New Ogre Battle Game
Sighted for N64

06.16.99
The original Ogre Battle inspired such an incredible cult following on the SNES that Enix directly ported the
game with no upgrades or changes to the PlayStation. The SNES version of the game is still in such demand that certain used retailers can get away with charging fifty bucks for it.

Well folks, guess what? Nintendo has announced that a new Ogre Battle will be setting sail for N64 waters this fall. The game will be called Ogre Battle 3 and appears to be strikingly similar to the previous game.

According to Nintendo Power Source, the game's combat will take place in a real-time environment, but we're not sure if that's right or not, or if they just mean certain parts of the game are real-time. These are the same people use "real-time strategy" and "resource management" interchangeably in their Command & Conquer story.

Oh well, enough of this. We got the pictures from Nintendo. For the direct, but possibly flawed skinny on the game, check out the link below. We also have a direct link to one Ogre Battle 64 or Chapter 6 at Nintendo of Japan's site. Don't get too excited. They're obviously the same game. Enjoy, but don't leave Game Informer for too long. We get lonely.

Courtesy Game Informer

 

PlayStation 2 Provides Change and Growth

Industry analysts predict temporary slowdown in software sales with introduction of new systems.

June 16, 1999

When the next generation PlayStation arrives sometime next fall, the small, formidable sector of hardcore gamers won't have any doubts as to which system they will buy. But casual gamers and those who wait for months and even years to buy new systems will have - and always have -- a major effect on the videogame industry's overall sales volume, which is expected to drop in the next two years.

According to industry the analyst firm Piper Jaffray, when the PlayStation 2 arrives, sales will slow down  because of the rift in the system generation - the change from PlayStation to PlayStation 2, Dreamcast  from the Saturn, or Nintendo's new Project Dolphin from Nintendo 64. But after the systems are set in  place, a spurt in software sales typically follows for several years, Chief Executive Bobby Kotic of Piper Jaffray said.

Kotic explained that growth in the software market would hit about 18% in 1999, and calculated a total  income of about $11.4 billion, but that in the year 2000, this same figure would be negligible.

Industry analysts expect the PlayStaton 2 will be the dominant game console in 2000, ahead of competing consoles by Sega (Dreamcast) and Nintendo (Project Dolphin), which are also launching next-generation  products.

Courtesy IGNPSX.com

 

TEST DRIVE 5

All Cars
To access all cars, enter your name as RONE. Submitted by cyscorp@hotmail.com

All Tracks
Beat a drag race and save your name as "mthree". Submitted by chris crs357@usa.net

Bonus Cars
For three bonus cars in single race mode, enter your name as NOLIFE at the high score screen. Submitted by Da Man wwfsux@yahoo.com

Cop Chase Mode
Simply enter your name as VRSIX to enable the "Cop Chase" play mode. You can use Time Trials, Cup Race or any method that requests you to enter a name for this code to work. Submitted by Lord Stormblade Samhain666@aol.com

Fear Factory Music Video
As you know, select Fear Factory songs are included in the soundtrack for Test Drive 5. There is also a hidden music video of their song, Replica. To access the video, do the following:

At the main screen, select Full Race

Select Drag Race
Win a Drag Race match
Enter your name as auxyray
Go back to the main screen

Select the Fear Factory Video option Note: If the Fear Factory Video option doesn't show up, go to the options menu and return to the main screen  and it should appear. Be sure to save to your memory card so that you can instantly access the video in the future. Submitted by Vector vector@gamesages.com

New Car in Tournament
Go through the first race of a tournament (except Ultimate) then save your game. Then reset your playstation. 

After it loads your previous game, go to Full Race and choose Time Trials. Pick the car you want and race the time trial. After finishing the race, quit time trials and got to continue race. Do not go to load, but go straight to race. Hit Next Cup Race and you will start the race. You will have the car you picked in time trial and there will be no computer cars. Have fun!!!! Submitted by weapon 62@hotmail.com

Super Arcade Mode
For a change of pace, enter your name as SPURT after winning a drag race or entering a cup race. Submitted by Clayton margolin@sj.bigger.net

Courtesy GameSages

 

NBA 2000

While football fans drool over the pictures and movies of NFL 2000, basketball fans might be feeling a bit left out. Never fear, Sega is here to rectify the situation by creating a basketball game to end all basketball games. Visual Concepts, the company currently working on NFL 2000 and a few other secret projects, is once again handling NBA Basketball 2000, a breakthrough Dreamcast title that is sure to impress fans and critics alike.

