes significantly groator pains to ee ees es ee cee) e Se ee ke) # ‘ef you moot in Cheydinhal thinks he's the butt —— f ‘end of a conspiracy and wants a tal on his 2 pote eet Se ee eke town. Sure enough, they oross paths with your ‘uy (Glarthi) and...are they staring at him? Spying? Or lust passing by? When you engage, eee ace “Tho imperial City sits at Peer terme cnet reer rrres coir Careersyou toll Glathirthey'te after him, or do you Se decay re ear “ambiguity is new, but your choices here are Sea ey Caer eine ene eT eee eet ee ee eae ae ee ene eta ee eat eater See a declare “been there, did't do that” and stil ea eee ar eed en irony oe ees eee ee es ete eon i err eee See eae oes Ce tee ed Ss A gle) =i) pala l Lua Ln es ca Det ats Cee ee ee eee ee ent ee) Se ea a Creer eta OG aru Coa particularly it you pay more than passing atten- dea eee eee) ae re eet Se eee) See Rue Ey eee et ea ‘turns out to be far less fuid in practice, While De ee ey Se eee ee by action limiters—in other words, they sim= ee Wood elf might go latt down a path one day ee eee eases Sem eas ee eed ee Cee ae ey ees ee ete eee maces Ce eee Pe ees SS ee ey nee ee eer) Cee ere tert Se ete et See Rea ee cd cu ee ‘games. Fanatic players devote multiple and ‘massive throads to “radiant sightings” across, rete SoC ee eee ea CeCe eee See ey Ce as pee eet eu tres rare ee Me GO. WHATEVER YOU SEE, K TO, OBLIVION LETS YOU EEN THERE, DIDN'T DO THAT.” z]| MOD PORNAn Oblivion Postmortem Interview with Executive Producer Todd Howard. ”” INTERVIEW | See Pea eer aay ere re acces prefer to playin third person for motion- eee te earns Pee aoe Creer aut pet ae NONE rc) Cito thie! person alco, because in this kind of game, eee oe cocaine! Perel een ce anor pee cae on oie reece eh Ret) Pe naeee ne Coc ea cas ete ee ane ee Cr ened Sse ce Una hy eee ec are Peer nena Pram ua ec) eee eo Reece anos pene Maren cl cen walk up and take back items you have stolon {rom them instead of caling for quards, GGW: The introduction of more sophist Servant euen ty increases the number of potential break- Cee eer Pentre ere esa Bees PO eter cast REM aes coe eu rR Cee Neuer Nise Beret iia ures! Pee ret era Ciro eukekec cual Ber eer) s le Cou et anemone ele Pome re ore Coretta etna er Ree eac in oa a eae uc cues ‘endlessly for this and that in patch or an. pee neo! Re eee oC ec Cours ca iriure econ oe Re econo ren 0 fa, | really ike some of the deoper things, {ike adjusting the menus or redoing a distant Perens Tate cas eee nea co Cee oes ie ter Peon haat Po Rue a ey ie NGM scm uncer ur eo coca Cae carrer Perr tr tos ere uke) Cri een oR ono) Pe ee una eee Ma og ‘armor types make unique sounds to accom Preece wan hcs eter tee ee here Cicer oa ts Oblivion i his best work, and wo'ra going to Ceci msn ta ek res Beis Cee rien eaten td ere eae ies Se oe ie eons Errante eat te Meet the environments by shining a big spotlight Se aero sider something along the lines of Word of ee ete “ONCE NECS START DOING SMART THINGS, THE [PROBLEMS] REALLY Us| POLO eesti cor setae ay BL ee ere tena Coe ee cena Seen eee attributes, as opposed to just attack or run? Sees chs Rie enters Creatures. Wo really stivo for tho “do whatever Pee eee ae Seen ten cer tio Geter iene non iy Srnec ener cnc Serer renee eres te is Grins cara hea re ed retort Pete art eee AU ay Crise oer eo like genre nods in or out, and can you give us pee eee eerie eee eee Sante ree mck Pera eC cue nas Coa oucue sooo es Pa en cei eae pei Cao se ee Peo ec iiiescn ‘many suich secret personal narratives have Me ney ies Sete ee aL Crore terete ey eho training to join. Good lite side story CW: Any other secret stu so secret thatit still hasn't appeared online? PSN eC uens Peete Reese igor Cee eo Pere et an! pportrayal and treatment of children in free- eee eu s Pea nate ‘TH: That's something we're dealing with right pein Neeser ta cna ects)ae ON eet ital oer ts Pet cierr rarer renin ea ns ree ae ra Nate Ce CL ad Pe ee ae ‘Morrowind on the Xbox, you know just how ee ee a ene a ene Se ae es platform. Hit the Tab key to bring up @ SU eee a ers Semen en Pe coat ea Cee oe ene eee ee net Cee ed eee ee ‘ eee ees eee meet) cere ae Se ee Pe tea Corey But its faint criticism of an overall interface ‘that, by and large, functions just fine, Say Se ian gi Coe re a) Cee ey Se er ee es Sa ets ‘marked in your journal as your active quast. Seager eer So Len ny er Te amr ag Core oe eee ay Oona aerated Poe eee eg es eae ts zons in first-person games tend to end ee he aa Cuca Rc) OU er ed Ce uC ra Cnet et een Caer eae Songer ras ogee cs Sent Cece end | eed Pree nn nt et ery Pro erie eas ‘midst of all that woodsy lovin’ and—wham!— hello, Nationa Geographic. ee Lae ee es Cee nas ‘and out of focus. Dusk or dawn help mitigate the midday ugly and you can tweak your NI fle ere eer ren ee Ce eae as Dee er ant ae effect bugs you, It never did me, frankly. Ce aU ek) eee ee nd ee ere Secrecy Ce eee ay will vary, period. That's the core of Oblivion's Cente eg eer Bothesda has captured the game-design ‘community's full attention. Oblivion doosn't oat Cac eats | VERDICT | Oblivion further proves that real “next gen” potential lies in letting us tell our own stories, our styl bee =e) =) te =o) =m a= hoe a=) 3DOF [e onsen a beat you al your own game "06 - the year you raise your game...reach all " your markets...create thunder for your launches Encl ue ean cian ecm Na DigitalLife. {os a 2. ny =p 10 Geen aitele=te erat sls MEU oc) Peie steerer enet ac NCCU eI l=r Scola M NG Le TOR OL od retailers and game-playing, game-buying Roto) u tl eae UR ae Ae lac og call (866) 761-7303 or visit www.digitallife.com BUZZ. Where it starts, builds, roars: byte MCL) SOMME Ce eum tote) CEU weu eur tuiC ua cis Pn a SAORI Cleo) a EL jacob k. javits convention center new york, new york www.digitallife.comCMT DREAD LORDS Stardock’s Brad Wardell sticks it to “The Man” eer (erp fetes oreo ee Sood ee ee Eee one Se a ‘days—Impressive for a genre whose sig- te a eet eens ered Se en See ee etsy strategy game ever, Yos, you heard me. Thirteen years later, csr er eee Sake ea ee Pee eae sei eee er eee eons ces Cs Bright onough to release the game without eee et eres td teed Doe ca rs Oe ee that they show up on a map of the planet, Cer et Ce ere) Roy Lea ee etree) eg Cee errs Sees ‘Tho most significant of those limitatior Cee eet Cea eae eee ee eer Cee eee ae een ene Ceca (utes dala Planetary improvements Ye by building Lema erste) =a: a ee eee pee ae a ee eet ccasualtics, In a turn-based galactic strat- eee ei a eee eo rr eee [eee ek (Oa a Yes, by building structures structures Multiple victory paths Diplomacy Custom ship building At the