Like its NBA counterpart, NBA Basketball 2000 is full of details and graphical wonderment. With technical  numbers like 400 player models and 1,400 motion-captured animations, one would certainly hope the game would at least look semi-decent. It certainly does. Those 400 models aren't just generic characters that could be any NBA player - they are the actual players. You'll see every detail of your favorite NBA star; from Rodman's tattoos to Kobe's unique hairstyle nothing has been left out.

Character models aren't the only things so detailed. 28 of the 29 NBA stadiums, and everything that comes  along with them, are here in all their glory. When they say everything they mean everything. Floorboards,  score tables, fans, and a host of other basketball elements are recreated with amazing realism. 

Watch as anxious coaches pace the sideline in frustration and pain as angry fans just pick up and leave in bitter resentment if their home team is bombing. Along with an amazing polygon count and seamless animation which runs at a smooth 60 fps, NBA 2000 is quite a visual treat to say the least.

At the heart of the game is some fairly decent gameplay as well. All the swipes, touch-passes, and fake-outs  are there as well as the regular sticks and moves you'd expect from a top-notch basketball title. In addition, the post moves provide a system that'll allow anyone to cover those really fast or huge superstars that might be causing you trouble on the defense.

You can adjust your strategy to whatever the situation calls for, and even use your character's unique moves and talents to get the upper hand in a tough situation. Visual Concepts is also making sure that the AI is realistic and smart enough to make the game look and feel like a regular-season basketball game, as opposed to the laughable dunkfests many gamers are so used to  nowadays.

Although recently delayed until late fall or early winter, Sega is ensuring that NBA Basketball 2000 sets the standard for all future basketball titles. 4-player support is definite and the rumored "internet-updatable  rosters" might make its way to the surface. If not, this game will instantly appeal to the die-hard sportfans out there anyway.

Everything from the graphics to the gameplay to the little details, seems to be coming together to give us  gamers the best experience possible. And if these first few sports games are the Dreamcast's first generation, the public should prepare themselves for Sega's upcoming baseball and hockey titles (among others). If all goes well, these games will further prove that EA isn't the only company out there that can make a good sports game. Here's hoping all goes well. 

Previewed by: Kevin DuPuy

Courtesy of SegaDreamcast.net

 

Square Talks DC & PS2

Recently, Yoshii Maruyamma Vice Chairman of the subsidiary company Square-EA, spoke out about the Dreamcast, its obstacles to success, and their involvement with the tentatively titled Playstation 2. "I think there are a group of hard-core gamers in any market who will buy any new system that comes out. So selling half-a-million to a million Dreamcast units by the end of the year won't be that hard for Sega," Maruyamma expressed in his assesment of the Dreamcast's sales in Japan thus far. "But after those hard-core gamers buy the system, selling the system to a broader audience will be the challenge."

From his comments, it seems that Square and company are still very skeptical of Sega's new system, and possibly with good cause. They have had a strong relationship with Sony and the Dreamcast isn't exactly flying off the shelves in Japan. Commenting on that relationship Square has had with Sony, Maruyamma-San commented:

"We hope to have at least four or five games available within 12 months of the launch of the PlayStation 2 in  Japan. And with the PlayStation 2 coming a year after Dreamcast, I think their hardware should be much better than Dreamcast. But more important to us is the kind of support they provide to us to develop games, and Sony has been very good to work with."

The Square saga continues. Will Sega be able to coax this very loyal Sony supporter with promises of a large  volume of software sales? Only time will tell. In fact, it will be some time, if ever, that Square does decide to develop for the Dreamcast.

Written By: Sajed Ahmed

Courtesy of SegaDreamcast.net

 

Pokemon Gold And Silver Postponed

06.15.99
Nintendo Co., Ltd of Japan announced that the release date of Pocket Monster Gold and Silver in Japan had been pushed back from summer to early September. Apparently, the Nintendo needs more time to perfect the link  system and more debugging. Reportedly, playable demos will be on hand at the Nintendo Space World on August 27th and 28th. No word as to how this will affect the American release of the game.

Courtesy Game Informer

 

PlayStation 2 Leans Toward Linux
Development community welcomes Linux Development Environment.



The PlayStation 2 may use the infamous open-platform Linux development environment for the PlayStation 2,  according to a report from Nikkei Computer Graphics.   The software tools will sell this winter for the hefty sum of about $20,000, about the same price for a  PlayStation development kit.

Courtesy of PSX.IGN.COM

Lara Croft To Star In Ad Campaign

06.16.99
The new millenium belongs to Lara Croft, or at least it would seem. In addition to her upcoming debut on the  silver screen, Ms. Croft will be appearing in the Sci Fi Channel's new television ads. The ad campaign,  entitled I Am Sci Fi, will seek to explode society's geeky stereotype of sci-fi fans. Lara Croft is one of many celebrities chosen to represent science fiction, including former pornstress turned singer/Melrose Place alum Traci Lords, the band Everclear, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, and freaky deaky rap superstar Busta Rhymes. Lara Croft's ad will appear for the first time on June 18.