core of the game Differential planet coloniza- ton Cool alion animal No, just defeat everyone Yes, with simple options | Ye Incredibly rich ‘At the core of the game ‘Win with tech, win with diplomacy, win with culture, ‘or just blow them all up with more complex options. Pretty sparso and straightfor- ‘ward No, just automatic resolution jame | Maybe with the expansion ‘Back, OK?" Not so much{or fighting space battles. According to Sen ro \whip up [some] tactical combat in Galactic CN Pea ey ee ea Pe oy Se Ce et ‘Master of Orion Il—in order to be effective.” Lan eed ‘ers tend to bemoan tho state of single-play- eee re Pere Rn cree eee ie ee eg a Perrone tend Pen ney Pere OCC eed ere een ener ey eee a eee ed Emperor of the Fading Suns introduced eed erhecrernn nee ecu) subgame that took place on the planets eee ‘gaming disaster—the Al, proved completely Incapable of dealing with the wide variety of eer rr ‘got treated to a multiplayer mode that fared ee ea ae oe eee ae BCU ay reo rae Pe ee aac thie decision early on in the development of ee ee Pen rr) Perea enn eer ere ie eon Ly ee eo inert a etn eee eee rd eas =e MOL a al ya ake cies lee @& @\NG COMPUTER OPAONENT ARESENTS A ROU cp ate Neg GN CMe als ae ANY STRATEGY GAME TODAY. omen cdOVIEWPOINT Instead, the game includes a scripted cam- Pe nr ee which, frankly, is pretty underwhelming. Siete Ce tay en es ear ereeeere eee TEs ‘Stardock plans to include the following: ced Ieee Een eee ec een) Dee enon 6) Racial planetary-atmosphore protorences ee ene aed Dione Ory 10) New ship components and hulls Pe ee Ree aaa etre Peo ee tees De eee Dee aan aey eee ee gacee te Se ey Seed Pe ate end ee en ee Ree ger See eC ee keer ee) Caen Sa eee ea requiring an excess of knowledge on the prere (Cee e n cy See ee Peni Sue once eel rie ratte ee meme meee eee ee Ce cc ee oe eee ae ee re ero eid ‘Advanced weapons aro good, but you need aE td eee eee ery Cnc eee BUILDING STARBASES IS AKIN TO LEVELING ea pall ae US R= iso cy ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA Oe ero eee TS Ene ounces eRe} ie ace te Ley Install your own quick-roference database nae ror eee ees tr OU ks cnSens ce oust) Ree or oes ea oy Rae ee iors a eo ee a mk they take on lives of their own makes any Cee ceed Pee eee ee nes Ce) Cree etn ener eer eect Ce oe ies Coreen ee eos sor, ships without copy protection. If you want to install it on your home machine ‘and laptop, go ahead. If you want to take that laptop on the road and leave the CD Ba ey ac ese pevrecite n ose gtr Sere eu ure oes entry Srey ee ete eee een ‘operate on tho premise that copy protection foe oan Fee uc et eae cece} ea terrains oun Cee ae eae en Cerise eee eee ae Ue ae) after a query from Stardock, anda simi- Por ours resulted in the game's romoval within hours. eens cd Poe a Tes eee oer eerrena et ies ete ec en Se eee) See cere eas oar Re toe eee geo ae erie ree ery Pa ae ea So cee ee econ Ye een en uy Ce cue a would propel this franchise into the realm Tee ues Cree coe seca Sued Ct’ See ee ee ee] ca VERDIC Tho genre hasn't had a game this good in 13 ye hich makes the lack of nultiplayer so very frustr ‘Maybe next time," says the designer. Yes, maybe next tims ONLY THE PAST CAN REVEAL. Zoe Castillo is haunted by visions: A black house, a little girl and a desperate ples for help. [sit dream or a message? ten her best friend vanishes without a trace, Zot must risk everything to find him and to unravel the mystery. Her journey. s, over vast oceans, through ter - a place crets ofthe past and the key to the future. es, and past the threshold of the Wi that holds the Pc nematic sights ‘Three playable characters, three astonishing worlds An amazing, modem adventure ‘and a thrilling story. WW W.DREAMFALL.COM WWW.ASPYR.CONBooster gold and the 1.21 patch CMe egee ea ag’ Pe een ee er) Se Ce ae eo cate) eo ety Ce yee er Oe eS Pea as eet ete Ce ee eat ee ee ne eect! eee cr re ee eee ey eee ere ens er ees Mee Et eee Te cee a eran en ‘one vehicle against the next, Prior to the pres- to a eres ee eee es Ce et ad Ce et ee ear) Se ee ee ee Solutions aro nover ithor/or over one thing Cat eee en ee neces Se ee) Point farms to clay pigeons once DICE dialed ‘down tho splash damage their chain guns do, ‘And for every community member champloning Ce mn ee ea ee Cena) It took to bring down was the combined talent Cer ei ae ee eet ey ary ee eet SE te etd es ee re eer ere) Sen L eee ety Doe ae cee tony See ee ens ae eng | ‘ne fred. Thon we have guys—those who the Ps eee! Cee res eae ers ne ee ees ne a) ome ru te het Cee Cn ee ere ee a ere! Ce ts Eee eee Cee eet roe arena ta eee eet bboen shootouts. Patch 1.21 turns the tide, ners Set De ee een) Ce ee ee ae eet eas {farm-buying and a bit of everreacting. Outraged bee ee ees Soc acs OMe ater cg Sa ec ees Seca ot ante See etree ‘or expansion packs and buying Enonyy Tortory: tere eo ees So a tec) ere et Se ea oa eS eg es ee eettied, SiAferesAlo, ale of TotalBF2, says It best: See ee ae ee ee ee eee rs ee enc n er eer pee ets ee ees etcetera ‘who threatened to tur in thelr wings, player ea eee ener tecr Ty Se ny Seer tnt ni) prec ata’ ee es eed pret ear e) Cee ee eed ieee ee et tts lic it entitled to a work-in-progress alli? Balancing acts asido, BF2 sil harbors bugs, ‘and GamoSpy critic Wiliam Harms intonds to Coe ey Pee eee eer it ais Ce ae tee en per eet ee oe etc ice eae ca fide bugs are rare and fow (one hides your ‘unlockable loadout, the other parses friends merce Ret erry eee ee Ce eros ee ee een are ue o Lae pee ery ees See ee eer Rey ene CN eee ere tok Infantry fightin, maps Operation Smoke Screen Pret ene ie ac) petrol blows through the former's process ing facites in black shoets, masking antiair ee ee poe er craft—mobile engineers, special operatives, and eee tr te ad ry HOW MANY MONTHS AFTER A GAME GOES PUBLIC IS IT ENTITLED TO A WIA ALIBIP VIEWPOINT © ee eet Se ce es ee eee ne eg Pe arc ‘opponents who st stil and trade shots). tn Geneon Ce ee ees Pee ee eet) ree rs ‘engineers barricading pinch points below. And armor, assertive in the outlying fields, gets Been ar ee Kee ee ee a) eee eee a eet Porn torte Ce eco and ened eee ce ee eer ra) Pers eer te &iiame | WERDICT 7.24 patoh: Broathos now, bottor balanced life into Battleffeld 2. Euro Force: Low price, little content, and lots of fun CeeFOSTACTION BATTLEFIELD 2 REPORT WITH DICE CREATIVE DIRECTOR LARS GUSTAVSSON Ce Reso TCG ou sty Dave boar Nore rcs j ean seca Ete) eterno Identifying them as Dee Coo Rad Ceara pyrene ccna! Dr ue Ce ea rarer See ment ua ueecce Sate oun hed See ad Se eee acy the soldier who takes out the tank or the tank that kills the soldier (whereas a tank Nae eas) Coe CCR oe Pee SSeS un ear ee ee nt What happens with future patches? et nec) Ce a rod ee een) See Cas CE eee ee ee Cece Roe cc ae) ens Peeriters Cee LCS rd eed Te oer Se aee Ce ee Seer ancy a ey Sed Pe ee os Sed eee eee ee Cee eed uns tea Cd Canc Ce ce) eee ie reed Ce unas ee ad rd Core Cee es but the new high-tech systems and the increased vehicle speed meant doing things Ce eA eee) ie eke Cee ete eee ce eee ‘welcome "game in the game" experiance. Ct Peeper ers reed PS en eens aa eek See eceimenabret ner irae i Perron in) man oes pemery aL aan development now ut beyond that, | reas Ct oe eed ear Ce Ou eed critics might argue that by making maps Cotes nt) Coe oe et pee te Pee en Lory Pesca a ORS ey Cerner ee ee ea Ce eg Ce rete Se eet EA worked hard to make it sold. Ce ee Cea oe ae artillery? The punish option is often eeu Reet LG: We're looking at these and will see what Se ers D> Hie LONG AS PEOPLE CONTINUE TO * ALAY COMPETITIVELY, [BATTLEFIELD 2] WILL CONTINUE TO EVOLVE.” SSSR aU mesa ete Cnt)ONE OF THE TOP FIVE GAME-DEGREE [ PROGRAMS See ea CY i P AYE | Ce pot ena I I Ld WARLGAMING ruce Geryk can probably kick ad Sra Song ee 3 Winter Park, FL32782 5 ed er ey eeererei anosFeo lence oda ern ee A hundred men with guns Route aed PA Ac Gland cee aa you didn't know better, you could easily think that it's just another G7A mod, becaus GTA (and the fim trilogy that inspired Tho Godfather, this game revels in violence. A ene eu ae ‘one (usually several people) and then shoot- ing, garroting, bludgeoning, or blowing him alos ‘But unlike in GTA: San Andreas, for exam- Cece ere Pa ea ner es Tees a ee ra ers Cee aa) ee eC ey Cee ete ey eee ieee oe ems Cee ken ee PC users get shafted, too, as the clumsy Coe oy aes Tene ee ae eet ee nee ern ee eee es ese et Uo eae rea eee eres er ee eee nee) cee es eo eee) Cee cis Creer Itt De ge Se een oe ea RC tae ee Oe a ee eee! eer eee Se eee eed rer at eee ote eee See ate ete eet Ce a hae er ea eri ee pee rtere ete eT Cet ns ee eae cee Pee eer ee oe tt) Ste tee) Coed See cee Se ee ees ees Sets “The designers elected to craate a new, highly Sean re a Cece ey Cec eee Cea coerce) \while having plenty of leeway to do the kind of free roaming that charactorizos most GTA Ce eee rtrd te ed ee eee) Se ee ora a ee eed ee eee ting him for a pair of concrete wing tips (which cc en ree ee ee tates De Re on ee COT ee eens ee ee Se eeu ey Scene Ws not that The Godfather is a bad game in and Se ot ee Coreen tt ae eed | datas | VERDICT Not bad for a Grand Theft Auto clone. but for the kind of money it cost to make, someone at EA corporate should be sleeping with the fishes.bly Peed Perc ie eka eee ae CC un doing something other than carving out the ee en erst) lumpteenth time. This month's games eschew eee eee Tne Brena Mlk ee ere ery Creep tates Ceo h un rurr ina Gece ecole cee Cree ee ay DOr eee ec ekaes eter onion? Crciniinciaroe ene Gre ecoregion nue) Creme ees cmc Pilea tscoo tune Neue Lacy Roe ccn roc seni tes eee eer een ac you struggle to slap ever-changing pieces een ieea eter a te pes Pence ere Ruri (ioc chet eres eee a De eevee emer rises) aes cogent ec Mire ITY ipo een ee i Goldberg-esque ingrodionts, inclucing ridicu Peeves ae eric Stee ymca rea oe sad ee wear ug Ce ee ea rete remo) through the tutorial, with multiple items to guide ee ace ne ies ee en a tac ea Byori ue eeete aye ik iene) ence ne eri) Ros etcate eae) eee eee ee Res edo ate Sy ea im Ce Te acres | (eee Serra} PT aud Pro Dey De Pras Seay DAL ideo ero Ta Cry www.uatedu > 800.658.5744Sad The sky isn’t falling Caan nar Cea eo et) Seo it) eee a Coe eee) Pe ts dial remodel, | sourried to SOE's forums to cer Sa ee ee ea ans Cee ee eee ‘experience and ruined many characters, Decuria Pee ca anc ee ue et Ce enon eke res) Ce ae eee ey rae mt oes eee uence Se ke eer ut? Peete acs O(a rag ee ee tars more Identity straight out of the gate. eee tnt es ee eer etn ete eee ers ee rch te oR ee aes Coe ek cr eu LRU eee ce ents Sree cs Pore ree ee eos Ree eee eet Coe een Ce SSE etree) ei) Pd PROVIDES SERIOUS COMPETITION FOR VU 6)e | oO] Osa) o a Crees os eee breyererrer inept Cee ae ae ture original quests, loot drops, monsters,Rene cae ks Pe aco) Eee eer red Pe oe ot rt ‘and craft items all the way up to level nine. Se Oe cna ee ee ceo Pree ee cent eer) eae rea ea Serer ames ee re mea perenne ee eon debt amounts to litle more than an annoy- re a ceca See aoa nee) Pe te eee ne eee Cece eet te Pee Rc te rere bite the dust, too. omen nal Ee eos pen cet ee cand {or more PVP info), and the new achieve PO uae rR tea ee ee ou Prem uee uecos Cue d a ae? ture—protfers five difforont paths por class, with five upgradeable items in each path that improve stats lke intellect, strength, wisdom, eee a ee {ng on your class, these items also bestow eee reed ue er urea pots to fight alongside your character. Pe en eee Peg ecto] Peon ees ree et cu es mirc eer eer ee ‘can exchange XP for achiovement points. ots eta Cee aaa paren eee ec as ern eto e ry single path, so you cant eam and maximize: VIEWPOINT © Pee eee eee a tc 02's eary-lovel rovamps. If anything, ere auras Reo enue bg Pea es Eto ese peer ee instead. My daughter's tury heeler (on Pence a ee Cee ean Cee eee eensCe er eer ie higher financial costs, depending on how et eae ‘experimentation. It sooms like non-KOS. See eer) ee ern ee ny offer things you don’t want to live without? See a Cee Re ee ee ark eras ‘ eat eee ed ee arts Sure a Se Poe ne hee ey nega ect aad eee Se ee Sue ure Co ee Cena Ree Ree edna high-level heritage quosts to complete anc Reet ‘But even with plenty of islands in this Ce ees ese ers r while. The islands could use more variation - in verdancy...oven though thoy're as lush and s Seer ter rats et That aside, KOS also contains new gear NY ORE eee ea ce eer ear Cee oy eas Cee a as See say Cece sey eee nr es Se eae) ee Ree ae a ear eee ore et 4 to.a new plateau. /Denice Cook ae Ce Oh aaa Nell | Gaiam | VERDIC PAF an Ny Aa SGA msl gL NB err Stree emt ASIANINFLUENCED ISLANDS IN THE SKY. ecco cuiensens Cee! vyor WHITE WIND ci ‘TREASURE CHESTOVIEWPOINT TOM vs. BRUCE eS aly OF Wale rote ty mite ern O Sasoctie ante start Sara inant fein fey ree ocean rome ne Fe Ect Se ne tyne tet &» #F 100 >ccuruens taNG WORLD ‘orcs. t's sight less annoying than the whole “ax mastery" thing he had going in Guts Wars, He aso kes to ask things ko, “Is this in the books? where "this" is Aragorn or Ekond or someting, ‘TOME: Okay, here wo go. Let's hunt some ore! BRUCE: We were going to do the grand strategic War ofthe Ring mode with me as the forces of good and Tom as the forces of evil, but it's ust a big mess. Lite army flags