Courtesy Game Informer

Vigilante 8: Second Offense

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Lexoflux
Genre: Action
Origin: U.S.
Number of Players: 2
Dual Shock: Yes
Expected Release Date: October 1999
Peripherals: Analog, Memory Pack
New information and loads of screen-shots of Activision's upcoming tour-de-force.

June 16, 1999

The sequel to Vigilante 8, a whopping graphic upgrade that includes some of the more interesting changes  in the car-combat arena in some time, was demonstrated to IGNPSX yesterday, and it nearly blew our socks off. 

While today will be a screen-shot extravaganza, tomorrow will be a massive detailed update to the preview. Enjoy the shots and stay tuned for more, much more.

When freshly shrink-wrapped packages of Vigilante 8 slapped down on retail shelves last summer for the  first time, few people realized what a gem had just been bestowed upon them. Taking the Twisted Metal formula and bringing it to new heights in gameplay and graphics, Vigilante 8 quickly toppled the car-combat genre with its objective-based missions,  interactive backgrounds, and hellaciously fun car combat action.

With Second Offense, Activision looks to keep the combat recipe intact, while spicing up the overall feel and scope of the game. With more vehicles and more weapons than before, Second Offense has also grown in geographic size. Terrain now spans across the US with more levels and more detailed environments.

What this means dear fans is that more of the great outdoors will likely be crumbling upon your sorry heads. Last year's Vigilante 8 spotlighted snowbound avalanches and tumbling desert rocks, which are sure enhanced and added to.

Gamers will be pleased to learn that newly enhanced Quest mode has expanded as well, with more objectives involving a greater diversity of tasks, and more complex and challenging adventures. The Lexoflux development team has its work cut out for it because after all, Vigilante 8 was a beautiful game. Hopefully, the team will squeeze out more special effects from the PlayStation without losing frame rates, and can dig deeper into the low level programming aspect of the game to increase enemy AI, enhance car physics, and realize more detail and color from this exceptional engine. With new power-ups, weapons, special moves and additional modes of play, in addition to improved graphic detail such as water effects, fog, exhaust, and brake lights, the game promises to be a real treat.

Douglass Perry

Courtesy IGNPSX.com

 

A Chat With Alan Jones of SOE

Last Saturday we had a special opportunity to meet up with Sega's UK Marketing Director Alan Jones. From the long conversation that Sega X had with him, some interesting tidbit's surfaced regarding the company's plans for Europe and the Dreamcast.

We were talking about the upcoming UK marketing strategy, and from what was derived from it, Jones said that the major advertising push won't start till around the end of August. This actually turned the conversation into a slight argument for we felt that August was too late.

This is Sega's last chance to survive as a hardware manufacturer, and this time they have the machine to do it with. Sega cannot afford to mess about with the European launch, because at this present moment in time, there are no pre-orders, no teasers, and no store promos. Sega of America has the United States teeming with Dreamcast marketing from print ads, movie trailers, and store displays; so it's only Sega  Europe that are actually giving people scary thoughts.

Alan Jones insists that the launch of the UK Dreamcast will be just as successful as the one, State-side, will be. The reason why Sega UK needs to be more careful is that most people in the United Kingdom still don't know what Dreamcast is, and the pictures of the games do not do the hardware justice.

The most interesting point of our discussion concerns Sega Rally 2 and the company's plans for its internet  support. Whilst the Japanese version only allowed four gamers net-play, the UK version will incorporate up to  12 players, simultaneously. The game's frame-rate was another key question at the moment, and Sega UK is discussing the idea of adding some extra features. 

Baldur's Gate was mentioned as well for the Dreamcast, Mr. Jones also talked excitedly about another upcoming game: 'Trick Styles is one seriously cool game and I couldn't really stop playing it. There's so much to do in Trickstyles that I couldn't really pick a game that would describe it. It's one of the games that I'm very happy about.'

Written By: Gavin Matheson

Courtesy of SegaDreamcast.net

 

Star Ocean: The Second Story

In the year of the RPG, the oncoming calculation of hours gamers will sit in front of the TV screen may be  greater than ever before. Certainly, the amount of hours has been affecting the staff at IGNPSX. Case in  point is Star Ocean, which we have yet to complete for purposes of review. Why? It's a big long game, following two other big long games (Lunar and  Shadow Madness). In the meantime, we've already posted the entire intro FMA, a gorgeous mood-setting movie-short, and today we're posting first impressions and 25 screen shots for your pleasure.