scattered everywhere, crazy random bonuses stacking up, hidden teritorios blocked by interlace panes, and some god-awiul mieromanagement as you shuile everything where you want it At last it's turn-based, until you finally get into a bal. But ‘Tom knows al kinds of way to twist thoso battles around so that he has a 10:1 advantage. He promises me wo're better of just doing the skr- mish mode, wire he can ont twit his advan- lage to somathing inthe neighborhood of 7-1 ‘TOME: The conventional wisdom, which wil prob ably have been acids ina patch bythe tne {you read this, Is that elves ara overpowered and ‘Mordor is underpowered. Eves have great archers Ike Ortando Bloom and whoever that ether guy TOMS ALWAYS SAYING, LETS HUNT SOME ORCI INTO THE MICROPHONE, EVEN THOUGH HE USUALLY PLAYS THE ORCS: Was. But Mortor, which consists largely of CG ‘monsters and extras in elaborate makoup, has ‘0 direct counter to archers. What's more, elven archers can upgrado to Siverthorn arrows, wich 's tke inventing the machine gun in Weald War Watching a bunch of ors try to attack a battalion of Lorian archers with Siverthorn arrows I ike reenacting the Battle of Verdun, | explained ths to Bruce in an effort to help him. In fact, after each of our practice games, | studied the replays and gave Bruce some pointers. But betwen you and me, its ike trying to teach your kid brother how to piay chess: He can move the pieces, but ctherwis...well let's just say Bruce Is pretty smart whon it comes to nonfantasy st. Chasing Siverthoen isn't easy I you try to invest too early in those sorts of expencive upgrades, Yyou aave yours wlnorable to races that can rush you with swarms of cheap, crappy units,TWO GAMERS ENTER, ONE GAMER WINS Uke, say, Morr with its ors. ‘Due to my extensive reading of Tho ‘Simariion, | know that Siverthom is actually a ‘book inthe Ritwar Saga by Raymond E. Fist. ‘But whether we're playing Lord of the Rings: The Conirantavin or Botrayal at Krondo, it doesn't ‘matter No matter what I doin this game, get ‘2 10-minute lecture from Tom atthe end on how ‘what oid wes doomod to fal We're playing on Ettenmoors, which '& a peat bog where those two-headed giants from DED lve. i's a emaligh map that consists ‘of broken-up teri inthe mide, were youl find a signal re that doubles the recharge rate of your Ring powers i you conto it At the top and bottom of the map ae inns wisere we can recruit ‘heap troops unique to each raco: Molotow-cock talkfinging Corsair of Ubar for me, rock-tossing hobbits for Bruce, Personal, thnk tm geting the better doa! at the Inns. ‘What kind of battlefield has inns on it where you can racrutsolcers? What ae the sol ers doing? Staying athe ina unt someone pays them to fight a battle? That whole ting sounds Ike a Penny Arcade comic. In any ease, | ave my hans fl just trying to figure out which structures to bull frst. Malorn tree and then baracks? And then some swords ren? A hero? But Inever have enough gold for that. Who said elves were overpowered, again? 1 know Bruce fs going to be too confused tobe aggressivo, so can afford to stata solid ‘economy Ieisurly build a few slaughterhouses and then @ couple of lumberyards batore even bothering wih an orc cave. | 29e some neutral gobins defending that signal fie in the middle ofthe map. wal for ‘second battalion of ebish dudes so lean clean them up and get some experienc, ike you're supposed to do in WerCraf I, High-level guys are supposed to ba so god, but somehow Tom even ‘ualy just ls thom anyway ‘TOM: After the game, I explain to Bruce how you don't get much exparience from goblins. Aso, ‘i expan that he shouldn't rush to got the signal fre, because tho eaty Ring powers aren't worth risking a bate befere you're ready. What is worth having early: an inn, so you can get cheap units when matters tho most. So send my frst batch of ores to go take the inn tothe south, whore | ‘wil muster up some Corsairs of Umbar: Umbay, of ‘courve, i tho pace from DAD where Umibar Hulls ‘ae fom, Let's hunt somo or! Glorinde! is the cheapest elf her. ‘Actually, Arwen's cheaper, $0 | should say Gorin! is tho cheapest nonusoless ef hero. So | grab him and send a party south to level up ‘against a cave-rol ai. According to Tom, some ofthese el hroes can take on enti armies by themealves i they get to sufficient lov. se leveling time. ‘Alte the game, ' explain to Bruce that ‘te mainly Thrandul and Orlando Bloom vito can > Tom Chick eects os tore ed ene connor fee een’ See et Perea etc Cee ‘Toma nazgul terrorize ome elves take on entire armies by themselves. | wonder it thay’ in the books. But even your shield-grinding, ‘murkl-snout-suring Orlando Blooms can only ‘get you so far. ‘ile 'm grabbing the inn, | move another hancfiul of units towards the signal fr. Time to put lite pressure on Bruce. My orcs show up and | drop some tainted ground underneath them to improve thet stats. Nothing ke a patch of gray dirt under an or boats to Inspire him! ne thing ve earned trom losing repeatedly at this game i that you should never fight on tainted ground. But even with that soe adie only have two battalions there and the battle goes il, Dis | relly just say that? ‘Bruce entroats. That was easy. on my ‘way te having three ore caves sping out cheap, warriors and arches. Lets hunt some orc! : You can't really say you go the ‘ves going until you buld an Ergon Forge and research bunch of things, ke fy singing and \woodoralt and these Siverthom arrows Tom says. really must have. So | ull one, eventhough t's ‘ging tobe along time before | can get any o! the ig uneracdes out, Maybe I should just bull an Entmoot? Im so confused, "thave to explain to Bruce after the gare ‘that he shouldn't ould forge so eat. From mic map, I move everyone forward to soe if Bruce has ary nearby mall ross I can knock over CE! Tom moves a huge force straight at my base. I counter with ancers, archers, and swords- ‘men, along wih Glofndel, throw my heroic hom ‘power into He mix bocauso really have no idea what to do otherwise, Somehow, I dont tse. ‘Actually, | pulled back afte knocking over single tre. | got what | came for. Meanwhile, ry ine-grabbers explore erourd the south end ofthe ‘map to see if Bruce i trying to expand doven here. ‘We can' have Bruce's magic tees encroaching ‘on my in. Lot's hunt some ort “Tainted ground ain't prety..but orcs sure do love tt Elves in the mist. cowueccn 104OVIEWPOINT iia BRUCE: | soe Tor tying to sneak some forces. down around the perimeter o tho south rn bin ooverrencamcvionLD hero powers on anybody. Hero powers are some thing I can't really grasp in this game. They fel a ‘WarCraft with ther micomanagement and ncod- ing to cick on the bution a ust the ight time, But Fe trade al ofthat fora game-spoed sider. “TON This time, | have two tolls to take care of Brice’ annoying ncors. Oneo I get my tainted ‘and power recharged hank you, signal re), | move forward. BRUCE: As Tom moves into my tertory, | eoun= {erattack with a Riven lancer charge followod by a general reat o pl him into my mysterious ‘ven fog. Then | unleash the ees Hey, probably sounds fearsome to soma ores. ‘TOM: Bruce uses enshroucing mist to coun tract my tainted land. Good move, but lim not ‘sure how he knew to do tha, since t dost recall ‘explaining it to him in any of our postgame debriet- ings. Bruce finaly puls back undercover of a bat tie tower's Sivethom arrows. Ive lot most of my troops, but so has Bruce. Mine ea lot cheaper to replace, though. BRUCE: Im not su follow the calculus here. 1 beat back Toms attack through my superior stret- ey and infict upon him grieveus losses, but he actualy wins because he ean easly replace every- body in two minutes, wile have to mortgage my fortress jst to yet some reiniorcements. Expiin to Ime how the eles ae owspowered, again? ‘TOW: 'm upgrading a troll cage to build attack wll, hich should put an end to the back-and- forth. These quys are tough, heavily armored, and don’ take any gutt—and they'l take up the slack for my weaker units. | also bring in the Witch-king and tel him to get of that fel beast he flew in on, because tha thing just atracts arrow fire. Yeah, | know it looks cool te have your ‘own personal dragon, but 'm going to make the dude walk, BRUCE: I fnaily got Bkond out. Glrfinde is eval 5, and | aso have thres archer bata (one at level 5, two lancer battalons (one at level 4), and a bunch of exporianced but deploted Loren warors ‘who ae reinforcing around a Miror of Galadiol None ofthis wil make a bit ofciference, ‘TON: My new Witch-king steps forward; this pulls in Bruce's army. We got another round of “enshouding mist” vs. “tained land," and in the ensuing donnybreok, | eam enough Ring points for “awaken wyrm,” which gives me a tre- breathing snake, BRUCE: Tom's got an attack wo, Wel tree altack trols. This pat ofthe gare is the same ‘every tine we play: Tom charges me vith a huge army of dudes, and then this sandworm fcenaed ‘fom the Qune movies shows up and destroys all my buildings. Wait..6A made a Dune computer ‘game once, too, ight? | quass that's what market- {3 cal “e105 poinaion.” It sil doesnt seem very “Tolkien, though. “TOW The vyrm kle Brucos archers, The attack trolls tur aside his lancers and knock down the battle towar..and then the fortes. | mop up wth ‘ho altack tos and start working on a debriefing to expiain that Bruce should have bul more magi- cal elf ees, he shouldnt have wasted so much money on a foe so quick, and he should have used his lancer to raid my slaughterhouses. its {tough job trying to make Bruce Goryk a good _BFME® player, but somebody’s got to do Tom's orcs crush Bruce's wimpy elf army. Lets hnunt some ore!/ $00n, Tom wil knock allthis stutf over.Rt GU PASH aA a/R ae a ae Tolle Det GaKeKS aac) Sranat tester neat Ei amP caRLMcC MUGS RH EME attitioUnnmiagene miplatoad Par eee net oer a ‘the put-of-the-box crippling technical ace oT Lan ree are emer prea Sees a eet ee ea ee ca beastie edcateiiek alae ee a eee ee eee eer me et eeu heoe ema lnad —Pattick Jaynt, 1UP.com (6/40) ~cally=the anes In D&D Online come topether| Bethesda made during ts development.” i aa i enor th) eC CCC) ce Cor cot er eet cat oor ae i i i pears eoirmnest rire apes tote et SES Rt Eh eT rT nie CL ce com mit nsasie nen earaetoaikiaeteceal Pepe ncaa Serra nts eet a Wace 3 pert) eso mm reco} ba ceed saaruini aneclanear eh tns fovea nici een fies ae uaa tooie hsasueedeer eokaasl new MMN OM ammo Wau ion MG ck ie ‘unique gear, four new PVP arena pets, and | entertaining game, and it sadly remeins inthe|_|_ —athlean Sanders, 1UP.com (7/10) one Pro a Sea cet os ee peeve et ee eee Oe ; i oppreciate the way the game pays tnbuteto the Se ae we cut RE naa ee ork eil i i eohdeeeeelh ae See re ee LOCc wni e eiruoelce i coors eee ec al raz} ernie oy i ieee eT) 5 c OR ECA R D Names in blue indicate CGW Editors’ Choice games. Battlefield 2: Euro Force ‘March 2006 Biazing Angels: Squadrons of WH | March 2006 Dungeons & Dragons Online: Feb 2006 ‘Stormresich ‘March 2006 Feb 2006 Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers | April 2006 Feb 2006 The Godfather ‘March 2005 Space Rangers 2 ‘March 2006 ‘March 2006) ocTL e tr eee tay Bernie Spot bean a ee pt gy seesome pert eta fated Serene ey sirens ei cnr eaten eens cenit Ene) Tet eed Or te ed mn] er rt em 7 Oar eed et ee or mad CU een ced etry Bare Seay Cae ee Sea tee tae Paes once Sanne ey Ce a ey Sorat Corre SC ae ee es Cena Cont rps #780071 re eee rey Se te ae eee re ena) Pome) “cee $ 1425 eed $2230 ert ne) reer a ene eet t een orate md mm GAMER ULTRA SLI PRO H Pete te nal Potty eerie re ree PONE Trae er Pane) enter Sec ey Pape porary Cater eee See era OT a srg EL ALL ane oer Sorat rons EE Mere) een 32560 rear ees Oe tae 7 ee nd Et ed a GAMER XPLORER-64 8000 Se icra rer ar Coot ea poset re Pe ey Sa eet coerce re aaa oy aoa Pas SU oe erent Coane aetna tet ot PL sig $1045 $1035 $989 nl. on eee er eee ae rear emeese er ae Tee ae Panel ie eed) $ 1265 ee ee me eT ee ea Lamiacuneere een Dery ee eee Sa ea ina eo Speers acres Serre } cts “ Rh yee Ricecrrerd ed eT amen neat rg rr ee Td re eg oe eee laf fla Lf p\uleyal Pear meee Be OU eee oe a eee rr GL + Provides leading-edge 32-bit performance for music, video, and games and is ready with Enhanced Virus Protection Con er aamc Features HyperTransport™ technology for improved multitasking performanceca AU Le pemereienorey Pon ene Pee eared poetiere end 629 arc ey $19 ay 8 6ey OY eS Ce 3 “sence es eto eT error ere Emon yA eee aa 1d Se ica ner i Seat ts Peirreeminite ie tet an iach Pacers ag ea) Pa i on ol See et ee ee Ag ere ee ae Lo EXrTeyal delivering exceptional multi-tasking capabilities Se eee CS a OL ne ne a a a ater hee ee eres The AMD Athion"™ 64 X2 dual-core processor brings true parallel processing to the desktop and can increase computing performance by up to 80%. recwie ISSUE 2¢ || D el a Sad IT’S THIS OR “FANCY ARCHITECTURAL “50,..WHIGH GRAPHICS CARD SHOULD ‘ p buy?” After countless years—and countless ci OK. maybe ate Hey we can't ae you forbaingcontused,Tcioogy ums mean that evr tree month hs sane wes Up doctang ana ingot he rapa i. You can't bat ol byes ener ter roping $5u0-ue on anew, op-ofno ecard ony totnd ut hat ld pews by hate you've inalet. Those dye of conkon ee row Ov Wl at as unl tenon gonraton of erapics carés comes