First Impressions

This is a brief fist look at Star Ocean: The Second Story.

Probably one of the most eagerly awaited sequels to an Enix game, or to any major RPG, is Star Ocean: The Second Story. Enix is not only well thought of because of its attention to detail, and its excellent storytelling abilities, but because, although often slow in delivery, it always produces an exceptional RPG and emotionally engaging story. Star Ocean: The Second Story is no exception.

First off, Star Ocean is in many ways old-school role-playing. It's sprite-based characters are not just  super deformed, they're super, super deformed. They're tiny little characters that look like two-year-olds in medieval adult clothing. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, either. These characters appear in luscious, finely detailed caves, islands, forests, towns, pastures, and many other prerendered environments that are some of the best on the PlayStation. The overall effect is a classic 16-bit look and feel that's sure to enthrall long-time RPG fans and intrigue many newcomers to the growing genre. 

Adding to the look of the game is the absolutely phenomenal full-motion animation and video that weaves in and out of the story, starting with the initial FMA, which looks like something that George Lucas would be envious of. Also mixed into the game are long, detailed, game-engine based cut-scenes that help to tell several of the characters' back-stories. Overall, the mix of high end video and sprite-based simplicity may strike cynics as polar opposites, but the end all result is a cohesive whole, a tightly bound visual production that truly embraces anyone with 20  minutes on their hands and a copy of the game.

There of course is a phenomenal amount of complicated stuff going on in Star Ocean. The battle system is filled with combos, and a weird mixture of realtime fighting and non-player interaction. And the fighting system as well as the entire game is almost entirely based on the gamers configuring and modifying your characters, your "skills," specialties,  and Private Actions.

But what's certainly the best element the game is its story. The storyline is so classicly Japanese. The stoic characters inadvertently reveal their true feelings through real life scenes and odd situations. Like for instance, Claude and Rena have a certain relationship, or friendship, and as the story progresses, it's apparent that, well, without revealing too much, it "matures"... 

One early event in a hotel with Rena's Aunt is hilarious, and stands as a perfect example of just how deep and complex the multiple-plots of Star Ocean are. One almost forgets the Claude is lost and must get back to the world ha was transported from, the initial thread into the game. We'll have a review as soon as  possible.

With the official announcement early this spring that Star Ocean: The Second Story is coming to  PlayStation today, Sony's signal is clear. The PlayStation has become the number one RPG console  ever in history.

That may sound like a lot of PR crap, but if one peruses through the monstrous library of RPGs on Sony's 32-bit wonder, there are very few contenders, with say the early exception of the Super NES, perhaps.

But still, while the Super NES had its wonders (the Final Fantasy series, and Enix's Dragon Quest, to  name a few), The PlayStation library is bigger, more diverse, and because of its more advanced technology, games' storylines are better illustrated and more originally and graphically enhanced.

Developed by Enix, the makers of the Dragon Quest series (once a Super NES game), Star Ocean: The Second Story is the company's revitalized iteration of an RPG that at once harks back to the RPGs of the past and looks toward the future with quirky new innovations.

Star Ocean takes gamers on an adventure of wondrous proportions, in which mini-events, magical item  combination, and skill enhancement make for a deep gameplay experience. Gamers will have control over every character in their group, and can "grow" them to be powerful allies in a quest that'll take many hours to complete.

With the choice of two different characters to begin your game, players will find that as they gain  experience and friends, their adventure will change subtly from their friends' games. Star Ocean is structured to provide more than 80 different endings, many of which depend on how you grow your characters and whom you choose in your adventure.

Featuring realtime polygonal battles, many hours of exploration and battles, and a cadre of optional  mini-events that assist in determining the game's endings, Enix's Star Ocean is fluid with alterations and  modifications. These range from making items, such as weapons, armor, and food, to gaining skills, in which characters in your group learn or even buy items to help them increase their writing skills, become more knowledgeable about minerology, sketching, or even get an esthetic sense. As you progress through lands using this "Skill System," the acquisition of skills to create items from raw materials through cooking, alchemy, metalwork, compounding and more adds to their inherent and individual strengths.

Enix's first PlayStation RPG also approaches fighting in with a different perspective. Fighting sequences feature realtime polygonal battles wherein players create custom combo moves, and in which they can switch between characters in the fight itself.

During their travels players discover a throng of mini-events, oddly called "Private Actions," (sounds  kinky, but it's not) which actually effect the central storyline possibly even the game's ending.

Shortly, we'll have more on Star Ocean's graphic look, the storyline, and its overall sensibility.

Douglass Perry

Courtesy IGNPSX.com


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