out, Peay oma sence of Cars and become near expert? Glen session Ki \ LESSON I: No matter how many numbers, pit pipelines, ‘and quad-card solutions that manufacturers try 10 sel you, one inovitabe truth persists: No one ‘graphics card works for everyone LESSON 2: As pretty as screenshots may look, no GPU (Graphics processing urit.2s if you didn’t know) oto ears How to find the 106 >conPuTERGANeNS WORLD In the world wit fathuly render photo-realistic senes any time soon, THE BIG QUESTIONS 4: So, whatcha got under the hood? A: Before we even begin this ite adventure in Upgrading, you need to know whether your com- puler sports an AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) ‘oF PCIe (PC! Express) graphics-card slot. Older ht 3D board for your PC mM CGW AND EXTREME TECH BREAK DOWN © EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ‘machines that are stl gameworthy aro tkoly using AGP, while PCIe is the way of the foreseeable future. All the high-end graphics cards you crave Use the later technology. Not sura which you have? Two quick ways to tel 1) Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties. In the hardware tab, lick the Device Manager button, Then, in the Display Adapters, area, right-click on your graphics card, Selecting Propertios tolls you everything you nae to know (Wt say, for example, “Location: PCI Sot 1) 2) Oryou can tsb for youre "Inthe conparton poles shove Aer al youre gonna be geting Your fonds diy son ena Ferpet the coe In hese megs the easy way oepot he difronce isto oka he cormecirs ond td ips hat tock te ratios rcs note ts What's all this talk about shaders, and why should | care? ‘most basic level, shade what the surface of a {80 object looks tke in a game. Yes. these handy itie programs deal with everything from light cifusion and texture mapping to rellecton, refraction, shadows, and opacity. And don't forget al those cool postprocessing effects ike mation bluring anc HDR lighting, In a game tke Half-Life 2, most of the emphasis in deta i on the suc- face of the object—net in the number of polygone that make up the model Hang on; her's where it gets elite bumpy.Yee tue ey Pee end par! wv c rat fall fal 3} n | [ berscore gamers with extra ing None sexo Micro's Dweetk 9.06, the 30 application pro ‘gram interface (AP) in most current PC games, Uses vertex shaders and pivel shaders. Vertox shaders altor geometry while pixel shaders deter mine a pie'’s color value. Today's graphics cards are all DirectX 9.08 compatible ‘What you aren't seeing yet: next-gen cards that take advantage of DioetX 10. Whan DXT0 hits the sane—tikly with the release of Windows Vista in 2007—with it comes the concept of geometry shaders. Without geting too deep into the tec Pal sce ofthe force, these shaders operate between the vertex and pixel shaors,stroamiine ing procedures, Geometry shaders can output resvits directly tothe memory and into the graph ies pipatin without ever needing the GPU. This means more operations happening faster. Some of the fist games slated to show off what OX10 ean do include Microsot Flight Simulator X, Halo 2, and possibly EAs Crs ©: 'm always seeing graphics cards with more memory at diferent speeds. Why does that ‘even matter? With the avalability of faster graphics mam- ‘ny (with madern GDORS clocking as high as 900MH2), manufacturers pile more RAM than aver onto tho cards. Carde bristling with 512MB of ‘emery are commonplace now, and AT recently “announced a card equipped with a staggering 1G8 of memory. Granted, that now card is meant for workstations..but we can dream. ight? Seriously, though—the era of 1GB graphics cards for gamers ain't ar behind, As games mako use higher rosakition textures, 512M cards wil become more use, In other words, for most games today (aside from a handful ike FEAF), SI2MB of memory constitutes just a ite bit of ‘overkil. On the other hand, if you" itching to ralchot up the antialiasing settings, the extra ‘memory certainly ean’ hurt. : CrossFire? SLI? Should | even consider & FIND DETAILED REVIEWS AND MORE AT ? F GOEXTREMETECHCOMIGRAPHICS. SS ccansurcom €107®& & FIND MORE DETAILED REVIEWS AND & #7 MORE AT EXTREMETECHCOMIGRAFHICS. anyhow. Ah but life's never that simple, eh With that, its tasting timo! ‘TAKE IT TO THE BOARDS. «Jason Cross! eyes ae sill uncrossing ater his ‘marathon lab session for ExtremeTechcom. He Serutnized 17 alfferent graphics cards ranging from sub:$80 budget boards up through $560 fire-breathing, superelocked monsters. The result of this exercise: You really do get what ‘you pay for, particularly if you play eurent ‘goneration games lke Cal of Duty 2 of The Elder Serols WV: Oblivion, Bore we dive into the products, though, la's ‘work through some scenarios you can ute to figure out tho best upgrade path. Alot depends fon the games you play. Are you addict to The Sims 2? You may not need one of those ‘overclocked monstrosiias—a midrange card works just ine. So let's run through the key decision points. Frat, ask yourselt: What games do | pay? 108 >comrurenGwnawcrD It usod to be simpler: Playing first-person shooters meant gatting the beoiest graphics ‘cards possible, while playing anything else meant ‘getting away with lower-cost hardware, That's ‘gotten a litle more complex, as games ike Battle for Midale-Earth I and Cuization 1V up the ‘raphical ante for strategy titles. Some modern racing games make heavy uso of pixel and vertex shaders, too. tums out that the vast majority of games today tend to raly more on the CPU. HalLito 2 Providos:a good example Doapite the game's ‘gorgeous visuals, even maderate graphics cards ‘can generate high ramerates, but a modest CPU ‘may result in lower performance. Some cutent- ‘Generation tes such as FEAR, Call of Duty 2 ‘and Obivian hit your graphies card harder than ‘Bary Bonds hits th steroids especialy you start turning up the eye cand 1 your games roquie less-rebust graphics, then you probably don't need that $550 ‘overclocked behemoth, A midrange ear costing © swore pleasantly srprivod by Exga's e-GeForce 7600GS in particular. Its solid performance and pascivaly cooling systom {look Ma: no fans} alowed us to coax more out of Doom 3 than we could with similarly stacked ANI cards. Of course if you're ‘ot psyched for upcoming titles like Enemy Torntory: Quake Wars, go on and get a Radeon X1600-based card. ‘about $200 wil do just tne. ‘The other kay piace of achice: Know your system. Ifyou own an aging system that sti has an [AGE sot, your options become more limited, Of course, sometimes you simply can't alord a psi of $550 cards. Dropping $1,100 on a pairof tigh-ond graphics cards that then require a bey ‘CPU anda maseio power supply may spy be too frivolous an expen for most of us. In that case, st bite the bulet and tum down some graphical detail ‘options. it's any consolation, some games stil ook prety freakin’ impressive on a $200 card you bump afew key dota ders dovn a notch orto. Untimately, you want to achieve that Zen of system balance—that state of Nivana where the CPU and the graphics cards don't hobble ‘cach other. An SU or CrossFire graphics setup running on a2.666Hz Pentium 4 or Athion 64 2000+ might not be an optimal balance, since the ‘graphics system wil often remain ici, waiting for the CPU to finish some task. By the same token, you shoulkn' be surprised if your game performance goes straight tothe toilet whan, you combine a lowor-ond GeForoe 7300 with a Powerful Aton 64 Fx-60 CPUL/Bis THE RIGHT GRAPHICS CARD aivetrcuesions: Gi RALSTON Sa Crean ‘Older AGP system (early Pentium | To play more curent and graphi- | Sony, but the party's almost over | Prety limited choices hare. High-end 4.0r Athion XP}; GoForced T4200 | caly demanding games (abet stil | Save your money up fora new sys- | cards include the GeForce 7600 GS and ‘or Radeon 9800 videocard alow rsolutions) tem or a motherboard/processor/ | ATI Radoon X8O0 coves. Midrange cards rmamory upgrade plus PCI Express | include the GeForce 6600 line and the ‘graphics. Your CPU is your linting | aging Radeon 9600. facter, not your graphics car. Late-generation AGP system | To play more curent and graph | Socket 999 users can easly upgrade | See above, (Pentium 4 up to 2.4GHz oF Athlon | cally demanding games. Good | to PCI Express with a simple moth- {64 socket 940 or socket 939; Intel | upgrade paths include the | erbourd swap ‘865/875, NForeed, or VIA KBTEOO | GoForce 7800 GS and ATI Radeon chipset); GeForces or Radeon | x800 AGP. 19500 videooard ariy-generation PC! Express | To play more curent and graphi- | Sorry—Intel users have no path to | Lots of choices here, but fr bes system system (intel 915/925 or NForced) | cally demanding games with | a dua core, balance, a good midrange card ke the ‘greater ily and at much high Radeon X1#00 GTO oF the GeForce 7600, ec resolutions. series isa good bet CCurront-goneration PCI Express | if your aystem has dual-araphice- | you have arelavely modest CPU. | you want the utimate in performancs system (ATI CrossFire, Nvidia | card support, you have the option | consider upgrading that ft ‘consider SLI or CrossFire twin graph: INForees or NForood SLI, or Intl | for SL or CrossFire. ics cards..but also consider system 1945/055)975) balance. [PRO FLIGHT RUDDER PEDALS T ‘Advanced mechanics in every detail. Unrivaled abilities in avery feature. That's what you can expect from our new Pro Flight Rudder Paifals and xS2 Flight Control System. Both truly magnificent works of modern technology that give you superior performance ot the hrighest level: And while you may appreciate their fine looks and distinguished design, itis their phenomenal hendling and higher Intelligence thet will have you smiling at the speed of sound. Saitek OLA LAL LAGERc HARD NE The bleeding edge of tech ‘The possibilty of running Windows on a Macis hardly newsworthy in itself; hackers pulled that off within hours ofthe first Intel-powered iMac's arrival. The real newsworthy part is Apple's official endorsement of the endeavor with the new Boot Camp software. By releasing official {though hardly final) Windows drivers for Mac hardware, the company gives users its blessing touse something besides its precious OS X. This twist brings plenty of politics and huge repercussions, but that's a story for anothor time. The simple question on every game-lov- ing Mac user's mind right now: “Does thie finally mean we have access to all those groat Windows games we feign indifference to...but secretly covet?" The short answer: Yes. The long answer: Yes, and it totally rocks. Configuration is a breeze and-—surprise, surprise — works without ahitch. In fact, with a firmware update, you don't even need to use Boot Camp ik to.get Windows XP running on a Mac. Boot Camp Just makes the process as Applo-lke as possible, Solup and OS installation come next. Some handy tips: Use FATS2 formatting (which allows 08 X to both read and write on the XP partition) and make your partition atleast 2068 (you did ‘pring for a 100GB drive or bigger, right?). Oh, nd this kind of goes without saying, but make ‘sure that you don’t overwrite your OS X partition. ee ee While our tinkering doesn't exactly constitute a & proper lab test, we did put Half-Life 2 through the paces. Of course, HL2 on a Mac suffers from the ‘same problems that plague the PC version: inter- ‘minable load times and sound that occasionally stuttors during the transitions from one area to another. Minor issues, really, and totally moot in {the face ofthe far more important consideration here: Half-Life 2s playable on a Mac—without ‘ny Sort of emulation or compromise in quality. ‘With all settings on medium, FEAR. is definitely playable on the MacBook, to. You won't see the silky smooth 60 frames per socond that hardware | it froaks clamor for, but it looks good even with tons of characters onscreen. Annoyingly, FEAR. offers Pre pitiful selection of resolutions, all constrained to a sr the old-fashioned 43 aspect ratio. Playing it onthe ss gs ‘MacBook's widescreen display makes things look {usta ite too stretched out—i ain't prety, ‘We'll be back soon enough with some more definitive tests. For now, though, we can say that the Mac finally represents a viable platform for hardcore gamers, which means iothing but good news for Apple and enter- | tainment-starved Mac-heads alike./ OVERBOARD NEUTER GANG WORLD‘mhoping to the sweot mother of GOD that you can fix this problem. When playing new ‘games lke FEAR. and Call of Duty 2, white ‘dots, holes, and tears start to appear. They flash ‘and pop everywhere, making gameplay annoying ‘and impossible at times, PLEASE HELP MEI! Corey Wells 18, Corey, eave up on the CAPS LOCK! {As for your headache, it sounds like ether your graphics card is overheating when playing shad frintensive game ike FEA. or your graphis ‘memory is boing pushed too hard. You can try Uinderclecking the card using a tool like Rages Tweak (itipy/vwr.rage2d.com/atweald), (: thave an AMD Athion 3200+, 512MB. of RAM, 2 160GB hard drive, and an Nvidia GeForced. Would upgrading to 1GB of RAM and replacing the videocard with a GeForce 7800 GS allow mo to play The Elor Sorols V2 Josh W. love to play games and have a Pentium 4.2.4GHz CPU, 768MB of RAM, 6OGB and ‘20GB hard drives, an Audigy 2 soundeard, ond ‘an Nvidia GeForce FX 5500. The main hard drive is starting to make a high-pitched whiz zing sound when starting up. Since this PC is, three years old, I'm thinking about replacing this, This computer can’t run Oblivion to save ite life. Should | upgrade the videocard or just ‘upgrade the system? I'm thinking about an SLI motheroard with an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ ‘and two GeForce 0600 graphics cards. ‘Aaron Martin vory fow yaars, a game comes out that ‘makes everyone want to upgrade thoi PCs. The Eider Serll V: Obivion eartainly fits the Bil for this eycia, ‘An Athlon XP 2200+ is probably « good ‘enough CPU, but a GeForees certainly won't cut it Josh’s idea of gatting a 7800 GS wil probably ‘make Obivion playable on his rig. On the other hand, the 7800 GS costs about $309, and you have to wonder tit ight not make more sense to invest in a whole new system. That athlon XP may run out of gas pretty quickly with newer game titles, ‘Aaron has a dfforent problem. At a minimum, he needs to replace his hard drive, since it's probably going to fal fairly soon. He's smart to want to go to a dual-core eystom, but we have to question the choles of two 6800 cards in SL) ‘mode, Figure that a pair of 258MB 6600s cost ‘around $200, For that same $200, you ean prob ably gat an XFX GeForce 7600GT XXX Edition, \whleh likely outperforms a pair of 6600s in SLI made. You can always add a second 7600GT ‘ata later date If you want somo extra juice. It {you want the whole skinny on price versus per formance, check out the big roundup over on ExteemeTech.com, MULTICOLORED BACKLIT LASER ETCHED KEYS. FULLY ADJUSTABLE THUMB AREA for the ultimate COMFORT and CONTROL. 20 BUTTONS, 3 MODES and UP TO 144 COMMANDS. 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Serve your customers and try to earn enough Ce eae Eerie ai Pe ed Patel eran cr ‘3 3 |eae ae | =) GAME VIDEOS watch now, play later Exclusive videogame shows Ne NM RY oc oR Mame une ec MCA NUR ek hottest titles, GameVideos.com will be the home of the very best videogame eeu) Trailers of upcoming games You'll find gameplay videos and trailers for all the latest and upcoming games at fer Ne eRe ORC melm (elie RM acy Video cheats and walkthroughs Nemec eM CCM Coe un el ule uel Aes Mite R Cn Ny the games to win. ..and other stuff! Including retro game ads, the funniest game-related videos on the Web, user- submitted movies, ‘extreme’ gameplay movies and more. Ca GAMEVIDEOS.COM facet Daeg] “oN rr GREENSPEAK eS 5 PAGE HEY, IS THIS COLUMN LATE? My GreenSpeak for the January 2003 issue—at last! WELL, I'M BACK Now, depending on who you are, how well you know me, ‘and what your particular worldview is, you may have any or all ofthe following responses: 1) Wow—is that what that smell is? 2) That's great, but, er, whe are you? 3) Man, not you again, For what i's wort, this is pretly much the same series of responses | get from my family when | come home from work ‘vary night. Even my 10-pound litle dog—a species, so I'm told, that has served for roughly 400,000 years as “man's ‘beet triend’—growls at me and chaws on my foct the second | walkin the door. Pus there's that big neon "We Hate Jet” billboard | pass when getting off the freeway each evening, ‘which really just soem Hike a bit of overkill, you ak me. | et it already, ‘Anyway, 'm back. And I gota tll you, a fot has happened since I lat this spot thee years ago to let Robert Coffey work cutis parscnal pejehoass in public hare But ws aaa or Vigor He-Man or ne ol howe smart tl de nthe stirs ore hin fren oneal goed Fe ust Come 1 cera ony Bo whit mb we [tthe authors eacort Robert back to tho alshre feral fly th the ube wal, mules, and hou armed furvelance-vnere ve frat nerveved hin for is ob at Clavand your humble equiv, hav akon back to back page again ay Vihar las sppeared here, n December 2002, | had ust iohuned tern & vocation awe Aree voon retin hat was tery Burned ou: Because you kon, won yU ply games fre Wing and tan ty to fe up om that Kind of drudgery by vacationing fan uy halle ko Hawaiwel who woud’ be burned ou No, | dcted, ‘tl apparel dao sore Kind of atten aud mania, hat ould be much assets and sh more fiminakelcback Heeky Sack Margartavite sora way. io NOT. focus on bong amnanage hor at Cow'estood eocasee AQUI natting spel F-U-N more than ling peop tha hey 0 cut ot ab, otal tha expurana one proved oral thay ca ave that copy of Oblivion because need and nthe boss, Oh wa No. That one rocks, Ha, al The Honest ih Fn vlg it hai bot ag thebows at COW took taut wh ar Hiding? Thi snot he travojard elt at tba poly procexing plat. am gating pal olay, thn about and waite abou games. A ts very wor, ho fard coud that verb? Arewer not voy Even ido havo the occasional ibe ike managetal headache (Ne, Daven orn DVDS ar ol expanable glazed or chocolate, have come to realize that my Me ere onthe place | ie fo cll Eartn tse reatvely lesed on, an tat need to bmbrace, ina no-eingeatachd,marid-buctsous eat! Way my God fortune Which what | am doing no Ard what am root you todayy ond, ho rons hae come back rm ut th widerocs fo har i wih ou: You sent have Wo bad or. Yes, my PC gaming bev, we hav een beter for ts bloved pat of cus, Yes, hor was a tne Sinan you eau actualy goa eal ore and Se ove and owe of PE ames fr sue, Good ones event No ke now, when you have to ®™ & ALOT ABOUT BEING THE @& @ BOSS AT CGW ROCKS. THIS |S THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT AT THE LTR? PROCESSING PLANT. ask for the back-room key and skulk back, head buried in your trench coal, in a sweaty-palmed search for the latest Zoo Tycoon expansion. 'No, back than, you could actualy stroll into your local EBX, head held high, and proudly walk up to the counter with your copy of Extreme Turkey Hunter, knowing that you were on the bleeding edge of modern digital entertainment But mourning for the “good old days" is for suckers and sissis. Besides, if you spend all your time moping, you're going to miss out fn the fact that the goad old days just might be right now. | mean i. ‘And ths is my teal point, This is the reason | am back on this page. Because between Oblivion and Haligate and Spore and Heroes V and ‘Auto Assault and way too many more PC games to list hare, | am hap: pier and more confident about the future of PC gaming then I've been in a ong time. So joln me, friends. Put the sad face away and lat me ‘see your jazz hands, The good times are just beginning. eee ea ee eee toa ae err— — " o = — BREATHTAKING [eel ae POM are ee acer lal ids A eo eet Le esac a eed ear maa carta) Orsi Crrrircs)~ It BEGAN WIT TREACHERY weep fd POR Ca Oh oles ae WS Ds Sel a Cobra! www. PLayNC.com